I was determined to escape the city and clear my head.

So I hopped on a train at Grand Central heading for Beacon, New York, which is home to the Dia museum.  The space used to be an old Nabisco factory and it is absolutely vast.  In fact, it’s the largest contemporary art museum in the world.

 

Approaching the museum, surrounded by the scenic Hudson Valley.

 

The football-field size galleries, lit mostly by naturalistic lighting, are devoted to stark, majestic and minimalistic works of art.

 

Richard Serra

 

The museum is so big that you often feel like you’re the only one there, and the experience is like touring a zillionaire art collector’s private home.

 

Louise Bourgeois

 

Imi Knoebel

 

Lawrence Weiner

 

The museum also includes outside plazas where one can peacefully contemplate what the hell one is doing with one’s life.

 

Irwin West Garden

 

Afterwards, I took a stroll down Beacon’s charming Main Street, which has been gentrified with coffee shops and galleries, but not obnoxiously so.

Then I took the hour train ride back to Manhattan.   Total cost of my ticket was $28.  Museum admission was $10.

Inspiration and a sense of calmness and clarity: Priceless.

 

Some great press mentions for BINGO-GO!  (This Friday, May 4th!)

I’ll add them later to my cyber scrapbook.  Right now I gotta million other things to do to get ready!


From Gay Letter:

 

From Next Magazine:

 

And in a funny mix-up, the listing for the The Village Voice uses a photo of Mimi Imfurst and Candi Shell!  Which one am I supposed to be?

 

Hey, I’m happy with any and all press!    Mimi Imfurst isn’t the worst person to be mistaken for… I think.

 

As I entered XL nightclub last night for the official wowie-zowie party for the final episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race, there she was!   Performing on stage!  Sharon Needles, the brand-new winner!

 

 

After a spirited lipsynch of Marilyn Manson’s “Beautiful People,” Sharon, clad in an American flag, got all Gaga-ish with some “proclamations” about how her victory was a rallying cry for freaky outcasts and how it was time to overthrow mall culture.  Down with Strawberry’s!

Then she acknowledged some of the freaky NYC club personalities who had gathered with her on stage.  Statuesque Jordan Foxx was hailed as the “new Michael Alig,” which was a bit creepy considering that Alig, who was the ringmaster of the 1990s club-kid scene, is currently in prison—for murder!   Veteran Susanne Bartsch got a shout out for “putting RuPaul on a go-go box when no one else would.”  (So she’s to blame!)   Transsexual nightlife icon Amanda Lepore received the most praise of all—and now that Sharon is $100,000 richer she can afford the plastic surgery to look like her!

“These people are magnets of pop culture,” said Sharon, “These are the people I’m drawn to.”

Then she got into her prop coffin and was carried off stage.  The queen is dead, long live the queen!