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Early Addition
The Gates delivered this past weekend: Rave reviews (well, as rave as you're gonna get in this town - here's one semi-pan from Newsday) from all corners (Post, Daily News, NY Times). And, happily, business is brisk for most everyone, from hot dog vendors to hotels, just as the city had hoped. However, there may be some casualties in the wonder that are The Gates: Photobloggers, who have been trying to top themselves with new and interesting ways of capturing 7500+ gates. Here's a partial list of blogs with photographs, and here the Flickr tags: gates, thegates, christo, centralpark.
What did you think of The Gates? Was it everything you thought it would be and more? Or was it just a nice folly for the City to partake in? Or are you just totally gated out, unable to take anymore pictures and still seeing orange?
And huzzah, The Gates, the project, is finally #2 on Google searches for "the gates," finally breaking through the "Bill Gates" stranglehold.
Photo from Bluejake
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one day of looking at gates photos is enough! ahhh!!! orange overload!!!! of course, seeing it in person is much nicer than over and over in your own photos.
i'm sure i'll be going back up again too.
Regarding the Google search, "the" is supposed to be a common word and not used in the search, but "gates" and "the gates" return somewhat different results. With the former, the Christo page comes up #5, after the Gates Corp and various Bill Gates sites. With the latter, Christo beats out the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and comes in at #2 as you pointed out. So, "the" is being used as part of the search.
File this under Google mysteries, apropos of nothing in particular.
I haven't seen the Gates yet, given that I'm in Cleveland. But we'll be back in NY for a week next week, and that's one of the things on our agenda.
BTW, when are you going to do a "Clevelandist"? We're way cooler than London or Seattle.
I came up from DC for the day just to see it (and meet family for a V-Day dinner), and I absolutely loved it. So much so that I might be dragging some friends of mine back up to see it next weekend, too. So far the only real negative commentary I've seen has been from cranky middle-aged women who seem to detest the color orange.
Did anyone see that piece Andera Peyser did panning The Gates? Am I the only one who was outraged that she had to spew her unwanted venom on something someone did for no other reason than to bring a moment of happiness into New Yorkers' lives through something frivilous and beautiful? New York needs to get together and give her the collective finger!
Will this cause an increase in sales for At the Gates CDs?
The Gates is a boring, purposeless monstrosity. It's amazing that this is the "art" that all New Yorkers can get behind.
Andrea Peyser is a withered old troll with no taste and less soul. I read her for laughs if at all. Trust me, if she doesnt like something that means it is probably good.
Stern was talking about it this morning. Says he kinda likes it as art but is already tired of it and the tourists.
This is the real thing. No computerized special effects. A real happening. That's the beauty about this art.
Man I was in the city this weekend and I didn't even bother seeing it. While it is exciting to hear about it, it was a bit much after a while. I did take in some art Saturday but down at a gallery in Chelsea instead.
i think it's pretty and all, but i wish they didn't use highly toxic vinyl for the fabric. yuk!
Wait until it's over and they sell off the gates for revenue. $100? $500? $10,000?
Would you buy one?
The gates are going to be recycled, not sold.
I don't think the gates are any great shakes as art in and of themselves. But the enormity of the project, the perseverance of Christo and Jeanne-Claude over a quarter of a century, and the plain goofiness of it all, makes The Gates all worthwhile to me.
I dreamt in orange last night.
I woke up, went to the fridge, and found I didn't want orange juice as I usually do.
I go through the park tomorrow afternoon. The clincher will be how I feel about the Gates the second time round.
The Gates: More over-rated than Paris Hilton.
Well Paul, I wonder how you can say the Gates are purposeless when it does a world a good for the economy. Also, what about the hundreds of people that the project employed??
Any leads on a good (free) spot from which to view the park at a bird's-eye view? I'd like to see it all from above. I'm thinking along the lines of a hotel bar on CP South or maybe the Time Warner center (do they have an observation deck?). Thanks in advance!
I had fun with them - spent about 90 minutes wandering around, appreciating the new temporary face of the Park, watching the people watch the Gates, listening in on outrage, bliss, and the pragmatic "Well, here's this" middle roaders.
One of the curtains on a gate just above Sheep Meadow got curled over itself, and a volunteer with his trusty telescoping stick spent about 10 minutes reaching and poking before it finally unfurled. A crowd had gathered, each with ideas on how to fix the thing, pointing and laughing and jockeying for photo position. When the guy finally got the curtain unstuck, there was cheering and applause, and I saw some of the subtext: The Gates is a narrative.
Verbose Coma are optimists, so we'd like to forgo critical ramblings and thank Jeanne-Claude and Christo for buying everyone a great day at the park. Like their other installations, they wrapped up the existing in ribbon and gave it back to us as a gift.
J and C: Thanks for reminding us of the beautiful things we often forget we own. The smiling human rivers in the park this weekend were priceless.
photos at http://blog.verbosecoma.com/archives/000836.php
KBS: Sure it's good for the economy. Did I argue otherwise? Just don't call it art.
As for the jobs, that money could have commissioned work from innumerable legitimate artists. Are we supposed to give credit to Christo for the continued underemployment of an army of able-bodied New Yorkers?
Paul- you might not see this since it is currently not posted- but what is your definition of art??? You may not think it is GOOD art or HIGH art or INTERESTING art but why are you the authority on the definition? Personally you may not think it is good art but saying it is not art is saying you are the final answer on the definition which, no matter your background, is not true. Basically no one and everyone decides what is art.
I don't care if it's "art" or not -- it's just a nice splash of color to wake the city from its winter doldrums. maybe taken individually the gates aren't so beautiful, but after a few minutes of walking through the exhibit and feeling the full effect, i absolutely loved it. best time to go is on a sunny day when the light is streaming through the fabric.
mittelbrow conceptual art rules!
This is just my personal opinion, but I didn't like "The Gates" at all. Central Park is so beautiful on its own! It seemed like a crime scene to me, with all this fluorescent orange tarp everywhere. But all the praise for the project makes me see how differently various people perceive the same scene. And That is part of the art in itself.
However, I just hated it -- but so what, since it didn't involve any of my money. However, I was crazed by the weekend traffic of people coming in to see it. Of course, that's good for the city, but annoying for people like me who work there on the weekend. Thank God though for the tourists, though, or I wouldn't be working. As a Lincoln Center musician I am grateful that so many people have even a passing interest in art.