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My main criterion for a date night craft activity is this: Is it fun? Close second and third: Will it bring us together? Is it achievable? After all, a date night is more about getting to know a person or, for long-term couples, keeping that flame aglow. It's not about perfection or making a museum-quality work of art. While, my partner, Aaron Gold (whose name you may recognize from other Quail Bell endeavors), and I enjoyed our first-ever ceramics foray together at Pottery 1 Studio in Brooklyn, NY, we have a couple of caveats.
Pluses: We had a somewhat intimate atmosphere, with one instructor for us and another instructor/couple trio on the other side of the studio. We had more than enough instruction without feeling overwhelmed, and we were allowed to bring whatever snacks we wanted. The activity was definitely intro level, meaning we had enough time to accomplish what we wanted. We certainly learned a thing or two and got to clown around with each other, too. Minuses: The activity was not the most conducive to eating and drinking. Clay is messy, so we really had to get to a point in our respective pots—we each made one—where it was safe to start reaching into bags and crunching and chewing. There were no snacks available for purchase. Due to the physical properties of clay and the studio's process, we had to wait a month before we could come back and pick up our finished pieces. On one hand, we loved getting to create and personalize our own pieces. We have different interests, styles, and abilities, so it's nice to fly solo in that sense. On the other hand, it would've been more romantic to make one piece, perhaps a more ambitious one, together. Overall, we rated this experience 4 out of 5 stars. Find out more about date nights at Pottery 1 Studio on their website. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
The couple that welds together stays together. Certainly, I felt bonded with my partner (and frequent collaborator/Quail Bell Magazine photographer) Aaron Gold the night we hit up Craftsman Ave. in Brooklyn, NY for the "weld a steel rose" date night. We entered this gritty workshop fully expecting to try something new and get our hands dirty. And by "we," I mean me. I hadn't given Aaron too many hints about our destination because I wanted it to be a surprise. Surprises make date nights all the more thrilling! He knew we would be doing a couples activity and I had warned him to wear sturdy shoes and old clothes. Nada más.
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I had every intention of reviewing An-My Lê's "Between Two Rivers/Giữa hai giòng sông/Entre deux rivières" exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. As my City College of New York sculpture professor Colin Chase once told me, I'm a "serious artist" and a "serious thinker." (He also called me Miss Thang, but that's another story.) Shouldn't I gaze upon this conflict related body of work and come up with something poetic about Vietnam and the U.S. military-industrial complex?
Thankfully, it is a sign of maturity to know when to excuse yourself from a task. Given that my visit occurred on my birthday, I decided to cling to the wisdom that one acquires by living another year. Rather than inundate myself with more thoughts of war-themed photography, I'd inundate myself with thoughts of conceptual art. So I opted for Ed Ruscha first and foremost during my most recent MoMa escapade. I needed escapism and humor, and "Now Then" is a big, honkin' retrospective. Did I see An-My Lê's exhibition? Yes, and the "Fourteen Views" installation juxtaposing images from Vietnam, U.S., and France was a chapel I hope to reflect upon another time. If nothing else (and there's a lot else), go see it for that. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Comedian/actor/shutterbug Aaron Gold and I galavanted around the Maryland Renaissance Faire for its closing weekend last month—and what a smorgasbord! I flaunted my Queen Jaguar attire, but I gotta say, plenty of costumes outshone mine. No worries. A huge part of ren faire fun is gobbling up the wardrobe buffet. Take a gander at this gallery below for a couple of our favorites, including a whole-ass boat! Another indelible aspect of the ren faire experience: live shows. We adored Celtic Magic, a comedic medley of illusions and Irish culture performed by Daniel and Bella Green Wolf. Equally stunning (though tonally totally different): Knightwings, a birds of prey show that highlighted owls on the afternoon we caught it. We're already anticipating next year's revelry at the Maryland Renaissance Faire! May we see you there at all 27 acres of the festivities. RennFest.com
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By Amy Lee “The past does not trust us yet, but I do. I do" The path from girlhood to womanhood can be fraught with complexity, fragility and even spiritually incomplete without a full reflection and reckoning. Anastasia DiFonzo’s A Certain Serenity fearlessly revisits and navigates through the journey from girlhood to womanhood with poetry that is ravishingly raw and rare.
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This episode of the Badass Lady-Folk podcast features an interview between host Christine Stoddard and Abigail Gabor, a TikTok influencer known for comedy videos about Autism, theatre, and Jewish identity. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
By The Editors #visualart #artistinterview #theater #playwright #queenswriters #queensartists
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By The Editors Parlez-vous français? Don't worry if you don't know French. "The Super 8 Years," an autobiographical film and directorial debut of French author Annie Ernaux has subtitles. (Sorry if you're a 'dubs, not subs' type but yay if you're not?) This 61-minute journey in home movies delves into the author/director's family life from 1972 to 1981. Chronicling the highs and lows of being a wife, mother, and young author, "The Super 8 Years" tiptoes the boundaries of nostalgia without lingering too long there. While you might expect to see French suburban life of a certain era portrayed in the all-Super 8 film, it's not all you see. You also catch glimpses of Albania, Egypt, Spain, and the USSR. Perhaps most poignantly, you see and hear Ernaux's observations about how what's not shown on camera says the most about her marriage, its eventual decline, and how this period was crucial to her becoming a published writer. "The Super 8 Years" opens Dec. 17, 2022 at DCTV in New York City. Find out more here.
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By The Editors Join Quail Bell at the Greenwich Village Comedy Club in New York City on Friday, December 2nd!
Ranting, raging...this is a comedic one-woman show about finally giving in and reading Jack Kerouac's critically acclaimed Beat Generation novel On the Road as a recent divorcée and authoress in her early 30s. Damn, isn't she glad she didn't read it as a young, impressionable English major! It's so much better that she read it as a jaded survivor of marriage and the publishing industry! What's so great about the book again? Seems like all the wives and girlfriends get a pretty raw deal! And let's count all the ways you can tell a man wrote the book! You think he packed all those road trip snacks himself? It doesn't matter if you've read the book before, either. Christine will have juicy excerpts selected for you, don't worry. Tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/rage-against-on-the-road-a-one-woman-show-by-christine-stoddard-tickets-432147072527 |
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November 2023
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