Tag Archives: new york city

Béquet Caramels in New York City, Manhattan

Hey, I found Bequet Caramels in New York City!

Do you want to know where to buy Béquet Caramels, hand-made caramels from Montana, in New York/Manhattan? Well if you tried Googling it, you would’ve been very hard-pressed to find a useful result. Luckily, I did find this blog entry from Chelsea Market Baskets which talked about them (they’re sold for $18 a pound, or 50 cents apiece). Why the big deal? My roommate thinks they’re the best caramels ever and it was her birthday, and I spent the better part of my free time trying to find the damn things. Hopefully, the next New Yorker to Google the location will have an easier time. Or maybe Bequet will, in the section of their website where they brag about being sold at 650 stores, will put a damn list of said locations.

“Bruce Nauman: Days,” a Sound Sculpture at the MOMA; I don’t get it

Bruce Nauman: Days at the MOMA

How does the Museum of Modern Art follow up on the success of the incredibly popular (I found it a little bland, but it was sold out almost every day I went) Tim Burton exhibit (the 3rd highest attendance among MOMA exhibits of all time)? By putting what I’m betting will be the least attended of recent MOMA exhibits: Bruce Nauman’s Days, a “sound scuplture” that consists of recorded voices saying the days of the week.

The above picture is not of the incomplete installation of the exhibit. That is the exhibit. I took some video to save everyone else a trip to the MOMA’s third floor:

I don’t claim to be much of an connoisseur, but this strikes me as an exhibit that could’ve been done with headphones. Or maybe the third floor bathrooms while people defecate. I think most people can get their fill of disconnected voices repeating the menial at their average airport.

Luckily, the guards get to wear ear plugs. Or else the MOMA might have had a rash of workplace violence incidents on their hands:
Bruce Nauman: Days at the MOMA

From the MOMA webpage:

A recent addition to the Museum’s collection, Bruce Nauman’s Days (2009) was created for, and debuted at, the 2009 Venice Biennale, where the artist represented the United States with the solo exhibition Bruce Nauman: Topological Gardens. Days is a “sound sculpture” consisting of a continuous stream of seven voices reciting the days of the week in random order. Fourteen suspended speakers are installed in two rows with one voice emanating from each pair of speakers as the visitor passes between them. There are men’s voices and women’s voices, old and young. Some speak swiftly, others with pause, each with his or her own cadence. The collection of distinctive voices produces a chorus—at times cacophonous, at others, resonant—and creates a sonic cocoon that envelops the visitor. The work invokes both the banality and the profundity of the passing of each day, and invites reflection on how we measure, differentiate, and commemorate time.

The stereo box was the most interesting and aesthetically pleasant feature of the exhibit:
Bruce Nauman: Days - Sound Sculpture at the MOMA

Bruce Nauman: Days - Sound Sculpture at the MOMA

Birth Control? There’s an iPad app for that.

The baby products label, Pampers, put out a free app called “Hello Baby” which lets you input your baby’s info, get a week-by-weeky depiction of what it looks like in the momma, and then probably reminds you on the baby’s birthdate to buy Pampers.

It’s great, actually, to see the real-life size of a four-week old embryo. But bringing the iPad to the bar and showing everyone the real-size of a 20+ weeks-old fetus, that might prevent a lot of unwanted (and wanted) pregnancies from even starting.