Tonight I’m venturing over to the Renwick Gallery for the opening of an artistic collaboration that I am very excited about: that of Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and Daniel Albrigo, entitled Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is… A Love Story. Daniel is a tattoo artist based out of my favorite NYC tattoo shops, NY & Brooklyn Adorned, and Genesis is best known for his music and performance in Throbbing Gristle (who recently toured, with a stop in Brooklyn) and Psychic TV.

As our friend Marisa over at Needles and Sins writes:

Genesis and h/er late wife and other half, Lady Jaye Breyer, began a project in 1993 to transcend “body-based genders- and socially imposed identities,” thereby creating Breyer P-Orridge. Maxwell G. Graham sums it in the exhibition’s release: “…their two identities were merged through plastic surgery, hormone therapy, cross dressing and altered behavior in an effort to deconstruct the fiction of the self, each moving to resemble the other. Breyer P-Orridge, the cross-pollinated name of this endeavor, has continued even after Lady Jaye’s untimely death in 2007.”

In tribute to Lady Jaye, Daniel and Genesis join to tell a love story in painting, sculpture, photo-works, assemblage and jewelry.

The show and title is derived from the set of solid gold teeth that Genesis had installed to replace all of he/r original teeth. There are paintings documenting the casting process, as well as portraits of Genesis by Albrigo, sculptural objects, assemblages, and jewelry.  I’m fascinated by this collaboration, not only due to my interest in art that’s a little outside the mainstream, but also due to the great love that motivated the project.

The opening is tonight from 6-8 PM at the Renwick Gallery in SoHo, located at 45 Renwick Street between Spring & Watts. There will also be a closing reception on February 22nd.

If you have coats to donate to the New York Cares coat drive, you can do so at public donation sites around the city – just plug in your ZIP code to find the closest one. Or, you can host your own coat drive by registering on the New York Cares site. Registering doesn’t make your coat drive location public, it just lets the New York Cares people know that you’re hosting one. Once the drive is over, you deliver the coats to their Manhattan warehouse. Simple, and gets warm coats to people in NYC who need them.

New York Cares also has a blog, which is currently covering the coat drive, but also has information on other ways to volunteer and give back to the community. Do you volunteer with New York Cares or another NYC organization? Tell us about it in the comments.

But what is even more important right now is supporting the businesses that are suffering because of the construction. Many 2nd avenue restaurants & retailers have been put out of business because foot traffic has come to a crashing halt. Restaurants have lost their sidewalk space so there goes their summer crowd. Often there is no indication a business exist anymore. So, if you happen to live or play on the UES, I urge you to support your 2nd Avenue Business.

Though it’s entirely possible that the above things are true, we don’t actually guarantee them. However, Metblogs is a pretty fun place to write. It’s the largest network of locally focused blogs on the web, covering almost 60 cities around the world, and we’re looking to add a few new bloggers/writers/authors (or whatever you want your title to be, except King of the World) to this fine site. If you wanna know more about us, check out this wikipedia entry but even reading that is not a requirement. If you wanna write for us, here’s the scoop:

• All author positions are volunteer. That means you don’t get paid.
• You must live or work in (or very near, and spend a lot of time in) the city you plan to write about.
• Anything you post must relate to the city somehow. That means you shouldn’t post a movie review, but talking about going to see a movie at a local theater is fine.
• There’s no requirement for how much you can or should write, but we ask that if we set you up as an author you make about 3 posts a week.
• You can post about things you love, you can post about things you hate. You can even drop f-bombs. It’s entirely up to you.

Additionally, because of our global network, there are plenty of options for things you write to be read by people all over the world. New posts are posted on both our local Twitter account and the Metblogs network Twitter account. Interested? Want more details? Post a comment and we’ll be in touch!

But every so often I get into a taxi that has something this on the screen, and it makes me giggle a little.

*After seeing what’s onscreen in the photo, I have reason to suspect the latter.

Taxi TV fail

Of course, the biggest kerfuffle has been around Mayor Bloomberg and his decision to seek a third term. He got the city law changed so that he could run for a third term, which had previously been disallowed. His challenger, City Comptroller Bill Thompson, graciously neglected to mention that whole thing in his political ads. No attack ads from anyone!

According to Reuters, Bloomberg is currently leading in the polls, but this is NYC, people. You never know what could happen. You could all write me in as mayor for a surprise upset. I can’t wait to see that reported on NY1.

To find your polling place, go to the NYC Board of Elections Poll Site Locator and plug in your info. Polls are open from 6 AM to 9 PM.

My journey is not the first of its kind. I’ve found that New York City provides an excellent ground for seekers of the spiritual variety. It is the only place on the planet where acceptance is not just a concept but a daily practice. I’m sure a lot of shady things happen in the underground, but that’s just the nature of humans. I’ve found that NYC has heart, love, genuine kindness. . . whereas most of other portions of America serve up a plastic flight-attendant smile.

Anyhow folks, I’m here in Mumbai, I tweet regularly and blog as well. I’m sure I’ll see a lot, experience a lot and definitely will be back to NYC, but for now, I’m gone. So long.

Bloomberg tucking into a slice of pizza. Image copyrights Mary DiBiase Blaich for The New York Times

The NYTimes has a front page (web) article on the eating habits of Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Now this would be a waste of valuable e-newsprint, one may say. However the article brings into sharp contrast the positive motions the Mayor brings into the realm of public health, while at the same time having a completely different set of personal standards.

The article talks about the Mayor’s affinity for (of all things) salt.

Mr. Bloomberg, 67, likes his popcorn so salty that it burns others’ lips. (At Gracie Mansion, the cooks deliver it to him with a salt shaker.) He sprinkles so much salt on his morning bagel “that it’s like a pretzel,” said the manager at Viand, a Greek diner near Mr. Bloomberg’s Upper East Side town house.

This is while the city wages a battle against sodium. There are directives in place recommending restaurants reduce salt consumption by 20 %.

Some may raise a stink about the so-called “double standards” from the Mayor. And in this election season, I would not be surprised if it does. However what the Mayor in his own personal time is no one else’s business.

Even with all the excesses of salt, bacon and what not, the Mayor, at 67, weighs what he did in his college days. How many people can claim to do that. ?

I think the real story here is that he indulges in “sinful” eating but also exercises self-discipline by exercising and balancing his food intake on other days.

The only thing that irks me is salt on a bagel. That leaves a bad taste in my mouth :)