Monday, October 16, 2006 - veuve cliequot and budwiser, duplicity rocks

for some reason, the common definition for duplicity has a bad connotation. but having duality does not necessarily mean you have ill intentions.

my life has always been a dichotomy. i like the i balance of not saying no to something because it seems to be the polar opposite of the majority of your personality. i find this to be a key to staying happy. how else do you temper a long, complicated day at the office then with a few hours of heavy duty partying?

thursday night was able to even turn my partying into a duplicitious event. after work i attended a reception honoring the iranian photographer/filmmaker shirin neshat. this woman has been endlessly praised for her questioning portrayal of women in islamic society, and her films, which they showed a few clips, were so visually powerful. i met her very briefly and even in her petite stature she was auspicious. i only knew a few other people there (and truth be told only liked one!) so, fueled by expensive champagne, i let the night carry me and had some lovely conversation with some interesting, avant-garde strangers. i spoke for a while with a very pregnant women who was half iranian and half french, she glowed in the proverbial way of those with child, with an accent so beautiful, her pronunciation of "camembert" sounded sexual. the reception was very refined, the kind of party which causes you to stand up straight and keep your head held high, and as i worked the room, sipping my veuve, i spotted a familiar shock of red hair across the room. no, not ms. BA miale, but someone about 30 years older, the saffron hue matching the exact shade of the fabric she had used in the gates in central park she and her husband had configured last year. it was christo and jean claude, who had so famously wrapped, curtained and screened landscapes all of the world and made millions of trillions of dollars doing it. i had to at least introduce myself.** christo was mute, but jean-claude of the bright red hair was gracious and fascinating. i actually said to her, "your achievement in central park was stunning, you must be quite proud"

yes, i can be quite refined when i chose to be. which is why my duplicity seems to be an asset.

i left the reception, got on a train to go back to brooklyn, where i had plans with yet another christo. quite the opposite of refined, we intended to watch the rangers game and play video games. ever since i saw the previews for "dead rising," where you play photojournalist trapped in a shopping mall for 72 hours with zombies, i have been dying (pun intended) to play.

you can kill the zombies with anything you can pick up. which is everything. my personal favorites have to be the chainsaw and dumbell, although the teddy bear and plastic food court chair were great fun. christo knew i was psyched for the game and we had planned to get together once he bought it and xbox 360-it up. we drank 16oz budwiser cans and watched hockey and played zombies. he also picked up NHY 2K7, so with the big screen playing the live game, we had our own little devils/rangers face off. he kicked my ass, but i didn't take that much offense, considering he has been playing for 15 years and i had been playing for 15 minutes.

as i was on my way home, the duplicity of my evening hit me. the transition from champagne to bud was blissfully easy. yet i had thoroughly enjoyed both. wasn't this the equivalent of having it all? fancy and lowbrow? high falutain and chill? with this sort of all encompassing viewpoint of life, how could duplicity be a bad thing.

this makes me recall one of my favorite days in new york city ever. for my friend chris bellotti's birthday, the two of went to dinner at three star restaurant mesa grill, followed by 7th row seats for World Wrestling Federation at the garden (where some 10 year old kid yelled at triple h that he was "hung like a mouse" which the stunned wrestler actually paused and you could see plain as day on his face how torn he was whether to go off on this peanut or not!) after screaming at the ring for two hours, chris went home and i preceeded to a cocktail party at alley sheedy's apartment, and finally to the wetlands for a friends concert. i remember not only being so happy for fitting it all in, but being happy i hadn't left anything, ANYTHING out. high brow/low brow/high brow/low brow suits me just fine.

i was actually most proud that i was able to find one single outfit to transcend all of those situations..

** the two people who i texted to excited tell i had met christo and jean-claude both responded with the same "our friend and van damme?" confused response. i love my friends.