On Monday, i went to the dentist, the usual, a cleaning, but this time, a little while after it was over, my lips started swelling. By the evening, my lips looked like i'd had them pumped with collagen. I've never had any reaction to the stuff that they put on your gums to numb them before. But swelling is going away, but it's still there. And today another disaster: my glasses broke. The little screw just would not close any longer: it seems to have lost its threads. I've got to go to the eye doctor.

So much for that. Yesterday (Tuesday, March 4) it was a full day of the Whitney Biennial. It was in two parts: the morning was at the Whitney Museum proper, the afternoon was at the Park Avenue Armory, where there were more installations, and performances will be held over the course of the Biennial. I had the strangest sensation walking through the Biennial: many of the installations (such as Lisa Sigal's) looked... i don't want to say looked familiar, it was the strong sensation of deja vu, where i knew i must have seen the piece before. But where? Lisa Sigal, for example, is an artist with Fredericke Taylor, and i haven't been to Fredericke Taylor's gallery in years. (This really drove me crazy, until i remembered that i had seen Lisa Sigal's work when we went to Hartford, Connecticut to go to Art Space there. I think it's Art Space. Or was it Art Place? At any rate, it was in Hartford. But that was about four years ago, and i remember walking around Hartford while Larry and i were waiting for the bus to make its return trip to NYC, and discussing where to look for a house. So that was before we moved.)

Larry and i went to the Biennial opening night party, because Bill Jones (who is staying with us) has his work "Tearoom" in the Biennial (it can be found in the film and video gallery on the fourth floor). As for the party: what a madhouse!

There are any number of interesting works in the Biennial, as there always are, but there's too much of what has been called "scatter art". These installations which use debris to create a space of abjection. You know: one or two, maybe... but it's like the old saying, if all the cards are wild, you can't play poker! And it was hard to concentrate on the individual works, because there was just so much around everything. One nice touch, in the first floor gallery there is an installation by Jason Rhoades, since he seems to have been the inspiration for a lot of these young people, and since he died last year. That reminds me that Karen Kilimnick's work is in the Biennial. Surprised that something by Jeremy Blake wasn't included as well, but maybe that would be too morbid.

There's going to be a memorial for Tom Tam this weekend at the Asian-American/Asian Research Institute. I really should try to make it.

Well, such are the wonders of Facebook: Norman Wang send me a new Wong Kar Wai short (about 10 minutes), very elegant and stylish. So i sent Norman... the YouTube clip "Jimmy Kimmel is f*cking Ben Affleck".

Tony Silver died; he directed the documentary "Style Wars" which was one of the first accounts of graffiti artists and hip-hop; at one time, he was married to Joan Shigekawa, who ran the Rockefeller Film/Video program for a while. Oh, that's right: in Monday's paper, there was an item in the arts section, that Renew Media (which was the renamed Rockefeller Film/Video program) would now be a part of the Tribeca Film Institute.

A lot of changes happening. But now that i've been to the dentist, i should go to the eye doctor and i should get my annual check-up.