Dear Friends,
It's Monday, again! I hope you are doing well.
Now that we found more or less our daily routine, we still have to deal with nights and dreams, you know this kind of awkward and confusing dreams mixing up reality, fantasy, non sense, truth...
It happened to me last night: I was Anne Pasternak.
Pasternak is the director of the Brooklyn Museum and on April 3, she wrote a letter, and since, I'm totally obsessed with it.
Come with me in the dream...
... I am sitting in my office at the Brooklyn Museum, staring at a "Fairfield Porter painting", my laptop staring at me. I'm about to write a letter to my community, to my audience, to my artists, to my staff, to my world...
... on my desk, a bowl full of Chouquettes and Chantilly made by Lucien Chef Ambition. I cannot eat them...
...the title of my letter comes first "From Brooklyn, with Love", a delicious reference to the 1980's post-punk eclectic compilation by the Belgian indie label Les Disques du Crépuscule ...
... still deep in the dream, I write "I hope you and yours are healthy." because I know that "Brooklyn is among the communities hardest hit by the health crisis"...
... "how can we, your Museum, help?" my fingers are typing mechanically on the keyboard because I mean it ...
... when all of the sudden, appearing at the door of my office, Peter Gelb from the Met Opera, Glenn Lowry from MoMA, Bill T Jones from New York Live Arts and many other I can't really recognize, yelling at me, all together:
... ASK FOR DONATION, DONATE, ASK FOR DONATION, DONATE ...
... dear colleagues I say out loud, "like other cultural organizations, we also are grappling with serious financial issues and planning for an unprecedented and therefore uncertain future. But this isn't the first time our nearly 200-year-old institution has been through a crisis. The Brooklyn Museum is a survivor" and " Brooklyn needs us to come back strong" ...
... they vanish, like witches facing garlic but not without gazing longingly at the bowl of Chouquettes...
..."we miss you" i'm writing now almost finishing the letter when .... ... ... ... ...
Damn, I woke up, annoyed by crumbs of Chouquette all over the bed that I ate before falling asleep last night. I'm disoriented.
Did I just dream I was Anne Pasternak, Director of the Brooklyn Museum and I wrote the most beautiful and thoughtful letter to the artistic community?
I run into the kitchen hoping to find the last Chouquette with my coffee. I ate them all.
Now I'm smiling: it's Monday again, a new week starts, a bit different than the others: I will give only one live cooking class this week, on Wednesday April 22, at 11am but it's a very special one: it's my lover's birthday.
I take the rest of the week off, to think, read, nap, write, love and cook of course.
Here is a list of marvelous things to do this week: they are good, sweet, nice, fun, helpful, lovely, happy, smart, and generous.
One day I'll make another dream: I will cut the world in two parts: the generous and the others. Guess where I will place Anne Pasternak, my lover and you all?
Coronarely yours, "as ever",
Lucien Zayan
Director
MORE UPDATES
Lucien Chef Ambition Instagram Live Cooking Classes
SPECIAL STEPHEN'S BIRTHDAY
Wednesday, April 22 at 11am
Prepare your ingredients, the grocery list is here
The previous classes are visible on YouTubeFor his birthday, Stephen Morrison gives away one of his amazing dog sculptures, a self dog portrait. Go check his instagram if you want to win it.
Museum are closed. Be the curator, the artist, the creator, the audience, the critic with Hervé Tullet's Ideal Exhibition to create at home.
FIAF presents a hilarious performance by two Belgian ex-teachers, Arnaud Hoedt and Jerôme Piron. Together they investigate the linguistic roots of French as well as its absurdities. (Zoom and Facebook and I only in French).
Are you missing dancing on the subway platform? Watch this video, 1'57" of pure delight, sent by Thierry Thieu Niang.