Mud Wrasslin'
If you've never hit up Walter De Maria's New York Earth Room, I suggest you pay this permanent installation a visit. Absorbing the notion that a 3600 sq ft NYC apartment (within the boundaries of Soho's most precious real estate radius, no less) is filled with 2 feet of dirt boggles the mind. It also fills you with a desire to cast your shoes aside and frolic past the observation barrier to feel the soil squish between your toes.
One group of kids documented a mud wrestling fest in the Earth Room (click here to download the video, .mov file), clocking in just under a minute's worth of forbidden glory (you'll find photos of the 2003 Brooklyn Condiment War if you delve further into their site, just beware of the hippie nudity).
De Maria was an experimental recording artist, and self-released an album called Drums and Nature in 1968; click the song titles below to hear them in real audio.
"Ocean Music" from an archive of Hatch's show
"Cricket Music" from an archive of Brian Turner's show
Wow, Liz! This is better than Martha Stewart!
I'm gettin' in on the ground floor stocks for boxed dirt NOW!
Just look where bottled water went in 15 years.
Can't help feeling sorry for those kids, tho. In my youth, it was a privilege Not to have to get dirty. But then, we wasn't just frolicking about neither.
Q: are the Ocean and Cricket track titles in reverse order?
Posted by: Zach in Philly | September 27, 2005 at 12:07 PM
this is great. until now I never really thought of the earth room as dirty.
Posted by: kevin | September 27, 2005 at 12:44 PM
Mr. G. would probably like you know that the download page for Walter De Maria mp3s is at http://www.ubu.com/sound/demaria.html
Posted by: Stephen Downs | October 03, 2005 at 02:25 PM