NC Day 7- Snakes, Serial Killers, and Shiny Art: An Lovely Day in Wilmington
I started today by getting bagels and coffee at the Bagel Bakery in Hampstead. The bakery is run by the son of another one of my mom's friends from Germany. I met him once before when I was six years old, and we watched the live action Ninja Turtles movie which inexplicably always stuck out to me. For some reason 17 years later, he didn't remember it as vividly as I did. He made up for this crazy lapse in memory with some some simply incredible bagels. The best I've had outside of New York hands down. I got a toasted honey bagel with eggs and bacon. It was a perfect breakfast. I also got some coffee which was very good as well.
After breakfast, I drove a little ways down the road to Wilmington for the day. My first stop was the Cameron Museum of Art. There were three main exhibitions while I was there, and I really liked all of them.
The first one I went to was a collection of Photographs that had been assembled from various other different art institutions in NC. There were some impressively big names represented both behind the camera (Ansel Adams, Alfred Stieglitz, Diane Arbus, and Robert Mapplethorpe) and in front of it (MLK, Georgia O'Keefe, Dennis Hopper). The Mapplethorpe (unsurplisingly the one with a guy in Bondage) really impressed me because I knew him more for the uproar over his frequently explicit photographs than for the art itself. Whether or not people in the 80s were ready to handle explicit homoeroticism and S&M culture, the dude was super talented at his craft and the staging and composition is just stunning. I tended to gravitate towards anything with a surrealist edge or with children looking very serious, and I made sure to stack the top row of the gallery below with all my personal favorites, but really everything was pretty dang impressive.
The next exhibit was called Art of Illumination and featured all kinds of different sculptures by local artists that featured some kind of element of lighting. The actual gallery was kept fairly dimly lit so that the full effect of the internal lights in the sculptures could have their maximum effect. This was my personal favorite gallery because all the sculptures would have been pretty cool on their own but seeing how the one common element of light was utilized in different ways by different artists to really elevate and transform their works was truly mesmerizing. The works ran the gamut from very abstract to very representational but they gave you a handy little pamphlet that explained the artists' processes and techniques.
The last gallery was intended to highlight contemporary art from around the state with over six hundred NC artists represented. The art was then displayed salon style with works on every wall from floor to ceiling. It was total art immersion, and with that many artists there was really something for everyone. My favorites are below, but I do want to give a shout out to one work in particular because I feel like the name of the piece really added something for me at least.
"Victims Say the Darndest Things" Robbie Kass, Airbushed Toilet Seat
After the art museum, I naturally went to see a bunch of venus fly traps at the Stanley Rehder Carnivorous Plant Garden, a local public garden behind an elementary school. Apparently venus flytraps can only be found in the wild within 75-100 miles of Wilmington so this was really cool to see them in their natural habitat. They were a lot smaller than I was picturing in my head, and a lot of them had died in the cold but the survivors were still pretty funky. Besides fly traps, the other carnivores on display were the sundews and pitcher plants which trap insects on different sticky surfaces on their leaves. The pitcher plants in particular were really beautiful.
After the monster plants, I went to downtown Wilmington and saw the Museum of the Bizarre which based on the name alone I could not be more excited for. I was not let down. Unfortunately I couldn't take pictures in most of the museum except at specific photo taking locations, but the collection was pretty expansive. I liked that they had a combination of genuine cool artifacts and memorabilia, as well as just blatant hoaxes like "mummified baby dragons", "flesh eating toads", and "chupacabra hands". There was also a few things designed to prank the viewer such as a fridge offering water but only containing an very realistic looking human head, and some animatronic statues that would surprise you. It was fun seeing a museum not take itself too too seriously, and all the camp just added to the overall bizarreness. Of the real items that were pretty cool to me at least was a Christmas Card from Charles Manson (which sounds like a Tom Waits Song), Jeffrey Dahmer's middle school year book, and one of John Wayne Gacy's oil paintings he made in prison (I don't care much for the man himself but he was a shockingly good artist). Not everything was serial killer themed; there was also a lock of Alexander Hamilton's but in general the more macabre stuff tended to be what interested me most. It's all just one guy's collection too which is nuts. They also had a few extras you could pay for that I didn't feel like doing such as lazer maze and a ride that that features a real coffin on hydraulics that simulates the experience of being buried alive. The woman working there said that of even here toughest looking customers most people are too scared to try the coffin ride. And I was certainly one of them.
Literally right next door to the Museum of the Bizarre was the Cape Fear Serpentarium. Unsurprisingly it was filled with snakes! They were ranked from not very poisonous to extremely poisonous which gave the whole place a vague sense of danger that was also quite fun. I saw absolutely massive pythons and anacondas and horribly poison filled black mambas, vipers, and cobras. Most of the snakes were very midday sleepy, but a few of them were very active particularly two albino cobras. I saw them climb a tree in their habitat and even after having seen it with my own eyes I have no idea how the hell something with no arms or legs did that. The speed with which they can move is also pretty spooky. I read that the king cobras have been known to chase people and kill elephants, which sounds like the stuff of nightmares. Other than snakes there were a few different limbed reptiles including alligators, iguanas, and turtles. I loved this dopey looking bastard:
After the snakes and the bizarre, I had worked up a fear appetite and got lunch at the Dock Street Oyster Bar. I ordered the crab dip with pita chips which was perfect. The dip had big clumps of blue crab whipped up with lots of cheese and spices. Coupled with the pita chips, I was in lunch heaven and everything was much more filling than I expected.
While I wandering around the city, I saw an advertisement for an oxygen bar. I'd never seen one before so I impulsively decided to try it out. Basically you just pay some money to sit there and breathe vaguely flavored oxygen for a bit, and it's supposed to be relaxing. I can't tell though if it's actually relaxing or it's just the fact that you're sitting there not able to do anything else that's relaxing. I am glad I was able to get a picture of me looking like a maniac with an oxygen mask on. Especially after seeing the photos of Dennis Hopper at the museum, it was hard not to think of Blue Velvet, but I thought they might frown upon anyone yelling "I will fuck any thing that moves!!!!" as they take off the mask. It is amazing how much that movie is like a classic film noir, until his character shows up and David Lynches all over the place.
After the novelty, I had a hankering for a real bar so I went to Front Street Brewery and ordered a flight. I tried the Feels So Good Unfiltered Lager, The Reading Rye'nbow Rye Porter, the Sublimity Belgian Quad, the Amberjack Extra Special Bitter, and Dram Tree Scottish Ale. I liked all of them and I was very impressed with the variety of different European styles of beer they had which you don't always see at smaller brewpubs. The very high ABV Belgian Quad was probably my favorite living up to the sublimity in its name with a bold, rich malty flavor. The porter unsurprisingly was another favorite with the rye adding a bit more of smoother whiskey-ish flavor, and the Reading Rainbow reference wasn't just a pun but a portion the proceeds actually went to supporting children's literacy.
After the brewery, I got some coffee at the Luna Caffe which was good but not super memorable other than everyone there being really nice.
Properly fueled up, I went to Mary's Gone Wild Folk Art Village and Doll Collection. Mary Paulsen, the artist believes that God has spoken to her twice and told her to start making art. She had paintings, sculptures, and glass bottle mosaics. It was all quite astounding, but very outdoors and the weather started to turn so I didn't get to appreciate it as much as I could have. I think the Good Lord would approve though.
After the freaky folk art, I made the trek down to South Carolina to begin another week.
Favorite Random Observations: Fred's Beds; Party All the Time At Halloween and More (doesn't seem like all the time if it's Halloween); Buff Masters; Salon 2001 (they had a futuristic font, and it just seems so silly 16 years later)
Regional Observations: NC License plates say First in Flight, but apparently it was a big controversy with Ohio because the Wright Brothers flew in NC but were born in OH, and somehow Connecticut also got in on the fight by saying that someone else other than the Wright Brothers flew first from there. It's weird for something as universal as a license plate slogan to be so hotly contested.
Albums Listened To: Live MCMXCII by the Velvet Underground; Live Pyuria by Rancid (very poor quality of a pretty good concert); Live Full House by J. Geils Band; Livin' On a High Note by Mavis Staples; Living in Sin/Understanding New Jersey by Vic Ruggiero; Local Business by Titus Andronicus (Lean incredible punk album); Locked Down by Dr. John; London Calling by the Clash
People's Favorite Jokes:
A horse walks into a bar, and the bartender asks "Why the long face?" (oldie but a goodie)
How many ears does Captain Kirk have? The right one, the left one, and the final front-ear
North Carolina Superlatives:
Favorite Coffee: High Five Coffee in Asheville for Taste; Central Coffee Co. in Charlotte for Ambience and Baklava
Favorite Restaurant: Tupelo Honey in Ashevill
Favorite Single Meal: Steamed Oysters at C & H Oyster Bar in Elizabeth City
Favorite Beer: Duck Rabbit Milk Stout
Favorite Attractions: Either V & E Simonetti Historic Tuba Collection in Durham or Museum of the New South in Charlotte
Favorite Open Mic: Idiot Box in Greensboro
General Impression of the NC Scene- Small but supportive with some very good clubs. You can do a mic every night if you don't mind driving. Generally self-deprecating and pretty high tolerance of weirder acts, a slight tendency towards more set up-punch line jokes than funny stories or rants but a good mix of everything
Songs of the Day:
