Over There

A cousin is in town selling ceramics out of an old jet stream he converted into a nomadic gallery. The Museum of Art and Design (formerly the Crafts Museum) across from the Museum of Modern Art helped arrange a parking space and circulated a press release. This brought New York One, a local cable news channel, to the scene where they filmed a bit in the morning to broadcast a brief story shortly after.

Later that day, passersby gush at the site of the trailer, “Hey! I saw you on the news!”

Their surprise surprises me. If the news supposed to tell us what’s going on, why the surprise when one actually encounters it? Is it just the happy recognition of a celebrity spotting? Or something else? Does the mainstream media, which supposedly shows you the world, also disconnect you from it? Aside from the weather, is the news is always happening somewhere else to someone else?