Carrie went to see Maria Lassnig at PS1 this weekend after reading my article last week and I realized I had to see it again and share it with a special lady. Said special lady and I rolled up to PS1 around 12:30 to find out it was the last Ps1 Warm-Up (a big art/community booze up with shitty “live” dance music, club style) and that despite my MoMA membership I’d have to pay $20 per entry. I was pissed but needed the lady to see the show because it’s important and will never be in America again in our life times (probably). $40 was shelled out and we were in. Skrillex was performing at 7.30. We decided he wasn’t worth seven hours of waiting around (or any amount of time, really).
We walked into the Maria Lassnig exhibition and I immediately started doing blind contour drawings of the paintings. I drew tons of them. I’ve discussed the benefits of drawing the art in art shows before in these pages. Blind contour drawing other people’s art is akin to stepping through The Wardrobe.
Unrelated, not directly anyway, to these drawings and art, I 4-4’d an SCG Legacy event with Shardless BUG and 3-0’d, splitting in the finals, 20SS’s Monday Night Legacy tournament. I love Shardless BUG.
Thanks for reading!
Matt
Matt Jones (born 1980, Rochester, New York) is an artist living and working in Brooklyn, NY. Matt works between a variety of inter-related genres that explore mythology, archaeology, ancient history, theoretical physics, comedy, and the paranormal—all developed and inspired by research and personal experience. Together his bodies of work form a way for Matt to evaluate, negotiate, and play with the world around him. You can check out his art at www.mattjonesrules.com. Matt’s played Magic since early 1995, took a break for a decade or so, and came back to the game the weekend after the Scars of Mirrodin release. With Hugh Kramer he formed New York’s Team Draft League and is one of the original writers for Hipsters of the Coast. Matt’s been sober for seven years.
“You guys went through the whole cycle of a (romantic) relationship this draft.”—Joe Shi to my Team Draft League team, The Brendaxian Mobliterators
Bonus article. We had a rough match this week. People have been harassing me about how the Top 4 are determined for the Team Draft League playoffs. Pretty relentlessly. I don’t care, I say. We’ll deal with it when we get there. Both teams, mine and the Natebears, ask me about pairings and standings and other competition based questions immediately upon entering my studio (aka my sanctuary). I’m not here to talk about this stuff now, guys, I said. I’m here to play Magic with my buds.
I drafted a deck I didn’t like. Carrie agrees. It sucks, she says. Monique says it’s not so bad, that I have a very good curve (many low drops) and a few finishers. She talked me back into being excited about playing cards I normally have no interest in playing.
We started round one. We lost all but one match that round. Carrie was on an 0-7 skid (she’d double 0-3’d the day before). At some point round one he’s helping me with my match and my lands get stuck together (new Dragon Shield sleeves on’em) not allowing me to cast Peel from Reality’d Stormtide Leviathan. I thought about not telling him that I’d noticed the lands stuck together but it was so funny I had to share. The team that laughs together stays together! Upon hearing the news she leans back and does a reverse fist pump accompanied by a “FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK.” It was terrifying.
This really affected me. I don’t do well with violence and/or aggression, and I say something like, I don’t even want to be here, this isn’t why I started Team Draft League. I was already on edge because of the competitive questions asked all weekend and first thing before the match. I didn’t know what to do. I decided to go within and sit for a while mentally and emotionally to work it out. A walk seemed like a good idea but a bit too weird.
After this break down my team really came together. We won all three matches round two. We needed to win just one match round three. Carrie fell first, then Monique. It came down to my match. The Brendaxian Mobliterators crowded around me and the Natebears around Joe Shi. I’d already lost a powerful game one (powerful for Joe, anyway). Joe says to Dylan that he’s got the game locked down and I immediately cast Stormtide Leviathan. Game three Monique and Carrie both contributed in significant ways to my win over Joe.
My team went full circle. We were low prior to our first round of the match, well, I was. Mo helped me. Carrie super tilted, we got through it. Everyone came together to help game three of my final match. We were thoughtful and supportive. It was the craziest TDL match I’ve ever had and the best Team Magic experience I’ve been a part of.
I’ve changed the motto of Team Draft League from “Don’t Be A Dick” to “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.” That’s a lot closer to what I want TDL to be and teams to act.