This is more a plug for the collectives involved than anything else but tonight I went to a presentation by five (i saw four) Queens-based arts collectives sponsored by the Queens Council on the Arts. The event took place at Hell Gate Social, a space whose google search turns up their myspace profile before their official website; a plain but beautiful space with a great backyard-projection area (where I found out they screen B movies and the like during the spring-summer-fall seasons, weather permitting).

The presentations went in the order:

• Buzzer Thirty (I missed theirs, which I wanted to know most about – but I was told it was short and without any presentation media)
• Flux Factory (Presented by our own Stefany Goldberg, the presentation focused mostly on two or three distinct projects, including the oldest and the more-recent collaborations, using a DVD to show moving images and sound)
• Local Project (The next-best collective after Flux Factory, another LIC-based Queens collective, focussing especially on under-represented minorities and Latino & Black artists)
• Rockaway Artists Alliance (An ‘older’ collective; no feel for what they exhibit because they didn’t have any slides, DVD, etc.; but very officially organized, including an extensive membership which they boasted about)
• Free Style Arts (Never heard of them, but would like to stumble upon their social-situational art on the streets; perhaps a spoiler to see their images, but good Midwestern folk making interesting social-public art)

And that was that! I didn’t stay long because Game 4 of the World Series was on; it was raining in St. Louis and was 1-0 in favor of the Tigers by the time I left; walking past a pub on the way home I peeked in and it was 3-0 Tigers with Miles on 2nd; I said to myself (and to those in company) it would be 3-1 by the time I got home; as soon as I got home the Cardinals started a comeback; that night we won 5-4!!