Cabinet Magazine, or, “Look, another box!”

24 July 2010 – Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn

“A door lets you come in, a window lets you look in, and a cabinet lets you share.”

Now, the lock for Cabinet Magazine (a magazine about art, culture, and whatnot – or, as their website says, “an award-winning quarterly magazine of art and culture that confounds expectations of what is typically meant by the words ‘art,’ ‘culture,’ and sometimes even ‘magazine’ – I originally thought it was some hipster poetry rag, but then I read their website, and it actually sounds right up my alley. Oh, and they accept submissions. I love them.) wasn’t in their headquarters (which I assume are just as pristine as those at the New York Times…not) at the corner of Union and Nevins. Rather, it was on it.

I’ll be blunt – it was in an alleyway.

This alleyway, to be exact.

But I was excited for Cabinet, as it got rave reviews from fellow Keyholder Margo at Postnet, so we braved on. And yes, we got another box.

When I opened the box, the only thing inside, along with a black panel, was a label: “LOOK UP.” So we did. And above us was a trail of bubbles from a bubble machine (I assume behind the black panel are wires to start the movement of the bubble machine). It was absolutely adorable, and doubly so considering the fact that by then, Kelly and I were absolutely exhausted and we would have thought this was adorable.

However, while Cabinet, the magazine, was described by the clue perfectly, Cabinet, the lock was sort of anathema to their clue – you couldn’t share a damn thing in the box. This was patently unlike Proteus Gowanus, the gallery and library next door. Taking from the discard piles of libraries, Proteus Gowanus accumulated an entire library (catalogued in the LOC method, which I’m not the biggest fan of, but it works), which it “exhibited” on the shelves of the front part of the building; it had a gallery describing the history of the Gowanus Canal; and – at this point – it has an exhibit based on the works of fantasy author H.P. Lovecraft. It was fun, and strange, and it had a book on Philadelphia’s Mütter Museum of Medical Oddities, so we loved it all the same.

Unfortunately, as it was getting late, we had to table the Cathedral of St. John the Divine to another day (and eventually cancel going to Gleason’s Gym altogether), so our journey continued at the George Washington Bridge, which you can read about here.