The news of the world

First it was Chris Bryant, the Labour MP for the District of Rhondda, who asked Rebekah Brooks in 2003, at a parliamentary hearing, if her newspapers had paid the police for information.  She said yes.   Then there was Meredith Whitney a lawyer in Manchester.  She represented Gordon Taylor, the head of the footballers association,  in early 2007, because his phone had been hacked.  They settled for 450,000 pounds.  Then she represented Max Clifford, well known for his work in public relations, and they won a million pounds.  The British paper, The Guardian, ran a series of articles about widespread hacking of the private conversations of British citizens in 2009.  One of those citizens was Prince Harry.  The Royals knew his phone was hacked because of the type of information that was leaked about a leg injury.  In September 2010 the NY Times reported there was widespread hacking of private citizens' phone conversations.  On July 4th 2011, the lawyers for Milly Dowler, a murdered schoolgirl, alleged that her phone was hacked and messages were deleted.  That's when the people got angry, and they're proving to be more powerful than Parliament, Royalty, the national press and even footballers.
Other news?
I like "The Economist" but it has the habit of putting scheme right after the title of many government programs.  For example, in this week's issue discussing the economic and political situation in the U. S. they write: "The House has also voted to cut a separate health-and-nutrition scheme for poor pregnant women, infants and children, known as WIC by 11%." ... about Food Stamps they write ... "the department of Agriculture which administers the scheme, reckons only 2/3 of those who are eligible have signed up."  Now the British know a lot more about the English language than I do,  they created it.  So I went to the dictionary:
scheme:
1. a plan, design, or program of action; project
2. an underhand plot; intrigue
3. a visionary or impractical project
Hmm, so they mean #1 not #2.
Hmm?  Is there a political agenda using scheme instead of program?  Or is it what Shaw called a "separation by a common language"?
More news:
Three years after the economic meltdown nearly one in six Americans are out of work, 14.1 million reported.  The President proposes among other things a ten-year, hundred-billion-dollar reduction in federal contributions to Medicaid.  The President is now to the right of most Republicans that were politically active when I began to vote.  Still there is a problem.  The President wants changes in the tax code and rates while 97% of House Republicans have taken the "No Tax Pledge".
In "The New Yorker"
"Max Weber, in his 1919 essay "Politics as a Vocation," drew a distinction between 'the ethic of responsibility' and 'the ethic of ultimate ends'-between those who act from a sense of practical consequence and those who act from a higher conviction, regardless of consequences.  These ethics are tragically opposed, but the true calling of politics requires a union of the two."
Paradoxically, we need smart politics and politicians, when most Americans seem to reject politics and politicians.  As more needs to be done, the more political inertia is fueled.

House of Worship

Downtown, near ground zero is one of the oldest and most renowned of NYC's churches.  St. Paul's is the chapel to Trinity Church, which is part of the Episcopal Parish and the worldwide Anglican community.  When NYC was our nation's capitol, George Washington worshiped here.  Alexander Hamilton and John Jay were congregants.  In those days congregants rented pews from the church; so everyone had an assigned place.  The pews have been removed and replaced with chairs to make the church more of a community.
Recently, the chapel was the recovery station for those working on the clean-up after 9/11.  There are memorials to their service inside the Chapel.  As you enter on the right in the corner is one of the memorials to the 9/11 First Responders.  It has all the patches from all the groups of firefighters and others who assisted in the cleanup.

Governors Island

I went for a long walk today.  Down through Soho to the ferry for Governor's Island.  So named because the English, when they captured New York from the Dutch used the island for "the benefit and accommodation of His Majesty's Governors".  The Manahatas, New York City's native people, called the island Pagganck, "Nut Island", because of the abundance of Hickory, Oak and Chestnut trees.
Designed by Walker & Morris the ferry terminal is notable for it's Guastavino tile vaults under the porch roof.  Patented by Spanish Architect Rafael Guastavino in the U.S. in 1885, his tile vault system can be seen in many of N.Y.'s prominent Beaux Arts landmarks such as the City Hall subway station and the Manhattan Municipal Building.

When you get to the island there are lots of places to picnic.  In 1912 land fill provided by the construction of the Lexington Ave. Subway System added 103 acres to the island.  The island is now 172 acres.

That's Castle William, similar in structure to Castle Clinton at Battery Park.  The island has been used as a sheep farm, quarantine station, racetrack, game preserve, prison, and military base.  Castle William and Castle Clinton were built to protect the harbor with cannon fire during the War of 1812.  They were never used.  Castle William was built in 1807 and like Castle Clinton was designed by Lt. Col. Jonathan Williams.
Lt. Col Jonathan Williams was Benjamin Franklin's nephew, or Grand-nephew depending on your web source; he is also the person for whom Williamsburg was named, and the first Superintendent of West Point.  Born 5/20/1751, he died 5/16/1815 of gout.  Those were the days when the military gave their men rum portions.

Museum Mile

I went to the Museum of the City of New York.  It's at Fifth Ave. and 104th street.  I decided to go basically because I had never been there.  Joel Grey, famous for his performance in the movie of Cabaret has been taking pictures of the city for years and some of them are on display.  His career is also on display as a Joel Grey timeline.  There are some other exhibits but the one I liked was a 30 minute film of the history of the city, narrated by Stanley Tucci.  I left and decided to walk as much of the way home as I could.  Made it to 2nd Ave. and 28th street; got the bus, and then walked from 14th street. 

 This is Ai Weiwei's 'Zodiac, Circle of Heads'.  He is a Chinese artist and dissident who was imprisoned by the Chinese, and charged with tax evasion.  He was released from confinement last month but is forbidden to leave the country.  Today's N.Y. Times reports he has accepted an invitation to teach in Germany.
Another Chinese dissident, the writer Liao Yiwu, who was imprisoned and tortured in the 1990's for writing poems deploring the suppression of students in Tienanmen Square spent 4 years in prison.  Due to the abuse and torture he received, he had several mental breakdowns and attempted suicide twice.  When he was released his wife and daughter left him and his literary friends kept their distance.  He lived for awhile on the streets as a homeless musician.  Liao escaped to Germany on 7/6/2011.
The streets are a museum of art and history.    

Summer Movies

Ah!  The rich coolness of an Air-Conditioned movie house in the summertime.  My youth would often be spent at the movies in the summer.  On a Saturday, after our chores were done, our Mom would give my brother money for the two of us to go to the movies.
Today I went to see "Cave of Forgotten Dreams".  I put off going to see it because it sounded like something that might be better done on PBS.  3D sounded questionable.  Werner Herzog, however can be very good as in "Aguirre: Wrath of God", but then again he can be off.  "Encounters at the End of the World" was not my cup of tea.  I find he often imposes a metaphysical and anthropomorphic perspective on material that is not rational.  In this film it works a little better because it comes from one of the scientists who recounts the story of an anthropologist touring a cave of drawings with an Australian Aborigine.  The anthropologist was trying to explain the difference between modern man and indigenous man.  While in the cave the Aborigine realized the drawing was fading and started to paint it.  The scientist asked why and the aboriginal said he wasn't painting it.  The spirit of the hand was painting it.  Nice, but then Herzog continues through the film to question the scientists if these, the drawings, aren't a manifestation of the beginnings of the human soul.

Then there are the drawings.  The drawings in the cave of forgotten dreams are remarkable.  They may have the most beautiful drawings of horses heads I have ever seen.  According to the scientist they were drawn 30,000 to 40,000 thousand years ago.
I don't think doing the  movie in 3D was the right choice.   There is the fact that many of the drawings, and there are many, are formed using the shape of the rock. Seeing them in 3D enhances that, but hand-held cameras moving in 3D are jarring.  When the camera moves the focus keeps shifting.  I wonder if 3D is an excuse to raise prices.
Netflix is raising their prices.  Why?  No explanation in the e-mail I received.  No extra services or cost were mentioned.   My favorite money pot is Verizon.
I wanted to stop my TV service.  I'm on the computer and out of the house so much, who needs it.  I pay $145 for phone, internet and TV.  The bill I received said TV was $60 and my DVR service for TV was $15. So when I called to cancel the TV and DVR, I find I will save $30 and my internet speed drops from 20mb to 15mb.  I think she said megabytes, the accent was really heavy.  It seems I have a bundle.  A triple bundle that changes to a double bundle when I drop the TV.  I'm really saving a whole lot of money by paying more.  Huh?  The cable in my house doesn't change, why does the speed change?  What's bundled is the money we're paying. 

House of Worship

I believe that's Saint Anthony of Padua.  Actually in Portugal he's known as St. Anthony of Lisbon.  He was born in Lisbon in 1195 and died just outside Padua, Italy in 1231.  He was born Fernando Martins De Bulhoes and came from a wealthy family.  He became a Franciscan priest; renowned for his knowledge of the bible and for his preaching.  During his life he was reputed to have been the cause of many miracles and was canonized shortly after his death.  How he became the patron Saint of lost objects I have no idea.
The church was designed by noted architect Arthur Crooks and built between 1886 and 1888 in the Romanesque Revival style.  The interior is quite impressive and that may be why it is known as the Italian Cathedral in New York.  The original parish opened in 1866 in a former Methodist Church, and so it is the oldest parish continuously ministering to Italians in the U.S.  St. Anthony School opened in 1872 and Mother, now Saint, Cabrini taught there for awhile.
Yesterday, First Ave was the scene of a New Orleans funeral march with a ragtime band, big umbrellas, and dancing mourners.  The owner of TBA, a bar on 2nd Ave. between 2 and 3rd Sts., had been hit while riding his bike.  He passed away and in fitting tribute to a man born in New Orleans they gave him a musical send-off.  Another East Village resident, who was a well known political activist was killed riding his bike.  There is a movement to have the New York Times, our paper of record, list all incidents of bicycle accidents and fatalities.  From what I've seen of the interaction between  bicyclists and cars, taxis, buses, delivery trucks and pedestrians they will need a couple of reporters to do the job. 

                                   Tao Ching:
                          Colors blind the eye.
                          Sounds deafen the ear.
                          Flavors numb the taste.
                          Thoughts weaken the mind.
                          Desires wither the heart.

The Kids Club

In a recent blog I commented on the "F" word and the song about make-up sex and I used the term fuddy duddy as a joke.  I shouldn't have.  The whole point of my comment was to call attention to how much everyday life has mimicked the world of the adolescent male.  Think of all the ways "old" is used as a put-down: old thing, old style, old place.  You'll never hear young thing, young style or young place as put-downs?  I presume we all agree that this is a youth oriented culture and it has been for quite some time.   But sometimes it hits me that maybe we've gone overboard.  How about calling someone an ignoramus, instead of a "F". 
When, how and why did we get here?  I'll tell you what I think. The advent of adolescence began at the turn of the 20th Century with the implementation of child labor laws and universal education.  The period of dependency was prolonged.  Stanley Hall was among the first to address these changes in his 1904 study "Adolescence".
Steven Mintz, an historical theorist, believes it began in the 1950's with the teen youth subculture.  I can see how the influence of teenagers on the culture mushroomed in the 1950's and 60's.  I can also see the conflict in that culture: Tab Hunter vs. James Dean, Sandra Dee vs. Marilyn, Pat Boone vs Elvis, Patti Page vs. Peggy Lee, Our Miss Brooks vs. The Three Stooges.  The formation of an identity and the confusion around accepted roles for the adolescent are all present at this time.  Eric Ericson's theory of this stage of development says the conflict is between intimacy vs. isolation.  The unsuccessful resolution of this conflict, because of role confusion, leads to an inability to commit which can continue throughout adult life.  Fidelity is the hallmark.  "The ability to sustain loyalties in spite of contradictions and confusion of value systems."  During this period the adolescent is engaged in re-establishing boundaries for the self.  Crisis can bring sustained length of adolescence and unresolved conflicts in intimacy and isolation.
Was there crisis in the 50's and 60's?  Yes, nationally and also in the family.  The 1950's saw the beginning of the nuclear family and the growth of suburbia, creating isolation.  Mass media opened many more role choices.  In a recent Sunday magazine piece about H.S. Grads the career choice for quite a few of them was C. S. I.  I had never heard of C.S.I's in H.S.  Lilly Tomlin once said when she was growing up there were no gays or lesbians.  People were shy.  Now she would have to say there were no gays, lesbians, bisexual, transvestite, or transgender people, just a heck of a lot of shy people.
Commerce also changed and became a profound influence.  Though Henry Ford created the assembly line and mass produced his Model "T" between 1909 and 1927 it wasn't until 1956 that we began to build a national highway system.  After the Second World War, America experienced great prosperity, which brought something new, a disposable income; shopping became a pastime, and Teenagers became a target of advertising.  Today's teenagers and young adults are the prime market for advertisers, and it appears that each generation wants to be bolder in style, dress, media and language that the last generation.     

Baths

 On 11th Street between Ave. A and 1st Ave. is a private residence that was once one of NYC's Public Baths.  It opened in 1905 for the German and Irish immigrants in the neighborhood.

In the 1840's the New York State legislature enacted laws to provide for the hygiene of the many immigrants coming into the city.  The first Public Bath was opened in 1849 at 141 Mott Street.  Financing wasn't provided; the baths had to charge; the immigrants were poor; the baths closed.  After the Civil War New York followed the example of Boston and built inexpensive floating public bathing facilities in the rivers around the city.  Begun in 1870 by 1888 there were 15 of these free baths serving 4 million people a year, but they were seasonal.  This is also a time in the U.S known as the Gilded Age when there was a strong resistance to government intervention in people's lives.  It should be noted that NYC knew very well about the connection between the lack of hygiene and the incidence of epidemics: 1822-yellow fever, 1832-cholera, 1848-cholera, 1854-cholera, 1866-cholera.  TB was also a constant part of public life.  It wasn't until 1895 that the NY State Legislature passed a law requiring  public bathing facilities.  But it was still a struggle to implement and the first Bath did not open until 1901 on Rivington Street.  The last City Public Baths, The Allen Street Baths, closed in the 1970's.
 

The Russian and Turkish Bath is on 10th Street between 1st Ave. and Ave. A.  They have been in operation since 1892 but are not free.  Among their services are 2 types of saunas.  The Russian sauna has 20,000 lbs. of rock that are cooked overnight.  If it gets too hot there are plenty of buckets of ice water to pour over you head.  At the redwood sauna you can get the Platza Oak Leaf Treatment.  A Platza specialist scrubs you, actually beats you [this is from their website] with a broom made of fresh oak leaves sopping with olive oil soap.  The Platza treatment is also called Jewish acupuncture.  There's  massage, dead sea salts scrub, black mud treatment and a "soap wash where our specialist will wash you like you haven't been bathed in months."  There's even a restaurant so after all the shvitzing, maybe a little seltzer.  Tsar Nicholas never had it so good.

walking the web

When the UV index is 9, I don't walk the city as much.  Instead, I've been looking through the web for research on some things.  One has been a story I first read about in the book "Gotham" which is a history of New York City up until the 1880's.  The part I have been thinking about was the "Panic of 1873".  It is also called the long depression for several reasons.  It lasted until 1879; 89 of 364 railroads went bankrupt; 18,000 businesses failed and unemployment was 14%.  It was worldwide; Britain had 2 decades of stagnation.  The problem began with a housing boom in Paris, Vienna and Berlin.  Money for housing was available through the recently designed savings banks of the emerging Middle Class, and it seemed so abundant that mortgages were given for homes only half built.  When middle Europe and Russia could not compete with the American farmer the crash began.
One of the characters I was curious about is Jay Cooke of Cooke and Company.  He was issuing bonds to build a second Northern Pacific Railroad because he expected the western expansion to include Montana.  He wrote his liabilities against expected returns on his sale of bonds.  J. P. Morgan wouldn't buy; so no one else did.  There was no money to pay bills he had already listed as being paid so Cooke and Company went bankrupt, and this seriously affected the entire industry and country.  Except for Morgan who became involved in developing and financing his own railroad empire.
In 1874 thousands demonstrated in Tompkins Square Park which was the largest demonstration that had ever occurred in NY.   The panic of 1873 is also credited with ending the Austro-Hungarian Empire. 
But my focus of research was on Jay Cooke.  I wondered if it was because of him that the expression "cooking the books" originated.  It isn't.  According to the www. the expression is from the 17th century.  Yeah it's that old.  The more modern expression "creative accounting" is attributed to the comedian Professor Irwin Corey by phases.org uk and to Mel Brooks' film "The Producers" by Wikipedia.

The Weather Channel has videos of the "dust storm", Haboob, that hit Phoenix, Az. and the Valley of the Sun.  Extraordinary, it had 53mph winds. 
Yesterday I was in a department store that had a song on the overhead speakers about 'break-up sex'.  Fox movie channel on Sunday showed a movie that did not bleep the "F" word, just saying.

Free

I love the city on a holiday weekend and this is why:

That's 23rd street at 2PM.  It's a vacation from the hordes.  To quote Frank O'Hara, traffic was acting like the sky.
In this week's The Villager:
One of the person's responsible for the passage of the marriage equality law was Daniel O'Donnell.  He was the bill's lead sponsor in the Assembly where he is a member and he is also the brother of Rosie O'Donnell.
And in another part of the paper Jerry Tallmer writes about Peter Falk who recently died.  They were friends in the 1950's when Peter was starring as the bartender at Sheridan Square's Circle In The Square production of The Iceman Cometh with Jason Robards, directed by Jose Quintero.  From the article: Falk was born in Manhattan in 1927 but grew up in Ossining.  He lost his right eye due to cancer at the age of three.
Also mentioned P.S.122 is closing "for a couple of years" while the interior is upgraded. 

Charlie Parker, also known as Yardbird or Bird, live on Avenue B in the East Village.  He played a leading role in the development of Bebop.  When bebop was forming in NYC there was a Musicians strike so no recordings of it's formative years exist.  When the Union lifted the ban a concert at Town Hall on 6/22/45 was recorded with Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, and Bud Powell.  I define Bebop as a form of Jazz that has a quick tempo, lots of extraordinary technique, and improvisation.
Bird became an icon for the beat generation because of their perception of him as an uncompromising artist and intellectual.  He is recorded as saying in an interview that for 3 to 4 years he practiced 15 hours a day.
As a teenager, Parker developed a morphine addiction while a patient in a hospital after an automobile accident.  He subsequently became addicted to heroin and died at the Stanhope Hotel accompanied by his patron and friend Nica de Koenigswarter.  The "cause of death" listed 4, lobar pneumonia, bleeding ulcer, cirrhosis, and a heart attack, any one of which could have killed him.  His age was listed on the death certificate as between 50 and 60.  He was 34.
You Tube has videos of him performing with Lester Young, and another video with Dizzy Gillespie.

House of Worship

The Central Synagogue at Lexington and 55thStreet is designed in the Moorish Revival Style using New Jersey Brownstone.  It is the longest continuously used Synagogue in the country.  Founded in 1846 by Jews from Prague and Bohemia it was initially located on Ave. C and 4th Street.  The cornerstone was laid in 1872 by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, one of the founders of Reform Judaism.
  The Moorish style was used to emphasize and recall the great history and accomplishments of the Jews in Moorish Spain.  It was designed by Henry Fernbach who is sometimes referred to as the first Jewish architect of consequence.  He is well represented in the SoHo Historic district with 35 buildings, 25 of them on Greene Street, alone.
Reform Judaism believes that Judaism and its traditions should be modernized and compatible with the surrounding culture.  Coming out of the mid-19thcentury enlightenment period of Germany it posed an intellectual challenge to traditional Jewish doctrines, such as the divine authorship of the Torah.
From one of my spiritual leaders:
Tennessee Williams:  "There are no 'good' or 'bad' people.  Some are a little better or a little worse but all are motivated more by misunderstanding than by malice.  A blindness to what is going on in each others hearts.  Nobody sees anybody truly but all through the flaws of their own egos.  That is the way we all see each other in life."

Passion

I went for a long walk, from my place on East 4th Street uptown to the Frick Museum on East 70th Street.  I wanted to see the restored St. Francis in the Desert by Bellini [ca.1480].  It is one of the earliest of Italian landscape oil paintings and the largest work on panel at the Frick.  It depicts St. Francis leaving his mountain cell at the moment of his stigmata.  I can not take pictures at the Frick.
The NY Times has a great photo and article on the painting.
On the way home I visited one of the buildings that evoke passion. 
The Chrysler Building in 1930 was the tallest building in the world for 11 months.  Currently owned by the Abu Dhabi Investment Council it was the headquarters of the Chrysler Corporation from 1930 to the mid 1950's.  The 61st floor eagles are replicas of the 1929 Chrysler hood ornament.  The 31st floor corner ornamentation is a replica of the 1929 Chrysler radiator cap.
The architect, William Van Alen, 8/10/1883-5/24/1954 was born in Brooklyn and studied at Pratt Institute.  The building was initially commissioned by William H. Reynolds but was taken over by Walter Chrysler so he could bequeath it to his family.  Van Alen failed to secure a contract with Chrysler and when he requested the standard fee of 6% of the building's budget, $14 million Chrysler refused payment.  Chrysler claimed Van Alen had committed fraud in budgeting the production costs.  Van Alen sued and won, but his reputation and career were ruined.  Because of the scandal and the depression he could not get any work.  He continued to draw and work on designs but only found work as a teacher of sculpture.  He died unheralded, leaving everything to his wife.  There were no children or other relatives.  None of his books, drawings or designs are known to have survived.  What we have is the Chrysler Building or what I like to call the William Van Alen Building.

Possibilianism

The New York Times Book Review for 6/19/2011 has a short piece on David Eagleman and his books: "Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain", "Why the Net Matters" and "Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives".
Possibilianism is the name he gave to describe where he stands in relation to atheists, agnostics and true believers.  He does not find current theology comprehensible, talking snakes in the Garden of Eden, creation of the world in six days.  As a neuro-scientist he is fascinated by possibility.  The essence of science is a tolerance for possibilities, and the ability to hold multiple ideas when there is a lack of proven data.  The true scientist does not know and unlike the agnostic he/she will explore the possibilities.

Voltaire: "Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position.  But certainty is an absurd one."

One of Mr. Eagleman's books is "Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives".  It is a collection of speculative short stories about the afterlife.  For example: God is a microbe and unaware of our existence; we are experiments for the gods; we are a reunion for a scattered confederacy of atoms.  In June, 2009 Brian Eno and Eagleman performed a musical reading at the Sydney Opera House.   Readings from the book are featured in a number of episodes from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's show Wiretap.  It has been named the best book and best spiritual book of 2009, and Amazon's #1 best seller in Great Britain for 2009. Of course, Eagleman has his own website, www.eagleman.com, where he discusses his theories and invites you to take a test on your capacity for synesthesia.  When you taste a particular food, do you see a specific color?  If so, you may have synesthesia and qualify for a research study.
Which might be good training for the afterlife.

Sergio and Mara return home

They left on Monday and I am still recuperating.  We did a lot in the short time they were here.  Just as an example this was my last day with the Italians.  I walked up to 14th Street and 6th Ave. to meet Lynn for breakfast at about 10AM.  After breakfast we watched the gay pride parade.
I only wanted to see Dan Savage, the Grand Marshall, to cheer him on.  Dan Savage is an advice columnist who started a worldwide movement, the "it get's better" videos.  He began it after hearing one too many stories about anguished gay teens committing suicide.  "It get's better" videos are of celebrities recalling their own experiences of being bullied, and how, in time, their life got better.  As of 1/3/11 there were 5,000 videos.  So I gave him a cheer.
Then we left for a tour of the east village.  I showed Lynn one of my favorite places, the doggie run at Tompkins Square park.  The dogs were not running.  It was much too hot, and they're much too smart.  Then  a stroll through one of the many community gardens in the east village.

Next it was down to City Hall to meet up with Frank, Sergio, and Mara.  Sergio, Mara and I decided to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.
Then back to their Hotel at 7th Avenue and 56th Street to meet with everyone for dinner.  Lynn calculated that I had walked for 7 hours.
I would do it all again, such good people.

With the Italians in New York

Actually to be more specific I should say the Romans.  Italy is a very diverse country because of its history.  It was for many years divided between the French, the Papal States, the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, and the individual city states.  Even to this day many Italians see themselves as distinct from other parts of the country and from other Italians.  To be Roman is different from being Milanese, as being a New Yorker is different from being Texan.  
He and his sister, Claudia, were born in Rome but their family comes from a small town north of Rome in the center of the country, near the site of the recent earthquake.  The family maintains a home there and visit it in the summer, because Rome is even more humid then NY in the summertime.  They landed at 2:05 and they were out and finished with customs by 2:45.  After checking in at their hotel, the Park central at 56th Street and 7th Ave., we all went down to Gene's, 11th Street and 6th Ave., for dinner.
The next day, Tuesday, Lynn arrived from San Francisco, and everyone decided to go to the High Line, around 2ish.  Lynn was staying at a place on 15th Street, so it was decided that we would all meet there.  I'm not Italian.  I like schedules.  I really like to know what time dinner is and where.  We sort of decided to meet on the corner.  I'm not quite sure how we decided because we couldn't connect with the Italian cell phones.  Most of us did make it by 3ish.  Long story, short, we got to the high line.

House of Worship & Police Work

St. Stanislaus, Roman Catholic Church is located on 7th Street between 1st Ave. and Ave. A.  It could also be called St. Stanislaus Polish Catholic Church because it was built by and serves the Polish-American community of the east village.  There are a number of commemorative plaques for Polish-American War Veterans and for those of Polish descent who died in the World Trade Center bombing.   St. Stanislaus church was built in 1900 and has 900 registered members.  It is under the pastoral care of the Pauline Fathers who were founded in the 13th century in Krakow, Poland.
As the Bishop of Krakow Saint Stanislaus excommunicated the king because of immorality.  So the King had him "hacked to pieces"  in 1079.  The pieces were thrown into a moat and quickly came together; so naturally he was canonized, but that wasn't until 1253.
A famous parishioner for a time was Helena Modjeska, 1840-1909.  She was a Polish actress and the "diva" of the Polish stage when her and her husband immigrated to California in 1876 for political reasons.  She starred in Ibsen's "A Doll's House" in Louisville, Kentucky, the first staging in America of an Ibsen play.  She was considered the greatest Shakespearean actress of her time and was the godmother of Ethel Barrymore.  Susan Sontag based her award winning book "In America" on her life.  She is also one of the personages in Willa Cather's "My Mortal Enemy".  She was very well known and loved.  There is a plaque to her in the church.  The church seems to believe that Polish-Americans need plaques and more recognition, and they are probably right.
There were polish immigrants in Virginia in 1608.  A great number immigrated in 1795 with the collapse of the Polish constitutional Monarchy and the division of Poland between Austria, Russia, and Prussia.  The peak migration occurred between 1901-1910 with an estimated 8.7 million immigrating.  A large number of them going to Chicago, like my army buddy Mike Konkol's family.
In this weeks East Villager:
A Parks Enforcement Patrol officer, trying to break up a fight, was slashed with a broken bottle by a man in Washington Square Park.  The suspect Charles Graham has a record of 51 arrests.  Two plainclothes Police Officers breaking up an assault on a victim at 13th Street and 9th Ave. were themselves assaulted after showing their badges and announcing "Police, stop".  All suspects were apprehended and all the officers are in good condition and all are back at work.  No, wait, that's the police that are back to work.  The suspects I hope are incarcerated, especially Charlie with his 51 arrests. 

Richard Serra at The Met

I heard that the Richard Serra Exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art was worth seeing.  It is the first retrospective of his drawings.  "This major exhibition features some fifty works from the 1970s to the present, including many loans from European and American public and private collections as well as a selection of the artist's notebooks.  It ends with a site specific large-scale drawing, conceived specifically for The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "

There were some with black lines, some were triangles, and some had 2 rectangles.  In 2008 at Sotheby's in New York, 12-4-8, consisting of 3 steel plates sold for $1.65 million.  The exhibit noted that he does not see black as a color but as a weight, and he talks about his work in terms of physics and materials.  This is another area I need education because I couldn't "respond" to it.  But that's OK because there is a lot at The Met that I do respond to.  I've recently been drawn to Winslow Homer's seascapes.  So I spent some time with "Northeaster".

More Italians

Being of Irish descent in a city that has a lot of Irish immigrants I am for the most part ignorant of Italian immigration.  So I've done a little research and these are some of the things I've learned, and some I've been reminded of.  Many people know this information and probably more.
The first immigration from Italy was from the north because of overpopulation. Many of these immigrants were educated and skilled.  They knew wine making and merchandising food.  The founder of the Bank of America in San Francisco was an Italian food merchant.
The second and major influx of immigrants came later from the Mezzogiorno, middle and southern Italy.  Overpopulation was one factor, natural disasters and poverty were others.  Southern Italy was not rich in the resources valued during the industrial revolution while northern Italy was.  Because political power is often dominated by wealth the north was able to institute a heavy tax burden on the south and create protective tariffs for northern goods, adding to their poverty.  Natural disasters also contributed.  There were eruptions at both Mount Vesuvius and Mount Etna.  The earthquake of 1908 and it's tidal wave killed 100,000 people in the city of Messina alone.
Between 1820 and 1978 5,294,000 people immigrated from Italy.  That represents 10.9% of the total foreign immigration during that period.  Even more Italians immigrated to South America.  The vast majority of American immigrants, about 70%, were young and were called Birds of Passage because almost 30% of these immigrants returned to Italy permanently.  These young men concentrated in the cities to earn as much as they could so they could support their families back home and then return.  In 1890 90% of NYC public works employees and 99% of Chicago street workers were Italian.
In reference to Italians and organized crime, the U.S. Department of Justice reports less than .0025% of Italian Americans have anything to do with organized crime.  That's 5 out of 250,000.
Some of my favorite Italians are at my favorite cafe, DeRobertis on First Avenue between 10th and 11th Streets.  It was founded by Paolo DeRobertis and was originally called Caffe Pugliesse after Paolo's birthplace Puglia, Italy.  Founded in 1894 it is still owned by the DeRobertis family and operated by the family's fourth generation of pastry chefs.  Phil Rizzuto said they made the best cannolis.  I like the pignoli cookies.

Some Italians in the East Village

That's a photo of John's Italian restaurant on 12th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues.  It has been voted as having the best spaghetti and meatballs in the city, but that's not what I want to talk about.  I want to talk about two Italian immigrants who enjoyed dining here in the East Village.  If you've read the book "The Gangs of New York" you will know that some immigrants survived the immigrant experience by joining a gang. Some others already belonged to a gang when they got here.  Joe "the Boss" Masseria, 1887-1931 belonged to the mob when he left Sicily in1903.  He left to avoid being prosecuted for murder.
Joe invited Umberto Valenti for dinner in 1922. Umberto arrived with three of his "boys" and they were met by three of Joey's "boys".  After awhile Valenti realized Masseria, whose nickname had become "the man who can dodge bullets" wasn't showing up and that this was a setup.  Guns were drawn and two of Valenti's men were killed and the third wounded.  Valenti ran out of the restaurant and jumped on a passing taxi's running board.  In those days cars had running boards.  One of Masseria's men took aim and shot him dead in the street.  Joe Masseria was now boss of the Morello crime family which is known today as the Genovese Crime Family.  But "The Boss" wanted more, and head of the Castellamarese would be better.  When he didn't get it, he put out a contract on the man who did.  That started the Castellamarese War and Joe "The Boss" ended getting like he gave; killed in his favorite restaurant in Coney Island, the "Nuova Villa Tammaro", nine years after killing Umberto Valenti.
Another Italian immigrant and frequent visitor to John's Restaurant was Arturo Toscanini, 1867-1957.  Because of his time as musical director of the NBC Orchestra and their performances on radio and TV, Toscanini was a household name in America.  It began when at 20 years of age he was the cellist for the premiere of Verdi's Otello and became friendly with Verdi.  Through that friendship, his photographic memory, and musical genius, Toscanini became principal conductor at La Scala in Milan in 1887.  When Mussolini came to power Toscanini refused to play the "Giovinezza", the fascist anthem, at La Scala.  He was beaten by "blackshirts" and left Italy in 1939 not to return until after the war.  He conducted at the Metropolitan Opera House, 1908-1915, and the New York Philharmonic, 1926-1936.  After many years of fine dining experiences he died at the age of 89 at his home in the Riverdale section of the Bronx.  But with his universally respected recordings, Toscanini still lives.

Jerusalem & the Tony awards

Went to see Jerusalem, starring Mark Rylance who won the Tony for Best Actor in a play.  It was written by Jez Butterworth and directed by Ian Rickson.  It also starred Geraldine Hughes who was Molly Sweeney in the show of that name at the Irish Rep. What must be very difficult to do and is done exceptionally well is to make the main character, Rooster Byron, not just believable but tolerable.  Rooster is not an easy man to accept.  He is a drug and alcohol dealer to 15 year old boys and girls who party and crash at his ramshackle trailer.  He has a son, maybe 7 years old, that he neglects and who suffers bullying and abuse at school because of Rooster's life style.  He has an ex-wife that he tries to manipulate into bed with cocaine.  Rooster is also the protector of 15 year old girls from abusive stepfathers, a protector of the environment, and possibly a shaman.  All of which is well written and portrayed.  Rooster is a very interesting character as is Mark Rylance whose acceptance speech was about walking through walls.  Perhaps referencing the fourth wall.
The Tony's:
Best Play ... Warhorse   [5 nominations 5 wins]
Best Musical ... Book of Mormon  [14 nominations 9 wins]
Best Play Revival  ... The Normal Heart
Best Musical Revival ... Anything Goes
Best Actors: Mark Rylance, Frances McDormand, Sutton Forster, Norbert Leo Butz, John Benjamin Hickey [we rode together on the E train to Times Square, I was going to wish him luck but I wasn't sure if he was nominated {well, strictly speaking we weren't together-together ... but we were on the same train}],  Ellen Barkin, John Larroquette, Nikki M. James.
The highlight of the Tony Awards were The Tony Awards.  I thought they were perfect.
Best of the night
Neil Patrick Harris, host and performer 
Best Scenes from shows:
Anything Goes & How to Succeed
Best Speeches;
Sutton Forster ... her dresser is leaving 
Frances McDormand ... gave a list of her performances; she's played all 3 sisters in Chekhov's The Three Sisters and her character in Good People will be performed on a stage just as long as Chekhov's 3 sisters.
Mark Rylance ...  Lessons in walking through walls
Best Performances during the show, not directly from a Broadway show;
Neil Patrick Harris' "It's not just for Gays, anymore" the opening number
Neil Patrick Harris and Hugh Jackman's "Anything You Can Do"
Neil Patrick Harris' closing Rap.
P.S.  Discovered IBDB,  "internet Broadway data base" as a resource.
P.P.S. Athol Fugard won an award for Lifetime Achievement

dinners and movies

Friday was dinner at Gene's with Tom and the movie "Beginners".  The movie was so so and the dinner OK, but my favorite was the Cosmo.  It was so good I had another.
Saturday was a lot of housework, the heavy duty kind.  That's where I wash everything in the bathroom except the ceiling, note to myself - do the ceiling.  Did the laundry, etc.  Then settled down to a home cooked meal of Ahi Tuna Steak and veggies.  I cooked veggies because I am concerned about E-Coli.  According to the NY Times about 5,000 people die in the US each year because of E-Coli. The Times article links the severity of the bacteria to the high use of antibiotics.  North Carolina uses more antibiotics in its farming industry then the whole United States uses for its people.  Therefore we get highly resistant strains of E-Coli.
The movie last night was "Touchez Pas au Grisbi", don't touch the grisbi, slang for loot, with Jean Gabin [this film reportedly revised his career], Jeanne Moreau [one of her first movies, 25 years old & she plays a chorus girl/moll { kind of a hoot}] and Lino Venturo, the great Italian-born French actor in his first role [he made 77 movies most notably Army Of Shadows.  He was originally a wrestler and got picked by the director for this film.]  The film is about a world-weary gangster who is double crossed and forced out of retirement when his best friend is kidnapped and their stash of 8 stolen gold bars are demanded as ransom.
At the Grisbi site there is a comment/review by "palmiro" that is very good.  Two interesting points he makes: the special male camaraderie of the french that is expected and never second guessed by the french.  No Oscar Wilde "love that dare not speak its name" subtext.  The second is the director, Jacques Becker's overt communist/anti-west sympathies that are present in the movie.

Hazardous to your future

I'm talking about the weather and social networks, AKA Weinerville.
The heatwave is keeping me indoors.  On enviroflash you can find air quality reports and pretty much the entire northeast has a warning for certain people.  The certain people are of course those with asthma.  Not a lot of walking going on, but the heatwave will break tonight with thunderstorms.

About the temptation for some people to expose themselves on the internet.
Anthony Weiner, has been front page news, late night comic fodder, and a disgraced public figure.  He's not the first and he won't be the last.  Public exhibition is not uncommon. I've been on a subway when guys have exposed themselves, and was only made aware of those incidents because the women made an issue of it.  They probably made an issue of it because the subway was crowded with men and women and therefore they felt safe.  There are two kinds of public exhibition.  One is a crime and punishable as indecent exposure because "it is done in a threatening manner".  The other exposure when viewed as non-threatening and done to arouse or shock is called exhibitionism. The medical label of the compulsion to exhibit oneself is called Apodysophilia.  The difference between the two sounds clear, right, but who's determining if there is a threat.
In 1907 Annette Kellerman was arrested in Boston for wearing a one piece bathing suit.
In 2003, a 21 year old woman was arrested for appearing naked on the internet.
In 2005, 6 men were arrested and convicted in Chicago for nudity while participating in the "world naked bike ride".  Sentences ranged from fines to 3 months probation.  Once convicted you must register as a sex offender, forever, and some public areas are closed to you.  That "stunt" may have ruined their lives.
Then there are the sex tapes of celebrities on the internet, which quickly go on sale.  Not public indecency?
So the story:
Well, Anthony Weiner was possibly going to be the next mayor of New York City.  In 1991 at the age of 27 he was the youngest person to sit on the New York City Council.  When Schumer became Senator, Weiner who worked as an aide to Schumer ran for Schumer's congressional seat in 1999 and won.  He has won reelection consistently with large margins.  He is one of the few people in government who believe Medicare should be the National Health Care.  He has a reputation for working long hours and working his staff, ergo 3 chiefs of staff in 18 months.  Right now he's probably the loneliest man on the planet.  I appreciate the hard work he's done, in congress, and I hope he gets help.
There will be no pictures from me today.

Bessie Smith

Saw a good show: "The Devil's Music, The Life and Blues of Bessie Smith" starring Miche Braden at St. Luke's Theater.  The theater is in the basement of St. Luke's Lutheran Church and has about 300 seats.  Besides this show they are doing in rotation: Black Angels Over Tuskegee, Channeling Kevin Spacey, Sam's Romance, My Big Gay Italian Wedding, and Danny and Sylvia.
About the show:  Ms. Braden is a fine actress with a good voice, but it's not Bessie Smith's voice.  What Ms. Braden does do very well is tell and act the Story of Bessie's life and she does sing a good version of "I Ain't Got Nobody."
This is the first show I've gone to where an audience member's cell phone not only rang but she answered the call.  Quietly and for a short period of time but still a shock.
There were a number of things the show taught me.
Bessie was bisexual and because of her sexuality, heavy drinking and late hours her adopted son was taken from her.  Her first recording in 1924 sold 760,000 copies and saved Columbia records from bankruptcy.
In the 1920's she was the highest paid black entertainer, earning $4,000 a week.  "Private establishments" all around the country called "buffet flats" were where Blacks could gather after hours for food, drink, gambling, lodging, entertainment, and according to this show, group sex.
In internet research I learned Bessie lived between 4/15/1894 and 9/26/1937.  Her first job was as a dancer in a show starring Ma Rainey.  She starred in the Broadway show "How Come" with Sidney Bichet.  She fought with the producer and was replaced by Alberta Hunter.  J.D. Salinger wrote a short story "Blue Melody" that was published in 9/48 in Cosmopolitan, about an African-American blues singer. The story has been reported to be based on Bessie Smith's life.  Because Cosmopolitan changed his title he never wrote for anyone else except the New Yorker.
Edward Albee wrote a play: "The Death of Bessie Smith" which repeats a story by John  Hammond that Bessie died because a whites only hospital would not treat her.  That story has been discredited.  There were 2 ambulances, one for whites and one for  blacks, at the scene within minutes of each other.  But even before the ambulances arrived a doctor was dressing her wounds.  It was too late; she died in The Clarksdale African-American Hospital. 

Howl and St. Nicholas Church

Built in 1882 by Rutherford Stuyvesant as a part of St. Mark's parish; it was designed by James Renwick Jr. who also designed St. Patrick's Cathedral.  In 1937 it was bought by and became the Carpartho Russian Orthodox Church.  It is located across the street from Tompkins Square Park which is hosting the Howl Festival this weekend.  There are big inflated toys for the kids and theater performances.
Look at www.howlfestival.com for information about this yearly event.
Around the north and east borders of the park for about 3 city blocks there were 4' x 6' posters of individual art works.

Doing it with a pro

A couple of weeks ago my friend Dottie suggested I stop into a storefront on 8th Street, the Village Alliance.  They were going to do Village walks and it sounded like something I would be interested in.  Every Saturday  from 5/28/11 to 9/24/11 one of three different guides will be taking people on a walking tour of 8th Street.  Not throughout the village just 8th Street.  Today it was Michael Morrows' turn.  Each tour guide takes a different point of view.  Michael describes his tour as dry and factual.  He recommended Jane Marx's tour to me.  He described her as a very funny Rosalind Russell type, who focuses on the women who lived in the area.
Mr. Morrows is quite good.  He had a "cheat sheet" with him which he referenced every once in a while but for the most part he talked extemporaneously.  He seemed to know all about the Architects, politicians, artists, and all the dates and places they lived and hung out.  Two new pieces of info for me.  Among the Georgian red brick buildings on St. Mark's Place between 2nd. Ave. and the Bowery is the last home of Alexander Hamilton's widow, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton.

Today it's a unique clothing store very popular with Lady Gaga, according to Mr. Morrows.  Who has actually turned out to be very accurate.  I try to vet my sources.  I love that expression, vet.  Especially when it's being done to politicians.
The second thing I learned on my tour:  "I heard it through the grapevine" is a saying that originated in the Village at a bar called "the Grapevine".  It was located at Sixth Avenue and 11th Street, directly across from the old courthouse. In the early to mid 19th Century it was the hangout for artists, politicians, lawyers, judges, union officers and southern spies.  After a couple of drinks there would be some loose lips and so the tavern was the source for a lot of juicy info.

Galleries

Yesterday was one of those great NYC days, bright, cool and breezy.  The perfect day to look at some bright, cool and breezy art.  First to see is the show that Frank has curated at the Interchurch Center, 475 Riverside Drive.  It's near The Riverside Church, on the upper west side.
The exhibit is Frank Mann's "Oculus".  He "explores the act of seeing and depicts the circularity of life."
The "loose circular orb-like structures depict life's flow"
"The inner processes of the eye is externalized so that what the artist presents is open ended.  Starting with the light of the eyes, the images are transformed in the back of the retina and then interpreted in the visual cortex in the back of the brain."

I picked up the NYC gallery guide at the Interchurch Center and checked out some Galleries to see in Chelsea.  Top of my list was the Gagosian.  Sunday Morning on CBS did a piece on their installation: "Picasso and Marie-Therese: L'amour fou."   Picasso's M.- T. was his lover and is considered "the primary inspiration for Picasso's most daring aesthetic experiments in the decade to come."  The most striking thing in the exhibition for me is how the most "aesthetic experiments" of Picasso so truly capture what we see of Marie-Therese in the photos at the exhibition.
But there are others I can show you.

Then to 530 West 25th street, Viridian Artists exhibit of Robert Mielenhausen's "Rome"

I love it when an artist makes me smile.  I thought he was real at first.

Candidates for Hare's Test

"Basta Bunga Bunga", a letter from Italy by Ariel Levy in the current New Yorker.  It is about Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and whether Italians have had enough of him and the culture he embodies.  Is it just an Italian billionaire's culture or endemic to our world?  Berlusconi has a number of TV shows and a number of young, buxom, inexperienced women from his TV shows are given important government posts.  The author describes some Berlusconi shows. This is one of  them: "Scherzi a Parte," a woman in her underpants hangs from a meat hook alongside hundreds of hams as a man in a butchers costume stamps a sell-by date on her behind."
When the author suggests that she meet with the Prime Minister for an interview, Berlusconi's close friend advises her that she would first need plastic surgery to roughen up her looks so then the Prime minister would keep his hands to himself.   
Again in the article: "Until 1981, 'a crime of honor' that is killing your wife for being unfaithful or your sister for having premarital sex could be treated as a lesser offense than other murders; as late as 2007 a man in Palermo was sentenced to just 2 days in jail for murdering his wife after his children testified that she had been disrespectful to him". 
In a related news, NYC Hotel Maids in two hotels that have recently been in the news will now be allowed to wear an intercom buzzer in case while visiting a guest, especially French billionaires, in their room they need "back-up".
From the Tao:

Success is as dangerous as failure.
Hope is as hollow as fear.

What does it mean that success is as dangerous as failure?
Whether you go up the ladder or down it,
your position is shaky.
When you stand with your two feet on the ground,
you will always keep your balance.

What does it mean that hope is as hollow as fear?
Hope and fear are both phantoms
that arise from thinking of the self.
When we don't see the self as self,
what do we have to fear?

See the world as your self.
Have faith in the way things are.
Love the world as your self;
then you can care for all things.   

Ghost Bike

On highways around the country you will see crucifixes on the side of the road to mark the death of a loved one in a motoring accident.  Around the city we have these bicycles, ghost bikes, usually painted white and decked out with flowers to mark the spot where someone lost their life while cycling in the city.  I haven't seen anything yet to mark the spot for someone who lost their life while walking around the city, but when I was working at Bellevue Hospital I did see some people who were hit by cars, taxis and even buses while trying to cross the street.  There is this notorious street on Queens Boulevard where many people have been injured and some lost their lives trying to get to the other side.

Painting Urbanism

I came upon some interesting chairs just parked on the sidewalk at Delancey and Mulberry Streets in Nolita.  They were in front of Haas&Hahn's Painting Urbanism installation: "Learning from Rio".  So I went in and took a look
The first image I saw looked like a view of Manhattan from Queens with buildings that have been painted.  So I went in and visited the storefront of Art and Architecture "a nonprofit organization committed to the advancement of innovative positions in architecture, art and design".

The installation was by Haas & Hahn @ www.favelapainting.com    They are the artistic duo of Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn who conceived Favela painting in 2005.  Favelas are the name of Brazil's shanty towns.  They began in the late 18th century as the home of freed black slaves.  Favelas have become infamous as one of the worlds most dangerous slums.  They have been the setting of a number of Brazilian movies, most notably "City of God".  That's the movie about teenagers living in favelas where the only character that gets out alive is the pet chicken.
Now what do an artist and an architect do to create change?
They gave them tools to create something of their own.  Something to be proud of.

The young men of the favela took a staircase and added some fish.

They kept doing more and more

They painted the town.

From the brochure of the Storefront for Art and Architecture:
"Haas&Hahn have been able to generate a body of work that grows from the formal intricacies, legal conditions and social dynamics inherent to slums and produce a method of action that would hardly be able to be envisioned within the normative spaces of western models of urbanization."

Sara Delano Roosevelt Park

 It is located south of Houston, north of Canal, east of Forsyth and west of Chrystie, and runs for 7 blocks.

I never thought that one day I would be able to walk through this park.  Now, I can spend a beautiful holiday weekend sitting in a lush garden after watching a soccer game.  Years age it was not the place you would ever think of taking the kids or even Fido.  But like a great many places in this city it has changed for the better and keeps changing.  It was named after FDR's mother, and was built in 1934.  It has a Senior Center, turf Soccer field, roller skating rink, basketball, handball, and bocce courts.  It also has a garden with a rooster that cock-a-doodles all day.

The bocce court is inside the M'Finda Kalunga Garden, which translated means "the garden at the edge of the other side of the world".  It is named after the African-American burial ground that was located on Chrystie  between Rivington and Stanton Streets.  The first African slaves were brought to NY by the Dutch in the early 1500s.  By 1748 African-Americans were 20% of the city's population and so this land was given to them for a burial ground in 1794.  As the city grew the graves were moved.

 a book of poems a jug of wine and me!

The garden was founded in 1983 as a "beachhead against the overwhelming drug problem in the park"  Thank you to the Community Coalition that created the park and to the 20 volunteers who maintain it.

House of Worship

Our Lady Of Pompeii Church was built in 1926 by the Italian American community of the South Village and is located at the intersection of Carmine and Bleecker Streets.  This is the third site for the church founded in 1892 by Rev Pietro Bandini of the Missionaries of St. Charles, or Scalabrinians.  The Missionaries were founded by Bishop Scalabrini of Piacenza, Italy in 1887 to care for the Italian Immigrants who were migrating to the "New World".  Along with the missionaries he sent Mother Cabrini who worked at the church for awhile.  Because the Italians in New York were outnumbered by the Irish within the Catholic church their communities built their own houses of worship.  Besides Our Lady Of Pompeii they also built St. Anthony of Padua in the south village.  Well known in the area is Father Demo who worked at the church for 35 years and was pastor at the time of the "shirtwaist factory fire".  Many of his parishioners perished in the fire and so he worked to change the conditions in the city's factories.

And from today's Times a different Sunday sermon; the political take on the Golden Rule.
In an article about the unlikely power duo of Mayor Bloomberg and former President Clinton joining forces for a greener planet it is reported that Bloomberg's financing of an organization that Clinton founded has gotten him chairmanship of the organization.  One of Clinton's staffers said "'What are we going to do, fight him?  They have the money; the golden rule applies.'  As in, he who has the gold, rules."

Dinner and a movie

I had dinner with my good friend Angela at Souen.  Souen is a great vegan macrobiotic restaurant that has recently moved to East 6th Street.  The menu is filled with interesting choices like cauliflower couscous, cauliflower cut and cooked to mimic couscous, edamame guacamole with seitan chips, and my favorite the macrobiotic plate steamed veggies and rice.

The restaurant is in the middle of about 10 Indian restaurants.  I think it was some time in the 1980's that East 6 Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues became the place for Indian Food.

the street is nothing special; your typical East Village tenement block.   Most of the restaurants are on the ground floor with a couple of them up the stairs on the first floor.  Many have music on the weekends.  Since the restaurants have moved into the neighborhood an amazing supermarket has also taken up residence 

It's a little place, smaller than my apartment, but it carries a lot of stuff!

on and on.
The movie was "Win Win" with Paul Giamatti, Bobby Cannavale, and Amy Ryan.  It is written and directed by Thomas McCarthy.  Mr. McCarthy besides also acting in over 37 TV shows and movies has written and directed 2 other very fine movies: "The Station Agent" and The "Visitor".   He was nominated for an Academy Award for writing the screenplay to the animated film "Up".  According to Wikipedia he is also a silent partner in the Papaya Dog chain of fast food restaurants in Manhattan.  He's 46 and I hope he keeps them coming, the movies.  They didn't have hotdogs at Souen.

The Normal Heart

Larry Kramer's play is in an exceptionally fine revival and I saw it yesterday.  Ellen Barkin and Jim Parsons  make their Broadway debut.  Ms. Barkin plays a Doctor who works with AIDS patients and tries to get her patients, the press and government to do something about what is happening to gay men in NYC in 1982.  They are dying and no one knows why. The main character is Ned Weeks who meets the doctor when accompanying his friend for a check up.  The friend has AIDS.  Ned Weeks is a strident, argumentative, angry gay man who becomes one of the founders of an AIDS relief organization and an AIDS political action group.  He is played by Joe Mantello in what must be one of the most exhausting performances in the theater.  He is extraordinary; the entire cast is but he is center stage most of the time. On the street after the play the ushers handed out a letter from Larry Kramer. He wants everyone to know that the crisis is not over and that a lot more has to be done.  He also mentions in the letter that people in the play represent real people and now many of them are dead from Aids or suicide.  Mr. Kramer appears to be much like the character Ned Weeks.
Larry Kramer is a strident, argumentative, gay man who was one of the founders of GMHC and ACT UP.  Almost 30 years later and he is still angry and feels the need to tell everyone what they should be doing.  Because:
After 30 years, with millions of deaths and still many millions of people infected not a single country has categorized this disease as an epidemic.  The government funding for research is still not sufficient.  The cost of medications keeps many infected people from getting the help they need.
In the play Mr Kramer juxtaposes the reporting of the Tylenol crisis in October 1982, with the lack of attention to the Aids Crisis.
The Tylenol Crisis:
Seven people in Chicago died after taking Tylenol that was laced with poison; one of them was a 12 year old child.  Laws regulating the packaging of over the counter medications were passed by the federal government, immediately.  The Tylenol crisis was news for months, over 40 front page stories in the Times.  
AIDS:
In March, 1981 eight gay men in NYC developed an aggressive form of Kaposi Sarcoma and others came down with a virulent form of pneumonia., PCP.  No mention in the press.  In December, 1981 IV drug users were getting PCP and outbreaks were reported to health departments in the UK.  Not front page news, maybe a note on page 26.  Mr. Kramer is getting angry.  Gay men are getting scared.  By July, 1982 there were 452 reported cases from 23 States.  Not front page news.  Then Haitians and Hemophiliacs were developing PCP.  PCP was usually treated with a particular medication and 10 days on the medication and the patient was cured.  When clinics and doctors started asking for refills in 1981 the Health Department took notice and started keeping records.  Not front page news.  Two months after the Tylenol Crisis in December 1982 a child who had received multiple transfusions developed the disease.  The safety of the national blood supply became front page news.
As of 2009:
26,000 people in North America have died from Aids.
Worldwide, about 30 million people have died from AIDS.
New cases of AIDS are being reported all over the world all the time.
Did I mention "The Normal Heart" had me sobbing?

Genius

"I have nothing to declare except my Genius" was Oscar Wilde's answer to a US Customs Agent.
I saw "The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People" yesterday and I enjoyed it so much I may go back.  It was first performed in 1895, and is considered his best work and one of the best farcical comedies of all time.  Opening night was Wilde's greatest triumph but also the beginning of his end.
The Marquess of Queensberry had planned to disrupt the performance because of his son's involvement with Wilde.  The Marquess was stopped that night, but they all soon ended up in court.  Wilde sued Queensberry for libel because Queensberry's note was addressed to Oscar Wilde "posing as a sodomite".  Wilde won a token amount in damages.  But because of what came out at the first trial, Wilde was then tried for Gross Indecency With Men and convicted to 2 years of hard labor.   Because of the scandal the play closed after 87 performances.

Brian Bedford as Lady Bracknell stars in and directs the play.  Lady Bracknell is a hyper sensitive aristocrat who will not hear of any social impropriety.  She's that elderly relative some of us know who just when you're having a good time says "enough".
Lady Bracknell:
"Never speak disrespectfully of society, Algernon.  Only people who can't get into it do that."
"I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance.  Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit, touch it and the bloom is gone ... Fortunately in England ... education produces no effect whatsoever."
"To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune: to lose two looks like carelessness."
He is remarkable in the role.  He\She says some of the funniest, farcical lines ever written and does it in perfect aristocratic seriousness.  At certain points his voice goes down several octaves in expressions of disapproval.  I would go back just to hear him say "enough", very, very low.  I was impressed by how realistic the characters were  in spite of having to act empty headed and silly while speaking some wonderful truths.  This is a classic 3 Act Play with 2 fifteen minute intermissions, almost 3 hours long, and you don't want it to end.

Santino Fontana plays Algernon, witty and fey:
" The essence of romance is uncertainty".
"The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple."
"All women become like their mother.  That is their tragedy.  No man does, and that is his."  
David Furr [I last saw him in Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe with Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin]  plays John Worthing.  It is the straight role and he plays it beautifully.  At times forceful with Algernon, then romantic with Gwedolen, then  solicitous with Lady Bracknell.  He has the central role, the connection between these people and he as much as anyone makes the play work.
Other lines:
"If you are not long I will wait for you all my life."
One character says about her 3 volume novel: 
"The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily.  That is what fiction means."
Oscar Wilde never wrote another play.
He died in 1900 in Paris, destitute, at 46.  He left a wife and 2 sons who changed their names when he was incarcerated.
His epitaph is from his great poem the Ballad of Reading Goal:
"And alien tears will fill for him
Pity's long-broken urn,
For his mourners will be outcast men,
And outcasts always mourn."
One web site had 23 pages of Oscar Wilde quotes.  I'll end with this very long one from De Profundis:
    "When first I was put in prison some people told me to try and forget who I was.  It was ruinous advice.  It is only by realizing who I am that I have found comfort of any kind.  Now I am advised by others to try on my release to forget that I have ever been in a prison at all.  I know that would be equally fatal.  It would mean that I would always be haunted by an intolerable sense of disgrace, and that those things that are meant for me as much as for anybody else - the beauty of the sun and moon, the pageant of the seasons, the music of daybreak and the silence of great nights, the rain falling through the leaves, or the dew creeping over the grass and making it silver - would all be tainted for me, and lose their healing power, and their power of communicating joy.  To regret one's own experiences is to arrest one's own development.  To deny one's own experiences is to put a lie into the lips of one's own life.  It is no less than a denial of the soul."

How many psychopaths can you name?

Jon Stewart on Monday's show had the author of "The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through The Madness Industry".  He is Jon Ronson who also wrote "The Men Who Stare at Goats".  He uses the Hare Psychopathy Checklist.  It assigns a score of 0 if an item doesn't apply, 1 if it applies somewhat, and 2 if it fully applies.  Some of the items are: superficial charm, grandiosity, need for stimulation, pathological lying, cunning and manipulation, lack of remorse, callousness, poor behavior control, impulsivity, denial, and failure to accept responsibility.  Ronson has found that many political and business leaders pass the test and meet the criteria for being psychopaths.  Ronson is a witty man and I'm sure some of what he says is tongue in cheek but not all of it.  The one personal lesson he found from his research is that he could not be a psychopath; he's too anxious.  Psychopaths don't get anxious.  Housing bubble, what housing bubble?

Just down from St. Mark's

There are two buildings on 2nd Ave. between 9th Street and St. Mark's Place.  They are: The Ottendorfer Branch of the New York Public Library and the Stuyvesant Polyclinic.
They were built by the architect William Schickel, 1850-1907, in the German round-arched neo-Romanesque style.  They were completed in 1884 using brick and terracotta.  He also built the church of St.Ignatius Loyola on Park Ave. and 84th Street and many other buildings throughout N. Y. State.  Both of these buildings are listed on the National register of Historic Places.  "The American Institute of Architects Guide to New York City" calls them "an architectural confection."

At the time of their construction there were 150,000 German immigrants in the east village also called Kleindeutschland or Little Germany.

The Library opened in 1884 and was the first branch of the NY Free Circulating Library.   It is the oldest in the NY Library system.
The Clinic provided free medical care to residents of the east village and also training for medical students.  It was originally called The German Poliklinik but had to change its name because of anti-German sentiment during the First World War.
The Library is named for Anna and Oswald Ottendorfer.
Anna Behr was born of a poor family in Germany in 1815 and immigrated to the States in 1837.  Her first husband, Jacob Uhl, purchased the "New Yorker Staats-Zeitung" in 1845, a small German language weekly.  With Anna's help it became a daily in 1852, the year Jacob died.  In 1859 Anna married her editor Oswald Ottendorfer.  She was the mother of six children with Jacob, none with Oswald.  She was the owner and publisher of The New Yorker Staats-Zeitung and was very successful.  Her estate at the time of her death was $3,000,000.  In the 1870s the circulation of the paper was equal to The New York Tribune and The New York Times.
A word about The Tribune.  It was  founded by Horace Greeley in 1841, the 'go west young man' Horace Greeley, and was considered the leading newspaper in the United States.  Greeley's foreign corespondent in Europe between 1851 and 1861 was Karl Marx. That Karl Marx.
Anna on the other hand was building what she felt was needed to uplift "both the body and mind of fellow Germans in the United States".  Besides these buildings she built the Isabella Home for Aged Woman [named after her deceased daughter] a woman's wing at a city hospital, and numerous other kinds of aid to German citizens.  So much so that she received a gold medal  from Empress Augusta of Germany, and a plaque in the east village on an "architectural confection" that is landmarked for history.  When she died her funeral was the largest for any woman in New York at that time.  

House of Worship

St. Mark's in the Bowery

It is the oldest site of continuous worship in NYC and the second oldest Church in Manhattan.  It is on the National Register of Historic Places and a registered NYC Landmark.  Formally the place of Peter Stuyvesant's Chapel and cemetery it was donated by his Grandson to be used as a site for a House of Worship.  It was built in 1795 as an Episcopal Church.  Although Peter Stuyvesant was a  member of the Dutch Reformed Church, St. Mark's was for the money and propertied classes, the plutocrats of NYC.  Almost all of it's members in it's first 25 years were slave owners.

The area around the church remained in the control of the Stuyvesant family for a number of years.  By the 1840's  Second Ave. was the most desirable address in NYC with houses costing as much as $40,000.  As the city grew and immigrants increased the government was pressured to find space for industrial storage and housing.  Speculators moved in and the area became NYC's first industrialized ghetto.
Many of the immigrants were German and had been inspired by the revolution of 1848.  Fifty Countries were involved both in Europe and Latin America.  It was over by 1851 and the only real achievement was the abolition of serfdom in Austria and Hungary. Karl Marx published his "Communist Manifesto" in 1848.

When there was an economic slump in 1874 the Cabinetmakers Union, Cigarmakers Union, the German Free Trade Association and Socialists demonstrated in Tompkins Square Park to petition the government for more public works projects.  They were jailed.  There have been many protests in the area since and many people jailed.  Revolutionary ideas and activism have been a part of the East Village and St. Mark's for over a century.