Wall Street Demonstration

As many people know there have been demonstrations centered at Zuccotti Park against Wall Street.  Today, the day after the big demo, I don't like crowds, I went down to take a look and to take some photos.

 

Lots of people

The police were a strong presence and moving people along.  One Sergeant said to keep moving or "GET in the park!".  I left.
It was not possible to find recent figures but in 2005 the average CEO pay at an S&P 500 corporation was $11,358,445.  Average!  The ratio as of 2004 of CEO to Worker pay was 431 to 1.  The average American worker at that time earned $27,460.  One sign at the demo showed the ratios around the world.  Japan is 20 to 1.   I just kept walking and I found more cops.  Mariska Hargitay from Law and Order Special Victims was filming on the courthouse steps at Foley Square and Tom Selleck was filming something called True Bloods, between Police Plaza and the Municipal Building.
Is there a relationship between the number of police dramas in our culture and the passivity of many people to the inequities in that culture?

Pastel Demonstration

Went to the National Arts Club on Gramercy park South to see a demonstration of drawing with pastels by this year's Hall of Fame Honoree Bill Creevy.  The demonstration involved copying a piece he had already completed and discussing the techniques he uses and some of the problems with pastels, all the different kinds of paper, the "dust", the difficulty in transporting the work because of the 'looseness' of the medium, more "dust".  He is also a very opinionated guy, which made the day even better.
What he said and did:

From Leonardo DeVinci: 'If you can make an oval you can draw anything'.
He begins with white paper, some use black or colored paper, and works with cooling colors because of the subject: browns, ochers, reds.  The subject is a building in a run down part of New Orleans.  He just keeps making circles of different colors corresponding to the scene until he covers the entire paper.

Degas is his idol; he talked a lot about him.  Degas' mother was American and Degas lived in New Orleans for awhile.  Bill Creevy is from New Orleans.

Then he used a brush and some liquid to bring form to the work.  He doesn't like calling it water coloring or painting.  He talked about the differences between the Brush and Pencil artists.  That some groups try to impose an hierarchy. 
One of the remarkable things about the pastel show was the variety in the works on display.  Many looked like oil paintings and some had a lighting effect that I wouldn't expect with pastels.  I have photos of some but the reflection of the flash and the reflection from the glass over the pastel affects the photo. 

Back to Bill.  He talked about his own work and how he tries for some mystical, spiritual effect.  Like the Hudson River School, whom he admires.  The views of  nature are more than 'a scene' for him and for me for that matter.  There is a timeless, other, deeper quality than what is shown.  Bill believes that what those painters had in the 19th Century and what was not uncommon among people of that time was a sense of pantheism.  He believes people today are cynics.
He has written a number of books on pastel drawing and oil painting.  His pastel book is 20 years old and still in print.  It costs $25 and for every sale he gets a $1.  He's learned about contracts since then.

What I'm Reading ... The Weekend Times

I subscribe to the Weekend NY Times and get the daily Times on line.  This 'program' that the Times has created has helped make them more solvent.  They've paid off their mortgage early, which is great news, when so many Papers and Magazines are going under.  The front page on Saturday had an article on the deforestation of the planet.
In addition to the loss of the rain forest in Brazil by farming and the growing desert in Africa, the Australian forest and the American forest is under attack from pine beetles.  As the planet has warmed up the life expectancy of the pine beetle has lengthened.  They dine on our forests longer, so less forest.
Some good news.  China plants a great many trees to control flooding and the growth of the Gobi Desert.  Parts of America and Northern Europe, what we in America call the rust belt because of the loss of manufacturing through the rise of the global economy, is becoming greener.  Is it enough?
My friend Mara, a climate change expert with the European Union says it's too late.  Personally, I think we lost the planet when the world population hit 7 Billion.  Just about the time scientists created in vitro fertilization and cloning.  Does anyone else remember John Lennon and Yoko Ono on the Dick Cavett show in the early 70's talking about Zero Population Growth.  They said then that over-population was the single greatest threat to our future.  We're as ravenous as pine beetles. 
In other parts of the paper there's These articles.
Wall Street Demonstrators are being pepper sprayed and arrested.
Drones, small, unmanned, attack spacecraft, have killed Anwar al-Awlaki.  He is described as an American born jihadist.  The attack was carried out by the newest member of our military, the CIA, in our newest field of war, Yemen.
The magazine section had readers' questions for Michael Pollan, author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and Mark Bittman, author of "How to cook Everything" and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian; wrote the second one after his heart attack.
Michael Pollan likes frozen when the fresh isn't available and sometimes prefers it to the 'fresh' at the local supermarket, because the produce is often picked at its peak of quality.  Beware of greens wrapped in plastic, breeding ground for salmonella.  Best breakfasts: oatmeal, or fresh fruit with yogurt or 2 free range eggs on whole grain toast.  Won't eat, feedlot meat and tomatoes that have been refrigerated.
Bittman thinks Ratatouille is the best film made about food, I vote for Babette's Feast, Best novel about food 'The Belly of Paris' by Emile Zola.  I'll put that on my list. The fish you can eat quilt-free is sockeye salmon of Bristol Bay, Alaska.  However, since the flotsam and jetsam from the Fukushima nuclear reactor started washing up on the west coast, I eat Atlantic salmon.  

Opera Season Begins

Went to the Met last week to see Verdi's Nabucco.

It is Verdi's third opera of the 28 that he wrote and his first commercial success and is based on the biblical story of the Hebrews' exile in Babylon.  Nabucco is the Italian name of the historical figure we call in English, Nebuchadnezzar.  The opera is most famous for the piece "Va, pensiero" sung by the Chorus.  It is a prayer in which the Israelites express their longing for their homeland.  It was considered for many years as the unofficial anthem of Italy.  Arturo Toscanini conducted the piece at Verdi's State funeral in Milan.
The Met's chorus of about 80 voices did not disappoint.  You can see it on you tube from a 2002 Met production, but hearing it live in that wonderful space was extraordinary, impossible to duplicate on tape.  
The major performer for me was Maria Guleghina who sang the role of Abigaille.  The role is very difficult and has been the cause of the downfall of a number of singers.  Callas sang it 3x.  Sutherland and Leontyne Price refused to sing it.  Maria Guleghina sang it at the Met in 2002.  The roof lifted with the cheers from the audience when she took her bow.  We are off to a good start.  Thank you, Met.

The Monarch Butterfly

I was talking on the phone with Tom, looking out the window at my view from the 18th floor when I saw a Monarch Butterfly.  They've begun their migration.  She, of the darker color, was just flapping her wings heading back to Central America.  I kept looking to see if there were more coming so I could get a photo, but no luck.  So I went off to the park to find one, but there were none there.
The Monarch Butterfly travels each year, spring and fall along the East Coast about 2500 miles.  Their life span is only 2 months.  So no single monarch completes the journey.  Unfortunately, deforestation of their habitat has drastically reduced their numbers and they are being considered for endangered species status.  I'll keep looking and cheering them on.  I'd put a flower pot on my windowsill for them to rest but right above the front door on the eighteenth floor where it gets windy.  I don't think so.   

Dance

I haven't been to a dance concert in quite awhile.  So, it was good that my Irish Rep membership got me to Noctu.  Noctu is a dance play.  It wants to "tell the story of Irish dance from the viewpoint of the dancer", says Breandan de Gallai, the creator.  The Irish Rep stage is small compared to the average space, perhaps 20' by 30', maybe more.  So this performance is very much up close and that definitely heightens the excitement.  There are 16 dancers, 3 of whom are 'principal soloists'.  One, describes herself as a poor dancer who struggles to perform with the more talented ones.  Another says he is gay and found it necessary to relocate to Germany to live and work because of the homophobia in rural Ireland.  The third soloist is a withdrawn, non talkative male dancer.  The "play" proceeds similarly to in 'A Chorus Line'.  The dancer says something about him or herself and then dances. The dancer who never feels up to the competition breaks into my favorite dance piece in the show.  It's a combination of Irish Dance and Ballet, foot stepping with balletic form.  The Irish dance's high kicks turn into wonderful leaps with a balletic line stretching arms and legs.
The play's book isn't strong.  Whereas the playbill bios tell a more interesting story, though brief.  14 of the 16 dancers began dancing before beginning grade school.  One dancer started at age 10 and one, at what he calls the late age of 16.  Peta Anderson 'learnt' [very Irish] jazz, tap and ballet at the age of three.  Jack Anderson 'whilst' at school was a dancer with a professional company.  I love the Irishness in their writing.  I can hear the lilt in their voice. There are some with Masters degrees; one studying architecture, others psychiatric nursing, teaching, physics, accounting and finance.  They are all so young, mid-twenties, and so accomplished.  That's the story I wanted to hear.  All that happens to us between 3 and 23 and then to be able to do what it takes to become a professional dancer.            
I was also impressed by the music choices.  Miss Brown to You by Mary Coughlan , Deer Stop by Goldfrapp, Cu Chullian's Despair by Beoga, Night of the Shadow by Kate Bush, original music by Joe Csibi, Hornpipes by Sean O'Brien, La Cumparsita by Juan D'Arienzo, music by Bjork, Some Vague Utopia, 3rd Mvt. by West Ocean Quartet, I will Survive by Cake, My Big Bad Handsome Man by Imelda May, Dance Me to the End of Love by Leonard Cohen, Getting Some Fun Out of Life by Madeleine Peyroux, The Firebird Suite: Infernal Dance by Igor Stravinsky, Burning down the House by Talking Heads and Night of the Swallow by Kate Bush. 

Averno

"Ancient name Avernus.  A small crater lake, ten miles west of Naples, Italy; regarded by the ancient Romans as the entrance to the underworld".
It is also the name of one of Louise Gluck's books of poetry.  One of the poems that I like is "The Night Migrations", and it's appropriate for today's anniversary.
It's the 10th anniversary, what a strange use of that word, of the attack on the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan.  I was 14 blocks north at my job as an Occupational Therapist in a High School for Special Needs teenagers.  On that Tuesday morning I was helping the transition from bus to school when I saw a plane flying low.  Someone said it crashed into the Twin Towers.  I walked over to Hudson Street and saw the second plane hit.  I thought war.  I looked around for more planes.  Back at the school it was primary day, and people had come to vote.  Now it was all confusion.  We got the students off the buses and into the building.  I had my camera, so I went out again.  This time to the West Side Highway.  The fire trucks and ambulances were racing to the burning buildings.  Policemen were running downtown, toward the buildings.  Then the buildings fell and now people were walking up towards us, ashen.  Clothes and skin were covered with ash.  The only noise was the sound of the sirens.  We were in shock,. quiet, confused, and scared. I tried to give blood at St.Vincent's but the line was two blocks long.
Today we have word of a possible attack here in NYC or Washington, DC.  Someone said that's the cost of being a warrior nation.  Perhaps, but people who control through subjection and fear will attack any free country that stands as their polar opposite.
An omen is a phenomenon that is believed to foretell the future, good or bad.  Omens are most often perceived as a bad event as in ominous.  The ancient Romans had Augurs to foretell the future.  They did it by analyzing the flight of birds.  What would they make of those big birds flying from the east, on 9/11?  Men so intent on destruction they killed themselves.  9/11 was ominous, but for whom?

From 1941, music by Walter Kent lyrics by Nat Burton.  Come now sing out. 

              There'll be bluebirds over
              The white cliffs of Dover
              Tomorrow
              Just you wait and see.

              There'll be joy and laughter
              And peace ever after,
              Tomorrow
              When the world is free,

              The shepherd will count his sheep
              The valleys will bloom again
              And Jimmy will go to sleep
              In his own little room again.

              There'll be bluebirds over
              The white cliffs of Dover,
              Tomorrow
              Just you wait and see.

              Requiem in Pace

L E S Galleries

There are 61 Lower East Side galleries.  Today I visited about 8.  The area is from Lafayette to Ridge Street and E. Houston to Henry Street.  The staff are all very nice and for the most part are happy to have you take some pictures. 

Sicilian Photographer Davide Bramante puts 8 to 12 photos on one negative.  His work is at the Mark Miller Gallery on Orchard Street.  Along with the work of Felipe Galindo.  Mr. Galindo's show is called used/reused.  He takes objects like the program to an art exhibit and draws people on it who are looking at the art.  My favorite was a flattened can of Budweiser Beer on which he drew 4 guys.  It's called 4 Buds.  You can see more at the web page www.markmillergallery.com. 

Arnold J. Kemp's 'don't make friends' comprises full-scale digital scans of torn and crinkled foil, ripped into various mask forms

Kim Keever's "Early Man and Missing Landscapes" are 5 large imaginary landscape photographs that Keever has photographed through the wall of a 200 gallon tank filled with water that he injects pigment into.
An extraordinary creative group of people to fill our eyes and minds.

Opening night for the L E S Galeries

I didn't make the opening last night.  I was busy rescuing a damsel in distress.  She was very drunk and collapsing on the street.   About in her forties or fifties carrying two shoulder bags.  I reached to help and touched her.  A mistake.  She recoiled.  So when I asked if she was all right she slurred that she wanted to be left alone.  I left; went to a bar for some club soda and to watch, to see that she was all right.  She leaned on a fence with her head down and didn't move for the time it took me to drink the soda.  I went back out and talked to her.  You see, I was thinking of that girl who got drunk and was raped by a police officer.  We're all too vulnerable to add to it by being drunk in public.  The Damsel listened to me talk about all the traffic and how dangerous the streets were at night.  She agreed to let me help her home.  I really had to lift her because she couldn't walk.  Fortunately, there was a Starbucks and she agreed to a coffee.  When we got inside I found a table with two young ladies.  I thought they might help and might make my Damsel more comfortable.  They were taken aback by her condition and ignored us.  The Damsel wanted an espresso.  I got her a double.  She drank a little and then nearly conked her head on the table.  Eventually, I thought to ask my espresso friend if she had a cell phone.  She dug it out of her bag and gave it to me.  I asked who should we call.  Her husband, Harold.  I couldn't work the phone.  I gave it to the young lady at the table and she found Harold; handed me the phone, saying you're really nice.  I dialed Harold and gave the phone to our Damsel.  She mumbled into the phone "I'm coming home" and hung up.    Then got up and stumbled out of Starbucks.  She was intent on getting home by herself.  I caught up.  Got her to wait.  Went back got the phone and her bags and walked her to her apartment building.  By then she was on her own two feet and asking me my name telling me who she was, thanking me etc.  She had gone to a meeting and a lot of hard work was brought to naught.  Frustrated she got drunk.  Don't ask me who she is.  I'm just talking about it because this is what happened to me last night when I thought I was going to a Gallery opening.       

"Circumstance"

"Circumstance" is an Iranian film produced  by among others Sundance and Netflix.  Written and directed by Iranian-American Maryann Keshavarz, it is about two girls aged 16 beginning a romantic relationship.  The President of Iran has told us that there are no gays or lesbians in his country, and about 8 years ago, while sharing a cab with my friend Andrew we got into a discussion with our Pakistani driver about gays in Pakistan.  He assured us there weren't any in Pakistan.  "It's just in the West there are such things."
So it is always good to see and support artists who are talking truth to power.  Modern Iran is shown not only as a patriarchy but with a defined class system.  They show the wealthy, educated class with their privileges and the poor on the streets, panhandling.  People have criticized the film because it doesn't look like Iran and the actors have foreign accents, but never having been to Iran and not speaking the language, this is not an issue.  One of the subplots is about a group of girls, the 2 girls, 2 male friends and an Iranian-American.  They decide to do voice overs to the American  film "Milk" and then slip the DVDs into casings with other labels.  It's a funny scene and cleverly subversive.
I am reminded of the time I went to hear Nuola O'Faolain speak at Barnes and Nobel.  She read from her book, "Are You Somebody?  The Accidental Memoir of a Dublin Woman"; about the Ireland she grew up in; how much it has changed and how that change happened.  "It was pop culture", she said, "liberation through Rock and Roll." Tom Stoppard's play "Rock and Roll" explores the same idea.

What I'm Reading

Miramar by Naguib Mahfouz.
Mahfouz won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1988, and one of my goals is to read a book by each of the Nobel Prize winners.  Mr. Mahfouz is number 37 of 103.  What I find common in all of them is a social, and political focus.
The story is "set in Alexandria in the early 1960's.  Six characters, all exiles by circumstances, are brought together in the decayed elegance of the Pension Miramar.  The central figure is Zohra, the beautiful peasant girl, whose relationship with the other five characters symbolically reflects the most basic political and social realities of the period."  The introduction is by John Fowles, another great writer.
The historical content is mostly in the 66 notes at the back of the book.  These are about the political events in Egypt during the early part of the 20thCentury.  In 1914, using the war as an excuse, the British deposed Khedive Abbas Hilmy, the Sultan, and established a Protectorate, suspending the powers of the Legislature.  After the war a delegation, in Arabic a wafd, led by Saad Zaghloul demanded independence from the British.  Saad and 3 others were arrested and deported, and this led to demonstrations.  800 Egyptians were killed before the British relented and freed Saad.  After 3 years of continued struggle the British allowed a Monarchy, with limited powers, under Fuad I.  During the 30 years of occupation the Wafd became the dominant political party, a democratic liberal leaning political part].  The second revolution in 1952, led by Nasser, a socialist, put an end to the monarchy, the Wafd and the occupation.  The failure of the Wafd Party to be more aggressive in their opposition to the British created the exiles of this story.

And in the New York Times:
Americans spent $28.1 Billion on health supplements, many of them to lose weight.  One of the popular ones from China is Pai You Guo.  The Feds say it has 2 dangerous ingredients plus a suspected carcinogen.
Nashville this spring had a lot of visitors...cicadas... it happens every 13 years.
Who's the most economically optimistic in the USA ... Washington, D.C. [the only one with a positive view]  Least: West Virginia.  NY is 20th.
The latest to be 'Glitter Bombed' is Newt Gingrich.  It's Gay political theater against hostile or insensitive public figures.
One of the participants in the housewives series committed suicide.  Before the suicide he told his mother: "they're just going to crucify me this season".

Master Class

Terrance McNally's play "Master Class" is at the Manhattan Theater Club starring Tyne Daly and Directed by Stephan Wadsworth.  I saw it last week and I agree with Ben Brantley of the NY Times "Tyne Daly is remarkable.  It's impossible to take your eyes off her", and The New Yorker "Brilliant! Tyne Daly captured my heart".  I haven't written about the play because these are people that I admire and I wanted to write something worthy of them.  Their work says it best.
Terrance McNally:
He was born in St. Petersberg Fla. on 11/3/39.  Grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas and came to NYC in 1956 to attend Columbia University.  He majored in English and was Phi Beta Kappa.  His first job was as a stage hand at the actors studio where he became a protege and lover of Edward Albee.  He is currently married to Thomas Kirdahy.
Some of his notable work:
Next
Ritz
The Rink,
Lips together, teeth apart
The Lisbon Traviata
Kiss of the Spider Woman
Ragtime
Love Valour Compassion
Master Class
Deuce
And Corpus Christi    It portrayed Christ and his disciplines as Homosexuals.  It was not popular.  When it opened in England, 'The Defenders of the Messenger Jesus', a Muslim group, issued a fatwa against him.
All told he has written the  book for 11 musicals, 3 operas, 3 TV movies, 3 film adaptations of his plays and 32 plays.  He has 4 Tonys,  2 Obies, 2 Lucille Lortel Awards, 1 Emmy, 4 Drama Desk Awards and has received 2 Guggenheim Fellowships and a Rockefeller Grant.
Tyne Daly:
Born on 2/21/48 in Madison, Wisconsin she grew up in Westchester County, NY.  Her father John Daly was an actor and brother Timothy Daly is an actor.  She was married to Georg Stanford Brown,1966 to 1990, and has 3 children.
Her credits.  Consistently working in TV since 1968.  17 Emmy nominations and 6 wins, [4 for Cagny and Lacey].  One Golden Globe [Cagny and Lacey] and 1 Tony for Gypsy.    

The Select

The Elevator Repair Service is presenting their latest work, The Select [the Sun Also Rises] at the New York Theater Workshop.  They are the inventive company that did "Gatz" last year at the Public.   The Sun also Rises is Ernest Hemingway's first novel and considered by many to be his best.  Written in 1926, one year after 'The Great Gatsby'.  According to the New York Times Hemingway's book has never been out of print and is believed to be the most translated of all novels.  The story is about a group of expatriate Americans and British living in Paris.  They travel to Pamplona for the festival of Fermin, the bullfighting and the running of the bulls.  The book was first called Fiesta, then The Lost Generation [a label used by Gertrude Stein about expats after the war who were living in Paris] and then The Sun Also Rises from the Biblical quote "What profit hath a man for all his labor under the sun?  One generation passeth away and another generation cometh: but the earth abidith.  The sun also ariseth and the sun goeth down and hasteth to his place where he arose."
The plot: Jake loves Lady Brett and she loves him, but Jake was wounded in the war and can't perform.  Lady Brett has affairs with Mike, then Cohn, then Mike again and then the bullfighter Romero.  Everybody drinks too much.  They fight.  Romero is badly injured in the fight but has a successful day in the ring and he and Lady Brett go off together.  Eventually she contacts Jake who rescues her from a seedy Hotel.  They talk about their love for each other and what might have been.  Then Lady Brett marries Mike.  During the story they drink a lot, dance some, then drink some more.  Some of them go on a fishing trip and drink.  I mean like 3 or 4 martinis and 3 or 4 bottles of wine each with lunch.
It did not work as a drama.  3 and a half hours of waiting for something to happen or some beautiful language, nada.  Cohn is Jewish and characters use anti-Semitic epithets about him and to him.  There are some gay men at the cafe in Paris and "faggot" is used.  Hemingway's characters aren't just crude they're not interesting.  They have nothing to say.  OK, maybe that's the point, but it would have gone over a lot easier if I could have joined in the drinking.  

House of Worship

The Friend's Meeting house is across from Stuyvesant Park at 16th Street.  They are commonly called Quakers because they 'tremble at the word of God'.   The term was first used as a put-down by their enemies but today the Friends use it themselves.  They began to appear in England in the 1640's, at the height of the Reformation.
They believe in "continuing revelation".  Truth is continually revealed to us from God, so there is no need for Priests.  They reject religious symbolism and the sacraments. The Society of Friends has evolved over the centuries.  The evangelical sect, the largest, believe in the literal interpretation of the bible as God's word.  The liberal sect believe in an evolving relationship between us and God.  Some liberal sects are universalist and even non-theistic.  Traditionally the Quakers have always and still believe in the full equality of women, pacifism, anti-slavery, social action and refusal to swear an oath.  Their children are taught their SPICES along with their ABC's.
S...simplicity
P...Peace
I...Integrity
C...Community
E...Equality
S...Stewardship
"My religion is very simple.  My religion is kindness."
The Dalai Lama.

Tryst

The Irish Repertory Company is doing a first play by Karoline Leach with Andrea Maulella and Mark Shanahan.  It takes place in 1910 London and is the story of a charming con man who marries women for their money.  Then runs.  It is expertly performed for a play that changes gears a couple of times.  The main tension is in the character of George.  Is he in love or is he playing the woman for her money?  The fact that the tension can hold up for 2 hours is a mark of the expertise of the performers, and the writing.  My problem is with the ending.
SPOILER ALERT:   The fact that he kills her, turns the drama upside down. Not for love or money, I guess.

I've been setting up my fall theater season.  Membership in the Irish Rep, the Classic Stage Company, the Public Theater, and 4th St. Warehouse, and of course the opera.  Tickets to King Lear, The Elevator Repair Service production of The Select and Master Class with Tyne Daly, and more.  What, you live in New York City and yor're bored!

Washington Square Park

The weather has been wet and stormy the last couple of days.  So when the sun eventually came out I headed for the park, this time Washington Square Park.  NYC has 1900 public parks and at 9.75 acres Washington Square Park is one of the most famous.  NYU owns the buildings surrounding the park and thinks of the park as its quad but the park is public.
Initially it was marsh land with the Minetta Creek flowing through it.  The Dutch turned it into a farm and then gave it to their freed slaves.  It then became known as "the land of the Blacks".
The NYC Common Council purchased the land in 1797 and made it a potter's field and the place for public hangings.  One or two hangings have been reported to have taken place in the park.  The Cemetery was closed in 1825 but never moved and it is estimated that 20,000 souls rest underneath the park.  During remodeling of the park in 2007 a headstone from 1797 was unearthed.
In 1826 it was a military parade ground.  In 1871 the park came under the control of the newly formed Parks Commission.  In 1934 Robert Moses included the park in his urban renewal plan.  He wanted to extend Firth Ave. through the middle of the park.  The opposition was strong, and most especially tireless, considering the fact that it took over 30 years to free the park of vehicular traffic.  They won, thanks to the hard work of Jane Jacobs, Shirley Hayes and Eleanor Roosevelt, who lived on Washington Square Park West.
In time the park became a hangout for artists, musicians, comics and many types of performers.
First the Beatniks and folksingers in the 50's and early 60's.  The community, mostly working class, considered them "undesirables" and got the authorities to 'clean' up the park.  April 9, 1961 was what the NY Mirror called the 'Beatnik riot'.  500 musicians had gathered to protest the law requiring permits in order to play music in the park.  They were met by police with billy clubs, and ten people were arrested.  The park was thereafter patrolled by police and was pretty much a community park until the 70's when it became a hangout for drug dealing and general criminal activity.
Some of the many people who have hung out in the park: Buddy Holly, when he lived nearby, Stanley Kubrick played chess in the park and Barack Obama held a political rally there on 9/27/07.
$16 million is being spent for the renovation.

House of Worship

The Church of the Nativity on 2nd Ave. between 2nd Street and 3rd was initially the site of a Presbyterian church built in 1832.  The Catholic Archdiocese bought that building and founded the Church of the Nativity in 1842.  The old building was demolished in 1970 and the current church was built.

In 1842 it served the growing numbers of Irish immigrants in the community, then Italians and now Hispanics from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.  Described as having a cinder-block and brick institutional drab look it was built by the parishioners at basement prices because the neighborhood could not afford more.  The inside is plain white, with oak pews and little else but an altar.  Unfortunately, It is scheduled for closing by the Archdiocese of the City of New York.  Staffed by up to 4 Jesuits at one time, it has one priest now.  As the neighborhood has become gentrified and rents increased many parishioners moved further north.  Manhattan with 25% of the churches has only 17% percent of the church going population.  The younger more affluent community growing in the east village does not appear to be church affiliated.  Dorothy Day, who dedicated her life to the poor, worshiped here for many decades.
In related news:  the Sunday Times had an article about a monastery closing in North Dakota because of the lack of new novitiates.  It is a Benedictine Monastery as founded by St. Benedict in the 6th Century for those wishing to serve God through work and prayer.  It is  not a cloistered Abbey.  The last novitiate to be accepted into this Abbey was in 2002 and since then 9 monks have died.  One of 40 in the U.S., Assumption Abbey was founded by Swiss Benedictine Monks in 1890 and was populated by German speaking monks from Russia and Hungary, because North Dakota was 'settled' by immigrants from those countries.  The Abbey currently has 1900 acres with 155 cows, 8 bulls and 155 calves.  Usually the Monastery would just sell the calves, but this year they are selling the entire herd.
"No more cowboys taking vows", was the headline.  Brother Placid Gross, I swear by all that's holy that's his name, is the last cowboy monk at Assumption Abbey and at 76 years of age it is more than he can handle.  There are 28 monks in residence but Brother Placid says they are more interested in 'intellectual stuff'.
"Happy trails to you
until we meet again
happy trails to you
keep smiling until then."
Dale Evans Rogers

Summer Streets

For the fourth year in a row and for four Saturdays in August one street is open to the public from 72nd Street and Central Park East to the Brooklyn Bridge.

There is a lot to do and a lot of New Yorkers out today doing it.
Some of the activities available, free bike repair, free portraits with your bike, free bike rentals, free rock climbing and free cookies and lemonade.

There are sand boxes for some play.

You are sure to have a good time.  So if you are in the city next Saturday bring the whole family.

Empire State Building

The real estate between 34th street and 33 street on Fifth Ave. had been home to the Astor's.  The famous Mrs. William Astor lived at 34th and Fifth.  Because her ballroom could only accommodate 400, N.Y.'s social elite were listed as 'the 400'.  Her nephew was at 33rd.  The nephew built the Waldorf Hotel on his site, ruining the neighborhood; so Mrs Astor built the Astoria Hotel on her corner and moved uptown.  So  they created the Waldorf-Astoria so I could have my prom.
The Empire State Building was planned during the booming 1920s by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon but completed in1931.  It is constructed in the Art deco style of the time.  It cost $40,948,900 then, about $500,000,000 today.  It was largely vacant in the early years.  They say fees to the observation deck paid the bills.  The bills for building the Empire State Building were paid by one man, John Jacob Raskob, KCSG, 1879-1950.
Born in Lockport, NY, his grandfather was an immigrant from Germany and his father sold cigars.  After High School he went to a local Business School but had to drop out when his father died in 1898.  He worked as a secretary to support the family.
1911 ... hired as a personal secretary to Pierre DuPont
1914 ... appointed Treasurer
1918 ... Vice President for Finance of DuPont and General Motors.  He was an early investor in GM and engineered DuPont's ownership of 43% of GM.
In the 1928 Presidential campaign he supported Al Smith for President.  Chairman of the Board, Sloan supported Herbert Hoover.  Raskob was asked to resign.  He sold his stock, built the Empire State Building, and made Al Smith President ... of the Empire State Building Company.
The KCSG after his name signifies that he is a knight of the Catholic Church.  He was given the title for his philanthropy, not because of the 13 children his wife had.  Another member of the KCSG is Rupert Murdoch.

3000 men rose the framework at a rate of 4 and a half stories per week to 102 stories total and 1454 feet.
In 1951 the Raskob Estate sold the building for $34 million
Today $550 million is being spent on renovations with $120 million being used to make the building Greener
It has its own zip code  10118
In 1945, a plane crashed into the building, killing 14 people.  It also resulted in Betty Lou Oliver surviving a plunge of 75 stories inside an elevator.  That still stands as the Guinness World Record.  Anyone want to go for 76. 
It was the tallest building for 42 years until the World trade center in 1973
There have been over 30 suicides.  The first was by a worker before the building was completed.  He had been laid off.  Evelyn McHale on 5/1/47 jumped from the 86th floor, landed on a U.N. limo and her curiously intact body was photographed.  It was later used by Andy Warhol for his painting 'Suicide'.  Elvita Adams on 12/2/79 jumped from the 86th floor only to be blown back and land on the 85th floor with a broken hip.
In 2/24/97 a Palestinian gunman shot 7 people, killing one and wounding himself.
There have been 110 million visitors to the Empire State Building.  Named America's favorite building in a poll by the American Institute of Architects, designated a National Landmark and listed as one of the 7 wonders of the Modern World.  But I've never liked that name!

Follies

No this is not another piece on world order.  it's about a musical; I just keep walking.  Tuesday I saw 'Follies' at the Marquis Theater.  It is one of my favorite Stephen Sondheim musicals and this is one of my favorite productions of any of the Sondheim shows I've seen.  The reason?  The book is emphasized, the 'ghosts' are made clear from the beginning, and we are watching great musical performers acting and bringing to life real, fascinating, people.  I was taken aback at first site of Bernadette Peters.  She looks like a small depressed middle-aged, middle-America housewife.  She's Sally and she's supported by Jan Maxwell [Phyllis], Ron Raines [Ben], Danny Burstein [Buddy], Elaine Paige [Carlotta], Teri White [Stella] and 45 other performers.  I can't imagine how many people are working off stage.  "Who's that Woman" with Teri White and The Ladies is wonderful.  What was new for me was how operatic the show is.  "Too Many Mornings" tore my heart.  Bernadette Peters hits notes I never heard her sing before and Ron Raines can match her.  If I had deep pockets I'd go again and again.

Too many mornings
wasted in pretending I reach for you.
How many mornings
are there still to come!
How much time can we hope there will be?
Not much time, but it's time enough for me.
If there's time to look up and see
Sally standing at the door,
Sally moving to the bed,
Sally resting in my arm
With your head against my head.
                           End Act 1
The romantic dreams they have lived with all their lives ... reality comes in act 2.

London Calling?

On my walk today, at 6th Ave and 20th street, the New Balance store had a line of men and women that went all the way around the block.  There was a sales position available.  At 9th street and Second Ave. behind St. Mark's in the Bowery there were 8 young people, boys and girls, sleeping on the street.  I had my camera with me and was highly tempted to take a photo,but people have their right to privacy. 
Amy Goodman on Democracy Now estimated that the unemployment rate among young black men is 30 to 40 %.  The people I saw on line were in the vast majority white.  The kids sleeping on the street were white.
In another great city that is suffering:
Monday was the third day of rioting in London.  On Saturday Mark Duggan, Anglo-Caribbean, father of four and a resident of social [public] housing, was shot and killed by police.  He was holding a loaded gun which police today confirm was not fired.  His social housing project is called Broadwater Farm.  Twenty-five years ago London had riots that also originated there.  They are called The Broadwater Farm Riots.  Margaret Thatcher, rather Baroness, was Prime Minister.  Today the Prime Minister is David Cameron, also Conservative, who was on vacation at his villa in Tuscany, Italy, when the riots started on Saturday.   He decided to come home on Tuesday to address Parliament and the riots.  Today's headline at the BBC: "Police admit they got the riots wrong", says David Cameron.  The official explanation for the rioting is criminality.
Prime Minister Cameron's speech listed his agenda to address the rioting:
To go ahead with his austerity plans to lay off 9,000 of 35,000 police force
To stop people from using social media in times of emergency
To allow courts to give tougher sentences
To allow landlords to evict criminals from social housing
The rioting started in one area of London and spread to 7 other districts in London, then to Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester.  The cleanup will certainly be expensive but needs to done because London is hosting that billion dollar event: The Olympics.  I don't think London is calling to New Yorkers but other European cities, perhaps.

House of Worship

The Church of the Transfiguration, probably better known as the Little Church Around the Corner.

The Transfiguration of Jesus is reported in the New testament by Mathew, Mark, Luke, and in the letters of Peter.  It is that moment when Jesus and three of his Apostles go to a mountain.  A radiant light shines upon Jesus.  Moses and Elijah appear next to him and a voice from the sky calls Jesus, "Son".  It is a pivotal moment in Christian teaching because it is the point where the temporal - the apostles - meet the eternal, and Jesus is the link.
The church began in 1848, and was designed in the Gothic style to follow the principles of the Camden-Cambridge Society.  Those principals were meant to return the Anglican Church and its churches to the religious and architectural ideals of the Middle Ages.   Richard Upjohn designed the elaborate brass pulpit and Edwin Booth gave the bible.  The Chapel is dedicated to Blessed George Hendric Houghton who is called the "first saint of the American Church" [Episcopal].  The south transcript has two sixteen century Flemish painted wood panels.  There is a carved figure of the Good Shepherd done in 1858.  Because of Puritan inhibitions it is said to be the first carving of a religious figure for a church in America.
There are several stained glass windows dedicated to and/or depicting dramatic characters and actors.  The most famous is depicting Rip Van Winkle, and it's called the Joseph Jefferson Window.  Joseph Jefferson was an actor noted for portraying Rip Van Winkle.  In 1870 he was rebuffed by one church in arranging for the funeral of his friend George Holland, also an actor.  He was told to go to the little church around the corner, where they cater to that type.  Hence the name of the church and its connection to the community of actors and musicians.  Both men were married; had children and very successful careers.  I think the reverent meant that the little church was the place for actors.
From the Tao:
What is a good man but a bad man's teacher?
What is a bad man but a good man's job?
If you don't understand this, you will get lost,
however intelligent you are.
It is the great secret.

The Center for Architecture

Home to The American Institute of Architects New York Chapter and The Center for Architecture Foundation it is located at LaGuardia Place just north of Bleecker Street.  Their current exhibition is "New York/Amsterdam 2040 glimpses".  They have asked a number of architects to envision what these two great metropolises can do to create vibrant and sustainable urban environments.  They were required to focus on five basic necessities for living: breathing, eating, making, moving, and dwelling.  The key challenges facing these cities are demographics, climate change, energy transition, and global economic patterns.  By 2030 there is expected to be 1 million more people living in NY.  Regarding climate change the main risk is the increased coastal flood levels with increasing storms and hurricane intensity. 

I found some of the ideas brilliant, like using the cities vast underground spaces for aquaponics, which combines fish-farming tanks with greenhouse plants.  Fish waste fertilizes the plants and the plants are used to feed the fish and clean the water.  Then the fish are harvested.  Some of the other ideas I'm a little skeptical about.  Like dredging the lower Hudson River, the fourth largest estuary in the world, and using that material to build archipelagos around the city and up the Hudson.  The Hudson River needs to be dredged.  GE, between 1947 and 1977, dumped 1.3 million pounds of PCPs into the river.  So lets do the whole river before we do the lower Hudson.

"Under the seeming disorder of the old city, wherever the old city is working successfully, is a marvelous order for maintaining the safety of the streets and the freedom of the city.  It is a complex order.  Its essence is intricacy of sidewalk use.  Bringing with it a constant succession of eyes.  The order is all composed of movement and change, and although it is life, not art, we may fancifully call it the art form of the city and liken it to the dance ... to an intricate ballet in which the individual dancers and ensembles all have distinctive parts which miraculously reinforce each other and compose an orderly whole."
Jane Jacobs

The Bronx

I've been spending some time up in the Bronx.  "Up" because it's north of Manhattan, and everyone says "up in the Bronx",  because Manhattan has always been seen as the center of the city.  However the Bronx is quite remarkable on it's own.
Population 1,385,108, area 42 sq. miles; divided by the Bronx River with the hillier section to the west and a flatter area to the east.  25% of the Bronx is open space. Comprised of Woodlawn Cemetery, Van Cortlandt Park, Pelham Bay Park, NY Botanical Gardens and the Bronx Zoo.
The Bronx was named after Jonas Bronck an early settler from Sweden whose land was east of the river.  Immigrants to the Bronx at first were Irish, German, Jewish, and Italian and they were succeeded by African Americans and Hispanic Americans from the Caribbean Basin especially Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.  That recent mix has made the Bronx a wellspring for Latin and Hip Hop Music.
The 16th congressional district in the Bronx, represented by Jose Serrano, is one of the 5 poorest in the country and just north of it in the Bronx is Riverdale, one of the most affluent parts of the city.
Riverdale is home to some great buildings: the modernist landmark, Saul Victor House designed by Frederick Gottlieb in 1967.  Other famous mansions include, Greyston [1864], Alderbrook [1880], Stonehurst [1861], and Oaklawn [1863].  It has 3 top tier private schools, Horace Mann, Riverdale Country, and Fieldston.  All members of the Ivy League School League.  There are 2 Roman Catholic Colleges, The College of Mount Saint Vincent and Manhattan College.  There is also the Academy for Jewish Religion, one of two in the country.  In 1974 the permanent mission of the USSR, now the Russian Federation, to the UN built a large compound and school in Riverdale for their diplomats and families.
I started to write the names of famous Riverdale natives and residents but there are too many.  I'll just list some.
Nobel prize winners:     Eric Kandel, and Rosalyn Sussman Yalow
Arts:        Ray Baretto, Bela Bartok, Rudolf Bing, Ted Brown, Bill Evans, Ed Sullivan, Fred Friendly,  Yvonne De Carlo   and    most surprising, to me, Ella Fitzgerald who lived at the Colored Orphans Asylum
Sports:    Ron Blomberg, Chris Chambliss, Julio Franco, Nat Holmes, Sal Magli, Sugar Ray Robinson, Willie Mays, and Lou Gehrig
Politics:  U Thant, Elliott Spitzer, Theodore Roosevelt Sr., Fiorello La Guardia, and John F. Kennedy at 5040 Independence Ave., across the street from Wave Hill.
And Me at 1912 Loring Place.
No, that's not in Riverdale.  It's that place between Riverdale and the 16th Congressional District.

Is there an income ceiling?

My neighborhood has been constantly changing over the years.  For a very long time, when I first moved here, the neighborhood was 'bad', lots of crime, drugs and violence.  According to the latest census reports, Manhattan is the wealthiest county in the U.S.  Median income in Manhattan, which means that half are above and half below, is $64, 217.  The mean income, which means the average [add all the income of Manhattanites and divide it by the number of people living here] is $121,549.  The richest are on the Upper East Side.  72 of Forbes 400 richest people live in NYC.  To be considered rich your worth has to be over $1billion.

Mars Bar on 2nd Ave. and  1st Street officially served it's last beer.  The rule was: "never order a drink that comes in a class at Mars Bar".  The old crusty East Village is going to make room for "luxury Rentals".A One bedroom of 520sq. feet rents for $4471 per month.  That's what the city now calls middle income housing. 

  I can't tell you what others are renting for because rental prices are only offered upon request.  What's great about the location is you can leave your luxury rental and just a few doors away visit the Tenement Museum.
One of those middle income apartment buildings has just leased space to a new restaurant; it's named Heart Break.
Not funny because right across the street is the Church of The Nativity.  The Church has been serving the community since 1842, and they have just recently put up this sign: "Due to State and Federal Budget Cuts The Food Pantry will be closed until further notice."  We're ready for Trump.  He could build residences for
David Koch who according to Forbes, is the richest man in the U.S.  He's worth $17 billion.
The median income for the richest people in Manhattan is $188,697 for the poor it is $9,320.  30% of the poor are below 18 years of age.  18% are over 65.  My numbers are from the US Census Bureau and Forbes Magazine.     

What I'm Reading

The Economist this week has an article on research about employment opportunities for women.  Researches have determined that the opportunities for women outside the home are directly related to the country's farming methods.  Does the history of your country favor a plow or a hoe?  If you're a female looking for work you want to be born in a country that farmed using a hoe.  The plow, heavier, is for man's work, according to the scientists.  Countries that historically used the hoe like Burundi have 91% of their women working outside the home.  The Arab world, historically using the plow, has less than a quarter.  The Second World War changed some of the attitudes regarding gender and employment.  Still, even today with worldwide industrialization in farming, traditional attitudes remain.  Among groups in America, those who prefer a male President or believe during a recession a man should get that job before a woman, are descendents of immigrants whose farming culture was based on the plow.
In the New Yorker:
"the U.S. shouldn't have and doesn't need a debt ceiling.  Every other democratic country, except Denmark, does fine without one"  The only reason we need to lift the debt ceiling is to pay for spending that Congress has already authorized.  If the debt ceiling is not raised the President will be breaking the law by not paying for those things Congress has authorized, and if he does pay for them he will be breaking the law that instituted the debt ceiling."
More on Murdock, the 38th richest person in America:
Piers Morgan was sacked by Murdock in 2004 for publishing pictures of British soldiers abusing Iraqis.  He was sacked because the photos were fake and had caused retaliation against the military from Iraqis.  So Piers Morgan went on to host Britain's Got Talent and then America's Got Talent, and now Larry King's job on CNN.  Morgan also published a fake photo of a celebrity comedian, Spike Milligan, showing him to be "a shadow of his former self".  His lawyers contacted the paper and Morgan said: "I can't believe how prickly Spike is being."
Kelvin MacKenzie, editor of Murdock's "The Sun" from 1981 to 1994, published an "interview" with the widow of a hero of the Falklands' War.  She never gave an interview or spoke to anyone at the paper.
The News Of The world whistle blower, Paul McMullen, wrote a story about Jennifer Elliott, the daughter of English actor Denholm Elliott.   Her father died in 1992 and he wrote in 1995 that allegedly because of her drug addiction she was living on the street and prostituting herself.  The 'tip' came from a policeman who was paid by the paper.  Jennifer committed suicide.  When asked if he thought his story had anything to do with the suicide he said: "Yeah, I totally humiliated and destroyed her.  It wasn't necessary, she didn't deserve it. ... If there was anyone to apologize to I would.  But they're all dead."
"That's about played out, any way, the idea of sticking up a sign of 'private' and thinking you can keep the place to yourself.  You can't do it - you can't keep out the light of the Press.  Now what I'm going to do is to set up the biggest lamp yet made and to make it shine all over the place.  We'll see who's private then."
Spoken by George Flack from Henry James' novel "The Reverberator"  published in 1888.   The Reverberator is the title of an American tabloid, and Flack is a columnist.

Unnatural Acts

The Classic Stage Company on 13th Street is presenting this original docudrama.  I saw it yesterday.  It is written by a group called "Plastic Theatre".  They are described in the program as a rolling ensemble of multidisciplinary artists led by Tony Speciale.  Mr. Speciale is the co-author, but his primary work has been as a director.  The NY Times' Ben Brantley didn't care for the play.  One of his issues was with the dialogue.  At times it did seem stilted but that may be because some material is taken from the actual sources of 1920.
I would like critics to at least approach a work with some humility.
The play is about the "trials" at Harvard University in 1920 against suspected homosexual students and teachers.  38 men were charged and 14 were convicted.  The 14 were not only removed from Harvard but they were banned from the city of Cambridge for life.  The play's focus is on the story of 8 students and 2 teachers.  One student is found not guilty and one teacher is found not guilty.  The tragedy begins when one student commits suicide and leaves some incriminating letters behind about sexual exploits with others at Harvard.  The end of the play has an epilogue about the students' lives after the "trials".  It is particularly moving because it includes the two who were not found guilty.  Their lives were highly successful.  Some of the guilty students "disappeared" from the public record, committed suicide, or had fatal car accidents.  The play was supposed to close on July 10th but is still running and has been extended another week because of excellent word of mouth.  It is that good.  It is funny, sexy, frightening, absorbing and tragic.


A few words about the Judge, President Abbott Lawrence Lowell of Harvard 1909-1933.  The Lowells of Massachusetts were if not Mayflower passengers close to it and among the Brahmins of New England.  President Lowell while at Harvard reformed undergraduate education by establishing majors in a particular discipline.  He integrated the housing of the social classes and because of that was called a traitor to his class.  He opened classes to the adult community in the area.  He was a strong supporter of the League of Nations.
He also tried to limit the number of Jews at Harvard and ban African-American students from living in Freshman Hall.  He was overruled in both.  He has been described as "the passionate theorist of democracy whose personal conduct was severely autocratic."  He opposed the nomination of Louis Brandeis to the Supreme Court which many considered motivated by antisemitism.  Brandeis said it best about men like Lowell: "who have been blinded by privilege, who have no evil purpose, and many of whom have a distinct public spirit, but whose environment  - or innate narrowness - have obscured all vision and sympathy with the masses."
President Lowell was also the brother of Pulitzer Prize winning poet Amy Lowell.  Her erotic poetry is believed, by her biographers, to have been written for the actress Ada Dwyer Russell.  There is a term used in 19th and 20th century New England called a "Boston Marriage".  It is used to describe two women living together.  Amy and Ada had a Boston marriage from 1912 to 1925.
Amy Lowell didn't go to Harvard.  The family thought it unseemly for a woman to go to college.   

We're having a heatwave

So there's no Ace walking the city for the last couple of days.  Lots of stuff to catch up on, though.
T.V.
On Public Television:
James John Audubon, famous for his "Birds of America", was also one of the first Naturalists and Conservationists, even though he killed thousands of birds to draw them.
A couple of things of interest from the show.  The panic of 1819 has often been attributed to failings in the banking system and public financing of the war of 1812, but the show mentions the catastrophic effect the weather had on farming that year.  Crops froze 3 times, causing many bankruptcies, foreclosures, etc.  People, without their usual food sources, took to shooting and eating pigeons.  They say at that time there were 3 to 5 billion passenger pigeons.  They would fly in flocks a mile long and wide.  Point your rifle straight up, fire and you had food.
Martha, the last surviving passenger pigeon, died in 1914 at the Cincinnati Zoo.  Deforestation, hunting and loss of habitat are the cause for their extinction.
Zen on Masterpiece Mystery.  The latest import from England.  Zen is a Roman detective known for his integrity  in a corrupt world.  The boss's secretary is the romantic interest.  Rufus Sewell as Zen, and Caterina Murino as the boss's secretary work well together and I know this is totally subjective, but they are two of the most attractive people on television. 
Then it's the weather channel, the news stations, books, magazines, housework, and trying to stay cool.  NYC, yesterday was hotter than Phoenix, Az.  Baltimore, may have been the hottest.
Heat indexes were: Baltimore 118, Newark 114, La Guardia airport 108.  Those passenger pigeons could have fanned us all and blocked the sun.

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.