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.

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.