Friday was dinner at Gene's with Tom and the movie "Beginners". The movie was so so and the dinner OK, but my favorite was the Cosmo. It was so good I had another.
Saturday was a lot of housework, the heavy duty kind. That's where I wash everything in the bathroom except the ceiling, note to myself - do the ceiling. Did the laundry, etc. Then settled down to a home cooked meal of Ahi Tuna Steak and veggies. I cooked veggies because I am concerned about E-Coli. According to the NY Times about 5,000 people die in the US each year because of E-Coli. The Times article links the severity of the bacteria to the high use of antibiotics. North Carolina uses more antibiotics in its farming industry then the whole United States uses for its people. Therefore we get highly resistant strains of E-Coli.
The movie last night was "Touchez Pas au Grisbi", don't touch the grisbi, slang for loot, with Jean Gabin [this film reportedly revised his career], Jeanne Moreau [one of her first movies, 25 years old & she plays a chorus girl/moll { kind of a hoot}] and Lino Venturo, the great Italian-born French actor in his first role [he made 77 movies most notably Army Of Shadows. He was originally a wrestler and got picked by the director for this film.] The film is about a world-weary gangster who is double crossed and forced out of retirement when his best friend is kidnapped and their stash of 8 stolen gold bars are demanded as ransom.
At the Grisbi site there is a comment/review by "palmiro" that is very good. Two interesting points he makes: the special male camaraderie of the french that is expected and never second guessed by the french. No Oscar Wilde "love that dare not speak its name" subtext. The second is the director, Jacques Becker's overt communist/anti-west sympathies that are present in the movie.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Hazardous to your future
I'm talking about the weather and social networks, AKA Weinerville.
The heatwave is keeping me indoors. On enviroflash you can find air quality reports and pretty much the entire northeast has a warning for certain people. The certain people are of course those with asthma. Not a lot of walking going on, but the heatwave will break tonight with thunderstorms.
About the temptation for some people to expose themselves on the internet.
Anthony Weiner, has been front page news, late night comic fodder, and a disgraced public figure. He's not the first and he won't be the last. Public exhibition is not uncommon. I've been on a subway when guys have exposed themselves, and was only made aware of those incidents because the women made an issue of it. They probably made an issue of it because the subway was crowded with men and women and therefore they felt safe. There are two kinds of public exhibition. One is a crime and punishable as indecent exposure because "it is done in a threatening manner". The other exposure when viewed as non-threatening and done to arouse or shock is called exhibitionism. The medical label of the compulsion to exhibit oneself is called Apodysophilia. The difference between the two sounds clear, right, but who's determining if there is a threat.
In 1907 Annette Kellerman was arrested in Boston for wearing a one piece bathing suit.
In 2003, a 21 year old woman was arrested for appearing naked on the internet.
In 2005, 6 men were arrested and convicted in Chicago for nudity while participating in the "world naked bike ride". Sentences ranged from fines to 3 months probation. Once convicted you must register as a sex offender, forever, and some public areas are closed to you. That "stunt" may have ruined their lives.
Then there are the sex tapes of celebrities on the internet, which quickly go on sale. Not public indecency?
So the story:
Well, Anthony Weiner was possibly going to be the next mayor of New York City. In 1991 at the age of 27 he was the youngest person to sit on the New York City Council. When Schumer became Senator, Weiner who worked as an aide to Schumer ran for Schumer's congressional seat in 1999 and won. He has won reelection consistently with large margins. He is one of the few people in government who believe Medicare should be the National Health Care. He has a reputation for working long hours and working his staff, ergo 3 chiefs of staff in 18 months. Right now he's probably the loneliest man on the planet. I appreciate the hard work he's done, in congress, and I hope he gets help.
There will be no pictures from me today.
The heatwave is keeping me indoors. On enviroflash you can find air quality reports and pretty much the entire northeast has a warning for certain people. The certain people are of course those with asthma. Not a lot of walking going on, but the heatwave will break tonight with thunderstorms.
About the temptation for some people to expose themselves on the internet.
Anthony Weiner, has been front page news, late night comic fodder, and a disgraced public figure. He's not the first and he won't be the last. Public exhibition is not uncommon. I've been on a subway when guys have exposed themselves, and was only made aware of those incidents because the women made an issue of it. They probably made an issue of it because the subway was crowded with men and women and therefore they felt safe. There are two kinds of public exhibition. One is a crime and punishable as indecent exposure because "it is done in a threatening manner". The other exposure when viewed as non-threatening and done to arouse or shock is called exhibitionism. The medical label of the compulsion to exhibit oneself is called Apodysophilia. The difference between the two sounds clear, right, but who's determining if there is a threat.
In 1907 Annette Kellerman was arrested in Boston for wearing a one piece bathing suit.
In 2003, a 21 year old woman was arrested for appearing naked on the internet.
In 2005, 6 men were arrested and convicted in Chicago for nudity while participating in the "world naked bike ride". Sentences ranged from fines to 3 months probation. Once convicted you must register as a sex offender, forever, and some public areas are closed to you. That "stunt" may have ruined their lives.
Then there are the sex tapes of celebrities on the internet, which quickly go on sale. Not public indecency?
So the story:
Well, Anthony Weiner was possibly going to be the next mayor of New York City. In 1991 at the age of 27 he was the youngest person to sit on the New York City Council. When Schumer became Senator, Weiner who worked as an aide to Schumer ran for Schumer's congressional seat in 1999 and won. He has won reelection consistently with large margins. He is one of the few people in government who believe Medicare should be the National Health Care. He has a reputation for working long hours and working his staff, ergo 3 chiefs of staff in 18 months. Right now he's probably the loneliest man on the planet. I appreciate the hard work he's done, in congress, and I hope he gets help.
There will be no pictures from me today.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Bessie Smith
Saw a good show: "The Devil's Music, The Life and Blues of Bessie Smith" starring Miche Braden at St. Luke's Theater. The theater is in the basement of St. Luke's Lutheran Church and has about 300 seats. Besides this show they are doing in rotation: Black Angels Over Tuskegee, Channeling Kevin Spacey, Sam's Romance, My Big Gay Italian Wedding, and Danny and Sylvia.
About the show: Ms. Braden is a fine actress with a good voice, but it's not Bessie Smith's voice. What Ms. Braden does do very well is tell and act the Story of Bessie's life and she does sing a good version of "I Ain't Got Nobody."
This is the first show I've gone to where an audience member's cell phone not only rang but she answered the call. Quietly and for a short period of time but still a shock.
There were a number of things the show taught me.
Bessie was bisexual and because of her sexuality, heavy drinking and late hours her adopted son was taken from her. Her first recording in 1924 sold 760,000 copies and saved Columbia records from bankruptcy.
In the 1920's she was the highest paid black entertainer, earning $4,000 a week. "Private establishments" all around the country called "buffet flats" were where Blacks could gather after hours for food, drink, gambling, lodging, entertainment, and according to this show, group sex.
In internet research I learned Bessie lived between 4/15/1894 and 9/26/1937. Her first job was as a dancer in a show starring Ma Rainey. She starred in the Broadway show "How Come" with Sidney Bichet. She fought with the producer and was replaced by Alberta Hunter. J.D. Salinger wrote a short story "Blue Melody" that was published in 9/48 in Cosmopolitan, about an African-American blues singer. The story has been reported to be based on Bessie Smith's life. Because Cosmopolitan changed his title he never wrote for anyone else except the New Yorker.
Edward Albee wrote a play: "The Death of Bessie Smith" which repeats a story by John Hammond that Bessie died because a whites only hospital would not treat her. That story has been discredited. There were 2 ambulances, one for whites and one for blacks, at the scene within minutes of each other. But even before the ambulances arrived a doctor was dressing her wounds. It was too late; she died in The Clarksdale African-American Hospital.
About the show: Ms. Braden is a fine actress with a good voice, but it's not Bessie Smith's voice. What Ms. Braden does do very well is tell and act the Story of Bessie's life and she does sing a good version of "I Ain't Got Nobody."
This is the first show I've gone to where an audience member's cell phone not only rang but she answered the call. Quietly and for a short period of time but still a shock.
There were a number of things the show taught me.
Bessie was bisexual and because of her sexuality, heavy drinking and late hours her adopted son was taken from her. Her first recording in 1924 sold 760,000 copies and saved Columbia records from bankruptcy.
In the 1920's she was the highest paid black entertainer, earning $4,000 a week. "Private establishments" all around the country called "buffet flats" were where Blacks could gather after hours for food, drink, gambling, lodging, entertainment, and according to this show, group sex.
In internet research I learned Bessie lived between 4/15/1894 and 9/26/1937. Her first job was as a dancer in a show starring Ma Rainey. She starred in the Broadway show "How Come" with Sidney Bichet. She fought with the producer and was replaced by Alberta Hunter. J.D. Salinger wrote a short story "Blue Melody" that was published in 9/48 in Cosmopolitan, about an African-American blues singer. The story has been reported to be based on Bessie Smith's life. Because Cosmopolitan changed his title he never wrote for anyone else except the New Yorker.
Edward Albee wrote a play: "The Death of Bessie Smith" which repeats a story by John Hammond that Bessie died because a whites only hospital would not treat her. That story has been discredited. There were 2 ambulances, one for whites and one for blacks, at the scene within minutes of each other. But even before the ambulances arrived a doctor was dressing her wounds. It was too late; she died in The Clarksdale African-American Hospital.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Howl and St. Nicholas Church
Built in 1882 by Rutherford Stuyvesant as a part of St. Mark's parish; it was designed by James Renwick Jr. who also designed St. Patrick's Cathedral. In 1937 it was bought by and became the Carpartho Russian Orthodox Church. It is located across the street from Tompkins Square Park which is hosting the Howl Festival this weekend. There are big inflated toys for the kids and theater performances.
Look at www.howlfestival.com for information about this yearly event.
Around the north and east borders of the park for about 3 city blocks there were 4' x 6' posters of individual art works.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Doing it with a pro
A couple of weeks ago my friend Dottie suggested I stop into a storefront on 8th Street, the Village Alliance. They were going to do Village walks and it sounded like something I would be interested in. Every Saturday from 5/28/11 to 9/24/11 one of three different guides will be taking people on a walking tour of 8th Street. Not throughout the village just 8th Street. Today it was Michael Morrows' turn. Each tour guide takes a different point of view. Michael describes his tour as dry and factual. He recommended Jane Marx's tour to me. He described her as a very funny Rosalind Russell type, who focuses on the women who lived in the area.
Mr. Morrows is quite good. He had a "cheat sheet" with him which he referenced every once in a while but for the most part he talked extemporaneously. He seemed to know all about the Architects, politicians, artists, and all the dates and places they lived and hung out. Two new pieces of info for me. Among the Georgian red brick buildings on St. Mark's Place between 2nd. Ave. and the Bowery is the last home of Alexander Hamilton's widow, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton.
Today it's a unique clothing store very popular with Lady Gaga, according to Mr. Morrows. Who has actually turned out to be very accurate. I try to vet my sources. I love that expression, vet. Especially when it's being done to politicians.
The second thing I learned on my tour: "I heard it through the grapevine" is a saying that originated in the Village at a bar called "the Grapevine". It was located at Sixth Avenue and 11th Street, directly across from the old courthouse. In the early to mid 19th Century it was the hangout for artists, politicians, lawyers, judges, union officers and southern spies. After a couple of drinks there would be some loose lips and so the tavern was the source for a lot of juicy info.
Mr. Morrows is quite good. He had a "cheat sheet" with him which he referenced every once in a while but for the most part he talked extemporaneously. He seemed to know all about the Architects, politicians, artists, and all the dates and places they lived and hung out. Two new pieces of info for me. Among the Georgian red brick buildings on St. Mark's Place between 2nd. Ave. and the Bowery is the last home of Alexander Hamilton's widow, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton.
The second thing I learned on my tour: "I heard it through the grapevine" is a saying that originated in the Village at a bar called "the Grapevine". It was located at Sixth Avenue and 11th Street, directly across from the old courthouse. In the early to mid 19th Century it was the hangout for artists, politicians, lawyers, judges, union officers and southern spies. After a couple of drinks there would be some loose lips and so the tavern was the source for a lot of juicy info.
Friday, June 3, 2011
Galleries
Yesterday was one of those great NYC days, bright, cool and breezy. The perfect day to look at some bright, cool and breezy art. First to see is the show that Frank has curated at the Interchurch Center, 475 Riverside Drive. It's near The Riverside Church, on the upper west side.
The exhibit is Frank Mann's "Oculus". He "explores the act of seeing and depicts the circularity of life."
The "loose circular orb-like structures depict life's flow"
"The inner processes of the eye is externalized so that what the artist presents is open ended. Starting with the light of the eyes, the images are transformed in the back of the retina and then interpreted in the visual cortex in the back of the brain."
I picked up the NYC gallery guide at the Interchurch Center and checked out some Galleries to see in Chelsea. Top of my list was the Gagosian. Sunday Morning on CBS did a piece on their installation: "Picasso and Marie-Therese: L'amour fou." Picasso's M.- T. was his lover and is considered "the primary inspiration for Picasso's most daring aesthetic experiments in the decade to come." The most striking thing in the exhibition for me is how the most "aesthetic experiments" of Picasso so truly capture what we see of Marie-Therese in the photos at the exhibition.
But there are others I can show you.
Then to 530 West 25th street, Viridian Artists exhibit of Robert Mielenhausen's "Rome"
The exhibit is Frank Mann's "Oculus". He "explores the act of seeing and depicts the circularity of life."
The "loose circular orb-like structures depict life's flow"
"The inner processes of the eye is externalized so that what the artist presents is open ended. Starting with the light of the eyes, the images are transformed in the back of the retina and then interpreted in the visual cortex in the back of the brain."
But there are others I can show you.
Then to 530 West 25th street, Viridian Artists exhibit of Robert Mielenhausen's "Rome"
 |
| I love it when an artist makes me smile. I thought he was real at first. |
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Candidates for Hare's Test
"Basta Bunga Bunga", a letter from Italy by Ariel Levy in the current New Yorker. It is about Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and whether Italians have had enough of him and the culture he embodies. Is it just an Italian billionaire's culture or endemic to our world? Berlusconi has a number of TV shows and a number of young, buxom, inexperienced women from his TV shows are given important government posts. The author describes some Berlusconi shows. This is one of them: "Scherzi a Parte," a woman in her underpants hangs from a meat hook alongside hundreds of hams as a man in a butchers costume stamps a sell-by date on her behind."
When the author suggests that she meet with the Prime Minister for an interview, Berlusconi's close friend advises her that she would first need plastic surgery to roughen up her looks so then the Prime minister would keep his hands to himself.
Again in the article: "Until 1981, 'a crime of honor' that is killing your wife for being unfaithful or your sister for having premarital sex could be treated as a lesser offense than other murders; as late as 2007 a man in Palermo was sentenced to just 2 days in jail for murdering his wife after his children testified that she had been disrespectful to him".
In a related news, NYC Hotel Maids in two hotels that have recently been in the news will now be allowed to wear an intercom buzzer in case while visiting a guest, especially French billionaires, in their room they need "back-up".
From the Tao:
Success is as dangerous as failure.
Hope is as hollow as fear.
What does it mean that success is as dangerous as failure?
Whether you go up the ladder or down it,
your position is shaky.
When you stand with your two feet on the ground,
you will always keep your balance.
What does it mean that hope is as hollow as fear?
Hope and fear are both phantoms
that arise from thinking of the self.
When we don't see the self as self,
what do we have to fear?
See the world as your self.
Have faith in the way things are.
Love the world as your self;
then you can care for all things.
When the author suggests that she meet with the Prime Minister for an interview, Berlusconi's close friend advises her that she would first need plastic surgery to roughen up her looks so then the Prime minister would keep his hands to himself.
Again in the article: "Until 1981, 'a crime of honor' that is killing your wife for being unfaithful or your sister for having premarital sex could be treated as a lesser offense than other murders; as late as 2007 a man in Palermo was sentenced to just 2 days in jail for murdering his wife after his children testified that she had been disrespectful to him".
In a related news, NYC Hotel Maids in two hotels that have recently been in the news will now be allowed to wear an intercom buzzer in case while visiting a guest, especially French billionaires, in their room they need "back-up".
From the Tao:
Success is as dangerous as failure.
Hope is as hollow as fear.
What does it mean that success is as dangerous as failure?
Whether you go up the ladder or down it,
your position is shaky.
When you stand with your two feet on the ground,
you will always keep your balance.
What does it mean that hope is as hollow as fear?
Hope and fear are both phantoms
that arise from thinking of the self.
When we don't see the self as self,
what do we have to fear?
See the world as your self.
Have faith in the way things are.
Love the world as your self;
then you can care for all things.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Ghost Bike
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Painting Urbanism
I came upon some interesting chairs just parked on the sidewalk at Delancey and Mulberry Streets in Nolita. They were in front of Haas&Hahn's Painting Urbanism installation: "Learning from Rio". So I went in and took a look
The first image I saw looked like a view of Manhattan from Queens with buildings that have been painted. So I went in and visited the storefront of Art and Architecture "a nonprofit organization committed to the advancement of innovative positions in architecture, art and design".
The installation was by Haas & Hahn @ www.favelapainting.com They are the artistic duo of Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn who conceived Favela painting in 2005. Favelas are the name of Brazil's shanty towns. They began in the late 18th century as the home of freed black slaves. Favelas have become infamous as one of the worlds most dangerous slums. They have been the setting of a number of Brazilian movies, most notably "City of God". That's the movie about teenagers living in favelas where the only character that gets out alive is the pet chicken.
Now what do an artist and an architect do to create change?
They gave them tools to create something of their own. Something to be proud of.
The young men of the favela took a staircase and added some fish.
They kept doing more and more
From the brochure of the Storefront for Art and Architecture:
"Haas&Hahn have been able to generate a body of work that grows from the formal intricacies, legal conditions and social dynamics inherent to slums and produce a method of action that would hardly be able to be envisioned within the normative spaces of western models of urbanization."
The first image I saw looked like a view of Manhattan from Queens with buildings that have been painted. So I went in and visited the storefront of Art and Architecture "a nonprofit organization committed to the advancement of innovative positions in architecture, art and design".
The installation was by Haas & Hahn @ www.favelapainting.com They are the artistic duo of Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn who conceived Favela painting in 2005. Favelas are the name of Brazil's shanty towns. They began in the late 18th century as the home of freed black slaves. Favelas have become infamous as one of the worlds most dangerous slums. They have been the setting of a number of Brazilian movies, most notably "City of God". That's the movie about teenagers living in favelas where the only character that gets out alive is the pet chicken.
Now what do an artist and an architect do to create change?
They gave them tools to create something of their own. Something to be proud of.
They kept doing more and more
They painted the town.
From the brochure of the Storefront for Art and Architecture:
"Haas&Hahn have been able to generate a body of work that grows from the formal intricacies, legal conditions and social dynamics inherent to slums and produce a method of action that would hardly be able to be envisioned within the normative spaces of western models of urbanization."
Monday, May 30, 2011
Sara Delano Roosevelt Park
It is located south of Houston, north of Canal, east of Forsyth and west of Chrystie, and runs for 7 blocks.
I never thought that one day I would be able to walk through this park. Now, I can spend a beautiful holiday weekend sitting in a lush garden after watching a soccer game. Years age it was not the place you would ever think of taking the kids or even Fido. But like a great many places in this city it has changed for the better and keeps changing. It was named after FDR's mother, and was built in 1934. It has a Senior Center, turf Soccer field, roller skating rink, basketball, handball, and bocce courts. It also has a garden with a rooster that cock-a-doodles all day.
 |
| a book of poems a jug of wine and me! |
Sunday, May 29, 2011
House of Worship
And from today's Times a different Sunday sermon; the political take on the Golden Rule.
In an article about the unlikely power duo of Mayor Bloomberg and former President Clinton joining forces for a greener planet it is reported that Bloomberg's financing of an organization that Clinton founded has gotten him chairmanship of the organization. One of Clinton's staffers said "'What are we going to do, fight him? They have the money; the golden rule applies.' As in, he who has the gold, rules."
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Dinner and a movie
The movie was "Win Win" with Paul Giamatti, Bobby Cannavale, and Amy Ryan. It is written and directed by Thomas McCarthy. Mr. McCarthy besides also acting in over 37 TV shows and movies has written and directed 2 other very fine movies: "The Station Agent" and The "Visitor". He was nominated for an Academy Award for writing the screenplay to the animated film "Up". According to Wikipedia he is also a silent partner in the Papaya Dog chain of fast food restaurants in Manhattan. He's 46 and I hope he keeps them coming, the movies. They didn't have hotdogs at Souen.
Monday, May 23, 2011
The Normal Heart
Larry Kramer's play is in an exceptionally fine revival and I saw it yesterday. Ellen Barkin and Jim Parsons make their Broadway debut. Ms. Barkin plays a Doctor who works with AIDS patients and tries to get her patients, the press and government to do something about what is happening to gay men in NYC in 1982. They are dying and no one knows why. The main character is Ned Weeks who meets the doctor when accompanying his friend for a check up. The friend has AIDS. Ned Weeks is a strident, argumentative, angry gay man who becomes one of the founders of an AIDS relief organization and an AIDS political action group. He is played by Joe Mantello in what must be one of the most exhausting performances in the theater. He is extraordinary; the entire cast is but he is center stage most of the time. On the street after the play the ushers handed out a letter from Larry Kramer. He wants everyone to know that the crisis is not over and that a lot more has to be done. He also mentions in the letter that people in the play represent real people and now many of them are dead from Aids or suicide. Mr. Kramer appears to be much like the character Ned Weeks.
Larry Kramer is a strident, argumentative, gay man who was one of the founders of GMHC and ACT UP. Almost 30 years later and he is still angry and feels the need to tell everyone what they should be doing. Because:
After 30 years, with millions of deaths and still many millions of people infected not a single country has categorized this disease as an epidemic. The government funding for research is still not sufficient. The cost of medications keeps many infected people from getting the help they need.
In the play Mr Kramer juxtaposes the reporting of the Tylenol crisis in October 1982, with the lack of attention to the Aids Crisis.
The Tylenol Crisis:
Seven people in Chicago died after taking Tylenol that was laced with poison; one of them was a 12 year old child. Laws regulating the packaging of over the counter medications were passed by the federal government, immediately. The Tylenol crisis was news for months, over 40 front page stories in the Times.
AIDS:
In March, 1981 eight gay men in NYC developed an aggressive form of Kaposi Sarcoma and others came down with a virulent form of pneumonia., PCP. No mention in the press. In December, 1981 IV drug users were getting PCP and outbreaks were reported to health departments in the UK. Not front page news, maybe a note on page 26. Mr. Kramer is getting angry. Gay men are getting scared. By July, 1982 there were 452 reported cases from 23 States. Not front page news. Then Haitians and Hemophiliacs were developing PCP. PCP was usually treated with a particular medication and 10 days on the medication and the patient was cured. When clinics and doctors started asking for refills in 1981 the Health Department took notice and started keeping records. Not front page news. Two months after the Tylenol Crisis in December 1982 a child who had received multiple transfusions developed the disease. The safety of the national blood supply became front page news.
As of 2009:
26,000 people in North America have died from Aids.
Worldwide, about 30 million people have died from AIDS.
New cases of AIDS are being reported all over the world all the time.
Did I mention "The Normal Heart" had me sobbing?
Larry Kramer is a strident, argumentative, gay man who was one of the founders of GMHC and ACT UP. Almost 30 years later and he is still angry and feels the need to tell everyone what they should be doing. Because:
After 30 years, with millions of deaths and still many millions of people infected not a single country has categorized this disease as an epidemic. The government funding for research is still not sufficient. The cost of medications keeps many infected people from getting the help they need.
In the play Mr Kramer juxtaposes the reporting of the Tylenol crisis in October 1982, with the lack of attention to the Aids Crisis.
The Tylenol Crisis:
Seven people in Chicago died after taking Tylenol that was laced with poison; one of them was a 12 year old child. Laws regulating the packaging of over the counter medications were passed by the federal government, immediately. The Tylenol crisis was news for months, over 40 front page stories in the Times.
AIDS:
In March, 1981 eight gay men in NYC developed an aggressive form of Kaposi Sarcoma and others came down with a virulent form of pneumonia., PCP. No mention in the press. In December, 1981 IV drug users were getting PCP and outbreaks were reported to health departments in the UK. Not front page news, maybe a note on page 26. Mr. Kramer is getting angry. Gay men are getting scared. By July, 1982 there were 452 reported cases from 23 States. Not front page news. Then Haitians and Hemophiliacs were developing PCP. PCP was usually treated with a particular medication and 10 days on the medication and the patient was cured. When clinics and doctors started asking for refills in 1981 the Health Department took notice and started keeping records. Not front page news. Two months after the Tylenol Crisis in December 1982 a child who had received multiple transfusions developed the disease. The safety of the national blood supply became front page news.
As of 2009:
26,000 people in North America have died from Aids.
Worldwide, about 30 million people have died from AIDS.
New cases of AIDS are being reported all over the world all the time.
Did I mention "The Normal Heart" had me sobbing?
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Genius
"I have nothing to declare except my Genius" was Oscar Wilde's answer to a US Customs Agent.
I saw "The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People" yesterday and I enjoyed it so much I may go back. It was first performed in 1895, and is considered his best work and one of the best farcical comedies of all time. Opening night was Wilde's greatest triumph but also the beginning of his end.
The Marquess of Queensberry had planned to disrupt the performance because of his son's involvement with Wilde. The Marquess was stopped that night, but they all soon ended up in court. Wilde sued Queensberry for libel because Queensberry's note was addressed to Oscar Wilde "posing as a sodomite". Wilde won a token amount in damages. But because of what came out at the first trial, Wilde was then tried for Gross Indecency With Men and convicted to 2 years of hard labor. Because of the scandal the play closed after 87 performances.
Brian Bedford as Lady Bracknell stars in and directs the play. Lady Bracknell is a hyper sensitive aristocrat who will not hear of any social impropriety. She's that elderly relative some of us know who just when you're having a good time says "enough".
Lady Bracknell:
"Never speak disrespectfully of society, Algernon. Only people who can't get into it do that."
"I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit, touch it and the bloom is gone ... Fortunately in England ... education produces no effect whatsoever."
"To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune: to lose two looks like carelessness."
He is remarkable in the role. He\She says some of the funniest, farcical lines ever written and does it in perfect aristocratic seriousness. At certain points his voice goes down several octaves in expressions of disapproval. I would go back just to hear him say "enough", very, very low. I was impressed by how realistic the characters were in spite of having to act empty headed and silly while speaking some wonderful truths. This is a classic 3 Act Play with 2 fifteen minute intermissions, almost 3 hours long, and you don't want it to end.
Santino Fontana plays Algernon, witty and fey:
" The essence of romance is uncertainty".
"The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple."
"All women become like their mother. That is their tragedy. No man does, and that is his."
David Furr [I last saw him in Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe with Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin] plays John Worthing. It is the straight role and he plays it beautifully. At times forceful with Algernon, then romantic with Gwedolen, then solicitous with Lady Bracknell. He has the central role, the connection between these people and he as much as anyone makes the play work.
Other lines:
"If you are not long I will wait for you all my life."
One character says about her 3 volume novel:
"The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means."
Oscar Wilde never wrote another play.
He died in 1900 in Paris, destitute, at 46. He left a wife and 2 sons who changed their names when he was incarcerated.
His epitaph is from his great poem the Ballad of Reading Goal:
"And alien tears will fill for him
Pity's long-broken urn,
For his mourners will be outcast men,
And outcasts always mourn."
One web site had 23 pages of Oscar Wilde quotes. I'll end with this very long one from De Profundis:
"When first I was put in prison some people told me to try and forget who I was. It was ruinous advice. It is only by realizing who I am that I have found comfort of any kind. Now I am advised by others to try on my release to forget that I have ever been in a prison at all. I know that would be equally fatal. It would mean that I would always be haunted by an intolerable sense of disgrace, and that those things that are meant for me as much as for anybody else - the beauty of the sun and moon, the pageant of the seasons, the music of daybreak and the silence of great nights, the rain falling through the leaves, or the dew creeping over the grass and making it silver - would all be tainted for me, and lose their healing power, and their power of communicating joy. To regret one's own experiences is to arrest one's own development. To deny one's own experiences is to put a lie into the lips of one's own life. It is no less than a denial of the soul."
I saw "The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People" yesterday and I enjoyed it so much I may go back. It was first performed in 1895, and is considered his best work and one of the best farcical comedies of all time. Opening night was Wilde's greatest triumph but also the beginning of his end.
The Marquess of Queensberry had planned to disrupt the performance because of his son's involvement with Wilde. The Marquess was stopped that night, but they all soon ended up in court. Wilde sued Queensberry for libel because Queensberry's note was addressed to Oscar Wilde "posing as a sodomite". Wilde won a token amount in damages. But because of what came out at the first trial, Wilde was then tried for Gross Indecency With Men and convicted to 2 years of hard labor. Because of the scandal the play closed after 87 performances.
Lady Bracknell:
"Never speak disrespectfully of society, Algernon. Only people who can't get into it do that."
"I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit, touch it and the bloom is gone ... Fortunately in England ... education produces no effect whatsoever."
"To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune: to lose two looks like carelessness."
He is remarkable in the role. He\She says some of the funniest, farcical lines ever written and does it in perfect aristocratic seriousness. At certain points his voice goes down several octaves in expressions of disapproval. I would go back just to hear him say "enough", very, very low. I was impressed by how realistic the characters were in spite of having to act empty headed and silly while speaking some wonderful truths. This is a classic 3 Act Play with 2 fifteen minute intermissions, almost 3 hours long, and you don't want it to end.
Santino Fontana plays Algernon, witty and fey:
" The essence of romance is uncertainty".
"The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple."
"All women become like their mother. That is their tragedy. No man does, and that is his."
David Furr [I last saw him in Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe with Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin] plays John Worthing. It is the straight role and he plays it beautifully. At times forceful with Algernon, then romantic with Gwedolen, then solicitous with Lady Bracknell. He has the central role, the connection between these people and he as much as anyone makes the play work.
Other lines:
"If you are not long I will wait for you all my life."
One character says about her 3 volume novel:
"The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means."
Oscar Wilde never wrote another play.
He died in 1900 in Paris, destitute, at 46. He left a wife and 2 sons who changed their names when he was incarcerated.
His epitaph is from his great poem the Ballad of Reading Goal:
"And alien tears will fill for him
Pity's long-broken urn,
For his mourners will be outcast men,
And outcasts always mourn."
One web site had 23 pages of Oscar Wilde quotes. I'll end with this very long one from De Profundis:
"When first I was put in prison some people told me to try and forget who I was. It was ruinous advice. It is only by realizing who I am that I have found comfort of any kind. Now I am advised by others to try on my release to forget that I have ever been in a prison at all. I know that would be equally fatal. It would mean that I would always be haunted by an intolerable sense of disgrace, and that those things that are meant for me as much as for anybody else - the beauty of the sun and moon, the pageant of the seasons, the music of daybreak and the silence of great nights, the rain falling through the leaves, or the dew creeping over the grass and making it silver - would all be tainted for me, and lose their healing power, and their power of communicating joy. To regret one's own experiences is to arrest one's own development. To deny one's own experiences is to put a lie into the lips of one's own life. It is no less than a denial of the soul."
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
How many psychopaths can you name?
Jon Stewart on Monday's show had the author of "The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through The Madness Industry". He is Jon Ronson who also wrote "The Men Who Stare at Goats". He uses the Hare Psychopathy Checklist. It assigns a score of 0 if an item doesn't apply, 1 if it applies somewhat, and 2 if it fully applies. Some of the items are: superficial charm, grandiosity, need for stimulation, pathological lying, cunning and manipulation, lack of remorse, callousness, poor behavior control, impulsivity, denial, and failure to accept responsibility. Ronson has found that many political and business leaders pass the test and meet the criteria for being psychopaths. Ronson is a witty man and I'm sure some of what he says is tongue in cheek but not all of it. The one personal lesson he found from his research is that he could not be a psychopath; he's too anxious. Psychopaths don't get anxious. Housing bubble, what housing bubble?
Monday, May 16, 2011
Just down from St. Mark's
They were built by the architect William Schickel, 1850-1907, in the German round-arched neo-Romanesque style. They were completed in 1884 using brick and terracotta. He also built the church of St.Ignatius Loyola on Park Ave. and 84th Street and many other buildings throughout N. Y. State. Both of these buildings are listed on the National register of Historic Places. "The American Institute of Architects Guide to New York City" calls them "an architectural confection."
At the time of their construction there were 150,000 German immigrants in the east village also called Kleindeutschland or Little Germany.
The Library opened in 1884 and was the first branch of the NY Free Circulating Library. It is the oldest in the NY Library system.
The Clinic provided free medical care to residents of the east village and also training for medical students. It was originally called The German Poliklinik but had to change its name because of anti-German sentiment during the First World War.
The Library is named for Anna and Oswald Ottendorfer.
Anna Behr was born of a poor family in Germany in 1815 and immigrated to the States in 1837. Her first husband, Jacob Uhl, purchased the "New Yorker Staats-Zeitung" in 1845, a small German language weekly. With Anna's help it became a daily in 1852, the year Jacob died. In 1859 Anna married her editor Oswald Ottendorfer. She was the mother of six children with Jacob, none with Oswald. She was the owner and publisher of The New Yorker Staats-Zeitung and was very successful. Her estate at the time of her death was $3,000,000. In the 1870s the circulation of the paper was equal to The New York Tribune and The New York Times.
A word about The Tribune. It was founded by Horace Greeley in 1841, the 'go west young man' Horace Greeley, and was considered the leading newspaper in the United States. Greeley's foreign corespondent in Europe between 1851 and 1861 was Karl Marx. That Karl Marx.
Anna on the other hand was building what she felt was needed to uplift "both the body and mind of fellow Germans in the United States". Besides these buildings she built the Isabella Home for Aged Woman [named after her deceased daughter] a woman's wing at a city hospital, and numerous other kinds of aid to German citizens. So much so that she received a gold medal from Empress Augusta of Germany, and a plaque in the east village on an "architectural confection" that is landmarked for history. When she died her funeral was the largest for any woman in New York at that time.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
House of Worship
 | |
| St. Mark's in the Bowery |
It is the oldest site of continuous worship in NYC and the second oldest Church in Manhattan. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and a registered NYC Landmark. Formally the place of Peter Stuyvesant's Chapel and cemetery it was donated by his Grandson to be used as a site for a House of Worship. It was built in 1795 as an Episcopal Church. Although Peter Stuyvesant was a member of the Dutch Reformed Church, St. Mark's was for the money and propertied classes, the plutocrats of NYC. Almost all of it's members in it's first 25 years were slave owners.
Many of the immigrants were German and had been inspired by the revolution of 1848. Fifty Countries were involved both in Europe and Latin America. It was over by 1851 and the only real achievement was the abolition of serfdom in Austria and Hungary. Karl Marx published his "Communist Manifesto" in 1848.
When there was an economic slump in 1874 the Cabinetmakers Union, Cigarmakers Union, the German Free Trade Association and Socialists demonstrated in Tompkins Square Park to petition the government for more public works projects. They were jailed. There have been many protests in the area since and many people jailed. Revolutionary ideas and activism have been a part of the East Village and St. Mark's for over a century.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
War Horse
Lincoln Center is doing the National Theater of Great Britain's production of War Horse and I saw it on Tuesday. I enjoyed it while I was in the theater, but the more I thought about it afterwards the less I cared for it.
It's very "stirring". It has a large cast, with life size, life like puppets standing in for the horses. The puppets are manipulated by at least three people that I could see; there may have been more at different times. The puppet masters make the horse sounds and gestures needed at different points in the story and they use different sounds and gestures as appropriate to the story.
The play is about Albert, who is 16, and his horse Joey. Albert's father is an alcoholic and sells Joey for 100 pounds to the Calvary at the start of the First World War. Albert joins the Army to find Joey and after much battlefield action the two meet again and return home at the end of the war. That is pretty much it. It is dramatic in a Perils of Pauline sort of way. There are those moments when you think this is the end for Joey, but he goes on. His companion in the war is Topthorn, a beautiful black stud. Topthorn gets killed but Joey goes on. I hope I'm not negating all the great work that people do to recreate the war on the stage. It is excellent work. The audience loved it.
One million English Horses were taken to France, 62,000 returned. Barbed wire, machine guns, and tanks killed 8 million horses and 10 million soldiers. The U. S. had 300,000 casualties.
I've read "The Guns of August", "All Quiet on The Western Front", "Johnny Got His Gun", "Birdy".
I've seen "Paths of Glory", "Breaker Morant" and the movie of "All Quiet on The Western Front".
I also saw "Journey's End", a play from 1928 by R. C. Sheriff when it was revived on Broadway in 2007. It starred Hugh Darcy and Boyd Gaines. It was wonderful. Among the best things I've ever seen on a stage.
War Horse is a sentimental entertainment. The subject demands more.
I'm off to the L I Q store. Let me explain. I had this client in Brownsville, Brooklyn when I was at Model Cities. After I brought the "teen group" I was working with home she stopped me and asked if I would drive her to the L I Q store. I didn't know what she was talking about but she directed me to a liquor store that was missing the last 3 letters on its neon sign. Pure poetry! As he says in "Elling", a really good movie, she was "talking in pictures".
It's very "stirring". It has a large cast, with life size, life like puppets standing in for the horses. The puppets are manipulated by at least three people that I could see; there may have been more at different times. The puppet masters make the horse sounds and gestures needed at different points in the story and they use different sounds and gestures as appropriate to the story.
The play is about Albert, who is 16, and his horse Joey. Albert's father is an alcoholic and sells Joey for 100 pounds to the Calvary at the start of the First World War. Albert joins the Army to find Joey and after much battlefield action the two meet again and return home at the end of the war. That is pretty much it. It is dramatic in a Perils of Pauline sort of way. There are those moments when you think this is the end for Joey, but he goes on. His companion in the war is Topthorn, a beautiful black stud. Topthorn gets killed but Joey goes on. I hope I'm not negating all the great work that people do to recreate the war on the stage. It is excellent work. The audience loved it.
One million English Horses were taken to France, 62,000 returned. Barbed wire, machine guns, and tanks killed 8 million horses and 10 million soldiers. The U. S. had 300,000 casualties.
I've read "The Guns of August", "All Quiet on The Western Front", "Johnny Got His Gun", "Birdy".
I've seen "Paths of Glory", "Breaker Morant" and the movie of "All Quiet on The Western Front".
I also saw "Journey's End", a play from 1928 by R. C. Sheriff when it was revived on Broadway in 2007. It starred Hugh Darcy and Boyd Gaines. It was wonderful. Among the best things I've ever seen on a stage.
War Horse is a sentimental entertainment. The subject demands more.
I'm off to the L I Q store. Let me explain. I had this client in Brownsville, Brooklyn when I was at Model Cities. After I brought the "teen group" I was working with home she stopped me and asked if I would drive her to the L I Q store. I didn't know what she was talking about but she directed me to a liquor store that was missing the last 3 letters on its neon sign. Pure poetry! As he says in "Elling", a really good movie, she was "talking in pictures".
Sunday, May 8, 2011
House of Worship
On East 2nd Street between 2nd Ave. and 1st Ave. is The Cathedral of Holy Virgin Protection Orthodox Church in America. Orthodoxy came to America over the Bering Strait in the 19th Century. It moved down to the lower 48 with it's home base in San Francisco. In 1917 with the turmoil in Russia many immigrants came to New York and New York became the seat of Orthodoxy. The Cathedral is the center for the Greek, Russian, Serbian, Antiochian, Ukrainian, Carpatho Russian, Romanian, Bulgarian, and Albanian Orthodox churches of America in the metropolitan New York area.
It was built in 1867 by Josiah Cady, a well respected architect who founded the firm Cady, Berg & See, and worked on the American Museum of Natural History, The original Metropolitan Opera House, demolished in 1967 and many other great buildings in and around New York. But I don't think he added this?
A neon crucifix
The church is across the street from the NY Marble Cemetery. So the sign doesn't keep anybody up at night.
The church is across the street from the NY Marble Cemetery. So the sign doesn't keep anybody up at night.
Saturday, May 7, 2011
The Bowery
The name comes from the Dutch for farm. It is the oldest thoroughfare on Manhattan Island, initially a footpath for the native Lenape. As the city grew the Bowery was an early suburb for the affluent. Visit the Merchant House Museum on 4th Street just west of the Bowery.
But by the time of the Civil war it was known for entertainment halls, German beer Gardens, brothels and flop houses. Among the first gangs of New York were the Bowery Boys and it got so notorious that the area was one of the first to attract social reformers. The Bowery Mission opened in 1873 is still in operation.
In the "Gay Nineties" the Bowery became the place for numerous Gay and Lesbian Bars. Between the 1940's and the 1970's it was New York's "Skid Row" and the home to a new class of men labeled "The Bowery Bum".
Berenice Abbott took photos of that time. She worked for the Federal Art Project between 1935 and1938. The photos are available on line through the New York Public Library, thanks to the National Endowment for the Arts. There is also a great movie about the guys living on the Bowery called "On the Bowery". Made in 1957 it stars the men and women who lived there.
That is the Bowery I knew. I worked at the Men's Shelter from 1973 until 1976 as a caseworker and group worker. The organization was called the Manhattan Bowery Project. At that time people who were publicly intoxicated were sent to jail to "sleep it off". MBP was set up to be a more humane form of intervention. At MBP we had a van that went out on the street each day and if a man needed a doctor or wanted to get sober they were brought back to our facility. The men knew the van and our program by the time I was working there, and the guys in really bad shape would be brought by their buddies to the van. Most of the men lived in flop houses but some lived on the street.
It was my job along with other caseworkers, nurses, a doctor and a psychiatrist to intervene during their four day stay, and encourage some form of long term treatment. We had some resources that we could offer. They, of course, weren't Betty Ford clinics, but some guys took the opportunity and got off the Bowery. Years later you might see them again but most of the time you never knew if it took.
Two men I remember particularly because of their medical condition and their frequent admissions. One had a hernia the size of a football and the other had part of his skull removed. Neither one could stay sober long enough to get the treatment they needed. The street was a killer.
I learned while working there that wet brain is called Wernicker-Korsakoff syndrome. It causes memory loss and ataxia, a wide gait also known as "drunken sailor's gait". I learned not to take the elevator because lice can get on your clothes; watch your back climbing the four flights of stairs because you could get two black eyes as one of the nurses did; or get jumped from behind and mugged as I was.
I also worked at the Kenton Hotel, a men's shelter on the Bowery. It is also known as the Kenton flop house. The big building next to it is The Bowery Hotel , very much the new Bowery. A flop house was an open space like a loft that had plywood partitions to make a 10 foot by 6 foot "living space". Then they put chicken wire over the top as a roof and for access to fresh air; what there was of it. I think we had 160 cots on 3 floors. The men had to check out every day so the place could be cleaned and then we had to check them in every night. I'd report the number of empty beds to the main office and they would fill them up with guys who needed a bed and shower. The bathrooms and showers were communal and that was where the fights took place. Sometimes lovers quarrels. Sometimes they'd be "letting off steam", "collecting payment", etc.. While I was at the Kenton the city courts found New York City in violation of the law because of over crowding at Riker's Island prison. They released many from Rikers Island and sent them to the flop houses. It says something about flop houses that some didn't show up and the ones that did were known to us.
I also learned that I could find an affordable apartment in the East Village and I did. It was on Mott Street between Bleecker and Houston, $200 a month about a week's pay. Then it was called Little Italy; now it's called Nolita. My first apartment in Manhattan a five flight walk up, 2 rooms, bars on the windows and only broken into twice. An affordable apartment in NYC had other costs.
The Bowery today has multi-million dollar condos, a new art museum, and "fine dining" by world renowned chefs like Daniel Boulud. The NY Times and the East Villager note that when Avalon Bay Communities opened their first luxury apartment complex in 2006 with a Whole Foods Market on the Bowery gentrification had arrived. I thought it happened earlier, but it was definitely after the 1970's when I moved here.
But by the time of the Civil war it was known for entertainment halls, German beer Gardens, brothels and flop houses. Among the first gangs of New York were the Bowery Boys and it got so notorious that the area was one of the first to attract social reformers. The Bowery Mission opened in 1873 is still in operation.
In the "Gay Nineties" the Bowery became the place for numerous Gay and Lesbian Bars. Between the 1940's and the 1970's it was New York's "Skid Row" and the home to a new class of men labeled "The Bowery Bum".
Berenice Abbott took photos of that time. She worked for the Federal Art Project between 1935 and1938. The photos are available on line through the New York Public Library, thanks to the National Endowment for the Arts. There is also a great movie about the guys living on the Bowery called "On the Bowery". Made in 1957 it stars the men and women who lived there.
That is the Bowery I knew. I worked at the Men's Shelter from 1973 until 1976 as a caseworker and group worker. The organization was called the Manhattan Bowery Project. At that time people who were publicly intoxicated were sent to jail to "sleep it off". MBP was set up to be a more humane form of intervention. At MBP we had a van that went out on the street each day and if a man needed a doctor or wanted to get sober they were brought back to our facility. The men knew the van and our program by the time I was working there, and the guys in really bad shape would be brought by their buddies to the van. Most of the men lived in flop houses but some lived on the street.
It was my job along with other caseworkers, nurses, a doctor and a psychiatrist to intervene during their four day stay, and encourage some form of long term treatment. We had some resources that we could offer. They, of course, weren't Betty Ford clinics, but some guys took the opportunity and got off the Bowery. Years later you might see them again but most of the time you never knew if it took.
Two men I remember particularly because of their medical condition and their frequent admissions. One had a hernia the size of a football and the other had part of his skull removed. Neither one could stay sober long enough to get the treatment they needed. The street was a killer.
I learned while working there that wet brain is called Wernicker-Korsakoff syndrome. It causes memory loss and ataxia, a wide gait also known as "drunken sailor's gait". I learned not to take the elevator because lice can get on your clothes; watch your back climbing the four flights of stairs because you could get two black eyes as one of the nurses did; or get jumped from behind and mugged as I was.
I also learned that I could find an affordable apartment in the East Village and I did. It was on Mott Street between Bleecker and Houston, $200 a month about a week's pay. Then it was called Little Italy; now it's called Nolita. My first apartment in Manhattan a five flight walk up, 2 rooms, bars on the windows and only broken into twice. An affordable apartment in NYC had other costs.
The Bowery today has multi-million dollar condos, a new art museum, and "fine dining" by world renowned chefs like Daniel Boulud. The NY Times and the East Villager note that when Avalon Bay Communities opened their first luxury apartment complex in 2006 with a Whole Foods Market on the Bowery gentrification had arrived. I thought it happened earlier, but it was definitely after the 1970's when I moved here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)