Dylan "Out of Time"

Last night I went to see the Bob Dylan Band at NY's Beacon Theater. It's the second time I have seen a Dylan show, the first was only last summer. My impression? That the show should be judged more as a piece of art rather than a musical performance. The set, including costumes, was all red and black, with some occasional maroon lighting and for a while a blue backdrop dotted with stars. The curtains were purposefully draped and occasionally changed following the flow of the performance.

Dylan sings unintelligably, in fits and starts, and rocks mechanically back in forth while playing piano (which aside from occasional harmonica is the only instrument he plays in the show), and so my guess he is making an artistic statement in other ways than simply his music. Not 'guess' - that's what he's doing. He is not trying to be the audience's friend up there on stage, as are many singer songwriters that I often see - he is a piece of work separate from the audience, and there simply to be observed, not bonded with.

I was wondering what it must be like for Dylan to be a performer in these days that are so unlike the halycon days of his youth, when he was one of the forces pushing our culture. In today's world he is simply a survivor, something out of place in the mainstream of society but being true to his art, he is adding to his legacy which will long outlive his own physical life. I'm glad I went, but also glad to have partaken in a Gray's Papaya recession special (2 dogs and a papaya drink) afterwards, walking in just as the opening chords of Sergeant Peppers blasted through the speakers.

I couldn't resist posting this. I guess Bush never watched Fahrenheit 911 or else he'd have been more sensitive to this. Did you notice the other photos from this event where they were walking down a path holding hands like second grade boys? 

Where are the Schools and Hospitals?

A big defense of the American mission in Iraq as it was going sour was that our soldiers were helping open schools and hospitals for the Iraqis. The American right wing propaganda machine would get newspapers and programs to show heartwarming photographs of American soldiers helping young Iraqi schoolchildren.

Well, it just struck me that I haven't seen any of that lately. I guess the propaganda tack now is that they have had 'free elections.' Of course that too is going the way of the school rebuilding as this new government seems as it might end up being a government in name only. As long as people are unable to go to work without the fear of being killed in a civil war that is only being exacerbated by the fact of our troops on the ground, government credibility will dwindle to zero, as will their ability to govern. Already I hear that cities outside of Baghdad are refusing to coordinate their policing with Baghdad.

In the end we'll have to go slithering out (remember Peace with Honor) as we discover that the world will not always tolerate our interference in the domestic affairs of other countries. This system of sovereignty was created in 1648 and unless the world all becomes one country - colonial affairs will be eventually doomed to failure, and the result will be failed states which will need caring and love rather than guns and war from the world community.

This was dessert! It was YUM! I'm still not hungry.... 

Jack and Susan the seder mavens. 

Last night I went with my girlfriend Susan and her daughter Chloe to her friend (and hopefully now mine) Jack Jacob's house for a Passover Seder. Jack is a college professor and a Yiddish scholar and much of the pretty short Seder liturgy was in Yiddish, which is different from the elongated Orthodox Jewish Hebrew seder of my father's brother that I am accustomed to (the most my own family ever did was buy a box of matzoh which my mom taught me to break into little pieces in put into coffee - which actually makes a tasty alternative to breakfast cereal). In any case, Jack's wife Susan made a wonderful meal some of which is pictured above....

Wow - yesterday I went to Town Hall to see a live performance (a repeat of which is being aired as I type on WNYC-AM here in NYC) of "A Prairie Home Companion" (that's Garrison Keillor in the photo). Not only was it great radio, but it was wonderful to watch in person. They operate like a smooth running machine, going from skit to musical performance to storytelling without a hitch. I was quite impressed with the professionalism as well as of course the talent. The guy who makes the sounds is great - he's quite an artist and now as I'm hearing it on the radio rather than watching him frantically make sounds and noises of birds and trains and clanking dishes with both his voice and various devices I appreciate it even better. The most amazing this was that Garrison Keillor looks exactly like a huge friend of mine from college whose name was Donald B. Kovaleski. He played the part of the policeman in the college production of Arsenic and Old Lace, but unfortunately I don't think he stayed in the arts.

I've been away and now I'm back. And now I'm leaving again. But just for dinner... more on my bird adventures later. The big word now is "International" - I'm international now that I've started advertising my business on the internet - it is very interesting.  

A Terrible Thought
As I was driving to work today an scary idea came into my head as I was waiting at a red light. It's quite possible that at some future time, maybe even in a couple of years, Clarence Thomas will seem liberal compared to the 2 or 3 new judges that will be placed by this administration.

I think we're doomed...
The New York Times > Washington > Frist Set to Join Religious Effort on Judicial Issue: "WASHINGTON, April 14 - As the Senate heads toward a showdown over the rules governing judicial confirmations, Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader, has agreed to join a handful of prominent Christian conservatives in a telecast portraying Democrats as 'against people of faith' for blocking President Bush's nominees."

What a Meal!

Tonight was Adrianne's birthday dinner at Peter Luger's Steakhouse in Williamsburg. We do this every year. Here Adrianne is being service their frizzed potatoes which sits alongside the traditional T-bone and spinach. We don't menu it - we have the same thing every year. Appetizer is tomato and onions topped with Lugers Special Sauce and dessert is apple strudel with schlag... this year we couldn't finish the schlag, I think I had a cholestoral high by then....

We coulda had pastrami!

After dinner I drove Adrianne to her friend's apartment on the lower east side and we passed by Katz's Deli, which almost made me wish I hadn't had that amazing steak! We did stop for a photo....

I Saw FREEBO!

After Katz's we walked down Ludlow Street and I noticed Freebo's name up on the sandwich board outside of the Living Room so I had to go in. Freebo was Bonnie Raitts great bass player for many years. He played a fretless bass with her, but tonight played both one of those acoustic basses with pickups - not the big thing but one that looks like an acoustic guitar but with only 4 big strings. He also played a regular guitar on a lot of songs that he wrote. He sang pretty well too - and for someone who played on Bonnie's early albums in the beginning of the 1970's, he looked pretty good. I know the picture's fuzzy but it's the best I could do. The Living Room, recently moved to Ludlow Street from Stanton, and actually had it's roots across from my former apartment (well, former by many years ago) on St. Marks Place. If you havent been to Ludlow Street recently, you would be surprised at how upscale it's become, except of course for good old Katz's.

Relevance in Education
Just this morning I wrote about the importance of relevancy in school and just tonight I started reading a book about Emile Durkheim - one of the social science great ones... and what is in the introduction but the following paragraph, talking about the writer of this book which explains Durkheim's four most important works. I shall repeat it here for it bears relevance to the discussion of relevancy.

"R.A. Jones is well known for his advocacy of the "historicist" position - that is, the examination of historical works in terms of the issues and debates of their own time. He has consistently argued against the "presentist" position of analyzing class works with reference to the intellectual problems of today. For as he emphasizes, the questions and debates, as well as the personalities and intellecutal politics, of a time change; and it is unfair and inappropriate to impose our present-day criteria on scholars of the past."

OK - I can agree with that - I love studying history in it's own context - I am a voracious purchaser of old bound volumes of magazines such as The Review of Reviews, and Harpers and the Nation... but then how is that type of study 'relevant?' Well, here is how, as the introduction continues...

"Jones' answer is that these masters were great sociological thinkers and understanding how they thought is, per se, an important task. By seeing how great masters dealt with the issues and problems of their times can broaden our own perspective and can, as Jones concludes, alert us to the "almost limitless possibilities of the sociological imagination."

Exactly. First one must understand the context, and then see how the great ones dealt with the world as they lived in it, and with that knowledge of how things were and how the great ones dealt with their world, you can appreciate today's world better and be better able to understand what one can do.

Informed Comment: "Ironies of Iraq today:

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is afraid that the new Shiite religious government in Iraq will purge ex-Baathists placed in the army and intelligence services by US ally Iyad Allawi, a long-term CIA asset. Rumsfeld said that competent persons should be retained. This is the same Rumsfeld whose own deputy, Douglas Feith, set up a grossly incompetent cell in the Pentagon to cherry-pick intelligence and produce a false image of Iraq as bristling with weapons of mass destruction and in league with al-Qaeda."

Madame De Stael
I just finished reading a book about this woman. She lived in and near Paris during the period around the French Revolution. More on this later, but the salient point for me is that I finally become aware of the exact circumstances of Napolean's coming to power, his impact on the world, and his demise. Spurred n large part because of economic reasons, France had a revolution overthrowing their monarch, installing a republic, there was much confusion and lawlessness for a period right after, Napoleon promised order and peace and was able to progressively take more power for himself and his family, and eventually overreached and in the end the monarchy was invited back.

I wish we had been taught history this way the first time. When I was in school the Vietnam War was the war of the day. Had it been explained that one could learn from the experience of Napolean to see how the Vietnam war proceeded in part because of a thirst for power by Lyndon Johnson, it would have made the study of history more relevant to a young rebel like myself. The big word was relevance, and in the end it was a correct idea and has become mainstream, but in those days someone like me was told that your poor grades were a result of not paying attention. It's college I'm talking about - there was too much competition for my time to spend hours on rote schoolwork. Relevance causes motivation - that's how to reform schools. Give kids a reason to learn and they will. And then maybe they'll think twice before supporting someone's ruthless grab for power just because they promise things.

Hello Bay Ridge!

This was taken last Sunday in Bay Ridge. Have I told you about Bay Ridge? I have lived in Brooklyn since 1983, when I purchased a co-op near my then place of work in Boerum Hill. Boerum Hill is the part of Brooklyn not far from Fulton Street, kind of between Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope. Back in those days it was recovering from probably twenty or so years of having the stately brownstone buildings becoming rooming houses, as was even parts of Park Slope in the 1960's and 70's. By early 1980 gentrification had begun and a new community was taking place that has culminated in the somewhat over-the-top multicultural elitish community it seems to be today.

During the next 20 years I knew of Bay Ridge only somewhat. One of my daughter's early birthday parties took place in a store on 3rd Avenue and about 75th Street - and I bought White Castle's for the party. I have just a foggy memory of there being a White Castle in Bay Ridge, I'm sure it's been torn down since then. Another place I liked to go in the young days of Adrianne (pictured below, you'll see she's kinda grown up since) was Chuck E Cheese, which was a little past Bay Ridge off of the Belt Parkway in what is called Ceaser's Bay Bazaar. I think I have the misspelling of Caesar correctly. That was the perfect combination of pizza and pinball, and in fact was a creation of Nolan Bushnell, who you may also remember as the founder of the Atari company and the game Pong.

My next meeting with Bay Ridge was in the 1990's, when I spent every Wednesday for 5 years in a bowling league at the bowling alley (Brooklyn hasn't that many) on 87th Street between 4th and 5th Avenues. Aside from bowling, my only contact with the neighborhood was parking and an occasional pizza down the street - I didn't really get to know Bay Ridge at all. Frankly, my impression of 'the Ridge' was not that of any place I, Mr. Hip & Cool, would care to live - me and Travolta had nuthin' in common. After Boerum Hill I spent a cup of coffee in Park Slope, an early cup of tea in Williamsburg, and about 10 years in Windsor Terrace.

I will continue the story of how I came to the Ridge next time.... now it's time to snuggle with my book on Social Science Research and drift off to the land of nod...l

Flowers and the pendulum that has stopped turning

First of all, in case you are anywhere near Brooklyn, we are at the time of year when the cherry trees at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden are starting to blossom. You can check the blossoming progress right here http://bbg.org/exp/cherrywatch/map.html And the big weekend when they have full ceremonies with Japanese music and dancers is the 30 of April and May 1st...

Secondly, I had dinner with a friend who is a professor of Political Science at the Graduate Center of the City of NY. Among the things we discussed were the recent controversy at Columbia University regarding the teaching of the middle east and charges of anti-semitism by some students. The report that emanated from Columbia pretty much said that what was going on was normal teaching and nothing to be alarmed about, but this report has been blasted by what are some pretty conservative groups, including David Horowitz, who publishes the online radical publication Frontpage (http://www.frontpagemag.com/index.asp ). My friend feels that even worse than this is Horowitz's push to have state legislatures require the teaching of creationism alongside Darwin's theory of evolution. I then asked him if he felt as I did, that if these currents continue in our country, we will sooner or later end up with two separate countries, one religious (the south, midwest) and the other secular (northeast - pretty much the original 13 colonies). He didn't agree with this, but simply stated that in his opinion we (the northeast way of thinking) will lose.

The United States of Christ

Here's today's news. The only part of this I appreciate is the last paragraph

"Bush talked about his time in Rome in extraordinarily personal terms, saying it strengthened his own belief in a 'living God.'

He remarked on how affected he was by the services, particularly the music and the sight of the plain casket being carried out with the sun pouring down on it. As he viewed the pope's body, Bush said, he felt 'very much at peace' and 'much more in touch with his spirit.'

'I knew the ceremony today would be majestic but I didn't realize how moved I would be by the service itself,' the president said. 'Today's ceremony, I bet you, was a reaffirmation for millions.'

That was true for him, Bush said.

'No doubt in my mind the Lord Christ was sent by the Almighty,' Bush said. 'No doubt.'

Bush said attending the funeral mass reminded him that faith is a long-term process, using a description of religious life common to evangelicals. 'Faith - it's a walk, not a moment, not a respite,' he said.

Bush was close to the front of the section reserved for world leaders, who were seated in alphabetical order - in French. The United States in French is Etats-Unis. A parallel section seated Catholic leaders. Bush sat on the aisle in the second row, next to his wife. Beside them were French President Jacques Chirac and his wife, Bernadette. The two presidents shook hands.

When Bush's face appeared on giant screen TVs showing the ceremony, many in the crowds outside St. Peter's Square booed and whistled."

Informed Comment: "On one hand, people were thrilled that Saddam's regime was overthrown. On the other hand, McDowell said, 'I don't know anybody that would tell you conditions are better. They are worse. Obviously, there were problems under the regime. But they could walk the streets. Their kids could go to school. They felt safe - as long as they didn't engage in politics.'"

I was lucky to be accompanied by my daughter Adrianne in the East Village on this great spring day! 

Oh, I forgot to mention, but Tompkins Park was featuring - not bums, not conga drums, not Union rallies - but dog yoga! 

Today was a great spring day - and so I walked around the East Village and this garden on 6 and B is marvelous! 

OK, here's another great lead about our current government, this one from MSNBC

"WASHINGTON - The most significant news to emerge from Tuesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the USA Patriot Act was that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is willing to negotiate with members of Congress on revising the law."

It's like the press is amazed when something happens that less than dictatorial.... amazing.

In case I forget, let me express right here that semiotics is the study of signs. Not only street signs, but many forms of non literal communication. I have much to learn about this, but I do vow that someday I will read a book by Umberto Eco on this. If you have a recommendation, by all means share.

One quote from a NY Times article says all that needs to be said about our Orwellian government:

"WASHINGTON, April 3 - A remarkable thing happened here last week: the Environmental Protection Agency announced a set of guidelines, and environmental groups were largely complimentary in response. "

need any more be said about this unfortunate state of governing we are presently subject to....

All weekend I've been hearing features on the radio discussing the current Supreme Court case concerting the sharing of music and movie files over the internet. This reminds me of similar brou haha about copy protection in the software industry as it came up in the 1980's. The one thing that I never heard anyone mention, back then and now, is that if companys want people to pay for their stuff, even though the digital files are easily shared, they ought to provide extra value for the paid service. I think Microsoft has somewhat figured this out - in competing with Google's practive of giving away software products, such as Picasa and this bLog program, Microsoft has been giving away lots of patches and even some worthwhile programs such as their new anti-spyware program. There is however, one proviso - and that is that they check to make sure that your operating system has been legitimatly registered and paid for, otherwise they refuse you the extra stuff. In other words, they are giving you a real REASON to pay, even though it may be possible to not pay.

Same thing should be with music and movies. Let the purchasers get access to extra goodies, like cd cases and liner notes and perhaps some extra online tracks that you can only get by registering the bought copy of the cd - and with movies, maybe let legitimate purchasers of movies get a free goodie - like maybe a movie star autograph, or maybe a lifetime upgrade certificate, meaning that as technology changes they will throw you a free version of the future media. In other words, you are buying a true license. Which would mean that all the people who bought the original Beatles albums would get an upgrade package through cassettes, cd's and mp3's....

You know, we all have to work for our money.....

Well, today is April, it's not quite raining YET... what came out today were the monthly job reports and measure of industry and inflation, and the markets are a little mixed up trying to figure out what to make of it all - less jobs than expected, business middling, and inflation rising.

I think the reason for this questioning is that we are on the verge of the same kind of stagflation we faced in the 1970's - rising unemployment mixed with inflation - two things that normally don't go together - but sooner or later the combination of higher commodity prices with unbalanced trade and deficit government spending can lead to nothing else but stagflation.

You can't have your cake and eat it too should be the name for America in the 21st century....