Bogdan Dico’s icon looked at me like an ATM machine, the bald head gleaming.I was lucky and won a big hand. Everybody was surprised by that, except Bogdan. He knew that I would make a wrong move. I rested on my laurels and got distracted by drink and then the people walking past. And then I saw that Bogdan had taken two players out. There were only two of us left. I had an Ace-Eight, and the River produced a matching Ace. Bogdan beat me on that hand. He eliminated the other player and had 80% of the chips.
And then I took Bogdan Dico down. I had the cards, and he never believed it. It ended with a straight. We were both stunned by that. I stared at that glorious little Nine of Clubs until the screen changed for the next game.
I just need this drink to be content. Just that, the refreshment, the alcohol in my blood at the right percentage. Ah, yes…there! I am content, genuinely and truly so.
It’s nice to feel like this, to have everything set, the holidays approaching, the weather cool and crisp, all emails answered, assignments managed, my work going fine. My Bad Side will be published one day, The Ark is finally coming together, and the first draft of Glenayr is almost there. Friends and family are healthy – Micaela happy and More Art prospering – and the Leafs are actually winning.
Yes, everything is all right…although, now that I think about it, the Leafs could be more consistent, especially in the defensive end.
And, well, my brother won’t talk to me, and More Art could use more grant money. Glenayr lacks a clear antagonist, and, to be honest, The Ark will be impossible to finish. An email from Fedex? Claim rejected? Damn it, I forgot to call my doctor, and I have to set up the website for next week. Yeah, and it’s going to snow.
I hear what you’re saying. I do. I honestly understand. But here’s the thing. You need to listen to me. Just listen. And don’t say anything back. Okay? Are you listening? Good. The first thing is that I appreciate you trying to reach out, but you need to respect my personal space. And spare me the guise of thanking me for making the effort. It just doesn’t ring true. I am not interested in a phony relationship without attempting to solve our real problems. It is my belief that you and I can’t solve our issues alone. It isn’t a matter of perception; it’s just straight-forward reasoning. It’s too painful to interact with you in a deep way. You cause me nothing but pain.You said it yourself. You don’t trust me and therefore cannot open up. And so, by your own admission, your suggestion is doomed to failure, right? And if you don’t like what I have to say, don’t ever call or email me again! Don’t worry, I won’t contact you first.
Make no bones about it, Barrack Obama is the greatest President of the United States in the past 60 years. I say this despite the anti-Obama media barrage, the ceaseless mud slung by his political opponents and the embittered populace who have lost faith in a man who was once their desperate icon for hope. The truth is that President Obama was set up to fail. The ridiculous expectations dumped on him demanded that he walk on water and then turn that into wine; anything less would be a failure. That’s the way everyone wanted it. It gave them a perfect scapegoat for unemployment, international strife, indeed whatever plague or natural disaster arose.
Hurricane Sandy, Battery park Tunnel, 2012
All anyone has to say is, “Obama’s let us down again,” and there is applause. This despite the facts, which are these:
a. Obama passed a bill that actually made health care more affordable, an achievement no other president has been able to achieve in the face of a sick political culture which believes in money more than well being.
b. Obama has reduced America’s military presence in the world, despite a war-hungry opposition, and worked to develop coalitions with anyone who will listen.
c. The economy has steadily improved every year under his administration, to where the financial markets now sit at record highs.
d. Obama has consistently endorsed social policies which promote understanding and acceptance of others, such as gay marriage. And although he has yet to succeed in the battle for gun control, he has stood firm for the reduction of automatic weapons.
e. Obama acknowledges the need to confront climate change and looks ready to put this issue at the top of his agenda in his final two years.
It’s actually surprising that there hasn’t been even more hate against the president. After all, not only has he directly challenged the establishment – and played golf with friends – but there is also the insidious problem this country has with skin color.
As high-minded as it might have sounded to have a black guy as president, there are some, a lot actually, that are tired of the idea and want to go back to way things were, everyone knowing their place, that kind of thing. The George Zimmerman verdict, unrest in Ferguson and choke-hold death of Eric Garner all speak to the fact that this is not going away any time soon.. Nevertheless, the elections are just a couple of days away, and as much as everyone seems to want to distance themselves from this leader of our time, only time will tell how bad a mistake it turns out they all made.
More Arthas produced another fascinating public work of art in New York City: The Impossibility of Freedom in a Country Founded on Slavery and Genocide, conceived and performed by Dread Scott. While the title might be a mouthful, so is the concept, an idea that no one seems to want to accept or seriously consider beyond the platitudes spat in cross-fire talking-head vents. Mr. Scott performed the work before two hundred transfixed spectators, many of them school children, under the Manhattan Bridge in Brooklyn in early October. A video of the work, recently released by More Art and available here, is worth viewing. Neither cute nor clever, it asks us instead what it is that we are doing with our lives in this world we cherish as free?
“What system?” He was small and intense, his square jaw set.
“Apple.” The other guy was bigger and shaggier with glasses and an absent-minded smile.
“Platform?” He drank his Hefeweizen in gulps.
“Apps mostly.” He sipped, shrugging slightly, almost like a Teddy Bear.
I didn’t know them – they were friends of an acquaintance I had recently made – and while waiting for the conversation to make a better turn, looked between them, out the tavern window, at a couple who had suddenly engaged in a kiss. There were no tongues, no sloppy drunkenness, but a constant embrace of their lips.He had his hands on her face, bringing her closer in. And she acquiesced.
“Broadband,” the intense one asserted.
“Protocol?” The Teddy Bear inquired.
The couple was apart, as suddenly as they had started, looking into each other’s eyes, he a little more desperately, beseeching for her to understand, and she acquiescing to that.
“The job isn’t on the clock.”
“When it’s done, it’s done.”
They stood on the sidewalk, talking casually, laughing, and held their cigarillos like lovers do.
That’s when I noticed that my new acquaintances had gone quiet, both of them looking at me and waiting for me to say something too.
Kris Salmanis installed an upside down tree that swung back and forth in the Latvian Pavilion at the 2013 Venice Biennale.
Carnivalesque and thrilling on first view, the work entitled North by Northwest, eventually becomes macabre, offering only mechanical doom.
Jana Winderen’ installation Dive – staged this August in New York City’s normally congested Park Avenue Tunnel – also had an initial amusement park feel.The multi-layered recordings of marine animals from rivers, lakes and oceans from around the world creates a trance-like sound-scape that is intensely thought-provoking.
Indeed it occurred to me in both venues that, no matter how hard we try to wipe everything out, life on our planet just keeps hanging in.
Occupy Wall Street’s dramatic days seem much further back than four years ago. Remnants of the movement gathered on Broadway yesterday to promote “a flood on Wall Street”. They had banners and bears. And lots of singing. And yelling at the powers that be.While the police watched and waited.
The People’s Climate March was crowded, the New York Times reporting 311,000 people in attendance, a walking mass stretching from 86th to 34th Street and many avenues in between. The message was clear. The best moment of the event was the silence at 12:58, a full two minutes, no speaking, no one at all, the only sound a helicopter hovering overhead.Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves throughout the five-hour tour. Even if many realized how futile it all may be.
I was lucky and won a big hand. Everybody was surprised by that, except Bogdan. He knew that I would make a wrong move. I rested on my laurels and got distracted by drink and then the people walking past. 
And then I saw that Bogdan had taken two players out. There were only two of us left. I had an Ace-Eight, and the River produced a matching Ace. Bogdan beat me on that hand. He eliminated the other player and had 80% of the chips.
