Tag Archives: New York

I Will Be Content After This Drink

Posted on by

I just need this drink to be content. I Will Be Content After This DrinkJust that, the refreshment, the alcohol in my blood at the right percentage. I Will Be Content After This DrinkAh, 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. I Will Be Content After This DrinkMy 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.I Will Be Content After This Drink

Yes, everything is all right…although, now that I think about it, the Leafs could be more consistent, especially in the defensive end.

I Will Be Content After This DrinkAnd, 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. I Will Be Content After This DrinkAn 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 Will Be Content After This DrinkWhat? And the bar is closed? I Will Be Content After This DrinkNo, that’s not good.

The Last Word…Goddamn It!

Posted on by

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 Last Word...Goddamn It!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. The Last Word...Goddamn It!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.The Last Word...Goddamn It!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? The Last Word...Goddamn It!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.

The Impossibility of Freedom in a Country Founded on Slavery and Genocide

Posted on by

More Art has 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. The Impossibility of Freedom in a Country Founded on Slavery and GenocideWhile 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. The Impossibility of Freedom in a Country Founded on Slavery and GenocideMr. Scott performed the work before two hundred transfixed spectators, many of them school children, under the Manhattan Bridge in Brooklyn in early October. The Impossibility of Freedom in a Country Founded on Slavery and GenocideA 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?The Impossibility of Freedom in a Country Founded on Slavery and Genocide

Justice Breyer on “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”

Posted on by

I went to a movie with Justice Stephen Breyer last night. Justice Breyer on "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance"It was a classic: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, directed by John Ford, starring John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart and Lee Marvin. Justice Breyer on "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance"To my surprise, it wasn’t made in the heyday of the Western, but rather 1962, and so revealed a genre on the decline, stumbling between haphazard morality speeches, comic drunken bits and a camera that lingered too long over everything. Justice Breyer on "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance"Justice Breyer loved it though, praising its themes of justice which espoused the eternal need for “Achilles shield” behind lawyers and judges. Justice Breyer on "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance"He went on to reflect upon the process in the Supreme Court, how there were never raised voices, no matter the issue, and that the 5-4 decisions were always different combinations. He added that the experiment of the United States of America, although temporal, would carry on for many more years. (Everyone at the 92nd Street Y applauded that.)

Passion Through The Window

Posted on by

“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.

Stylish and Angry On the Subway

Posted on by

“What you lookin’ at? Who said you could look at me like that, sir?” He was young, maybe 25, with a stylish felt hat and two bright gold studs. “Who do you think you are? You know what would happen if you did that in the hood? I’ll tell you what would happen. First I’d get up in your face…”

Like everyone on the subway, Micaela and I hoped the stylish young man would stop yelling at the 60-year-old on the bench opposite.Stylish and Angry On the Subway

“And then I’d fuck your daughter, man–”

That was too much. “Okay, that’s enough.”

He flashed his eyes at me, trying to mock. “Let me make my point, man! I’m making my point!”

“You’re yelling profanities on the subway.”

He smirked, pulling one of his earplugs half out. “If we was in the hood, me and my goons would fuck you up.”

“Just listen to your music and leave everyone alone.”

“In the fuckin’ hood–”

“Enough of that.” Another man stepped in, and the stylish young man quieted down, only chuckling to himself.

An uneasy silence fell over the car. I told Micaela about being spied on at the conference and tried to make it funny.Stylish and Angry On the Subway

“I’m trying to make a point, man!” The stylish young man suddenly stood and glared at me with crazy eyes. “Let me tell you about the fucking hood, man.”

“People just want to go home after working.” It seemed I was stuck with him now. “They don’t want to be yelled at.”

“I don’t want to be paid by you, man! I don’t want your money.”

“You’re yelling profanities on the subway.”

“You don’t pay me, man! I don’t want your money!”

First one voice and then another spoke out. “Stop it! Nobody wants to hear you!”

“In the hood, I’d get my goons–”

“Nobody cares!” A distant voice snapped.

“I’m trying to make a point. I don’t need you people ganging up on me. I don’t need that. In the hood–”

The subway doors open behind me, and the stylish young man came past. He didn’t even look at me, at anybody, and instead to yelling on the platform. “I’m trying to make a point, man. You can’t fuckin’ look at me like that, man!”Stylish and Angry On the Subway

Occupy Wall Street’s Fourth Anniversary

Posted on by

Occupy Wall Street’s dramatic days seem much further back than four years ago. Occupy Wall Street's Fourth AnniversaryRemnants of the movement gathered on Broadway yesterday to promote “a flood on Wall Street”. They had banners and bears.
Occupy Wall Street's Fourth AnniversaryAnd lots of singing. Occupy Wall Street's Fourth AnniversaryAnd yelling at the powers that be.Occupy Wall Street's Fourth AnniversaryWhile the police watched and waited.

Occupy Wall Street's Fourth AnniversaryAnd made their arrests in the end.

This Is Our Youth: Inert and Amusing

Posted on by

“You think what you think and I think what I think and there’s no way we’re ever going to convince each other, so my suggestion is that we just drop it.” This Is Our Youth: Inert and AmusingThis is Our Youth, a play about spoiled Manhattan kids adrift in their inertia, opened on Broadway last week to some acclaim. Starring Michael Cera, Kieran Culkin and Tavi Gevinson, the story doesn’t go anywhere – something like Waiting for Godot but with more of an actual plot – but offers oddly astute and amusing moments. This Is Our Youth: Inert and AmusingCera’s deadpan delivery and Gevinson’s overwrought performance flesh out the writing of Kenneth Lonergan with an effect that is surprisingly both grating and thought-provoking. While the message isn’t a new one – bombastic youth pontificating on truth at each other – it does remind us of our own confused aspirations, something best paraphrased by King Oscar II of Sweden in 1923. This Is Our Youth: Inert and AmusingOne who has not been a socialist before 25 has no heart. If one remains one after 25, he has no head.

New York Street Artist Performs Mock Crucifixion at Jamaica Station

Posted on by

We were coming home from the airport last night, waiting for the E train at Jamaica Station, but the wait wasn’t bad. New York Street Artist Performs Mock Crucifixion at Jamaica StationA street artist, in a helmet horned with fiberglass, performed a crucifixion of sorts with odd moaning music in the background, as the passing people gaped and laughed. (Click to view!!)New York Street Artist Performs Mock Crucifixion at Jamaica StationThe message was unclear, except that street art helps pass the time.New York Street Artist Performs Mock Crucifixion at Jamaica Station

911: A Foundation to Remember

Posted on by
A Foundation to Remember

World Trade Center September 11, 2014

911 is an odd day in New York City. Police and fire fighters are out in full regalia, making the city look strong, more New York. But there is a weight, a weight people in the city have learned to bear. They move quietly, stoic, to their work, everyone already weary. The respect for the moment is intense and religious, as is the fear that something will happen again.

A Foundation to Remember

Construction of the slurry wall at the World Trade Cente, without which the city would have been flooded, was supervised by Arturo Lamberto Ressi di Cervia.