Sunday, March 30, 2008

Out Among the Brooklyn Bloggers: "But Can It Core A Apple ?"

Usually, I am at work, or spending time with my Better Half and kids, or otherwise taking Care of the Business of Life. Somehow, around the edges for the past year or so, I have found time , or actually made time, to get into my blog. I suppose different people get different things out of their blog. Although all bloggers are writers, I think all bloggers view their project with a different sense of purpose and as presenting a different persona. Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn has a always reflected my writerly interests-- literary, with Brooklyn as its overarching theme, but with the process of blogging itself always as its pole pointing true north. Blogging to me means sitting down, or actually, as I am now, kneeling on the floor, with the laptop on a table, in order to express something that's caught my attention whether internally or out there in the world..

So it was really interesting to have the opportunity to get out among the Bloggers this week. I had attended a great blogade before, hosted by Rob of Luna Park Gazette and met many bloggers. But his week I had the chance to meet at the Sidecar on 5th avenue for the first time Louise Crawford, of Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn, which, as I have said on other occasions, seems to me is the "Bloggo di Tutti Bloggi" of Brownstone Brooklyn Blogs. LC's was the first blog to use my stuff and we have exchanged emails and it so it was so interesting to finally meet Louise and Hugh Crawford in person, say hello, and exchange notes, finally realizing that each of us had a kid who knew the other from middle school. The event was co-hosted by Brooklyn Based, and was a great chance to get out from behind the computer and meet the folks behind the blogs..

Then, the Blue Barn Video shoot for the upcoming blogfest was another opportunity to meet other bloggers whose sites I enjoy-- Found in Brooklyn, Pardon Me for Asking, Brooklynometry. David Castillo and the crew at Blue Barn were very cordial and extremely pro. I only pray that I did not bite off more than I could chew by agreeing to appear since I fear that I came off, as we say in the Italian American parlance, as a complete "jooch". The questions were posed fast and furious. I groped for words. Anything I thought of in advance that I might say about Blogging and Place flew out of my head to the four winds. I was only glad I hadn't been asked what sounded like to me the question of the day: "What Do You Wear When You are Blogging". I like to think I would have answered "Software" but more likely I would have answered "Hamanah-hamanah-hamanah" like Ralph Kramden on the Honeymooners: "I'm the Chef o' Da Future"...I'm the Chef o'Da Future!" On HD, everyone can see you cringe. It was a lot of fun just as it was a relief to get back to real life and the safety of Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn. See you at Blogfest.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Coda: Fiske Terrace/Midwood Park Designated as Landmark by LPC

Fred Baer, former President of the Fiske Terrace Association, and among the prime movers throughout this designation process, sent this email to area residents/FTA members regarding the Landmark Preservation Commission's designation of the Fiske Terrace and Midwood Park neighborhoods as Landmark Historic Districts:


March 19, 2008

Yesterday we witnessed a historic event for our neighborhood: The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission formally designated the Fiske Terrace/Midwood Park Historic District. The Commission members’ commentary this morning was extremely complimentary towards our neighborhood, and reflected their admiration for how well kept our homes are and how well we have maintained the original character of our neighborhood.

Now that we are officially and landmarked district, there will certainly be many questions that we all as homeowners will have as to what we can and cannot do, and how and when we will need approval by the Landmarks Preservation Commission to make changes to our homes.

There is a great deal of information on the Landmarks Preservation Commission website: http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/html/home/home.shtml, or you can go to www.nyc.gov and click on the Landmarks button.

Within the site, there is a button on the left hand column called “Working with Landmarks.” On the next page, at the bottom of the list there is a section entitled “Perform Work on a Landmarked Property.” You can then go to whatever section might answer your question(s). There is also a phone number to call for further information. There are also other sections of the website (e.g. FAQ’s etc.) with other useful information.

We strongly encourage you to use the Landmarks Preservation Commission website and contact phone numbers to get answers to your questions before you commit to work on your houses. This can save you problems later if it turns out you needed a Landmarks permit for the work.

Also, within 1-2 weeks, the Landmarks Preservation Commission website will display the Fiske Terrace/Midwood Park designation report, with a great deal of detail on the history and architectural details of our neighborhood, with photos of many of our homes. It makes for fascinating reading.

As spring approaches and our neighborhood begins to bloom, we can be confident that the environment we all chose when we bought our homes here, will be preserved.

Fred Baer

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Brooklyn Authors: Sol Yurick & Anticipation of the Night

A fire sale at Bear Stearns. Markets in turmoil. Sub-prime disasters. IRAs and TDAs drained overnight. Crises of modern times but forseen, at least in its potentiality and broadest strokes, by Brooklyn author Sol Yurick. I remember reading Behold Metatron, the Recording Angel, an essay by Brooklyn author Sol Yurick, published by Autonomedia (Foreign Agents Press) back in 1985. I think I picked up my copy in Park Slope's Community Books, back in the day. Yurick also is the author of The Warriors, made into a classic, apocalyptic gang film, as well as the excellent novels Fertig, The Bag, Someone Just Like You, Richard A. and Confession, and other articles and essays.

Behold Metatron is heavy stuff, relentlessly visionary, the material problem seen through a lens of advanced capitalism and electronic philosophy. Picture Wired Magazine crossed with Fortune Magazine but edited by William Blake. Metaphysics, economics, art and intellect of an high order, coalescing into an interpretation of an emerging electronic universe. Forget Al Gore, perhaps Mr. Yurick conceptualized, if not anticipated, the Internet, globalization, the flow of information and data across galaxies of cable and wireless realms, sometimes directed, sometimes chaotic, but always having impact.

Mr. Yurick wrote: "...the old philosopher's stone could convert base metals into gold. now humans, real estate, social relations are converted into electronic signs carried in an electronic plasma. the dream of magical controll has never been exorcised. perhaps, after all, modern capitalism is a great factory for the production of angels."

In 1988, the journal Social Text published Mr. Yurick's The Destiny Algorithm which appeared to further mine the cybernetic/human nexus.

Globalization and the 'net got its philosophic underprinnings where else, Brooklyn NY.

Mr. Yurick was born in 1925; according to wikipedia:

"He enlisted during World War 2, where he trained as a surgical technician. He studied literature at NYU after the war. After graduation, he took a job with the City of New York's department of welfare as a social investigator, a job he held until the early 1960s, when he took up writing full time. He was involved in Stuents for a Democratic Society and the anti-war movement at this time.
His first novel, The Warriors, appeared in 1965. It combined a classical Greek story, Anabasis (Xenophon), with a fictional account of gang wars in New York City. It inspired the 1979 film of the same name. His other works include: Fertig (1966), The Bag (1968), Someone Just Like You (1972), "An Island Death, (1976), Richard A (1981), Behold Metatron, the Recording Angel (1985), Confession (1999). Mr. Yurick is still an active writer. At the present time Yurick is working on a project which analyzes all possible texts from a Marxist, evolutionist perspective."

In an item in the New York Times in 2005, Mr. Yurick offered a personal geo-biography and in doing so, gave context to the Brooklyn surreal estate of the Now:

NY TIMES

June 19, 2005
VOICES; 'Willy-Nilly, Part of a Great Social Movement'
By SOL YURICK
DURING the Depression, when I was a child, my parents moved 15 times, more or less in the same area of the Bronx. When I went to college, I moved to Manhattan, 13th Street near Eighth Avenue.

The next move was to Brooklyn Heights. Why there? All I can remember is that the rents were cheap. It was there I met my wife, who herself was fleeing the Bronx.

Then the father of a friend of mine who was a landlord in Park Slope offered us three spacious rooms for $100 a month. The great migration to Park Slope had not yet begun.

We moved once, from President Street to Garfield Place. The migration began. Rents went up. We fled rising rents to the other side of Prospect Park -- Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, a mostly black and Caribbean neighborhood. And, of course, the migration of the barbarian gentry hordes has followed us.

When we think we are being most individualistic in our choices, we are, willy-nilly, part of a great social movement. What drove the great social migrations westward across the plains of Europe, what drove the aboriginal settlers of Australia and the Americas eastward, what drove the Norsemen, is the same thing that drives us all: shrinking space and increased rents.


Sol Yurick's novels include "The Warriors."


--Brooklyn Beat

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Spring (Break) Comes to Flatbush

I left my office at midday to make the solo drive up the NYS Thruway to fetch our oldest daughter home from college for spring break. I fairly flew up from Boerum/Adams Street, to the Brooklyn Bridge, the FDR, the Willis Avenue Bridge to the Deegan, to the Thruway. I think I listened to "Love and Theft" at least three times.

Although the snow was gone from Rockland and Ulster Counties, ice still clung to some of the rocky outcroppings along the highway. Despite the bright sun, it was cold and clear.

I arrived at the campus, we loaded the car, stopped at the natural foods market for some snacks and got a couple of coffees at Starbucks. My daughter always gets iced coffee, no matter the season.

She offered to drive home which was great. I offered to hook up her Ipod to the car's sound system but she said, no why don't I drive and you DJ. But we started chatting and somehow never got around to the music. College life, family tales, future plans, speculations on why some colleges scheduled spring break this week (think college students + St Patricks Day + beer), highway versus city driving, campus discussions and conflict over Israel and the Palestinians. She said she only became aware of the Governor Spitzer issue when one of her professors mentioned it. Although the campus is relatively close to Albany, there was not a lot of discussion or awareness of it until he had actually resigned. My daughter is an international relations major (& Italian studies minor). She was pleased to report that a Palestinian classmate had written her name out in Arabic, and she had written her friend's name in Hebrew to their mutual amusement.

Suddenly, the skyline appeared in the Bronx and we were back in New York City. I had looked forward to this mini-journey and it proved to be some wonderful time, on the road, with my daughter (who will be 20 on March 17).

When we drove down East 17th street and turned onto our block, it was quiet and good to be home. A Thursday road trip, it was a nice punctuation, more of a comma, or an elipsis at the end of the week, promising a nice Friday, despite another day at the office, before a weekend of longer days and more sun. But there was more.

When we pulled up and my daughter maneuvered the car into the garage, there it was, right in front of our home, the first crocus had appeared. Bathed in these first few days of long sun, spring had made its appearance in Fiske Terrace. Yellow spikes, unmistakable, the primacy of nature and the promise of life in its many cycles. Promising in a few short weeks the white and pink blossoms of our cherry tree and then the prime green of the Japanese maple. Spring had made its way to Flatbush in time for spring break. And not a moment too soon.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

NYS Politics: A Brand New Day

Governor David Paterson: Is New York the coolest state or what ? He is the right person in the right place at the right time. Let's "hope" that he can offer Change. Hope. Vision. Now it's time for all elected officials to Do the Right Thing in service of the people of this great state with regard to the budget, economic development upstate, education, and other critical issues that the state faces.

Governor Paterson will establish his own policy and goals. Logically, hopefully, some of those would include some of former Governor Spitzer's intended reforms and environmental plans. But it is clearly time to move ahead in a spirit of -- if not bipartisanship--cooperation and mutual respect. The era of the politics of personal destruction in New York State at least has to end now. This is one of those moments which offers an enormous opportunity. Let's hope neither party, nor the people of this State, squander it.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Politics: "Honey, I Shrunk My Mandate" or "Client 9 from Outer Space"

Just when we thought that the Democratic Presidential Primaries couldn't get any more excruciating we have the Death Watch over the Governor Eliot Spitzer resignation..

It is fair to say that even many of his supporters and admirers were uncomfortable with his use of his enormous political mandate. It seemed that he was incapable of governing, could not accomplish his State policy initiatives since he felt that he could only use his electoral mandate as a cudgel to attempt to beat his opponents into submission, could not work things out with Sheldon Silver of the Assembly or Joe Bruno of the State Senate. Mediation, political wrangling, negotiation clearly did not seem to be part of his personal toolkit. His way or the highway. Who did he think he was, Billionaire Mayor Mike Bloomberg ? Even Mayor Mike seems to be squeaky clean by comparison, or at least has the sense to cover his tracks really, really well.

There seemed hope in recent weeks that the Governor was in the process of toning down his approach, and that he would try something new in his second year of office. But now in retrospect, perhaps he was just keeping his head down, since he knew the Feds were circling. He has not only wasted his mandate but lost the tie breaking vote for the Dems that Lt Governor David Paterson potentially held in the State Senate. Press accounts suggest that the Lt Governor has reached out to GOP elected offiials and expressed a willingness to start fresh. Everyone in the state needs to support him and give him the benefit of the doubt before the knives are unsheathed. He may not be the Sheriff of Wall Street, but perhaps he can offer "hope" in New York, which we seem sorely in need of....

One could sense in his first year that there was something awry in the Spitzer administration. Perhaps, down deep, the Governor realized that he could not change himself, could not actually be a true leader, could not work across party lines to achieve his goals. He was a hard charger who seemed to have the world at his feet. How could he fail? So he unwittingly derailed his elected office, his administration, and his personal life, rather than fail.

There are no political enemies to blame here. "The fault lies not in our stars/but in ourselves." The watch continues.

Monday, March 10, 2008

Politics: Governor Spitzer to Resign ?

Hard ball politics. If Governor Spitzer was involved with a prostitution ring, he broke the law. That no doubt would be overshadowed by the hypocrisy of "the Sheriff of Wall Street" having personal pecadilloes and crimes and misdemeanors of his own uncovered. Was this something that will prove to have been known in Albany, and did his bare knuckle battle with Joseph Bruno lead someone to make this public ? It doesn't matter. Politics is a tough tough game. Any weakness will be exploited. Any flaw will glint like a polished diamond in the glare of the 24/7 news cycle. The delay in the Governors' statement suggests a resignation could be in the works. As Governor who delcared he was going to clean things up in Albany and NY State, how do you work your way back from this ? Somethings cannot be repaired. This may be an example of that.

Friday, March 7, 2008

Battle Tested versus Medium Cool

This amazing presidential campaign has shifted a little bit again. Although it appears that the breakneck momentum that Senator Obama displayed in February has been tempered a bit, the pundits are still pondering the math, and now no one is prepared to claim that they can see through their crystal balls to confidently predict the outcome of the Democratic nomination. Maybe Senator Obama with the combined hopes of his supporters will pull it all together before the Primary. Maybe not. But this is politics and stranger things have happened.

A few short months ago, who thought that Senator McCain would be the Last Man Standing in that crowded field of Republican White Guys.

It seems safe to assume that should Senator Obama receive the Democratic nomination, he and his so far invisible surrogates need to be prepared to fight tirelessly, endlessly, and fiercely in the regular campaign. Frankly, just like Hillary Rodham Clinton, has been willing to fight. Politics is a struggle. Senator Obama to the general public has not outlined a broad platform. He hasn't presented himeslf as a Man With A Plan. Rather, he is portrayed as a gentle visionary, zen cool, suggesting that we should all just love one another, work together for Change, hope and A Better America, and end the politics of personal destruction. This is not said to be facetious. He presents a very appealing image. However, and perhaps it is generational, but I can't yet see a shift away from traditional political campaigning, including hurling the negatives, or, its logical conclusion, the politics of personal destruction.

But should Senator Obama be the candidate and adopt this posture, there is no certainty that the Republicans will roll over and agree to play by the same game rules. (Think Ann Coulter.) When McCain passed the required delegate count, and claimed the G.O.P. mantle, his audience was ecstatic and you could sense that they were feeling empowered and now have the Fire in the Belly required to wage political war which is the American Way.

While Ms Rodham Clinton has seemed to assemble some concrete plans, especially in the health care realm, she too seems careful in not presenting too much information too soon. But what she has presented is her willingness and ability to be a strong candidate and a fighter. In traditional Democratic politics, that includes the willingness to fight the GOP to the end to secure victory.

If Senator Obama wins, perhaps his hallmark will be that coolness, that desire to end political rancor. The question is whether independents will respond to him rather than Senator McCain in sufficient numbers to put him over the top.

In order to ensure victory, we can't assume that the election will reflect anything other than traditional American politics.

Senator McCain projects a certain coolness as well, but it is the coolness of an elder statesman, who has seen, and suffered in, actual battle, and is now the standard bearer for his political party in a changing political climate. But I think we can safely assume that his surrogates will be brutal, both in direct challenge and in sub rosa investigations, leaks, etc., in an effort to breakthrough Senator Obama's cool image.

The major risk is that in electing Senator Obama the Democrats will be suggesting that yes, it will be a War of Ideas. I am sure that Senator Rodham Clinton and former President Bill Clinton and all of their supporters would be out there fighting the GOP should Senator Obama be the candidate. At that point, however, will Senator Obama ask the only Democrats who have been successful in winning an election since Jimmy Carter to pull their punches ? Or will he take the Gandhian approach and say "I would rather lose this election and sacrifice my political party than defeat the Republicans by any means necessary? If through some unforeseen political manuevering, Senator Rodham Clinton gets the nomintion, will he and his supporters in fact not support her in hopes of waiting out the next election ?

Lots of interesting questions. The American political system is based on conflict, intense partisanship, personality, always has. It is no coincidence that there are so many "war" metaphors in the political argot. It seems that both parties would be required to buy into the change of the rules of the game. This has not yet happened.

The next months and the upcoming election promises to be as perplexing, difficult to foresee, and emotionally wrenching as ever.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Modern Times: Husbands + Housework = Yahoo !

C'mon married/partnered guys, you do believe in equality and sharing of responsibility on the home front based on Principle and those Modern Core Values, right ? Well, according to research reported in the Associated Press, there may be more going on below the surface. You decide. Read on:

March 6, 2008
Men Who Do Housework May Get More Sex
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 7:46 a.m. ET

NEW YORK (AP) -- American men still don't pull their weight when it comes to housework and child care, but collectively they're not the slackers they used to be. The average dad has gradually been getting better about picking himself up off the sofa and pitching in, according to a new report in which a psychologist suggests the payoff for doing more chores could be more sex.

The report, released Thursday by the Council on Contemporary Families, summarizes several recent studies on family dynamics. One found that men's contribution to housework had doubled over the past four decades; another found they tripled the time spent on child care over that span.

''More couples are sharing family tasks than ever before, and the movement toward sharing has been especially significant for full-time dual-earner couples,'' the report says. ''Men and women may not be fully equal yet, but the rules of the game have been profoundly and irreversibly changed.''

Some couples have forged partnerships they consider fully equitable.

''We'll both talk about how we're so lucky to have someone who does more than their share,'' said Mary Melchoir, a Washington-based fundraiser for the National Organization for Women, who -- like her lawyer husband -- works full-time while raising 6-year-old triplets.

''He's the one who makes breakfast and folds the laundry,'' said Melchoir, 47. ''I'm the one who fixes things around the house.''

Joshua Coleman, a San Francisco-area psychologist and author of ''The Lazy Husband: How to Get Men to Do More Parenting and Housework,'' said equitable sharing of housework can lead to a happier marriage and more frequent sex.

''If a guy does housework, it looks to the woman like he really cares about her -- he's not treating her like a servant,'' said Coleman, who is affiliated with the Council on Contemporary Families. ''And if a woman feels stressed out because the house is a mess and the guy's sitting on the couch while she's vacuuming, that's not going to put her in the mood.''

The report's co-authors, sociologists Scott Coltrane of the University of California, Riverside and Oriel Sullivan of Ben Gurion University, said they were addressing a perception that women's gains in the workplace were not being matched by gains at home.

''The typical punch line of many news stories has been that even though women are working longer hours on the job and cutting back their own housework, men are not picking up the slack,'' Coltrane and Sullivan wrote.

They said this perception was based on unrealistic expectations and underestimated the degree of change ''going on behind the scenes'' since the 1960s. The change, they said, ''is too great a break from the past to be dismissed as a slow and grudging evolution.''

Among the findings they cited:

--In the U.S., time-use diary studies show that since the '60s, men's contribution to housework doubled from about 15 percent to more than 30 percent of the total. Over the same period, the average working mother reduced her weekly housework load by two hours.

--Between 1965 and 2003, men tripled the amount of time they spent on child care. During the same period, women also increased the time spent with their children, suggesting mutual interest in a more hands-on approach to child-raising.

Sullivan and Coltrane predict men's contributions will increase further as more women take jobs.

''Men share more family work if their female partners are employed more hours, earn more money and have spent more years in education,'' they said.

Pamela Smock, a University of Michigan sociologist who also works with the council, said a persistent gender gap remains for what she called ''invisible'' household work -- scheduling children's medical appointments, buying the gifts they take to birthday parties, arranging holiday gatherings, for example.

Marriage equality is more elusive among blacks than whites, with black women shouldering a relatively higher burden in terms of child care and housework, said council collaborator Shirley Hill, a sociology professor at the University of Kansas.

The report's overall findings meshed with what Carol Evans, founder and CEO of Working Mother magazine, has been observing as she tracks America's two-income couples.

''There's a generational shift that's quite strong,'' she said. ''The younger set of dads have their own expectations about themselves as to being helpful and participatory. They haven't quite gotten to equality in any sense that a women would say, 'Wow, that's equal,' but they've gotten so much farther down the road.''

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press

Current Reading

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  • Dream -Re-Imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy - Stephen Duncombe
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  • Studio A - The Bob Dylan Reader

Current Listening

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  • Wilco The Album
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  • Ghost of a Chance Garland Jeffries
  • Yellow Magic Orchestra
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  • Black and White Years
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  • 100 Days 100 Nites - Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings
  • DYLAN: 3 disc Greatest...
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  • Wild Palms - Soundtrack -Ryuichi Sakamoto
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  • Commander Cody& His Lost Planet Airmen Live at Armadillo