Post-Primary: The Future is Unwritten

One candidate, despite his stalwart and efective political image, is not readily available to the media for interview. The other acknowledges that his opponents say he is outspoken, and he admits it, and there is nothing wrong with that, but there is something disturbing about a candidate who says he will take a baseball bat to Albany, presumably to crack heads, who discusses severe budget cuts to the State's contributions toward Medicaid, cutting 20 billion in his first year,  and who makes light of sending racist, "humorous" emails about the President. The fact that he can buy his way into a nomination in NY State, and then rally a great deal support based upon the collision of political gridlock and corruption on the State level, and an administration with serious communication problems of the Federal level, suggests that the two major political parties are not satisfactorily addressing the serious economic, political and social issues, and governmental dysfunctions, that currently lead to anger, disgust and confusion within the American democracy. 

There are rumors that Joe Biden and Hillary Rodham Clinton may switch roles in the next election. We are in a very complex and transitional time, for politics and our nation. Who will be the GOP candidate in 2012: Sarah Palin? Chris Christie of New Jersey? The problem remains that these are complex issues that require bipartisan cooperation to resolve. But American politics is getting more and more extreme.

As the GOP party unravels and the Democrats fight to retain the White House and seats in Congress, some of the smaller parties, past and future, that have taken root in the US, give an idea of the directions that some voters will take as a result of their dissatisfaction with the major party choices offered:

The Tea Party Movement here
The Modern Whig Party here
The US Pirate Party here
The Whig Party here

NY Daily News -New "Voting Machine Headaches -- Even for Chuck Schumer"

Daily News' Celeste Katz reports on the voting at PS 321 in Park Slope:


"Apparently even Sen. Chuck Schumer isn't immune to the pitfalls of the new voting system.

What the hElmo is going on with these voting machines?

A party insider told me Schumer showed up at his polling place, P.S. 321 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, at 5:55 a.m., and was "agitated and unhappy" at how things went.

"They don't open the polling place until 6:10... They can't figure out how to open the machine and he is, like, screaming at the staff that he wants to vote," the insider said.

Full article here.






Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2010/09/new-voting-system-causing-head.html#ixzz0zW1AL5fh

More Ch-ch-ch-changes: Board of Elections and the New Voting Devices

Based on the thorough coverage offered yesterday by Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn and the Brooklyn Heights Blog, it sounds like you must sign in, then get a voting sheet, wait on line to go to the little voting table, fill out your ballot, then (probably) wait on line again while the un-technological voters who have never operated an electronic scanning device before stand there confused on how to use it. Then go up there and feed it into the Voting Maw (hoping that it doesn’t get jammed-- as those who HAVE operated an electronic scanning/printer device before can attest could occur). Why can't they have someone from the Board of Elections doing the form feeding while you watch them? Is that against the law?


Suppose you don’t want to fill it out at the voting table, can you just fill it out on the line to the scanner while leaning on a magazine or newspaper?

Funny, I thought electronic voting meant an ATM-type device, with a touch screen, but it seems NYS is fetishistic about having a paper trail, hanging chads and all that. I mean, why couldn't someone have just come up with an electronic ATM voting device that just keeps a printed record (like an ATM receipt) –what’s the big deal? So you could go into a voting booth and do your same voting thing? I mean, we have trusted the integrity of voting with the Old School machines for eons without concern for paper trails, what's the big dealy-o now?  Hopefully it will be better than expected but given the move from fewer steps to many more steps in the voting process, and the use of a paper ballot, one is not automatically hopeful.

One of my colleagues at the office said you are going to have to take a day off to go vote. In retrospect, I liked having my votes tallied, all private and religious-like behind a curtain, by a Coca-Cola vending machine on steroids..

Planning to pick up my car from the shop after work, then go to the gym and then vote, but anyone have any experiences with the new voting system at today's primary so far?

I, Gaijin: From Brooklyn to Tokyo and Osaka and Back Again

After weeks of hocking Gotham City Insider for news about his recent trip to Japan, as guest guitarist for another band of western, hardcore, metal brigands, he wrote back with the scoop on what it’s like to spend a long weekend traveling to and from the Land of  the Rising Sun. 

Since GCI, whose “the world needs a stronger blog” claims notwithstanding, appears to be on an intermittent, temporary hiatus, Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn is delighted to be able to share his notes on waning economies, an anthropological assessment of good manners in different cultures, fizzling innovation and, last but not least, hot dog buns... -- Brooklyn Beat

I, Gaijin 

 Been meaning to write you back about Japan… Honestly, I did not enjoy it at all. Out of all the places I’ve been, I liked Tokyo the least. I mean, I wasn’t kicking and screaming about a long weekend in Japan or anything but it definitely sounds a lot more glamorous than it actually is. All told, we did about 14,000 miles of traveling in 4 days… NY > Tokyo > Osaka > Tokyo > NY. The first flight from NY to Tokyo was non-stop, which in economy class, was traumatic. The Australia/NZ flights we did a few years ago were longer but for whatever reason, this was more brutal. After about 10 hours in, you almost start praying for a pulmonary embolism. Anyhow, Tokyo was just overwhelming. Immediately after we land, we sit in 2+ hours of dead stop traffic just to get to Tokyo itself.


Many a man transplanted to the Land of the Rising Sun returns with tales of culture shock and utter bewilderment – and, indeed, to me, a boy from the West, Japanese culture remains a mystery wrapped in an enigma inside a hot dog bun (more on that later.) There were just so many goddamn people – and it was just so insanely crowded – storefronts in alleyways, storefronts inside storefronts inside alleyways inside storefronts – people just living on top of each other – after about 20 minutes, I felt like moving to Montana and writing a few thousand pages on Industrial Society and Its Future. While I enjoy the “adult” Japanese culture – the refined Muji minimalism and all that – I’ve come to realize that I absolutely abhor the cartoonish, bastardized emulated depiction of the West. People dressed in Halloween costumes; people who look like living, breathing anime / kawaii / geinōkai magna characters. It’s all fashion and little to no substance. At times, I felt as if I were walking through an actual video game. It’s really bizarre and almost sickening – like eating too many circus peanuts. I dunno – something about it all just really rubbed me the wrong way. Xenophobia, perhaps? Ha ha.

The shows were good, the food was weird and the hotels were small. Typically what you’d expect. I think I may just be “over” my days of shotgun traveling and this break from my regular, focused routine really bothered me for some reason. Osaka was a bit better. We stayed on this main strip which resembled a Japanese St. Mark’s Place – but again, a parodic version of St. Mark’s Place. They really enjoy hot dog buns over there. You can have just about anything you’d like served up in a hot dog bun – from ice cream to lo mein – and you can get most of it at your local 7-11. We ate a few of these hot dishwater noodle & tempura houses which were OK. The rest of the time we ate a place called “Freshness Burger” because they had a pretty amazing veggie burger. Everyone carries an umbrella for the sun. It was unbearably hot.

I was in an elevator with two Japanese men and a young lady. Elevator gets to the lobby, Japanese men immediately exit; I pause and gesture for the woman to exit before me. She looked at me, completely puzzled, as if this had never happened before in her entire life – as if it were some sort of trick. I couldn’t believe it! She finally exited before me, but under extreme duress. Another incident – also on an elevator, I suppose this is where the class wars take place – the doors open up and it’s one of the hotel maids – she has like four sacks of dirty linen – I size up the situation and realize it’s going to be a good five days before she’s able to drag all her bags out of the elevator and I can get on, so I helped her… Two minutes later, as the elevator doors closed, she was still bowing to me for helping her unload the bags. I mean, c’mon: ENOUGH! How awkward it is being a gentleman or just helpful or polite when you’re treated like you’ve just saved a baby from a burning building afterwards – it’s too much.

Part of the whole scene was somewhat depressing also – now that China has usurped Japan as the #1 economy after the U.S. – Japan didn’t have that feel of “innovation” anymore. I saw signs advertising the new iPhone 4 but most people are still using these gigantic flip phones. I know they say Japan still enjoys health, wealth and comfort and that Tokyo has more Michelin-starred restaurants than Paris – but I didn’t see any of it. I saw an empty Hermès store across the street from a bustling 99 cent store. The economy in Japan has been stagnant for more than a decade, and knowing this, it was truly evident. We went into a Best Buy-esque electronics store and saw none of the futuristic Jetsons innovation you would have expected to see years ago in Japan. Gone are the days of the stereotypical rich, Japanese businessman.

If a country can’t reduce its debt to GDP ratio, it means they can only refinance but can never repay its debts and honestly, with all I’ve read on – and now somewhat seen in – Japan, I don’t see how they can avoid a government default or inflated Yen death spiral within the next decade or maybe even less??? Ayeeeeeeeeeeeee. I read some World Bank stat which said over the past decade Japan's economy expanded 5% while China's grew by 261%... It’s crazy and there appears to be no real consensus about what to do…
--Gotham City Insider

The Brooklyn Griffin

Photos by Brooklyn Beat

Waterbury and Meserole Streets in Williamsburgh

Nine Years Later: The Complexity of Freedom

Frequent crossings into Manhattan this summer had me thinking about the World Trade Center site. While it was clear that an enormous amount of construction and development on the site was in progress, I wondered --why had it taken so long to really get underway?  Granted, it represents a precious piece of lower Manhattan real estate, but larger projects are no doubt undertaken and accomplished in a shorter amount of time. There clearly  is an enormous amount of  emotion tied up with the loss of more than 2700 lives. At the same time, did the delay, wrangling, and lack of speedy process serve as a metaphor -- perhaps a metaphor of living -- for an identity crisis that afflicted the United States of America in the wake of this most grievous terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

With George W. Bush's attack on Iraq, which essentially destabilized that country, followed by years of economic malaise and now Barack Obama's own equally well-intended but questionable expansion of our military adventure in Afghanistan,it would appear that there may be something to this. After all, America has always been, first and foremost, a land of action. In the days foLlowing the 9/11 attacks, the _US basked in international goodwill and sympathy. Many Muslims worldwide criticized the actions of the hijackers and their puppetmasters, saying this did not represent Islam. The current threats of Koran burnings and polls showing that Americans supported freedom of religion but were not completely comfortable with the building of the mosque within the Ground Zero neighborhood, suggests, if nothing else, that this national soul searching continues. Anger and distrust toward Islam continues. American Muslims,who deplored the 9/11 attacks, are now pressed into a corner.Can moderate Muslims worldwide do more to find ways to challenge the extremists ? Who knows if that is even possible. Does American democracy and the freedom that it offers unwittingly provide fertile ground for those who would destroy or subvert it? President Obama's most recent statement on the growing hostility toward Islam within the US was eloquent and decisive but at the same time fails to address the fears and concerns of other Americans who see us fighting uncertain wars against Muslim peoples overseas, at the same time we are reminded to "never forget" the attacks of that awful day nine years ago. The World Trade Center and memorial rises from the ashes. The fighting overseas continues. Secretary Napolitano warns that the chance of another major terrorist strike continues to exist. New Yorkers remember those long days of fire, smoke and death. The sirens and alarms of emergency vehicles continued for days without end. Nine years later, the sadness remains for the families that lost loved ones, children who last parents.But nine years later,the soul searching and reflection, as evidenced in the current confusion, hostility, and uncertainty, continues without any sign of ending. The New American paradigm in the Age of Terror continues but thankfully so does the Unites States of America as a rambunctious, argumentative and complex home of freedom. There are no easy answers to the complexity of freedom.

Days of Awe: Wrestling with the Known and Unknown

A friend at work asked me if I am ready for the Jewish holidays. I guess.


This year, we are going to a different congregation in Flatbush..Personally, I vary between spiritually-looking-forward-to-the-Days-of -Awe (a lot of reading, contemplation, anticipation in the weeks before) to “please leave me alone”—this year I am in leave-me-alone-mode…

That is what strikes one most about the "fall Jewish Holidays" more properly known as the Days of Awe. Certainly, it is the sense of humanity, in this case represented by the subgroup of the Jewish people, appearing before the might and spiritual complexity of the Creator with awe and dread. Or in the modern sensibility, our contemplation of our brief and fleeting existence in a Cosmos that seems to neither require nor care much about us. Or, perhaps in a post-modern sense, our contemplation of our identity, which exists simultaneously in conflict with and allegiance to the power relations of a Supreme Being who may or may not exist but on whom we may choose to rely, as a spiritual talisman of sorts, to thank for getting us and those we love through the year past, and to help guide us through the unknown days ahead in a too-be-sure perilous world filled with other beliefs and believers.



However, despite this year's preliminary sense of distance, I can already see that it is beginning...Based on past experience, usually once I am at services, that Yiddishkeit starts to slowly seep into my soul…by Yom Kippur it usually connects...and there I am, looking around at My Better Half and our growing kids at the services, and I might be overtaken by a powerful wave of emotion, as I contemplate the blessings and pains of the year gone by and anticipating the unknown that exists in whatever time that lies ahead. 
I imagine it is a different and curious experience for me, a Fellow Traveler, than for those who are Born Jewish…but for everyone reading this, Jewish or not, for today and the next week, best wishes for health and happiness, and also moments of awareness, contemplation and understanding in the year ahead.

These caught my attention:

Emerging cultural practices in Judaism. Link here

If Christopher Hitchens Met Primo Levi would they agree about G-d?  Link here

West Nile Mosquito Spraying in Brooklyn Zip Codes Tonite

Notification issued on 9/1/2010 at 4:00 PM. The Department of Health will be spraying for mosquitoes to help prevent West Nile Virus from 8 PM on 9/2 until 6 AM on 9/3 in the following Brooklyn zip codes:

11210,11214, 11223, 11224, 11229, 11230, 11234, and 11235.

Department of Health recommends that whenever possible, stay indoors during spraying. Go to http://www.nyc.gov/health or call 311 for details.

Remembering Septembers

from the classic and hilarious NY Observer article --Why Have a Night Like This In times Like These?' by Frank DiGiacomo

Just weeks after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Friars Club warily proceeded with its planned roast of Hugh Hefner, which included a classic telling of ‘The Aristocrats’ joke. The result? As Frank DiGiacomo reported, the laughter humanized an inhuman time.

On Saturday, Sept. 29, Freddie Roman, the dean of New York’s Friars Club, stood before audience members in the Grand Ballroom of the New York Hilton and asked them to familiarize themselves with the fire exits.

Then, because he’d said that “these are very different times for us all,” he attempted to answer a question that people had been asking him. Mr. Roman’s Vulcanesque eyes and brows scanned the audience before him. The question sounded a little like something that would be asked at Passover. “Why have a night like this in times like these?”

Mr. Roman was referring to the Friars Roast, the club’s yearly ritual of profane humor and insult that was about to get underway with Playboy founder Hugh Hefner in the hot seat.

In the aftermath of the terrorist attack on New York, the Friars organization and Comedy Central, the cable network that, for the last three years, has taped and televised an expurgated version of the roast (this one will debut on Nov. 4), had, after some debate, decided to go ahead with the event. “It’s time we get back to normal, like Mayor Giuliani and President Bush have asked,” Mr. Roman said. “And for the Friars, this is normal. Telling dirty jokes, making fun of people. That’s what we do, and we’re proud to do it for you,” he said. “So you can get some laughter back in your life and into your hearts.”

While the crowd waited for the cameras to start rolling, Mr. Roman eased into the task at hand.

“A couple married 48 years. Wife takes sick and passes away. Funeral at the Riverside, 78th and Broadway,” Mr. Roman said. “After the service, the pallbearers pick up the coffin. As they’re leaving the building, the coffin hits the wall.” From inside the coffin, he said, the woman’s voice could be heard.

“They open the coffin—it’s a miracle,” he said. “She stays married for another two years. Gets sick, passes away again. After the service, the pallbearers lift the coffin. As they start to leave, the husband yells, ‘Watch out for the wall!’”

The laughter sounded grateful. Mr. Roman got the high sign to introduce Mr. Hefner. A small group of Playmates led the flesh magnate—who looked frighteningly robust and wrinkle-free for a man in his 70’s—to the big red swivel chair on the stage....

At the conclusion of the evening, Gilbert Gottfried took the stage -
The man in the gray tuxedo jacket looked out over the crowd. “I have a flight to California. I can’t get a direct flight,” Mr. Gottfried said. “They said they have to stop at the Empire State Building first.”

There was a silence. Then hissing and hooting flooded forward.

“Too soon,” a man could be heard saying in the back of the ballroom.

When the booing started, Mr. Gottfried responded: “Awwwwwww, what the f...k do you care?” Silence fell once more.

Mr. Gottfried had his answer. Up on the podium, he began making strange movements with his arms, as if he was working some sort of invisible machine that could take him back in time to the moment right before he had pushed too far. Seconds passed.

“O.K.,” he continued. His voice was not so loud.

“A talent agent is sitting in his office. A family walks in. A man, woman, two kids, their little dog, and the talent agent goes, ‘What kind of an act do you do?’”

..and there began his classic, insane, recitation of "The Aristocrats."

The full New York Observer link here

Midtown West

Above: 99 Cent Pizza

Top 2: George Segal's Commuters 1980, Port Authority, NYC

Photos by Brooklyn Beat/TN August 2010

International View: Does 44 Want to Be Re-Elected in 2012?

Few Americans consider themselves bigger than the presidency but Obama might be one of them. The man in the Oval Office, argues Toby Harnden in the U.K. Telegraph, may already be preparing for a role as a post-president in a post-American world.

"Obama is the first black American president, an established author, multi-millionaire and acclaimed figure beyond American shores.


It seems highly unlikely that Obama will decide not to run in 2012. But he might well be calculating that a embarking post-presidential role as the leading global thinker in the post-American world as a Republican successor enters office is more attractive than being sullied by the political compromises and manoeuvrings necessary to win."

UK Telegraph's full article  by Toby Harnden here

On Missing Gary Shteyngart and Pondering the Future of Books

Circumstances, waning memory, and my eagerness for this reading resulted in our inadvertantly missing the Gary Shteyngart reading at BookCourt on Thursday. We showed up a day early (ouch) and then a prior commitment prevented a return for what was no doubt a funny and highly literate evening at the always delightful BookCourt on Court and Pacific. I read a digital chapter of Shteyngart's new tome, Super Sad True Love Story, and was again enthralled by the humor, speed and sheer literary brio of the book. Ironically, I read the digital sample chapter on the Kobo app on my BlackBerry  on the way to what I thought would be the reading on Wednesday evening.

Gary Shteyngart, author of "Super Sad True Love Story"

I haven't yet purchased the book. We are in the process of reorganizing our home. Books, books, books---ours, our kids, plus library books, newspapers, magazines. There is a constant paperflow and clutter in the house. I began to think - should I go digital with my reading? [NOTE: I purchased and read a hardcover copy of this entertaining and future-gazing book shortly after this posting appeared.]

There was a recent article in the NY Times that discussed the potential impact of digital editions of books on mega booksellers, such as Barnes and Noble. The article noted that, as in the film "You Have Mail" the romantic comedy which had Tom Hanks' "Fox Books" book chain pushing Meg Ryan's "The Little Shop Around the Corner" out of the book business, digital books sold online at lower prices may now be threatening the large book chains with their relatively high mortar and brick overheads, in the same way the big chains previously muscled the little book stores out of business.

The Times article notes, ironically, that the independent book stores that have survived have proven that they can make it (BookCourt is only a couple of blocks away from a large Barnes and Noble also on Court Street).  Like music/CD stores, the big book chains may be fighting a tough battle for survival. The little stores may prove to be the Last Bookstores Standing.

In any case, as I was reading the sample chapter of Super Sad True Love Story, I happened to think that it was ironic that one of the charms of  author readings was the opportunity for booksigning. With the move toward digital by many readers, What now? I mean, the point of the reading is of course seeing the author in person and hearing him or her read aloud and perhaps answer a few questions. But it was also always fun to buy and walk away with a signed copy. It definitely gave the act of reading a certain extra frisson. 

Will printed books now go the way of the vinyl LP record? A specialty item, less available and higher priced, perfect for signing and collecting but not necessarily for reading?  Will the remaining bookstores (or Starbucks for that matter), offer downloads at the reading? Will that offer a better "vintage" than an e-book purchased at a differnet time online? Maybe the store will throw in a signed photo of the author.

The late Serbian writer Milorad Pavic (author of Dictionary of the Khazars and many other volumes), believed in novels taking many other forms - dictionaries, acrostics, nonlineqar works, books with 100 possible endings. Prescient, he also was interested in the novel as computer file or program.

Although it is a great to hold and read a book -- that connection between the internal (reading) and the external (the book as commodity), in some ways, it would be easier without the physical burden of years and years of accumulated books --  In conversation, one of our daughters (15) acknowledged preferring bound books. Buit part of the joy of books is gonig to a shelf, having something pique your interest again, and picking up the book to delve in and enjoy the experience again.  In my opinion, browsing books on a shelf  is completely different than browsing CDs on a shelf or music files on your Ipod. I enjoy reading stuff online, but just as often, I will print an article out to read later.

I tend to think that people appreciate that you are paying  for the author's talent (and occasionally, genius) and the bound book is only the medium for the author's mesage. But there is still something special and wonderful about that antique commodity, the printed book.  If it is black and white and read all over -- I am on it. I for one hope the printed book never goes away. Completely.

Sample excerpt at Barnes a nd Noble website here. (Ironically, the first edition of the book avaialble at the B & N website is the e-version. The printed copy says "also available as an e-book.)

Coney Island on a Tuesday Evening

A cool breeze off the ocean offered delightful release as the sun began to set. The boardwalk and beach were busy but by no means crowded. We strolled down past Luna Park and back and then stopped at Ruby’s for a drink at the bar. We then walked out onto the pier, where couples walked, fisherman tried for one last catch, and a few intrepid swimmers dove off the pier, ignoring the "no swimming" signs, and bravely swam to shore, then walking back down the pier to do it all over again. The steel blue and grey clouds, under the setting sun, and the illumination of the parachute jump tower and the Big Wheel, set the parameters for a quiet mid-week summer evening.

Families with kids in strollers, teenagers, tourists--after the months of oppressive heat, it's still summer, but you could almost feel the gentle shift, as the seasons once again slowly begin to change. But for now everyone was out and about, craving a change of scenery from stifling apartments, hotel rooms, or even homes with backyards where the grass is turning to hay. Enjoying the cool breeze and comfortable delight of this particular evening while we still can in anticipation of whatever new extremes the next seasons might bring.

Photos by Brooklyn Beat/TN

Bob Dylan and The Beats -- American Visions and Highway Dreams

Photograph: Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, Barbara Rubin, Bob Dylan, and Daniel Kramer backstage at McCarter Theater, in Princeton, New Jersey, September, 1964. © Daniel Kramer.

Eli Wilentz's Eighth Street Bookstore between 8th and MacDougal in Greenwich Village, "Three Floors of Books," was such a cool destination. Books, authors, students, serious readers, it was an important off-campus resource to me as an NYU student. Established in the 1950s, it was gutted by fire in 1976 and was rebuilt. However, it was closed in 1979. According to the NY Times obituary, Mr. Wilentz decided to close it when it became clear that none of his children were interested in carrying on the family business. Well, yes and no. Sean Wilentz, son of co-founder Eli who passed away in 1995, may not have been a retail kind of guy, but he has certainly made his mark in the literary world of course as a Princeton University professor of American History and an author/historian. His most recent book, Bob Dylan in America, will be released in September.  It looks to be a very good one, indeed.  The New Yorker is publishing a generous excerpt:

From Chapter 2: Dylan’s continuing link to the Beat generation, though, came chiefly through his friend and sometime mentor Allen Ginsberg. Dylan’s link with Ginsberg dated back to the end of 1963, a pivotal moment in the lives and careers of both men. Thereafter, in the mid-1960s, the two would complete important artistic transitions, each touched and supported by the other. On and off, their rapport lasted for decades. And in 1997, in New Brunswick, Canada, Dylan would dedicate a concert performance of “Desolation Row” to Ginsberg, his longtime comrade, telling the audience it was Allen’s favorite of his songs, on the evening after Ginsberg died. -from Sean Wilentz's new book Bob Dylan in America, scheduled for September publication by Doubleday

Bob Dylan in America by Sean Wilentz. Read more in this excerpt in The New Yorker here

Eighth Street Bookshop Photo by Fred McDarrah

Remembering Jean Michel Basquiat - December 22, 1960 - August 12, 1988

The Artist at Rest in Armani -Photo AP/Brooklyn Museum

Jean Michel Basquiat, Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, NY

Photo by Brooklyn Beat/TN 2010

"Origin of Cotton" Jean Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol 1987

Poster for Show of Paintings By Basquiat  and Warhol