First as Comedy, Next as Tragedy, Third as....Disaster?

David Rothkopf writing at NPR argues quite effectively that to grasp Washington, DC right now, watch 30 Rock:

"Perhaps the greatest howler of them all from my point of view comes in Peter Baker's excellent profile of Barack Obama in this Sunday's New York Times's Magazine. In this thoughtful, exceptionally well-written and reported piece, Baker portrays a reflective president contemplating his political fortunes on the eve of what could be a pretty rough midterm election. In one particularly pivotal paragraph, he writes:


"Most of all, (Obama) has learned that, for all his anti-Washington rhetoric, he has to play by Washington rules if he wants to win in Washington. It is not enough to be supremely sure that he is right if no one else agrees with him. "Given how much stuff was coming at us," Obama told me, "we probably spent much more time trying to get the policy right than trying to get the politics right. There is probably a perverse pride in my administration — and I take responsibility for this; this was blowing from the top — that we were going to do the right thing, even if short-term it was unpopular. And I think anybody who's occupied this office has to remember that success is determined by an intersection in policy and politics and that you can't be neglecting of marketing and P.R. and public opinion."


When did Tina Fey have the time to write this while preparing for that live shoot of her show? What wry hilarity. They spent too much time trying to get the policy right rather than getting the politics right? Really? Sorry, I must have been watching another channel. It seems to me that every single move of this administration from the size and shape of the stimulus to the switch from Iraq to Afghanistan, from avoiding what really needed to be done on health care to avoiding doing anything meaningful on climate change, from taking the stands he did on financial reform and sidestepping the issues he wanted to avoid on the same, were all based on political factors. The president deserves considerable credit for all he has accomplished — but let's please try for a trifle more honesty and self-awareness. Let's stop trying to sell what Bo left in the Rose Garden as a bowl of pudding, please."

Full article by Mr. Rothkopf here.
 
Peter Baker's article in the New York Times magaine on "The Education of a President" here
 
Also, importantly, in my opinion, Frank Rich's take on the "Rage That Won't End on Election Day":
 
"It’s no better now. In a cover article last month, Barton Gellman wrote in Time that the magazine’s six-month investigation found that “the threat level against the president and other government targets” is at its highest since the antigovernment frenzy that preceded Timothy McVeigh’s bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995.


"While Obama-hatred remains a staple of the right, the ebbing of his political clout may have diminished him as a catchall for America’s roiling, inchoate rage. The president is no longer the sole personification of evil. For those who see government as Public Enemy No. 1, other targets will do, potentially some as remote from Washington as Oklahoma City."

More here

Friday Lunchtime Ramble: Steel-Grey Waters and Brooklyn Bridge Park Starts to Take Shape

Friday Groove: When the Cold Wind Comes, I Go Where the Dahlias Bloom

Donald Fagen performing "Florida Room" an awesome, jazz tinged composition from his second solo album, Kamakyriad, in June 2010 while receiving an award for jazz composition from ASCAP. Getting in the Friday groove....

Florida Room by Donald Fagen

Start on Key Plantain

Walk a tropical mile
You'll see a house
In the Spanish style
There's a room in back
With a view of the sea
Where she sits and dreams
Does she dream of me


When summer's gone
I get ready
To make that Carribee run
I've got to have
Some time in the sun

Chorus:
When the cold wind comes
I go where the dahlias bloom
I keep drifting back
To your Florida room

She's dressed too warm
For this latitude
We go out to lunch
With some Jamaican dude
Then the sunshower breaks
We come in out of the rain
But in her Florida room
There's a hurricane

While the city freezes over
We'll be strollin' down the shore
Can she bring me back
To life once more

Chorus


When summer's gone
I get ready
To make that Carribee run
I've got to have
Some time in the sun

Chorus

American Dreamin': Banksy and the Simpsons

If, like me, you thought UK Artist Banksy's film, "Exit Through the Gift Shop," in its perplexing mix of "what is real? what is satire?" was an engrossing analysis of art and commerce, then his recent opening of the Simpson's is a mind-blowing critique of art in the Age of Outsourcing. Banksy, Matt Groening and company, in a brief minute and three quarter opening, through admittedly far-fetched imagery (depressed unicorns poking holes in DVDs, children dipping animation cels into toxic liquids, etc.) manage to make large, subversive political statements about the Way of the World at this moment. It makes NBC's new comedy, Outsourced, very pale by comparison, indeed, and shows us how things are and how we choose to pretend they are. More on Banksy here and Exit Through the Gift Shop here.

Mary Elizabeth William's Salon article here  Dave Itzkoff talks to Al Jean, the Simpsons' exec producer and long-time showrunner here

The Simpson's Opening below:

Roger that, Brooklyn:Thai Food and Space Travel

Today's NY Times science section reported on the Brooklyn dad, Luke Geissbuhler, who launched a spaceship into the stratosphere. Fuhgeddaboutit.  Payload- a camera and a container from Thai Takeout food.

Huffington Post did a nice wrap on the details, here

The video here:


Homemade Spacecraft from Luke Geissbuhler on Vimeo.

What's in a Date ? : 10-10-10

11-11-11
12-12-12 - End of the Mayan Calendar

Let There Be Google

"If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."
      -  Eric Schmidt, CEO, Google, Inc. on privacy

"Cyberspace, not so long ago, was a specific elsewhere, one we visited periodically, peering into it from the familiar physical world. Now cyberspace has everted. Turned itself inside out. Colonized the physical. Making Google a central and evolving structural unit not only of the architecture of cyberspace, but of the world." -
    - William Gibson on Eric Schmidt here

"The Big Brother effects come into play when a very powerful entity believes itself to "not be evil" and that the decisions it makes are best for all."
On Google and Privacy here 

Stephen Colbert: "[Google's motto is] Don’t be evil. Right now your stock price is $513 a share. How low will that have to go before you say that’s it, we’re going with evil." 
     - Stephen Colbert interviews Eric Schmidt here  and transcript of that discussion here

Googol (as opposed to Google)  or Google

Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson: "Life Sucks" - - and his life in particular

Stage Setting with Moose, center.

Above: "Elitist f*cks"

Bloody great stage and lighting design at The Bernard Jacobs Theater

A very entertaining musical, it is more of a rock opera about Andrew Jackson, if you will, then a deep, dramatic contemplation of our 7th Presdient, but it is a lot of fun.  Some of the stage direction and choreography felt a bit haphazard, whether intentionally or for ironic purposes was hard to divine, and the non-musical segments similarly had a few less than inspiring moments. But, overall, "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson" with terrific music and lyrics by Michael Friedman, written and directed by Alex Timbers, is an all-American hoot. Not sure if the Tea Party culture was a direct inspiration, but the timing, and sentiments regarding American populism hit just the right note of satire and sincerity.  It's move from the Public Theater to Broadway, with great set design and lighting, is striking and fun (note the Moose above hanging from the ceiling).  Benjamin Walker, as "Andrew F*ckin' Jackson" (as he sings in "I'm Not That Guy") is, no offense to Old Hickory's hatred of national banking, right on the money. Irreverant, bawdy and with not a lick of pretension, it toys with American history, but not enough to hurt, before it ties a firecracker to its tail and kicks it right into the gutter.

It is currently in previews at the Bernard Jacobs Theater, with a scheduled Broadway opening for October 13.  This is a great show, with an intriguing set, energetic performances by the entire cast, an onstage house band that covers the landscape between sincere guitar strumming ballads to hard rockin' numbers.  A recent NY Post item discussed possible financial woes; still, the show on Friday played to a packed and cheering house.  We missed this at the Public and were glad to catch up with it on the Great White Way. Catch it while you can.

Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson official site here.

More on the real President Jackson here.

The soundtrack also is available on Ghostlight Records. Sample tracks here

The Social Network: If you want a friend...

There's a lot of anticipation for "The Social Network" and it is well deserved. While "The Social Network" is not a documentary, there is something so real and tangible about the portrayal of the young adults who inhabit this nexus of social relations, technology, creativity and intelligence, that it feels like a very important document about American life now, in all of its brilliance, immaturity, complexity and sheer possibility. A very important and entertaining movie. From the fast-paced opening dialogue to its closing scene, the film, directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin, takes an unflinching view of the roots and development of our Brave New Mediated World. The cast is remarkable from top to bottom and David Fincher's reputation for multiple, multiple takes bears fruition here with great performances throughout. Jesse Eisenberg (as Mark Zuckerberg), Andrew Garfield (Eduardo Saverin), Justin Timberlake (Sean Parker), Armie Hammer and Josh Pence (Cameron and Tyler Winkelvoss) are superb in this engrossing, dialogue-rich roller coaster ride that takes us from the dorms of Harvard to Silicon Valley, with plenty of examples of lost opportunities and hard feelings along the way.

A key thread in the film explores the transitory nature of personal relations and friendship in business, running, in a way, in a funny kind of tandem with familial betrayals in Oliver Stone's "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps."  After seeing both films, one occurring before and one after the biggest financial bubble of all, I was left thinking that while Wall Street - albeit the more clearly fictionalized of the two and dealing basically with cold hard cash-- opens the door to redemption, "The Social Network" suggests that, beyond wealth perhaps, the sense of personal stake in creativity and  invention trumps all.

The compelling script, done Rashomon-style with conflicting points of view, nevertheless portrays that intangible something coupled with freedom and creativity that shows why the U.S.A., despite our flaws and endless problems, remains the most singular and amazing nation in the world.

Much has been written about "The Social Network" already, so for now I will borrow a line from another classic piece of Cinema-Americana about entrepreneurship and just say "Don't ask why, just go and God Bless America."

Boing! Pong! Hocus, Pocus, Avion! - Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band - "Sue Egypt"

Chills quick you
Voices pick you
Crows hex you
[You love some?] post-'em avion
Wizard Kiss and all be gone
Scenes
Dreams
Boats to forever
Boated ether
Creep to ether feather
Sue Egypt
Sue Egypt
Boing pong
hocus pocus avion
I think of all those people that ride on my bones
I think of all of those people that ride on my bones
That nobody hears
That nobody sees that nobody knows
Sue Egypt
Sue Egypt
I think of all
I think of all
I think of all those people who ride on my bones
That nobody sees, that nobody dares
That nobody hears, that nobody cares
I think of the dust that collects on the chairs
and under her eyes
and through her eyes
and out her body
and in her body
and in her ha[ir/fa]ce
Big smoke fingers wave
Come here Come hear
"Bring me my scissors"
and those are waters [?]
The moon wazza*
wisdomatic
pristocratic
vagabond
Bad vuggum
a pitcher of red-hot juice
a picture of red garnet juice
Chills quick you
Voices pick you
Crows hex you
[Elects-some postem?] avion
Wizard Kiss and All Be Gone
Scenes
Dreams
Boats to forever
Boated ether
Creep the ether feather
Sue Egypt
Sue Egypt
-Don Van Vliet 1980 from the album Doc at the Radar Station

*The wazza is a type of horn played in Sudanese music. The wazza is constructed from combined cow horns, and while blown it is also tapped for percussive effect.
Also, urban dictionary - What thugs say when they are in a close proximity to superior beings (which is most of the time). YO G...WAZzA...!

Just Past "Super Harvest Moon" Tonight

The Harvest Moon is the full Moon occurring closest to the autumnal equinox. When the full Moon occurs on the autumnal equinox,as it did this year, it is called a "Super Harvest Moon.". We missed out this past Wednesday, but tonight is a beautiful clear night, sitting out back with my beloved and a pair of binoculars.We saw Oliver Stone's Wall Street this afternoon, and on a clear, if warmish,autumn night, the meshughas of the political and economic World seems far away indeed. Catch the view it if you can. Of course, Neil Young's song of the same name in the background. Enjoy!

CODA: R.I.P., Baby Opossum

We had just returned from the New York Sports Club, and I was making a very nice salad for lunch when My Better Half came in and reported there was a rat, dead, in the passage next to our home, where the trash bins are kept.When I went outside to survey the carnage and determine the logistics of cleanup, it was immediately apparent that this tweren't no rat.Nope, the little varmint turned out to be a baby opossum that had gone for the count.My son and I did the necessary critter removal and that was that.

Let's Go! Let's Go! Let's Go!

There's a thrill
Upon the hill
Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!
-Hank Ballard

Must be Friday....

Fear and Loathing in Buffalo and the Rest of the Empire State

Michael Daly in the NY Daily News proves that, once again, the bigger, more abrasive the mouth, the more they have to hide. TP/GOP hopeful Carl Paladino's real estate holdings house many State offices in Buffalo.
Daly scopes out the arrangement and challenges Palladino to cut the lease rates for the real estate by 20% -- the TP/GOP hopeful's target for cutting State budgets. Paladino has already indicated that he would expect the State to continue paying for leases held by him were he to ride the coat tails of a messed-up economy and voter discontent.

Read Daly's "Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is, Carl" in the NY Daily News here

There's nothing wrong with owning real estate, or even leasing it to the State. The problem is, Paladino presents himself as a self-made man, which he clearly is, but it isn't as though his wealth has derived from manufacturing widgets, or some private sector service or function. Much of his wealth appears to have been developed from earnings from properties leased to the State -- with the lease money coming from taxes --that he has been able to parlay into further real estate development and holdings.   So, while Carl would be the first to say that he is an entrrepreneur, not a civil servant, still, like another maverick who bit the dust, Ross Perot who made much of his money providing payroll services to government agencies, it is a little more complicated than that.

Palladino, unfortunately, is another rich opportunist seeking to exploit a bad situation -- and it is only possible because he can use his own wealth to run. Having made his money from the State Treasury, he can now rail about the evils of the public sector, as a candiodate and would-be Governor-- as long as he continues to collect on his leases. Sadly, many of the struggling individuals who are attracted to Paladino's "straight talk," (i.e., his offensive, abusive and violent comments), are likely those who will be hurt the most should he appear in Albany with his baseball bat.

Although New York is the Empire State, Government in New York State is not a kingdom, nor is it a fascist dictatorship, nor totalitarian State run by the Governor. Government is conducted through a complex balance of politics, diplomacy, horse trading and compromise among the State Senate, the Assembly and the Executive Branch run by the Governor.  Even before he was side-railed by personal distractions and unmasked as Client 9, former Governor Elliot Spitzer made the same miscalculation, by assuming that his electoral mandate made him the only game in town. It didn't, he wasn't, and Carl Paladino will no doubt suffer the same fate. He may think that he can rule like Willie Stark in "All the Kings Men", but more likely he will suffer the fate of Humpty Dumpty. Andrew Cuomo may get what he wishes for. Hopefully, Mr. Cuomo will squeak through, despite the polls, and at the same time he will learn something from this lesson in voter dissatisfaction and never counting your chickens. Hopefully he will ---for him, for us and for the future of the Empire State.

Rats! Opossums Pull a Fast One in Brooklyn

Last year, we talked about the opossums in our yard and on the porch and their general increased presence around our Flabush neighborhood.

My previous DITHOB post here

Now, this past weekend, the NY Post reported about an opossum population boom in the borough. While the Post headlined the article "Rat Bastards," it apparently actually isn't exactly the little critters' fault since the Post also reported  that this bit of Fauna Brooklynensis isn't strictly a naturally occuring phenomenon.

Rather, some as yet unidentified City agency may have released them as a means of controlling the growing rat and rodent epidemic in the city. The concept being that the little critters would chomp away on a rat snack and diminish the rodent population, after which they too might be expected to disappear from lack of their intended food source. However, the little guys have pulled a fast one. While it is not clear that the rat population is down, the opossums have been getting at trash cans, fruit from trees, and other delectables, and their population has increased substantially as a result.

NY POST reports: "A city Sanitation spokeswoman said they were not involved with the Brooklyn opossum drop, and the Health Department didn't have any record of it. But Scavo and two city councilmen said city officials spoke about the effort at a 2007 Brooklyn forum. City brought possums in to take care of rats," read Community Board 15 notes from the meeting.

The opossums were set free in local parks and underneath the Coney Island boardwalk, with the theory being they would die off once the rats were gobbled up, said Councilman Domenic Recchia (D-Brooklyn). Instead, the critters have been populating, spreading to Park Slope and Manhattan.


"The population has boomed in recent years," said Josephine Beckmann, district manager for Community Board 10, which represents Bay Ridge. "They climb up in the tree and have a good meal."
Full NY Post article here

How long will it be before the seal of the City of New York replaces the beavers with opossums (or for that matter, the lady on the Brooklyn seal is cradling an opossum instead of carrying fascese , the bundle of sticks with an axe blade protruding, a traditional emblem of republicanism, or strength through unity) ?

And, what next? Alligators to get rid of the opossums?