The Day The World Changed: December 25, 1991

Over the holidays, I caught, on After Word on Book TV on C-Span-2, an interview with the author, Conor O’Clery, an Irish journalist who was posted in Moscow during the fall of the USSR. I got his recent book, Moscow: December 25, 1991: The Last Day of the Soviet Union and it is a wonderfully literate and entertaining read – basically a day in the life of Moscow and the main players on the day the USSR fell..the portraits of Yeltsin and Gorbachev are fascinating…– to me, one of those books I don’t want to end, so well written and fact filled, from history to biography to the telling anecdote...


For example -- “Yeltsin was a provincial from the hardscrabble region of the Urals and his preferred method of driving his comrades to distraction was playing “Kalinka” with the wooden spoons, sometimes bouncing them playfully off the heads of aides, who learned to move away prudently when the spoons came out.”

Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev (right) looks at Russian

President Boris Yeltsin during the press conference following

the signing ceremony on Oct. 18, 1991 in recognition of the

Union Treaty with eight Soviet republics in Moscow.

(Alain-Pierre Hovasse/AFP/Getty Images

There are some excerpts from the book posted on the GlobalPost website, for which the author writes, here 
Also, excerpt from the Book TV interview here

--Anthony Napoli - Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn

NY TIMES: IMPACT OF SOCIAL MOBILITY AND FAMILY INCOME MOVES CENTER STAGE

Times reporter Jason DeParle looks at the stats and talks with experts who come to the conclusion that it is much harder for Americans to rise from lower rungs of the economic ladder than citizens of other western nations.

Noting that "American life is built on the faith that others can do it, too: rise from humble origins to economic heights. “Movin’ on up,” George Jefferson-style, is not only a sitcom song but a civil religion" the article goes on to observe that  "many researchers have reached a conclusion that turns conventional wisdom on its head: Americans enjoy less economic mobility than their peers in Canada and much of Western Europe. The mobility gap has been widely discussed in academic circles, but a sour season of mass unemployment and street protests has moved the discussion toward center stage.

Former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, a Republican candidate for president, warned this fall that movement “up into the middle income is actually greater, the mobility in Europe, than it is in America.” Liberal commentators have long emphasized class, but the attention on the right is largely new.

"The causes of America’s mobility problem are a topic of dispute — starting with the debates over poverty. The United States maintains a thinner safety net than other rich countries, leaving more children vulnerable to debilitating hardships.

"Poor Americans are also more likely than foreign peers to grow up with single mothers. That places them at an elevated risk of experiencing poverty and related problems, a point frequently made by Mr. Santorum, who surged into contention in the Iowa caucuses. The United States also has uniquely high incarceration rates, and a longer history of racial stratification than its peers. "

“The bottom fifth in the U.S. looks very different from the bottom fifth in other countries,” said Scott Winship, a researcher at the Brookings Institution, who wrote the article for National Review. “Poor Americans have to work their way up from a lower floor.”

The full article, which discusses the impact of family affluence on education and mobility, among other issues, appears in today's NY TIMES here

"ALL" by Maurizio Cattelan at the Guggenheim: You Ain't Kidding

Photos by Tony Napoli 2012

At first glance, it seemed that this over-the-top retrospective exhibit of the work of Maurizio Cattelan included everything but the kitchen sink, but then, come to think of it, the diorama featuring the squirrel committing suicide at his kitchen table had one. Although the artist isn't the first to feature dramatic work hanging from the Guggenheim's famed aerie,  (I am thinking of Cai Guo-Qiang's Inopportune:Stage Two with multiple cars deconstructing as a result of a simulated car bombing hanging from the famed Frank Lloyd Wright designed rotunda in 2008) I would assume, given Mr. Cattelan's wit and originality, that no one has designed to hang all of the principal works of his or her oeuvre, from the ceiling, as so much laundry, a comparison that I believe the artist himself observed. 

Half expecting novelty, and having read some critiques that suggested that the exhibit does not present all of his work to its best advantage, I was looking forward, but didn't run right out to see it. We finally made it to the Museum at the very end of the year. In truth,  I loved it. The show's energy, dynamism, and, well, just plain craziness, combined to create something completely different. While I am not sure that the work of, say, Picasso, or a sculptor such as George Segal, would benefit from the Rotunda treatment, for Mr. Cattelan's work it suited just fine. There is a humor and absurdity to it all, not just the post-post-modern critique of art as art, or art as consumer good -- this is clearly art as Mr. Cattelan sees it. In the context of the Guggenheim, in the context of the art world, and the world at large, but also in the context of the Cattelan Multiverse: Forget the CERN reactor, there is presently enough energy in the Museum's Rotunda, along with thoughtful frowns and scratched chins, smirks, guffaws and explosive giggles, to generate the Higgs Boson. I am sure, now that he is retiring from the art world (or so he says), Mr. Cattelan could have a lot of fun with that.

The show runs through January 22, 2012

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum site for "All" here

Once again, the show runs through January 22, 2012. Speaking of which, the Museum will present the Last Word on 

Sat, Jan 22, 6 pm–1 am: Maurizio Cattelan is retiring (or so he has stated) from art-making with his current retrospective. To mark the end of the exhibition (and the beginning of retirement), twenty or so prominent artists, philosophers, writers, comedians, filmmakers, actors, musicians, and more will come together to contemplate the end. More than just some winter morbidity, this event tackles that most difficult moment: to decide when to stop one thing and begin another or to end it altogether. Less strenuous than a long distance event and much more than a quick sprint, this event will be a meditative seven hour jog around life's central park of pleasures, desires, and regrets. Co-organized by Simon Critchley (Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy, The New School of Social Research), and Nancy Spector, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, and curator of Maurizio Cattelan: All. Admission: pay what you wish.

-Anthony Napoli - Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn

"A Flaw Was In My Indictment Found": Mark Knopfler and The Chieftains

A lovely air, based on a classic folk song, as wonderfully interpreted and hypnotically performed by Mark Knopfler and The Chieftains. Bet you can't listen just once...

"Lily of the West"
When first I came to Ireland some pleasure for to find

It's there I spied a damsel fair, 'twas pleasing to my mind
Her rosy cheeks and sparklin' eyes like arrows pierced my breast
And I call her lovely Molly O', the lily of the west

One day as I was walkin' down by a shady grove
I spied a lord of high degree conversing with my love
She sang her song delightfully while I was sore oppressed
Saying I've been a dupe [I bid adieu?] to Molly O', the lily of the west

Well, I stepped up with my rapier and my dagger in my hand
And I dragged him from my false love and boldly I bid him stand
But being mad with desperation I swore I'd pierce his breast
I was then deceived by Molly O', the lily of the west

A flaw was in my indictment found and that soon had me free
That beauty bright I did adore, the judge did her address
Now go, you faithless Molly O', the lily of the west

Now that I've gained my liberty a-rowin' I will go
I ramble through old Ireland and travel Scotland o'er
Though she thought to swear my life away she still disturbs my rest,
I still must style her, Molly O', the lily of the west.

--lyrics by Mark Knopfler based on the Traditional Song

Merry and Bright

Happy Holidays to All....

"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" Trailer Released

Wow, less than a decade old and having the feel of such a remarkable classic. Peter Jackson returns to the Lord of the Rings universe to bring The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey to life. The film is slated for December 2012 release, so the producers have released these preliminary tidbits to tide fans over for the moment.

More on the film here and here including the director's video blog about this 3-D production here

The Guardian offers a nice interview with Elijah Wood here

Of course  for those who aren't LOTR fans, here is the infamous clip from Clerks 2 where Jeff Anderson 's character Randal Graves, does a very funny number  on the Trilogy that even a LOTR fan (well, at least one who is not in the movie) must admit is quite amusing. Here

Windswept Streets

Photo by Tony Napoli 2011

Since shortly after Thanksgiving, the encampment on Willoughby and Bridge Streets stood, right outside of St. Joseph's High School. A line of fragrant pine trees for sale for the holiday. A funky little van with a table out front, a wire and a row of trees, and at the corner, a hand painted poster advertising Windswept Farms, Fresh Trees, Vermont.  When I passed in the morning the trees were out there but the van was shut up tight. In the evening, the vendor, a middle-aged guy with longish grey hair would sit out at a small table, sometimes strumming a guitar, sometimes hawking jugs of natural maple syrup garnered from his farm. At first I wondered, would he really sell trees here on the edge of Metrotech? But I guess I was wrong. Little by little, the trees disappeared. Until today, there was one tree out there at 7:30 AM and when I passed it on my evening stroll to the train home, the tree, the van, the plastic sheeting he used to wrap the trees for his customers -- all and everything was gone. That is except for the hand painted poster advertising Windswept Farms that had been chained to a light pole at the corner. That remained, perhaps forgotten, perhaps an after thought, perhaps a version of  some home-spun marketing for this organic tree business, to be redone with new colors and new vision next year, in commemoration of the annual pilgrimage to the streets of New York in the short window of time before Christmas arrives.

--Anthony Napoli, Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn

"I Am the Passenger"

Coda: ShakeShack Comes to Downtown Brooklyn Today

The new Shake Shack, a luxe fast food restaurant by Danny Meyers, opens its first Brooklyn outpost today at 11 AM at a ribbon cutting ceremony at its gleaming new store front at 409 Fulton Street (between Willoughby and Adams), just steps from Brooklyn borough hall. Mayor Bloomberg, Borough President Marty Markowitz, and other business and civic luminaries will be present to cut the ribbon and chow down on burgers, hot dogs, shakes
and frozen treats.

It's as much about quality, upscale fast food as it is another marker of the continuing development and recognition that the Borough of Brooklyn is a complex, highly developed and unique community in its own right. When the City of Brooklyn merged with Manhattan in 1898, it seems as though the City of Brooklyn lost some panache, overshadowed by its more dominant partner across the river. We were the borough of the Honeymooners, at best a bedroom community to where the action really happened.

Now, especially in the past decade, the development of new hotels, the appearance of major corporate and financial operations at Metrotech,  the expansion of the Brooklyn Academy of Music into an artistic center,  the complete recreation of the mall at Albee Square into the new City Point Mall and  the new, already -opened Urban Space at the DeKalb City Market, are all harbingers of the continuing commercial development and cultural significance of the borough, both as part of New York City and as a  distinct and unique American destination.  The borough of Brooklyn, like the City and State of New York, and the entire US, require expanded employment opportunities, a more realistic social safety net within the context of a free economy, that addresses the needs of families, children, the elderly and the under- and unemployed.

At the same time, remarkably,  it is a wonderful message of the continuing economic vibrancy and potential of Brooklyn, when a simple thing like a New Burger Comes to Town.  Go figure.
--Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn

On the Other Hand...The Five Greatest Caroles Ever

While the late Hitch achieves a bit of post-mortem beatification, I wonder, around this time of year,  if he should have found himself belly up at the bar with a glass or three of his favorite whisky, ("accept no substitutes") and a group of carolers wandered in singing, if he might give it a smile or if he would frown and turn his back on, for example, Ding Dong Merrily...

WQXR had a lovely article today about the Five Greatest Caroles of All Time, based on surveys with choirmasters and musicians, and which it identifies as:

1. In the Bleak Midwinter

 2. Ding Dong Merrily on High

3. In Dulci Jubilo

4. Silent Night

5. Tie: O Come, All Ye Faithful / Once in Royal David's City 

While not all versions above are created equal, I am providing this little survey of these tunes for your listening enjoyment. Excerpt: "In The Bleak Midwinter" is the world’s greatest Christmas carol, according to a poll by WQXR.org of leading choirmasters and choral experts from the US and the UK. The song came out on top, placing above well-known carols like “Silent Night,” “Ding Dong Merrily on High” and “Once in Royal David's City.”

Meanwhile, I invite you to take a look at WQXR's holiday-themed article about the Five Greatest Caroles Ever here

Not to be forgotten, the famous Monty Python sketch culminating in a rousing version of "Ding Dong Merrily on High."

-Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn

Hitchens Is Dead: Long Live Christopher Hitchens

God Is Not Great, wrote Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011), and in doing so, along with his many other writings, political positions, and provocations throughout his life, showed himself to be a fearless contemporary philosophe,  journalist and inveterate hard partier. Mr. Hitchens swung from the Left as a writer for the Nation magazine to being an ardent supporter of the War in Iraq as well as his staunch support for the architects of that war in the Bush White House. He was a detractor of  religion and religious belief, organized religion, and Mother Theresa, for that matter.  Mr. Hitchens boldly charged forward then as he did after his dire prognosis, refusing to change his views or his rejection of the idea of a Supreme Being, particularly one as Gatekeeper of the Afterlife, as well as "Islamofascism" a temr that he denied creating but helped to popularize.

 In an interview Mr. Hitchens said: 'Do I think our civilisation is superior? Yes, I do. Do I think it's worth fighting for? Most certainly.'

"The search for nirvana, like the search for utopia or the end of history or the classless society, is ultimately a futile and dangerous one. It involves, if it does not necessitate, the sleep of reason. There is no escape from anxiety and struggle." – Love, Poverty, and War: Journeys and Essays, 2004


"[Mother Teresa] was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God. She spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction." – Slate, October 2003


"The only position that leaves me with no cognitive dissonance is atheism. It is not a creed. Death is certain, replacing both the siren-song of Paradise and the dread of Hell. Life on this earth, with all its mystery and beauty and pain, is then to be lived far more intensely: we stumble and get up, we are sad, confident, insecure, feel loneliness and joy and love. There is nothing more; but I want nothing more." – The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Non-Believer, 2007


"Where would you like to live? In a state of conflict or a conflicted state?" – Hitch-22


Other quotes here


 Full NY Times article here

The Guardian obit here

Hitchens: From 9/11 to the Arab Spring (September 2011) article here

As Physicist and Fellow Atheist Richard Dawkins observed in tribute, Mr. Hitchens was a "valiant fighter against all tyrants including God."

--Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn

Crash on the Levee: Howard Fishman and Band

Howard Fishman and Band perform this Basement Tapes classic from Bob Dylan and The Band at Housing Works in NYC in 2008

"2025, If.." : Buckminster Fuller in 1975 and the Whole Earth

Among many other factors gleaned during the pre- and post-Internet years, my education continued and my thinking was enhanced by the work of Stewart Brand and the Whole Earth project. The Whole Earth Catalog in its various forms, CoEvolution Quarterly, Whole Earth Review, and its off-shoots and projects, combined what ostensibly was potentially most intellectual and thoughtful, less  rigidly ideological, and creative and pragmatic about the arc that extended from the Beats and Bohemians to the 1960s and the New Age of the 1970s and beyond that emerged and is so intertwined with information, technology, nature and sheer creativity. While I have continued my own critique -- as, for instance, technologist-philosopher Jaron Lanier has, who was heralded in the pages of the Whole Earth media over the years but who (in his recent book, You Are Not A Gadget)  has now challenged Mr. Brand's assertion that "information wants to be free" -- nevertheless, I still find the contents and structure of the Whole Earth project and ongoing source of inspiration and provocation.

Buckminster Fuller, himself a technologist-philosopher, his ideas and his writings, appeared many times in the Whole Earth's pages. Here is an excerpt of an article written in late 1974, where Fuller contemplates a world half a century in his future and what it might take humankind to get there:

"As of the closing of 1974, muscle and power are in complete dominance over world affairs. The world pays two pugilists three million dollars to pummel one anothers' brain boxes for a dozen minutes in front of the T.V. cameras. The winner is officially adulated by the United States Congress. He's a good human being so that's great but no T.V. shows are celebrating far greater metaphysical battle heros and heroines in their silent commitment to love, truth and everyday self sacrifice for others.


"For the last two decades the world powers have been spending 200 billion annually for armaments and only negligible amounts to assuage poverty. The most powerfully armed control the world's wealth. Power and muscle clearly continue in the world's saddle.

"Whether human beings will be on our planet in the 21st century depends on whether mind has reversed this condition and has come into complete control over muscle and physical power in general and as a consequence of which the world will at last be operational by humans for all humans. "

"Humans will be alive aboard our planet Earth in the 21st century only if the struggle for existence has been completely disposed of by providing abundant life support and accomodation for all humans. Only under these conditions can all humans function as the competent local-universe problem solvers. That is what humans were invented for. Only if Abraham Lincoln's "right" has come into complete ascendancy over "might" will humanity remain alive on board our planet in the 21st century and if so will be here for untold milleniums to come. Humanity is now going through its final examination as to whether it can qualify for its universe function and thereby qualify for continuance on board the planet."

View electronic edition of the Spring 1975 issue of Coevolution Quarterly where the article appeared here



Making It Through Monday: Waiting in Vain

Bob Marley and the Wailers

Two Heavy Hitters on the Current Crisis: Roberto Saviano and Nouriel Roubini

Dang! Wish I caught this last night at NYU - Nouriel Roubini and Roberto Saviano (author of Gomorrah about organized crime in Italy),  on Italy and the U.S.: Two Perspectives on the Crisis.  Moderated by Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Chair, NYU Department of Italian Studies.

C'mon, NYU, let's get a youtube or some reportage out on this important and no doubt extremely informative event!

Saviano is a journalist best known for Gomorrah (Mondadori, 2006), which exposed the economic and financial dealings of the Neapolitan Camorra. His latest book is Vieni via con me (Feltrinelli, 2011), which draws on his 2010 television show with Fabio Fazio. During the fall semester 2011, Saviano was in residence at the Department of Italian Studies, teaching a graduate seminar on the Mafia as the Vivian G. Prins Global Scholar Fellow funded by Scholars at Risk, with additional support from the Scholar Rescue Fund of the Institute of International Education. In October 2011, he won the PEN/Pinter Writer of Courage Award. Mr. Saviano's official site here

Roubini is the co-founder and chairman of Roubini Global Economics and Professor of Economics at New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business. He has been the senior economist for international affairs on the White House Council of Economic Advisors and senior advisor to the undersecretary for international affairs at the U.S. Treasury Department. He is an expert on global financial crises, and his latest book is Crisis Economics: A Crash Course in the Future of Finance (Penguin Press, 2010).