Coloratura: East 17th Street in Fiske Terrace, Brooklyn

Photo by Brooklyn Beat - Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn

New York City Invaded By Pixels

It looks like a Q-ball , a type of non-topological soliton,  entered the Earth right over New York City and rendered it whacko. Or maybe it is fall out from -- yes, the CERN Collider..  Patrick Jean's video   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcXtT3rZcqg&feature=player_embedded , making its way around the web, gives a cool and skewed look at pixillating rhythms in a transitionally Lego world. Avanti!

Update On the Dunes

Update from the Isle of Coney -- Well, for what almost passes as controversy on this site, when Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn apparently made the grave error of taking a walk in Coney Island on Monday, and not this past Saturday or Sunday when I was out of town, it appeared at that time that things might be slow for at least part of this summer On the Dunes in Coney Island..  Well, happily, not so...

Coney Island Fun Guide Reports: "If you had come on the weekend, the Boardwalk would have been open! I work in Coney Island and want to reassure everyone that Cha Cha's, Ruby's, Lola Star and the other businesses on the Boardwalk as well as the rides and games will indeed be open this summer.


As Ruby's host explained, one section of the Boardwalk between Stillwell Ave & W 12th is temporarily closed this week only. Work continues on the beach side of the Boardwalk.

Yes, at long last construction is now underway in Coney, including the new Luna Park with 19 rides slated to open on the former Astroland site on Memorial day weekend. The Ringling Circus returns in June. It's shaping up to be a great season. The Cyclone and Wonder Wheel are among the 40 rides currently open for business. Come on out and enjoy! Check the Coney Island Fun Guide for schedules and detailed info..."


Thank you for the update! Nevertheless, based on Monday's somewhat luckless visit, Brooklyn Beat still asserts that it would have been helpful and just plain nice for him, as well as the turistas, to know that, faced with gates and construction and No Entry signs, things were not to remain as they seemed at mid-day on a gorgeous and warm Monday. But anyway, you simply cahn't always get what you want....Still, so there you have it, Coney Island--still cool, still happening, still there. Go for it! See you there!

More info here 

"On the Dunes" by Donald Fagen
Drive along the sea

Far from the city's twitch and smoke
To a misty beach
That's where my life became a joke

On the dunes
On the dunes
(Became a joke on the dunes)
Where rents are high
And seabirds cry
On the dunes

As you spoke you must have known
It was a kind of homicide
I stood and watched my happiness
Drift outwards with the tide
On the dunes
On the dunes

(Homicide on the dunes)

It wasn't fair
It's brutal there
On the dunes
Pretty boats
Sweeping along the shore
In the faltering light
Pretty women
With their lovers by their side
It's like an awful dream
I have most every night

In the summer all the swells
Join in the search for sun and sand
For me it's just a joyless place
Where this loneliness began
On the dunes

On the dunes
(Loneliness on the dunes)
I'm pretty tough
But the wind is rough
On the dunes
--Donald Fagen, "On the Dunes" from  his great solo album,. Kamakyriad

--Brooklyn Beat

Coney Island: In Transition

Despite the intermittent media coverage regarding pending development,   it was still a bit of a surprise, visiting Coney Island yesterday,  to see the huge swath of the Boardwalk, from Stillwell Avenue east, fenced off, shops closed, as reconstruction of the Boardwalk, and presumably further development, commences.

While it was still early in the season, only a couple of food stands were open, west of Stillwell. I didn't realize that the impact of the development would be felt so soon, it seems clear that that the fenced off area precludes business in this section over the summer, if, as the sign indicates, work will be completed in Fall 2010. 

Update: Good news --I am pleased to report that shortly after this item was posted, an update was received from Ruby's, among our favorite watering-holes-by-the-water :   

Ruby's reports that, happily,  "while there is a section of the boardwalk being redone. Ruby's is open and doing well. The section that is being worked on has 2 parts - the entire section of boardwalk is closed from 6:30 am - 2 pm mon- fri only so they crane can hoist the concrete pieces of the boardwalk over the buildings and dropped in place. Ruby's is open 7 days a week and going strong. There is a section of the boardwalk - Close to the water section where benches are- that is fenced off. That section is having extensive repair work done and is closed until Memorial day weekend. The entire boardwalk has been under repair for over a year and will be completed 2011."

While it is possible to walk the length of the shore, much of the trip to Brighton Beach would have to be made either on the street or on the sand, since the Boardwalk no longer serves as a thoroughfare.  We took a walk out on the pier, still accessible, and walked on the Boardwalk to West 29th Street.  But there is no doubt that major changes are coming. One old timer was overheard observing that tourists are already appearing looking for "the new hotel."   While some of its "42nd Street-by-the-Sea" charm may be in flux, for better or for worse, Coney Island will always remain one of the most vibrant and amazing places to experience nature, and New York,  in any season. 

One more note from Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn, a long-time Coney Island fan: Based on the current signage at Stillwell Avenue, and the extensive fencing, it was not apparent to casual visitors like us that portions of the Boardwalk remain open on a part-time basis, or that any businesses will be available in that stretch to serve the public this summer. Hopefully, the Coney Island Development Corporation and area businesses will provide further information on-site and in the media as to hours of access and services as the season progresses.

Meanwhile, don't forget, folks, while changes and improvements are happening,  be sure to visit Coney Island this season... -- Brooklyn Beat

Boardwalk under construction

View from the Pier

Coney Island Community Garden

Photos by Tony Napoli - Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn

Coney Island Development Corporation Development Map here

Coney Island Fun Guide here

Coney Island Development Corporation's main page here

Magical Connections: Art in Philadelphia

Maybe it's the amazing confluence of smaller scale, universities and museums, wonderful public art, and creative responses to development that make  Philadelphia such a low key yet inviting and fun place to visit. While Brooklyn, posing an alternative to Manhattan, has developed its own issues and complications vis-a-vis development, higher housing and commercial costs, Philadelphia, a city of  1.5 million with a greater metro area of 5 million plus, still ranks 6th largest in the US (NYC Is #1) but still feels liveable, especially as a center of art and culture.

Picasso Self Portrait

We dropped down to Philadelphia for an overnight, scoring comfy center city hotel accommodations, plus parking and tickets included to the huge "Picasso and t he Avant Garde in Paris" show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Works by the master, along with contemporaries George Braques, Juan Gris, Marcel Duchamp, and other artists of the period. The show is comprehensive, well structured and informative. We caught it on a late  Friday afternoon which coincided with their "First Friday" show,and despite its being the Friday before the Easter holiday, there was a huge after work crowd hanging and listening to a dynamic women's world music group that rocked the rafters of the huge museum.

The Philadelphia Museum of  Art:  Internationally recognized as one of the most innovative and influential artists of the twentieth century, Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973) was at his most ferociously inventive between 1905 and 1945. Picasso and the Avant-Garde in Paris surveys his work during these crucial decades, when he transformed the history of art through his innate virtuosity and protean creativity. The exhibition follows the trajectory of Picasso’s career from his early experiments with abstraction to his pioneering role in the development of Cubism, as well as his dialogue with Surrealism and other important art movements in the ensuing decades. The exhibition will also explore the important role that the city of Paris played in the history of modern art during the first half of the twentieth century, when artists from around the world followed Picasso’s example and moved to the French capital. It will include works by expatriate artists like Marc Chagall, Jacques Lipchitz, Patrick Henry Bruce, and Man Ray, who collectively formed a vibrant, international avant-garde group known, for posterity, as the School of Paris.



Drawn from the Museum’s extraordinary collection of paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings by Picasso, with additional loans from private American collections, this exhibition provides a unique opportunity to reconsider the cross-fertilization of ideas that took place in Paris during one of the most experimental and creative periods in Western art. Two-hundred fourteen paintings, sculptures, and works on paper will be on view, including Picasso’s Three Musicians (1921), a grand summation of the artist’s decade-long exploration of Synthetic Cubism in which the artist seems to cast himself and his poet friends Guillaume Apollinaire and Max Jacob as players in a radical form of Cubist concert.

The feeling of Philadelphia as an art friendly also is anchored by the amazing public work of Isaiah Zagar.  Zagar is a an award-winning mosaic mural artist whose work can be found on over 100 public walls throughout the city of Philadelphia and around the world. Born in Philadelphia and raised in Brooklyn, Zagar received his B.F.A. in Painting and Graphics at the Pratt Institute of Art in New York City. He became known to many outside of his home city due to the success of the independent award-winning documentary about him and his wife and partner, Julia, entitled In a Dream, that was directed by Jeremiah Zagar, his son (currently of Brooklyn). This fascinating and brave  portrait was,  I believe, short-listed for Academy Award consideration, winning numerous other awards and making ongoing appearances on HBO. Catch it if you haven't.  Also available on DVD.

The Magic Garden, Zagar's largest South Street mural, is an indoor/outdoor maze of mosaics inlaid with various pieces of poetry. One line reads, "I built this sanctuary to be inhabited by my ideas and my fantasies." Another says, "Remember walking around in this work of fiction."

It really established South Street in Philadelphia as an art district, giving a strong sense of creativity and public art to South Philly, just as Gary Indiana's LOVE or the Claes Oldenberg clothespin   or many of the other monumental public  arts works that dot the Center City and museum district.  But Zagar's work, with its strong avant garde and folk art ethic, mesh perfectly with South Street's electic shops, bars and other arts, crafts and music venues.

A shop on South Street.

The Magic Gardens offer self-guided tours of the site on South Street as well as walking tours of other Zagar artworks in the area.  Like all fascinating art, it is equal parts obsession and vision, transcending both. Must see.

South Street Storefront by Isaiah Zagar: "Art is the center of the real world."

Photos above from the Magic Gardens and South Street by Anthony Napoli - Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn

Isaiah Zagar photo credit: Tex Dex

More on Mr. Zagar here:

More on Philadephia's Magic Gardens here

Finally, on the way home, we made a side trip to the Fabric Workshop and Museum on Arch Street near the Convention Center. Although a number of new shows were in preparation and not available at the time of our visit, we did catch a video of a work by Cai Guo Qiang, who was the subject of a major recent show at NYC's Guggenheim Museum. This work, Fallen Blossoms, showed  an enormous firework display that the resident artist performed on the massive steps of the Philadelphia Museum. The Fabric Workshop and Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art recently  presented a multi-site exhibition of the work of Cai Guo-Qiang, one of the most prominent contemporary artists on the international art scene. Cai Guo-Qiang: Fallen Blossoms which was the remaining work and which we caught consists of a poetic meditation on the passing of time, memory, and memorializing.  Happily, a few works by Louise Bourgeois and other fabric and textile artists from the permanent collection were on display.

We look forward to visiting the museum again later this year for some new upcoming shows.

We visited the City of Brotherly Love in the past when our kids were  younger, since it was an easy trip and   Philadelphia, with the Liberty Bell and Franklin Insittute is a great place to see American history up close and personal. However, it was great to visit with My Better Half and experience a wide sampling of the great art experiences that the city has to offer. Check it out sometime.

--Brooklyn Beat

And Now for Something Completely Different: Sampling Durian, "The King of Fruits"

"This pulp is the edible part, and its consistence and flavour are indescribable. A rich custard highly flavoured with almonds gives the best general idea of it, but there are occasional wafts of flavour that call to mind cream-cheese, onion-sauce, sherry-wine, and other incongruous dishes. Then there is a rich glutinous smoothness in the pulp which nothing else possesses." - Alfred Russel Wallace, naturalist

How many times do you have a chance to sample a food -- actually a natural fruit, not a cooked item--that is completely differnet and out of one's experience.

We were at BAM watching Noah Baumbach's excellent GREENBERG when one of my daughters sent me a text asking whether she should buy a durian fruit which she encountered on her stroll through Chinatown. Why not? The Q train was messed up so we ended up picking our girls up on FOrt Hamilton Parkway in the 60s. She had the durian, which had already been removed from its thick and spiky skin at the greengorcer. She had it in a plastic container in a plastic bag. When we got it home it was left on a table o n the deck in our yard. I decided to give it a try.

To give you an idea:  In-season durians can be found in mainstream Japanese supermarkets while, in the West, they are sold mainly by Asian markets.

Sign forbidding durians on Singapore's Mass Rapid TransitThe unusual flavour and odour of the fruit have prompted many people to express diverse and passionate views ranging from deep appreciation to intense disgust. Writing in 1856, the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace provides a much-quoted description of the flavour of the durian:

“ The five cells are silky-white within, and are filled with a mass of firm, cream-coloured pulp, containing about three seeds each. This pulp is the edible part, and its consistence and flavour are indescribable. A rich custard highly flavoured with almonds gives the best general idea of it, but there are occasional wafts of flavour that call to mind cream-cheese, onion-sauce, sherry-wine, and other incongruous dishes. Then there is a rich glutinous smoothness in the pulp which nothing else possesses, but which adds to its delicacy. It is neither acid nor sweet nor juicy; yet it wants neither of these qualities, for it is in itself perfect. It produces no nausea or other bad effect, and the more you eat of it the less you feel inclined to stop. In fact, to eat Durians is a new sensation worth a voyage to the East to experience. ... as producing a food of the most exquisite flavour it is unsurpassed. ”

Perhaps, but how does one even approach sampling a fruit that Wallace cautions that "the smell of the ripe fruit is certainly at first disagreeable",and for which later descriptions by westerners are more graphic. British novelist Anthony Burgess writes that eating durian is "like eating sweet raspberry blancmange in the lavatory." Chef Andrew Zimmern compares the taste to "completely rotten, mushy onions." Anthony Bourdain, a lover of durian, relates his encounter with the fruit as thus: "Its taste can only be described as...indescribable, something you will either love or despise. ...Your breath will smell as if you'd been French-kissing your dead grandmother." Travel and food writer Richard Sterling “ ... its odor is best described as pig-shit, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock. It can be smelled from yards away. Despite its great local popularity, the raw fruit is forbidden from some establishments such as hotels, subways and airports, including public transportation in Southeast Asia.”

Other comparisons have been made with the civet, sewage, stale vomit, skunk spray and used surgical swabs. The wide range of descriptions for the odour of durian may have a great deal to do with the variability of durian odour itself. Durians from different species or clones can have significantly different aromas; for example, red durian (D. dulcis) has a deep caramel flavour with a turpentine odour while red-fleshed durian (D. graveolens) emits a fragrance of roasted almonds. Among the varieties of D. zibethinus, Thai varieties are sweeter in flavour and less odourous than Malay ones. The degree of ripeness has an effect on the flavour as well. Three scientific analyses of the composition of durian aroma — from 1972, 1980, and 1995 — each found a mix of volatile compounds including esters, ketones, and different sulphur compounds, with no agreement on which may be primarily responsible for the distinctive odour.

My expereicne with Durian: After having a few sips of merlot, I grabbed a pair of chopsticks a nd headed out to the deck, accompanied by my smirking daughter. "Everything smells of  durian!"shekept commenting. I opened the container, trying not to inhale the odor -- uh, er - the aroma of this messy looking fruit.

I picked at it a bit with the chopsticks and considered it carefully. Slimy in appearance,but in the mango or papaya family. Definitely a fruit, not a meat or fungus or seafood. Maneuvering it in the air, I  finally opened  wide and  began chewing on a piece. It was sweetish, a faint citrus, almost refreshing for a moment, with a metallic aftertaste, but shifitng quickly into a very complex, organic flavor. The key here is complex and unlike anything else I had ever eaten. Not disgusting as the commentary suggests but rich, creamy and completely different. Clearly a fruit, but so different to such an extent that it would seem to belong to another class of foods altogether. One that we may not be very comfortable with. Like being at the dentist, having a tooth drilled, and, though you aren't feeling pain, but there is always that anticipation of pain, the durian at first bite doesn't taste awful, just strange, but with the anticipation that after further mastication it could taste just too different to tolerate.

More on Durian here

-- Brooklyn Beat

Hunting Higgs: Large Hadron Collider Fires Up Again

The Higgs Boson

The Large Hadron Collider, at long last, is online and cooking. 

NY TIMES: The soundless blooming of proton explosions was accompanied by the hoots and applause of scientists crowded into control rooms at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, which built the collider. The relief spread to bleary gatherings of particle physicists all around the world, who have collectively staked the future of their profession on the idea that the new collider will eventually reveal new secrets of the universe, like the identity of the dark matter that shapes the visible cosmos and the strange particle known as the “Higgs,” which is thought to imbue other particles with mass. Until now, these have been tantalizingly out of reach.



“We’re expecting some answers,” said David Politzer, a Nobel laureate at the California Institute of Technology, where refreshments in a conference room overflowing with Los Angeles-area physicists attending a midnight remote viewing included matzos, chips and pizza.


Rolf Heuer, director general of CERN, speaking from Japan, said the new collider “opens a new window of discovery and it brings, with patience, new knowledge of the universe and the microcosm. It shows what one can do in bringing forward knowledge.” He added: “It will also bring out an army of children and young people who will get into the private sector and academia.”

Link here.

Will this turn up the elusive Higgs Boson, aka "The G-d Particle"?Some have argued that there already exists potential evidence, but to date no such evidence has convinced the physics community.


In a recent preprint, it has even been suggested (and commented as "important physical news" by several websites, e.g. under the headline Higgs could reveal itself in Dark-Matter collisions by Physics World, a website supported by the British Institute of Physics) that the Higgs Boson might not only interact with the above-mentioned particles of the Standard model of particle physics, but also with the mysterious WIMPs ("weakly interacting massive particles") of the Dark matter, playing a most-important role in recent astrophysics. In this case, it is natural to augment the above Feynman diagrams by terms representing such an interaction.

In principle, a relation between the Higgs particle and the Dark matter would be "not unexpected", since, (i), the Higgs field does not directly couple to the quanta of light (i.e. the photons), while at the same time, (ii), it generates mass

In Stanisław Lem's Solaris, a space station crew deals with an inexplicable presence of other people, including absent or deceased friends and relatives — apparently the creations of an alien phenomenon they are studying. They discover that their visitors, when killed, always return to life, even if they attempt to kill themselves. (In the novel, these "ghosts" are described as being constructed from long-range energy fields derived from bound states of neutrinos.) In Steven Soderbergh's 2002 film adaptation, the script has a reference to Higgs bosons, absent in the original: "So, if we created a negative Higgs field, and bombarded them with a stream of Higgs anti-bosons, they might disintegrate."

In Robert J. Sawyer's Flashforward, an experiment at CERN to find the Higgs particle causes the consciousness of the entire human race to be sent twenty-one years into the future.


The current news reflects numerous starts and restarts for the LHC. What news next on the hunt for the Higgs Boson?

First Buds on the Japanese Cherry

On our way to drop one of our girls at the Brooklyn  Museum, we saw blossoms on a tree bordering the Botanic Gardens. Here at home, hard to believe it was only a few weeks ago that we weathered heavy nsow, hurricane-force winds and rain.  We saw the first crocus on St. Patrick's Day. Today, as March wanes, the first red buds appeared on the cherry tree on our court. After a tough winter, Spring is surely here.

Before the Rising is Done: Pre-Passover Days

Most of the Passover shopping is done. Before getting done with the pre-Passover clean up, where we rid the kitchen of all of the things we will forgo for the week starting tomorrow evening, we've been going through the pantry and freezer using up breadstuff. Brunch today featured a round-the-world sampling of stuff that we won't be having for a week, including Indian paratha bread,delicious multi-grain pan loaf, home made cranberry sunflower scones, spanakopita, mini-vege egg rolls, etc. Soon we will be getting up close and personal with the non-leaavened way of life. Passover, like spring, is a time of reflection and change on the level of daily life. The temporary change from bread and leavening is not so much a deprivation (at least for the first few days) as it is a way to be reminded of freedom and its roots in movement, sacrifice, transition and choices.

Way Down Under: Spring in the Antarctic

Imagine leaving the modern, civilized world as we know it, and traveling down to Antarctica to live and work there for months at a time, in the equivalent of a scientific outpost on another, barren planet. Well, that is the life of vagabond Ken Klassy, that he writes about in his blog, Ken's AntarctiKen .

Ken's profile: am a Systems Administrator currently working at the McMurdo Research facility on Ross Island Antarctica. While my paycheck travels through several different subcontractors, it originates with the National Science Foundation. I spend 8 months a year enduring the winters of Antarctica. (no, its not that exciting… don’t believe everything you see on TV) While we do get to experience the occasional Condition 1 storm putting temps down around -70 ambient and windchill below -100 for the most part is pretty tolerable.


Photography is my main hobby when not at work. While in Antarctica I enjoy shooting auroras, stars, and the occasional iridium flare. All that is made possible by the orbital patterns of Earth plunging most of Antarctica into darkness for 3-5 months a year depending on your location. The Sun coming back in August brings out the Nacreous clouds which are always a great show. Do a search on Polar Stratospheric or Nacreous clouds to learn more about these clouds. They deal with the depletion of Ozone (natural depletion! not caused by global warming or any other THEORY!) Natures own acid clouds.


See some of Ken's amazing Antarctic photos here

Hot! Hot! Hot! Chili Peppers in the Blistering Sun...

As Jules Verne in his novel "From Earth to the Moon" presented the eternal conflict between the weaponmakers and the armor-makers, are we now looking at the next phase -- the battle between the chili makers and the chutney-makers?
That could be next as the Indian military seeks to weaponize world's hottest chili:

"The bhut jolokia was accepted by Guinness World Records in 2007 as the world's spiciest chili. It is grown and eaten in India's northeast for its taste, as a cure for stomach troubles and a way to fight the crippling summer heat.


It has more than 1,000,000 Scoville units, the scientific measurement of a chili's spiciness. Classic Tabasco sauce ranges from 2,500 to 5,000 Scoville units, while jalapeno peppers measure anywhere from 2,500 to 8,000.

"The chili grenade has been found fit for use after trials in Indian defense laboratories, a fact confirmed by scientists at the Defense Research and Development Organization," Col. R. Kalia, a defense spokesman in the northeastern state of Assam, told The Associated Press."

U.S. 2010 Census Employment Opportunities

U.S. CENSUS is Hiring Again for positions that start in 2010!
They are recruiting for:
Census Takers
Crew Leaders
Crew Leader Assistants
Recruiting Assistants
Census Clerks

Positions can be full or part-time depending upon need and hourly pay ranges from approximately $14.00 per hour to over $20.00 per hour depending upon position. Earn Good Pay! Get Paid Weekly! Work Flexible Hours! Receive Paid Training!

QUALIFICATIONS
To be eligible all applicants must:
Be at least 18 years old.
Pass the required written test administered by US Census.

TO APPLY
(866) 861-2010 or (347) 967-4020
Monday-Friday: 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Saturday & Sunday: 11:00 AM-7:00 PM

For more information visit: http://2010.census.gov/2010censusjobs/The US Census Bureau needs local residents for a variety of exciting opportunities, including interviewing, office administration, and supervision. A large part of these jobs involve dealing with the public. Most of the jobs in the field require you to locate and interview households. The information you collect is confidential and must NOT be disclosed to anyone who has not sworn to protect Census Bureau information.

WHEN WILL YOU WORK?
Most jobs will be short term and ALL jobs will be temporary (You may be called for multiple assignments depending on your performance). Your most productive hours will vary based on the type of census operation. For operations that require contact with the public to complete interviews, your availability to work when people are home is critical. The late afternoon, evening, and weekend hours are most productive times to work on these operations, daylight hours are required for some.

Dems Victorious in an Epic Battle Over Health Care: You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine

"I just can’t do what I done before,

I just can’t beg you anymore.

I’m gonna let you pass

And I’ll go last.

Then time will tell just who fell

And who’s been left behind,

When you go your way and I go mine."

--Bob Dylan

The Democratic Party, seeking reform, reached the limit of its willingness to compromise and passed the Health Care Reform Bill in Congress by a 219-212 margin.

From the NY TIMES:

-The health care bill would require most Americans to have health insurance, would add 16 million people to the Medicaid rolls and would subsidize private coverage for low- and middle-income people, at a cost to the government of $938 billion over 10 years, the Congressional Budget Office said.

-The bill would require many employers to offer coverage to employees or pay a penalty. Each state would set up a marketplace, or exchange, where consumers without such coverage could shop for insurance meeting federal standards.

-The budget office estimates that the bill would provide coverage to 32 million uninsured people, but still leave 23 million uninsured in 2019. One-third of those remaining uninsured would be illegal immigrants.

-The new costs, according to the budget office, would be more than offset by savings in Medicare and by new taxes and fees, including a tax on high-cost employer-sponsored health plans and a tax on the investment income of the most affluent Americans.

-Cost estimates by the budget office, showing that the bill would reduce federal budget deficits by $143 billion in the next 10 years, persuaded some fiscally conservative Democrats to vote for the bill.

-Democrats said Americans would embrace the bill when they saw its benefits, including some provisions that take effect later this year.

The NY TIMES provides a nice interactive graphic on what it could be mean to you.

NY TIMES: How your Congressperson voted on the Health Care Reform Bill

Paul Krugman: 'Fear Strikes Out': "The day before Sunday’s health care vote, President Obama gave an unscripted talk to House Democrats. Near the end, he spoke about why his party should pass reform: “Every once in a while a moment comes where you have a chance to vindicate all those best hopes that you had about yourself, about this country, where you have a chance to make good on those promises that you made ... And this is the time to make true on that promise. We are not bound to win, but we are bound to be true. We are not bound to succeed, but we are bound to let whatever light we have shine.”

"And on the other side, here’s what Newt Gingrich, the Republican former speaker of the House — a man celebrated by many in his party as an intellectual leader — had to say: If Democrats pass health reform, “They will have destroyed their party much as Lyndon Johnson shattered the Democratic Party for 40 years” by passing civil rights legislation."

"I’d argue that Mr. Gingrich is wrong about that: proposals to guarantee health insurance are often controversial before they go into effect — Ronald Reagan famously argued that Medicare would mean the end of American freedom — but always popular once enacted."

"But that’s not the point I want to make today. Instead, I want you to consider the contrast: on one side, the closing argument was an appeal to our better angels, urging politicians to do what is right, even if it hurts their careers; on the other side, callous cynicism. Think about what it means to condemn health reform by comparing it to the Civil Rights Act. Who in modern America would say that L.B.J. did the wrong thing by pushing for racial equality? (Actually, we know who: the people at the Tea Party protest who hurled racial epithets at Democratic members of Congress on the eve of the vote.) "  Full article here

With the vote over, the battle for health care reform is just beginning; political and legal struggles ahead.

Nancy Pelosi: Leader-in-Chief of the Congressional Victory. Salon article here

How You Like Me Now? by The Heavy ---Neo Soul Continues to Break Through

The Heavy

  

The House That Dirt Built by The Heavy

Granted, I'm a little slow on the uptake. But now, can't get it out of my head. I've been a bit busy but still the tune in the Kia ad  that debuted at the Super Bowl , and percolates around the web is everywhere, engrained in my consciousness. It  punches through the rock  n funk and soul wall, like high explosive, right to the core. A new classic, "How You Like Me Now?" by the British group The Heavy. The core of the group, guitarist Dan Taylor and vocalist Kelvin Swaby, became friends in 1990 when they bonded over vintage R&B and Jim Jarmusch films.The band also includes drummer Chris Ellul, bassist Spencer Page, and keyboardist Hannah Collins. Their newest release is "The House That Dirt Built"

A couple of months back, the group appeared on David Letterman featuring the Dap Kings' horn section and blew the roof off of the place. Swaby's vocals and the groups' hard-charging rhythm had the obvious effect, so much so that Letterman invited the band to continue the song in an unprecedented encore at the end of the show. If you want to see The Heavy in action, check out the Letterman video plus the encore (which includes Swaby's call and response with Paul Shaeffer and David Letterman. Viewing it, post-Leno and post-Conan, made me really glad that Letterman remains part of the Late Night mix. Maybe his recent brush with celebrity ignominy gave him a real feeling for soul and the blues. Who knows. But, anyway,  happily for us, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Amy Winehouse, and now The Heavy, British and American soul worlds collide in some powerful new music. You've gotta see this lengthy clip if you haven't caught it already.  It will get you in a powerful groove. Also, check out   the band's website

Plus here is an MTV blog and Q&A on the band's recording session, where else, in Brooklyn, in Bushwick's Vibromonk Studio

Visions of the Insidious Commercial

Spring Has Sprung, For Now, During the Week of Falling Wood

Yesterday evening, a cool Checker Cab was parked on Chestnut Avenue, near Avenue M. later. This is the vicinity of the original Vitagraph Studios. Nearby, scenes from films like "Hey Pop" and "Buzzin’ Around," starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, were filmed on streets in Midwood.Warner Bros. purchased the studio in the 1920s, using it for short subjects, and moved the studio operation to Hollywood in 1939. The building is now home to the Shulamith Yeshiva School for Girls, but a large smokestack bearing the name Vitagraph is still on the property, visible from the BMT Subway line, as are two brick walls from the original studio. Many Vitagraph Employees resided within the community. After Warner Bros. vacated the land (in the late 1960s-early 1970s), it remained vacant till the Shulamith School purchased the property years later. The Vitagraph Studios were more recently featured in a New York Times Article (2007), and in the PBS, WNET-13 TV Special 'A Walk Through Brooklyn,' hosted by David Hartman and historian Barry Lewis. Old historic photographs of the studio show that part of it also existed across the Brighton line subway tracks where Edward R. Murrow High School now stands. More here on Midwood

Loggers ply their trade in my backyard in Fiske Terrace. The spruce was about 35 feet long (formerly 35 feet tall.) . It was an eventful week, arborially speaking.