NYC, America and the World: Occupado

The NY Times reports on the Shrinking Middle as Income Inequality Grows here

NY Times: London Occupiers Warily Watch NYC here

Italy banks on its technocrats to find a way out here

Thursday, November 17, promises to be a bit chaotic in New York City as Occupy Wall Street, though dislodged from its encampment at Zuccotti Park, and now free to return on a Per Diem basis, plans a Day of National and International Action, on a variety of fronts, such as student strikes throughout Europe and rallies promised throughout the day at locations around NYC, including --arggh-- "Occupy the Subways."  Details here

 Image Source: R Black & Occupy Wall Street

CODA: Occupy Tribeca?

Working Families Party reports that OWS protestors are taking over a park at 6th avenue and Canal Street. Occupy Tribeca? Are you talkin' to me?

Mayor "Temporarily' Evicts OWS from Zuccotti Park; Park Will Be Reopened to Protestors and the Public ASAP, says Mayor at 8 AM Press Conference

NYC police and sanitation teams descended on Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan early this morning, rousting Occupy Wall Street protestors from tents under the orders of Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The evicted tenants were told they would be permitted to return, but without tents, generators, tarps, sleeping bags, etc. "

"Unfortunately, the park was becoming a place where people came not to protest, but rather to break laws, and in some cases, to harm others," he said. "The majority of protesters have been peaceful and responsible. But an unfortunate minority have not been – and as the number of protesters has grown, this has created an intolerable situation."


He said protesters will be welcome to use the park to protest but won't be able to have tents, sleeping bags or tarps.

In his press conference, the Mayor said it was his intent to immediately reopen the park, but it would remain closed until a court restraining order enjoining the city in this matter was resolved. The park would be reopened for protestors and the public to enjoy. "They will now need to occupy the park with the force of their arguments" the Mayor said.

"Until matter is heard on date set forth, respondencne/defendents (NYC) are prohibited from evicting ..protestors; enforcing "rules" Text of Restraining order here

Transcript of Mayor's Statement here

City of New York official site  here

'Information doesn't deserve to be free': Jaron Lanier from You Are Not a Gadget

"Information of the kind that purportedly wants to be free is nothing but a shadow of our own minds, and wants nothing on its own. It will not suffer if it doesn’t get what it wants.
But if you want to make the transition from the old religion, where you hope God will give you an afterlife, to the new religion, where you hope to become immortal by getting uploaded into a computer, then you have to believe information is real and alive. So for you, it will be important to redesign human institutions like art, the economy, and the law to reinforce the perception that information is alive. You demand that the rest of us live in your new conception of a state religion. You need us to deify information to reinforce your faith."

-Jaron Lanier - You Are Not A Gadget - Random House 2010

Monday Night Movies: Jason and the Argonauts (1963)

One of the most intelligently written films to feature the brilliant stop action animation of the legendary Ray Harryhausen, 1963's Jason and the Argonauts remains and entertaining and compelling work of imaginative history and visual mythology. See 4:04 for Jason's (Todd Armstrong) encounter with the god Hermes and his side trip to Mount Olympus with his protector, the goddess Hera (of UK tv's The Avengers,   Bond-girl Honor Blackman)

'Whenever I Find Myself Growing Grim About the Mouth'

Last night I was thinking about the Carl Sagan quote: "We are star stuff contemplating star stuff."

Today, maybe it is the intermittent clouds and shpritz, but it is more like:

Call me Ishmael. Some years ago- never mind how long precisely- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off- then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.

 
More on Herman Melville's towering 19th century masterpiece of American literature here 
 
Read more here

Before I Die Wall: Still Going Strong at the Shake Shack on Fulton Street

Photo by TN/Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn

A construction wall surrounding the future home of the Brooklyn outpost of Danny Meyer's "Shake Shack" on Fulton and Adams Street in downtown Brooklyn is still attracting dreamers, philosophers and wags who post to the Before I Die Wall.

The wall, an idea of one of the construction site's supervisors, is based on Candy Chang's Before I  Die Wall in  New Orleans. Each day, the wall is covered by chalk graffiti on the theme, only to be merrily washed away by the construction crews each morning, leaving room for the next day's dreamers and philosophers. I've been passing the wall regularly on my walk from the DeKalb Station to my office on Court Street, and it is literally covered with chalk musings each morning. As I pass it on the way home in the evening, there are (mostly young) folks writing away. The wall will probably remain up until the Shake Shack opens later this year.

Comments I've noticed ranged from "See Paris," "Marry my girlfriend, have a family and a big house," "Become a movie star," "Get a job--any job!" "Live life to the fullest"--- to one of my favorites:  "Write on a wall what I want to do Before I Die!" 

If it was a contest, I'd say we might have a winner..

-Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn

Countdown to....

Elizabeth Warren and the Heckler here

Robert Reich talks about reviving the American economy here

Robert Reich: "The two worlds are on a collision course: Americans who are losing their jobs or their pay and can’t pay their bills are growing increasingly desperate. Washington insiders, deficit hawks, regressive Republicans, diffident Democrats, well-coiffed lobbyists, and the lobbyists’ wealthy patrons on Wall Street and in corporate suites haven’t a clue or couldn’t care less.I can’t tell you when the collision will occur but I’d guess 2012. Will 2012 go down in history like other years that shook the foundations of the world’s political economy – 1968 and 1989?...Here, as elsewhere, the people are rising."


Or is it just too late for revival? WS, OWS, DC and the Next Steps for Addressing the Ravages of the Late Stages of Advanced Capitalism here

Occupied With Wall Street: Congress Considers Tax on Stock Transactions

Well, the question of Occupy Wall Street having an impact may be answered. Although it may not have precisely come from the Human Microphone, the protests as Zuccotti Park and Occupy Everywhere may have broken through to the mainstream: Lawmakers are discussing legislation to introduce a tax on financial market transactions, similar to what has been introduced in Europe. This idea was discussed in an article on OWS by Matt Taibbi. "The lawmakers have the backing of union groups and associations that fought for tighter regulations in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. The AFL-CIO and National Nurses United, a professional association and union for nurses, have scheduled a rally in front of the Treasury Department on Nov. 3 in support of the fee. Americans for Financial Reform, an umbrella group of unions, civil rights lawyers and consumer advocates, is circulating petitions in support of the measure. Obama administration officials support efforts to assess fees on financial firms that pose a risk to the larger economy; however, they oppose levying fees on ordinary investors."

Off course Wall Street declares that this will result in the ruination of the stock market. Why is it that anything that smacks of regulation is the death knell for the economy at large to the bankers and brokers. But when toxic derivative take the market down, the Wall Street world plays "inside baseball."

As Will Emerson, Paul Bettany's character observes in Margin Call: "Jesus, Seth. Listen, if you really wanna do this with your life you have to believe you're necessary and you are. People wanna live like this in their cars and big fuckin' houses they can't even pay for, then you're necessary. The only reason that they all get to continue living like kings is cause we got our fingers on the scales in their favor. I take my hand off and then the whole world gets really fuckin' fair really fuckin' quickly and nobody actually wants that. They say they do but they don't. They want what we have to give them but they also wanna, you know, play innocent and pretend they have know idea where it came from. Well, thats more hypocrisy than I'm willing to swallow, so fuck em. Fuck normal people. You know, the funny thing is, tomorrow if all of this goes tits up they're gonna crucify us for being too reckless but if we're wrong, and everything gets back on track? Well then, the same people are gonna laugh till they piss their pants cause we're gonna all look like the biggest pussies God ever let through the door." The film has no heroes or villains per se, only a strong dose of reality for everyone.

Bloomberg News on the financial transaction tax here

Matt Taibbi's post here

Dia De Los Muertos

Mexico celebrates a yearly tradition called Day of the Dead during the last days of October and the first days of November. Due to the duration of this festivity and the way people get involved it has been called "The Cult of Death." Mexico celebrates a yearly tradition called Day of the Dead during the last days of October and the first days of November. Due to the duration of this festivity and the way people get involved it has been called "The Cult of Death."

More here and here

Speaking of The Dead, Tomorrow in San Francisco

the annual Day of the Dead celebration in Garfield Park, coordinated by the Marigold Project

REDUX: A Real Brooklyn Ghost Story

I have posted this before, the first time in the first year of Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn. Since it is my first and only experience with The Great Beyond, I thought I would post it again for Halloween....


Back in the day, well, sometime in the 1980s, when Reagan was as far-out and far-right a reaction to the Jimmy Carter years that the human mind could contemplate, you could still afford to rent your own apartment in Park Slope even though you were neither the employee nor scion of a hedge fund. Anyway, I lived on 7th street between 5th and 6th avenues. It wasn't a fancy hipster neighborhood, and as hard as it is to believe, we were were young once too and were probably the hippest things happening, but there was El Faro and Polly-O and Save on Fifth, and I was just leaving a public affairs and marketing writing job at local hospital (then known as the Park Slope Body Shop), and taking up freelancing for a number of film, engineering and trade mags, so I guess essentially life was good. I was living in the first floor of a brownstone; the owners, an older Italian American couple and their grown sons, lived in the upper floors. The husband of the couple grew his tomatoes and enjoyed his occasional chianti which reminded me alot of my maternal grandfather who had passed away shortly before I moved to this new place.

One day, after I was living in the building for a year or so, the elderly husband himself passed away rather suddenly. My girl friend at the time, the Art Director's Daughter, and I had spoken to the sons earlier in the day. It was the first night of the wake, the family left in the early afternoon and informed us that they would not be returning until much later in the evening. We were planning to pay our respects the following night. Anyway, at around 7:00 PM it started.

Footsteps. Nothing but footsteps, loud and clear, walking the length of the brownstone apartment above. A constant pacing that started near the front door, walked to the opposite end of the house, turned and walked back to the door. Slowly, methodically, but unmistakably. At first, I believe the radio was on, I could hear this strange pacing (they had no dogs or pets of any kind) only intermittently, until it finally made its way into our consciousness as the Art Director's Daughter and I made dinner. I turned off the radio. Then, when it was very quiet, a chill went up and down my spine as I listened to the mysterious, relentless pacing.Finally, I went upstairs to knock on the door, but of course no one answered. I could not see or hear anyone (or anything) through the door. Since it was clear no one was ransacking their apartment, there was nothing much else to be done. But when I returned downstairs, there it was again. We turned on some music. The Art Director's Daughter (who was a Red Diaper Baby) was a big fan of the Weavers and Pete Seeger, so we cranked up some of that beneficent, positive vibe, good time hammer and sickle music, and had another glass of wine.

I guess between the clomping, and the wine, and the Weavers, we distracted ourselves until it either stopped or we took less and less notice of it. A few hours later, when the family returned from the first night of the wake, we decided to throw caution to the wind and mention the strange noises, just in case someone had in fact broken in through a window.

The older son looked at us quizzically but went upstairs first to look around before his mom got out of the car. Nope. Everything was as it should be. "Maybe it was a sound from next door through the walls" he offered good naturedly. We apologized for bothering him, but he said, no, don't worry about it, I am glad that you let me know.

But, just as brownstone walls are thick, and floors in old houses can creak when you walk on them, I was sure that the old man had returned for a final visit, and was looking to see where his wife had hidden the chianti.

--Tony Napoli --- Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn

7,000,000,000

World population clocks - estimate that we will pass 7 billion at some point today here

7 Billion Actions - Making the world a better place for all 7 billion of us here

NY Times: Mathematical biologist Joel Cohen on the humanity and the human population growth imperative here

7 Billion mark may also represent a shift in world population patterns - shrinking not expanding here

Could continued population growth spell a turn to a "Soylent Green" future ? Here

Friday On My Mind: And Now A Word from the Art World and Its Discontents



"For some years now, Mr. Bourriad wrote in a 1997 essay that has since become famous or infamous, depending on your perpsective, there has been an upsurge of convivial, user-friendly artistic projects, festive, collective and participatory, exploring the varied potential in the relationship to the other." The curator dubbed this relational aesthetics. From The Fall of Relational Aesthetics here

Extracts from Nicolas Bourriaud's Relational Esthetics (Dijon: les Presses du réel, 2002) as pdf

The anti-financial industry Occupy Wall Street protests that have become a media sensation in New York City over the past few weeks have spawned an art-world offspring.

Begun early this morning, @OccupyArtWorld is agitating for change in the cultural landscape through a Twitter account and an active hashtag. The provocateur has already inspired some online debate in the art bloggerati.“Behind every famous artist is a millionaire investing in a collection and influencing the direction of art with money,” the account writes. “Gallerinas could make more working the streets. Art dealers should pay them more. Harsh but true.”


The as-yet anonymous art-world protester kicked it off with an anti-commercialist manifesto:

Tired of the 1% controlling the direction of art. Museum exhibits based on Investment of wealthy. Reviews based on ad sales. #occupyartworld

The 1% controls art culture by investment. They have robbed art from the people. #occupyartworld #occupywallstreet




More here from Artinfo

NO MONEY AND BAD WEATHER: I SEE THE FUTURE AND IT LOOKS GRIM

Nor'easter forecast for Saturday details here

Occupied With Wall Street as the Dow Hits 12,000: From Uprising to Catalytic Institution

Occupy Wall Street has gone from a shot in the dark promoted by a Canadian anti-corporate website, AdSense, to a First Amendment Protest, to a mash up of a Rebel Encampment and Hooverville.  But clearly, in its second month, the message of Occupy Wall Street, about the future of "casino capitalism" and the indelible message of the 1% holding the reins and lording over the 99%. will not be denied. It's the hardship the broken economy is causing, not the deficit, that is the real issue.

Although NY's mainstream media, especially the Murdochian NY Post, struggle to take it down by first focusing on free "gourmet meals" served to OWSers, and now on the influx of homeless folks (including ex-habitues of Rikers Island) which has elicited complaints from OWS's volunteer kitchen staff, even sympathetic observers, like Justin Elliot in Salon are beginning, in the 2nd month, to speculate about direction and possible futures.

Aside from the political, ideological and activist assessments, (and as I post this as the stock market breaks 12,000), I wonder -- while there apparently are many folks volunteering in different capacities at Zuccotti Park, isn't it time that OWS creates a model by establishing itself in the form of a more progressive, cooperative format where folks have to do something to get something ? That is, is hanging out with occasional protests and intermittent figthting with the cops really a sustainable life style? If OWS isn't calling for utopia, can't everyone be expected to do something, besides protesting, to earn their keep? Either in the park or outside? For that matter with all of the resources coming in, can OWS serve those in the community who are currently underserved, and not currently residing in Zuccotti? The hungry, the elderly? For that matter, while Zuccotti is a base, can't folks fan out over the City, to find other ways to help? Bringing food to and volunteering in food pantries and soup kitchens around the city?  Helping out at senior centers, etc? Just a thought. While understanding the principle role of OWS is to keep the excesses of our current form of Extreme Capitalism and the 99% - 1% message fresh, as the population grows might it also not be interesting to see what ideas and experiments OWS can take, as a social model,  as it explores New Directions in political economy?

--Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn