HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY (& HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DANIELLE!)

Left: St. Patrick. Center: The Harp of Erin, traditional symbol of Ireland.

Right: The 343, FDNY Marchers in Memory of Firefighters Who Perished on 9/11

Saint Patrick's Day Worldwide here

New York City Saint Patrick's Day Parade Official Website

Sailing To Byzantium by William Butler Yeats

I

That is no country for old men. The young

In one another's arms, birds in the trees

---Those dying generations---at their song,

The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,

Fish, flesh, or fowl commend all summer long

Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.

Caught in that sensual music all neglect

Monuments of unaging intellect.

II

An aged man is but a paltry thing,

A tattered coat upon a stick, unless

Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing

For every tatter in its mortal dress,

Nor is there singing school but studying

Monuments of its own magnificence;

And therefore I have sailed the seas and come

To the holy city of Byzantium.

III

O sages standing in God's holy fire

As in the gold mosaic of a wall,

Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,

And be the singing-masters of my soul.

Consume my heart away; sick with desire

And fastened to a dying animal

It knows not what it is; and gather me

Into the artifice of eternity.

IV

Once out of nature I shall never take

My bodily form from any natural thing,

But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make

Of hammered gold and gold enamelling

To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;

Or set upon a golden bough to sing

To lords and ladies of Byzantium

Of what is past, or passing, or to come.

William Butler Yeats

A sampling of Brooklyn Quaff Stops

Brazen Head Cobble Hill
Double Windsor
Farrell's
Pete's / Waterfront Ale House
Hank's Saloon

'Big Fat Moon Is Gonna Shine Like a Spoon": Bob Dylan at Osaka Japan

Well, it was raining there too. Angrysoba reports on the Bob Dylan concert in Osaka, Japan on March 15, 2010. Gems included: "Watching the River Flow," "Senor," and "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight."
"What on Earth is he Playing?" Indeed.

Tree Down Blues

Whoops.

Roots unearthed.

Our dog surveys the scene.

We didn't ignore the storm Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn; as always, in Flatbush, we were in the middle of it. We returned home from the Charles Addams' exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York to have our daughter announce "The Tree fell!"

Our 30 foot pine, evergreen and lovely, had uprooted and toppled over. I had concerns and am surprised it had survived the recent February snowstorm, which had dumped tons of wet snow on its branches, soaking the ground. Fortunately, no one was hurt, and there was no substantial damage, but it took out the telephone and internet lines. With cell phones, the house phone out not such a big deal, but the internet has our kids in crisis mode for the moment. As Louise Crawford of Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn sympathized to me, "No internet? A tragedy!"

Our tree guys in Staten Island have enough to deal with, so we, and our immediate neighbors, whose tree also toppled over,  resting precariously on another of their trees, are working at getting a 2 for 1 deal with  some loggers. On east 17th and Glenwood, a tree is blocking the street, and another tree down near Foster Avenue. A huge tree went down on Cortelyou Road as well, plus a lot of other collateral damage in the neighborhood.

We will miss our beautiful tree, but a question remains:  Was this just a rough winter, or Global Warming here we come? To be continued....

She Wore Scarlet Begonias: Art, Commerce and the Grateful Dead

Strategic Improvisation, in music and business, was at the core of the Grateful Dead's long-time professional, creative and business success. That is the interesting thesis in an article in the Atlantic Monthly that hits the stands at the same as the opening of the exhibit at the NY Historical Society from the new Grateful Dead Archives at the University of California at Santa Cruz. 

My impression was that the Dead and their circle were very pragmatic and “seat of their pants” in that good old American way of non-professionally educated, non-tutored, self-taught business practitioners . “It” all just worked because they were bright/creative/aware enough people who worked hard and were able to make good decisions on business as well as music.. So now someone is going to try to codify that into a business plan or practice. The thing is, probably if you follow it as a “plan” as opposed to proceeding instinctually and intuitively, you won’t have the same great results….

At the same time, I recall reading that Jerry Garcia had a complex view about Labor-Management..Once there was some kind of a protest of the lighting techs in 1969 at some theater in SF, and the techs threw up a picket line and Jerry refused to cross the picket line because his grandmother was a founder of the Laundry Workers Union in SF and believed in organized labor…when someone asked him why he couldn’t play he said “My grandmother” because “she would kill him if she knew he had ever crossed a picket line”…Bill Graham on the other hand probably would have just punched out the strikers and thrown them out.

The Grateful Dead live on, in blessed memory and in music files, CDs, LPs, 45s, and homemade cassettes and audio tape throughout the land and have reconnected with the zeitgeist in NYC and beyond.

Some cool links:

The Grateful Dead Archives at the NY Historical Society link here

The Grateful Dead Archive at the University of California Santa Cruz link here

The Atlantic Magazine: 'Management Secrets of the Grateful Dead'

--Brooklyn Beat

R. Crumb "Book of Genesis" at David Zwirner Gallery

Robert Crumb, visionary cartoonist and illustrator extraordinaire, produced 207 individual works of pen and ink on paper for his now landmark The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb (W.W. Norton), published in October 2009. Five years in the making and released to instant critical acclaim, the eagerly awaited book topped many bestseller lists, including #1 on the New York Times: Graphic Books list.

His original drawings are on display in an exhibit  on "R. CRUMB: The Bible Illuminated: R. Crumb’s Book of Genesis," from March 4 – April 24, 2010.

David Zwirner gallery at 519 West 19th Street, New York NY 10011, Tel: 212-727-2070;

From Creation to the death of Joseph, Crumb chronicles all fifty chapters of Genesis in an astonishing tapestry of masterly detail and storytelling, rendered frame by frame in meticulous comic book fashion. With a literal interpretation primarily assembled from translations of Robert Alter and the King James Bible, Crumb reintroduces us to the bountiful tree lined garden of Adam and Eve, the massive ark of Noah with beasts of every kind, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed by brimstone and fire that rained from the heavens, and the Egypt of the Pharaoh, where Joseph’s embalmed body is carried in a coffin, in a scene as elegiac as any in Genesis. Using clues from the text and peeling away the theological and scholarly versions that have often obscured the Bible’s most dramatic stories, Crumb fleshes out a parade of Biblical originals: from the serpent in Eden, as a humanoid reptile; to Abraham’s wife Sarah, more fetching than most woman at 90; to God himself, patriarchal and white-bearded.

Robert Crumb (born 1943, Philadelphia) began drawing comics as a young boy. In the late 1960s he emerged as the leading figure in the underground comic movement. Since then, his influence has been immeasurable, from the first issue of Zap Comix in 1968; to his most recognized comic, Keep on Truckin’, which became a widely distributed fixture of pop culture in the late 1970s; from the adventures of his notorious characters Devil Girl, Fritz the Cat, and Mr. Natural; to being the subject of Terry Zwigoff’s 1995 documentary, Crumb.

Crumb was recently the focus of a touring solo exhibition, R. Crumb’s Underground, at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, California (2007), which then traveled to the Frye Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (both 2008), the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, and the Grand Central Art Center, Santa Ana, California (both 2009). Crumb has had one-man exhibitions at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands (2005) and the Ludwig Museum, Cologne, Germany (2004). The Bible Illuminated: R. Crumb’s Book of Genesis was recently on view at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, California, and following David Zwirner it will travel to the Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon (June - September 2010).

The artist currently lives in the south of France with his wife, Aline Kominsky Crumb, the American comic book artist known for her autobiographical stories.

A NY Magazine Slide show of R. Crumb's "Book of Genesis"

Zach Shaves His Beard; But What About Babies in Bars?

Brooklyn resident (and, according to his monologue on SNL, a self-described Brooklyn hater -- how cool is that) Zach Galifianakis hosted Saturday Night Live this weekend and did his thing.  Between the pentulitmate skit and the show's closing, ZG appeared with beard, then sans beard, and then with beard again.  Web discussion, which also gaved some mixed reaction on the Humor Quotient of the overall show,  debated whether he in fact actually shaved or not, or was wearing a fake beard for the entire show, or wore a prosthesis over his beard for the close. SNL and Hulu have now revealed that the star of  The Hangover, Visioneers, Hangover 2, HBO's Brooklyn-based "Bored to Death" and other mirthful projects did in fact shave off his beard before the show ended, appearing at the closing with a fake beard.  Hulu reveals all:



Ain't it cool..And, with all of the recent chatter about babies in bars, Zach would be the perfect new Brooklyn rez to provide feedback on that.  Zach is cool.

When Tigers Fight,It is the Grass that Suffers: Cablevi$ion & WAB¢-TV Battle Shuts Out Oscars for Some NYers

After a few days of Orwellian-Outer Limits cable hijacking ("Do not attempt to touch your TV.We will control your horizontal") where your default channel on start up was channel 1999, presenting a constant barrage of  anti-ABC propaganda, countered by print and media ads from WABC with their own agit prop, WABC TV is finally off the air.  Although I am a big fan of cinema I am not a big Academy Awards show watcher. At the point, when  I was maybe 10, and I realized that I was never going to there or a part of that scene, the voyeuristic/celebrity/fan quality of it embarrased me a little, and  while I will tune in, I am more likely to watch the whole Super Bowl or sit through the entire World Series, even though I am not a devoted sports fan, than sit through the Oscars.

Anyway, Cablevision may be right, who wants to pay more, or then  again maybe it is ABC-TV, since Cablevision already charges enough  and it appears to be a very lucrative enterprise. I do resent being thrown into the middle of this, between broadcasters and cable companies. No matter what, cable costs will continue to rise, whether the money is going into the pockets of the Dolan Family or ABC stockholders.

What this suggests perhaps is that Cable should be more competitive and we should be able to choose between Time Warner and Cablevision and whoever else chooses to get into the game. Sure, the Cable companies own and maintain the cable, and the cable boxes, that is their industry, but perhaps ultimately that monopoly will be usurped. As Cablevision's propaganda continues to report, we can't watch the Oscars on Cablevision, but we can watch it on Hulu or other places on the internet.

Ironically, perhaps Cablevision and ABC are offering an unwitting harbinger for the future, where all media will be available through the internet, or some new wireless TV/computer hybrid. Yes, as Chairman Mao may have said, when tigers fight it is the grass that suffers. Cablevision has already dropped the Food Network and HGTV as  result of  a battle over programming fees in January, so customers are receiving a diminished services, although our fees aren't dropping. But perhaps as a result of this latest battle, while we will always pay for our media services, the battleground may shift and new alternatives may arise that will be eagerly embraced by customers who coninue to pay and pay and pay for services, while the corporations continue to enrich themselves, and place us in the middle while they are unable to reasonable settle their corporate wars. After all, that competition and opportunity, and not "credit default swaps," represent the true beauty of free enterprise.

Democracy and Character: Political Musings Before the Weekend

All Things Considered, Would the Founding Fathers Smile?

Daily News reports on a poll that shows that Governor Patterson's public support is in "freefall" as fewer than half of New Yorkers want him to finish out his term.

At the same time, an article on "Journal of the Plague Year" a book about the administration and resignation of former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, by his long-time aide and friend Lloyd Constantine:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2010/03/05/2010-03-05_eliot_spitzer_book.html

In the Constantine book, he notes that he and the Governor's wife, Silda Spitzer, were the only members of the inner circle who advised Mr. Spitzer not to resign, to sit out the conflict and turmoil, and not leave office unless legally compelled.

The issue with all of the above, with David Patterson as with Mr. Spitzer and for that matter Congresman Charles Rangel, seems to be a fundamental one: the meaning of democracy and elections.

We are in an era of billionaires and millionaires self-financing their campaigns at every level. Then again, elected officials are being driven from office by the pressures created by media and internet coverage of personal and political crises.  Although Gov. Patterson is presented as heedless of the public outcry, and while he may well be guilty of  applying pressure on a victim of domestic violence to avoid the political fallout, his guilt has not yet been formally proven or documented and neither he has been indicted or charged with any crime.

Arguably, from a pragmatic level, Mr. Spitzer may have been unable to continue to manage his administration  with the news cycle insanity and folly that followed his being exposed as "Client 9."  Nevertheless, that 21st century nexus of money and media seems to have reached its apotheosis. Just as the democratic freedoms we enjoy likely do make us easier targets to the terrorists, enemies and criminals who seek to undermine and destroy us, is it also likely that our first amendment freedoms are undermining our electoral system?  It is a complex, enigmatic problem, perhaps as further reflected in the Supreme Court's recent endorsement of the loosening of corporate contributions and funding of political campaigns.  The daily countdown and newspaper headlines fit in so neatly with the movement of the 24 hour newscycle. Sure, State Senator Hiram Montserrat held out and was removed from office. But aside from his apparent personal demons and malfeasance, he does have the gumption to re-run for his vacated seat, let democracy sort it out. Whether Gov. Patterson will be the next NYS official to weather the pressures of the media onslaught, and await the outcome of the investigation before resigning, despite the pressure, remains to be seen. You can't get on an elevator in this town without someone musing on "will he resign today?"

But think about it from a constitutional perspective: having the fortitude to remain in office, despite the headlines, the blogs and mainstream media coverage, and awaiting the outcome of an investigation, even knowing that the outcome may be eventual resignation or impeachment anyway? That might be a real display of character.

-Brooklyn Beat

Left Coast Politics: Run, Jerry Brown, Run

Jerry Brown today (with Gov. Schwarzenegger)

Gov. Brown's official State portrait 1975-1983

Tabbed as “Governor Moonbeam” by out-of-state (Chicago) columnist Mike Royko (an appelation that Royko later recanted), because of his proposal back in the 1970s that California have a stationary communications satellite orbit over the state for emergency communications service (an idea that was later implemented), Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown, remains a visionary, who thrives on viewing government, politics , social and economic issues from “out of the box.”

And now, at 71, after a long career in California politics, currently serving as State Attorney General, Brown has announced his candidacy to replace the current, term-limited incumbent, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Unopposed in his own party, with wealthy, but lesser known rivals, Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman, staking out the GOPs turf, his chances at re-election to a 3rd term, may not be so far-fetched.

Brown’s colorful personal life (a Catholic and Zen practitioner), which included sleeping on a mattress on the floor in the Governor’s mansion and dating rock star Linda Ronstadt, is tangent with his creative and out-of-the-box political and cultural views, with pithy and pungent quotes such as:

"Prisons don't rehabilitate, they don't punish, they don't protect, so what the hell do they do?”


"The government is becoming the family of last resort”

"Multinational corporations do control. They control the politicians. They control the media. They control the pattern of consumption, entertainment, thinking. They're destroying the planet and laying the foundation for violent outbursts and racial division.”


"Inaction may be the biggest form of action.”

Video: Former Gov. Jerry Brown's announcement of his new election bid

Michael Rothfeld in the LA Times reports that “Saying the antidote to California's problems is "someone with an insider's knowledge but an outsider's mind," Jerry Brown, the Democratic state attorney general, announced his candidacy for governor Tuesday in a video on his website.

"Our state is in serious trouble, and the next governor must have the preparation and the knowledge and the know-how to get California working again," Brown, 71, said in the taped message. "That's what I offer."


Brown, who was the state's governor from 1975 to 1983, attempted to contrast himself with his Republican opponents, particularly Meg Whitman, the former EBay chief who has never held public office. He also sought to use voters' frustration with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former actor who came into office in the 2003 recall, to argue against repeating that pattern with Whitman or one-term state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner.


"Some people say that if you've been around the process, you can't handle the job, that we need to go out and find an outsider who knows virtually nothing about state government," said Brown, who has also been California secretary of state and Oakland mayor. "Well, we tried that, and it doesn't work. We found out that not knowing is not good."

Brown was light on specifics, and the ideas he offered were not so different from what Republicans are saying. He vowed that, "in this time of recession . . . there will be no new taxes, unless you the people vote for them" -- leaving open the possibility of more taxes when the economy mends.

Like Whitman and Poizner, he called for smaller government and more power for local officials and school districts. And he said he would try to ease Sacramento's "partisan paralysis."


Even before Brown announced, Whitman released a "Voter's Guide to Jerry Brown" with a list of "fiscal failures" from his record on taxes and spending. In a statement, she contrasted her private-sector experience with Brown's "40-year career in politics which has resulted in a trail of failed experiments, undelivered promises, big government spending and higher taxes."

Poizner said the state needs "bold, new conservative solutions" and "cannot fall prey to the same high-tax policies and special interest-run government that has led our state into a fiscal disaster."

One interesting comment from the web:

A former two-term governor who disappointed the left and right by being a free thinker, left the state with one of its largest budget surpluses (without raising taxes to do it), and has the independence of not having higher aspirations that will allow him to stand up to legislators and make hard choices in balancing the budget--who'd want that? I don't understand people who think a CEO is the solution to government's problems. Would you select a politician to right a flagging corporation?

LA TIMES link here


More on the life and politics of Jerry Brown  

Coda:  Although California is facing massive economic problems, whether worse or just a bit further along than New York, at least for their elections, compared to New York,  this seems to be shaping up as a question of candidates' politics and ideas, and not whether the candidates are too corrupt to run. Jerry Brown's candidacy,whether he is successful or not, reflects a promise of creative and visionary politics: Pragmatism, personal and political philosophies and the concept of public service, not just self-aggrandisement or pocket lining. Refreshing.
--Brooklyn Beat

NASA: "Chile Quake Likely Shifted the Earth's Axis and Shortened The Day"

Things seem a bit off-kilter?

Bloomberg News reports that "The earthquake that killed more than 700 people in Chile on Feb. 27 probably shifted the Earth’s axis and shortened the day, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientist said. " 

“The length of the day should have gotten shorter by 1.26 microseconds (millionths of a second),” Gross, said today in an e-mailed reply to questions. “The axis about which the Earth’s mass is balanced should have moved by 2.7 milliarcseconds (about 8 centimeters or 3 inches).”


The enormous and complex shifting of the tectonic plates that caused the Chile earthquake have unimaginably powerful impact on the planet.

Bloomberg: “What definitely the earthquake has done is made the Earth ring like a bell,” Rietbrock said. The magnitude 9.1 Sumatran in 2004 that generated an Indian Ocean tsunami shortened the day by 6.8 microseconds and shifted the axis by about 2.3 milliarcseconds, Gross said.
"The changes happen on the day and then carry on “forever,” Benjamin Fong Chao, dean of Earth Sciences of the National Central University in Taiwan, said in an e-mail."

Downstate and Downtime in the Empire State

Empire Fulton Ferry State Park. Photo by Brooklyn Beat.

Wall Street Journal: "The Decline of the Empire State"

Excerpt: "Move over, New Jersey, you're getting a run for your tax money as the nation's most dysfunctional state from the once great mecca of commerce and finance known as New York. Politics in the Empire State has become a carnival of spendthrifts, sexual miscreants and the all-purpose ethically challenged.

In the latest sign that the Apocalypse is upon Albany, New York Governor David Paterson announced yesterday that he won't seek election to a full term in November only two weeks after he had announced that he would. Mr. Paterson, a Democrat who became governor in March 2008 after Eliot Spitzer resigned in a prostitution scandal, has spent the past two years lurching from one fiasco to the next. Meanwhile, back in Manhattan and in the spirit of the current New York state of mindlessness, Mr. Spitzer is said to be plotting a comeback. As gossip columnist Cindy Adams of the New York Post likes to say, "Only in New York, kids, only in New York." Alas.

Twice as Farce: Second, Consecutive NYS Governor Forced Out

Like most New Yorkers, we greeted the rise of David Patterson, NY's Lt. Governor, as New York's first African American and disabled governor, with great joy, pride and hope, following the resignation of elected former Governor Eliot Spitzer.  Although his administration got off to a slow start, citizens were hopeful and willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. The recent swirl of rumors notwithstanding, one had to give him a great deal of respect for attempting to battle the odds and seek election to a full term. The recent crisis brought on by the alleged malfeasance of his trusted assistant, David Johnson, followed by indications that the NY State Troopers appear to have been involved in pressuring Johnson's fiance, as well as a call by the Governor to Ms. Booker, Mr. Johnson's fiance, followed by the the resignation of the administration's criminal justice coordinator over this apparent interference, have swept through Albany and thrown state politics into a maelstrom. The Governor will make a statement later today on his future plans.


AP-Sources: Paterson Won't Seek NewTerm

NY Daily News: Insider, Governor WIll Not Run

NY 1: Patterson Abandons Plan to Seek Full Term

Oh, It's a Mess Out There

Happily, our younger girls in high school and my Better Half, who has to drive to the school where she works on the Queens border,m are all home today, as are our college-age kids who are hoem and off for the day.

Hiking before 7 AM to East 17th Street, which was unplowed, I walked in the tracks of cars that had made it through. Some neighbors were trying to dig out their cars. The snow, thick, wet and heavy, was more burdensome than the more recent snow day a couple of weeks ago. The Q train moved slow as molasses, or, more accurately, glacially slow.  The train was emptier than usual at that hour; I sat at the end of the car, and instead of tuning out to my Ipod, I sat and witnesses the morning commute.  A gentle sort of crisis, snowstorms bring out all of those dedicated, or simply more habituated souls, who find adventure in the thick white piles, or else who simply feel the need to make it into work. The train crawled along quietly, some folks reading or watching the flakes fall. By the time the Q got to Church Avenue,  passengers began to get and receive calls -- "Where were they?" "Are they making it into work today?"  I continued my morning of texts with a colleague who was commuting in from Staten Island on an Express Bus as the Q chugged along.  On a snowy day on the subway, there is an unspoken acknowledgement that we are all part of that subset of New Yorkers: NYC working people.


I finally got down to Brooklyn Heights and treated myself to a good cup of coffee and an egg white and spinach sandwich from Court Order deli. I got up to the office and was the first one in.  Unlike yesterday, when Brooklyn had mostly rain, the snow was thick and even drifting in spots all across Court Street. The phones started ringing early, but it wasn't business, just folks checking in to say they were doing the sensible thing and staying home.

My colleague from Staten Island made it in, as did a few other folks.  It seems like it will be a relatively slow and quiet Friday

In the current economic downturn, I totally empathize with those people who need a job, want to work, but don't have one right now. On an ordinary day, especially when I haven't taken a day off in awhile, I will be tired, a bit resentful of the grind; imagining staying on my train after my stop to go to a film or a museum or just a leisurely breakfast somewhere, anything other than (ugggh) work.  So there is something strangely comforting, perhaps another one of those metaphors for living, about the effort to get into the workplace on a very snowy, inclement day, the value that we place on our working lives and our identities. Work is of course about money, "earning a living," but it is more than just that. 
 
On a snowy day, making that special effort to get into work is how we demark our lives from one of "homo ludens" -- people who play and consume, to "homo faber" -- humans who make, and work and do. 

Brooklyn Heights Update:Wind, Snow (in the air) and Slush (on the ground)

Although we hear in some neighborhoods (Flatbush, Staten Island and Queens) a bit of snow is piling up, here in Brooklyn Heights not much snow on the ground to speak of...heavy in the sky but just slush underfoot. Let's see what happens later today, although the revionist forecast is now talking about a meer 3 inches or so in most places. Go easy, y'all.

High Winds, Heavy Snow

Well, here we are. 

Weather.com's storm track and local travel advisories