Observations on Art 5.30

A friend of mine sent me this stunning video of the Golden Gate Bridge's 75^th Anniversary fireworks. I especially love the beginning where the fireworks raining off the bridge itself looks like a waterfall out of Dante.

Golden Gate Bridge 75th Anniversary Fireworks Celebration
from KFOG Radio 104.5/97.7 on Vimeo.

Event Production by Foghorn Creative Video
Produced by Michael Coleman
Audio Produced By Chuck Smith, Creative Director/KFOG,
and Lance Tipton
Fireworks by Pyro Spectaculars North
Lighting by Lightswitch
Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy

Observations from the Window 5.29

Sometimes when you aren't in the best frame of mind it takes something maybe petty, vain, or hell just plain worthless to get your brain back. Okay maybe it's just me this works for but I had these two little things happen over the weekend that made me smile just because they did.

One was just a simple retweet on twitter Sunday, but not just any retweet. It was just a link to an article in The New York Times, Portraits of War: Joe Bonham Project Illustrates the Wounds of War. What made the retweet special wasn't that it happened, it happens every day. What made it special was who in fact did it. It was retweeted by Jim Roberts, since 2008 Assistant Managing Editor of The New York Times.

The other thing may be petty or vain or maybe both. I was showing a good friend of the family my photos on Flickr and my ramblings in this blog when she said Kaycee Nighttfire was just a fabulous name and she thought I should change mine. I like Katie so there is no way in hell I ever would, still it was kewl.

I'm not sure if I ever said how I came up with the name so for the record here it is. When you join a certain online community you first have to pick a name. You can make your own first name but have to select from a list of last names. The list is much longer now but at the time I joined Nightfire just jumped out at me, it fit. Kaycee is rather easy to figure out, it's my real name initials, KC.

I almost forgot, Klout now says I am now influential on the topic of the NHL. My work here is nearly complete.

And so it goes.

Observations from the Road 5.28

Memorial Day weekend brings the unofficial start of summer along with a very large side of sports. That is if you consider auto racing a sport, something that is the subject of endless debate in my family. Summer doesn't officially start for a few weeks but at times it has felt like summer for months. As always I'll leave the science to my brother but damnit whatever happened to spring?

The weekend also became one of a few reasons to make a semi-planned trip home. I semi because I had planned on a day or two at my dad's but i hadn't planned on the whole weekend. Sometimes plans change. Life has a way of throwing unexpected events in the road, sometimes good, sometimes bad, and if you are lucky some of each all at the same time. It is what it is.

But all that is for another time, possibly.

I was driving through rural Pennsylvania on a Saturday morning and I was struck with a thought. Is there any other local in this country with so many damn yard sales? I know it's a holiday weekend all but still they are everywhere. Even my sis was having one when I left. She seems to have joined 'Light The Night' and is going to donate any money she makes to cancer research. My mini me all grown up.

But back to my sports update. I may be almost six feet tall but I was never the biggest basketball fan. I get into it when one of my teams is doing good but other than that it falls to one of the lower rungs of my sports ladder. That being said what an awesome season the Sixers had and I can't think of one bad thing to say about it. A good young team that got everything it could out of itself. You can't ask for anything more than that. They took the Boston Celtics to the last minutes of a game 7 before inexperience took its toll and the Celtics said it ends now. What an awesome season and an awesome future that team has. Unreal that those two teams have played eight game 7s in their history.

A once promising year of Stanley Cup playoffs begins its final chapter this week with the Los Angeles Kings playing the New Jersey Devils for the title. Not exactly a ratings bonanza for NBC but a good series for fans the series features wide open hockey against the supposedly illegal neutral zone trap. The Kings roster includes both former Flyer Jeff Carter and former Flyers' captain Mike Richards so I'll be drinking for them. Both were traded after last years dismal playoff performance in moves that added some of the six rookies that were on the Flyers' playoff roster this year. Whoever wins it wont be the hated New York Rangers and this is a good thing.

As the Phillies begin to age, and possibly look to rebuild, the Flyers and Sixers seem to have some exciting years ahead. Now I have to get back to the French Open.

One last funny story, one of those small town America things that just makes you smile. Now my hometown is small, only a couple thousand people, but every year it holds a Memorial Day parade. I was driving through town to get a paper and coffee and sitting at the curb in the middle of town were two old fashioned folding lawn chairs. Now this is hours before the parade and there isn't a soul in sight but apparently someone was staking out the prime parade watching spot. Just like the Rose Bowl.

Happy Memorial Day people.

Observations on the 2012 Election

This video was released by the Obama Campaign yesterday ....

link

"Glee star Jane Lynch narrates this documentary about LGBT rights in America. The video features a candid interview with President Obama, who speaks about the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, why he supports marriage equality, and what's at stake for the LGBT community in this election."

Join LGBT Americans for Obama

Observations from the Coffee Shop 5.23

Over the last couple years a rogues gallery of characters has passed through my posts here. The ones I'm probably most secretive about yet at the same time most open about are the members of my family. For reasons all my own a want to introduce you to another member of that group. She would be my aunt, my mom's sister, who to her total annoyance I always called Jay. She says I just call her that because I like pancakes so maybe you can figure the name out from there.

Like most female members of our family Jay has had a sometimes intriguing life. Among other schools she attended the Atlanta College of Art but received a degree from none of them. She lived in Los Angeles for years but says she grew bored with it and moved to New York, yes the Village. As my dad describes it she burned out after ten years in this city and moved to Philadelphia where she spent some time working at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Even though she lived in Los Angeles I'm told she didn't have a drivers license until well into her thirties. That alone says a lot about her.

She loves dogs and has always had one, usually a french poodle. Not the fluffy kind of poodle that immediately comes to mind but ones more like the retrievers which they were originally bred to be. Her poodles like to chase you around the yard, pit poodles.

Finally. when my mom became ill, Jay moved back to our ancestral homeland of CentralPa and has been there ever since. She became sort of an eccentric mom to Sean and K and sometimes attempted to be mine. At this she sadly failed completely.

There is a person in everybody's life who they wish they had or could spend more time with. It might be a family member or it might be an old friend. Jay is that person to me.

Now I'm just waiting for the phone to ring.

Observations from the Window 5.21

"the bridge"

Sunday was just a gorgeous day and I did something I have been wanting to do since I moved to the Village. During the warmer times of year I've always loved to jump in the car, put the top down, and just drive. Just drive to nowhere and see where I end up. It's one of the few times I allow my brain to just shutdown and not think about much of anything but the road ahead. Unless I'm driving to think which is a totally diff mode and a totally diff story.

In New York I'll sometimes just cruise around with the top down and stereo blaring, dodging cabs and basically adding to the din that is the city. It might not be the same as Interstate racing my brother but red light racing a cab with a toll has its own appeal. Still given enough time I like to get as far away from the metro area as I can and Sunday was just perfect.

What I'll do is check the traffic map and head in the direction that gets me out of town as quick as possible. The problem is that always has seemed to be any direction but north and I always wanted to make a run up the Hudson Valley. Sunday the driving gods smiled on me, a gorgeous day and open roads to the north.

After a touch of Interstate I drove along the river on Route 9 as far as Highland Falls which is just south of West Point. A stunning road to drive considering it is just thirty minutes from downtown Manhattan. In a perfect world I would have cut over to the east bank of the Hudson and driven north to Hyde Park, the once home of Franklin Roosevelt, but I didn't have time. That and I had already had too much sun because seems I don't own a proper hat and I'm too stubborn to put the top up.

I ate lunch at an interesting spot that had a sign out front which said it had the best "New York style" barbecue. Now I love BBQ, any kind of BBQ, but I must confess I had never heard of the New York style. After an awesome pulled pork sandwich I have to report it's awesome but it tastes like ... BBQ.

Maybe sometime this summer I'll get to Hyde Park but the gods would have to smile on me once again. That and the beach would have to stop calling my name.

Observations from the Window 5.19

I don't know if I ever wrote about healthcare before, it's a sometimes touchy subject for me. My basic thought is that in a country supposedly as rich as this one nobody should be denied the best care for economic reasons. If we can afford the ability to kill in a historically unknown scale we should be able to take care of those in need. One shouldn't be forced to settle for lesser care because their insurance tier doesn't cover a treatment or drug. In 2009 a Harvard Medical School study said 45,000 deaths a year are directly related to lack of health insurance or approximately the same number as smoking kills. Think about that.

I bring up healthcare now because a good friend of the family recently became ill. She is far from poor but her story still tells something about healthcare in this country. I'll make it a brief story. Over a month ago she began having pain in her side and started weeks of seeing various doctors, receiving various diagnosis, and getting various treatments. The pain continued to worsen and finally her frustrated OBGYN scheduled her for an mri because our friend is highly allergic to the dye used in a ct scan. On the morning of the test she received a call from the doctor's nurse informing her that the hospital's radiologist had cancelled the test. He didn't know a thing about her or her case but cancelled it because, as health insurance raises its ugly head, there are procedures to follow and a ct scan must be performed before an mri. It didn't seem to matter that the test could worsen the problem.

Now totally exasperated and unable to eat much she went to the hospital's emergency room with a friend. At one point she was asked why she came to emergency with a stomach ache, had I been there this is the point in the story where a nurse gets slapped, but than I wasn't. After a day of tests it was discovered she had a growth in her abdomen and surgery is scheduled for this week. She has been in the hospital since than but the insurance company wont pay for her to remain there till the surgery. She has to go home, deal with life's other problems, and be re-admitted that morning.

A thought came to me yesterday, maybe I had seen it somewhere before, maybe not. If we have to live and die with health insurance companies why not just make them non-profits? Why should medical decisions be made based on the profit line? Why should a few individuals make millions running these companies when so many Americans go without healthcare?

In the end history may judge this rich nation on how it treated its poorest citizens when they needed it most.

Observations on the 2012 Election

Today was a totally weird day in my little empire. Among other things I posted a photo on the flickr that wasn't meant to be and I began a blog post on the auction houses and their just ended spring auctions that is beginning to look more like papers I wrote in college. So for purely entertainment purposes I give you a public service message from Kate Beckinsale.

There may be some other women in the video, I didn't notice.

Republicans, Get In My Vagina! from Kate Beckinsale

link

Observations

I found this some time ago and I like the thought and love the pics in it. Very well thought out so I figured I would post it here before it just disappeared into my digital wasteland. Some of the people in it I don't recognize so if anybody knows who they all are you win ....
my admiration.

Mom

Once again it's Mother's Day and once again I find I can't say anything that I didn't say now two years ago. It was what I felt than, what I felt last year, and what I feel now. I will add a quote from Mitch Albom's novel "For One More Day." The book is the story of a man and his mother and how one might spend one more day with a lost relative. If only ....

"But there's a story behind everything. How a picture got on a wall. How a scar got on your face. Sometimes the stories are simple, and sometimes they are hard and heartbreaking. But behind all your stories is always your mother's story, because hers is where yours begin."

Here is my original Mother's Day post.

"I was reading a Mothers Day blog post today that had me thinking. As you all know by now thinking is not always a good thing for me to be doing. But I could so relate to this girl because her mom had died of cancer at a young age.

I owe my mom so much. She was the first one to see something special behind my dark eyes. She would drag me around Philadelphia museums when I was barely old enough to walk. She was the first one to stick my fingers in paint, which was something that ended in quite a mess if I remember it correctly. And the first one to take me to wander the streets of New York and to visit MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) which was one of her favorite places in the world. She always praised my art but was also never afraid to criticize it.

When, as a teenager, I suddenly informed my parents I was gay she just hugged me and went about her business like I hadn’t just changed her life forever. From than on I knew I would be fine. She was the one who, in my rebellious high school years, kept me grounded when things could have gone so wrong.

She was always there for me until one day she wasn’t.

Everything I’ll ever be as an artist I owe to my mom and every time I look at a painting I wonder what she would have thought of it. Every day I wish I could thank her somehow.

I’ll leave you with a very fitting quote from the blog I read.

'This mother’s day be sure to tell them how much you care for all they have done for you, for you may never get another chance. Learn about their lives and you may learn something about yourself.'"

Happy Mother's Day

Observations on Art 5.10

A good friend of mine emailed me the link to this video yesterday afternoon. It made an already amazing day just a little bit better.

Allo Allo {Deux Américains à Paris} from Land of Nod Inc. on Vimeo.

After screening their film "Dot" at the Max Ophüls Preis Film Festival in Saarbrücken Germany, Land of Nod Inc founding members, Robert Kolodny and Bennett Elliott, took the train to Paris for a week of couchsurfing and wonder. Accompanied by their filmmaker friends from Mexico Rodrigo Quintero and Marissa Bolaños they explore all of the idiosyncratic magic of Paris. French Friends Matthieu, Tomas, and Benjamin make appearances as well.

The music is "Allo Allo" by the incredible and amazing
Les Sans Culottes.

Observations from the Window 5.9

It all happened so fast, barely an hour past between the first hint that something big was happening and the moment President Obama spoke these words.

"I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don't Ask Don't Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I've just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married."

Hours later my mind is still trying to come to grips with what he said. It wasn't so much that Mr. Obama said he supported equal rights for same sex couples, it was that President Obama said it. The President of the United States said it. No matter what the Tea Party thinks it is still the single most powerful position on this planet and he said those words. It may have been symbolic but when coming from the White House even symbolic gestures matter. The only thing that could have been better is if I could have typed she said those words.

Unless you are queer you just can't fathom how historic a moment this has been. I've only begun to think about it myself.  When I was in high school marriage equality wasn't something I wasted my time thinking, about because I only knew one person who saw it in the future. That person was my mom she was special, in her mind anything was possible. Beyond that I can't begin to put into words how I feel or what I think the significance of today is.

One thing I find fascinating is the story put out by the Obama campaign. They said Obama had planed all along to make just such a statement sometime at the start of the Democratic National Convention which just happens to be in Charlotte, North Carolina. Supposedly when Vice President Biden came out in support of gay marriage on Sunday the President was forced to do the same sooner. It's a very plausible story but my warped political mind came up with this question. What if the President himself pushed Biden out thus making it easier to make today's statement? Somebody needs to ask that question.

No matter what happens in the coming months President Obama made history today. It was a politically courageous statement and time will prove he was indeed on the right side of history.

Thank you Mr. President. 

Observations

From today's Charlotte Observer. The last time North Carolina amended its constitution on marriage, it was to ban interracial marriage.

Observations on Amerika 5.8

Today the state of North Carolina voted to amend the state constitution to ban same sex marriage. Actually they voted to define marriage as between a man and a woman, the politically correct way to say fuck you to the state's gays. The grand old state of North Carolina, the 12^th state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, allowed the people to speak.

But wait ....

North Carolina allowed just 19% of the voters to speak. A tiny fraction of registered voters in the state defined marriage for the rest of those who I suppose had better things to do. Wash the car, the dog, hell wash the wife if you are lucky enough to constitutionally have one.

The recent French Presidential election had a voter turnout of over 75% which is something this country will never see. It's much more fun and easy to bitch about what is wrong with the country than get off your lazy ass and vote. Seriously, you cant't blame me cause I didn't vote, not my fault. I wouldn't have voted that way but I just didn't have the time.

Your country is a mess and you have nobody to blame but yourself. All those people in Washington you blame for all your problems were actually elected. They were elected while you sat at home watching American Idol and VOTED for Scotty, whoever the hell he is. You can vote during a TV show but you can't bother to vote for something that actually means something, that effects the lives of your fellow citizens.

Tonight Amerika, because of the 19% in North Carolina, you suck.

You all suck.

Observations

Non-hockey related violence in Canada? Seriously?? In Canada???

"Riot between Students and Police ,
Rock and Tear Gas Out at Quebec Canada May 4, 2012"


link

Observations from the Edge 5.5.1

One of the sadder traits of Americans, myself included at times, is that we tend to think everything is about us.  Seriously, Americans think what happens in the good ole USA is just as important to the rest of the world as it is to us. The only case where I think that might be true is when they watch us argue over stupid social issues as the country itself falls apart. It is true that if the US crashes the rest of humanity crashes right on top of us. It's a small world people and gets smaller every day. Get over it.

"Podrán Ucortar todas las flores,
pero no impedir la llegada de la primavera."
Pablo Neruda

Happy Cinco de Mayo. It continues.


link

Please refrain from any New York City jokes. Someplace
still has to be the center of the universe.

Observations from the Edge 5.5

I hadn't originally planned on wandering the streets of Manhattan for 15 hours on May Day. The plan was to see what was going on, see if there were any shots to be had, than do some errands until it was time to settle into the bar for some cold beverages and the Flyers game. As they often say, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.

The day just got a bit more interesting than I thought it would. Interesting to the point that Reuters was forced to change their byline. In an obviously pre-written article they called the OWS "resurgence" a dud due to wet weather and poor turnout. A few hours later, when there were an estimated 30,000 people marching down Broadway, the Reuters twitter account posted "Live coverage of #MayDay protests show Occupy Wall Street resurgence far from being a dud." Noon deadlines must be a bitch.

At one point I found myself leaning over a roof near Grand and Broadway to take a shot of the protesters in the street (l). The march stretched as far as I could see in either direction, supposedly one end was arriving at Wall Street just as the other end was leaving Union Square, or about two and a half miles. At the protest's peak crowd estimates ranged from 30,000 to over 50,000 but the lower one seemed about right to me, not that I have a clue. Still there were only about 100 arrests made during the entire day.

One high, or low, point was being called missie not once but twice. The first time was early in the day, a male midget cop telling me to keep moving and I laughed and smiled, perfectly acceptable at the time. The second time was later in the day, a female pseudo amazon security guard asking if I had a problem. Not as acceptable and i fought to keep my hand, well my finger, down. I swore to more than one person the third lucky person to utter the word was getting laid out. By that point I don't think I was kidding.

Maybe it was a spring awakening as some claim, maybe it wasn't. Since the eviction from the Liberty Square camp in December the group seems to have gotten even more decentralized. This is a worry if it is to survive as a major player this election season. Either way it was a huge turnout that showed OWS hasn't gone away over the winter. It will be interesting to see how and if the May Day energy carries over into the summer with the political conventions and the NATO summit in Chicago.

In closing a sign of the impending apocalypse or at least of the world we live in. One of the official hashtags of the day was M1GS. By evening it had been "occupied" by pornbots.

Observations from the Edge 5.1.1

I jumped ahead of a large march heading towards Washington Square Park so I could stop in at the apartment and grab some fresh batteries. There are three large marches moving in different parts of the city including the huge "guitar army march" led by Tom Morello that is marching from Bryant Park to Union Square, right through the heart of Manhattan.

I wanted to get back to the Fox News piece I saw this morning. The theme of the studio chat was that shutting things down is not how Democracy works, that strikes are counter productive. Well I beg to differ because if a worker hasn't the right to strike what right does she have? The right to quit? Mass strikes have happened repeatedly in American history, a small history lesson.

In 1877, during a deep depression and the destruction of trade unions, workers shut down the country’s railroads, factories in major cities, and battled police and militias. They were only stopped when the US Army killed more than a hundred participants.

In 1886, more than 500,000 joined a May 1st strike for the eight-hour day. The movement was broken by a reign of terror that followed a police attack that is usually referred to as the “Haymarket Riot.”  May Day became a labor holiday in honor of the “Haymarket Martyrs” who were tried by a judge so prejudiced against them that their execution has often been referred to as judicial murder.

More recently, in 1970, during the Vietnam War protests, the civil rights movement, and a widespread cultural rebellion, postal workers, teamsters, and others took part in a wave of wildcat strikes, while miners held a month long political strike in West Virginia to successfully demand justice for victims of black lung disease.

For the record, I happen to have an uncle who just happens to be a local union officer but I'm still fair and balanced.

Observations from the Edge 5.1

May Day arrived rainy and fairly quiet but as the weather cleared some things began to get a bit more interesting. If nothing else the morning gave us the return of the scooter cop posse and steel cattle chute barricades everywhere in the city. New York, it's a tourist friendly town.

Fox News did report this morning in which they scolded the Occupy movement for trying to rejuvenate itself at the expense of "normal" Americans. I think I saw their normal Americans huddled at the upper floor windows of the Chase Building while the entrance of the temporarily closed building was shielded by barricades and a phalanx of NYPD's finest. Fox opened its report with video of Stalinist era Soviet Mayday Parades and hinted that today's movement was communist inspired. As a public service here is a partial list of non-communist endorsements the general strike organizers received.

AFSCME DC37, AFSCME DC 1707, AFSCME CSEA Region 2, AFSCME Local 371 (SSEU), AFSCME Local 372 DC 37, AFSCME Local 375 DC 37, AFSCME DC 37 Retirees Association, AFT - PSC/CUNY, American Federation of Musicians Local 802, Anakbayan NY/NJ, Answer Coalition, BAYAN-USA, Brandworkers, CentroGuatemalteco Tecun Uman, Coalition for a District Alternative, Coalition for Public Education (CPE), Committees of Correspondence, Community Development Project at the Urban Justice Center, Community Farmworker AllianceCSEA 1000, CWA District 1, CWA Local 1180, CWA Local 31003 The New York Newspaper Guild,
NABET-CWA Local 16, Domestic Workers United, Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment (FiRE), Freedom Socialist Party, Frente Unido de Inmigrantes Ecuatorianos, GABRIELA USA, Greater NY Labor-Religion Coalition, Green Party of NYC, Green Party of NYS, Guyanese American Workers United, Honduras USA Resistencia, IBT Joint Council 16, IBT Local 808, IBT Local 814, IBT Local 210, IBT Local 272, Immigrant Workers Movement, Immigrant Solidarity Network, Industrial Union Council New Jersey, International Action Center, International League of Peoples Struggle, International Migrants Alliance, International Socialist Organization, Jersey City Peace Movement, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, Jornaleros Unidos de Woodside, Kurland Group, Labor Network for Sustainability, La Fuente, La Pena del Bronx, Labor for Palestine, Left Labor Project, LIUNA Local 10, LIUNA Local 78, LIUNA Local 79, Long Island Workplace Project, Make the Road New York, May 1st Coalition, National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON), National Domestic Workers Alliance, New Immigrant Community Empowerment, National Immigrant Solidarity Network, New York Broadcast Trades Council, New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, New York City Labor Against the War, New York City LCLAA, New York Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (NYCHRP), New York Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, New York Communities for Change, New York Immigration Coalition, New York New Jersey Regional Joint Board, Workers United, New York Taxi Workers Alliance,  NYS Nurses Association, Occupy Sunset Park, Occupy Wall Street, Operation Power, Organization of Staff Analysts, Pakistan USA Freedom Forum, Philippine Forum, Radical Women, Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York, Retail Action Project, School of Americas Watch (SOA Watch), SEIU 32BJ, Senegalese Workers Association, Sisa Pakari Cultural & Labor Center, Take Back the Future TWU Local 100, UAW Region 9A, UAW Local 1981 National Writers Union, UNITE HERE Local 100, United Federation of Teachers, United NY, Veterans for Peace Chapter 3 NYC, Workers United, SEIU, Workers World Party, Writers Guild of America.