Observations from the Abyss 10.17

By now you all know what happened yesterday, last minute deal, signed by the President, the government is reopening today. At the moment I have nothing to add to that. This is about finding something to laugh at even on the brink of disaster. Tuesday night as the nation teetered on that brink Anderson Cooper was live from Washington with AC 360 Later and one of his commentators was Republican strategist Alex Castellanos. That is all the background you are going to need. What follows is from the official AC 360 transcript which you can read here or you can watch a short clip here.

Cooper: Alex, you don't want to admit this, but you actually agree with Paul that this is not the way to go about it, to risk the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.

Castellanos: I think it's a terrible idea. I think the Republicans are going to pay a big price in the short-term. A friend explained to me today finally what Ted Cruz is doing. And I finally understand. He's having bunny sex.

Cooper: Wow. This is the late-night edition of 360.

Castellanos: In nature, there are boom-and-bust cycles. The snowshoe hare every 10 years multiplies sixfold.

Cooper: Are you high? What are you talking about?

Castellanos: I am high. Let me explain. Let me explain. Totally high. I wish I was. The bunny, the snowshoe hare, I thought it's a marvelous explanation every six years, every 10 years multiplies sixfold. Bunnies like sex apparently.

Cooper: You're digging a ditch, Alex.

Sunday Observations 10.28

Next year is the 100^th anniversary of the Armory Show and there are two big exhibitions to celebrate it. One, "The Armory Show At 100," opens in October at the New York Historical Society Museum. The other opens on February 17, 2013 at Montclair Art Museum and is a little more interesting. "The New Spirit" will put together fifty pieces of American art that were sold at the original Armory Show.

You can file this under a 'it's a small world' tag. From an article about the current natural gas boom in The New York Times last week;

"It is a great time to sell,” Mr. Eads recalled telling Terry Pegula, the founder of East Resources, who had built up his own operation in the Marcellus region of Pennsylvania from one well to 75 over the course of one year. “With all these new plays popping up, I had a real concern gas prices would weaken.” Mr. Eads then helped arrange what will go down as one of the great early paydays of the shale revolution: the 2010 sale of East Resources, which Mr. Pegula had started with $7,500 borrowed from family and friends, to Royal Dutch Shell for $4.7 billion."

You might wonder what that could possibly have to do with me, well here you go. Pegula, a graduate of Penn State, is huge ice hockey fan and he spent part of that fortune to buy the Buffalo Sabres. More importantly he donated $102 million to Penn State to launch its Division I men's and women's ice hockey programs and build the Pegula Ice Arena as there home. On the flip side Shell indirectly employs my brother, also a Penn State graduate, mapping wetlands in the wilds of Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Donald Trump proved once again that he is just an ignorant self-important blowhard and I'm not talking about his big announcement on President Obama, I'm not even going to discuss that. Monday Trump spent a full day on Twitter talking about nothing but Diet Coke. A small sample; "@realDonaldTrump: People are going crazy with my comments on Diet Coke (soda). Let's face it--this stuff just doesn't work. It makes you hungry." Enough on that, the man just irritates me to no end and I don't even drink Diet Coke.

We got back from the mountains just in time to see the evacuation of Zone A in New York City as the storm otherwise known as Sandy ever so slowly approaches. I'm having flashbacks to Irene now and wonder if Anderson Cooper is going to be in Washington Square tomorrow morning. I may have to go check.

Observations on Irene 8.28

2:00AM - After a bit of relaxation I just realized the wind is absolutely howling outside the window. Warnings be damned I grab a cigarette and sit in the window as sheets of rain blow down the street outside. Lights of some kind flashing down the block, police, fire, or ambulance, I have no idea. I just took a look at the ConEd map and there doesn't seem to be any major power outages yet but they are going to decide in the next hour whether or not to shut off power to lower Manhattan.

Best line on CNN, “the empty and ominous streets of New York.”

Guess I'm on my own here because the VQs seem to have grabbed their wine and gone to bed so I suppose it's time I try and get some sleep myself. Irene is just south of Stone Harbor.

8:00AM - Awake since six, alive, not hungover, and amazingly I have power. Over 75,000 in the city are without power but no one in Manhattan has lost it yet. That's just hard to believe but I better shutit because the lights are flickering and I don't want to jinx myself. As predicted Anderson Cooper isn't down at Battery Park but over in Washington Square Park which is just a couple blocks away from here. I guess if he was going to be up this early he wanted to be within walking distance of his apartment. Well, I don't care what the mayor said, I might need to go for a walk. For the record Jacqyi Jeras in a red dress isn't a bad thing to wake up to either.

Some friends to the south lost power last night and I have no word from them yet. I hope all is well with them but I just talked to my sis and she said that other than the rain it never got very bad at home. That was good to hear. No sign of the VQs yet which is strange because it's a perfect morning to be a VQ.

High tide along with the storm surge is happening right now, winds gusting close to hurricane force, and heavy rain falling. Forgetting food was a bad idea because I had too much to drink, not enough sleep, and I'm starving. Like I said it might be the perfect time for a walk.  I wonder if AC wants some coffee.

10:30AM - Not long after I posted that last part the wind kicked up dramatically and at the same time both rivers began to spill over their banks as now Tropical Storm Irene made landfall over Coney Island. Never did get AC his coffee because till I got over there they were moving out. His loss.

The VQs emerged from their hurricane and wine induced slumber. I was walking down the street when I got a text from Ash which, edited to be politically correct, pretty much said I was an idiot and I should get my ass back inside. I've decided that unless I can get to the water, or the water can get to me, hurricanes aren't very photogenic at all. Just a big nasty rain storm slapping you in the face.

Some water in our basement but other than that no big problems yet. Brooklyn and Staten Island are covered with power outages but so far there is just a small one in the West Village. That I do not understand but I'm an artist so what do I know.

Seems like the worst is passing now and AC finally made it back to Battery Park. The water is starting to recede already so maybe I'll try and get to one river or the other and see what I can find. I don't have a Weather Channel or CNN jacket so might have a problem but maybe the Penn State field hockey one will do the trick.

Than maybe it will be time to put a dent in these supplies we have.

Observations on Irene 8.26

I thought maybe I would take some early morning photos so I rode an empty subway train down to the soon to be forbidden zone of Battery Park. Truth be told I didn't take much of anything because it was just a cloudy dreary humid morning and on top of that the Starbucks was closed. If this is the calm before the storm I think I'll pass.

Irene came ashore in North Carolina around 7AM as a category 1 storm. The weakening doesn't change the situation much here as the problem is how long the storm will batter the city and how much water will be pushed into the harbor, the rivers, and down the street. Later today ConEd will decide if it is going to shutdown the power to lower Manhattan. Because the cables are all underground they are vulnerable to saltwater if they are in use but not if they aren't in use. Now I understand why there are no batteries to be found in the Village.

Everybody says be prepared so we stocked up with the following....

One case of Corona, one case of Corona Light, and two bags of ice in the freezer. Multiple bottles of red and white wine because Ash can't decide which is the right one for a hurricane and one must follow the wine rules at all times.
A bag of limes and one bottle of Jose Cuervo Black Medallion tequila because one shouldn't ride out a big storm with cheap tequila.
One carton of Misty Menthol Ultra Lights otherwise known as Misty Silver under the theory that people think ultra-light smoke is healthy and will think silver isn't.
One carton of Marlboro Menthol 100s because Chloe isn't a lite weight like me and smokes a real cigarette, or so I am told.
New lighter to light those above named cigarettes.
Two camera and two laptop batteries charged. A camping lantern and flashlights along with a jumbo pack of priceless D size batteries. The latter I am tempted to sell on the street because, well, they really are priceless right now.
My older digital camera packed in a towel and zip-lock bag. Don't ask on this one because I'm not going to tell.

Shit I forgot to get food.

A bit of worthless hurricane trivia that doesn't seem so worthless now. If the storm is a category 1 at ground level it is a category 2 ten stories up. I can hear the glass raining down already.

No subways running down below and it just started raining in the Village. I suppose this really is the calm before the storm.

Let the games begin.

Neil Young - Like A Hurricane, Berlin 1982

update - Due to some concern I would like to add that we have cookies, coffee, and two cases of bottled water too.

Observations from the Window 4.1

It seems I’ve been downer blogging lately so in attempt to purge it from my mind I'm going to tell you some things I like. Things that make me feel good. Just things that go a long way towards making my life worth living.

Pancakes covered in syrup and fresh strawberries, steak, big greasy cheese and jalapeño covered hamburgers. Real Philly cheesesteaks, and not the damn chicken ones. My own chili, both the red and the white versions. Ice cold Corona with lime, tequila on ice, and hot Sidamo coffee. French fries covered with Old Bay seasoning or covered with chili and cheese. Seafood burritos or breakfast pizza on the boardwalk. Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia ice cream.

I adore my family and friends, all my friends, in both my real life and my 'second' life. All the people I have met online, so many and all of them such awesome peeps. When either the kid or the sis call me just to say hi and watching a Phillies games with my dad. An intelligent conversation and even more than that I like an intelligent argument. Taking very hot steamy bubble baths with candles lit, wine, and jazz playing. Yes I said jazz; you have a problem with that? Anderson Cooper.

I love the feeling I get when i finish a painting or go through a hundred shots to find that one photo that makes me smile. The look on somebody's face when they see something I did and I know they like it. The feel of my Nikon in my hand and the smell of a new canvas. Losing hours in a museum or gallery just sitting and looking at a painting and taking in every little bit of it. Van Gogh. Moma. The Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Sports, both playing and watching. The Phillies, Flyers, Eagles, and always Penn State. Running or just walking on the beach, ice skating. Stone Harbor, Fred's, and spending time doing nothing at the beach house. Waking up on the deck under the stars and hearing the waves crash on the beach. Beaver Stadium on a cool fall night, white out nights, and driving much faster than I should. Waxing Foxy.

Waxing Foxy ....

Sometimes life is good.

Finger Eleven - Whatever Doesn't Kill Me

Observations from the Coffee Shop 1.30

Revolution by social networking, the very idea intrigues my inner geek side. What I mean is people using Twitter and Facebook to organize and overthrow a corrupt government, or attempt to do so. I'm not going to pretend to understand it but some random observations ....

I first remember seeing it in the 2009 Green Revolution in Iran. This was highlighted by the Green Facebook page and its 56 youtube videos including the sad death of Nedā on June 20, 2009. The video was uploaded two days later and now has well over one million views. The Green Revolution also included possibly the first ever use of DoS attacks in protests of any kind as opposition supporters attacked government sites and exchanged attack tools on Twitter and Facebook.

Earlier this month saw the Jasmine Revolution topple the President of Tunisia and force him to flee the country quickly followed by this week’s unrest in Egypt. What makes the latter interesting is the government's total shutdown of the internet. Tunisia had cut off certain websites and Iran slowed it to the point it was almost unusable but nobody, not even China, has ever attempted a complete shutdown before. Twitter and Facebook went down on Tuesday (1/25) and in the early morning hours of Friday the entire web was shutdown followed by Egypt's cell phone networks.

In Iran opposition leaders, the middle class, and especially women seemed to grasp there new power but also saw the writing on the wall and choose to fight another day. In Tunisia the Twitter revolution was wildly successful and the president was forced to flee the county. In Egypt it's too early to tell but one has to wonder how long a modern country with modern business can operate in the world without the internet.

"Why in the most vibrant democracy in the world, where engagement and knowledge of the world is probably the most important, why it's not available is one of these things that would take a PhD scholar to understand," said Tony Burman, head of North American strategies for Al Jazeera English on why the free network is not available in the United States.

In some interesting side notes China has blocked the word 'Egypt' from all its search engines and I have to ask; has NBC News's Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel become the new Anderson Cooper?

update - After I posted this I saw the following in the Washington Post. "Liz Sly reports from Baghdad: "Activists on Twitter are furiously tweeting the dates of the next putative uprisings: Sudan on Jan. 30, Yemen on Feb. 3, Syria on Feb. 5 and Algeria on Feb. 12. 'Arab Revolution Timetable,' say the tweets hurtling among the region's new generation of cyberspace revolutionaries."

update 2/2 - Al Jazeera reported "Social media used in bid to mobilise Syrians for rallies demanding freedom, human rights and the end to emergency law." Supposedly this coming weekend.

Observations from the Window 10.14, Anderson

I am walking around the neighborhood like I sometimes do to think and get a little exercise, ok and hope to see some NYU girls while I am at it. I’m just a few blocks from home and there it is again. Anderson Cooper’s gleaming red brick firehouse that I have passed so many times before. I look up at the second floor window and realize that Cooper himself is standing there as if looking over his kingdom. As I stand across Third Street, so nervous I have to light a cigarette, I look up again and see him smile ….

Alright so I am sitting in the window and that thought just went through my head. I have passed the firehouse many times but I have yet to see AC let alone his smile. Now I have never been attracted to men but after reading his recent quote on the derogatory use of the word gay in a movie trailer, basically gay = stupid, I realized something. AC is not a man but a goddess trapped in a man’s body. I have no proof whatsoever on this theory but I may have to look into it more.

No I am not going to become some sort of dark stalker. The gods know I cant afford to fly around the globe chasing him and some of the spots he goes, well, a tall dark leather clad lesbian would stand out. I have to find some pseudo scientific way to prove my theory from a distance. Any help given will be greatly appreciated.

On a more serious note I leave you with the quote ….

“We’ve got to do something to make those words unacceptable because those words are hurting kids. Someone else I talked to recently said that the words people use and the things people say about other kids online, it enters into their internal dialogue,” Cooper said in a discussion with Ellen DeGeneres. “And when you’re a kid, it can change the way you see yourself and the way you think about yourself, and the worth that you give to yourself. I think we need to really focus on what language we’re using.”

Sick Puppies - Maybe

Observations from the Window 7.16

Well something new here, late night mildly drunken blogging. Thank all gods in advance for spell check. I was sitting in the window reading and, as usually happens, I put down the book and picked up my lap to cruise my ever changing sites. I’m sure somewhere across the street somebody is looking at me bathed in the LCD glow and wondering what I am looking at, or reading, maybe what porn I am watching. Now I wish I could see them too because I want to know what they are doing and I can’t even see them. And I wonder if they have better porn than me too.

Before I started this I was just beginning a new book, ‘The Lotus Eaters’ by Tatjana Soli. It’s the story of a woman combat photographer in Vietnam and one of those books that begins at the end of the story and than travels back to the beginning. Just a few pages into the book, as she wanders the deserted streets of Saigon before the fall, is one of those lines that grabs you and wont let go. “If one was rich and powerful, one was already gone. Only the losers of history remained.” God that line, ok lines, has to be a metaphor for so many things but at the moment I have no clue what it would be. I just hope that the rest of the book lives up to those lines.

Funny she is a photographer too because I was thinking about that before I even picked up the book. I have been so into my photography lately, to the total detriment of the rest of my art. My brushes, pencils, and paints stacked forlornly in a corner of my bedroom like once used props waiting for another idea. I’m not sure I’m totally thrilled with this turn of events but it is what it is and I haven’t really painted since I finished ‘Gurl Parts’ almost a year ago. I used to live to lock myself away for days drinking, smoking, painting, and little else. I miss the smell of the paints, the feel of the brush in my hand, the tired but ecstatic feeling I get when I finish a painting I like. I just feels like I’m in the grips of instant gratification art but I have no idea what to do about it.

And one final semi drunken thought. A Corona without a lime is like sex without an orgasm. It just shouldn’t happen. And a question, is Anderson Cooper ever at home in the Village? I know I'm gay but damn!

Sonic Syndicate - My Own life

Observations from the Window

With the warm sun streaming in i could just curl up and spend the afternoon here. Maybe i will.

Sunday afternoon seems to be the deadest time on the street below. That just seems off to me. may Villagers are religious after all. On Sunday we shall rest. Or maybe its just we got no sleep for three days and cant move.

I'm reading the paper and find that I am getting a new neighbor. Anderson Cooper bought an old firehouse just a few blocks away.

Now I'm not, and never have been, attracted to guys. But if i was, and made a list, i think Anderson would be at the top of it. I think I'll be walking around that block from time to time.

Maybe I need a dog I can walk.

I think the guy across the street is checking me out. I wonder if i should wave or flash him ??

"Buy the ticket, take the ride" Hunter S. Thompson

tuneage