Late August Street Fair

The torpor of a Sunday in late August seems ideal for yet another NY street fair...

Summer dresses and other items that haven't sold all season are still around, plus the usual food merchants.

Saw only one clothing display for men-- a rack of rather cheap looking polyester ties. Very few people outside of the hard core business types are wearing suits and ties in late August. What you mostly notice is the variety of gym bags and knapsacks.

Time for Democrats to Fight

I have grown sick and tired of the relentless campaign by rabid right wing radio, insurance companies, oil companies and the usual suspects to sabotage completely all attempts at social reform in American society.

I accept capitalism as our economic system, but Karl Marx and others were exactly right about capitalism's pitfalls. We have to reform our system, to insure a just and humane country that gets its priorities straight and is concerned about the decent treatment of the great number of Americans who are getting swindled and bamboozled by rapacious special interests.

It is typical that the tycoon who owned a lot of hospitals and was fined a billion dollars for all kinds of malfeasance now funds the most rabid anti-health-care reform group.

Insurance companies published their "game plan" about health reform a long time ago-- pretend to approve of it, and then whittle away and obstruct it as much as possible, playing on people's worst fears of "socialized medicine" and "government bureaucrats.'

It is high time President Obama and other progressive leaders realized that the Republican party is not seriously interested in bi-partisanship and negotiation but is bought like the proverbial sack of potatoes by Big Money and special interests...and will know no limits to play on people's worst fears.

The moronic Sarah Palin and her palaver about " death panels" is a great example of this.

I intend to write to Obama and other elected officials and tell them of the need to stand firm against the right wing onslaught that has always triumphed over every attempt to make sane policies for this country-- including their opposition to clean and renewable energy, for instance.

It is easy to be cynical about the Democratic Party, but it is the only party that can effectively fight for real social change for the better in this country.

My August Malaise

Meant this posting to be about re-reading James Joyce's  "Dubliners,"...

but August malaise has got me. Heat wave here has been terrible.

My blogging of course has been crippled by having a fractured wrist and my inability to move around and take pictures.

For instance, there was just a tremendous storm which savaged Central Park--hundreds of trees destroyed-- and ordinarily I would have  run an article on that, with photos of devastation and clean-up activities.

Today my Physical Therapy session resulted in my wrist feeling something like "normal" for the very first time.. still stiff, but it is finally coming back.

Just started swimming at the 14th Street Y here... unfortunately, pool is mobbed by people trying to escape the heat and swimming conditions are far from optimal ( I don't like freezing water,but why is the water in the pool so warm?). Also, the last time I swam it made my wrist hurt a lot--as opposed to swimming in the ocean, which was soothing,

In nine days time I am leaving to visit an old friend at his family's summer place on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire... will be able to get photos and story of that.

Dog Days In New York

The depth of summer has arrived and the city is steaming...

There's that old saying, " It's not the heat, it's the humidity." In Manhattan these days it's both...

You have to go out very early for errands or very late or you will suffer the misery of these "dog days."

Hard to think Labor Day isn't that far off...

Looking forward to escaping to New Hampshire at the end of August. Meanwhile, just try to stay cool!

Vacation in Cape Cod

Finally got a vacation outside of  New York City...

Visiting my sister  and  her family at their summer house on Buzzards Bay on Cape Cod ( Falmouth).

House is right across road from bay...beautiful 1920's Arts and Crafts place with a three storey atrium and period details.

Went swimming a lot and just generally enjoyed being with whole family.

Temperatures on Cape were almost same as NYC but felt about 20 degrees cooler...sea breezes versus city pollution?

Bus ride was semi-enjoyable....rode up sitting next to man who lives with wife on Cape and commutes into NYC every week.  He had an i-phone gadget that showed maps and details of traffic jams we are in. Receives satellite signals.

He is IT guy... sometimes didn't understand what he was talking about in terms of his work!

Traffic extremely heavy on Cape-- has that in common with NYC. Got caught in traffic jam near Bourne Bridge that seemed endless.

Feels weird to come home from my sister's cool, immaculate house to my cluttered, hotbox apartment!

Hope to start on Physical Therapy for my wrist SOON.

"Barry vs. Cop"

I usually don't write about politics, yet current flap over Obama and his remarks about the Cambridge police can't be ignored..

I remember wincing when that last question came up at the Press Conference and President Barak Obama-- whom some people think it hip to call "Barry"-- made his famous remark about the actions of the police being stupid. Oh, no, I thought, this is going to be trouble...

Have known a good number of cops -- this sounds like a mammoth cliche, but some of them were very admirable people and others were very much less than admirable...

Response of right wing radio is so predictable, and it is sickening how angry mood of American people is being channeled into to the issue of Obama's remark.

Totally ignored, as has been repeatedly noted, is the issue of health care reform-- and how pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies are once more getting their way to the detriment of the people as a whole.

"Lack of respect for cop" is one of the worst sins "civilians" can make as far as most cops are concerned... many cops have martyred feeling they are hampered from doing their job by a coddling of criminals.

And huge numbers of people in middle America agree with them. This is an event just made for the demagogues of right wing radio..

Can all this be settled with a "beer summit" and everyone be satisfied? Probably not.

Someone made the trenchant remark that " Americans have just realized that they really do have a black president."

Myself, I think both the professor in question and the cops over-reacted-- in a way, again, that seems like cliche behavior. 

My biggest anger is first at the media for mining this for all its worst aspects and secondly for the broad mass of Americans who are letting their frustrations take an easy and unproductive avenue of expression...

Luckily, people like Al Sharpton --who I do not like-- are not involved in this. 

But how long do we have to endure right wing radio foaming at the mouth that "Obama hates white people and white culture" and all that rubbish? For a long time, I suppose.

The old saying holds true that you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink....  Americans are going to have to start facing up to realities of the environment, energy sources and the wars we are fighting as well the out-of-control capitalism that has gotten us into an incredible mess.

Heavy Going With 19th Century Thinkers

John Stuart Mill's "On Liberty" is the kind of book you were probably supposed to read in high school or college and just skimmed through, if you read it at all...

Irony is, of course, Mill's book is one of those seminal works that are part of "climate of opinion" for most liberal Western thought.

Mill is surprisingly modern yet shows a cultural bias that would brand him today as politically incorrect. 

He would, I think, consider most third world countries not ready for democracy- -or freedom--

and just casually denounce the Taliban as barbarians... would also have harsh words about countries like Saudi Arabia and say they treated women as slaves.

Well, who says a mid 19th century writer is to be judged by the catchwords of today-- you have to see him in historical context,

Much of what Mill writes isn't all that well organized and sometimes seems to pose more questions that it answers. This is definitely not light reading.

To me, one of the best endorsements for Mill is that he enraged Carlyle. I had to read the pompous, reactionary Carlyle in college-- had idiot teacher who worshipped him.  Didn't say right things about the "Master" and didn't get a very good grade...this was before I learned a basic trick of college: if you have an idiot teacher, simply parrot back their ideas to the jerks and you will be rewarded with praise--such comments as "brilliant insight" will be typical.

Why is Mill important? He helped shaped the everyday thinking of most Western democracies in a very basic way... and, is as often the case, you could quote Mill to justify or condemn Bush's invasion of Iraq, for instance.

Mill caught on to something a lot of earlier Enlightenment authors missed: the majority is not always right and cannot ride roughshod over the views of minorities or "eccentric" individuals.

Mill takes the right to dissent as a given.. and would be appalled, but not surprised by the way dissent is being treated in such countries as Iran.

More Street Sculpture

Remember what a "trompe l'oeil" effect this sculpture used to have...

Discoloration over time by grime and elements have made it less startlingly realistic. Still appears very unexpectedly on busy thoroughfare.

Artist at work on 34th Street in Midtown doesn't have any obvious markers as to who created it.

Reverse view shows imaginary landscape artist is painting.

This kind of representational art is almost sort of corny, but it is somehow vaguely reassuring in its familiarity and human scale...

Other cities have street art too, wish New York had more of it-- particularly the representational kind.

There are occasional street exhibits that are interesting in this way... one was of dozens of cows, all the same basic sculpture but painted in different ways by different artists, posted all over Manhattan.

During a serious recession like the one we're having, this can all seem a frill. But "man does not live by bread alone."

Morgan Museum and Library; wrist update

This picture is deceptive... the Morgan Library and Museum,

which is on 36th Street between Park and Madison, is a big complex of connected buildings,

The original Library building , shown here, built about 1900, is just the entrance. The complex includes a four storey atrium with natural lighting, the better to look at manuscripts-- the museum specializes in manuscripts, but has a lot else to offer as well. Check out their website...

The maunscripts, by the way, range from medieval illuminated ones to scraps of paper Bob Dylan used to write down lyrics of "Blowin' in the Wind," and "It Aint Me Babe."

WRIST UPDATE: Cast comes off in a week and then they'll put something on wrist and schedule me for physicall therapy.  Hope to be in shape to visit my sister and her family on Cape Cod at the end of July/beginning of August.

NOT Russia; My Many Complaints

Authentic looking Russian Church is in Manhattan--

St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral is at 15 East 97th Street..

Tsar Nicholas II gave money to help build it about 1900. It follows classic seven domed configuration of Russian churches.. is open to public now, no admission fee (see their website--google it up).

During cold war, particularly during McCarthy era, everyone connected with cathedral was suspected of being a Russian spy.. some probably were! Relations with community are much more cordial these days...

My Many Complaints:  fractured right wrist continues to heal very slowly. Have new fiberglass cast for another five weeks.. everyday living is a real travail...had terrible time getting one week of prescription painkillers. (saw big TV show about the evils of vicotin the other night..leads to heroin they say, etc. Almost as bad as smoking)-- by the way, am now smoke free for three months and have no desire to smoke whatsoever.

Annoyances of not really being able to use right hand too numerous to mention, so I won't even try.

Will put up some more postings on irregular basis as healing continues.

blog hiatus- last post for awhile-- "SOFIA"

This was posting I was working on before accident..covering area once dubbed "SOFIA" (South of Flatiron Area),

Here, old commercial buildings have once again been gentrified... commercial establishments as I remember were hodgepodge of businesses, including import-export and some garment factories.. and who knows what else.

People who live here now seem young and well-heeled and enjoy a lot of nice shops and the occasional outdoor cafe restaurant.

Madison Square's Main Attraction

If Herald Square is a center of shopping, and Union Square is the home of the Greenmarket, then Madison Square's main attraction is the "Shake Shack."

Approaching  along 23rd Street towards the square, I was struck by the large number of people standing about there. What was it? A rally?

Street theatre? 

No, it was mostly a huge crowd of people waiting patiently to be served at the "Shake Shack," a fast food establishment focused on liquid refreshment...

Of course, some people were there near the fountain simply enjoying the greenery...and a lot of people just seemed to be passing through with the kind of grim determination that marks a lot of New Yorkers going about their business.

Noticed some changes around the Square...there is a very tall new building that has risen up that seems to equal the old Met Life building in height. Myself, I prefer the campanile tower of the older tower to the simple rectangular lines of the new one. The old building, completed early in the 20th century, is a landmark--- the new one is just some kind of commercial ( and maybe residential) development. 

New York has enough skyscrapers that could be in Houston or Melbourne or some other metropolis -- the architectural character of the city is very diverse, but can't we have more towers that are somewhat more distinguished?

Murray Hill Tunnel, Park Avenue South

Murray Hill Tunnel starts at 33rd Street and runs to 40th Street...this is shot on lower Park Avenue looking north towards Grand Central Terminal and the Met Life Building -- which some people still refer to sometimes as the Pan Am Building!(its original name).

Park Avenue and Park Avenue South have a complicated history...to make it simple: thoroughfare was originally called Fourth Avenue--which now only exists below 14th Street.

Because of plantings in median strip, upper area of Fourth Avenue became to be known as Park Avenue...which sounds a lot better to most people.

Park Avenue starts at 33rd Street..stretch below that down to 17th Street was originally Fourth Avenue but was changed to Park Avenue South in 1959 by the City Council, apparently after petitioning  by property owners who wanted a "better address."

For a long time, Park Avenue South ( below) was home to big photographic studios, Printing establishments, and other businesses-- then in the 1980's began to be gentrified...with some commercial buildings being turned into apartments. In fact, there used to be a "Photo District" which included Park Avenue South further down, and there still exists a journal called "The Photo District News". At one time half of all the professional photographers in the United States worked in New York...(don't know what the figure is now, but the City is still a photography capital).

Lower Fifth Avenue ( from 33rd to 42nd Street) has always been a mix of office buildings, apartments and hotels. Rents have risen dramatically over the years and there has been some new construction....people have always lived here because of proximity to so many places in Midtown ( which is true of Murray Hill neighborhood generally). 

More years ago than I care to remember, I visited the apartment of family friends who lived at 17 Park Avenue--it was much more affordable then. 

Estonia House, East 34th Street

I don't know how big the Estonian community is in New York, or if there are any neighborhoods with high numbers of Estonians.... have only met one Estonian- American in New York ( who lived in Queens).

Beaux Arts building on 34th Street was built as the Civic Club ( a reform organization) in 1899 and became an Estonian Cultural Center in the late 1940's.

Activities include an Estonian language school.

As I remember, the Estonian language is something like Finnish...and Estonians tend to look like Finns, with many of them having very fair hair. 

As one of the "Baltic States" ( along with Lithuania and Latvia), Estonia was coveted by the Russians and occupied by them for a long time. By most accounts, the Russians were rather ruthless colonizers there...but present day Estonia is inevitably linked closely to Russia economically, although it is part of the European Economic Community and home to some very high tech enterprises.

Appreciating Abstract Art

As I thought I might, I've been warming to this piece of abstract sculpture over time.

It's on Second Avenue not all that far from where I live...part of the fun of viewing sculpture is to see  how it changes as you move around it, and so a simple photo like this can't give you that kind of experience.

One aspect I've noticed with this piece is how it reflects light differently at different times of the day ( when hit sideways by early evening light, it looks the best). It and fountains are lit up at night.

Modern Art as we have come to know it through Picasso and others seems preoccupied with the element of design. Formal elements are more important than representation of something familiar we can relate to. Often I think this is something of a disaster, such as in the works of Alexander Calder and Jackson Pollock ( his paint dribblings were not random, he was looking for a certain effect). 

As I get older, I am more appreciative of abstract art in general ....but I still prefer older works that combine craftsmanship and a more easily understood sense of what they're about, such as the Schott sculpture in Central Park ( below), which seems more complete to me as a work of art.

Demise of Low End Discount Stores in Manhattan

Discount and low-end retail merchandising has been savaged by rising rents in Manhattan...

Oh, if only Woolworth's were still around! ( They only closed in Britain recently).

Manhattan used to have all sorts of great discount retail stores-- like Odd Job Traders and National Wholesale Liquidators--that are no more.

Also disappearing are the 99 cent stores...though they remain in Spanish Harlem and in the boroughs to some extent.

The desirability of these places comes to mind when you just want to get something simple like pretty decorated plastic place mats... 

The big Jack's 99 cents store near Herald Square is still going strong, it seems--it's packed to the rafters with customers at midday. Seems to me the selection of merchandise isn't as good as it used to be, but nothing is ever like it used to be...particularly when landmarks of a kind have been driven out of business  by the forces of gentrification and rising rents.

Will also never forget the bargain vacuum cleaner I got once at Odd Job Traders... that's when I had a rug. I don't have one now in my apartment for all sorts of reasons ( and they aren't required in this building as they are in some). 

Herald Square Madness

People take refuge from busy Herald Square in landscaped traffic islands as the incredible hustle and bustle goes on about them at midday....

Wouldn't stay in Herald Square too long-- there were studies showing that air pollution there was so bad that people who worked at street level --particularly outdoors-- were breathing in the pollutants equivalent to two packs of cigarettes a day.

Try to keep people from Herald Square, though....it's where subway lines cross and always busy. Midday, is of course the worst, with tourists and shoppers flocking to stores like Macy's.

Have to say, I have never liked Macy's that much. And years ago I met an investigator for the City who was really down on the place...said they inflated their prices right before sales, so the  "40% off" wasn't what it seemed to be.

Until their economy turned sour, Macy's was a magnet for tourists from the United Kingdom who for a while found shopping there a real bargain...

Saw a sign that said J.C. Penney is coming soon.  Suppose economic downturn has taken its toll on Herald Square shops, but you'd never know it on a typical day.

Exit street canyon, "found" still life

People are always comparing narrow streets in Manhattan to canyons, and this exit street from the Midtown tunnel certainly has that feeling...( I have a calendar on my wall with the May picture being a panoramic shot of the Grand Canyon, as it happens).

Dreary, drizzly chilly days in New York...

Recently took a virtual tour of Nevada City, California...easy to do if you know how to use Google street views. Nice, prosperous hilly town with huge pine trees.

Wish I had a polarizing filter or something to improve picture of store window on Second Avenue which is partly cleared out during a move, leaving an unexpected sort of "found" still life behind. 

Lots of stores are moving these days (some closing) due to the economy....guess really damage is not so much what you can see as what people are going through around you that you can't see--worrying about their jobs or having been laid off. 

Notes on the United Nations and Architecture

No one is ever happy with the United Nations, and probably never will be.

This institution seems to exist in a symbiotic relationship with Manhattan-- some years ago, the City got tired of limos with diplomatic license plates ( and immunity) illegally parked all over Midtown and announced it was cracking down.

The U.N. threatened to move to Geneva over this, but didn't. People from foreign missions like being in New York too much.

Can't remember exactly how this great international crisis was resolved...know the City now  is ticket-happy,

and makes $600 million from it each year. A lot of the tickets are unfair but usually go uncontested...one reason being it's hard to contest a ticket and some people don't want to be bothered. 

Across the East River from the U.N. is Long Island City, ( top photo) once just a manufacturing area but now home to office buildings and apartments. Remember in mid 1980's City made a concerted effort to get a lot of businesses to move out of Manhattan and into the boroughs....this was before a lot of those businesses decided to leave New York altogether.

Note the modern architecture of Long Island City, which, while not quite as severe as the International-Style U.N. ( whose design I have never liked very much)...

Near to the U.N. is Tudor City ( bottom photo), which is a 1920's mock Tudor (just what kind of Tudor?) fantasyland--that has a lot more appeal as far as I'm concerned.  Tudor City has had its problems too, at one time it was rent controlled and de-control brought about bitter controversies....now just think it's another great landmark and a nice contrast to all the self-consciously modern architecture.

Conservatory Gardens, Harlem Meer

Three Dancing Maidens Fountain was made in Germany in 1910, by a sculptor named Walter Schott...part of the Samuel Untermyer Estate, "Greystone" in Yonkers, NY that found its way into nothern third of Conservatory Gardens  in 1947...

Gardens themselves were built in 1930's by WPA workers, a six acre patch in three segments that is the only formal garden in Central Park, at 105th Street and Fifth Avenue.

This is off the beaten path for me now--used to go there a lot when I lived on 96th Street, often with Art Group. Used to have many photos most of which I lost as part of decluttering when I moved to Midtown --- I love the area and just felt like going there today...once secluded, Gardens have become very popular... main section is used a lot for wedding party gatherings ( saw a Scottish wedding group there once, groom in a kilt...reminded me of my sister's wedding) and Southern portion has "Hidden Lily Pond" that looks like a Monet painting in summer...

Really too early in the year for this place, but what the heck, I felt like it. I will be back in a couple of months for sure, and will get pix of Gardens when they are in full bloom. Even now I find them great.

Harlem Meer is 11 acre lake at northeast corner of Park, full of ducks and geese in the summer and also with freshwater fishing. At gate near entrance, saw tour group of about 60 senior citizens shuffling in...forget about this area of the Park being secluded any more.

Again, I will be back when ducks and geese are around and as a nice escape on a hot summer day.

Murray Hill East, "Idol," Nicotine Lozenges

Parents, nannies and of course kids enjoy Spring day in children's playground of St. Vartan's Park, which is built above Midtown Tunnel....

Huge ventilator fans are nearby. Find myself wondering how air quality is affecting kids...know that people are blaming exhaust and diesel particulates especially as cause for allergies and asthma in children. Of course, kids get allergies and asthma in suburbia, too...

On a less grim note, "American Idol" surprised everybody by seeming to come close to losing Adam Lambert....

Find myself strangely curious as noted-- but at base not really caring that much.

Phasing out nicotine lozenges now...will probably want cigarettes again. Well, have to beat basic nicotine addiction...

Towering apartment buildings can be photographed this way only because of huge vacant lot, no doubt slated for development, probably bogged down now because of economic downturn.

Since You Can't Ignore It.....and Touro College

Since You Can't Ignore the Empire State Building in Midtown Manhattan, thought I would show how it peeps out at you everywhere and have done with it...you see it on TV here every night lit up in different colors for different occasions, etc. So here it is for the first and (hopefully) last time...

According to what I can find on the Internet, Touro College is a Jewish sponsored  institution that was founded in 1970 and has now over 23,000 students and sister campuses in other countries...

This older building at 30th Street and Lexington is now for sale or rent ( sign says)....must be part of greater history of the school, for this place obviously predates 1970.

Touro was an early Jewish leader in NYC....

If anybody knows more about this building, please let me know.

If You Are Not Afraid of Long Articles...

I very rarely read the New York Review of Books anymore, which is quite a change from when I was in graduate school and thereafter for quite a while...

There are a lot of reasons for this-- one of them, I am embarrassed to say, is that like a lot of people I just don't like to read long articles as much as I did when I was younger.

Like everyone else, I have been influenced by sound bytes and the tendency to try and make glib statements about the world around us. 

If you'r e not afraid of long articles, check out the one from a recent New York Review about the current economic disaster at http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22655 ( can't make this into a hyperlink here-- try copying it-- if that doesn't work, just Google up"New York Review of Books" and look for the Home Page). 

One concession the NYRB has made is that it now has podcasts, too. 

The article concerns a book about the current global economic meltdown written by a libertarian American judge and reviewed by a left-liberal writer. The judge, a man named Posner, has shifted somewhat on his ideas about capitalism and market self-regulation...

Paradoxically, the length of the article is necessary to make a concise statement about where we are now...how we got here, and what the future may hold.

You will have heard a lot of this before, particularly if you watch shows like "Bill Moyer's Journal." But this is an extremely good summary.

Take a deep breath and try it...

It's Too Darn Hot- Sunday April 26, 2009

Global warming seems already here as temperatures  go into the 90's ...

Didn't make it to Central Park for more Earth Day celebrations, just stopped off to photo Street Fair on 3rd Avenue... NYC tradition and cliche. 

Impulse is to drink cold soft drinks ( I know, they're bad for you)...and keep cool. 

Have what may be allergies today ( hopefully not Swine Flu which is all over front pages of papers).... 

Not going anywhere too much today....it's too darn hot.  We have a few days of these, they say, and then it returns to normal.

Someone would have to say to me, " Gee, just think what it's going to be like in August" !

Evening Note: Has cooled off here wonderfully due to sea breeze...thank goodness.