5.14.2008

No Justice, No Peace

The police officers indicted for killing Sean Bell were acquitted a couple of Fridays ago.
It was a bench trial, and there is plenty of research that suggests this was a good legal strategy on the part of the defendants.

But I haven't written a word since then, nor done much else but mourn.
What is the point? This shit is just going to keep happening. I did not know the departed, but if the NYPD wanted him dead they should have indicted him and tried him and tried to put him away for life.

Not execute him on the street, like a dog.

To pay some tribute to this non-justice, the novel Autobiography/Masquerade (which addresses the frustration of shootings like this one, among other things) will be available for FREE download from now until June 28th. (It is usually ten dollars. Just click above on the title to the novel and you will be taken to my Lulu page where you may choose the "download free" link. The print version is not included in this act.)

And dem is my last words.

4.19.2008

Back To the Dems

Clearly, the expectations of a landslide for Clinton in Pennsylvania have waned, if not altogether vaporized. The suspense is killing me softly, though it is clear that the superdelegates will be deciding this one.
Mayor Bloomberg, who has not yet endorsed a candidate, is one individual who I wish was up for this job, and as my wish that Giuliani disappear from the presidential ballot has already been granted, perhaps this desire for a third party candidate will be sated as well.
Choices are good, though, of course a third party candidate could ensure a republican v-day... or, instead of having the first woman or African-American president, we might have the first billionaire prez.
As a lifelong New Yorker, I contend his positive presence is felt throughout the boroughs, though he has certainly made various controversial decisions and suggestions.
What leader of worth has not?

3.28.2008

Ten Years Gone

When we were such little fools that we took our hand-holding and plan-making for granted.
Before we learned to deride at will and were consequently spoiled,
we had those moments of glow.

Before we allowed life's jaundiced near us, we ran with the energy of an atom. And were bonded as tightly.

And random thoughts still stray to those glowing sprung times though it is no longer practicable nor prudent, and I remember your visits to my sick bed.
Ten years gone.

3.12.2008

Deere Crossing at Socrates



There has been little time lately to post all the images of the great things that give me pleasure every day.
“Deere Crossing” adds an aesthetic tickle whenever I view it. The credits are included in the accompanying pic.
It took a while to capture this image with no people in it- that was the goal to go with the artist’s seeming intent to play with scale a bit.

This, along with many other playful and thought provoking works, may be viewed at Socrates Sculpture Park. (I almost don’t want to tell you, as in my mind it’s my park, where I wrote my book, where back in the day it took guts to come here...)

But the artist can’t mind the exposure and Socrates is arguably the coolest public space for local (and global) sculpture ever.

3.03.2008

Comparing Gas Prices


This image was taken off Las Vegas Boulevard a few days back. (Much to the amusement of the other persons in the station.) The lowest priced gasoline (regular) is $2.99. After photographing this amazing deal, I realized just how serious this gas crunch is.
What is so exciting about three dollar gas, other than it being cheaper than three sixty-seven gas in NYC?


Attentive readers may note my commentary on the Democratic candidates for the office of American president, with a focus on their latest debates, has, of yet, to be published.
If all goes to plan, it will be published by the time they start voting in Texas.

2.14.2008

Single Latina Female Seeks Bookstore

When I was a kid I worked at an independent record store off Steinway Street. My old boss told me that the reason he got the lease for the commercial space was that the prospective tenants before him wanted to open a bookstore, and the landlord had refused to give them the lease, believing firmly that Astorians would not keep a bookstore afloat.

That was eighteen years ago, and I am still waiting for my bookstore.

The subway takes me to 57th in ten minutes, where I walk over to the AOL/Time Warner Mall, where there is a Borders. That’s fine, but it’s not love.
And there is a place on Broadway and 33rd, I think, called Seaburn, so Astoria is not completely without books, but....
I yearn for a mega-bookstore. You know, at least three-thousand square feet of book bliss, along with a section for overpriced journals and bookmarks that I can snag when they go on sale.
I can take or leave the cafe, we have plenty of those, but my unrequited desire is for a shiny, enormous, bookstore stocked with thousands of periodicals and an even more impressive array of books to come into my life.

Of course, I would rather it be walking distance from the subway at Steinway, and there are a few decent options as far as commercial real estate offerings are involved (like the site of the old Blockbuster, for example), but I would settle for anything in the LIC area.
(Just noticed with chagrin that a previous post about not being midtown west has a glaring error--it says midtown east instead, at least three times--clearly got past me. I’m leaving it, not into revisionist history.)

So on this day, reserved for dying red flowers and terrible service at any restaurant that qualifies as “romantic,’” I confess my tale of guilty desire, for rows and rows of hardcover books, for aisles and aisles of travel books, books about Turing machines, nineteenth century art and twentieth century iconoclasts. And special edition copies of the Dr.Seuss series. For pop-up books and books that just smell really good when you quickly flip through the pages, unconsciously assessing the weight of the tome. For comic books.

Maybe the big chains, or some independent magnate are just not interested; it wounds me profoundly to ruminate on a love that does not reciprocate.
I did not sleep at all last night, tossing in bed instead, hoping for even a hint of interest, ready to accept any advance. Maybe it will come today.

2.13.2008

No Mercy For The Sleeping or The Poor

So I took kind of a long, drug induced nap. And woke to a world where McCain swept yesterday's primaries as did Obama.


what a person gotta come to when they lose thirty hours?

Is is nothing but good news for someone of my own orientations. Though I favor Clinton, I would be overjoyed to see Obama in the White House.
Even McCain, who is undoubtedly a war-monger, in my humble opinion, is a huge step up from the current administration. I feel rather certain about this because the republicans I know are miserable. They know they already lost.

And the writers guild strike is over!

In other matters, I received an email from an old colleague detailing the conditions at a detention center for persons with immigration status issues. According to her letter, pregnant women are being denied food because "no one invited them here."
That's funny, I though the Statue in the harbor said something like, "Send me your poor..."
I have written to my source in Texas and requested more information. Yes, the detention center she writes about is in Texas, on American soil.

Bottom line- these places operate for profit. How will your favorite presidential candidate address this issue of unchecked avarice?

2.11.2008

Cold Days Seducing You Malevolently Part Deuce


clean snow promises light...this still holds as far as I am concerned.
A moment even, of those big fat snowflakes makes me wistful for a simpler time, when snow was not just a symptom of an unhealthy planet giving us quite a show. Recall, here in the NYC, it was almost seventy degrees last week. I feel like I have written this before...

2.04.2008

Rezoning Has Its Price


The building pictured here is being erected adjacent to the Adirondack Building on Vernon Boulevard, which was sold last year for an alleged twenty-two million dollars.
This picture was taken facing south.
A significant part of A|M was written at Socrates Sculpture Park, and when I was over there the other day, I noticed the pictured building- how could I not?
It looms over the Adirondack building, as well as over a remaining old mansion on 31st Road.
It is exciting to see kayaking and luxury condos on our once forgotten shoreline, but there is nothing idealistic or romantic about the profile this new edifice cuts behind its more storied predecessors.