Prague single ride

Czech obsession- The show title is How I Met People

Am I too late or too early. As usually both.  Here they sell subway tickets valid for half hour. Or maybe they need to revive the Firemen's Ball

RM Rilke

Of course, my first stop in Prague. Rilke. Sat at a table with pictures of Schiller, Goethe andr Heine. The great three. a Dichter Quartet with RM.  On the menu kelbasa.  Truly Mittel Europe.
Strangely  the beer was called Krusovice.  Sounded like Khruschev.

Cafe Central troika

Had Sacher Torte at Cafe Central.  What else? Of course some calf liver. Only later found out that Trotsky, Stalin and Hitler used to come here. Drank the same Milch around 1913. Probably with lots os sugar.
The owners do not advertise this. Why? Maybe it would become a peregrination site.

Kokoshka

They still sell on Vienna's streets Alma Mahler dolls. To have sex with the most intellectual lover of past century. This is not pornography, it is erotik something.

Timepieces

Amazed by the number of stores selling ultra fine watches - Schaffhausen, Patek,
Wagner, Brequet, Omega, Longines, etc. Who buys these anymore?  The entire city is selling the time past.

Travel season begins

Half hour on line to check language. One hour and almost a half to pass security line. Half hour  to get on the plane. One hour departure delay. It is the start of the season.
To Vienna the most livable city. Mittel Europa. In this plane I understood the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Infinite number of faces and languages. Infinite? Well, close to five hundred.
Most livable city? The cabbie in New York charged  for tolls we did not pass. The gypsy cabbie that took us from the Vienna airport almost refused the tip. Another cabbie in Vienna ave us a discount on the meter.
(complaining about wait times? Two hours for the Everest!)

Coming of punk age

At the Met, hear one young woman - Was your father going to CBGB?
I clearly remember that  lunch time with the construction workers at Johnson and Johnson's headquarters. They were inviting to lunch someplace. Was not sure where. A bar? A gogo bar? a strip joint? In any case, too shy to ask for explanations and not sure I wanted to go with them, I ordered my beef on rye in the trailer and spent the following hour with a young engineer who spoke only of CBGB.  Also, that day it was the first time I used a fax. Had to get permission from my boss and schedule the hour for faxing.
I never went to CBGB. First time I saw their urinal was today at the Met.
Never got to go to the New Brunswick  gogo bar or to  CBGB.

Extreme ....

What can be more fabulous  than the Syrian army  hacking the Onion twitter. In the middle of a bloody civil war, when accusations of chemical gas are flying, the army on the losing side spends its time by hacking the twitter feed of a fake news organization.  Maybe they are into something:  “The Onion is a satire news organization and quite often is more trusted to reflect the news than the corporate media is known to,”  they think. Respect and admiration. Quite possible. The Onion is the only tweet I follow.

creeping to Sibeira

Back to work, back to the old tricks. Reuse the slogans. In two or three years we will see everybody growing mustaches. And don't you worry everybody will have his or her own files (dossiers?)....to complement the ones in Facebook or Google ...

May 1st - Marching

Seems the aging international workers  are now finally facing the truly international capitalism. As Zizek says -there are numerous end of the world theories and scares, but nobody talks anymore about the collapse of capitalism. All these marches are just out of inertia.
See the building collapse in Dhaka, at least here the international labels can be recognized.

Perils everywhere

Don't do anything. No matter what you intend, there are perils. We should live forever in status quo. there are too many who depend on this. Policy and energy experts for instance. Bringing the Canadian oil via the pipeline will increase the environmental damaging supply. Diminishing dependence of Arab oil will destabilize. Scare everybody so the moment would and these minor Fausts can keep their sinecures.

Cooper Union

New York high life contagion- bought stock, built expensive building.This is a despicable decision. The best school in NYC is destroyed. It was the best because it had the best students not the best faculty. Now with tuition, will the best apply? It will not be the same. A jewel that is losing its value.

Modernity angel at the library.

Went to see La La at the circus (now at Morgan Library). Got a little lost at the entrance and climbed some stairs and got to see the Degas painting of the black angel climbing to the circus vault  in a painting slashed by a vertical line.  An angel with no visible face, hanging by her teeth. Seems that in her real Fernando Circus  performances she was carrying a canon from these teeth??
 Leaving the room, went to take  the elevator and found myself in the air in the extraordinary space with  glass above, below and in front of me, sparkling in the sun. For a couple of seconds I felt I was myself an angel.

Seeing thru same glasses

Everybody had an opinion on this event, along previous stereotypical and regrettable opinions:
The Chechen president thinks America is the problem.
The boys' father thinks it is a set-up (like everything else in Russia and the former...).
The NRA premier members think that if everybody had a gun  in Boston, they wouldn't have had to shut the city down.
The anti immigrant strongmen think...we all know what.
As to myself...just crazy young people. What were they going to do, the brothers? aside Tolstoy, nobody likes the Chechens very much....
I also think it's an unwelcome precedent to shut completely an entire city. Like they never had stranglers  roaming the streets before,  Just shows how small Boston is.

protectors of democracy vs the crazies.

We had all kind of bad news. Some crazies blew up spectators at the Boston Marathon, a big explosion in Texas, some uncontrolled young prick in Korea, etc  The worst seem to me the stories about those who are expected to be rational, protect us, insure democracy. We have senators voting in block against verification of  firearm buyers (despite massive public opinion) and a former justice of peace who killed the prosecutor who had disbarred him.

how we live?

How do we live with loss? We create memories we can live with. And then you lose even these memories. Is this loss loss or lose lose?

True to my fortune

Got this fortune cookie ( compliments of Genreal Tso's) -Your smile brings happiness to everyone you meet. The irony was so biting that I did not leave any tip.

Money needed

New York, the capital....The unlimited corruption....Unlimited? Without end? Without bottom? So is this an example of efficiency of democracy? where politicians are more likely to go to jail then lose an election..... Take money and carry a wire....So what about New York being the financial capital of the world? Does this corruption enhances the trust in New York? Is this a good ad for Wall Street? Why does it not use its money...to clean.... corruption.

bad manners ( and grammar)

I understand, but am insulted. Lately I am getting numerous emails, spam  ads  whatever -with offerings of grammar and spelling lessons. Is Google annoyed by my orthography  am I using too much spell check? Are my sentences so obviously bad? Probably so.

Guilty as ....

Sustainability, concerns about climate warming are sublimations of the cultural sense of guilt.
Since culture obeys an inner erotic impulse which bids it bind mankind into a closely-knit mass, it can achieve this aim only by means of its vigilance in fomenting an everincreasing sense of guilt. That which began in relation to the father ends in relation to the community. If
civilization is an inevitable course of development from the group of the family to the group of humanity as a whole, then an intensification of the sense of guilt

Ye set our feet on this life's road,
Ye watch our guilty, erring courses,
Then leave us, bowed beneath our load,
For earth its every debt enforces. 

choice architecture

Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
How should this commandment be written to become more effective? (It never worked, see Freud)

• Love thyself and thy neighbor?
• Love thyself as you love your neighbor?
• Get yourself a neighbor you can love?
• Get yourself a place in a good neighborhood?

Post-modernisM Meeee

Was complaining to a colleague that I don't have a sense of humor.  She said -No you do have a sense of humor.
But I think she confused humor with irony. Irony is the essence of post modernism.

Meant to make it...(making it?)

This guy made it. Overjoyed. His Dominican family always knew he will make it. in America. And what about me?  I can even speak English. I mean a little english.

cleanliness and order! Ha! Too high an order!

We soon become aware that the useless thing which we require of civilization is beauty; we expect a cultured people to revere beauty where it is found in nature and to create it in their handiwork so far as they are able. But this is far from exhausting what we require of civilization. Besides, we expect to see the signs of cleanliness and order.
Civilization and Its Discontents -Freud.  Am eternally a discontent! Sigmund.

Thersites - a railer

The rest now took their seats and kept to their own several places, but Thersites still went on wagging his unbridled tongue – a man of many words, and those unseemly; a monger of sedition, a railer against all who were in authority [kosmos], who cared not what he said, 
[215] so that he might set the Achaeans in a laugh. He was the ugliest man of all those that came to Troy – bandy-legged, lame of one foot, with his two shoulders rounded and hunched over his chest. His head ran up to a point, but there was little hair on the top of it. 
[220] He was hateful to Achilles and Odysseus most of all, for it was with them that he used to wrangle the most; now, however, with a shrill squeaky voice he began heaping his abuse on radiant Agamemnon. The Achaeans were angry and disgusted, but nevertheless he kept on brawling and bawling at the son of Atreus. 
[225] "Agamemnon," he cried, "what ails you now, and what more do you want? Your tents are filled with bronze and with fair women, for whenever we take a town we give you the pick of them. Would you have yet more gold, 
[230] which some Trojan is to give you as a ransom for his son, when I or another Achaean has taken him prisoner? or is it some young girl to hide and lie with? It is not well that you, the ruler of the Achaeans, should bring them into such misery. 
[235] Weakling cowards, women rather than men, let us sail home, and leave this man here at Troy to stew in his own prizes of honor, and discover whether or not we were of any service to him. Achilles is a much better man than he is, and see how he has treated him – 
[240] robbing him of his prize and keeping it himself. Achilles takes it meekly and shows no fight; if he did, son of Atreus, you would never again insult him." Thus railed Thersites

telecommunication versus communion

All this money spent on useless research..Everybody knows that you go to church to pray together with other people and you go to bars to drink in company. Beware of those who drink alone.

Silk Stockings

Saw yesterday dress performance. As always Cole Porter...
 One of the themes - the heroine, Ninotchka, educated in communist Russia cannot laugh or make a joke. Hmm....does this explain why I am trying so hard to be funny?

college education -missed

I took all kind of kind of Coursera classes. Felt exactly as described in this article - missed the basic classic education.  And then I took their course in modern poetry and discovered close reading of poems and the class discussions. Since then I view each text in a new light.

belize

The grapefruit tastes spectacular but  this country will not go far. On Sunday,  the street vendors stay home.

Faux faux fur fabric.

Post-post modern is what this is.

Grand Vision

To see underwater, you need  to spit on your goggles and rub. Starfish and corrals become clear.  What do you need to do to see above water?

China spying...

Experts! Don't know why the Chinese military is  hacking US government and private companies. Oh, come on! This is a basic communist activity. They hack and spy on their own. Why spare the US?

Papa

Non habemus papa. What an unbelievable moment. A pope saying - I cannot continue. (need a break? have enough? not me?) Know too little about Catholicism.  But it is a moment underlying deep cultural decay - most cardinals did not understand the resignation announced in Latin. Nobody understands when I say Hic Rhodus, hic salta.
It is not just the loss of the Latin. But Latin has been taught using classic texts that will probably disappear from the horizon or from the basic cultural luggage...

Paintbush

Probably everything - funny, hateful or servile - has been said on the paintings of the most recent president Bush. Color, composition, subject. Water boarding, cleaning water, floating - you name it. Made me feel sorry for him - having to paint.

NYRB at fifty

Celebration at Town Hall. Had read ever issue for the last thirty years. Even placed an anonymous ad (my colleague noticed the ad and immediately recognized me). Had to show up - anonymous, with wife. Doors opened half hour late. Standing, waiting to get in, there was nothing else to do but to observe the other people on line. These were my people - high brow and bold heads. Pretenders at intellectual life -by association, with subscriptions to a review that drops names. My wife remarked - The men are not well kept. These are not the manager type. Realizing I  might take bad the comment, she added. These are not salesmen either. 

Status quo?

Guns and bread. There is nothing that can be done to regulate these problems. Too many guns already on the streets. Too many illegal immigrants. Nothing really?

on Leonard Cohen

Perfect review Cohen has attracted many disciples and inspired many conversions. He is one of the most beloved figures in modern pop, but everyone who listens to Cohen feels he has bailed him out of impending obscurity. Your man clearly analyzed. Best when sung by others. 

Sometimes, too close

This cartoon brought me memories of my mother. After receiving call she was dead, rushed home  to find her reanimated. For the first time since her death I dreamed of her. She was shouting I was late. In life she had never ever shouted at me.

Touring regrets

Have been wondering for a long time why do retired people spend so much money touring the world. What good is seeing all this cultural monuments when one is one step away from the grave. Will they be able to take with them the wonderful images. And now, myself taking online classes at Coursera.

Claim to fame (revisited)

Decided to take a look at the Game Theory class offered by Coursera. Just to check if they changed the odds in the Prisoners' Dilemma. Figured out now, that my claim to fame (best ever MIT Harvard score). was due to my complete misunderstanding of the strategy. This explains everything.  Of of all those who know me, who would be surprised by that.

What part should I play?

Today, on line at Starbucks this thirty something man right in front of me was carrying a huge balloon.  It was floating right at the level of my head and as the guy was turning around, the balloon was knocking my head. What mask should I have put?  Was I supposed to be amused? or was I supposed to sternly ask this guy to watch  his parafenalia? Decided to cast a cold eye and order my grande....dark.

Tragicomedy at nyt

Or is it a farce. Whatever the production values or interpretation  or even  Her personal views, the reviewer should have known that the comedy in tragicomedy refers to a happy ending, rather than amusing elements.

Dixit

There is not much to add. Precisely so. But what would be the way to rebuild the economy? Is the inequality too big to be felled by some thinkers.

Rhinoceros

Don't understand post election statistics and comments. Electorate has changed? America is only getting older and the there will be more and more voters post this or that. More fodder for the tea party. In political standing sixty is not the new forty (or viceversa). The country will not renew as we are all becoming rhinoceros. Memories of Grateful Dead concerts will fade. Oh Ionesco! The last human left on this continent will be a teapartysan - speaking Spanish, maybe.

Imagining love

So much noise. What would one expect from football aficionados?  So the man was in love with Lennay Kekua. He had not seen her, but she had answered his twits. They had a strong relationship.  It turned out she never existed. Wouldn't this be extremely upsetting? Most of us had an imaginary lover. Most of us have an imaginary life. From the chivalrous Don Quixote down....
Well, this was a hoax played on him. Although he had never touched her, this rough football player called her his love.  For him she was real. What  Manti Te'o imagined was ethereal love.

metaphormose

We were going to be poets. All of us.

Calm

This friend taught me yesterday the secret of falling asleep. Go to bed and lie all stretched. Do not think about anything. Especially about the past, the mistakes of your past. Do not think about the uncertain tomorrow. And if you can do not think about the present.

French elephants

What is it with Russia adopting French elephants - Brigitte Bardot and Gerard Depardieu? The French Marianne and the French every-guy, now idols disfigured by old age looking for a place to die. And  why is Russia trying to piss everybody with its adoption policies. And all this reminds me of the Russian born French writer and great personage -Romain Gary with his Racines du ciel - the novel about freedom and elephants.

Green side...

Starting a New Year

I believe one needs to start a new year wearing something new. Also drinking champagne at midnight. Not sure though if the champagne needs to be an expensive one.  And always make an impossible resolution. This year - keep my desk clean.