Covfefe

I heard the call! And I came​ back. Here I am, like the grenadier answering Napoleon's call when he returned from Elba. Here I am ready to March towards Waterloo.
We understood the alternative orthography and none of us leaked the true meaning.

Empty, but fascinating

from an art show

No readers. Thank you Google

Stages

For a long time I had planned to write a book on the lovers I could have had. I reached now  the age when I am planning a book on all the real estate deals that I should have gone into.
Reminds me of  -having  no heart at 25 and being a liberal at 40.
 Thomas Jefferson preserved this quip, writing in a 1799 journal that Adams had said: “A boy of 15 who is not a democrat is good for nothing, and he is no better who is a democrat at 20.”

Gap

The gap between the political discourse of the traditional parties and the reality is so huge that it allowed straight talkers to advance in primaries;
Maybe Trump is not exactly a straight talker, but definitely he does not use the typical republican  lingo.

$20 demonstrations

Talking politics with my wife. She wants to send money to Hillary to prove that little people also support her. I want to send to Bernie to show that millionaires also support him.

El Viejo

Today. On Broadway a decently dressed old woman,  stopped me and asked for "A dollar or something". Strange, she talked only to me. Later, as I was resting next to my bike in Riverside park an old  woman stooped, looked at me and asked: " You still ride?" I wonder how does Bernie Sanders feel when they call him "El Viejo"? Not even sure what the various titles may be - papi, papito, abuelo, viejo?
Can a white haired man be dirty without being a dirty old man?

Life, sort of ...short

A young and pretty woman from my club died from cancer. Her sailing mates and age cohorts are shocked.
This winter lots of musicians died. David Bowie, Glenn Frey, Maurice White - do not remember what they sang, but my generation.  Me? I forgot things. The other day I realized I forgot the lines of Row, row,  row your boat...The only thing that came to mind was Life is but a dream....

Eske? approve this message

I do.

Curing Fear

This article reminds me of this guy who went to the psychologist.
- Every night I see a crocodile getting out of my bed and trying to eat me.
The psychologist prescribed some medication and after each visit increased the dose.  When the guy stopped coming the psychologist went to check his patient at home. Nobody answered the door. The psychologist asked a neighbor.
-Have you seen Joe lately ?
-What you don't know?  A crocodile ate him.

Powerball Shame

What more proof that this nation is loosing its touch? Nobody won this 900 mils Powerball.  So nobody could pick the actual nimbers, but it turns out that over 90% of the numbers were machine generated. Are the machines rigged or are our progammers (in India or China) incapable?
And now, to compensate for the inability to win, the prize was increased.

NYT pictures of the year

Some extraordinary pictures. Dead and dying and trying to escape death. When featured, the american president and former president are shot from behind only.

Umbrellas, seasonal?

My father had developed a theory of things becoming suicidal. Like if this cup decides to commit suicide it will try repeatedly to fall till it breaks. Umbrellas hide, get lost, break in the wind. I don't think umbrellas are suicidal. Just cheap.

Historical...

It turns out that during Napoleon III the French anthem was Partons pour la Syrie, In fact it was referring to the campaign in Egypt.  They kind of messed it, the French. And now they are left with going out to drink to show defiance.

Sang Impur

Yesterday, at the beginning of the show the choir sang La Marseillaise.  After all the Messiahs that I did not know and could not sing, here there was a song to my own deity- French democracy or revolution or whatever. Was the only one around who new the words. I sang along. Of course - my singing was false. Born with the wrong pitch. Sang Impur.

Shark talk

So what is one major problem of American adult males? Besides dating. Matching socks after laundry. One might wear unmatched socks or might have a foreign born (compliant ) wife. Else you can spend money eternally buying socks or having all socks of same type. I found a cheaper solution - have your dog match the socks. Every normal guy has a dog. The problem is that dogs are color blind. So I am working on some kind of color restoration glasses....

Unloved Manhattan

Manhattan Bridge that is. While Brooklyn Bridge is full of people, so crowded one can barely advance, this other bridge is empty. No place to jump....

Stealing on the way out

Jon Stewart left saying bullshit is everywhere. This has been my line all along. See this blog as proof. Did he steal this line or this theory "was in the air"? Bullshit.

Brother can

-Sir, can you spare a dime?
-Thanks for the opportunity, but I pass.
I gave this impromptu answer. But seriously the principle pushed by the Republican machine is  - don't tax the ultra high earners. They are job creators!
But seems to me the job creators are pocketing the money and skipping the job creation. Or at best they creae the jobs in Bangladesh where they come cheap.

Being Kramer

The other day was thinking to write a post on a Seinfeld theme - Sometimes I should stop being George and should be Kramer. Liberating. The following day  this article ran in the paper. OK, may be I should avoid being Kramer.

I am THE FAN

In this period when everybody IS..declares to be  some victim or another - I recognized myself in the portrait struck by James Dolan.   ...your life is a mess and you are a hateful mess.. 
Almost. Getting there. To speed up the process I should become a Knicks fan.

Ich bin ein Munchener

Ich bin ein Munchener said the EU as they are meeting in Munich. Right now. In Munich.  To study how to pacify a crazy guy. You, my Czech bots who visit regularly this blog, take notice. Right now the subject is Ukraine, but you are not far away. Old men who were in Europe in 1939 might still remember the  feeling of relief when Chamberlain came back with a signed document.

using painkillers

I discoverer painkillers. I had taken pills that reduce inflammations or temperature,. But to kill minor pains. Not really. Thought beneath me. But then what a relief! And I remembered Seneca, who was teaching stoicism while was living a wealthy man's  life. What was the point of him teaching stoicism? Just to pretend to belong to a philosophy en vogue during his life? Teaching without practicing? Like  today's politicians? At that time I thought philosophers were living by their words. Right?    When he was told to commit suicide he was totally unprepared - had to try different methods....A stoic unprepared for death.

google the brains

The internet as we know it will disappear.  This statement  is intended to mean that the internet will be ubiquitous.  All over. One would not notice it or pay any importance. And all our activities will be monitored. Measured. Limited and controlled. Intelligence. What will it mean or what does it mean?
To google will mean get in each and everyone's mind and move the info.

Altogether

Was looking for a book -Alone Together - at Barnes & Noble's. Turned out there are more than ten books with same title. Probably the authors were so isolated that they did not know of the existence of the other books.
They were provably published before the internet allowed searches...Probably this explains the development of  the social media. Now we are all connected together and lonely.

Cocteau c'est moi

Is it cultural confusion or just my confused memory? I wrote a post Charlie c'est moi when everybody uses Je suis Chalie. My intent was to allude to the famous Cocteau "C'est moi" from La machine a ecrire. Or was it in Cocteau's La machine infernale?

Martyrdom irony

Analyzing my previous post on Charlie killings. First - it was about me, not about the horror or the dead? [It seems this entire blog tries to be a kind of selfie - everything is about me.] So in fact I used the opportunity of this  criminal act to criticize the victims. Carrying on without shame,  I continue to clarify -They might be representative of the extremes of the freedom of the press, but they were not funny. They, the Charlie editors, thought insulting is funny in or by itself. They lacked the tools of irony. It is ironic that they are the ones that became the martyrs of funny. They would have still laughed at the thought that their assassins died in a press shop.
There is more irony.  The people gathered in  Place de la Republique had signs in English -Not Afraid
Here goes the glory of the French culture ( in a year that saw a French Jewish writer got the Nobel prize, mainly on themes of Jewish memory).  Expressing courage in a different language.
Beautiful blog about satire in the era of the internet when your eye-blink might not be noticed by people of different cultures.

Charlie c'est moi

Not really. Only today. I am of the Canard Enchaine humor. But today it is not about humor.

Politics of climate change

There is no morality in politics. Action is taken for some profit, not general welfare. So I am happy to see that the powers that be found a compelling method to fight climate change. - Cold war.

Cultureality

Saw recently a movie where the hero says - you have no talent for happiness.  And today a quote from Seneca Viri infelicis procul amici - stay away from the unhappy man. 

Curating artistic free...

It was an extraordinary tapestry about religion and burning books. I thought this is about liberty of expression and art and detruction. As I was tryong to take a photo - I was admonished - No photos allowed.
Well...only a patron's sketch ...

Life explained

Profile of a successful player. Hmm...Highly satisfied and without anxieties. Now i know why I had no chance as a  basketball player.

Polish cashier

I've been buying at this deli for a long time. She knows me well. But she still calls me ...Next!

Democracy - statistically speaking

Most democratic revolutions turn into tyranny. This was known to the Framers and is proven by recent events.  The tyrants use the people's vote or armed forces to fill the vacuum created by the removal of the ancient regime. Similarly economic power is not getting redistributed but is seized by oligarchs.  Most of the time nations cannot find their Washington..

Vermont?

Drove through Vermont recently and wondered what its people do or make. Agriculture? Can three cows support a village? Do the Vermonters spend their time polishing the scenery for the enjoyment of travelers?
In fact one of their main occupations - giving travel directions in a polite manner - is about to disappear with all these apps and Google maps.

Indignation

The  Nigerian school girls abduction has been the top news on BBC since it happened. It took about two weeks or more for US media to report. And now indignation and protests.....Shameful.

The ambiguity of democracy

There does appear to be a confidence threshold for any successful democracy. Once the threshold is passed, it becomes very unlikely that the move to democracy will be reversed…. No democracy has reverted to autocratic government once per capita GDP has risen above $7,000.

But liberal versions of democracy are not similarly irreversible, and there are signs that a shift is underway in a number of European countries

Vladimir Putin’s Russia exemplifies one version: repression is combined with liberalization, and elections coexist with entrenched power elites…. Russia has not turned into a democracy. It has turned into a pseudo-democratic kleptocracy, in which people use money to get power and power to get money.

In general, the spread of democracy has often set off movements for secession, as groups that fear becoming permanent minorities struggle to establish their own states. In interwar Central and Eastern Europe, parts of postcolonial Africa, and post-Tito Yugoslavia, the emergence of democracy was accompanied by intense civil and ethnic conflict. It is hard to think of a convincing reason why China would be different. As in other parts of the world, any move to democracy will very likely come at significant human cost.

The above texts are from

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/mar/20/dangers-of-democracy/?page=3

old game

Fiction uses metaphors, .....to draw meaning. The Second Game uses reality to create meaning.

adaptation

Whatever the reality, this review provides a good explanation of the evolution of climate change politics. We are now in the adaptation stage.  

Apple and orange in Boston

Had to find the train stop for the yellow line. Helpful Bostonian.....first one excused himself  l don't use this lime. Another asked me  - Train? You mean  subway. Was sent from right to left. Impossible to find.Figured out only after an agitated half hour- they call yellow, orange.....

will not capitulate

I was sailing with this group sailing around St. Barth and St Martin. Beautiful scenery. Hundreds of pictures taken.  I show up in many. Never smiling.

Saint Martin

In Caribbean islands' cemeteries you might  find authentic traces of popular culture.

Crimea or Maidan Poltics

Finally a rational view. Not a pleasant one, not a comforting one. Crimea, the Tinderbox - NYTimes.com:
Democracy cannot be had, obtained, because people are shouting in public squares. Do you believe all people shouting in public squares? The Russians in Crimea shouted and here is the answer. Russian troops helping. There are thousand reasons Crimea should not be in Ukraine. But nobody cared till now. And who decided that the demonstrations in Maidan were for democracy?
The demonstrators form flash crowds that weaken status quo but one cannot crowd source democracy.

Pete Seeger

Not naming names, just saying good night Irene. Pete, you are now in a heaven. This heaven is  your heaven. There is not much one can say but hum some of his beloved songs. 

Lacking human proportions

Out there, those floating  in the sky do not have a horizon. Nor do those digging in the depth of the Earth.

Our song...

Well sung. Well sang....so post it on Facebook

We’re living on a million tiny stages. Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook, YouTube. Dinner plates are showcases for our food, beds become venues for our slumber, selfies are curtain calls for our faces. We put our activities on display, our feelings, our families, our skies. We’re not quite sure if there is a point in doing anything anymore if it can’t be documented, if no one is there to observe it. We long for favorites and likes and reposts, compulsively monitor these new forms of applause. The marquees of our lives say, special guest: ME! We play an encore, and then another. The quotidian one-man show never quite ends.

Mind the gap - reflection

Horizontal through.
Check etymology of mirror, miracle, mirage.

Christie winning

Preparing for presidential primaries Christie is winning the the tea partiers.  He is towing their  line by closing the lanes of one of the highest traffic bridges in the country. F... everything and anything  just to punish Democrats - elected officials, or voters or their children.
Can you imagine! He might block all red state -blue state bridges....

Ephemeral MOMA

y 
Went to MOMA for the Magritte exhibition.  Not funny anymore. It might be a good pretext to bring young people in. They might understand some of his ideas and be less afraid of modern art. Agree fully with  this well written article. And yes, I am still moved by the Empire of Light, wherever it is shown.
Modern art is ephemeral. Ideas that are new but within half a generation are already incorporated in pop. The other exhibitions at MOMA confirm. A multi panel installation providing multi perspectives on the history of China. Even Isa Genzken's  concrete blocks seem ephemeral.

 

Dog eating dog tradition

Did Kim Jong-un throw  his uncle to the dogs?  The troubling part is that many have not considered this  just an absurd joke. Throwing someone to the dogs!  Turning a bad dream in reality.  Killing the metaphor by making it real.

But of course one should have recognized the joke. He only had his uncle shot by squad. Cultural misunderstanding? From the ancient Greeks, from the Romans,  etc western culture is full with such killings. Not to forget eastern tradition with its Chinese and Mongol succession wars.

Blackberries in the dark

Yesterday, on new year's eve, left work around 4:30. It was dark and the Pakistani street vendor was trying to unload all his reaming fruit. I bought his last ten boxes of blackberries for two bucks. Was so happy with my luck I almost gave him three. Whow, no better deals than on the last hours of the year, when everybody wants to get rid of their ware. Came home ecstatic (if such a thing were possible outside of porn texts). My best buy of the year! Should remember next year, one year from now!
When I unpacked my trove, discovered that most of the berries had mold. In mental pain, I sorted and cleaned the berries for thirty minutes. Never....