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September 30, 2003
PAPAL PUSHER
With the Pope's health ebbing, thoughts of who will replace him
inevitably arise. Christopher Buckley published a short story on this
topic in The Atlantic
Monthly last April. In it, Rick Reynard--prot?g? of uber PR
man Nick Naylor, the protagonist of
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-
/0060976624/qid=1064955511/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/103-6915268-
2251069?v=glance&s=books&n=507846">Thank You for Smoking--is
hired by a billionaire to orchestrate a campaign to make sure the next
elected Pope is an American. Although the American Church is somewhat
tarnished by recent sex scandals and such lobbying is expressly
forbidden, Reynard cannot possibly turn down the huge sums of money his
billionaire client is willing to pay. Buckley is as funny as ever in
"We
Have a Pope!"
Posted by Lexiphane at 5:00 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
A CLEAR NOTE
Last night I saw a must-see movie for all audiences,
href="http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0236285/#comment">For Love or Country:
The Arturo Sandoval Story. Starring Andy Garcia as the highly
skilled trumpet player Sandoval, it is the story of a man's love to
express himself musically and his repression by the communist
government in Cuba. Eventually, with the assistance of Dizzie
Gillespie, he is able to flee Cuba with his wife and young son, but
must leave his teenage son and father behind.
One of the most moving scenes in the film is when Sandoval tries
to explain his need to leave to his wife, comparing himself to his
father. Sandoval's father was a mechanic with a garage that was
nationalized by the communists when Fidel seized power in Cuba's
revolution. Stripped of his life's work and ambitions, he spends the
rest of his life sitting indifferently with his friends playing
dominos. It is a resignation that speaks volumes for the majority of
Cubans imprisoned in their own country.
Although Sandoval is able to escape Cuba in the end, For Love
or Country is a tragedy because he must give up his homeland in
order to make the music that he desires. He cannot endure the
constant stream of petty and significant indignities that his
government imposes on him. When and where he can travel. What kind of
music he is allowed to play. Whether or not he can work as a musician.
And his ability to have a conversation in his own home without being
informed on by neighbors. Fidel Castro's regime is despicable and
For Love or Country is an excellent movie for highlighting its
abuses.
Posted by Lexiphane at 10:17 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 29, 2003
POPULISTS
Every once in a while I click over to the activist site
href="http://www.democraticunderground.com">democraticunderground.com
a> to see what die-hard Democrats are getting riled up over. It's also
a good way to see how so-called liberals perceive those that don't
share their views.
href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/bob/03/87.html">This
piece, which I suppose is meant to be humorous, shows that today's
leftists view dissentors as dim-witted morons barely capable of
coherent thought. You know what else these Democrats view as worthy of
mocking? The enslavement of women who are
sold and worked like animals as prostitutes. That is hilarious
isn't it? Assholes.
Posted by Lexiphane at 1:54 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
GARLAND GOES CUBIST
Here is a
href="http://www.lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcon
tent&id=11">very short review of Alex Garland's novel
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-
/1573227749/qid=1064855299/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/103-6915268-
2251069?v=glance&s=books&n=507846">The Tesseract.
UPDATE: A tesseract is otherwise identified as
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-
/books/0440498058/reviews/103-6915268-2251069#04404980585000">a wrinkle
in time in Madeleine L'Engle's novel of the same name.
Posted by Lexiphane at 1:31 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
LOOSE LIPS
The New York Times
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/28/nyregion/28LLOY.html?pagewanted
=1">profiles the new gossip reporter for
href="http://www.nydailynews.com">The Daily News, Lloyd Grove,
today. Grove wrote The
Washington Post gossip column,
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/style/columns/reliablesource/">Reliable Source, for years
before coming to NYC. I don't think this is going to work out.
There's a big difference between D.C. gossip and NYC gossip. Here's a
not-uncommon NYC-style gossip item that might appear in the
href="http://www.nypost.com">New York Post:
Coke-fueled and panty-less Paris Hilton fellated someHere's something that Grove might have
rock star in full view of the amused kitchen staff last night at
Bungalow 8.
written for The WaPo:
It was quite the scene at socialite GeorgetteNot quite the same thing. Also, while at
Mosbacher's 104th b-day party last night when Assistant Secretary of
the Interior Lloyd Braun dropped salmon pate all over his Brioni
necktie.
the Reliable Source, Grove initiated the Celebrity Tip Watch, in which
he would publish how much various celebrities visiting D.C. restaurants
left as a tip. This has to be one of the most intrusive and obnoxious
things I've ever heard of. I'm all for outing cheapskates, but the Tip
Watch just seemed sleazy. On the plus side, Grove once managed to goad
actor and famed blowhard Tim Robbins into threats of physical violence
if he ever wrote about him or his wife, Susan Sarandon, ever again.
WORSE THAN FEARED: I just read Grove's debut column [ href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/121623p-
109375c.html">The Lowdown] and it sucked as predicted. Lead-off
item: President Bush's uncle likes remote-controlled fart machine
gags. Please. Tagged:
Posted by Lexiphane at 11:06 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
FAT BASTARD
Instapundit.com points
out a link to
href="http://overlawyered.com/archives/99sept2.html#990916a">Overlawyer
ed.com noticing legal action taken against an annoying filmmaker
harassing a well-known public figure by hectoring him for comments on
employee layoffs. Is
href="http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0098213/">Roger & Me director
Michael Moore up to his old tricks? No, he's siccing the cops on one
of his former employees for emulating his inane antics.
Posted by Lexiphane at 9:36 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
HE WAS A CONTENDOR
Filmmaker and cold-war hero Elia Kazan
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/29/obituaries/29KAZA.html">passed
away this weekend. The many films he made during his career
eventually garnered 20 Oscars. Most readers will know him as the
director of On the
Waterfront, starring a young Marlon Brando, introducing Eva
Marie Saint, and featuring the town of Hoboken. Callow and immature
Hollywood types and those tolerant of repressive governments consider
Kazan a turncoat for naming names before the House Un-American
Activities Commission (HUAC) in the 1950s. Rather than trying to save
his own hide or not protecting those who held unpopular opinions--as he
is often characterized--Kazan recognized the threat of communism and
wasn't hesitant about identifying those who were its proponents. For
all the insults hurled at him, you'd think Kazan had murdered these
commies. Instead, all he did was identify them the same way you'd
identify Nazi sympathizers, racists, misogynists, or other hate-filled
nitwits on the wrong side of history.
"I'd had every good reason to believe the party should
be driven out of its many hiding places and into the light of scrutiny,
but I'd never said anything because it would be called `red-baiting,' "
he wrote years later. "The `horrible, immoral thing' that I did I did
out of my own true self."
Some people's tolerance for a murderous ideology that resulted in
the slaughter of tens of millions of people and nearly overtook the
world remains a mystery to me. Bravo to Elia Kazan for not buckling in
to its fashionable whitewash. Another of my Kazan favorites: href="http://www.us.imdb.com/title/tt0039416/">Gentleman's
Agreement. Tagged:
Posted by Lexiphane at 9:15 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 26, 2003
NO REASON TO BE NERVOUS AT NELLIE'S
Last week a friend and I had dinner at a relatively new place on the
corner of Houston and MacDougal Streets called Nellie's. In addition
to spying Richard Gere and his beautiful wife Carey Lowell as they
strolled by our sidewalk table, we had a memorable meal. Check out
href="http://www.lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcon
tent&id=10">my review.
Posted by Lexiphane at 5:11 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
IT'S LIKE BUTTER
I read BUtterfield 8 last week and
really enjoyed it. I wonder how many other women like Gloria Wandrous
populate the city even today. My review of John O'Hara's novel is
href="http://www.lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcon
tent&id=9">available here.
Posted by Lexiphane at 4:29 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
ALTERNATIVE ENERGIES
With news that evidence of
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/26/international/middleeast/26IRAN
.html">enriched uranium has been found in Iran by inspectors for
the International Atomic Energy Agency, there seem to be indications
that Iran might have an illegal nuclear weapons development program in
the works. This comes as little surprise to me, but Iran insists that
its nuclear energy facilities are only being used for peaceful
purposes. Here's a question. As a founding member of OPEC and a
nation that sits on an absolutely huge reserve of oil, why is Iran
resorting to more-expensive nuclear power to provide electricity? Just
asking.
Posted by Lexiphane at 9:50 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 25, 2003
A MESS
Drivers navigate roads with darkened traffic signals, tens of
thousands of homes are without light in areas where the power is still
off, cleanup crews are working to cart off tons of debris, and
recriminations abound about how poorly the recovery effort was planned
and is being executed. Quagmire in Iraq? Nope. It's
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61289-
2003Sep24.html">D.C., Maryland, and Virginia after hurricane
Isabel. Clearly we need to throw in the towel and hand the job over to
an international body capable of handling this.
Posted by Lexiphane at 12:39 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 23, 2003
WOO-WOO! NO MORE
My west coast source Andrew has e-mailed me some sad news today:
Gov. Gray Davis has signed a bill outlawing "whistle tips," which make an ear-splitting noise when placed in a car exhaust pipe.Whistle tips were celebrated here at lexiphane.com back in June [see THE CULT OF BUBB RUBB AND LIL' SIS, 6/12/03] when we found an online newscast of whitle-tip proponents Bubb Rubb and Lil' Sis voicing their complaints that whitle-tip opponents should be up in the morning anyway and making somebody breakfast, before they peeled out of their neighborhood garage into oncoming traffic. It's still one of the funniest things I've ever seen on the Internet. This could be an important issue in the upcoming recall campaign for California governor. Tagged:
AB377 by Assemblywoman Wilma Chan, D-Oakland, would impose up to a $250 fine on anyone with the device attached to their car and up to a $1,000 fine on businesses that install the devices.
"They serve no purpose other than to annoy everyone with noise pollution," Chan said. She introduced the bill after residents in Oakland complained about the loud sounds.
Whistle tips are a small metal cylinder that is welded inside a custom tailpipe and produces a high-pitched tone when the car is in motion.
The new law will take effect Jan. 1.
Posted by Lexiphane at 2:13 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
SUB STANDARD
The MTA is once again proposing the construction of a 2nd Avenue
subway line. This is a perennial plan that never seems to get off the
ground; or under the ground as it were. 2nd Ave. used to have an
elevated line that darkened its streets, but it was torn down decades
ago. And while the Lexington lines might be crowded, I think a 2nd
Ave. line would be a terrible idea, as do
href="http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/3222.htm">most other East
side neighbors.
Perhaps what's most absurd about the MTA's plan is that they
propose it will take 12-16 years [read: 18-24 years] to complete its 8
? mile track. Granted, there's a lot of underground infrastructure to
work around and homes and businesses that will need to be torn down to
make way for a 2nd Ave. line, but this schedule seems a little pokey.
In contrast, after Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941, the U.S. feared
that the Japanese might attempt an invasion of Alaska. To increase the
territory's connectedness to the U.S. and Canada, Roosevelt started
href="http://www.themilepost.com/history.html">construction on the
Alaskan Highway, which stretched from Dawson Creek, British
Columbia to Fairbanks, Alaska. Highway crews hewed their way through
1,500 miles of forbidding Canadian and Alaskan wilderness under
grueling conditions before meeting up at Connection Creek, completing
their project. Time it took for them to complete this monumental
undertaking: 8 months.
SPEED OF CONSTRUCTION
2nd Ave. Subway (est.): 7.7 feet per day
Alaskan Highway: 32,550 feet per day
Posted by Lexiphane at 9:43 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 22, 2003
BBQ RECON
Friday I wrote about the planned opening of genuine BBQ joint
Pearson's Texas BBQ [see
href="http://www.lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?name=News&file=article&s
id=253&mode=&order=0&thold=0">YEEEE-HA!, 9/19/03] in the space
of the now-displaced Butterfield 81. I walked over to the address
Sunday to see how things were coming along and it looks promising.
There were a lot of people in and out of the place and it looked like
they were down to applying the final touches. The atmosphere is a 180
degree turn from Butterfield 81's, which was very clubby. Pearson's
looks like it will have a more Texan lunch place feel to it. The
tables are 50's-style formica and chrome and there are diner-style
booths (albeit upholstered in leather) along the east wall. Period
photographs adorn the walls and it looks like it will be a casual
atmosphere. A red and white awning advertises the restaurant's name
and below the windows there are red and white signs that advertise in
large block letters barbecued spare ribs on one side and Texas BBQ beef
and pork on the other. From what I saw and with everyone working on a
Sunday afternoon, I would guess that Pearson's Texas BBQ could be ready
to open within the next week or two.
Posted by Lexiphane at 9:11 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 19, 2003
NOW GET ME SOME CANAPES, BEEYATCH
Internet author, Minneapolis-based columnist, and collector of
near-history detritus James Lileks
is a genius in my estimation. For those of you who thought that the 40
oz. malt liquor bottle originated in Compton to slake the thirst of
hard-killing gangbangers, think again. Lileks has found that their
origins lie in the
href="http://www.lileks.com/institute/jetsam/5/index.html">'50s post-
war era, when nothing beat having your Levittown neighbors over for
nine or ten beers.
"The visit's always nicer . . . when the party
quarts appear!"
That is exactly what Ice Cube always used to say.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 2:06 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
YEEEE-HA
I was
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/17/dining/17BBQ.html?pagewanted=1"
>disappointed to recently read that
href="http://newyork.citysearch.com/review/7175085/editorial/?cslink=cs
_profile_tabs_editorial_review">Butterfield 81 will soon be
closing. It's a restaurant in my neighborhood that I walk by
frequently and whose menu looks fantastic, but is just a bit out of my
price range. I always thout it was associated with the
href="http://newyork.citysearch.com/review/7150019/?cslink=cs_profile_t
abs_user_review">Butterfield Market nearby on Lexington, but
apparently it's named in honor of John O'Hara's novel
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-
/0812966988/qid=1063988610/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/103-6915268-
2251069?v=glance&s=books&n=507846">Butterfield 8. My
disappointment in not getting to Butterfield 81, however, is tempered
by the fact that it will be replaced by Pearson's Texas BBQ by owner
Ken Aretsky (
href="http://newyork.citysearch.com/review/11313407/editorial/?cslink=c
s_profile_tabs_editorial_review">Patroon). Chef Robert Pearson
will be cooking genuine wood-smoked BBQ on the Upper East Side soon.
No sauces, no rubs, just savory slow-cooked meat. Unfortunately, the
restaurant is being outfitted with a $36,000 electrostatic precipitator
that filters out the smoke, vapors and grease that will emanate from
its BBQ pit, depriving me and the rest of the neighbors of olfactory
heaven. And while the idea of a genuine BBQ joint in the neighborhood
is exciting, I doubt it will do any damage to
href="http://www.brotherjimmys.com/">Brother Jimmy's Monday night
$12.95 all-the-rib tips-and-and-wings-you-can-eat and beer-you-can-
drink special.
Posted by Lexiphane at 12:49 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
THIS IS REASSURING
This is about as sound as forming a Sharpshooting Club at the
nearest mental asylum. Although they
href="http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7310684%255E1702,
00.html">deny it, a British newspaper reported that Saudi Arabia is
interested in
href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articlesh
ow?msid=189233">gaining nuclear weapons capabilities. Separately,
European countries
href="http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-
nuclear-iran.html?hp">are offering Iran nuclear technology as long
as it promises to never do anything bad with it.
Posted by Lexiphane at 11:24 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
SEAFOOD
The Washington Post
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33301-
2003Sep19.html">reports today that as the Potomac overflowed its
banks, the Washington Harbor hotel/restaurant/ residential/commercial
complex in Georgetown found its boardwalk under three feet of water,
with the river crashing against restaurants' stone barriers. So if
you're in the mood for seafood this afternoon [all DCers have the day
off again], I'd skip Tony & Joe's and
head to higher ground at Sequoia on the
second level.
Posted by Lexiphane at 9:12 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 18, 2003
BACK IN THE HEYDAY
Choire Sicha, the new editor of
href="http://www.gawker.com">Gawker now that
href="http://www.elizabethspiers.com">Elizabeth Spiers has decamped
to a paying gig at
href="http://www.newyorkmetro.com/index.htm">New York
magazine, digs up on old article from The Atlantic Monthly on
href="http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/78sep/griffith.htm">"Loving and
Hating New York."
New York is too big to be dominated by any group, by
Wasps or Jews or blacks, or by Catholics of many origins--Irish,
Italian, Hispanic. All have their little sovereignties, all are sizable
enough to be reckoned with and tough in asserting their claims, but
none is powerful enough to subdue the others. Characteristically, the
city swallows up the United Nations and refuses to take it seriously,
regarding it as an unworkable mixture of the idealistic, the
impractical, and the hypocritical. But New Yorkers themselves are in
training in how to live together in a diversity of races--the necessary
initiation into the future.
Good to see that 25 years later, the U.N. has really cleaned up
its reputation. Tagged:
Posted by Lexiphane at 4:05 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
THE MADDING CROWD
Recently I've noticed an uptick in the number of visitors to
lexiphane.com. That's nice to see and I've decided to create a
visitors' forum called
href="http://www.lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?op=modload&name=Forums&f
ile=viewforum&forum=4">The Madding Crowd where registered and non-
registered readers alike can start their own discussions or join in
existing ones. I know sometimes new items by yours truly come slow and
far between, so this will be an opportunity for readers to get in on
the action themselves. Hope you enjoy.
Posted by Lexiphane at 11:39 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
AH, THE FOLLY OF YOUTH!
Kathy Boudin was released from prison yesterday after serving 20
years of a 20-to-life prison sentence for the murder of three men,
police officers Waverly Brown and Sgt. Edward O'Grady, and Brinks
security guard Peter Paige. At the time of the robbery that led to
these murders, Boudin was a fugitive from law enforcement related to an
explosion that destroyed a townhouse in the West Village that the
terrorist organization the Weathermen were using as a bomb factory.
The New York Times
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/18/nyregion/18BOUD.html">does its
best to paint these incidents as youthful indiscretions:
One supporter, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, a founding editor
of Ms. magazine, said she was thrilled by news of the release. "She
paid a very heavy price for a very foolish move when she was young and
idealistic, and she had deep remorse,"
The Times later goes on to describe Boudin as a magna cum
laude graduate of Bryn Mawr and the daughter of a prominent civil
rights attorney. Young, foolish, idealistic, student, daughter.
Surely just a fresh-faced waif that got carried away in the passions of
the times. Really? After being involved with a terrorist organization
for decades, Kathy Boudin's admitted role in the robbery was to
distract the Brinks guard and the two police officers until they could
be executed by her accomplices. Foolish and idealistic indeed. If you
do the math in the Times article--although the Times
seems to go out of its way of mentioning it directly--Kathy Boudin was
38 years old at the time. Tagged:
Posted by Lexiphane at 10:57 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 17, 2003
PARACHUTE JOURNALISM
A friend of mine recently sent me a Boston Globe article
from 12/16/01 titled "BEER; Check Out the Best of What's Brewing in
N.Y.C." I appreciated receiving it because it highlighted a lot of
different places that featured widespread beer choices, but it's also
an example of some sorry reporting. Parachute journalism is when
someone drops into a location, makes a few observations, and then
translates these observations into a broad generalization that
frequently mischaracterizes a situation completely. In this case,
reporter Kerry J. Byrne seizes the opportunity to perhaps nurse a
Boston-vs.-NYC grudge by condescending to NYC with a backhanded
compliment, i.e. New Yorkers are finally learning to appreciate more
sophisticated beers.
Here are the money paragraphs:
It's Friday night in the big city, and a thirsty line of
hip urbanites at Zum Schneider winds its way back from the brick-lined
bar, past the long
wooden tables in the dining area. A lone bartender furiously pours beer
from some of Bavaria's best breweries: Spaten, Weihenstephan, even
Hofbrauhaus, the legendary Munich beer hall and brewery that rarely
ships its beers overseas.
As he pops tops and draws draughts, the bartender - owner and Munich
Native Sylvestre Schneider - fields a litany of questions about each
beer. The
crowd is eager to learn, but their questions - "Is it dark?" "Is it
light?" "Is
it heavy? " - betray a certain lack of sophistication. But then again,
this is
not a place where you'd expect to find a sophisticated beer
crowd.This is New York City.
The Big Apple sets many trends. It may boast the best of every
Foodie fantasy, but for beer lovers it has lagged woefully behind
smaller
cities like Boston, San Francisco and Seattle, not to mention
whistlestops like
Portland, Maine, and Burlington, Vt.But things are gradually changing. Brooklyn Brewery has been largely
responsible for dragging New York City into the modern era of beer. It
distributes not only its own beers, but also those from top American
and European breweries.
Oh, pity the unsophisticated Gothamites, late to the party of
microbrews and foreign beers. The only problem is that the picture of
a city that's "lagged woefully behind smaller cities" is a pretty
inaccurate assessment. Byrne goes on to list ten downtown locations
that cater to more sophisticated beer drinkers, about half of which
I've visited. The only problem is that rather than being recent
vanguards of a more enlightened NYC, most of these bars had been around
for years when the article was written in late 2001. The Blind Tiger
Ale House, for example, is the first bar Byrne mentions. It had
already won a Best of New York mention in the New York Press back in
1996. And there are several others on the list that I visited at least
three years before 2001.
It's not the so-called "new" bars that Byrne lists that makes
this article so absurd, however, as those he excludes. Off the top of
my head I can think of the downtown bar Burp Castle that opened in 1992
and serves more than 550 different beers. Or The Room on Sullivan
Street in SoHo. It's got a huge beer selection and has been open for
years. The Ginger Man in Murray Hill has about 50 to 60 beers on
tap and probably more than a hundred different bottled varieties
from around the world. Two blocks from my house is the Heidelberg
Restaurant that serves all the German and Belgian beers Byrne praises
the then-new downtown biergarden Zum Schneider for serving, but the
Heidelberg's been open for about 70 years.
This article reads like the author was shocked he wasn't able to
get a Heffeweissen at O'Doul's commuter bar in Penn Station and came up
with a great idea for a story--quality beer's slowly coming to New
York, dragging knuckleheaded knickerbockers into modern times. The
truth is you're never going to be able to get a great selection of
beers at beer-and-a-shot places like Brother Jimmy's or Rudy's. But a
lot of bars in New York have a decent and wide selection. Even a place
like The Bull's Head Tavern in Gramercy--which can in no way be
described as sophisticated, with its pool tables, dart board, and
hordes of drunken 20-something-year-olds--has about 15 different
foreign and microbrew beers on tap. And of course, Byrne's survey of
quality beer availability ends at Manhattan, ignoring the city's other
four boroughs.
New York is a big city with thousands of bars and it would be
very difficult to make a comprehensive survey of beer selections
compared to other cities. But Bryne's article is so ridiculous and far
off the mark in its inaccuracy and blunt mischaracterizations that the
author should be embarrassed, even two years later.
Posted by Lexiphane at 11:28 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 16, 2003
HARD HITTING NEWS
Guy Trebay files an
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/15/fashion/15DIAR.html">insightful
piece from Fashion Week in today's New York Times about what
makes so many people drawn to fashion models. He comes up with the
scoop: 1) they're very beautiful and 2) it's best when they keep their
mouths shut and don't ruin everything by revealing a terrible
personality. Fashion Week must be hell on earth for the boots-on-the-
ground Times reporter. Next week: what is it about naked
women that men find so appealing?
Posted by Lexiphane at 2:10 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
BLUE HIGHWAYS
For anyone who's ever driven from New York to D.C. and felt like
their pockets were being picked--the George Washington Bridge, the
Jersey Turnpike, the Delaware Memorial Bridge, and the Fort McHenry
Tunnel all taking their cut--take heart that you don't live in the land
of the rising sun. Yesterday's Wall Street Journal had a front-
page story [available online with suscription only] on Japanese highway
tolls and they make ours seem like turnpikers. According to the
article, many Japanese highways are virtually deserted because drivers
there will do anything to avoid the exorbitant tolls. A two-hour trip
on almost any Japanese highway can cost $47 and crossing a bridge can
take you for $50. A 20-minute round trip from Tokyo's Haneda Airport
to Chiba prefecture, across Tokyo Bay, will run you $50, but at least
you won't encounter too much traffic on the normally deserted Tokyo Bay
Aqualine highway. The Japanese government contends that it can't
afford to lower tolls due to the massive public debt incurred in
building many of the pork-barrel roadways. I wonder if it's occurred
to them that by lowering the tolls, people would stop driving miles out
of their way to avoid them so the debt could be serviced while drivers
could actually make use of the highways. It's a thought. Either way,
I'll pause before bitching about paying U.S. tolls for now, bearing in
mind what Japanese drivers have to go through to avoid them.
Posted by Lexiphane at 12:51 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
TO WHAT END EXACTLY?
The supposed purpose of a news reporter is to relate facts,
conditions, and stories to his reader. Story context and maybe even
some editorial opinion can also be provided. Many reporters in
unfriendly environments concede that it's often necessary to color
their stories so as not to offend their hosts or endanger the people
they work with. I understand that. But what about reporters whose
work does little but create misrepresentations about the true nature of
what's going on in a country? John F. Burns of The New York
Times--an understandably angry man--writes in Editor &
Publisher magazine of his experiences in Iraq, where many of his
fellow news reporters
href="http://www.editorandpublisher.com/editorandpublisher/headlines/ar
ticle_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1979014">traded their credibility
and any adherence to the truth in exchange for access and an
opportunity for personal advancement. I think a lot of reporters in
the future will have to ask themselves, "Is it worth being at the scene
if I can be bullied, bribed, and intimidated out of reporting any
truthful semblance of a real story?" I know that I'll have little
faith in anything I hear reported from the capital of a hostile country
any time in the future.
This item was noticed via
href="http://www.instapundit.com">InstaPundit who noticed it via
href="http://www.andrewsullivan.com">Andrew Sullivan.
Posted by Lexiphane at 11:33 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
LITE CYCLE
Cai Guo-Qiang's fireworks artistry, titled Light Cycle, was
certainly impressive, but adverse weather and my vantage point both
worked to reduce its effectiveness. Instead of heading to the Sheep
Meadow, Great Lawn, or the jogging path around the Reservoir, I was
invited to a small party on the roof of my friend Kendra's building on
100th St. and Central Park West. The view is nothing short of amazing
as you look directly across CPW into the park and find your sightlines
right at tree-top level. And when the display started, it was
certainly a sight. Thousands of shells were exploding at a relatively
low altitude about 50 yards from our rooftop. This was also part of
the problem. Our extreme closeness to the actual exploding shells,
coupled with the high humidity of the evening that prevented smoke from
dissipating rapidly, left all of us on the roof effectively staring
into a giant curtain of opaque smoke. None of us actually saw the
1000-foot-high ring of fire that concluded the display. Seconds after
the show was over, a steady sprinkle turned to a much harder rain and
our roof-top party was over. It was still a great time though.
Not all New Yorkers enjoyed it as much as we did. The New
York Times reports that many residents around the park
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/16/nyregion/16FIRE.html">called
the police when the shells started exploding, fearing a terrorist
attack. This is difficult to understand. The streets around the park
last night were choked with pedestrians trying to get a good vantage
point by 7:45. I heard all the subway lines in the area were
completely packed. Light Cycle was a relatively well-publicized event.
I guess it takes explosions to wrest some New Yorkers from their late-
summer somnolence.
Posted by Lexiphane at 10:58 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 15, 2003
MOVIES IN THE PARK
Over the years, Central Park has served as the backdrop for
countless movies set in New York City. Some of my favorite Central
Park moments:
Sheep Meadow towards the end of href="http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0094291/">Wall Street
Jacks with Buddy Ebsen in front of the href="http://www.centralparknyc.org/virtualpark/southend/concertground/
">Bandshell in href="http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0054698/">Breakfast at
Tiffany's
">Great Lawn in href="http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0098635/">When Harry Met
Sally
the park in Mo' Better
Blues
park in Die Hard: With
a Vengeance
">Reservoir in href="http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0074860/">Marathon Man
way to href="http://www.centralparknyc.org/virtualpark/southend/tavernonthegre
en/">Tavern on the Green in href="http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0087332/">Ghostbusters.
What's your favorite Central Park movie moment? Did I miss any
good ones? Tagged:
Posted by Lexiphane at 11:45 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
DANKE SCHOEN
To mark the 150th birthday of Central Park, artist Cai Guo-Qiang
has designed a fireworks performance that will launch 11,000 computer-
controlled shells over 4-5 minutes, culminating in a giant ring of
light 1,000 feet high over the Reservoir. The display, while short,
will dwarf in scale and number of shells the much-longer 4th of July
displays normally launched over the East River. Cristo can keep his
fabric-covered pathways; tonight's 7:45 show should be incredible. The
use of hallucinogens will be highly redundant.
UPDATE: Here's a site with a
href="http://www.creativetime.org/lightcycle/1.html">detailed
description of tonight's display that's titled Light Cycle. I
think perhaps they should retitle it Ring of Fire in honor of the
recently departed Johnny Cash.
I live a few blocks from Central Park but don't get over there as
much as I should. While nothing beats a lazy picnic on a blanket on
the
href="http://www.centralparknyc.org/virtualpark/thegreatlawn/greatlawn/
">Great Lawn, some of my other Park favorites include
href="http://www.centralparknyc.org/virtualpark/thegreatlawn/obelisk/">
Cleopatra's Needle, a remnant of ancient Alexandria,
href="http://www.centralparknyc.org/virtualpark/southend/bethesdaangel/
">Bethesda Terrace, and the
href="http://www.centralparknyc.org/virtualpark/northend/thepool/">Pool
with its Glen Span Arch.
Of course, the origins of Central Park 150 years ago are not
without controversy. Near the present-day site of the
href="http://www.centralparknyc.org/virtualpark/thegreatlawn/arthurross
pinetum/">Arthur Ross Pinetum was once the location of
href="http://www.centralparknyc.org/virtualpark/thegreatlawn/senecavill
age/">Seneca Village, an enclave of property owning and free
African-Americans, later joined by Irish and German immigrants. This
community was displaced through the use of eminent domain upon the
construction of Central Park. The people of Seneca Village dispersed
throughout the city, never to reform their once-vibrant milieu.
Posted by Lexiphane at 11:04 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 12, 2003
THANKS
On a day when members of the FDNY could have been absorbed in
their own memories of 9/11, I was lucky enough to meet the members of
Henry St.'s Engine Co. 15. I was walking my nephew
href="http://www.tomhogarty.com/gallery/playtryon/014521_R1_30">Namazzi
home from his pre-K program down on East Broadway yesterday evening
when we passed Engine 15's firehouse. Namazzi's a big fan of trucks
and fire engines in particular. We stopped to look at them from the
sidewalk when one fireman, Danny, came out and asked if my nephew would
like to get a closer look. He then let Namazzi climb into the cab of
the fire engine and sit behind the wheel, patiently answering endless
questions about the purpose of each and every button and light. Then
he took him to the back of the truck and pulled out one of the hoses to
show him how it worked. All-in-all, I'd say we spent about 15 minutes
checking out the firehouse--guys sliding down the firepole were
especially intriguing to Namazzi. It was a real nice thing to do on
what I'm sure was a difficult day. Thanks Engine 15.
Posted by Lexiphane at 7:34 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 11, 2003
REMEMBRANCE IN SERVICE OF VIGILANCE
I'm not going to devote too much time to the two-year mark since
the U.S. and its residents, domestic and foreign, were slaughtered by
Islamist psychopaths. Last year I warned against turning the 9/11 date
into a time for bathos. It should be a time to remember in order to
steel our resolve in the fight against those that would do much worse
if they could.
That's the general sentiment of
href="http://slate.msn.com/id/2088025/">this article by Christopher
Hitchens over at Slate. It's worth reading. To refresh the
memories of insipid dolts who considered the attack two years ago a
work of political theater or "the greatest work of art of all time," I
can direct them to this page that is filled with dozens of horrifying
photos of people jumping or falling to their deaths from the upper
floors of the two Trade Center towers. As The New York Times'
href="http://www.nytimes.com/pages/national/portraits/index.html?8qa">P
ortraits of Grief series showed us, these were all people with full
lives that were lost on that day. Read a few of them. On a more
parochial note, the firehouse in my neighborhood--
href="http://www.nyrock.com/worldbeat/09_2001/firehouse.asp">Engine
Company 22, Ladder Company 13--lost 9 of their members two years
ago today. I hope their pain has eased somewhat over time.
Posted by Lexiphane at 11:29 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 10, 2003
FABULIST OR JUST AHEAD OF HIS TIME?
Adrian Lamo is a 22-year-old Hacker who's been
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/10/nyregion/10HACK.html">charged
by Manhattan prosecutors with hacking into the computer system of
The New York Times and
running up significant charges on their system with Lexis/Nexis. Lamo
apparently has done similar electronic breaking and entering with other
large companies. After he hacks into their systems, he apparently
offers to show the companies how he did it and how to prevent future
break-ins by likeminded individuals. This appears to be verging on
extortion and Lamo certainly didn't help his commercial pitch by
accruing hundreds of thousands of dollars in database charges to his
potential client beforehand. More interesting than Lamo himself,
however, are his exploits' very close comparison with the story that
got debased writer Stephen Glass fired from
href="http://www.tnr.com">The New Republic.
Glass was a young star at TNR in the late 90s before it
was discovered that not only did a lot of his stories contain
inaccuracies, but many of them were made up from whole cloth. What
finally got him busted was a column called "Washington Scene: Hack
Heaven", published 5/18/98. It was about a high school kid that would
do basically what Lamo was doing, except he was making money at it.
Glass even went so far as to design a fake web site for one of his
subject's fictional clients. Once people started looking closely at
Glass' previous stories with a little scrutiny, they quickly unraveled
along with his reputation. Glass recently wrote a roman a clef
about his lying days at TNR called
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-
/0743227123/qid=1063222881/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/103-6915268-
2251069?v=glance&s=books&n=507846">The Fabulist.
Posted by Lexiphane at 4:06 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 9, 2003
REMINDER
The new un-reality show Joe Schmo is on tonight at 9 p.m.
on Spike TV [formerly TNN]. I wrote about it last week [see
href="http://www.lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?name=News&file=article&s
id=231">REALITY FUNNY, 9/3/03].
Posted by Lexiphane at 4:35 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 5, 2003
TORTURE LOGIC
The cover story of the October issue of
href="http://www.theatlantic.com">The Atlantic Monthly is by
Black Hawk Down author Mark Bowden and titled "The Dark Art of
Interrogation." Its subject is the use of torture to extract
information and just how useful and ethical the practice is, as well as
the different types of torture employed by experts in interrogation.
Bowden differentiates between physical torture and the less brutal and
more psychological practice of interrogation that he refers to his as
coercion. The article is a broad survey of the subject and Bowden
talks to veteran military interrogators, an NYPD detective, victims of
both coercion and torture, and anti-torture activists.
Perhaps suffering from a bit of post-9/11 dementia, veteran civil
liberties attorney Alan Dershowitz has suggested the employment of
"torture warrants" in the fight against terrorism. I thought it was a
terrible idea to try to institutionalize the practice of torture--and
Dershowitz was referring to physical torture and not just coercion.
The item I wrote on the subject isn't available in the archives, but I
concluded with this:
Torture is truly a barbaric practice and should only be used in
the direst of circumstances. For this reason I think its practice
needs to remain in the dark, where its use can be chalked up to only
regrettable necessity. If the situation is serious enough, its
practice will be given the tacit approval of a blind eye. To
institutionalize it will normalize it in the minds of the public and
those forced to perform it. In some situations, hypocrisy is the high
road.
That was my off-the-cuff take on the subject. Interestingly,
after looking at the issue in great depth, Bowden comes to almost the
same conclusion. This is the penultimate paragraph of his article:
The Bush Administration has adopted exactly the right posture on
the matter. Candor and consistency are not always public virtues.
Torture is a crime against humanity, but coercion is an issue that is
rightly handled with a wink, or even a touch of hypocrisy; it should be
banned but also quietly practiced. Those who protest coercive methods
will exaggerate their horrors, which is good: it generates a useful
climate of fear. It is wise of the President to reiterate U.S. support
for international agreements banning torture, and is wise for American
interrogators to employ whatever coercive methods work. It is also
smart not to discuss the matter with anyone.Posted by Lexiphane at 11:40 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 4, 2003
HIJACKED
Counterconvention is a planned protest invasion of NYC that will
Tagged:
be concurrent with the Republican National Convention. It is an
amalgam of anti-Bush, anti-War, anti-globalization groups that are
currently very unhappy. The event's web site that lists participating
groups has href="http://www.counterconvention.org/list.html#groups">fallen
prey to a large number of pranksters. Visit soon before the
obvious fakers are removed.Posted by Lexiphane at 4:07 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
UNDER A BRIDGE, DOWN BY THE RIVER
I figure that as long as I'm browsing through my archives, I may
Tagged:
as well post a href="http://www.lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcon
tent&id=8">restaurant review written in February 2002 that never
made it up onto the old lexiphane.com site. It's for a place called
Guastavino's that's located under the 59th St. Bridge on the East Side.
I had a great time there and thought the food was excellent. The
manager also took me and my dining companion around the cavernous space
on a tour after our meal. That's the kind of service I appreciate,
although I think we may have said something about hosting a
wedding reception there or something. The details have fogged with the
passage of time.Posted by Lexiphane at 2:27 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
KILLED TIME
Not every book I read winds up being any good. More than a year
Tagged:
ago I wrote href="http://www.lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcon
tent&id=7">this review of Caleb Carr's sci-fi novel href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-
/044661095X/qid=1062696472/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/103-6915268-
2251069?v=glance&s=books">Killing Time. I'd previously
enjoyed his historical crime novels The Alienist and The
Angel of Darkness, but the only criminality in this book was
perpetrated by the author upon the reader.Posted by Lexiphane at 1:45 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
NOT KUSHY
My href="http://www.lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcon
Tagged:
tent&id=6">review of Eric Newby's book, href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-
/0864426046/qid=1062688014/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/103-6915268-
2251069?v=glance&s=books&n=507846">A Short Walk in the Hindu
Kush, is ready for reading. Newby and his friend Hugh Carless
traveled to the moutains of Afghanistan in the late 1950s after he
became disillusioned with his career in the fashion industry. It's a
funny, informative, and entertaining tale of a frequently harrowing
journey through one of the most remote regions in the world.Posted by Lexiphane at 11:22 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 3, 2003
REALITY FUNNY
I have never been a big fan of reality television. I don't think
Tagged:
I've seen more than one or two episodes of Survivor. I watched
a few episodes of the first season of Temptation Island because
I became enamored of the horror such stupid pretty things would subject
themselves to in order to be on television. Last night, however, I
caught the two-hour premiere of href="http://www.spiketv.com/shows/joe_schmo/index.jhtml">Joe
Schmo, the apotheosis of reality television, in which
absolutely nothing is real except one normal guy's reactions to the
absurd.Matt Gould is a law school dropout who lives with his parents in
Pittsburgh and delivers pizza for a living. He believes that he is on
a reality show called Lap of Luxury, where several contestants
live in a mansion and compete for $100,000. The twist is that every
other contestant is an actor playing a stereotypical reality show
personality, i.e. The Crusty Veteran, The Virgin, The Rich Bitch, The
Asshole, The Doormat, The Schemer, The Gay Guy, and The Smarmy Host.
All the activities the group engages in are scripted and fixed ahead of
time--save for what Matt does. The so-called immunity challenge in the
premiere episode was absurd, a take-off of car dealership contests
called Hands on a Hardbody, the cast and Matt competed in a challenge
called on Hands on a Hooker where they had to see who could keep their
hands on a naked porn star the longest. The end-of-episode elimination
ceremony is hilarious, with the host incanting "Ashes to ashes, dust to
dust, goodbye [eliminated member], you are now dead to us" as he throws
a commemorative china plate with the contestant's face on it into a
roaring fire. That Matt has not caught on to the over-the-top
ridiculousness of this fake show is a testament to how stupid real
reality television has become over the past few years. Joe
Schmo airs Tuesday nights on Spike TV [formerly TNN] at 9 p.m.Posted by Lexiphane at 4:41 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
CASHED OUT ON DELIVERY
As someone who delivered pizzas as a summer job during college, I
find this story highly
disturbing. A delivery man who was told to deliver a pizza to a fake
address later showed up at a nearby bank with a robbery note and an
explosive device attached to a clamp around his neck. Cops arrested
him after he robbed the bank, but were unable to heed his pleas to
remove the device in time.
As troopers handcuffed Wells, he told them that a bomb was attached to
his body and would explode soon. He also insisted that he had been
forced to wear the bomb and hold up the bank.
Camera crews from Erie television stations recorded Wells as he sat
inside a ring of police cruisers, telling police the bomb was about to
go off and begging them to help him. Erie's police bomb squad was on
its way when the device exploded at 3:18 p.m., killing Wells
instantly.
Delivery drivers are frequently the target of violent crime and
most of the larger chains forbid their drivers from carrying protection
against robbery or assault. Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 10:30 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
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