July 30, 2003
Trent Lott afraid of Smart runts
Anything smaller than an SUV is just plain un-American, says the Senate.Washington - The Senate yesterday easily rejected an amendment to require the nation's car makers to boost the gasoline efficiency of their vehicles.And Trent Lott (who certainly knows something...
July 29, 2003
Mensch-y diversity
Mitchell's Home Delivery Service drops the NYTimes and Newsday (the latter is essential because it's more human and more Lefty than its big sister) in front of our door every morning (well, almost every morning). I'm pretty fussy, so there...
Steve Cosson, and The Civilians
Steve Cosson has a mini-profile in today's NYTimes.He was drawn not only to theater as a child but also to directing, getting his parents to act out bedtime stories. He and a playmate in elementary school wrote a play...
July 27, 2003
boys and girls and their bikes
both go down here, but in the end Amy, the white knight on the left, was topped We walked down to the Willamsburg shore yesterday afternoon and had a delirious good time as part of the 2003 Chunkathalon. By...
on private cars in Manhattan
In today's The New York Times Magazine "The Ethicist" delivers the last word on behalf of New Yorkers who have just about had it with the assault of those infernal machines - and specificallly, the continuing outrage of on-street parking.Two...
July 25, 2003
flag-writing
AP image via dKos Am I bad? When I saw this image, it didn't occur to me that the story was about desecration. I thought only of the outrageous presumption; it's his, so he can write whatever he wants...
"Winterreise" in July
They're back! Trisha Brown's magnificent "Winterreise" is being reprised in three performances next week. You won't need cold and snow to fall in love with the entire company. This creation is highly, highly recommended. Full details....
a gay Askew
Othniel "Niel" Boaz Askew [Photo by Victor Carnuccio] The story about Askew most people won't hear is in the Gay City News.Emanuel Xavier is a gay poet and author who frequented many of the same nightclubs as Askew did...
how will it be read?
Is the story going to be "Wacko AIDS homo slays saintly populist in hallowed hall?" Or will it be, Homophobia helped to destroy two lives - again?" Interesting developments available from the media today: Askew's police record, supposedly sealed,...
White House of cards
Need a lift, Lefty cynics? Look at Mark Morford's upbeat column today. I've been feeling it in my bones myself for a while, thinking at first it was the humidity. Things are happening. Although Morford warns it's not yet...
"Michael" "Exposed"
Orly Cogan "Michael" embroidery, paint on printed cotton fabric 18"x18" Orly Cogan "Exposed" embroidery, paint on printed cotton fabric 18"x18" Now I know why the crowd was not quite as intimidating as I had expected at the fabulous Reverend...
July 24, 2003
report from Palestine, July 24, 2003
Steve and friends in an olive grove near Jayyous Steve has been characteristically busy, but he writes home:Qalqilya, Occupied Palestine Thursday, July 24, 2003 On Monday night we learned that a time bomb had been found by security near...
"cherchez la femme"
[updated information added to the bottom of this post] Only this time "cherchez l'homme" might be a more useful suggestion. Neither James E. Davis (41) nor Othiel Boaz Askew (31) had ever married. Both were described as bright, attractive, smart...
the Times does Paul P.
colored pencil on paper (2002) [not in the current show] I've been neglectful. Almost didn't mention the wonderful review which Paul P.'s show at Daniel Reich received this past week from Holland Cotter in the NYTimes. So I'll print...
"security" escapes us all
An elected lawmaker was shot dead today during a City Hall Council meeting in one of the most tightly guarded buildings in the most tightly guarded city in the most tightly guarded nation of the world. We are told that...
July 23, 2003
crippling more than bodies and minds
When war is created by a leader for his own purposes of revenge, greed or power, it is unspeakable, but we're Americans, and we're going to speak anyway. We can't help it. No one could speak of the personal,...
July 22, 2003
state murder
This is barbarism. Think about it. Barry shot out, "It's no wonder this administration is opposed to the International Criminal Court!" Or any court, apparently. For a take takes not in debt to any gosh darn mainstream media interest...
smiting the real patriots
"Who's Unpatriotic Now?" asks Paul Krugman today. He's writing about the White House's appalling manipulation of the media, which means the manipulation of all of us of course, also the intelligence services, and, yes, the military, including every last...
New York has lost
The 47-story 7 World Trade Center greatly reduced Is Larry Silverstein a greedy man interested in power and fame? Or is he just trying to do his sad little thing again? Monday’s front page NYTimes article tells us that...
July 21, 2003
report from Palestine, July 20, 2003
removing a roadblock* Steve writes from Jenin. Jenin, West Bank, Occupied Palestine Sunday, July 20, 2003 On Wednesday evening in Qalqilya, we ISM folks were invited to meet with representatives of the organizations that comprise the PLO in Qalqilya....
July 20, 2003
great shapes
Sunday, back on the river. The chain link separates him from the batting machine, the strap is not a brassiere, but it sure is sexy, and bike shorts* seldom looked better. _____________________ * Sorry he's a bit blurry, but we...
getting there
I ran up along the west side of Manhattan on my bright-green shamefully under-utilized two-wheeler this afternoon. Along the way I spotted a delightful variety of approaches to the concept of urban transportation. rickshawing skating kayaking running resting (sort of...
July 19, 2003
probably a very good thing
If you missed the birth of Abstract Expressionism, Op Art, Pop Art, Minimalism, the rise of Conceptual and Process Art, The New Realism, even Grafitti Art, all because you weren't born yet (or maybe because your parents weren't born...
July 18, 2003
Cassandra getting a hearing?
Ajax drags Cassandra from the Palladium before the eyes of Priam (Roman wall painting, Pompeii, House of Menander) He's back. I posted something from Sheldon S. Wolin just two months ago, but since he just may be our Cassandra...
"good Germans" in America
Jasper Johns, "White Flag" (1955) Metropolitan Museum of Art Some day, when we stop shaking in our boots in fear, we'll realize just what evil we have done in the name of September 11. While history doesn't give us...
July 16, 2003
time to scare us again?
Things are just not going well for the White House. Nothing is being handled well. This has been the case for almost three years now, but finally people are beginning to notice. Barry suggests that any day now we...
report from Palestine, July 16, 2003
Steve reports on his last 6 days in Palestine and Israel. The subjects, in order, include Ramallah, Black Laundry, checkpoints, "refuseniks," his new all-gender affinity group "faygelach," a Tel Aviv court, the farming village of Jayyous, the Apartheid Wall, aquifers,...
straight to the point
And then there was one, or two. We love Al Sharpton and Denis Kucinich both, but it's Al who goes straight to the point. The question was gay marriage. Everyone else avoided logic and the plain issue of fairness and...
joy in French North America
And we can avoid the long plane trip! Suggestion for celebrating the anniversary of the birth of the first state fully heir to the Enlightenment: Visit St.-Pierre and Miquelon next July 14, a collectivité territoriale, a part of metropolitan...
July 12, 2003
New York
Weegee (Arthur Fellig), "Summer, Lower East Side" (1937) Maybe the longer you're here the more likely New York will feel like a small town, but normally that means small in physical scale. What about the dimension of time? When...
July 11, 2003
no road for Palestinians
I'm sorry, but there is no way I could excerpt this message. It's information is too rare here, and the authority of its source requires that it keep its integrity. It was forwarded from Queers for Peace and Justice, and...
July 10, 2003
update on Reza
Reza at rest in the back of the motor home in Oklahoma Reza [new site!] is in Forrest City, Arkansas right now. Dave Hyslop, who's travelling with him by car, says they should reach Memphis by tomorrow evening. He...
"their kind"
Ellen Hemings Roberts, granddaughter of Thomas Jefferson. Sally Hemings still has to stay out of the drawing rooms - at least while the "white" folks are around. Incredible as it may seem, even today, after all the fuss endured...
the Israeli Apartheid Wall
Finally, some very good pictures of the enormous Apartheid Wall (far higher than the Berlin Wall) being built by Israel on occupied Palestinian lands to separate Israelis from Palestinians. For virtually an entire photo essay, including an outside link...
report from Palestine, June 10, 2003
Steve writes today:East Jerusalem, Thursday afternoon, July 10, 2003 We're off to the West Bank tomorrow morning for our two-day training. We're still working on where we'll go and what project(s) we'll work on. Our affinity group includes one activist...
Bush rounds-up Africans at former slave-trade station
When Barry told me about this story he had found in the foreign press (Reuters Asia), I really thought it was manufactured. Bush's handlers arranged a photo-op this week on the island of Goree, where Americans and others once confined...
report from Palestine, June 9, 2003
Steve writes today:I'm still in Jerusalem, safe and sound. The press release below describes what happened today outside Jenin. The international Arab media are already running the story; don't know about CNN/BBC/Times etc. The media team here is stretched really...
July 9, 2003
"I love them people"
Update the afternoon of July 10: see bottom of this post Some Americans don't deserve to live in a world where there's a France.First it was French wines. Then French fries. Now it's French exchange students who are getting the...
July 7, 2003
report from Palestine, June 7, 2003
Steve was in a Tel Aviv court today - as an observer. The indented email text below is complete as it was received.Hi folks, I'm in Haifa at the apartment of parents of a member of JATO. We were in...
"criminals in lust,"
And in love. Barry and I were totally inside the little screen yesterday afternoon, a part of the film "Burnt Money (Plata Quamada)." It was far more than either of us had expected, and all of the mainstream reviews...
July 6, 2003
what he did this summer
[updated July 18 to include contact information for Steve this summer] Our friend Steve Quester is back in the Middle East. I posted his reports from Palestine in the spring and summer of last year, and I expect to be...
the highest crimes and misdemeaners
Sue Coe, "What a Golden Beak! (They Want War)" (1999) The White House lied in order to get its war. More evidence has just emerged, and from one of its own. As usual, it's not an embarassment for Bush,...
no profit in Iraq?
We’re not going to last in Iraq. It's not working. Not surprisingly, we are being blamed for everything bad that happens there, which these days may be most everything, and that country appears to be literally up in arms [curious...
July 5, 2003
date with Sam
Found this straight guy thing on Mark Allen's site. The magic is that Sam Stern's photo comic should amuse just about all tastes....
"he told me he'd removed the condom!"
I've wanted to point to MarkAllenCam.com for some time, but didn't know where to begin, or to end, a post which would do it justice. Still don't, so I'll be very brief. I first saw Mark Allen in the...
July 4, 2003
bad parents?
In the wild, and I think in "conventional" households as well, Parakeets are expected to wake with the sun and retire as it gets dark. But our Sweet Pea (don't ask!) is a New York bird. We may not...
July 3, 2003
hi!
The caption for this picture from this week's Paris Menswear shows on the BBC site reads: "Strike the pose: Models at the Gaspard Yurkievich show" Lots more guy stuff....
"forces rivals to reassess him"
Can we stop and think about this lead NYTimes story for a minute?Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor making his first bid for national office, raised substantially more money this quarter than all his more established opponents in the Democratic...
lazy, or very smart indeed?
Germans get 8 weeks of vacation each year, including single-day holidays. Although the figure is not much different for the rest of Europe, Germans, being Germans, are asking themselves whether lots of a good thing is not really such a...
July 2, 2003
coward flips bird at disgruntled Iraqis
Our daring commander-in-chief, who will always be the most protected individual on the planet, courageously flipped the bird at Iraqi militants who might be thinking of threatening our already-beleagured troops in the Middle East. "There are some who feel...
garden art
Artnet has some good images from the Venice Biennale. The photograph above, of artists in the gardini, helps to explain the seductive appeal of this event. Obviously it's not just the venue. Well, we did hear that the temperature...
July 1, 2003
the D'Amelio Terras thing
Barry and I were among the teeming cultured masses in and outside of D'Amelio Terras tonight for the opening of the amazing show, "Now Playing: Daniel Reich Gallery, John Connelly Presents, K48," which the gallery describes as a group of...
QUEERS READ THIS!
[undocumented photo from the 2002 exhibition at the London club Queer Nation] "QUEERS READ THIS!" was anonymously distributed during New York's "Pride" weekend in 1990 as a tabloid piece with wonderful bold graphics. It became a manifesto. It reads...
home repairs
John Rechy suggests in a Commentary piece in Sunday's LATimes that gratitude may not be the appropriate response to the decision in Lawrence and Garner vs. the State of Texas.Without in any way belittling the decency of the justices in...
god made him do it
The real reason the nation is going to hell in a hand basket was revealed by Ha’aretz recently but it has never appeared in the mainstream U.S. media, "save a tiny mention in the Post," Eric Alterman wrote yesterday.Anyway, according...
