The Long Road Out

I want to live and thrive in a diverse community.   That's one of the reasons I live in New York City.   Often, people comment that I'm in a "bubble" here--protected from the most overt forms of racism supposedly more common in most of the rest of the United States. Leaving aside the fact that New York City has its own versions of racial problems, I'm glad to be part of the bubble and wouldn't consider moving back to any other part of the country as my home.   Montreal, perhaps.   Or Paris.   But never elsewhere in the States. So I'm sad to report that the free-for-all released by the election of a pathological egotist by the part of our electorate he panders to has pierced the New York world--both in image and reality.   In the last two days: A Japanese theater acquaintance was called a "gook" as she walked down West 13th Street in the Village to her home.   She posted notes describing this pleasant exchange on Facebook. At the W 79th an...

I suspect 2016 will be remembered as a year of good indie films--there were a lot of them (here's my list of best films of 2016 ), thank goodness.   The blockbusters weren't spectacular--in fact, if LaLa Land wins, it will really be because most of the voters didn't bother to see Moonlight .  But this year did offer some truly awful films that came apart at the seams in ways that no one could predict.   Look at these disasters and steer very far away! Silence --you're kidding right?   Scorcesee's apologia for the Jesuits and the Pope?  Like we need this now?   I already knew that Buddhism isn't all incense and yogic charm.  But don't hide behind that to do a puff piece for Rome.  Apparently, 17th century Japanese citizens needed better dentists, or so we learn here.  Beyond that...damaging. A Bigger Splash -- Luca Guadagnino  cannot tell stories nor develop characters.   Why do people keep giving him money to make films...

Trump represents everything I hate about my country.   How bizarre that after all these years the pacifist left has to hold on to the slim hope that Trump is simply as inept as he's always been--a weak and failed business person, a morally confused human, and an intellect slowed by too many dumb companions. These are the things I hate about America: We are the world's worst bully .   You have to go a pretty long way to hit number 2, which is probably Israel, and then 3, which might be Russia?   It's a multi-country tie for fourth--and the list pretty much parallels the list of weapons exporters.  We continue to be the leading seller of lethal firepower into the world's murder zones.   We earn extra points from our history of diplomatic hanky-panky and the per cent of our GDP invested in covert militarism and surveillance.   We believe we're exceptional .   Dudes, we're not in the top 20 in ANY category normally identified as indicators of civiliz...

Two guys sitting behind me on the last PHX-JFK flight last night, four bourbons in, got into a heated discussion about whether “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” or “Sympathy for the Devil” was the greatest Stones song ever.    They were drunk and stupid (to give you an indication, at one point one guy said “how about this song?” and started humming what I think was Scarlet Begonia—which was confirmed when the other guy said “dude, that’s not the Stones.   That’s the Grateful Dead.”). But something about the conversation made me tear up…   Good thing I was flying by myself because my partner or my friends probably would have questioned why I was crying on American Airlines. 

I certainly refused to believe the comic book reality of some one as boorish as Trump could ever win anything other than a TV show contest…probably still in denial on day 2.    And my record for identifying heroic leaders is not strong--I still tend to idolize Fidel Castro. But I am also starting to get back into the focus that I now live in a country where environmentalism fair income distribution policies women’s rights as defined by women rather than men a policy of honoring treaties and agreements with allies complying with international law rules so I can feel safer from gun owners, and  health care access are minority or fringe positions.   None of these ideals, which I hold as essential values, has a single governmental branch (exec, legislative, judicial) to support them.    I still don't understand how any of my fellow citizens could not find the list above desirable, though apparently the 47.5% of us who voted for Trump fin...

We had the most amazing week last week--"home run" performances across the board that left us buzzing.   It started with Chicken People , one of the most affirming films I've seen, focusing primarily on four individuals whose passion is chicken shows (think Best in Show  without the sardonic wry humor--these are wonderful needy people deserving of great respect, just like the rest of us). Then we saw Taylor Mac (not his 24-hour marathon but the session on the 60's and the 70's).   You need to see a Taylor Mac show, and not just because you'll never hear Born to Run or Gloria or Hard Rain's Gonna Fall  (did Taylor Mac know that the Nobel Prize for Literature was coming?) the same way again.   Mostly, it's because there's no other performer who asks you to participate and role play along with him (he wants to be referred to in the masculine, I believe?).   During the show we watched, all of us were racists, gay, sluts, and a bunch of other stripe...

A very rare thing happened yesterday:  police apprehended a legitimate suspect in a violent crime with terrorist overtones without killing him (or her) on the spot. I'd like to thank the police officer who had the professionalism to hit Ahmad Khan Rahami in the shoulder rather than in the usual lethal locations. Did this officer just "miss?"   Perhaps.   Given our track record of killing unarmed suspects, there's a good chance the officer was trained to shoot to kill.  And of course this expedited approach to justice is a key component of what's now often referred to as the "school to prison pipeline" we're running to get black men into the prison labor pool. But, if not, I express my appreciation for letting us skip one more extra-judicial assassination. My instinct is that it's particularly important in this case, because we don't know what Mr. Rahami had in mind or who he was working with.   But I realize that's a moral mistake...