Thursday, April 22, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
for thursday
power broker chapter 26--two brothers
power broker chapter 28--the warp on the loom
review wrestling with moses chapter 4, death and life chapter 6
prepare two (2) story ideas on theme of infastructure
THE V TRAIN 2001-2010
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) announced early last Month (March) the commencement of the death of the V train. Its demise will have consequently grave effects on New Yorkers being that the M train was summoned to take over its route. The M train will continue its usual route until it reaches its first Manhattan stop, Essex Street. This is where it’s forced to render its service and yield to the demands of the MTA officials in charge of this change. The M train at Essex Street will cease its original route and take over the stops that the V train once called its home.
http://www.nysubway.com/map/It’s been recognized that this specific area of Brooklyn that will be cut off from this sudden change has been immensely developing and rapidly. According to a NYC Transit spokesman this sudden change will not only decrease the amount of subway service for these southern Brooklyn riders, but it will increase the wait time of approximately 22,000 passengers and cause about 26,000 passengers to make an extra transfer to get them into lower Manhattan.
The V train was born December 2001. It served its purpose and fulfilled its task for nine years by diminishing the crowds on the Queens Boulevard express trains and offered albeit a slow ride from Queens to Manhattan. Granted the V train isn’t an express train, but not everybody is in a rush. Although it got you to your destination a few minutes later than the express trains, you were however, always guaranteed a seat on the dependable local V. Now who wouldn’t opt for a less crowded train where you’re always able to get a seat in return for an extra five minutes?
First the Z train then the G train and now the V, soon we’ll all be transporting everywhere via our two lower limbs. In June the V train will cease to live. This sentence was approved by the MTA and the Mayor despite the controversy it aroused from the public earlier this month. But this change is in fact permanent and has everything to do with the $4 million save that will come about once everything is finalized.
“Of course it has to do with money, it’s not about time efficiency or great service, it’s always about money,” said Margie Pedro, a Brooklyn resident.Post Bike Accident Train Demon Phenomena
On the night of February 21st, filmmaker, Allen Riley, was struck by a car while riding his bicycle in the Bedstuy’ neighborhood of Brooklyn.(1) A picture was taken of the offending vehicle, and Allen was taken immediately to Bellevue Hospital. He was not seriously injured aside from mild head trauma. After a short recovery, Allen went to the NYPD to acquire the driver’s insurance information. The police had no record of the accident as no one had called them before Allen was taken to the hospital. The police could not substantiate an accident for Allen's insurance company, even with the picture, because the police were now being involved after the fact. In an effort to work around the pen-and-paper bureaucracy of the police station, Allen checked the NYPD website, which proved useless.
I caught up with Allen to ask him about any sort of post-accident phenomena which lead us to the subject of ‘train demons.’(2) Our conversation then drifted elsewhere.
I caught up with Allen to ask him about any sort of post-accident phenomena which lead us to the subject of ‘train demons.’(2) Our conversation then drifted elsewhere.
Allen: I think the idea for train demons comes from my post-accident experience with pencil and paper/analog/off-line bureaucracy versus digital/on-line bureaucracy where everything is accounted for. Stuff gets lost in messy heaps of paper, or in a big physical system like the trains, so I like the idea that the trains aren't actually a closed system but there are openings to other dimensions in there where train demons come out. It sort of explains where these people come from.
Me: So train demons are kind of like the inky leaks coming from the cracks of over wrought systems?
Allen: I guess it’s sort of that digital systems are kind of omnipotent and account for all their parts, where the train is a kind of system that cannot be wholly accounted for, and there are leaks into other worlds in there. But on a literal level it’s a place where you are put into a confrontation with people whose lives are totally different from yours at the moment.
Me: What does a train demon look like? How do they behave?
Allen: Train demons are people who are doing strange things on the train in a way that sort of turns into a performance for the other people on the train. This isn't people who are asking for money, this is people who seem possessed by something. It's also obvious when its drugs or mental illness, so I want to exclude that from what I'm talking about. I've also been having fun scaring myself by thinking of the slumped over person on the train as the "familiar" of the train demon because every time I've seen a train demon, I've also seen a slumped over person somewhere else on the train. It was Lucy's idea to call it a familiar. Before she told me that word I was saying "the slumped over person projects the train demon."
Me: Awesome. Tell me about analog systems versus electronic.
Allen: It isn't electronic, it's digital. Electronics are actually the field where the term analog comes from because in analog systems you're converting one type of signal into another and things get lost or transformed in the conversion. Although the fly is a movie that shows how digital systems can do this too. That movie is amazing because it understood the concept of file compression way before that even existed. What happens in the fly is the same thing that happens to music when it’s turned into an mp3.
Me: What happens to music when it’s turned into mp3?
Allen: The computer takes the original full-quality sound file and makes a smaller file with less information in it. The new file is less of a sound file than a compact series of guesses about what the original file sounded like. So the mp3 is actually very distorted and has lost lots of information, although we can't hear the difference unless we learn to. So when you play or burn an mp3, you aren't hearing the contents of the file so much as the computer program's interpretation of what the original sound was like. So in the fly, the human body is compressed into a series of guesses, then reconstituted by the computer. However, since he was in the chamber with the fly, the computer tries to put the two files together as one, which turns him into a HORRIBLE MONSTER!!!
Me: How does this analogy translate to analog systems like the MTA or NYPD versus the internet?
Allen: Not at all.
Me: Oh.
(1) According to an NYSDOT study of bicycle crashes between 1996 and 2003, slightly more than a third (34%) of all crashes resulting in serious bicyclist injury took place in Brooklyn.
(2) According to 2010 survey by the NYC Department of Homeless, the estimate of New York's homeless population came to 3111 people without shelter, 783 more unsheltered individuals than last year, 29 percent fewer unsheltered individuals than 2005–1,284 fewer New Yorkers.
smART
Can you solve urban educational issues and strengthen public schools with arts-based solutions? Urban Arts Partnership thinks so. The organization is a non-profit founded in 1991 that provides sixty New York City public schools with an arts education curriculum that varies from after-school programs to master classes and arts festivals. Urban Arts Partnership provides students with instruction in filmmaking, dance, digital music production, photography, visual arts, language arts, design, and theater. And these kids aren’t just turning out popsicle-stick creations. Their projects have received national awards, two of their documentary films have been featured in the Tribeca Film Festival, and their performances have hosts such as Rachel Dratch, Diane Neal, and Darryl McDaniels, aka D.M.C.
One of Urban Arts Partnerships notable programs is the Life Stories Youth Ensemble, which was founded in 2005. This program focuses on training high school students in acting and playwrighting. Life Stories runs throughout the school year and culminates in an original performance, which will take place this Sunday April 25th , 2010 at Theater Row on 42nd Street. The show is free and allows the students to display what they’ve been working on throughout the year. Life Stories is the product of Urban Arts’ collaboration with The New Group, which funds the program and provides them with theater space to perform and rehearse in.
Stage actress, Julia Grob, is the director of the Life Stories Youth Ensemble. Victor Maog is co-director. Francis Turiano, a graduate of the program, works as the program’s assistant director as well as the assistant coordinator. Finally, Zac Kline teaches playwrighting. Additionally, five up and coming playwrights worked with the student groups. And if you didn’t think they were getting enough education, the kids receive master classes (sessions taught by professional working actors) with the likes of Michael Ealy, Justin Bartha, and Rosie Perez.
Turiano says he thinks the program works, “We put students through school with arts programs that otherwise wouldn’t have [graduated]. They’re given opportunities that they take advantage of, and they flourish.” And an assessment by the Human Services Evaluation and Development Associates serves as proof of that. Their study showed that 100% of the participants in Urban Arts Partnership’s programs were more interested in learning and that 95% reported higher grades.
Most importantly, the students value the experience. Life Stories alumni Meagan Villacorta says the program “helped me grow as a student, a writer, and a human being.”
Lost Iphone
Apple lost a prototype f their new phone. It hasn't even been announced yet. I thought this was a good example of a blog actually reporting the story instead of just posting links and commenting.
The Artist is Present till May 15
A young boy, about 7, watches as people brush past a narrow passageway formed by a woman and man, who face one another naked holding an entranced gaze. The young boy continues to look on with an expression of fear and repeatedly tells his mother, "I'm not going through there!" At first his mother tries to reason with him explaining there's no other option until a guard motions them to a wider entrance towards the right.
Tthe original performance of Imponderabilia in 1977 museumgoers in Italy had no option they had to pass through the controversial performance artist, Marina Abramovic, and her then lover, Ulay.
MoMA found it necessary to provide a second route, telling Abramovic that a wider alternative would allow for those in wheelchairs to access the exhibit.
In its 81 years of history, this is the first live nude exhibition for the museum. "The Artist is Present" started on March 14 and showcases videos of Abramovic's performances throughout the past forty years and reproductions of five earlier works. Most are controversial reasons range from the nudity to the gruesome and pain-inflicting nature of her performances.
At 64, Abramovic is working on her longest performance yet. For the MoMA retrospective she will sit in the spotlight in a chair engaging with a participant. They sit silently looking directly at one another, the participant is allowed to sit for as long as they like. Others either wait their turn or watch from a distance.
Abramovic will do this for three months, seven and a half hours four days a week, and ten hours on Fridays, nonstop.
She does not take breaks, when a participant leaves she rests her neck down and closes her eyes. A brief moment passes until the next person sits across from her and she raises her head, and then opens are eyes to look into the participant's eyes.
"The attitude is the same as toward a painting--the performance is always there," she tells W Magazine.
Anne Deniese, visiting from Australia, found it incredible that Abramovic can sit there for so long. "I wouldn't be able to sit there for very long," she says, "It'd be too disconcerting." Deniese looks on at the young woman, who has been sitting across the artist for over an hour, and remarks that "Marina's eyes haven't moved from hers."
Another museumgoer chipped in, "It definitely takes something to do this."
According to a security guard she only sees an average of twelve people a day and mentioned that one man sat for seven hours.
A man in his late-twenties, standing in line to sit with Abramovic, explained that he was rehearsing the way he would present himself to her. "There's a lot of unspoken communication, from the way you sit, posture, and of course your gaze."
The exhibit ends on May 31.
PhotoCredit PhotoCredit_2
Business and The Big, Gay Hudson Valley.
"Nature's pocket, Cooter, Twat... what do YOU call YOUR pussy?"
"Okay Ladies, What's your favorite power-tool and why?"
Queens like Anita Beaver, Godiva DeVyne, Misty Meaner, Dallas Dubois and their 2,000 fans are logging into TheDragDirectory and willing to tell all... Thanks to ever-inquisitive creator and co-founder Jimmy Prada.
Jimmy Prada is boisterous, brash, and bubbly. He'll call anyone, regardless of their gender, a "she" and "lady". He's a self-proclaimed "24-year-old foul-mouthed cunt from New York that hates everybody." But behind his occasionally crass and always high-pitched hysteria is a good, old-fashioned entrepreneur from Poughkeepsie, New York.
Prada created The Drag Directory, a database showcasing queens from across the nation to “4,500 unique visitors daily,” he tells me, in February of this year. He’s also got Jimmysbedroom.com, his personal outlet for wit. His latest post, “Fleshjacking with the Stars”, links to, and provides commentary on, a current contest for a new sex-simulator poster-boy (“If I were Brent Corrigan, I would be humiliated to be sticking my cock into a silicone toy for money”).
But while he’s not cataloging Queens' heel sizes (he’s a 9) and linking to sex-toy contests on his sites, he’s even still working. And on a slightly more down-to-Earth level: event management in suburban Upstate. His company, Marcotte Creative Media, Inc. produces 3-4 major events yearly (the latest was a Home Trade Show for Ulster County). Additionally, he offers promotional printing for exhibitors in his shows with his own GottaGetItPrinted.com.
All of this means cash. DragDirectory and JimmysBedroom currently run GoogleAds, making Jimmy “some money” but he plans to use what he has learned at MCM, Inc. to sell his own advertising for the sites "as soon as he can". So far, his living is primarily made through his more conservative capitalist ventures.
But he’s definitely got his eye on the gay market. As Drag Directory is currently seeking out advertising investments, a bulleted list of Why-The-Gay-Consumer-Should-Be-The-Target-Consumer is on standby: (“77% believe in indulging in themselves” and “are extremely loyal consumers” "twice as likely to pay $250 on cellular service").
As his creativity and his entrepreneurial drive are fierce, Prada plans to fuse his businesses in the very near future. By the end of this year he told me he hopes to have a “HUGE party in New York City with all of my top queens” and tri-state area Drag Revues. As he works out the kinks in his websites, and makes big plans for the future, Jimmy Prada’s goals are set as high as his six-inch heels will allow him to strut.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Art Installation Puts New Yorkers on the Edge
In the past month, a number of shocked and worried pedestrians have called 911 reporting jumpers on building ledges. There’s no need to worry—they’re not suicide jumpers, just statues in a public art installation.
The installation, “Event Horizon,” created by British artist Antony Gormley, consists of 31 life-size cast iron and fiberglass replicas of the artist himself. The statues are located on sidewalks and building ledges in the Flatiron District, including the Flatiron Building and the Empire State Building.
The Madison Square Park Conservancy presented the exhibit as part of Mad. Sq. Art 2010, a free outdoor art gallery within the park itself. "Event Horizon" set to remain open until August 15.
Since the exhibit's installation on March 26, the NYPD has been receiving false jumper reports every day, according to the New York Post on April 15.
“It’s a waste of man power,” said an officer to the Post on April 15. “We’re short on cops to begin with and we don’t have enough cops to waste answering calls of statues committing suicide,” he said.
There was a statue present on the Empire State Building when a Yale student jumped to his death on March 30.
The art of the statues are lost due to the shock value of their mere presence. On a Monday afternoon, pedestrians who acknowledged the statues perched on buildings did not hide their distaste upon realizing they were not real jumpers.
“It’s really insensitive,” said Brittany, a pedestrian near the Flatiron Building. “What is the point of this?”
Gormley does not seem to be sure of the meaning behind his work. “The field of the installation should have no defining boundary,” he said on the “Event Horizon” website. “I want to play with the city and people’s perceptions. The gaze is the principal dynamic of the work…in the process perhaps re-assessing your own position in the world.”
Regardless of the installation’s purpose, Mayor Michael Bloomberg thinks it’s a good idea. “It’s a great exhibition,” he told the Post on April 16. “It’s one of those things that gets publicity around the world, brings tourists to New York.”
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Englishtown Rain Or Shine, Shines
It takes a while to unravel the layers of this 40-acre flea market. The atmosphere is like that of a state fair, but instead of rides there are buffet tables of people's cheap things. Here, one can find toys for a quarter, clothes for a dollar, toothpaste for a dollar fifty, and the occasional 2 dollar VHS, DVD, or videogame. Not to mention the piles of evidence to what can only be seen as peoples odd consumer impulse buys: N-Sync board games, ceramic dolphins from tropic vacations, and beanie babies.
The many who come to the flea market every weekend vary; some have nothing better to do, others are looking for the right thing at a tax-free, cheap price. "I come often," says Joseph M., a resident of Manalapan. "I come because I know I can get a few things here I can't get anywhere else."
Steve Matarazzo attends Englishtown Auction often, usually in search of electronic parts and obscure or small cables. "I can go to Englishtown and know I may find it there for a dollar or two. If the price is too high I'll haggle and see if I can get it cheaper. I've found cables there for as low as 25 cents, things that in a store would have cost at least $10-20."
For the sellers, its a way to make a little bit of money on the side, or to keep up a hobby. Charles, who sets up his table both days, has been selling old records for seven years and at Englishtown for about four. On a small table, about three feet long, he has five boxes stuffed with records, ready to be shifted through. If there isn't anything interesting in that particular box, more records can be found in the back of car, parked right along side the table.
For a while, Charles felt the business was really slow. Things have been turning around for him as of late, as he thinks this year has been much busier than last. "I was starting to lose faith in you people," he says, as about four people crowd around his table, each buying three records for four dollars.
A seller named Liz just lays out a large blanket on the group, with piles of different items, and a sign reading: "Any 3 things for a 1.00." As curious buyers shuffle through the heaps, she sits in her van, car door open, reading. "It's better today than it was yesterday," she says, referring to the rain and cold of Saturday. "I've made about 30 dollars today so far."
Upbeat announcements from an overhead speaker fills the air of the market, with a man who excitedly recommends the best deals of the weekend. Besides the many dirt lanes of vendors outside, there are four colored buildings of shops and independent eateries. It doesn't matter if it is indoors or outdoors; from every angle the market appears like ants spilling out of an ant hole.
Steve has been going to Englishtown Auction since he was young with his father, and has seen its attendance grow in size. "I've seen it very crowded in the past few years and months," he says. "I think it's due to the economy."
Though located in central New Jersey, a New Yorker can get to Englishtown Auction by taking the NJ Transit Trenton line at Penn Station or by taking an NJ Transit bus out of Port Authority Terminal.
Living off of Groupons for a year
Groupon was started in November 2008 as part of The Point, which is platform for collective action. Groupon is backed by private investors as well as New Enterprise Associates. Businesses that are featured on Groupon will only have to pay a marketing fee if their campaign is successful. The reason behind starting something like Groupon was to make it easier for people to enjoy the things in their community. The way it works is by offering daily deals at a low cost through the power of group buying.
Recently, Groupon decided to create a contest called, “Live Off Groupon For One Year,” where the winner will live and travel entirely off of the groupons they receive, blog about it, and upon completing the year will win $100,000. Out of the 200 people who entered, 5 remain. I recently got a chance to talk to one of the finalists, Ross Cook-Golesh a 22-year-old butcher and artist from Denver Colorado. Here is what he had to say.
Q. How did you find out about this?
A. My mom actually sent me an email about it. At first I applied because I was like, ah I have nothing better to do but as I started looking more into it I got really excited and realized this is really something I would love to do. Then I sent in my video and the rest is history.
Q. Tell me about this contest and what you will be doing?
A. I will live for one year purely on "Groupons" and I will blog, take pictures, travel, and basically rough it the entire time. Upon completion of the year I will win $100,000, which I will use to earn Journalism and Photography degrees.
Q. What would this mean for you?
A. Well, I would have to give up my apartment, clothes, and close my bank account. I would not have any cash on me what so ever.
Q. How does that actually play out? Is that even possible to live with nothing?
A. Groupon starts you off with a stack of Groupons and a suit of Groupons that you have to wear in order to get new clothes. But after that the company provides you all of the groupons you would need. They have deals that range from food, to hotels, to skydiving so really all things are covered.
Q. What about the essentials? Toiletries?
A. I mean some of that you can find at hotels or whatever, and other times I can barter. I can be like, I need toothpaste, can I give you this groupon for a manicure as a trade or something like that.
Q. What do you think it was about you that got the people from Groupons attention?
A. You know, I don’t think that it is just that I have nothing to do with my life, I want to be a photojournalist and this is a huge opportunity for me. I can build a portfolio and I want to use the money to go to school. It’s more of a goal and a life I am trying to create for myself, I don’t just want to win money and have a good time.
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