beautiful evening! thought of my shadow as I took the elevator down to watch network news and to email in the store. Very chatting night!  introduced 2 of my cute, maybe 30yrold, energetic Jamaican neighbors and a date is on! a buddy on the verge of selling almost all got a new gig going on in DUMBO, $$$ ahead! that sadsack 17yr old runaway was here, i told him to go to therapy, then told him to make friends with the teen sons of my philosophe Dad buddy. l'philosophe was there reading Kabbalah, au'jourdi. (I told him to read Gershom Scholem, the master of Judaism mysticism). TY Walter Benjamin and all of my angels for a fun amazing night of listening to dreams and hopes, in the basement cafe of my building in Newark, NJ.

Rosh Hashanah 5772/2011 events!

"God Hates Fags" poster carrying ChristianDominionist"Jews"/rapturers going to LGBT events in South Carolina, I read in an rss feed, today. Oy! Four of my building ones looking all determined today! Their plan was to pass out anti-christ and jews for jesus pamphlets today, start of rosh hashana. Of course, to pass out in NJ. Security will not allow them to pass out at Temple Emmanuel, Central, in NYC! Interesting they dont pass out anti- Muslim tracts in the building. No surprise when it happens! My sister had a book on the faiths of our Founding Fathers for Dad. I took it as her attempt to make our Dad think beyond the Catholic Church is futile at his age 85.Whoa atheists among them! Who wrote the text in my link.

As ever my ex-Dean pal reminded me of her RoshHashanah story. Her most despised administrator (him only with a state college BA running grad school programs) married a very wealthy professor. The academic would cry to her about having to hide being a lesbian, find a husband or lose her wealth! oy. another "expert" on trafficked women and domestic abuse! Dunno his real story but dumping his wife and kids meant a big pew at a power synagogue where the publically "so in love couple" walk hand-in-hand! True Marcus Bachmann! "Pray the Gay away" or "Pay the Gay away" or just too big sadistic liars? Small minded selfish petty people actually albeit they got big budgets to work with! I always say.. compassion is oft so lacking in social work with the at all costs careerism.

My friend's Rosh Hashanah story so bothers me. Not the duplicitness or lack of morals but the behavior is so discordant with 90% of Jews I have known. I went to social work school because I had such admiration for two of my mentors, both Brooklyn Jewish kids! And I initially forgot my third, a former CPUSA activist, orphaned and raised in New Mexico! Of course I have also known so many remarkable Muslims in a Western world of Islamphobia! (Of course da Catholic and Buddhist nuns rule! So many admired West Indian Anglican preachers, Dutch humanists.....)

OMG, I forgot my favorite Hunter College SSocial Work grad, former CPUSA member, stalwart of the Jane Addams founded International Women's League for Peace and Freedom, who worked in a Jewish Child Care program. An orphan raised in New Mexico! My demonstration going pal!

Fortunately always compassionate wise people living in our midsts

Remembering WTC on 9/11, ten years later

Images of the WTC from 1976

maart altar

photographed my current art altar. I have had such altars since 1977 and my cross-country hitchhiking journey to SF/Oregon and back to Brooklyn. In SF, encountered the Mexican and Native American altar concepts. What with all of the religious artifacts, photos of people, objects, make some sort of montage to capture the essence. Two major posters.. collage of angels, prayer cards, medallions, religious symbols, Walter Benjamin's Klee angel, photo of Tede's window in SF, Scholem's kabbalah sefiroth; the other of men important to me.. evolving.. only Obama, Einstein and Tagore on today. In the far right lower is a poster of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Under the large poster are my collection of Buddhas.. those $1 to $5 objects sold on the subway, streets, etal in NYC. My crystal ball from Gumps department store in SF. A Zurich panorama of Saint Regula holding her head (after being martyred).

peace, hugs, compassion

finalmente Spring!!!

Salut to the new Spring! Me amo la primavera! Heute, the first full dag!
woke up tooo late for the snow shower in the NYC area ayer, but the pandemonium was going on all day! such a cold winter hier!
but later in the day het weer was prima!

my sister in Boston mailed me more green tea.. love it! organized photos and drawings from the past 50 years (and those of my Mom) today. drawings in with photos.. so I separated them at least. Found my really cool Rotterdam poster Vecht voor Vriendschaap! which I thought was stolen when my apartment was painted as it was lost for 2 years until today! thank the universe!
Posted the drawing that I made of my sister in Aout 1977! Emailed it to her today with my big thanks!

just mailed her articles from old 3PennyReview issues. Sent her an article on Bolano and on Nathalie Sarraute.. she will appreciate those articles. Love 3PennyReview but cannot keep all the copies. Also have NYReview of Books, Book Forum, ArtForum, SocialWork.... thankfully there are libraries!

cleaning up the apartment as the State does their every 5 year inspection this week. Just clean up a bit. LOL, my neighbor with psychosis saw me today.. walked by me, grunted, called me "white trash", tossed a piece of paper high in the air at me. It happened so fast and I called out "hey" but then caught myself and added .. "you dropped something".. but otherwise ignored as she goes off in a psychotic rant. Sadly, her meds must be low, or she is drinking and drugging again thus washing out the meds. Dunno if she has a new gun (the others were confiscated last year). She is on parole from throwing acid at another neighbor, so I keep a distance as I have no time for courts, the police, the hospital.. just the sadness of psychosis in people. In her mind, I will always be some wierd object... along with so many others. I feel for her Mother in Brooklyn as she begs people to help her daughter (of course with this person's obsessions I am sure the Mom's neighbors organized to keep her out of their neighborhood!) A sad life albeit dangerous for her and others. but, every April she acts out with me, so another harbinger of the Spring! lol, oh well!

lots of nice tea, good chats with others, finishing my organizing photos/drawings project!

hugs, peace, compassion

Zeitgeist for March!

photo of the WTC PATH concourse on Friday. The glass buildings rising and seemingly melting into each other are just stunning! Love all that glass! The PATH is always an easy ride. I took it maybe 2x in all the years I lived in NYC. Very easy commute into lower Manhattan!

spent Friday revisiting my old 1970s neighborhood.. Park Slope, Brooklyn, from my time as a Brooklyn College student. My life as an art student! Got off at Grand Army Plaza.. what an elegant stop. The limestones, doorman buildings, the park settings. I could only wish Branch Brook Park was as user particularly pedestrian friendly. Sat for a bit by the subway stop to watch the coming/goings on Flatbush Avenue. Thoughts of my times in all of the surrounding apartment buildings at parties or just visiting. In general I would always run into known folks in that Grand Army Plaza stretch in my 1970s years as well as during my six months stay in 1994-5. Didnt recognize anyone but...
I did run into a worker from the Park Slope Food Co-op. He has a vest with the co-op named and was helping a member bring packages back! Wow, they even help deliver now! I was a member when he was born, 1977. In those days we climbed up a huge staircase and trudged our groceries down those steps.... Wow what a legacy that co-op has! That was the best food place! Wow!

met up with my long time buddy and his partner living on Prospect Park West. Now those are some elegant mansions! The Brooklyn Gold Coast! Outside their mansion the crocuses and other plants are coming UP! I saw the buds on the trees! And, a the gorgeous apartment! Great deck although very windy in the Slope. Great view through the front windows across Prospect Park. Didnt see many people but did recognize some of the park paths I would walk. The best lunch.. Chinese oranges, chicken and lots of broccoli. All my favorites! I love my Chinatown shopping trips with one of the guys.. the best vegetables, tea shops, and Pearl River department store!!!

interesting chats as ever. Their daughter does so well in her new job as a researcher! I am jealous... I love research, statistics, etal! What an opportunity for her! One of the guys is looking for a job after he took a buyout from his company. I pitched him in January to one of the Sulzberger family, another Columbia alum. LOL.. as if the NY Times is hiring. But the family person was so sweet to me... I have to send a thanks. Anyhow, my buddy is so focused and has had such a work history. He is doing some fascinating consulting and I will be phoning him for celebrity gossip again. But most interestingly, the guys had met with a Canadian lawyer about emigrating to Montreal. Seems that the NY lgbt center set up informational sessions for people wanting to emigrate in case the Republicans had won again. Same sex couples have legal rights in Canada and the government has been helping couples emigrate. A small but significant brain drain! My friends rank at the top on the immigration priority list, but thankfully Obama won! Wow, in retrospect it would have been a nightmare if those psychopathic Republicans had won.

the best IRT ride home although delays. Not as many commuters seemed to get on at Wall St but maybe that was just my hunch what with the layoffs. I would have gotten off downtown to do my flaneur thing but it was raining. I hate sitting inside when I just want to walk about.

end of February and now the zeitgeist for March! so many interesting memories. great times with a buddy I have known almost 30 years. despite the dreariness in the media on the economy, I feel really positive about our futures! Salut to Marz, Mars, March!!!
hugs, peace, compassion

salut fellow commie homos, Obamamaniacs, ....

wow! great comments by Sean Penn at last night's Oscars! Harvey Milk would have been proud

have not seen the film yet as I lived in SF during that period and it was quite emotional. I usually admire Gus Van Sant films but didnt go even though I even had free viewing opportunities.

Four of my Brooklyn College friends and I all moved to SF after our graduation in 1978. I arrived via the Greyhound bus in November. Within a week, Jonestown Guyana took place as well as the assassinations of Supervisor Milk and Mayor Moscone. It was an intense time although I didnt really understand much at the time.

I only stayed in SF until March 1979 as I returned to a job at the NYC Board of Education. During that time, I partly stayed with my friend Tede (photo above leaning at the wall). Tede was a film maker, actor, political activist. An exciting time although sad what with the assassinations.


photo: Dec. 1979, me and friend Tede, SF

academic transparency

intrigued by the NYU takeOver (VillageVoice feed photo shown). I followed tweets, saw the student website, watched YouTube videos, checked NY One! Not clear about all of the demands but the transparency issue is real. not pleased by the NYU tyranny in putting down the take over. I have seen NYU become a corporate behemoth over time. Just the take over of the East Village for student housing. Amazing that they charge over $1000 a month for a student to share a dorm! A tax-exempt group which has benefited from City policy to expand dislocating many working class people in the process.

spoke with someone I know 30 years on the phone. He asked why do I know some wierd people.. talking about a divorcing couple I know. LOL! thoughts of how people just buy into myths, or drink the koolaid! I am always amazed by the myths... well God bless him! Wealthy people have problems but their wealth can screen others from knowing what is up. In the 9 years I did corporate affairs for Citibank, I saw enough late night black cars bringing in drunks who were helped out of the cab by the doorman and whisked upstairs in the elevator by the maid. Actually I started my doctoral studies as I was so bored by the endless partying and greediness in some of that life. Anyhow... Richard Hofstadter and C Wright Mills wrote on the phenomenon almost 50 years ago!

The same issues of myth in academia. The power of institutions to gatekeep as well as accredidate. Mostly the personal stories one encounters... Nasty evil divorces ... at least 5 families where the professor dumped his wife and deserted the children for a wealthier spouse. Married DL gays and lesbians. A famous couple espousing liberal causes everywhere and then their behavior ridiculing their gay son.. their embarrassment. The wife of a professor locked away in a psychiatric ward who used to phone the college looking for her husband. He had a wealthy student paramour. Thankfully, there are now ethics laws that one cannot date one's students. All paid big bucks despite their questionable behaviors. 95& of us would be fired, in civil court, and/or harrassed for similiar behavior. Some of these stories go back to the 1970s, many of these people are now deceased, but they were gatekeepers!

I think of these things in terms of the realignment going on in the US and world economy. The power of the wealthy and privledged to do what they want is manifest. I also always think of someone listed among the 50 most powerful bankers in the world.. a really lovely woman who has spent so much time helping others over the years. Generally committed academics, but then those who slept and clawed their way up, as in many career paths. So, as in the case of the phone converser.. people can be wierd.. it is just they may not share their truth or one can be blinded by the socalled status. From years of working with clients, people tell others what they want them to know.. it may or may not be what is called reality! And of course, just using basic critical thinking but then again maybe 30% of Americans have an accreditated college degree and logic may have only been an elective.

I dont know much about NYU. Sadly I mostly remember the wierd stories. I supervised several students from NYU. I flunked one. She was all caught up in the importance of "being at NYU" but did little work. I know several faculty.. one was a professor who in the 1970s spent her agency time exposing lesbian mothers and bringing them up for immoral behavior at Family Court. I was working with disabled children at the time, and all of us workers hated her. Times have changed.. she now hangs with the lesbian NYU faculty. Another NYU grad, now teaching at a NJ college, went to NYU as she was not accepted at Columbia for being anti-social. She was a big boozer and slept with more men than I can remember in those wild 1980s. A friend worked in Columbia admissions and had had a verbal fight with the candidate at her admissions interview! Now that was good interview style! Today, she is married to a WallStreeter, suburban, presents the highest of bourgeosie appropriateness. Mostly though I really know little about NYU as I was involved in my alma maters.

Anyhow... what is life...
series of challenges and dealing with the ambiguities along our path to fulfill our true will (if we figure that out!) I never had a professor I wanted to date... LOL. As an art student, i spent all my time making art and had an intense personal relationship. in social work school, I had a political placement, fellowship at the international house, editor of my college monthly newsletter. Whew! Today, I am too superEgo'd to even think about dating a student.. students need to go through their own life process.. I am just one person on their path and one hardly needs to go through my dramas! Of course every semester I have students who have their "crush" on me but I know that 2 months after the grades are in I expect to rarely hear from the student again!


I value academia highly. I love teaching research, ethics, but I also have a social worker mentalite of respect for ethical practice. There is a parallel process in teaching. I evolved into teaching as an outgrowth of my work as a community organizer and as a direct services worker. I had no college guidance in high school nor from my parents. I wound up in Brooklyn as I did not want to go back to Colorado and got a free rent job renovating brownstones and CUNY was free! Brooklyn College was great as I loved making art there! Columbia was so intellectually interesting and I got scholarships! In my PhD time, a professor told me I read too much! I had never really read the classics and history. I had no college mentors in terms of an academic life. My studies were very project oriented. Anyhow, I can understand Barack Obama and his mentalite, being another alum. I know he must have signed one of my petitions in those thousands of petitions!!!

I hope that the students and admin find a way to discuss. I do think that the transparency issue will be on the table as the costs are out of control. This is a time of great change and I think the university is but one to see changes. There will just not be the money to continue the costs! I hope that there is respect and a dialog that makes change happen albeit....

peace, hugs, compassion