Friday, April 29, 2005

Paul signac developes A horror of the dot .....

My friend Suzi who is a writer and art historian and i went to the Met to see the art work..
We visited the Master NeoImpressionists and we looked at the Dots dots dots...we read the descriptions and found that near the lovely paintings by Signac...that he developed a HORROR OF THE DOT....HOw can a pointillist have a HORROR of the DOT...
its just not right... since then we have referred to the HORROR of the DOT.. gotten a bad case of THE HORROR OF THE DOT... most recently called it A Horror O' the dot..

this season's haute couture is all about DOTs.. they are going to be everywhere...DOTS and DOTS and DOTS...

READ ON CHICKIDEES..... You too may get the HORROR of the DOT ....
____________________



Signac 1863-1935

Master Neo-Impressionist

Review by Johanna Garfield

If Neo-Impressionism were "a kind of religion, it would claim... Georges Seurat as its Messiah and Paul Signac as its Saint Paul," said one critic a century ago. Certainly, the names of the two are inextricably interwoven, with Signac known to many primarily as the follower and promoter of Seurat's "pointillism," exemplified in his best-known work, 'A Sunday on the Grand Jatte.'

Sometimes known as "divisionism" -- or more colorfully, "confettiism" -- pointillism was based on the juxtaposition of tiny dots ("points") of pure color, which Seurat felt the brain would involuntarily mix to produce a more brilliant and harmonious result than the muddy, overlapping strokes of the Impressionists. (Hence the term, "Neo"-Impressionists for Seurat and his followers.)

What the organizers of the retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum attempt to show is that Signac was a brilliant and innovative artist in his own right. And though some may disagree, I feel that in the huge exhibit of 120 works in seven chronologically organized rooms, they succeed.

The fact is that the young Signac, who quit school at 16 and proceeded to teach himself painting by studying the works of other painters, was more influenced by Monet than any other artist. The first gallery, which starts when Signac was twenty, covers the first two years of his artistic life in Paris (1883-1885), when he followed Monet's example and painted "plein-air" studies along the Seine.

At this time he was frequenting Montmartre cafés and literary soirées and was determined to become a progressive artist, avoiding the traditional Ecole des Beaux Arts. His striking 'Montmartre Study: Studio,' done when he was only twenty, with its pair of legs emerging from the right hand side of the canvas, and a candle in the middle that stands out from the light in the window, is strikingly modern in feel, despite the Impressionist brushwork. During these early years, he was also influenced by the then-Impressionist Camille Pissarro, whose cousin Berthe Robles he painted in his erotic l883 'The Red Stocking.' Ten years later, they were married.

Though he met Seurat in l884 and saw his monumental 'Bathers at Asnieres,' he did not immediately become his disciple. That occurred in l886 when 'La Grande Jatte' was the centerpiece of a room at the last Impressionist exhibition, which also included works by Pissarro and Signac himself. It was then that Signac took on the role of booster for the new movement, and as such was soon a prominent figure of the Parisian avant-garde.

His own style was immediately altered by his friend and colleague as well. His technique became more controlled and refined (see the transitional paintings of the 'Junction at Bois-Colombes'), and he even went so far as to go back to a Paris snow scene -- his only snow scene, incidentally -- to add dots to it. He was aware that his 1886 'Riverbend, Les Andelys' (Les Andelys was a suburb about 60 miles from Paris) and the other nine paintings he did there in the Neo-Impressionist style were a turning point. Such delightful if stilted works as 'Sunday' and 'The Dining Room' -- about which one reviewer said, "After the 'Grande Jatte' of M. Seurat we have the 'petit tasse' [little cup] of M. Signac" -- also show Neo-Impressionism's enormous impact on the young artist.

But in time Signac began to go his own way, both geographically and artistically. He visited Van Gogh, whom he admired (though he felt he could depict color more accurately himself) and began to explore areas untouched by Seurat. A passionate yachtsman, he spent his summers at coastal resorts and painted a dazzling series of seascapes that, though they still reflected Seurat's influence, also show his interest in modern themes, and in the connection between art and music. He began to assign opus numbers to his work and added musical tempos, such as 'Adagio' and 'Scherzo' to his titles.

With Seurat's sudden death in l891 from infectious angina (he was only 31) Signac increasingly followed his own vision. Just about halfway through the show is a dazzling portrait of his biographer and good friend, the critic Felix Fénéon. In this tour de force, Signac's humor -- the starburst of colors around Fénéon's head spoofs the "chromatic circle" then favored by painters -- as well as the influence of "japonisme" and pointillism, are all on display. But so is his very individual brilliance.

By the mid-1890s Signac had developed a horror of the dot for his own art, though he continued to champion Seurat and other Neo-Impressionists.
(He wrote an influential treatise on the movement.) He discovered St. Tropez in l892 and established his second residence there, far from what he described as "Paris and its so-called intellectual crap," though he retained ties to the capital as an outlet for his work.

Then, in 1892, he discovered the joys of watercolor. The ability to use brilliant colors quickly and spontaneously had a liberating effect, and the harbor scenes and other paintings from the last thirty-five years of his life are quite astounding. Some of the standouts are 'Flood at the Pont Royal,' (1926) with one of ghis favorite motifs, the bridge; the striking colors of 'Fishing Boats, Le Pouligen' (1928) and the richly patterned, mosaic-like 'The Tuna Boats, Groix' (1929).

The retrospective, which includes many other portraits, drawings, and a number of prints, should go far in countering Signac's reputation as simply the second man of Neo-Impressionism.Signac 1863-1935

missed opportunity dreams -gained opportunity dream

i woke from a fitful sleep with my cat lying across my body. the alarm clock hadnt rung..
this is what i remember. I was in the woods at a falcon ridge type place. i was among a group of people and i had a blanket, Ipod Earplugs and green sneakers. I was told that Dar is to be separated from Richard and I went to give another group my green sneakers.
i realized i was at falcon ridge and it was the tarp run for space that was beginning. I knew i had to go through the woods to a field which i did to see no one there... i had all the space but i chose to retract my steps and join the rest of the group and wait til the send off.. I realized that i didnt have fleece or a sweatshirt or something to keep me warm or any supplies. But i could call for them to be brought. I realized that i had driven in my car through the gates with NO TICKET. i saw a sound board type table with rare musical memorabelia like someone was selling or preparing to sell with the face and name of Mary Chapin Carpenter... I feel Lucky was what i saw on cardboard ready to be attached to a cd...
i then realized i missed an opportunity to place my tarp first before everyone else...the tarp run had begun and i was left behind and i had to take the left over space or find myself some space or make myself some space

and the alarm clock rang

Thursday, April 28, 2005

epstein barr update

i should be feeling depleted but i am not.. I have had a stressful few weeks and needed a time out of two days. I went to work this week and had a stressful city audit (that i passed with glowing results) and it was stressful getting there and beyond it.. the day after was worse... its also passover so my eating habits are different...

i am remarkably feeling well tonight even though i taught.. I am feeling rested and more like myself..

this EBV is as unprectible as the hot flashed i am getting...

i never know how i am feeling and when i will be drained.. i think friday nights are the worst when i havent had time to rest appropriately..

epstein barr update

i should be feeling depleted but i am not.. I have had a stressful few weeks and needed a time out of two days. I went to work this week and had a stressful city audit (that i passed with glowing results) and it was stressful getting there and beyond it.. the day after was worse... its also passover so my eating habits are different...

i am remarkably feeling well tonight even though i taught.. I am feeling rested and more like myself..

this EBV is as unprectible as the hot flashed i am getting...

i never know how i am feeling and when i will be drained.. i think friday nights are the worst when i havent had time to rest appropriately..

MaryLand, Spain and the Sound and the Fury

My friend Suzi has this BluePyramid Quiz on her Blog..so i did her friggin quizzes.. I always do her quizzes and here are my results to What STATE are you..(not what state are you in ) what country are you, and what book are you.
The first time i did it.. my country was ICELAND.. i guess its the polar opposite to South Africa...cool vs warm tropical..and when i did it the third time, SPAIN..
so pick your country... im a bit of all three....peaceful seems to run through all three





You're Maryland!

You enjoy contemplating your navel so much that you want to build a whole
school devoted to said purpose. You like Chevy Chase a ton as well, maybe even more than
Cal Ripken since he started doing those Century 21 commercials. Mostly, though, you want
to kick back, watch the ballgame, and eat crabcakes. Brick is by far your favorite
building material. You might even call yourself a brick house.



Take the State Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.






You're Spain!

You like rain on the plain, as well as interesting architecture and
a diverse number of races and religions.  You like to explore a lot, but sailing,
especially in large groups, never really seems to work out for you.  Beware of pirates
and dictators bearing bombs.  And for heavens' sake, stop running around bulls!
 It's just not safe!

Take
the Country Quiz at the href="http://bluepyramid.org">Blue Pyramid









You're The Sound and the Fury!

by William Faulkner

Strong-willed but deeply confused, you are trying to come to grips
with a major crisis in your life. You can see many different perspectives on the issue,
but you're mostly overwhelmed with despair at what you've lost. People often have a hard
time understanding you, but they have some vague sense that you must be brilliant
anyway. Ultimately, you signify nothing.



Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.





Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Capricorn Horoscope for week of April 28, 2005

Capricorn Horoscope for week of April 28, 2005

Verticle Oracle card Capricorn (December 22-January 19)
You may have trophies, merit badges, and plaques to commemorate your sexual accomplishments, Capricorn. You may have a PhD in tantra and letters from past lovers testifying to your excellence as an erotic partner. Nevertheless, I believe you have more to learn. There are frontiers you have not yet explored. And this is the perfect time for you to push to the next level. Open your mind and heart to the possibility that you're ready to upgrade the way you stir up emotion-enriching, soul-expanding bliss.

latesha 2

i was having my semi annual city audit and while i waiting for the audit, i knew my attention span was minimal so i took advantage of the time and cleaned my office. Monday, i saw Latesha in the office doing a whole lot of nothing... she is on spring break and staying with her cousin NOT her mom...

i asked if she could help me... she labled folders while i sorted paper and we filed stuff.. She and i talked.. She is an immature 17 year old in some ways.. telling me about things in her world.. her school, talking about her friends like i knew them.. She called their names like we talked about them before..younger teens do that more often..

then as i asked her to write DAS.. Designated Assessment Service, the program that i manage.. she asked about DAS...and explained she knew DAS and other kids she knows are clients of DAS..i asked if the group members she attends with are DAS or PINS kids.. She said NO DAS...their parents have AIDS.. i explained that social workers and social services agencies use acronyms and DAS also stands for Department of AIDS services.
she is a bright kid who knew the word acronym and is slated for calculus next year..

she explained that she was raised by her grandmother who died two years ago.. Her father died of AIDS when she was 7 and he was a DAS clients.. She was familiar with ACQC- Aids center of queens county.. she knew the impact of aids and saw the worst..
when her grandmother died, she had to go live with her mom.. She and her mom, who lives in a shelter and has a history of substance abuse and having her kids taken from her.. Latesha has been removed from her mom when she was young.. Latesha prefers to live with her grandmother but cant because she is dead..

i spent the morning with this young woman..she and i talked about blank discs and disc holders.. i knew she was interested in the ones i had and needed blank discs.. she said she gets em from school whenever she can... I handed her one and a disc case. and hten a spare disc.. She earned her discs..
it didnt feel like she was asking for payment or manipulating me to get there.. this is a kids who is skilled at getting what she needs from where she can...
i offered willingly... she hinted but didnt ask.. i could have refused the hint or shot her down...

this kids needs a team of people to go to bat for her.. or support her efforts. and i an be one of those people

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

friendsofhillary.com post 1

Dear Friend,

With so much at stake, Hillary is speaking out, and working with her Democratic colleagues. Here's an update:

Last week, she met with Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm and Senators Debbie Stabenow (MI), Carl Levin (MI) and Jay Rockefeller (WV) to highlight the deep Medicaid cuts approved by the Republican House - cuts that would force states to choose between funding schools and funding hospitals. "The fight is far from over," Hillary said. "It is unconscionable to balance the budget on the backs of the vulnerable."

In honor of Equal Pay Day, on April 19, Hillary and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT) announced that they were introducing the Paycheck Fairness Act to strengthen equal pay laws and address the pay gap between men and women. "Equality works for all of us. Now is the time to make sure that we all work for equality," Hillary said.

This Monday, Hillary went to Wall Street with Senators Chuck Schumer (NY) and Ron Wyden (OR) to join members of the financial services industry in explaining the financial risks for individual Americans if Bush's privatization scheme succeeds. Hillary said, "As President Bush attempts to sell his plan to undermine Social Security, we are joined today by financial leaders who aren't buying it. ...They are joining the growing chorus of voices warning that privatizing Social Security is a bad deal for America's families."

And Hillary is speaking out against the "nuclear option," the Republicans' attempt to change the Senate rules by breaking them, in order to eliminate checks and balances and gain more power:

If invoked, the "nuclear option" would be, in my view, one of the most egregious abuses of power that the Senate has experienced in its history. ...[T]he majority seeks to turn the United States Senate into a rubber stamp for President Bush's extreme judicial nominees and force all Senators to abdicate our constitutional responsibility of advice and consent. As one sworn to uphold the Constitution, that is something that I cannot do and will not do and that is why I will continue to do all I can to fight for our democratic principles.

...President Bush has nominated a few people to serve on our federal courts for life that I and many of my colleagues believe would not abide by the rule of law, which is why some of these nominees were not confirmed. Now, to stack the courts with these nominees and other extreme judges, the majority is attempting to violate long-established and agreed to Senate rules in order to do away with a constitutional check on the power of the President to pick any judicial nominees he pleases. This is wrong and inconsistent with American values. ...I will do all that I can to ensure that this does not happen.

Please let us know if you would like more information on any of these issues or others that Hillary is working on. And thank you, as always, for being a Friend of Hillary!


Sincerely,


Ann F. Lewis
Director of Communications

swingers for social security

the social security swing votes rest with Republican Olympia Snow of Maine and Gordon Smith of Oregon. On the democratic side, the votes are with Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas

the gangsters seem to be same.. Republican... Hatch, Frist (who is out of his mind) Santorum ( who is the butt of many sexual jokes and even has a anal related sex act named after him by the readers of the Village voice sex column), Bunning, Crapo, Thomas, Lott, Kyl,

VS
Kerry, Jeffords (ind), Wyden, Rockerfeller, Bingaman, Kerry, Schumer

The chairs being REP Grassley of Iowa and DEM Baucus of Montana


Why do i feel like its about these white men keeping their jobs sometimes..

Im watching the social security vote carefully...When RR went to IRA, to augement Social Security, he told us.. the US government would spend our investments so take care of yourself..
the current administration IS spending our investments and wants us to do a better job than they are...

call your REpresentative...Im calling Olympia Snow and Gordon Smith today

Friday, April 22, 2005

poem o the day NYC

THE DRUM
by Nikki Giovanni

my father says the world
is a drum tight
and hard
and i told him
im gonna beat
my own rhythm

Thursday, April 21, 2005

poem o the day

Dont be polite
bite in
pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice that
may run down your chin.
it is ready and ripe now, whenever you are.

you do not need a knife or fork or spoon
or plate or napkin or tablecloth.

For there is no core
or stem
or rind
or pit
or seed
or skin
to throw away.

How to eat a poem by Eve Merriam

a dream in a matter of minutes

I woke after two days with a fever to know i was hearing..
Shawn Colvin singing "matter of minutes"

've been thinking
About you and me
Maybe I was just
Seeing what I wanted to see

You can call me crazy
But you know this time I swore
That I wouldn't run
But I can't do that anymore

I can't find a way to stay
And I can't see my way to go
But I can't give up without a fight.

I can pack myself up in a matter of minutes,
Leave you all far behind
All of my old world and all the things in it are hard to find
If they ever were mine

You've been trying
And I know it's been hard
And I'm afraid of
All this blood in my heart

If there's one thing certain
It's there ain't nothing for sure
And I want to run
But I can't do that anymore

I can't meet you half way
And I can't have it my way
And I can't give up without a fight

I can pack myself up in a matter of minutes,
Leave you all far behind
And all of my old world and all the things in it are hard to find
All of my old world and all the things in it are hard to find
Like they ever were mine

I could count the good times we had
On one hand
All the rest was
A sort of means to the end

Well not it's done
And I can never
Go back to where I was before
And I wanna run...

I can get myself clean in a matter of minutes
And get it wrong every time
All of my whole world and all the things in it are hard to, hard to find
Everything change in a matter of minutes
And nothing was saved in time
All of my old world and all the things in it are hard to find
But they never
never
never
were mine

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

the holiday of liberation

Passover or pesach or the holiday that celebrates the exodus of the jewish people from the oppressive Phararoh is upon us again.. Why is this year different than any other year? will be the question asked at the sedar table..

there are lots of differences this year.. Its our third year in Iraq at war.. oh those lies are the same lies.. they are just getting worse.. No weapons of mass destruction. lies of democracy.. same lies about the oil and a faux government.. same lies about christianization of america.. same lies about caring about the middle class or the poor..

so what makes this year different.. is it my EBV or my hot flushes ...

no what makes this year different is the amount of kosher for passover food in the markests.. when i was kid.. it was bad candy and matzah.. lots of matzah meal that was used for baking.. now it premade goods.. in the day it was the packaged mix of chocolate cake..that sucked.. now its bakery 7 layer cakes..it was elute chocolate bars and fruit slices of sugar.. now its candy galore .. when i was a teen it was ice cream and potato chips and then it was bakery items..
now its pizza, noodles, ff dressing, spagetti sauce.. cereal like cheerios..
its not passover, its a wheatless, barleyless, speltless, ryeless, week with substitute products..
i cannot buy these because it will not be passover for me..

my ancestors didnt leave egypt with pizza on their back... it was matzah..
the matzah is the basis for all foods passover.. so why does it have to painless..
the jews leaving egypt and travelling for 40 days and 40 nights did not have a painless time.. giving up foods, reminds us of hte pain they felt for our freedom..
so why make easy

freedom shouldnt be easy... just ask the Iraquis under US occupation.. freedom isnt easy.. so in this season of liberation.. i am liberating myself from packages passover foods... too bad the administration doesnt libertate the iraqui...
somehow "let my people go" applies today..

so i will remember moses and remember the exodus and pray for another type of exodus..

Capricorn Horoscope for week of April 21, 2005

Capricorn Horoscope for week of April 21, 2005

Drugs don't give Indian holy man Mangal Das a buzz. Maybe he has meditated too much to be affected by mere chemicals. In his quest for experience that takes him outside of his usual awareness, he has also arranged to be bitten by snakes and scorpions. Unfortunately, that doesn't give him a kick, either. He even tried drinking elixirs made from toxic herbs, but there was no bang to be had. Finally he found an intoxicant that worked: touching live wires. Now he enjoys getting an electrical shock every day. I wouldn't be surprised if you soon embarked on a comparable quest to expand your thrills, Capricorn. But please limit your search to things that are really good for you. Avoid the shock and poison options.

poem o the day 2

on MARIA dancing by robert lowell

How graceful maria leads the dance
she's life itself. I never saw a foot
so nimble and so elegant; it speaks
and the sweet whispering poetry it makes
shames the musicians

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

another sick day, another event

i have had a case of the flu, a fever and since sunday, i have been ill. i stayed home yesterday and last night, i napped on the couch and went to sleep at 9pm... i could not get up this morning and didnt...

though i am feeling better and have to run an errand... i got caught up in the Naming of a new pope... Somehow, i had CNN on and by chance.. not by design.. i looked up and there was a drift of white smoke.. earlier this week, i condemned CNN for showing a cut away of smoke stacks of black.. i knew i needed to watch the naming of a new pope.. NOT because i am catholic or care but it seems that there are major world events that occur while i am home sick.. the last major one.. was 9-11

i have memories of events i now cannot recall while being home from my job at St josephs.. a sick day was a rare event for me then.. and i remember watching tv ... i would get bronchitis and be homebound..

i am more liberal with my sickdays at CMS and even more so with EBV...
i am fluish this time.. with fever or hot flushes (who cant tell the difference)

i marked my pagentry of wellness with washing the sick sheets, the sweat laden sheets from when a fever breaks..

the rest of the world marks the pagentry of a new pope...

Poem O'the day

http://nyc.gov/html/poem/html/today/music.html

Make music with your life by Robert G O'Meally

Make music with your life
a jagged silver tune
cuts deepday madness
that you wear in to jewels

Carry 16 bars of old blues with you
everywhere you go
walk through azure sadness
howling like a guitar player

Monday, April 18, 2005

the attacks of hillary I

So just as the right wing attack machines have started gearing up to defeat me in 2006, we're sending a strong signal that we will be ready to fight back.

You may have seen stories about these "anti-Hillary" campaigns lately. As the New York Times said:

Arthur Finkelstein, the political guru who helped engineer the defeat of one Democratic luminary, Mario Cuomo, has his sights set on another: Hillary Rodham Clinton... His plan includes financing an advertising campaign against her similar to the one orchestrated by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth...

They're going to spend millions of dollars on personally negative attacks, hoping to keep me from speaking out on issues important to all of us, like protecting Social Security, the need to count every vote, and the dangers of the "nuclear option" that would end our democratic system of checks and balances.

Well, I have news for them: I am going to go right on, working hard and speaking out against the irresponsible, extreme policies of the Bush administration that I believe are leading America in the wrong direction.

from an email from friends of Hillary Rodham Clinton

Sunday, April 17, 2005

poem in your pocket too

like eddie, its national poetry month and NYC is celebrating with a poem in your pocket week again.. NOW i get eddie's small poem in his small pocket...


http://nyc.gov/html/poem/home.html

April is National Poetry Month. To celebrate this special occasion, the New York City Department of Education, in collaboration with the Office of the Mayor, Department of Cultural Affairs, City University of New York, and the New York Times, is co-sponsoring the third annual Poem In Your Pocket Day on Thursday, April 21, 2005. New Yorkers are encouraged to carry a poem in their pocket and share it with friends, family, coworkers and classmates. Public schools throughout the five boroughs will highlight poetry on this day through readings by CUNY poets, poetry workshops and specifically designed lesson plans. Tuck a poem in your pocket and see what surprises may come your way. What will your poem be?

Don’t forget to look for selected poems in The New York Times, April 17-21, leading up to this exciting event. Watch NYC TV for the latest information on Poem in your Pocket Day. Explore this site for a listing of poetry events being held throughout the City during the month of April, and for links to cultural organizations that can serve as sources for poems or other information about poetry.

Pick up your Poem in Your Pocket Bookmark at your local library, Coliseum Books or at a Borders bookstore near you!

the Sneetches world of dr suess

Dr. Seuss

The Sneetches


Now, the Star-Bell Sneetches had bellies with stars.
The Plain-Belly Sneetches had none upon thars.

Those stars weren’t so big. They were really so small
You might think such a thing wouldn’t matter at all.

But, because they had stars, all the Star-Belly Sneetches
Would brag, “We’re the best kind of Sneetch on the beaches.”
With their snoots in the air, they would sniff and they’d snort
“We’ll have nothing to do with the Plain-Belly sort!”
And, whenever they met some, when they were out walking,
They’d hike right on past them without even talking.

When the Star-Belly children went out to play ball,
Could a Plain Belly get in the game? Not at all.
You only could play if your bellies had stars
And the Plain-Belly children had none upon thars.

When the Star Belly Sneetches had frankfurter roasts
Or picnics or parties or marshmallow toasts,
They never invited the Plain-Belly Sneetches
They left them out cold, in the dark of the beaches.
They kept them away. Never let them come near.
And that’s how they treated them year after year.

Then ONE day, it seems while the Plain-Belly Sneetches
Were moping and doping alone on the beaches,
Just sitting there wishing their bellies had stars,
A stranger zipped up in the strangest of cars!

“My friends”, he announced in a voice clear and clean,
“My name is Sylvester McMonkey McBean. And I’ve heard of
Your troubles. I’ve heard you’re unhappy. But I can fix
That I’m the Fix-It-Up Chappie. I’ve come here to help
You. I have what you need. And my prices are low. And
I work with great speed. And my work is one hundred per cent guaranteed!”

Then, quickly, Sylvester McMonkey McBean
Put together a very peculiar machine.
And he said, “You want stars like a Star-Belly Sneetch? My friends, you can
Have them for three dollars each!”

“Just pay me your money and hop right aboard!”
So they clambered inside. Then the big machine roared.
And it klonked. And it bonked. And it jerked. And it berked.
And it bopped them about. But the thing really worked!
When the Plain-Belly Sneetches popped out, they had stars!
They actually did. They had stars upon thars!


Then they yelled at the ones who had stars at the start,
“We’re still the best Sneetches and they are the worst.
But now, how in the world will we know”, they all frowned,
“If which kind is what, or the other way round?”


Then up came McBean with a very sly wink. And he said, “Things
are not quite as bad as you think. So you don’t know who’s who.
That is perfectly true. But come with me, friends. Do you know
what I’ll do? I’ll make you, again, the best Sneetches on the beaches.
And all it will cost you is ten dollars eaches.”


“Belly stars are no longer in style”, said McBean.
“What you need is a trip through my Star-Off Machine. This
Wondrous contraption will take OFF your stars so you won’t
Look like Sneetches that have them on thars.”
And that handy machine working very precisely
Removed all the stars from their tummies quite nicely.


Then, with snoots in the air, they paraded about. And they opened
Their beaks and they let out a shout, “We know who is who! Now there
Isn’t a doubt. The best kind of Sneetches are Sneetches without!”

Then, of course, those with stars got all frightfully mad.
To be wearing a star was frightfully bad. Then, of course, old
Sylvester McMonkey McBean invited THEM into his Star-Off Machine.

Then, of course from THEN on, as you probably guess,
Things really got into a horrible mess.

All the rest of that day, on those wild screaming beaches,
The Fix-It-Up Chappie kept fixing up Sneetches.
Off again! On again! In again! Out again!
Through the machines they raced round and about again,
Changing their stars every minute or two. They kept paying money.
They kept running through until the Plain nor the Star-Bellies knew
Whether this one was that one or that one was this one. Or which one
Was what one or what one was who.

Then, when every last cent of their money was spent,
The Fix-It-Up Chappie packed up. And he went. And he laughed as he drove
In his car up the beach, “They never will learn. No. You can’t
Teach a Sneetch!”

But McBean was quite wrong. I’m quite happy to say.
That the Sneetches got really quite smart on that day.
The day they decided that Sneetches are Sneetches.
And no kind of Sneetch is the best on the beaches.
That day, all the Sneetches forgot about stars and whether
They had one, or not, upon thars.

Eddie my friend

Eddie is my friend. He is 5 years old and goes to preK..He recently became a big brother and doesnt like his brother. Eddie and I have known each other for a while. i ran into him on valentines day and had no candy. Eddie was off to the dentist to have a tooth removed. I gave him a dollar for the ice cream Man (see mr softee)

well i walked to school with eddie friday. He told me he was going to the high school on a field trip.. He told me that he had to put a poem in his pocket. As his pockets are small, it had to be a small poem. If he had larger pockets, he would have to write a larger poem.

i understood what Eddie meant....

i hope he wrote his poem...

it is national poetry month, aint it pokey?????

subway facination

i am facinated with the subway... I ride it all the time, i get on and get off.. i ride to manhattan from my home in brooklyn. i pretty much ride after school hours for the teenagers and parents who are picking up children from their schools or i ride at night, after ive been somewhere. I mostly ride on weekends. I have taken to looking at poeple's shoes on the subway, the perfunctory looking down.. til last week when i was bored..i looked at a man and knew what he looked liked as a child. I pictured him as child and then extended that to others around me..
Grown people and what they may have looked like as a kid..

sometimes, generally when i am riding home from my thursday night class, i tend to talk to someone... One night, a nigerian woman who has lived in paris for years. SHe talked of all the things that she didnt like about HOW nyers and americans live. How cramped we are and your need to work... rather than vacation. I asked her why she was still in ny, brooklyn no less and as she was a fashion designer, she felt that she would try to break her chops in NY. SHe told me about her sister who bought a cartier watch on canal street. It seems in france the confisgate knock offs. but this sister took this knock off to Cartier to get the battery replaced and the Park Avenue store confisgated it.

I meet many students and many social work students on the train. I see students reading books on computers, on chemistry, and me reading lectures, pamphlets and what ever else i can get my hands on.. I have talking to two social work students who complete an AA degree in a few months. These women never believed they would be the ones to go to college. Then there was a Lehrman student who was trying to apply the skills she was learning to a girls group with her church.

There are musicians on the train. A russian clarinetist who doesnt know Joni Mitchell's for free but will play a tune for loose change. the Homeless guys who represent themselves as a doo wop group and making a living, singing in harmony. There are players, buskers on the platform and on the train. Mexican bands who ride the train, peruvian flutists in the 14th and 34th street stations, the asian violist at 42nd, the hip hop dancers who tease tourists with their show.. the guitarist without all the strings on the guitar, julliard students at practice, and anyone else who wants to try to gain a coin

Last week coming home, i walked on the train after school. I was carrying too many bags and i saw a seat. So i took the seat and once i started reading my paper, i looked up and saw a sad eyed woman who was pregnant. I stood to give her my seat. None of the 8 men around me gave her a seat, but one man with a yamukle looked up from his ny times and stood to let me have his seat. I thanked him. Within seconds, i heard the man next to me talking to himself, under his breath. I looked at him and he needed to wash his shirt where he spilled food and needed to learn to maintain his hygiene. I knew he was travelling back to where he was living, i wanted to believe it was group home for the mentally ill. this man was high functioning but needed help. He carried a newspaper and more in his black plastic bag..
as we pulled into a station, he put his bag in the seat and go up and went to the door. He used the bag to reserve his seat but i thought that he didnt know that
leaving a bag unattended was not an acceptable thing in NY anymore. Even i who doesnt think of terrorist activity was concerned by his actions. He came back to sit down..
as the men across the way go off, i went to sit next to the pregnant woman..
"when are you due, ?" i asked. She looked at me and finally told me she was not pregnant. I was not sure i heard her correctly.. She was not pregnant.
She told me she has a tumor.. she hadnt had it removed. There was problem with her medical insurance and when the doctor told her there was a chance they would grow back. she didnt persue the surgery. This information was in response to some questions i asked her.. She will hve the surgery in july. she didnt know if they were fibroid and she didnt know much about her health or health care. She wasnt aware she had choices and it wasnt my place to tell her.
I apologized for thinking she was pregnant. She said that the tumor was in her womb as big as a baby . I asked her how hard it was to carry around that much weight. she said she gets very tired. She explained she wanted a seat but saw i had lots of bags so she appreciated i gave her my seat. I told her that she looked like she needed to sit so it was not a hard choice for me..I wished her well as she got off at her stop....

Riding the NY subway is always an adventure waiting to happen

Saturday, April 16, 2005

poem'd da day

April is Poem Month and My literary and literate friend suzi is posting a poem of the day... while i prefer Carl Sandburg, Robert Lowell, Dr Suess etc and other such poetry.. She is posting Adrienne Rich and other comtemporary poems.. For her Poem O' the day....
I told her that where i spend my time... its not poem of the day... or poem o the day.. it would be poem da da day...
Here is my crooked tribute to her POem O the day...
as tribute to the teenagers who read ghetto lit, who listen to the poets of their generation..who write rhyme or rap verse....

Album: The Eminem Show (2002)
Song: White America

Intro
America! We love you! How many people are proud to be citizens of this beautiful country of ours? The stripes and the stars for the rights that men have died for to protect
The women and men who have broke their necks for the freedom of speech the United States government has sworn to uphold. (Yo I want everybody to listen to the words of this song) or so we're told...

Verse 1
I never would've dreamed in a million years I'd see, so many motherfuckin' people who feel like me
who share the same views and the same exact beliefs, it's like a fuckin' army marchin' in back of me
So many lives I touch, so much anger aimed in no particular direction
just sprays and sprays and straight through your radio waves it plays and plays, till it stays stuck in your head for days and days
who woulda thought, standing in this mirror bleachin' my hair, with some peroxide, reachin for a t-shirt to wear
that I would catapult to the forefront of rap like this? How could I predict my words would have an impact like this
I must've struck a chord, with somebody up in the office, cuz Congress keeps telling me I ain't causin' nuthin' but problems
and now they're sayin' I'm in trouble with the government, I'm lovin' it, I shoveled shit all my life/and now I'm dumping it on...

Chorus (X2)
White America!
I could be one of your kids
White America!
Little Eric looks just like this
White America!
Erica loves my shit
I go to TRL, look how many hugs I get

Verse 2
Look at these eyes, baby blue, baby just like yourself, if they were brown Shady lose, Shady sits on the shelf
but Shady's cute, Shady knew Shady's dimples would help, make ladies swoon baby, ooh baby! Look at my sales
Lets do the math, If I was black I would've sold half, I ain't have to graduate from Lincoln High School to know that
but I could rap, so fuck school, I'm too cool to go back, gimme the mic, show me where the fuckin' studio's at
When I was underground, no one gave a fuck I was white, no labels wanted to sign me almost gave up, I was like
Fuck it, until I met Dre, the only one to look past, gave me a chance, and I lit a fire up under his ass
helped him get back to the top, every fan black that I got was probably his in exchange for every white fan that he's got
Like damn, we just swapped. Sittin' back lookin' at shit, wow, I'm like my skin is it starting to work to my benefit now?

Chorus (X2)

Verse 3
See the problem is I speak to suburban kids who otherwise would of never knew these words exist
whose moms probably woulda never gave two squirts of piss, till I created so much motherfuckin' turbulence
straight out the tube, right into your living room I came, and kids flipped when they knew I was produced by Dre
That's all it took, and they were instantly hooked right in, and they connected with me too because I looked like them
that's why they put my lyrics up under this microscope, searchin' with a fine tooth comb, its like this rope
waitin' to choke, tightening around my throat, watching me while I write this, like I don't like this (Nope)
All I hear is: lyrics, lyrics, constant controversy, sponsors working round the clock, to try to stop my concerts early
surely hip hop was never a problem in Harlem only in Boston, after it bothered the fathers of daughters starting to blossom
so now I'm catchin' the flack from these activists when they raggin', actin' like I'm the first rapper to smack a bitch, or say faggot
shit, just look at me like I'm your closest pal, the posterchild, the mother fuckin' spokesman now for...

Chorus (X2)

Outro
So to the parents of America
I am the derringer aimed at little Erica, to attack her character
The ringleader of this circus of worthless pawns
Sent to lead the march right up to the steps of Congress
And piss on the lawns of the White House and replace it with a Parental Advisory sticker
To spit liquor in the faces of in this democracy of hypocrisy
Fuck you Ms. Cheney! Fuck you Tipper Gore! Fuck you with the freest of speech this divided states of embarassment will allow me to have, Fuck you!
I'm just kiddin' America, you know I love you...

parking angels prayer

thank you parking angels for making parkings spots at places where my life will be easier and less stressful. THank you parking angels for those spots in front of venues when i have to carry the merch, thank you for allowing venues to let me park in their lots, thank you for the open meters and legal spots, the broken meters where i dont have to pay and can park as long as i need. and thank you for the late night spots close to my house so i dont have to drive around and around and can get home with ease

Monday, April 11, 2005

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Defeat Fatigue

treating chronic fatigue

symptoms and treatment of chronic fatigue

Viva la Manhattan- the isle of joy

Summer journeys
To Niag'ra
And to other places
Aggravate all our cares.
We'll save our fares.
I've a cozy little flat
In what is known as old Manhattan.
We'll settle down
Right here in town.

We'll have Manhattan,
The Bronx and Staten
Island too.
It's lovely going through
The zoo.
It's very fancy
On old Delancey
Street, you know.

The subway charms us so
When balmy breezes blow
To and fro.
And tell me what street
Compares with Mott Street

In July?
Sweet pushcarts gently gliding by.
The great big city's a wondrous toy
Just made for a girl and boy.
We'll turn Manhattan
Into an isle of joy.

We'll go to Greenwich,
Where modern men itch
To be free;
And Bowling Green you'll see
With me.
We'll bathe at Brighton
The fish you'll frighten

When you're in.
Your bathing suit so thin
Will make the shellfish grin
Fin to fin.
I'd like to take a
Sail on Jamaica
Bay with you.
And fair Canarsie's lake
We'll view.

The city's bustle cannot destroy
The dreams of a girl and boy.
We'll turn Manhattan
Into an isle of joy.

We'll go to Yonkers
Where true love conquers
In the wilds.
And starve together, dear,
In Childs'.

We'll go to Coney
And eat baloney
On a roll.
In Central Park we'll stroll,
Where our first kiss we stole,
Soul to soul.

Our future babies
We'll take to "Abie's
Irish Rose."
I hope they'll live to see
It close.
The city's clamor can never spoil
The dreams of a boy and goil.
We'll turn Manhattan
Into an isle of joy.

We'll have Manhattan,
The Bronx and Staten
Island too.
We'll try to cross'
Fifth Avenue.
As black as onyx
We'll find the Bronnix
Park Express.

Our Flatbush flat, I guess,
Will be a great success,
More or less.
A short vacation
On Inspiration Point
We'll spend,
And in the station house we'll end,

But Civic Virtue cannot destroy
The dreams of a girl and boy.
We'll turn Manhattan
Into an isle of joy!

Lady is a tramp by Rogers and Hart

Writer(s): rodgers/hart

She gets too hungry, for dinner at eight
She loves the theater, but doesn’t come late
She’d never bother, with people she’d hate
That’s why the lady is a tramp

Doesn’t like crap games, with barons and earls
Won’t go to harlem, in ermine and pearls
Won’t dish the dirt, with the rest of those girls
That’s why the lady is a tramp

She loves the free, fresh wind in her hair
Life without care
She’s broke, but it’s o’k
She hates california, it’s cold and it’s damp
That’s why the lady is a tramp

Doesn’t like dice games, with sharpies and frauds
Won’t go to harlem, in lincolns or fords
Won’t dish the dirt, with the rest of those broads
That’s why the lady is a tramp

Is it a slow news day.... The Presidents IPOD

White House Letter: President Bush's iPod
By ELISABETH BUMILLER

Published: April 11, 2005

WASHINGTON

Between his return on Friday from Pope John Paul II's funeral in Rome and his meeting today with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel, President Bush spent an hour and a half on Saturday on an 18-mile mountain bike ride at his Texas ranch. With him, as usual, was his indispensable new exercise toy: an iPod music player loaded with country and popular rock tunes aimed at getting the presidential heart rate up to a chest-pounding 170 beats per minute.

Which brings up the inevitable question. What, exactly, is on the First iPod? In an era of celebrity playlists - Tom Brady, the New England Patriots quarterback, recently posted his on the iTunes online music store - what does the presidential selection of downloaded songs tell us about Mr. Bush?

First, Mr. Bush's iPod is heavy on traditional country singers like George Jones, Alan Jackson and Kenny Chesney. He has selections by Van Morrison, whose "Brown Eyed Girl" is a Bush favorite, and by John Fogerty, most predictably "Centerfield," which was played at Texas Rangers games when Mr. Bush was an owner and is still played at ballparks all over America. ("Oh, put me in coach, I'm ready to play today.")

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The president also has an eclectic mix of songs downloaded into his iPod from Mark McKinnon, a biking buddy and his chief media strategist during the 2004 campaign. Among them are "Circle Back" by John Hiatt, "(You're So Square) Baby, I Don't Care" by Joni Mitchell and "My Sharona," the 1979 song by the Knack that Joe Levy, a deputy managing editor at Rolling Stone in charge of music coverage, cheerfully branded "suggestive if not outright filthy" in an interview last week.

Mr. Bush has had his Apple iPod since July, when he received it from his twin daughters as a birthday gift. He has some 250 songs on it, a paltry number compared to the 10,000 selections it can hold. Mr. Bush, as leader of the free world, does not take the time to download the music himself; that task falls to his personal aide, Blake Gottesman, who buys individual songs and albums, including Mr. Jones's and Mr. Jackson's greatest hits, from the iTunes music store.

Mr. Bush uses his iPod chiefly during bike workouts to help him pump up his heartbeat, which he monitors with a wrist strap. The strap also keeps track of calories expended for the intensely weight-focused president, who has recently lost eight pounds after eating a lot of doughnuts during the 2004 campaign. Mr. Bush burned 1,300 calories on his bike ride on Saturday, Mr. McKinnon reported.

As for an analysis of Mr. Bush's playlist, Mr. Levy of Rolling Stone started out with this: "One thing that's interesting is that the president likes artists who don't like him."

Mr. Levy was referring to Mr. Fogerty, who was part of the anti-Bush "Vote for Change" concert tour across the United States last fall. Mr. McKinnon, who once wrote songs for Kris Kristofferson's music publishing company, responded in an e-mail message that "if any president limited his music selection to pro-establishment musicians, it would be a pretty slim collection."

Nonetheless, Mr. McKinnon said that Mr. Bush had not gone so far as to include on his playlist "Fortunate Son," the angry anti-Vietnam war song about who has to go to war that Mr. Fogerty sang when he was with Creedence Clearwater Revival. ("I ain't no senator's son ... Some folks are born silver spoon in hand.") As the son of a two-term congressman and a United States Senate candidate, Mr. Bush won a coveted spot with the Texas Air National Guard to avoid combat in Vietnam.

Meanwhile, Mr. Levy sized up the rest of the playlist of the 58-year-old president. "What we're talking about is a lot of great artists from the 60's and 70's and more modern artists who sound like great artists from the 60's and 70's," he said. "This is basically boomer rock 'n' roll and more recent music out of Nashville made for boomers. It's safe, it's reliable, it's loving. What I mean to say is, it's feel-good music. The Sex Pistols it's not."

Mr. Jones, Mr. Levy said, was nonetheless an interesting choice. "George Jones is the greatest living singer in country music and a recovering alcoholic who often sings about heartbreak and drinking," he said. "It tells you that the president knows a thing or two about country music and is serious about his love of country music."

The songs by Mr. Jackson indicate that the president "has a little bit of a taste for hard core and honky-tonk," Mr. Levy said, adding that both Mr. Jackson and Mr. Jones "are not about cute and pop, and they're not getting by on their looks." And while Mr. Chesney "is about cute and pop and gets by on his looks," Mr. Levy said, "he's also all about serious country music."

Mr. McKinnon, who has downloaded "Castanets" by Alejandro Escovedo and "Alive 'N' Kickin' " by Kenny Loggins into Mr. Bush's iPod, said that sometimes a presidential playlist is just a playlist, nothing more.

"No one should psychoanalyze the song selection," Mr. McKinnon said. "It's music to get over the next hill."

Bush's Playlist

Published: April 11, 2005

A sampling from President Bush's iPod; some songs were selected by Mark McKinnon, the chief media strategist in the 2004 campaign:

John Fogerty, "Centerfield"

Van Morrison, "New Biography," "Brown Eyed Girl"

John Hiatt, "Circle Back"

Alan Jackson

George Jones

Alejandro Escovedo, "Castanets" Joni Mitchell, "(You're So Square) Baby, I Don't Care"

The Gourds, "El Paso"

Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, "Swinging From the Chains of Love"

Stevie Ray Vaughan, "The House is Rockin' "

James McMurtry, "Valley Road"

The Thrills, "Say It Ain't So" The Knack, "My Sharona"


THE LORAX speaks

Here is the link to the story of the Lorax
The lorax is short little guy who tries to tell the people in his world that they are using up all the resources and when the resources are gone and depleted, they will not be able to survive. The lorax is not crying wolf or whistling dixie

the lorax by dr seuss

HAPPY EARTH DAY.... Happy Earth... Listen to the lorax....

Free Plants and Trees for Charity



i have been a fan of this website but i live in a NYC apartment therefore I cannot take advantage of this offer. I have thought that i would love to gift a friend a Plant or Tree and donate to the disabled at the same time

Maybe you can buy a plant or tree?

Saturday, April 09, 2005

Poetry month

Peter, Peter, Sugar Eater

by Bruce Lansky
Peter, Peter, sugar eater,
always wanted food much sweeter.
Adding sugar was a blunder.
Now he is a toothless wonder.

Blow Your Nose!
by Bruce Lansky
Little Boy Blue
please blow your nose.
It drips like a faucet
and sprays like a hose.
Your brother and sister
are getting upset,
so please blow your nose-
'cause you're getting them wet!

Little Miss Muffet
by Bruce Lansky
Little Miss Muffet
sat on a tuffet
eating her curds and whey.
Along came a spider
who sat down beside her.
And since she was still hungry, she ate the spider, too.

London Bridge
by Bruce Lansky
London Bridge is falling down,
falling down, falling down.
There's no way to walk to town.
Take the ferry.

Mary Had a Little Jam
by Bruce Lansky
Mary had a little jam;
she spread it on a waffle.
And if she hadn't eaten ten,
she wouldn't feel so awful.

Yankee Doodle in Paris
by Bruce Lansky
Yankee Doodle went to France,
With his golden VISA.
But he could not afford to buy
Da Vinci's Mona Lisa.

Friday, April 08, 2005

horoscope for april 13th

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22–Jan. 19): Mahatma Gandhi said that "Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony." You are maybe as close as you've ever been to achieving that mythical state. I'm tempted to say that there's a cosmic conspiracy working to unify elements of your life that have long been at odds. Fragments are weaving themselves together as if directed by a power that's beyond your conscious awareness. Contradictions that have at times threatened to make you feel like a hypocrite are tantalizingly close to melting away. I urge you to drop everything, Capricorn, so that you may give yourself fully to an intense collaboration with this cosmic conspiracy

Thursday, April 07, 2005

Never broke and the blessings

Today as i walked from my meeting on lower manhattan to my class in soho, i walked up by Family Court. I was thinking about judge judy and how she used to work there and then i thought about the days and hours i spent in family court. I looked at the people leaving the court house at 430 or almost 5 and i thought about their story.. I walked on and saw a short latin woman flanked by a boy about 10 and a girl about 14 and on the back of the young man's jacket was a round circle amulet and in the amulet was the Slogan
NEVER BROKE...... i walked on and up to him and as i walked by... said to him that the jacket says it all. It reminded me that I am never broke. There are so many blessings in my life that i can recall all those things that i am grateful for...

my friends, my family, having a job, being able to work, having a place to live, being able to do what i want, having more than i need, My cat, my car, being able to see music and plays i love, being surrounded by loving caring people... i really am never broke...

speaking of blessings, i have gotten my share lately...

dave came over tuesday to set up my server and we found out that I got the wrong Hard drive... i had to call dell and renegotiate a replacement... it took a few hours but i ended up with a manager in customer care who didnt know HOW to deal with my situation so i am now the owner of a 80GB and a free 160GB harddrive in addition to my 60GB harddrive...it seems that a hard drive will make me go away...


then i got a certified letter.... to pick up at the post office.. i wrote WW internation about some bad chocolate cakes i got... I got a letter from Dawn foods telling me that their shelf life is two weeks but they were willing to reimburse me 25 dollars. the letter instructed me that any further complaints will not be honored.
they paid me off to go away...

halliburton commerical

i cant believe i just this "my name is _______________and i am proud to work for halliburton" on TV...on CNN ...

Pokeola

When Daddy told me what happened
I couldn't believe what he just said
Sonny shot himself with a 44 and they found him lyin on his bed
I could not speak a single word no tears streamed down my face
I just sat there on the living room couch staring off into space
Mama and Daddy went over to the house to see what had to be done
They took the sheets off of the bed and they went to call someone
Some of us gathered at a friend's house to help each other ease the
pain
I just sat alone in a corner chair I couldn't say much of anything
We drove on out to the country
His friends all stood around
Subiaco Cemetery is where we lay him down
I saw his mama, she was standing there his sister she was there too
I saw them look at us standing around the grave and not a soul they
knew
Born and raised in Pineola his mama believed in the Pentecost
She got the preacher to say some words so his soul wouldn't get lost
SOLO
Some of us we stood in silence some bowed their heads and prayed
I think I must've picked up a handful of dust and let it fall over his
grave
I think I must've picked up a handful of dust and let it fall over his
grave
SOLO
From Lucinda Williams Sweet Old World'
Chameleon Records 19992
Lucy Jones Music(BMI)

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

That silly EBV

my friend Amy asked me "how is your epstein barr" so how do i answer
"fine" "in remission" "it cant be tamed" "its okay, its always there" "fine thanks, how's yours" "its okay" "i have to feed it and water it everyday" "its driving me nuts"
or "boy am i tired"

well since my last EBV blog... at alot has happened.. I jumped in and started Magnisium and calcium and Zinc... that cocktail ( okay its one pill) along with more rest seemed to make feel almost like myself... so i am on acidophilis, probiotics, Soy isoflavs, black cohost, flax seed oil tabs, a multivitamin, calicum with K&D and vitamin C...
i need to consolidate these damn pills.. and ofcourse.. My claritan...

the Zinc and magnisium made me feel better til this weekend... i knew i had to be careful working the susan werner show on saturday and coming in after midnight. I then had to get up and out early to volunteer at ringwood for the mark erelli/lori mckenna show and i got home at 730.... both of those may be stressful and tiring but the worst factor has been the loss of an hour sleep...
the clock change just whacked me out..

i feel the now familiar strain and pain behind my eyes. I try to doze off at red lights, I am Shot to shit....Monday was the worst... I kept falling asleep on my way to work and then at work... so i chilled out and walked monday night. Tuesday night, my friend and computer geek dave came over to set up my server.. (dont ask, its another blog entry) and dave left after 1030 and i hadnt eaten...

getting up is the hardest.. its dark and i have not gotten enough sleep.. I want to saty in bed.. I am tired and hte coffee doesnt kick in..

tomorrow, i will sleep a little later and go to my meeting in Manhattan, skipping the morning in queens and work from home... i need to sleep in and tomorrow is the day that will get me to saturday.. last week when i tried this, i got up at 730am
i have no walls til about 1100 so i can sleep til 9 if i need to...

it will feel good..taking care of me is the key to the EBV....

maybe it should be a bumber sticker...

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

Listen for my store on wheels, ding-a-ling down the street,"

for the sheet music or franchise
http://www.mistersoftee.com/music.asp

Mr. Softee Driving People Nuts?
2004_06_mrsofteefig.jpg

In an article that will surely win The New York Times a Pulitzer, Dan Barry undergoes an experiment with the Mr. Softee jingle. Gothamist and our readers are very familiar with the jingle, but Barry sums it up nicely as, "Duh-DUH-duh-duh duh-duh-duhduh-duh-duh-duh-duh-DUH-duuuh-duh. . . ." Wait- isn't that one 'duh' too many? Anyway, Barry explores the hypnotic effects of the jingle and reveals that the jingle actually has words!

My milkshakes and my sundaes and my cones are such a treat / Listen for my store on wheels ding-a-ling down the street / The creamiest, dreamiest soft ice cream you get from Mister Softee. . . .

Recently, City Hall has proposed outlawing the Mr. Softee jingle. James Conway Jr., an ice cream executive (some might say he has the best job ever), reveals that Mister Softee has a lobbyist that is working with the City Council and the mayor to reach a compromise on the jingle. Conway also reveals that there is a technology that stops the song when the ice cream truck stops. Well, hot damn! Where has this been all our lives? And who ever thought you could make a living as an ice cream lobbyist? Where do we sign up to be the local voice of the BBQ industry?

No matter how much we dislike the Mr. Softee song, we know that summer will not be the same without it. Now we not only have a craving for ice cream, but we also have the song stuck in our heads. Damn Pavlovian effects. Gothamist isn't quite at the point of the Mister Softee drivers are at, who after repeated listening to the song have "become desensitized". [Mr. Softee has a website and some of the most disturbing merchandise we have every seen. No word yet on whether Mr. Softee has a posse.]
Posted by tien mao in News: NYC | Print

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Comments

Revenge will be mine, softee!

Posted by: Kustard King at June 23, 2004 01:07 PM

and for non-new yorkers/those unfamiliar with mr softee's offending tune, there was this all things considered story last week.

Posted by: matt at June 23, 2004 01:43 PM

There is Mr. Softee sheet music at the website. But I have to add, it's very strange for Gothamist NOT to crave ice cream.

Posted by: Jen at June 23, 2004 01:51 PM

So this pirate walks up to a Mr. Softee truck with a little steering wheel, like that used to steer a pirate ship, sticking out of his fly. The driver asks "What can I get 'cha?" and the pirate motions (using his hook, of course) towards the picture and says "Yaaarrrrr gimme a swirled cone!!!! And one for me parrot!". "No problem, Mr. Pirate" responds the Mr. Softee truck driver "but I think you should know that you have a little steering wheel sticking out of your fly." The pirate, with a look of extreme discomfort on his face, replies "Aye..... and it's drivin' me nuts, yaaaaaaarrrrrggghhhh!!!!".

Posted by: Kevin at June 23, 2004 02:08 PM

In order to warrant a barbecue lobbyist, New York is first going to have to get some decent barbecue, don't you think?

Posted by: Chris at June 23, 2004 02:10 PM

new york has decent bbq for those willing to cross 125th st. flex yo' metrocard son!

ps, mr. softee must die!

Posted by: Kustard King at June 23, 2004 02:12 PM

Mister Softee hackey sack? Mister Softee pinwheel? Who buys pinwheels?!

Posted by: Josh at June 23, 2004 03:06 PM

You know, I've been here for years. Seen many a Mr. Softee truck. I can't recall ever once hearing any music coming from it.

The real noise problems in this city are early morning garbage trucks and early morning construction. These should be prohibited before 10am at least. Some of us are not morning people after all...

Posted by: saltydog at June 23, 2004 03:22 PM

if any of you were lucky enough to watch "In the Papers" on NY1 this morning, Pat Kiernan was nice enough to translate the "duh-DUHs" into singing. He had a decent voice.

Posted by: jenny at June 23, 2004 03:36 PM

I don't know, it's totally irrational, but it's just no NYC in the summertime without the Mr. S trucks and the jingle. Kinda like Times Square's not Times Square without the hookers.

Posted by: Tim N. at June 23, 2004 04:14 PM

Who could dislike the Mister Softee jingle?

The kind of person who kicks dogs and steps on bugs, that's who.

www.forgotten-ny.com

Posted by: Kevin Walsh at June 23, 2004 11:11 PM

Actually, that appears to be 1 "duh" too *few*, if you are counting notes exactly...

Posted by: Sam T at June 24, 2004 09:03 AM

We didn't have Mister Softee in my town on Long Island. So I didn't hear him until I went to college in Buffalo.

I don't know why, but for some reason, I always hummed along with the song, and then for the last few notes, sang "it's fuckin' Mister Softee." I still do that on the street, usually under my breath so I don't corrupt young minds.

Try it! It's fun.

Posted by: Jason at June 24, 2004 10:12 AM

Those who find the Mr.Softee song harmless have never had one of those demon trucks park on the corner and broadcast for the better part of an afternoon.

Imagine the world's most annoying 7 year-old redhead belting out barney songs for 4 hours in your bedroom. NOT fun.

Posted by: Aaron at June 24, 2004 12:33 PM

how about all of the diesel fumes that young developing kids are being exposed to as Mr. Softee parks his gas guzzling trucks on corners for hours. no wonder kids have the asthma!

Posted by: Kustard King at June 24, 2004 02:17 PM

mr. softee is my dad. SO BACK OFF!

Posted by: bob at July 30, 2004 08:41 PM

We know about you, those who hate Mr Softee... and all the good memories we remember! Your mothers never let you have any Mr Softee because you were all to busy practicing your piano lessons. How pitiful, get a life!! Oh and stuff your cell phone while your at it.

Posted by: The Chief at August 28, 2004 12:00 AM

The same type of people who complain about Mister Softee music are the one who tore down the Hawks nest in NYC.

Posted by: Ray at January 7, 2005 12:00 AM

The government could surely find something more important to do than to consider legislation about the music from Mr. Softee Trucks.

I've heard of the city wasting money and time before, but this is surely one of the toppers. Our streets, pay phones, bus stops and subway stations are filthy. Parts of the city are overrun with rats and Mayor Bloomberg was actually on TV talking about the jingle and the complaints he got about it - from a bunch of jerks that forgot what it was like to be a kid in NYC.

This guy is the most out-of-touch politician I've seen in my 51 years. I wish Mr. Softee would run against Mike Bloomberg in the next election - he'd get my vote.

Rich T.

Posted by: Rich T. at January 29, 2005 02:02 PM

THE SONG PARODY
Hey, Mr. Softee (Don't Play Your Song For Me)
"Mr. Tamborine man" Based on the performance by Bob Dylan
"Hey, Mr. Softee (Don't Play Your Song For Me)" Parody by Too Rich Olson

Ethno-Bluegrass-Collegists Alert!Seems to me that the gawdoffalest public tragedies, catasstropheys, and garden variety massacrees have often inspired Great Folk Songs, some of which find their way into the Bluegrass Music. Older folks might probly can recall some of them 60's tunes by Rob Dolan, The ChungKing Trio, Phyllis, Phallus & Fred and a hole raft more. All them Playlists on Bgrass-L could come in real handy, like, you could look 'em up! And lots of them songs ended up with tunes borried from somewheres else. To my mind, a real important new Folksong has recently come to the light in the Htfd., CT area where the TV and newspapers has been full of stories about a Mr. Softee driver who attacked a senior citizen with a baseball bat! Now I'm guessin' that there might could be some sort of connection between the alleged attack and the following song (which seems real likely to become a Bluegrass standard someday). I could be wrong, I ain't no real Ethno-Bluegrass-Collegist. Opposing opinions are solicited.

HEY, MR. SOFTEE (DON'T PLAY YOUR SONG FOR ME)
(tune: goes something like that old Rob Dolan "Mr. Gangrene Man" thing)

Hey! Mr. Softee, don't play your song for me,
It's way too loud for neighbors as you're drivin' through.
Hey, Mr. Softee, man don't play your song for me
Them high-pitched jingles jangle my old brains to glue.

I know that evening's Dreamcicle is melting in my hand,
Dripping on the sand, left me sticky here to stand - but not complaining.
Your aggressiveness amazes me, got bruses on my arm
I'm sounding the alarm and the summer city's no good place for dying.

Hey, Mr. Softee, don't swing that bat at me
Cause I complained your jingle was too loud for me.
Hey, Mr. Softee, man don't swing that bat at me
In the jingle jangle evening I'm hollerin' at you.

Play it softly and put down that big stick of yours
With neighbors lockin' doors, I'm nursing all my sores.
My arms are too numb to reach.
I'm thinking of maybe I'll be moving soon
I'm ready to go anywhere, I'm fixin' to move away.
I'm leavin here today � goin' to where those Softee trucks don't bother me.

Hey! Mr. Softee, don't play your song for me.
It hurts my ears � and for a week they're a ringing bad.
Hey, Mr. Softee, man don't play your song for me.
Why not get a little bell and we'll come a follerin' you.

Hey, Mr. Softee, man put away your bat.
Ain't no need for that � put on your paper hat.
Hey! Mr. Softee, man ring a little bell
Or you can go to hell, Good Humor Man!, we'll yell
In the jingle jangled evening I ain't a follerin' you.




Vincent Laforet/The New York Times
James Conway Jr. of Mister Softee joined witnesses speaking out against a proposed new noise code.


It Can Be an Annoying Jingle, Mister Softee Concedes at Hearing
By WINNIE HU

Published: January 27, 2005

He was the star witness, and had come before the City Council to speak on one of the Bloomberg administration's more controversial proposals. With the news media closely watching, James Conway Jr., the scion of the family that founded Mister Softee, had an admission to make: the Mister Softee ditty, a staple of urban summer, could be so annoying that even he would not want it playing outside his house all day.


"Does it get stuck in your head occasionally?" he said. "We hope so. But the Mister Softee song as a threat to the health and welfare of New Yorkers? I don't think so."

The jingle, with its lyrics, "Listen for my store on wheels, ding-a-ling down the street," has become a flashpoint in the debate over revising the city's noise code. From dogs that bark too long to nightclubs that draw neighbors' complaints, the administration wants new restrictions, but it found wide-ranging opposition at yesterday's City Council hearing.

Also speaking out against the administration's plan was the New York Nightlife Association, which contended that some of the city's hottest nightclubs would become sitting ducks for a newly empowered noise police. And a coalition of labor unions protested that picket lines and demonstrations could also become easy targets.

These critics say that while they are not opposed to updating the code, the current plan is too vague and could impose an unnecessary expense and burden on many businesses while doing little to combat problems like early morning construction and noisy smokers gathered on the street.

"In the real world, the current code is a joke, and this is worse," said David Rabin, the co-owner of the nighclub Lotus and president of the nightlife association.

In a city with no shortage of complainers, excessive noise in any form - the ricochet of jackhammers, the thumping of club music, the drone of air-conditioners - has long fostered complaints. The Department of Environmental Protection, which oversees the noise code, receives an average of 3,500 complaints a month.

David B. Tweedy, the agency's acting commissioner, said the city wants to reduce sound levels by adopting more enforceable regulations on construction, air-conditioners, and bars and clubs that play music, among other things. To encourage cooperation, he said, no penalties would be levied for a first offense if the person or business agreed to make changes to comply with the code.

In addition, enforcement officers would be allowed to issue violations for "plainly audible" sounds coming from commercial music establishments, personal audio devices and exhausts on cars and motorcycles. Currently, they are required to register potential offenses on handheld decibel meters, which they say require frequent adjustments and are prone to error.

"This proposal provides a flexible approach to address the No. 1 quality-of-life complaint," Mr. Tweedy said. "And balances the need for construction, development and nightlife with the need for peace and quiet enjoyment for the city's residents."

But several council members expressed skepticism about the plan and pledged to vote against it. Councilwoman Margarita López, who represents the Lower East Side and the East Village, said the new regulations could be used to harass businesses and called the plan "a threat to the economic development of my community."

While the four-hour hearing was packed with critics of the city's plan, there were also many supporters, including frustrated residents and members of a group known as Noise, which is short for Neighbors Against Noxious Odors, Incessant Sounds and Emissions.

But it was Mister Softee that drew the most interest. Councilman Charles Barron of Brooklyn told Mr. Tweedy: "You and the mayor are very bold taking on Mister Softee. You're going to traumatize a lot of children in this city."

Mr. Conway said that the current plan would not only silence the 347 Mister Softee trucks that operate in the city but also disappoint more than 120,000 customers. Instead, Mr. Conway proposed a compromise: stop the music only when trucks are parked for a certain length of time.

Anything more, he said, would cause sales to plummet.

"To get a sense of what this would do to us, remember when you were a kid," he said. "You heard the jingle, you grabbed your money and you ran to the truck. The way you knew Mister Softee was in the neighborhood was the song."


Conspiracy Theories...


Springtime rolls around as it always will until nuclear winter, and that familiar, tinny music-box song of the Mr. Softee ice cream truck begins echoing through the neighborhood once again. Children will become excited as the tune rings in their ears, and they will uncontrollably need to run out to the truck to get their treats before it drives off to another block.

Pavlovian, you say.

It may be more than that.

Have you ever noticed that Mr. Softee has no phone numbers? No address? Or that the operators of Mr. Softee trucks are mysteriously oblique? Did you notice Mr. Softee doesn't collect sales tax? Have you ever wondered why?

Mr. Softee is really a covert government-run operation studying mind control and preparing to take control of America's young population. At a moment's notice, thousands of Mr. Softee ice cream trucks could come rolling down America's streets playing its innocent song. Children will run to the pied piper of ice cream and follow it with blind loyalty into the hands of government automatons, who will enslave America's children into mindless robots working toward the government's cause of pointless self-perpetuation and civil obedience.

Worse still, the profits from the Mr. Softee operation go toward the continued funding and growth of the government mind control research.

Stay tuned, or not...

Monday, April 04, 2005

green is energetic.
You've got the energy level of a small yip-yap dog. And, much like those dogs, I hope you get run over by an ice cream truck. Yeah, that's right. I said it.
brought to you by interim32. wanna know your lj's moodring color? enter your user name and hit the button. (discussion thread)

the new york post reports... You too can own James Earl Ray Charles video

Video of James Earl Ray Autopsy for Sale

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- A videotape of James Earl Ray's autopsy is up for sale, the brother of Martin Luther King Jr.'s confessed killer said Monday.

Jerry Ray said he hopes to sell the two-hour video for up to $400,000, though no firm price has been set.

"A lot of people have an interest in things like that," Ray said.

Ray made the announcement on a sidewalk near the National Civil Rights Museum on the site of King's assassination on April 4, 1968.


Ray intended to hold a news conference just below the balcony where King was felled by a rifle slug. He left without argument when told to move on.

The museum was hosting visitors on the 37th anniversary of King's death.

"For him to come and besmirch the memory of one of the greatest leaders of the world, on today of all days, is unacceptable," said Gwen Harmon, the museum's marketing director. "Freedom of speech, I'm all for. He has that freedom, but he can do that press conference in the middle of (Interstate) 240 or on Main Street. But not here."

Ray said he planned to offer the videotape on eBay. The Internet trading site said, however, that it does not handle morgue pictures or videos.

Ray said he needs money to continue a legal fight over the .30-caliber hunting rifle identified as the firearm used to kill King. Tennessee courts say the rifle belongs to the state, and it is on display at the civil rights museum.

The Conspiracy Museum in Dallas has offered $100,000 for the rifle, and Ray said he has gotten offers of up to $250,000 in the past.

James Earl Ray died of liver disease in Nashville in 1998 while serving a 99-year prison sentence for King's murder.

© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.

Portland and Oregon in the news

Puliter Prizes :The Willamette Week reporter, Nigel Jaquiss, received the investigative award today for his reporting on a sexual relationship between former Gov. Neil Goldschmidt and a 14-year-old babysitter. The abuse took place while Mr. Goldschmidt was mayor of Portland in the 1970's. After the newspaper published its findings, Mr. Goldschmidt acknowledged the abuse.

Mr. Jaquiss, 42, is a relative newcomer to journalism, having been an oil trader for 11 years before joining The Week in January 1998, shortly after receiving a master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

"It's just a tremendous honor," Mr. Jaquiss tearfully told colleagues after his award was announced today, according to The A.P. "I never thought it would happen to me."


F*ck Foie Gras
_______________________

Demonstrators Push Foie Gras Off of Menus
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: April 4, 2005

SALEM, Ore., April 3 (AP) - At Hurley's restaurant in hip Northwest Portland, foie gras is not on the menu. You have to ask for it.

The restaurant is among several in Portland that have removed foie gras from their menus because of protests by animal rights activists, who have gathered outside restaurants with gruesome images of dead and diseased ducks they say are the result of force-feeding techniques used to produce foie gras, which is fattened duck liver.



Opponents say the practice should be outlawed, and persuaded the California Legislature last year to pass a bill that will ban foie gras in 2012 unless producers can prove the technique is humane.

Legislation also is being considered in Oregon, New York, Illinois and Massachusetts that would make it a criminal act even to possess foie gras. Activists recently persuaded about 10 restaurants in Pittsburgh to stop serving foie gras.

In the making of foie gras, ducks have a stainless steel tube inserted into their throats twice a day for two weeks and a measured amount of partly cooked corn is pumped down their esophagi. The technique packs on the pounds quickly, creating a fatty liver.

Some say the protesters and legislators are clueless and scoff at the idea that ducks, whose livers alone are worth $75 a pound, are mistreated.

But Gene Bauston, a co-founder of the animal rights group Farm Sanctuary, says the pictures and videos of foie gras farms show that force-feeding is a "cruel and unnecessary practice" that should not be legal.

Francine Bradley, a poultry specialist with the University of California Cooperative Extension Service, said foie gras farms simply take advantage of ducks' natural ability to store a large amount of fat.

Ms. Bradley has worked extensively with Sonoma Foie Gras in California, one of only three producers in the nation, and defends the production practice. She said Guillermo Gonzalez, the owner, and his family have been victimized.

Mr. Gonzalez is focused on clearing the industry that drew him to the United States from El Salvador.

"I am hopeful that the legislators will realize that this is only the tip of the iceberg," he said, "and that their decision is crucial to the future of animal agriculture in general."

Take the oil and keep it for yourself ExECUTIVE order

www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/11/20041129-12.html



Modifying the Protection Granted to the Development Fund for Iraq and Certain Property in Which Iraq Has An Interest and Protecting the Central Bank of Iraq
Executive Order

Saturday, April 02, 2005

Capricorn Horoscope for week of March 31, 2005

Capricorn Horoscope for week of March 31, 2005

Verticle Oracle card Capricorn (December 22-January 19)
The information produced in the world every year would fill 37,000 Library of Congresses. Unfortunately, you haven't been keeping up very well. If you know what's good for you, you'll dramatically increase your uptake of raw data. Read more newspapers and magazines, please. Spend more time surfing the Web. Watch more TV. APRIL FOOL! Ninety-nine point ninety-nine percent of all that raw data is useless, meaningless, and corrupted with half-truth. In fact, to best serve your mental health you should get a high-quality Bullshit Detector. Either that, or invite more silence into your life.

the pope has died

John Paul II has finally died today or 930pm in rome. My thoughts are not for the pope or the catholic church. There are enough commentaries and criticisms that will appear. The State of the Catholic Church especially here in the US. I am sure that Cardinal Egan will have his say tomorrow at St Pats..

But my thoughts are with Amada. Amada is my ex- Admin Aide. Amada is working somewhere in child welfare in brooklyn. I met her when she applied for a job. She was a teacher in ecquador and was living and working in Queens. She was working in a factory earning minimum wage at an hourly rate. I hired Amada and she shone in her job. she carried herself with the respect and dignity.

I worked for St Josephs Service for children and families. a private agency somewhat connected to the Brooklyn and Queens Diocese.. I worked there for 15 years and learned alot about the church.. Nuns lie too.. and rituals and saint days.. but i learned about Grace from St Rita, i mean Sr. Rita our Executive Director and nun.. I learned about faith from Amada..

the pope came to NYC... all plans were made for a big event in Aquaduct Race Track.. i guess it was place big and safe enough for JOHN PAUL.. I had a ticket to go out there and see the Pope but Amada's faith and committment to her beliefs left me with no choice but to give her my ticket and the day off to see the POPE

Miles, hte young man that i worked with also met the POPE when he visited NY. He went to St Patricks for an audience with the POPE.. Miles was 7 and a self proclaimed catholic and innocent victim of AIDS. Miles wanted nothing more at that time than to meet the POPE and sure enough he had an audience as did his adoptive mother, Pat. Miles shared with me his rosary that the POPE gave him and evenutally he was buried with when the disease ravaged his body...

I hope Miles welcomes the POPE to the afterlife they believed in... I hope the pope remembers him...

phone call dreams

My friend Suzi, who is starting to show up VERY frequently in my blog, told me last night that it was time to get my Blog on... Well she didnt phrase it that way.. she wanted to know why i hadnt blogged yesterday.... WORK....SChool, and my friday night Weight Watchers meeting Kept me from Blogging... SHould i have Blogged or found out that i lost .4 of One stinking pound.. Should I have Blogged or chatting with my friend Marianne who is a compulsive eater and goes to 6 WW meetings a week.. Should i have blogged or found out that I won the 2 point Bar raffle ( refused the 2 point bar and gave it to samantha- the 11 year old who attended the meeting with her mom) Should i have blogged or listened to the meeting topic on HOW TO SUCCESSFULLY GAIN WEIGHT..
we all were experts at this... And the converse of Losing weight...

Sorry Suzi... but i love Weight Watchers... i love the topics, the fellowship..
for example.. Penelope a member i never met hit her first goal last night.. Her 10%.. it was like i didnt it all over again.. she weighed in before me.. and I was psyched
for her.. I asked her if i can annouce it if the leader misses it.. Which SHe did so i rooted for Penelope and WHen teh leader seemed too busy to SET her next goal.. I asked LIsa and Tiffany (the receptionists and group leaders in training who ROCK my visits) to work with penelope and set her goal weight.. I asked penelope if she was gonna tell anyone about her accomplishment... she said it wouldnt mean the same outside of the meeting room and it wouldnt...

so here i am a HAPPY? weight watcher.... .4 loss....whatta night.. and just think i could have blogged....

and just think i was gonna blog about my dream.... I have had it twice... I am with Dar and she tells me Chapin is on the Phone ( dar being dar williams and Chapin being mary chapin carpenter) both dreams are similar... last night, i took the phone after dar said.. "chapin wants to talk to you" and i took the phone and said" this is sharon" like i do when i am at work....and she started to talk and i dont know what she said.... two times... dar tells me Chapin wants to talk to me...