Susan and i made a trip from BK to Manhattan today. Nice trip overall. But there's more. Isn't there always? So, i followed her lead to Pearl Art Supplies. She bought some Mylar for future cel-art. She was warned by the floor clerk dude with the beret, "those are heavy metals you know...they are highly toxic." I thought, yeah, so? Then i looked over to Susan, who was testing them out by brushing a little bit of each one onto the anterior part of her thumb. Arggh--glad i didn't say anything.
A few minutes later, as the clerk behind the register rang up her few purchases, the same guy reprimanded me as he made his way across the floor toward then passed me. "Please don't lean against that." I was not really leaning against the swatch display. I was just sort of fake-resting against it, but without putting any weight on it. I adjusted my position to the surly man's satisfaction. He and i made direct eye contact--the silent confrontational kind. I kept stoic. I didn't like him. He didn't like me. He was in a foul mood. I was grumpy. It was a moment made for Hallmark Greetings to positively ignore or pretend never happened.
As Susan and i marched up Broadway, we noticed a lot of stores--the big chains have been closing some of their individual stores--a rash of vacant properties where major franchises once occupied. They sort of rested there for many years, before some surly floor clerk asked them to move. National Wholesale Liquidators, Pottery Barn, Kenneth Cole, Virgin Megastore, Circuit City, Starbucks, Kim's Video--all have had one or more of their stores in NYC close in the past 4 or 5 months. If one were to look back over the past 18 months, one could add Barnes and Noble at Broadway and 9th st. to the list. Since i moved to NYC in late 97, Tower Records, HMV, Nobody Beats The Wiz, and finally Virgin Megastore have all packed up shop completely and headed out of here...no brick and mortar music chain outlets period. If you want to purchase music the old fashioned way--off a physical shelf somewhere, you only have a few independent stores in the village like Bleecker Bob's and Generation to choose from. (I'm not making the case that there is anything wrong or inferior about these stores, because i actually prefer them.)
This is the begininning of: The New, New, New, New, New York...
1. 1996: New New York--Larry Clark's "Kids" movie and Disneyfied Times Square
2. 2001: New New New York--9-11 and aftermath. Giuiliani's Mayoral tenure ends. Bloomberg's administration begins.
3. 2003-2008: New New New New York--Big gentrification psuh--econ bubble and eminent domain. Boxy-looking condos begin sprouting on every corner throughout BK and parts of Manhattan. End of Joe Torre's golden tenure as Yankee Manager
4. 2008-09-beyond: New New New New New York--Beginning of the end. Invincible chain retail outlets close. Serious questions loom with regard to the future of our economy.
After listening to my jaded outlook on the future of society and the continuing automation of humans and humanization of machines, Susan offered to buy me a drink over happy hour. We went to one of those St. Mark's Place, basement Japanese restaurants--trendy interior, friendly Japanese wait staff, deep cocktail menu. I ordered a tofu duck with ginger and a couple Sapporos. After ranting to poor Susan and her generous ear about how we live in a predatory society, i just couldn't bring myself to eat a real duck. Susan got calamari and shrimp appetizers with a couple cocktails. It was good.
I hope the restaurant which appeared to do a healthy amount of business on a Sunday night, is still here tomorrow.
When we finally returned to Susan's, we shared with her husband, Marco how astonished we were by all the vacant retail spaces. He said, "It's the beginning of 'The Big Suck.' "
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 2009
BBC vs ABC on browser toolbar
By now, nearly 15 years and some 'change' after i watched the video version of The Manufacture of Consent, the world seems much different. Since then, the internet has proliferated. Our number of news sources has grown. The number of cable channels alone is probably 50 times bigger than it was back in 1994-95ish. We should be thankful for such a broadening of sources of news and information because it suggests the creation of a new outlet for voices previously unheard and uncounted. For those of us who still believe in democratic principles, this is good news!
But wait a second. Of the 300 or 700 cable channels that exist, how many are owned by Rupert Murdoch? How many are divied to Ted Turner? And the rest go to...Viacom, GE, Disney? Hmm...seems suspect.
I just shot an interview about six or so weeks ago with the editor of The Brooklyn Paper. This publication along with 11 or 12 of its other newspapers within 'The Brooklyn Paper' family have been sold to Rupert Murdoch. Brooklyn has one independent source remaining in the world of newspapers--The Brooklyn Eagle.
I just visited my Firefox web browser toolbar. Usually, i don't visit it. It just stares at me as it crowns the 'guts' of the browser and i do a marvelous job of ignoring it. But today, i decided to do something different. I decided to actually look at it and read it. Then i did something even more out of the ordinary--I visited it!
What did i find? I scrolled vertically through the BBC News 'Latest Headlines' tab and found 32 different articles focused on 32 different news topics. After that, i visited a neighbor a few tabs over on my Bookmarks Toolbar crown of the Firefox browser where i found the ABC News: Politics tab. Here, i scrolled down vertically, the same way i scrolled through the BBC News articles and i found 25 articles. Not as many as the BBC News offerings, but close enough that i didn't see any big deal worth being upset about. But upon slightly closer inspection, i noticed that almost every other headline had to do with Obama's latest Supreme Court nominee--Sotomayor. Everywhere down the list, Sotomayor, Sotomayor, Sotomayor. I counted 16 out of 25 headlines having something to do with Sotomayor and/or the Supreme Court.
I'm sure glad that 15 or so years after The Manufacture of Consent, when many Americans and people abroad have increased access to information via the internet and more cable channels, the mainstream, corporate media has decided to up its game! The market has clearly improved our selection breadth and our coverage by the media has broadened to enormous diversity commensurate with this proliferation of information sources.
And isn't it funny. Back in 1995-96, i recall having few conversations about this epidemic involving the monopoly of discourse by the mainstream media. Only the few intellectual elite had the topic on their radar and talked about it over dinner. The remaining hoi polloi paid not even two cents worth of their attention to this topic--it was too esoteric or abstract for them to care. Now, in 2009 the collective consciousness, including both the intellectual elite as well as common, average folk, are more savvy to the fact that our media is not living up to its responsibility to inform the public. Yet, our choices are more diluted and transparently focused on certain political agendas of the rulers of the world more now than ever before.
And people say i'm grumpy because 'that's just how he is...'
But wait a second. Of the 300 or 700 cable channels that exist, how many are owned by Rupert Murdoch? How many are divied to Ted Turner? And the rest go to...Viacom, GE, Disney? Hmm...seems suspect.
I just shot an interview about six or so weeks ago with the editor of The Brooklyn Paper. This publication along with 11 or 12 of its other newspapers within 'The Brooklyn Paper' family have been sold to Rupert Murdoch. Brooklyn has one independent source remaining in the world of newspapers--The Brooklyn Eagle.
I just visited my Firefox web browser toolbar. Usually, i don't visit it. It just stares at me as it crowns the 'guts' of the browser and i do a marvelous job of ignoring it. But today, i decided to do something different. I decided to actually look at it and read it. Then i did something even more out of the ordinary--I visited it!
What did i find? I scrolled vertically through the BBC News 'Latest Headlines' tab and found 32 different articles focused on 32 different news topics. After that, i visited a neighbor a few tabs over on my Bookmarks Toolbar crown of the Firefox browser where i found the ABC News: Politics tab. Here, i scrolled down vertically, the same way i scrolled through the BBC News articles and i found 25 articles. Not as many as the BBC News offerings, but close enough that i didn't see any big deal worth being upset about. But upon slightly closer inspection, i noticed that almost every other headline had to do with Obama's latest Supreme Court nominee--Sotomayor. Everywhere down the list, Sotomayor, Sotomayor, Sotomayor. I counted 16 out of 25 headlines having something to do with Sotomayor and/or the Supreme Court.
I'm sure glad that 15 or so years after The Manufacture of Consent, when many Americans and people abroad have increased access to information via the internet and more cable channels, the mainstream, corporate media has decided to up its game! The market has clearly improved our selection breadth and our coverage by the media has broadened to enormous diversity commensurate with this proliferation of information sources.
And isn't it funny. Back in 1995-96, i recall having few conversations about this epidemic involving the monopoly of discourse by the mainstream media. Only the few intellectual elite had the topic on their radar and talked about it over dinner. The remaining hoi polloi paid not even two cents worth of their attention to this topic--it was too esoteric or abstract for them to care. Now, in 2009 the collective consciousness, including both the intellectual elite as well as common, average folk, are more savvy to the fact that our media is not living up to its responsibility to inform the public. Yet, our choices are more diluted and transparently focused on certain political agendas of the rulers of the world more now than ever before.
And people say i'm grumpy because 'that's just how he is...'
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Blogfest BK 2009 was tonite
I shot Ethel meets Gutbucket this afternoon at BricLab.
Tonite i went with Megan, all 9 months pregnant of her, and Lauren who reported to Dumbo to attend 3rd annual blogfest. Robert Guskind "Gowanus Lounge" was remembered. Gotham spoke on a panel with some other people. Megan moderated. The dots are connecting--beginning to.
I asked Greg Sutton and Jonathan Leif today if i could start producing Caught in the Act. BITs arts show that features 3 field segments per show. That would be a dream gig for me--to shoot, edit, and produce entire segments for a hoppin and happenin art show for local Brooklyn TV. They said yes to the idea. I just don't see how i could be in a more appropriate spot.
Tonite i saw Frank Jump "Fading Ad Blog". By coincidence or not, i think i wrote him into a previous entry as well. He was at Blogfest and we spoke very briefly about Amsterdam. I gave him my business card. Have no idea if i'll hear from him. That would be far out if he could lead me to Amsterdam. He is definitely a smart man and seems like he could be a generous fellow.
They said at Blogfest to start blogging. So here i am. Entry 5.
Tonite i went with Megan, all 9 months pregnant of her, and Lauren who reported to Dumbo to attend 3rd annual blogfest. Robert Guskind "Gowanus Lounge" was remembered. Gotham spoke on a panel with some other people. Megan moderated. The dots are connecting--beginning to.
I asked Greg Sutton and Jonathan Leif today if i could start producing Caught in the Act. BITs arts show that features 3 field segments per show. That would be a dream gig for me--to shoot, edit, and produce entire segments for a hoppin and happenin art show for local Brooklyn TV. They said yes to the idea. I just don't see how i could be in a more appropriate spot.
Tonite i saw Frank Jump "Fading Ad Blog". By coincidence or not, i think i wrote him into a previous entry as well. He was at Blogfest and we spoke very briefly about Amsterdam. I gave him my business card. Have no idea if i'll hear from him. That would be far out if he could lead me to Amsterdam. He is definitely a smart man and seems like he could be a generous fellow.
They said at Blogfest to start blogging. So here i am. Entry 5.
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