Musings from America

2009-08-11T15:42:00.000-07:00

Finally, the Army Corps of Engineers pulled up the single engine plane involved in Saturday’s mid-air collision. The remaining two bodies were recovered from the plane, according to the NYPD. Nine people died in Saturday’s crash when a Liberty Tours helicopter collided with a single engine plane.

Mid Air Collision Recovery Efforts

2009-08-10T13:28:00.000-07:00

Photos taken at 1540EDT from Hoboken, New Jersey
Recovery efforts continued today to bring up the single engine plane and its two remaining occupants from the Hudson River. This morning recovery crews were unable to bring up the plane because of traitorous currents. Officials hoped to try again in the afternoon but that has not happened.
On Saturday, a Liberty Tour helicopter carrying five Italian tourists collided with a single engine Piper, carrying three members of the same family over the Hudson River killing nine.

Mid Air Collision Recovery Effort

2009-08-10T07:24:00.001-07:00

Recovery efforts continued today to bring up the single engine plane and its two remaining occupants from the Hudson River. On Sunday, divers brought up the remains of the helicopter that crashed with a single engine plane in the crowded New York skies over the weekend. Nine people died in Saturday’s tragedy with seven bodies recovered to date. Five Italian tourists and the helicopter pilot from Liberty Tours died along with three family members in the plane. There are calls today for change to the air traffic rules around New York City. Under the Visual Flight Rules around New York, aircraft flying under 1100 ft. are required to communicate with each other on a delegated radio frequency. Current speculation favors one of aircraft involved in Saturdays collision, was not tuned into the right radio frequency.

Helicopter and Plane Collide Over Hudson

2009-08-08T15:28:00.000-07:00

The Coast Guard is searching the Hudson River for bodies from a mid-air collision between a helicopter and a small plane near Hoboken, New Jersey. The accident was reported to have occurred around noon today.
Three people were reportedly onboard the small airplane, a Piper Saratoga that took off from Teterboro Airport, N.Y. and the helicopter, which was later confirmed to be a Liberty Tours helicopter, was reportedly carrying six to seven people.
Two bodies have been recovered from the Hudson River.

Dawn Zimmer is Sworn in as Interim Hoboken Mayor

2009-07-31T11:25:00.000-07:00

Dawn Zimmer became the first female Mayor of Hoboken after Peter Cammarano, the youngest Mayor of Hoboken, stepped down after his arrest in a federal corruption probe.

Mourning Michael Jackson

2009-07-07T14:43:00.000-07:00

There was an eerie silence at the cross roads of the world today as scores of fans, tourists and the curious gathered in Times Square to watch the public memorial for Michael Jackson in Los Angeles, on the JumboTron. Men women and even some children sat in plastic deck chairs, looking up at the screen with strained necks. Spectator, Juan Vasquez, 47, regretted not being able to hear the memorial. "I wish I could hear what they were saying," he said to no one in particular. Spectators could watch the memorial on the big screen but there was no sound. The NYPD blocked off half the road between 43rd and 44th Street so people could watch the memorial.

There was a genuine honesty, dignity or maybe it was respect, emanating from those who stopped in Times Square today; something Jackson was not afforded in life. It was as if those who were there for the memorial or those who stopped by, while on a lunch break, genuinely felt a sense of remorse when they saw Jackson's gold casket on the screen. There was a distinct lack of commercialism and exploitation that I found front and center at the public memorial in Harlem, last week.

Ashton Jones, a native New Yorker, flew in from Los Angeles last night, so he could come to Times Square and watch the memorial on the big screen with fellow New Yorkers. “I wanted to come to Times Square to be with other people,” Ashton said. He admitted to being in shock when he heard Jackson died. “He was brilliant. He had ‘it',” Ashton, a former back up singer for the famous gospel family, the Winans, said. He described Jackson as an inspiration both as a singer. and dancer. "They can’t take that away from him," he said. Emily Waelder, a 27-year-old teacher in Carnaise, Brooklyn, was able to separate Jackson’s personal failings from his public persona, as she watched the memorial in silence with a friend. Allegations of child abuse never swayed her opinion of the star. “All celebrities are messed up,” she said. Walder went on to say, she celebrated with friends when Jackson was acquitted of child molestation charges in 2003. Waelder told me she first heard Jackson’s music when her sister, who was 10-years older than her, introduced her to 'Thriller' when she was in 8th grade, the same grade she now teaches in high school.

Memorial for Michael Jackson, Apollo Theater, Harlem

2009-06-30T18:52:00.000-07:00

It was hot and humid if you were one of the tens of thousands of Michael Jackson fans standing in-line outside the Apollo Theater in Harlem today, for a chance to pay your respects to the pop legend Michael Jackson. In fact, there were two lines outside the Apollo; one for fans and a second line for ambulances to carry those from the first line to the hospital when they fell from dehydration. And they did.

At one point, the line stretched down 125th Street around the corner, past 126th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. beyond 128th Street. Adriane Anderson, 27, was standing in line for 45 minutes clutching her two prized possessions, her 1998 Michael Jackson doll and the album cover from Thriller. Anderson credited Jackson as an inspiration in her life and described herself as hysterical when she heard Jackson had died. Anderson said she spent last night crying and felt she had to come today to pay her respects. She called in sick to her internet job in downtown Manhattan.

Phillip and Elaine Ward from Richlands, Virginia were celebrating their 14th wedding anniversary in New York, when they felt they had to come up to Harlem to see the place where Jackson got his first break. “It made our trip to New York more memorable,” Elaine Ward said. “I loved his music, he was the King of Pop and I had to come and see where he performed,” Phillips husband chimed in. His wife went on to say, “Jackson’s music crossed all barriers, all racial divides.” Phillip and Elaine Ward were two of the few white fans who waited in line, today.

There was a mixture of commerce, grief but mostly celebration in Harlem today, as fans and the just the plain curious, got an opportunity to show their affection for the King of Pop one last time.

Vendors along 125th Street opposite the Apollo Theater made a killing selling Jackson tee shirts, posters, and pins covering every decade of Jackson’s life - from his boyhood appearance on amateur night at the Apollo, with his brothers in 1967, right up to what seemed like the very end. One vendor was trying to sell a 25-year-old mint condition Michael Jackson doll for $1000. He had no takers today.

Six hundred people were allowed into the theater at one time for 45 minutes to view videos of Jackson and listen to live music, but because of the huge crowds, that time was reduced to 30 minutes.

Iranian Protesters Outside U.N. Headquarters, NYC

2009-06-20T14:39:00.000-07:00

As protesters faced baton-wielding police and live ammunition in Tehran on Sunday, in defiance of Saturday’s warning by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei against public demonstrations, approximately 100 protesters gathered outside the United Nations in New York in a show of solidarity.

The protesters held up signs showing bloodied photographs of protesters beaten or killed in Iran and chanted ‘United Nations pay attention.’ The mostly young crowd was vocal but peaceful. Most wore some form of green clothing in a show of support for their defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. On woman painted a green X over her mouth.
There were similar protests held in Washington, Germany and Belgium

NYC Rally in Support of Same-Sex Marriage, NYC.

2009-05-26T17:15:00.000-07:00

Gay’s and their supporters turned out in their hundreds on Tuesday night in the West Village, after California upheld a same-sex marriage ban. . Gay rights activists and their supporters, gathered at the corner of Stonewall Place in the West village, before the start of a rally that would take them to Union Square in the West Village. Some carried signs calling for equal rights, while others carried more outlandish signs like ‘Screw You.’ The Californian Supreme Court in a 6-to-1 majority upheld a ban on same-sex marriage brought in by Proposition 8 in November of last year.

‘Is Anybody There’ Premiere, New York City.

2009-04-06T18:59:00.000-07:00

It stopped raining long enough for the premiere of Michael Caine’s new movie ‘Is Anybody There’ in New York, Monday night. Caine, casually dressed in a blue jacket and silver rimmed glasses, signed autographs before entering Cinema 2 on Third Avenue opposite Bloomingdales. His young co-star Bill Milner and family joined Sir Michael.

Other celebs who attended the premiere included the diminutive Bob Balaban, Dick Cavett and gadfly, John Stossel from 20/20.

Photographs

2009-03-09T18:38:00.000-07:00

While cleaning up my apartment in New Jersey recently, I came across an old cracked black and white photograph of my mother and father, shortly after they were married in Dublin. The photo got me thinking about my own passion for photography.
I love photography but in particular I love my own photographs. I am an amateur photographer who wants to be a professional. I am unique in that respect!
Before digital cameras, amateur photographers like me were limited to film and its associated costs. Before photo sharing websites like Flickr, an amateur photographer had limited exposure; mostly family and friends.
However, today, thanks to the digital cameras and web sharing software like Flickr, I can take as many photographs as I like and expose myself (figuratively) to the whole world. Flickr acts like a collective reservoir for photographers who want to share their photography with the world.
I began posting my photographs to Flickr after I bought my first digital camera, a Canon Rebel XT, five years ago. I became a compulsive shutterbug ever since. Some people are Facebook fans, others are besotted by MySpace – I am fascinated by Flickr. I took thousands of photographs over the years and uploaded the best of the best to my Flickr webpage - 20Major. To date, I have posted 466 photos to my Flickr account. Over the years, I photographed everything from celebrities to clowns; fires and family.
At night, I spend hours looking at my own photographs on Flickr. I watch them drift by in a slideshow one by one, as black and white turns to color. It’s like watching a documentary of my life slide by, one photo at a time – photo - pause - photo again.
Despite the fact that I like looking at my own photographs, I get an even bigger kick when anonymous Flickr users, with handles like C-U-B-B-I-E and ‘snapdragon,’ view my photographs.
Each visitor to my Flickr page registers as a hit. I have over 700 hits. I especially like when they comment on a photograph. An anonymous comment from complete stranger is like anonymous sex with a complete stranger, not exactly ideal but satisfying all the same. I monitor my Flickr account like a doctor monitors a patient’s cardiogram. I am constantly on the look out for spikes in my digital counter. When I see that counter rise, it’s like a shot of caffeine in the morning.
Not surprisingly, celebrity photos attract the most attention. I have a photograph of the actress, Cobie Smulders, from the CBS sitcom, ‘How I Met Your Mother’ that attracted over 361 hits. Fourteen Flickr photographers choose my photographs as their so called ‘favorite.’ One visitor described a photograph of my niece and her father as – ‘brilliant.’ Another called a photograph of a trapeze artist as ‘great’. It is euphemisms like these that keep me going.
My colorful, digitally enhanced photographs are not my mother’s photographs. Photographs were personal for my mother - a repository of family memories.
Despite all my protestations, photographs are a commodity to me. They are an entertaining distraction at best. My mum’s photographs weren’t disposable like the digital photos of today – delete and they’re gone. Every photograph my mum took captured a memory. They marked moments in time, as opposed to my photographs which mark a waste of time!!! Mum’s photographs were a barometer of the family fortunes, with all its ups and downs. In the beginning, mum took black and white photographs with a Brownie and ended up taking uneven color photographs with a Polaroid Classic.
I saw myself grow from a black and white baby to a colorful teenager with long hair. In the beginning, my mum took cheesy family photos – photographs arranged in order of height or birthday. I remember mum would wait expectantly on the film which took a week to process at a camera shop. Then, along came the ‘Polaroid Instant’ camera with its promise of immediate gratification, and soon the house was full of square color photographs with large white borders.
My mother passed on some time ago, but hundreds of her family photographs sit in an old biscuit tin in the garage of my childhood home in Dublin. The biscuit tin contains a treasure trove of family history; everything from my parents black and white wedding, to the last color photographs of my mum with her grandchildren.
My mom was no Martha Stewart. She didn’t feel the need to put the photographs in albums or create collages. The tin box was fine. When I was growing up, I would catch a glimpse of my melancholic mother smiling to herself, as she went through her tin box of photographs late at night. I wonder what she would have made of sharing photographs on Flickr. My guess is she would rather keep her memories to herself, in a biscuit tin.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25478784@N03/

New York Post Protests

2009-02-20T19:05:00.000-08:00

Spike Lee joined the Rev. Al Sharpton on the picket line outside the News Corp. building in Manhattan on Friday (02/20), to protest a New York Post cartoon that critics believe depicts President Obama as a chimpanzee.

The New York Post cartoon depicts two police officers shooting a chimpanzee, with the caption, “They’ll have to find someone else to write the stimulus bill.”

About one hundred supporters marched in circles outside the New York Post (owned by Rupert Murdock’s News Corp.) headquarters on Sixth Ave., holding signs calling for a boycott of the tabloid.

Year of the Ox, New York City Parade

2009-02-01T18:21:00.000-08:00

New York City Chinese celebrated the year of the Ox with a parade in Chinatown, New York. Red dancing dragons delighted the enthusiastic crowd, on a mild and bright day. The thousands of spectators that lined the parade route were treated to martial arts demonstrations and traditional Chinese music.

Inauguration Day, Harlem, NYC, 2009

2009-01-21T10:30:00.000-08:00

Inauguration Day was cold on 125th Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard, and even though the country is gripped by an economic crises, not seen since the great depression, some supporters arrived early and sat in front of the large JumboTron wrapped in Barack Obama blankets. One supporter, wearing her 2009 New Year’s Eve glasses, with an Obama pin on the front of her hat, took time off work to see the first black president sworn in on the big screen.

There was a near equal mix of blacks and whites gathered in front of the Adam Clayton Powell building, no doubt a testament to the new more affluent Harlem tenants.

The mood was festive among the 200 or so people gathered to cheer on the first black president of the United States, as he took the oath of office. At noon, Obama placed his hand on Lincoln's bible and was sworn in as president. The crowd erupted, waving small American flags and hugging one another. I was tears roll down one woman's eyes.

The Obama supporters kept their loudest outburst for when Obama was sworn in as president. I saw tears rolling down one woman’s face, while moms hugged their young daughters. Everybody appeared to wave small American flags.

The crowd fell deadly silent when President Obama gave his inaugural speech urging responsibility, hard work, and change. After Obama's inauguration speech, the crowd slipped silently away without any fuss - headed back to work - as if the enormity of the crisis facing the US just set in.

Flight 1549 Ready for Removal from the Hudson River

2009-01-17T10:43:00.000-08:00

On Friday, US Airlines 1549 still sat in the frozen brown Hudson River where a huge red and white crane was poised ready to haul it out of the water. The plane was supposed to have been taken from the water earlier in the day; placed on a barge and taken to a secret location. However, as of 8.30 p.m. the plane was still frozen in place.
The Airbus A320 has been tethered to pier17 in Battery Park City ever since it landed in the Hudson on Wednesday afternoon. Kitty Higgins from the National Transportation Safety Board, told reporters that the right engine was still attached to the wing of the plane - it was feared that both engines were sheared off in the crash. Federal Aviation officials will need the engines to confirm if a flock of geese were responsible for the accident.
The only people milling around Battery Park City this afternoon were New York City Police officers who oversaw the numerous television reporters and cameramen on hand. Some tourists turned up to take photographs of the plane’s white wing tip as it stuck out of the water, like a drowning man’s hand.

Miracle Flight 1549

2009-01-16T12:59:00.000-08:00

US Airlines flight 1549 sits in the Hudson River at the bottom of Manhattan, hidden behind trees and protected by police yellow tape, as Federal Aviation officials begin their investigation into why a flock of birds brought down the flight.

The white tip of the wing from the miracle flight can be seen sticking out of the brown, freezing water, like the hand of a drowning man reaching out for help. Police blocked off the area with yellow tape and fire fighters sit in their red trucks, out of the cold air. Red Cross workers handed out sandwiches and coffee to the fire fighters as they wait.

Earlier in the day, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg paid tribute to the ferry workers who rushed to save the passengers and crew. He called Captain Chesley Sullenberger, the hero of flight 1549, an “incredibly brave” man and promised to give the Captain and his crew the keys to New York City.

Miracle on the Hudson, the Crash of US Airlines 1549

2009-01-15T19:53:00.000-08:00

US Airlines flight 1549 crashed into the Hudson River after colliding with a flock of birds causing both engines to fail.

The Airbus A320 was taking off from La Guardia Airport for Charlotte, North Carolina, when the pilot, Chesley B. Sullenberger III, 57, told the control tower he needed to make an emergency landing, but not long after that call Sullenberger crash landed in the Hudson River.

A flotilla of river ferries descended on the crashed aircraft and helped evacuate all 148 passengers from the frigid waters. Passengers were seen lining up on the wing of the plane as New York water ferries lined up to pluck them from the downed aircrafts wing. All passengers and crew were safely evacuated from the plane, with no serious injuries.

The US Airlines pilot, Chesley B. Sullenberger III is being hailed a hero for landing the aircraft and evacuating the passengers and crew without any injuries. New York Governor, David Paterson, called the accident a “miracle on the Hudson.” In a news conference, Paterson said, "we had miracle on 34th Street," refering to the movie, "now we have miracle on the Hudson."

I live a block from the Hudson River, in Hoboken, New Jersey. As soon as I heard about the crash, I grabbed my camera, ran to the pier, and shot these photographs. You can see the tail fin with the US Airlines logo just above the water level.

Yes He Can

2008-11-05T09:01:00.000-08:00

It is over. Change is coming to America. Last night, Americans turned their backs on the eight years of republican misrule. They elected Barack Obama, the first black president of the United States. The country drew breath and stepped back from the edge.

Senator John McCain conceded last night in Phoenix, defeated by overwhelming odds. The appallingly partisan tactics of the McCain campaign failed to move the American public. In his concession speech in McCain said, “My friends, we have — we have come to the end of a long journey. The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clear.” McCain recognized the significance of the result, “this is an historic election, and I recognize the special significance it has for African-Americans and for the special pride that must be theirs tonight.”
At midnight last night, President elect Barack Obama strode onto the stage in Chicago, in front of an estimated one hundred thousand ecstatic supporters, and no doubt, millions across the world. In his acceptance speech, Obama honored this historic moment in American history. “If there is anyone out there who still doubts America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our fathers is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer,” he said.
After sweeping away the partisan politics of the last eight years, in a single bound, Obama was pragmatic about American’s problems, “And I know you didn't do this just to win an election. And I know you didn't do it for me. You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime — two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.”

Obama promised change and that change was evident on my journey home on the ‘A’ train last night in New York. At 1.30 a.m., I was waiting for the ‘A’ train at 59th Street Station at Columbus Circle; as the train pulled into the station and the doors opened a spontaneous roar of ‘Obama’, ‘Obama’ came from the carriage full of twenty somethings. There followed spontaneous clapping and fist pumping in the air. One young woman shouted, “America has won.” The noise died down as the train left the station. Then as we pulled into 50th Street station, the roar started again, but this time people in the carriages behind joined in the cheers. I left the train at 34th Street as the uproarious choir sang on.

Angelina Jolie Attends NYC Premiere of the Changeling, 2008

2008-10-05T14:00:00.000-07:00

Obama V's McCain in the First Presidential Debate

2008-09-26T20:45:00.000-07:00

The first presidential debate got under way on Friday, in Mississippi. Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama had a frank and spirited discussion on the major issues of the day, including the economy, Iraq, Iran and Russia. The debate was billed as a foreign policy debate, however, the first 45-minutes was spent on the US fiscal crisis.

McCain the republican candidate came out fighting, accusing Obama of supporting $820 million dollars in pork barrel spending. In the beginning, Obama was forced onto his heels, and spent a precious time fending off McCain’s accusations, but gained his footing when he had a chance for rebuttal. For his part, Obama tied McCain to the administrations failed tax policy, accusing him of offering no new tax proposals. When asked what spending cuts the candidates would make to pay for the $700 billion dollar bail out, McCain appeared more decisive, offering a freeze on spending, while Obama struggled on specifics.

“Walking the walk and talking the talk. Look at records, who fought against ear mark spending,” McCain said. Obama said, “95% of all Americans would get a tax cut,” while accusing McCain of wanting to tax health care benefits.

On Iran, McCain scored points off Obama, accusing him of wanting to sit down with high-ranking Iranian leaders without pre-conditions. In turn, Obama attempted to tie McCain with the administrations failed diplomatic policies not just with Iran, but also on North Korea. Henry Kissinger, the former Secretary of State, played a pivotal role in the Iranian debate. Obama said Kissinger, a McCain advisor, supported diplomatic talks with Iran. McCain denied Kissinger approved Iranian talks. For the record, Kissinger agrees with diplomatic talks with Iran.

John McCain stressed his judgment and experience, while Obama stressed change from the status quo.

On Iraq, Obama pointed out that McCain supported the war in Iraq, emphasizing his bad judgment..
“John, you said the war was going to be over quickly. You were wrong. You said we knew where the weapons of mass destruction were. You were wrong,” Obama said.
For his part, McCain accused Obama of failing to support the troops by voting against financing the troops.

The two candidates did not hold back in an open debate on the issues. We learned the differences between the candidates for president. I thought Obama held his own against McCain whose specialty is foreign policy. I call the debate even.

The debate took place at the University of Mississippi or Old Miss. as it is called - made famous 50-years ago when two students died protesting the enrollment of the first black student in the college’s history. By hosting the debate, Old Miss. wanted to dispel its Southern racist past. It was not that long ago that Old Miss. allowed the flying of the Confederate flag at its football games. It still allows the playing of ‘Dixie’ at the games.

It's the Economy Stupid

2008-09-22T09:54:00.000-07:00

It is astonishing how quickly John McCain’s prodigy, the reverend Sarah Palin, has fallen out of the media spotlight. It might be the post-republican convention bump has faded into the distance, or could it be that the US faces a real crisis, an economic crisis, that could herald the fall of capitalism, similar to the fall of communism not that long ago.

The rightwing are nursing their hangovers after drinking from the Palin cup; and now face the realities of a new dawn. The US financial markets and consequently their 401K plans are in trouble. Their ubiquitous 401’s or retirement funds, that were pushed on the US folk as a means for them to control their own financial destiny, (“How’s that working for ye?” as Dr. Phil says.) could crumble before their own eye’s, like yesterdays news headlines about hockey moms and lipstick.

Now it appears that the good ol US of A is in a crisis not seen since the Great Depression. Suddenly, Palin’s shortcoming as a possible vice president (God forbid President) flood into the light. She has no real economic experience – except running Wasilla’s town budget for two terms as Mayor – leaving it in debt. We know John McCain has no economic clue. We only have to look at his economic advisers to figure that out. Phil Graham, the former Senator from Texas and one of McCain’s top economic advisor’s called the fiscal crisis a ‘mental recession.’

So, after all of Palin’s talk about guns, hockey moms and keeping us safe from the Russia seems pointless – like running an air conditioner in winter, when faced with real challenges. The shallowness of McCain’s choice becomes apparent. You wonder if he now wishes he had chosen a different ‘maverick’, maybe one with more experience, like Mitt Romney.

Palin the Pied Piper of the Far Right

2008-09-14T09:42:00.000-07:00

Stop the presses – scratch that – don’t stop the press, they are the only ones vetting the (possible) next vice president of the United States, and possible leader of the free world. Let us have a look at what we have found out so far.

Palin said, “Not thanks to the bridge to nowhere.” Well, not exactly - she said yes and then said no – to the bridge when she knew it was not going anywhere. However, she did accept the earmarked money.

She has commanded troops. As Governor of Alaska, she has command of the Alaskan National Guard but she did not actually issue any orders.

Speaking of the Alaskan National Guard, she visited her troops in Iraq during her two-year tenure as Governor. Well again, not exactly – she was at the border crossing between Kuwait and Iraq Kuwait when she saw her troops - not really in Iraq.

Her foreign policy experience amounts to two trips abroad - the first to Kuwait/Iraq and the second to Ireland. Her plane stopped off in Ireland for re-fueling, not exactly a state visit. On those grounds, Boris Yeltsin, the old Soviet leader, paid a state visit in 1994 when he failed to exit his plane at Shannon Airport to meet with Ireland’s leaders, leaving them waiting on the tarmac. According to official Russian reports, he was too tired to walk down the planes steps. Un-officially, he was too drunk.

Sarah Palin, who might someday be a heartbeat away from the presidency and who just got a passport only two years ago, is ready to lead the most powerful country in the world against all enemies. I believe you have to understand your enemies and friends before you can take up the mantle of leadership, and that requires visiting friend and foe, where they live. You cannot look them up in the local Wasilla library. Besides, look what happens when you do assume to know people without actually seeing how or where they live. You get the US in 2008 under George Bush, another world traveler before he became president of the Untied States.

Unimaginable Pain of Lives Interrupted

2008-09-13T17:13:00.000-07:00

Unimaginable Pain

I Miss YouA Sign

Commerce and the City

Message in a Bottle

A Tribute in Light (R/W/B Candles)

Paying Respects

Lovers

Solemn Tribute

Strangers Meet

Someone I Knew

Construction Continues Day After 7th Anniv.

Flowers on Fence at Ground Zero

The Seventh Anniversary of 9/11

2008-09-13T14:53:00.000-07:00

Admiral Michael Mullen Visits Ground Zero

The day after the seventh anniversary of September 11, 2001, Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, visited the World Trade Center site. On Wednesday, September 10, Admiral Mullen told the House Armed Services Committee, that the U.S. was “running out of time” when it came to winning the war in Afghanistan. He continued by saying, he thought the war in Afghanistan could be won, but it would require more nation building than bombs.

Mullen stressed the link between Afghanistan and Pakistan since that is where the Taliban and al-Qaeda find safe haven and plan new attacks.
"In my view, these two nations are inextricably linked in a common insurgency that crosses the border between them," he said, adding that he plans "to commission a new, more comprehensive strategy for the region, one that covers both sides of the border.
On Tuesday, Bush announced that 8,000 troops would withdraw from Iraq before the end of the year. Some troops will go to Afghanistan. According the New York Times, President Bush signed an executive order in July, giving American Special Forces permission to attack the enemy within Pakistan’s border. Much to Pakistan’s annoyance, US forces have already invaded their territory in pursuit of the enemy.

I find it very unsettling that on one hand, President Bush has in effect given US troops permission to invade Pakistan in pursuit of the enemy, and on the other hand, Bush condemned the Russians for invading Georgia after the Georgian President initiated attacks in South Ossetia.

On Thursday September 11, the Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain put away their swords and paid their respects at Ground Zero, after a solemn service for the victims 9/11.

Admiral Michael Mullen Visits Ground Zero

McCain the Change Candidate

2008-09-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

Senator John McCain accepted the republican nomination for president last night in St. Paul. In a halting and confusing acceptance speech, McCain painted himself as the candidate for change.

Do I have this right; Senator John McCain is now the change candidate! McCain the 25-year Washington veteran now wants to bring change to Washington. McCain, a senior ranking member of the same Republican Party that has been in power for the last eight years, now wants us to believe that he was not part of the problem but he will be part of the solution.

Awash in cowboy hats and shirts made to look like the American flag or is it the American flag made to look like a shirt, Johnny Mc spoke about the bread and butter issues that keep our patriotic American’s fired up. He addressed taxes, war and government spending. The Mc man wants to make President Bush’s tax cuts permanent, because he believes that those self same tax cuts we have endured over the last eight-years have worked. Mc believes, the Bush’s tax cuts, have left a robust economy that continues to create new jobs.

On Iraq, McCain told the lobbyists that America is victorious in Iraq. He said, if the Iraq problem was left up to Obama, America would return home defeated. No, Johnny Mc, under Obama, America would not have been in the debacle in the first place.

John McCain was sympathetic with workers who lost their jobs in this economic environment. The man, who has to have “one of his people get back to us,” because he does not know how many houses he owns, said he would create jobs that will not go away. I assume these jobs will be in the oil industry and nuclear power industry, the industries that will save America from its energy crisis.

I to this day still do not have any idea what John McCain’s policies are on the economy, ending the war on Iraq and government spending. George Bush and Dick Cheney the pervious Republican Party leaders were distinctly absent in person and rhetoric. I wonder why?

On Wednesday night, Sarah Palin wowed the crowd with her vim, vigor and hypocrisy. This pit bull in lipstick, spoke about her executive experience as a small town mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. She described her job as “sort of like a community organizer except with responsibilities,” as she took a swipe at Obama’s public service. Dressed in gunmetal grey, Palin offered more oil drilling, victory in Iraq and the same family values she pursues in her own household.

Purporting the ‘politics of fear’, Palin harped on about America’s future, which involved taking on Iran and Russia, for their expansionist ambitions. Obviously, Palin believes that Iraq is a just war.

It was hilarious to see Rudy Giuliani, the twice-divorced former Mayor of New York, defend Palin on her small town religious values.

Throw Palin to the Lions

2008-09-03T07:29:00.000-07:00

I get tee-ed off when I hear democrats say that the pregnancy of Sarah Palin’s daughter, Bristol (named after a ship or something) is off limits. To hell it is. Bristol’s pregnancy goes to the heart of Palin ‘s - a right wing Christian, family first, head of the PTA, gun toting Republican - values and beliefs. Everybody should be paying attention. Obviously, Palin did not have time to sit down at the dinner table with her five kids and take the time to listen to what was going on in their lives, to figure out Bristol was heading in the wrong direction. Maybe she was too busy republicanzing the town of Wasilla to pay attention. Everything including a politician’s family is fair game in politics. Ever since the ‘Swift-boat’ incident, there is absolutely nothing off limits when it comes to bashing politicians. If you can outright lie like in the ‘Swift-boat’ incident, then the ‘values’ issue that republican’s gloat on is also an issue. What sort of values did Sarah Palin teach her own daughter? Should we trust her values should she become vice president?

Sarah Palin is a hypocrite and the values she exposes, the values she believes everybody else should live by, are not the values she communicated at home. Values like abstinence and respect.

It should be interesting to see Palin speak at the republican convention tonight. Today, everybody is talking about Freddie Thompson’s speech last night at the republican convention. The senator, turned actor - someone who could not convince himself he wanted to be president never mind anybody else – pumped up the crowd with his explaination for why John McCain was ready to be president. According to Thompson, McCain’s years spent in jail as a prisoner of war 40 years ago, is reason enough to elect him the next president of the United States. I think its reason enough for John McCain to take it easy at 72-years old. He should not take on the stress of putting humpty-humpty back together again.

In a rousing speech last night, Bush, in a vain attempt to separate himself from his republican protégé, told the crowd that McCain was his ‘own man’. An independent republican as it were. I assume Bush meant that McCain was an independent republican like Joe Lieberman is an independent democrat.

Bush gave his reasons for a McCain presidency, returning to the old martra - America is under attack – the national security issue that worked so well for Bush in 2004. According to Bush, John McCain is the man to baton-down the hatches and keep us all safe from further harm. If the British, in their war with the IRA, had adopted the same philosophy as the Bush/McCain presidency then there would be bombs going off in London even today.

Christian’s thrown to the Lion’s, by Palin

2008-09-02T08:21:00.000-07:00

It is not so cozy on the far right now or so it would appear for the evangelical supporters of John McCain and his vice presidential choice Sarah Palin. Palin is finding out exactly what it means to be in the national spotlight.

On Monday, Palin, a conservative protestant and member of Families for Life, outed her 17-year-old daughter, Bristol. Apparently, Bristol got caught up in the bright lights of Wasilla and became pregnant. I am not ruling out that this could be another immaculate conception, but why would God choose Wasilla for anther one of his miracles.

On top of the admittedly difficult circumstances, Palin’s daughter, Bristol, has left her in, there is the revelation that the republican’s vice presidential nominee’s husband Todd was arrested for driving while intoxicated in 1986. Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that Palin is under investigation for ethics violations in Alaska, over the firing of a state trooper, who was married to her sister. Oh, by the way, it is rumored that Palin was part of an Alaskan secessionist movement in Alaska.

John McCain described choosing a vice presidential running mate as a “long process, which you have to get right,” - obviously did not take long enough when he choose Sarah Palin as his running mate.

McCain Shatters the Mold in Picking Palin as his Vice Presidential Nominee

2008-08-29T10:10:00.000-07:00

John McCain introduced America to his choice for vice president in Dayton, Ohio on Friday. Laughing spontaneously, as the crowd sang ‘Happy Birthday’, McCain uttered the words no red-blooded republican ever thought they would hear. “My friends and fellow Americans’ I am proud and pleased to introduce to your the next vice president of the Untied States, Governor Sarah Palin of the great state of Alaska,” he said.

McCain continued to describe Palin, a former Ms. Alaska runner-up, as “someone who will shake up Washington and make it work for all Americans; someone with executive experience and who has shown great tenacity and skill; someone who has reached across the isle; someone with a fighting spirit and great compassion; someone whose father was an elementary school teacher and whose mother was a school secretary.”

In an attempt to appeal to conservative working class voters, the republican nominee described Palin as a “a union member, who was married to a union member…..a woman who knows what it’s like to pay for gas and groceries.”

Emphasizing the historic moment, this week marks the time when women received the right to vote, the Senator from Arizona said he was, “especially proud in a week we celebrate women’s suffrage" that he chose "a devoted wife and a mother of five – she is not from these parts and she is not from Washington. She has girt and integrity …that is exactly what we need in Washington today. She stands up for what is right and she does not let anyone tell her to sit down.”

For he part Palin, accompanied by her husband, Todd and her family and wearing a black pant suit, reminiscent of Hillary Clinton’s dress code, thanked McCain and said she was honored to be chosen as the Senators running mate.

On her 25th wedding anniversary, Palin described herself as “an average hockey mom, who ran for mayor of her local town.” There she said she stood up to “politics as usual” and the “good old boy network,”

In an attempt to paint herself as a maverick, Palin said sometimes “it is safer to avoid taking risks in politics. People of America expect us to seek public office for the right reason. The right reason is to challenge the status quo and challenge the common good.”

Pumping up McCain’s supporters, the young Governor stressed McCain’s war record and his foreign policy experience. “In a dangerous world it is John McCain who will prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons,” she said.

In the most revealing moment in an otherwise flat speech, the Alaskan Governor thanked Hillary Clinton for “her determination and grace in her presidential campaign. She left 18 million cracks and the women of America aren’t finished yet and we can shatter that ceiling once and for all."

McCain Steps Out of the Box with his Vice Presidential Pick

2008-08-29T08:02:00.000-07:00

I don’t know whether is was a blatant attempt to steal some of the democrats thunder but Senator John McCain has stepped out of the box when he chose Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate. Making history himself, McCain picked the first republican vice presidential candidate in American history.

At 44-years-old and a mother of five, Palin will balance McCain’s ticket in a number of ways. She is female and this will attract some of Hillary Clinton’s disenfranchised supporters. Palin is young which will counter balance two issues – first, John McCain’s age, he turned 72 today and the relative young age of Obama who is 47-years-old.

Palin is a first time Governor and relative unknown to anybody outside the state of Alaska. It will be interesting to see how McCain can continue to criticize Obama’s lack of experience when he has chosen someone so young and from a minor state in the scheme of American politics. Two years ago, Palin was the mayor of a town of 4,200 people.

The Speech That Changed American History

2008-08-28T21:07:00.000-07:00

Senator Barack Obama accepted the nomination for president of the United States and changed the course of American political historytonight by saying, “It is with profound gratitude and with great humility that I accept your nomination for president of the United States.”

In a carefully staged event worthy of the Oscar’s, Obama separated himself from John McCain by painting his campaign for president as a campaign of the future - a ‘21st Century’ campaign, while painting McCain’s campaign as a campaign from the past.

Using his uncanny rhetorical skills, the Illinois Senator, challenged McCain’s judgment on Iraq, the economy and his ties to the Bush administration. He accused McCain of voting with George Bush 90 per cent of the time.
“Senator John McCain talks about judgment but what does it say about his judgment when he voted with George Bush 90 per cent of the time. I am not ready to take a chance on the 10 per cent when he is right,” Obama said.

While paying tribute to McCain’s military service, Obama went after his record on Iraq.
“If John McCain wants to follow George Bush in his policies, that his choice, but that is not the change America needs….Don’t tell me the Democrats won’t defend this country…. as Commander in Chief I won’t hesitate to defend this nation.”

Obama attacked the republican’s on their ability to corner the market on ‘patriotism’.
“Patriotism has no party. I love this country just like you. Just like John McCain….
the people who fought and died for America did not fight for a red America, they did not fight for a blue America but a United States of America,” Obama said. “I have news for you John McCain we all love America.”

Dressed in a blue suit, red tie and wearing a pin with the American flag in his lapel, Obama spoke about his humble roots and his working class ethics.

In a speech that will go down in history, the 47-year old Senator from Illinois made some lofty promises in Denver tonight. He promised to cut taxes for 95 per cent of working families and end America’s addiction to oil in 10-years. He promised to invest $150 billion in bio fuels and new technologies over the next 10-years and provide an affordable education for every American.

The skinny little kid for Chicago’s South Side, who grew up to become the first black nominee for president, ended his historic speech by giving due deference to this historic date in history, when Martin Luther King gave his “I have a dream speech” on the Washington Mall. In his closing remarks Obama said, “It is that promise 45 years ago today that brought a young preacher to Washington Mall. We cannot turn back….America we cannot turn back…we cannot walk alone. We must pledge to march into the future.”

Earlier in the evening, the democrats challenged the Republican notion that Obama is an elitist by rolling out a litany of snow white working class folks from all over the states, who testified to Obama’s policies on healthcare, jobs and free trade.

John McCain will announce his vice presidential pick on Friday when he turns 72-years old.

In a night that occasionally felt like there was too much pomp and pageantry here are some of the more memorable lines.

“Tonight I say to the people of America, Democrats, Republicans and Independents, this moment this election is our chance to keep the American promise alive.”

“In November, we must say eight years is enough”

“Patriotism has no party. I love this country just like you. Just like John McCain.”

“In an election like this, change does not come from Washington, change comes to Washington.”

Barack Obama Picks Up Where King Left Off

2008-08-28T15:08:00.000-07:00

It is hard to imagine a more pivotal time in recent political history than tonight, Thursday night, when the first black presidential nominee of a major American political party, will give his acceptance speech in front of 75,000 supporters at Invesco Field in Denver. Not only does he have to satisfy the insatiable dreams of a football stadium full of democrats, but he also has to give a speech that will be forever compared to Martin Luther King’s, ‘I have a dream’ speech, given 45 years ago at the very same time in history. For many Barack Obama is the living embodiment of all that King lived and died for all those years ago.

Hillary Bites the Bullet in Denver, Colorado

2008-08-27T16:57:00.000-07:00

The Democratic Convention is certainly playing up to all the hype that this unprecedented Presidential Election has generated.

On Monday night, Michelle Obama played the dutiful wife perfectly suited for any white working class family in Middle America, who still see the Obama’s as “not like them.”

On Tuesday night, Hillary Clinton, former presidential candidate and keynote speaker at the Democratic Convention was still considered an unknown quantity when it came to her support for Barack Obama, but she enthusiastically threw her support behind the Illinois Senator. After a bruising primary, Obama confidants were unsure whether Hillary would make a heart felt effort to convince her reluctant supporters to back Obama in this close election, but she came through in the end.

History was made on Wednesday night when Senator Barack Obama became the first black nominee for President. In a well choreographed piece of theatre, Senator Hillary Clinton, speaking from the convention floor, provided Obama with the delegate count necessary to win the Democratic nomination.

Strange Stories

2008-08-17T16:56:00.000-07:00

I have to take note of some strange news stories I came across this week. Scientists at University of California at Berkley say they are working on inventing an invisible cloak. That’s right, an invisible cloak. This cloak will make you invisible. In order to make an object invisible you have to bend light backwards according to the scientists. Well these scientists have developed a 3-D material that will bend light. At the moment the UC Berkley scientists can bend light around a speck of dust, but that’s as far as they have gotten. It will take at least 10-years before we make anything of significance disappear.

The second story printed in the NY Times on August 11, concerns the estate of a William Milliken Vanderbilt Kingsland, a Manhattan resident who died two years ago. He was either in his late fifties or early sixties, no one knows for sure. Mr. Kingsland, as he was known, was a part-time art collector who claimed to have attended Harvard and married a French royal. Oh, by the way his real name was Melvyn Kohn. Well Mr. Kohn left no will when he died but he did leave some ‘stolen art’ from 40 years ago including a Picasso and a bust by Giacometti that has since been valued at $900,000 to $1.2 million.
The FBI attempted to track down the original owners by posting the stolen art on a website, but was no takers.

Bigfoot, that half man/half guerilla and his family apparently lives in the woods in Georgia, (not the Georgia that just stood on Russia’s toes) according to Rick Dyer, 31, a former Corrections Officer and his partner Mathew Whitton, who held a news conference in California. Both men showed grainy photographs of a body looking like a guerilla costume stuffed in a refrigerator. According to Dyer and Whitton they came across the body in the woods and saw other creatures nearby. On further DNA examination of the remains, the experts said Bigfoot was made from a human and 96 percent from an opossum.

Changes in the Political Winds

2008-07-03T10:37:00.000-07:00

As Senator McCain got a helping hand from his democratic rival Senator Obama when Obama proposed his plans for churches and faith based organizations, in solving both domestic and international ills. He promised government grants for secular programs, saying he would deny grants to evangelical churches that used their humanitarian work to proselytize. This irked evangelicals, who feel it is their mission to spread the word.

On Wednesday (07/02), McCain replaced his campaign manager on Wednesday (07/02), for the second time in the presidential campaign. McCain choose Karl Rove devotee, Steve Schmidt, to run his daily campaign, shifting Rick Davis who took over less than a year ago, to long term planning. Davis also leads McCain’s search for a vice presidential candidate.

According to reports, McCain was not happy with the media coverage his campaign was getting. He felt his message was drowned out by his democratic rival Senator Barack Obama.

On Wednesday, democratic candidate Barack Obama proposed new public service initiatives for Americans. He spoke about volunteerism harking back to Kennedy’s “ask not what your country can do for you” speech. Speaking in Colorado, Obama promised a new Green Vets Corps to clean up the environment, among other programs. As president, Obama said he would offer college a four thousand dollar college credit for two years of service in blighted neighborhoods.

Presidential Politics

2008-06-30T10:49:00.000-07:00

The Republican candidate John McCain has successfully attacked Senator Barack Obama’s lack of foreign policy experience. McCain frequently cites the last time Obama was in Iraq at his pubic appearances by listing off the number of days since his last trip. The Republican National Committee website carries a running time clock showing to the second that last time Obama traveled to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Recently, Obama campaign released the Democratic nominee’s schedule which includes trips to Britain, France, Jordan, Iraq and Afghanistan - no doubt in an attempt to bolster Obama’s national security credentials and combat McCain’s foreign policy attacks.

On the other hand, Senator John McCain will visit Columbia and Mexico this week to emphasize his international credentials. McCain’s Latin American trip will help him recapture some of the American Hispanic votes that have begun to shift to the democrats, ever since McCain shifted his emphasis moved from immigration reform to border security in an attempt to capture the reticent Republican base.

On June 28, both candidates spoke to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials conference in Washington where Senator Obama received a warmer reception than his rival Senator John McCain.

News

2008-06-27T12:40:00.000-07:00

Presidential Politics
In an all too obvious grab for media attention, presidential candidate Barack Obama and his former democratic rival Senator Hillary Clinton will be in New Hampshire on Friday (06/27).
Unity is what Obama, and Clint want to display in the New Hampshire town of Unity, go figure.

Republican candidate Senator John McCain is trialing his democratic rival Senator Barack Obama in most national polls, but only by a small margin.

Both Obama and McCain have problems connecting to their individual bases. Obama has to attract the female voters and working class voters who flocked to Hillary Clinton. Obama needs Clinton to make inroads into this demographic. On the other hand, Clinton needs Obama to pay off a 20 million deficit left over from her primary campaign. Friday’s, Unity appearance is their first public appearance together since Clinton lost in the primaries.

McCain has problems energizing the evangelical conservatives who flocked to President George Bush. He needs both their logistical and financial support. McCain paints himself as a maverick conservative, who has no problem breaking the mold. Both candidates attract their share of independent voters.

New York Public Art

New York tends to be too busy to notice most public art projects that other cities would herald as a ‘second coming’. As the heat and humidity rise in this overheated city there is a new cool public art project on the East River in Manhattan. The ‘New York City Waterfalls’ received major publicity on Thursday (06/26) when Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled the project. The ‘Waterfalls’ consist of four temporary waterfalls cascading under four major bridges along Manhattan’s East River. The water is pumped from scaffolds erected under each bridge. Danish artist Olafur Eliasson is responsible for the 15.5 million dollar project. New Yorkers can see the project from land or by water from June 26 through to October 13.

The last major public art exhibit in New York that received this kind of media attention was “The Gates” which comprised of 7,500 saffron (scarf like) panels covering miles of pathways in Central Park.

The Legendary 'Al Green' - NYC

2008-06-05T20:38:00.000-07:00

An ebullient Al Green waved from his SUV in New York City, on Thursday (06/05). If I did not know better, I would say Green had one too many, if you know what I mean? Green reached legendary status for hits like, ‘Lets Stay Together’ (1972) which went on to become a Karaoke sensation and ‘I am Still in Love with You’ (1972) and ‘Take Me to the River’ (1974).

Julia Roberts - NYC

2008-06-05T20:21:00.001-07:00

A casually dressed Julia Roberts wearing jeans and a white canvas jacket signed autographs for visiting schoolchildren after appearing on Late Night with David Letterman (06/05).

However, she was more reluctant to pose for photographs for the waiting paparazzi. After much pleading and name-calling, Julia stopped briefly turned to the cameras and stared.
Julia is staring in the ambiguously named ‘Fireflies in the Garden’ – described as a family who overcomes some unforeseen tragedy. ‘Unforeseen tragedy’ describes most families.

The Cast of 'How I Met Your Mother'

2008-06-04T07:35:00.000-07:00

The cast of HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER attended a special screening for the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in New York, Tuesday (06/03). The screening took place at McGee’s Bar, that inspired McLaren’s from the show. Cast members include Josh Radnor, Neil Patrick Harris, Alyson Hannigan and Cobie Smulders.

Neil Patrick Harris

Neil Patrick Harris

Neil Patrick Harris

Josh Radner

Cobie Smulders

Alyson Hannigan

Cast

Carter Bays

Julianne Moore

2008-06-04T07:02:00.001-07:00

The beautiful red headed Julianne Moore signed autographs on Tuesday after her appearance on Late Night With David Letterman. Wearing big black sunglasses and a black horseshoe shaped bag to match, Moore waved to the cameras as she signed autographs for schoolchildren from Oklahoman church choir.
Moore’s most recent role in the movie, Savage Grace, has caused some controversy. She plays British socialite and mother, Barbara Daly Baekland, murdered by her son Tony (Eddie Redmayne) in their London flat in 1972. The drug-addicted family had an incestuous relationship.

Family

2008-05-25T18:19:00.000-07:00

My eldest niece Fiona (8th Grade), wrote the following imaginative essay that won her a prize in a local contest. Maybe she will change her mind and become a writer.

Dreaming of an Independent Future

When I was only in fifth grade adults started pressuring me on what I was going to do with my life. When you're in fifth grade you are still a kid and don't really think about your future, or how you're going to live your life. They start asking you questions like: what college are going to go to? Or what is going to be your career? At elementary school it is a little early to ask such big questions to such little kids, but as you get older you do need to get an idea in your head so you have a goal to strive for.

Now that I'm in eighth grade I need to give some thought to my future and get the big picture in my head. In high school I plan to do the best I can in all activities. I believe that to get into a good college you need to be a well rounded student. It is important to get good grades and succeed in academics, but you also need to have a healthy social life and get involved in community service and sports. If you do your best you will be sure to succeed. Students need to have a positive attitude. As long as you do your best you have no reason to feel disappointed and any mistakes you make can motivate you to do better in the future.

After I finish high school I hope to get into a good college like Stanford, Berkeley, or St.Mary's. Getting into a good college is very important because it can determine if you get a good job or not. I want to have a job that pays well, that I enjoy, one that will allow me to spend time with my family, and one that pushes me to my limit. It sounds like a fantasy job, but I think that if I work hard now it will pay off in the future. I think the job that will give me all of these things would be if I owned my own marketing business. I am smart and interested in what makes people want to buy things, so I think if I manage my time and money well I will be able to have my own business in time. Of course, to do all of this I need to get into a good college. I really want to go to Stanford and study marketing techniques and how to be a good, effective boss.

When I am a marketer and have my own business, I will use my money for things my family and I need, and not what we want. The money I earn would be put toward important things like: food, water, and clothes for me and family, a good stable home to live in, and a good education for my kids. After that I could spend some money on things that make us comfortable like: a car, cell phone, computers, and savings. I want to be able to give money to charity too. To do all of this I will need to work hard and do the best I can. I believe that I can do anything that I put my mind to.

8th grade
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fiona’s sister, Orla playing softball for the first year. Does she not look the part?

New York City Premiere of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal

2008-05-20T20:15:00.000-07:00

New York City Premiere of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal, New York City.

It was a dull and wet Monday (05/20), but that did not stop the Harrison Ford and his companion Calista Flockhart from attending the New York Premiere of Indian Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal, at the AMC Magic Johnson Theater, in Harlem. The fedora wearing, bullwhip-cracking Ford is back for his fourth installment of the swashbuckling saga, along with Karen Allen, his former love interest, from 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark. Allen returns as Marion Ravenwood, Indiana Jones distant love interest.

Directed by Steven Spielberg
Story by George Lucas
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Staring: Harrison Ford, Shia LaBeouf, Cate Blanchette, Karen Allen, Ray Winstone, John Hurt.

Michelle Williams, Destiny's Child

Karen Allen

Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart

Harrison Ford

Calista Flockhart

Karen Allen and Calsita Flockhart

Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart

Estelles

Hands Series

2008-05-06T06:22:00.000-07:00

Balloon, Hoboken Arts Festival

Hands

2008-05-05T09:46:00.000-07:00

Woman with Beads

Hoboken Arts Fair, Hoboken, New Jersey

Chess, Washington Square Park, NYC

2008-05-03T17:16:00.000-07:00

"The thrill of competition, the euphoria of victory...its warlike struggle awakens the minds and bodies of people. Chess is like life,” Russian Grand Master Borris Spassky (World Champion -1969-1972)

Madonna at Tribeca Film Festival

2008-04-24T18:51:00.000-07:00

New York Premiere of “I Am Because We Are” at BMCC, Tribeca Film Festival, New York City.
April 24, 2008

Even in celebrity weary New York City, where on Monday (04/21) night I saw Maria Sharapova play tennis with Billy Crystal in the middle of 53rd Street and 14 blocks uptown I photographed a movie screening with Bette Midler, Helen Hunt and Sarah Jessica Parker, Madonna still makes news. The platinum blond pulled up in a black SUV and hurried inside the BMCC Theater for the screening of “I Am Because We Are,” at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Gone were the pointed metal breastplates she wore in concert. Tonight the material girl was simply dressed in a short-sleeved brown patterned dress. The big M smiled briefly at the chorus of waiting fans outside the theater before heading into the scrum of photographers who waited inside the auditorium.

“I Am Because We Are” is a documentary directed by Nathan Rissman and produced by Madonna about Malawi orphans who have lost their parents or siblings to AIDS.

I found it strange that while Madonna was out promoting her documentary, Malawi's High Court delayed a hearing to finalize pop stars adoption of a boy from the southern African nation until May 15.

Cast & Credits
Director: Nathan Rissman Principal Cast: Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, Desmond Tutu, Bill Clinton, Dr. Paul Farmer, Dr. Matthews Chikaonda, Madonna Executive Producer/Writer: Madonna Producers: Angela Becker, Madonna Associate Producer: Grant James Editor: Danny B. Tull

Bernadette Peters attended the screening of “I Am Because We Are”. Peters won a Tony Award her portrayal of Annie Oakley, in "Annie Get Your Gun" in 1999.

Then She Found Me Premiere

2008-04-21T19:52:00.000-07:00

Loews Lincoln Square, New York
Release Date April 25, NY-LA

About the Film:
Philadelphia schoolteacher, April Epner, is having a midlife crisis. Her husband leaves, her adoptive mother dies, her biological mother, an eccentric talkshow host, shows up and turns her life upside down, and she starts a romantic relationship with the father of one of her students.

Cast:Helen Hunt, Colin Firth, Bette Midler, Matthew Broderick, Lynn Cohen, Ben Shenkman
Director: Helen Hunt
Screenwriter: Alice Arlen, Victor Levin, Helen Hunt
Script: Novel Adaptation

Genre:
Comedy, Drama, Romance

Gala Tribute for Meryl Streep at Lincoln Center, New York

2008-04-14T20:38:00.000-07:00

GALA TRIBUTE TO MERYL STREEP

It was a beautiful crisp New York evening, for the Film Society of Lincoln Center Gala Tribute to the two-time Academy Award winner Meryl Streep.
The crème de la crème of Hollywood stars came out for the gala tribute including, Glen Close, Uma Thurman, and Streep’s only daughter Mamie Gummer.

Meryl Streep won two Academy Awards for Kramer V Kramer (1979) and Sophie’s Choice (1982).

Fire

2008-04-03T17:10:00.000-07:00

I was walking up Ninth Avenue on Thursday (04/03), at approximately 7.30 a.m. when I saw smoke coming from a residential building at the corner of 47th Street and Ninth Avenue. Fire engines arrived at the scene within seconds. The smoke quickly turned to flames as they leapt from a third story apartment window. Firefighters climbed up the outside fire escape and started rescuing residents from the apartment next to the fire.
One firefighter-battled flames coming from the third floor apartment window – thick grey smoke hindered his entrance. One resident was taken from the building on a stretcher as emergency crews performed CPR on him. His condition was not known at the time of the incident. The fire is under investigation.

A Walk Up Ninth Avenue / Hells Kitchen

2008-04-01T16:59:00.001-07:00

I walk up Ninth Avenue everyday workday from Port Authority on 42nd Street to 56th Street. I am usually pre-occupied with re-living the past weekend or looking forward to the next weekend. Occasionally I think about the workday ahead of me. I pass umpteen buildings but I rarely take notice.

Today, I decided to live in the present and pay attention to the buildings around me, just in case I am called in to a police line-up and asked to identify one!

I noticed that my favorite coffee shop in Hoboken – Empire Coffee has a store between 42nd and 43rd Street on Ninth Avenue, but I don’t buy my morning coffee there because it’s still 15 blocks away from the office and my coffee will be cold by the time I get to work.

I pass a Tasty-Treat ice cream store that is conveniently located next door to a dentist’s office offering specials on white smiles.

The pavement is always splattered with the spills and stains like a Jackson Pollock painting. There are ice cream droppings and coffee spills, and scraps of food from the numerous restaurants that line both sides of the avenue.

On ‘recycle days’ there are small skyscrapers of cardboard boxes tied up with string lying flat on the ground where the pavement meets the street, as if waiting for a bus.

On 43rd Street and Ninth is a decrepit grocery store called Meatpacking.

Rudy’s Bar a New York landmark sits in the middle of 43rd the 44th Streets, where you can get bucket of beer for $7.75.

Amy’s Bread nestled between 46th and 47th Streets would not look out of place in small town in Vermont, specializes in specialty breads.

The run-down Three Aces barbershop next door to Amy’s Bread, with its hand painted sign and authentic red white and blue barber pole pays homage to the old Hells Kitchen.

Mazzalla Wholesale Fruit and Veg. warehouse, between 47th and 48th Streets, with its cardboard boxes of oranges left of the pavement outside, looks awkward opposite the Amish Market on the opposite side of the street, with maliciously laid orange fruit stand resembling a great orange pyramid from Egypt.

Runners 'High'

2008-03-28T11:04:00.000-07:00

I am a runner. I run three to four times a week; sometimes more if I am training for a marathon. I was fascinated by an article in the New York Times on Thursday (03/27) about ‘runners high’; that euphoric feeling runners are supposed to get when they finish a race. I assumed ‘runners high’ was a myth or at the very least, something an elite runner experienced, not a duffer like me. The Times article put an end to the myth and described how a German doctor discovered a scientific method of measuring ‘runners high’.

I read about ‘runners high’ from magazine articles. I don’t believe I ever experienced this ‘high’; usually described as a release of endorphins in the brain which brought about a state of euphoria - akin to being stoned. (Endorphins affect mood.) I ran seven marathons and I never felt like that. All I felt was exhaustion, as I clutched my heart and did everything I could to avoid puking, as I collapsed on the ground.

So here is the scoop on how the ‘runners high’ was finally measured.
A Dr. Hening Boecher of the University of Bonn discovered that PET scans used to measure pain, combined with new chemicals could be used to measure endorphin levels in a runners brain. The good doctor tested runners before a race and at the end and discovered elevated endorphin levels in the area of the brain associated with emotion. Dr. Boecher compared the ‘high’ to the feeling one gets from being in love.

Dr. Boecker and colleagues recruited 10 distance runners and told them they were studying opioid receptors in the brain. But the runners did not realize that the investigators were studying the release of endorphins and the runner’s high. The athletes had a PET scan before and after a two-hour run. They also took a standard psychological test that indicated their mood before and after running.
The data showed that, indeed, endorphins were produced during running and were attaching themselves to areas of the brain associated with emotions, in particular the limbic and prefrontal areas.
The limbic and prefrontal areas, Dr. Boecker said, are activated when people are involved in romantic love affairs or, he said, “when you hear music that gives you a chill of euphoria, like Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3.” The greater the euphoria the runners reported, the more endorphins in their brain. – New York Times, Thursday 03/27

Now I know that ‘runners high’ is not a myth, but is a real and measurable feeling, instead of puking or collapsing at the end of my race, I will dig deep in my prefrontal brain for those euphoric feelings of love.

Note to my Dear Sister Michelle: Update on the kids.

2008-03-08T07:38:00.001-08:00

A mother’s love for her children is a powerful emotion; one that kept my 43-year-old sister Michelle clinging to life in Beaumount Hospital, Dublin, a year after the doctors said she should have died.

My sister was diagnosed with renal cancer in 2005 and was given six-months to live. For a year and a half she fought hard for every breath. Michelle just wanted to stay around to see her two young children grow up. She died in January 2007.

Dear Michelle,

I spent the last week with my niece and nephew, Rachael (5) and Christopher (3) in your home. I wanted to write to you to let you know how they are getting on. I know you were worried about them before you passed on last year - so here is the latest. Rachael will be five next week and we're having a big birthday party for her and her friends. Can you believe it? She goes to the infant's school in Marino now, where you and me went as kids. You would tear up just to see her in her green uniform and tie, all grown up at five. She is the cutest five-year old you have ever seen. She is a real 'girly' girl - she loves her Barbie's and boy does she have an imagination! Rachael plays 'Barbie’s' andChristopher and I end up playing some minor role in her sitting-room floor dramas. You would get a laugh to see your 42-year old brother lying on your sitting room floor playing 'Barbie's, petrified to call a doll by the wrong name in case I get a scowl from Rachael that would make a CEO flinch.

You could not have chosen a better husband or father to the kids thanRichard. He is the most involved and loving parent I have witnessed. The kids adore him and he them - but you knew that. Every morning, I wake-up to the sound of the kid's laughter, as they jump and roll around with Richard in your old bed. He gets as much out of it as they do. I swear!'

Mommy' Richard, that is what I call him - is just as good when it comes time to kiss those 'booboos' better after a slip or fall. Recently, Rachael got a cold, Richard nursed her back to health with all the love and caring our mom gave us to us. He was there at every turn to sooth and to calm her. God, you would have been so proud Michelle.

He cooks healthy meals as per your instructions and he's a good cook at that. I must apologize up front because I occasionally slip the kids sweets. What are uncles for? Now, to the living terror, Christopher; Michelle he's crazy. He is a three-year-old energy bunny. He keeps going and going and going. Remind me to cut down on his sweet allowance! Christopher flies around the house pretending to be a cross between a power ranger and a ninja turtle. He loves his 'Morphin - Power Ranger', the one I got him for Christmas. He takes him everywhere, even out to Tescos.

But mind me Michelle, you cannot take your eyes off Christopher for a minute, otherwise he's off to the races. Speaking of eyes - he still has those bright blue buttons you hoped he'd never lose. He loves his crèche and when I picked him up the other day, his teacher told me he gets along famously with all the other kids. You can relax; it doesn't look like he is going to be the shy and retiring kind! Rachael and Christopher still ask about you in heaven, not as often though. I think you'll agree that is a good thing. Occasionally, Rachael asks me what it was like being your brother. I talk about you until she is bored. Anyway, I must dash. I can hear Christopher calling me, another power ranger stuck between two chairs! You know how it is. I'll keep in touch.

P.S. You did great - no need to worry.

Love

Uncle Charlie.

A Faltering Campaign

2008-02-29T06:26:00.001-08:00

It was Bill Clinton who said, "If she wins Texas and Ohio I think she will be the nominee. If you don't deliver for her, I don't think she can be. It's all on you," the former president told the audience in Texas on February 20, when speaking about his wife’s campaign.

Fast forward to February 26 and Senator Barack Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton duked it out in their last debate before the crucial Texas and Ohio primaries. Tuesday’s debate began with a punch. Clinton attacked Obama on mailers his campaign distributed; claiming her healthcare plan did not cover everyone. “I have a great deal of respect for senator Obama, but we have differences, and in the last several days some of those differences in tactics and the choices that senator Obama's campaign has made regarding flyers and mailers, other information that has been put out about my healthcare plan, and my position about NAFTA uh have been very disturbing to me. And therefore, I think it's important to stand up for yourself and you point out these differences so that voters have the information they need to make a decision,” she said. Clinton supports universal healthcare. Obama parried her accusation and after spending 16 minutes on healthcare, the debate wound down to long policy speeches on trade and foreign policy. In the end, the debate was a tie with no one side coming out on top.

Therein lays the problem for Hillary Clinton’s campaign. How does she stop Obama’s momentum before the Texas and Ohio primaries on March 4? The Illinois Senator has won the last 10 primaries and caucuses.

Recent polls show Clinton’s support slipping in both Texas and Ohio. Most polls have Obama with a slight lead in Texas and gaining ground in Ohio. In January, Clinton had a comfortable double digit lead over her rival in both states. Throw into the mix the perception that the New York Senator’s campaign is faltering. Recently, Clinton replaced her chief strategist and lent her own campaign five million dollars. Thursday (02/29), the former first lady’s campaign reported that she raised $35-million dollar for the month of February.

Clinton needed to win Tuesday’s debate convincingly, before Texas and Ohio. She needed to out maneuver Obama; to catch him off guard if you will, and she failed to do that. At this late stage in the nomination race, it is hard to see how she can stop Obama winning the Democratic nomination.

In the past, the Clinton campaign switched tactics weekly with every primary loss. Her ‘Experience’ message, the cornerstone of Clinton’s campaign, failed to catch on with voters. Then her message switched to ‘change’ and finally, she settled on highlighting the differences in policy issues - all for naught.

Clinton’s fall has not been all her own making. Barack Obama the ‘change’ candidate appears to have the right message, at the right time for America. Americans are clamoring for change and that is reflected in the huge turnout of new voters in the primaries.

Texas has a total of 193 democratic delegates up for grabs. Ohio has 141 delegates. The democratic nominee needs to secure 2025 delegates to win nomination. Presently, Obama has 1365 and Clinton has 1265 (incl. Super Delegates).

Don't Write Off Hillary Clinton Just Yet

2008-02-14T12:20:00.001-08:00

If Senator Hillary Clinton reads the newspapers or watches television, she cannot help but see the obituaries written about her winning the democratic nomination for president - particularly after losing the last eight primaries and caucuses to Senator Barack Obama. But on Thursday (02/14) workers at a GM Assembly Plant in Ohio, saw a rejuvenated Clinton, who had taken the gloves off as she railed against her opponent’s message of change. In her speech, she accused her opponent of stealing her ideas on creating ‘green’ jobs. She attacked his message of change by calling it ‘talk’ and no action. Despite her hoarse voice, Clinton gave an impassioned speech on restoring American manufacturing jobs and taking on everything from trade with China to the credit card companies.

Armed with the knowledge that the economy is first and foremost on voters minds, the New York Senator promised new manufacturing jobs and help for the struggling middle class, if only she can get past the first hurdle – winning the democratic nomination.

Momentum

2008-02-11T18:33:00.000-08:00

Barack Obama won in Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington states on Saturday (02/09). He won the state of Maine on Sunday (02/10). He will face off with Hillary Clinton in Virginia, the District of Columbia, and Maryland, on Tuesday (02/12).
To date, Obama has 943 delegates, compared to Clinton’s 895. (A total number of 2,025 delegates are needed for nomination)

After Sunday’s (02/10) win in Maine, Clinton made a change at the top of her campaign management team. Campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle stepped down from running the day-to-day operations and was replaced by Maggie Williams. Both of these women have worked with the Clinton’s for many years.

Momentum – that is the word most commonly used to describe Barack Obama’s weekend sweep. When Obama wins state after state, he receives both more media attention and positive media attention. He comes off as a winner; the most important person in American society is a winner. The newspaper interviews and the television news segments all come with winning. This attention re-enforces his image as a winner in the public’s mind. The media coverage leaves the impression of inevitability - he will win the democratic presidential nomination.

On the other hand, Clinton was the loser coming out of this weekend’s election. Her media attention was mostly negative and was hurt considerably by her organizational change, portrayed as a sign of desperation in the media. Clinton’s changing act, coupled with last week’s five million dollar loan to herself, were acts of desperation in the media.

The combination of Obama’s positive attention and Clinton’s negative attention in the media leads to a downward spiral for the Clinton’s campaign. It will be interesting to see if she can counter Obama’s momentum. One big win in Ohio or Texas could turn that momentum around.

Super Tuesday, Super Bowl

2008-02-04T11:52:00.000-08:00

U.S. presidential politics is a full contact sport. It’s a ‘beat ‘em up, drag ‘em down’ contest until there is only one candidate left standing come November. That is what makes Super Tuesday (02/04) such an exciting event for political junkies like me.

Barack Obama is running neck and neck in the polls with his democratic rival Hillary Clinton going into Tuesday’s primaries. This fact alone seemed as improbable as the New York Giants winning the Super Bowl on Sunday (02/03), just a couple of months ago.

Sunday (02/03) saw New York Giants beat the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl, the American equivalent of the World Cup (without the ‘world’ taking part). The Giants win was considered an improbable event until just before game time Sunday. The Giants were 12 points underdogs going into the game according Las Vegas bookies. The New York team started out the season by losing their first two games. The heartless New York media called for ‘heads to roll’, including the teams coach, Tom Coughlin. Sunday saw the Giants go to Arizona and beat what was championed as the greatest team assembled in American Football History, the New England Patriots. They had won 18 games coming into the Super Bowl and lost none. They even beat the New York Giants earlier in the season, but narrowly.

Here comes Super Tuesday (02/04) and voters in 24 states will go to the polls in what is touted an unprecedented race for the White House. Republicans and Democrats are expected to vote in huge numbers in influential states like California and New York. The two most populous states with their large delegate count will play the biggest role in choosing the next president of the United States in November.

The only certainty in this election year is that American’s want change. It has yet to be seen whether they want to throw the republicans out of the White House and replace them with democrats, or whether they want to see a new republican face at the presidential helm.

A couple of months ago, the Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama was so far behind his rival, Hillary Clinton in the national polls as to be considered an also ran. A couple wins in the early state primaries later and some key endorsements from Ted Kennedy, the Kennedy patriarch, and celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and he is now running neck and neck going into Super Tuesday, according to the latest polls. (A CBS poll has them both at 41 percent).

On the republican side, John McCain, Tuesday’s republican front-runner, is clearly going into Super Tuesday with what looks like an insurmountable lead over his two rivals, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. A CBS poll has McCain getting 46 percent of the votes compared to Romney’s 23 percent and Huckabee’s 12 percent.

Like Sunday’s improbable Giants Super Bowl win, McCain was considered a ‘goner’ when his campaign hit a road block a couple of months ago. He was in financial difficulty early in the election process. He ended up firing his top political advisors and took to the road on his ‘Straight Talk Express’ campaign bus, instead of the preferred private planes used by the other candidates.

McCain’s resurgence can be linked to the progress made by American troops in quelling the violence in Iraq. McCain is closely linked in the voter’s minds to his support for the unpopular military surge proposed by George Bush. Now that Iraq had faded from media headlines and the surge is perceived by the electorate to be a success, McCain has benefited from his earlier controversial decision to support the surge. Also, it doesn’t hurt that the American economy has taken precedence in voter’s minds, leaving Iraq a distant memory.

The only sure thing about this Tuesday is the New York Giants ticker tater-tape parade down Manhattan’s canyon of heroes. So let the games begin.

What a Difference a Day Makes in American Politics

2008-01-31T06:19:00.001-08:00

And then there were two - left in the democratic race for president. On Wednesday (01.30), John Edwards ended his campaign where he started, in New Orleans. Speaking from a 'Habitat for Humanity' village in New Orleans, Edwards stuck with the issue that took him to the dance - poverty and class struggle. He did not endorse either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.

In his speech to supporters Edwards said, "I must step aside so history can blaze its path. We do not know who will take the final step to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but we do know the Democratic Party will make history." Edwards had a hard time connecting with voters on key issues. He was overshadowed by the two big stars of the Democratic Party. The writing was on the wall after Edwards, a successful trial lawyer, came in third in his home state of South Carolina. His best showing was second in Iowa. Edwards ran as John Kerry's running mate in the 2004 presidential election.

Rudy Giuliani dropped his presidential bid on Wednesday night after a poor showing in the Florida primary. Giuliani pursued a risky strategy of betting the bank on the delegate rich state of Florida and lost. He came in a distant third to McCain and Romney. In his farewell speech, Giuliani endorsed his rival and friend John McCain.
``You don't always win, but you can always try to do it right, and you did,” Giuliani said.
``John McCain is the most qualified candidate to be the next commander in chief of the United States,'' he said. ``He's an American hero.''

Now, all eyes move to Super Tuesday on February 5, when 24 states hold their primaries and caucuses.

What a Difference a Day Makes in American Politics

2008-01-31T06:19:00.000-08:00

And then there were two - left in the democratic race for president. On Wednesday (01.30), John Edwards ended his campaign where he started, in New Orleans. Speaking from a 'Habitat for Humanity' village in New Orleans, Edwards stuck with the issue that took him to the dance - poverty and class struggle. He did not endorse either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.

In his speech to supporters Edwards said, "I must step aside so history can blaze its path. We do not know who will take the final step to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but we do know the Democratic Party will make history." Edwards had a hard time connecting with voters on key issues. He was overshadowed by the two big stars of the Democratic Party. The writing was on the wall after Edwards, a successful trial lawyer, came in third in his home state of South Carolina. His best showing was second in Iowa. Edwards ran as John Kerry's running mate in the 2004 presidential election.

Rudy Giuliani, the Republican Party candidate, dropped his presidential bid on Wednesday night after a poor showing in the Florida primary. Giuliani pursued a risky strategy of betting the bank on the delegate rich state of Florida and lost. He came in a distant third to McCain and Romney. Giuliani endorsed his rival and friend John McCain. In his farewell speech Giuliani said, ``You don't always win, but you can always try to do it right, and you did. ``John McCain is the most qualified candidate to be the next commander in chief of the United States,'' Giuliani said. ``He's an American hero.''

Now, all eyes move to Super Tuesday on February 5, when 24 states hold their primaries and caucuses.

Obama and Kennedy

2008-01-28T13:50:00.000-08:00

The former president, Bill Clinton is like a shooting star a brilliant streak of light gliding across the sky leaving a trail in its wake. Lately, Bill Clinton has been on the campaign trail every bit as much as the candidates running for president. He garnishes as much attention as any other candidate and his recent comments on the campaign trail have become more like rants. In South Carolina, he accused the Obama camp of putting a ‘hit-job’ on him. He has fueled talk on race and gender that the only the media jumped all over. In this red-hot race for democratic nominee for president, the gloves are off and both sides are throwing punches but his comments are landing below the belt. Therefore, it was clear to me that the folks in South Carolina were sending Clinton a message when they overwhelmingly voted for Barack Obama.

It was not a surprise when Barack Obama won South Carolina on Saturday (0126), after all, he was leading in the polls. The surprise was the large margin of his win, over his chief rival Hillary Clinton. Over half of the state is black and you might think they are more apt to vote for someone who looks like them, but consider this – African Americans affectionately called Bill Clinton the first black president of the United States and this affection rubbed off on his wife Hillary. So what caused over 80% of the black vote in South Carolina to move into Obama’s camp? The pundit talk lays the fault squarely in Bill Clinton’s lap. Running up to the South Carolina primary the former president used divisive tactics to paint Obama as a not just a candidate who happens to be black, but the black candidate. This purposely-divisive tactic was an attempt to turn white voters away from Obama.

In the meantime, Obama acquitted himself well. In the much-publicized last democratic debate in South Carolina, Obama dropped a ‘zinger’ on Hillary. He caught Clinton off guard when she accused him of saying he admired Ronald Regan (the conservative icon)in one of his speeches. In subsequent exchange, Obama accused Hillary’s husband of saying exactly the same thing. Hillary countered by saying she was running for president not her husband. Obama immediately came back by saying he was not sure whom he was running against Hillary or Bill Clinton. In that one line, Obama voiced what many felt - if they voted for Hillary were they really getting Bill.

South Carolinians both black and white saw through Bill Clinton’s underhanded tactic and voted against his wife, as opposed to voting for his wife. In the last two days before the primary, Bill Clinton toned down his rhetoric but the damage was done.
Fast forward to Monday (01.28), and Obama received the public endorsement of Ted Kennedy and Caroline Kennedy, John F. Kennedy’s daughter. In this presidential race, Obama is consistently compared to J.F.K in both his oratory and his message of hope. Ted Kennedy’s endorsement means a lot to the democratic base who consider Kennedy an elder statesman and inheritor of the Kennedy mantel. In a nutshell, Ted’s endorsement provides legitimacy to Obama’s right to inherit the democratic crown.

Manchester Primary, New Hampshire

2008-01-15T03:24:00.000-08:00

It was privilege to see a momentous event like the New Hampshire primary. The 2009 presidential election will certainly be a first in American politics. The democratic presidential contender will either be a woman or a black man. I have not written off John Edwards yet but he is fighting an uphill battle.
There were hundreds and maybe even thousands of television, radio, and print reporters, not to mention bloggers, plying their trade on the streets of New Hampshire, in unseasonably warm weather for this part of the States. The lucky ones got to crisscross the state following the presidential campaign buses as the candidates spoke at numerous town halls, local schools and veteran’s halls.
The rest of the media pack ran from primary district, to primary district taking the voters pulse as they begun the process of electing the next president of the free world.
In Manchester, N.H., outside the main network television headquarters (ABC, NBC and CBS) there were elaborate tents set up with multiple cameras lined up in a row, so affiliates from around the nation and international stations could feed their stories live from the New Hampshire primary.
There was a definite buzz in the air during the primaries in New Hampshire.. Along the Interstate were billboards filled with the candidates smiling faces. Television stations served up candidate advertisements in between sitcoms and game shows. Campaign workers trudged through snow banks asking residents to vote for their candidate. Pedestrians walked down the street wearing buttons with the face of their favorite candidate.
The primaries also attracted all kinds of special interest groups looking to promote their cause anyway they can. For example, there were religious conservatives standing strategically outside television headquarters with huge anti-abortion signs in an attempt to get their cause on television. There was a pink pick-up truck in the shape of a pig, snout and all, driving the streets of Manchester denouncing pork barrel spending. (politicians pet projects funded by government tax dollars).
The day after the New Hampshire primary was called, the concession speeches given and the confetti swept off the floor, the candidates board their campaign buses and head out to the next state on their long road to becoming the next President of the United States.

The race for the White House

2008-01-07T19:43:00.000-08:00

Ready… get set.. go..

Mike Huckabee, the Republican Iowan caucus winner (01/03) maybe an evangelical preacher, but Barack Obama, the Democratic Iowan caucus winner, is America’s new Messiah.

In New Hampshire, the enthusiasm demonstrated by supporters, volunteers and the just plain curious who turn out to see the Senator from Illinois is unmatched by any of his rivals, and I dare say unmatched in American politics since the days of J.F.K (John F. Kennedy) and all those unfulfilled promises.

There is a tremendous groundswell of support for Obama or ‘bounce’ as the political pundits call it, since he won the Iowa caucus on January 3.It is not just democrats who flock to see him give speeches in school gymnasiums or veterans halls across New Hampshire; independent voters (people who choose not to declare themselves republicans or democrats), and new comers to the political process, along with a significant number of republicans come to hear this young charismatic preacher tell his story of hope.

In poll after poll taken in 2007, the American public expressed their displeasure with the Bush administration and with Congress - displeasure reflected in the lowest approval ratings ever for a sitting President (approx. 20%). It seemed that the American public had lost faith in their government and lost confidence in its leadership.

After four years of war; a slowing economy; a mortgage crisis; stagnant wages and, rising oil prices, Americans have declared themselves ready to throw out the partisan politics and the war mongering of the Bush administration and look for a new political direction. Obama is that new direction. He offers a starving American public, a fresh face, a black face and a future full of hope, not frustration, and a future full of optimism, and not fear.

Obama offers Americans a new political reality; a reality that unites rather than divides and offers hope, rather than shame. He delivers his message in impassioned speeches at rallies and town halls across New Hampshire. His speeches are reminiscent of Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech, mixed with John F. Kennedy’s ‘ask not what your country can do for you country’ speech.

Iowa Caucus victory speech, in Des Moines, Iowa.
“….when the world sees America differently and America sees itself as a nation less divided and more united. You will be able to look back and say, this was a moment when it all began…this was the moment when we beat back the politics of fear and cynicism. This was the moment when we dared to hope..”

So, as we sit and wait for the 1.3 million New Englanders to choose their next president on Wednesday, January 8, the new Democrat with a black Kenyan father and a white Kansan mother appears more and more presidential by the minute.

In New Hampshire, the most recent CNN-WMUR poll out Monday, gave Obama a nine-point lead over his nearest rival Hilary Clinton, who was comfortably leading Obama last week.

Hilary Clinton, Des Moines, Iowa

2007-12-31T21:48:00.000-08:00

With the Iowa caucus on January 3, Hilary Clinton brought the big guns with her to downtown Des Moines, Iowa on New Years Eve. With the three top democratic frontrunners running in a statistical tie, candidates don’t dare take a break on New Years Eve.

With a huge American flag as a backdrop, the Senator from New York accompanied by her more popular husband Bill and her daughter Chelsea addressed the small but enthusiastic crowd for approximately ten minutes.

She spoke briefly about taking over the White House and wished the crowd a Happy New Year. She and the former President then shook hands, posed for photographs and quickly disappeared behind the stage.

Christmas Eve in Times Square

2007-12-25T19:51:00.000-08:00

So what does Christmas mean to you? I have not celebrated Christmas in years. I cannot remember the last time I celebrated Christmas. I do not decorate my apartment. In fact, if you were to walk through my apartment there are no signs of Christmas what so ever. There is no tree and no Christmas cards hanging from the refrigerator.
The Christmas cards I do receive I read and throw out. I send very few cards myself. Those I do send go to my brother and his family.

It’s not that I dislike Christmas; I am totally neutral about the whole thing. I hate shopping for gifts and do as little of it as possible. I don’t mind receiving a gift but I am neutral on this also. Most gifts are nice but I can live without them. I appreciate the thought though, since I don’t really like thinking about other people I know how hard this thought can be.

Christmas is for children. I like to see young children enjoy their gifts and get excited about Santa. My younger niece and nephew come to mind. They are real believers and there is something magical about that complete confidence in Christmas that makes me smile. See, I am actually smiling.

I hate visiting people for Christmas, even though they have been very kind to invite me to their homes to celebrate the holiday. I like being alone at Christmas, but for many years I have worked on Christmas Day, as today and I have not had the option to visit or not to visit.

I am not religious so the spiritual side of Christmas barely registers with me. I like walking the quiet streets in New York or Hoboken at Christmas. I like to take a run on Christmas Day. When I see people hurrying through the streets with Christmas presents packed into large brown bags, I often wonder where they are rushing.

I try to think of the less fortunate at Christmas but I do nothing about their plight. I am not any more generous at Christmas than at any other time of year. There is plenty of room for improvement there.

I have fond memories of Christmas growing up. I like the fake white tree with its paint by number colored limbs, which made it easy to build. I liked going into the attic as a child and pulling down all those brown cardboard boxes full of tinsel and ornaments. I liked sitting on the sofa and watching the Sound of Music on television, eating as many sweets as I could manage. I have not given up on these traditions.

These memories are Christmas to me.

How Things Have Changed

2007-12-24T10:23:00.000-08:00

I left Dublin in the late 1980’s with a suitcase and a couple of hundred dollars in my pocket and headed for New York where I have lived for the last 20-years. I left Ireland with an official unemployment rate of 20 percent and a weather forecast that seemed to match the doom and gloom of those difficult economic times - rain followed by more rain. Fast forward to today and I am still in New York, but the Irish economy has moved on with close to full employment and an economy that just seems to hum along, despite recent reports.

Recently, I spotted an article in the New York Times (12/21 ‘New York Condos Lure Deal-Seeking Europeans’- http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/21/realestate/21condo.html?_r=1&oref=slogin), that described an Irish couple apartment hunting while visiting New York. On at least two occasions this year I have read about the Irish coming to New York not just to spend their euros on Christmas presents like the Nintendo Wii, but to buy Manhattan apartments. (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/realestate/04cov.html?vendor=GABRIELS&partner=GABRIELS&ex=1198645200&en=166fd27125a233ee&ei=5103.)

Personally, I take great pride in reading about the Irish spending their disposable income on New York apartments. It makes a pleasant change from those stories about economic migrants seeking a new life. My Irish friend’s tell me a cautionary tale of borrowed money, but my reply to them is - who cares if it’s borrowed money? The United States economy is built on borrowed money. I read somewhere recently that the majority of Americans have a negative savings rate. Americans spend more money than they make, all the time. That is want keeps the U.S. economy running.

When I visit Dublin I like listening to friends economic success stories. The pub talk has changed from whether so and so living abroad will be home for Christmas, to talk about whether to spend the Christmas holidays at their primary residence or at their holiday homes. The Irish economy has brought economic wealth but also an economic confidence that I never saw before. For all the doom and gloom that forecasters predict for the future of the Irish economy, I sincerely doubt that those horrible days in the early 1980’s will ever return, now that the Irish have seen what is possible.

Now if there was only something we could do about the weather!

Happy Christmas y’all.

A New York City Bust

2007-12-22T14:42:00.002-08:00

I was walking home from work on Friday 12/21 at 4.30 pm when I came across an altercation between two groups of teenagers. One group was driving the silver BMW and the second was driving a black Hummer located out of sight behind the BMW. A fight broke out between both groups at 47th Street and Ninth Avenue. Police swarmed the scene in minutes and started to make arrests. No one appeared physically hurt. I could not find out what set these two groups off.

A New York City

2007-12-22T14:42:00.001-08:00

Penny Harvest Field

2007-12-12T19:49:00.000-08:00

One hundred million American pennies ($1 million dollars) look exactly like 100 million Irish pennies; all brown and copper like. Except this sea of pennies are laid out in a square box in Rockefeller Center in mid-town Manhattan.
The Penny Harvest Field, as the exhibit is called was unveiled on Monday (12/10) and measures 30 x 165 feet. The pennies were collected by school children for charity. Over 800 schools participated in the drive that began on October 22 and ended at the end of November. The non-profit ‘Common Sense’ organized the event to teach children about charity and giving to those less fortunate.

Rockerfeller and Photos

2007-12-12T19:19:00.000-08:00

Christmas has arrived in New York, and nothing epitomizes Christmas in New York like Rockefeller Center. Rockefeller Center is a four block long and two block wide piece of real estate that sits between Fifth and Seventh Ave. in the heart of mid-town Manhattan and buzzes with tourists at Christmas. In this rectangular space lie some of New York’s most famous icons; 1. The Christmas tree, an 84 foot Norway spruce stands majestically above the Rockefeller ice rink. 2. Rockefeller Ice Rink, made famous in Woody Allen movies. 3. The ‘Rockettes’ are playing at Radio City Music Hall and 4. new sculpture called Penny Harvest containing over $1 million dollars worth of pennies.

The Christmas spirit really starts in October in the most consumer driven nation in the world. Children’s toy adds start playing on television in October. Shops or stores as they are known here, start to advertise Christmas savings/specials/discounts/gift cards and store credit. I was looking at TV. this week and some financial guru said that Americans spend more money than they make. So if your income is 80,000 dollars you are spending 85,000 dollars a year. The money Americans don’t have is provided by American Express, Visa and MasterCard at hefty interest rates.

As I walk to work up Ninth Ave., I pass Christmas trees lined up like soldiers outside every deli and bodega. The smell of pine needles filled the air this morning. The streets seem new as if washed from the rain the night before. A flock of pigeons grey and white pigeons swooped and spiraled carelessly in the air, oblivious to the buses and cars passing below.

One Job a Week

2007-11-30T08:14:00.000-08:00

I read an interesting article in the New York Times on Thursday (11/19). (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/29/fashion/29Work.html?em&ex=1196485200&en=081baa1e47c86e90&ei=5087%0A)
Meet 25 year-old Sean Aiken, a college graduate with a degree in business administration, and not a clue about what to do with his life. He came up with the novel idea of taking one job a week for a whole year. He is currently writing a blog (oneweekjob.com) about his work/life experiences. Aiken began by asking friends and family for a job and then readers of his website started offering him jobs. He sleeps on couches all over the country. This week Aiken is working as a photographer’s assistant in New York, scouting location sites for a photographer. Aiken is sponsored by Nicejob.ca to the tune of $1,000 per month and donates his weekly salary to Make Poverty History / ONE Campaign. So far Aiken has raised $14,281.

Aiken wanted a job he could be passionate about. He did not want to end up like his father working as an accountant for 30-years for the same company. Aiken’s parents told him he could do anything he wanted with his life and he believed them. The article drew a parallel between his generation (Gen. Y) who wanted to do it all, and his father’s generation who took one job and stuck with it for as long as possible or until he was let go or retired.

Cyber Monday

2007-11-26T08:18:00.000-08:00

The fuzzy season is officially here; or should I say funny season. This involves mandatory Christmas stories in every news cast or paper. We have already had stories involving, Black Friday the official start to the Christmas shopping season and the day after Thanksgiving; and Cyber Monday (11/26), the biggest online shopping day in the calendar. Americans return to work today and log onto their computers after the long Thanksgiving (11/22) weekend and a huge portion of those Americans will go shopping for Christmas presents. Brick and mortar stores and online shopping malls are geared up to offer huge discounts to these eager and apparently not too busy shoppers.
Incentives like free shipping and iPods for 77% discount encourage shoppers to buy online.
I never liked to buy online before. I wanted to see the item I was buying before I spent my money, but I have been converted. Now, I like the convenience sitting in my bedroom (that’s were I have my computer) spending money. I have never been disappointed by what I have bought online and this has played a role in my online shopping experience. I thrust the security precautions taken by major online sites and this also helps. Finally, I absolutely hate walking around shops looking for something unique to buy friends and family. It’s boring and time consuming.
So what will I buy this year? Well, my niece and nephew in Dublin have asked for anything Barbie and Power Rangers; also, if I saw anything to do with the movie the ‘Incredibles’ that would be fine too.
My two nieces in California are a bigger problem. I know they love sports, but getting young girls a present they will use or wear can be problematic. Money is always welcome but too impersonal.
So I intend to keep you informed of what I buy folks for Christmas. Since nobody reads this blog, I feel I won’t reveal any secrets.

Christmas Toys

2007-11-21T09:03:00.000-08:00

I have three nieces and one nephew; so when it comes to Christmas, I really like to spoil them with gifts. My brothers two children who are in high school are easier to buy for than my younger niece (4-years) and nephew (3-years) in Dublin. I am always on the look out for the IT toys; toys that I think they may want. So since it’s that season again, I decided to do a little research to find some of the hippest toys this year.
With scores of toy recalls this year in the U.S. - the Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled millions of toys this year in the U.S. because of lead paint or parts that could choke a child. At one stage, it looked like there was a news conference every week recalling one toy or another from the shelves. ‘Batman Batmobile’, had 314,000 units recalled alone.
Here are some toys I found on about.com and I think they are just brilliant.

Hasbro's Transformers Movie Ultimate Bumblebee, transforms from a yellow car into an Ultimate Bumblebee robot.. Boys will love this toy.
($80 / Euro 54)

The Puppy Grows & Knows Your Name from Fisher-Price is adorable. The puppy grows to a full sized dog in 4 days. It knows its own name, your child's name and can sing 2 songs using your child's name. The puppy can be personalized using the CD provided. You also get a measuring tape with a growth chart, a bone, brush, and a birth certificate. ($50 / 38 Euro)

Hasbro's Furreal Friends Squawkers McCaw Parrot is a toy
with features such as voice recognition, animatronics, and dance features. It comes with a remote control which has pre-programmed voice commands which can prompt the parrot to say something or dance if there's music playing. Although, since this parrot loves to dance, it will do so to his own tunes too. ($70 / Euro 47)

Hasbro's Power Tour Guitar meant for ages 10 + is a great way for youngsters to learn how to play the guitar. The beauty of the Power Tour Electric Guitar is that there are no strings attached (literally) which makes it much simpler to learn. The whole concept is touch activated. The guitar fret is color coded, and the flashing lights prompt the player where to place their fingers. ($50 / 38 Euro)

Jakks Pacific's Eye-Clops, the handheld bionic eye that plugs into your TV. Not only is it designed to keep kids of all ages (including fully grown kids) occupied and excited for hours, it also serves to educate your children. Eye-Clops works by providing close up images of minute objects. It's amazing to see something magnified by a factor of 200 on your TV screen! It even includes an observation dish and tube to view liquids, salt, bugs or anything that catches your fancy. Three built-in lights help to illuminate the objects under observation. ($40 / 27 Euro)

Thanksgiving and Black Friday

2007-11-19T09:31:00.000-08:00

This week (11/19-11/26) is the busiest travel week in the U.S. calendar. Thanksgiving Day on Thursday (11/22) is America’s biggest travel day (37 million Americans) and the most celebrated holiday in the U.S. calendar. Thanksgiving is for Americans what Christmas is to the Irish. Airports, train stations and roads are packed with folks heading home for the holiday to hearth and family.
Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday. Families gather around their dining tables with their best linen and stuff their faces full of turkey, cranberry sauce (don’t ask me); sweet potatoes (yams), with pumpkin pie for desert (not as bad as it sounds).
Thanksgiving Day began with the pilgrims celebrating the end of the harvest. American’s tend to believe that the U.S. was settled by the persecuted Christian refugees whose legacy is felt beyond Thanksgiving to the political present. The Christian conservatives that dominate the White House and Middle America hark on back to their original pilgrim roots at every opportunity.
Thanksgiving Day is also associated with street parades all over the States with the biggest being the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. Macy’s being the famous department store on 34th Street in Manhattan, made famous by the 1947 movie Miracle on 34th Street (staring Maureen O’Hara). The parade boasts huge balloons in the shape of cartoons and the size of small buildings.
Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year. The American family begins its two month long prayer ritual to consumerism. Families all over the U.S., enticed by huge store (shop) discounts go out and spend massive globs of money on red and white Christmas sweaters with snowmen on the front.
Typically, stores like K-mart and Macy’s start their holiday sales huge discounts in order to attract large lines (queues) outside their stores when they open. Retail competition is so tight that some stores open at 12.00 am Thursday night and folks spend their evening sleeping in front of the store to get those early bargains.

MANHOLE FIRE

2007-11-13T21:33:00.000-08:00

November 13

40th Street and Ninth Avenue
Firefighters cordoned off a half block radius while smoke billowed from a steel manhole cover on Ninth Avenue outside Port Authority Bus Terminal. The fire started at approx. 8.00 a.m. Tuesday morning as he bus station spilled its humanity onto the street.

New Yorkers are used to seeing smoke rising from all sorts of holes in the ground as they scurry back and forth to work. This fire was no real exception, although it could have been. You see there are two worlds that separate New York City, the subway below, and the streets above. In winter, grey steam clouds rise from the underground, as the hot air from below ground meets the cold air above. In winter orange and white chimney cones resembling the cat’s striped hat in Dr. Seuss ‘Cat in the Hat’, appear all over the streets of Manhattan allowing the steam from the nether world below ground to vent its frustration at the living world above ground. Manhole fires are quite common in Manhattan, as last nights rainwater collides with the worn, poorly insulated power cables that run up and down the streets and avenues of this city. However, they can be deadly. Fire crews will not touch a smoking manhole, until they are sure Con Edison has cut off all power.

On July 19, a manhole cover exploded in midtown Manhattan killing one person and injuring dozens of others as they made their way home from work. The explosion was so loud, officer workers heard it streets away. That explosion received both national and international attention, a by-product of September 11. Hell, on February 15, a dog called Bob, was electrocuted walking over an icy manhole. Bob also died.

Broadway Goes Dark, Well Sort Of

2007-11-11T18:34:00.000-08:00

Broadway Goes Dark, Well Sort Of.

With the Broadway stagehand strike heading into its third day on Monday (11/12), I decided to take a walk down to 44th St. and Broadway home to mega Broadway musicals like Les Miserable and ‘Xanadu.’
During intermission standing outside the musical Xanadu and across the street from ‘Les Miserables’ and ‘Spamalot’ were Andrew R and Phil A from London, who write an online theatre review blog called the West End Whingers (http://www.westendwhingers.net/). Both visitors asked that I not reveal their last names.

Andrew and Phil were in New York to see and write about six Broadway shows they planned to see in six days. They arrived on Saturday (11/10) night when they managed to squeeze in their first musical ‘Alter Boyz’.

Neither Andrew nor Phil was aware of the strike before their plane touched down on Saturday. Both theatre enthusiasts said they would not have altered their plans if they had known about the strike earlier; before they left London. “We wouldn’t have changed our plans anyway,” Andrew said. “Xanadu alone was worth the trip,” Phil said. Andrew and Phil admitted the show they really wanted to see the most was Young Frankenstein, but they were not sure if it was effected by the strike.

Not all Broadway shows are effected by the strike between the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and the League of American Theatre and Producers. There are eight Broadway shows still open for business.

The strike is primarily over working rules at the theatres. The theatre owners and producers say they are forced to hire more stagehands than are necessary, thus forcing up production costs. During a press conference on Saturday (11/10, a representative for the producers and theatre owners said, that each stage hand makes between 150,000 and 200,000 dollars a year.
The stagehand union claims that the owners and producers are trying to force job cuts on the union while theatre owners make record profits.

Steve a member of the Theatrical Stage Employees Union who was handing out flyers from behind a picket line outside ‘Les Miserables’ called the theatre owners demands ‘unreasonable.’ Steve who has worked as a stagehand for more than 30-years called the salary figures quoted by the producers and theatre owners as “highly inflated.” “There are several different pay scales for union employees,” he said. “An average union employee who worked a full year might make $100,000 dollars,” He was prepared to stay on the picket line for as long as it took for the theatre owners and producers to come back to the bargaining table and negotiate in good faith, he said.

In the meantime, New York City loses millions of dollars a day; some estimates run as high as $17 million dollars. On Sunday (11/11), Mayor Bloomberg said he was willing to help both sides reach an agreement in any way he can. In a statement he said, “While this is a private labor matter, the economic impact is very public and will be felt far beyond the theatres closed today,” It is in everyone's interest for both sides to come together and resolve their differences."

There are no talks scheduled in the near future.

In the meantime as the call went out for theater goers to return to their seats for the second act in ‘Xanadu’ both Andrew and Phil were giddy with excitement to hear that ‘Young Frankenstein’ was not effected by the strike.

New York City Marathon

2007-11-11T12:30:00.000-08:00

November 4

It certainly was not my best finish time 3:53:14 for the New York City Marathon; but I did not hurt as much as my previous marathon experiences. My legs were tired and stiff but not completely immobile when I finished.
I was back in work on Monday (11/05) and none the worse for wear. The New York marathon is a boisterous, ebullient affair with 39,000 runners from all over the world. This was my fifth New York marathon and certainly one of my best from a physical stand point. I felt ready for this one and maybe that’s why I was not hurting so much, when I finished. The Wednesday night interval training on Weehawken track in New Jersey paid off. The 20 mile long runs in Central Park paid off.
I find running long distances a spiritual experience. No matter how many people surround me when I run, I am alone with my thoughts and yes, sometimes prayers. Before any long run actually before I exercise at all I offer the practice to those living and dead who touched my life.
The New York City marathon is simply the best from a participant’s point of view because of the public support all along the 26.2 mile route. Over one million people come out to cheer on the runners; and I mean cheer them on. They are enthusiastic and verbose. It makes one weary mile after the other just fly by. As a runner you are not concentrating on your pain but on the crowds. It can be very emotional at times.

The Writers Union V’s Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers

2007-11-03T17:02:00.000-07:00

November 2

The writers union, Writers Guild of America went on strike on Thursday (11/02) night. This would mean nothing in Ireland but here it can cost a huge industry billions of dollars in lost profits. We all know in the U.S. profits are everything. Writers work for Hollywood production companies and television corporations and are responsible for writing movie (film) scripts, television sitcoms and comedy bits for late night talk shows like ‘The Tonight Show’ with Jay Leno.

About 17,000 writers all over the country walked out. Talk shows that rely on writers for relevant comedy bits from that days news, will suffer most from the writers strike. Hollywood produce films years in advance, so they will have a stock of films in ‘in the can’ ready to go. They suffer the least.

The writers are looking for payment from DVD sales, internet and cell phone revenue. The producers union, the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers, want to recoup the cost of the movie or television show before paying any residuals to writers.

Construction Unions in New York protesting
non-union construction site.

The Filty Streets of New York

2007-11-03T15:59:00.000-07:00

November 2

You thought Dublin was a dirty city; New York gives Dublin a run for its money. In the morning the sidewalks or pavements to you, are full of black plastic garbage (rubbish) bags full of left over dinners or rotten food, are left out by the multitude of restaurants that line every street. These bags are often torn open by rats or the homeless or freegans (people who don’t want to pay for food so they rummage through garbage bags looking for food that is still good to eat. It has something to do with saving the environment or reducing their carbon footprint) during the night. Add to the restaurant rubbish, the regular household rubbish; crapped out computer screens, old sofas and chairs. All this shit leaves the place smelling like a sewer and the pavements slippery.

Bee Movie Premiere

2007-11-03T15:34:00.000-07:00

October 25

Bee Movie New York City Premiere
October 25, 2007 - AMC Loews Broadway, New York, NY United States

Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock arrive at the New York City Premiere of Bee Movie.
Seinfeld is co-writer and co-producer of the film. He plays ˜Barry a shy bee leaves the hive and falls in love with a human florist, Vanessa, voiced by Renee Zellweager. ˜Barry sues the human race for exploiting bees. Chris Rock voices Mooseblood a mosquito. The film officially opens on November

See link below
http://vipglamour.net/2007/10/26/jerry-seinfeld-and-chris-rock-arrive-at-the-new-york-city-premiere-of-bee-movie/

CAST
BARRY B BENSON - Jerry Seinfeld
VANESSA - Renee Zellweager
ADAM FLAYMAN - Matthew Broderick
MOOSEBLOOD - Chris Rock
LAYTON T MONTGOMERY - John Goodman
JANET BENSON - Kathy Bates
MARTIN BENSON - Barry Levinson
KEN - Patrick Warburton
TRUDY - Megan Mullally
DEAN BUZZWELL - Larry Miller
LOU LO DUCA - Rip Torn

Dream Works Animation

Halloween

2007-11-03T11:18:00.000-07:00

October 31

New Yorkers really do Halloween. I mean they spend billions of dollars buying costumes and going out to bars or pubs to you, in the hopes of winning some costume prize.
But the West Village, known as a gay area hosts the biggest parade in the world. Thousands of parade participants are dressed in elaborate costumes, some with themes ripped from the news headlines. For example there was one poor unfortunate dressed as a Taco Bell fast food restaurant. Why, you ask? Earlier this year, a camera crew filmed loads of rats running wild all over a closed restaurant. The television coverage was none stop for weeks. This guy wore a home made costume that resembled a Taco Bell, with a clear plastic bubble attached to his belly with live rats running around. I tell no lie. Now he did make the news.

Tuesday 10/23

2007-10-23T12:57:00.000-07:00

It appears that California is burning. Million dollar homes in Malibu are burning. The fire department cannot contain the fast moving fire, spread Santa Ana winds. At the time of writing 1,200 acres have been burnt and one person was killed in the fire. Turkey’s threat to invade Northern Iraq in an attempt to weed out PKK (Kurdish Worker Party) rebels has the United States on edge, according to the New York Times (10/22). The last thing the United States needs is a war on Iraq’s northern border. The Kurdish controlled North was the only relatively violent free part of Iraq. I think that the U.S. has painted itself into a dangerous corner when it comes to giving advice to Turkey. After all, if the present administration is to be believed, we entered Iraq to deny al Qaeda safe haven and of course to rid the country of its nuclear capabilities. Therefore if Turkey decides to go after the Kurdish separatists then who are we to tell them they should wait? The U.S. should be standing on the bully pulpit congratulating Turkey on its aggressive stand against the PKK.

NEW YORK TIMES

2007-10-10T06:55:00.000-07:00

Monday 10/07/2007

I have mentioned in past postings that I love the NY Times. I spend many a happy hour reading the NY Times Sunday edition. It contains numerous inserts covering everything from cars to style.
The Sunday ‘Styles’ insert both attracts and repulses me at the same time. Styles are a collection of stories about who, what and where is hip in New York City. Sunday's (10/07) had a story on an unknown 'boite' in the East Village in New York City where a reservation is necessary to drink in the bar. Clients and not patrons have to walk through a telephone booth in the back of a diner to get into the bar. The signature cocktail for the bar is "The Reverend Palmer"; a black tea infused Elijah Craig 12-year-old bourbon with lemon and Angostura bitters. Is there anything more pretentious than unknown bourbon and Angostura bitters in a bar where you have to make a reservation and then pass through a telephone booth to get in? I guess there must be some folks, part of the faux and fabulous, kicking themselves because they never heard of this hidden getaway? Will there be a rush to make a reservation? I bite my nails in anticipation.

Styles has a section called the ‘Nite Gala’ that covers New York’s elite; the movers and shakers, the rich and powerful attending charity events all over New York City. This page displays black and white photographs of older men in back tuxedos accompanied by younger women in ball gowns attending charity events at the likes of Lincoln Center.

At the end of a 10-page insert come the wedding announcements. These are a charm. You can read the short life biography of Emiley (even the spelling is strange) Elizabeth Zalesky, 30, and Keith Lockhart, 47, who were married Sunday, Oct. 7th. Zalesky is an Assistant Attorney General in Boston who attended Georgetown Law School and Lockhart is a conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra and the Utah Symphony Orchestra. Sadly missing from these announcements is the local fireman marrying his high school sweetheart. The NY Times wedding announcements are for the children of the privileged with stellar academic credentials.
I am not sure why I am attracted to the ‘Styles’ insert? I suppose its because I get to see how the stylish, trendy and powerful live their lives. I am a voyeur looking into a rarefied world.

Monday (10/08) marks Columbus Day in the U.S., a federal government/federal holiday marking Christopher Columbus discovery of the United States back in 1492. It also marks another American tradition; Christopher Columbus Day sales in department stores (shops) and car dealerships. What could be more American than a sale. NYC has a little attended parade down Fifth Avenue. Most private employers do not give employees the day off reports Columbus Day as the least observed holiday for employers. Public schools, government offices and banks are closed. .

Patrick McGeehan from the NY Times (10/07) (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/nyregion/07columbus.html?_r=1&oref=slogin)

NEW YORK CITY FOG

2007-10-05T06:35:00.000-07:00

Wednesday (10/03)

New York City was enveloped in a fog on Wednesday (10/03) morning. The Reuters news building in Times Square wore a foggy top. It was a serenely quite walk up Ninth Avenue past the garbage bags (rubbish) piled high on the sidewalk. I smiled as I passed frustrated mothers dragging their small uniformed kids to school. It reminded me of my own mother.

Thursday (10/04)

I wanted to call out sick on Thursday (10/04). I felt like I had worked weeks on end without a weekend in between and that my body cried out for a break. Do you ever get that feeling?
I wanted to thumb my nose and say “not today thank you.” So why didn’t I? Guilt. I feel guilty if I take a day off work for no real reason. That is the American in me. If I lived in Ireland I doubt I would feel the same guilt for taking a sick day. In the United States work consumes most of your life. To call out sick is a mark of failure or weakness. At least that is how I feel. You are always one paycheck away from losing your job.

ADVICE
Now the euro is running high against the dollar, I am looking to cash in (as it were) on the monetary differential. Is there a US product I could market in Ireland? I am aware of the customs duties and VAT; these added expenses have to be taken into consideration. Does anyone out there have any ideas?

2007-10-02T07:59:00.000-07:00

I live in Hoboken, New Jersey, located just across the Hudson River from Manhattan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoboken,_New_Jersey. I work at a television station in New York City/Manhattan.

I am attempting to bridge the gap between an Irishman living in the United States and the Irish people I left behind. I am somewhat bemused by the stories of the still surging Irish economy and all the economic advantages it brings. When I speak with friends through Skype (lets hear it for Skype) sometimes we talk about mundane things like work, weather or commuting. Occasionally we speak about politics or sports, but I personally like to talk about the changes that have taken place since I ran from Ireland in 1989. I have taken infrequent vacations (holidays) at home through the years but not so much since my parents died. I preferred taking vacations in warmer climes, like Belize or Mexico. Friends in Dublin tell me this neighborhood house or that neighborhood house sold for 1.1 million euro and I am agog. All of my close friends have succeeded far beyond my own mediocre success here in the United States. I am basing success on a financial, how many things you can accumulate basis; a truly American way of viewing success. A few of my friends are multiple homeowners and I have to admit, I am jealous at times. It never lasts. I have never owned anything more expensive than my car. I bought that used (second hand) and it was cheap in comparison to Irish standards.

Frequently, I speak with my friends about their long commutes to work and I think back to my own commuting experiences when I worked in Dublin. I can honestly say I did not have too many commuting stories, because I did not have many jobs to commute to. That brings me to the present. I have lived in the New York area for nearly 20-years and I cannot remember traveling less than one hour to work either by car or public transport. Today my commute is about 50 minutes the shortest I can remember. I get up at 6.00 am to get into work for 8 am. I walk three blocks (one block = one street) from my apartment to the bus stop. The bus takes me from Hoboken through the Lincoln Tunnel that connects New Jersey to Manhattan. That bus ride is frequently the most enjoyable part of my day. I get to read the New York Times newspaper and savor the quiet moments.
How do you believe Americans measure success?

Saturday 09/30/07
BRING ON ROUTINE
I like the weekends. I am unusual in that respects!! I take comfort in my weekend routine. As I got older, I relish routine. It brings a sense of normalcy that a weekday does not give me.
It is a beautiful Fall Saturday here in Hoboken and I got up at 6.00am. I am an early riser since I don’t socialize much these days.
I called my running partner Newman and we ran at 9.30 am along Hoboken’s beautiful waterfront. It was a quickie; just 5 miles. On Sunday, both of us were running an 18 mile race in Central Park, N.Y., in preparation for the N.Y.C. Marathon on November 4.

After the run I went to my usual yoga class at the Y.M.C.A. I have practiced yoga, but not consistently, for many years and as my body aged I found the stretching and meditation beneficial to my runner’s body. Today while practicing yoga in the Y’s dingy, badly lit basement, the yoga instructor in her in her tightly wrapped ‘juicy’ like sweatpants demonstrated a very difficult ‘pose’ that involved manipulating her body into a position where her head ended up underneath her ass while standing in a crouched position, with her arms behind my back. Needless to say I did not begin to attempt this pose; as I envisioned myself in traction at the local hospital shortly after.

In the past, I used to attempt all the yoga poses. I did this for three reasons; first, to please the instructor, second, I wanted to avoid being the odd man out and finally, to challenge myself despite the risks. Today, I am comfortable just pleasing myself (biblically), without wanting to please others. I recognize my limitations and I have come to accept them.
I cannot help feeling somewhat peeved when a yoga instructor demonstrates a pose that I cannot in my wildest dreams carry out. Does anybody else feel that way?

Sunday 09/30/07
A PERFECT SUNDAY, WELL ALMOST
Today was a perfect day, weather wise. I rose at 5.45 am put on my running gear and headed into Central Park with Newman. Newman is my running partner. Newman drove into New York City. The air was crisp and clear. The temperature reached 72 degrees Fahrenheit (22 Celsius). I ran 18 miles at a mediocre pace. Although, I am a firm middle of the pack runner, I was not pleased with my performance. My knees hurt and my breathing was sketchy. However, running in Central Park in the fall with thousands of other runners makes up for any disappointments. A strange thing happened when I was stretching after the run. The woman next to me who was also stretching started screaming at the top of her lungs. She made a serious commotion; hysterical in fashion. I came to her aid. She suffered a leg cramp and could not move. Some other runners came over and we started to work on stretching her tight muscle, all the while she kept on screaming. She eventually calmed down when the cramp faded. Nevertheless, her reaction to the cramp was so far out of proportion I wanted slap her. She was from Florida so I made some allowances. Unfortunately, the City of New York issued Newman’s car a parking ticket, which will cost $135. I recommended the parking spot.

Hoboken celebrated its Arts and Crafts Festival on Sunday (09/30). Washington Street, Hoboken’s main thoroughfare was lined with artists, painters, photographers, and sundry stalls all selling their wares. Band stands were set up at each end of the festival route and there was plenty of food from local restaurants. I celebrated with a walk along Washington Street in what will surely be one of my last opportunities to wear flip-flops, shorts and of course, my 18-mile Marathon Tune Up tee shirt, I received earlier in the day.
Does anybody run and smoke?