Ordinary Time Out in Queens... Sunday I went out to a church in Queens to sing for a service. Being the only attorney in New York who sang at the Wagner Festspiel in Bayreuth, I sometimes get singing jobs even now. Anyway, this is a truly beautiful church painted with bright murals in a lively area filled with Italian Pastry Cafes, Polish Pork stores, Mexican Restaurants, Irish Gift Shops and cheap supermarkets. Theres even a chaotic National Wholesale Liquidators set behind a parking lot over on nearby Northern Boulevard. When we finished the service, some second sopranos invited me for coffee at one of the Italian Cafes on 30th Avenue. I got a latte and a cream filled pastry for 2.85 - both much better than Starbucks, and we sat down to discuss the Choir Scene. They are raising a volunteer choir to sing at St. Patrick's Cathedral in commemoration of Police killed in the line of duty and need strong voices, because one of their New Jersey contingents can't make it this year. I said yes, because its a good cause. We all agreed the acoustics are bad, but it's a chance to sing at St. Pats, which has its own cachet. One of the ladies at the table had a lilting Brogue, and told us about the vicissitudes of handling the family farm in Ireland. It has a thatched roof and you can' find anyone these days at a reasonable price to fix a thatched roof. After coffee, we moved out into the sunlight. We were in the wind and it was cold, but there were people sitting at the outside tables along the Avenue. Getting into my car, I drove over to Queens Boulevard to look at a construction site that is of professional interest across from the Georgia Peach Diner. Sitting in the warm car, the side of my face felt hot, as if a space heater was aimed through the open car window. I suddenly realized the heat was soming from the strong early spring sunlight flooding the inside of the car and hitting the side of my face. The thermometer at a BP station on Queens Boulevard read 25 degrees F, but spring is on the way!

GAY MARRIAGES AND AWOL ...I don't want this election to be about Gay marriages and Bush's going AWOL for several months in 1972. It looks like the right thinkers are going to pump this gay marriage business into another knee jerk issue like abortion. Instead of being happy that people are getting married and committing themselves to a lifetime relationship, they act like its some kind of a slippery slope- if they let the gays get married, then all of a sudden masses of straight people will turn gay. Your mother will suddenly want to abandon your father and go off with her best friend from high school. Your boyfriend will see married gay guys and suddenly change his sexual orientation and start picking up men. This whole idea is moronic. All the gay people I know knew they were gay since the age of 12 if not earlier. Why would we deprive someone of the benefits and recognition of marriagebecause of an accident of birth or early childhood conditioning? Everyone in our society deserves the same honor of full rights and responsibility that come from being a member of society. Speaking of responsibility, why are the lefties so interested in Bush skipping out of the Guard to work on a political campaign in Alabama? Vietnam was an unpopular terrible war, and many people, especially the more left leaning socially responsible types, did what they could to stay out of it. But with all this recent history to chew over, why bother with something that's tired meat? How about the environment, the loss of jobs, the failure to secure our container ports, the war in Iraq, the mess that followed, and our country's unpopularity in the rest of the world. I was in Europe when Bush turned his back on the Kyoto Accord, and his unpopularity overseas shot up right then. Every time they showed him on the TV my landlady would start into a tirade about "my president." Europeans softened up after 9/11, but we totally blew it in the windup to the war in Iraq and its aftermath. The war is widely perceived in Europe as stupid and blatant imperialism. The problem is that we are all responsible for what our country does, not just the few in Washington. Go overseas. When people perceive you as an American, they want to talk about your country's foreign policy, like you personally just thought it up. No I don't want this election fought over gay marriages and Bush's attendance record in the Air National Guard thirty years ago. There are real issues here that need to be addressed.

Screed against Bush....And the guys around him. So, last week Bremer gets in front of the camera at a Senate hearing and they are asking him how come some of this money the Bushites want can't come from the sale of Iraq's oil. Well, Bremer starts shifting around in his seat and looking uncomfortable, saying how like all the Iraqi's oil field equipment is old, and the pipelines need refurbishing and all, but the Senators keep pushing, and he finally blurts out that Iraq will need all its money to pay back the 200 billion that they owe. What! Can't we just excuse that debt? Wasn't incurred by that bad guy Saddam? Why do they have to pay his debts??? Well, Bremer says like we're trying to excuse it, or a least some of it, but it turns out that we'll,... uh they'll... just have to pay it. Cause after all it was real money lent to Iraq by real banks that real people put their money into in places like France and Russia and Japan. And the people of Iraq will have to use some of that oil revenue, actually almost all of it, to pay off those debts. Now, remember last February when they were all gearing up to war, they said if there was damage or we incurred expenses, the Iraq oil revenue would be able to pay us for our trouble? Well. I worked in an investment bank on a research project once upon a time (before the internet) and I remember that all the debts owned by various countries were well known and published, and banks bought and sold them as debentures. So, these guys must have known about Iraq's debt before the war, and knew it when they were saying how Iraqi oil would pay the extraordinary costs. So, not only did they lie about the WMD, they also lied about how much all this would cost, and how it would be paid for. Now we are stuck. We can't really expect to go into a country and remove its government and take over without taking responsibility for building things back up again, can we? I hope all those people that voted for Nader, thinking that it didn't matter if they took votes away from Gore because there really wasn't much difference between Gore and Bush are paying attention. I cannot believe this country has gotten into such a fix in three short years. Yes, things would have bad because of the recession and 9/11 but there seems to be an almost willful desire in this administration to make things just as bad as they could possibly be, just so long as the upper upper class is reaping big profits.

Rebuild the Towers ... Although the twin towers were really pretty ugly, except at sunset or in the mist, I personally think they should just rebuild the towers exactly the way they were, right way, except maybe correcting some of the burn flaws and aesthetic errors. That would make a better statement to the world than all this crapping around about the footprint, the bathtub, the towers of light, the memorial, the loved ones, the brave firemen, the cops, the grief struck iron mongers cutting the tangled girders on the building they spent 10 years putting up, the brave window washers that died doing their job, and all that etc. People think hat no one would want to work in replacement towers cause they are a 3x target, but I bet people would rent the space right away, I know I would. The more I hear about it, the more convinced i am they should just get on with it and rebuild them pretty much the way they were as fast as possible. That would be the best statement to the world, the terrorists, and the people that think we needed to be taught a lesson. Last month I took my bike downtown and was riding around in the park around the SI Ferry when i came upon this crushed up golden globe like statue thing. I stood there looking at this strange crumbled art wondering why does this thing look so familiar? It was never here in the Battery before... when I realized it was the arrogent gold globe sculpture that used to sit in the middle of the WTC plaza that got crushed when the towers fell. They have set it up in Battery Park with an eternal flame and a little plaque. I immediatly burst into tears. As far as I'm concerned that is enough memorial for me.
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Towers on 110th Street... Went to the neighborhood meeting Tuesday Night about what's happening on 110th Street. Now that we have spent 2 years living through the Columbia Construction on the corner of 110th and Broadway for the inappropriate Primary School and apartments, the moving of our bus stop to a mid-residential-block so sleepers can enjoy the heaving of the Number 4 bus starting around 4:30 am, we learned that the owner of the NE corner of the intersection has decided to put up a luxe condominium tower. What does the neighborhood lose? The best market in the neighborhood- The West Side Market with all its wierd Gourmet choices, bakery goods, and reasonable produce, Columbia Bagels, Mailboxes Etc. ( my place for cheap copies on my way to court) Dynasty Restauraunt, and the methadone clinic. Each of these amenities has a special place in the life of the neighborhood- even the clinic, which reminds us of how seedy the area was not that long ago. The biggest loss will be the West Side market, a source for cheap vegetables and fruit. It will have its biggest impact on the eating habits of all the people on fixed incomes who can't get to the used vegetable store down at 104 and Amsterdam. A head of lettuce at West Side is usually $1 a head- while the Dag's has it for $1.79 a pound. Baby Carrots are 1.29 at West Side, Dag's has them for 1.79 except for when they are on sale. And then theres the fact that it will no longer be possible to run down to the market at midnight for some fresh strawberries or ice cream before going to bed. People that come to dinner parties at my house wait until they get off the train to pick up fruit or some specialty to bring. We even rushed down there New years at 1 am to get some more cheese and some seltzer for drinks. Such convenience will be sorely missed. We still miss the Woolworth Store which was replaced with the Footlocker. Things that were avaiable in one trip to the Woolworths now take planning and 2 days of going to different stores out of the area to obtain. The older ladies that liked to crochet had to give it up, cause they can't buy crochet thread in the neighrbohood anymore. We also can't buy nice cheap cotton underwear, Parakeets, Canaries, Goldfish, inexpensive hardware, Lampshades, pots and pans, graters and all sorts of cheap little kitchen gadgets. They had bedroom slippers and cheap cotton sandles, nightgowns, pajamas, no run pantihose, rayon stockings, and half slips, stupid little novelties like the porcelin hen sitting in a basket nest, little starfighters and rubber duckies, board games, Ouija Boards and costumes for halloween, lots and lots of cheap garish cosmetics, dynel hairpieces, hair nets, and color rinses to fool around with. Woolworths was the place to go if you had a craft or sewing project, or just needed a quick fix for your clothing. They carried their own brand of sewing notions which were excellent, iron on tape for a quick hem, rick-rack , and quilting supplies different colored thread, needles and crochet hooks, yarn, fabric, and interfacing. In short, all the things for a full household in a civilized society. Now that Footlocker is finally closing, I wonder if the West Side market will move there.

Rudeness of Cars... Have you noticed that people coming out of cross streets on Broadway no longer bother using turn signals? It's a kind of guessing game here at 110th. Is he going to go straight, or turn? Does that wobble indicate he's going to turn? Is it safe to cross the street? I've got the signal, how about if I just go through the intersection on my bike? Will I get run over cause he's really going to turn? It's not possible any more to tell where cars are going. And with the double park situation right on top the intersection, double parked food trucks, Con Ed emergency vehicles, Moms dropping their kids off at the new school, and turning Number 4 buses, cars get impatient. They make these little agressive rushes when they think they have the light, honking their horns impatiently and going fast without using their turn signals. The situation has become nightmarish. The other new thing is cars honking their horns at you if you are not moving fast enough. They do this constantly - to pedestrians, bikes, and other cars. If I am driving on, for instance 89th street on the block where there is a school, I tend to poke along if there is a red light up at Amsterdam, cause I don't want to hit any kids that may pop out from between cars, and the light up ahead is red and I'll just have to wait anyway. This attitude drives SUVs crazy. They honk and honk, and try to sneak their huge vehicles around me, so they can rush up to a red light and slam on their brakes. Here on 110th a friend of mine had an accident last week after a rude SUV that kept blowing his horn at her, forcing her to move in a tight space created by double parked trucks. The sun was at just the wrong angle, blinding her, and she hit a traffic pole. The honking SUV just sped away. What we really need is a remote that mutes car horns. Some idiot is behind you blowing his horn for no reason, and you just press the remote button with a directional finder on your dash board and his horn goes silent. Pedestrians would carry a more conventional remote with them to shut up cars that are honking because they are not moving fast enough on their walkers. There could be a long distance remote and you could aim out the window at night to silence offending car alarms. Yeah.

Went to see the "Mini Midsummer Night's Dream" directed by Morna Martell and presented by Drama Tune Inc. yesterday at the West Side Community Garden for its final Sunday performance. (The Garden is located on 89th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenue, and is open daily for those who wish to stop by and look at the flowers) Last Sunday the performance was canceled due to a 3 hour downpour. This week the weather held, and there was a good turnout- about 120 people attended. The acoustics were perfect in the Garden amphitheater, and the actors experienced in projecting Shakspearian diction. The audience of all ages and backgrounds followed the story with attention and frequent laughter at the right spots. The most delightful piece of foolery was Puck, played by Jenne Vath, who expertly herded her pack of fairies (played by fifteen neighborhood youngsters) through the machinations of the plot enchantments. Titiana ( Christina Malina)was the beautiful long golden haired fairy queen, and lovingly stroked Bottome's( David Lutzer) hairy donkey ears to the delight of our local pack of fairies hiding in the wings behind the tall Asters growing in Mary Lou Briggs Flower plot. The lover's mixup was an amusing trifle, and the last piece, a "play within a play" for the Athenian king was followed with great amusement by the audience. The cast forswore the timeless Mendelsohnn songs to sing pleasant unaccompanied songs by Ralph Martell. There is a special raindate performance Thursday, Septmeber 4,at 6 pm. It's a wonderful piece, enhanced by a lush Garden setting. I think I'll bring refreshments for the end of the run.