Exhale

Oh, well, since I chicken-littled yesterday, I might as well point to Gail Collins' opinion piece today.

Cheer up, Obama-ites. You’re overreacting. I’ll answer all your questions as long as you promise to take deep breaths into this nice paper bag.

"I feel as though he has lost that gut connection..."

Thom Friedman's article today. I wake up screaming.
Bam Bam, shake it off!

via NPR, some audio linky bits...

hey dere-
goshdarned american public (particularly those republican types) making me very very nervous with their gullibility and essential stupidity...

some interesting stuff to share w/thee via Fresh Air on NPR:
someone you may be familiar with, Thomas L. Friedman, speaking about his latest book, Hot, Flat, & Crowded in this interview. Whilst ourowndamnedself has had plenty of occasion to take issue with some of Mr. Friedman's opinions in the past, we like a lot of what we heard about this book.
also from NPR recently, another well known author, a certain Bob Woodward, speaks about his latest work, The War Within, providing some not-so-surprising-insights into white house shenanigans alongside further revelations regarding the incompetence of a certain head of state via this interview.
Extra added NPR Fresh Air bonus, same show that brought us the B. Woodward interview, some good stuff on vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson & the reissue of his 1971 Blue Note/EMI album, Head On.

y'all maintain an even strain now, best ye can...

What the heck: more Sarah P

The Gawker FAQ. The Gawker Ultimate Guide to S.P. conspiracy theories (expect updates). Women Against Sarah Palin (and sister blog here) via Hard Working Movies.

Smile a little smile for me, Rose Marie

Am sitting having some joe at the choco shop, and the guy who was playing E. Rhodes last month is playing this now. And I'm trippin'.  Or flying.  Like a Flying Machine.

Sent via my thingy.

John W Dean (yes, that JWD): Sarah Palin does not qualify under the implicit constitutional standards

The full title of Mr. Dean's article being, The Sarah Palin Selection: Why McCain's Inexperienced Running Mate Falls Short of Meeting the Implicit Constitutional Qualifications for Vice President. 

Toothsome phrasing, jah? Quoting:

Consider this parallel: Does anyone believe that if John McCain were president and had selected Governor Sarah Palin under the Twenty-fifty Amendment to fill a vacancy in the vice presidency, Congress would have confirmed her? Not likely. In fact, it is even less likely that McCain would have even attempted to do so, for he would have embarrassed himself.

While the Constitution does not expressly set forth qualifications for the vice-presidency, it strongly implies them --- and Palin falls short.

Well, it's possible Mr. Dean should know. He was Minority Counsel to the House Judiciary Committee when it was working on that amendment.

Looking out from the steps of my city

When I first started biking to work this summer I posted a snap from the benches out there, looking back at Borough Hall. This snap here is what it looks like while sitting on the old schisty stones of the same. It's a wonderful feeling sitting up here, looking out over Columbus Park, the statue of Bobby Kennedy, the courts, Cadman Plaza, the old post office, Manhattan Bridge at the horizon. Morning, Brooklyn.

Sent via my thingy.

(And, of course, when you send from your thingy, you don't get to adjust the photo levels, etc., but, trust me, it was a beyoutiful site.)

Mixwit, where have I been?

You all already knew about mixwit? And you didn't tell me?

Oh, boy, worlds collide: uke-fem-politicos

Jen Kwok's Former Supporters of Hillary Clinton for McCain Palin - better known as Voting for Vaginas, and the Ukulady's American Dream. Via ukehunt.

Pay no attention to the man with the bellows

I just don't understand how, as the leader of anything, you can stand by for days and watch your lieutenants pour forth invective and partisanship, and then stand up at the same podium and say, Hey, I'm here to set aside the rancor that has kept us apart. Why would anyone believe that, or why would anyone believe that you can control your party after what they'd been watching?

Anyway, I found a new CD of images I hope to get some mileage out of. Stickers, anyone?

Hey - the real two headed turtle deal

Turns out it's not a hoax - the City Room blog at the NY Times has the scoop and a good photo.

Rye Playland photo archive

Times article, Available Soon Online: Fun from Depression-Era Playland. Mmmmm, one more fine source of images for labels and stickers!

My own best memories of Rye Playland come from the late 70's, sneaking onto the grounds in the middle of the night. Spooky prowly scary. And, Howard G, if you're out there - "Hey, Quacky, where's Bill?!"

ohhhhhh babbeeee....

doubleneck and resonator guitars...

(on EP, LP & CD covers)

courtesy gmtPlus9 (-15)

Crain's poll re Astroland

Crains is asking: How do you feel about Astroland's imminent demise?  I can tell you we're pretty busted up in Stumpyland.

Thank you, Jon Stewart

"Jon Stewart Annihilates Media Surrogates"

Lipstick on a bulldog, and America's mayor

And, of course, if you didn't actually live here at the time, you might not recall that Rudy was the mayor of NY for something like only 80 days post 9/11, and in fact not the man who raised Gotham from the ashes. That would be Mike Bloomburg, if it was a mayor at all. And the saying "this is Giuliani time" wasn't what fell from the lips of thankful supplicant voters, but what fell from the lips of rogue cops who sodomized a prisoner with a toilet plunger.

Woof woof, Rudy & Sarah - America's mayors.

yea, verily...

and has been true for some while now.
Smart vs Dumb.
Will We Choose Wisely?

me am grateful to P.B over at the clusterflockers hangout for providing that chunk o' linky goodness

Dante here, retracting that Bristol Palin Poll

I want to apologize to Bristol Palin. Her pregnancy is not a joke and I never thought it reflected negatively on her mother, the demon mayor of Wasilla who baked her former police chief and librarian into pies. The poll was an impulsive way to point out that the first significant choice the grand old nominee of the grand old party was being made with a lack of forethought and a generous sprinkling of spite. Dude!

Bristol, sorry.

As an aside, I'd like to point out that at the time I pulled the plug on the survey, I personally had less than 10% of the vote - I think that's because people know that I'm a fictional character who has never been to Alaska and who thinks it's wrong to sleep with teen age girls.

The grand old nominee of the grand old party also had less than 10% of the vote - I don't know why that is. I don't know if people don't think he can get it up or if people think he is too honorable or people know he's never met or known Bristol Palin. I don't know what bearing the grand old nominee's calling his wife a c*nt in public during the campaign this last season has on the question. Probably none at all. Right? I'm pretty sure the demon mayor would pistol whip her new boss if he called her a c*nt, and maybe bake him into pie. Let's see him try it.

And at the time I pulled the plug on the poll, beautiful Gurgles from treesquid.blogspot.com had more than 80% of the vote. Oh, I know the people at treesquid are worried about Gurgles, who's been missing since last week and rumored to be in Minneaplois and off his meds, but I wonder if they realize how forcefully Gurgles' powerful sensuous appeal lifts him into a nearly mythic place for most people who meet him. Or her. Actually, I'm not sure if Gurgles is a boy or a girl.

some good stuff to share

stalwart old-school weblogger Kevin Murphy has been covering the DNC and (currently) RNC over at his Ghost in the Machine. We salute thee, K.M., and have long appreciated the good stuff you share with us there at GITM. Muchas Gracias and keep up the great stuff...

NYC Century bike tour

United for Peace & Justice says the police are being abusive outside the RNC

Flashback. Flashforward. Email this morning from UFP&J saying:

We are sending you this message because the situation in St. Paul is very grave and we're concerned that the real story is not being told by the mainstream media.

Over the past few days, the heavily armed and extremely large police presence in St. Paul has intimidated, harrassed and provoked people; and, in a number of instances, the police have escalated situations when they used excessive force...

We are very concerned about what this all means about the right to protest, the right to assemble, and the right to have one's dissenting voice heard. We are worried about what it means about the growing militarization of our nation and the ongoing assault on the Constitution...

We urge you to call the Mayor of St. Paul right now...

Mayor Chris Coleman: 651-266-8510

And call your local media outlets to demand that they tell the real story of what's happening in St. Paul this week.

There's more. I didn't see it on their site, but it's likely there.

Four years ago we marched here in river city against the RNC. We were with the Ukes group. The main march was pretty mellow until it started approaching the Garden. The closer it got, the more tense and intense, and there was a palpable sense of violence in the air and on the ground, on both sides of the barricades. I remember wanting to get away from there as quickly as we could.

Barack Lincoln

S & I were happy to see cousin Kevin in one piece after his recent travels through S.E. Asia, filming with Henry Rollins and being airlifted into Myanmar. (Not sure if traveling with Henry was any easier than Kev's other Burmese trip filming in opium territory under armed guard.) Since back, he's directed this Obama music video, for a song written by crazy talented Ron English and friends. (Take a look at Ron's Songs in English site)

Bam Bam on Working Families Party line

Hey, kids, Mr. B. H. Obama, the next president of these united states, will be running on the Working Families Party ballot line - "Row E" - as well as the Democratic line here in Nueva York. Don't you just love the WFP? I do! And to celebrate Bam Bam's presence on row E they're running a Working Families For Obama Poster Contest and awarding a thousand bucks to the winner. Start cookin'!

Gilbert & George in BKLYN

Mail this week from the Brooklyn Museum - the Gilbert & George retrospective is coming to our berg as its last stop. Looking forward to it. Collaborate, people. The Tate Modern site has good video of the boys explaining their thing.

(by the bye: you know, we've built up a lot of tags. I was tempting to use both whitefish and skateboarding is not a crime.)

Rash of animal thefts in my hood is freaking me out

The folks behind Gurgles are treesquid. The missing two-headed turtle, on the other hand, seems to be, uh, real. (Mel, close your eyes.)

Sarah Palin turned down as chair of Brooklyn West Indian Day parade - not enough experience

NY Daily News and NY1 are both reporting the expected crowds this afternoon at the West Indian Day parade to be about 3 million people. In her petition to WIADCA Governor Palin (R-AK) claimed her experience governing 0.67 million people for the last two years made her the best qualified person in America to chair this parade. And she's a girl.

(Hi. We're back from the great northwest. See you soon.)

Homeland security - tunnel duty

Back in January I took a couple of snaps of objects & graffiti inside of (through the windows) the little booth at the south end of the Whitehall R station where it goes under the river in what I think they used to call the Montague tunnel. The woe's of bored cops, tattered duty logs and scratchiti. I've tried a few times to improve the image there to the left, but never gotten anything useful, and of course I didn't think to transcribe the graffiti when I saw it. What I can make out is:

The only thing that would make this more
like my own personal hell would be to
... (not the "good old shit")
piped in along with "show tunes" and
"... country music" while fixed here
around the clock with me ....
... with Home and Garden
Network on the monitor and ....
.....

Shameless namedropping and promoting of friends 080825

Having dinner out tonight with friends, including Ted Haimes and Stephen Westphall. Wicked funny fellows. I remember Westphall as the single most - what, entertaining? charming? appreciative? - dinner guest we've ever had at home, maybe 7 or 8 or 9 years ago now. Salt baked shrimp, as I recall, was one of the dishes. 2006 Brooklyn Rail interview of SW by John Yau.

will wager that stumpy, dante, mel & the rest o' the gang...

will take issue with the person responsible for this anti-NYC
(well, maybe more of an anti-New-York-I-Love-You-da-movie) piece...

& dem commen's iz woit da prizuh admishun

Screwing around with "Carrying On"

One of my favorite pieces of public art in New York is Janet Zweig's Carrying On in the Prince Street R station. Lota and I went through there Saturday and.. uh oh, someone is screwing around with some of the pieces, using gray modeling clay. A la, nose, cock, and either banana or knife. Skanky phone-photos, but you get the idea.

Thinkin' logos

Of course, I've wanted to do this and a hundred more as soon as i saw Mel's post last week about the McCain / McCain logo similarity. Let's see where we can take it.

But before we leave Pepsiland, have you seen their false rumors page? I quote:

FALSE RUMOR ALERT: PATRIOTIC CANS

You've received an erroneous email about a "patriotic can" that Pepsi allegedly produced with an edited version of America's Pledge of Allegiance. The truth is, Pepsi never produced such a can. In fact, this is a hoax that has been circulating on the Internet for more than six years. A patriotic package used in 2001 by Dr Pepper (which is not a part of PepsiCo) was inappropriately linked to Pepsi. Thanks for giving us the chance to clarify the situation and please feel free to share this message with anyone else who may have received the erroneous email. Details of the hoax can be found at http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/undergod.asp.

Ah, but what could be more patriotic than the official ObamaCola?

Splurt 080820 (what Jiminey Pricket calls linky goodness)

• Cactus Games, via rhizome. Particularly Ad Nauseam 2 and Psycosomnium.
• Dinosaurs & Robots. I like this place.
• Blog Action Day. Yes. The Pentagon did levitate.
• Yakkay helmet, I tell myself I'd wear it if I could buy it. (I lie like a rug. Hey is for horses. Don't take offense, take the gate. So buttons...)

Mose Allison, where have I been?

We've seen more performers than you could shake a stick at over the last few weeks. One of the real standouts for me, and someone I (how is it possible?) only knew as a name before, was Mose Allison (wiki). I be blown away. Lori was a fan in the before times. I've been listening, the last few days, to a 1964 compilation - total wow. Everything sounds like it was written this morning. Maybe tomorrow morning. NPR profile here. Youtube here.

I can't believe the things I've seen
I wonder bout some things I've heard
Everybody's crying mercy
When they don't know the meaning of the word

Britney Spears spam

You all been getting variations on these? Last night I got two:

• Britney Spear's New Hair Extensions are Lindsay Lohan's Pubes
• Britney Spear Ditches Music Career, Enters Car Racing

I assume they're both true.
I haven't seen any official denials, though there was this at brittneyspears.org:

Britney Not Doing Stripper Movie

August 7th, 2008 •

• No Related Post

Filed Under: Miscellaneous

Britney Spears has refuted reports she has accepted a role in Quentin Tarantino’s next project as a “murderous lesbian stripper”.

British newspaper the Daily Mirror claims Spears was set to play exotic dancer Varla in a remake of the 1965 movie Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

But a spokesman for Spears denies she is working with Tarantino.

The representative says, “Though she definitely intends to explore acting roles down the road, right now she’s concentrating on recording her next album.”

Rejection @ the Flea

Composer friend Jennifer Griffith is a member of the Composer's Collaborative, and their current show is Rejection: a series of slips and falls. Happening this week. Go on, support a living composer! I dare you! The last piece of Jennifer's we saw performed was an opera based on sexual fantasies with Bill Clinton (Dream President). This was before the recent primary season, of course, back when reasonable people could have sexual fantasies with Bill.

T.A. Street Activist Network: Rally on Sunday Against "Suburbanizing" NYC

Street Activists,

This Sunday, T.A. will join an unprecedented coalition of environmental, transportation and planning groups to call attention to the glut of new parking turning traditionally transit-centered neighborhoods into suburban sprawl. We need you to stand with us, and help make an impact as we stand before the cameras and call on the Mayor to stop car-centric development here in NYC.

What: Press Conference
When: Sunday, August 17th, 12 pm
Where: Steps of City Hall, Manhattan
Who: American Planning Association, Environmental Defense Fund, Municipal Art Society, New York League of Conservation Voters, Pratt Center for Community Development, Regional Plan Association, Straphangers' Campaign, Transportation Alternatives,Tri-State Transportation Campaign

You've seen condos and residential towers sprouting up around the city. But what you may not know is that most of these buildings are required by the city to build parking to match - a lot of it. So much parking, that by 2030 we'll add 170,000 MORE cars to NYC, and 1 billion more miles to the odometers in this city - and that's above what we'd have if new residents just maintained the driving patterns we have today. This has to stop, before it's too late. Join us as we release our report, "Suburbanizing the City," and call attention to the city's impending traffic crisis.

do you HBO?

me not able to, but iffen me could, likely be watching this tonite. Check out the NPR spot on this story here.

juju trusts jonny...

but juju's been kind of a fan of J.S. for some while (see the olde posts @ d'monkey circa december '03 -- specifically the 12.23 post -- and february '02). Anyways, the NYT posits the question Is Jon Stewart the Most Trusted Man in America (quite the coincidence: writing this post whilst watching Inside Washington and hearing Nina Totenberg make pointed J. Stewart reference...).

Tsuwarmi

Nod nod wink wink, my journeying postbuddy. Higher ground.

back from something slightly resembling a vacation...

some pleasant hours spent in the Santa Cruz & Monterey environs, but me back at chez juju now. Ourowndarnedself caught a couple of very interesting interviews on the tube that we recommend to thee, hope you have opportunity to view them both, perhaps choosing to seek out the books mentioned in the interviews.

First, from Charlie Rose, an interview with Philip Gourevitch alongside one viewed only minutes ago whilst watching Bill Moyers Journal,
an interview with Andrew J. Bacevich.
Via Tom Dispatch, this extra added bonus, penned by Andrew J. Bacevich, Is Perpetual War Our Future.

Logo a go-go!

So, I'm staring into the freezer at a bag of frozen french fries when it occurs to me that John McCain's campaign logo looks a lot like the McCain's Frozen Food logo! But I'm clearly not the only one who's noticed. While searching around for a good example of the frozen food McCain logo, I found this discussion.

me llamo Dante Oblimov Hussein

See: Facebook users change middle names to Hussein in Obama solidarity protest. via techmeme.

Timothy

I've been re-reading "Timothy: or, Notes of an Abject Reptile," by Verlyn Klinkenborg. It's based on the observations of 18th century naturalist Gilbert White as recorded in his own, "The Natural History of Selbourne" and it's told from the point of view of Timothy, the (female) tortoise carried away from her home in the Greek isles by an English sailor, sold for half a crown on the docks of Chichester, and eventually settling in as a permanent resident of White's garden in Selbourne, England.

As caretaker of the enigmatic Ak (a Russian tortoise I purchased at the Petland Discount seven years ago for $40 US), certain passages of the book fill me with guilt. For example, Timothy describing the years spent confined in the brick-walled courtyard of her first mistress, Mrs. Rebecca Snooke.

Kin by close blood, Mrs. Rebecca Snooke. Mr. Gilbert White's father's sister. (So precise they are in the degrees of kinship!) And yet how these humans differ in appearance, compared to the resemblance of tortoises one to another, kin or no kin. Mr. Gilbert White was always struck by the fact that I recognized Mrs. Rebecca Snooke.

She comes into the courtyard waving a lettuce-leaf.

Calling from on high, "Timothy! Timothy!"

Who else could it have been? In forty years only a few humans ever entered that courtyard. Gardeners, maids, young Whites, select friends, Mr. Manning, the doctor. Each one as different as a rook from a redbreast.

Was Mr. Gilbert White never struck by the fact that Mrs. Rebecca Snooke recognized me? If another of my kind had walked up to her on that pebbled path, could she have told the difference? Or would that tortoise have been Timothy too? She knew little enough about me in the end.

"I was much taken," Mr. Gilbert White wrote of me, "with its sagacity in discerning those that do it kind offices: for, as soon as the good old lady comes in sight who has waited on it for more than thirty years, it hobbles towards its benefactress with awkward alacrity; but remains inattentive to strangers. Thus not only 'the ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib,' but the most abject reptile and torpid of beings distinguishes the hand that feeds it, and is touched with the feelings of gratitude!"

Good old lady she was. Yet consider the levity, the dry prolixity, of Mr. Gilbert White's words. The casual human irony when talking about animals. "Awkward alacrity" -- "most abject reptile and torpid of beings" -- this I expect. "Ox" or "ass" I pass by, as I do "owner" and "master." Such words come naturally to humans. Students of property as well as kinship. Kinship a property in each other.

But place Mrs. Rebecca Snooke in a brick box apart from her natural kind. Where she cannot eat her natural food or dig her natural bed. Let her be fed twice a day, albeit cheerfully, by one who keeps her there. Be kind and withhold the drowning rains, the killing frosts. Year after year for forty years. Would she say she has been waited on? Or would another word occur to her?

Cliff Bolling, you da man!

Wired article (via slashdot) re Cliff Bolling and his digitizing of 78s. The article title, by the by, is misleading unless all of Bolling's 78's are from the late 40's and the 50's. Otherwise it's shellac, man, not vinyl.

Having a cellar of our own with a couple thousand hand picked 78s, and knowing how long this all takes, we salute you, Cliff!

(oh! And a few hours later it looks like you've been cut off by Yahoo!)

Old sheets

The moustache makes him look less elite, no? And for Juju it's All Aboard for Monkey Town and Monkey Doodle Doo. Thank you Lester S. Levy & Johns Hopkins.

Bike polo

Met a couple of bike polo players Saturday. Gwah! Where have I been? Gonna try to get down to Broome & Christie one soon Sunday to check it out.

Oh, my God, he won't shut up and now he's going to tell you who they've seen perform recently

Ghostland Observatory. Later that night I got drunk and made Lori promise that if I found out I only had one year to live, I would not have to see G.O. more than once in that year. Or maybe I didn't get drunk. But I definitely made her promise.

Richie Havens in the most idyllic setting under the trees in a Metrotech courtyard as the final show in this year's BAM Metrotech rhythm & blues series. Rode i.i. there at met L @ lunchtime. Told nice stories, some rooted in his growing up in nearby Bed Sty. Produced, as is the whole series, by friend Danny Kapilian. (Lots of RH on youtube. )

Lila Downs. Wow! Double-wow! Ten seconds into her show you are totally with her. Amazing to see someone so forceful, political, slipping in and out of contemporary and folks genres and never sensing a line between the two. Minimum Wage and La Cucaracha were standouts for me. En el norte vive Villa / En el sur vive Zapata... and the crowd roars. And, Cumbia de Mole.

Chocolate Emitt Rhodes

There's a Christopher Norman storefront tucked into 60 New Street, which has become (the street, not the shop) something of a war zone of construction and car-traps leading to the back of the NYSE and is one of the few streets in Manhattan where the little google man refuses to show you a street-level view. They have a beautiful little Faema - I think an e61 - on which they make one of the best and most reliable espresso I know. And it's a buck. Plus $0.0825. And the guy who usually mans the shop is great, knows lots of regulars, and is always playing music worth listening to.

Last week I was in there and I'm listening and listening and I'm thinking, I know who that is, who is that? It's Emitt Rhodes! Poppy as all get-out and as great as it sounded back in, uh, 1970.

Bike Commuters - you've come a long way now, Baby..

Have stumbled upon Bike Commuters, via gizmodo's linking to the plastic bike article. (Uh..., and others.)

a little about ebook physical feedback and a little about work

So, like I said, I'm plowing into Underworld, which is a mighty thick book, but I'm doing it on my Kindle and even though there are those little progress dots along the bottom of the screen, I don't have any real sense of where I am in the physical book, and somehow I really need to know. I feel a little fidgety not knowing. So I dug up a paperback copy and skimmed through and, ahhh, there I am, on page 110. A bazillion pages left to go. I feel better. Tap. Tap.

There's so much in Underworld about working. To whit:

I noticed how people played at being executives while actually holding executive positions. Did I do this myself? You maintain a shifting distance between yourself and your job. There's a self-conscious space, a sense of formal play that is a sort of arrested panic, and maybe you show it in a forced gesture or a ritual clearing of the throat. Something out of childhood whistles through this space, a sense of games and half-made selves, but it's not you that you're pretending to be someone else. You're pretending to be exactly who you are. That's the curious thing.

Do I do this myself?

ten years ago...

yourstruly first became familiar with ms. james during the Mood Indigo years, we even exchanged notes oncet upon a time, and methinks the subject of the notes was March Madness related (ms. james was a hoopster herowndarnedself during her college years) -- ANYWAY...
happy 10 year anniversary Ms. James!
think back to where you were on this day 10-years ago and where you are in your life now. Are you any different? Do you have any regrets? If you got a do over, would you make the same choices?
damn, feelin' a decided lack of courage in revisiting that time in mine own life 10 years previous...

Jedgar

Two small coincidences yesterday.

I finished reading Benjamin Black's The Lemur, and started Don Delillo's Underworld. And there was J. Edgar Hoover in both of them. As the likely murderer of a CIA big in the first, and as the fourth amigo in the box (with Sinatra, Gleason and Toots Shor) at the Bobby Thompson game three of the Dodgers Giants playoff.

And where was I reading Underworld and what happened? In the lou, just off our kitchen, when at exactly 6 o'clock ante meridian, the coffee maker turned on and it started raining hard outside, the glurgy-poppy sound of the maker and the sussuruss of the rain mixing together all at once. But, you know, something didn't seem right, something I half remembered, and a few minutes later I went checking clocks and it turns out that the timer on the coffee maker was 6 minutes fast. So it all happened at 5:54, which somehow then seemed a little less special. And the rain stopped.

But 3:58 PM remains an interesting time for older New Yorkers.

no, yourstruly not at all sure he likes this...

a "people search engine" by the name of spock has come across our radar; ourowndarnedself input one of the many nom de plumes used over the years when posting at d'monkey, lo and behold, there were recognizeable results, which became even more distressing when juju pongo used his alias within...

Patti Smith...

nyt review of Dream of Life;
mo' 'bout that here...
juju is big admirer of Patti Smith...

'ittle 'ikey, 'ttle 'ikey, oh oh oh

Seems to me I've mentioned 'ittle 'ikey a number of times but never thought to make a full introduction. That's the darlin' at rest, over there. At some point after I started riding half way to work I decided that having a bike I could bring onto the subway would be a good thing for a little extra mobility & flexibility. I looked around at the usual suspects (Dahon - nyah, Brompton - I regularly hit potholes bigger than it's tires, BikeFriday - I'm not fancy enough).

Then! I ran across swift folder references on the web, was really excited to see that here at the center of the universe they are sold through Recycle-A-Bicycle, subwayed myself down to dumbo, found 'ittle 'ikey, went for a couple of spins, and low and behold rode myself home.

So, on this last trip of ours, I not only brought a uke, I also brought my bike. Fits nicely in a Mini, by the by. Now 'ittle 'ikey knows the pleasure of having biked across Shelter Island from Crescent Beach to that last cluster of hillocks into Wade's beach at 10 in the morning mid-week in the height of summer, swoosh into the carless lot, hot as a dog & panting for cool, clear water. (Water.)


View Larger Map

And then it came rushing out in one humongous spunk

Have always wanted to take our NY / Conn suburban nephews and niece to things out of their ordinary - looks like we may get to take two of them (and their mom. Sissy K) to the Hal Willner Keep A Light in the Window: An Homage to Joel Dorn thang at Lincoln Center.


Tried to post this next from the thingy on the 31st, but it went awry:

Well, I really don't know what this means...
but I gather that Garrett is a local musician here in Greenport (across the water from Shelter Island, where we've been these last few days). The sign is in Aldo's window. Do you know Aldo Maiorana? We met him only once, a year or two ago in his last shop here, where I had one of the two or three best espresso's I've ever had. We bought some beans there, and Aldo, who roasts them, got all excited and opened the bag and wanted us to look at the beans we were buying, really look at them, and smell them. Anyway, since then a Starbucks has moved into town, Aldo has consolidated into one shop, almost across from the borg, and the pictured sign is in his window. Matt, the barkeep at the Frisky Oyster, is the one who told us that the Garrett is etc. All other meanings are elusive. Matt also told us that the Fifth Season moved from Greenport to Port Jeff because the town wouldn't let them add a second floor for more seating so the could make their nut and profit. This in a town that could use more successful local businesses. Instead there's now a Starbucks. A wella wella wella. Back to 'ittle 'ikey and the water. Ciao.

Two days before that, I meant to say:
Weather threatening all day, swinging between quiet and monster storm, energy up and down and all over the place. Headed late morning over to the infamous flea in Fort Green (and the NYT article here) - started pouring just as we got there, but let up enough for us to get totally mesmerized at the kimchi lady's booth (and buy some for later) and at the folks who were making sandwiches of local fresh ricotta, basil, salami and - your choice - peach or raspberry jam (and, yeah, we bought a couple of those, too).

linky bits from the NYT...

if anyone was curious to examine old d'monkey for evidence, that capitalization of "I" (wondering oftentimes if something similar went on in other languages) was something myowndarnedself always had some issue with, notwithstanding our (there it goes again) long established habit of using the "imperial we", iffenyeknowwhutimean...

why we capitalize the word "I";

then, review of book subject of which is truly a modern marvel;

not sure if yourstruly has much else to offer at this time, and no, still haven't made that field trip to the ice cream emporium mentioned in post sometime previously, but soon as we do, you will know about it. Ciao!

much later that same day...
thou shouldst drop in on mine old pal (and one time partner in misery at the SF Chroni-Fishwrap-cle), lee s., wizard behind the curtain at the skirblog...

monkey invasion...

curious co-incidence...

from one of yourstruly's fave cartoonies, Get Fuzzy,
the storyline begins here;
via the wonder that is clusterflock, a monkey invasion story

A man, a uke, a canoe

NYT article about Christopher Bell. All around nice guy. His page.

Reminds me too that every couple of years we make it to the Moravian Pottery & Tile Works in Doylestown, PA, and then futz around a bit along the Delaware and kick a couple of stones along the Delaware Canal, which I would like to walk or ride along the length of some day when I'm young and care free or old and retired or middle aged and what the heck.

Designing the 21st Century Street

Well, the things we don't know would stun an ox.
Just a couple of blocks from the homestead, Transit Alternatives is sponsoring a competition to redesign the intersection of 4th Ave and 9th Street. Lookee here. 4th & 9th and 5th & 9th are both hairy enough that I always try to take an alternate route - whether on 'ittle 'ikey or in the mini if there's gonna be a left hand turn involved. Of course, it pales in comparison to Mel's Boulevard of Death, but we have to live with our own woes.

(Notice the ambulance and patrol car at the northeast corner by Thomas Aquinas - not so unusual. Also notice the cars parked at the southwest corner - I betcha a nickel the one closest to the corner does not have a license plate on it and is for sale. This blows me down. Who's getting schmeared to allow this? For about 10 years running I've gotten a ticket on the day my inspection expires, but someone out there is using one of the busiest intersections in the Seven Eight as an auto lot, parking cars without tags? Puhleeese!)

Bam Bam joins McDonald's and Anheuser-Busch as Olympic advertisers: Me, I'm just trying to sell this guitar...

Rumor has it Charlie Rose will be having Dante on the show in the next week to discuss Bam Bam's becoming the Official US Presidential Candidate of the Olympics. (OK, maybe that overstates things.)

Me? I'm just trying to sell this fine guitar through the good folks at Mazzotti Music. Get down there and give it a strum.

Stop the Presses!

ex-astronaut sez there be space aliens...

credit for the heads up to BoingBoing (be sure to read thru the comments...)

field trip planned very, very soon...

hey dere, how y'all doink?

from the NYT, in regard favorite yummy treat, soft serve ice cream;
mentioned therein is Berkeley ice cream emporium Sketch which yourstruly has every intention to visit and indulge in much sampling (MUCH !), after which we shall report to ye here and include photos of the expedition.

(seems the sketch folks offer up a webloggy thing too...)

B.O.M.B

While I was freeing 'ittle 'ikey last night I saw that car & guy over there to the left (no, I can't read it either, bad phonecam snap) and felt compelled to go over and chat. O, I'm glad I did.

Meet Scott Witter, folks, mastermind of Brooklyn's Other Museum of Brooklyn (B.O.M.B). Scott was out there letting folks know all about the hearing going on inside the municipal building re the status of the nearly-demolished-but-for-a-technicality Admiral's Row at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and the efforts to get the buildings and grounds landmarked (they meet all criteria, says Mr. Witter) and keep them standing and spanky.

Red Hook vendors: The ceviche hasn't suffered, but the huraches are dangerously cramped

Dan and Nina tried weekend before this last and, of course, nada. But Lota and I were there this weekend, hot as it was, and had the shrimp ceviche and the tuna sopa. And cheese empanadas. But we didn't know about the cart / truck arrangements. Here's a Gothamist link, voicing some of the crowd's disappointment. It's true what some of the comments say - what had been a beautiful, earthy neighborhood thing has been squeezed into tin cans. Gone are the big tarps over the woodchips at the edge of the fields and the crowds around the chairs and tables. But, damn, that tuna soup is still mindblowing.

Joe Ades - my all time favorite street vendor

I passed by a Halal vendor cart on Water Street yesterday and noticed sign it bore saying that it was a finalist for a 2007 Vendy award. Heck, I never knew there was such a thing - that led me this morning to the Street Vendor Project and browsing there I saw the article Don't Cry for Me and it's link out to New York Daily Photo's December 6, 2006 shot of Joe Ades. I find myself mentioning Joe Ades (but not by name - I didn't know his name until just now) to people all the time, and I'm amazed when I speak to long-time New Yorkers who've never seen him. I saw him last only a month ago, outside the courts downtown Brooklyn, near where I lock up 'ittle Bikey.

None of the pics there show the amazing star thing he sometimes does with carrots.

龍爭虎鬥

Hi, kids. I think I'm back. Great fun last night - BRIC commissioned Karsh Kale to write a new musical score for Enter The Dragon, and perform it live with the MIDIval Punditz to the thousands who jammed into the bandshell for the giant projection of the film. Yowza! That's entertainment!

(Still have to get it together to cross the borough line & see a film with M&P @ Socrates...)

a weekend in El Dorado county...

visiting J & J's place in Fairplay (near Placerville), yourstruly spent a very pleasant afternoon hanging out at two fine wineries, those folks at Shadow Ranch who always make us feel like friends, and our first visit to TooGood was made all the more memorable by meeting some really nice people from Hawaii who accompanied us during the barrel tasting, hosted by Seth (Thanks, Seth!) whose generousity (well, it ain't like it was his wine, right?) was greatly appreciated.

that pic up there is ms Judy herowndarnself, feeding a baby possum, one of the four five survivors of a litter of nine ten. She and her pals do good work under the guise of Sierra Wildlife Rescue

Summer in the City

A couple more notes about what's happening here at home in NYC.

More green news! The city is creating a public esplanade along that ugly eight-block stretch of Broadway between Times Square and Herald Square. It will feature pedestrian-only areas and a real bike path with planters to separate it from the car traffic (which will be reduced by two lanes). Hallelujah!

Here in Queens, the free movies at Socrates Sculpture Park began screening last Wednesday. We'll be organizing a regular picnic-party each week starting on July 23 with the screening of "Chop Shop," which is set along the strip of auto body repair shops in the Willet's Point section of my hometown, Flushing. This area is the targeted for major redevelopment which not everybody is happy about. Here's the latest on the subject via Queenscrap.

Still away from keyboards, computers and BKLYN...

... But wanting to chat w/ Juju y Mel. So am sending from the thingy a snap of the parking lot taken last Sunday at the Portland blues fest.

Sent via thingy

as esteban's somewhere out here on the left coast...

and we hopin' that balloon not drifting too far north, by the way...
(me see dat MellieMel taking care of the place with mention of her recent travels, welcome home Mel...)

so, wassup?

mine doppelganger JP ret'd recently from visit to desert southwest, his Moms just out of hospital and doing fine, he say "thank ye for asking". most his time there was spent in company of the materfamilias, as is fitting.

If you be near the great american music hall on friday,
19 June: 8th annual sleepless nights Gram Parsons tribute...

also, ye better Buy Thy Tickets Soon! Seva Foundation's 30th Anniversary Celebration, Oakland's Paramount Theatre, September 27th. YOW !

oh dear, almost forgot-
celebrate a berkeley institution : Moe's Books Birthday Celebration,
this Saturday, noonish...

and (thanx again to those fine minds at clusterflock) in re that picture ye may have seen here and there re those iranian missles...
(Later that same day - NY Times acknowledgement )
(Much Later that same day - courtesy BoingBoing - more on the iranian photoshopped image )

mebbe mo' from us later...

Bike Talk

Lots of talk around town about the bike rental program the City wants to implement. Paul and I just returned from Paris, where we took advantage of their glorious Vélib' program. Spent one magical day cycling the streets and it cost us less than $2.

Our friend, AJW, just purchased an electric-assist bike to get to her new job at the Georgetown Law Library. You go girl!

By the way, AJW also keeps a not-so-secret blog.

Not currently in BKLYN

We've ballooned to the j.p. coast but landed one state too north, and find ourselves drifting even further so...

MUTO by Blu!

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Schein on mein neighborhood

Saw Jenny Scheinman @ Barbes last evening. I've been listening a lot to her latest (vocal) album. Last night was not that but was intense & fun more or less at the same time. Show was being taped - does she always do that with her eyes, or was it the camera? Begorah!

Got mail today Slope Cellars for the first time (just joined their list). I like them a lot and no one there is snooty, unlike the shop that is closer to me where I have been snooted at more than once and I won't name big nose. I like, too, that in their email there are shameless plugs for bands, bars, and the shop next door. O, a fine place to buy whatever wine you're buying.

Dear diary, 080629

Odd weekend. Saw most of an Elvis Perkins set Friday, and we would have loved to stay for the whole of it (Lori's been a fan; I'm a newbee) but for the teenage crowd (there largely to socialize, or maybe hanging on for the Cold War Kids?) and the old blowhard sitting behind us, shining his apple real hard and loud and trying to impress the younger boys with it. Saturday we listened to much of a Wingdale Community Singers set while sipping at the Barbes bar.

Rained on and off like a banshee the last two days, once so hard that the roof drains were all overflown and I got out there in my shorts to pop the grate before the kitchen ceiling flooded (again) and did pop it and the water started sucking down, but MAN OH MAN that was a cold bitchin' rain on a merciless hot day and I took to shivering so hard I barely squoze back in the window.

And somewhere in there I read Simenon's La Tête d'un homme. Yowza.

Carolina Chocolate Drops, wow!

Can't say enough good stuff about the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Saw their show last evening at the park, and they had everyone completely engaged, stomping and singing from their first minutes on stage until their last. I don't think I could have guessed it from the recording I have - see them if you can. Woof! Vidi.

By the by-blow: they talked about Howard & Judith Sacks' Way Up North In Dixie, which is now on my must-read list. And maybe hunt down every version of Blind Willie Johnson's City of Refuge that I can.

juju must stop reading clusterflock...

else he never get any work done...

first item: let's talk about equipment;
second item: breasteses for energy independence. YAH BAYBEE !
y una cosa mas, something from the local fishwrap, news truly representative of the changing times, Oakland's De Lauer's Newsstand is Closing.

oh oh oh...
this ought to do it for today, something that seems like a pretty damned good idea...

I really think that we could make it, girl...

Now I lay me down to sleep,
iPod on and weary deep,
Dusty in Memphis is in my ear,
and Zane's 33 on my bedside near.

Buttermilk (culture)

Wednesday is a biggy for us here in cowtown. First there's some sort of spanky opening thing we've been invited to at the Whiteney - Bucky Fuller & Paul McCarthy exhibits opening. Then, the nightcap is TR Warszawa's Macbeth, under the very summer stars at the tobacco warehouse across from St. Ann's. (Have I ever told you about the time we saw Steppenwolf in Krakow? Jah, I probably have.) Starkist tuna will want me, for sure. (And it seems that Del Monte or someone else has forced all the Charlie the Tuna animations off the web. Sucko.)

Goodbye, Hippy Dippy Weatherman.

Late McCarthy addition: Santa Claus with Buttplug.

(And I see we've had our first hit from Ireland - is that you, Mellie Mel? What are you eating?)

Our block. Ain't it grand?

Fabu block party here on 11th. Lots of folks early til late. Yummy food. Many stories being told - some of them probably true.

About the efforts of a few of our neighbors:
Nicky Grist & unmarried.org.
Doyle Warren & the Provincetown Playhouse.
Brooke Hauser & This Strange Thing Called Prom.

What say we mosey on over to Governors Island at lunch time...

Via Transportation Alternatives. Thank you, TA.
& thank you, G.I.P.E.C.
Which also gives me an excuse to say something about Buttermilk Channel. I've heard a couple of riff's on what the wiki says is urban legend - how it got it's name. I prefer to believe them. The riffs. Not the wiki.

monkey love and naked bike riding...

one for me ol' pal esteban-
get thee to london for the naked bike ride...

and when yourstruly is stressed an' unhappy, nuttin' makes us feel better than a couple o'kisses and hugs, we sure that's true for you too...

credit where credit's due, aforementioned linky goodness came our way via the wonder that is clusterflock

Small bat head removed from candidate McCain's left eye

Photo collage was briefly on the Coulter web site but seems to have been taken down. It was just the head. Not the rest of the bat. That's weird!

I am distracted, but my face smells good

Finding it hard to concentrate, and my reading is all jumpy. Am grazing through Michael Chabon's Maps and Legends, Leslie Day's Field Guide to the Natural World of New York City (and more about that on a day when I have it more together), and Jim Sheeler's Obit: Inspiring Stories of Ordinary People Who Led Extraordinary Lives. Obit and Field Guide are, clearly, bathroom books, while Maps is a subway book.

The news is, after more than a year of using a brush and soap to shave, I've tried a bar of Lightfoot's Pine Shave Creme Soap, and WOW! I climbed a couple of flights of stairs yesterday morning, working up the slightest sheen of perspiration, and was overcome with the sense of piney freshness all around me. I looked left and right, wondering where it was coming from. Then I realized: it was coming from my face.

Can't wait to get a whiff of myself on the bike ride down town.

Convergence: Brooklyn for Peace / Mermaid Parade

Be a Mermaid for Peace!
Join Brooklyn For Peace Contingent in the Fabulous Coney Island Mermaid Parade!
Saturday, June 21, 12:00 Noon

We'll dress up (costumes provided, or bring your own) as mermaids, mermen, and other nautical characters, and hand out peace sign Mardi Gras beads along with glossy cards urging spectators to contact our Senators demanding an end to the Iraq War, and no new war against Iran, as well as information on alternatives to the military for our young people.
Tuesday June 17, 7 pm: Pot-luck supper and costume-making party. nowar at brooklynpeace.org for location.
Saturday June 21, 12 noon: meet at NE corner of W. 8th St and Surf Avenue, in front of Aquarium Parking Lot. See a map

1 pm: Proceed as a group to Parade starting point.
2 pm: Parade starts. It's over by 4 pm.
$9 fee per individual to participate.

Questions, and to let us know you'll be coming, email nowar at brooklynpeace.org,....

Dear Diary, bless our hot buttered souls

Thursday evening was Isaac Hayes in the park. I got to there a little late and, oh, what a crush. IH already on stage & so may people it must have taken 20 minutes to squeeze from the 11th St. entrance to the 9th St.side where there were fewer people and no line @ the beer tent. Hey, there were no local beers - what's up with that, Celebrate Brooklyn? Found it pretty airy behind the Gala area and IH had set out on what seemed an evening long version of Walk On By, and that was heaven. (And it was nothing like the video blow, but what the heck:

Really more like:


Leaning on the Gala fence I remembered that Lota & I often chatted about becoming members or donors or whatever, and this might be a nice time to look for a membership table. But as I cast my eyes abut, I also noticed that all of the many big flat panels in the members tent were showing sort-of best-of performances from past years. While Mr. Hayes and his orkestra were making soulful music 50 yards away. I stopped looking for a membership table.

Tres Kinks

So, last Saturday, NY concert producer extraordinaire Danny Kapilian told us he was sending us the first 6 kinks albums in the mail - watch for them. He told us at our humble home amidst the puttanesca hoopla, and coinkykinky, just about then in walked the head loser of the lounge, Joe McGinty with Lota's sometimes producing partner, Amy Hobby - and what are we going to see tomorrow night? Nuthin other than Joe's Losers' Lounge tribute to the Kinks, at Joe's Pub (the other Joe. Papp. But not Poopdeck Pappy McCain.). And then, this morning, begorrah, what did I get but email from he that is BAWK, 9th Circuit Chief Judge Snared in Web of Kink!

Betting people bet Bam Bam

Kind of weird. But at least the money right now (or at any of the past dates) isn't on Poopdeck Pappy. Lookah here. Or lookah there.

No, really, remember the inhaler

So, I didn't remember it but did resume the commute bike ride. Result was having to rest, gasping on a bench when I got to Borough Hall - but, O what a beautiful morning!
Sent via thingy.

This is what (50, democracy, your brain) looks (or sounds) like (sometimes modified by a mind altering substance or event)

Funny, I almost posted yesterday about Gloria Steinem's famous This is what 50 looks like remark along with the marching chant This is what democracy sounds like, but I was too pooped. Then Lori told me that GS was on TV explaining that Hillary's defeat was due to sexism, not addressing Hillary & her campaign's behavior and tone over the last year. The segment explaining that Rome's collapse was due to lead pots was apparently not aired or archived on CNN.

Hey, I'm reading Scott McClellan's What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception. About a quarter of the way through. Scott, I'll call him bubala, seems very sincere and pretty boring. Way right of you and me, left of where the Bushies turned out, and either suicidal or really driven by conscience. Anyway, bubala talks a good deal about the mindset of the permanent campaign and the replacement of governance with the altering of public opinion. He spreads the blame. But he also talks about how, pre shrub, the Clintons were the absolute masters of attack and psy-ops. (He thinks they've been bested by the current administration).

Personally, I'd always resisted of thinking of the Clinton administration that way - and I wonder if this was pure partisanship on my part. I mean, how likely is it that the ugliness they've shown in the past year is genuinely new? Depressed me to think of what judgements I might be setting aside in the interest of supporting the home team.

Anyway, here's the synopses of my thinking this last year:
Who is Obama? I like him, but do you vote for someone because you like him? Maybe you vote for someone you like if you believe he or she will uphold the platform of the party. The one thing I absolutely do not want is another president half the country hates. Please, Lordy, no more sick divisiveness. I start giving Bam Bam lots of fond nicknames, a sure sign. The only D I'm liking less than H right now is Lieberman. H slips below Lieberman. I have a dream that Larry Olivier has a dentist's drill in his hand and I am Dustin Hoffman and I'm strapped into the chair and screaming and Larry rips his own face off and underneath is Hillary's face.

That was the party that was

To the one or two of you who know this blog is here and who were at the house this weekend, and to the other 80 of you who were at the house and don't know this blog is here - THANK YOU! BIG UP! Professore Guido was, once again, heroic and his puttanesca fortifying in the 95 degree heat. And the wine, she flowed like wine, with maybe an ice cube or two to help cool the fevered brow: 40 bottles of the home ferment and a sprinkling here and there of commercial white & brewskie. A thousand thanks. Looking forward to next year.

happy friday!

Everyone is trying to get to the bar.
The name of the bar, the bar is called heaven.
The band in heaven plays my favorite song.
They play it once again, they play it all night long.

& just in case you're there looking for the bar, a map of heaven...
(tho' you'll likely have to look for me thru the Damned Viewer)

jessferdahalibut:
google david byrne and heaven and this is what you get,
and una cosa mas, a guitarist's notebook

Author's query: Triangle & a Square - Victor Kayam, Si Symms, Jim Levanthol and Lee Iaccoca

Author's query re the events leading to Lee Iaccoca's disruption of the infamous love triangle. Particularly searching for information about the photographer and photos taken outside Angelo's in Little Italy, NYC, in early June, 1974.

Charlie Rose hosts Dante Oblimov and Chelsea Cinton

Dante: Charlie, thanks for having me back, and I can't thank you enough for having my imaginary friend, Chelsea, here with us this evening.

Charlie: A lot of people don't realize Chelsea is imaginary.

Chelsea: Charlie, that's sooo true! A lot of people confuse me with the real Chelsea, the child of privilege who is the daughter of an ex-president and a powerful senator, Stanford / Oxford wunderkind who wrote a thesis about Daddy, blah, blah, blah. But that's not me! I'm the Chelsea that for whom my Mom wants to have a roll call vote, like days of yore, so that the delegates of states she won would cast the first ballot for her at the convention. She said she wanted that for me. I am soooo imaginary!

fun at work...

damn...
don't know what i'd do if i couldn't blog from work
muchas gracias, esteban, for allowin' me to keep my hand in..

mini discussion amongst my co workers and myself re Alt bands, 90's bands...
my mention of original Alt rocker Captain Beefheart had 'em all going
"Huh?"

damn, me old...

Practice in front of a bush: Captain Beefheart's rules for guitarists
and jessferdahalibut, some mo' Bo D. (courtesy A.'s gmtPlus9(-15) )

Bike update - I'm no a dead yet

After posting this morning, I decided I was a wuss, so put on by business suit, got on the bike, rode to Borough Hall where it was just one R stop to wurk. (Note to self: bring inhaler tomorrow. Note to self: stay the frig off Atlantic Ave.)

Rewarded myself when I got to the street with a cup of Colombian from a vendor I haven't been to in maybe a couple of years. Very nice guy. When he's done down here at Water and Whitehall he heads up to John Street where he sells books off a cart.

(And, I'm just so giddy I'm gonna try to pst this by email from the phone...)

Biking on my mind

Streetsblog; Transportation Alternatives; Block Magazine; Bikeroute;

Yesterday Danny Boy biked down from the 160's where he lives to our office accross from the Staten Island Ferry. Damn him. We've both been talking about riding to work and now he's upped the ante by actually doing it. Madman. Now I need to de-duff.

rock and roll will never die...

altho' some of them pioneers be passing on.
Adios, Bo D.;
jess 'magine that chunk-ka-chunk-a-chunk - chunk chunk
t'ing happenin' in da backroun'..
mo', mo', mo', mo', mo', mo', mo', and then, just one mo'...

Laika, Laika!

Big time at the Toy Theater Festival last evening. Highlights of the finale night for me were Paul Zaloom and Lynn Jeffries' alphabet piece, Peter Schumann's fiddle lecture re the West Bank occupation (which just wasn't a toy theater piece, but it certainly was a fiddle lecture), the absolutely stunning Laika's Coffin by Seth Bockley and Kevn O'Donnell and directed by Frank Magueri,

(in last evening's performance there was entire additional act of scientific tests on Laika before her selection, and there was a full chorus), and the very last act of the evening, The Rag Show.