Don't try this at home

We can look forward to all kinds of fixed wheel helmetless lunacy on our streets thanks to a new film that is about to come out.


Empire from Empire on Vimeo.

It's possible that we can also look forward to this:



And this:

Why is Joe Six-Pack afraid? Why am I?

I am around the same age as Obama. Like Obama, my parents were mixed race. My father was an Anthropologist, as was Obama’s mother; I lived in another country as a child. Like Obama, I grew up with a wider viewfinder than many Americans yet I’ve always thought that I was an American. Like America, I was the ultimate melting pot. I am descended from early white colonists and from slaves. I am descended from Europeans who immigrated to the United States in the 19th century. I am not Joe Six Pack.

I’ve spent the past week watching what has been going on at the Republican rallies. Barring the Bradley effect, I don’t think that McCain can win this race but something very ugly has reared its head in this country and it’s not going to go away.

What are we, those of us who are not Joe Six-Pack to make of the ugly racist and xenophobic events at McCain-Palin rallies over the last week? What is Joe so afraid of?

Joe is afraid that a Black man can succeed. Joe is afraid that not only can a Black man succeed, but that he can succeed far beyond any place that Joe can imagine succeeding himself. Joe will do anything to stop it.

This world is not uncharted territory for me. It is the Jim Crow south that my father grew up in, so I can tell you what I’m afraid of.

This is the place where people needed to point to the lack of black success as proof of black inferiority after prospering and successful black communities and businesses have been burned to the ground.

This is the place that only allows certain "acceptable" and unqualified African Americans or women like Sarah Palin to be appointed to positions of real power but where not much is expected from them. Conversely, this is the place that hires the most qualified woman or African American like Colin Powell, and then undermines them and sets them up for certain failure.

This is the place where my brother with his exotic Japanese middle name is not really American and where Hawaii is too exotic to be one of the 50 states. This is a place where my children, half English-Jewish, half mongrel are not real Americans. This is a place where a man can put up a sign in his yard calling Barack Obama "half breed muslin" and be proud of it. This is a place where black people are not supposed to be articulate and if they are, they are "elitists" and they are "uppity".

I'm not saying that we are on the edge of a holocaust or that we need to panic. I am saying that we can't afford to write off the rantings of Palin's followers or to dismiss these concerns as mere "hyperbole". I believe that we should to pay attention to history and be aware of the parallels to events in our own and in other countries. We need to remember the radio hate fueled catastrophe of Rwanda and the religious oppression of Afghanastan and understand what led up to these events. I hate to bring up the Nazi reference, I don't believe that my fellow Americans are "Nazi's" or that McCain is like Hitler but understanding the climate in Germany before the Holocaust is important. We should never forget the causes of these events. Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.

I love this country, but I am afraid. I’m afraid that, as some have been known to tell me over the past 8 years, I am believed to be Un-American. I’m afraid that, because of (or in spite of) my education and any small success that I’ve achieved in my lifetime I will be forced into the metaphoric back of the bus, perhaps the way that women were in Afghanistan under the Taliban. I'm afraid that too many good people will close their eyes and pretend that it isn't happening. I'm afraid that Joe Six-Pack will sit in front of me thumping his bible, his sense of superiority will be restored and all will be right in his world again but that mine will be gone.

Need a break from POLITICS?

Rudy Veritis

This little blog has been largely overlooked by the MSM (link to NY Times article) but it's full of inside gossip about Rudy Giuliani and other political figures. I particularly enjoyed the story about John McSame in Vegas. The blog is written by former Giuliani aid Russell Harding who appears to have some time on his hands after being released from prison.

Some of the pieces I will post will be of interest mainly to New Yorkers. Some will be blockbusters. Knowing the tabloid press, a few in particular. Others may just be of historical interest because they shed more light on the eight years of Rudy Giuliani's Administration and of the mindset of the man. One piece offers some new history on a foreign policy matter.

I do not claim to be a good writer. In fact, you may think me a lousy one. But I am not out to win a Pulitzer. I will be trying merely to convey historical events accurately.

Celeb Magnet? Me?

I had a star studded week a couple of weeks ago. Ok, a two star studded week. A very friendly Matthew Modine hang out in my section at a Liberty Game. He was promoting bicycle for a day. I missed it, A) because I hate the South Street Seaport and B) because I was canvassing in Pennsylvania that day. He's the nicest movie star I've ever met. He's still adorable in a very white guy way but not as adorable as he was in "Full Metal Jacket". Research tells me that he is Mormon and that he has married for almost 30 freaking years.


The next day, leaving work in Chelsea, I made eye contact with "sultry", slow speaking soap star Micheal Easton from One Life To Live. I watched this show during the many years that I didn't have an employer for various reasons. I find Easton to be phenomenally unattractive, but apparently, I'm the only one. Yuck. Thanks to a couple of young men in front of me, I learned that men without girlfriends know him from some action show on HBO (Total Recall 2070).


OMG, OMG, OMFG. Gossip Girl set up for a couple of days right on my doorstep last week! I saw lots of stars and I don't know who they are. And look, filmlover44 (that's me in one of my incarnations) made The Daily Slope (what is the Daily Slope?)


Why do stars make eye contact? Is it to avoid potential stalkers or is it to make sure that you recognize them? In the past, I've made eye contact with a toned down and friendly Queen Latifah who was with a female friend and Jeff Goldblum who gave off a serious sex-addict vibe....totally my type!

Jefferson Market

I read a rumor that Jefferson Market was closing. Jefferson Market is one of those New York places (like Zabars and Lehman Brothers) that has been around forever. You tend to take these places for granted. It's a huge, lofty space that sells bread, cheese and other sundries and take-out foods. New York Magazine called it a European Style grocery.

Jefferson Market was here before that newer gourmet places like that horrid place on Broadway (the name completely escapes me) that changed an entire neighborhood. It was here before Union Market, which is also horrid. Unlike these other, modern stores, there is plenty of space in Jefferson Market to navigate the aisles. Sadly, the store looks abnormally empty compared to the Jefferson Market of my childhood.

When I stopped by, a news crew was interviewing the owner. I was told that the news crews have been showing up all week. When I asked a cashier when they were closing, she hopefully told me that there is a chance that they will not be closing.

I hope not. I hope that if they do manage to stay open, they modernize a little bit but are able to hold onto that old neighborhood feeling. I hope that West Villagers stop taking Jefferson Market for granted.

New York Times article