Old Asphalt

Old asphalt being stripped off Newark Avenue so it new asphalt can be laid and spread.  If you go back into the archive you can find similar blog posts. I like to watch construction and haven’t done a new post on that imagery in a while. Since before Labor Day, work was being done on this street; some sort of new pipe had to be laid now they’re doing the re-pave. The top layer of asphalt has been removed for more than a block, an entire intersection too. No street traffic allowed, or parking, causing snarls and long detours. It might actually mean nearly 10 minutes to your drive, road rage potential is high. A new condo development is going up on the same street, probably some of the reason for the new pipes and this eventual re-pave. After this machine strips off the top soil of asphalt, the road is ridged, rough; gives the shock absorbers a real work out in the evening hours, after the workers go home and Newark Avenue is re-opened.

Saint Joseph Festival

Locals call it St. Joe’s on the hill. Technically it is in the Journal Square neighborhood, but it feels more one of those in-between, not quite this or quite that Jersey City neighborhood, but it is on a slope.

The feast is the last one of the summer. Summer ends with Labor Day, although the weather tells us otherwise and night is undeniable by 8:00 PM. But it’s not September 21^st, so this technically runs the last weekend of the summer.

 

 

A parishioner told me the reason they hold their parish feast now is that the feast day of Saint Joseph is in mid-march, always during lent. The only Lenten feast allowed is Saint Patrick’s Day (I’m making that up). Have a few beers and walk up Fifth Avenue, that’s okay for March, but a feast for the Blessed Mother’s “Most Chaste Spouse” which symbolizes family unity that needs warm weather and Italian comfort food.

I was there on opening night. School had started, things were subdued. The street fair is held in the parking lot. The rides were of higher quality than other local carnivals. The music was a DJ, Sinatra's Summer Wind was played. 

 I had never been in the church, it’s a beautiful space filled with lovely details, such as arm rests with lions on the altar, Stations of the Cross with alabaster statuettes. The pictures reflect the church more than the feast, which runs through sunday.

 

 

 

I bought some zeppoelle for the walk back down the hill and thought of Summer Days by Bob Dylan – Summer nights are gone/I know a place where something’s going on.

Saint Joseph’s Parish feast lets us say good bye to summer by holding onto it for one more weekend, giving us the illusion of suspended time, getting more from summer even when it thought there was no more to give.

 

 

The Basis of Need to Know

 

All you need to know to understand this mural, which is on a hill near the high school, just past the cemetery, in that nether world that is definitely not Downtown yet not quite the Heights, is 1973-2001. Regardless of cause, death occurred too young and the loss for was so profound for the loved ones that a mural taking up an entire side of a building needed to be painted.

I can’t decipher the name, which seems part of the need to know sensibility. Will the name of somebody who is a stranger add any meaning –RIP, the years of the live, doesn’t that already humanize this mural?

 

Rarely is such purposeful illegibility so artistic. Echoes of psychedelic pop culture and sports team logo are mixed with that distinctive Keith Haring urban sensibility. The lettering, with its wiggly arrows is playful as the opening credits of the Electric Company on PBS. Is that an A or a V? I can’t make out the name and it is only single word – last or first name –only a guess.

Maybe it’s the media overload and the constant commercial and advertising messages we are bombarded with every moment. It’s clear what they want us to know: here’s something else to buy. Maybe to clarify immediately taints the integrity of the message. The same philosophy seems to motivate tattoos. To those not in the know, the image is isolated from any defining context. It just is. But to those in the know, there’s a symphony of significance leading up to the moment the skin was permanently changed for all to see.  Maybe that’s all that you really need to know.

The tragedy of young death, the despair of grief – that’s what you need to know – and we do...

 

 

Liberty State Park 9-11 Memorial

 

I thought I was done with 9-11 memorialization on the 11th9-11 but that evening on the spur of the moment a buddy suggested we see the Liberty State Park 9-11 Memorial, which I had not yet experienced and was admittedly, only vaguely aware of.

 

 

 

We were not the only ones who had the idea. Hundreds – not an overwhelming crowd but still a crowd – had come, the parking fee was waived for the evening, The memorial consists of some beams from the World Trade Center in the foreground and two large shiny steel slabs on which the names of the New Jersey victims of the attacks are inscribed. The slabs are parallel and they form an aisle through which you walk and it is said the slabs are as wide as the actual trade center buildings.

 

 

Freedom lights I think they’re called – the two beams that shine out of the exact spot of the original twin towers on 9-11 (and some other occasions) – were lit, across the river. You walk through the memorial two the guard rail to get a better view of the dual lights, which are poignantly visible above the edges of the slabs. It’s well thought-out, tasteful and moving memorial.

Small groups – twos, and threes, and fours, gathered by specific names – loved ones obviously. They pointed, they traced their finger along the engraving, hugged each other. A few tears, a sigh – uncontrollable grief is over. The struggle of acceptance has been won.

 

 

 

 

 

 

11th 9-11

 

Black and White pictures I took days following 9-11

10^th Anniversary 9-11

First 9-11 Blog, including my pictures for that day.

The way the story of the above photograph was told me was thus:  Right after the first plane hit, Stephan, who lived In Jersey City and being a camera buff, hung out at Hudson Camera,had grabbed his camera was huffing and puffing it down to the waterfront when he stopped for film. Pete, threw him two rolls and said go! Go!

This picture was taken a few minutes later.  The moment of unfolding horror captured. It is probably the most famous Jersey City picture of 9-11, was used to promote fund raisers and other events, for a while there back in the early 00’s, it was nearly ominous round these parts.

More than one person commented how today feels exactly like that morning, weather-wise. A beautiful late summer morning. And like thatmorning, today I went to the gym and was thinking about the new Bob Dylan album (review forthcoming), which was due to be released today, this Tuesday, the release day for new everything, but which I bought at Rebel Records in the village on Friday. And like that morning, in the horizon was a tower – the 9 11 memorial, still under construction but finally filling in that long empty space in our sky.

11 years of bloody water under the bridge since then, two wars whose conclusions are far from satisfactory but yet good are not absent from either conclusion. Bin Laden has been killed, Al Qeda significantly vanquished and instead of sending in thousands of troops, we use drones, which have been effective and why the civilian casualties are a horror, those numbers are far less than the civilian casualties of the Bush II era wars. I don’t want to get into the drone debate, I’m just expressing an observation. No war at all is preferred but I’m unconvinced how realistic that option is. Also, I believe that the terrorists who hide in civilian populations, and those who enable them to seek refuge there, bear certainly some blame for the causalities, something the anti-drone proponents never mention.  I don’t see how intellectually you can both oppose the Bush II era wars and the current drone strategy; the only decision is which one you find more preferable.

Our country is still polarized. The roots are deep, but it sure seem to heat up during the Clinton years and the Monica Lewinsky affair and the Republicans scorched earth impeachment drive. Man, what a waste of time – Whitewater for goodness sake – and it always worth reminding the cries of “No War For Monica” by the republicans when Clinton ordered a missile attack retaliation. This partisan bitterness deepened with the Bush V. Gore supreme court stop the vote count decision and then any question about the Weapons of Mass Destruction became a sign of unpatriotic behavior. The right has a way of one-upmanship when squelching the left. You could see the echo of the Clinton resentment throughout the drive to war with Iraq through the more recent economic and healthcare policy battles and stalemates and of course, no being played in our current presidential election. This debate had nothing to do with 9-11 even when 9-11 is mentioned – 9-11 was the instigating incident of the Iraq invasion  and yet Romney ridicules Obama for the Bin Laden mission, but no one is questioning Bush officials about their dealings with Pakistan, who were giving him sanctuary and continue to provide havens for Osama and other operatives. Today in the times there was an editorial in the times about how the Bush was warned throughout 2001 about Bin Laden, something they’ve previously denied. About a year ago there was news about all this testimony by Bush and Cheney for the 9-11 Commission about Saudi involvement that was didactic from the final report.  There are unanswered questions about Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, what really happened  in Tora Bora – Fare height 9-11 just scratched the surface – but we ignore these question in a bipartisan country now focused once again on the horse race of elections than the soundness of policy. Or bring up these points and soon you hear the real loonies, 9-11 was an inside job crew of jerks.

I’m sick of 9-11 just like you. So much turmoil was caused by those plans, and it set off a chain of events that were both good and bad, still being felt… Libya, Syria, Egyp… will those uprisings lead to more freedom and quality of life for those citizens.  Israel is now adamant about not giving back Palestinian terror ties, Palestinians refuse to give up the right of return which is why they refuse to recognize Israel, war with Iran over nuclear weapons seems inevitable and no matter how many American lives or how much of our treasure we spend, we still get played by both sides who know our election cycle fervor, how influential money can be and where sound bites rule the day. Can you really think of a sound bite that will solve the Mid-East crisis, which is really a series of connected troubles; greed and power politics are interwoven with racial and religious biases, it’s complex and the solutions must be comprehensive and sound bites are just another way to evade solution.

But it was always thus and that’s why 19 men gave their lives to kill 3,000 people who simply went to work that day.

9-11 was also a local Jersey City event, we were on the front lines and it dominated our lives for weeks, all we could talk or think about.  By default, residents are divided between who lived here before and who lived here after. Not that there is animosity but the gentrification sped up around 2003 and more people moved here and most of them were gen-yers, and white (a smaller percent were Asian), which visibly changed the population. 9-11 was the end of the 90s for everybody, and having lived in Jersey City for two decades now, the second decade was different demographically than the first; so was the country and our culture and Jersey City is far from isolated from those influences as well and 9-11, at least implicitly, seems a dividing line. Not a cause or an effect, but it was such a monumental moment that it has become a convenient means to distinguish one mini, contemporary epoch from another.

We were more unified after 9-11. People are more polite, strangers talk to each other more, in general we, as a people, are little more courteous to each other than we used to be. There’s been a noticeable increase in mutual consideration. It started at 9-11 and gradually diminished for sure but it’s never disappeared completely. In addition, generation Y seems more polite than baby boomers or generation x, maybe they’re more sober more often and perhaps them mood enhancing prescriptions have had this beneficial outcome. So, while we may not be as unified, Jersey City is a little bit better place to get along in.

Sure it’s more expensive, work is harder to find, incomes aren’t growing any but that’s also the national scenario.  There manners and considerations though, that seemed to occur with 9-11 and seems a lingering effect, in the New York area – as a general, unsubstantiated statement, there are less assholes and the assholes aren’t as big.

For lack of a better word – fellowship – was evident with Occupy Wall Street last year. Now, this movement has faded, is in need of re-energization, and some intellectual direction has been almost entirely abducted by the loony left and one-issue fanatics who are intent on their own agenda but uninterested in offering ideas of how to implement the sweeping economic change this country requires – but I would argue the comradely that was in evidence a year ago fueling OWS was a direct result of the initial reactions to 9-11, before so many of those feelings were exploited by Bush II to justify the Iraq invasion.

Patriotism has various manifestation; most go beyond knowing the words to the Star Spangled Banner or saluting the flag or voting for the cross, fetus and Reagenomics.

No answers are easy, few are even clarified. We need to do more. But when I think of those towers that are gone, the lives lost, the bitterness and anger over some of our government’s actions and the apprehension over the rest, I remember something else too. We’re a little bit nicer to each than we used to be. Getting that to be more of a national trend, translating that into legislation and regulation and sound policy and not just individual phenomena remains a challenge.

Yes, we’re nicer to each other but our politicians are not. That’s the contradiction, and unfortunately our politicians – especially on the right – do not reflect the reality on the ground. And, those leaders control police force, so protestors and activist have their rights ignored. In state, municipal and of course Law enforcement is just following orders and it is obvious that OWS protestors, other activists, including unions, are unfairly and unjustly repressed, by law enforcement, often under the cover of new disturbing the peace regulations.

 

America has always been about contradictions.

9-11 gave us a deeper understanding – an understanding that is also non-verbal and subconscious – of the first three words of our constitution. We The People.

Dual Murals in Jamaica Queens

 

 

 

On a recent trip to Jamaica, Queens – my first time there – saw these dual murals, at the end of the E Line, at Archer Avenue & Parsons Blvd across the street from the large subway station.

The rapper mural is next to a mural for recycling, featuring a call to recycle by none another than the President of the United States. The murals – evidently by different artists – contain some wonderfully moody illustrations and while each has distinctive themes, the juxtaposition creates additional layers of meaning and irony.

You can put what I know about rap or hip hop music in a thimble and still have enough room for your thumb. So, go darn those darn socks and forgive me if I can’t name everybody in this mural.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rapper mural of course has multiple agendas. Yes, it pays tribute to artists beloved by the community – and in the case of 50 Cents (aka “Fitty”), Queens native hometown hero – but this expression of cultural pride is tempered by a purposeful requiem. The deaths of the young artists here, in the center of the mural, were results of violence – inherent in hip-hop culture or American culture – if you want to pretend there is such a difference, that some great divide separates these two culture or that violence– specifically gun violence, witness the Aurora premier of the Dark Knight –than you are a fool.

Not in the center, floating on a nearby cloud – near but not in what looks like heaven – is a young man in red, is 50 Cents (says so on his baseball cap) who was a famously a victim of a shooting, so he is sort of knocking on heaven’s door, an unmistakable cautionary image. On his shirt are the words – No More 50 Shots – the reference is to the 2006 shooting by the NYPD, which happened in Jamaica, Queens, which resulted in the death of the unarmed Sean Bell. Gun violence is just about one segment of American culture, or simply ascribed to one motivation, like greed or race, it is the connective tissue of our culture and we need to start thinking about solutions that are both pragmatic and idealistic. That old NRA saying, guns don’t kill people, people kill people, may be only half right – stricter gun laws are necessary –but it’s not just about the availability of firearms. This mural doesn’t offer an answer either, but its invocation of the afterlife and its undeniable imagery of wasted youth, including the near death of a young man, encourage a mediation that could lead to some sort of answer.

The mural is subtle and spiritual, glorifying the artists and what their music meant to fans and music lovers yet not ignoring the tragic facts of their deaths or the American culture that played such a dominant role in their demise.

If anyone can tell me the significance of the faceless man on the motorcycle – or the guy in a suit, which his back turned looking at a branch, please email or comment. The sky-blue background and wisps of clouds, the floating visages all invoke a heaven, the yellow graffiti is trippy. I love the large, almond eyes and slightly exaggerated lips, noses, chins, portraits whose illustrative intent invokes a devotional spirit. The tear dripping of Tupac’s eye is so poignant. The tear for and by the poet, the tear we share, the tear that opens up the context and subtext of the picture for everyone who sees it.

The Obama mural is not so overtly lofty. As quotes go, “We must not come in second when it comes to recycling,” is not one of Barak’s most memorable quips but you can’t deny its albeit pedestrian wisdom. A large mural, greens and blue (a sky darker than and perhaps not as heavenly as the rapper mural), publicizing a single, direct issue – recycling. I don’t know the context of the president’s original words, but I imagine it was more national in scope –New York State & city has one of the best recycling programs in the country! – but it can be better as most things always can be.

Obama’s has a very comic book inspired profile, which is a compliment. He looks like a leader. His head is turned – more specifically –turning over his shoulder, the skin on the nape of neck rippling, with an expression that beckons us to follow him towards a better world. The depiction seamlessly combines realism and idealization.

Adjacent murals, one of the here and now and the other about the after life. The thing about heaven and earth if you believe in heaven, an afterlife, it is present in the material world. The deceased watch over us some say, but the concept that I sometimes contemplate with the afterlife, the here and the hereafter, that now is now here or in eternity. African American continuity, the link between the rappers and our current president is created by these two murals being adjacent to each other. Both convey distinct although complementary political message. Both conduct a dialog between the material and the spiritual world within themselves – and between each other.

Bleecker Street Pay Phones

A Pay Phone was ringing/It just about blew my mind/when I picked it up and said hello/ this foot came through the line

 

Maybe this was the pay phone that inspired that Bob Dylan lyric, maybe this was the actual pay phone were a foot did come through the line, you never know, a lot of strange things happened in the pre-cellphone bohemia that was “The Village,” – before they had to classify it as the “west”village. Maybe not the same phone, but an earlier generation of the metal communication device operated by coinage that was in this exact same spot. This is the Bleecker Street Pay Phone Spot.

Easy to say that Bleeker Street is not what it used to be, and while maybe not as vibrant and certainly more subdued like all of New York, there remains a bohemianism (albiet more upscale) and general air of tolerance and freedom one cannot deny and that I always find refreshing when I find myself in this neck of the downtown Manhattan woods. 

Bleecker Street is still a Street of Dreams even if them dreams are only in your head.

 

There are still pay phones on Bleecker Street, well at least one. There used to be two here. Those following the Pay Phone Series on Dislocation might also have noticed this trend; one pay phone unit has removed.  I guess that due to non-use, the pay phone population has been reduced 50 percent. Not the kiosk, just the unit. The kiosk is left behind, a remnant of the past, a memorial to the drop a dime culture next to a functioning phone. You can tell it still functions cause of the wire that connects to the residential lines strung like world-weary spaghettis on along the poles. I love the line, it looks so temporary. I wonder when two empty kiosks will be here, when only pre-cellphone remnants are left on this corner.