August 28, 2004
Flash flood
I almost started crying in the street yesterday.
Surrounded by people coming out of themselves, electricity of human expression, I felt overwhelmed, on the verge of coming apart. There is a great deal of currency given to the idea of flash floods, flash mobs, moments of furious activity. "if we move fast, they can't catch us" is the idea.
Don't get me wrong, there was a strong admixture of joy in my congestion. But also pain. What comes of this? The desert recieves flash floods all the time, and it does not make the environment more hospitable. Parched, cracked earth cannot hold the water, and the flash flood becomes yet another ecological scourge, yet another danger.
The city needs to become fertile. Human beings cannot be reduced to the chattel of industry forever. We must be allowed expression, pleasures, uniqueness -- all the richness of life that a collective humanity can muster. In this light, the "flash flood" mentality is deeply flawed, will not bring about the change we seek. Sure, cataclysm plays a vital role in revolution. It is the cataclysm which forges conviction, but it is a conviction that rises to end social cataclysm, a conviction to work in concert, to work to change the desert into a new eden.
Posted by Sam on
09:49 PM
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Comments (5)
it begins
police helicopter over st. marks church
Walking out my front door last night as I'm preparing for the cart, I almost walk into a phalanx of riot police coming down 10th street. The choppers had been overhead for hours, so I didn't think much of it, and when I heard a loud, defiant cheer, well, this is the east village...
The crowd at the corner of 10th street and 2nd avenue was huge, police and bikers and others.
Indemedia coverage of the Critical Mass ride
My friend D__ called me a few minutes later, all hyped up. He had been part of the ride, the largest yet in NYC. He was amazed at how many people cheered them on cheered on by unexpected.
There was a lot of wild energy in the air. This energy is going to demand a focus, and denied the permit to assemble on the great lawn in Central Park...
I think there is a real possibility Madison Square Garden will become the one and only focus of all the pent-up anger.
Molly: "They blocked the Central Park permit. They spent all this money and the terrorists aren't going to show up. They want this to get ugly."
we shall see...
Posted by Sam on
06:43 AM
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Comments (5)
August 19, 2004
betrayal / hard hearted
blogside:
collecting strings
recollecting things
cartside, the collaboration is still afoot...
-----------
to the point:
out of a conversation
a thought
betrayal is a terrible poison.
runs so deep and cold.
does it reach all the way to the wellhead?
no no it doesn't
mustn't believe that
or hope dies.
molly: "'society' as a whole
cannot betray the individual.
they're co-defined."
must be more careful
than that in defining your terms
(be distrustful of negri's
theory of "omnicrisis")
--------
betrayal can slam you
in this world
it's easy as pie
particularly
given that so many
of the understandings
we rely on
are unspoken.
zeropride
was one attempt
to process a betrayal
but how
did it happen?
who was right
and who
was wrong?
how can I know?
can't, but
all this buffeting
hardens
the heart.
confusion.
mol tse:
"if you can't make any
predictions
about the future,
then how can you
have any hope?
and...boom.
frozen in time?"
the left is
at best
partially thawed
(and there's quite a
bit of freezer burn
to cut away).
--------
partial solutions
a new promise
can create the
conditions
for a softening of
the heart.
letting people in
dealing honestly
new connections
new deal.
"e can be rebuilt"
build em good boys and gurls!
Posted by Sam on
06:23 PM
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Comments (6)
conversation: after scarcity?
Folks, conversation is the most important thing we got. following out converstations, staying faithful to them as new shoots in the garden, is vital important. i got into trouble yesterday for trying to have a conversation with a cop -- more on that later.
here is a conversation I've been having with one of this site's best friends -- eric from Political Graffiti. I think it is an important topic. it starts with a few notes and a link to the weblog of James Howard Kunstler, and goes from there.
-------------
What comes after scarcity?
scar city
scare city
(non-permalink; July 19, 2004 entry)
in a single person, both the "avowed catastrophist" and the "reactionary horse-gut bellower" I was referring to in Machine City.
he dodges the whole question of how to bring about the world he envisions by imagining a catastrophe. this approach can never get out of dreamtime. he essentially acknowledges this be merely "suggesting" that people get ready. there is no way to get ready. therefore, his politics can never become active...
also preparing for a red chef entry called "post-scarcity cooking," deals with the creative motor scarcity offered. how do we continue to innovate when we no longer "need" to? or, really, when the market calls for only the palest possible differentiation, and the top-down structure of kitchen work stifles innovation at every turn?
August 16, 2004
Congratulations Hugo
Chavez declared the winner in Venezuelan recall vote.
Reuters
NY Times
Narco News
Pinky Paine's Premature Prediction
Posted by Sam on
11:51 AM
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Comments (6)
August 09, 2004
cops of the world
the emerging story of the recent "terrorist" arrest is that the guy was some low-level computer geek working as an asset in a sting operation set up by the Pakistani secret service. So the day after the Dem Convention, the U.S. fingers this poor stoolie fucker as some "hub" player in the Al Qaeda terror network for an easy upstage.
Molly sez: "I have no faith in the actions of the US Government, but even I keep being surprised by the utter unscrupulousness of this operation."
I sez: "I keep forgetting my earlier proposition DRUG WARZ II." This is classic...
Here's Mike Davis on Global Slum Management. I'm still working over my thoughts on this guy's theories. There's something valid there, but I end up feeling a little queasy somehow.
Posted by Sam on
07:29 PM
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Comments (3)
August 08, 2004
Bridges between buildings
Why are there so few bridges between buildings?
Trying not to burden the obvious,
there are few inter-building bridges
because they are
not very useful
outside of special circumstances.
circumstances which
exist infreqently
in the current city.
I have seen inter-building bridges:
at the power plant, between
warehouses,
between wards
of a hospital,
connecting the courthouse
with police plaza...
so let's go superfuture...
What makes a bridge useful?
This is the same question
as "what makes a sidewalk useful,"
minus the naturalized street level.
What makes a bridge useful
is that it connects two
common areas, which
share people, goods, or utilities
in significant volumes.
Most homes relate
to the city through
the street.
"The street" is
the dominant social
form of the city.
Even in the most upscale
neighborhoods -- past
the doorman, and you're
still outside --
resolve the relation
by turning the street
into
parking lot
+ pedestrian thru-way
= nothing.
= public muteness
Everything occurs through
private or government
circuts.
Why not more bridges there?
Offices form a fractal of modular
relations, heirarchically
stacked and turgid;
the
very priciple of a
horizontal bridge between
two businesses is
almost subversive
and anyway too kinky
("let's stick with metaphor,
boys, keep that faggot stuff
under raps...")
Governments are
more special beasts
see the balance
of court and police:
stable connection
at 2nd floor, across
a parking lot.
beaurocracies are
more geological than
heirarchical, so
there theoretically
could be bridges,
but for the most part
they are so unresponsive
to human use it seems
unlikely...
Posted by Sam on
10:19 PM
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Comments (3)
August 05, 2004
New Construction I
the view looking downtown (large version is 100 kb)
There is amusing marketing for the astor place building.
Here's a sample:
This "sculpture for living" features "a limited collection of museum quality architectural loft residences".
Says the architect, C. Gwathmey:
"This is the full picture of the intensity of what New York is." and
"You have a panoramic perspective which is absolutely unique to any loft in the city you know now...you are living in a totally transparent condition, which gives you phenomenal views and extensions."
Huh?
Check out the building's progress. (via Curbed)
As for the Bowery Tower (3rd street construction), the architects describe it like this (again via Curbed):
"The Bowery Tower plan consists of 90,000 square feet to be developed as residential, institutional, commercial, and retail facilities."
"The commercial / retail components are located on the cellar, first and second floors, supporting a four story dormitory building flanked by the ten story tower above."
The lower bowery building is just luxury condos, too boring to link to...
Posted by Sam on
07:10 AM
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Comments (1)
