Category Archives: Text

DC taxicab Wisdom

In an effort to write something interesting from my DC visit on Tuesday and Wednesday, may I present, the transcript of a conversation I had with a cab driver at 2am in the morning:

BM: 12th street, I forget the number…
Driver: Is it the Shlomo building? (names and numbers changed for security purposes)
BM: It is actually, how did you guess that?
Driver: You’re talking to a human GPS, plus no one is left in this town and thats the only building that might have people.
BM: Everyone went home for vacation? No one lives nearby?
Driver: Man, you are talking to the only guy you’ll meet during your entire visit who is actually DC born and bred. Nobody is actually from this town.
BM: So they come here from all the corners of the country, why? the romanticism of being the nations capital?
Driver: It’s jobs. JOBS. This place is an economic engine on a scale you won’t find anywhere else.
BM: But there are unemployed people, right?
Driver: You’d have a hard time staying unemployed in this town, there’s simply too much work available. Even those who want to start their own business, this is the place to do it.
BM: So twice a year this place empties out and you’re left alone here?
Driver: I tell you where my place is, I save up vacation time, and I go directly to Rio de Janeiro, that’s my place. And I ain’t talkin days or weeks, I go for months at a time, I do it right….. well here’s the shlomo building…
BM: Thanks man. And hey, enjoy Rio when the time comes.
Driver: I will. And you should get down there soon, if you’ve never been.
BM: Absolutely. Cya.

Brotherly Love Spilleth Over

Blamo – I’m in Philly. Blogging probably reads like teleportation. Amsterdam – beep beep beep – New york – beep beep beep – AC beep beep beep Philly.

What’s going on in Philly? I wouldn’t know.. I’m mostly indoors finishing work from Amsterdam that followed me here in my beloved powerbook. But I can tell you it’s loverly in this town. I think Jamie recently said to me: Philly is the new Brooklyn, meaning this place is becoming a destination for young hipsters yearning to leave swamps of Florida or the corn fields of Nebraska. For those who long to wear knitted scarves, corduroy blazers, and argyl socks. Oh wait, I just described all my friends and old professors.



The Leah, who’s café Im currently sitting in as the Death Cab plays on the stereo, said to me on the bike ride over here, that philly reminds her of Amsterdam in different ways. I never felt that in my brief visits, so I’m taking extra long looks at everything, trying to see it through her eyes and then visualizing the DAM. Slowly I can see some of what she’s talking about: Last night, after ice skating with some of the most beautiful ladies I’ve seen all vacation (no offense all ye other lady friends of mine), I marvelled at the fact that we rode away, all 6 of us, on bike! A peleton in Philadelphia, and we’re not even Team Discovery Channel. We then met up with other hilarious and wonderful guys and femeninas at an ice cream parlour. Thats right.. ice skating and ice cream, these people are either alternative to the bone, or secretly 10 years old inside.

Whatever the reasons they’re here, the people I’ve met here in Philly (Nocoin’s friends) are different in a great way. I wouldn’t call them MY PEOPLE as Im forever an outsider, especially living so far away. Still, they’re great, and I repeat: attractive, well-rounded individuals with a sense of community. Whether its brotherly love or sisterly love you seek, come to philly my friends, bm recommends.

Strike Strike Strike Say the Transit Workers

I love a good strike. Not so much when I need to take a train or a bus somewhere, but still- I love a good strike. And as of right now, supposedly, the NYC Transit workers are on strike. Now many of you might say –boo, i have to get to work/school! But please, won’t you join me in celebrating one of the last labor unions in the country that still has some goddam pull around here!

I’m telling you, it’s exciting, you just have to look at it from a different point of view. Nevermind that its raining, icing outside right now, and nevermind that its that silly pagan holiday coming up and you need that pay check to buy the kiddies their pine tree for the living room. Ignore all those seemingly earth shattering things, and marvel at the power of people’s collective power when they are organized. I love it! Hell, I wish I could be a transit worker for a day, cause you must feel truely alive when you stand up to the authorities, risking everything because you demand certain standards and respect. I even heard there’s a law that says transit workers can’t strike? Psshhhaw, if every transit worker stands arm-in-arm on the streets of NYC, they could never arrest you all. Hmm.. unless they call you terrorists, then they can just shoot you and ask questions later.

So after meeting with Michael and Jamie at what was allegedly my listener/reader meetup in the village, we had some dinner at Yaffa’s, discussed vital social issues (and stuff), and we each headed towards our designated underground transport. As the PATH train took me back to New Jersey and the wonderous Hoboken train station, I kept wondering how Jamie and other New Yorkers would react to the transit strike. Somehow I doubt they’ll be as big a cheerleader as I am, sleeping in and watching it all unfold on the internet.

JUST WOKE UP UPDATE: A limited strike? Whats this world coming to? Joe Hill is turning over in his grave…. limited strike… @^%#$^#.

The Horror in Harbin

Hello I’m in New Jersey… and actually i did not have a pleasant flight and it seems the entire airline industry is one big ball of nerves and Im seriously going to save some loot so I can take a container ship from Rotterdam next time. Flying is a torturous ordeal these days, it is as if air-travel has taken 100 steps backwards since the dawn of this fake-ass war on terrorism. But I’ll address that in my first US recorded podcast tomorrow.

fortunately I grabbed a Guardian on my way onto the plane, and poured over the stories coming out of China. Besides the fact that militia opened fire on demonstrators who didn’t want the government to put a polluting coal power plant in their town, I read alot more on Harbin, a city that has been poisoned by the Chinese government and the petrol industry there.

It’s incredibly sad to watch china grow at this crippling pace that leaves so many people cast aside, forgotten, killed, and poisoned. The push to be this supercapitalist, consumer state, seems like one big ball of destruction. and if you live in Harbin, all you know is you can’t drink the water because the tap has been turned off and even if it weren’t your water supply is toxic and your government knew this could happen, but doesn’t care, like so many governments out there.

Its true, I admire Chavez

I don’t like bullies. I don’t care for military things. I don’t even dig people who are full of themselves and constantly making things “about them.” But as ye dear readers probably know, I’m an admirer of Hugo Chavez. I don’t love everything he does, I don’t even trust him 100%, but still, he is the champion underdog on the international scene.

I’ll explain further. Over the past decades, plenty of Latin American presidents have come and gone, and during their tenure they’ve licked the boots of the United States governments, bending over and filling their pockets with the money of multinational corporations, while the masses have remained poor and in many cases, gotten poorer. Upon further reflection, it’s probably hard to go against the whims of the United States and those companies, if you piss them off you risk loosing their investment, their assistance… you lose that lifeline… it’s a big risk.

But in 1998, Hugo Chavez came along, in his red beret and military uniforms, and he swept into office. And since that day, the wealthy of Venezuela, the multinationals, and yes… a large segment of the middle class in Venezuela, have hated him. And I mean hate. HATE HATe. I’ve spoken to some who would take up arms against him, and well – some did a few years ago. They don’t like how he’s friendly to the hated leaders of the world, like Castro. Myself, I wish he wasn’t such a strong supporter of Zimbabwe’s president, but like I said, it’s not that I love all his decisions – but I love the spirit of defiance. And defy he continues to do.

So now there are elections, and as much as some powerful people would like to see the upper class take to the polls and vote him out. It hasn’t happened. Not to mention the fact that they boycotted the vote to begin with, with doesn’t help when you want to get elected. And they cry corruption, which hey – could be possible. But you know, with all those international observers saying the vote is legit, it becomes harder and harder to accuse the big guy of rigging the election.

Anyway I’m glad we’ve got a Chavez in this world. Later on, he might do some questionable stuff. I also fear he won’t step down once his term is up. But then again, that kind of stuff happens indirectly in most democracies anyway (you know, somehow staying in power forever). And I have to say, the Venezuelan governments initiatives to help poor communities of the united states by offering cheap heating oil is impressive. I’ve heard the reports that in the Bronx it’s already happening… if you work for the government of Newark or Detroit, or whatever city full of struggling people, call Citgo and get your community involved in this deal, it’s something the world could use a little more of — compassion.

Blogs Always Beat CNN

Trying desperately to stop watching Rocky V which was on the Dutch television this evening, I flipped to CNN (seeking to be entertained rather than informed). Sure enough, I look at the screen and its the very video Daily Kos and Madge Weinstein pointed out almost a week ago; the one with the Aegis military contractors driving around Iraq shooting civilians to a soundtrack. The lame news anchor was trying to convince we the viewers that this was breaking news.

This incident re-enforced what many of us already know, but a majority of the world still doesn’t: blogs are increasingly more dynamic, more informative, and faster to disseminate info than any CNN or FOX ever is. A good blog post or podcast or videoblog when its quickly put online, with background links, and honest presentation, even if the author admits to not knowing all the information that goes with it — it is still far more useful then this crap they push on us via television. And you can bet Aegis, the US military, and others, are all scrambling and stumbling to explain their murderous, criminal ways…. credit to the bloggers.

Speaking of idiocy and deception, the money pit that the US congress has quietly funded with billions, once again failed. Missile defence, what a stupid, wasteful, and dangerous project.