Month: July 2012

… what? The sign over this building is broken off. It says Fourteenth Ward Industrial School Of The and then the rest of the sign is gone. It was a school for the poor, put in place in 1889 by the Children’s Aid Society and paid for by John Jacob Astor III, in memory of his wife. It replaced the original school that used to be at 93 Crosby Street.

At the time, the Times described the area as one of “wretchedness, poverty and squalor.” (This is across the street from where Alec Baldwin just got married.) Christ. I just browsed the Times a little about the school and the area. Just one sad story after another. IE, a 16 year old “colored” girl tried to kill herself drinking laudanum. They fixed her up and sent her home. Next! You only live once and some people get such a terrible roll of the dice. I wonder about the principal, Miss H. E. Stevens. She was the principal from when it opened in 1863, until I don’t know when. She was still the principal when this building opened. I can’t even find out her first name. Was she an unmarried society lady, or did she come from this neighborhood herself?

Wait, it seems like she may have lived at the school. I wonder if she worshipped across the street at Old St. Patrick’s? Maybe she’s in their records.

Some pictures of the building that housed the school.

A close-up of the sign.

I found this in the Museum of the City of New York’s digital collection. This is a picture of the inside of the school, taken in 1890.

I’ve been looking for the best recordings of Beethoven’s 5th and 9th symphonies (my favorites). Finding the best recording of the 5th was quick and easy (Kleiber’s) but finding my favorite of the 9th is tougher. Either they get the orchestral part right, but not the choral, or the other way around, but never both it seems.

Has anyone found the perfect 9th symphony recording?

These are pictures of the graveyard at Old St. Patricks (where Alec Baldwin recently got married, by the way — not in the graveyard of course, but in the church).

Someone pointed me to this easy-to-read explanation of all the components of the ACA (Obamacare to those determined to misrepresent it). Please read through this list and let me know which parts you don’t like. I didn’t know about this one, I love this one:

“Congress and Congressional staff will only be offered the same insurance offered to people in the insurance exchanges, rather than Federal Insurance. Basically, we won’t be footing their health care bills any more than any other American citizen.”

Honestly though, there are so many good parts there are too many to list. Just take a look.

The fireworks from my roof last night. It was an interesting night on the roof! There was someone who used to live on 11th Street when I lived there, around thirty years ago, and a person who lived in the building I’m living in now around twenty years ago. That was a pretty mangled sentence, but you get what I’m try to say.

This is zooming in …

… and this is pulling back. There were four barges out on the Hudson River shooting off fireworks. Next year, mark my words, I’m going to watch from the river instead of my roof.

I haven’t left the apartment and don’t plan to except to go to the roof to watch the fireworks. Instead, I’ve been puttering and catching up and holy shit, you have to read this history of the group Anonymous. I stopped mid-post to read it and was utterly riveted. You may think you don’t care about the subject, but trust me, it’s well worth reading.

I know they have a dark side (don’t we all) but it was exciting to read how at times they morph into an army for good. It reminded me of how scared I was at one point when I was about to take on an NYPD chief. Someone from the Detective’s Endowment Association said, “I don’t know a single detective who won’t stand behind you.” It was amazing feeling. I wasn’t going into battle alone.

I also just read that there might be an unexplored treasure trove of writing from one of my favorite writers, Joseph Mitchell (his New Yorker pieces were put together in a book called Up in the Old Hotel). They seem to be in the control of an unnamed executor. I wonder if this person is doing anything with it? And who is this person?

I took this while cutting through Washington Square Park on my way home. This is Manhattan!

There has been a strong response to the group of school kids who threw garbage into the 9/11 memorial pool recently. I am not saying they shouldn’t have been stopped and reprimanded, but I think there’s been some over-reaction here.

I read one of the comments of one of the kids involved. Even though he wasn’t being particularly apologetic, he was mostly defending himself, something he said made me think. I pictured myself at that age at a World War II memorial. I would not have comprehended what was being memorialized there either, or how people who’d lost friends and family might feel. Intellectually I would have, but not emotionally. I don’t think I would have experienced the kinds of emotions that would have quieted me. I might have behaved, but I could also see myself acting like a stupid kid too. Especially if I was with a bunch of friends and we were in a particularly stupid mood. I was not evil. Those kids who threw the garbage may or may not be bad kids, we can’t know from this one act alone. Do we react like this when people behave similarly at the Vietnam veterans memorial a short walking distance away? Do people even know there is a Vietnam veterans memorial that close by? (It’s at 55 Water Street. More info here.)

For the record, I was a 9/11 volunteer for almost the entire recovery period. It’s true I’m influenced in part by my own preference for living memorials. I love the memorial pool (which I still haven’t visited, have only seen in photographs and videos!) but I would also like to see the space become a thriving, active space. Perhaps one where we talk about freedom of religion, or, in my case, the freedom to not practice any religion of all.

Bottom line: I like the idea that while I am there, reflecting on my own thoughts, I might be surrounded by laughter, and kids acting out (but not throwing garbage) or people talking or arguing. That would comfort me more than a muffled silence.

I say this with all respect to my friends who feel differently. I know you want to honor the people who died, and the response to that terrible event.

This is a view of One World Trade Center, I took it as I was walking home on Hudson Street.