- What Campaign Finance Reform? (6/12/2005) - I received a constituent mailing from my City Council representative Melinda Katz, or, rather, from "Speaker Gifford Miller and Council Member Melinda Katz...Working to Make Our City Cleaner and Safer." Voters have long been accustomed to incumbents using taxpayer-financed constituent mailings to trumpet their dubious "accomplishments" during campaign season, but...using a constituent mailing as a blatant campaign advertisement for a totally different candidate and race? Shouldn't this sort of thing be illegal? Come to think… …
- Music City’s Always Been Good To Him, But Irving Plaza’s a Bitch (6/12/2005) - I saw Bobby Bare Jr. and a sampling of the Young Criminals Starvation League open for the Old 97's last Thursday. Bobby didn't fare too well with the crowd (Who would have? That audience wanted the Old 97's, and they wanted them right away). The way the songs were reworked for a trio - excising those wonderful Stax horns - made it sound, at times, like generic "hard country," and Bobby's vocals were too low… …
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- Requiem for a Communist (6/11/2005) - Yesterday was Si Gerson's memorial at the Tamiment Institute. There were many wonderful stories, memories and tributes from friends, family and comrades. It was good to meet Si's daughter, Deborah, who invited me to speak, and his two grand-daughters, Timi and Frieda. I was asked if I would post my comments on this website, which I shall in order to correct a few factual errors in my earlier post (which was written from memory, and… …
- Mysterious Skin (6/8/2005) - Though I've long been intrigued by trailers and reviews, I've failed to see any of Gregg Araki's movies until "Mysterious Skin." What I've missed in the past is not likely to be as remarkable and utterly affecting as "Skin," which is easily the best movie I've seen so far this year. Centered around troubled Kansas teens Brian and Neil, who shared a life-changing experience in the summer of 1981, the film leads inevitably towards their… …
- Archives in the Digital Age (6/5/2005) - I've been asked to speak at Si Gerson's memorial on Friday. In order to dig a little deeper into the Stanley Isaacs controversy and the Cacchione succession fight, I paid a visit to the Tamiment Library at NYU in order to look through Si's personal files. The library has not yet had the opportunity to catalogue and file the 15 boxes of files that were donated this Spring, a few months after Si's passing. Amazingly,… …
- Extra! Extra! Torch Summer Edition! Free to Download! (6/1/2005) - The complete Summer edition of the Torch (Issue #42) is now available online in pdf format. Please download it and enjoy. If you like what you read and you happen to be a young socialist, join the Young People's Socialist League. …
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- Bigger, Faster, Harder: Organize My Teeming Masses, Baby! (5/30/2005) - The New York Times has published yet another of its series of articles encapsulating developments in the power struggle within the labor federation. It's hard to express how disappointed I am in how this debate has degenerated. What started out as an exciting difference of opinion on the way forward for organizing masses of new union members, taking on Corporate America and winning huge gains for working families has wound up being just another acrimonious… …
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- Goodbye, Jamaica Avenue (5/28/2005) - One of my favorite eccentricities of the neighborhood in which I grew up is about to be eradicated in order to "alleviate confusion." In actual fact, it's to alleviate racist fears. I grew up in a neighborhood called Floral Park, which is situated in outer-most Queens - so far east, in fact, that the neighborhood is bisected by New York City's border with Nassau county. Right on red? Well, if you're on 258th Street, you're… …
- Yo, Brooklyn! (5/26/2005) - I'm sure you've all been waiting patiently for my 2005 election cycle endorsements. The sad fact is there is not much to be excited about in the upcoming NYC elections. Freddy Ferrer has squandered much of his goodwill from the 2001 elections, and the Democratic contenders are likely to savage each other in the primary and hand Bloomberg an easy re-election. And, sadly, there doesn't seem to be a strong independent candidacy to support. The… …
- Si Gerson (5/25/2005) - Si Gerson, the last vital link to the Communist Party's glory days in NYC politics in the 1930's and 40's, died last December at the age of 95. Si was a valued colleague and comrade, and I miss him. The CP will be hosting a memorial in Si's honor on June 10th. Si was a journalist and political activist during the Popular Front era, when the CP enjoyed considerable mainstream clout as a partner in… …