Living in cornavirsuworld 227: See you in a couple of weeks....

 

12/12

86th Street windowwdtttc           

Moat of the college football games I wan to watch have been cancelled. The season continues to stagger along to its conclusion, in the south they even have fans in the stands. Some teams and many players have just decided to end the seasons.

I make my weekly visit to the farmers market, stopping for fresh baked cookies and a cup of rich Colombian coffee. 

We get together for a ZOOM with my mother in her assisted care facility. The isolation of elderly in this renewed lockdown is very difficult but residents of these facilities are still dying at disproportionate rates. It’s hard explaining to her that we’re all dealing with this, each in our own way. 

I go on a long walk in search of soufganiyot, the traditional Channukah jelly donuts. Which leads me to the iconic Upper West Side Barney Greengrass. They’ve built a large outdoor facility. I ask the owner Gary if he’s prepared for the new crackdown on indoor dining. He gestures around, “I never opened,” he said, “I knew this was going to happen.” And I quickly see it’s true. On my walk, it’s clear that this is the most muted of holiday seasons. A wall mural in Harlem proclaims Stella Artois’ beer’ support of outdoor dining.

Watch Steve McQueen’s first episode in his “Small Axe series. “Mangrove”tells the story of A London restaurant that quickly became a gathering place for the British West Indies and Jamaican community. Set in 1968, it's revelatory to me to see what was going on on London while the “revolution” pored into the streets of American cities. The main focus is the trial of nine parsons of the constantly harassed restaurant arrested for fomenting a riot in a protest against police violence. The struggle of the accused ot maintain solidarity in the face of threaten jail time and the temptations of plea bargains is profoundly moving as a community acts to establish that they belong. When one long suffering friend of the Mangrove owner decides he’s going home, the owner looks around and says, “This is home.”

12/13

Monkey Cup Tree

Warm enough for coffee and he Sunday Times at my favorite Venezuelan coffee shop. Decorated for Christmas.

Stella mural

Since it looks like the last warm day for awhile, I decide to do one last virtual race, the San Francisco Marathon (virtual) 5k making a course along the edges of Central Park.x                                 

My family gathers for its weekly ZOOM meeting. My Berlin son feel very alone as the rest of his family ah gone to Croatia, the schools are closed a week early and everything in Berlin shut down. He is increasingly convinced that no one really knows what they’re doing . That the scene in Sasha Baron Cohen’s new “Borat” move where Borat swings an iron skillet at the wall trying to kill Covid viruses is a pretty accurate image of what we’re doing. As the sun sets, one of us lights Channukah candles and we in Harlem, Brooklyn and Berlin sing the traditional songs, remembering  when we were all together. And wondering when that can be again. All curious as to the when and who of vaccines. 

I stop by my neighborhood pub for one last drink. They are at capacity inside, so I take my drink and chips and salsa outside. It's starting to get cool as I talk to my mom. I go in to pay my bill. The manager smiles and says, “See you in a couple of weeks. Months?" He shrugs his shoulders. She’s his head. Laughs.

My friends Hot Glue & The Gun stream their "Christmas Spectacular"bringing back many of their "guest stars." Somehow in this pandemic they created the perfect vehicle for their performance.  Including a regular coterie of regularly animated inanimate objects. At the end of the day, it was a successfully creative project to create community in this time of separation. Blessings, friends. 

(https://www.facebook.com/hotglueandthegun/videos/20935572747654)

. 

Livingin Coronavieusworld 85: Are we a virus?

6/17

Justice for Floyd.  BLM

(Todays entry is like the Gospel of Thomas, more sayings than narrative...)

The Underground has gathered again…..

In honor of the President’s ill-conceived trip to Tulsa the weekend, in the midst of a surprisingly growing consensus that Black Lives Matter, the President decides to come  to Tulsa, the site of the nation’s worst race massacre in 1921, on Juneteenth, the day the  news of emancipation finally made it to the Red River, the virus is spiking again, public health officials asking please do not come, for his first rally since the virus shut down the country, in honor of all that, I’m repping Tulsa this morning. My hat is from the local baseball team, the Drillers. And this time the  logo is taken from the famous Tulsa icon the Golden Driller who stands like  a colossus at the Fairgrounds in front of the International Petroleum Exposition Hall. The Expo was always a big event celebrating the oil and gas industry and brought people from around the world just as Tulsa U’s oil programs brought students and sometimes  their families from oil producing countries giving Tulsa an unexpected multicultural flair.  

Tulsa

The matrix through which we see the world held us make sense of things. Out of our subjectivity.

intersectional 

We talk about how identity politics is so limited. It often works that. If you get your own seat at the table as a woman or African American or gay, sometimes  that's enough. Stop there. Without looking at the deeper dynamics of oppression, especially class. 

Russ mentions Dr.Ruth William Peligreu and the concept of abolitonism, whereby we might create a new society not based violence and punishment. 

Brother Phelps brings up Augustine vs. Pelegious. “Nature vs. nurture.” Are we just and society evil or are we evil  and need control.  The implication is wee need control either way, And how his fave Simone Weil said the revolution is the opiate of the people, not religion. 

Russ recommends White Trash. The author speaks of being a disinherited victim of what it means to be human.  We all struggle  with what it means to be  human.

Joel, as he often does, talks of a book, Flatland. and how when something looks like a paradox in the dimension you're in, maybe you nee do add a dimension. There may be a deeper reality at stake. 

Much violence comes from valuing money more than  humans.  Steve H says that much in life is dealing with suffering. That .if I only had enough money, I’d be okay. So I’lll hire people to protect what I’ve got.

There goes the question, when do we put our shoulder to the wheel? And Russ’ inevitable, What is our job? To which Steve H says, the  job of the faithful is to draw people into dignity in the midst  suffering.

Our linguist Steve P points out that the root of  the word cynic, is cunis, the Greek word for dog. Those who bite at each other  Likewise worship, proskeneo, is “forward dog," the form of the worshipper  bowing forward. Steve H reports that a child heard dog eat dog world as doggy dog world bot a bad alternative. Younger ones  want to fight the police and there’s been a police riot. We argue about young vs. old. Anyone under 30 still believes they are immortal, in my view.  I recall our carefully orchestrated demos and arrests worked out with the police  in advance. Stick to your plan and no one gets hurt. Those days are gone. 

Back to defundng police. Phelps again. It’s a world of we decide vs. I decide. We have to have the right to have common held values and means of insuring  accountability to them.  But what if there  are different values? My middle son recalls that in response to a story of his bullying, I responded (as did his mom) we don’t do that in our family. And Joel says, yeah, like in your song We don't roll that way. 

The biggest road block to police accountability in New York City  is the Union, the Police Benevolent Society. 

Joel points out you have to know the form of music before you can play jazz. (That's also a life metaphor…) 

Modernity has reinterpreted Christendom’s divide between saved and unsaved. The Spanish Inquisition with its concept of Sangre pura brought an early concept of salvation by “blood.”  Then came reason and you wind up with Darwin. The body of Christ turned into European Civilization. Nevertheless, Christianity’s gift, was a universalism. 

I bring out my great-grandfather’s Swintons Complete Geography and read aloud it’s comparison of “civilization” in the races. We recalled during the age of “discovery” the debate in the Vatican as to whether natives had souls. And slave owners debate as to whether slaves cold be baptized. Because if they can, the whole slavery thing falls apart. You can only hold slaves if they are less than fully human. 

Clyde speaks of the Eric Garner anti-chokehold rally at 125th and Adam Clayton Powell. Up my way. 

vote

The Republicans have become a post-policy party We are becoming  a post policy nation. 

And Steve H wants to know, are we a virus?

****

My son tells me that language is changing. We should no longer use the word slave. They were not slaves, they were enslaved people. Adjective, not noun. Like our disabled activist friends taught us. Not the disabled Not the poor. Adjectives are not nouns. People first.  Things are moving fast..in one day, Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben and Mrs. Butterworth all gone…I Actually remember going to an Aunt Jemima night event one time. …

****

Our PHEWA group meets. Time before General Assembly grows short and I am anxious. But I leave with a clear idea of what my motion will be and now need know when and get my allies. We have to say something about Black Lives Matter. 

****

he gets around

....and again.....

I need my walk desperately.  I find Tim the peripatetic trombone man on the edge of Morningside Park tonite. And the egret is back again. 

*****

I also need Joel and Carrie’s (Hot Glue & the Gun’s) Gluey Zoomy Show. Yeah its just plain cool but more than that. They’ve very creatively made real a weltanschung if not a welt. I always feel like I can breathe again after I’v been through their show. I get it. If the show gets you to hit the streets, it’s out of decency and caring, not ideology. That’ s what we teach our kids. The first season is done. Back in  September. 

****

I step outside. My neighbor offers to buy me a beer. Another neighbor goes for “loosies. ”  Eric Garner was choked to death for selling loosies. 

****

The fireworks have started early.  Every night now this week….

Living in coronavirusworld 59:...and what we need now

5/21

Hope (Spring Bank)

Since we’re on the edge of Memorial Day weekend, I share one of my Pirates' camo hats.

Pirates' camo

A few years ago, Major League Baseball started having teams wear camo  on Memorial weekend to honor the troops.  Problem is, that’s not what Memorial Day is about. It’s to remember those  who  died in  service, not those still alive.  I wore this hat to visit my mom one day and my Quaker cousin who was there got upset at my celebrating militarsim. It's a bit more complex. Back in Pittsburgh, I spoke at several United Mine Workers rallies. UMW folks wore camo to rallies. My youngest son identified camp with miners. He’d see someone in camo and say, dad is that miner? And then  there is the whole western Pennsylvania hunting thing.  Camo. Complicated. 

Today we’re talking about Planet of the Humans,  (https://west-parkpress.blogspot.com/search?q=planet+of+the+humans )actually a Jeff Gibbs film “presented” by Michael  Moore. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk11vI-7czE) A  For starters, there’s lots of critique. It is not as good as a regular Michael Moore film. Why was he so big on this? Data 10 years old. Too simplistic. Not the right time for this movie, etc. It is hard to think about clean energy during this pandemic. We can only deal with so much depression at a time. Though fact is, it’s not unrelated. As we destroy our environment, natural defenses against viruses diminish. The film is also right in its evidence that capitalism has found a way to capitalize the environmental movement. That isn't an entirely bad thing in that it shows there has been some significant shift in how we understand the world. Green has become, well, green. And the bottom line point is earth cannot sustain growth as it is currently taking place. We must of course , be careful not to slip into the old Zero Population Growth mode with its intrinsic perspective favoring privilege. The fact is, as economic reality improves for populations, birth rates go down. Earth currently can produce enough food to feed its population, it’s a matter of distribution, not production. What’s necessary?

* Reduce consumption

* Change distribution

* Reduce income inequity

Reducing mindless unchecked consumption is first. 

At first we wonder if people will ever change short of catastrophe. But as we think about the shift in public values related to  smoking, in one generation.  People  and cultures can change. What the film is so right about is the sense of urgency.

As peoples' attention begins to shift towards “reopening,” we are clear that the reality is there is no going home. Where we’ll end up will be someplace new. What we loved about Wednesday morning, crowding 6 or more people into a 4 person booth, as warm and nourishing as what we ate, as enjoyable as it was uncomfortable, we may never be able to do that again. 

There is a sense that for better or worse, we’re moving  towards reopening. Bike shops are open.

Bikes for the park

More bars and restaurants every day.

Reopening

You can feel people straining. 

I put some serious time into cooking. It’s a casserole with sauerkraut, egg noodles and ground up kielbasa. Pittsburgh again, that middle Europe vibe. 

The day ends with my friends Hot Glue and the Guns' Gluey Zoomy show. I really admire what they are doing. When compared to Pee Wee Herman this morning, Joel agreed and affirmed that in Pee Wee's  own way, that show was  about changing the world. They are riffing on the best of children’s tv here, which always has adults as a conscious and intentional part of the audience. (Remedial  ed perhaps?) A place of safety is created, an affirmation that the world can be a place we can live in without fear. That our friends are special people with unique gifts and personalities. That kindness is a common trait and a natural part of our relationships. And as we come to experience this as reality, we will come to accept nothing less in the wider world. That’s what was going on with Kukla, Fran & Ollie. And Pee Wee’s Playhouse, at the edges. And the urban celebration of Sesame Street. And Mister Rogers Neighborhood at the very center of what life in community can look like, what an ideology of neighbor can look and feel like. No to mention an alternative image of what it means to be a man. Acceptance. Kindness. Cooperation. And imagination. HG&TG know this intuitively and are smart  enough not to say it  explicitly. It’s what we are going to  need on the  other side of  the virus. And what we need now to get there. 

Living in Coronavirusworld 31:" ...try to do what good lay in our power."

4/22

Good Question (Cathedral of St. John the Divine, 110th Street)

Our “underground group”…gathers again on ZOOM…over  coffee, of course.

Today’s hat of the day is a 1940’s  Oklahoma University hat commemorating the recent 25th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. 

Oklahoma

Brother Phelps reminds us of how hard it was for  people to stop thinking it had been done by an Arab or Muslims and realize it had been done by a whitebread American.   How President Bush’s iteration of “ we are good, they are evil.,” is the opposite of the  reformed theological tradition’s understanding that we are all sinners.  Has something to do with the continuing popularity of World War II movies where evil was so clear and we were on the side of right. 

Behind the protests demanding that the  country reopen is this attitude of “no one tells me what to do…” Typical of a six year old’s response to the world, says Phelps.  I respond that I have by nature a lifelong resistance to authority. That my natural tendency would be  to be out and about and not worry. But it was my awareness of what the impact of my actions might be on others that keeps me inside. “That’s the difference between a six year old and an adult’. Phelps responds.

It’s this ongoing American problem of the “rugged individual,” the fear of loss of control over one’s life and the failure to understand how what I do affects others.  The tension between “individual rights” and “social responsibility” which mirrors American evangelicals emphasis on individual salvation as opposed to stewardship of creation.  I describe the rush to reopen and the President’s goading as “extremely dangerous and potentially deadly” which brother Holton say would make a great t-shirt .

In talking about Camus’ the Plague, the similarities to our situation are striking. It’s moving that Camus’ humanism allows his priest, Father Paneloux, to grow.  The difference between his first two sermons is dramatic. And these words, to me, describe our task: No, we should go forward, groping our way through the darkness, stumbling perhaps at times, and try to do what good lay in our power.”  He had earlier spoke of the impact of children’s suffering and then said, “…who would dare assert that eternal happiness can compensate or a single moment’s human suffering?”  Another character, the journalist Rambert, desperate to escape and go to his lover, is transformed by his daily volunteer work and decides he must stay.  (Paneloux had said, “We all must be the one who stays…”) I share Camus’ humanism in that to me human solidarity in the face of struggle is the most sacred thing there is… And Steve Phelps says the Jesus of the gospels was a humanist...

Our plague, like Camus’ plague, is unveiling injustice. We can only hope, as Sam believes, that a new order will emerge.

Phelps points out that the two great crises of US history, the Civil War and the Great Depression, were preceded by weak Presidents, namely Buchanan and Hoover. Lincoln and Roosevelt were not “great” when they began, but grew into greatness in the facing of their crises. We can only hope for the same as we look to the future.

Clyde speaks of the quiet all around, like late summer in the city. Yes, I say, like it’s always August.  And I’m still waiting for Easter Sunday. 

                                                            ****

I look at the poster I received at the Penguins-Devils game in Newark on March 10th.  That was the last public event I attended. It's kind of a cool riff on a Batman "Bat Signal" theme, bit a little too Devilsphile for me to frame.  I get the sentiment, though.  We should send for Batman now.....

calling Batman

                                                             **** 

My friend Hugo, who works at one of the West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing residences, has brought me a lot of food.  (Origin seems to be with unneeded airline food…) Way too many sandwiches, so I decide to share with Sam for her food project with the homeless. We’ll meet at 5 on. Broadway near the subway.

On the way there, a woman on the sidewalk on 116th asks me to “help her get a meal.” I at first say “no,”then realize I’ve got lunch bags so I go back and give her one. She takes the bag the says, “how about some money?“  I reply, “you said you were hungry, I gave you food…” 

I meet Sam on Broadway, We’re each wearing our masks.

Sam

An unmasked man, Hispanic, walks unsteadily over to us. “Quiere morir?” He says, “Quiere morir?” “No mi hermano, no. No me quiero morir.  Porque algien se quiere morir? No hay razon en eso..”   He tries other conversational ploys like “De donde viene?” And both Sam and I tell him we’re from Nueva York, But he keeps returning to “Quiere morir?” (Do you want to die?) and he’s clearly drunk and much too close.  We need to move on. 

There are more and more people on the street, more and more aggressive and desperate in their begging. Obviously, no one wants to get near.  I remind myself that there are free meals at Wadleigh High School across the street and around the corner from me every day between 11:30 and 1. 

George lived here...

On 110th, I pass the building where George and Ira Gershwin lived when they wrote Rhapsody in Blue. What you never knew....

I decide to walk home. Stop at the Silver Moon bakery and have my first pastry since Lent began. And an iced coffee. Walking up the street with the post apocalytic emptiness of Broadway, I think, “This is weird, this is just weird.”

weird, just weird

                                                                                                                                              ****

Wednesday night, my friends Joel and Carrie of ‘Hot Glue and the Gun”  host the second installment of their “Gluey, Zoomy Show.”  As someone comments in the chat flow, a combination of Kukla,Fran and Ollie, Sesame Street and Pee Wee’s Playhouse….” Man does someone else out there actually remember Kukla, Fran and Ollie?  They are hitting just the right place  for coronavrusworld. Especially ending with a dance party where we’re all invited to come on down and  hit the (virtual) floor. (http://www.hotglueandthegun.com/)

Meanwhile. My friend (and producer of my album) Luba Dvorak) continues his weekly “Quarantine Rambles” live from  Houston. (https://www.lubadvorak.com/)

Luba notices me in the room and mentions my album,”Robert Brashear: Songs Vol.1” (cdBaby, iTunes, Amazon, Spotify..) Thank you, Luba. His “Brooklyn Twang” Americana goes down easy.

                                                                                                              ****

Thursday, my mom’s assisted care facility is setting up ZOOM calls for their residents. We’ve only got ten minutes. By the time we get set up, it’s all but over.  We’ll try again next week…

Late afternoon, go down to RL’s for a “Tribal Council” to introduce RL to ZOOM and talk about present and future Open Mic projects. We will be joined by Steve Blane, my friend and frequent collaborator.  RL’s is about the only place I would venture into. Almost hermetically sealed except for Dion’s daily visits.  On the way, I stop at the darkened “Hi Life” for a double bourbon to take with me. Even though it’s perfectly legal, the dark art eco interior and empty bar gives it all a kind shady feeling. RL sends Dion and I home by cab. 

Another day in coronavirusworld.