Yahoo, I think I might like you a little more

I am the kind of person who has no faith in the news anymore, because I think they have been given incentives by the big dogs not to dig up and report to the general public the kinds of things I think they should be reporting.  But lately Yahoo has impressed me twice with a few articles on its front page making me think maybe they might care about the public a little bit.

I am astonished that they published this article, and it was only on for about 3 hours but still, its about the terrible terrible budget deficit of the government and the fact that neither Obama or McCain plan to solve the problem (Actually the only person hollering about this was obviously crazy and completely insignificant Ron Paul).

http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20080909/pl_mcclatchy/3040652_1

They actually reported the worsening of the trade deficit (Which will be solved by issuing treasury bonds, probably to be bought by the Chinese)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080911/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/economy

Cruising Boston Edition 1

These pictures have been accumulated, some times randomly, over a couple of different adventures (Minus the Boston University pictures)

A random picture of Downtown Boston, I will need to get more pictures of this neighborhood.  Go trolley Go!

I absolutely love this park.  I call it the water-slate park and nobody ever knows what the hell I am talking about.  So it is located between the North End and Downtown, and it has this slightly slanted slate that water runs through, and people come and walk in it and have water run over their feet.  It is an extremely simple idea that I REALLY FREAKING LOVE!!!  It also has a breathtaking view of the nearby downtown.  Can you see the water running over it?

This was with Christine while we were on the waterfront part of the North End.  That guy in the white shirt was a hilarious old Italian man playing Bocce.  He would make calls in an Italian accent "Ohhhh, I knew that one was no good as soon as I let it go"  We watched them play for half an hour with a nice ocean breeze, but we could not for the life of us figure out the rules.

So these next pictures are all Boston's Backbay residential neighborhood that is really rich and yet surprisingly prolific.  In Confessions of an Economic hitman, the economist in question lives here.  You will note that it is all pictures of buildings, as I am obsessed with architecture.  Long long rows of parallel streets with townhouses just like these are everywhere, I tried to get images that captured that proliferates the neighborhood, but it was hard, since there are so few exemplary homes, just a general feeling of aesthetic design.

This one particular picture below is actually the beginning of BU's baystate road housing.  I actually do think these residences are exemplary.

There is this one metal used in buildings that is everywhere in Boston, and its entire selling point is that when it rusts, it turns teal.  Behold it in all of its glory.

Trolley in backbay

A standard back bay home

And now to Boston University, this is splash, where I had to work for boardgames club.  I hated this when I was a freshman, and I didn't really enjoy it this year either.

BU is so proud of its gigantic new fitness center (This is not even half of it, it truly is wild, and I don't use it at all because I am not a fan of running in place, I would rather ride my bike because then I can A: explore and B: admire buildings)  It boasts the biggest rock climbing wall in Boston, no substitute for a real mountain, and a lazy river, which I have yet to try out.

This is the best part of the Warren Towers dining hall.  Every morning I eat breakfast and stare out this window, and the view is breathtaking.  The most curious aspect of the vast window seats is that people would rather sit in the room where all the food is rather than carry their tray to the window.  Its their loss I guess.  Note the School of Management(Far Left), Citgo Sign (Red Triangle), Prudential Building (Center Skyscraper, also location of Corporation that Economic Hitman works for), Morse Auditorium(Green Wall with dome), Com Fountain (That stone thing on the lawn), and Commonwealth Avenue, the main artery of Boston.

The Castle, a landmark building on campus, what the hell anyone does there, I have no clue.  I think the Nobel Laureates hang out there though when they meet with the kids who have full scholarships, but I am not sure.  Either way, it is gorgeous with and without the Ivy.

A closeup

The next pictures are all in Central Square and vicinity in Cambridge.  I freaking love this house with the weirdo art people.  There is a good chance of drug influence on that fence.

The church in Central Square, awesome churches are all over Boston and I have always appreciated the love that went into the architecture of old churches.  If only that bustop weren't in the way.

An American Mural, a tribute to diversity.  I couldn't even get the whole thing, it was very wide.  The wild diversity of America is something that helps us stand out among many other parts of the world I think.

This building houses my favorite coffee shop in Boston, 1369 and it is fortunate that Central Square is only a 20 minute walk from BU, heck from end to end of BU it is a 30 minute walk!

A close-up of my beloved cafe.  My two other cafe's are Diesel in Davis Square (Which is always fun because it is full of really distinctive and artistic lesbians and has that reputation) and Napoli Pastry in the North End (I have to admit, I am partial to the cafe since the owners are from Naples, and one of the few European roots I can claim is that two of my great grandparents were from rural town above Naples, the other is my two great grandparents from Galway Ireland)

AHHHHH!  There are so many more pictures I need to take.  Particularly of buildings.

The Feast of Saint Anthony

On August 31st I decided to go on one of my usual city exploring adventures, and I had set the North End as the focus of the semester's explorations.  The idea was that I would find a nice backstreet cafe and read.  So I headed down on my bike and when I got there I thought to myself "Wow, north end is crowded as hell on Sunday"  I soon realized I had run into the Feast of Saint Anthony.  The italians had all sallied from there trendy (and I think subsidized like New York) housing to celebrate their Roman Catholic Heritage (A tradition I have abandoned, partially forgetting my Mongiello and Napoli roots.)  This particularly interested me because my great grandparents, who migrated from a small rural town outside of Naples, are from the town where my Won Buddhist Temple is in Boston, a neighborhood that housed poorer Italian immigrants.  I can say, it was quite funny to hear an italian man call out in a strong accent "EY! Gepetto!"  Really?  People in this neighborhood are still named Gepetto?  I'm impressed.  I wonder if they know about Pinochio, they probably do since the theme makes it sound like some traditional italian story rather than an italian themed disney creation. Now on with the story.

So this street made me realize that it wasn't just crowded, it was a festival, note the things hanging above the street

After wandering through the streets until I reached the Old North Church, I found this cafe and decided it was time for my daily latte.

After getting my drink, all of the lower cafe was full, but there was this little tiny loft (I can't think of a better way to describe it) with four tables and one little window.  I sat down to enjoy my latte, when suddenly the horn of a tuba floated down the window, I rushed out of the cafe to take a picture of a little band (Of what I originally thought was police, but they were actually just uniformed italians) playing italian brass music but I didn't quite get why they were there because there was no parade.  After taking several pictures and listening I went back into the cafe to my seat.  (Note the brick building in the picture, that is the Old North Church were Paul Revere signaled the arrival of the British)

No sooner did I sit down then a blob of money floated by the window "WTF was that?"  again I ran out fumbling my (new) camera, which I did not need to do because the money tree thing was not moving very quickly.  In fact they were putting it down every 10 feet and people were attaching money to it (Or at least to these rotating sticky paper rolls that were being wrapped around it).  I soon realized it was not a tree at all, but a statue of saint, and with my genius powers of deduction, I will venture that it was none other than Saint Anthony, with the Money, in the North End.  I win clue.

I felt so fortunate to have seen the band and the saint go by, because I honestly had no clue to look for them.  They came to me.  I finally returned to my latte in my nook of the coffee shop, when 3 italians came up, one of which was clearly the owner, to get the bathroom fixed.  They paid no attention to me, perhaps not noticing that anyone was even in this little nook when I tuned into some things I probably shouldn't have heard, but perhaps were harmless.  I picked up "Some black kid" blah blah blah "stabbed in the back 9 times" blah blah blah "You did the right thing"  My entire face turned red and hot, these people were about 2 feet from my nook but I don't think they knew I was there, I scrambled to pack up my stuff and leave.  Because of them I took no pictures in the coffee shop.

Later on the bike ride back I thought about what I had heard and it could have been multiple things.  Perhaps the black kid was stabbed in the back, perhaps he did the stabbing, perhaps the right thing was telling the cops (which I didn't hear but I like to hope) or perhaps the right thing was the stabbing itself.  Either way, somebody, somewhere, got stabbed in the back 9 times, and they either went to the hospital or are dead, perhaps both.  Sicily to this day is still held hostage by the mafia, the local government cannot get a hold over tyrants who have weaved a web over the island.  We always think, "oh, Italian organized crime is an old steryotype" but russian organized crime isnt, neither is chinese, jewish, probably even nativist (I'm pretty sure that would be the KKK) whatever I heard, I didn't like it.  And when they watched me leave was probably the most awkward and uncomfortable moment in my life recently.  But I WONT be going back to that particular cafe and I WILL be thinking more about what the state of the world's organized crime orders really is.  (And the stabbing doesn't even have to be organized crime, perhaps it was some sort of racist fight between some local blacks and italians I have no I-frickin-dea)

Picture and Stories (Coming Soon)

I am so behind on this whole blog thing, I am going to end up making like 10 separate entries on one day.  Posts I have got to stop procrastinating:

Serenity Coffee Poetry

Particular Poet from the Coffee Shop

North End Extravaganza

BU tour

Boston Bike Riding

Posts I screwed up because I forgot to take pictures:

Dragging Kendall through Cambridge

Fire and Ashes

I have been postponing making another blog entry because I have had really large entry to make on the poetry gathering at Serenity Coffee, but as time passes I feel more and more disconnected from the feelings I experienced while I was there.  I better make it soon, first I need to contact a particular poet.  For now I feel moved to speak, particularly by some music Tereza gave me that puts me in an emotional mood.

Birth and Death and Rebirth.  I feel like I die multiple times a week, but burnt out, there is always some spark in the ashes that lights me back up.  In one hour I can be on fire with vision and thought, the next I am a pile of ashes.  I am not a science guy (Although relative to my ancestors I am) but I tend to see things as though they were symbolic paintings.  I feel like the suburbs is a society of ashes.  Burnt out people with burnt out lives.  I know many people who seek to move somewhere that is alive, flames well kept, spirits looking forward, but I am not concerned with these people.  I look at the ashes around me and ponder how can life be breathed into the dead.  What spark is the right spark, how can I light a people who sleep and do not know?  Hidden among the ashes there are allies, but while they themselves are very much alive, they are clueless as to what to do about a stale culture.  And while one of my favorite fires leaves town for Canada, to experience a region that still has spirit, vision, vibrant culture, and a forward looking attitude, I regret abandoning this mountain of ashes for a city bound to a rigorous intellectual outlook which, while passionate for knowledge, lacks spiritual direction.  

When I think about Glenside, I feel the need to become a monk immediately and begin wondering around talking to people on the streets, ignoring education or my economic visions.  When I think about Boston, well, let's just say this:  In Glenside when I say I am Buddhist, I am occasionally greeted with interest, but most often with an apathetic, "Oh, thats interesting" from an agnostic.  In Boston, when I say I am Buddhist, I find a general intellectual backlash.  "Oh, I've read what you people believe, and I think you people just waste your lives," sir, how little you understand of our teaching.  In Glenside, I feel like people go to work, eat, watch TV, and depending on the person, have sex.  In Boston, I feel people are too busy following the neo-school of transcendental libertarian-anarcho capitalocommunism of social-populist bent with emphasis of (Insert Western Philosophical Windbag here).

We are remembering to bring our textbook to class, but not our soul.  "What humanity owes to personalities like Buddha, Moses, and Jesus ranks for me higher than all the achievements of the enquiring and constructive mind." - Einstein

May the soul of this community and this city, a city founded with a philosophy in mind, rise up again like a Phoenix.

Dovetail Artisans

Now, I'm an economics major, and if you have ever read the beginning of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, you will learn that the reduction of the creation process to simple repetitive processes is the source of modern wealth.  Eventually, age old traditions of crafting were sucked into the vacuum of factory produced goods.  Craftsmen who had been self-employed since the beginning of civilization finally found themselves putting down their tools and putting on their overalls as they filed into the factory to make 300 shirts a day, or 200 pots, or 30,000 sheets of paper.  Adam Smith's example is the mass production of nails, which I think is a wonderful thing to gain a lot of efficiently.  There isn't much noticeable art to nails or sheets of paper, but other things were taken over by the system that should have stayed with the now deceased craft class.  The traditional society's economy is described by administrators, artisans, farmers, and merchants.  The modern economy could be described by Capitalists (investors and entrepreneurs), white collar (bureaucrats and office workers), blue collar (factory workers, non-creative service jobs like waiters and retail), and academics. (note the exception that doesn't seem very important to me is the small sector of creative service jobs that could not be called a substitute for the craftclass such as event planners, non-chain restaurants and others who mostly fall under capitalists in a small business sense).

But there is something soulful about the design made by the unique human hand movement and unique human thought.  The handmade good, the good with heart, with soul.  Do we really need more vases, more factory made vases?  Or do we need less vases but soulful vases.  I would argue market failure, but I think a legitimate argument could be made against that in the form of "people like the things they get at walmart and target and not everybody enjoys to step outside of the comfortable and into the artistic."  For the Glenside resident looking for an avenue to push back against the factory, there is Dovetail Artisans.

My friend Elayne (If I may take the liberty of claiming friendship) adopted the store and has accumulated a wonderful array of handmade pottery, woodwork, glassware, jewelry, and other pieces of art.  You can find this store next to Rizzo's on Glenside Avenue near the east road intersection. (Be sure to check out Hamid's ethnic art gallery also while your there, just for the experience)  Now let's get to some pictures:

Everytime I go in there, I find these bowls, that are handmade from start to finish absolutely striking

When I went in there today, she had all of these excellent new canvas prints that this picture can not do justice to.  Here is the arrangement of the prints on the floor while she plans how she wants them to go on the wall.  I acted as her apprentice in layout plan, note my foot

This does absolutely no justice, if you can, go look at them, treat it like a chance to see a display of a particular artist.  The one to the right of my foot ended up being my favorite, and started out as my least favorite.  It is full of subtle characteristics that lead to a vision of a free life.  It is a fashionable woman in a fancy trailer, and the trailer's brand is "Lifestyle" I really recommend you look at this one for awhile.  If I could only remember for the life of me the title of the piece.

Finally we arrive at Elayne, the best piece of art in the store!  Also note the clocks in the background (Not that you could miss them, I had them frame her head)

Things I don't have pictures of that are worthy of admiration:  Navajo Tiles, all of the wooden goods, the other clocks (She has a lot of clocks), the glassware, a lot more pottery, the knickknack type things, the handbags, and a ton of other things.  All I can say is GO VISIT!  Here's praying that there is some way to fully revive the craft and the creativity we have lost in the death of the craftclass.

Ultimate Death Match, Pro Wrestlers Vs. Poli-Sci Majors

As a child, I lived on a street with a variety of different kids my age, and one Willie Jenson always made me laugh with his passion for wrestling.  Now I was a skeptical "smarter than thou" child who thought I was better than all those ignorant people.  Wrestlers are retards (Sidenote, retarded people are wonderful and beautiful human beings that I would never seek to offend and often live with a level of sincerity that non-handicapped people could learn from) and anyone who likes them is stupid.  Well today, I am stupid, really really stupid, because I am a fan of Jesse Ventura.  Not because he's a wrestler but because he was governor of Minnesota for the Reform Party (Which the Minnesota branch later broke from).  He is a rare example of a third party making it to a significant office, and his policies were pretty sound too!

I guess the question is, why would I like someone who ever used steroids (And if you say, 'I would never vote for someone who used steroids' which he used to heal faster from his occupation, you better as hell say also that you would never vote for a politician who tried cocaine for fun(Obama) or marijuana(Bush)) and participated in a farce of equal ridiculousness to a session of congress?  Me, Brian, Mr.Principle, blah blah.  What I want in a leader is a strong-willed person who will stick to a set of principles not to be sold out while in office.  It is about a leader who can lead and inspire the people to a philosophy (And I do not mean the vague philosophy of Obama) and who can admit that he does not have all the answers (Which Ventura said frequently during debates) but that he would defer to trusted experts on certain issues.  A Leader is a thing of spirit and wisdom, the practical administration should be done by advisors.  Leader's embody the direction and the philosophy, advisors run the details.  Thats the way it was done in the old times (during good governments) but now we elect bureaucrats for being great bureaucrats.  Then again if I had my way I would replace the president of the United States with a Native American chief for a term, and have all members of congress cleared out for a completely fresh outsider congress.  See what happens then (The ensuing chaos while all the issues with the radicalness and inexperiece were worked out would be better than the organized bureaucratic insiders with their spiritual deadness).  I think it might look something like unicorns and rainbows.  Picture foreign dignitaries being greeted by the man below.  As I said, people with degrees can do the paperwork, people with wisdom can lead the country.

Jesse Ventura is a simple minded man.  Straight talk, strong libertarian principles, dislike of the establishment, thats all that I need.  You can see right through him, he's transparent.  I would pick a simple-minded leader over a clever leader any day, Lao Tzu would be proud of me.  Mr. Ventura, I hope we get to see you return to politics.