The Establishment in the beginning of New York's Industrialized Period was White Anglo Saxon Protestant. We all live a reasonably comfortable existence now but think about the birth of the modern period. Most of America was agrarian. Shitting in outhouses, deathly afraid of Polio, unwanted pregnancy, living by gas lamp (if that)etc. The British elites, were the fountainhead of comfortable practicle worldly living. And the lower class whites and EVEN lower "browns" dreamed and schemed of getting there.
Of course what worldly knowledge existed at the time had to be transferred to the young white gentlemen of privilege so that they could assume the rights and duties of this brave new empire. Even though the actual "facts" of the world were the same, education is so much more than mere numbers and measures. It's manners, temperment and socialization. The well to do couldn't send their kind to 8 hours daily with the ill-mannered and rude "common man".
The more "waspy" private schools were Choate, Andover, Collegiate, Brearley, Dwight, Dwight York, Fieldston, Rye Country Day, etc. Dalton became the "jewish alternative".
Thursday, June 28, 2007
the talents cont'd YTJ 99
For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.
And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.
Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents.
And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two.
But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money.
After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.
And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.
His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them.
His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed:
And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.
His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:
Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.
Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.
For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.
And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
A similar parable, called The Parable of the Minas or The Parable of the Pounds is found in the Gospel of Luke 19:12-27, the main difference being that the master entrusted his servants with equal amounts, and that a mina was of much less value than a talent.
Jesus described the Kingdom of Heaven using the perspective of Jewish society at that time. He begins with the Parable of The Ten Virgins to illustrate, and continues with the Parable of Talents. Talents were used as a unit of currency. It is impossible to be exact about their value, and different kinds of talent were in use. However, even the lowest value for a talent puts it as worth several thousand denarii, and a denarius was the usual payment for a day's labour. So a talent was the value of many years of work by an ordinary person.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
The Gershwin Prize- Paul Simon
I love music. I love great songs and songwriting. The mark of a great song is not JUST that it sounds great in it's original performance by the songwriter. The mark of a great song is what it sounds like when it's given away. I hear people sing " The Nearness of You", " Stardust", "Something", "My Funny Valentine", "Stella by Starlight", "This Land is Your Land", "The Sunshine of My Life", even "Across the Universe"..it expands as it is shared and interpreted. You can't get that across to the antisocial metal heads, alternarockers and gangsta rappers.When I went to private school I got exposed to the "white boy classic rock cannon". I went to my friend David Walker's country house and his mom and dad were listening to "There Goes Rhymin' Simon".. I remember "Was a sunny day, not a cloud was in the sky..etc" . Aside from the uber-pop of "The Graduate" that was my first intro to Paul's music. I remember in 1979 just before going off to college I bought his greatest hits album from his solo years. It was one of my favorite records..OF ALL TIME!!. "Slip Slidin' Away", "Mother and Child Reunion", " I Do it for Your Love", "Duncan", etc.
What I love about Simon (and Garfunkel) is that they are such quiet SUPERSTARS..they sold just as well as the Beatles and Stones and they had these Queens accents. You know the Beatles with that Liverpudlian argot, The Stones with that London Cockney , then you have "Pawl" an' "Autie" representin'/
The Library of Congress rocks. And Paul you deserve it.
"
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Dalton Schools Inc Cont'd- New York City
Excuse me if you will. What follows is an incredibly general subjective "Objective Overview of New York City in the first half of the Twentieth Century".
You see, the Brittish were the main empire by the 19th Century, and it was in London, Manchester , Liverpool etc that their Industrial Revolutionized Empire took shape. The Brittish model was the template. It was transferred to our Boston, Providence, New Haven, Joisee and the greatest most fabulous stuck up iron bitch of 'em all --"New Yawk"!! New York owes a tremendous debt to the English and London. By the turn of the Century in the era of the great mansions of Fifth Avenue and Oyster Bay, it was the W.A.S.P. who ruled the roost, this was "THE MAN". The Vanderbilts, Astors, Carnegie's, Rockefellers etc (yeah some Scottish and German thrown in) these were the cultures and individual egoes that formed the template for the New York experience to the masses who didn't even know it. Only one other group could challenge them..no- not the wops, not the spics, not the coloureds, not the micks..you know who I am tawkin' about...the Jews! The Ashkenaazi (sp?) Jews to be exact.
to be cont'd
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Burn Hollywood burn.
Riot, burn it all down, raze the classical edifice. Then we shall all be equals in a hand to mouth world. The negro who carries his world on his back will outdo the pale effiminate "white".
I was watching the DVD of Tom Hank's "Castaway"..I was thinking about the narrative of Africans in the Americas. "Poetics
Poetics
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the book by Aristotle, see Poetics (Aristotle).
Poetics refers generally to the theory of literary discourse and specifically to the theory of poetry, although some speakers use the term so broadly as to denote the concept of "theory" itself.[1] The word originated with Aristotle's Poetics, a work on the definition of poetry that laid the foundation for Western thought on the subject.
Contents[hide] |
[edit] History
Leading poetics scholar T.V.F. Brogan identifies three major movements in Western poetics over the past 3000 years, beginning with the formalist, objectivist Aristotelian tradition. During the romantic era, poetics tended toward expressionism and emphasized the perceiving subject. The 20th century witnessed a return to the Aristotelian paradigm, followed by trends toward metacriticality, or the establishment of a theory of poetics.[1]
Eastern poetics developed primarily with reference to the lyric, as opposed to the mimetic.[1]
[edit] See Also
Black and White
I bought the Vanity Fair "Africa" issue this week. I am still in the process of reading it. I am still in the process of formulating my opinion on Bono and Geldof. I walk thru Washington DC and see the "gentrification of Downtown DC". I walk to work on K Street and am confronted by black vagrants. More later....
Friday, June 22, 2007
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Dalton Schools Incorporated
"I was born a po' black child.." I really was. I was born in Harlem Hospital in January of 1962. I was the bastard love child of one Minnie Pearl Henry and her married er-hem "liason" Edgar Herbert Lee. My natural father had no plans of leaving his family so my mother, (black) women didn't think of abortions so easily back then, raised me alone. My mother was very pretty and I was considered a kind of cute little momma's boy. My mother was from rural Northern Florida and sent me periodically to live with my grandmother and family, in the rural south I became a TRUE PICKANINNY. I loved the woods, walked around barefoot- with sores on my legs and nappy hair.
I never regretted being a fatherless only child. I had no rivals and none of the hang ups that I saw in bad working class black families. I loved television and started drawing at 5 years old. By the time I was 10 I was more verbal and pleasant than the average "ghetto child". This inspired Walter Licht, a long haired draft dodger working the black public school system to suggest me for a private school scholarship. White people in New York were feeling mighty guilty about their wealth in contrast to the wretched misery of those above 96th street, so I was a good candidate. Collegiate was all boys and too expensive even for scholarship and New Lincoln was public school with a higher price. Dalton Schools was juuuust right.
To be cont'd.
I never regretted being a fatherless only child. I had no rivals and none of the hang ups that I saw in bad working class black families. I loved television and started drawing at 5 years old. By the time I was 10 I was more verbal and pleasant than the average "ghetto child". This inspired Walter Licht, a long haired draft dodger working the black public school system to suggest me for a private school scholarship. White people in New York were feeling mighty guilty about their wealth in contrast to the wretched misery of those above 96th street, so I was a good candidate. Collegiate was all boys and too expensive even for scholarship and New Lincoln was public school with a higher price. Dalton Schools was juuuust right.
To be cont'd.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
People I've known
I live inside a shell, that's inside a wall, that's inside a fort,that's inside a tunnel,that's under the sea, where I am safe from you. If you really loved me you'd find me. Jules Feiffer
Definition of the situation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The definition of the situation is a fundamental concept in symbolic interactionism advanced by the American sociologist W. I. Thomas. It is a kind of collective agreement between people on the characteristics of a situation, and from there, how to appropriately react and fit into it.
Establishing a definition of the situation requires that the participants agree on both the frame of the interaction (its social context and expectations), and on their identities (the person they will treat each other as being for a given situation).
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