Mitt Gets Baked

(Photo: Charles Dharapak, Associate Press)

Who's funnier, Mitt Romney or Barack Obama? Silly question, right? Wrong. Oh, Obama can deliver a well-written line or two--witness his performances at the Washington Correspondents' Dinner. But Mitt, he's in a whole other league. Mitt has created a complete comic persona. Not a Mr. Bean or Pee Wee Herman...

Then it hit me. Maybe it was the stories about the family dog on the station wagon use, but then this whole campaign has felt like one of those National Lampoon Vacation movies (and not the good one). Chevy Chase as Mitt, Beverly D'Angelo as Ann. And five annoying child actors to play the boys.

Waspy World, here we come!

Fog & Ferry Foto

Gray afternoon on the harbor as seen from the BQE. Welcome rain after a dry spring. Check out the composition of orange, blue, and brown in the lower right corner. Arty.

Napping and Nothingness

Taking a nap in car trunk, Diyarbakir, Turkey (1979)

Let's take a break to appreciate a real photographer's work. The images above and below are all the work of Richard Kalvar, an American photographer (b. 1944) associated with Magnum Photos since 1975. He took photos all over the world and of all kinds of subjects. But he has a fascination with what people do in public places during those "in-between" times that make up so much of life: sleeping, hailing a cab, and, of course, waiting.

Man hailing a taxi, New York City (1976)

Are we ever more ourselves than we are waiting for a bus?

Waiting for a bus on Nowy Swiat, Warsaw (1997)

Lush Places

The curve of the road. The trees leafing out. the clouds scudding across a milky morning sky. It feels like British lane running along a rail embankment. But what's the NYC taxi cab doing there? Maybe I've just been watching too much British football lately. In reality, it's 65 St. in Woodside and that's the retaining wall of the BQE. You can just make out the corner of the Exit 40 -Broadway & 37th Ave. peeking up in the center of the picture. There is a freight line somewhere around here, too, but I didn't hear any whistle sounds this morning.

Neva Again?

Cool for cats

I'm getting excited for the proposed velodrome in Brooklyn Bridge Park. For those of you who, like me, thought a velodrome was a vacuum cleaner or a motion sickness pill, let me assure you that track cycling is indeed a real sport. It's huge in Europe, as demonstrated by the anthropomorphic cats in the vintage postcard above (thanks, Card Mine).

My question is, does it have to be an indoor velodrome? Check out this great photograph of the Fontanka Embankment on the Neva in Saint Petersburg, circa 1905. Isn't the Brooklyn Bridge Park our embankment? And aren't New York City cyclists supposed to be tough? At least as tough as these pre-Revolutionary enthusiasts making their revolutions. I'm inclined to wonder.

(Photo: Karl Karlovitch Bulla)

Ride on the Wall of Death One More Time

Future site of Velo City (Courtesy New York Times)

The largest gift for a park in New York City's? $40 million for an indoor cycling track, aka, velodrome, to be constructed in Brooklyn Bridge Park, just below the BQE. Well, it's your money Joshua P. Rechnitz. If the idea of peddling around a 200-meter inclined track gets your heart racing, go for it. Too bad you're not a squash nut--imagine how many state-of-the-art public squash courts you could fit into the same space.

Here's a design idea: Make the fieldhouse a large glass box. Build the track so that one of its straightaways is level with the BQE travel lanes. Then, drivers stuck in traffic could watch incredibly fit cyclists zip  around the track. And cyclists could enjoy the idea of passing the same cars over and over and over and over and over...

Levon

Wednesday morning, I had John Allen's WFMU show on in the background. To finish the show, he played one Band song, then another. Something was up. Sure enough, Levon Helm's family had posted a message on his website that Levon was in the last stages of cancer, and they asked for prayers and support from his fans. Last night, or very early this morning, I heard a version of "The Weight" by Cassandra Wilson on the Newark jazz station WGBO. And when I got back from work tonight, the news was confirmed. Levon Helm died today. You can find plenty of tributes to Levon all over the internet. The photo above comes from a Spanish language website.

In 1978, I was just a stupid kid who thought "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" was a song by Joan Baez until I saw The Last Waltz at the Coast Guard Academy in New London with my brother and a few homesick cadets (it was Thanksgiving weekend). A week or so later, I bought The Band at Caldors in the Norwichtown Mall during my break from the drug store where I worked. I've been listening to his music ever since. So long Levon, Rick, and Richard.