Archive for September 12th, 2004

Evil Is No. 1

A sequel of a movie based on a videogame is the No. 1 movie in America. And people say that American culture is a wasteland…

(A lot of people would mean that sarcastically. I, however, love it. Milla Jovovich? What a country.)

Oops…

I just signed up for a continuing education course at NYU. But I can’t help thinking: I should have waited to see if Bush gets reelected.

I’d say I had about a 50-50 chance of the taxpayers having to pick up the tab, judging by W.’s convention speech.

Mickens the Maverick

The Post today notes the retirement of an outstanding New York City principal, Frank Mickens:

When Frank Mickens took over back in 1984, Boys and Girls HS in Bedford-Stuyvesant was one of the most violent, worst-performing schools in New York City.

Maybe even the country.

But the new principal turned Boys and Girls around with a combination of strict discipline, intolerance for lazy teachers and sheer force of will.

The school is now safe and — academically — one of the best of the city’s oft-troubled “zoned” high schools.

Mickens’ methods were unorthodox, but effective.

As the editorial notes, however, Mickens succeeded heroically despite the public school system, not because of it. His isn’t a success story so much as a tragic reminder of just how bad the rest of the system is.

Mickens was a maverick, but we can’t have a system where everyone bends the rules. What we need are less rules: from central and, far more importantly, from the union.

You should put your hands together, last but not least, for the Palomar

Palomar

Band recommendation: Palomar.

I couldn’t be more into their second album, Palomar II, right now. This is an extraordinarily catchy three-girls-and-one-guy band out of Brooklyn. And the best part is, through the magic of the Internet, you can check out a few of their tracks by the simple process of clicking on the following links:


Static
(Palomar II)

Knockout (Palomar II)

Slingshot (Palomar)

This is what you won’t hear on evil corporate radio. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for evil corporate radio, I just don’t listen to it and route around it every chance I get.

Anyway, through the evil corporation Amazon you can sample more tracks and buy the albums. (The self-titled first album, “Palomar,” however, is only available through the band’s Web site.)

Pal2cover
Palomar II

Coveriii
Palomar III: Revenge of Palomar

9/11/04

Dsc00940

I got down to Ground Zero for a little while yesterday afternoon, and I took these pictures. A real mixture of impressions, offered without comment — save this: Today was the first cloudy 9/11 in three years.




 

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