Great Recession Scorecard

The New York Times, which had the hubris to declare the Great Recession kaput, does demonstrate occasional spasms of intent to inform. A case in point is via its "Dealbook" section, which created a funny, and informative, diagram of financiers prominent during the "slippage" of 2008-2009. (In case you've forgotten, the cast of corporate characters barely or no longer with us includes Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Citicorp, AIG, WaMu, Wachovia, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Merrill Lynch, Countrywide Financial, etc.)

Use Zero Hedge's link to take you directly to the action.

PS. In case you use your NY Times/3-D recession-proof reading glasses on a regular basis, please consider this story from Bloomberg. It reports Meredith Whitney's latest oracular statement: many states will need a federal bailout within the next 12 months. Warren Buffett expressed a similar sentiment earlier this year. Of course, the Great Recession is over. Isn't it?

Extra credit: Bloomberg also has a video segment with Jim Grant, a man with a very interesting, highly independent mind.

The furtive fellow in the photograph is Joseph Cassano, former capo of AIG Financial Products, who gained considerable experience with Drexel Burnham Lambert during Michael Milken's heyday. The Department of Justice earlier this year decided not to pursue criminal charges against Mr. Cassano. Roughly a month after the DOJ announcement, Cassano testified before a House committee investigating various issues impacting the near-collapse of the American financial marketplace in 2008-2009.

Water Insecurity

The BBC reported a story originally appearing in the publication Nature regarding the world's water supply. The gist of the article is that global fresh water supplies are dwindling at a troubling rate. The researchers wisely split their analysis into two gross categories: "natural" and "managed" water supplies. The latter refers to reservoirs and other human interventions to maintain sufficient potable water. The former considers streams and other conduits that have flowed unimpeded for centuries.

Interestingly, the developed nations in the Northern Hemisphere have stressed their aqueous natural resources. Their supportive infrastructure manages to supply enough water for their demanding industries and growing populations. Developing nations more or less face challenging conditions in which the deterioration of their water supply will only accelerate.

In recent years, some writers and financial analysts have characterized water as "blue gold." I entirely share that perspective. There is a finite -- and declining -- supply of fresh, potable water in the world. Global population is expanding. Demands on available water supplies will most likely increase to a grim extent. China, for example, is staring at some bleak social and economic consequences, thanks to its relentless degradation of its water resources.

One problem with taking water issues is that the northeastern United States, where many of the nation's leading thinkers and financiers are located, doesn't have an obvious water supply issue. This region has managed to dodge the nastier outcomes of drought -- so far. It has also done next to nothing to preserve arguably its most valuable commodity.

Curiously, the nation that best understands water management is France. There are a number of French firms specializing in this area. One can invest in some of them, either via ADRs or, if your portfolio structure and prosperity permit, purchase them directly from the Paris Bourse. You'll have to do your own homework on this topic. When you do, drink plenty of water -- while you still can.

The photograph shows Minnesota's Lake Itasca, the source of the Mississippi River.

Strike Three for Cal Baseball

UC Berkeley announced today that the university is dropping baseball from its sports program. The institution also eliminated men's and women's gymnastics, as well as women's lacrosse. Rugby, which at Berkeley nearly pays its own way, was reduced to a "club sport."

The loss of a major sport by a prestigious university demonstrates how far the mighty have fallen in California. There was a time, not so long ago, when the UC system offered nearly every sort of educational opportunity to its citizens. The Golden State was proud of its public colleges and universities. They offered a refreshing, desirable counterpoint to the dominance of East Coast intellectual life. Today, California's public institutions are reeling from the impact of the state's ruthless politics and feckless spending. Even for relatively popular activities such as baseball, there is no more funding, ever. It's strike three -- they're out.

The baseball card-style illustration shows UC-Berkeley alum Mike Epstein, who later played pro ball with the Oakland Athletics.

Eat Pray Love alla napoletana

Today's Financial Times included an article discussing how ordinary Neapolitans are attempting to reclaim their city and region from the grip of criminal gangs. (The article also offers links to stories about Chinese gangs taking root in Italy.) The FT story describes hard-won gains by everyday people fed up with organized crime. These actions take great courage, as the Italian version of Naples' underworld, known as the Camorra, is a formidable, lethal adversary. It has iron control of various communities, provides "liquidity" for many impoverished families, has politicians and police in its collective pocket. No one with any sense tangles with the Camorra lightly.

Roberto Saviano's book Gomorrah splendidly and chillingly portrayed the Camorra's fierce grip on Neapolitan social, political, and business life. I read the book some months ago, and his work, even in translation, scared the shit out of me. The nihilistic atmosphere Saviano described seemed like a return to a hopeless Dark Ages, a mix of contemporary gangster ethics and a particularly corrupt style of Fascism. The book, which is far more frightening than its filmed version, presented facts, eyewitness recollection, and local knowledge to depict the Camorra's odious world.

This environment is far removed in sentiment and sense from Elizabeth Gilbert's frivolous memoir Eat Pray Love. Gilbert, who claimed a deep desire to "experience" Italy, visited Naples principally to eat pizza at a well-known restaurant. She never bothered to talk to Neapolitans, grasp their desperate struggle for survival, or comprehend Naples beyond the cliches of shameless Anglo-Saxon food journalism. However, one should not be surprised by Gilbert's breezy lack of perspective or intoxicating hubris. After all, the word "think" is not included among the three verbs in her memoir's title.

The painting, Titian's Danae and the Shower of Gold, is among the works in Naples' Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte.

Bail Bondsman to the Stars

The New York Times ran an interesting profile in today's edition on Ira Judelson, New York City's bail bondsman supreme. It's a fun story, with plenty of high-profile names and just enough behind-the-scenes squalor and grit to make it real.

PS. Disclaimer: the image is not connected to Mr. Judelson's firm, nor to any aspect or personality mentioned in the Times story.

Facebook Comes to Newark -- Part Three

Yes, there's more to "Facebook Comes to Newark" than meets the eye.

11. Keep in mind that Oprah Winfrey has embraced Rhee for her "reform"

of the Washington, DC school system. Rhee's record is a controversial one; her actions were a principal reason why Adrian Fenty recently lost his bid for re-election as DC mayor. Yet, Rhee has now been placed on a pedestal, positioned as human sacrifice for the cause of education reform. She will also be out of work shortly and, in the Great Recession which The New York Times has declared over, unemployment can have a permanent feel. Rhee fits the Booker-Christie pact's needs very well. She will not hesitate to be the hatchet for the draconian "reform" policies heading Newark's way. And Booker will be able to appoint Rhee without going through the local political rituals.

How? The state of New Jersey technically runs the Newark school system. In order to swing this political coup, Christie (as is his right under state statute) named Booker his "special assistant to the governor" for education. That move opens the door for high-profile, profound changes in Newark's educational bureaucracy and management of teachers. That includes appointing Rhee (or anyone else) as superintendent, changing rules, expanding charter schools, and basically turning Newark into the educational equivalent of a laboratory animal. Curiously, this situation is what Booker and Christie, for quite different reasons, want.

12, If Rhee becomes superintendent, expect a top-down management, non-consultative management style from her. (Read Thursday's Washington Post for Diane Ravitch's critique of Rhee, her hubris, and that of the reform steamroller. Ravitich's piece originally appeared in Education Week. ) This approach fits Booker's political agenda for Newark quite nicely. It also fits the "reform" agenda of imposing change on teachers and education bureaucrats, an agenda that has taken emerged in other areas of the country. It was notable that the Zuckerberg "gift" was donated without any input from the Newark community, except Booker. For a "community-based solution," such as charter schools, to simply pass by the affected community seems like a luxury car on its way to Washington passing an exit on the New Jersey Turnpike without stopping, slowing down, or caring about the community it just passed in the rear-view mirror.

One ironic twist to this story is that Newark's current superintendent, Clifford Janey, used to hold the same job in Washington, DC. His replacement? Michelle Rhee.

12. So what does Mark Zuckerberg see in Newark schools? The question, along with the students, parents, and community, quickly get lost in the blinding light and deep shadows of more prominent players, larger agendas, and complex motives. Zuckerberg's Trojan Horse, filled with cunning power players, has been brought into the gates of a city exhausted from psychic and physical siege. (Today's shameless New York Times article that essentially lifts Zuckerberg into the pantheon of American philanthropy is part of this equine package.) To paraphrase what the Lester Freamon character said on The Wire, "follow the money, and there's no telling where you'll go."

PS. Leading black and white photo was shot by Beth Dow. Image to the right is the earliest known representation of the Trojan Horse detail from the neck of a mid-7th Century BC Cycladic relief-amphora found on Mykonos.

Facebook Comes to Newark -- Part Two

The "Facebook Comes to Newark" story deeply involves Oprah Winfrey.

Ms. Winfrey has very carefully planned her syndicated television program's final year. She has, for better or worse, embraced the notion of "education reform" and given it plenty of air time. Keep in mind she was one of President Obama's principal media and financial backers during his election campaign. O and O share an educational agenda whose unmistakable, unrelenting goal has been the reduction of existing public school and teacher bureaucracies, and their replacement with corporate-style managements and enterprise-style employer-employee structures. (Yes, I understand there are other goals.) Ironically, the right-wing has shared the Obamians' program and, in fact, has advocated longer and harder for it than the Obamians have. O and O's best political move in 44's two years in office was co-opting the school issue from conservative politicians and their think-tank cohorts.

7. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan comes from the same Chicago world as O and O. He's the point person for 44's education offensive, much the way former New Jersey Commissioner of Education Bret Schundler was envisioned by Governor Chris Christie. (Schundler would have been a very inconvenient person in the Zuckerberg scenario.) Duncan has pushed "reform" at every possible opportunity, while throwing money at the funding crisis engulfing most school district across the country. Guess what? The money runs out next year, and let's see who will pay for these ideas.

8. One report suggests the Harlem Children's Zone, which is being lionized this fall on NBC, The New York Times, and the heavily hyped documentary Waiting for Superman, will be used as the paradigm for Newark school "reform." In case you're keeping score at home, there are already a host of charter schools in Newark. One of them has a teaching staff that would be the envy of a New England private school. Another, connected to the Adubato political/media family, has won deserved plaudits for its achievements. The Zuckerberg contribution, as I understand the initial reports of it, will not reach these schools. The plot thickens here.

9. Enter Newark mayor Cory Booker. Here we have media darling #2, an African-American graduate of Stanford who "returned home" to "make a difference." Booker's political ambitions venture well beyond Newark's poor, tired streets. He's made it a point to make the right media connections, groom himself for appropriate positions that carry statewide appeal and national clout, gather political IOUs, and financial backing for his next step. Where would that be? There had been rumors of a gubernatorial run in the Garden State. However, Chris Christie's blitz of former governor Jon Corzine, combined with the implied threat of Christie's prosecutorial allies, made Booker pause. Booker and Adubato made a very public peace with Christie the day after Christie won the governor's seat. Booker, who has rocky relations with a considerable portion of Newark's politicos, probably has his eyes on Frank Lautenberg's US Senate seat. Lautenberg is 94 years old, and is unlikely to follow the late South Carolina senator Strom Thurmond in the Senate's version of the Century Club.

10. Christie and Booker have shaken hands on the Zuckerberg deal. Forget about the ridiculous leaking of the "secret" story for a moment, and the unsavory motives behind the leak. What's far more incredible is New Jersey's equivalent of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact. Booker's move is simple: he'll run on school reform in a Senate race (as will Obama in 2012). To accomplish that act, he needs more than Zuckerberg's money. He needs what Christie thought he had with Bret Schundler. That's where The New York Times, pushing "reform," enters the picture again. In the original Times story about the Zuckerberg pledge, Michelle Rhee's name was floated as a possibility to be Newark's next school superintendent. (The local Newark newspaper, the Star-Ledger, ran a story on the Zuckerberg splash and speculated in detail on who the next superintendent might be. The Star-Ledger story characterized Rhee's candidacy as a "longshot.")

To be continued....

Facebook Comes to Newark -- Part One

By now, Mark Zuckerberg's $100 million pledge of Facebook stock to Newark, New Jersey's school system has reached all corners of the world. We didn't even need a Facebook announcement to find out; instead, the mainstream media did all the work to publicize the gesture.

Let's look at a few issues and coincidences in this story:

1. Zuckerberg has no known connection to Newark. Why would he commit such a vast sum to a city to which he has no organic relationship? It's not even known if he has ever visited the financially broke city, 25% of whose real estate is tax-exempt. The story currently being peddled is that Newark mayor Cory Booker and Zuckerberg met this July. Booker supposedly swayed the Facebook emperor with tales of desperation and reform. Thus, in less than 90 days, Zuckerberg was willing to publicly commit up to $100 million to the schools in Booker's city.

2. The movie The Social Network is scheduled for an October 1st domestic release. Advance reviews range from positive to rave. Lots of Oscar talk will quickly emerge around the movie. One reviewer (Todd McCarthy, whom I respect) suggested the movie had overtones of Citizen Kane. Oy, vey. The bad news for Zuckerberg is that the movie portrays him as an asshole and possibly a white-collar thief. Audiences around the world will learn what an unpleasant young man Mr. Zuckerberg is. It's conceivable that the movie-going universe is larger than Facebook's current subscriber list.

3. Facebook delayed its long-rumored IPO this year. One wonders if the movie might have had an impact on that decision.

4. Forbes recently added Zuckerberg to its list of insanely wealthy luminaries. It just won't do, in a land where perception matters so much more than fact, that Zuckerberg will have reached the heights of prosperity in dramatically, cinematically graphic, unpleasant ways. How many parents would want him marrying their daughter? Hmmm...time for a social face lift.

5. However tarnished Zuckerberg's motives regarding the $100 million wager on Newark's schools, they're practically simon pure compared to the other players in this story. They include, so far, Oprah Winfrey, Arne Duncan, Barack Obama, Chris Christie, Cory Booker, and Michelle Rhee. For the moment, we'll exclude this group's principal enablers: NBC and The New York Times.

To be continued....

The Great Recession Observed by Wal-Mart CEO

A note from Art Cashin, director of floor operations at UBS Financial Services, was posted today in the financial blog Zero Hedge. Cashin's comments include the following observation from Wal-Mart's CEO:

"About 11 p.m. customers start to come in and shop, fill their grocery basket wth basic items -- baby formula, milk, bread, eggs -- and continue to shop and mill about the store until midnight when government electronic benefits cards get activated, and then the checkout starts and occurs. And our sales for those first few hours on the first of the month are substantially and significantly higher."

Based on the quote, and your own anecdotal evidence, do you think the Great Recession is over? All comments are welcome.

PS. The Dorothea Lange photograph above is titled "Dispossessed Arkansas farmers, Bakersfield, California," courtesy of the Library of Congress.

NY Times Writer Jumps to Blog

The Huffington Post recently poached Peter Goodman, a former New York Times business writer. The writer, whose wife was already a Huffington Post contributor, apparently was well paid for his move. The Washington Post story on Goodman's choice is worth reading.

This talent raid feels like a trend in the making. Blogs, especially those bankrolled by independently wealthy individuals such as Ms. Huffington, have well defined audiences that advertisers love. Traditional mainstream publications are having a very difficult time surviving. The Washington Post, for instance, loses money annually. It's kept afloat because the Washington Post Company owns Kaplan, the cram-course kings. The LA Times is broke, the Chicago Tribune is bankrupt, Newsweek is kaput, and The New York Times is struggling. In contrast, and much to political liberals' chagrin, the Murdoch media empire manages to make money.

Still, building a media brand remains difficult, regardless of ideology. One wonders if hiring star writers will make any impact on the reading public. How many people really follow Peter Goodman? And how many of them will follow him from the Times to a non-print venue?

Investing in Farmland

Today's LA Times included a story on investing in farmland. According to the article, a considerable portion of new money eyeing Green Acres comes from private equity, foreign investors, and institutions. The notion is that prime US farmland is finite, safe, and will increase in value, as the world's population grows, arable land diminishes, and yields per acre reach a ceiling.

I had looked into investing in farmland a few years ago. One look at the minimum required and realized I was out of my financial league. It was a frustrating experience. My consolation was that I firmly believe many appropriate investment opportunities exist for those willing to due the research and real thinking.

Investing has come a long way from the days when my dad -- and later, my mother -- dabbled in the stock market. As with many Great Depression survivors, my parents were savers before they were investors. They came to the market relatively late in life, and played with a few issues without the heat or conviction of retail market players. My mom once made some money on a tech stock, thanks to some "early information." She relished that moment, and I wish she had experienced more of them.

Neither of my parents would have ever invested in farmland. It would have been an exotic concept, without the comfortable familiarity that is mistakenly identified as practicality. Green Acres, as an investment idea or as a television show, just wasn't for them. Well, times have changed -- if you can swing the price of admission.

Bodyguards

A story in today's Washington Post discusses the rising use of bodyguards among China's wealthiest citizens. While the People's Republic hardly seems like a 21st Century version of Prohibition Chicago, the expanding gap between the have-a-lots and the have-nothings has created plenty of anxiety among China's newly rich. The "weapons" of choice for the bodyguards are martial-arts techniques. According to the story, there is a preference for bodyguards that are not physically imposing. Notable exceptions are athletes and international celebrities, who only feel comfortable around bouncer-sized bodyguards.

In my admittedly very limited experience around bodyguards, I've rarely felt at ease near them. Their presence suggests the possibility of an incident in which I would almost certainly be the proverbial "innocent bystander." In my lifetime, I did know someone who was hired to work as a bodyguard. To rephrase Raymond Chandler, violence was his business. I was aware of his ability to injure and kill, Western-style with firearms or Asian-style with limbs. That knowledge did not help me feel secure.

I have known people for whom the perceived need for bodyguards was legitimate and not simply showing off their wealth or celebrity status. Intriguingly, when I met them, there were no bodyguards or obvious surveillance devices in evidence. I myself have never hired a bodyguard. The possibility that I could, would, or should do so is an extremely remote one. If that changes, I'll give anyone who cares a heads-up.

The image is from Bodyguard: A New Beginning, a 2009 UK/Hong Kong action-thriller, directed by Chee Keong Cheung.

State Pension Underfunding

While the majority of state governments are effectively bankrupt, those who have are drawing state pensions or will qualify for one should pause and consider whether the money for their payments will continue to be available. Most municipal pension funds rely on accounting tricks to stay afloat, as a recent, well-written New York Times piece noted. The actuaries who put together these financial houses of cards are resorting to increasingly risky, unsupportable assumptions in order to justify current payouts. What's obvious is at these accounting schemes will collapse, as the American mortgage market did a couple of years ago.

What's also painfully evident is that most Americans are in denial over the extent of the nation's financial woes. The current dialogue unrealistically focuses on the "recovery" in our midst, while passing over strong evidence to the contrary, such as the implications of the inability or unwillingness of small businesses to create any new jobs to replace the millions lost since the fall of Bear Stearns. The proposed lifting of the "temporary" Bush tax cuts for the most prosperous two percent of American households has generated protests from those who firmly believe the massive transfer of wealth from the have-somethings and have-nots to the have-a-lots is sound public policy. No one, regardless of political ideology, has realistically proposed how this country will pay for its startlingly high fiscal deficits. A Chinese government official this summer characterized the United States as a financially bankrupt nation. Considering the People's Republic of China is arguably the largest single holder of US Treasury debt, shouldn't that statement have raised profound questions about the American economy's "recovery"?

I once suggested to a public employee that a day will come when municipal entities will approach pensioners a crisis-generated, take-it-or-leave-it deal: a cut of forty cents on the dollar on all current and subsequent pension payments. I understand pensions are legally sacrosanct, but that was also the status of holders of senior General Motors debt during the firm's federally-engineered bankruptcy. Nearly all states are broke; the largest state, California, has issued IOUs for vendor payments in the past year. If nations can effectively declare bankruptcy via debt restructuring, loan forgiveness, and other tactics, so can provincial entities such as American states.

Until Americans get past their unwillingness to acknowledge its descent from the financial heights, there can be little progress toward rebuilding our fragile economic system. The political crisis swirling around pension payments is merely a symptom of a larger ailment. Today's capitalist "heroes" are deal makers and financiers rather than manufacturing visionaries (with the notable exception of Silicon Valley) and resource discoverers. The principal problem with the Wall Street crowd is that they don't make anything. They simply deploy capital. While that's a necessary condition to sustain the vitality of our country's economy, it is a far from sufficient one. The notion that Asian economic powers will continue to financially support our nation's debt is the national equivalent of playing with fire. And the last thing we need is an American Nero playing music while all around him -- or her -- burns.

Top Silicon Valley Firms Eye Antitrust Settlement

A story originally reported in The Wall Street Journal noted that major Silicon Valley players are in discussions with the Department of Justice over a rumored antitrust action against the firms. The allegations include collusion to not recruit or hire employees of the other conspiring enterprises. The all-star list features many Silicon Valley A-list companies, including Google, Apple, Intel, and Pixar.

A notable no-show in the DOJ's roundup is the Valley's nemesis, Microsoft.

One wonders if the DOJ's action will become an election issue. California has two very close statewide elections this year. The Republican candidate for the US Senate seat, Carly Fiorina, once carried the flag for HP. Meg Whitman, the GOP candidate for governor, made her zillions as top dog at E-Bay. (She has already spent $100 million on her gubenetorial run.)

Here's the brief pick-up by the San Jose Mercury News. The photo, courtesy of gizmodo.com, shows Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt at a Palo Alto coffee shop in March, 2010.

Bordeaux Comes to China

According to a story in today's Financial Times, the People's Republic of China is now the world's leading importer of Bordeaux wines. The story notes that the Chinese are on something of a learning curve with wine appreciation. It also notes they are quick studies, although some of the food and wine pairings favored in China are nearly as bizarre as those Westerners make in New York's Asian restaurants.

The wine auction houses are following the money. Recently, the auctioneer's hammer has gone down in Hong Kong for exquisite French wines once the exclusive province of the Caucasian elite. Today's cost per case could pay for a year's tuition at an Ivy League institution.

Unfortunately, the story interviewed wine industry savants rather than the Chinese consumers who just have to have a bottle of Chateau Hooboy. What makes wine a beverage of choice in a society lacking any connection to the grape? Astringent Scotch or robust beer is closer to the yin-yang spirit of Chinese cooking's flavors and textures. Wine, at least in the Old World manner, served to harmonize food produced near the vineyards where the grapes grew. That perspective seems distant from the Chinese approach to cuisine.

Alcoholic beverages, however, have their cycles in which they're in or out of fashion. Subtle, sophisticated sherries, for instance, were out of favor for years, while primitive, potent grappas were lauded and consumed with equal parts enthusiasm and ignorance. Right now, Bordeaux is enjoying its place in the bright, blinding Chinese sun. I'm all for it: I say get that Chinese wealth into circulation. I'll even raise a toast to the thought -- with a beer brewed in Pennsylvania.

PS. The Bordeaux poster was created in 1937 by French Art Deco poster artist -- and Bordeaux resident -- Jean Dupasa. The ducks are timeless.

The Great Depression in Color

Roger Nusbaum, in his respected personal finance blog Random Roger, did a very unlikely, yet entirely admirable thing in comments he posted today on his site. He discussed color photographs taken during the later years of the Great Depression in the United States. He also included a link to a Denver Post blog that shows the images.

The pictures originally appeared in a 2006 Library of Congress exhibit called "Bound for Glory: America in Color." My favorite so far (shown above) is #18, Russell Lee's "saying grace before the barbeque dinner at the New Mexico Fair." The principal subjects possess an uncalculated modesty, while remaining rooted in their worldly concerns. The secondary subjects inhabit the frame, but appear to be independent of the major figures. Lee's willingness to have multiple, barely joined subjects in the frame seems surprisingly tangent to contemporary visual sensibilities.

I hope you take a few minutes to enjoy these explorations in color photography.

Juggling

A friend called earlier tonight and told us about her first juggling class. She had a wonderful time learning the art of tossing objects without having any fall to the ground. It's not clear to me why she chose to juggle. It's not as if her family can trace its lineage to magicians, jugglers, or circus performers. Our friend just had "something inside of her," to paraphrase the blues lyric.

I've only known one other person who juggled. When I lived in Rome, I worked with a British woman who had a rather quiet, good humored disposition that masked an occasionally rowdy side. The juggler in her emerged one night after many rounds of something red and local. She revealed that she had some training as a juggler. No one believed it, so she parried our disbelief with a reasonably good juggling routine.

I don't recall how she learned her juggling skills. Yet, she and our New Jersey friend practice a universal art, as old as recorded history, that continue to amuse and fascinate us. Even when we're sober.

Pirate Radio Revisited

The movie Pirate Radio recalls the good-old-days when popular music subverted stuffy, bureaucratic "culture." The implicit question the movie poses is whether such a scenario exists today, and if so, exists with the same bite as its predecessor of a half-century ago.

Unlike Pirate Radio's rock n' roll tunes, contemporary music hardly represents a destabilizing threat to society. Most of today's popular musical entertainers abhor anything that would threaten their ability to acquire money. Any notion of naivete or innocence, either perceived or real, would simply be a sign of weakness, a black mark in a world where the achievement of ambition is the greatest possible good.

This bleak thought makes me blue. However, I do cheer up when I think about Internet radio. There are Pirate Radio aspects to it. Sometimes, I listen to Ibiza Sonica, a station that plays mostly club music that one would hear on the eponymous Spanish island. When I hear that music, I feel optimistic that the forces of darkness can be outfoxed.

Claude Chabrol Obit

Influential French New Wave director Claude Chabrol died this weekend at age 80. Here are the BBC obit and French reactions published in Le Monde.

While very popular in France, and respected worldwide, Chabrol's films were confined to the art-house circuit in the United States. How foreign movies such as Chabrol's get distributed in the United States is an interesting, important, and largely untold story. One finds out quickly that distribution is very definitely a business: to paraphrase Scripture, many films are made, but few are chosen. This maxim is especially true for those films of foreign genesis and "artistic" reputation.

Coppola at Venice

Sofia Coppola just won The Golden Lion award (Best Director) at the Venice Film Festival for her new film Somewhere. Quentin Tarantino, one of the festival judges, claimed the film was terrific. That perception is at odds from even the hometown reviews, never mind the European reviewers. The linked Variety review of the film seems to have the Stateside reviewers' pulse: respectful, but hardly euphoric. The movie will open in New York and LA over the Christmas holidays.

Coppola's award was quite a change from her last Venice Film Festival appearance, in which her too-cool-for-school Marie Antoinette was booed.

Curators' Top Ten Peeves

My wife and I attended an art opening this evening. During the event, we spoke with a curator we know. The conversation turned to what annoys curators. I suggested someone should write a story about the topic. It would be far more useful than some baloney about "the state of the arts."

The projected "top ten peeves" article is an insider's piece; however, judging from the curator's perspective, the piece is desperately needed. OK, but let's just say tonight is just not the night for it. Instead, I have a suggestion: write in the comments box what you think are "faux pas'" that deeply irritate visual art curators.

Marching Bands

Football games and parades have one thing in common: marching bands. At their best, marching bands can rouse a crowd, lift one's heart, help one feel life's rhythms and pulse. I attended the University of Wisconsin, and its band reflected the student body's perspective that having fun was an "all in" experience.

The bands at historically African-American colleges and universities tend to hold my attention. They offer a fabulous sense of physical and musical rhythm that's wonderful to watch and hear. I was reminded of this while watching the pre-game segments of tonight's pro football game in New Orleans. The home team's band was from Southern University. The band played "When the Saints Come Marching In" and it sounded and looked right.

Do you have a favorite marching band? You're welcome to share your preferences in the comments box.

Jumping into the Football Pool

Until two years ago, I had never participated in a gambling pool. My wagering experience, prior to jumping into my office's pro football pool, consisted of a rare two dollar bet on some thoroughbred horse races and some quickly, tiny sums of money lost at Las Vegas and cruise ship blackjack tables.

Gambling is not a common experience in my family. My mother bet on horses as often as I did, and with about as much success. I can't recall my father ever making a wager, although I believe he was capable of it. My brothers might have played cards and bet a few bucks, but they were hardly habitual gamblers and, as far as I know, lost the urge somewhere after their teen years. I can't think of a good friend or a colleague who put his or her money down on a sure thing. Given the number of gamblers in the world, and especially in sin cities such as New York, one could say my association with non-gamblers beat the odds.

My father-in-law died long before Amy took a chance on me as her husband. He was a player, according to my wife, my now-deceased mother-in-law, and anyone I've met who knew him.

He gambled enough to attract Vegas' largesse. He knew the man who invented the casino junket. He knew people who strongly resembled the Ace Rothstein character played by Robert DeNiro in Martin Scorsese's movie Casino. Like many businessmen, my father-in-law couldn't stop trying to outwit the competition. Amy's dad would have enjoyed nothing more than placing football bets with his son-in-law. In fact, he would have insisted I get into the pool and get wet.

Since my plunge into football gambling, I've become more interested in the outcomes of the games. I take note of dull teams and wonder if they'll cover the spread. I cautiously watch squads being touted as "can't miss" propositions. Above all, I try to have fun and not take it too seriously. This is a difficult stance for me, as sports betting is one area in which I have a very competitive spirit.

The cost of admission for the sinner's way to enjoy the Sabbath is a little bit more than what I pay for one month's dues for the local YMCA. My late father-in-law would have been perplexed by a Sunday afternoon spent in virtuous physical exercise, but would have understood investing a few hours in a sporting proposition.

Cleopatra's Needle

My wife and I recently had lunch at the Petrie Court in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We were fortunate enough to get a window table. The restaurant's floor to ceiling windows offer a charming view of Central Park, including an unobstructed sight line to Cleopatra's Needle.

Why is Cleo's Needle there? If there were ever a citation for "miscast monument" in New York, the Egyptian obelisk would seemingly qualify. The red granite object appears as if it fell from the sky and landed in its upright, vertical position without any human intercession. Its hieroglyphics defy any organic connection to New York's past or present. It's true the monument was a gift from Egypt to the United States in the 19th Century, and one could argue this symbol of Egyptian gratitude to America has some connection to local history. However, one feels a far greater kinship to the Statue of Liberty, the French gift given during the same century as Cleopatra's Needle.

Yet, while we sat over lunch at the Petrie Court, I was fascinated by the obelisk. I wondered what the glyphs meant. I considered its lineage, which predates Cleopatra's reign by approximately a millenium. I thought about its twin, presented to the British and now in London. A third sibling, though not a twin, resides in the middle of Paris' Place de la Concorde.

I also recalled my first encounter with Cleo, during a St. Patrick's Day parade. I attended a parochial high school, which meant St. Patrick's Day was a day off. Many of us went to the parade, drank a bit, and used the 224 ton obelisk as a rendez-vous point. That was the extent of my curiosity for Cleo at that time. Over the years, I would walk past it, and the sight of the obelisk would reignite some wonder about it. Later, when I lived in Rome, obelisks were a natural part of the cityscape. Most of them were imported, just as New York's needle was. Pharaonic Egypt intrigued the ancient Romans, and the fascination with obelisks recurred over the centuries in the Eternal City, notably with Bernini. Seeing them on a daily basis helped me appreciate their elegant beauty and elusive history.

Cleopatra's Needle in New York now strikes me as a graceful monument whose simple geometry suggests a more profound message. The marvelously carved hieroglyphs tells a story I can not understand, but enjoy contemplating. However, even if I had a translation, the ideas communicated would remain enigmatic. How can I grasp the mathematics, astronomy, and religion Cleopatra's Needle suggests? All I know is that I respect the monument's austere beauty, and that its shape coincidentally resembles that of the Empire State Building.

Perhaps Cleopatra's Needle isn't so miscast, after all.

Blog Entry 101

This post happens to be the 101st I've entered since the blog's inception in May 2010. The number 101 has echoes for Americans. In this country, 101 is universally recognized as a beginning, a beginner level, something simple, even easy. However, little about writing a blog allows a simple-minded approach that "101" implies. In my case, this blog is an odyssey whose voyage is the exploration of themes, ideas, notions, and whatever else comes into my head on a given day. There's nothing -- nothing -- "101" about this journey, except for that first moment when my ship set sail for a home unseen for years.

There is one other significance, a personal one, for 101. It's the number of the federal highway that parallels the Pacific Ocean from Canada to Los Angeles. For me, reaching the Pacific has always, always been enchanting.

Whenever I express this emotion to Californians, they just laugh. This is a tale they hear from Americans who want something magical from California. It doesn't always work out that way. I know: my experience includes disappointments, personal shipwrecks, disaster, mystic

ism, love, and regeneration. Yet, to this day, the allure about the West Coast's 101 remains tenacious.

The iconic images of Ulysses' ship and the owl (symbols of Athena and wisdom) are from Baltimore's Walters Art Museum.

Anniversary

Today's blog posting is my one hundredth for Inner Harbor. It's marvelously fitting, and entirely unplanned, that the event corresponds with the anniversary of when my wife Amy and I first met.

We met during the evening on the Staten Island Ferry. For me, I took the ferry to recognize the end of my first, failed marriage, the issues surrounding it, the fallout from a whirlwind of disastrous moves to San Francisco and Pennsylvania, and my recovery. The ferry ride was a way to move forward into an uncertain future. At least I was free, and that mattered a lot to me.

Amy took the ferry, along with some friends, to enjoy the evening and a fireworks display. She was single and wasn't looking for the love of her life that weekend. She certainly was not looking on the Staten Island Ferry. However, "paradigm challenges" have a way of occurring at unplanned, often inconvenient times. That is what happened for Amy and me nineteen years ago this evening. Life for both of us has never been the same since that evening: it's gotten better, year after year.

Bark, Not Barking

Taking a walk in one's neighborhood has its advantages. One of them is seeing what one routinely passes without any consideration. For example, the gently rising hillside street where I live has trees in nearly every yard. They represent a variety of species, and I realized during a recent stroll that I don't know anything about any of them.

That notion compelled me to think about familiar things differently. I began by taking a closer look at one tree's bark. Its rough, choppy surface hid a smoother interior life. I suppose a trained eye would have been able to estimate the organism's likely age. To my primitive eye, the tree could have been there since the Pleistocene Era, sending out buds in the spring and dropping leaves every autumn. That was the extent of my observation.

Once upon a time, my lack of curiosity or even recognition of trees made it easy for me to believe that most climatically similar areas would have similar trees. Of course, that's ridiculous, but not all thoughts are carefully reasoned ones. When I

lived in Italy, I didn't think much about the trees, except the pines that I completely identify with Rome. I can't recall a tree of any sort in Italy that displayed brilliant foliage in the fall months. The leaves undramatically fell to the earth, and that was that. The lack of autumnal pizzaz did, however, dimly suggest to me that Italy's trees were different than those in the northeastern United States.

I don't want to suggest I experienced an environmentally driven, epiphanic moment. However, I did become a bit more grateful for what is right quietly in our midst, such as bark, that does not require attention getting devices, such as barking. All of us are free to explore these everyday elements, and perhaps by doing so gain some insight into our mysterious world. The Aboriginal tree carving to the right suggests there are antecedents for this type of speculation.

Ibiza On My Mind

I hadn't seen my neighbor for much of the summer. I finally saw him tonight. He walked by while I was watering the plants. His hands were occupied with a crate of recyclables, but he stopped for a moment when I said hello. He told me he'd been in Spain. I mentioned my wife and I had been there some years ago and liked it. Where had he gone? Barcelona and Ibiza.

The Barcelona reference reminded me that my wife and I have a standing joke with each other in which the Catalan city plays a role. When we were on our honeymoon, we had an opportunity one morning to either drive in the direction of Bordeaux or towards Barcelona. We opted for France. Since then, we've promised ourselves in a not entirely serious way that we should have lunch in Barcelona one day. Maybe we'll see the stylish rooftops shown in the photograph.

My neighbor's mention of Ibiza made me think about music. I have some club music in which "Ibiza" is used as a sort of concept. The idea involves dancing, drinking, and sex. It's not complicated, and neither is the music. However, I enjoy the music, its contemporary rhythms and outlook, and a certain implied freedom that islands such as Ibiza seem to cultivate. Sometimes, I firmly believe I live in New Jersey, but my soul belongs to the islands.

Cuts

In a few days, NFL teams will form their opening day rosters. That means a number of players will not make the squad: they'll get cut. This process, which the media tactfully does not photograph or televise, touches more people than one would initially think. Recall, for example, when you were nosed out of a job you deeply wanted. Think about a time when that someone you just had to date brushed you aside for another. Consider an episode when you didn't get what at the time seemed the house of your dreams, because you were outbid by a few thousand dollars.

These sorts of incidents happen every day to just about everyone. Yes, even high achievers have their moments of disappointment. Somewhere along the line, we don't make the cut. If you've never had that experience, you're just not trying hard enough.

The illustration shows the late Johnny Unitas. He was cut from the Pittsburgh Steelers, the team that originally drafted him. He ended up playing for the Baltimore Colts and was arguably the greatest quarterback in the history of professional football.

The Merchandising of Eat Pray Love

I was looking up Eat Pray Love's domestic box office gross this evening, and I saw a Home Shopping Network banner ad above the information. I just had to look. In the interest of sharing a view into the merchandising of the film and the bestselling book, here's the HSN link. It is very instructive.

Ah, for the B.O. gross: $62 million in 19 days, as of August 31st. Boxofficemojo.com provides detailed information on the top line financials.