London in New York

CAN HE STILL ‘ENJOY THE SILENCE’?

Words like violence
Break the silence
Come crashing in
Into my little world
Painful to me
Pierce right through me
Can’t you understand
All I ever wanted

All I ever needed
Is here in my arms
Words are very unnecessary
They can only do harm

-Depeche Mode (1990)

Cape Cod is the scene of some rather complex legal and political theater not seen since the days of the late Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy’s – Chappaquiddick incident. The tragic events of April 6th at Camp Good News on Cape Cod, involving a suicide of a suspected pedophile and a timely editorial published this morning by Walter Brooks, Publisher of Cape Cod Today entitled “Scott Brown’s Nightmare” suggest that there will be rather profound implications for Cape Cod District Attorney, Michael O’Keefe,  Scott Brown’s standing with voters and ultimately his own re-election effort and the continued operation of Camp Good News by the descendants of WWII Hero, W. Wyeth Willard, Chaplain 8th Marines,  the Willard-Brooks family.

Whether or not the shifting ground on the Cape will publicly force a revaluation by the junior Massachusetts Senator, or at least a recalibration of his moral compass is unclear. Scott Brown refused to even address the simple straight forward questions of conservative local radio personality Howie Carr on WRKO radio in Boston yesterday.

It will and has already, however, forced a re-evaluation of my own take on the criminal culpability of CGN, especially given the involvement of serious victim’s rights attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who is more than adept in exposing complicity or knowledge of patterns of abuse at the institutional or managerial level.  If that was in fact the case at CGN, they will likely pay a heavy price. As stated by Walter Brooks:

If anyone in New England is skilled at vetting child molestation accusers it would be Mr. Garabedian. His extensive experience with the Arch Diocese scandal brings tremendous credibility to his clients’ allegations.

After Scott Brown’s interview on 60 Minutes, I scorned the Massachusetts Senator for his problematic position concluding that he was writing his own Political Obituary. While some may rush to conclude that yesterday’s events on the Cape in effect vindicate the Massachusetts Senator, like Brooks, I believe otherwise.  Where I depart from Mitchell Garabedian’s somewhat effusive embrace of the Senator stating that “Scott Brown’s admission helped other victims come forward”, is that Brown is in a fundamentally different position both in terms of power and responsibility.  I continue to question the veracity, character and integrity of Brown’s calculated and shallow opportunism in making allegations to sell a book and reignite his re-election campaign rather than work with authorities to bring an alleged pedophile to justice. As stated by Walter Brooks:

How could this prominent, powerful man – this officer of the court, a one-time Army Judge Advocate, a member of the Massachusetts Senate and now a United States Senator, a man sworn to uphold the law and honor-bound to protect the innocent – withhold the name of the man who abused him and who knows how many other innocent children?

Brown’s account of his abuse was perceived by many on both the left and the right to be a fabrication or ‘fairy tale’.  The Senator in his rush to raise money sold his Horatio Alger story to Harper Collins rather than assist a local prosecutor in investigating, exposing and bringing to justice a pedophile who might still pose a risk to the children of his state.  As I was quick to point out then: “If Scott Brown is to be believed he has an Ed Foulk or a William Mulcahy problem in that he is enabling a child molester to roam freely, posing a continuing risk to children.”  The  passage of time has proved prophetic, given what now may be a historic  pattern of activity at  Camp Good News and the evidence that pedophiles in the above mentioned cases practiced their craft for the better part of 40 years while avoiding detection and apprehension.  Brown’s position seems now even more untenable given his responsibility to the mothers and fathers of the Commonwealth. If the children of any mother or father in Massachusetts are molested as a result of  Brown’s refusal to name his abuser, perhaps they can have solace and read the uplifting tale of triumph over adversity in Brown’s book, because not all pedophiles conveniently commit suicide before they face justice.

The Former Tea Party Candidate Is 100% Chai Tea Latte

In the end,  Scott Brown’s pose as a heroic figure may end up being viewed by the citizens of Massachusetts as plastic as his Barncoat and GMC Canyon pick-up truck act that like a Norman Rockwell painting made  a vivid portrait identifying him with the common man. To secure his ascension to the late  Senator Teddy Kennedy’s seat, the former Tea Party candidate apparently turned in his Cosmopolitan. But it seems in retrospect, much to their chagrin it was for a chai tea latte or maybe a non-fat skim mocha frappucino. To my critics, all I am guilty of as a citizen blogger is asking legitimate questions about the veracity, character and integrity of a national leader who some say has Presidential aspirations, where the mainstream media literally asked none and never otherwise challenged his or Harper Collins financed public relations & re-election campaign. Obviously mine is not as fashionable a stance.

LINKS:  Image references for aspiring Scott Brown’s

-Barncoat by LL Bean
-GMC Canyon Truck
-Chai Tea Latte: drink only in private.

NOTE: This blog has been republished by permission on Cape Cod Today news site.

Stacy London Leads UJA Fete of Frank Doroff & Steven Tanger at Cipriani

Elie Tahari, Stacy London, Steven Tanger

The Jewish spirit of philanthropy and commitment to community were very much in fashion and boldly on display at Cipriani earlier this week. More than 400 fashion-industry executives, professionals, designers and pillars of New York’s philanthropic community gathered to honor Frank Doroff, vice chairman of Bloomingdale’s, and Steven B. Tanger, chief executive officer of Tanger Factory Outlets Centers, Inc., at UJA-Federation of New York’s Annual Fashion Luncheon on Tuesday, April 5th at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City.

Stacy London, co-host of TLC’s What Not to Wear, style correspondent for NBC’s Today Show, and founding partner of Style For Hire, emceed the luncheon. Michael Gould, chairman & CEO of my favorite department store, Bloomingdale’s, presented to Frank Doroff and Laurence C. Leeds Jr. of Buckingham Capital Management Inc. presented to Steven B. Tanger.

This year’s event raised more than $850,000 for UJA-Federation’s annual campaign that sustains a network of more than 100 health, human-service, educational, and community-building agencies that touch the lives of more than 4.5 million people annually. Among those celebrating Doroff and Tanger were Jacki Nemerov of Polo Ralph Lauren, Elie Tahari of Elie Tahari, David Fisher of Bloomingdale’s, Ron Frasch of Saks Fifth Avenue, Brigitte Kleine of Tory Burch LLC, James B. Bradbeer Jr. of Lilly Pulitzer, Eileen Fisher of Eileen Fisher Inc., Wes Card of The Jones Group Inc., Vince Camuto of Vince Camuto, and more.

I was only too happy to cover this event, not just because UJA is the world’s largest community based philanthropy and because the event took place at one of the city’s most regal venues in Cipriani 42nd Street or because many in attendance were some of the very people who intensively support many critical local philanthropic organizations.  Stacy London’s presence was very much of interest.

As I arrived to take photos at the event, Stacy London asked me when the last time I took her photo was, I advised her that it was at a DIFFA –Dining by Design event in 2008 but that I had actually covered her father Herb London’s (a big thinker with the Hudson Institute), philanthropic efforts at the Soho residence of A.C.E. founder and philanthropist Henry Buhl. I then joked that since we had the same last name, if we got married she would not have to change hers. I was only half kidding. She humored me and expressed relief about not having to change the monograms on her luggage.

New York City local of Sicilian and Jewish American heritage, Stacy London (no relation to me despite some crossover in our ethnic backgrounds) has evolved into a truly unique media persona. Her fashion perspective is, in my estimation, truly humanistic.  She brings forth to her work values that involve self respect, taking pride in one’s appearance as a process to elevate one’s life and ultimately human dignity. God knows at times, personally I felt like I could use some instruction in “what not to wear.” Ms. London’s useful and often humorous instruction in how to attain confidence in one’s appearance makes clear that self respect is not a function of one’s socioeconomic status.  Thus, as more than a stylist but in effect consumer advocate she assists the every day man or women to find the proper way to value themselves without breaking the bank.  Stacy London illustrates that dignity is affordable for everyone. For you elevate our society one individual, one family and one community at a time; values that UJA, its honorees and Stacy London clearly exhibit in the values of their every day lives. And to that I can only say “L’Chaim.”

Do The Fashionable Elite…Suck?

You walked into the party like you were walking onto a yacht
Your hat strategically dipped below one eye
Your scarf it was apricot
You had one eye in the mirror as you watched yourself gavotte
And all the girls (and boys) dreamed that they’d be your partner
They’d be your partner, and…

You’re so vain, you probably think this blog is about you
You’re so vain, I’ll bet you think this blog is about you
Don’t you? Don’t You?

-Carly Simon, You’re So Vain (1972)

The Fashionable Elite in New York City….well, sort of kind of, really do and genuinely kind of suck; at least many of the ‘writers’ anyway. It is painful to even say this but your ‘Insider’ perspective is sort of well, kind of…how do I say this politely? Repetitive and predictable are words that come to mind.  When I read you, it’s like watching General Hospital Circa 1980, falling asleep and then waking up tuning in 2005 and realizing that nothing has changed. Your “About Last Night” coverage still has your formulaically blowing smoke up the ass of the same cast of characters you have been “covering” or hanging out with for years regularly. They are part of your circle. I get it. You are all so bitchin, cool and tres chic, appear constantly on all the right photographers’ websites and get quoted and/or interviewed by your other media friends consistently.  In fact, most often when you “cover” events, you make sure to get your photo taken as you frankly are part of the fabric of the story, or at least your being there is.

You won’t admit it. All dandy and preppy like, maybe you fancy yourself as Truman Capote but currently in certain circles you are more in Vogue, because many of these young folks have no idea who he even was, and that is good for you, that young people no longer have any sense of history. And yes you are one of the preferred walker’s for fashionable young female socialites, nudging other male socialites aside,  to society gala’s and fashionable store openings and product launches.   Maybe perhaps you fancy yourself as Tom Wolfe but  the only bonfire you aspire to is one of your own ‘Vanity’. Maybe, however, that is not ‘Fair’. You get your style tips from Society’s original ”Dandy“,  Patrick McDonald or maybe even ‘The Image Guru”  Montgomery Frazier but you won’t even give either man his props. Yet you know that it is literally impossible to upstage an original. But I diverge.

Yes you are so trendy that you may even be the reason for the origination of this new society phenomenon called being a “News Butterfly” — the trend of the social news media ‘professional’ as the story, who spend more time at their own personal photo shoots, posting images of their well styled, frequently made over selves to Facebook.   Hell it worked for Suzanne Stone Maretto, I mean Rachelle Hruska, the new media entrepreneur, who is literally To Die For and looks equally good in magazines, in newspapers, front of the camera on the Red Carpet and on T.V.  You will forgive me, I just can’t listen because it all makes no freaking sense. Communications skills? Who needs those? Just master sound bites and wear some hot clothes and again repeatedly remind people how totally bitchin, cool and tres chic you are. But then again there is worse, there is Micah Jesse. Seriously WTF is even the point of that? Yes, I understand that with the public being so dumbed down, there is even a place for ‘ridicutards‘ on red carpets.

No need to conduct research, study history or come up with novel ideas. A News Butterfly can simply read the blogs and postings of those less famous or less consumed with their own fame game, lift and carry. Some so called real published writers do this and get away with it.  No need to sound like John Montone or even have have the “Eyebrow Man”,  George Whipple’s eyebrows but simply ramble and give a few “you go girls”,  be stylishly glamm and all Wendy Williams. Yeah, that’s special and actually it will probably work in New York City in 2011.

You can purport to be reporting on social happenings while reminding people how socially happening, you and your clique of friends are. Like Andy Warhol on crack, you already had your 15 minutes but that is not enough, so hell turn the camera on yourself to remind us once again how we should all be reading and following you because of whom you know.   Like Foreigner says, it’s all Head Games, just you and me baby playing head games.

In fact, if you had your own party, you could be the guests and the media. Or limit media coverage by folks who aspire to be just like you while they cross link back to your blog and put your photo in their blog so you will return the favor and maybe even reference  their unique insights in your columns. Insider Baseball is so delicious. Easy to hit the balls out of the park when you know what is coming, fastballs, sliders and curves no worries. They all look like hefty, Italian meatballs dripping with sauce or well….sort of like me (at least until I lose 25 more pounds).

So here is my challenge. I am throwing down the gauntlet but since none of your fashionably elite friends will quote or link this blog, you have no worries if you decide not to take it. You are safe from critique by your clique. Instead of posing as a tres cool, chic, insightful and original, why not actually do something different? Try BEING.

Listen, Carrie Bradshaw has nothing on you. In fact you have something on her. You have a penis and she well….has a face like a horse and you well don’t. Well maybe Micah Jesse does have a face like a horse’s ass.   Ouch! But this blog is not even seriously about him. He does not even pretend to be a writer. He is a blogger suffering from celebrity worship syndrome if nothing else and a wannabe east coast Perez  Hilton. And let me be clear aspiring to be Perez Hilton is like aspiring to be the rather prolific gay doodie of Chucky.

How often can you simply sit at your PC and plug in the same tired formula blowing smoke up the ass of your fashionably elite friends on so many irrelevant issues and call yourself a writer?  Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, Jimmy Breslin,  Norman Mailer you are not. They were in touch with something on a different plane about who and what were are as a people.  I think you must know this.  You do have some nice clothes though and have exhibited a mastery of the social media.

It took you half your natural born life growing up in Manhattan to make it above 96th street but glad you finally did so, at least now that is sufficiently gentrified. But then again, as you are truly ‘a man about town’, had you checked nearly a decade ago you would have already noticed that.  Glad you like my Cutler & Gross eyeglasses to finally get a pair yourself, I got them two years ago and was wearing nerdy frames before being nerdy became trendy and cool.  So forgive me, if most often, in my estimation, you are Carrie Bradshaw in boxers and a sports jacket or overcoat. But do me a favor, if you interview me, formally or informally or otherwise source me for information looking for ideas that emanate at the grassroots of society, kindly quote or reference the sources not one of your pals who you are doing a favor for.  Can’t you say, do or write something which is not a phucking cliche or stop being a media whore,  pitching yourself to the gossip media? Say something of import for once for crying out loud, maybe even something that is not so utterly fashionable and trendy?

Note: To those who might  be inclined to interpret this blog as one of hate towards any one specific individual of the so called fashionable publishing elite who cover life on the Avenue, try to consider it instead a challenge to maybe more than one individual NOT to morph into something so utterly Carrie Bradshaw. After all, that Sex and the City persona which all too often has served as the template for too many chic lit bloggers,  is largely a caricature or creative edit of the actual public night  life of Candace Bushnell as created by her editor(s) for a salacious column in the  Observer in the 1990’s.  In short, it was fiction based on a lie or many lies or embellishments for effect. To use that as a template for your career, it is not exactly art mimicking life so much as it is life mimicking plastic, even if Sarah Jessica Parker is your fashion hero.  But I get it, even SJP gets it. There is more money in playing Carrie Bradshaw, a caricature of Candace Bushnell then there actually is in being Candace Bushnell. So mimic the plastic is perhaps the lesson indeed. You may, however, just wanna keep opportunistic douche-bags like Darren Starr who will rip-off ‘your’ concepts at a comfortable distance.

Links: This blog was picked up/lifted by the following

-Tia Walker’s The Quest for “It”
-Cape Cod Today news site

Words like violence
Break the silence
Come crashing in
Into my little world
Painful to me
Pierce right through me
Can’t you understand
All I ever wanted

All I ever needed
Is here in my arms
Words are very unnecessary
They can only do harm

-Depeche Mode (1990)

Today, as I took a walk in and around Lower Manhattan and Tribeca specifically, I found myself looking up near the World Trade Center site, and with all due respect to the rebuilding efforts of some of New York’s prominent Real Estate families, I  still find myself very much less than amazed at what has been rebuilt there to date. For all the talk of American exceptionalism, does it not begin and end with what we do or do not do at Ground Zero?

My thoughts were with my brother Stewart, a former construction worker with J Fletcher Cramer & Son and Joseph M. Sanzari, Inc. out of New Jersey. His work in the cleanup effort shortly after the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the brutality of the scene in the early hours and days after our national tragedy still scar his memory. I thought of my deceased father who was an engineer for Shea Stadium’s Engineer/Architect Praeger-Kavanagh-Waterbury (PKG). He had a tremendous understanding of the historical import of structures that symbolize the spirit,  ingenuity and achievement of a society; symbols that forces of modernity should not be allowed to simply wash away. For in the attempt to move forward there is the risk that in discarding or not paying fair tribute to the past, you will move a society backwards.  He would often discuss with me why they preserved The Pyramids of Ancient Egypt, the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, The Colosseum of Rome. Yet  we allow for the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center which sat at the crossroads of humanity to melt into the distant past.

I thought of the work of Twin Towers Alliance Foundation, a voice of reason, often in the wilderness failing to gain meaningful traction in a mainstream media consumed instead with perpetuating false and irrelevant themes than educating and lifting the populace. And wondered further what the Voices of September 11th would have wanted us to do as a people. After the mourning and beyond the tribute of a 9/11 Living Memorial Project how would we continue to honor their memory? Would they have wanted us to simply accept being a lesser nation, a dispirited and aimless people?

I thought that we have a Landmarks Conservancy, conservation, preservation and restoration movements. Where is our sense of history, our national pride; where our soul was opened we settle for an open scab for the better part of a decade?

My heart broken, I found myself looking up and around that sacred ground, pondering how much has truly gone wrong in our nation since that date. The culture of distraction in high gear leave us operating in illusion as we remain in a period of tremendous economic uncertainty, perhaps even accelerating decline into a double-dip recession with consumer confidence levels lower now than the lowest points of  the ‘Great Recession’ according to Robert Reich, with a leadership at the state, local and national level that is seemingly disengaged with the citizenry and otherwise operating without a rudder or compass. I wonder about the fate of our republic when the mass media spews illicit and vile images of our culture for public consumption and intoxication and institutions of higher learning like Rutgers University pay five figure sums for moronic Reality TV figures to address their student body.

As the fate of our country and perhaps humanity as a whole hangs in the balance, all around us I witness the disintegration of American culture and values, not knowing for sure where it all ends but recognizing for sure where it all began. The work of the Twin Towers Alliance Foundation has never been more relevant as we find ourselves less than six months away from the 10th Anniversary of 9/11. What if our leaders had followed their sage instruction and listened rather than subjugated the will of the people for restoration of the symbols of our national pride?  The Swindle at Ground Zero has sold America short.

So I say to you:

Help, I have done it again
I have been here many times before
Hurt myself again today
And, the worst part is there’s no-one else to blame

Be my friend
Hold me, wrap me up
Unfold me
I am small
I’m needy
Warm me up
And breathe me

These were my thoughts without realizing at the time that Monday, April 4, 2011 is what would have been the 38th Birthday of the Twin Towers. 38 years ago today the World Trade Center opened.

Links & Perspective

-Twin Towers Alliance Foundation
-The Twin Towers Project: A Cautionary Tale by Brian C. Anderson
-Eminent Remains: The Buried Legacy of the Original Ground Zero by Gary North
-New York – A Documentary Film Online –PBS by Ric Burns, see also YouTube
-New York – A Documentary (Final Segment)
-Outgrowing Jane Jacobs and Her New York
-“The Death and Life of Great American Cities” by Jane Jacobs
-National 9/11 Memorial & Museum
-911Tenth.com
-Project Rebirth
-WTC2011 by Kevin Gardner. See also WTCII
-WTC History
-World Trade Center Opens: The Twin Towers were dedicated on April 4, 1973

American Decline

-The Quiet Storm Blowin’ In the Wind of Cultural Decay
-International Student Guide to the USA
-How Immigration Serves Ruling Class Interests
-The End of America?
-The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism
-The American Empire Project
-The End of America (movie)
-The Decline and Fall of the American Empire by Alfred W. McCoy
-How America will collapse (by 2025)
-Think Again: American Decline – This time it’s for real. By Gideon Rachman
-How America Can Rise Again: Is America going to hell? After a year of economic calamity that many fear has sent us into irreversible decline, the author finds reassurance in the peculiarly American cycle of crisis and renewal, and in the continuing strength of the forces that have made the country great: our university system, our receptiveness to immigration, our culture of innovation. In most significant ways, the U.S. remains the envy of the world. But here’s the alarming problem: our governing system is old and broken and dysfunctional. Fixing it—without resorting to a constitutional convention or a coup—is the key to securing the nation’s future. By JAMES FALLOWS

9/11 Tribute Videos (selected)

-9/11 Tribute – Version 3
-“9/11” The Final Chapter: A Road Walker Production
-World Trade Center Tribute (1966-2001, 9/11)
-World Trade Center – Construction (1966 – 1974)
-The 911 Tribute of Light Short Film

Liberty Movement

-Ron Paul
-Daily Paul
-Campaign For Liberty
-Students For Liberty
-Young Americans For Liberty
-The Secret Government Bill Moyers

Rutgers Snookied: Pays Ignoramous Fake Guidette Bimbo $32,000 to Speak at University

ONLY IN New Jersey can a female of Chilean descent adopted by an Italian-American family from Poughkeepsie, New York get PAID to speak to a student body, about her reality pose as a poor (in taste) caricature of an Italian-American.

In a gangland style hit that would have made Tony Soprano or Paulie Walnuts proud, the diminutive bimbo reality star of MTV’s Jersey Shore, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi pulled in a $32,000 speaking fee from the Rutgers University Programming Association (RUPA), a student group, for addressing Rutgers students in two two hour sessions. If that is not a Snooki punch, I do not know what is. According to the New York Post:

The 8:00pm and 10:00pm question-and-answer sessions at Livingston Student Center in Piscataway, N.J., drew sold-out audiences of about 500 students, some of whom were brought on stage to learn the “Jersey Shore” fist pump or to be judged on their abs.

This is $2,000 more than the University paid a Nobel Prize Winner, Toni Morrison to speak at their 2011 commencement; a sum that any mob boss would be proud of for one of their soldiers. Nevertheless, that’s still a little scary if you ask me.

If a few too many Rutgers grads utter “how you doin” as they head for the Jersey Shore and the unemployment line after graduation, now you know why. How Rutgers University [can] defend Snooki’s $32,000 appearance is beyond me.

Shocking that a so called institution of “higher learning” would pay such a low life or lower form of life 32K  to impart the few meaningless thoughts that swirl around the Mallrats’ tiny little meatball head.  As if Snooki’s lifestyle and idiotic and incoherent philosophy and questionable moral values  do not garner enough attention via multiple repeats of the show that air daily.  And  maybe those thought provoking interviews of Jersey Shore cast members conducted by MTV’s Dick Cavett in the form of  bodacious Julissa Bermudez, in her ‘Jersey Shore After Hours’ segments, do not provide a sufficient lens from which Rutgers students could discern her sterling intellect and barren character.  No kids, Rutgers University needed an exclusive for their students with Cromagnon Man’s kid sister.

Let me be even more blunt, I would not pay Snooki 32 dollars to be in the same room with me, let alone listen to her pontificate on any matters of import or otherwise allow her to provide any oral services; although candidly were she to do so she might through osmosis absorb some higher learning spewing from my tree of knowledge. That Rutgers or its student group, the Rutgers University Programming Association (RUPA)  paid her 32 thousand dollars from their student activity fee should at least grab the attention of some of the parents paying tuition, those providing financial aid or otherwise subsidizing  an education at New Jersey’s leading University.

And you wonder where the never ending disintegration of American culture begins and where it all ends. I would say only in America, but instead will say ‘Only In New Jersey’ kids, only in New Jersey.  In the words of Bruce Springsteen, perhaps the expanding role of Reality TV in American society enabling the rise of the Snooki’s indicates perhaps that in 2011 with the economy affording little economic opportunity:   “the highway’s jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive.  Everybody’s out on the run tonight but there’s no place left to hide.”

Make no mistake, however, together Wendy we’ll end up living with the sadness……of the cultural collapse.

*PLEASE NOTE: This blog also was published by permission on Walter Brooks’ Cape Cod Today.