Staging Democracy

For the past month, we’ve gone to central park daily to work on frisbee forehands. I’ve probably thrown thousands of errant slicing forehands trying to perfect the flick. Usually on my way to the park I visualize how the frisbee should rest in my hand, the edge clamped between my middle and ring finger, the disc leveled between my pointer finger knuckle on the bottom of the disc and my thumb on the top rim. It’s quite an unnatural grip that needs to be thought about to become natural. In the midst of deep thought, I heard these jarring chants.

“NYPD suck my dick!”
“How do you spell racist? NYPD”
“My generation been waiting for you all!”
“No justice no peace!”

Thousands of demonstrators were assembled in front of the American museum of natural history. It was a fitting stage for the protestors. the neoclassical museum façade built in 1874 invoked roman and Greek architecture to convey long the lasting glory and continuity of European imperial culture. at the top of the stairs, a line of NYPD cops punctuated by the equestrian Roosevelt statue. The 1940 bronze statue shows smug Roosevelt victorious on horseback with scantily clad American Indian and African standing beside him. The arrangement of figures representing white supremacy and settler colonialism. In front of this authoritarian formation, metal barricades and demonstrators of all ages and skin colors with cardboard signs.

In his own words, Roosevelt said, “It’s more important to tell the truth about the president — pleasant or unpleasant — than about anyone else.” (contrast this to trump rolling his eyes and telling reporters to shut up at press conferences). Under pressure to remove the statue for its racist content, the museum kept Roosevelt’s sculpture in the front and showed the value of presenting the uncomfortable past… to show that people in our times can understand and confront unpleasant history.

As I practiced gripping my frisbee walking through this rally, I saw an atmosphere that welcomed dissent and dialogue. Even though I didn’t partake in chanting “NYPD suck my dick”, could see the passion of the protesters in endangering their lives in times of corona for a better future.

                                 

                                  

Chatham - Signs of our times

In the front lawn of our vacation rental, a gravestone marker,

Apparently a doctor, a son of a pastor,

He treated those small pox sick,

and succumbed to the disease himself in 1766.

The Chinese ate bats in wet markets,

Hatched corona but didn't tell the world before they spread it,

Now we have mathematically incorrect signs calling for 6 feet of separations,

Where the sides of the square are shorter than the sloped inclinations.

Seals can attract sharks,

So don't swim in the dark,

Never mind the water temperature is 43.3 degrees farenheit,

and you'd die in 20 minutes after putting up a good fight.

Lurking in the sand dunes,

is a sign warning of great white goons,

Please spare me the signage,

we're a hundred meters in from the ocean edge. 

This beach is closed for migratory birds,

including piping plovers and terns,

A bright triangular orange warning sign,

works in conjunction with a thin red line. 

We're in Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge,

the winds are strong and the waves are huge,

I'm working from 'home',

trying not to sound like i'm at the beach while i take a call as i roam.

Isn't it apparent?

A smelly toilet for men on the right and women's washroom on the left,

that this structure is a restroom,

and not a guest room?

Warning. No lifeguard on the hill,

You know the drill

No swimming no wading,

nor diving nor waterskiing

N95 masks in the sand,

corona virus trash hard to understand.

There's no one around to social distance from,

why bother wearing one?

In front of lighthouse,

commissioned by thomas jefferson,

A strange hazard sign sprouts,

"rough Danger bar"  illuminates for none.

No dogs allowed on the beach,

they take a dump off the leash,

and make a mess of people's unsuspecting sneakers.

Smelly misdemeanors.

Strong currents,

will take you out to sea,

as deterrents,

we post ugly signs as a desperate plea.

As if it wasn't enough,

We post one sign after another,

So we can stuff,

Your mind with clutter.

Please don't feed the seals,

It's harmful and illegal.

Marine mammals should make you feel nervous,

Because they feed sharks which are dangerous.

Chatham

Lighthouse

Sea

Sunset

Banana Bread and Pandemic

Food shopping during corona. We were going through the aisles of Stop and Shop scavenging for chopped walnuts for banana bread when a couple horrified senior customers in masks told us we were going down the wrong way. On the floor were taped arrow markings that directed snaking one way circulation through the aisles to prevent people jousting each other with covid coughs. We didn’t see the walnuts, but we did see a creepy terminator robot air purifier at the end of the lane. 

With a large senior population fearful for their lives we saw everyone in Chatham in face masks, some even with plastic face visors. We New Yorkers were short sighted and let covid run wild as people crowded into subways and grocery stores nonchalantly. Chatham residents don’t care they look ridiculous... they are determined not to follow New York’s example of corona proliferation. 

Corona has been changing people's behavior in incalculable ways other than food shopping. I'm no exception. I never made banana bread in my life, nor have i stood in the rain and looked at puddles in my free time. But this is what i do now. 

Banana bread recipe:

1). mix 1.5 cup flour, 1.25 tsp baking soda, 3/4 kosher salt first in a bowl.

2). mix 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/3 cup marscapone cheese, 1/4 cup unsalted butter, 2 large eggs in another bowl. 

3). combine bowls then add 4 bananas, 1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate,  1/2 cup chopped walnuts. 

4). bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

5). eat. 

6). watch puddles in the rain

Pandemic vs architecture

Last week, all NYC DDC (capital construction project manager) suspended all projects leaving me without work. It was shocking, given that DDC projects like Steven Holl's and WorkAC's libraries took 10 years to come into fruition i figured my job was safe for another 7 years. It was only a month ago that the first reported case of corona hit NYC. Faced with budget demands of fighting corona, NYC public architecture budgets have been surrendered. to clear my head, i went to the park. nobody told the trees about the virus. everything is blooming in quarantine. i called my friend working in a hospital to see how he was doing, and to bounce crazy ideas off him. 

"it's like a science fiction movie. all the old people are dying, the kids are running around like nothing happened."

"yeah"

"i have an idea. instead of making tic toc videos, all the young kids should volunteer in hospitals... they don't need face masks or anything. no need for trump to order supplies or plan anything special. they're immune."

"yeah, but i'm not sure i would trust their clinical judgement.... five year olds are not known to make great clinical choices."

"how about high schoolers?"

"fuck, i trust high schoolers less!"

"what is there to do really? the NY Post headlines read "NYC paramedic says coronavirus patients brought to hospitals ‘to die'" Based on the headlines in NYC, you would think all they have to do is turn on a ventilator."

"just wait and watch folks get sick?"

"yeah. kids these days could learn some compassion."

"i guess they could learn how to intubate and flip a switch. maybe it is that simple. i'm sure there are medical decisions to be made..."

"like... should we let the architect or lawyer live?"

"that's pretty easy, the architect.... it could be rule based.... like doctor > firefighter > teacher > farmer > scientists > water treatment worker > electricians > carpenters > architect > web developer > lawyer > tax collector> bartender...."

"but i guess, it gets more complicated if the lawyer is one of the kids' mom or something."

"there should be a rule, you can't treat your family member.... who should live, who should die.... we would be putting god like power in the hands of  a surly 17 year old"

"you know why the 1918 spanish flu killed mostly healthy young people yet spared old people?"

"why?"

"cause the older generation was exposed to a similar flu many years before 1918 and were immune"

"so maybe that's good for us when we're old and the next pandemic strikes in 30 years"

"yeah. it's great to be middle aged"

"the spanish flu started out in the midwest when some sick goose shit came in contact with a kid. the virus jumped from birds to people and spread with the troops fighting world war I"

"fucking animals... out to get us"

"yeah but did you know brain processes are fueled by viral mechanisms?"

"which parts, infectious laughter"

"snippets of viruses in our Arc genes package genetic information into capsids when our synapses fire... these packages of information tell nerves how to communicate and reorganize over time. in autistic kids, these genes are missing...." 

"weird"

"yeah, there's a reason for viral evolution... sometimes it wipes out your work and city, sometimes it confers human consciousness."

Buying a Car - Pandemic

desperate times call for desperate measures. after a week of working from home we've decided to pack up and flee the kids city. don't get me wrong. i love my kids, but i think i'm suffering PTSD from their non-stop 'call of duty modern warfare' machine gun battles. their skewed experience of the corona virus has been a non-stop video game playing tour of duty. Forget online home schooling of simple arithmetic and reading skills, my younger son has become an accomplished video game sniper during the corona outbreak.

having renounced public transportation since last week, we scootered to the Toyota dealership in manhattan. with ride share drivers coming down with corona, we wanted to buy a car instead of rent, to ensure nobody sneezed corona virus all over the interior. just last week I was biking through the hot zone... the Hasidic neighborhood in williamsburg. i found it odd the jews were carrying pillows in clear plastic bags, used flip phones, and walked in large fur hats. even odder has been their raucous party behavior. apparently they've been congregating and spreading corona like wildfire... partying like it's 1898 all over again.

today, i thought it would be funny to go buy a car in a face mask like a fucker and see the car salesman's reaction. the day before i was rattled in going to a post office where everyone wore masks except me. little did i know, the salesman was actually going to be paranoid himself. there were no introductory handshakes or idle chit chat. he sported a face mask, latex gloves, a container of lysol wipes, a bottle of hand sanitizer and a bottle of water on his desk. he complained that the dealership was even open. i didn't have the heart to tell him, that he should have shaved his beard to get an effective seal between his face and the mask.

I figured the impending shutdown of the car dealership would yield a great opportunity to get a good deal. I tried shamelessly to haggle the price... but car dealers are like delusional cockroaches even when faced with the impending implosion of the economy. He wouldn’t budge on the price. I lied and said I talked to someone on the phone and they would give me $5000 off... to which he responded over milli vanilli's seminal "girl you know it's true" song playing softly overhead that they'd rather let the cars sit here than give me a bargain. "We run a business to make money," he admonished me.

I then resolved to waste his time and make stupid jokes as revenge. “Yeah, I’d like to see your Toyota Corona... I mean Corolla..... can you tell me what the differences are between the le, se, and trb... What’s the difference between a gas and a hybrid car. Why is the rav4 so expensive? Is a rav4 like a corolla but higher?"

"can we buy a car and drive it off the lot today?"
"no, our finance person is out sick..."
"so we can’t get financing for the car today? Should we get a bank check? should we pay all cash with a suitcase full of bills? did your finance person call in 'sick' or is she faking corona to skip work?" I joked.

he didn’t find me funny. he was laying his life on his line selling Toyota cars, and I was cracking jokes. to show how insignificant my business was to him, he said, "last week, a billionaire just bought a top of the line highlander car in all cash."

the last time I drove a Camry was 2006. It was a durable car, but got flooded and had an assortment of electrical issues throughout its life. i swore i would never buy a car in nyc ever again. moving the car from parking space to parking space for street cleaning schedules became untenable when I had to send Ben to elementary school. Now with corona, all the rich people have fled to their bunkers in Long Island and there are plenty of spots on the street. also back in 2006, the middle 8" wide section of the rear camry seat could fold down thereby allowing skis to fit lengthwise. In the new model, none of these rear seats were configured like that. so in the middle of corona duress I was disappointed by the rear seat evolution and was making decisions on impulse purchases based on the ease of future ski trips.

we left the dealership dejected. i made a call out to subaru asking for quote on various models of outbacks. a tedious bike ride out to bumfuck queens yielded a used 2019 brown shit color outback in a used car lot. at 4pm, we had 3 hours to finalize the inspection for the car, fill in financing paperwork, obtain registration and insurance. all the employees were told their dealership was closing at 7pm for at least the next 4 months. faced with the prospect of not having access to a car over the next 4 months, we chose the shit color car.

we drove back to the city in our impulse purchase. we now have a vehicle to make a half baked road trip across the country. We are escaping the place with the most incidence of corona virus in America. i never imagined getting another car till this whole corona virus came up. now, i'm predicting our economy will go to shit for 18 months, digital happy hour and teleconferences and working from home nomadically will be the new norm.

ready to sell cars: lysol wipes, latex gloves, face mask, hand sanitizer, bottle of water.

window sticker reflection

please tell me about the trim features of the camry

used car lot, bumfuck queens

shit color mobile

signing paperwork in latex gloves

RNA vs DNA

NYC has shut down. schools, museums, restaurants, and stores are all closed. the subways run empty. It feels like the city is besieged in a wartime crisis. Like many others, I feel like a hopeless pawn caught in the crossfire of the current 4 billion year old feud between two long-standing molecular rivals: RNA and DNA. 

Currently a single-stranded RNA virus, Covid-19 is fighting for control of the molecular machinery that runs human cells on a global scale. ravaging cruise ships, church gatherings, and nursing homes, Covid-19 virus is scheming and impotent... not able to reproduce by themselves, they sit opportunistically in protein coat capsids that look like tanks ready to pounce on the cells of the weak and the old. They target DNA-run cells which boast the factories with power to create molecular machines. viruses like covid-19 hijack the DNA cell's factories to copy themselves because they don't have factories of their own. they blast through membrane walls, and send their  genetic code blueprints inside. once invaded, the cells are co-opted and begin assembling virus components capsids and single strands of RNA. when enough virus has been assembled, the cell bursts open, dispersing the viruses en masse. when sneezed or coughed out into someone else's mouth, nose or eyes the virus jumps to its next host. 

Miraculously over the course of billions of years, DNA somehow encoded the elements of human consciousness (think watson and crick 1953) through which it was able to discover its structure. DNA molecule was finally looking at itself.  DNA through their proxy scientists, was able to ascertain its own sequence, and then analyze their nemesis' viral RNA's structure and sequence to try to develop diagnostics and vaccines to eradicate viral RNA. being an agent of DNA myself, i wonder if RNA viruses were once fully functioning cells that became emasculated  by host DNA cells, or were they small cells that parasitized larger DNA cells, or were they bits of RNA that escaped from larger organisms? on a macroscopic policy scale, DNA through their surrogate politicians, are now decreeing social distancing, travel bans, and quarantines to limit RNA spread, and lowering interest rates to lessen the economic hardships on fellow DNA organisms. on a local scale, DNA through their human proxies are hoarding toilet paper, bread and pasta for survival in their battle against RNA.

Woodcut and Pandemic

Like corona virus, woodcut printing originated in china before it became viral. back in 220 AD the chinese first used wood cuts to print flowers on silk. like corona, woodcut technology spread through europe then japan then america. i printed my first 'corona' plant today. the process was unexpected. 

step 1: procure a set of chisels

 step 2: cut wood

step 3: check the print by making a rubbing with crayon and tracing paper

step 4: soak the paper in a shallow basin of water for an hour. damp paper apparently 

absorbs ink better. 

step 5: while waiting for the paper to absorb moisture, adjust the pressure of the printing press by rotating the spindles. 

step 6: in sending the woodcut through the press sandwiched in newsprint paper and a blanket, the pressure should be adjusted so as to squeeze the wood cut firmly to ensure the ink is transferred to the paper effectively. 

step 7: once the pressure has been gauged, start rolling the ink out on a glass table with a brayer. the ink should be rolled out thin and smooth so when it is rolled on the woodcut it's smooth, without inconsistencies, lumps, or bubbles.

step 8: start blotting out the wet paper to dry with newsprint. use a rolling pin to get excess water out. place the paper with its watermark facing the woodcut block. 

step 9: send the block through the press with the paper. 

step 10: additional prints can be made without inking. this prints are called 'ghosts', as they come out gray in tone. hang the prints on a clothesline to dry.