technology -v- culture ... and whatever else is on our minds today

It’s bad enough having to hear Boomers drone on about how New York has lost its edge. These tend to be folks who rarely leave Manhattan and have almost certainly never been to, say, an illegal Todd P show in Bushwick, surrounded by naked dancers and kids doing lines in plain view. Distressingly, though, this loss-of-edge notion has gone global:

“I’d hate to see Berlin smoothed over, with no critical voices left, the way the alternative art scene has been sanitized away in New York,” said Felicitas Adler, 54, clad in a trash-art sculpture she made out of cardboard and empty plastic bottles painted black at a recent demonstration to save Tacheles.

Ms Adler, please contact me before your next visit, and I’ll show you a thriving “alternative art scene”. In Brooklyn. Which is still, last I checked, part of New York.

My latest World Cup-themed podcast for PBS’s Need to Know is now available. Includes gratuitous clips of right-wing nutjobs bloviating about a sport they hate.

To the tune of Frère Jacques:

Ninteen-fifty, ninteen-fifty
One-to-zip, one-to-zip
You are going home now, you are going home now
Have a nice trip! Have a nice trip!

Bonus annoyance points for Americanism “one-to-zip” sted “one-nil”.

James Luther Dickinson died a few months ago. How did I miss this? The man was a genius, and now I’ll never get to interview him.

Seriously — the man who turned two Alex Chilton records * into masterpieces died, and I didn’t even know.

“Everybody goes as far as they can, they don’t just care/
You’re a wasted face, you’re a sad-eyed laugh, you’re a holocaust”

Goddamn, Jim — rest in peace.

[UPDATE (and the asterisk ***): Plus he produced yet another masterpiece, the one that led me to the Big Star and Chilton stuff.]

Fred Clark rules my world every shabbos. He’s my rebbe, for real.

From my in-box at Channel Thirteen:

From: REDACTED
Sent: Mon 6/29/2009 4:06 PM
To: Karr, Rick
Subject: The anti-MJ tribute commentary

A very much opposing view of the Michael Jackson tributes….from Republican strategist Jack Burkman…to schedule please use media contacts below:

1. The celebration of Jackson’s death — which is what the cable shows are doing — is a shocking indictment of American culture. Jackson was a drug addict, a nut, a person who tried through plastic surgery to turn himself into a transvestite, and a cross dresser. This, of course, leaves aside charges of child molestation but he was found innocent.

A transvestite … AND a crossdresser!

(more…)

Earlier this year, I got into a beef with a [misguided] group of environmentalists in rural Pennsylvania.

Long story short, while I approved of their goals, I disdained their approach, which lacked charity and empathy. Attacking their neighbors, I thought, gained nothing. Worse, it lost the all-important sympathy of those neighbors, some of whom are pretty darned cool and enlightened. The environmentalists disagreed.

All along, I’d thought that their beef wasn’t with their neighbors, many of whom had agreed to sell drilling rights on their land to gas prospectors who were going to use a dangerous technique, but rather with federal regulators (a.k.a. the Bush Administration) who’d agreed to allow said technique to go unregulated.

Finally, some lawmakers are about to introduce legislation that would regulate the technique — which is what should have happened in the first place. Here’s hoping that the bill passes, and that my environmentalist acquaintances can repair the damage they’ve done by implying that their neighbors are mendacious idiots.

Does anyone really care about the threat of communism anymore?

Haven’t we moved on to another mortal foe?

Is Roy Edroso incisive, or what?

Transit funding has taken a big hit in the House version of the stimulus bill, and yesterday some bloggers were speculating that it was because House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar (D-MN) had rolled over and allowed the money to go to tax cuts instead. But the situation may not be as bad as it looks – yet.

Passenger rail funding went from $5 billion to $1 billion. Road-building and repair look set to receive $30 billion to transit’s $10 billion. And most worrying to transit advocates, a $2 billion subsidy to transit operating expenses (i.e. not capital construction, acquisition, or maintenance) has been completely eliminated. Those advocates say that’s a low blow, because transit agencies are staggering under the burdens of increased ridership (most passenger-trips cost more than they bring in at the fare box, which means each additional rider can actually increase an agency’s deficit). They warn that without the subsidy, transit agencies will have to cut service, lay off employees, or increase fares.

But those same transit advocates are optimistic that political wrangling in the House could restore a sizable chunk of the money that transit lost.

Here’s what happened, according to Blueprint America’s sources: Oberstar went into the negotiation process with high hopes for transit funding. But he met resistance from two places: First, Lawrence Summers, chair of President Obama’s National Economic Council, has been insisting that stimulus money go to “shovel-ready” projects. In the case of passenger rail money, the $1 billion that remains is apparently for Amtrak projects that are ready to go, while the remainder was slated for projects in their very early stages of development, like California’s high-speed rail line from the Bay Area to Los Angeles.

Second, the House leadership reportedly pressured Oberstar into taking the cuts in stride. Our sources say Oberstar bowed to the pressure because he’ll need the leadership’s support to move two big bills later this year – the transportation reauthorization and an increase in the Federal gasoline tax. Given both sources of resistance, Oberstar sat back while Rep. David Obey (D-WI), Chair of the House Appropriations Committee, gutted transit provisions in the bill.

Even if the bill passes as-is, transit advocates say there might be a silver lining for struggling transit agencies: A majority of the appropriation for roads can actually be reassigned to transit at a state’s discretion. That said, one source tells us that not many state Departments of Transportation are “quite that enlightened”.

More importantly, though, it’s not looking as though the bill will pass as-is. There are indications that the Senate isn’t happy with the cuts to transit and that the whole stimulus package could grow.

Finally, there could be a floor fight over the transit appropriation – especially the operating subsidy for transit agencies. There’s a rumor that Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) might take the matter to the floor. Sources tell us that depends on a few things: the political lay of the land in the House (and Senate); whether or not the American Public Transportation Association is willing to go to the mat to win back the subsidy; and whether or not transit agencies can add to the coalition – for example, by enlisting the support of the Congressional black and urban caucuses.

One bit of good news in the bill as it stands: Advocates for pedestrians and cyclists are apparently overjoyed with the appropriations for their projects, which are apparently the largest ever.

[Cross-posted at Blueprint America.]