the red hook
DANTE ON THE NEW MATRIX - PAGE 10
STAR REVUE
JANUARY 2022
FREE INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM
Van Brunt Goes Mossy Turn to page 7
For the Kids
When Carpenters were king
T
by Michael Quinn
wo journalists approached musician Richard Carpenter to get his blessing on a book they were developing on the band that he’d he fronted in the 1970s and ’80s with his sister Karen (now deceased). Richard offered more than his approval. He gave his time, access to his archive, and answers to countless questions. He also took charge of the project. “Hello, and welcome to our book,” he writes on page one of Carpenters: The Musical Legacy. On the margins of every page, you can practically feel co-authors Mike Cidoni Lennox and Chris May fretting, fawning, and finally ceding control. So much for hard-hitting journalism: This is the world according to Richard.
Use those paper towel holders to make cool things! LIKE MAGIC WANDS, FLUTES, FAIRY WANDS AND LIGHT SABRES
Knowing it’s a vanity project doesn’t make it any less impressive. Gorgeously packaged, this whopper of a superfan scrapbook contains family photos, trivia, ephemera, tour schedules, interviews, and an exhaustive list of the Carpenters’ discography. It goes through their career song by song, year by year, including release dates, chart entry dates, peak positions, and the amount of time each spent on a chart.
The level of detail is fascinating and the commitment to getting it right, admirable. What the book doesn’t capture are the two things that the Carpenters are known for: Karen’s haunting voice and that incredibly distinctive sound. Those layered harmonies, arrangements, and production are all Richard’s work. As he sagely points out, “an arrangement can make or break a record.” The problem is, he never lets you forget it. Richard’s relentless bid for recognition is understandable. History has not been kind to him. Previously, by his own admission, he had been burned by authorizing a biography he later dismissed as “the anorexia book,” as it
(see Books, page 15)
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Bay Street has an artificial Emerald Isle, as the new $1 million synthetic turf is ready for action!
Update on Red Hook Rec Center and Ballfields
T
he Red Hook Recreation Center has remained closed despite getting a temporary boiler after the previous boiler sustained damage during Hurricane Ida in September.
The rec center originally closed indefinitely due to the boiler. After some in the community complained, there was initially hope that it could re-open on December 27th. That date got pushed back to January 3rd. However, for now, the recreation center remains closed due to COVID-related issues. A member of the Parks Department told me she
by Brian Abate hopes the recreation center will be able to re-open within the next two weeks but couldn’t give a definite date. “It’s been so frustrating,” said David Small, a Red Hook resident who relied on the recreation center to get exercise. “I’ve sat through two-hour meetings, I’ve called every day, and it seems like politicians are patting themselves on the back without getting results.” With the Red Hook Recreation Center closed, residents have to go to the Sunset Park Recreation Center which is located at 4200 7th Ave., 2.6 miles away. It’s a
The Red Hook Star-Revue is published every month.
two bus commute.
soccer.
“I have health issues that make it tough for me travel so it’s really disappointing that even though there’s a new boiler, the rec center is still closed,” Small said.
“I was pretty young when the fields closed down so we had to find other places to play for all these years,” said Jonathan, a Red Hook resident. “It’s convenient to have the fields open right now especially since not too many people have been using them yet.”
Some good news Though the latest news regarding the recreation center is disappointing, the good news is that some of the Red Hook ballfields are now open. The fields have been closed for years after toxins were discovered in the soil in the fields. Though there hasn’t been a grand re-opening, people are already using the fields and I spoke to a few people who were there playing
Though the fields aren’t too crowded yet, it’s nice to see them being used after they were closed for so many years. “It’s been a long time coming for sure,” Johnathan said.
Founded June 2010 by George Fiala and Frank Galeano with thanks to these guys
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January 2022
LETTERS
Will read next issue
SEND THEM TO GEORGE@REDHOOKSTAR.COM OR POST ON OUR WEBSITE, WWW.STAR-REVUE.COM.
I picked up The Red Hook Star Revue’s December issue from Food Bazaar on Sunday night and finally got to read Dante's article about “It’s a Wonderful Life” this morning. I wanted to let him know how spot on it was and that I actually got a bit choked up reading the fourth to last paragraph about how he can relate to George’s frustrations with the inevitable disappointments of life…because I can too.
I was surprised to hear comments like, "you're voting Latina" or "I didn’t get a turkey."
And speaking of watching the film on different levels…I absolutely love George and Mary’s interplay after the dance when she’s in her robe. It’s surprisingly flirty for a film from that era…. and for a film that is considered so wholesome and Christmas-y in this era.
We as Puerto Ricans are Tainos, African and Spanish and the mixture. I am born and raised in Red Hook from the Point.
One scene I’ve never quite understood is when George visits Mary in her home and Sam Wainwright talks to them on the phone together. They’re together, saddish and yearning for each other. Then George gets angry and a bit uncomfortably physical with her. Then they breakdown crying together and hugging and kissing. Next scene: they’re getting married. I maybe understood George’s range of emotions given his life’s disappointments even up to just that point…but Mary is quite a saint (or a bit obsessive?) to overlook his simmering rage. Anyway, thanks for the great, thoughtful and insightful article! It definitely makes me want to pick up the Star Revue in January! —Michael Whidden
Votes with her head
Congratulations to Mrs. Frances Brown for winning the Red Hook East TA president, it was a great turnout! Wonderful night out seeing neighbors, former students, and parents I
My answer is that I am a proud Puerto Rican but I do my homework. I don’t just vote race or what I eat. Mrs. Brown is active in the community. She is a member of CB6, the Justice Center, public safety and Mothers Against Guns plus many things that affect my Red Hook community.
It helps to have a snappy introduction, good hook, be timely, precise, have an interesting or different viewpoint to increase your odds of being published. Many papers welcome letters commenting on their own editorials, articles or previously published letters to the editor.
The garbage of bad mouthing started from a few at the Red Hook Senior Center. The director Maria is a strong, great woman, but she can’t control the gossip. Maria celebrates Black History Month, Hispanic History Month, Saint Patrick’s Day. She is not part of their BS.
Many of us have opinions on news not only from Washington, Albany and City Hall but also neighborhoods and local issues which impact our communities and daily lives.
Maria can address it over and over but people who gossip have nothing better to do.
Keep Those Letters Coming...
Congratulations to my fellow Letter to the Editor writers in 2021. Surveys reveal that “Letters To The Editor” is one of the most widely read and popular sections of any newspaper. Local community based newspapers such as the Red Hook Star and others all offer readers a chance to speak out. The same is true with daily newspapers such as the Daily News, Post, Times,
Please join me along with your neighbors in reading your favorite daily and local community newspapers. Patronize their advertisers; they provide the revenues necessary to keep them in business. Let them know you saw their ad. This is what helps keep our neighbors employed, the local economy growing and provide space for your favorite or not so favorite letter writers.—Larry Penner, Long Time Reader and Frequent Letter Writer
Carlos says bye-bye
(editors note - Carlos Menchaca, who we used to write a lot about in these pages when his actions warranted, did not actually say goodbye to us and you readers, this was an email that he circulated to his email list. We reprint it as a public service).
In the marketplace of ideas, let us hope there continues to be room for everyone, including the Red Hook Star along with all the other weekly newspapers.
The greatest gift of being your Council Member was watching how your voice spoke truth to power and changed the way the government responded to our needs. I have witnessed it time and time again over the past 8 years. You have kept me accountable, inspired, and engaged in what local government can and should look like — an office directly led by the people it represents, regardless of their immigration status. Whether we met in my office during a winter clothing drive, at a neighborhood event celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival, or at a rally protesting inhumane conditions in public housing, we partnered in a special way that strengthened our democracy.
Let us thank those few brave souls who are willing to take on the establishment and powerful special interest groups in the pages of your letters to
I am going to miss being your Council Member, but I am looking to what new leadership will bring. —Carlos Menchaca
I continue to be grateful that the Red Hook Star along with other newspapers afford both me and my fellow letter writers the opportunity to express our views, as well as differing opinions on issues of the day. Thanks to you, ordinary citizens have the freedom to comment on the actions and legislation of elected officials in any Letters to the Editor section.
This is a new upcoming year 2022, it’s not what you get but what you give. Give some time to care about what you say and spread kindness. And keep working together period. Peace, Judith Dailey
the editor section. They fill a valuable niche in the information highway.
Opinion: Words by George
ot much space to write this month, but that's fine. I was actually going to write about how much of news gathering, as well as politicking, is done not in person anymore, but via Twitter and other non-social media thingies. So this can be like an expanded tweet. I'm not sure if Red Hook yet knows this, but for the past couple years we have been represented in the State government not by Velmanette Montgomery and Felix Ortiz, who used to hang in the neighborhood occasion-
ally, but even more, employed very visible representatives to do the local things that local politicians used to do, but by two people named Marcella Mitaynes and Jabari Brisport. Maybe it's just me, the publisher of a local paper, that never hears from them, and local newspapers are passe in this day and age, and why should they care about us anyway. I did get all excited last month when I saw the community board advertise a meeting on last mile warehouses led
TALL GUY, SMALL GUY WHY ARE YOU WeARiNG SH0RTS? IT’S JANUARY.
I
by Jabari. This would be my chance to see what he knows about local issues, but when I finally got to see it on Zoom, it turned out he only spoke for about a minute of a two hour meeting, mostly to say how nice it was that some people in the neighborhood were against warehouses. What little I do know about these two legislators is mostly from their Twitter accounts. They are both members of the what I consider the cultish Democratic So-
BY MARC JACKS0N
PLAN TO PUT
THeM ON eVERY M0RNiNG, RUN 3 MILES AND
GREAT PLAN, H0W’S IT GOiNG?
WeLL...
SUPeRHEALTHY!
GET
HAPPY NeW YEAR, ReD H0OK!
Red Hook Star-Revue
S0UNDS LiKE A
cialists of America, whose goal it seems is to slowly take over local government, rather than to actually govern. Or else you could say that the governing they do is by tweeting platitudes. A great majority of the other kind of tweets that I see are supportive of other DSA candidates and legislators, as well as raising funds for their DSA. It kind of reminds me, an old timer, of AMWAY and their multi-level marketing strategy. If you've never heard of them, you can google it.
i’Ve
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Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Newsday and Staten Island Advance. There are also numerous foreign language daily and other weekly newspapers in all five boroughs within NYC. Weekly newspapers tend to offer more space for writers than daily newspapers. Some daily newspapers have quotas of no more than one letter every 30 or 60 days per writer. Most newspapers will print letters submitted by any writer regardless of where they live so long as the topic is relevant to readers.
haven’t seen in some time.
GOT THE
SH0RTS ON!
©COPYRIGHT 2021 MARC JACKSON AND WEiRD0 COMiCS #3
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January 2022, Page 3
TONY SAYS IT'S PIZZA TIME!
Double parking on Bay Street. (photo by Jim Tampakis)
Police discuss theft and traffic by Nathan Weiser
The 76th Precinct Sector C held a virtual “Build the Block” meeting on December 15 for the community. Sector C Officers Vegnel and Moet led the meeting in which community issues were discussed. They discussed package theft and recommended Ring cameras which can help catch people in action who might be stealing packages. There was an instance recently when a Ring camera was critical in catching the criminal. Robert Berrios added that Pioneer Market on Pioneer Street and Van Brunt Street accepts packages, so this is a place that they can be delivered if you are not going to be home. Jerry Armer brought up the issue of the truckers leaving the holders for the containers in the streets for a long time. They have been seen on Conover Street and on Imlay Street. They have dropped off these holders for the containers all over the place including on the other side of the Battery Tunnel outside of the sector. “They are a danger to motorists because you don’t see them and they
have no lights,” Armer said. “They sit there for sometimes two or three weeks. They should be kept in the container port.” The officer said they are aware of the influx of the holders for the containers. He hopes that once the truck loading depot that is being built next to IKEA is finished then a majority of these trucks will be able to park there (and the containers) will be able to park there instead. There were bus companies that used to leave their buses on the street for a long period of time and arrangements were made to get this to stop. Officers eventually had the buses towed and now all the bus companies in Red Hook know not to leave the buses on the streets. Armer thinks a similar tactic should be done for the frames. Another car related issue is that people are parking illegally on Beard Street between Van Brunt and the new Amazon building. This is causing problems. This is between Van Brunt and Richards Street on the B61 route.
(continued on next page)
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Page 4 Red Hook Star-Revue
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Health
Bill de Blasio Mayor Dave A. Chokshi, MD, MSc Commissioner
Health
Bill de Blasio Mayor Dave A. Chokshi, MD, MSc Commissioner
January 2022
A new middle school for Red Hook
P
S 676 has disclosed new details about their transition from an elementary school to the Harbor Middle School. The transition will begin in September. PS 676 will add a sixth grade with the current fifth graders given priority.
All of the existing classes will move up through the elementary school. Next year the school will go from Pre-K through sixth grade and then each following year they will shift up, so then they will have second through seventh and then third grade through eighth grade. They will stop at eighth grade and remove a grade with each class moving up until they get to 6th grade through 8th grade. Their new school building on Delavan Street, with many new facilities, is slated to open in time for the 2025-2026 school year, which means that 6th grade students entering the school will still be in the building on Huntington Street next year. “Former State Senator Velmanette Montgomery was the thought leader behind the idea for the Harbor Middle School and we have been working towards this moment since 2016,” CEC President Camille Casaretti said. “We are excited to finally have an approved
Senator Kavanagh’s Virtual Town Hall by Brian Abate New York State Senator Brian Kavanagh held a virtual town hall last month. He represents South Brooklyn and some parts of Lower Manhattan. An issues that came up a few times was the increased street traffic caused by lane closures on the BQE. “There has been longstanding degradation of the roadway and the city came up with two options to address it,” said Kavanagh. “One–that left Brooklyn Heights residents aghast– was to close down the promenade, so we pushed back on that. The mayor created a task force and ultimately, they decided there are various steps to shore up and protect the roadway. Reducing the number of lanes has led to some traffic concerns in the neighborhood but they’re looking to find long-term solutions.” Kavanagh said that he pushed for a moratorium on residential and commercial evictions and foreclosures. “Obviously the better, more effective solution is to actually pay the rent, so we created a $2.85 billion program to cover the cost of rent,” Kavanagh said. “That program has been very successful, and we are now pushing for much more money from the federal government.” A frustrated local resident later asked “Why are you so extremely hostile towards small, independent landlords who are often elderly or from minority groups? Are you secretly supporting big real estate developers while pretending to help working people? Who are your donors?” “I just want to make it clear I’m not
Red Hook Star-Revue
by Nathan Weiser site for this middle school and happy that PS 676 will be transitioning to a full-time middle school over the next few years.” PS 676 Principal Figueroa, who came to the school in spring of 2018 and immediately brought life to what was a school in the doldrums, is very excited about this transition. “We are very excited about the new Harbor Middle School in Red Hook,” Principal Figueroa said. “It has been a journey. My first conversation with Ms. Montgomery back in 2017 was centered around this whole idea of Red Hook having a harbor middle school. From that point on, we have been working together collaboratively with the DOE, with Reimagine Schools, with the team that will be presenting the launch of the first public harbor middle school in District 15.” Currently at the school building at 27 Huntington Street there is a STEAM lab, an aquarium, a fully funded robotics program and a multimedia center used by all students and staff. At the new building on Delavan Street, there will be a fully funded hydroponics lab, a new auditorium and a student run podcast system. In connection with the maritime theme, they will ofhostile towards anyone,” Kavanagh said. “And the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act is the strongest tenant protection legislation that has been passed in the United States in the last 50 years. From my perspective, it has shored up the rent stabilization system and eliminated a lot of loopholes that allowed units to go out of the system. I have a lot of landlords telling me ‘I’m a good landlord, why are you making it tough on me?’ I can’t only legislate for the good, well-intentioned people and I think the bulk of landlords are good people who are trying to work in a difficult business and provide housing.” It’s an unfortunate situation for many landlords but the moratorium may be nearing an end as it is set to expire on Jan. 15 and may not be extended. Another issue that was brought up by a Brooklyn Heights resident is the lack of small businesses in the neighborhood. “The pandemic has exacerbated this but a lot of it is consumer choice here,” Kavanagh said. “A lot of people say ‘We need our local bookstore and our local clothing store’ but how many of the goods you purchase are from those local places? One of the best things to do is just go out and give these local places business even if it means paying a little more. In terms of what we’re doing, we’ve worked hard to make sure small businesses are able to get loans and we also put $1 billion of state money into grant programs.”
fer swimming because they will have an Olympic sized pool. They will also push to have more sports.
School will look like. A goal will be to design a more sustainable Red Hook and NY Harbor.
A few current teachers talked about what they concentrate on at the school.
“In science, students explore the human influenced causes of climate change and the current and future impacts of climate change on NY harbor and on the Red Hook community,” she said. “In technology, students visit the windmill and the sims recycling plant and local solar contractors to research technologies and renewable energy sources to reduce local greenhouse gas emissions.”
“I came to PS 676 because I saw this opportunity to be part of something really exciting,” said Captain Jack, who previously taught at MS 88. “I am passionate about boating and the ocean. I want to share that passion with students, and I know from experience that passion is contagious. The New York Harbor is the perfect lens to approach all of the other subjects the surround us and to understand our neighborhood.” Tim Gilman is the executive director of RETI Center, which is a climate adaptation non-profit that was formed after Superstorm Sandy. RETI Center is a 676 partner. They have two facilities that PS 676 uses. One is the climate adaptation barge in Gowanus Bay where the students do scientific and other adaptive explorations. Harbor High School students come down in a boat and mentor the PS 676 students on projects having to do with water science, climate change and the marine ecosystem. Science teacher Lynn Shon shared what interdisciplinary project-based learning at the NY Harbor Middle
POLICE
There are many beneficial field trips that the school currently goes on especially for the older grades. The 4th graders go on field trips somewhere on the NY Harbor every Wednesday, and the 5th graders go somewhere along the harbor every Thursday. There are also regular visits to their oyster research station at Erie Basin next to IKEA, in addition to trips to Portside on the Mary Whalen tanker. “We are surrounded by the harbor,” Ms. Shon said. “A beautiful thing about Red Hook is that it only takes 10 minutes to get to the waterfront. One of the most amazing things about this school and this location is that the classroom is everywhere.”
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situation. If they continue to violate parking regulations then summonses will be issued.
It says no standing anytime because of construction, but there are people parking on the sidewalk and people parking in front of the M Fried display company on Beard Street close to Richards St. This area should be regulated more.
Madelaine Murphy addressed another trucking issue. There was recently a large truck that tried turning on Beard Street but it ended up blocking the intersection. It came out of Beard Street into Van Brunt and then back into Beard Street.
Armer said that this illegal parking occurs all day. Some of the vehicles are construction workers from the Amazon site and from other close by companies.
She was on the bus the day after and her bus went to stop in the bus stop and it almost crashed into the truck that was parked in the east bound lane. The truck was still there from the night before and it had nobody inside. The main issue was that the truck was parked on the wrong side of the street facing the wrong direction the following day.
Berrios added that he has observed that the situation with the parking on Beard Street primarily takes place between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. There are difficulties making the left off of Van Brunt onto Beard Street. He has seen that the delivery trucks going to M Fried cause issues because they are on both sides of the street. Officer Vegnel said they will speak to the individual companies and give them a warning about the parking
Murphy added that at Hometown BBQ employees park in the wrong direction and they park into the crosswalk. The officer said they would speak to the establishment about their parking issues.
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Though Kavanagh couldn’t answer everyone’s questions at the town hall, he said those who still have questions could reach out to him via email at kavanagh@nysenate.gov.
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New Votive Ship at St. Paul’s Church by Erin DeGregorio
C
arroll Garden’s St. Paul’s Episcopal Church extended an old tradition and sail-ebrated a new addition to its 171-year-old church via a handcrafted, wooden votive ship. A dozen votive ships dating from the first World War that hung in the church were cut down and stolen in 1978, leaving one broken and left behind during the robbery. That broken ship — which was given by three mothers whose three sons survived the torpedoing of The President Lincoln on May 31, 1918 — was repaired and rehung 10 years ago in the northwest corner of the church, under the guidance of now-retired Father Peter Cullen. “I found that to be inspirational,” Father Ogburn explained. “So, when I was thinking about what we were going to do to mark coming through COVID-19, I said, ‘The last thing we need is another plaque.’ My idea was a new votive ship.” “The COVID-19 pandemic has given us new reasons to ask for God’s merciful protection and to honor the memory of the four and a half million people worldwide who have died from this sickness,” he added. “There is also ample opportunity for us to give our thanks to God for coming through this great ordeal safely in our own day. Like votive ships of the past, these are the reasons inspiring Saint Paul’s new votive ship, so beautifully made by Mike Miller, assisted by Sandy Miller.” The new ship is modeled after Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance. Though
the Endurance became trapped in pack ice and sank during Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition in 1915, the entire crew survived and was saved. “We thought that was a good symbol for what we’ve been going through since COVID hit,” Father Ogburn said. Michael Miller, who is the church’s unofficial handyman/carpenter and has his own workshop space underneath the church’s rectory, was willing and able to take on the biggest project of his life thus far — the new ship.
The Artist, Craft, and Process “As a kid I used to make models — mostly model airplanes — but they all came in kits. You had the materials and the instructions, and you made it,” Miller said. “But this was a whole different ball game. It was challenging and I liked the challenge.” Apart from making the ship from scratch with very little photographic evidence for reference, Miller said he learned the “fascinating” history of votive ships along the way. “During my search, I only found three ships in the whole country that were hanging in churches and that took my breath away,” Miller said. “It blew my mind that I was involved in something special that wasn’t happening anywhere else in the country.” After three months in the workshop, the ship was completed at the end of summer and put on display in the back of the church. During that time, parishioners could see the ship with three masts up close and at eye level. “It’s full of amazing details that many
people won’t ever see again, but we did take a lot of pictures of it,” Father Ogburn noted. For example, when Miller and Father Ogburn discovered that a cat belonging to the ship’s carpenter as well as 70 dogs were on board the Endurance, Miller decided to feature them by including two small figurines of each animal on the modern-day votive ship. The new votive ship — which is pointed in the direction of the High Altar and Blessed Sacrament to acknowledge Jesus’ real presence among us — was suspended from the ceiling, blessed, and dedicated during a Mass held on November 14. It floats high above in the nave at about 15 feet, in the same spot where a previous ship once hung according to Father Ogburn who discovered an old hook hole in the ceiling. “As I was pulling [the ship] up, I thought ‘Wow, this is something.’ And when it was all hooked up and we took the scaffolding away, it was just magnificent,” Miller said. “The thought that it will just stay there forever is amazing.”
Brief History of Votive Ships Since the Middle Ages, throughout coastal parts of Europe — particularly in Spain, France, England, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland — models of ships were commonly given to churches by sailors and their families. These were gifted out of devotion (ex votos) and in seeking God’s protection for an upcoming voyage or in thanksgiving to God for having overcome some great ordeal at sea.
They have been made from precious metals, carved into simple images in wax or wood, and have even been fashioned as incense burners. Votive ships are so rare in the United States that Father Ogburn and Miller said they could only find a handful currently on display. Aside from one of the original ships from 1918 that still hangs in St. Paul’s, Father Ogburn says the only other existing ships are on display in California, Iowa, and at the Seamen’s Church Institute of New York. “It is encouraging to find that this new century is marked by several votive ships now sailing aloft in churches—recently renovated ones which had previously languished on storage shelves, as well as newly crafted ones like ‘The Endurance’ here at St. Paul’s Church,” wrote V.K. McCarty, who teaches and writes on Ascetical Theology with special focus on Early Christian Women and currently lectures at the General Theological Seminary in Manhattan, in an essay. “It is an inspiring sign of the Holy Spirit invigorating people with prayerful intentions; and it acknowledges, too, beautiful maritime details from the heritage in our Church life together.”
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Page 6 Red Hook Star-Revue
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January 2022
A successful accidental business by Brian Abate
A
s I walk down Van Brunt St. to get to work each day, I have been intrigued by a store that features bright green moss in the window. This month I spoke to MossBoss NYC’s founder, Adzi Jasari who gave a greater understanding of his business. “This wasn’t something I always had planned,” Jasari said. “I was actually an MRI technologist for 18 years but I was looking for a side hustle and I tried a few things that just didn’t work out. Then about five years ago I took a trip to Scotland and there was moss everywhere and I couldn’t get it enough of it.” After returning to New York, Jasari decided to create various pieces of art using moss. “It wasn’t even a big idea, it was a crafting project and it was really fun so I made a few small pieces and then a couple of bigger ones, which was even more fun,” Jasari said. “I posted a few pictures on Facebook and suddenly people were saying, ‘Hey, can I get one?’” At first, Jasari just made pieces for his friends and family but then he started doing craft fairs and getting requests to
make custom pieces and it grew from there. The requests played an important role in shaping MossBoss NYC but the COVID-19 Pandemic actually played an important role as well. “So many terrible things have come from the pandemic but it forced me to go into full-time work with MossBoss,” Jasari said. “The pandemic helped me figure out that this was what I wanted and that I wanted to go from doing this part-time to full-time and I took a risk on myself. I think people wanted something different for their homes and businesses. They were looking for something calming and relaxing, so business really took off. I got really lucky but there was a lot of hard work that went with it. It has been a blessing that everything came together for me.”
they don’t have to worry about being around people they don’t know given what’s going on with the pandemic and Omicron,” Jasari said. I think the terrariums are really cool and they make a great gift during the holiday season. There are so many different colors and textures of moss that blend really nicely together. It’s also very easy to take care of the moss (just spray it with a little water every few days if it’s in a dry place or do nothing at all if it’s in a place with some humidity in the air.) “It’s a way to bring the outside in, without the maintenance,” Jasari said. “I hope people see this as something enjoyable and something relaxing at the same time.”
Jasari has also come up with some creative ideas to make people feel more comfortable during the pandemic. People are able to set up appointments and go to MossBoss NYC to build terrariums in private events.
Jasari has also worked on bigger projects in a wide variety of settings, including restaurants, a golf suite, and a veterinary office. He also spoke about what it’s like working in Red Hook. Even though Jasari is from New York City, he didn’t start working in the neighborhood until a few years ago.
“They’re able to go with a few people they know and trust in a situation where
“I love being in Red Hook and one of the great things is all the other shop owners
Adzi Jasari at his Van Brunt storefront
have been very, very supportive,” Jasari said. I think we all look out for each other. It’s also been fun to be part of the tight-knit art community down here.” Jasari also told me that while he’s put in a lot of work at MossBoss NYC, he’s enjoying each day and each of the projects he’s working on. “I’d love to continue to grow and bring in some more employees but I’m not sure what the future holds,” Jasari said. “I’m enjoying the ride and I’m so grateful for the clients I’ve had and the support I’ve had.”
Mary Sansone gets a corner on Henry
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week before Christmas, when the New York sun is perpetually in your eyes, I was standing in a crowd at the corner of Henry & DeGraw Streets, an intersection that was about to be dedicated to the memory of Mary Crisalli Sansone. While we squinted into the distance waiting for Mayor DeBlasio to show up, it occurred to me that when Mary Sansone was born in 1916, women couldn’t vote. Much has changed, of course. However…While women are 51% of the US population, they make up only 27% of Congress, 30% of statewide elected executives of any kind, 31% of the largest cities’ mayors, and 0% of elected Presidents. Suddenly Comptroller-elect Brad Lander was at the lectern, feeling nostalgia for all the street re-namings he’s attended over the past twelve years, followed by Councilmember Dominic
The Old Stone House Now a MultiMillionaire by Joe Enright
On the eve of Christmas Eve, former Mayor deBlasio presented a cardboard check of nearly eleven million dollars to the Director of the Old Stone House in Washington Park. The money, drawn (extorted) from the Gowanus Neighborhood Plan, will pay for rest rooms to be added to the small remaining space on the north end of the building, as well as a stairway and elevator that will each extend a vertical distance of ten feet. It should be some elevator. The Park, not far from the Gowanus
Red Hook Star-Revue
by Joe Enright Recchio apologizing for this renaming taking three years to accomplish, and then Mayor DeBlasio was there, towering over Mary’s daughter, Carmela. As he droned on, I wondered if Henry Street had originally been named for the Oh Henry! candy bar. I pulled out an almost obsolete iPhone 6 and learned the ground on which we all stood had been named for Thomas Henry, a prominent physician in the 1820s who treated the early aristocracy of Brooklyn Heights. Next I tried DeGraw Street: named for a 1700s land-owner. Mary spent her youth just west of DeGraw at 489 Henry Street in a row house bought by her grandfather in 1919. The 1930 Census found 26 members of the Crisalli clan occupying that four-story building (dwindling to 20 by 1940), still standing tall amidst an area then considered the Canal near Staples, was once home to the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers (better known as the Dodgers following their move to Ebbets Field. 138 years before that, it was the scene of what George Washington himself described as the pivotal moments of the Revolutionary War. In remarks leading up to the presentation, the Comptroller-elect Brad Lander, who arrived on a CitiBike, and the Mayor (late again) bragged about all the great things they did for Washington Park while serving in the City Council, replacing concrete with turf, upgrading the playground, etc. The Mayor then quizzed the youngsters from the adjoining MS 51, aka William Alexander Middle School, who were fidgeting on
heart of Italian Brooklyn. In many ways, Mary became the heart and soul of the Italian diaspora of New York. In the 1960s, together with her husband, Zachary, she founded the Congress of Italian American Organizations (CIAO). CIAO opened day care, senior and social service centers throughout the city and became one of New York’s largest social service agencies. That’s when the Mob and the Politicos came calling. Mary courageously rebuffed Joe Columbo – then trying to co-opt CIAO as a feel-good propaganda front to cancel out his Mafia mayhem – but she embraced Italian Mayors Giuliani and DeBlasio. As my late brother-in-law Carl Aloisio used to say as we drained beers arguing Beatles vs. Stones: “Menza Menz.” When Zachary died in 2010, Councilman Recchia’s proposal to rename 59th Street in Borough Park was tabled
when some members pointed to Zachary’s stint in Mussolini’s army as a draftee during WWII. Mary’s service in the Red Cross during the War and her husband’s post-war stint rebuilding Sant’ Antonio Abate outside Naples balanced that out. Plus, Mary was a fierce advocate for her spouse. In the end he got a whole block named for him.
the turf near his podium (one of them, perhaps sensing he had become a political prop, had earlier shouted, “Where’s my stimulus check?”). Did they know who Alexander was? No. Tsk, tsk. During the Battle of Brooklyn in 1776, he was the Major General who fought a delaying action at the Old Stone House just behind DeBlasio’s microphone, allowing Washington’s Revolutionary Army to escape and fight another day. Lander then reappeared to say that just as Alexander’s brave Maryland regiment gave their all defending the Old Stone House in order for democracy to survive, the progressive stuff that he and the Mayor have championed are safeguarding democracy today. Who knew?
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January 2022, Page 7
are Re-recordings The New Napster? by Roderick Thomas
O
ver the past couple of decades, record labels have sought new ways to profit off their recording artists. In the early 2000’s the music industry was being ravaged by leaks and free music downloads through sites like Napster and the advent of the mp3 file. Today, streaming services (Spotify, Apple Music,Tidal etc.) have replaced sites like Napster, and labels most definitely make their share from music streams. However, labels may have another challenge on the rise, re-recordings.
What is a re-recording, and why is it potentially problematic for labels? A re-recording is as simple as it sounds, a musician re-recording their songs or albums. Typically, when an artist signs a recording contract the label owns the ‘master recording’ or the original recording of an artists’ music. With ‘master recordings (known as masters), labels license music to be played in commercials, movies, T.V. shows etc. If the artist writes or plays instruments on the song, they get a percentage of royalties from licensed deals, however they do not own the actual recording (masters), the label does. Re-recordings could be seen as particularly harmful to label profits. If a major recording artist is no longer signed to a particular contract and chooses to re-record their previous material, the label can lose licensing opportunities, streams and other profits. The lion’s share of labels’ music profits come from their most well known musicians. When huge recording artists gain ownership of their masters, labels lose out on larger profits over time. Yet, most artists never gain ownership of their recordings. Icons’ like Etta James’ or Whitney Houston’s most legendary recordings were never owned by them.
In 2019, pop-country musician Taylor Swift set out to re-record her previous material after an unsuccessful bid at buying her masters, losing to music entrepreneur Scooter Braun in a contentious public battle. Thus far, she has re-recorded two full studio albums, with incredible success, both Taylor’s re-recordings topped the billboard 200 album chart in 2021. The success of Taylor’s re-recordings is a signal to other artists who are in a position to do the same, but also for labels to prevent it from happening. Recently, on Power 105’s Breakfast Club, R&B veteran Ashanti discussed similar issues with obtaining her
master recordings for her upcoming tours and performances. In Ashanti’s case she wasn’t seeking ownership, just the original recording files to use for tours. After being declined by her former label, the singer decided to re-record her studio albums.
One perspective is that established independent musicians like Ashanti, now have another reason to reintroduce themselves to a newer audience while also capitalizing on nostalgia.Today, artists can utilize social media and other online platforms to promote themselves and their music to millions of followers instantly. And with the massive success of Taylor Swift’s re-recorded albums, re-recordings may become repackaged or reimagined nostalgic moments to look forward to, similar to Swiss Beatz’ Versuz battles. Many people remember Prince’s very public protest of labels’ ownership of artists and their creations. For a time, Prince refused to use his stage name, and was referred to as “the artist formerly known as Prince.” Consequently, in the years that followed his spat with his label until his passing, Prince would regularly refuse to record music with artists that didn’t own their masters.
‘The most valuable lesson that I’ve learned is that its’ music business. If you are great in business, but have no taste in music, someone is going to take your money. If you are well versed in music, but you don’t understand the business, somebody is going to make your money. Both are very important. No bank gives a loan to a business and walks away with copyrights, trademarks etc.” - Pharell Williams Record deals are not bank loans. Record labels are in the business of ownership over artists’ material and their brand, not simply recouping their monetary investments in a musician’s career. I’m essence, labels offer clout and opportunity in exchange for ownership and stake in an artists’ brand. Artists sign their contracts in hopes of achieving popularity and success with music —- clout has always been currency. While re-recordings are a savvy way for established artists to have ownership of their most beloved songs, this likely will only benefit very famous artists like Taylor Swift, as smaller acts may not have the connections to fully take advantage of licensing opportunities, nor clout to sway the listening public. Record labels are businesses and from that perspec-
Taylor Swift blazed the trail
tive, artists are their products. Of course they want to own their products. In addition, labels foot the bill for much, or many of their biggest’ artists’ recording career, music videos, marketing etc. The big push of a label comes with monetary benefits, and industry connections. The ownership of an artist’s career to that degree for many is questionable, but is it wrong? At the moment artists like Ashanti, Frank Ocean and Taylor Swift are taking advantage of their position and outsmarting labels. However, for now, re-recordings may only be beneficial to bigger artists who have the means to promote their re-recordings and sway listeners to purchase and stream their re-recorded content. In short, artist’s simply need to understand their options and their contracts before signing deals.
Roderick Thomas is an NYC based writer, filmmaker, and Host of Hippie By Accident Podcast. (Instagram: @Hippiebyaccident, Email: rtroderick.thomas@gmail.com, Site: roderickthomas.net)
Italy's vaccine battles
A
by Dario Pio Mucilli, Foreign Correspondent
s in much of the globalized world, the pandemic has become a battle not only of health, but politics as well. Italy has struggled with COVID for two years. The introduction of the Green Pass has marked a turning point in strategies adopted by the Government. In April 2021 the European Union created the Pass which is a certificate with a QR code given after every vaccination. From the beginning, Italy adopted one of the strictest policies regarding the Pass, making it mandatory for entrance to most events, travel and for college. These measures in effect since August 2021, have undergone adjusttments. In September the Government, despite having 71.5% of the population vaccinated, decided it was not enough and further encouraged vaccinations by making the Green Pass mandatory to work. This had already been in effect for health workers, but it was a shock for everyone else, and many of them ran to get vaccinated. Now with the 78% having received two doses, the state of vaccination seems to be at a good point, as the remaining 22% is largely under 18, and the shot
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is not mandated for students below college.
hasn’t changed.
However the Government is trying to mount pressure on adult people to get vaccinated and so decided to distinguish from January 10th 2022 three different kinds of Pass: a simple Green Pass (lasting 48-72 hours) you can get thanks to a swab, a Super Green Pass after two doses, and a Mega Green Pass after three.
THE POLITICS BEHIND THE PASS
The first one is quite useless, but the trade unions managed to let it remain valid at least to work in not-at-risk positions. The second is required for all remaining indoor activities and sports, except discos and visits to retirement houses, where the Mega Green Pass is compulsory. The Green Pass, in all his three forms is compulsary for those over twelve. This has prompted many to protest. Many people, who are not Covid deniers or against the Green Pass in general, found it difficult to accept vaccination for their sons and daughters. That’s because of the great debate in Italy, as well as in the rest of the world, whether the vaccine is safe for young people. The Government has however not revoked its steps and, despite protests, the situation for teenagers
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All these measures have been taken by the current cabinet, headed by Mario Draghi, former director of the European Central Bank and manager for J.P. Morgan. Draghi has shown little willingness to dialogue with people opposing the measures and he was largely supported by the press in Italy which treats him as kind of a father to the nation. Draghi has extended the restrictions with political wit. Indeed, he didn’t impose the complete set of regulations at the beginning , but gradually, as he knew opposition in that way would be weaker. However, the opposition didn’t miss the chance to have a word on the issue. And we’re not talking about parliament, which is largely supportive of Draghi. The one exception is the right-wing party the Brothers of Italy. The real opposition has come from the street, with thousands of people gathering in every major city weekly since August, and from workplaces, especially in the health system and primary schools, where thousands of doctors, nurses and teachers refuse to get vaccinated, believing the vaccine is still experimental.
(continued on next page) January 2022
Maher’s 1984 Basic—an album sorely overdue for reissue—and Alan Vega, Alex Chilton and Ben Vaugh’s 1996 Cubist Blues, repressed by Light in the Attic in 2015 (although hunting down the 2006 Last Call Records release will get you a bonus live set). The digitalonly Bandcamp reissue from last summer divides the original CD into two volumes, segregating the tuneful from the ambient. There’s nothing exactly challenging about either side of the equation, but it’s all charming enough to invite repeat (if passive) listens.
Singled out.
The debut album from Sarah La Puerta
Stranger from paradise.
Sarah La Puerta spent five years working on her first album, in the process moving from Austin, Texas, to upstate New York. The result, Strange Paradise (available on vinyl, cassette and download from Perpetual Doom), is a wonderful, personal, inviting, distancing, obscure, sweet, sappy, wistful set of simple songs rich with layered emotions. La Puerta performs most of the album on her own, accompanying her unaffected voice with a circa 1970s Baldwin Fun Machine home keyboard and sparse, added instrumentation by producer Craig Ross. It’s to her credit that the music works so well. The instrument—an electric organ with bass and rhythm presets and simple synthesizer functions—certainly has a roller rink feel, and La Puerta doesn’t try to hide it. Rather, she embraces it as her imperfect emotional support animal, crafting varied accompaniments to romantic, philosophical and occasionally mythological musings. Like any good debut, it leaves you wanting to know who she is and already waiting to hear more.
The dark Drone continuum.
Years can pass by without hearing from Spain’s Like Drone Razors Through Flesh Sphere, so it came as a surprise to see a new title pop up in November, their second release for 2021. The new Life-Death Continuum is one of the band’s most approachable releases in its more than 20 years and over two dozen releases while holding true to the rich, metallic, dark ambience that makes Earth and Sunn O))) seem fussy and busy. LDRTFS always maintain an organic band sound (i.e. no crap synths—there may be synths, but not crap ones) and even on this album of tape manipulations, the slow grind holds fast. The record (streaming in full on Bandcamp) doesn’t quite have riffs, but there are emergent themes that serve as mile markers on the long crawl.
Spontaneous popsplosions caught on the rebound.
While neither a new release nor a recent reissue, Chris Stamey and Kirk Ross’s The Robust Beauty of Improper Linear Models in Decision Making keeps calling me back. The North Carolinian guitarists (Stamey formerly of the dB’s and Ross of Lud,) recorded a set of instrumental improvisations in 1994, joined by percussionist Ed Butler and (on a few tracks) Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan. The little, off-kilter experiments sit comfortably alongside such other moody albums of abstract rock improvisation as Robert Quine and Fred
Red Hook Star-Revue
Last month, I lamented the lack of a new Shilpa Ray full-length since Door Girl, words that were soon stuck firmly in the craw of my mind. While I do hope there’s an album brewing in her brilliant, bitter teapot of a brain, she did put out four singles and a live EP since 2017—not a ton of bandwidth but nothing to complain about. I ruminated about how singles have always been a staple of rock’n’roll and are just as valid in the digital era, and came up with a list of a half dozen favorite singles from 2021, all available on Bandcamp (as are the above albums) for your cheap streaming thrills. Some came with physical releases, although those are probably all long gone. Suicide Squeeze, home base for the most excellent Atlanta band the Coathangers, matched the punk power trio with L.A. Witch on One Way or the Highway, a pair of faithful but amped up covers. The Coathangers put a little extra amphetamine into their version of Blondie’s “One Way or Another” and L.A. Witch add some bottom to the Gun Club’s “Ghost on the Highway” without weighing it down. … Montreal’s eminently lovable NoBro posted a couple of new tunes in the final months of 2021, bringing their catalogue count to seven and their number of perfectly punkish pleasures to two, which ain’t bad odds. “Don’t Die,” the lead track on their 2020 EP Sick Hustle, marveled at surviving the rock’n’roll lifestyle. The new “Better Each Day” is a peppy anthem for problem avoidance. Those two are enough to keep me hooked, but in December they posted the frenemy love song “Julia,” one more slice of living the life. … With all the Beatle hubbub of the last few months, one thing we haven’t had much of is a fan song revival. Songs about the Fab Four were once a small industry, and the Brazilian/Danish garage duo the Courettes have helped to update tradition with their lo-fi love song “R.I.N.G.O.” “Forget John Lennon / George, well, he’s OK / Done with my copy / I want Richard Starkey,” Flavia Couri chants as her hubby keeps it steady on the drums. Yeah, yeah, yeah. … In addition to the full-length Cavalcade, Britain’s Black Midi issued three digital singles last year: the veritable hit “John L” with a bonus second track, an advance of “Slow” titled “Slow (Loud)” and the nonalbum slow-burn “Cruising.” Since the album isn’t streaming in full, the singles offer an inroad into their magnetic realm, alluding to latter day Scott Walker and 1980s King Crimson with a postpunk drive and a healthy abandon. … L.A. guitarist Sarah Lipsate dropped a surprise in September under her stage name Noveller with a video and single of her take on the hauntingly familiar Twin Peaks theme. The surprise was doubled in November when she released versions of two more of Angelo Badalamenti’s themes from the original run of the show, “Laura Palmer’s Theme” and “Audrey’s Dance.” Many have recorded the tunes but Noveller really gets the dark beauty. She doesn’t try to transform the tunes but her faithful and loving settings
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for electric guitar are exquisite. … And as of press time, my New Year’s party track was the new tune by the L.A. duo El Ten Eleven. “New Year’s Eve” keeps up the infectious complexities of their past layers of guitars and drums and loops and electronics but with a more lighthearted bounce for the cold last night. — Kurt Gottschalk
ITALY (continued from previous page)
The protesters have two main themes, sometimes intertwined. One: the Green Pass is against the law because it makes the vaccine mandatory without saying it clearly, an evasion of basic Italian law; Two: the vaccine is experimental. Using these two ideas the initial gatherings became a movement, with many opinion leaders, none of whom have been officially recognized or met by the established authority. Among the opinion leaders are jurists, MPs, philosophers, managers and so on, people said to be respectable and high-ranked in the social ladder. Ugo Mattei, a jurist who has called Draghi a criminal, has received awards for his research by the President of the Republic and he studied at Berkeley, Cambridge and Yale. It’s like one group of elites against the other. Because of these social characteristics, it is not known whether the protest movement will succeed. It is one thing is to write a column, another to change official policies. Mattei, and other opinion-leaders, philosopher Agamben, manager Freccero, philosopher Cacciari are not fascist, but many fascists are in the movement and use it for their political purposes. Giuliano Castellino, member of Forza Nuova (New Power) a fascist movement led by a former blackterrorist, is the one who guided the demonstration in Rome, while in Turin it is not clear what are the links between the local group against Green Pass “La Variante Torinese” (Turin’s variant) and some far-right politicians who often show up at the demonstrations. Castellino and “La Variante Torinese” held rallies with thousands of people, something which Mattei, Agamben, Freccero & Co. never did. In this mess the Green Pass battle seems like an opportunity for many to build a political career out of nothing (Forza Nuova has never reached 1% at election time.) In the meantime Draghi can sleep well, because, while he can’t forbid the demonstrations, the movement is already struggling through its divisions. And, as the Romans stated wisely, “divide et impera”, Divide and Rule. This is the scenario under which the political battle on Green Pass is conducted, with many protagonists and interesting plots. But the danger in this situation is to forget the main topic, the virus, and our primary need to stop it. The vaccine up to now seems to be the only way to tackle the pandemic and with this knowledge every effort should be to have universal vaccination. Italy has been one of the countries with more cases and fatalities and all this debate about the Green Pass, and so on, risks making people forget about it. And this is the danger we should totally avoid.
January 2022, Page 9
The Matrix Resurrections Rages Against the Machines — and the Metaverse,
I
n spring 1999, the world stared down a new century. It prepped for a Y2K computer meltdown, grappled with millennial paranoia, witnessed widening class and wealth gaps, and wrestled with culture rapidly moving online. Into this din came the Wachowskis’ The Matrix, its sexy leather-clad cyberpunk heroes kung-fu fighting and bullet dodging the Men in Black avatars of an evil empire in a quest to awaken humanity to their enslavement by machines in an invisible pen called the Matrix. It blew our minds — it’s still blowing our minds — fundamentally altering science fiction and action cinema and providing a vocabulary for our burgeoning digital experience: jack in, unplug, rabbit holes, take the red pill.
The Matrix became a trilogy, which seemed to end pretty definitively with The Matrix Revolutions (2003): Neo (Keanu Reeves) and Trinity (Carrie Ann Moss) were dead, and after watching it many viewers wished they were too. The series, which also includes The Matrix Reloaded (2003), was never short on ideas, in fact they balloon with each entry, but the ability to do anything with them seemed to decrease in direct proportion. So many story threads. So many hackneyed resolutions. (A group of killer machines coming together to form, Voltron style, something called Deus Ex Machina? Seriously?) And all the philosophical double talk. By the time the credits rolled on Revolutions, we all seemed cool with leaving The Matrix behind. And why not? Look at the world since the first film rocked multiplexes. We’re inundated by Big Tech corporate messaging about entering the metaverse. We’ve willingly ceded all manner of decision making to AI-powered devices. If you believe Elon Musk, there’s a 99.99 percent chance we’re living in a computer simulation. And let’s not forget the authoritarianism, genocide, and general civilizational breakdown fomented by social media. We might not be living in pods of pink goo, but we’re just as complacently jacked into machines that seem the dominant force on humanity rather than the inverse. The Matrix’s dystopia — a future Earth dominated by machines who have turned humans into comatose batteries by enslaving them in an elaborate sim of late-20th century civilization — seems quaint in comparison to our real-world digital nightmare. After all that, how does someone reenter The Matrix? Why even try?
For a studio like Warner Brothers, it’s all about the intellectual property. And in December it released The Matrix Resurrections, the fourth film in a series no one seemed to want resurrected, including co-creator Lilly Wachowski. Her sister, Lana, was more amenable. When the studio said it was making another Matrix with or without her, she got on board and wrote and directed a film that’s as thrilling and bizarre as it is unexpected. Because, as it happens, Silicon Valley has created new, fertile ground for The Matrix universe to expand and confront the Orwellian, dystopia-normal-
Page 10 Red Hook Star-Revue
by Dante A. Ciampaglia izing platforms, businesses, and technologies predicting, modeling, and altering our behaviors.
In terms of plot: Thomas Anderson/Neo is very much alive, now a rockstar designer who made his fortune designing The Matrix trilogy of video games. He feels off, like the world isn’t what it seems. He has nightmares and flashes of memories from another life, but everyone around him — his co-workers, his boss ( Jonathan Groff ), his analyst (Neil Patrick Harris) —
"By the time the credits rolled on Revolutions, we all seemed cool with leaving The Matrix behind." assure him he’s just working through his trauma as a suicide survivor and he needs to take more of his blue pills. He goes along with it until an app he’s running glitches. This modal, a recreation of the Matrix we see in the first film, is hacked by Bugs ( Jessica Henwick), a resistance captain in the real world, who extracts a program from the modal who’s on the same quest she is: to find Neo and undermine the Matrix, which has been recreated since Revolutions. (We learn in Reloaded that events take place in the sixth iteration of the Matrix, so this new one is at least the seventh.) Things go sideways when the freed modal program — its version of Morpheus (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) — tries to red-pill Anderson. Anderson’s boss turns out to be a reborn Agent Smith, Trinity has been recast as motorcycle enthusiast mother of two Tiffany who has no memories of any previous life, and Anderson’s analyst is the Matrix’s new architect. Once Anderson is resurrected as Neo, the mission is to extract Trinity, too, and disrupt Matrix 7.0. Of course it’s all convoluted, it’s a Matrix movie. But it’s also kind of a red herring. The plot is a vehicle for assailing the perversion of the digital promise.
The original film was released in the waning days of Web 1.0, when the internet was still a bit DIY and scrappy (think GeoCities websites and UseNet groups). It died when the dot-com bubble burst, replaced by Web 2.0, which was all about sharing and connectivity — but really commerce and consumption. Corporations and advertisers reconstituted online life around free blogs, free social networks, free search engines, and cheap stuff to mine our data and get fabulously wealthy. While we weren’t look-
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ing, the internet was bulldozed and consolidated into fiefdoms; its ragged democracy replaced by plutocratic surveillance capitalism; passions flattened into content. And now that returns on investing in 2.0 are plateauing, the oligarchs are pushing us into the metaverse. (A Matrix by any other name…)
Reckoning with these shifts is the backbone of Resurrections. This is evident in how the world of the Matrix has evolved, such as characters navigating in, around, and out of the Matrix using doors, mirrors, and other portals — the way we engage hyperlinks and tabs to get around today’s internet — rather than old phones and dial-up modems. It’s also all over the dialogue. The Matrix “weaponizes every idea, every dream, everything that matters to us,” Bugs says. “If we don’t know what’s real, we can’t resist.” (Facebook, that you?) Or, “It’s so easy to forget how much noise the Matrix pumps into your head until you unplug,” General Niobe ( Jada Pinkett Smith) says. (Hi, Twitter!) Or “What validates and makes your fictions real? Feelings,” the analyst tells Neo at one point. “Ever wonder why you have nightmares? It’s actually us, maximizing your output.” He’s talking about energy to feed the machines, but it could just as easily apply to data feeding Jeff Bezos’ wealth. (For good measure, the analyst talks a lot about “the suits” and making money, which, to paraphrase Captain Kirk, what does a robot need with a bank account?)
If this can seem blunt and obvious, it is. The Matrix was never subtle. What’s daring, though, is Wachowski’s approach to the material, couching it all in a hyper-meta conversation with the previous Matrix films. Besides Neo’s flashbacks, actual moments and dialogue are recreated from the first Matrix — the opening Trinity chase, bullets raining down from a helicopter, even a cover of Rage Against the Machine’s “Wake Up,” which closed out the original film, playing at the end of this one. Making this truly bonkers is that Wachowski takes meta-aim at Resurrections, too. During a conversation in his office, Anderson’s boss tells him they’re going to make another Matrix game, that the suits at Warner Brothers are going to do it with or without them so they might as well get on board. “Back to where it all started — back to The Matrix!” It’s ridiculous and bananas and absolutely perfect. It also reveals Wachowski’s complete disregard for what fans want in this kind of film. In this way it’s indebted to the other great recent sci-fi psych out, Blade Runner 2049 (2017), in which director Denis Villeneuve expanded and evolved the world of Replicants and Blade Runners and thoroughly went its own way. But 2049 is conventional next to Resurrections. When we see the first echoes of the original Matrix, it elicits a knowing chuckle — until things go sideways. It takes about a minute, and by then you’re either in or out. How you respond will likely come down to how much market-tested nostalgia you want. That’s comfort food, a blue pill; Resurrections is a challenge, a red pill. (continued on page 13)
January 2022
Al Diaz - Voltaire on the Front Stoop
A
l Diaz is a prolific and influential firstgeneration NYC subway graffiti artist with a career that spans over five decades. Still inspiring innovation, Al Diaz continues to reimagine the streets of New York City with his artist’s eye. Turning garbage into gold, Al peels service alert signs from the subway and reuses them, cutting out individual letters to create clever, surreal, and sometimes poignant epigrams. His work is currently showing at Miami Art Basel. Al published a book in 2018, SAMO©…SINCE 1978. I’ve known Al for about twenty years. When I met him in the 1990's, he was living through a period of substance abuse. In the last ten years, Al has reemerged to take his place in history and get back to what he does best.
I’ve seen Al at art shows since his re-emergence. When I saw him do a show with Juan Carlos Pinto about seven years ago, I frankly didn’t connect the guy I had met on the Lower East Side with the artist. And, as it turns out, he knew me, but he couldn’t remember how he knew me. I’m so glad we’ve both come out of our amnesia and made contact again.
Writers “tagged” their names on trains, street walls, and buildings as a public act to say I was here. And while graffiti is a word-based art, I’ve always thought of it as an image art. I couldn’t “read” the tangled up and interlocked letters and words. I saw tags as pictures, even when I knew they were words. But sitting down and talking with Al, a light bulb went off in my head and I now have a better understanding of the history and intention of graffiti writing. Since the earliest days of graffiti, Al has been an epigrammatist. The epigram tradition goes back to the Greeks and Romans and was reinvigorated by French Enlightenment writers like Voltaire. The idea behind epigram is to succinctly state an ironic truth or observation. Voltaire is famous for epigrams like “a pithy maxim proves nothing.” The epigram tradition carried into modern times. Muhammad Ali is noted for epigrams like “it ain’t braggin’ if you can back it up.” Even Marilyn Monroe contributed to the tradition: “It takes a smart brunette to play a dumb blonde.”
Al, along with Jean Michele Basquiat, tapped into this history, applying their own context. Even the tag SAMO@ is epigrammatic. It’s a joke inside of a joke. SAMO@ is a “play” on the “same ol’ shit.” SAMO@ is a critique of all art, of itself, and of hipness in general. But Al’s wit is specific to New York City. As Al has said before, “for me, the subway and graffiti are almost synonymous.” Here are some examples of Al’s epigrams:
After a Prolonged Period of Isolation and Confinement, We Become Fearful and Suspicious. Spring, Nature’s Most Optimistic Gesture. SAMO@ like a cerebral papercut. SAMO@ for the creatively defiant. SAMO@ as an end to mass produced individuality. I sat down with Al to talk about his career, his life, and his artist perspective.
“Why do you call yourselves writers?” I asked, naively, referring to graffiti writers. “Because we’re writing our names and sometimes words,” said Al. “The words have always been the most important aspect of graffiti for me.”
Where did you grow up? I grew up on Avenue D in the Jacob Riis Projects on the Lower East Side. Back then it was surrounded by tenements. The area was not well kept. It looked rundown. When I was about fifteen my parents moved us to Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn. Do you have a big family? I come from a family of three children. One younger brother and a sister. We were all good students.
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by Mike Fiorito Were your parents born in Manhattan? Both came from Puerto Rico. They came to the U.S. in 1955, working their way up from menial jobs. My father got a clerical job at Hanover Trust and worked there until he retired. My parents were frugal and smart. We never lacked for anything. In 1975, they bought their first house on Beverley and Avenue C. I moved out perhaps two years later. They eventually (early 80s) sold that house and bought a brownstone in Sunset Park. We still own that house. They lived the American dream.
I’d read that you were very influenced by your cousin Gilberto “SIETE” Díaz, who lived in Washington Heights. What was it about Washington Heights and about your cousin that was so influential? There wasn’t much in the way of amenities on the Lower East Side. There was the FDR park with minimally maintained baseball and football fields. The local swimming pools needed repairs, etc. The local parks were torn up. It was poor and looked rundown and shitty. Uptown was more vibrant. There were Riverside and Highbridge parks and lots of open spaces. And there was more of a mix of middle-class people, as opposed to a bunch of poor people crammed together like we had on the Lower East Side. In Washington Heights there was a Yeshiva near where my cousin lived. There were Greeks, Italians, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, blacks and other whites. Each little area had a different flavor. There was a lot of different music. What would become “breakbeat” music. Jazz funk. Stuff like you’d hear in Blaxploitation films. Music like DJ Kool Herc was playing? Yeah, you’d hear that kind of music in the park. You’d see cats wearing marshmallow shoes, applejack hats, things like that. We did not have that kind of style on the Lower East Side yet. When I came back to the Lower East Side, I was a little ahead of the game. I brought back this “writing thing.” How do you think your Puerto Rican heritage impacted your work? I think the bilingual factor, speaking two languages, opened the door for me and Jean [Basquiat], to start doing word play. Fucking with words, language and meaning. We had a great appreciation for language. It was part of our value system. It’s not that we were high intellectuals at that time. But it was important to be clever. To be interesting. We had our own way of talking, of communicating. How we said things. We were influenced by the Beat poets, by people like Bukowski, Dylan, and Tom Waits. It’s something I see much more clearly now in retrospect. Jean and I were drawn to each other’s eloquence and to others that had something to say. Who spoke with style.
I’ve read that you and your crew used the term SAMO@ as a joke, making fun of other artists and the scene. We, Jean and I, had already been using SAMO@. Then, Jean wrote an article for the school newspaper [City as School] when it was originally located in Brooklyn Heights. In the article he used SAMO@ as the name of a fictional religion. I had already been involved with graffiti for like five or six years. But the school newspaper article inspired me to begin a new type of graffiti campaign. A collaborative initiative that was borrowing from JESUS SAVES, PRAY or any other ambiguous religion-oriented messages. We began experimenting with hype, taking it to a new level. We created SAMO@ phrases and relatable epigrams. Stuff people could relate to. They were critical, admonishing people to check themselves out, to self-reflect. To resist mass produced reality, fads, and trends. The art world is full of posing and posers? When it’s too obvious and contrived, I get embarrassed. That’s not me. I take my work seriously. I’m dedicated. But I don’t take myself too seriously.
Tell me about the SAMO@ trademark. It’s just an outlaw copyright. The trademark symbol is kind of a joke. In truth, there was an issue with Jean Michelle’s family. They were trying to claim
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the SAMO@ name, but lawyers and other people squashed that. There’s a broad understanding that it was a collaboration. Now most institutions, authors, historians, etc. mention both of our names in reference to SAMO@. The Basquiat estate, while acknowledging this fact, prefers to exclude my actual name. They simply refer to me as “someone else.”
When did you realize that your work would have a significant impact on the art world? I was in a fog for so long, doing drugs. I knew our work had an impact during the 90s, despite all the misinformation about SAMO@. It was as if Basquiat had become synonymous with SAMO@, which wasn’t accurate. I was amazed how the misinformation proliferated. Then, in 1996, I was living in PR, overseeing construction of a house my parents had built, trying to clean up. At that time, I saw the Basquiat film. It was a revelation. The Basquiat film is based on composite characters. The Benny character was a nod to me. I realized I was immortalized when I saw that film.
What do you think about the state of graffiti today? Today, there are no rules, no style, no respect, and very little innovation. Most of the work I see is toyish looking stuff, very pedestrian. Graffiti is the youngest art movement ever created. The average age was twelves to fifteen. Can you believe that? And we were inventing something new. It was fresh. It was revolutionary. What’s next for you? I try to keep pushing it. No one is doing what I’m doing. When you see a WET PAINT sign anagram, you know it’s mine.
Where do you get the letters? I used to tear them down from service alert posters. Now I generate my own MTA letters, numbers and symbols. I print them at home then cut the letters as needed. I peel WET PAINT signs from the subways taking them off the wall. It’s an obsession. I have boxes of the stuff. One time a cop saw me peeling the posters off the wall. “What are you doing?” he asked, perplexed. “I use them for art,” I replied. He then shook his head saying OK. The actual materials and process are inexpensive. I cut strips of sign maker’s bond (which comes in rolls), glue down the letters and tape the edges together, so it doesn’t fall apart. I like doing my art with used or discarded things. It keeps it real. After our conversation, we walked to the Cortelyou Road Q station. Al went to Manhattan to see a friend and I went home. On the way home, I tried to imagine when the trains were covered with writing. That was such a different New York City. In some ways better, in some ways worse. All I could think of as the train hobbled into the Avenue J station where I live is that I’m honored to be living in the age of Al Diaz. I’m looking forward to witnessing Al continue to transform the crumbled bits of NYC into mind blowing art, making me see
January 2022, Page 11
Page 12 Red Hook Star-Revue
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January 2022
Memorial Concert for Regina Opera’s Maestro José Alejando “Alex” Guzmá
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n the afternoon of Sunday, November 21st at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Academy of Brooklyn, in Sunset Park Brooklyn, a special memorial tribute to famed conductor José Alejando “Alex” Guzmán (1946-2021) was presented to his longtime fans at the Regina Opera. Selections from Mozart’s Le Nozze Di Figaro and Don Giovanni; Beethoven’s Fidelio, Verdi’s Otello, Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, and Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana were conducted by Maestros Gregory Ortega and Scott Jackson Wiley.
Maestro José Alejando “Alex” Guzmán’s illustrious career spanned over 50 years in the operatic and symphonic repertoires with many orchestras and opera companies. In the program notes, it mentions the highlights of Maestro “Alex’s” career. He conducted the Regina Opera for 35 years and served on its board. He was the music director of the Centre Symphony Orchestra, the Staten Island Philharmonic, the New York Symphonic Arts Ensemble, the Bronx Symphony Orchestra, the Rockaway Five Towns Symphony Orchestra, and the Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra. He was also in much demand as a guest conductor of numerous groups in the tri-state area.
At the Memorial Concert, Maestro Gregory Ortega led the Regina Orchestra and singers in a masterful sampling of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. The lively overture was spirited and full of hi-jinx. Maestro Ortega was an excellent Mozart conductor and it was so nice to break the long fast from the feast of live music at long last. Baritone Robert Garner was superlative as the Count. Christina Rohm was a sparkling Countess. Sarah Moulton Faux’s pure and powerful voice, as Susanna, caressed the ear. Baritone Scott Lefurgy was a droll and comical rich-voiced Figaro. Brian Ballard portrayed Antonio the Gardner, who was perplexed as to who jumped into the Count’s flowerbed. Marcel-
OPERA REVIEWs: Tosca and Rigoletto by Frank Raso
Tosca A Revival of Sir David McVicar’s production of Tosca opened on Dec 2. A Revival already happened of this production and a scheduled one got cancelled. So, a revival of this production, or Tosca in general, wasn’t very rare so it just seemed a typical revival along with so many others in the season. Yet, it was terrific. It was probably the best Tosca I’ve ever seen. The intensity in passion of the singers and the orchestra was extreme, perfectly suited for Tosca’s melodrama.
Here is an outline of the plot. Mario Cavarodssi hides the fugitive Angelotti from capture and hides this secret from his jealous lover Tosca. Mario and Angelotti flee the church, while Tosca comes back but is confronted by Baron Scarpia. Scarpia manipulates Tosca into thinking that Mario has cheated on her and she runs to confront which leads to Mario being captured and tortured. Scarpia tries to rape Tosca which results in him being killed by Tosca, and Mario is executed, and Tosca commit sucide. The Conductor Yannick Nezet-Seugin brought a thrilling urgency to the score very appropriate for the high melodrama. The two leads as Mario and Tosca had terrific chemistry with each other and George Gagdnize’s Scarpia had a chilling tone, in contrast
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by Nino Pantano lina was sung by marvelous mezzosoprano Galina Ivannikova, Basilio was sung by Adam Inyong Goldstein. Gennadiy Vysotskiy, as Bartolo, rounded out the zesty ensemble.
Next came Beethoven’s only opera Fidelio. The overture was conducted by Maestro Scott Jackson Wiley with the verve and spirit of the great composer. The overture set the mood with its big-sounding spirit and the Act One quartet was luminous. Leonore, whose Galina Ivannikova, Dilara Unsal, Maestro Gregory Ortega, Sarah Moulton husband, Florestan, has been unjustly Faux, Steven Fredericks, Hayley Kobilinsky, Hyong Sik Jo, Peter Hakjoon imprisoned, poses as a boy to fool the Kim , Photo by Steven Pisano powers that be and save her husband. The program continued with Puccini’s Manon Lescaut. Marzelline was in the hands of soprano Hayley KobiThe Act Two duet “Tu, tu amore? Tu” was magically linsky. I first heard Ms. Kobelinsky years ago when she sung by soprano Dilara Unsal and Sicilian tenor was a child and I was overwhelmed with the beauty Christopher Trapani, who I recall singing a splendid and quantity of her voice. She still sings with a fullness Manrico in Il Trovatore at the Regina Opera in 2019. of tone with an angelic hue and a haunting quality, The program closed with Pietro Mascagni’s “Interand I can still hear her uniquely beautiful sound. The mezzo” from Cavalleria Rusticana. We were all thrilled Act One quartet “Mir ist so wonderbar?” with Hayley by this touching and heartfelt tribute to Maestro Alex Kobilinsky, Lenore Megan Nielson, Joshua LeRose, Guzmán. Wayne Olsen drew the magnificent drawing and Steven Fredericks as Rocco was a beautiful blend of Maestro Guzmán on the program cover. of melodic passion. The Act Two duet from Beethoven’s Fidelio, “O namenlose Freude!” was sung by Megan Nielson as a fiery Lenore and Peter Hakjoon Kim as Florestan, a fine growing tenor who is quite stentorian. Mr. Kim was a very strong and impressive Scarpia in the past. Peter Hakjoon Kim and Dilara Unsal as Desdemona sang the love duet from Otello by Verdi. Their voices blended lovingly and their final notes were pure heaven. The great Wagnerian tenor Lauritz Melchior sang as a baritone for six years before becoming the greatest Wagnerian tenor in the world and later on in Hollywood films. with his bourgeois front. This brought about a thrilling evening, in Sir David McVicar’s grand, elegant, production. Tosca closed December 18 and is returning this month and in March with different casts. Hopefully those performances will be just as thrilling. Tosca runs until Jan 29 this month, and runs until March 12 in it’s return to the stage.
Rigoletto
The Met unveiled a new production of Rigoletto this month, Verdi’s opera of abuse of power, and revenge. The opera must be a very powerful experience for the audience and the Met’s previous production did not supply this. Luckily this new production, set in Weimar Germany, delivers a terrific punch. The sets contrast between elegant red marble and cold grey stone. The production makes use of a revolving turntable which is used to make cinematic transitions between the scenes The musical performance was spectacular with Qinn Kelsey giving a searing portrayal of Rigoletto. Piotr Beczala brought back his celebrated portrayal of the depraved Duke, and Rosa Feola had perfect high notes and beautiful legato as Rigoletto’s daughter, and the Duke’s victim, Gilda. The rest of the cast is rounded out terrifically with Andrea Mastroni as the assassin Sparuficile and Varduhi Abrahamyan, in her Met Debut, as his sister. As Rigoletto has such urgency and tension I will not give away the plot. But this new production is truly excellent, with a cast which is extremely good Rigoletto runs until Jan 29 and then returns for performance May 28 - June 11
Next Month: La Bohème and Le Nozze Di Figaro
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When Judy and I entered the Hall at Our Lady Perpetual Help (OLPH) a masked woman said, “Hello, Nino.” It was Maestra Eve Queler from Opera Orchestra of New York, a world-famous conductor and her assistant and friend from Bensonhurst, Deborah Surdi. There was a large crowd but we found Francine Garber-Cohen, President and Maestro Guzman’s beloved wife Linda Cantoni. Maestro “Alex” was beloved by colleagues and audiences alike and will be sorely missed. We shall never forget Maestro José Alejandro “Alex” Guzmán whose baton sent us all heaven-bound.
MATRIX (continued from page 10)
The Matrix was never hard sci-fi. There’s none of the time-travel causality of The Terminator, for instance. Instead, unplugged humans fight machines on philosophical as much as physical battlegrounds in the present for control of the future. Still, The Matrix Resurrections defies expectations. Hardly the mindblowing experience of the original, it’s something different, better, quieter even: a mature work of science fiction that smuggles its call for rebellion against corporate domination of our attentions, minds, and ideas into shoot-em-up set pieces and waves of nostalgia. That it does so in as corporate a piece of filmmaking imaginable — the IP reboot — makes it all brilliantly transgressive. And where the first Matrix had a revolutionary’s fervor for toppling the system, Resurrections takes a more complex, measured view. The Matrix is perennial, and anyway some people don’t want to be freed from the “comfort of certainty” the analyst provides. But Neo and Trinity’s message — and Wachowski’s — is that we can’t allow dystopia to be recast as the best we can hope for. We’re meant for more than simply becoming batteries or data mines to be harvested by machines and billionaires’ algorithms. In their final meeting with the analyst, Trinity tells him she and Neo are going to “remind people what a free mind can do.” “I forgot. It’s easy to forget,” Neo says. “He makes it easy,” Trinity replies, about their antagonist. “That he does,” Neo adds. “Something he should think about,” Trinity concludes. It’s a warning to all the analysts mucking around with our lives — and an invitation to us users to reclaim our agency, and imagination.
January 2022, Page 13
Books by Quinn Review of Carpenters: The Musical Legacy, by Mike Cidoni Lennox and Chris May, with Richard Carpenter Review by Michael Quinn (continued from front page)
zoomed in on Karen’s struggle with the disease which took her life at 32. Some fans continue to resent him, feeling that his workaholic tendencies pushed Karen over the edge, and that he cashed in right after her death, rushing out a bunch of unreleased (and sometimes even unfinished) material—a move he deeply regrets now. “I can hear a couple of things where I know she would really not be happy about,” he admits.
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In Carpenters, Richard’s certainty about how Karen would have felt about something never wavers. Not only was he her brother and greatest collaborator; at one point, he goes so far as to call himself her “spiritual twin.” After all, he argues, they shared the same smile and the same likes and dislikes. Then again, Karen didn’t know classical music like he did, he points out, as if working to score another point in his favor. This relentless something-to-prove quality bleeds into the book and sours it. Describing an early performance, he writes, “I think I stole the show, if anybody did. I was voted outstanding instrumentalist. In addition, we were named based best combo, and the Richard Carpenter Trio took home the overall sweepstakes trophy.” (Did I mention this guy is big on one-upmanship?)
It was in an early iteration of this trio that 16-year-old Karen, on drums, secures the group’s first record contract—for her singing. The reason Herb Alpert later signed them to his label A& M Records? “Her voice,” he says. Yet Karen had to be coaxed from behind the drum kit to take center stage. “She couldn’t accept the fact that she was a world-class singer,” Alpert says.
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"This relentless something-toprove quality bleeds into the book and sours it."
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That voice is sadly missing here. While photos and memories of Karen are dotted throughout, she gets a scant two-page eulogy—an overcorrection of “the anorexia book” that likewise lightly treads around Richard’s own demons, including an earlier addiction to Quaaludes, which he calls “my pills.”
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If you’re unfamiliar with the Carpenters, this book is not the place to start. The writers don’t hold hands or wade in from the beginning. They’re not big on background or stage-setting; they plunge right in. They’re interested in the nitty-gritty, like which singles were only released in Japan, and with which artwork (which everyone admits is always really bad). The technical bits might be of interest to other musicians, but these always carry an off-putting whiff of Richard’s self-importance. The same quality that might have made him an excellent producer and arranger—namely, controlfreak energy—works against the best interest of the book. The making of it seems like a mild ordeal for all involved. At one point Richard complains of being “talked out.” At another, while being grilled about some legendary piece of Carpenters’ lore, he dismisses it as only a “mystery to the few who find this kind of arcana interesting.” He’s sometimes self-deprecating, but always comes across as both wary and resentful. Nor is Carpenters the place to find pages of poetry to ponder. It’s not like the Carpenters were great lyricists. They made their name covering other people’s songs—“(They Long to Be) Close to You,” “Ticket to Ride,” “(Groupie) Superstar”—with Richard’s lush, slowed-down arrangements haunted by Karen’s low, plaintive voice, always sounding sad, but hopeful. These feelings are mirrored in the listener: You feel like she understands what you’re going through, and no matter how bad you might be feeling, there’s also a chance that you’ll feel better. It’s a voice like eyes: It makes you feel seen.
Yet even in their heyday, the Carpenters suffered from an uncool image. They were cleancut white kids from the California suburbs singing the same songs you’d hear in an elevator. Richard still resents this. He makes a case for the albums, the choices he made in putting them together, but it’s the singles that tell the story of their career, and they still hold up. They are of their time, but with that magical timeless quality that all the greats share. What Carpenters shows is that that as much as you might favor one of the siblings, the sum is truly greater than its parts. Richard’s sunny harmonies carried the dark notes of Karen’s voice. Others have since followed this formula; no one else has done it in quite such a winning way. “Individually, we were something,” Richard says of Karen. “But together we were really something else.”
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January 2022
Jazz by Grella Looking Forward, Looking Back
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his month’s name comes from Janus, the two-faced god, looking forward and backward. A crossroads on the calendar, in other words, and here we are again at a crossroads that I’m sure most of us wish we could leave behind.
Where is jazz in January? As December began, I was organizing this month around the return of the NYC Winter Jazzfest 2022, one of the best and most comprehensive jazz festivals on the planet. Writing this now a few days before the end of the year, I’m waiting to hear what events might end up streaming, as all in-person performances have been postponed due to another spike in COVID infections.
So we watch and wait, again, more. Hopefully, Carnegie Hall will be able to present their Afrofuturism Festival in fall. The opening event is February 3, and Carnegie is going ahead with their January schedule, so fingers are crossed. The festival has a central core of jazz, including the Sun Ra Arkestra in Zankel Hall on February 17, because Sun Ra is the recognizable originator of Afrofuturism as both philosophy and aesthetic. The idea never strays far from jazz, which means in concert you’ll be able to hear Nicole Mitchell and Angel Bat Dawid, and Theo Croker, and also Flying Lotus and the Carl Craig Synthesizer Ensemble. You can find the complete schedule of events at https://www.carnegiehall.org/ Events/Highlights/Afrofuturism.
Looking back, 2021 was a great year for jazz on record, with some new recordings that promise to become bona fide, long term classics, and archival releases that mixed historical importance and artistic quality. For the former, I absolutely recommend Vincent Herring’s Preaching to the Choir (Smoke Sessions) and James Brandon Lewis’ Jesup Wagon (Tao Forms). Lewis put out three album last year, not including his membership in Irreversible Entanglements, and each is superb.
From the archives, in these pages I’ve already covered great recordings from Miles Davis, Joe Henderson, and Julius Hemphill. Blank Forms released two essential Don Cherry recordings, along with a book, that fill in the gap between his free-jazz period and his transformation into a global griot, via his life in Sweden with his wife Moki. These are incredibly important documents and the music is absolutely fantastic. Coming in too late for year end polls was Lennie Tristano Personal Recordings 1946-1970, a 6-CD set produced by Mosaic Records, in collaboration with Dot Time Records, that is now available at mosaicrecords.com (Dot Time put out another Tristano archival release, The Duo Sessions, in 2020). The title says it all: this is the personal tape collection of the great pianist and teacher. The bulk of this music has never been heard by the public before, although those lucky enough to have the amazing Carnegie Hall X-Mas ’49 CD previously issued (and out of print) on the Jass
by George Grella Records label will know the scintillating live “You Go To My Head” and “Sax of a Kind” with the sextet of Tristano, alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, tenor player Warne Marsh, guitarist Billy Bauer, Arnold Fishkin on bass, and drummer Jeff Morton.
There is another half-dozen tracks from that group, recorded at Tristano’s studio in his house on Palo Alto Street in Hollis. That’s also the site for some fascinating solo pianism, with Tristano pushing his highly horizontal, contrapuntal style to the limit, and also banging out sequences of chords in an exploratory, improvisational style. It may seem redundant to use the word improvisation with a jazz pianist who was an early pioneer of free playing with a harmonic and rhythmic foundation, but that matters here, as Tristano is clearly experimenting with stacking notes together (unusual for him) and seeing what he might find within them—his piano is out of tune too, and he may be figuring out how to listen through that.
There is immense value in simply having this material together in one easily accessible package. The Tristano discography is scattered to begin with, with issues, reissues, compilations and the like in all formats going in and out of print through the decades. In late December, a quick check at discogs.com showed 85 separate items in the catalogue, and a search at importcds.com (I recommend against using Amazon, not only to not send money to Jeff Bezos but because their own search engine is incompetent and Amazon has a ridiculously bad track record even delivering CDs) turned up less then two dozen CDs and LPs as in print and in stock. Several of those were issued under Konitz or Marsh, his two most famous students/sidemen, and on a track-by-track basis there’s substantial overlap across all the releases that include Tristano. Mosaic has previously issued another 6-CD set, The Complete Atlantic Recordings of Lennie Tristano, Lee Konitz & Warne Marsh, the single finest Tristano compilation, but one that is also now out of print. Any chance to listen to his playing across more than one CD and situation quickly reinforces what a fabulous pianist he was. Even at the fastest tempos, he was always clear and coherent—making things up on the spot, he could always hear where he was going. His ability to articulate notes, to alter dynamics and attack from each to each while working through a line, was virtuosic and always in service of artistry, expression, and swing. He played like a horn player, which didn’t mean just a monophonic line, but making the piano keys sound like they were being shaped with breath, embouchure, and the like. There are revelations here, the kind of things that reinforce the reputation of this great artist. Trio recordings with bass player Peter Ind and drummers Tom Wayburn and Al Levitt are among the best in his discography. Put down at a recording studio in the mid-’50s, they are in great sound and feature one swinging, satisfying performance after another. The
home recordings, solo and with bassist Sonny Dallas, have a loose playfulness to them that show a different side to the pianist. Often criticized for being cold, Tristano was instead serious, meaning what he said and playing what he meant, utterly committed to jazz, with fire, in a way that might be off-putting to a listener who feels entitled to mere entertainment.
The CD bookends cover Tristano’s experimental side. These tracks have the roughest sound, coming from scattered sessions that include White’s Restaurant in Freeport, Long Island and Tristano’s house in Flushing. These feature the leader with musicians like Konitz, Bauer, and Dallas, and are full of beautiful mistakes. What I mean by that is, the musicians are improvising freely, making it up on the spot out of nothing within a general framework of organized rhythm and grounded in tonality. They are finding their way to not just playing together in time but making coherent individual lines and harmonies that fit together and complement each other. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t quite, and Tristano’s own taste for taking a regular four or eight-bar phrase and extending the line for a few extra beats, which is marvelous, often leaves the others behind.
But the point of this playing, and the meaning of the home recordings, is that these weren’t sessions designed to fit a dozen tracks, standards and originals, into neat segments on two sides of an LP. These were musicians looking for a new way of doing things, pressing the edges of what they themselves felt possible into the space where discoveries are made. Many listeners and writers these past couple of years have used the word “experimental” to describe all sorts of genre-based music that might play with the rules a little but, meaning it’s not actually experimental. Like in science, experimental means trying things without knowing exactly what you’re going to discover, and that’s what Tristano and his colleagues were doing, those many years back, in his house in Queens.
"Any chance to listen to his playing across more than one CD and situation quickly reinforces what a fabulous pianist he was. Even at the fastest tempos, he was always clear and coherent—making things up on the spot, he could always hear where he was going." Red Hook Star-Revue
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January 2022, Page 15
Marie's Craft Corner Turn paper towel rolls into children’s playthings
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by Marie Hueston
ne of the tricks of making crafts out of recycled materials is letting the natural shape of the objects you choose inspire what they can become. Take paper towel rolls, for instance. Their long, narrow shape calls to mind other long, narrow things, like wands and flutes. Here you’ll find instructions for a magic wand, a fairy wand, a playful flute, and a light saber. Use these ideas as a jumping off point and then try coming up with variations of your own! Enjoy, and please send pictures of your creations to the editor at george@redhookstar.com. FAIRY WAND
MAGIC WAND What you’ll need: Black and white paper, scotch tape, scissors.
Where to start: Lay out your black paper and place your roll to one side. Tape the starting edge of the paper along one side of the tube and roll until you reach the other end of the paper, then tape the outer
edge in place. Finishing touches: Cut strips of white paper about one and a half inches wide and long enough to go all around the tube. Tape the white paper in place along the top and bottom of the tube and poof! — you have a magic wand.
Page 16 Red Hook Star-Revue
What you’ll need: Wrapping paper, ribbon, scotch tape, scissors, stapler (optional). Where to start: Any wrapping paper you have on hand will do, but something with a little shimmer or a pretty pattern like flowers or butterflies fits the theme well. Cut a piece of wrapping paper wide enough to cover the tube top to bottom then roll and tape it in place. As with the magic wand, it’s good to tape the starting edge of the paper in place before you roll, and then tape the outer edge of the paper when you reach it.
Finishing touches: Cut six to eight strips of ribbon each about a foot long and tape or staple them inside one end of the tube. Ribbon with a bit of curl to it works well, but you can also mix and match styles or colors that coordinate with the wrapping paper.
FLUTE What you’ll need: Aluminum foil, scotch tape, scissors, construction paper, glue. Where to start: Tear off a piece of aluminum foil large enough to cover the tube top to bottom. Tape the starting edge, roll all the way around, and tape in place at the other end. If any foil extends over the top or bottom, tuck it inside the tube. Finishing touches: Cut colorful circles out of construction paper. The number, size, and color of circles you choose are up to you. I used five different color circles each about one inch in diameter. Glue the circles in a row along one side of the flute and allow to dry completely.
LIGHT SABER What you’ll need: Two paper towel rolls, duct tape or masking tape, construction paper, scotch tape, scissors.
Where to start: Use strong tape to connect two rolls into one longer shape. Choose two pieces of construction paper of the same color and roll and tape them into place to cover most of tube. It can be a little short on one side where the handle will be. (Note: My son pointed out that light sabers are not actually yellow. If you also have a child who has an exacting eye for detail, please choose light blue, light green, or red paper to more accurately portray a light saber!)
Finishing touches: To make a handle, cut a strip of black paper about four inches wide and long enough to go around the tube. Roll and tape it into place on one end of the tube.
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January 2022