And if they ever see juvie hall at all, they'll be out in months
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Nice touch: as the body of her victim lies crumpled on the sidewalk behind her, murderess shrieks that “my phone is still in the car!” (1:10)
Our descent back to savagery accelerates
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i bang rocks, eh? Fuck Beethoven!
University of Oxford under pressure to drop musical notation and classical musicians: “too colonial”
It claimed that teaching musical notation had 'not shaken off its connection to its colonial past' and would be 'a slap in the face' to some students.
Also deemed problematic are skills such as playing the keyboard or conducting orchestras. The proposed change would make learning them optional, since the repertoire used in the process “structurally centres white European music,” which causes “students of colour great distress.”
The current classical repertoire was criticized for focusing on “white European music from the slave period,” so presumably works by Mozart and Beethoven will have a diminished place in a rethought ‘decolonized’ curriculum.
The goal here, in case you haven’t been paying attention, is the complete destruction of western civilization so that a “new” social construct (same ol’ oligarchy of the past 5,000 years, but never mind) can be imposed.
(UPDATE) The more I mull on this, the angrier I become. Is there anything more universal than music? This story provoked a memory of the time, as a young freshman, I was walking down what I thought was an empty hallway and idly whistling a snatch of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, when one of my philosophy professors, Wing Ming Chin, spoke up behind me: “You like Beethoven? That’s great!”. He invited me to share a coffee, and he became my mentor and friend. A libertarian, Mr. Wing had been driven from Columbia University for his beliefs (this was 1972, so the process has been going on for a long time), and we had long talks about philosophy and life — he warned me to check out the national job postings for philosophy teachers in the department’s office (6, if I recall) and adjust my post-graduate goals accordingly — and, of course, music. Not once did the subject of Colonialism and white oppression come up between this refugee from the benevolent arms of Chairman Mao and me. Funny, that.
(Circling back again, because it’s my blog, and I can do that). Classical music is just that, while other forms have a more selective appeal. Had I been wandering down that hallway twerking and shouting out about niggers, whores, and motherfuckers, like any good rapper, I would probably not have become friends with Professor Wing, and unless I’d been daubed in blackface, I might even have been shunned by my “peers”.
What to do to people who refuse to submit to a Chinese Flu vaccine?
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The NYT is out with a story that “Far-Right Extremists Move from ‘Stop the Steal’ to “Stop the Vaccine’ “
These groups tend to portray vaccines as a symbol of excessive government control. “If less people get vaccinated then the system will have to use more aggressive force on the rest of us to make us get the shot,” read a recent post on the Telegram social media platform, in a channel linked to members of the Proud Boys charged in storming the Capitol.
The Times derides these people as wild paranoids, but are they? Just two days ago our local rag ran a story from SFgate, a San Francisco web-based, left-wing (redundant, I know) news outlet entitled, “What happens to those who don’t get the COVID-19 Vaccine?”
The answer, according to the two “public health experts” consulted for the article, affirms the fears of the conspiracy nuts that the Times ridicules.
But what about those people who don't get vaccinated, whether due to legitimate health issues, unfounded concerns about safety or effectiveness, or maybe for political reasons?
"We know what will happen to them," said Dr. John Swartzberg, an infectious disease and vaccinology professor emeritus at UC Berkeley. "With a virus that is as contagious as this one and becoming more contagious due to variants, people who decide not to get vaccinated are likely over time to get infected," said Swartzberg. "Ultimately, the people who chose to not get vaccinated will contribute to herd immunity by the fact that they got infected."
From a societal standpoint, he said people who skip the vaccine could compromise the safety of others.
"We need to get to herd immunity to protect those people who can’t get vaccinated," he said. "They’re delaying the safety for all of us. I hear everyone saying deciding to get vaccinated is an individual choice, but the calculus in that choice is twofold — one is to vaccinate yourself and the other is protect others. I think we have a responsibility to protect our communities."
[snip]
"If you can get 80% immunity, you can probably slow, if not grind to a halt, the spread of this virus," said Dr. Paul Offit, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a coinventor of the rotavirus vaccine. "If you can’t get to that 80% immunity because people aren’t getting the vaccine, then this country will have to make a decision: Do you want to mandate a vaccine?"
I’m not totally opposed to this vaccine; in fact, I’m scheduled to, reluctantly, join the guinea pigs next week, even though a woman in Kansas just died from an allergic reaction to the vaccine — heck, you can’t make an omelet without breaking kneecaps — but that’s because I want to travel this summer and I can read what’s coming. I have other fights to fight, and the is not my personal hill to die on.
But are the “far-right” wing nuts paranoid to predict a mandatory vaccination rule? Absolutely not, and the Time’s little fascists know that. We’re already seeing it across the globe, and proof of vaccination will soon be required to enter stores and restaurants, board planes, or attend school. Just yesterday Granny Killer Cuomo introduced his own “Covid Passport” app that will do just that.
Can doctors like the two quoted in the SFGate article actually persuade the government to storm homes and either compel submission or weld shut the inhabitants’ doors? Well, they managed to close down the entire world’s economy, and churches, and all public gatherings except BLM festivals, and forced people to stay isolated and inside their homes for the past year, all to save the world from a disease with a 99% survival rate. So yes, they can, and yes they will; once seized, power is never relinquished. And always expands.
Greenwich neighborhood names, history of
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Tipis come to tod’s point, courtesey of ellen hopkins-fountain
I stumbled across this page about the origin of Greenwich place names on the Greenwich Hysterical Society’s website and thought readers might enjoy it.
Here are just two samples, but it’s a good read in its entirety.
Rock Ridge
The over 150-acre Rock Ridge Farm of Zaccheus Mead between Glenville Road and Lake Avenue had originally been one of the greatest farms in central Greenwich, but by 1882 it had lost its investment value as a farm when the site was purchased for $15,000 by Mr. and Mrs. Nathaniel Witherell. The Witherells created a rural weekend retreat on the farm for poor working girls from New York City with a “Vacation House” they constructed named “Cherryvale.” They later added a poor house for children called “The Fold,” which they maintained as a free summer home for needy children. By 1899 they had subdivided a portion of the farmlands into two-acre plots with town water and electricity that developed into an exclusive residential community, incorporated on November 26, 1901, as the Rock Ridge Association. Listed among its elite residents were the Rockefeller and Lauder families. Each plot initially sold for $15,000, exactly what Witherell had paid for the entire farm, reaping enormous profits.
Old Greenwich
The historic community of Old Greenwich is the original Town of Greenwich. On July 18, 1640, local Native Americans, who had inhabited the land since the late Archaic Period, sold what was then a marshy wilderness, to a small group of settlers for the sum of 25 red coats, only a portion of which was delivered. The first founder was Captain Daniel Patrick. He was by reputation a freewheeling, unscrupulous rogue who had emigrated from the Netherlands with his Dutch wife, Anne Van Beyeren, after being appointed in 1630 by the new Governor John Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony to be one of the first military commanders of the militia in the New World. The second, Robert Feake, was the son of a British goldsmith who had emigrated from England 10 years before and, by 1640, was a wealthy landowner in Watertown. The third settler was a young intrepid Englishwoman, Elizabeth Winthrop Feake, immortalized by Anya Seton in The Winthrop Woman. She was the niece of Governor John Winthrop and his formerly widowed daughter-in-law who had married Robert Feake after emigrating from England in 1631. Elizabeth Winthrop’s particular purchase, which was an exceptional transaction for a woman at the time, was “Monakewego,” a neck of land known today as Greenwich Point, but on maps of the period as “Elizabeth’s Neck.” A portion of these lands was subsequently transferred from Patrick and Feake to Jeffrey Ferris, an Englishman who is credited with naming the settlement “Greenwich” after the town of Greenwich in England.
“Greenwich” became the name for central Greenwich in 1848 when the first train station was constructed in town. It was changed because “Horseneck,” the former name for the downtown central area, was considered too provincial. Afterwards, the original community of Greenwich became “Greenwich, Old Town,” but when the train began stopping there in 1872, the community’s name was changed again to “Sound Beach” in order to attract summer tourists to the beaches. It reverted back to “Old Greenwich” in 1931 because there were no longer any public beaches to serve tourists disembarking from the train.
[editor’s note: in fact, the name was changed precisely to dissuade the great unwashed others from disembarking in “Sound Beach” hoping to find a place to recreate]
1/2 acre in the 4-acre zone? Who cares? It's not a Brooklyn co-op
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98 Lower Cross Road, asked $2.150, got $2.3.
And they'll probably get it
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242 Riverside Avenue is back up for sale at $3.5 million after selling for $3.150 in 2018. It was built by Doron Sabag in 2011, so you know it’s rock-solid construction. There’s no yard, but do New Yorkers expect or even care about that in this low price range?
no yard for you!
Quick contract in Hillcrest Park
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39 Hillcrest Park (Barbara Hindman listing) asking $1.8 million, contract in 11 days. It makes sense to me, because, though it sold for $1.665 in 2000 and nothing significant seems to have been done to it since, it’s a grand old 1920 house on an acre in Hillside Park, which has seen a resurgence in popularity and market value over the past twenty years. The buyer could put some real money into this house to update it and still feel comfortable.
(Understand, please, that my bold statements like this are just one man’s opinion, and I can be, and often am, entirely wrong. I toss this stuff out based on what I think I know, but ….)