Sorry, can’t get past it. Happy holidays.
Mediaeval Babes
My hard drive fell apart last night. I am sad. Anyway, this is about as close as I’ll get to Christmas music on the blog.
Getting Straight on Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens left this mortal coil late last week before he could say goodbye to Vaclav Havel and Kim Jong Il. I was disturbed by all the eulogies that praised him effusively for having nought but wit, a profuse pen, and a big personality that worked well on cable news. So here are two essays that set the record straight on this propped-up imperialist apologist for the biggest mistake of the previous decade.
Glenn Greenwald compares his canonization with that of Ronald Reagan’s. Greenwald wrote a similar essay when Tim Russert died as a journalist celebrated for softballing any and all propaganda the White House dished out.
Katha Pollitt talks about his drinking and sexism.
Stories of Hitchens’ drinking bouts sometimes landed on the gossip pages and other anecdotes occasionally reached my ears. In the 2000s, he had written enough for me to disagree with him on most points so I accepted his essential schtick — the smart, drunk, party guy from the left who flipped out after 9/11 — but I was surprised anyone of the left or libertarian bent took him seriously anymore, especially his pity party at Vanity Fair. As Pollitt says, he will be missed because he was larger than life. After that, it’s the booze talking.
Photo Dump for the Holidays
Here are various pics from the last few months. Captions are included.
Two From Weeks Ago
These are just okay but so what.
Con Ed, still on it pretty much
14 Street sunset
Union Square Life
Here are some crappy shots I took from the same spot one night in Union Square. September.
This Thing Is On?
I suppose. I let it slag like a mattress in the back of the backyard. Here’s an old photo… More soon of course… a photo gallery at the least.
Hot August Night Gallery
Here are some miscellaneous night photos I took over the summer, all similar in subject matter to what I’ve shot before. The difference here is that I started doing some color correction for the pervasive outdoor tungsten lighting that is now in most urban cities. Enjoy!
Hugh Haggerty Photo Show, August 2011
I’ll have a total of seven photos on display at SIP for the month of August with a reception August 4th, 6-9 pm. SIP is a small bar/restaurant and this is very informal. I usually DJ there on Thursday nights and will be DJing early and late the night of the reception.
Let the Robots Fight It Out?
Barbara Ehrenreich’s essay ends on a strangely positive note. She doesn’t adequately consider the human generational aspects in her conclusion. The motivations of war machines to invent new killing machines, new enemies, and new bureaucracies to administer them is directly proportional to their survival instincts and economic necessity. No matter how inhuman and robot-ful war becomes, only human extinction will take out the human factor. Steve Featherstone concluded much the same in his Harper’s essay a few year back (subscription req’d). It’s a rather nice Star Trek sort of sci-fi fantasy though. Have a nice day!
Two from Bushwick
As New York gentrification hits more remote spots, I have my doubts that certain places will change as rapidly as some neighborhoods did in the past. (Also, my photo show at SIP may be postponed. Stay tuned.)
Philadelphia Observations
I learned about Philadelphia in elementary school. It was the birthplace of America, where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were drawn up, homeplace of Benjamin Franklin and Betsy Ross among others. Philadelphia is the sixth largest city in the U.S., and is without a doubt, my favorite east coast city next to New York. It has a very large Wikipedia entry which is my way of admitting I don’t know Philadelphia very well. Continue reading “Philadelphia Observations”