Ink Lake

Nothing But #1 Hits!

The WFMU marathon is on, and as the station is one of the things that gives life, if not the universe meaning, you should pledge.

And when you pledge, you can get a DJ premium, and Michael Shelley, who hosts the #1  Hits Show on Saturday mornings, has put together a fantastic CD for this year’s givers.

Super-Hits of the 70s was recorded especially for the fund-raising drive. Amy Rigby, Yo La Tengo, more.. Amazing stuff, and you’ll not find it anyone else! Literally.

Here is a New Yorker article.

Everyone knows WFMU, or should: the pride of New York-area independent radio, based in Jersey City, New Jersey, and broadcasting at 91.1 on your FM dial, as well as at wfmu.org. WFMU is a rare jewel of the airwaves for many reasons, not the least of which is how it’s supported entirely by listeners—not by a university, not by advertisers, not by sponsors.

Read more , listen more, and most importantly, pledge!

The Gates of The Righteous

From Bayside Cemetery

WABC continued its coverage of the horrific mess at Bayside Cemetery, with an attempt to interview the current rabbi of Congregation Shaare Zedek. That’s the Upper West Side temple that took the money that hundreds of families paid for perpetual care of the graves, and uh.. spent it.

Surprise — the rabbi, William Plevan, (who inherited the problem) didn’t want to talk to ABC’s reporter, Jim Hoffer.

The report says,

“Congregation Shaare Zedek is now using charitable donations to cleanup the cemetery which they say should be completed sometime in the Fall.”

Those charitable donations are as far as I know, not from the synagogue, but from groups like CAJAC, who have hired professional landscapers. In all the times I’ve been there, I’ve yet to meet a volunteer from Shaare Zedek. It’s people from CAJAC, the Boy Scouts, fraternities, Mormons, and other volunteers, who have worked to fix this disaster.

Shaare Zedek’s digs by the way, look pretty nice. It wouldn’t break my heart a bit, if as a result of the lawsuits filed against them by distraught families, they lost that piece of property. True, I’m not sure how easy it would be for anyone to sell a synagogue, but that’s not the point.

The congregation can pray in the street, or at the cemetery. Zedek’s website has on its home page,

“Open the gates of righteousness for me, that I may enter them and praise God.” Psalms 118:19

This gate look pretty righteous to me…

From Bayside Cemetery

Benefit For Danny Amis At Maxwell's

Danny Amis, a founding member of the Raybeats, is battling multiple myeloma. A benefit show was held at Maxwell’s on Thursday, to help with his medical bills.

His old band played, along with the Schramms, Ira Kaplan, Georgia Hubley, and James McNew from Yo La Tengo, (actually, that is Yo La Tengo), and a bunch of other people that I don’t know. A great time was had, for a good cause.

Sorry for the background noise on this first one. I was standing next to two idiot girls, who thought this was the best place to have a conversation.

 

For the Raybeats last number, they asked a woman to join them.

 

Ira Kaplan playing along with Dave Schramm.

More here.

Civics 101

April 16 — Brooklyn Borough Pres. Marty Markowitz reprises his anti-bike-lane schtick for a crowd in Sheepshead Bay.

 

April 23 — The Student Council at Cooper Union School of Art holds a silent auction to raise money for the medical bills of Emilie Gossiaux, a Cooper Union student left blind, after being struck by an unlicensed truck driver, while riding her bike, .

 

 Compare and contrast.

 

 

H/T: Brooklyn Spoke

I Can't Wait Until l Grow Up

From the ISPCC. I defy you not to be moved, and hope this moves you to act, in any way that helps.

Please share. Remember, we’re the grown-ups.

H/T Sullivan

This Must Be The Place

As soon as I got home from Utah, I caught a cat-nap for a couple of hours. Then I heard about Yo La Tengo doing a snap-benefit for the victims of the Japanese earthquake and disaster.

I was dog-tired, and the next day was a school-day, but I braved the graupel that fell on Hoboken, as I trudged down Washington Street to Maxwell’s.

What can I say? Awesome! (All my videos from the show, here.)

Fred Armisen, of SNL and Portlandia sat in as 2nd drummer, knew all the songs, and did a good job.

I’d never seen YLT before, but damn, this was one great gig. Gothamist covered it too, and knows their catalog a lot better)

The band was in particularly fun, raunchy form for the two-set show, playing a wide range of their best loved songs, some acoustic rarities, and covers, including an eyeball-popping run through of Velvet Underound classic "Run, Run, Run." Highlights from the first set included the bass-groovy "Moby Octopad," the keyboard-pounding “Periodically Double Or Triple", a lonesome version of "Tears Are In Your Eyes" with Byrne on harmonies, and a slowed-down, spacey version of Talking Heads classic “Thank You For Sending Me An Angel".

Somehow the band delivered an even better second set, unloading every huge guitar song in their arsenal, including “Decora", "Sugarcube", “Cherry Chapstick" and "From A Motel 6." The highlight of the night may have been the absolutely destructive guitar freakout of "Pass The Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind," which saw guitarist Ira Kaplan utilizing every trick he knew with his pedals, and even found him switching guitars midway through the song without losing a beat. Overall, it was definitely the best set we've ever seen the band play together.

David Byrne came up for a few songs,

 

and in the 2nd half of the show, Glenn Mercer of the Feelies. Here is the VU song “Run, Run, Run”. That opening bit of feedback...bliss.

 

In the category of “it’s a small, cool word”, here are the Feelies are playing in one of my favorite scenes from Jonathan Demme’s Something Wild. A movie that has a cameo from David Byrne’s mom.

 

Help. Give. Please.

Gothamist has the sad story of Emilie Gossiaux, a 21-year-old Cooper Union art student, who while riding her bike in Brooklyn last October, was struck by a tractor-trailer driven by a man not licensed to drive that class of vehicle.

She was grievously injured, and after awaking from a coma, is now blind.

Her family has set up a fund to help pay her medical expenses. Some friends of hers are selling art on her behalf, but I simply gave.

I know times are tight, and at this time of year especially, there are many requests to donate to worthy causes. Still, I hope you’ll consider making a contribution.

I’ve contacted the Brooklyn DA’s office of communicatons to get an understanding of why the driver was cited only for driving with the wrong class of license and making an unsafe turn. They are looking into it and have promised to get back to me.

I’ve also written the office of Borough President Marty Markowitz, asking if he could help. (Letter below).

 

 

Dear Borough President Markowitz,


Today I read in Gothamist about Brooklyn resident Emilie Goisseaux, a 21 year-old Cooper Union art student who was on her bike in Bushwick when struck by an 18-wheeler last October.

While the driver was cited for making an illegal turn and driving without a proper license, Ms. Goisseaux suffered serious injuries and after awakening from a coma, she is now blind.

Rather than singing a song or sending a  holiday card, I respectfully that that the Borough President's office make a contribution to the fund set up to help pay her medical bills.

The courtesy of a reply is requested.

Thank you,

Peter Kaufman
Brooklyn Heights

The Mail Bag

At work, we are helping out New York Cares, answering a bunch of letters to Santa from under-privileged kids. This is the one I took.

The post office runs a similar program, and I encourage everyone, if they can, to participate. In New York, just go to the Main Post Office, across from Penn Station, and pick as many letters as you choose to answer.

Last year they began to mask the addresses of the kids, in order to protect them from ne’er-do-wells, so now you have to bring the gifts to the post office, but two years ago, the addresses were still visible.

One girl, I mailed the present to her house, and intended to do the same for my other letter-writer. But one of the gifts she wanted, a ‘High School Musical 2’ DVD, did not get to me in time, when the person I bought it from on eBay flaked out.

So on Christmas Eve, I ran to Target at Atlanic Center, (even more than the usual madhouse), got some stuff, and headed out in the sleet for the C train to East New York. I got to a three-story building on Atlantic Avenue, with a run-down insurance company on the ground floor, and apartments above. There were no names on the buzzers, but I saw a light on the top floor, and rang the top buzzer.

After a minute, a Hispanic woman stuck her head out the window. I yelled up,

“Is this the xxx family?”

She nodded. I pointed to the bag I was carrying and said,

“I have something for you.”

A minute later, she comes down the stairs, holding a toddler boy, and a girl who looks to be about 8 or 9 at her side, holding her hand.

I bent down. “Are you Eliza”? She nodded.

“Did you write a letter to Santa?” Another nod.

“Well, he dropped this off at my house. He told me to give it to you.”

Her eyes went as wide as saucers. I handed her the bag (which included a Transformers toy for her brother..something she asked for), and said,

“Merry Christmas.”

I headed back to the subway. It was awesome.

Awesome.

Nothing Without Work

Last weekend, I was back out at Bayside Cemetery. Helping out were a bunch of Boy Scouts from Roslyn Heights, along with their families. They went to work on a part of the cemetery that is relatively ‘open’. 

I helped out some of the kids — you can easily topple some of the stones if you’re not careful.

Send in the pandas — no idea how this bamboo got there.

I wandered over to a part of the cemetery that has lots of trees. It’s our intent to keep the trees, they provide a nice, quiet shade, but still within, there’s a lot of clearing that has to be done, so I went about whacking and sawing.

This spot had a bunch of kid’s graves. How sad. Who knows what happened, but I know that penicillin wasn’t widely available until after WW II.

This was odd. The marker is made out of painted plywood. It’s next to other graves with the same family name. Didn’t want a stone marker, or maybe couldn’t afford one? The inscription says, “Sine labore nihi”. Nothing without work.

From Sept 12

Last Night From The Roof

The tall buildings in downtown Brooklyn (behind the camera) make the whole neighborhood an echo-chamber. These fireworks were sponsored by Hope For The Warriors, a charity which provides assistance to wounded veterans.