Senator Bernie Sanders and Secretary Hillary Clinton are battling for the Democratic nomination to run for President in 2016.
There are complaints from the Sanders camp that the mainstream media very much diminishes his campaign. Clinton supporters insist that this has never been true.
I think Sanders supporters are correct, but I have never heard or read anything that would definitively point to this.
Until this morning.
WNYC aired a story that discussed the day-after events of the two Democratic candidates.
Clinton's day was described as including a rally at the Javits Center that attracted "thousands of supporters," and a benefit at Radio City Music Hall, starring Elton John, that attracted 6,000.
Sanders Michigan rally was described as being held in a "college basketball arena" and no numbers were proffered.
The report successfully made it sound as if Clinton had many, many thousands of people at her event; and that Sanders had a room full of college students.
Then you can do the math.
The college basketball arena at which the Sanders rally was held is the Breslin Student Events Center that holds 16,280 people. It was full.
Clinton had a guaranteed 6,000 at Radio City to see Elton John, but it seems her "thousands" of supporters at Javits Center were really (according to her campaign) 5,000. One can safely assume that the number was inflated and she probably had about 2,500 people at that rally. Crowd estimate mathematics as a science is always used to fabricate a number that suits the purpose of the announcer. Another interesting fact is that at least one union leader promised comp time to any member who attended the Clinton rally, ostensibly paying tradesmen to attend.
If we use her "officially" announced numbers, this puts Clinton's followers at two events totaling (generously) about 11,000 in her "home state."
Sanders attendance had no official announcement, but multiple reports state that the Breslin Center was filled and that puts the count of supporters at 16,000.
Clinton (and Elton John) attracted thousands of supporters, while little was said about the Sanders event at the quaint little student basketball arena.
This is exactly what Sanders people mean when they say the mainstream media does not cover the Sanders campaign.
On a closing note, in his speech at the Clinton event, Democrat-for-hire, Governor Andrew Cuomo, did a wonderful, mocking impersonation of Donald Trump (he's still political detritus, but this is funny):
I have been irritated by Clinton supporters and their press corps complaining about name-calling. Most of the Clinton supporters I read are name-callers who insist that their name-calling isn't name-calling because it is just statement of facts. It's like a collective brainwashing, "folie a mob."
Then the scuttle-butt about Sanders supporters being sexist somehow managed to squeak-by with nary an objection raised, even though it was clearly a tactic to marginalize and embarrass Sanders supporters.
Now, the Clinton supporters and their press corps have coined the phrase "Bernie Bros" to imply that all male Sanders supporters are immature, homophobic misogynists.
At this point it appears that Hillary Clinton is running a more right-wing campaign than any Democrat since LBJ, it's really quite on the order of Nixon's 1972 campaign.
Take your pick of her regressive policies: economics, war, health care?
Sure, in the past she had a good position on health care. She probably had the finest position in the nation, and certainly worked harder than anyone EVER on the doomed Clinton health care policy. Those days are long gone and she now says it is impossible to fix the health care system, and we will never have a single-payer solution. Well, if the nation's greatest advocate of Universal health care has abandoned that movement for her own gain, then I guess it might just be dead.
She has never had an acceptable position on economic policy, domestic or international. She is actually more of a supply-sider than her husband. She has no intention of attempting the regulation of de-regulated industries (like finance and telecommunications de-regulated by her husband). She is in the same cesspool of begging form the bankers as Ted Cruz.
She has never met a military campaign she couldn't learn to love (even it means condemning it after the money is spent and profits are made). Nor has she ever met a military contractor with whom she could not find common ground and enjoy a nice meal.
The argument of many liberals, as usual, is that she is the lesser-of-two-evils when choosing between her and any Republican. I used to laugh at liberals who voted for candidates like Andrew Cuomo, because he was the lesser of two evils. Now, I am frightened of liberals who support Hillary Clinton, and reading their excuses and tirades is now embarrassing.
Yes, she is a better choice than any GOP candidate currently in the mix; but that does not mean that she is the best Democrat for the country or party; and she isn't any more electable or un-electable than Sanders.
Everyone says hi, we all miss you so much. The telly is filthy with stories about you.
I heard the news today. Oh boy! I was flabbergasted and I am gutted. You're gone.
It's impossible to say which song or moment is the most memorable, you gave so much. When you gave us davidbowie.com was a very special time. You would come into the chat room and say hello, and banter along with us. For some reason at this moment I am remembering the day you spent a chat session teaching us all to speak Cockney.
When I was back and forth between New York and London, you'd ask me how things were going. Never long, drawn-out conversations, but you cared enough to ask. You gave me some tips about places in London, and even deigned to respond to a question I had about the footy. I won't ever tell anyone you said "Chelsea" when I asked if there was a side you liked. I guess I was disappointed you weren't a Gooner, but looking back I now realize that David Bowie chatted with me about soccer, and how lucky I am, and how special all these memories are.
Then there was BowieArt. What a fucking brilliant idea! As a small-scale art collector, I was blown-away by this idea: introduce the world to new, unknown artists, and give them a platform on which to show their work to a worldwide audience. I learned about Spanish artist Marta Marce from you, and I adore her work. My wife and I took the train out to Clapton Junction one evening after work to visit her studio, and we bought two paintings. You were so excited when Beth told you about our acquisitions, and you dropped me an email thanking me. How many rock gods do that?
Then there was the release of Heathen. Other records had come and gone since your appearance on the internet, but for Heathen you were full-force out there. You were very public, and so much fun. You became the King of the Internet, and we were your subjects. You were so generous. You gave so much. As much as BowieNet gave us access to you, it gave you access to us and you jumped right in with us!
Suddenly we knew what you were going to be doing - because you'd tell us - and you made sure that Blammo invited us along: television studios, secret shows. You had shows just for BowieNetters at Roseland, just because we were part of this community you'd created.
Remember that 2002 show? You came out in your Thin White Duke costume from 1976, told the story about bringing "Low" to the executives at RCA, and them begging you to make another "Young Americans"and they would pay you any amount of money you wanted, and then you and the band performed the entire Low album from first note to last for us. I think I wept at one point.
You made me weep many times during performances. In particular, I was at the Area 2 show in the middle of the woods in Massachusetts with my best friend who was so very sick. I didn't know how long he was going to live, but he was with me that day. When you sang "Everyone Says Hi" we both had tears streaming down our faces. He lived another year-and-a-half, which was wonderful. You gave me that moment with a man I loved so much that I cried listening to you sing about taking the big trip, the trip you are on now.
Then there was the day in front of the Diana Ross building, in Queens. I know, right?!?!? Why would it be called the Diana Ross building? I mean, Louis Armstrong lived in Queens and if you want to name a Queens building after a musician, why Diana Ross? Anyway, I digress.
You had to film a couple of the new songs for the BBC in conjunction with the release of Heathen. You made sure the audience was filled with your people, us. Then afterwards, you hung around the studio, still in your costume, chatting with us. Suddenly, you said: "Wait! Let me get out of all this, and meet you out front."
We waited out front while you changed and took care of business, then you were there: hanging on a street corner in Queens with a dozen of us, chatting and taking pictures with us. It was amazing. I mean, how many rock gods hang on a street corner in Queens with his fans?
You asked if I was living in London or New York. you asked how my wife was doing. You remembered me, and you cared enough to ask about ME. You wanted to know about ME!
I knew that day that I was involved with something special, a community of people brought together by you who shared so much in common and had you as our ringleader!
Meltdown 2002! Great job, man! Perhaps the best 5 days in a row I ever spent in London.
The Marathon Tour?!?!?! You are such a New Yorker! What other entertainer of your caliber would book a show in each of the five New York City boroughs, along the route of the New York Marathon? None! No other entertainer was as cool as you.
My brother is a firefighter, and he was in town for something related to the World Trade Center disaster. I took him to the Staten Island show and at the end he said: "That is the best rock concert I've ever been to." It was an amazing show and we had friends in from all over the world for it.
Then that amazing Brooklyn show where you sang something like 32 songs, including "Bewlay Brothers"! Queens, where Tony was kind enough to give Carla and me his after-show backstage passes. We got to chat with all of the band, but you were out pretty quickly that night. Then in The Bronx, you played Jimmy's Bronx Cafe and said from the stage: "We're here every Friday night, and we only cover David Bowie songs!" Manhattan, Philadelphia and Boston were all the pretty much same show, but amazing nonetheless, including a live performance of "Alabama Song"!
Then after you did "Reality," you toured the world, then settled-into your home in SoHo to raise your daughter. You were gone. I'd hear things about you from Blammo or Tony. Always minor things, but they were connections that remained after you decided to take a break and be a dad.
There are so many memories. You gave me so much.
From the early-70s, when I was an awkward urban urchin confused about sexuality, drugs, and life in general, and you sang songs that seemed written for me, to the opening of Lazarus at the end of 2015, the empty moments of my life have been filled-in by your creations.
You gave me Leeza and Helen, Kelmar and Carla, King Tommy and Cavebat, Rex Ray and Myriam, Beff and Liz, Leah and Blammo, Princess Ramsey and Ursula, NNMaddox and Mayumi, Mary and Nikki, Demerson and Irmavep, Luis and all the Marks, Karen and Susan, Kate and Iana, Georgina, Patti, Shakeh, The Rabbi, Rednik, Andy, and scores more: people who are remarkable, people I love, people I can count as my friends, because of you.
I feel like I've lost a close friend. You made me feel special, you made me feel important, that I mattered to you. Even when we disagreed, you were always generous of time and spirit, and now you're gone.
Life goes on for me, but it will be a slightly less amusing life without you.
I'll keep my memories close and I'll buy a little frame, something cheap . . . for you.
At the beginning of December, 2015, as anti-Muslim hate speech spread like wildfire across the United States, the Auburn Muslim Students Association (MSA), at Auburn University, decided to conduct an experiment of love, reconciliation, and humanity.
For an hour and a half, Basim Ismail, a member of MSA, stood blindfolded in the middle of campus, next to a sign that read, “I am Muslim and I trust you. Do you trust me enough for a hug?”
Given the tone of the day's rhetoric, and given that this campus is in Alabama, anything could have happened. And it did.
Over the course of 90 minutes, about 100 people stopped to give Basim a hug. There were no reports of violence or hostility.
Watching the video made me a bit weepy, especially when someone would walk past him, reading the sign as they hurried along, then stopped in their tracks, turned around and hugged.
What this means is that when people pause and think about a situation, instead of reacting in a fit of passion, we almost always do the right thing, we almost always choose love, acceptance, and kindness.
Let's all do the world a favor and pause for a moment, when we feel passionate about taking action against a particular group of people. When we think about the reality of the situation, we know the right thing to do, and it is never to condemn and paint the entire group with a broad brushstroke. We always choose acceptance, understanding, and compassion.
by Dick Mac
I saw the first preview of "Lazarus" and now that it has opened and has been reviewed in the mainstream media, I offer you this review I wrote of the 18 November performance:
Lazarus
by David Bowie and Enda Walsh
Directed by Ivo van Hove
at New York Theatre Workshop
Opening Preview, November 18, 2015
Previews can be dangerous. What if I hate it, and they don't change it before the Opening? What if I love it, but it's changed before the Opening? What if it's more like "hours..." than Scary Monsters? Maybe I should just wait for the Opening?
Don't be stupid!
The first preview of Lazarus played at the New York Theatre Workshop last night and there wasn't a chance in hell I'd miss it. Seemingly there were thousands of others who felt the same way. The entire run sold out in an hour, and it is one of the hottest tickets in town. While standing in line with friends at TKTS in Times Square hours before the show, I told one of the staff working the line that I was seeing Lazarus tonight. He and his colleagues were envious beyond belief.
Lazarus is a new play/musical written by David Bowie and Enda Walsh, directed by Ivo van Hove, and starring Michael C. Hall.
Many theatrical pieces based on the music of famous pop stars have been produced over the past three decades. Some are hugely successful and some are total flops. A theatrical production of the music of David Bowie doesn't sound right, now, does it? There must be more to it.
And there is.
The story of Lazarus is based on the 1963 Walter Tevis novel "The Man Who Fell To Earth" and it picks-up the story of Thomas Jerome Newton where it was left off by Nicholas Roeg in his 1976 movie release of the same name, starring David Bowie. The music for Lazarus is almost exclusively from David Bowie's existing catalog, and adds at least 4 new songs he has written for the production.
Let's start with the familiar: the music of David Bowie.
The soundtrack borrows heavily from Bowie's last release "The Next Day," along with massive hits, anthems, and obscure gems. The show opens with a new song (title unknown) that is unmistakably Bowie, and continues with "It's No Game" (Scary Monsters), "This Is Not America" (single), "The Man Who Sold The World" (TMWSTW), another new song, "Love Is Lost" (The Next Day), "Changes" (Hunky Dory), "Where Are We Now" (The Next Day), Absolute Beginners (single), "Dirty Boys" (The Next Day), another new song, "Life On Mars" (Hunky Dory), "All The Young Dudes" (outtake), "Sound + Vision" (Low), "Ashes To Ashes" (Scary Monsters), "Always Crashing In The Same Car" (Low), "Valentine's Day" (The Next Day), another new song, and "Heroes" (Heroes).
The renditions of the songs are mostly new arrangements sung by the cast, and some of the performances are emotional and moving (yes, to tears). The one song that doesn't really work for me, but is enhanced by spectacular video, is "Where Are We Now." I think it was inevitable that, as is true with all art, something was going to feel forced or contrived, and this is the only instance in the soundtrack. Yes, a wonderful song; but, I didn't feel it in the context of the story. Literally every other song successfully advanced the plot line or illuminated the scene in which it was performed.
Now slightly less familiar: the story.
If you read the book or saw the movie "The Man Who Fell To Earth," you are likely familiar with the two characters that make their way into Lazarus: Thomas Jerome Newton (the actual man who fell to Earth) and Mary-Lou (his love interest). At the end of the story that we know, Newton has resigned himself to a life of alcoholic oblivion enhanced by uncountable riches, and Mary-Lou has abandoned the loveless relationship.
Lazarus opens with Newton (Michael C. Hall) sleeping, then eating, then drinking in his New York apartment. We meet Elly, his new assistant (Cristin Milioti), and then a very confusing character, Michael (Charlie Pollock) whose part in the story is vague at best, confusing in every aspect, and rather inconsequential. If it were not for his demise, which informs the demise of others later in the story, he would be completely forgettable. His lines are delivered very well, but are almost pedestrian given the complex story-telling skills of the writers. Pollock is a good actor, and the character and his part in the story in their current form, are not worthy of such a talent. The character needs to be developed more effectively, be given better lines, or introduced later in the story.
The completely unfamiliar: the Lazarus narrative.
One of my favorite dynamics of Bowie’s creativity is his discussion of, celebration of, fear of, victories over, and pain caused by mental illness. There is no other contemporary artist in any discipline that so effectively weaves the thread of mental illness (in many of its forms) through his or her work. Bowie brings it to new levels, whether it is schizophrenia, addiction, or depression, he addresses it with compassion, humor, and aplomb. Lazarus is no different.
Newton’s alcoholism, his manias and phobias rooted in the abuse he has suffered at the hands of Earthlings, his total inability to form healthy relationships, his fear of intimacy, and his crippling refusal to move out of the past, all create a complex character that Bowie and Walsh have made even more dynamic than the original story.
His crushing self-hatred connected to Mary-Lou’s abandonment at the end of the last story, is aggravated and challenged by Elly’s infatuation with him. She enters Newton’s world each day after she leaves the loveless home she shares with her husband, Zach (Bobby Moreno). As Elly learns more about Mary-Lou, her own struggles with mental illness throw a confused dynamic into her relationship with Newton. They become simultaneously antagonistic and sympathetic. They form bonds of love and fear, hatred and passion. She desperately wants to help Newton out of his personal hell, and his refusal to accept her creates magnificent tension and conflict resulting in a schizophrenic break that makes Elly more endearing and more frightening as the story advances.
Then there is Valentine (Michael Esper) who starts small and insignificant and grows in stature and character as the plot advances. This complex role demands a perseverance and creative drive of which Esper should be very proud. He is funny and scary, he is elegant and dreadful. He sings and moves with the strength of two men. I won’t say that he gives the best performance of all, but I look forward to hearing what others think of him.
Cristin Milioti is amazing as Elly, and she delivers a top-notch performance of this potentially confusing role. The serious physical demands of the part are not for the faint of heart. She moves fiercely through the staging as beautifully as she does through the character. Even when catatonic she commands a presence that is inescapable. She and Michael C. Hall work as protagonist and antagonist as well as any two actors you will see.
Hall’s performance is superb, and given the challenging nature of the character and the story, this is no small feat. Each of the actors with whom he shares intimate scenes: Milioti, Esper, Pollock, and the amazingly talented, young Sophia Anne Caruso, are catapulted to new heights in their roles by his work.
The relationship between Hall’s Thomas Newton and Caruso’s unnamed (but eventually named) Girl, is as beautiful, intimate, and ecstatic as a relationship between an adult and a child can be without feeling totally wrong, creepy, and inappropriate. They share intimacy and conflict that most of us will never encounter (or understand). Their journey through Newton’s mental illness, to the conclusion of their relationship excited and frightened me. Their final duet left me in tears.
Ben (Nicholas Christopher) and Maemi (Lynn Craig) initially seem like incidental characters with a fun, very New York story. Their wedding becomes part of the story and Christopher delivers a rendition of “All The Young Dudes” that is sexy beyond imagination. Craig is a strong singer herself, and the physical demands of her role make her stand out on a crowded stage. She is left to sing the second verse of “All The Young Dudes,” which almost feels like an afterthought on the part of the writers or director. Her partner delivers the hyper-masculine anthem with sexual energy that left me wanting more from him; and since it is such a “boy” song, switching the sexes of the singers is awkward. It’s unfair to Craig, and she should be given the opportunity to sing a song that is more appropriate for a female lead. She delivers, nonetheless, and the awkwardness of the scene is by no means created by her.
There are three actresses who play angels, or muses, or devils, or guilty consciences, or charitable volunteers, or all of the above. Krystyna Alabado, Krista Pioppi, and Brynn Williams, weave their way through the most intense scenes of the play, by directing dialog, movement, or scene development, instructing characters how to behave, or undermining the fragile mental health of the main characters. As singers, they are collectively wonderful at providing background vocals (both visibly and secluded). Alabado is the most featured of the three and has a commanding presence. She is beautiful, dignified, and has an elegant movement through the scenes that makes her even more appealing.
Elly’s husband Zach returns later in the story, after their marriage is all but destroyed by his wife’s relationship with Newton. Moreno is a handsome actor with a very strong presence. He is the only member of the ensemble with no singing part, which pushes him to the background to a degree; but he offers his role as a controlling, insecure, chauvinistic husband convincingly. The husband’s demands are typically metrosexual and unbecoming, and Moreno breathes life into a character that we might not want to like very much. He convinced me to feel sympathy for the character, even when the husband was behaving his worst.
The staging includes the 7-piece band behind glass at the back of the stage. This makes them and the music, appropriately, an integral part of the story. This is the music of David Bowie. Bowie has formed some of the most amazing rock bands in the history of the art form. Having the band seen as part of the ensemble is, in retrospect, genius.
New York Theatre Workshop is a comfortable space that seats about 200 people. There isn’t a bad seat in the house, and the acoustics are great.
At this time, Lazarus is completely sold-out for its run through mid-January. There are day-of-show cancellation tickets available, and there is a very clearly marked area for that queue outside the Theatre. If you don’t have tickets, and have the time to get in line, try it.
I can’t wait to see what the show looks like on Opening Night, December 9th.
