very sad news....

about the project at 80 flatbush---again the city council representative seems to have caved to the real estate industry. so that a few "affordable" apartments can be built. How far can this go? It is incredibly depressing to me---how much power we are allowing the people who represent the real estate industry. It makes me want to not report on the few other experiences I have had in this blog. And they were interesting.
 Thursday: After a hectic day in the library at Friends, decided not to go straight home but to see a movie. It was Hale County, the morning, the evening at IFC. Another documentary, like the one about John McEnroe, that has no "talking heads" but simply puts the viewer in the middle of the action, and lets him or her figure it out. In this case, the subject is a poor black community in Georgia and how it functions. A distance in the way the information is delivered. We are left to make our own conclusions. I was surprised at the abruptness of the movie's ending, and I wish the director-conceiver of this movie could have been at a talk back---I have a lot of questions for him. A cold, but interesting experience.
 On the way home, stopped off at the Cornelia Street Cafe---where I "hung out" a lot in the early nineties, and curates some new play readings. The owner Robin, was there, and since he was an old friend, we chatted for a while. He is nervous about the future of the place, and his life, should the cafe have to close. Again, a real estate battle---the new owners have no respect for the history or warmth that the cafe offers.
 Friday, after a shorter day at Friends, was restless in the evening---should see a movie---since I was tired and did not want to travel, it was either the Moore movie at AMC, or a Czech revival at the Walter Reade. I chose the latter--not wanting to sit through a million trailers, among other things. The movie at the Reade, called Daises, was a superficial, sometimes quirky, other times repetitive look at two young Czech women during the Iron Curtain days, who like to wreck havoc on all things. They do, with bizarre results. The movie is colorful and inventive, but I left a few minutes before it ended because it was just repeating itself. That is all.
 Today, after a session, some free time before Sibyl's project at the Whitney at 9.
  How does on put all of these things together: the horror of the builders, against the excitement of the other "non-political" events of the city. Not enough people are concerned about this, or they just take a passive, "what can you do" stance. It is not enough.