I just finished reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy.
In this post-apocalyptic meditation where a dimmed sun casts no shadow, and tumultuous clouds of ash swirl through city streets like orphaned ghosts seeking shelter in charred buildings, a nameless father and son survive by scavenging through unburnt refuse, and in the face of their coffin world, have the audacity to love. How do they do it?
It is a mystery, just as is the ill fate of their civilization. “What happened to the world”, asks the protagonist. It doesn’t matter. No one knows.
What we do know is that never has the simplicity of hope that tethers two characters been more illuminating. As McCarthy writes of the man staring upon the boy, “…he would raise his weeping eyes and see him standing there in the road looking back at him from some unimaginable future, glowing in the waste like a tabernacle”.
I am numb. I am joyed. I am on the verge of tears.
Tonight is the political death of Senator Kennedy. We all know that the Massachusetts Senator died this past summer, but the bastion of liberal ideals, the leftist lion, died politically tonight. His senate seat of 46 years went to a Republican who vows to derail the universal health plan that Ted Kennedy spent his life trying to achieve. The bill is now just 1 vote away, and the person to deny it is the person who inherits the seat of its chief proponent. No doubt if Ted were still alive and full of vigor, the votes needed to pass this measure would already be counted for. He would have brokered compromises on both sides. That was his magic.
Alas, it was Kennedy that said in his own concession speech that the “cause endures” and “the dream shall never die”. The issue of universal health care won’t go away. It is increasingly embraced by the developed nations of the world, and, eventually, the United States will follow suit. We will do so because it is both cost effective and civically appropriate. It may not necessarily happen at the Federal level. Perhaps states will just follow some form of the Massachusetts model, a landmark achievement of our Republican Governor come Presidential candidate Mitt Romney. In defense of the legislation to his Republican colleagues, Romney repeatedly stressed that universal coverage would provide extensive cost saving for the state, and it was his responsibility as governor, and a Republican, to enact measures that save money. He was right, and so now are the Democrats and all the developed nations of the world that have already moved in this direction or are attempting to do so.
Conversely, it’s also true that Ted Kennedy campaigned harder than just about anyone, and in that sense, he hasn’t died politically, because it’s obvious that Scott Brown campaigned harder than Martha Coakley and seemingly wanted it more than she. It was, indeed, Scott, and not Martha, that took the page out of Ted’s book on how to campaign with tireless conviction. Therefor, it can be said, the legacy of the late Senator is still with us, and if Martha had bothered to learn from that example, she might be heading to Washington now to cast the keystone vote of our generation. Do you think Ted would have complained about campaigning in the cold outside Fenway Park? The election should go to the candidate who has the most heart in the game, and we should hope that future Democrats will get the message. That spirit, more than anything, will keep the dream alive.
Every First Night has it’s theme. Tonight’s theme, in addition to being the birth of a new decade - the 2010s - was the first First Night that did not have it’s beloved mascot Brother Blue at the helm. His blue robes, bells, wand and tattooed butterflies did not seduce the parade. He was not, for the first time, the figurehead for First Night pageantry - the steward for a ship that has sailed Boston Streets for nearly three decades. Instead, Brother Blue is Pied Piper now in the Elysian Fields, having just passed away at the incredible age of 88. So, we carry on without him. However, in his spirit, we snap, we stomp, we whistle, we pause, we listen, and we ring in the new year with life, glee, hope, and the insatiable angels of awe. For that reason, tonight’s First Night theme, in my opinion, is about the passing of Brother Blue and the beginning of a new era of younger, innumerable, and unbeknown Brother Blues. It is, indeed, as he might say, from the middle of the middle of him to the middle of the middle of us.
I will therefore start my decadal review with a nod to Brother Blue, a man who, for generations, inspired the ageless child in all who new him, who, with bare feet in the middle of winter, scat cadence, and sidekick harmonica - telling stories to anyone, anywhere - was clearly out of place in this world, yet, somehow, here with more comfort and authority than we could fathom. Thus, tonight, and this decade, I dedicate to you, Blue, for amidst an era of unreason, you were the Prince of Principle.
Mr. Seth Goes to Washington, Part 3: Inauguration Day (Written January 21, 2009)
Dear Friends,
I woke this morning with the throbbing pain of heel splints. The physical exhaustion of the marathon walking, standing, waiting, and herding for 14 hours-a-day over this freezing concrete city has finally taken it’s toll. The Messiah may arrive today, and I’d watch on television. (grin).
I tried to write something last night, but my brain and body were in utter retreat. I jotted down a few notes, had two classes of champagne, fumbled with the video camera, and passed out. I actually slept 7-hours for the first time in who knows how long.
It’s hard for me to put into words what an extraordinary whirlwind of a day it has been.
I feel as if I am in the vortex of history.
I don’t know where to start or which theme to cling to. Perhaps, for the first time in my life, I feel psychically overwhelmed… and the Inauguration hasn’t even happened yet.
As many of your know I’m in DC for the Obama Inauguration.
The spirit down here is insatiable. The city is abuzz. Everyone is happy. I’ve been able to strike up a conversation with all sorts of people, from police to waiters, to random people. Everyone has as story. Everyone has a perspective. And after this, everyone will have a memory.
I’m staying in the Georgetown neighborhood which is walking distance to all the major attractions. Needless to say, I’ve done a lot of walking already, more than I’ve probably done in years. My legs are sore!
There is so much more I want to say, but I’m so completely exhausted. It’s nonstop. I don’t even have the energy to download the photos.
There are three emerging areas of research that we believe hold promise for helping to understand and mitigate the impacts of climate change. Although they stem from diverse fields of inquiry, we believe their effects are tightly coupled. These concern the following: (1) the role of soils in climate stability and their potential for significant, permanent, and viable carbon sequestration of up to 10 gigatons per year, (2) the role of ocean anoxia as a predecessor to extinction episodes, and its troubling rise in today’s seas, and (3) the role of algae eating fish, such as menhaden, in controlling estuary eutrophication and rapid expanse of ocean “dead zones”. Seen together, these three areas of research show that restoring degraded soils while putting a moratorium on the fishing of algae eaters, may in fact be the most efficient way to reduce atmospheric CO2 to below dangerous levels (350 ppm) while avoiding perilous trigger events, such as ocean anoxia. These measures can be achieved without great sacrifice or cost, and in a fashion that supports improved yields, reduced environmental impacts, and new sustainable economies. Read the rest of this entry »
Personal Reflections on a Seminal Event
By Seth J. Itzkan, August 29, 2008.
I won’t soon forget the most important political moment in my lifetime.
Antidote to Timidity
In addition to the superlatives that are no doubt in abundance this August morning, I would add that Obama’s treatments of the abortion, gay rights, and gun ownership issues were transcendent. “Don’t tell me we can’t uphold the second amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals”, he angrily exalted concerning the latter. That type growling clarity is exactly what the Democratic Party has been lacking. He is the antidote to timidity. Another pinnacle moment came when he proclaimed the bipartisan principles of patriotism, “The men and women who serve in our battlefields…have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America – they have served the United States of America”. Read the rest of this entry »
I attended the Barak Obama 47th Birthday Party Fundraiser yesterday, August 4th. This was in the “Great Room” on the 33rd floor of 60 State Street in Boston. Harry Connick Junior was there to sing Happy Birthday.
What is the sound of one hand clapping (and the other hand holding a cellphone camera)?
My social observation of the day is that everyone, myself included, had all their cellphone cameras in full gear so no one had a free hand to clap with. When he came out there was a curiously mild applause, almost like a gulf clap. Seeing as this was such an enthusiastic group of supporters that seemed strange, until I realized why. No one had their hands free! It was a sea of cell phone cameras held high in the air like periscopes from a mass of heads. I was reminded of Vonnegut’s classic eyeball-hands of the Trafalmadorians. Feeling somewhat ashamed at contributing to this unintended awkward artifact of the modern era, I quickly stashed my cellphone and started clapping gregariously. How strange.
Republican Senator Mitch McConnell who opposes the Climate Action bill is exactly correct when we says it would be the “largest restructuring of the American economy since the New Deal”. That is exactly what we need, and exactly what he’s afraid of.
“It’s a huge tax increase,” argued Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, a prominent coal-producing state. He maintained that the proposed system of allowing widespread trading of carbon emissions allowances would produce “the largest restructuring of the American economy since the New Deal” in the 1930s.”It’s a huge tax increase,” argued Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, a prominent coal-producing state. He maintained that the proposed system of allowing widespread trading of carbon emissions allowances would produce “the largest restructuring of the American economy since the New Deal” in the 1930s.”It’s a huge tax increase,” argued Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, a prominent coal-producing state. He maintained that the proposed system of allowing widespread trading of carbon emissions allowances would produce “the largest restructuring of the American economy since the New Deal” in the 1930s.
[Partial transcript of talk by Dr. James Hansen. Talk give June 1st, 2008 in Lexington, Massachusetts. Transcript notes by Seth J. Itzkan. I’ve added time stamps next to the text taken from the video available below. See further notes on the talk here.]
http://www.lexgwac.org/JamesHansen.html
26:25 “We do need a revolution. It is going to have to be led by the people. We can’t expect Washington to lead it without the pressure from the public.”
We have to close the gap if we’re going to fix the problem.
Our climate system is dominated by positive feedbacks.”
“strong positive feedback”
26:40 “There is this large gap between what is understood about global warming by the relevant scientific community and what is known about global warming by those who need to know, and that’s the public and policy makers…And we have to close that gap if we’re gong to solve the problem.” Read the rest of this entry »
On June 1st, myself and several colleagues had the extraordinary pleasure of an impromptu and informal ice cream parlor seminar with Dr. James Hansen, Director of NASA’S Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
Dr. James Hansen is the top climate modeler for U.S. government and is considered the world’s foremost authority on global warming. He often speaks to Congress and is regularly cited in the press.
[Picture 1: Dr. James Hansen talks to a group at the impromptu ice cream parlor seminar in Lexington, MA, following a public presentation in the town hall. Photo by Seth Itzkan.] Read the rest of this entry »
Annemoon and I had wonderful visit to Ali’s this weekend. Hung out with with Ali, Chris and their three daughters and lots of friends from Spain. Talked a lot about Feria de April, which starts in Spain today! Ali and Lila, her oldest daughter, did the Sevillana dances together. It was great.
Even with my eyes closed the lightning is brilliant. Thunder quickly follows. It’s 12:37 AM and like many of you around here I’m not sleeping. It’s more than the sound of the storm that is keeping me up…It’s the fact of it. Something is wrong. Something is dearly wrong. It’s February in New England. This is the second thunder and lightning storm in less than a week and the third in less than two.
Remember last year we had thunder and lightning combined with snow, and Weather.com introduced a new term, “Thunder Snow”? They even had an icon for it. It was as an amalgamation of the lightning cloud image combined with the snow flake image. It was an icon I’d never seen for a phenomena I’d never experienced. What will be the icons for ice sheet collapse and sea level rise?
I’ve lived in New England since 1969, back when we used to have something called winter. February was cold. Thunder happened in July. The Charles River between Boston and Cambridge would freeze and we would skate on it near the shore of the Esplanade. Dumb yes, but we did it. Temperatures near zero for days and up-to-a-week at a time were common. You would step outside and the mucus in your nose would freeze. The big Arctic Chill would wax in from Canada and sit on us like a Sumo wrestler. We were in Deep Freeze lock down. Yes, it was winter in New England. The two used to be synonymous.
Yesterday was Super Tuesday, and the weather cast her vote. Regarding the tornadoes and “super cell” storms that disrupted the election process in numerous states and left an unprecedented trail of wreckage and death, Stu Ostro, the senior meteorologist at Weather.com, wrote what happened was “a historic February outbreak given the number of tornadoes and amount of casualties. It is one of the most prolific and deadliest outbreaks on record for the month”. Note, we were not even one week into the month.
It seemed that the storms stole the “thunder” from the election coverage. They kept interrupting the Romney versus McCain blather to show the extensive tornado damage…a campus torn apart, a mall collapsed, a gas fire, a house with a family of three pulverized, 51 others killed. And of course, many voting stations were closed,…err…evacuated. All of this was in sharp contrast to the slick New York studios were manicured pundits harrumphed over which Red contender was the righteous conservative.
I’m sitting in the middle of the Onicon Anime convention. Waves of teenagers in full video game character regalia have converted the third floor of the Houston Convention Center into a flesh and blood version of virtual reality - life imitating fantasy.
Ninjas, Sward Masters, Commandos, Dark Lords, Centurions, Robocons, and of course, Emos, swarm through the cafeteria brandishing their magical scimitars as the courteous and bewildered employees try desperately to keep up with the unquenchable demand for nacho cheese and chili dogs.
Is it endless highways? Strip malls on each corner? Mothers with children filing across Whattaburber parking lots to get to the Mobil Marts?
Houston. Oh, I’m back home again.
Can you believe I called this place home for three and half years? And you know what’s sick? I missed it. There’s something surreal about the pavement desert with the constant hum of trucks and sweet petrochemical aromas mixing with the humid Gulf air. I miss the Dr. Seuss desert plants, probably palms of some sort, ornamentally arranged with scrub oaks and cut grass along 10-lane cross streets. I miss the ocean of Motel 8s, and La Quintas, and Shawnees. And most of all, I miss my wife. I mean, my ex-wife. Because staying at this inn throws me right back to that time in my life. Right back to the joy and the pain. Because, believe it or not, we had fun. A real authentic fun it’s hard to have in the Northeast, actually. Texas is an adventure. It doesn’t end. No wonder it was a country. Indeed it probably should be a country again. That way we could bomb it and get it’s oil. Oh, but it doesn’t have any more oil. Never mind. But that does bring me to the subject of this post, supposedly - Peak Oil. Read the rest of this entry »
Thomas Jefferson Returns:
Seeks Third Term as President
To announce his candidacy for President of the United States.
Location: The steps of Widener Library at Harvard at noon on March 9th, 2007.
Thomas Jefferson will announce his candidacy for President of the United States on the steps of Widener Library at Harvard at noon on March 9th, 2007. Declaring that the great American experiment in self-governance is foundering, the author of the Declaration of Independence feels compelled to return to seek a third term as Commander in Chief. Read the rest of this entry »
The hysteria that gripped Boston as a result of harmless cartoon characters placed around the city for a marketing campaign aimed at youth hearkens analogies to the classic apocalyptic science fiction movie Twelve Monkeys (1995), and should give us pause as to the unwarranted and taxing state-of-fear we have created for ourselves in our post 911 world.
Like the movie Twelve Monkeys, images of a cartoon-like character, in this case monkeys, are clandestinely placed in public places and are subsequently considered signatures of a terrorist plot. And, like the movie, the images are nothing but a form of graffiti aimed at a particular youthful sub-culture. The movie though, does feature a terrorist intent on harm, however, he goes unnoticed amidst the innocent distractions.
On this MLK Day, I am intrigued by the story of Mukhtar Mai, a poor village woman who is being hailed as the Rosa Parks of Pakistan. Mukhtar is a rape victim who had the audacity to stand up to her tribal-leader attackers and see them prosecuted in the nation’s highest court. Her stance has helped change the attitudes and laws concerning rape and even “honor killing” in her country.
As many of you know, each New Year’s Eve I spend a few hours in meditation. The objective is to discern within myself the theme of the previous year, and it’s trajectory moving forward. Sometimes I walk by myself, sometimes I join in Boston’s First Night, or other festive events, but always with an eye toward discovering the single image, sound, theme, or otherwise “signature” of the previous year.
On this New Year’s Eve I was struck. I found the most important such “sign” ever in my annual quest. It hit me with the magnitude of a Nor’easter. And now as I finally find the time to write about it, a week later, I am still taken aback. What was this sign, and what does it foretell? Read the rest of this entry »
By Tony Chamberlain, Globe Staff | December 21, 2006
SOUTHINGTON, Conn. — This time most Christmases the quaint red barn greeting skiers to Mount Southington ski area wears a blanket of snow on its Dutch-colonial roof, and lots of families from this rolling hill country southwest of Hartford usually are planning their vacations around the skiing and riding here.
Mount Southington is a classic Connecticut area, one where operators learned generations ago that the key to survival is knowing how to make the kind of snow people like to ski and ride on — soft and well-groomed.
[Seth’s personal musing from the front lines of 
Seth’s personal musing from the front lines of 
For Immediate Release:
Twelve Monkeys (err.. Mooninites)
Like the movie Twelve Monkeys, images of a cartoon-like character, in this case monkeys, are clandestinely placed in public places and are subsequently considered signatures of a terrorist plot. And, like the movie, the images are nothing but a form of graffiti aimed at a particular youthful sub-culture. The movie though, does feature a terrorist intent on harm, however, he goes unnoticed amidst the innocent distractions.
Dear Friends,
This Boston Globe story says it all…