Art Imitating (Unreal) Life

Living adjacent to Williamsburg which boasts a growing community of starving artists in $3,000 a month lofts, I’ve come across not only a population of artists, but also their social havens that feature their work and their undulating poems.
The social spots are considered by many to be a brewing pot of progressive thought where the [...]

Who Owns Americans?

Affordable Housing on the Ropes

[photo courtesy of the Associated Press]
Christmas came early for developers last week, as the New York and New Orleans City Councils approved two large-scale redevelopment plans with ominous ramifications for affordable housing in both cities.
In New York, Columbia University’s controversial Manhattanville expansion, a $7 billion project that will last an estimated 25 years, was green-lighted [...]

Dissent=Terrorism?

It’s bad enough that Americans seeking genuine political reform are hamstrung by a stagnant two-party system in the thrall of corporate interests, an electoral college prone to district gerrymandering and in desperate need of reform, and a Supreme Court whose thumbs-up to election theft would warm Vladimir Putin’s cold, cold heart.
Now Americans who ascribe to [...]

“You spelled my name wrong”

“You spelled my name wrong”
Those were the opening words shot at me during what I had wrongly assumed would be the best interview of my entire life. I quickly tried to recover, noting that I knew perfectly well how to spell her name and that spell check must have automatically changed it. I [...]