Ground Zero/The New World Trade Center (Part 4)

This piece from the New York Observer reads like a cross between a gossipy cheap novel and an international intrigue thriller...fascinating...but the bottom line: Libeskind is in control.

Here's something "cheery" from the Guardian.

Seattle is so liberal....

Dr. Atkins: The Grand Non-Conformist
So after praising the Doctor, now we mourn him.
Kind of a senseless death, the man slipped and fell. on an icy New York City sidewalk after that last bizarre snow storm at the beginning of April, at the very end of winter. (I remember that Monday...it was one of those moments when one wonders whether the persistence of winter is actually foretelling something sinister...).
Beyond the fact that his death is sad, and since his work and tenacity has helped me personally get my nutritional life in order...I wanted to reflect a moment on the nature of that rare breed of humans - the anti-establishment contrarian, the believers in their different way, the non-conformists.
In a lifelong battle with the government, the American Medical Association, the herd, Dr. Atkins not only persevered, but triumphed, finally being vindicated last summer by a grand New York Times article which validated a lot of what he had fought to establish with recent research.
With a belief in the way, a contrarian view of a world that has been dominated by big business, highlighting the problematic nature of what we have been fed by the lobbies for the grain and sugar food industries, Dr. Atkins' "New Diet Revolution" was aptly named as it clearly presented a view of the world of nutrition free of the slavery to flour and sugar, which has been the bain of so many people's existence. He went against all the accepted norms, offering a different kind of diet.
This diet, which is always condescedingly described as a protein and fat diet, also relies significantly on leafy green vegetables for nutrition, and feels reallyquite good on the body. The more anthropologically correct eating habits, those habits man had before the advent of "processed foods"; before milled flour or processed sugar, or even farming, are based loosely on the diet of man the gatherer and hunter, and seems a more logical approach to eating.
The true innovators have to almost always had to withstand the pressures of what people agreed were accepted as the norm, standing apart sometimes for a long time, risking their lives (the doctor had his license suspended for a while) sometimes sounding eccentric, irrelevant, maybe even downright foolish or criminal to people before the substance of their message is allowed to break through.
I am sure that many people will cherish the firebrand determination of the doctor, and his memory, not just as they step on their scales, but as they greet the day with energy and understanding that they can emerge from the trap of eating and getting fatter, losing control over their bodies and, by extension, their lives to face the next steps with hope that all is not lost. One can do something to make one's life better.
At least one can say that Dr. Robert Atkins went out at the peak.
Thank you.

In Seattle
I am taking a break from the Big Apple for a couple of weeks and sitting high above the Puget Sound looking out at the beauty of the Pacific Northwest and it's capital city, Seattle.
On the dining table of a friend's home on Capital Hill, I spotted The Economist's open to a Lexington note about California's (temporary?) irrelevance in a post-9/11 world and I couldn't help thinking about being here in it's light.

Interestingly, the first place a travelled to right after 9/11, on 9/27, through an empty Newark Airport (before it was renamed "Liberty Newark"), on to a plane where everyone eyed each other suspiciously, and the guy next to me introduced himself and said "If something happens, we're in this together", the first place I made surreal escape to after the trauma of 9/11, was here. It was a previously planned trip, I had the ticket, and I was never scared of flying. At the end of the day, I really believe that when your time is up - it's up. So I went.
I had left a city which was existed for that time in it's own separate reality, probably like Baghdad feels right now. Feeling isolated, terrorized, elevated to heroic status, scared, deified, delirious, wondrous, mournful - in one word - traumatized! And I emerged after almost six hours of tense flight, like a victim of post traumatic stress syndrome (I don't know why I say 'like' - I probably had some mild form of PTSS), to a serene, green, lush, affluent, benevolent place bathed in soft autumn rays of light caught between the mist filled air of Pacific Northwest clouds. And it WAS a different world.
All the conflict, the harsh new geopolitical realities, the world of Bin Laden and the ensuing sense of being in the bull's eye of international terrorism was non-existent here. And why should it be - this really was far!
And then I realized, truly and deeply realized, for the first time after the 9/11, that what New Yorkers (and to some degree Washingtonians) had experienced that day could never be really conveyed to the rest of the American people. Beyond the horror of the television images, which due to the constant bombardment of similar images of destruction that we had been exposed to courtesy of Hollywood, could never really be real for most people. And we couldn't and shouldn't expect it. And in a way, that was OK with me. That was one of the things that made the US so amazing. Such a powerful place. It's size and breadth allow it to withstand, to absorb shocks and traumas that would completely decimate a smaller more compact place.
So even though I don't think that all of what Lex says about California's irrelevance is applicable here as this is really a much more humble, wholesome version of the West Coast experience, a more humane and benevolent place, there was one element in his piece, the last paragraph, with which I agree, and which reflects what I have found so comforting, and which has brought me back here 3 more times since that memorable trip in September 2001, and that is, the diversity of this country (despite certain superficial cultural similarities) and that is the magnitude of this place's natural beauty and it's distance from those sad and scary things that have become everyday in the life of a New Yorker.
More from Seattle to come.

Six Feet Under (part 2)

The New York Times ran two articles about 'Six Feet Under' this weekend.
The first is a mildly interesting reflection on the show's depiction of the LA art world (mostly from a student's perspective, owing to the fact that Clair is going to LAC-Arts (a backwards reference to the real CAL-Arts, ...). This article did a decent job of highlighting the authenticity of the show's portrayal of a nascent artist's world, the academy, the failed artist teachers, the other student(s) and the challenges and transition facing people who have chosen a "career", if you can begin to call it that, in art. It's an interesting article about another aspect of the way the series deals with the professional life of its characters, insightful, authentic and not fleeting, which I highlight in the my entry about SFU below.
The second is the NY Times television critic Caryn James' review of the show's latest season. Even though James says that this is still TV's best show, she is quite critical of the direction the show has taken this season by veering off the exploration of effects of eccentricity in 'normal' people and their relationship, as well as, the studied exploration of mortality and it's business.
Though, Ms. James' actual comments are interesting and her insights quite accurate, I do not agree with her conclusions (...that the show is losing steam). My view is that it's evolving - growing up, moving past the sophomoric stage of showing off the imaginative pyrotechnics it can quite easily continue to display to a more mature stage and the constraints of 'normal' people's lives.
It does this with the particular brand of rather dark humor and sharply critical view, great writing, acting and production that has become it's hallmark. And even though, as James' says, the twists of the plot would not shame any daytime soap, the execution is amazing...and let's hope it stays that way.

So is the war over?
Hard to believe...but beware the euphoria.
And let's avoid the gloating. The hard work and true humility is still ahead.
At the end of the day, let's face it...200 Iraqis dancing on a Saddam statue does not a victory make.

All about Atkins

The doctor continues to mystify everyone, from his critics to his company's executives, to the writers at Business 2.0.
The bottom line, from one who is on it: It works!!!! Great site too.

The Power of Precision
Six Feet Under
HBO Original Series

It’s hard to write about Six Feet Under without resorting to praise that’s almost cliché – everyone is doing it, and has been, since the show debuted two years ago on HBO. Glorious upscale prime time soap opera that it is, abounding with great writing, fantastic acting, inspired production and direction, it represents a creative zenith of sorts for American contemporary television arts. It incorporates within it many traditions of the form and sets another new standard for creative work that again will be difficult to surpass.

SFU transcends its low cultural roots and any basic psychoanalytical dissection of character and plot (and I do not want to belittle the emotional and psychological depth imbued in each character, it is remarkable writing punctuated by amazingly acted portrayals), by going beyond soap operatic “situationism” to highlight the most significant values of the show both in front of and behind the camera: professionalism and precision.
Alan Ball’s (the show’s brilliant creator, executive producer and writer) trademark of sorts seems to be a recurring dissection of America’s deep fascination cum obsession with work. The professional life was central to the characters in ‘American Beauty’ – which Alan Ball wrote – with Kevin Spacey’ s professional collapse the catalyst that set in motion the full scale dramatic reexamination of his life; Annette Benning’s obsession with success at any cost and particularly Peter Gallagher, her number one competitor’s success, being her undoing as wife and mother, Chris Cooper’s repressed homosexuality as a facet of his military persona, the job world as a circus of the absurd. In Alan Ball’s America there is no dramatic compartmentalization of “life” and “work”, as by most measures, we are what we “do” and each of these aspects of our life deeply informs the other.
The Fisher family is a family of undertakers - artisans, craftsmen, businesspeople. This is the pivotal element which binds the characters together, a brilliant fundamental premise which cannot be underestimated, as it serves not only as a black comedic device, a tool to constantly reflect on our mortality, the transience of things and the life’s multitude of absurd situations, but also let’s us see the business of death as just that – a professional undertaking (truly no pun intended) exacting precision and artifice, which when done well gives it’s practitioners the opportunity to invest and extract meaning, humanity and art into that which they “do”.
By extension this is about all “work” - all the characters in SFU have jobs, have an involved and important professional identity, which is not always ideal, sometimes torments, sometimes brings momentary satisfaction and is sometime dull. Because these people have this aspect of their life explored with some degree of depth and honesty, not just in search of some purely dramatic or comedic situation a la TV, because of that, we see them as more complete reflections of ourselves, deserving of more concerted inspection and involvement.
This is both a textual and a meta-textual meditation. The importance that Rico gives to recreating a face, or that Nate gives to feeling for a grieving relative; the frustration that Keith feels in his dead end job as a security guard or Lisa’s trials and tribulation’ as a celebrity chef, or even Claire’s emergence as an art student….all these come together to paint a complete picture of people involved in really living their life without quotation marks or simplified and packaged made-for-TV situations. It also allows us a glimpse into the ethic of the show’s creators, and the meta reason the show is great. Becuase it’s about passion for life and work.
These characters' work life and behavior is punctuated by professionalism and what I would like to call precision. It is the importance of those last rites, the ritualistic last farewell which cannot be screwed up, which has to be an incredibly crafted and precise theater, with the practitioners exacting of their job with great precision with no room for errors, (as neither they nor the families of the deceased will get a second chance), something in this reflects being involved in anything professionally great.
In the next to the last episode , a gay man wanted his lover’s funeral to be staged as a scene from Puccini’s Turandot. This moment, when the theatricality of the ritual of parting from the dead and theater itself come together on screen in a TV show was a priceless and moving moment in the series’ arc - the coming together of the on screen and off screen worlds, revealed for a moment, is, in my mind, what makes this series truly great.
Like the curtain lifted to reveal the wizard in the Wizard of Oz, so here, for just a moment we are privy to the way the creators reflect on and relate to their world – with great seriousness, with great affection (even love) but mostly with the utmost care and precision. They are not just artists, they are craftsmen, like their counterparts onscreen, and as meticulous as are the preparations for the reconstruction of a dead person's face, as were the preparations for the operatic service done with care and caring, so goes the metaphor for the work of creating such a transcendent series and, really, all “work”.

Because behind this is the belief that we can indeed find meaning even in the mundane work of our lives - we can find fulfillment or something like it in everything we do. We just have to be vigilant, to be caring, we have to be dedicated and precise and we have to constantly look for it. It is there.

What's Wrong with this Picture?
After almost 13 days of watching this war on TV…listening to all the "analysis", the "details" and the embedded truth...after all that: the true picture of the war is more elusive, more mysterious, more scarey than ever.
What is clear at this point, is that the mainstream media cannot help but be manipulated by the US government as they control the flow of information and all access to it.
There are multitudes of unanswered questions and much “fog of war”.
First they told us that the war would be quick: what did you expect them to see before the fight began? Would the public have supported them if they had told us that it would be long and complicated?
Then the war starts and they start telling us that it’s a complicated war and would take a lot longer then expected: what did you expect them to say once the battle was joined? Quell the euphoria, reduce the expectations.
Now they are telling us that the war is going according to plan (oh, and by the way Syria and Iran watch out…) but the generals are complaining…
So which version will it be? Who should we believe?
It is truly a war fought through total control of information and given the flip flop nature of the information give (and the potential mistakes they expose). The whole picture is not very encouraging right now.