The Great Gary Will Sail!

From Rob Buchanan, skipper of the New School's boat-building team:

"On Friday, April 25, weather permitting, students in the "Lang on the Hudson" boatbuilding course will launch the fruit of two semesters' labor: a 26-foot Whitehall gig, a rowing and sailing vessel specifically made for
exploring the waters of New York Harbor. All are welcome to join in the procession. It begins at about 9:30 AM on 14th Street between Fifth and University Place, where a window in the Albert List Building (65 Fifth Avenue) will be removed to permit the gig's 'extraction.' Students will then roll the boat down 11th Street, with a brief stopover at Lang at around 10:30, and on to Pier 40, at the end of West Houston Street. After a noon launch the boat will take up residence in Pier 40's Village Community Boathouse alongside the Quixotic, the gig built by last year's Lang on the Hudson class. The new boat has yet to find a name; to suggest one, or for more information, please contact the class at langonthehudson@gmail.com."

Indeed, we've just about finished crafting our 26-foot, 7-plank, wine-glass transom Whitehall gig. Now we've just got to paint her up and then name her. Here are the suggestions so far:

Girl Power (Mostly)
Calypso III
John Wesley Harding
Leviathan
The Great Gary
Cheb Homar Gahsh
Cruising Bruiser
Dr. Yes
Slow Ride (Take it Easy)
Love Gets Dangerous
Uh Oh, Love Comes to Town
Mayday
I-Ran-Ashore-Us-Wrecks
PB and Pray
Unemployment Ahoy!
Jetsam Lewis
Avast You Twice Already
Queequeg
Q train
Persephone
Archetype
Arabian Nights
Erie
Mill Rock Island
Wallabout Bay
Ship of Secrets
Endeavor

"All hail, Liberia, hail!"

“I believe that Liberia is a sacred nation, called by God to a great work for Africa, for the Negro race, and for humanity." - Nathaniel R. Richardson

While writing a paper on the Liberian national anthem, I happen across this precious performance.


Daniel Bashiel Warner, the man that gave us the words, "All hail, Liberia, hail!"

Composer-pianist Olmstead Luca wrote the strangely "Oh, say can you see"-reminiscent melody.

Iraq Talk in Congress - "Blah, blah, blah..."

General Petraeus: man of the hour! Photo by Charlie Archambault, from USN&WR.

Today's Congressional testimony delivered by Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker served as a good refresher for the people that didn't pay attention to even a shred of last month's coverage on the Iraq war.

Now it looks official that Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army (which by all accounts appears far more effective, organized and disciplined than Abdul Aziz al-Hakim's mostly S.I.I.C.-allied Iraqi Army), along with a myriad of other militias, will furthermore be crammed into a nominal catch-phrase: "Special Groups." Needless to say, this is sure to make the endless hunt for "bad guys" all the more confusing.

Update, 4/10, 12:34 p.m. - I should probably consider Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki responsible for the Iraq Army, huh? At the moment I couldn't really tell you how S.I.I.C.'s armed wing, the Badr Organization, fits into the whole "special groups" vs. Iraq Army thing - whether they're a "special group" or serial infiltrators (and, judging by the news coverage surrounding the latest bout of fighting in Basra, serial deserters) of the Army. I'm guessing that they're both...

11:29 p.m.

Bush speaks!

And the war's critics put the pressure on him.

"The president has taken us into a failed war, he's taken us deeply into debt and that debt is taking us into recession," said Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, according to BBC. "We need some answers from the president."

Thoughts On Trying the Torch Take-Down, 81% Dissatisfied, the Pregnant Man, and the "Good Ship" Debate

I just want to weigh in on a few things I've come across over the last couple of days.

1. Mad props go to the Free Tibet protesters who went for the Olympic torch-snatch and also tried to extinguish the torch today as Konnie Huq (surrounded by a coterie of security guards) jogged through London to commemorate the games. And let me remind you - this is jolly old England here. Judging by this, protesters should have something spectacular in store for Mount Everest.

2. I enjoyed the word choice of the latest NY Times/CBS Poll, which concluded that 81% of Americans polled say that "things have pretty seriously gotten off the wrong track" in the U.S. On the other hand, 19% believe that "things in this country are generally going in the right direction." Let me just say that 100% of me is not surprised at the results.

3. On Friday, I had a novel thought: Whatever would happen if a man got pregnant? The only example I had ever seen was that of California Governor Arnold Scwarzenegger, in the 1994 film "Junior." But lo and behold, on the very day I had this thought, the New York Post ran an article about a pregnant man named Thomas Beatie! I knew I could rely on the Post for something.

4. Josh Kurp, Five Best impresario and Copy Chief for New School Free Press (ooh, and contender for next year's Editor-in-Chief), just e-mailed me and some others an mp3 of "Good Ship Venus," a delightful and bawdy sailor's tune. Going by title alone, the song struck me as the precursor to Shirley Temple's "On the Good Ship, Lollipop." Kurp wrote back, "Peter, Peter, Peter, if you knew anything about Shirley Temple, you'd know the 'Good Ship Lollipop' refers to an airplane." True, true! I saw the video! But you see, that only proves my point further - here we see the modern "Good Ship Venus" of the industrial age, naturally sapped of its original aura (i.e. sex on the boat). Thoughts?

That Darn Memo

The storied 81-page memo that outlined our government's legal justification for abusing prisoners, written by John C. Yoo, a former deputy in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, has finally been declassified. I haven't yet read the thing in full. But judging from what I've read so far, it's apparent that Yoo's memo uses the kind of malleable, vague, paranoid thinking that the Bush Administration has employed to justify all of its other crimes.

But I'm still waiting for the answer to the million-dollar question: Who truly deserves the credit for conjuring up the philosophy behind our torture program, the Bush Administration, Yoo, or the creators of 24?

There's more on the memo at Slate and elsewhere.

Lang Advisor Fired Over Spring Break

In a development over Spring Break that caught many Lang students and faculty by surprise, Brandon Graham, Lang College's Internship Director, Transfer Advisor and Junior Class Academic Advisor, was abruptly fired on March 20.

Graham, 27, who had worked at Lang for three years, was beloved by some and unpopular with others, students said. The reasons for his departure are unclear. Most Lang administrators involved in the decision declined to comment, citing confidentiality issues. Graham, on the advice of his lawyer, also declined to discuss the exact reason for his termination.

But an accusatory message that Graham posted on Facebook last Monday, which he lengthened two days later, allude to a long-standing conflict between Graham and others in the advising office.

In the post, Graham suggests that personality conflicts, not his job performance, were behind his termination—an assertion that Lang Dean Jonathan Veitch challenged in a brief e-mail to the Free Press. "I find [Graham's] comments on Facebook hurtful, inaccurate and unfortunate," Veitch wrote.

Other administrators also doubted the veracity of Graham’s claims. “[The postings] are vindictive and in some places alarmingly personal in their characterizations,” Neil Gordon, the Chair of Writing, who will take over as Dean this summer, wrote over e-mail. “I see no reason to take them as a reliable record of what really happened and, to the contrary, many reasons to doubt them.”

In a brief phone interview Thursday, Graham confirmed that the end came after a 45-minute meeting with his former boss, Associate Dean of Students Jon White, and Amos Himmelstein, Assistant Dean of Administration and Planning. According to Graham’s Facebook post, after the three discussed Graham's "flex-time scheduling, off-site internship visits, regressive management styles, student reviews [some very good + some bad]," a heated exchange ensued. At the end of the meeting, Graham claims that White gave him five minutes to evacuate New School property, and says that a New School security guard escorted him off of campus.

In his posts, Graham defends his approach to his job, saying he was responsible for almost 500 students, routinely handled more than 250 e-mails a week, and regularly puts in a 50-hour work week.

Because of an outpouring of supportive Facebook and blog comments, phone calls and e-mails, Graham said, Carol Cantrell, Senior Vice President for Human Resources, agreed to meet with him last Monday to discuss the reasons for his termination.

Graham said that he does not intend to open litigation against the University because he was fired.

New School President Bob Kerrey said that he was familiar with the matter and had received dozens of e-mails, but had not read Graham’s posts. "I fully support the Dean in this decision," he wrote over e-mail.

Graham’s duties will be divided among other advising staff. White sent an e-mail to the entire student body with information for students on whom to contact with advising issues.

"We will begin to search for an academic advisor soon, but we are all fully committed to ensuring overall service doesn't diminish for students during this interim time," White wrote.

This article appears in today's issue of the New School Free Press. Photo: Brandon Graham, courtesy Graham's Facebook.

Jeffrey Gettleman First To Use NY Times Teleporter

Today the New York Times runs two articles by the oft-bearded connoisseur of conflict-zones, Jeffrey Gettleman. One covers the precarious situation of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government and one reports on the stalemated state of Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga's new power-sharing initiative.

We all know that "Crazy G." can pull off some wild stunts. I've always lauded him for being a great writer and reporter. But this latest effort takes the cake - just look at those datelines! Apparently, he spends the day in Mogadishu and Nairobi. Hypotheses?

I've ruled out the possibility of a body double - only the real Jeffrey could come up with those ledes. So, either the Times has a teleportation service that they're not telling us about, or Crazy G. is just much crazier than I thought.