Bruising the Hell Gate

Yesterday we made our way, via Whitehall gig, down the East River from 96th Street to Newtown Creek, the ultra-polluted dividing line between Queens and Brooklyn. Industrial blight abounded, but it was nature that proved to bruise so hard.

Minutes after my boat kicked off the row, manned by a mere three mates rather than four, the other boat faded off into the foggy distance. In the absence of our teammates, Rob Buchanan, adventurer and coxswain, decided to direct us on a "short cut." So we forded the Hell Gate, a patch of water where tides get as nasty as 5 knots. What would happen if we tried this little trip at top-knot? The water would push us backwards, because no rower could row that hard. Luckily, yesterday was a good day - and the three of us made it through alive.

Photo by Rob Buchanan.

Info on Boat Launch and Update, May 7:

There's a good chance - 70%, by Rob's latest estimate - of heavy rain come Friday, when we plan to pull our gig out of the window at 65 5th Avenue and roll it over to Pier 40 on West Houston Street, making some stops along the way. I'll keep whoever might be reading this posted as to whether or not Friday will be the day. Rob wrote via e-mail that Don, master-boat crafter, "suggests I'm being a bit of a pansy about Friday's weather. If we do decide to launch it then, maybe we should name it 'storm queen.'"

As for the boat we just built, it is so close to being done. The trouble is naming it. Ryan Wood, a fellow rower, just wrote in a proposal "To combine votes for Queequeg, Tashtego."

Dear readers, the bickering between loosely defined factions of the educated and progressive left has gone on long enough. This is why I propose that Hillary Clinton, I mean Tashtego, respectfully concede to Quequeg.

Let's put our minor differences aside and focus our energies on the most electable candidate. If we want to see our interests served in the long run, we must unite the base and mount a full campaign against the heir presumptive, John McCain. I mean sialia sialis.
Let's not throw the general election. A vote for Queequeg is a vote for Barack Obama.

Thank you.

Building or Bust

To be financially viable, administrators say, a university needs an undergraduate program. The New School never had one until long after it was founded in 1919. For instance, Eugene Lang College formed a full 66 years later. This is why, according to New School Provost Ben Lee in a presentation last semester, the New School has grown up "ass-backwards."

The insatiable hunger for a strong undergrad program also explains, to a certain extent, the purpose of The New School's new "flagship" building. The glorious tower, standing either 17 or 34 stories tall by the latest estimate, green certified, decked out with the latest A.V. capabilities, boasting a gym and, ideally, a fully-functional newsroom, will serve as the university's new undergraduate headquarters.

The flagship, naturally, will replace that old former-department store on 5th Avenue we affectionately refer to as the "GF." Senior administrators are eager to move forward with the plan. Last September, the history and philosophy departments of The New School for Social Research Departments, among others, were moved to their new homes, 80 5th Ave. and 6 E 16th St. Executive Vice President Jim Murtha wrote me over e-mail last week that the university expects to move more departments out of the G.F. next fall.

The building is the linchpin of Provost Lee's comprehensive 10-year plan for the university—a project to work with the deans and other school officials to overhaul dysfunctional budget rules, revise dysfunctional governance structures, and get a grip on a wide swath of resources once handled dysfunctionally. The university is also producing an innovative university-wide curriculum that will put scientists and scholars into the same classroom, to work on projects that will address contemporary phenomena like global warming and terrorism.

The university needs these comprehensive reforms, and a new building would be great. The problem is, well, that there are many problems.

Graduate students I've talked to bemoan what is perceived as a fading interest in the university's foundational powerhouse, The New School for Social Research. Last September, after the move, some observed that quite a few NSSR professors now ferry regularly between their offices and their classrooms back at the GF. Is that Lee's interdisciplinary vision in action, they wondered, or just a pain in the ass?

"We are losing," one NSSR grad student told me over e-mail, signing his note J. Dewey. "We have been for a while."

Lee wants everybody in the New School community to join in on what he's termed a vastly complicated "conversation." That's exactly what some undergraduates are doing, but the students aren't being cordial. A month ago, at the "Rally for the Responsible University," Lang and Parsons undergrads called for more student representation in the university's bureaucratic process—so popular professors don't lose their jobs and defense contractors don't serve on the board of trustees. Students for a Democratic Society have another rally scheduled for May 6.

As for the building itself, at least the one on paper, community groups are in an uproar. I'm not surprised. The flagship diagrams I've seen resemble the kind of shimmering eyesores that keep popping up in Manhattan and brutalizing the skyline. Only the flagship is more box-like.

"The Village is under siege," Elizabeth Adam, a local community activist, told me a few weeks ago as we walked through Union Square. Her friend gestured over at Fifth Avenue and said, "We don't want that building!"

The worst problem of all, it appears, is the money—or lack thereof. New School President Bob Kerrey told the Free Press in early April that the construction costs are estimated at about $500 million. Executive Vice President Jim Murtha said that the university has $75 million reserved so far for the flagship.

Over the past year, the university has planned to tear the GF down this summer. That won't happen. New School President Bob Kerrey told me last week that the building will go up, eventually, but officials soon intend to reevaluate the project in light of America's failing economy.

A few months ago, when I brought up Lee's 10-year plan to Jonathan Veitch, Dean of Lang, he looked almost irritated—probably at my naivete. "It's not like all of that is actually going to happen," he said.

The New School's changes are actually going to happen. They've been happening and they're happening right now. For better and worse, they are lasting and fundamental changes. But here is what's not going to happen: this project turning out exactly as the senior administrators tell us. Even Provost Lee knows that nothing this complex ever does.

Illustration by Samuel Denlinger. This is my final article for the New School Free Press. It's been a great and extremely dramatic four years, for everyone involved!

The Boat Launch is Nigh

The boat launch for our stupendous 26-foot, 7-plank, wine-glass-transom White Hall gig is next Friday - see my other post for more details. In the mean time, the debate over its future name continues. The Great Gary has four votes, tied with QueeQueg. Plus, there is a new contender: Sialia sialis. This is the scientific name for New York's state bird, the Bluebird.

Dayyan Armstrong sent the class a persuasive essay to argue his cause. The Great Gary still stands for me. Some of you would fully understand my reasoning for why. I urge the rest to explore this website. As for Sialia sialis, it's a good name. And Dayyan's letter is too good not to re-print in full:

** Proprietary **

Dear fellow yachtsman,

The naming of a boat is a difficult task that no sailor enjoys and no sailor should
take lightly. The burden of that decision affects not only the individual, but every
patron, friend and foe alike for many generations to come. A successful name for
a boat should represent first and foremost, the boat itself; however, the name should also
resemble its region, purpose, and craft of that vessel. That is why
I am asking each of you fellow yachtsman, woman, and children alike, to consider the
Our gig we have all labored over to be named: Sialia sialis, or Bluebird. Sialia sialis is the
scientific name for New York's state bird, the Eastern Bluebird. As we all know, the Whitehall
gig is a native New York boat and it would only give the history of this boat justice if we
named it after New York's finest bird, the Bluebird.
A well developed boat also should have its own unique insignia to distinguish their
boat from another. Given the already voted color schemes, the Eastern Bluebird is
quite similar with a blue and slightly orange coloration. Given the simple and unique
shape of the bird, I propose we brand this gig with an image of the Bluebird on the
gig itself. As you will all see, the Bluebird is a beautiful bird and a great name for a
native New York boat, the Whitehall gig.

http://www.birdsofoklahoma.net/EasternBluebird0811.jpg
http://www.fws.gov/northdakotafieldoffice/images/Eastern%20Bluebird.jpg
http://home.midsouth.rr.com/conservewildlife/MbbOnPW5.jpg

Patrons of Rob's class, friends, and fellow boating enthusiasts, please take a moment
and envision the beautiful Bluebird rowing up the Hudson. I assure each and everyone
of you that you will be pleased with your choice of the Bluebird as the name for the
fall 07/spring 08 Lang on the Hudson's Whitehall gig.

With best wishes,
Dayyan J. Armstrong
dictated but not read

Update! Breaking news!

Rob Buchanan, skipper of the boat-building initiative, recently challenged others to "make a case for [their proposed name] to the group, a la dayyan." My friend Pip K. Francis just got back to me about why the Great Gary is such a great name:

Salutations. I've been asked to step in and explain the origins of the name "The Great Gary." Gary, my great-grandfather, was a strong rower - the strongest, perhaps, of all New York. Sad to say, he was not strong enough, for the heavy knots of New York's tidal straits were that which did him in.

It was a bitter cold day that December of 1842, when Reginald Gary Karp set sail against the tide along the Hudson tidal strait. He had the intention to row a 26-foot, 7-plank, wine-glass transom Whitehall gig all by his lonesome up to the orphanage off a rocky bank near Troy. Row it he did. His gig loaded up to the brim with apples, which had been frozen since fall in his cellar to remain fresh, he pushed through the most bruising of cruises. It all paid off once he arrived along the bank of the orphanage, where the poor little children were waiting for him. They had not eaten any apples - only tasteless gruel - for months! They called Gary Karp a hero, that day. Then he rowed home and died along the way.

It would be very important not only to my family but to the entire New York state to name this boat the Great Gary. Because Gary Karp is a great man - the greatest man who has ever rowed the great tidal straits that fork great Manhattan. Clearly, it would be greatly disappointing to forget so great a legacy.

All best,
Pip K. Francis

Open Wide! BZZZ...

Experimental Dental School
"Jane Doe Loves Me"
(Cochon Records)
Release date: May 13

Experimental Dental School specializes in a radical and improper kind of surgery. The guitar slithers and spurts. The keyboard spirals out of control. A man shouts, then a woman coos. The drums constantly stray from the standard boom-chuck. Eventually, the very idea of rock 'n' roll is torn asunder. And even sludge monsters playing Napalm Death covers with Casiotone keyboards couldn't have done better.

It's no surprise that this trio, with three full-length albums under its belt, originated in Japan and now hails from Oakland, California. Japanese legends like Melt Banana specialize in blistering clamor, while Bay Area stalwarts like Deerhoof focus on intricate songcraft. Experimental Dental School traverses both ends of the spectrum, yielding spectacular results.

This review appears in the upcoming issue of the New School Free Press.

Throw-Down - The Experts Go Head to Head Over Iraqi Nationhood

I sit here in the computer lab, writing a paper on forms of Iraqi nationalism after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century. Basically, the whole establishment is here and it's a throw-down. Reinhard Schulze says there's nothing innately "Western" about nationalism and civil rights. Yitzhak Nakash says that the Ottoman's attempts to smash tribal affiliations in the late 19th century created the conditions in the south for widespread tribal conversions to Shi'i Islam. Hanna Batatu says that Iraq's problems after the British anointed Faisal as King of Iraq weren't religious or ethnic, but economic, which is why the Communists had it right all along!

I can't find a picture of the I.C.P.'s legendary secretary general, Fahd, but I can give you a list of some books you might want to check out if, all of a sudden, you start asking yourself, "Why did the British throw these three provinces together as a mandate, anyway? Did they secure for Iraq an inevitable future of fractious nationhood and, eventually, civil war?"

A Modern History of the Islamic World (2000), by Reinhard Schulze, tracks the major events of history in the far-reaching Islamic world and discusses the "secular" and "Islamic" divide, not as the essential and irreconcilable differences between two certain peoples, but as political ideologies. My Islamic history professor once referred to it as "the Bible" of modern Islamic studies.

The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq (1979), by Hanna Batatu, offers an enormously-detailed history of Iraq's social elites during the Ottoman period; its nationalist, communist, socialist and Ba'thi revolutionary movements after the Brits took over Iraq as a mandate; and the process of Iraq's industrialization and modernization. It's a fun and fascinating read and a critical resource.

The Shi'is of Iraq (1995), by Yitzhak Nakash, documents the evolution of Shi'i Islam in the south and central parts of Iraq, beginning in the late 18th century, when tribes flooded into the "frontier" after being chased out of Arabia by Wahhabi warriors. An important resource on the country's largest religious group.

The Marsh Arabs (1964), by Wilfred Thesiger, is about one Briton's adventures in the reed-strewn marshlands of southern Iraq, full of details on plant and animal-life and one view on how industrialization almost completely destroyed the ways of the tribes. Another fun and fascinating resource, for adventurer and book-worm alike.

Republic of Fear (1989), by Kanan Makiya, about Saddam Hussein's Panopticon of a government system. Due to his controversial (and occasionally outrageous) views, Makiya is something of a media darling; his book has been more-or-less canonized on the home-front. It's no more important than the rest of these books, but it certainly beats all of the other readings on just how bad Saddam was.

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.