So I woke up to a former President indicted for felonies...30 counts.

I read he'll be fingerprinted/mugshot. There is no precedent for this.

The chaos of the Culture Wars led us here.

The mob installed an unfit president.

Well, more unfit than usual.

Added to his theatrical behaviors an attempted Coup to stay in power.

However, that's not why he was indicted.

Like Al Capone he got caught on a technicality.

Porn stars and hush money.

Indictments on far more serious crimes on the way.

So now a former President of the United States will be hauled off in cuffs.

This like the January 6th attempted Coup has never happened in our national history.

Presidents have committed crimes, but none ever had to answer.

...till now. 

I'm not cheering.

This was a President of the United States of America.

Elected and still supported by many millions.

That it's come to this, and more tells the world we're a failed state.

We perhaps now join the nations that have arrested their former national leaders.

I am not celebrating how far we have fallen.

There will always be a Menace. The Mobs need them.

Through American history it has by tradition been all peoples of Color Jews Catholics

Muslims Queers Artist Writers. It goes on. A ponderous list.

Sometimes one group is grudgingly accepted.

However, another takes their place at the bottom.

In this news cycle it's Trans folks and the 15th century Renaissance sculptor Michelangelo.

This for his nude thereby terrifying to some statue of David. 

This apparently the latest Culture War burning line in the sand.

I imagine he’s thought to be grooming kids to be gay nudists.

That’s the disturbed American C.W. in a nutshell.

A.I. will probably be next.

...too late I just read some want ‘Christian’ A.I.’s.

Seems Alexa and Siri are on the AOC side of ‘Woke”.

I foresee blood tests required to prove

one is not more than 5% digitally enhanced.

This country is becoming the front page of the ‘Onion’.

See below.

The Onion | America's Finest News Source.

 

"...Strange Angels"

Their coming was quiet. Hardly noticed or believed. A glow about them.

They didn't speak eat or sleep. They'd walk among us then vanish.

Only to be seen moments later an ocean away.

In time they were recognized. These were our departed.

Wandering the Earth in kindly silence. Till as softly as they came ...gone.

 

 

 

"...There and back again"

I set my dark matter pocket watch, and shifted to June 24,1968~CE, Washington Square Park. The experience was like passing through a warm mist. To any watching I would seem to have just walked from under the shade of a tree. There's an actual Hippie Be-in in progress. I remember taking part in such as a teen. With the experience of near 60 more years. I see with very different eyes. 

Their hope affection trust. All of which will be co-opted. Some of these youths will go on to become the selfish 70's ‘Me Generation’, and later as elders xenophobic culture warriors. Time tells me too much. 

I take a bus to Times Square. There were arcades back then. Spent the afternoon playing on mechanical pinball machines eating hot dogs and watching the tourists and rough trade. Porn shop got raided. Late with payoffs. Wanted Chinese food. Entered a phone booth set my watch for 1887 London...Lime House. Neon glow...'Puff'.

Been at this Blogging thing for a while. The first was in 2006...I think.

Above what I posted on July 9, 2010, my 60th birthday.

I thought I was really old then.

I was actually a stupid bleeping kid.

Old but oblivious.

 

 

. 

Uncle Sidney's Secrets to Happiness.

A clean kitchen is a happy kitchen. Wash everything you use as you go.

Just fucking do it. It works.

Leave that stuff under your bed alone. Let nature take its course.

If you haven't used something in two years that isn't under ya bed.

Give it away sell it or throw it out da window...at night.

Secretly do nice things...it adds up. If you can't be chic, be fucking tidy...it matters.

If you promise to do something, do it. If you can't just say so.

Tell da truth. It's easier. Keeping track of lies is too much trouble.

Be nice but don't be stupid.

Otherwise have a nice day.

"...Time and again"

I set my dark matter pocket watch for Central Park.

Just south of the Bridge. October 16th 4:02pm 1956~CE.

I come here often. Temporal mechanics being as it is I never meet myself.

There's peace in this time in these few acres.

The climate not yet visibly changed. A chill in the air the colors at peak.

In my base time the 2020's it would still be warm with no colors whatever. In this 'when' gents in fedora's women in skirts children in cowgirl, and cowboy outfits.

I remember I had one too.

Wind color clouds.

All here enjoy the peace of not knowing what's coming, and little of what's already happened.

I sat on a 1956 park bench dressed for the 21st century.

Yet as always in New York getting no notice. ...I slept.

 

"...Queer daze"

An Uncle Sidney Editorial.

Item from my pal Evelyn Tully Costa.

'I came here to help people, not get the shit beat out of me.'

Sez a bloodied 'Proud Boy' as he's run off by pissed Queens.

This at a Drag Queen Story Hour in NYC.

We all have an instinct to help one another.

The problem arises in knowing what needs to be helped.

His intention from his point of view was good.

Saving the innocent from Liberal Satanists.

However, Drag Story Tellers in this case at least...really didn't need his "help".

If I were still doing radio, I'd ask what da fuck did he think he was doing?

...tho' I'd ask in a nice way.

Still, I love the scene of Proud Boys being chased down the street by enraged by Drag Queens. Worthy of a screen play. I'd pitch it to Hulu. Btw we hit the trifecta.

It's also National Puppy and Atheist Day.

 

Just another quiet night in my digs.

 

Every few years I watch this.

Never gets old.

 

 

My bookcase top at dawn.

 

 

"...forthwith"

This is Ocean Springs Mississippi in the early 21st century.

My family 'paper trail' as property began here in the 1830's/40's.

Here we were held in Bondage. Here we lived as Slaves.

This until Union forces entered the town in 1864.

A few years ago, my sister Sylvia Lewis visited researching our family history.

She found documents about our great-great grandparents.

The search for more continues.

Reading the history of Ocean Springs Mississippi.

The town where my Salves ancestors were held in bondage.

I found that on this day in 1864 the Army of the North landed and eventually freed the Slaves there including my great-great grandmother ‘Tempy’. The ‘New Orleans Weekly Times’ on March 18, 1864: “On Tuesday, February 11th, the gunboats, USS Narcissus and the USS Cowslip, went on an expedition up the Back Bay of Biloxi in command of Lieutenant Commander W.F. Fitzhugh.

At 10 o'clock A.M. they put to port at Ocean Springs.”

Family history sez Union troops entered the town.

No stories of fighting. After some days the Union commander read a proclamation from the courthouse steps which still stands..

He declared all ‘Bondsmen’ within the township and surrounding areas were:

“...forthwith emancipated.”

My family was free.

(Posting this here March 22nd, 2023.)

 

So... I sat on the roof this evening.

 

 

"...Katlicks"

I was out wandering and ended up at my old parish Church Saint Matthews. I go there now and then. It's where Nuns smacked us for joking during service and priests told us our dogs didn't go to heaven. Mutual deal breakers. On the upside despite their deranged baggage, I learned the basics of morality. Kindness as a good idea. Also attempting forgiveness might be worth the trouble.

This being Brooklyn I've seen several ethnic groups become majorities in the congregation. Like the weather if ya don't like one crop another bunch will be by later. From Irish to Hispanic to Haitian Catholics...or 'Katlicks' as we called ourselves as kids. The 'hood ethnically is a mixed stew. Jews Blacks ethnic Whites now Asians. Indians Chinese Laotians. Like all New Yorkers we can't stand each other but we get along well enough. 

About the physical church I seen it come and go. Depending on the economies. Since COVID needed work is being done. Like I mention the Icons are all restored to bright colors. That and a few new ones. Including ...'Blessed Edith Stein' just below the choir loft. 

'Saint Edith Stein' was a German Jewish philosopher who converted to Christianity and became a Carmelite Nun. She was arrested by the Gestapo for being of Jewish heritage in August 1942. She and others of her order were sent to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp where they were among the millions of murdered there.

My old church like all sacred grounds everywhere has history. Be well be brave be kind and laugh as much as possible.

 

"...Space Rangers"

Turns out you 'can' sort of go home again.

However, someone else will be living there.

This being the future we can watch any part of the earth live.

Any country any place even ships at sea. I view lost homes from space.

Thanks to Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Tsiolkovsky and 'Google Earth'.

I can look from ‘Near-Earth-Orbit’ at homes of passed on relatives.

Even my childhood home. Changes. Things removed items added.

New families have grown up there.

New stories imbued into the stone, and wood.

Like my family stories were, and the families before us.

Life goes on days go by

 

On this day in history, March 9, 1959.

Barbie made her world debut at the New York Toy Fair.

'Happy Barbie Day.'

Dolls are immortal. As long as we love them or at least think about them they live.

They've been with us since flint campfires. They know us they are us.

Fire music dolls wheat in more or less that order came into the human world.

A considerable legacy

 

 

"...Days go by"

If you live in these still somewhat United States. Standard-Time went away at 2:am this Sunday morning. * (This is a few weeks old.) We are now in Daylight-Time a new temporal universe. I went outside to see if there were flying cars and free tuition. Eh ...not so far. Now here's another long story about my old digital clock. It lives in my bedroom and has been on Daylight time for decades. See above. The box it rests on was made by my Uncle Owen for my Ma when they were in high school in the 1930's. 

The box is 88 years old. I've had the clock for 43 years. Got it in 1980 at *'Radio Shack'...remember them? This across from da radio station I was with. Had it in my 8th Ave office up on the 22nd floor where I sometimes slept. Btw *'Radio Shack" became 'Video Shack' when VCRs showed up.

Another long story...the 22nd floor was our storage space. I asked if I could carve out an office for my shows da boss said sure. ...cool. Our drama group, the Shakespeare Liberation Front my old pal Simon Loekle the Maestro. That swell bunch held their rehearsals up there. So I worked and sometimes slept to assorted plays like "Coriolanus" "The Merchant of Venice" and "Julius Caesar"...with a new funny ending. Okay they didn't do that but they joked about it.   

As for my aged digital clock. I left it on Daylight time for 43 years. This doesn't seem to have bothered it...never complained. If it ain't broke don't replace it. My elders were Jim Crow Great Depression WW2 folks. So they kept what worked. 

As in everything from our hand cranked wall can opener that scary hundred-year-old vacuum cleaner and da kitchen radio. We had that Zenith clock-radio for 30+ years. Hence my tradition of using stuff I got 200 years ago. Mind I don't have clutter just prized heirlooms...like that Atari...which also still works. 

That radio also still puts out tunes. Got passed around to assorted cousins and such. It works fine and is still somewhere in the extended family. 'Guess it's 60+ years old now. It played 'Do Wop' songs in 1961. Today it reports on A.I. in our cars and the Russo-Ukrainian war. What will it play in another 60 years? *(...from my FB page.)

Comments:

Daryl Romain *...a cousin~ I have a few things that work despite their longevity. My Mom's microwave. She passed in 1990. A 1967 Plymouth Satellite, runs very well, scary fast. The pots you ate out of as a child. The piano Mom got when Grandpa passed in 1968. My sisters alarm clock, 40 years old. The living room garbage can from 67 east 127th street with my last name hand painted on. I draw comfort from these things. They remind me of good times, and folks that I spent them with.

Sidney Smith~ I well remember them cooking pots and assorted pans. That and the warm happy kitchen and house they lived in. ...#67 on left.

Henrietta Cameron-Mann *...another dear cousin~ I have a few things from my childhood that I still use. Like the stainless-steel saucepan that they used for making vegetables - we usually had frozen veggies and my mother cooked 2 squares of veggies when my sisters still lived at home. We became a one square family after they left home. I used it this morning to make oatmeal. Also, the Pyrex bowl and lid where my mother sliced cucumbers and made homemade vinegar and oil dressing. It's in constant use. Those things are at least 50 years old as I remember they were always there.

 My friend John Michael Koroly posted a work by French sculptor Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux. The 1873 marble bust, titled “Why Born Enslaved!” Mr. Carpeaux was European. A commenter said: “Only black artists are permitted to make art concerning black people” I replied: “I understand your position. However, segregation I learned comes in a myriad of forms. I lived in segregation. I never liked it. Particularly regards the arts. Artist creates as they will. ...period."

These are interesting times. Marginalized people are reinterpreting what was thought to be works of compassion. Even hauling down statues and images of once admired figures. Lincoln and Jefferson among them. Perhaps this fanatical revision was inevitable. Even as the current pushback against 80 years of social progress. We are now in a time thanks to the digital era. When we can see all of our conflicting American truths at once. A unique advantage over the past. 

Perhaps we will use that unique view to see that all human souls have demons and angels in constant struggle. As future generations will see our historic context to understand why we do as we do. That and cut us some slack. As we should do for the past. 

A 17th 18th or 19th century person. Especially one with a conscience was doing the best they knew within the limits of their eras. Lincoln said "...we will do right in so far as providence shows us the right." We're in precisely in the same situation. We do right by what we presently understand to be right.

It was nothing sort of miraculous that a Lincoln Jefferson or FDR were in positions of authority when they were. This with all the faults and misjudgments they unknowingly carried viewed from of 21st century revisionist judgement. As we carry unseen sins to be judged by 24th century self-righteous revisionist critics.