radish times

“I would like to beg you to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now.”

Rainer Maria Rilke, a Prague-born poet who wrote in German.

This quotation helped inspire the day and the said update.

People dedicate their whole lives to the contemplation of the meaning of life, some who really want to know the answer of answers and others who want to face the challenge of answering the hardest questions there are. If you fall into the latter group - this update is for you.

I propose that possibly the most difficult question, whose answer would benefit a concrete and sizable population in the world (including me), is: what the hell is wrong with the New York City Subway system?

Last night two upstanding residents of the city of New York participated in the rich cultural life of that said city by attending a concert on 27th street. Dedicated to active participation in the arts, these two young residents stayed for the duration of the show, which included the performances of four ensembles, thereby leaving the artistic space at around 1 am. Hoping to experience the advertised regular and dependable service of the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority, they then made their way glibly to the Uptown 1 train subway station where they would begin their journey home to Dyckman street. This is what they had to say:

Resident 1: Yeah, man, like, we made it to like 28th street by like no later than like 1:15, you know what I’m saying?.

Resident 2: Yeah, man, by like 1:15.

Resident 1: Then we waited, you know, for like many minutes.

Resident 2: Yeah, for like 20 minutes man!

Resident 1: Then, like, a 2 train came. That’s always our luck man, you know what I sayin’, we needed a 1 train, man!

Resident 2: Yeah, man, but then like immediately after the 2 train a 1 train just like immediately pulled into the station.

Resident 1: Yeah, that was cool man. We thought we were riding high… luuuckkkeee!

Resident 2: Yeah, man, and the MTA was like “SIKE!”

Resident 1: Yeah, they were like SIKE, just you wait man, just you wait. We got to like 157th street and the train sat there for like 25 f..king minutes man.

Resident 2: Yeah, an’ like the conductor was like “You vill vait. I know de reason - BUT YOU VILL VAIT VIFOUT IT! HA HA HA! I VILL SAY NO MORE.”

Resident 1: Yeah, man. And then we sat there man for like ever. And I was like thinking about like all kind of like weird stuff, man. Remember that guy, man? That guy we saw on the Q train?

Resident 2: Yeah, man! That guy that was like “Six… REAL durecellbatteries TWOdollars. ThreepackTWOdollars.”?

Resident 1: heeheeeheehee ha. Yeah man, he was like “Six..

As you gathered from the exchange of our two young residents, the 1 train stopped and sat at 157th street for 25 minutes, only to move to 168th street and sit there for 45 minutes, with virtually no explanation from the conductor as to what was going on.

Resident 1: Yeah, that conductor man, he kept trying to like torture us, man, like you just don’t know man. Every 10 minutes he would like come on the loudspeaker and say “MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE. THERE IS NO UPTOWN SERVICE….” with a like long like mental break to like let people freak out, you know what I’m saying, and then he’d like continue “BETWEEN DYCKMAN STREET and ….” and like everyone tensing up and relaxin’ again, sittin’ there thinking like he was going to say no more uptown service at all, man.

At all events, the train finally moved North out of the 168th street train station, only to stop after 100 feet and sit for five minutes before backing up into the station on the downtown track so it could sit there for five minutes before pulling out and heading uptown.

Resident 2: Yeah, man, and like that conductor kept saying “MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION. THIS TRAIN WILL BE RUNNING NORTH ON THE SOUTHBOUND TRACK” as if anybody gave a f..k, man! Just get me home, man. Just get me the f..k home!

The two young residents arrived home at approximately 3 am, too frustrated and angry to coherently be able to think, eat or sleep.

Resident 1: Yeah, man. And like all that time to think, man. And all I thought about was that man on the Q train. Six… REAL durecellbatteries TWOdollars, man. ThreepacklikeTWOdollars, man.

Resident 2: Yeah, man. And he said “Thank you for shopping on the Q train.” Hee haa ha. Thanks, man, for shopping on the f..king Q train.

It seems to me that I haven’t sent an intelligible update possibly since February, certainly nothing that explains anything about what is going on in our lives. So that is what I will endeavor to do now. Oh, where to begin…

Work, school, concerts, pictures, web-sites, cats, apartments, vacations, hot summer heat, family gatherings…

Work. I have been loving my job lately. All year I have been working 21 hours a week at the Youth Development Institute. I am on a team that works with organizations who serve young adults, 16 to 24 year olds, who are out-of-school and not working. We give them a little money and a lot of training and resources to strengthen their programs/organizations. For example, we train all their staff who work directly with young people in the principles of youth development, which address how to empower young people to make it through the obstacles they face and to take control of their own development. (Does that make sense? I have the hardest time trying to explain this quickly and easily.) On the other hand, we also help organizations individually, for example we have sent a star fundraiser to work with several of our organizations around grant writing and approaching foundations. Anyway, it has been a long time since I loved my job. It feels good.

Peter is still at campusfood.com, a young start-up company that is growing like crazy. In fact, he just passed his year anniversary there. For the most part, he likes it. It has been really interesting to hear about all the growing pains, turn-over, new policies, and minor crises that go on in a company moving from about 10 employees to about 50 in a year’s time. They are moving to a bigger space in August on 19th street, which should be interesting!!! I don’t know how long Peter will stay there. He is interested in working at a company where he is part of a team of developers, which works on a range of projects over time. That way he can both learn more from his co-workers and face more interesting diverse challenges at work. We’ll see what happens. If you know of any such job, send the info!

School. Spring semester ended well. It was far better that the Fall semester, which I almost quit a gazillion times. But neither one prepared me for the intensive Russian summer sessions I am taking now. In addition to working, I have been studying Russian about 7 - 8 hours a day (4 hours in class in the morning, 3-4 at night studying). Thank God it is only four days a week! On the other hand, it is fabulous! Our teacher is one of the best teachers I have run across in my life - so all the time is definitely worth it! I just finished four weeks and have four more weeks to go… we will see then just how much my Russian has improved!

Concerts and pictures. I will take them together. Peter continues to take pictures at all the concerts we go to and to put them up on the web. He has been getting more and more recognition for them this year. Partly due to the fact that he has been more intentionally promoting his website (he has a very cool new business card) but also because people are beginning to recognize just how amazing what he is doing is. One of many recent compliments came from John Zorn, master musician, producer, composer, who said he really respected what Peter was doing to document the downtown music scene, and another came from Cooper-Moore, pianist, drummer, singer, dancer, truth-seeker, who invited us to dinner to honor Peter’s work. “Nobody else does what you do!,” he said, “Nobody.” Many musicians are using Peter’s photos on their websites, CD covers, and other promotional material. Others, such as a Swedish recording label and various Jazz magazines, are also requesting and using his photos.