NY Mets, Obama & Dylan

The New York Mets have now won seven straight. I do hope this gets all the sports writers off their backs and just lets them play baseball. I also know that I’m being as unrealistic as Wile E. Coyote. So they didn’t get off to a fast start. And the rotation has looked a bit shaky.. Especially Oliver Perez. But it is many moons until October, and I think the Mets are going to be fine. How I can feel this way after the way the last two seasons ended, just proves that anyone can be willfully blind about something. Sometimes it’s love, sometimes it’s the lottery, sometimes it’s presidential candidates.

President Obama really has a good sense of his own importance doesn’t he? I’m mean, he means so much to the future of the world, not just the USA, he’s asked the French government to ban tour guide services from bringing ordinary citizens to the 60th anniversary ceremonies of the D-Day invasion of the Normandy coast. I wonder how much the prestige of the USA is being raised in Canada, France and Great Britain now that those veterans won’t be able to come and pay what may be for many of these heroes, their very final tributes to their fallen comrades? This commemoration is a very big deal. June 6, 1944 was the most consequential day of the entire 20th century. If Obama thinks the requirements for his security demands that commonfolk be excluded from the ceremonies, he should withdraw from appearing in favor of the public. It would be the honorable thing to do. Oh, by the way, at the 60th anniversary commemorations, George Bush attended, and everyone who could make the trip was welcome. Gee, if the world so hated Bush, and so loves Obama, how come Bush could go to Normandy with the public in attendance, but Obama needs extra security and the public excluded?

Unemployment has now hit 8.9% on its way to double digits. And the POTUS just told us a couple of weeks ago that “over 150,000 jobs have been saved or created”. So who you’re gonna believe, me or you’re your lyin’ eyes?

Architecture is in a very sad state these days. Architects for the most part have become little more than sculptors on an immense scale. Especially when it comes to museums. Gehry, Liebskind, et al. make these compositions that are just big, big objects. The sculptor Richard Serra has said that he has never wanted to be an architect. But architects sure are stealing his ideas. And not to the betterment of the profession. Lord Norman Foster has turned a Faberge egg into the Swiis-Re Tower. It’s all just objectification, and formal weirdness. Exploration and expression of materials has been put on the shelf. Unless of course the materials are “green”, and then maybe Ed Begley Jr. will have you on his show. How much greener can a material be than stone? Sometime long ago, architecture was both art and science. And when it was, the best buildings in history were built. But at some point architecture leaned way over to the art side, and left the science part alone which then became engineering. And it has been going downhill ever since.

The world over values the wrong things. Actors, singers and entertainers of all stripes, with even a modicum of success will earn a whole lot more than the most esteemed scientist. How is that? The former produce nothing. They make us feel good, and that takes talent, but nothing is produced. When it comes to entertainment the real work is done by the people who write the material. They create things. And they are underpaid too. Same goes for the way over paid professional athlete. Doctors usually do 7 years of school, lawyers do 7 years too, architects do 6 years of school and 3 years professional practice before they can even sit for their license, yet the earnings over the course of a career for an architect are nothing compared to the first two.

How about a little music discussion? Bob Dylan has a new album out. The 7,845th of his career. I’m kidding, but doesn’t it seem so? Now I’m not a Dylan purist, or even a Dylanophile, but I’ve generally liked him ever since I first heard him in the ‘60’s as a boy. I like to listen to him as a special change of pace. Like having a taste of absinthe once in a while instead of a brandy or cognac. But did you know he has a radio show on the “Deep Tracks” channel of XM satellite radio? It’s on several times a week at 11:00 a.m. And what I want to say is, Mr. Dylan is one weird fellow, weird with a capital S-T-R-A-N-G-E.