Electrified

David Blaine, one million volts always on

David Blaine drowned alive in Lincoln Center

David Blaine frozen in Times Square

  

The Center of Attention

I was walking down the street and I was recognized by some people who saw me at a NYC comedy club. I appreciate it, but there is always a downside to fame. 

Suggestions for Bored People

I am amazed that some people are so bored and have so little to do that their only recreation seems to be hanging on computers in sophomoric attempts to annoy others who are total strangers. It's a vacuous form of low level entertainment, so in an attempt to provide a service... please allow me to share a list of activities I intend to attend:

October 2012
Mantegna to Matisse: Drawings frm Courtauld Gallery Frick 10/02/12-01/27/13
Bernini terra cotta models & drawings Met 10/03/12-01/06/13
Turkmen Jewelry frm Marshall/Marilyn Wolf collection Met 10/09/12-02/24/13
Wade Guyton midcareer survey Whitney 10/04/12-01/13/13
Picasso Black & White Guggenheim 10/05/12-01/23/13
Szapocznikow, Alina: Sculpture Undone: 1955-1972 MoMA 10/07/12-01/28/13
Faking It: Manipulated Photog before Photoshop Met 10/11/12-01/27/13
Durer to DeKooning: 100 Master Drawings-Munich. 16c-19c Morgan 10/12/12-01/06/13
Trockel, Rosemarie: A Cosmos New Museum 10/24/12-01/21/13
Artschwger, Richard: retrospective Whitney 10/25/12-02/03/13
Princely Furniture of the Roentgens, 18c Met 10/30/12-01/27/13

November 2012
Rogers, John-American sculptor 19c NY Historical Soc 11/02/12-02/17/13
Potter, Beatrix: the Picture Letters Morgan 11/02/12-01/27/13
Modernist Indian Art: Radical Terrain. 3rd exhibit in series Rubin11/09/12- 04/29/13
Orozco, Gabriel: Asterisms. sculpture-photography installation Guggenheim 11/09/12- 01/13/13 Bellows, George (frm National Gallery) Met 11/11/12- 02/18/13
Sinister Pop Whitney 11/15/12- 03/xx/13
Fiorentino, Rosso. 16c Florentine Drawing Morgan 11/16/12- 02/03/13
Meta-Monumental Garage Sale. Martha Rosler MoMA atrium 11/17/12- 11/30/13
Tokyo: 1955-1970 A New Avant Garde MoMA 11/18/12- 02/25/13
African Art, NY, Avant Garde (re: Armory Show anniversary) Met 11/27/12- 04/14/13

December 2012
Matisse: In Search of True Painting (48 ptgs) Met 12/04/12- 03/17/13
Inventing Abstraction 1910-1925 MoMA 12/23/12- 04/15/13

January 2013
Drawing Surrealism. 90 artists (Dali, Miro, Ernst, etc) Morgan 01/25/13 04/21/13
Hashmi, Zarina: Paper like Skin, retrospective Guggenheim 01/25/13- 04/21/13


The Heiress

Motown, the Musical

New York Film Festival

You Betcha!

Coney Island Baby

In Avalon

Around the World

Clara Barton School

My "aha" moment!

It happened, and my jaw dropped. I realized I could with no doubt confirm that the people with whom I am interacting in one area of my life are total morons... idiotic beyond belief.

They are infantile bored fools who attempt, like tireless energizer bunnies, to displace and transfer their unresolved angers to others who unwittingly tap into their frustrations. They are insecure, easily threatened, feel diminished, and have very low self-esteem. They try to insult others so they can feel better about themselves. It's not rocket science.

When a moron calls attendance at an author's presentation and book signing "stalking" and is doing that in some childish attempt to annoy... I realized that there is nowhere in my life that I would allow such an imbecile to impact my senses. And if it was said with serious intent because she believes it, I feel so sorry for a person with such a sad and limited life. When total strangers have such weird and almost pathological fixations on me and my projects, it's time for distance.

It's one thing to admire a blogger's body of work... or to not admire it and close "the book." It's scary when the interest is almost obsessive in order to put "spins" on the pieces for borderline sociopathic reasons. It's creepy. The participants seem to be never self-involved for productive purposes.

THAT one sentence was my wake-up call. I may be a slow study, but I don't suffer fools and I do not tolerate adults who think it is fun to "do stupid..." unless I am a willing subject on the dais and it is my roast. I actually adore self-effacing humor.

There exists in the demographic about which I am speaking a strong relentless ongoing need to try to insult and ridicule others in the most vile of ways. And the participants are missing a filter, something inside proactive normal people that makes the activity ludicrous and a total waste of time or at best good for the short term. The lemmings and sidekicks are so way beneath my level of intelligence that to associate with them in any way within any paradigm renders me the jackass in the dynamic.

It's an "aha" moment... and the only choice is to cut them loose and not allow their layered sophomoric agendas in any way to impact my visual world. Misery loves company and flotsam and jetsam seeks it's own level. There's an expression: "they deserve each other." Nothing else needs to be said.

One cannot control what others say or do, we can only control the choices we make in deciding how to handle the actions and behavior of others. And if one can easily "get rid of them," it is asinine to consider anything else. The walls are firmly now up so the Shield of Gardol stays securely in place.

In real life we selectively choose with whom we will socialize. Now, with twitter and Facebook and all sorts of other interactive live social media, we must activate other measures to make certain that those with obtuse and suspicious agendas are kept away. They must be designated invisible... because misery does indeed love company and each day I wake-up and find my smile.

Yeah, it's sorta like THAT... it was so an "aha"moment.

And if the severely frustrated still attempt to engage you in interactions so they can feel they have won some imaginary battle that exists only in their own minds... never give them the opportunity. Just remember, they are fighting an old fight that has nothing to do with you. At some point in their lives they felt powerless and out of control. They need to "win" so their hurt feelings from long ago can heal. But it never works, because you are just  surrogate... the total stranger to whom their unresolved angers are being displaced and transferred. They will never feel satisfied because they need to work it all out with the person who initiated the feelings long ago.

My Drug of Choice

Now, a NAIL place!

It's now a NAIL place, but first it was a Jewish deli and then a Rexall pharmacy. It was where I voted for the Miss Rheingolds.

Robert Hall, gone

Miss Rheingold contests, gone

Carvel booths, gone?

Fotomat, gone

Ratner's, gone

Fine and Klein, gone

Gordon's Novelty Shop, gone

Gordon's Novelty Shop, on Broadway between 21st and 22nd Streets, is gone.

Jeremiah's Vanishing New York

Diamond Dairy, closed

It was located at 4 West 47th Street, NYC

about Diamond Dairy

in the NYPost

in the NYDailyNews

Chaplin, on Broadway

I loved CHAPLIN THE MUSICAL and I cried at the end.

I appreciate and adore Charlie Chaplin and know about his life story and body of work and I thought this show was phenomenal.

This is a Broadway show not to be missed. And it is just gorgeous to look at too, impeccably mounted in tones of black, white, and grey, until the end... when in 1972 Chaplin walks the red carpet at the Oscars.

At the end, as the Little Tramp, he walks away through the curtain and into history.


CHAPLIN THE MUSICAL

The Empty Wall

Here once was a vegetable
Stand with snow peas that
Cracked open with one bite.
And here there was once
Glorious things, colorful
Things in these stores beyond

This wall that now stands naked
In a place that seems empty because
Even the parking lot looks forlorn.
This wall reminds everyone who once
Played here that all seems to filter away
And get lost in some grey smoky haze.


 © 2012 Marjorie Levine

A Mailbox Was Here

A mailbox once stood on the corner of this street,
In that green and brown grassy patch of land.

It is long gone, and nothing now remains
To tell of a spot where children would walk

Long ago on sunny and rainy days to mail
Pen pal letters to friends in places far away.


© 2012 Marjorie Levine

What Remains

Edgar Allan Poe Cottage

Bronx County Historical Society

Coney Island

Pagan-Fletcher Restoration

Valley Stream Historical Society

The Glass House

The Glass House

Letters, NYDailyNews Letters

Two of my recent letters that were published in the NY Daily News:

March 2012
In It to Win It
Manhattan: Why are there so many shows like American Idol, The Voice, and The X Factor that send the message that the greatest achievement is to be a fantastic singer? I am not surprised that U.S. students are behind in math and science. They are probably so busy singing they don't have time to study.
Marjorie Levine


September 2012
Mayoral minutiae
Manhattan: I left my apartment at noon, and as soon as I hit the street I recoiled because I realized I had forgotten to apply my sunscreen. A passerby took a drag from his cigarette and blew second hand smoke in my face. I was thirsty so I stopped and got a 33.8 ounce bottle of cola and took a short swig. As I crossed the street, I was almost hit by a speeding bike rider who ran a red light. Life is just fraught with perils. I prioritize my worries.
Marjorie Levine

I "Speakout"

My UFT New York Teacher "Speakout"
The DOE’s ‘accountability’ is absurd
by Marjorie Levine, published: Feb 28, 2008


 I sigh with exasperation when I read editorial pieces in newspapers which promote the concept of evaluating teachers based on the test scores of their students. The writers have no understanding of what is happening in the classrooms. It is ludicrous to speak about “accountability” when there is what the New York City Department of Education believes to be an excellently designed model in place that teachers are mandated to follow. Teachers are now required to follow a very rigid and almost scripted daily plan. Teachers attend workshops during which they receive instruction on how to effectively implement the model. One would think that since the teachers receive a “roadmap” regarding exactly what to say during their lessons that all the students would perform well on tests. It’s a “Stepford teacher” approach and test scores should be consistent.

It is absurd that teachers should be held “accountable” for the test results from a method they never even chose in the first place. We can only discuss the subject of accountability if teachers are allowed to craft what they might consider more effective and creative lessons. Without that flexibility, we are evaluating teachers who have been reduced to robots. “Accountability” becomes too absurd in the present scenario to even continue a dialogue. I can only prove my worth if you allow me to teach you with my own techniques. If you give me a recipe, please do not evaluate my ability to bake a great cake.

I failed science in the 9th grade. It was not because my teacher did not know how to craft excellent and effective lessons. The student sitting next to me in that science class received very high grades. My test scores had nothing to do with the principal or which politician was in control of the schools. My sister, who had the same set of parents, did very well in school and was an honor student.

I did not pay attention in class, did not carefully do my homework and did not study for exams. As a matter of fact, I did very poorly in high school and had nobody to blame but myself! It was not until college that I realized the value of education and the true importance of study. I was then able to develop a seriousness of purpose and succeed in classes and I finally performed well on tests. I would feel bad for my science teacher if he was held accountable for my failure. I was a 5th- and 6th-grade teacher in the New York City public schools from 1968 to 2002 and I am now retired. During the last few years of my career, the learning model in the schools completely changed. I was no longer allowed to keep my students seated in rows during “teacher-directed” lessons at the chalkboard. I was not permitted to teach “math applications” and my role was reduced to that of “facilitator.” Children were placed in groups to discuss strategies for solving math word problems.

Students no longer learned to read with a basal reader and a comprehension workbook. Phonics, which is the basic building block for reading instruction because it teaches the sounds the symbols make, had been reduced to a watered-down approach called “phonemic awareness.” Students were choosing “just-right books” from classroom leveled libraries with books grouped by genre. In many schools today, students do not even have textbooks in the basic subject areas. At the end of my career, a principal came into my room and told me she wanted more “productive noise.” I knew it would soon be time to exit the system when I went from group to group and heard the students not discussing literature or the books they selected, but their plans for Saturday!

Here’s a “tip” from me: Get the schools back to strong and solid basics and stop the nonsense already. Quiet classrooms, textbooks and structure is what it’s all about. The rest is a total sham. I am glad I am retired.

My Book Nook

World Peace

I was featured last night during my show on BlogTV and I had an audience of hundreds from all over the world: the USA, Canada, Israel, Russia, the UK, Germany, Turkey, and Croatia. Many viewers posted: "We love you," and I was feeling that love and I was inspired. I played "What the World Needs Now," by Jackie DeShannon and I told them I was trying to create world peace. And for about ten minutes there actually was "world peace"... at least in my world.

Selected Letters

Coming soon, selected letters I have written. Here's a teaser, a letter written by my grandmother decades ago.