City Belt

POEM: MODERN DANCE IN CALIFORNIA

In Peoples Park I meet a girl.
We talk. She’s been to Harvard
for a Bachelor of Arts and now
a graduate student at Berkeley
studies modern dance
in China.

Studies, mind you, she
doesn’t actually dance.

For this she gets a stipend
of more dough than I claimed
on my taxes working full-time
all last year.

Later on, down Telegraph
a bum approaches
smelling of urine
(probably his own)
asks for some change to eat or grab
a bottle or do whatever it is he does
with his spare time. I direct him
to where the student admissions office
is located and tell him if he’s really
hungry he should sign up to study
something completely useless.

He does a little dance in the street.
He shakes his money-maker.
He must be overjoyed to hear
the good news, either that
or he has just crapped his pants.

- Daniel McNulty

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Daniel McNulty is a founding member of Raconteur Publications who's first book, The Raconteur Reader, is due out in June. He was the general manager of The Raconteur's Word Fest, a four hour literary event held at Metuchen's landmark The Forum Theatre. He is a graduate of Rutgers University.

YOUR FRIENDS & NEIGHBORS: THE GLACIERS; THE MOONLIGHT NEVER MISSES AN APPOINTMENT

By Tris McCall

From: Queens. Don’t believe the hype in the real-estate magazines -- it’s not the new anything. It’s just itself: an aggregate of neighborhoods north of Brooklyn, inadequately served by public transit and subject to blackouts. If you’re a rapper, the ‘Bridge isn’t over and never has been. Queens indie rockers, on the other hand, have never really had a regional identity. I imagine that when The Glaciers want to feel part of the “scene,” they take Metropolitan down to Williamsburg along with everybody else.    

Format: Full-length; 12 tracks. In a year when everybody has been recording iPod-busting 10-minute epics to prove they’re Down With The Album Concept, closer “Hats Off” seems almost modest at 6:28.

UPDATE: AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN HUDCO AND BEYOND

Downtown Jersey City set to lose 65 low-income apartments with the sale of Dixon Mills; New report confirms: NJ is fucking expensive.
By Jon Whiten

Back in October, we reported on the dearth of low-income -- or even mixed-income -- housing in Jersey City, especially in the area experiencing the orgasmic sensations of condo-boom: downtown.

Since our report, there have been two key related developments -- one means a big loss for affordable apartments downtown, while the other paints the dollars-and-cents picture for all of New Jersey's renters (hint: it's not pretty).

First, as the Jersey Journal reported last month, Dixon Mills -- one of the few apartment complexes we called that did have set-asides for low-income residents -- was sold for $78.5 million. The building, which is currently all rentals, will be -- shocking! -- converted to condos. The new owners will be offering the real estate equivalent of "first dibs" to current residents to buy their units. Of course, this likely won't help those living in the 65 low-income apartments -- we doubt that these tenants will have the significant savings that will be necessary to buy a condo likely priced at no less than $200,000.

The special-rate units won't be expiring just yet, though. Before the sale, the low-income provision was set to last for about four more years, according to the Journal. The Jersey City Redevelopment Agency helped to extend that provision for one additional year. This sounds good on the surface, right? After all, the renter-friendly policy would evaporate anyway, and now it just lasts one year longer. But chances are, if the buildings hadn't changed owners, and had remained apartment buildings, the low-income renters would have -- or at least could have -- continued to be accomodated. But with the buildings going condo, the chance of the low-income rentals remaining is virtually none.

So downtown Jersey City loses some key low-income housing -- the kind that always works best, too: set-aside apartments mixed into one complex with market-rate units.

We'd like to see Grove Pointe absorb the 65 units into its development, plain and simple. Consider that a public challenge. With 458 rental units supposedly hitting the market, 65 lower-rate units shouldn't  signficantly hurt the bottom line, either.

BUT I DIGEST ... DEAR SANTA, EAT YOUR HEART OUT

By Kimberly Kaye

In the name of composing a seasonally appropriate “food piece” which, ideally, avoids clichéd lauding of family fruitcake recipes or life latke lessons, I’d like to share something somewhat different with this worldly community of artists. I stumbled recently across a food related tradition practiced in Thailand, an exercise in giving that I feel is certainly notable at this time of year -- without dripping the gooey and forced sentimentality featured in the mainstream media.

Several weeks ago I learned that before their deaths many Thai natives prepare handcrafted miniature cookbooks -- tiny notebook collections of personal and favorite recipes, food related anecdotes, and personal tips for mealtime success, compiled over years of serving family and friends. These books, often ornate in design and accented by the uniqueness of homemade craftsmanship, are then distributed to friends and family -- at the author’s funeral.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK: THE COLORS OF THE PARK

Talk about vivid color! Yet another great shot taken by Pat Marella.

To be featured as Photo of the Week, tag your Flickr photos with CityBelt -- or you can just e-mail them to us.

On the Web:
Pat Marella's Flickr page
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POEM: STONER'S SONNET

A dissipating cloud of dark gray smoke
Unobscures in grades, unveiling the lost face
of a misled man, the butt of a stoke,
giving orders to logs in the fireplace.
Quite a master in his proud, ashen mind
He is; the logs, to him, the entirety
of nature, one by one, crumbling in kind.
The exhaust, he senses, flows quite lightly
Under the guidance of his breath and hand,
Fills the sky with the broadly visible
message of his presence; the whole land
lies contented, abiding to his glib will.
He- all foes fled fearing fumigation-
Revels, in half-wit intoxication.

-- Lee W. Jenson

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Lee W. Jenson is a graduate student at Rutgers Business School. Besides writing poetry, he also contributes articles under a pseudonym for www.wsws.org, a Trotskyist online newspaper.

UPDATE: WHYGTS? TAKES MANHATTAN

When we were speaking with the What Have You Got to Say? 2006 curatorial team this summer, one thing they mentioned was the desire to have WHYGTS? be more than a singular art show, but rather to be a format, something that could be reproduced in other venues.

(Read the original story here)

It looks like that process has started sooner than we imagined it would. A version of WHYGTS? will be hitting Manhattan's Atlantic Gallery next month.

Pamela Talese, the Atlantic Gallery's director, is bringing "a new, smaller edition of WHYGTS? to the gallery, which will include some work never before seen addressing issues of National Security, Hurricane Katrina, Immigration, Oil Dependency, the War in Iraq, and the mistakes made on both sides of the aisle and other fiascos," according to a statement.

Artists included in the Big Apple version: Aileen Bassis, Beth Bentley, John Coburn, William Coronado, Deborah Crowell, David Dziemian, Rebecca Feranec, Eileen Ferrara, Norm Francoeur, Tina Garcia, Zachary Green, Cheryl Gross, Kayt Hester Lent, Michael Kabbash, Carmen Kolodzey, Tina Krause, Wendy Lewis, Laurel Lueders, Angela Mark, Luisa Pinzon, William Stamos, Viva Stowell, Amanda Thackray and Kelly Murphy, Jeramy Turner, Ernest Shukara Walker, Joseph Blaine Whisenhunt, and Aaron Zimmerman.

Atlantic Gallery
40 Wooster St.
4th Floor
NY, NY
Opening reception: Jan. 9, 5-8pm (show will be up through Feb. 10)

DAY JOB: JASON WATSON

A detail from one of Watson's pieces

Jason Watson is an accomplished visual artist whose extensive resume includes residencies at the Newark Museum, the Lower East Side Printshop, Cooper Union, and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. The 34-year-old Lambertville resident works mostly in the realm of drawing and printmaking, but also ocassionally does larger installations.

HOW THEY VOTED: CONDEMNING A GESTURE, NOT INVESTIGATING A DEATH SENTENCE

The Bill: H Res 1082
Date Passed: December 6, 2006
About: This resolution condemns the decision of St. Denis, France, to name a street in honor of Mumia Abu-Jamal.

This month marked the 25th anniversary of Mumia Abu-Jamal’s conviction for the murder of Philadelphia policer office Daniel Faulkner – a crime in which the only evidence connecting him to the crime was manufactured. But even if you don't believe his innocence, or feel you cannot determine it -- despite the overwhelming evidence, including another man’s confession to the crime -- you’d likely concede his trial was a farce. At the very least, Abu-Jamal should be given a new, fair trial – a call echoed by Amnesty International, among others.

A PEEK AT THE FUTURE: MORE (DEAD) TROOPS

More of this

Because of this.

Thanks, George! (And let's be glad that Corzine is no longer in the position to be making these kinds of decisions.)

THE THIRD DEGREE: A.C. THOMPSON

What always horrifies me is, as Hannah Arendt phrased it, the utter banality of evil. Every generation’s atrocity has the pencil pushers who work, somehow, in the business of murder, torture and degradation. While they literally don’t get their hands dirty, the horrors would be impossible to accomplish without them.

Torture Taxi: On the Trail of the CIA’s Rendition Flights, the beautifully written and investigated book by Trevor Paglen and A.C. Thompson, shows how the US policy of torture can be traced to a family law office in a forgettable building surrounded by a bagel shop, hair salon and Wardle’s Pharmacy in Dedham, Massachusetts, and to the sleepy town of little league games and Boy Scout camping trips that is Smithfield, North Carolina.

A.C. Thompson, a staff writer at SF Weekly, recently spoke with City Belt.

You've got a background of touring with punk bands -- so how did you end up in journalism?

I was always interested in writing, and I was always into journalism. But I spent a bunch of years hanging out in the punk scene, and doing that whole trip. In my mid-20s, I realized I needed to have my own career, my own vocation, rather than just basically being a roadie for bands and supporting their dreams. So I got into writing when I was about 24 years old.

VOICES OF RENDITION

Amnesty International has collected chilling testimony from some victims of the U.S. program of rendition; the stories of three men are reprinted here.

Muhammad Abdullah Salah al-Assad

In Dec. 2003, Tanzanian officers arrested al-Assad, a Yemeni national, at his home in Tanzania. He was taken to a waiting airplane and turned over to US custody. After about two weeks in an unknown detention facility, he was flown to a second detention facility, where he stayed for about two weeks, and was then taken by car to a third place, where he stayed about three months. His last secret transfer probably took place in April 2004. In Jan. 2006 he was still detained in Yemen.

THREE KEY LEGAL MEMOS ON TORTURE

In his interview, A.C. Thompson refers to three memos that helped -- and continue to help -- the administration legally justify its torture and rendition programs: Yoo, Gonzales and Bybee. Here is a basic overview of the three memos, based largely on a educational lesson plan from Teachable Moment.

THE YOO MEMO (Jan. 9, 2002)

A Justice Department memorandum stated: "Restricting the president's plenary power over military operations (including the treatment of prisoners)" would be "constitutionally dubious." This memo concluded that the Geneva Conventions did not cover non-state organizations like al-Qaeda or Afghanistan under the Taliban, since the latter was a "failed state" whose territory "had been largely overrun and held by violence by a militia or faction rather than a government."

The memo was written by Justice Department lawyers John Yoo and Robert Delahuntym, and was addressed to the Defense Department's general counsel, William Haynes II.

STEWPOT: NEWS STARS

I knew something was up when I flipped to CNN one day and found myself breaking into an involuntary smile. My joy was triggered by the sight of one John Roberts substitute anchoring what is now cringerifically called AC 360. Never heard of this fellow? Neither had I, hence my delight. Refreshing, indeed, this generic “news man,” blandly reporting the day’s top stories.

That in contrast, of course, with “AC” himself, with his signature Anderson Cooper eyebrow knit, his patented Anderson Cooper sympathy eyes and his trademark Anderson Cooper hand-to-hip gesture of gravity. For the rest of the country, Hurricane Katrina was a tragedy. For Coop, it was career gold. He stood amid the wreckage and told us the unvarnished truth. “Shocking images from New Orleans. What is happening there is an outrage,” he said, opening the show on Sept. 1, 2005. Some considered his subjective reporting an outrage. But he seemed genuinely shaken, and his abandonment of journalistic objectivity fit the desperation of the moment. There was talk of a new kind of TV journalism, with Cooper at its helm.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK: THE PAPER WASTE

Sometimes we find a photo in our photo pool that, for whatever reason, just works thematically. This photo of the Grove St. PATH stop, by Eric Harvey Brown (Flickr's "Dogseat") seemed like the perfect photo to pick this week, as two free publications will no longer be available to litter our public space, Exit and yours truly, City Belt. The decision to indefinitely cease the print edition of City Belt was multi-faceted, but mostly involved money, cheese, scrilla, or whatever you want to call it. However, with us freeing up that massive amount we had been using to kill trees each month, we can now focus on improving the site, compensating contributors better, doing more in-depth investigative stories and the like. We decided that, rather than turn into businesspeople and worry about money all the time, we'd rather get back to why we started this -- because we love good journalism.

Now that that's out of the way, enjoy the photo, you crazy kids.

To be featured as Photo of the Week, tag your Flickr photos with CityBelt -- or you can just e-mail them to us.

On the Web:
Eric's Flickr page
City Belt's Flickr page

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MEDIA MASSAGE: DEATH OF A FAUX-ALT

Exit Weekly to cease publication immediately

Media Massage learned today that the North Jersey Media Group, owners of the Bergen Record among other publications, has shuttered the majority of its "Specialty Publications" division, which includes the youth-oriented weekly Exit. Our source says the closure is effective immediately, and all Exit staffers have been laid off, just in time for the holidays. No word on if North Jersey Media Group's other "Specialty Publications" -- N.J. Cops, The Parent Paper, and Country Kids -- will also close.

North Jersey Media Group was not available for comment.

Honestly, we at City Belt were never too impressed with Exit -- as people who work inside the alternative press, Exit often felt like it was a labor of business, rather than a labor of love -- which it ultimately was: a top-down approach to alternative journalism, rather than a bottom-up one. The paper was improving, though -- becoming more substantial. But it looks like, as in so many other cases, business won out.

We should make it clear that we're not gloating or anything like that here -- we never really saw Exit as a competitor (our styles are just far too different). If anything, we express our sympathies to those staffers who got canned. At this point, it's unclear whether any severance pay was extended to those now ex-employees.

We can't help but wonder if this is related at all to the rumor that North Jersey Media Group had been approached about buying the New York Press, as floated a few weeks back in the New York Observer. I don't really see how this would make any sense, nor do I see why anyone would want to buy the New York Press, which seems like a business-side walking disaster, especially a newspaper chain that is struggling with its own roster of papers, like the aforementioned Record.

So, farewell, Exit, and good luck.

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BUT I DIGEST ... RINGING TACO'S BELL

By Kimberly Kaye

There is something unbelievably comforting about the heat of a fresh warm tortilla radiating across chilled fingertips on a cold night. And when said tortilla is filled with tender steak or seasoned pork and accompanied by savory salsa verde the effect is all the more soothing. I know this because I had the luck to spend our first truly wintry night of the season seated happily at one of the backyard-chic tables in Jersey City’s inspired little Mexican spot, Taqueria.

DAY JOB: DUJUANA SHARESE

Photo by Michael Gates

There are a lot of poets in New Jersey, and a large concentration of them in Jersey City. Dujuana Sharese is one of the major forces in the city's poetry slam and spoken word scene. The 38-year-old is not only an accomplished poet herself, but she's the organizer of Cypher Movement, an event that happens every fourth Friday which combines spoken word performances, visual arts and, sometimes, music performances as well.

SPLENDID MARBLES: THREE LITTLE PIGS

by greg strid

ON THE WEB:
Splendid Marbles

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IDLE HANDS IN IRAQ

Guest Viewpoint
By Michael Embrich

Picture a man with little to lose. Picture a man with an abated sense of self-respect and pride. Picture a man who can do little to change his situation or the conclusion that he draws of himself, that of a “useless” person.

This is how close to 70 percent of the able-to-work Iraqi men feel. This is how close to 70 percent of the able-to-work Palestinian men feel.

These two countries seem to have little problem recruiting suicide bombers. These two countries have some of the highest unemployment rates in the world.

Coincidence? I think not.

MARRIAGE EQUALITY: WHAT'S THE FUSS ABOUT?

Guest Viewpoint
By Walt Boraczek

Editors' note: Today marks the State Senate's hearing on the civil unions bill, which would give some benefits to same-sex couples in New Jersey, but falls short of calling these benefits "marriage." As we've stated before, we think that the state should have no involvement in marriage, and that all should be in civil unions. But since that's not the world we live in, we believe that everyone should be entitled to state-recognized "marriage." We asked Walt Boraczek of the Hudson Diversity Action Council for his two cents on the subject, and he kindly outlined the case for marriage.

The struggle for marriage equality has now come full-circle and we are engaged in a battle of semantics. The Supreme Court of New Jersey has guaranteed same-sex couples equal treatment under the law, but has stopped short of using the word “marriage” to describe those relationships. There are heated arguments on both sides of this issue, but the fight is no longer "Should same-sex couples get the rights?" but "Should we get the label?"

Simply stated, the name matters!

Universally Recognized Label

Marriage is a term that is understood in all areas of our culture. This centuries-old designation is the only benchmark of commitment that exists and it is viewed in our society as a binary state, not a sliding scale. Married? Yes or No. If, under a civil union, I am forced to check “No,” where is my measure of equality?

Let’s look at one of the more common situations that face same-sex couples – hospital visitation. In certain areas of a hospital, visitation is limited to immediate family only. This was one of the rights addressed by New Jersey’s Domestic Partnership law of 2004; however, we still see situations where fully documented domestic partners are denied access to their loved ones because the hospital administrator on duty doesn’t know what the term “domestic partner” means with respect to hospital policy. This is both a weakness in the educational follow-up and in the label itself.

JERSEY DEVIL IN THE DETAILS

This summer’s fiasco at Kiddie Kollege was just the tip of the environmental iceberg – New Jersey is filled with toxic sites that haven’t been properly cleaned up.
By Leigh Davis

Check out a few photos of one toxic site in Newark

New Jersey’s reputation for environmental problems is not news to most folks. It’s been fodder for comics who turn ournickname, the Garden State, into the not so tongue-in-cheek Garbage State. And the more sinister appellation Cancer Alley is commonly associated with various parts of the state. However, the Jersey Devil is in the details.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK: WHICH WAY IS UP?

We dug the simple surrealism of this photo, "Wet Reflections," taken by Pat Marella.

To be featured as Photo of the Week, tag your Flickr photos with CityBelt -- or you can just e-mail them to us.

On the Web:
Pat Marella's Flickr page
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POEM: EIGHTH AVENUE BROOKLYN

The brick fronts and
                     jagged roofs
cut creases in the
clear blue sky.
America, end of the century,
new millennium,
calendar pages turned to
something new or --

THE AGENDA: EXECUTIVE ORDER

For full calendar listings, check The Agenda. To have your event listed, please e-mail the editors.

FRIDAY | 12.1.06

Arts. It's once again time for JC Fridays, the day-long arts happening in downtown Jersey City. You can check their site for a complete set of listings, but we'll briefly touch on a few highlights. All day long at Janam Tea, there will be a "50 Under $50" sale, featuring small works for sale from local artists. Sounds like holiday shopping time? As they say on the TeeVee, "the price is nice." If you're down in Newport, Kim's is screening short films by James Broughton, the Californian avant-garde filmmaker from 1-10 pm. From 6-8 pm, Mana Fine Arts has an exhibit of black and white images that explore "themes of internal and external politics" -- and there will be live jazz from Bassoon in the Wild. All day long at the Brunswick Window, cut paper works from indie icon Jad Fair (ex-Half Japanese) will be on display. While you're up on that end of town, head over to Another Man's Treasure, where there's a 1960's Swinging London Cocktail Party with live music by the Black Hollies from 8-11 pm. A few doors down at the Residue Gallery, they're hosting their first-ever silent auction from 8-midnight. Down Columbus at the Lex Leonard Gallery, there's an opening party for "eLEmental, my dear, ELeMENtal,” by Karina from 7:30-8:30, followed by a spoken word performance featuring Dujuana Sharese,  Rico Steal, Beth Bentley and Mike Brown from 8:30 -11 pm. For late night options, check out the party at Rock Soup Studios, the Waterbug Hotel's Basement Soul party, or check out our next listing.