Bullied Bikes

While spending some weeks in Paris two summers ago, I had the thrill of my life jetting through traffic on a petit Velib bike amidst imposing architecture, crepe stands and marble sculptures. Today, the New York Times contained an article about the battered bikes which are facing a wave of vandalism and theft:

Many of the custom-made bikes, which cost $3,500 each, are showing up on black markets in eastern Europe and northern Africa. Many others are being spirited away for urban joy rides, then ditched by roadsides, their wheels bent and tires stripped.
With 80 percent of the initial 20,600 bicycles stolen or damaged, the program’s organizers have had to hire several hundred people just to fix them.

...

“We miscalculated the damage and the theft,” said Albert Asséraf, director of strategy, research and marketing at JCDecaux, the outdoor-advertising company that is a major funder and organizer of the project. “But we had no reference point in the world for this kind of initiative.”
At least 8,000 bikes have been stolen and 8,000 damaged so badly that they had to be replaced — nearly 80 percent of the initial stock, Mr. Asséraf said.
JCDecaux must repair some 1,500 bicycles a day, which absorbs the efforts of 400 fulltime staff members. The company maintains 10 repair shops and a workshop on a boat that moves up and down the Seine.

...

It is commonplace now to see the bikes at docking stations in Paris with flat tires, punctured wheels, or missing baskets. Some Velib’s have been found hanging from lamp posts, dumped in the Seine, hidden in basements, on the streets of Bucharest or in shipping containers in Marseille on their way to North Africa. Some are simply appropriated and repainted.

...

Still, with more than 63 million rentals since the program was launched in the summer of 2007, the Vélib’ has established itself as part of Parisian life, and has been extended to provide 4,000 Velib’s in 29 smaller towns on the city’s edges.
So, despite the increasing costs, the city and JCDecaux are pressing on. The company invested about $140 million to set up the Vélib’ system and provides a yearly fee of about $5.5 million to Paris, which also receives rental fees for the bikes. In return, its 10-year contract allows it to put up 1,628 billboards that it can rent.

...

JCDecaux will not discuss money figures, but the expected date for profitability has been set back. But the City of Paris has agreed to pay JCDecaux about $600 for each stolen or irreparably damaged bike if the number exceeds 4 percent of the fleet, which it clearly does.
In an unsuccessful effort to stop vandalism, Paris launched an ad campaign this summer. Posters showed a cartoon Vélib’ being roughed up by a thug. The caption read: “It’s easy to beat up a Vélib’, it can’t defend itself. Vélib’ belongs to you, protect it!”


Joe Dassin - Les Champs-Elysees

Mixing it up at the MoMA

Ann Temkin, Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, NYC

In a recent NY Times article about the MoMA's newest Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture, Ann Temkin, I was happy to read the following from a woman perhaps more knowledgeable than anyone else regarding modern and contemporary art:

In the year and two months since she succeeded John Elderfield in the job, Ms. Temkin, 49, has been working to break with the past herself — most surprisingly, perhaps, in her approach to the so-called permanent collection. Ranging from van Gogh’s “Starry Night” (1889) and Matisse’s “Dance (I)” (1909) to de Kooning’s frenzied “Woman, I” (1950-52) and Andy Warhol’s “Gold Marilyn Monroe” (1962), this collection — or rather a selection from it that has been on view for decades — has done more than any other to define modern art and shape the public’s understanding of its history. The 26 rooms of the Alfred H. Barr Jr. Painting and Sculpture Galleries, which have housed these highlights of the collection on the fourth and fifth floors of the Modern’s “new” building since it opened in 2004, might reasonably be regarded as sacrosanct: the heart of the museum and of modern art generally.

But under Ms. Temkin, the permanent collection display is quickly becoming less permanent. Galleries that once changed only when works were loaned out are now subject to frequent renewal. For the first time, media other than painting and sculpture appear frequently throughout the Barr galleries. Artists who never quite made it into official “schools” are getting more play, and schools that the museum once passed up are getting pride of place.

Louise Bourgeois’s sculpture “Quarantania I” (1947-53)

Even small changes, like swapping out a single well-known artist for another, can make for major shifts in the museum’s familiar and stately narrative of modernism’s progress. The fourth floor, covering the early 1940s to the early 1970s, used to begin with Jackson Pollock’s “Stenographic Figure” (1942). Now Louise Bourgeois’s sculpture “Quarantania I” (1947-53) sets the tone for the entire era.

Ms. Temkin emphasized that she was not pushing for wholesale change. “I want the visitors who come back again and again to encounter new work, but some of their favorites will be there. We want them to eat their cake and have it, too.”

But her larger point, she said, is an art historical one about how a familiar parade of greatest hits is misleading to viewers. “I want to be true to the collection and what really goes on in art — that there’s more than you can possibly know, rather than the falsely reassuring view that you can get your head around it all,” she said.

...

Despite the shifts, Ms. Temkin knows that some greatest hits, and some famous chapters of art history, are not optional.

Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” isn’t going anywhere. Room 2 on Floor 5, with Cubist works by Picasso and Braque, won’t be morphing radically. “This is pretty tightly choreographed,” she said. “We’re the one place in the world where you can see the development of Cubism all together. It would be perverse not to do that.”

But she is committed to a more experimental approach. “Some things may not work out,” she said, but “fear of failure” should not be an obstacle to undertakings like her unframing of the abstract works.

Watch

COMBO a collaborative animation by Blu and David Ellis (2 times loop) from blu on Vimeo.

An amazing video of graffiti creeping across walls

Lightening McQueen?

Erwin Wurm "Fat Car" (2005)

Just discovered this sculptor today and I love the stuff I can find on google - really playing with form, texture and absurd ideas. That said, I couldn't help but think of Pixar's film Cars after seeing this piece...

Chop Sue

This morning I read an interesting article about the history of Chinese food in America. Atop the text sat this painting by Edward Hopper:

Edward Hopper (born Nyack, NY, 1882-1967), Chop Suey, 1929.

The painting brought me back to an American Art course I took a few years ago. In it, the Professor highlighted an odd fascination of early American artists (working before Ab-Ex in the years of 1900-1950) with the Chinese Restauarant. Most of these artists were working in New York, where, according to the article above, the first whiteys took a stab at eating the exotic cuisine. Here are some of the other works that revolved around the developing love for Chinese chow:

Max Weber (born Byalistok Poland, 1881-1961), Chinese Restaurant, 1915

John Sloan (born 1871, Lock Haven, PA -1951), Chinese Restaurant, 1909

Justice John Paul Stevens - ain't he cute?

This octogenarian with a bow-tie and some original, now-hipster frames (see below) is one bad-ass mother. As leader of the Supreme Court's liberal wing, Stevens has forged delicate majorities in areas of the law such as the rights of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, allowing them to get hearings before federal judges. Stevens has had a knack for working with centrist conservatives such as former justice Sandra Day O'Connor and Justice Anthony Kennedy, often the swing vote on cases.

The self-effacing man who is rarely recognized beyond the court's marble walls is a powerhouse behind the scenes — and this might finally be his last term. Stevens' retirement would leave a major gap among liberals and shake up a court already in transition with a new justice this term. Stevens has not hired his usual set of law clerks for the session beginning next October. He says he is surprised by media attention to a signal he might retire soon.

"That can't be news," he says, declining to reveal his plans. "I'm not exactly a kid."

"We're getting to a point that our cases are revisiting issues that I wrote on 10, 20, 30 years ago," he says. "I really have felt pretty good about re-reading the opinions I wrote many years ago. I have to confess that."

Harvard University law professor Richard Fallon says Stevens' retirement would leave a significant void, especially given the role he took on after liberals William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall retired in the 1990s.

"Justice Stevens became the strongest, most articulate voice on the court defending the rights of criminal defendants and racial, religious, and other minorities," Fallon says. He describes Stevens as "a wily practitioner of coalition politics, who has cobbled together liberal majorities for a number of important decisions in a generally conservative era."
Yet Stevens has one of the lowest profiles.

Unlike Justice Antonin Scalia on the right or Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the left, Stevens avoids the speaking circuit. A recent C-SPAN survey found Stevens and Justices Kennedy and Stephen Breyer tied in last place for public recognition among the justices. Only 1% of those polled in a June survey could name them.

The Chicago native who sported one of his signature bow ties in the interview — red plaid — complimented his colleagues even as he acknowledged disagreements. "Sometimes I'm disappointed in the decisions they reach," he says, "but I respect every one of them."

Gimme That!

Diana Schimmel strings fabric circles on clear wire to produce her whimsical line of jewelry.

Schimmel, Dos Riberas' founder, belongs to a French family and was born in Montevideo, Uruguay. She graduated as an architect in Buenos Aires, exerting her profession both in Argentina and Uruguay and also teaching at Buenos Aires Architecture and City Planning School. In 2001, she got involved in art related objects, her second passion. Her first developments were inspired in her motto "from art to the object", bringing together art and artisan-like mass production.

Who is this Nora Roberts woman?

Nora Roberts, a romance novelist who also writes futuristic police procedurals under the name J.D. Robb, is certainly prodigious. She has published a hundred and eighty-two novels. In a typical year, she publishes five “new Noras”: two installments of a paperback original trilogy; two J.D. Robb books; and each summer, the “big Nora”—a hardcover standalone romance novel. Twenty-seven Nora Roberts books are sold every minute. Roberts grosses sixty million dollars a year, Forbes estimated in 2004, more than John Grisham or Stephen King.

“You know, writing’s creative and all this, certainly, but you don’t just wander around dreaming,” Roberts says. “That’s not what you’re getting paid for.” Describes Roberts interacting with readers at a bookstore signing. Roberts is not a hugger or a crier. She has a dirty mouth, a smoker’s voice, and a closet full of Armani. Shopping is her main form of self-indulgence. Listening to the give-and-take between Roberts and her fans is like eavesdropping on the collective unconscious of American women. A self-taught writer, and an irreverent one, Roberts was not, at first, an easy sell. Nancy Jackson, the editor of Roberts’s first novel, notes that Roberts “didn’t follow the formula as strictly as others.” Roberts is as uninterested in the literary establishment as she is unloved by it.

Roberts was born in Silver Spring, Maryland, in 1950. She married Ronald Aufdem-Brinke upon graduating from high school and settled in Keedysville. She had two children. She began to write in1979 while housebound during a snowstorm. In 1980, Silhouette accepted her novel “Irish Thoroughbred.” In her choice of milieu, if nothing else, Roberts is the Raymond Carver of romance. Her characters thirst for cold beers on the porch, not Daquiris by the pool. The engine of the romance genre, according to Roberts, is not escapism, but identification. “Character is plot. Make them accessible to the reader.”

“Sex is important in the books because, without it, it would be like eating a rice cake instead of a cupcake,” Roberts says.

Healthy Hedgehogs

Recently, I’ve been trying to learn more about the American Health Care System - it’s general workings, it’s history, it’s problems, etc... Today I listened to a great episode of "This American Life" on NPR. It described how insurance companies in the US evolved - starting in Baylor, Texas as a way to get people into hospitals during the depression ($1 a day was much more affordable than the cost of one trip to the hospital) and expanding during WWII when there weren’t enough workers to go around and companies needed to find ways to lure people to work for their business without offering pay raises (all salaries were frozen nation-wide as part of the war effort).
Beyond chronicling the history of how American ended up with an absurd system in which employers pick health care for people, the show also discussed pet health insurance plans as a model for humans. Apparently these plans are less profit-driven and more of a win-win-win (pet’s family pays less, doctors get more, insurance makes a profit) than the human system. Who would’a thunk it? In charting the success of pet health care, they followed the story of Harriet the Hedgehog from Wisconsin who had to take anti-psychotic medicine (it worked!). Harriet made me ponder something entirely unrelated to health care - namely, where the hell did Sonic the Hedgehog’s looks come from?

Stop the music!

Musicians Protest Tunes Used in Interrogations
By Bernie Becker
This time at least, musicians Tom Morello and Trent Reznor want the music turned down.
Mr. Morello, formerly of Rage Against the Machine, and Mr. Reznor, of Nine Inch Nails, are among a group of musicians who have joined the National Campaign to Close Guantánamo and are supporting the group’s efforts to declassify records dealing with the use of music in detainee interrogations.
Previously declassified records and other reports have already documented some of the uses of loud music, including the playing of recordings by Nine Inch Nails and Rage Against the Machine. With the help of the National Security Archive, this group hopes to learn more about the use of music as an interrogation technique by filing Freedom of Information Act requests on Thursday with a host of government agencies — including the Defense Department, C.I.A. and F.B.I.
Mr. Morello, R.E.M. and The Roots said in statements that they were outraged that music had been used in interrogations and called for the closure of the detention center at Guantanamo. Other musicians backing the effort include Pearl Jam, Jackson Browne and Rosanne Cash.
“We have spent the past 30 years supporting causes related to peace and justice – to now learn that some of our friends’ music may have been used as part of the torture tactics without their consent or knowledge, is horrific,” R.E.M. said in a statement. “It’s anti-American, period.”
A White House spokesman indicated that loud music was one of the techniques tossed away during a policy shift on interrogations announced shortly after the president’s inauguration. And according to The Associated Press, a C.I.A. spokesman said, when the music was used, it was not employed “for punitive purposes — and at levels far below a live rock band.”
Aaron Harison of Keep America Safe — the recently formed group that accuses President Obama’s administration of “turning away from the policies that have kept us safe” — said the group would not comment on the new move.
Jayne Huckerby of the International Human Rights Clinic at the New York University School of Law, which represents two former detainees who faced music as an interrogation technique, said the Thursday filings could increase the understanding of the “psychological impact this had on the individuals that were subjected to it.”
“We’re far away from understanding” the extent music was used in interrogations, added Ms. Huckerby, who also pointed to a United Nations finding that the “sounding of loud music for prolonged periods” violated its Convention Against Torture.
According to Ms. Huckerby, Mohamed Bashmilah, one of the detainees represented by her group, has indicated that both “excruciatingly loud western rap and Arabic music” and “deafening music” were used while he was detained. Recordings by Metallica, Britney Spears and even from Sesame Street have also been employed as interrogation techniques, according to previous reports.

Kate Doyle, senior analyst for the National Security Archive, said that previous filings had not concentrated specifically on the use of music in interrogations.
“We expect to obtain documents that name bands and songs that were used in detainee interrogations,” she said. “The very small handful that we’ve already seen came up accidentally during requests that we’re not targeting music.”
Still, it’s hard to say how long it will take before Thursday’s filing produces any documents. Some of the petitioned agencies, Ms. Doyle said, have a history of being more responsive than others to information requests.
The filing comes two days after a group, the National Campaign to Close Guantanamo, released its first advertisement, which criticized Congress for standing in the way of efforts to close the detention center.

The list of songs:
1. Fuck Your God – Deicide

2. Die MF Die – Dope

3. Take Your Best Shot – Dope

4. White America – Eminem

5. Kim – Eminem

6. “I Love You” – Barney The Dinosaur

7. Bodies – Drowning Pool

8. “Enter Sandman” – Metallica

9. Meow Mix TV commercial

10. “Sesame Street” Theme

11. “Babylon”– David Gray

12. Born In The USA – Bruce Springsteen

13. Shoot To Thrill – ACDC

14. Stayin’ Alive – Bee Gees

15. All Eyes On Me – Tupac

16. Dirrty – Christina Aguilera

17. America – Neil Diamond

18. Bulls On Parade – Rage Against The Machine

19. American Pie – Don McLean

20. Click Click Boom – Saliva

21. Cold – Matchbox 20

22. Swan Dive – Hed P.E.

23. Raspberry Beret – Prince

24. “Dirrty,” Christina Aguilera

25. “Shoot to Thrill,” AC/DC

26. “We are The Champions,” Queen

27. Britney Spears “…Baby One More Time”

28. Barry Manilow “Mandy”

29. Captain & Tennille “Muskrat Love”

30. Twisted Sister “We’re Not Gonna Take It”

31. Neil Diamond“America”

32. Meat Loaf “Paradise by the Dashboard Light”

Ode to Odwalla

Last night, I heard Greg Steltenpohl, founder of Odwalla and co-founder and CEO of Adina, speak on the topic of entrepreneurship. He emphasized the importance of Angel Investors instead of Venture Capitalists (who often only want to sell a company, not create one with hopes of longevity) and highlighted that businesses will often has chasms in their growth cycle (see Odwalla’s e. coli fiasco). But, while all investors rationally accept that their will be bumps in a company’s development, they prefer to see unrealistic business plans overripe with pure growth projections. People looking to invest their money, Steltenpohl noted, are ultimately looking for something to place hope in, not a levelheaded, dry projection of the future.

Beyond all this business advice, we also gleaned trinkets of background info on Odwalla, the company Steltenpohl founded in the 1980s in a brushy shack in Santa Cruz. Steltenpohl started the company because he hated his job and didn’t have any money – pretty simple, eh?

Steltenpohl’s girlfriend at the time was a waitress. She often complained about having to hand squeeze the “freshly squeezed orange juice” they advertised on their menu. No one in the restaurants liked making the juice themselves, but it had the larges profit margin of any item on the menu and the owners wanted to keep the fresh-squeezed stuff around.

Armed with the awareness of this “problem that no one yet recognized as a problem,” Steltenpohl borrowed $200 from his girlfriend and bought a juicer. From the day the company started all through the following year, he woke up at 3:00 a.m. to juice oranges. He’d then take his freshly squeezed orange juice to the back doors of local restaurants where he’d sell it in bulk. Every week for the first year, his business doubled. Eventually it grew to where it is today, complete with many different flavors in juice (including a green drink no one but Steltenpohl believed would sell, and now is the company’s biggest seller) and even energy bars.

Eventually, the company went public and was sold to Coca-Cola (Steltenpohl left before Coke took over. He told us “he didn’t start the company to become that [a division of the Coke empire]”). Steletenpohl has since started Adina drinks. He cites a young Senegalese woman as his inspiration. Coke and Pepsi, this woman once explained to him, only moved into Senegal in the last 10 years but have already usurped the market that traditional, healthful drinks such as Hibiscus and Ginger juice occupied for centuries. Steletenpohl hopes that Adina will eventually reintroduce the native flavors that were taken from such African countries.

And, as a final note on the night, I learned what "odwalla" means (it's actually pronounced "ODE-wayla," not "ODD-walla"): apparently it is from a song by Roscoe Mitchell called "Illistrum," that Steltenpohl and his friends loved. I guess I need to start listening to mythical lyrics more closely!

Thank you, the National

interesting note: the dude on the far left looks just like Mr. Collins from the recent Pride & Prejudice movie

The National lyricist and lead singer Matt Beringer writes prose to music. The imagery is so rich, thick. Here are some of my favorites from their songs:

"Fake Empire"
Tip-toe through our shiny city
with our diamond slippers on.
Do our gay ballet on ice,
blue birds on our shoulders.
We’re half awake
in a fake empire.

"All the Wine"
I'm put together beautifully
Big wet bottle in my fist, big wet rose in my teeth
I'm perfect piece of ass
Like every Californian
So tall I take over the street, with highbeams shining on my back
A wingspan unbelievable
I'm a festival, I'm a parade

And all the wine is all for me
And all the wine is all for me
And all the wine is all for me

"Slow Show"
Standing at the punch table swallowing punch
can’t pay attention to the sound of anyone
a little more stupid, a little more scared
every minute more unprepared
I made a mistake in my life today
everything I love gets lost in drawers
I want to start over, I want to be winning
way out of sync from the beginning

I wanna hurry home to you
put on a slow, dumb show for you
and crack you up
so you can put a blue ribbon on my brain
god I’m very, very frightening
I’ll overdo it

Cynically Delish

Moustache Cake (SO in right now)

Cupcakes + Art + Puns = San Francisco-based bakery Cynically Delicious. At only $2 a pop, even I can afford one!

Titty Cake

Mike Cake (Monster's Inc)

Cupcake for Change

Poop Cake


Car Cake

Gimme that!

Dyson has d0ne it again! After developing a filter-less vacuum and a towel-less hand drier the company recently introduced a blade-less fan. The result is an "air multiplier" that emits smooth air-flow without the choppy qualities of a regular fan (I never noticed that the air was choppy but I'll be on the look out from now on). Also, it doesn't make any of those buzzing, ratcheting noises AND it's easy to clean. I'm sold. Anyone got $300?

Bentover backwards

HOLY SNAP! Pardon me for two WTWTA posts in such a short time period, but I couldn't help myself. Want to see more bento art? Click here

Give the bear a home

Designed by Teerachai Jai Suppameteekulwat (woah!) - A tiny bear surveys the landscape atop a silicone tray of arctic ice chunks. Fill every hole with water or juice and place the tray into the freezer to make a home for the polar bear. Makes 15 cubes, costs 18 bucks.

Contemporary Jewish Museum: Where the Wild Things Are

The CJM in San Francisco just opened an exhibition about Maurice Sendak, the author and illustrator of the childrens book (that upon reflection may be more for adults) Where the Wild Things Are. Interesting choice for the Contemporary Jewish Museum considering Sendak is excorciatingly anti-religion and a gay man. I'm impressed with their openness! I hope to get to see the exhibition. Here is a brief description from the CJM website:

Sendak was born in Brooklyn in 1928, the youngest of three children. His parents, poor Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, suffered greatly from the loss of many family members in Poland during the Holocaust. The sadness and complexities of the Holocaust, the rich memories of his parent's lives in Europe, and his own childhood experiences with his Jewish relatives, are currents that run through all of Sendak's work. The exhibition explores a number of different aspects of Sendak's books including his child characters, monsters, literary and artistic influences, and the settings of his stories. Visitors will delve into the hidden nuances and personal secrets within Sendak's work through exclusive interviews with the artist on digital touch screens throughout the exhibition. As Sendak himself said in one such interview, "When you hide another story in a story, that's the story I am telling the children." These hidden stories within Sendak's work form the core experience of There's a Mystery There.

And, because I love Dave Eggers (the writer) and Arcade Fire, here is the trailer for the upcoming film:

Horchata & Orxata

The drink, and subject of a new Vampire Weekend song (see below), refers to several kinds of traditional beverages made of ground almonds, sesame seeds, rice, barley or tigernuts (chufas). In Spain, it usually refers to orxata de xufes (horchata de chufas), made from tigernuts, water and sugar.

Originally from Valencia, the idea of making horchata from tigernuts comes from the period of Muslim presence in Valencia (from the 8th to 13th century). It has a regulating council to ensure the quality of the product and the villages where it can come from, with the Denomination of Origin. The village of Alboraia is well known for the quality of their horchata. 

It is served ice cold as a natural refreshment in the summer. Tigernut horchata is also used in place of milk by the lactose intolerant.In the US, rice-based or morro horchata is served in many Mexican restaurants, and the horchata de chufas (tigernut) is virtually unknown. Rice-based horchata is also sometimes available in US grocery and convenience stores, especially in Hispanic neighborhoods.

Vampire Weekend - Horchata

Hot Dog Backpack

Rogacki

I want to go to Berlin and surround myself with bunches of bratwurst, schools of sausage, craploads of meat cylinders. What could be finer? To surfeit my appetite, I would nab a propane-strapped Grillwalker whilst out for a stroll. Then off to Rogacki, a restaurant housed in a former stable, with a staff of 125, and separate counters for each food group: 150 kinds of cheese, over 200 varieties of cured and fresh meats, bread, poultry, sausage, beer and wine, cured and smoked fish, and dips and salads.

Someday, someday...I'll eat sausages in Berlin.

A Grillwalker, with a canister of flammable propane strapped to his back, sold bratwurst for $1.75 at the Berlin Alexanderplatz. Photo is courtesy of the NY Times, check out their great article about these chaps here.

YouTube's 100 greatest hits in 4 mins

Just in case you missed anything:

Lit on NYC Subways

Frank Kafka

Kafka on the Train

Passengers on the New York City subway may be startled to behold, at 9 A.M., the following announcement:

AS GREGOR SAMSA AWOKE ONE MORNING FROM UNEASY DREAMS HE FOUND HIMSELF TRANSFORMED IN HIS BED INTO A GIANT INSECT.

This message, part of the M.T.A.’s Train of Thought series, cannot be faulted for conventionality—not in a city concerned about train-jumpers and anguished over bedbugs. Stark and chilling, it abstains from the strategies that traditionally anchor the didactic poster. Is it possible that the subway wizards are getting too clever, that in their self-described efforts to “enlighten millions of New York commuters” they are ditching “inspirational” and reaching for “inspired”?

According to Alicia Martinez, the M.T.A.’s marketing director, the process for selecting quotes for Train of Thought is “elaborate.” Until recently, the M.T.A. outsourced its quote search to a committee of Columbia professors led by Henry Pinkham, the dean of the graduate school. Pinkham says that his committee split with the M.T.A. earlier this year, though, in part because the professors pushed for material the M.T.A. deemed too sensitive. He specifically remembers a famous line from Shakespeare being shot down because it contained the word “flood,” which sets off alarm bells in the subway world. (Martinez denies worrying about “flood,” suggesting that a word like “fire” would be far more likely to raise hackles.) Although the Kafka quote was selected after Columbia’s schism with the M.T.A., Pinkham said his committee “would have been happy to recommend it.”

Now the M.T.A. relies on quote-sleuths drawn from the staff of the New York Public Library and the faculty of N.Y.U. Jane Tylus, a professor of Italian who coördinates N.Y.U.’s quote-gathering, says she was instructed to find quotes that are “compelling” and “usable,” a mandate that has, on occasion, kept her up till 2 A.M. thumbing through old copies of Herodotus and Thucydides. She says she has received some “wacky stuff” from colleagues, including one professor who submitted his twelve-year-old daughter’s thoughts on the meaning of life. But Tylus says the Kafka selection came in before N.Y.U. got involved. Still, she approves of it, saying when she first saw it she had “a wonderful moment” of being “transported back to junior year in high school.”

So who is the progenitor of our gloom? The Book Bench has discovered that the Kafka quote slipped in during the brief interregnum between Columbia and N.Y.U. Which is to say, it’s an M.T.A. original. “I’ll have to take responsibility for that one,” Martinez admitted. Her rationale: “If there ever was a line in the history of literature that would make people want to read on, this is it.”

Communism in China turns 60!

Today, China’s leaders marked their nation’s 60th anniversary with a precision display of military bravado, a fleet of floats representing everything from a giant fish to Mount Everest and, improbably, a female militia unit toting submachine guns and attired in red miniskirts and white jackboots. How bizarre!

Celebrate Banned Books, if you dare

Apparently September 26th - October 3rd is national Banned Books week. In honor of the naughty novels, here is a list of censored texts:

His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman are young adult novesl with "subversive political and religious viewpoint and violence." There's even an anti Philip Pullman website and here are some favorite quotes:

The idea hovered and shimmered delicately, like a soap bubble, and she dared not even look at it directly in case it burst. But she was familiar with the way of ideas, and she let it shimmer, looking away, thinking about something else.

and how about this one...

The Christian religion s a very powerful and convincing mistake, that's all.

Gutsy!

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll was banned in the province of Hunan, China (1931) for the portrayal of anthropomorphized animals acting on the same level as humans.

The Diary of Anne Frank was banned in Lebanon for "portray[ing] Jews, Israel or Zionism favorably." Yikes.



James Joyce's novel was challenged and temporarily banned in the US for its sexual content. The ban was overturned in United States v. One Book Called Ulysses. In 1999, the Modern Library ranked Ulysses first on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.

And now the grand finale:



Yes, it's true. The Gossip Girl series topped the list of the most banned books in 2006. Why? Well it depends on the year:

2007

Banned for homosexuality, sexual content, drugs, being unsuited to age group and offensive language. ---- EGAD!

2009

Banned or challenged for being sexually explicit, being unsuited to age group, and offensive language. ---- All true, but damn it's good. I mean check this quote out:

Gossip Girl: "Here's an inside tip, Little J. The faster you rise, the harder you fall. Hope that Hello Kitty sleeping bag doubles as a parachute."