Thursday, August 28, 2008
governor David Paterson’s budget cuts impact Midtowners
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
David Paterson the accidental Governor, Eliot Spider’s running mate, chosen for “balance of power,” has turned into a major problem solver for the ailing New York State. With a recession and an energy crisis on hand, he called a special session of the NYS legislature on August 19, to make a $600 million spending cut in the current budget,.
The problems date back to the Pataki years, when his reductions of income tax, caused several surges in the below-radar property and school tax rates... NYS homeowners have been suffering ever since, with some current attempts to reduce the rate, nagging from 4 to 6% and with recommended reforms to provide special relief for those New Yorkers whose property tax exceeds 25% of income. This points up the fact that the former Empire State, gateway to the West, rich in railroads, steel and manufacturing, has been steadily going downhill. This is not evident to us cityites, citizens of the financial capital of the world, seemingly impervious to the woes of our agricultural regions of our state, but the upstate population is getting older and poorer. Buffalo and other cities are shrinking and decaying, and the young are leaving for better futures out west and south, leaving behind the aging and disabled parents and the poor, who survive because they own their inherited homes. The upstaters are used to living poor, and growing poorer is not that much harder, as I was told by a sarcastic rural client of an upstate .Wendy’s, popular with chubby clients and their children having French fries and cokes, the menu of the food-stamp people. It is painful to see.
Paterson has unilaterally cut state agency budgets by $630M, looking for a 6% reduction in costs across the board. His strategy is reminiscent of the days whim Bill Clinton was accused of hijacking the GOP program by installing welfare cuts. The Governor partly succeeded in the Legislature: the two houses approved a $427M current cut, with an objective of a total $1,7B in the current two years, and $2.35B in 2010/11, affecting the $122B overall budget, which is facing a $20B projected deficit over four years, due to the recession. The 20% of state revenue from Wall Street is expected to drop severely.
The NYS Republicans support the program, whose major opponents are the state trade unions, teachers, municipal workers and social service workers, attacking Paterson’s strategy of depending solely on service and program cutting, leaving revenue-raising options off the table. The cuts will be in Medicaid (biggest, $127M plus matching Fed monies), child care, food programs, HIV/AIDS and mental health services, support for the disabled and legal assistance for the poor, as identified by the analysts of the Empire Justice Center, who propose that a small increase in the taxes of the top earners, people with annual incomes of half a million dollars plus, the top 1% of the population, be implemented as a cure, rather than left as a last resort. The Center people say that, according to data from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, thus 1% of population earns more than twice the income of the bottom 50%... It was such a modest temporary increase in taxation of the millionaires that helped the state in getting out of the fiscal doldrums in 2003, during the tax-cutter Pataki’s reign, and it did not cause an exodus of the rich from the state...
This Millionaires’ Tax proposal has been passed by the Assembly, but continues to be opposed by the Senate and the Governor, To the latter point, it is rumored that Paterson, who as Minority Leader of the Senate was a constant thorn in Joe Bruno’s side, had formed an understanding with the former Majority Leader and his successor, Dean Skelos. It is said that Malcolm Smith, Paterson’s successor in the Senate and now potentially one of the three state powerful men, should Democrats win the Senate, is not to the Governor’s liking, and may be a possible competitor in the 2010 Gubernatorial race. Some offers to Democratic state senators to join the Governor’s administration might be construed to have the intent of keeping the Senate leadership in GOP hands, per Alan Chartock, the political observer who also heads the WAMC Northeast Public Radio network.
As for the latter race, there is also Tom Golisano, three-time candidate of the Independence Party, who now is contributing to the DNCC and to campaigns of tax reform candidates for the Legislature, building a basis for his own run. The main opponent for Paterson in 2010 will be Michael Bloomberg, a fiscal Conservative. If Paterson proves himself to be of a like bent, he may attract enough upstate Republican votes to win the governorship on his own. We Midtown Manhattanites, solidly entrenched in the Democratic Party, sometimes forget how firmly some of the poorer counties of upstate remain in the Republican column. As noted in a mid-year Siena survey, Paterson would lose heavily if Bloomberg were to run.
David Paterson the accidental Governor, Eliot Spider’s running mate, chosen for “balance of power,” has turned into a major problem solver for the ailing New York State. With a recession and an energy crisis on hand, he called a special session of the NYS legislature on August 19, to make a $600 million spending cut in the current budget,.
The problems date back to the Pataki years, when his reductions of income tax, caused several surges in the below-radar property and school tax rates... NYS homeowners have been suffering ever since, with some current attempts to reduce the rate, nagging from 4 to 6% and with recommended reforms to provide special relief for those New Yorkers whose property tax exceeds 25% of income. This points up the fact that the former Empire State, gateway to the West, rich in railroads, steel and manufacturing, has been steadily going downhill. This is not evident to us cityites, citizens of the financial capital of the world, seemingly impervious to the woes of our agricultural regions of our state, but the upstate population is getting older and poorer. Buffalo and other cities are shrinking and decaying, and the young are leaving for better futures out west and south, leaving behind the aging and disabled parents and the poor, who survive because they own their inherited homes. The upstaters are used to living poor, and growing poorer is not that much harder, as I was told by a sarcastic rural client of an upstate .Wendy’s, popular with chubby clients and their children having French fries and cokes, the menu of the food-stamp people. It is painful to see.
Paterson has unilaterally cut state agency budgets by $630M, looking for a 6% reduction in costs across the board. His strategy is reminiscent of the days whim Bill Clinton was accused of hijacking the GOP program by installing welfare cuts. The Governor partly succeeded in the Legislature: the two houses approved a $427M current cut, with an objective of a total $1,7B in the current two years, and $2.35B in 2010/11, affecting the $122B overall budget, which is facing a $20B projected deficit over four years, due to the recession. The 20% of state revenue from Wall Street is expected to drop severely.
The NYS Republicans support the program, whose major opponents are the state trade unions, teachers, municipal workers and social service workers, attacking Paterson’s strategy of depending solely on service and program cutting, leaving revenue-raising options off the table. The cuts will be in Medicaid (biggest, $127M plus matching Fed monies), child care, food programs, HIV/AIDS and mental health services, support for the disabled and legal assistance for the poor, as identified by the analysts of the Empire Justice Center, who propose that a small increase in the taxes of the top earners, people with annual incomes of half a million dollars plus, the top 1% of the population, be implemented as a cure, rather than left as a last resort. The Center people say that, according to data from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, thus 1% of population earns more than twice the income of the bottom 50%... It was such a modest temporary increase in taxation of the millionaires that helped the state in getting out of the fiscal doldrums in 2003, during the tax-cutter Pataki’s reign, and it did not cause an exodus of the rich from the state...
This Millionaires’ Tax proposal has been passed by the Assembly, but continues to be opposed by the Senate and the Governor, To the latter point, it is rumored that Paterson, who as Minority Leader of the Senate was a constant thorn in Joe Bruno’s side, had formed an understanding with the former Majority Leader and his successor, Dean Skelos. It is said that Malcolm Smith, Paterson’s successor in the Senate and now potentially one of the three state powerful men, should Democrats win the Senate, is not to the Governor’s liking, and may be a possible competitor in the 2010 Gubernatorial race. Some offers to Democratic state senators to join the Governor’s administration might be construed to have the intent of keeping the Senate leadership in GOP hands, per Alan Chartock, the political observer who also heads the WAMC Northeast Public Radio network.
As for the latter race, there is also Tom Golisano, three-time candidate of the Independence Party, who now is contributing to the DNCC and to campaigns of tax reform candidates for the Legislature, building a basis for his own run. The main opponent for Paterson in 2010 will be Michael Bloomberg, a fiscal Conservative. If Paterson proves himself to be of a like bent, he may attract enough upstate Republican votes to win the governorship on his own. We Midtown Manhattanites, solidly entrenched in the Democratic Party, sometimes forget how firmly some of the poorer counties of upstate remain in the Republican column. As noted in a mid-year Siena survey, Paterson would lose heavily if Bloomberg were to run.
Governor David Paterson’s budget cuts impact Midtowners
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
David Paterson the accidental Governor, Eliot Spider’s running mate, chosen for “balance of power,” has turned into a major problem solver for the ailing New York State. With a recession and an energy crisis on hand, he called a special session of the NYS legislature on August 19, to make a $600 million spending cut in the current budget,.
The problems date back to the Pataki years, when his reductions of income tax, caused several surges in the below-radar property and school tax rates... NYS homeowners have been suffering ever since, with some current attempts to reduce the rate, nagging from 4 to 6% and with recommended reforms to provide special relief for those New Yorkers whose property tax exceeds 25% of income. This points up the fact that the former Empire State, gateway to the West, rich in railroads, steel and manufacturing, has been steadily going downhill. This is not evident to us cityites, citizens of the financial capital of the world, seemingly impervious to the woes of our agricultural regions of our state, but the upstate population is getting older and poorer. Buffalo and other cities are shrinking and decaying, and the young are leaving for better futures out west and south, leaving behind the aging and disabled parents and the poor, who survive because they own their inherited homes. The upstaters are used to living poor, and growing poorer is not that much harder, as I was told by a sarcastic rural client of an upstate .Wendy’s, popular with chubby clients and their children having French fries and cokes, the menu of the food-stamp people. It is painful to see.
Paterson has unilaterally cut state agency budgets by $630M, looking for a 6% reduction in costs across the board. His strategy is reminiscent of the days whim Bill Clinton was accused of hijacking the GOP program by installing welfare cuts. The Governor partly succeeded in the Legislature: the two houses approved a $427M current cut, with an objective of a total $1,7B in the current two years, and $2.35B in 2010/11, affecting the $122B overall budget, which is facing a $20B projected deficit over four years, due to the recession. The 20% of state revenue from Wall Street is expected to drop severely.
The NYS Republicans support the program, whose major opponents are the state trade unions, teachers, municipal workers and social service workers, attacking Paterson’s strategy of depending solely on service and program cutting, leaving revenue-raising options off the table. The cuts will be in Medicaid (biggest, $127M plus matching Fed monies), child care, food programs, HIV/AIDS and mental health services, support for the disabled and legal assistance for the poor, as identified by the analysts of the Empire Justice Center, who propose that a small increase in the taxes of the top earners, people with annual incomes of half a million dollars plus, the top 1% of the population, be implemented as a cure, rather than left as a last resort. The Center people say that, according to data from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, thus 1% of population earns more than twice the income of the bottom 50%... It was such a modest temporary increase in taxation of the millionaires that helped the state in getting out of the fiscal doldrums in 2003, during the tax-cutter Pataki’s reign, and it did not cause an exodus of the rich from the state...
This Millionaires’ Tax proposal has been passed by the Assembly, but continues to be opposed by the Senate and the Governor, To the latter point, it is rumored that Paterson, who as Minority Leader of the Senate was a constant thorn in Joe Bruno’s side, had formed an understanding with the former Majority Leader and his successor, Dean Skelos. It is said that Malcolm Smith, Paterson’s successor in the Senate and now potentially one of the three state powerful men, should Democrats win the Senate, is not to the Governor’s liking, and may be a possible competitor in the 2010 Gubernatorial race. Some offers to Democratic state senators to join the Governor’s administration might be construed to have the intent of keeping the Senate leadership in GOP hands, per Alan Chartock, the political observer who also heads the WAMC Northeast Public Radio network.
As for the latter race, there is also Tom Golisano, three-time candidate of the Independence Party, who now is contributing to the DNCC and to campaigns of tax reform candidates for the Legislature, building a basis for his own run. The main opponent for Paterson in 2010 will be Michael Bloomberg, a fiscal Conservative. If Paterson proves himself to be of a like bent, he may attract enough upstate Republican votes to win the governorship on his own. We Midtown Manhattanites, solidly entrenched in the Democratic Party, sometimes forget how firmly some of the poorer counties of upstate remain in the Republican column. As noted in a mid-year Siena survey, Paterson would lose heavily if Bloomberg were to run.
David Paterson the accidental Governor, Eliot Spider’s running mate, chosen for “balance of power,” has turned into a major problem solver for the ailing New York State. With a recession and an energy crisis on hand, he called a special session of the NYS legislature on August 19, to make a $600 million spending cut in the current budget,.
The problems date back to the Pataki years, when his reductions of income tax, caused several surges in the below-radar property and school tax rates... NYS homeowners have been suffering ever since, with some current attempts to reduce the rate, nagging from 4 to 6% and with recommended reforms to provide special relief for those New Yorkers whose property tax exceeds 25% of income. This points up the fact that the former Empire State, gateway to the West, rich in railroads, steel and manufacturing, has been steadily going downhill. This is not evident to us cityites, citizens of the financial capital of the world, seemingly impervious to the woes of our agricultural regions of our state, but the upstate population is getting older and poorer. Buffalo and other cities are shrinking and decaying, and the young are leaving for better futures out west and south, leaving behind the aging and disabled parents and the poor, who survive because they own their inherited homes. The upstaters are used to living poor, and growing poorer is not that much harder, as I was told by a sarcastic rural client of an upstate .Wendy’s, popular with chubby clients and their children having French fries and cokes, the menu of the food-stamp people. It is painful to see.
Paterson has unilaterally cut state agency budgets by $630M, looking for a 6% reduction in costs across the board. His strategy is reminiscent of the days whim Bill Clinton was accused of hijacking the GOP program by installing welfare cuts. The Governor partly succeeded in the Legislature: the two houses approved a $427M current cut, with an objective of a total $1,7B in the current two years, and $2.35B in 2010/11, affecting the $122B overall budget, which is facing a $20B projected deficit over four years, due to the recession. The 20% of state revenue from Wall Street is expected to drop severely.
The NYS Republicans support the program, whose major opponents are the state trade unions, teachers, municipal workers and social service workers, attacking Paterson’s strategy of depending solely on service and program cutting, leaving revenue-raising options off the table. The cuts will be in Medicaid (biggest, $127M plus matching Fed monies), child care, food programs, HIV/AIDS and mental health services, support for the disabled and legal assistance for the poor, as identified by the analysts of the Empire Justice Center, who propose that a small increase in the taxes of the top earners, people with annual incomes of half a million dollars plus, the top 1% of the population, be implemented as a cure, rather than left as a last resort. The Center people say that, according to data from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, thus 1% of population earns more than twice the income of the bottom 50%... It was such a modest temporary increase in taxation of the millionaires that helped the state in getting out of the fiscal doldrums in 2003, during the tax-cutter Pataki’s reign, and it did not cause an exodus of the rich from the state...
This Millionaires’ Tax proposal has been passed by the Assembly, but continues to be opposed by the Senate and the Governor, To the latter point, it is rumored that Paterson, who as Minority Leader of the Senate was a constant thorn in Joe Bruno’s side, had formed an understanding with the former Majority Leader and his successor, Dean Skelos. It is said that Malcolm Smith, Paterson’s successor in the Senate and now potentially one of the three state powerful men, should Democrats win the Senate, is not to the Governor’s liking, and may be a possible competitor in the 2010 Gubernatorial race. Some offers to Democratic state senators to join the Governor’s administration might be construed to have the intent of keeping the Senate leadership in GOP hands, per Alan Chartock, the political observer who also heads the WAMC Northeast Public Radio network.
As for the latter race, there is also Tom Golisano, three-time candidate of the Independence Party, who now is contributing to the DNCC and to campaigns of tax reform candidates for the Legislature, building a basis for his own run. The main opponent for Paterson in 2010 will be Michael Bloomberg, a fiscal Conservative. If Paterson proves himself to be of a like bent, he may attract enough upstate Republican votes to win the governorship on his own. We Midtown Manhattanites, solidly entrenched in the Democratic Party, sometimes forget how firmly some of the poorer counties of upstate remain in the Republican column. As noted in a mid-year Siena survey, Paterson would lose heavily if Bloomberg were to run.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Preserving trees and protecting lives – Gramercy Park
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
Arlene Harrison, the Mayor of Gramercy Park, has been sending warning announcements following a tree fall. One cannot blame her, it could have been disastrous. On June 24th, around 6 00 pm, Kate Ballinger, secretary to the Trustees of Gramercy Park, was sitting on a bench, with her two children, one a baby, under a large Norway Maple , west of the center. She heard a loud crackling overhead, and realized that a branch was about to break off... Fortunately, they got out of the way just before a huge limb of the maple fell down, demolishing the bench.
Examination by Bartlett'a Tree Service showed that both the limb and the trunk of the tree were entirely hollow, caused by squirrels, and the limb was weakened by the recent heavy rainfalls. The tree was removed, and a part of the trunk and the limb were left, along with the bench, for public examination, to establish cause. This precaution was evidently caused by the private park's history a decade ago, when a major brouhaha, with lawsuits, was caused by the removal of several old trees that was deemed unnecessary by some locals.
Trees do get feeble with age, as recently exhibited by a limb falling of a huge healthy looking old oak in Stuyvesant Square Park East, causing an injury, and prompting the removal of the entire 140 year old patriarch, and the cutting of other damaged but seemingly healthy ones, a precaution all parks should follow. Gramercy Park is also doing deep root fertilization of certain trees, to provide extra nourishment and stimulation. After this process, a five-foot area around such tree remains unplanted, to give the roots a chance to breathe.
Gramercy has planted 15 butterfly bushes in north and west parts, now blooming purple. They are truly butterfly attracting but fragile; only two of mine survived this last severe upstate winter. Gramercy’s yellow and green Eonymous bushes will also do well, mine get eaten by deer. What else do we have in common? Well, my hydrangeas are also doing fine, and my Cleome flowers ditto – Gramercy might consider pairing them with Cosmos, a top combination. The park is also planting blue fescue grass, dianthus flowers, and tall ferns around the Ruggles fountain.
For the newcomers, herewith a brief introduction to the Founder, Samuel B. Ruggles, who graduated from Yale in 1814, at the age of 14, seemingly destined to read law at his father’s accounting office in Poughkeepsie. But the young tall man had other ideas. After qualifying to plead before the courts, he opened a law office in New York, married a wealthy girl and started buying and developing land in 1825, the year Erie Canal commenced bringing boom times to the city. By 1830 he owned some 500 lots north of 15th Street.
A hilly farm with a creek running through it, called Crommersie Vly, or Cedar Creek, caught his eye. The 1811 Commissioners’ Plan, that ordered the development of Manhattan streets in fixed rectangles, made for difficulties in dividing the property. Originally part of Peter Stuyvesant’s farm, it was briefly held by Francisco Bastianense, a freed slave. The surrounding areas were owned by James Delancey, sometime Lieutenant Governor, John Watts , developer of Rose Hill further north, and James Duane, a future Mayor (1786), who eventually bought the Bastianense property, as well as six acres from the heirs of the Tory Watts.. His daughter sold it to the grandmother of James Renwick, the architect of Calvary Church, and Ruggles bought her out, in 1830. With this base he assembled 60 (sometimes called 66) building and 42 park lots, to be developed on a grand plan modeled after the private squares of London. A million cart loads of earth and stone had to be moved, streets around parks planned (he was also material in prompting legislature for Madison Square, Washington Square and Central Park), and most importantly, tax-free status obtained for "ornamental squares…unoccupied by buildings." In anticipation, he deeded the 42 park squares to trustees.
The plan succeeded, and mowing fast-forward we find the private structure intact, with some 900 families in 39 buildings off the private park, enjoying the grass and the trees, and paying $350 a year for the use of park keys, only available to residents in lot owners’ buildings. The park is sparsely populated, but that is not much different from most of the city’s parks, thinly used by mothers’ helpers and transients during the day, while residents are at work. It is only in the tourist rich areas that parks are crowded, such as Union Square with its Greenmarket and Central Park with its facilities, lakes and restaurants.
The current Trustees are James M. Clark, Jr. (Chair), Arthur H. Barnes, Arlene S. Harrison, Steven U. Leitner and Rev. Dr Thomas S. Pike. Arlene, who looks after the management of the Park, is also President of the Gramercy Park Block Association. Her organization plants and maintains the trees in the Park’s periphery, under the guidance of the Trustees.
Arlene Harrison, the Mayor of Gramercy Park, has been sending warning announcements following a tree fall. One cannot blame her, it could have been disastrous. On June 24th, around 6 00 pm, Kate Ballinger, secretary to the Trustees of Gramercy Park, was sitting on a bench, with her two children, one a baby, under a large Norway Maple , west of the center. She heard a loud crackling overhead, and realized that a branch was about to break off... Fortunately, they got out of the way just before a huge limb of the maple fell down, demolishing the bench.
Examination by Bartlett'a Tree Service showed that both the limb and the trunk of the tree were entirely hollow, caused by squirrels, and the limb was weakened by the recent heavy rainfalls. The tree was removed, and a part of the trunk and the limb were left, along with the bench, for public examination, to establish cause. This precaution was evidently caused by the private park's history a decade ago, when a major brouhaha, with lawsuits, was caused by the removal of several old trees that was deemed unnecessary by some locals.
Trees do get feeble with age, as recently exhibited by a limb falling of a huge healthy looking old oak in Stuyvesant Square Park East, causing an injury, and prompting the removal of the entire 140 year old patriarch, and the cutting of other damaged but seemingly healthy ones, a precaution all parks should follow. Gramercy Park is also doing deep root fertilization of certain trees, to provide extra nourishment and stimulation. After this process, a five-foot area around such tree remains unplanted, to give the roots a chance to breathe.
Gramercy has planted 15 butterfly bushes in north and west parts, now blooming purple. They are truly butterfly attracting but fragile; only two of mine survived this last severe upstate winter. Gramercy’s yellow and green Eonymous bushes will also do well, mine get eaten by deer. What else do we have in common? Well, my hydrangeas are also doing fine, and my Cleome flowers ditto – Gramercy might consider pairing them with Cosmos, a top combination. The park is also planting blue fescue grass, dianthus flowers, and tall ferns around the Ruggles fountain.
For the newcomers, herewith a brief introduction to the Founder, Samuel B. Ruggles, who graduated from Yale in 1814, at the age of 14, seemingly destined to read law at his father’s accounting office in Poughkeepsie. But the young tall man had other ideas. After qualifying to plead before the courts, he opened a law office in New York, married a wealthy girl and started buying and developing land in 1825, the year Erie Canal commenced bringing boom times to the city. By 1830 he owned some 500 lots north of 15th Street.
A hilly farm with a creek running through it, called Crommersie Vly, or Cedar Creek, caught his eye. The 1811 Commissioners’ Plan, that ordered the development of Manhattan streets in fixed rectangles, made for difficulties in dividing the property. Originally part of Peter Stuyvesant’s farm, it was briefly held by Francisco Bastianense, a freed slave. The surrounding areas were owned by James Delancey, sometime Lieutenant Governor, John Watts , developer of Rose Hill further north, and James Duane, a future Mayor (1786), who eventually bought the Bastianense property, as well as six acres from the heirs of the Tory Watts.. His daughter sold it to the grandmother of James Renwick, the architect of Calvary Church, and Ruggles bought her out, in 1830. With this base he assembled 60 (sometimes called 66) building and 42 park lots, to be developed on a grand plan modeled after the private squares of London. A million cart loads of earth and stone had to be moved, streets around parks planned (he was also material in prompting legislature for Madison Square, Washington Square and Central Park), and most importantly, tax-free status obtained for "ornamental squares…unoccupied by buildings." In anticipation, he deeded the 42 park squares to trustees.
The plan succeeded, and mowing fast-forward we find the private structure intact, with some 900 families in 39 buildings off the private park, enjoying the grass and the trees, and paying $350 a year for the use of park keys, only available to residents in lot owners’ buildings. The park is sparsely populated, but that is not much different from most of the city’s parks, thinly used by mothers’ helpers and transients during the day, while residents are at work. It is only in the tourist rich areas that parks are crowded, such as Union Square with its Greenmarket and Central Park with its facilities, lakes and restaurants.
The current Trustees are James M. Clark, Jr. (Chair), Arthur H. Barnes, Arlene S. Harrison, Steven U. Leitner and Rev. Dr Thomas S. Pike. Arlene, who looks after the management of the Park, is also President of the Gramercy Park Block Association. Her organization plants and maintains the trees in the Park’s periphery, under the guidance of the Trustees.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Disenchanted fan wants to bring back the old books and TV shows
OOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
Reading books and watching TV should provide a therapeutical escape, a facility in pitifully short supply in this age of mass bombings, killings and routinely accepted genocidal slaughter impacting people who are already suffering from the blows of a bad economy. That is why I walk away from books and TV shows that will make me feel down at the end (operas and Broadway productions that cost a lot of money to attend duly excepted). This includes humor that trades on sarcasm and makes one seriously doubt the ultimate goodness of human nature.
This is one reason for my doing a lot of spare tine reading of the early Spencer crime novels by Robert B. Parker and Travis McGee Florida adventures by the late John D. MacDonald, where the villains are dark and unredeemable bad, the damsels in distress have long tanned legs and the detectives, although often using unorthodox methods, are unexceptionally on the side of justice. No ambivalence here, we win, no evil ones are ever walking away smiling.
It was therefore with a sense of concern that I read a review by Heather Havrilesky, TV reviewer of Salon, the original Internet journal of opinion, that dissed the entire line of cable police procedure dramas, the Law and Order family,created by the Dick Wolf, Jerry Bruckheimer’s CSI group of shows , the NCIS, Criminal Intent, Without a Trace and Cold Case series, shows that track missing people and criminals past and present. She did not excuse even the wildly fantasy-based Monk and Psych series . She finds that too much police procedural routine, the lab work details, intermingling of the police and FBI agents’ personal lives, their spouses’ and children’s’ histories intertwining with the agents’ search for criminals, the purported perpetrators’ past lives and experiences as abused children give her a too much af a " what else is new" experience. Plainly, she is bored.
Fortunately, there’s relief for her in some new series. The Closer, starring Kyra Sedgwick as Southern-speaking police chief Brenda Johnson from Atlanta, making her way in the California big-city police system, struggling to have her brilliance recognized in the male-dominated department, brings the intriguing themes of feminism into police drama. Brenda is not all hard cop; she uses tricky interrogation methods to break hardened criminals, but also has a hidden desire for sweets, with a desk drawer full of Moon Pies, and a personal life with her fiancée, an FBI agent. A nice mix.
Another good one is Burnt Case, a visually upbeat crime series full of lightness and Florida sunshine starring Jeff Donovan as Michael Weston, an American secret agent who has been dumped by his agency and lives on his wits in Miami, taking detective/strong arm jobs, meanwhile trying to find the reason for his dismissal and the individuals conspiring behind it. He has the help of a skilled ex-agent ex-wife, Fiona (Gabrielle Anvar), and another former agent with FBI connections. Gadgets and humor abound, and little inserted footnotes explaining techniques and characters add a fresh touch. An unwelcome incident was the capture of a killer from the Russian Mafia, kidnapper of young women, He was confined in a room, with a bag over his head, to confuse him about passage of time, and tortured with piped in loud rock music. A reminder of Panama and Iraq’s Abu Ghraib Prison, it seemed to validate lite torture , too close to current events and reminiscent of our government’s twisted logic. Not again!
The Burnt Case threesome reminds one of The A-Team, of the 1980s, of Charlie’s Angels, and of the Jason Bourne movie series with Matt Damon, Digging further into the past, a predecessor is also The Man From U.N.C.L.E, if memory carries that far back. For the aficionados of antique television, it was a 1964-68 series inspired by Ian Fleming, starring Robert Waughn as Napoleon Solo and David McCallum as Ilya Kuriyakin, charming agents of a United Nations organization led by Alexander Whittaker (Leo G. Carroll), fighting with wit and intriguing gadgets an international crime syndicate, THRUSH, whose last initials denote subjugation of humanity. Lastly, Burnt Case has traces of Mission Impossible, another worthy 1966-73 series with intriguing theme music and the suave Peter Grimes as CIA chief Jim Phelps, fighting the Cold War. With that kind of heritage, how can you go wrong? Some place between the three sources we should find the origins of the phrase about "your mission, should you choose to accept it." I honestly cannot trace it, feel free to jump in , if you can..
Ms. Havrilesky also likes In Plain Sight US marshal working on the witness protection program. Not attractive, the episode seen was bloody, full of dysfunctional family and warped justice, and lacked humor. I watched it to the end, anything to avoid the overabundance of serious political shows, where currently the nation’s and world’s future is balanced on McCain’s and Obama’s choices of a vice-presidential running mate.
Reading books and watching TV should provide a therapeutical escape, a facility in pitifully short supply in this age of mass bombings, killings and routinely accepted genocidal slaughter impacting people who are already suffering from the blows of a bad economy. That is why I walk away from books and TV shows that will make me feel down at the end (operas and Broadway productions that cost a lot of money to attend duly excepted). This includes humor that trades on sarcasm and makes one seriously doubt the ultimate goodness of human nature.
This is one reason for my doing a lot of spare tine reading of the early Spencer crime novels by Robert B. Parker and Travis McGee Florida adventures by the late John D. MacDonald, where the villains are dark and unredeemable bad, the damsels in distress have long tanned legs and the detectives, although often using unorthodox methods, are unexceptionally on the side of justice. No ambivalence here, we win, no evil ones are ever walking away smiling.
It was therefore with a sense of concern that I read a review by Heather Havrilesky, TV reviewer of Salon, the original Internet journal of opinion, that dissed the entire line of cable police procedure dramas, the Law and Order family,created by the Dick Wolf, Jerry Bruckheimer’s CSI group of shows , the NCIS, Criminal Intent, Without a Trace and Cold Case series, shows that track missing people and criminals past and present. She did not excuse even the wildly fantasy-based Monk and Psych series . She finds that too much police procedural routine, the lab work details, intermingling of the police and FBI agents’ personal lives, their spouses’ and children’s’ histories intertwining with the agents’ search for criminals, the purported perpetrators’ past lives and experiences as abused children give her a too much af a " what else is new" experience. Plainly, she is bored.
Fortunately, there’s relief for her in some new series. The Closer, starring Kyra Sedgwick as Southern-speaking police chief Brenda Johnson from Atlanta, making her way in the California big-city police system, struggling to have her brilliance recognized in the male-dominated department, brings the intriguing themes of feminism into police drama. Brenda is not all hard cop; she uses tricky interrogation methods to break hardened criminals, but also has a hidden desire for sweets, with a desk drawer full of Moon Pies, and a personal life with her fiancée, an FBI agent. A nice mix.
Another good one is Burnt Case, a visually upbeat crime series full of lightness and Florida sunshine starring Jeff Donovan as Michael Weston, an American secret agent who has been dumped by his agency and lives on his wits in Miami, taking detective/strong arm jobs, meanwhile trying to find the reason for his dismissal and the individuals conspiring behind it. He has the help of a skilled ex-agent ex-wife, Fiona (Gabrielle Anvar), and another former agent with FBI connections. Gadgets and humor abound, and little inserted footnotes explaining techniques and characters add a fresh touch. An unwelcome incident was the capture of a killer from the Russian Mafia, kidnapper of young women, He was confined in a room, with a bag over his head, to confuse him about passage of time, and tortured with piped in loud rock music. A reminder of Panama and Iraq’s Abu Ghraib Prison, it seemed to validate lite torture , too close to current events and reminiscent of our government’s twisted logic. Not again!
The Burnt Case threesome reminds one of The A-Team, of the 1980s, of Charlie’s Angels, and of the Jason Bourne movie series with Matt Damon, Digging further into the past, a predecessor is also The Man From U.N.C.L.E, if memory carries that far back. For the aficionados of antique television, it was a 1964-68 series inspired by Ian Fleming, starring Robert Waughn as Napoleon Solo and David McCallum as Ilya Kuriyakin, charming agents of a United Nations organization led by Alexander Whittaker (Leo G. Carroll), fighting with wit and intriguing gadgets an international crime syndicate, THRUSH, whose last initials denote subjugation of humanity. Lastly, Burnt Case has traces of Mission Impossible, another worthy 1966-73 series with intriguing theme music and the suave Peter Grimes as CIA chief Jim Phelps, fighting the Cold War. With that kind of heritage, how can you go wrong? Some place between the three sources we should find the origins of the phrase about "your mission, should you choose to accept it." I honestly cannot trace it, feel free to jump in , if you can..
Ms. Havrilesky also likes In Plain Sight US marshal working on the witness protection program. Not attractive, the episode seen was bloody, full of dysfunctional family and warped justice, and lacked humor. I watched it to the end, anything to avoid the overabundance of serious political shows, where currently the nation’s and world’s future is balanced on McCain’s and Obama’s choices of a vice-presidential running mate.
