I won’t be posting much for a few days. Mom arrived today for a visit, and we’re busy having fun. While walking around Chelsea this afternoon we spotted Tony Kushner eating at Le Gamin on Ninth Avenue. Mom saw Angels in America at Arkansas Rep, so I had to stop and point him out. We also went to see the Douglas Gordon video works at Gagosian:

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I haven’t had time to post it, but the night before the El Niño debacle I saw a brilliant music/theater work by Heiner Göbbels work at BAM called Hashirigaki. Go read Flying Vicar‘s take on it — including photos. While you’re there, do not miss the essay titled What is art for? by Jeanette Winterston.

“Baghdad resident Taha Sabri, killed Monday in a U.S. air strike on his city, would have loved the eventual liberation of Iraq and establishment of democracy, had he lived to see it, his grieving widow said.” Yes, there is a special war edition of The Onion.

Boycott of American Goods Over Iraq War Gains. See also Boycott Brand America and Consumers Against War.

This should be fabulous. We went to a preview reception, with a few of the songs and one of the speeches, in someone’s loft a few nights ago and it was amazing. It’s being presented by The Civilians, who did The Ladies.

Paris Commune is a workshop production of a new piece using the cabaret form and actual songs from the period to stage the 1871 revolution of Paris – the first socialist revolution in Europe. On March 18, 1871, a sudden uprising propels the Commune into power, sending the government fleeing to Versailles. During the brief 73 days of its existence, the Commune attempts to radically restructure society. Everything is brought into question – the rights of women, religion, and even whether or not bakers should be forced to labor at night. There are many different opinions on the merits of the Commune. The army’s repression of the Commune remains one of the most ruthless and horrific episodes of modern history.

It’s a workshop with only a few performances. Go here to get tickets before they sell out. We’re going with Glenn on the 6th.

Go here to get a 78 minute MP3 (about 108MB) of a mix by Miss Kittin. I just burned a CD with it. It’s more like the abstract stuff I heard when I first encountered her on The Frying Pan boat than the recent CD with The Hacker.

OK. I need to take a break on war stuff for a bit. Here are links to my favorite news sites. Only one of them is based in the U.S. Imagine that!

Common Dreams

BBC

Guardian (UK)

The Independent (UK)

Agence France-Presse (in English)

Ha’aretz (Israel)

Google News

Or, you can click on the “other blogs” link over on the right and look at the ones under “Politics”. Most highly recommended are Atrios, Daily Kos, and Nathan Newman. The Agonist seems to have updates every couple of minutes about Iraq.

Also, my partner James probably won’t be able to stop himself from posting about it.

I’m going to post some cultural notes soon.

Kottke has great photos from yesterday’s march.

I love my State Senator, Tom Duane.

The AP has a story quoting Bill Dobbs from United for Peace and Justice about what happpened at the end of the march.

The organizers of an antiwar march said Sunday police escalated tensions by trying to clear a downtown park too quickly, while Mayor Bloomberg blamed a handful of unruly protesters for the injuries of 17 police officers.

“Most people behaved themselves, said their peace and went home,” Bloomberg said, a day after thousands marched through the city to show their opposition to the war in Iraq. “Unfortunately, a handful of people really got out of control and injured 17 New York City police officers who were there to protect us all.”

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United for Peace and Justice spokesman Bill Dobbs said four medics volunteering for the group were pepper-sprayed by police at Washington Square Park, while others reported seeing protesters handcuffed too tightly.

Dobbs said police were cooperative and helpful until the protest reached the park. He said officers then tried to clear the area of thousands of people too quickly, and raised tensions by massing in riot gear and on horseback.

“It was premature to clear those streets,” Dobbs said. Once officers massed in riot gear, “the police became lightning rods. It’s regrettable.”

Several protesters also complained that they were shoved by officers and sprayed with Mace, Dobbs said.

“Whatever happened down there ought to have been defused with some common sense and not trying to clear streets prematurely,” he said.

Police officials had no immediate comment Sunday. Officials had said that the protesters’ march permit expired at 4 p.m. Officers began ordering people to disperse after the permit expired.

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Interesting —The NY Post article has this:

The peaceful mood turned truculent when cops started clearing the park around 3:30 p.m. – about a half-hour before the march was expected to end.

Unless if was dangerously crowded in Washington Square Park itself, it is NOT illegal for people to be in the park with anti-war signs. It is a public space, and one’s presence there should not be at the whim of the NYPD.

While reading some of the blogs linked to in my general links I’m reminded of this Boondocks.

I think you know who you are.