Finally, a little bit of blog.

For those who still care:

Ok, so I’m going to keep the apologies brief. I’m sorry for being totally out of touch. I have no real excuse other than the fear of writing this apology, which is now over.

So here’s my life at the moment:

Hmm. Lots of heat. It is very hot here. I now own an air conditioner to help keep my blood at more Canadian temperatures. And I have discovered the joys of Grape Kool-Aid, which obviously helps keep me Kool. And Grape.

I still work at Momenta, the Williamsburg artist-run gallery. There I write and research grants and sort of poop about. But I only work for 12 hours a week there, and don’t get much money. Otherwise I am slowly working on draining away a small grant from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, which has been nice. I guess I am very lucky to be in NYC with so much free time, though I am also finding it a bit of a curse as whenever I have time I lack motivation and whenever I have motivation I lack time. Is this a genetic thing? A secret self-sabotaging instinct?

I am now also a student again, taking night classes at NYU on Human Rights and the Politics of International Economic Relations. They are both quite interesting and it feels good to be in a classroom again. The history of the development of HR is actually quite interesting, and the notion of what HR deals with is vast. I suppose we are presented in the media with the idea that HR is a single issue, on par with other issues like AIDS, malnutrition, poverty, etc. In fact, HR is all of those things and so much more – it is essentially the same issues raised in Greek philosophy through Locke and Hobbes and so on – what are the rights and responsibilities of citizens and states? Here, however, the question tends to turn to matters of states’ autonomy and when other nations can enforce international standards of behavior. Interesting too that current “human rights abusers” (like China) were in the early days far louder advocates of HR than most of the Allied powers, and that every nation involved had something to lose in the issue (the Brits were colonialists, the Americans terrible racists, the Russians non-democratics, the Indians caste-users, etc.). Anyway, an interesting tale.

Sorry to say that politics and economics tends to dominate my thinking these days, rather than art and aesthetics (Merry – don’t kill me!). I’m reading a great book by Fawaz Gerges called “Journey of the Jihadist”, all about Muslim Militancy. I heard him talk and think he is a good source of info on this fascinating topic. I want to do some research on Sayyid Qutb, one of the first philosophers of the modern jihadist movement. He was basically just pissed off by the absurd materialism of 1950’s America and its obsession with lawn care and cars, and wanted to prevent his beloved Egypt from slipping into an equally shallow materialism. The story of how anti-materialism moved through generations of radicals to result in Bush-Bin Laden war is nutty to say the least. And pretty darn important too, if we are to have any sort of sustainable peace in the middle east and everywhere else for that matter. I’d say more about it all but I’m already likely on some CIA watchlist for using the word “Jihad”.

Another good book for those in the mood is Stieglitz’s “Globalization and its Discontents”. Essentially a long rant against the IMF from a former big-wig of the World Bank, he shows how pig-headed insistence on certain economic theories have really hurt developing, and in some cases developed economies. It is not so much that the IMF is Evil (a tool of “American Imperialism”), it is just that it is stupid, run by a buncha guys with their noses in books instead of looking at what actually happens in the field. He does point to much better models of economic development that modify the general theories, but a lot of his time is spent showing major mistakes of the IMF. Now, apparently, he has started making big criticisms of the World Bank too! But it is very interesting stuff, very interesting to learn about how and why these organizations emerged, and all of the goodwill that does linger behind them. It is not all greed!

What else? I run every other day or so, not sure quite how far, but a decent run. A friend of mine is doing a marathon on Sunday and I think I want to train for one next year. Also, I am a violin player now. Cello was great (I was a cello player for a while), though less portable and too easy. Violin is tricky and versatile. Tania sometimes busts out the accordion and we massacre old Newfie folk songs once in a while. Other times Eric joins in and we play Yiddish nonsense. Additionally I am becoming a fine gardener and bird-tender. Not sure of quite how else to spend my days, I have taken up the impossible task of transforming our gravel wasteland of a backyard into a flourishing tropical paradise. I have started with some pansies.

So basically life is pretty slow in the city that never sleeps. I tend to sleep a lot here. My hammock is working just fine, skeptics. Too well, in fact. My biggest problem is likely loneliness, but that is always my biggest problem no matter where I am! I am making a few pals here and there, but my particular brand of nerdy arsty-guy isn’t proving overwhelmingly popular. Such bad taste these New Yorkers have! And I am doing pretty well on my own for the most part. We have a pretty regular barbeque and poker game, which is about all the socialization one really needs. Lord help me if I ever consume another Budweiser.

Big plans for the future involve surfing my fool head off. I went to Rockaway just once and, though I’m told it was exceptional, there was a steady offshore wind and sweet peeling 6-8 footers rolling in. I have a board to use and my wetsuit on the way, so I’m thinking that weekly surfing will become part of my routine. Some surfing, some politics classes, some work, and some painting. Maybe a little running, a little gardening. Not a bad little summer I have coming up, I hope.

Desperately require extensive email from all of you. Book club: are your brains full yet? Hye-seung – are you going to TO for a residency or something? Merry – thanks again for all the event postings and again my apologies for being such a bad correspondent. Also, are you heading this way for any reason over the summer – to your other house I mean? Pete – how is the little, er, large woman? How are you? Any surfing plans? Angie – still kickin? Jess – still goo-goo eyed? Dan? Still…Dan? What about the world cup? Ooh, that reminds me – a big part of my life these days has revolved around the hockey. I’ve become a regular at an east village sports bar which has a poutine store around the corner. Somehow it has become a center for Canadian hockey fans, and I have made some interesting artist friends there. Anyway, who else – Chris – are you hiking yet? Mercedes – I still don’t speak Argentinian so you’ll have to send me a translation of your latest triumph. Anyway, everybody write to me as I would love to have news from my various homes.

Much love,
Ben