Tom Watson

Down the Shore

Slim postings this week. Spending time here on Long Beach Island, on the Jersey shore, the annual gathering of the full Watson clan, all 18 of us. Been coming here since 1967, and it's changed mightily since those simple times. These days, LBI is all tear-downs and seven-figure real estate transactions, three and four stories of porches and decks, all craning their necks for a view of the Atlantic or Barnegat Bay. Still, when the clouds are high in the sky and surf is crashing and the kids are racing around the beach, the charm and simplicity of summer are still there. Will be watching the convention of course - more on that later.

Well Done, Tom Watson

Huzzahs are due for my Parliamentary counterpart in Britain, the redoubtable Tom Watson, MP. Not only did Tom play a crucial role in staving off Labour defeat in the crucial Birmingham by-election, it seems he's in line to enter government in a ministerial role, a big step up. Of course, readers of this blog know Tom as the original blogging MP, and he's also received some well-deserved appreciation for that work as well. Finally, my right honorable friend posits that Quadrophenia is by far The Who's finest hour. Right again sir!

Class Warfare

Great piece on class warfare in today's Boston Globe by American Prospect editor Robert Kuttner - a must-read if you're trying to understand how each of the two big political parties deals with the aspirational nature of American class self-identification. It also gets to the some of the "why" of John Edwards' amazing rise to national political popularity.

"Paradoxically, Republicans bump up against this reality when they try to damn John Edwards as a rich trial lawyer. In fact, Edwards was a poor boy who made good and then used his legal skills to help a lot of ordinary plaintiffs collect their due. Were he a corporate attorney rather than a personal injury lawyer, he'd be a Republican rags-to-riches poster boy."

And while John Kerry takes the safe "middle class" road - after all, 90-plus percent of all Americans claim middle classhood - Edwards extends Fernando Ferrer's "two New Yorks" metaphor to the nation, rather bravely, in my view. As Kuttner points out, he risks the classic GOP class warfare cry to do so, and because "nearly everyone identifies upward [so] you don't gain traction in American progressive politics by baiting the rich."

But see, the pay of ordinary workers has lagged behind inflation under Bush and the tax cuts haven't benefited them. And Edwards may be uniquely qualified to smoke out the existing class/economic differences that have become even more pronounced under Bush - because unlike Bush or Kerry, he doesn't have to pretend he's just folks and not born of the elite.

What RSS Really Means

There's quite a bit of hype these days about RSS, the Really Simple Syndication format that allows plain text bits of information to be easily swapped by Websites and feed-readers around the blogosphere. I've dabbled in RSS for about three years, creating a couple of newsfeeds for onPhilanthropy.com early on in its development, and using it to stay abreast of several of my favorite blogs. And I do believe that blogs would not have advanced so quickly into the mainstream without RSS (which the brilliant Howard Greenstein introduced me to right after 9/11, as I recall).

And yet.

The tech-heads seem amazed when bits of text show up in various readers, or on Websites. When Yahoo adopted RSS as a format for its personalized MyYahoo service, it was briefly greeted as a gold-is-discovered moment in Internet development. Other services, like Bloglines and Kinja, offer personalized feeds via their Websites. They're ok for what they are. I particularly like Bloglines' handy Windows-based Notifier applet that alerts me when any of several blogs are updated; and I am constantly annoyed by the lack of human editing within Kinja and those dopey blank boxes that turn up for entries from real - not commercial - Weblogs.

Nonetheless, these RSS "breakthroughs" still require you to download a reader, go to a Website, or call up an email message. Frankly, it's not that different experience than Web-browsing and Usenet-posting circa 1994. And I don't think its revolutionary at all that major media companies like The New York Times are adopting RSS feeds; it's an easy way to reach hard-core information consumers.

To me, RSS is the trees - ease of human communications is the forest. What's exciting about Weblogs is the growth of "information communities" that have sprouted up throughout the forest floor, fertilized by easy standards like RSS to be sure, but nurtured by software development that is nothing short of glorious.

More than three million people, by a commonly accepted estimate, run blogs and most use inexpensive software and cheap server space to do so. Typepad, upon which this blog runs, does this for $5 a month - and very well at that. I suspect that my blog is a mid-level Weblog in terms of usership and market penetration; it's got a core of maybe 100 users judging by the various RSS subscriptions offered, and perhaps a dozen readers who post comments with some regularity. I'll bet this puts me between the uber-blogs and their many-times daily postings and thousands of readers and the very occasional bloggers shouting unheard in the wilderness. So perhaps there are, say, 2 million blogs with my level of traffic/participation or above. That translates into roughly 200 million users, not counting what is surely a massive crossover (ie, I read at least a dozen blogs regularly).

This what I call an audience - a very active, involved audience - the very forest itself. RSS is merely a tool to reach that audience, an important standard without inherent marketable value, except in the nifty software packages that employ it. And speaking of the software: in the history of media creation, where else has an audience this large been created on the back on technology that can be created, developed and (crucially) marketed and sustained by teams of two or five or 10 people? There's your revolution.

The Last Comeback

Without a doubt, the crowning moment in the musical career of Arthur Killer Kane was the opening bass riff in the New York Dolls' "Private World" off their 1973 debut record. Dug-dug-dun. Da da. Dug-dug-dun. Breakdown.

Kane was a small flicker in the brief flame-out success of a great band, which collapsed just after its aptly-named Too Much Too Soon came out in 1975. The Dolls - such as they were - were mounting a comeback this year, led by the always-willing Staten Island punk crooner David Johansen. Sadly, Killer Kane only caught a fleeting glimpse of that comeback; the bassist died yesterday of leukemia at age 55. He joins deceased Dolls Billy Murcia, Johnny Thunders, and Jerry Nolan in rock and roll heaven. Only Johansen and Syl Sylvain remain for an earthly reunion, and really, what's the point? Just as John Entwistle kicked just as The Who were rolling out another comeback, Kane left just before a payday. Apparently, there was even a planned record ("Too Little, Too Late"?) and touring plans. But the Dolls without Thunders, Nolan, and Kane just ain't the Dolls.

Fly like the wind to your rest Brother Kane. Better keep it confidential.

Viva, Tourista!

I love tourists. Just everything about them. In this season of the annual tourismo invasion of Manhattan, they never fail to lift my spirits - or ask directions. I don't mind at all trying to get by that family of six walking, well, six abreast through Grand Central, looking up at the fantasmic ceiling as I rush for a train. I always stop to give those directions (it's amazing how often I'm asked) to Radio City, to Rockefeller Center, to Ground Zero, which has joined the pantheon. Over the years, I've walked people several blocks to see them to their destination. One time during my @NY days, I took two elderly sisters from Minnesota on the 4 train and dropped them in front of the Stock Exchange on my way to Broad Street.

This is not merely good spirit in action; there is self-interest at work and certainly, self-validation. These people have spent untold amounts of money to visit New York from around the country, and from around the world. Their inchoate love of the city mirrors my more mature devotion; they reaffirm my own choice to spend my life here. I love the shorts, the fanny packs, the cameras. Indeed, I take pride in that attire myself during trips to great places elsewhere.

'Tis my strong belief that New Yorkers protest too much on the tourism front. Sure, New York's the world capital and as such, really requires no validation. And yeah, Times Square may as well be a no-go pedestrian mall. And sure, the sidewalks of midtown are not meant for strolling helter skelter whilst looking skyward. But God love 'em, these folks spend money to come here, to stay here, and to experience here. And man, they're great - yup, even the Republicans.

The Un-American

In the summer of 1864, President Abraham Lincoln was on the rocks. With half of his country in armed rebellion, hundreds of thousands dead, his Army meeting only limited success against the South, terrorist bands roaming the western territories, and a strong challenge looming from a Democrat promising peace, Lincoln was in bad shape for reelection. If that wasn't a national crisis, the United States has never had one. And although Lincoln didn't hesitate to curtail personal rights during the Civil War and wield more concentrated Federal power than any President before or since, he never went as far as George W. Bush did this week.

When Homeland color code czar Tom Ridge was trotted out by an increasingly desperate President to discuss postponing the November election if "the unthinkable" happens, the Bush Administration crossed one more line into infamy. Short of a reconstituted Soviet Union launching a wide-ranging nuclear strike on the U.S., there is no reason that can be imagined for putting off the November judgement of the people save one: extra-Constitutional treason. To suggest it - especially when Ridge openly admitted his departmet has no hard evidence of the "unthinkable" - is a blatant political attempt to scare the electorate into making the implied safe choice of incumbency.

The unthinkable happened in New York City in 2001, on primary day as a matter of fact. Wisely, the primary was postponed for two weeks, and talk of granting emergency extensions of political terms of office were quickly quashed. The election season went on, even as the rubble was being sifted for body parts. That election, with its muted campaigning, was a testament to the strength of our democracy - it showed that we all believe strongly in true democratic values, even in the face of adversity. To suggest that a national election, across 50 states, should be postponed because of an attack from a band of guttersnipe terrorists, is in itself a disgrace, and an affront to those fighting and dying overseas. The suggestion itself is calculating, unprincipled, dishonorable, un-American.

Wrong, Wrong, Wrong

A Derek Jeter fan sent me an email this week that I must share with readers. And in doing so, I must admit that she is right and I was wrong - dead wrong.

Hey Tom! You know absolutely nothing about baseball - and I can certainly tell that you haven't watched many Yankee games in your boring life. I just read the first two sentences of "Jeter Era Over," and as a very knowledgable fan, I can easily tell you aren't a very knowlegable fan. But I bet you're feeling pretty dumb know that Jeter has hit almost .400 in the month of June, has a better average than Arod despite his huge slump, a better fielding percentage- and oh yea - did you see "THE PLAY"? That proves my point exactly - because can you imagine Alex Rodriguez diving face first into the stands jeapordizing his health like Jeter did, just to save a game so we could go on to win? No I bet you can't, especially because you are a Mets fan who knows absolutely nothing about winning.

And George Steinbrenner wants them both gone?-funny-since he's the one who put them there you IDIOT. I couldn't help gagging when I read this: "Sure, he'll play short for a while - until he gets hurt or slumps or Torre takes an early leave of absence."

It must suck to have a website with that still on it - because he went through one of the biggest slumps in history, and who is still playing shortstop? After he made that play, the play some are calling the best they've ever seen, he was replaced by Arod at short. But as you probably don't know, that was in a time of serious desperateness where Joe Torre had no one else. And even after that, who plays SS? Maybe you don't know, since you don't even watch the Yankees enough to even have the right to write something about that on your stupid site, but I'll tell you who plays SS, DEREK JETER. And whenever it is that he doesn't play there anymore, you get back to me. I suspect I won't be hearing from you.

P.S. - Our Captain has a ten-year contract with the Yanks- he isn't going anywhere.

I love this note, I really do - it makes blogging worthwhile, even for an "idiot" with a "boring life"!

One Quitsa Lane

This hill overlooking the Atlantic Ocean to the south and Nashaquita and Menemsha Ponds to the north is teeming with birds. The kids scamper among the rock walls and down the trail to the ocean and Stonewall Beach. We thrown down Corona's on the porch - perfect with cold lobster, purchased down in the harbor. The town is Chilmark - one general store and lots of pricey real estate. I'm on vacation here on Martha's Vineyard. Look for more posts next week....but one quick observation: clearly John Kerry reads this blog. Hoorah!

Literary iPod

It's not all AC/DC and Elvis Costello, kids. I just read Jason's terrific (and characteristically verbose) post on the 1946 recording of T.S. Elliot's The Wasteland. Chervokas delights at listening to Eliot's verses in his car, as his fellow roadsters blast JZ in their pickups. I'm reading this post on my iPod, via an RSS text transfer using the fabulous iPodSync software. And because he IM'd me (in chararacteristically verbose fashion) earlier this week, I bought in the obsession du jour and downloaded the Eliot recording to iTunes, and dropped it onto my iPod - where I also keep a full-text version of James Joyce 's Dubliners (the two works share the same take on the world, which was first pointed out to me by the great Wallace Gray, but that's another post for another time). So ain't technology great?

She smoothes her hair with automatic hand, And puts a record on the gramophone.