Jon Cronin’s Stream Of Consciousness

If you are in New York for the 2010 Amory Show, please stop by the booth of Hussenot Gallery to see new pieces connected to Amelie Chabannes current solo exhibition “Vast”.

PIER 94
MARCH 4-7, 2010
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About The Amory:
The Armory Show is America’s leading fine art fair devoted to the most important art of the 20th and 21st centuries. In its eleven years, the fair has become an international institution. Every March, artists, galleries, collectors, critics and curators from all over the world make New York their destination during Armory Arts Week

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Jon --

Last Thursday's first-of-its-kind summit capped off a debate that has lasted nearly a year. Every idea has now been put on the table. Every argument has been made. Both parties agree that the status quo is unacceptable and gets more dire each day. Today, I want to state as clearly and forcefully as I know how: Now is the time to make a decision about the future of health care in America.

The final proposal I've put forward draws on the best ideas from all sides, including several put forward by Republicans at last week's summit. It will put Americans in charge of their own health care, ensuring that neither government nor insurance company bureaucrats can ration, deny, or put out of financial reach the care our families need and deserve.

I strongly believe that Congress now owes the American people a final vote on health care reform. Reform has already passed the House with bipartisan support and the Senate with a super-majority of sixty votes. Now it deserves the same kind of up-or-down vote that has been routinely used and has passed such landmark measures as welfare reform and both Bush tax cuts.

Earlier today, I asked leaders in both houses of Congress to finish their work and schedule a vote in the next few weeks. From now until then, I will do everything in my power to make the case for reform. And now, I'm asking you, the members of the Organizing for America community, to raise your voice and do the same.

The final march for reform has begun, and your participation is crucial. Please commit to join with me to take reform across the finish line.

Essentially, my proposal would change three things about the current health care system:

First, it would protect all Americans from the worst practices of insurance companies. Never again will the mother with breast cancer have her coverage revoked, see her premiums arbitrarily raised, or be forced to live in fear that a pre-existing condition will bar her from future coverage.

Second, my proposal would give individuals and small businesses the same choice of private health insurance that members of Congress get for themselves. And my proposal says that if you still can't afford the insurance in this new marketplace, we will offer you tax credits based on your income -- tax credits that add up to the largest middle class tax cut for health care in history.

Finally, my proposal would bring down the cost of health care for everyone -- families, businesses, and the federal government -- and bring down our deficit by as much as $1 trillion over the next two decades. These savings mean businesses small and large will finally be freed up to create jobs and increase wages. With costs currently skyrocketing, reform is vital to remaining economically strong in the years and decades to come.

In the few crucial weeks ahead, you can help make sure this proposal becomes law. Please sign up to join the Organizing for America campaign in the final march for reform:

http://my.barackobama.com/commit

When I talked about change on the campaign, this is what I was talking about: coming together to solve a huge problem that has been troubling America for 100 years and standing up to the special interests to deliver a brighter, smarter future for generations to come.

I look forward to signing this historic reform into law. And when I do, it will be because your organizing played an essential role in making change possible.

Thank you,

President Barack Obama

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Tom was someone who I saw two, three sometimes four times a day. He was a genuine man, who was always willing to chat. When my wife was pregnant with our son, Tom would carry things for us and he always remembered the exact birthday of our son. He would see us months later and tell us that our son was 21 weeks now and he was always correct down to the day. Tom told me he was born in 1945, so I guess he must have been 64 when he died. He was a great part of this neighborhood and will be missed. The neighborhood is Brooklyn and Tom was the neighborhood, "Tom Was/Is Brooklyn". He was always "Doing All Right For a Monday Night" and when he disappeared a few month back, we had a feeling that something was off. The neighborhood changed, but his presence is still felt.

Every night you would find Tom:

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Article from NYTimes

Panhandlers in this city are often ignored, stiffed, even reviled, but sometimes, if they hang around long enough and take the right approach, they can work themselves not only into the wallets, but also into the hearts of those they solicit.

Such was the case with Tom, the Concierge of Court Street.

Tom was the guy who held the door as you walked in and out of the Super Deli, outside of which he was a daily fixture, on Court Street between Baltic and Kane Streets in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. He was the guy who offered to carry your shopping bags, or simply offered a bit of conversation. Tips were welcomed but not required.

“Tom was genuinely friendly, even to people who never gave him money,” recalled Ursula Alexander, who lives nearby. “He was good-natured, one of those people in the city who have a big impact, even though we never get to know them.”

So when word spread on Court Street that Tom died last month, he was honored with a sidewalk memorial of posters, flowers and photographs. It was stomach cancer, somebody heard. How old was he? Somewhere around 50, it seemed. Supposedly he lived with his mother in nearby public housing projects: Wyckoff Gardens, was it? Or maybe Gowanus Houses. And what was his last name, again?

He was cheery, talkative, helpful and benign, many said, a secondary character in the daily narrative of this busy street. He would arrive in the afternoon, in time to catch riders streaming up out of the Warren Street exit of the Bergen Street subway station, returning from work in Manhattan.

Court Street memorial.

Tom was no wino, and he was not homeless. He appreciated gifts of food, and would load them into his backpack to bring home at night. When Tom stopped showing up, several months back, his many friends and benefactors on Court Street did not know where to look, or even have a last name to go with.

“I spoke to him every day but I never knew his last name,” said Robin Gurung, who works afternoons and evenings in the grocery store. “No one did. Everyone just knew him as Tom.”

Here is a photo of Robin @joncronin:

Tom would often take dollar bills and walk across the street to Ruben Liquors, to try for bigger winnings. He would buy scratch-off lottery cards, said the owners, Brenda and Rick Ruben.

“If Tom was a drinker, we’d know it,” said Rick Ruben. “He was just a happy-go-lucky guy.”

Ms. Alexander, paying for a bottle of Jack Daniels, looked over.

“Are you talking about Tom?” she asked. “At first I ignored him when he offered to carry my shopping bags, I didn’t know anything about him. But I saw he was good-natured and that’s worth a lot.”

Next to the deli on Court Street is Sam’s Restaurant, now in its 80th year under the same family ownership.

Louis Migliaccio, who took the place over recently from his father, Mario Migliaccio, 82, was doing his billing at one of the tables.

“Why is everyone making such a big deal about this guy?” he said, gesturing out the window toward the sidewalk memorial. “Fifty thousand people walk in here asking about Tom, no one buys nothing.”

The specialty at Sam’s is pizza made in a brick oven. The elder Mr. Migliaccio has been making them himself for nearly 60 years.

On the wall was a sign:

Today’s Menu, Two Choices:
Take It.
Leave It.

Louis Migliaccio talks tough, but he too had a soft spot for Tom. He’d chat with him, maybe give him a sandwich. But when it comes to coddling the poor, he takes after his old man.

“I liked Tom, but I never gave him a penny,” said Mario Migliaccio. “That’s not how you help someone. I came to this country when I was 22, with five dollars on credit. I washed dishes here 18 hours a day, for 20 bucks a week. It’s called working for your money.”

Tom’s death was confirmed recently by a woman who came in to the deli and through tears said she was Tom’s sister. Mr. Gurung offered condolences, and resisted asking for additional information. He had managed to preserve one memory, however: Tom, winking, photographed on his cellphone not too long ago.

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WHAT IT IS:
Engine is an ongoing project with the digital painting medium. It has been developed as a collaborative tool that allows the combination of pattern, structure, colour, context and process to produce 'versioned' art works. The software is written to allow for the gestural manipulation of live video and the output of a 'painted' moment in time.

Engine is a site specific, generative painting installation. It is a fluid, real-time, creative experience that invents a new way to paint combining technology and physical output. It comprises of a projection 'painting' surface, a camera, generative Engine software and a printing station. The space looks like a large blank canvas until viewers begin interacting with the piece. Once activated, each movement will trigger a fluid and explosive combination of colour, geometry, pattern and form to emerge. Participants will gesturally 'paint' using their own movement or interactions with others to reveal a series of brush strokes that alternate with every move. For the duration of the exhibition viewers can look through the archive of unique images created. Images can then be selected and printed live during the exhibition.

Engine reveals the entire process from creation to consumption and engages the viewer in a physical and contextual dance to create each piece. Over time, a body of work will be created, produced and sold.

http://www.plankman.com/projects/engine_2009/
http://www.kinetica-artfair.com/

Kinetica Art Fair is produced by Kinetica Museum and is the first of its kind in the UK. It provides collectors, curators and the public with a unique opportunity to view and purchase artworks from leading contemporary arts organisations and artists specialising in kinetic, electronic, robotic, light, sound, time-based and interdisciplinary new media art. For 2010, over 35 galleries and organisations are taking part with over 150 artists exhibiting.

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"As a follow up to our 2009 edition, PSFK is proud to present our Good Ideas for 2010 book. This click-to-print publication available on Blurb.com is our attempt to to make you reconsider. We want to help you think a little differently — even pause for a moment and see things from another angle."

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Mouth of the Border's, Emily Cavalier takes us on a "A Walk Through the West Indies, Via Crown Heights Restaurants" in two parts - (Part I & II). If you are like me and you like to really enjoy each neighborhood in this enormous and flavorful borough, than get on your bike (or take the subway), put on your walking shoes and bring some cash.

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