Lobenthal.com

I thought I was seeing things–I’m still not quite convinced it was real: there, on the side of the bus, was an advertisement from the Human Resources Administration about the food stamps program. Racial stereotyping was shrewdly averted: the poster face was white. I do know beyond the shadow of a doubt that I saw a similar or identical ad in a subway car.

What a world of difference from the prior mayoralty: under Bloomberg, agencies like the HRA that actually address the needs of more than the one percent were sandbagged, As poverty in NYC soared, the needy were generally treated as potential or actual criminals by the municipal administration.

I’m finishing my book on Patricia Wilde. I called her up yesterday around 10:00 a.m. and said, “You know, Pat, you were on my mind the moment I woke up, as well as when I went to bed at 3:00 a.m.!”

I choose to anthropomorphize —

Deadheading day lillies–no, not those by the side of the road, I can’t do everything–I say to myself about some that are semi-gone: “Oh, let them have their full single  day of bloom!”

Social Security Works was making the same mistake that the liberal establishment has made all through Obamatime–pressing their noses to the ground every time Obama gave lip service to a liberal plank, then ignoring the fact that Obama talks the talk, and that’s about it.

So she thinks Social Security should be “enhanced.” What exactly does that mean?

Is it like when the discount airline says they’ll give a sandwich for free again?

Even Social Security Works, which is an admirable organization, isn’t quite sure. In their blast they write: “If Secretary Clinton is serious about increasing Social Security’s benefits, we would have an incredibly powerful ally in our fight.”

And if the cow jumped over the moon we’d have something just as spectacular as the Northern Lights!

There seems this year to be a more vigorous crop by the side of the road than even last year! A result of spray-happy residents or compassionate deer?

It’s a matter of perspective employed as much as anything else.

The way our “mainstream” media reports the tragic consequences of austerity in Greece reminds Robert Koehler at Common Dreams “of the way it covers war: “as both necessary and, in human terms, utterly abstract, with its consequences the stuff of separate, lesser stories, which have no bearing on the war’s national value and ongoing necessity.”

Korean Joo Won Ahn joined ABT last year. At Saturday night’s Cinderella, closing night of ABT’s Met Opera season, together with Sterling Baca—(you DID go to see his Rothbart a week ago, as I advised last December on the Barre Flies, right?), Alexei Agoudine and Jose Sebastian, he was flying around the stage with the greatest of ease, style and dignity. They were the Prince’s quartet of friends.

If it hadn’t been the closing night of a two-month season they would have been historic  (I remember guys at ABT X-ing the days off on a dressing room calendar); as it were they were fabulous. It was a festive performance led by guest artist Marianela Nunez, together with ABT’s James Whiteside and Veronika Part.

I live in a rent-stabilized studio apartment,  and by now the hefty annual increases have pushed the rent up to where it is probably 2/3 of market value. That, of course, is not sufficient to satisfy the landlord.

It was one thing to be told when the landlord bought the building that at the rent I paid I didn’t deserve repairs, it is another thing to be harassed today with increasingly flagrant and reckless abuse.

And the harassment is ratcheted up by the maliscous buffoonery of a slick management company, behind which the landlord now hides.

A common balcony that was the property of myself and the fellow resident of the floor has not only been claimed by the landlord to be his property alone, but toxic sealant has been sprayed on the balcony, which is three feet from my window. And when heat and sun start to bake that balcony, the sealant starts to decompose into the air.  And therefore I can’t open my windows.

The landlord refuses to divulge what the sealant is, but says that it is used all over NYC.

Yes, I’m sure it is–on actual rooftops, not in the direct air space of residential apartments.

And the management agency tells me that the smell is from my neighbor’s cats! Oh, and since there’s a three-foot wall round the balcony, they claim there’s no way the fumes could get into the air!

So I have been forced to spent as much time as I can outside the apartment, until the issue is resolved in court.

“It’s a very interesting piece,” the Chief  said when I sent him my “Conversation with Nora White.” “P-p-p-p-lease Chief,” I said, “Can we get it into the next issue so that it is published before White’s 90th?” (August 23) And Marvin got it in.

The Summer 2015 Ballet Review has  arrived!