Driving In The City

In Maine getting your license is a right of passage among teenagers. Without a license you are limited to the confines of your house, or even worse left to have your parents drive you to meet friends. However with public transportation in New York City the problem of driving is eliminated. It is in fact more of an issue if you have a car in the city. You have to find a parking space, you have to deal with the crazed taxi drivers whipping through tiny streets, and worst of all the streets themselves are too complicated to actually know which one goes which way. Most people I know that have lived in the city before, or are natives to the city don't have licenses and have almost no clue how to drive. To be quite honest a big part of the reason I came to live in the city was the fact that I would never have to drive. I'm scared shitless of driving, as well as being a relatively poor driver. Here I never have to worry about it.

A year ago my sister died in car crash and from that point on setting foot in a car is almost unbearable. Each time the driver accelerates or makes a turn I envision myself crashing and the impact that would have on my family. Driving was no longer an enjoyment but a hassle. In New York however, even when I'm riding in a taxi I feel safe. The drivers almost always seem to be quite competent, and the distance I travel in the taxi is never very far. I can't help but wonder if the city because many people don't drive, is it safer? Of course there's also the drunk driving aspect. In Maine it was a common occurrence that people would drive home after consuming alcohol. Driving drunk in the city seems much less prevalent with people able to take public transportation and taxi's and the peace of mind of knowing your friends haven't crashed on the way home is calming.

I specifically remember driving home from a party that I had gone to in the city and was in a taxi and phoned my father. He asked what I had been doing and I truthfully told him that I was drinking. He responded by saying that moving to the city was one of the best things for me and him, that knowing I was able to get home without being in a car with someone drunk gave him peace of mind. However what I can't help but wonder is whether people who have never left the city have any desire to drive or if public transportation is good enough that people couldn't care less whether they got from A to B in a car or a train. I try to think that people like that they don't have to drive. Public transportation is much less dangerous than being in a car, and from what I've experienced so far, much less of a hassle. The experience of getting your license may be lost in the city, but at least people don't have to worry that their car will break down, or that their son or daughter might not make it home.

Coffee House Cabaret

New York- The first spring Coffee House Cabaret for the New School community was held Thursday February 18th, and was a collage of preforming arts by New School students.

The Cabaret is a monthly display of the variety of New School talents present at the school, and was open to any student who wished to showcase their art. This months Cabaret featuring: an original dance performance, a poetry reading, a guitar trio, as well as singer songwriters. The show was held at Wollman Hall at the New Schools 12th street building. The relatively small preforming area, with seating close to the performers themselves, allowed for an intimate viewing experience for those present. "It was easy to hear everyone one performing which was nice." said Andrew Lenec 19, a freshman at Eugene Lang. The show itself was well put together and ran smoothly without interruptions from the crowd.

Previously the Cabaret was not as well responded to, and many students left before the show ran its entirety. This resulted in long pauses before the show could continue after acts, without having people moving around while the performers were on stage. The casualness of the previous Cabaret, taking place in the fall of 2009, was not followed through in this springs show. Performer's were well rehearsed, with transitions moving faster, and very few people didn't stay for the entire show.

As well as the viewers positive response to the changes from the previous show, the performers themselves were likewise pleased with how the show went. "This was my first time playing at one of these," Joel Kruzie said, a 19 year old freshman studying music at the New School, "it's a no pressure performance, with a lot of different acts... and we got a good applause from the crowd which was nice." With a good response from the crowd Joel and his trio of guitarist, all freshman studying at the New School, plan to play at another Cabaret when they get a chance. With this months, and first of the spring Cabaret shows, more viewers also plan on coming back. "I hadn't been to one yet, and I was glad I came... It was nice to see other students from my school preforming," said Lenec who plans on going to next months. With no cost for admission the Cabaret provided New School students with an affordable night out filled with talent.

High Heels in Winter

Wintertime in New York City doesn’t seem to stop young women from wearing nothing but leggings and a skirt through the slushy winter mess, no matter what the cost. Well the cost for looking good in the winter is the inability to feel ones legs, an expense I don't think of in Maine. Coming from a very small town in Maine I’m almost to used to seeing everyone, including the “fashionable” people wearing layers of clothing under their jeans, and always a heavy winter coat. This being my first winter in New York I was surprised to see that the way people dressed, primarily woman, did not change significantly even when the streets were cluttered with snow. I know it's expected living in the city that you "look good" but the almost gas like prices for beauty is most certainly raising.

I’ve never really walked in high heels, but I’m willing to bet that walking in the snow with even just a three inch heel can’t be easy, and is most likely fairly dangerous. Still I see girls who are presumably going out to a club or even just walking around in heels and skirts. Too many times have I heard complaints at the end of the night, "I was so cold tonight!" well my answer is simply no shit. The higher standard of fashion is outweighing the need to be warm or to walk comfortably. It's more appropriate to not blame the weather, but rather the city we live in. It is unacceptable it seems to go out side ones home without looking your best. This may not be the case with everyone in the city but certainly a vast majority of people living here follow the rule that you just don’t wear sweatpants outside. People have this idea that you have to dress a little better if you live in the city, and frankly I don’t object to this idea. The cities population as a whole really does look better, but at some point comfort needs to play a part as well.

I’m not what you would call a fashionable person. I try to follow the dress code of wearing what’s comfortable, without being a complete slob. This is probably the result of growing up in a small town in Maine where Carhartt is considered a designer brand. The city however forces me to dress a little better. I came back to Maine during winter break wearing what would have been a normal day’s outfit in the city and met a frenzy of laughs saying, “the cities changed you man, you look like your going out on the town.” You simply don’t wear tighter jeans and a nice shirt to ride around in a truck. However at home I felt the sense again that you could wear whatever you wanted and it didn’t really matter. The city however has rules.

I remember one night that I had gone “out on the town” and had been persuaded to go to a salsa club of some sort. Upon coming to the entrance of the club the bouncer looked down at my shoes, seeing that I was wearing sneakers, said that I wouldn’t be allowed in without dress shoes. I was in shock that the shoes I wore were what were preventing me from entering. I had on a nice shirt, decent pants, and even a damn scarf. The club from the outside didn’t even appear to be all that nice, but still they strongly enforced a no sneakers rule. I was embarrassed by this refusal of entry and left the club with the other two unlucky guys who wore sneakers. This unofficial law would seem to be a contributing factor to why woman even in winter wear heels. If they, heaven forbid, wore something that they could walk through snow in, they surely wouldn’t be able to go anywhere.

The War on Prisons

The war on drugs is one of this nations biggest follies. Since its start it has been overwhelmingly unsuccessful, with not much being done to change drug laws or to limit the amount of incarcerated people the war on drugs has given this county. With the war on drugs continuing as it has been, and the drug laws remaining the same, prisons are overflowing. As Senator Jim Webb says "either we have the most evil people on earth living in the United States; or we are doing something dramatically wrong in terms of how we approach the issue of criminal justice." It would seem that no longer is it just a war against drugs but a war against the criminal justice system.

We are moving slowly towards the issue of drug legalization, but we are no where near it seems close to alleviating the over population of prisons in the United States. Government officials seem to give much less attention and money towards what prison does to the inmates of this drug war. The approach to stopping violence is by incarcerating drug offenders. However this isn't the right approach. Rather than providing drug offenders with comprehensive drug treatment they are rather thrown in jail. On the website Drug War Facts it states that the "department of corrections data show that about a fourth of those initially imprisoned for nonviolent crimes are sentenced for a second time for committing a violent offense. Whatever else it reflects, this pattern highlights the possibility that prison serves to transmit violent habits and values rather than to reduce them." The war on drugs isn't solely about getting rid of drugs but rather limiting crime, reducing addiction, and hopefully soon about decreasing the population of prisons.

We can no longer be oblivious to the facts of the drug war. The current drug policies don't work to stop addiction, the rate of drug related crimes is not decreasing, and we are in a financial recession. We need to realize that not all drugs should be considered the same and that by perpetuating the law enforcements idea that anyone who does drugs is a criminal and should be punished rather than helped only worsens our nations drug issue.

Stumbling

I find myself more and more often stumbling while on the internet. Stumbling is a recent website that allows you simply click a button (after downloading the tool bar) that will bring you to a random website. As you use stumble more the website starts to recognize what you're interested in. You can either like or dislike the website it's brought you to, by again simply pressing a button. If you choose to like a site Stumble Upon saves it in your favorites, and categorizes your internet interests. What stumbling's best feature seems to be is that it doesn't bring up sites everyone knows about, but rather bizarre almost unknown websites. It has certainly broadened my scope of what's on the internet, and the possibilities of what it can become. It seems that the internet is now evolving into a completely customizable resource in which search engines are no longer a generic display of what might fit the search, but more so what will fit ourselves and our own personal interests.

Stumble Upon isn't the online website that allows for this personal connection with the internet. Pandora and Last fm two website radio stations that work very much like stumbling. Again the viewer is able to either like or dislike the music that is being played through a customized station and reacts accordingly. With this new type of internet browsing I'm becoming more absorbed by the vast amounts of information on the internet that before I was completely unaware of. I can't help but wonder how this is reconstructing my idea of what the internet can do. No longer do I have to search for interesting links by word of mouth, or even know the exact website I want. These websites do the work for me. Am I becoming even lazier, to the point in which looking something up requires me to only touch a button? This new type of browsing also seems to be wasting more and more of my time, because it's so easy, and most certainly because it really does find exactly what I like. These websites feed my addiction for easy access to information, and of wasting time. What bothers me most is that the sites really do know what I'll like and not like, and I can't help but think that we are coming into an of technology in which the internet knows more about ourselves than we do.

New School Hip-Hop

New York- New School student Jackson T. Whalan, also known as “The Apsosoul”, is currently writing and producing a new concept album that provides a message of peace through the genre of conscious hip-hop and seeks support through donations to complete the album by March 31st.
The project has received $1000 of the $8,700 that Jackson will need in order for the album to be completed. Whalan has been using multiple forms of media to promote his album, posting updates on current donations and donators, new songs, as well as video’s explaining the albums concepts of peace. “The donations keep coming and I’m excited to see the finished results,” say Baier. With the deadline for the album nearing, Whalan has chosen not to focus on playing at venues but rather on recording the songs themselves. However he has recently preformed at “The Cypher” taking place at Club 7 in Berkshire Massachusetts. Otherwise he has limited his performances.
Whalan has been working on this musical venture since 2010 with the help from Robby Baier. Baier is a producer at Soultube Music located in Housatonic Massachusetts, and helps with the production of songs and also the marketing of the album. The album named “Now” “hope[s] to raise awareness of peace lying in the moment, spreading the message that hip-hop can be a means of spreading awareness of the positive and a way for people to come together,” says Whalan.
Whalan has been producing and performing music since the age of 14, growing up in Berkshire Massachusetts. He is currently living in New York City and studying at the New School. He plans to incorporate the new knowledge he has gained through his studies into his music. The city has also been a large contributing factor in providing vast opportunities to have his music heard, as well as providing him with inspiration and motivation. He has previously played at venues such as the Nuyorican Café on the Lower East Side, the United Nations National Day of Peace conference, and at open mics at the New School. Whalan plans to keep performing at venues around the city and spreading words of peace once the album is finished.