No Masque

This was, I believe, penned by a student who majored in formal logic and minored in spelling at Glen Beck "University". Although, who knows, given the location -- a building site on the corner of 4th Avenue and 10th Street -- it could have been done by an NYU student. What I suppose he -- I'm guessing it's a "he" -- doesn't know is that the art of the masque died out after the Puritans closed the London theaters in 1642, and had been in decline since arguably the greatest practitioner in the English-speaking world, Sir Philip Sidney, died in 1586.

Invest Your Own Fucking Money!

The title of this posting is the title of another one of my blogs. That blog, which I plan to revive, has been inactive since last November. It's purpose is to provide information about the financial markets to people who want to rely on themselves rather than brokers or other financial advisors when making investment decisions.

I put together the reading list below for a twenty-five year old acquaintance who wants to learn about finance and economics.

These two books will provide you with a historical background:

The Drunkard’s Walk (Leonard Mlodinow)

Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk (Peter Bernstein)

This one is an enjoyable comic novel:

A Tenured Professor (John Kenneth Galbraith)

These four will explain about how different segments of the markets crashed and burned (or didn’t) over different portions of the past twenty-five years:

The Myth of the Rational Market (Justin Fox)

Mr. Market Miscalculates (James Grant)

Fooled By Randomness (Nicholas Nassim Taleb)

The Black Swan (Nicholas Nassim Taleb)

This is a left-wing critique (which I rather like) that explains how so many American corporations become the unfortunate creatures they are today:

One Market Under God: Extreme Capitalism, Market Populism, and the End of Economic Democracy (Thomas Frank)

And this is a novel from the 1970s by (in my opinion) the greatest American novelist of the 20^th century; it’s about a 9-year old boy who puts together a huge industrial conglomerate:

JR (William Gaddis)

Workers, Unite!

This poster, which I photographed two days ago on Grand Street in Soho (in Manhattan), is a rant against the Chinese workers' union in the area, complaining that they're just taking from workers without advocating for them. The picture is someone from the union, with a wolf's body. (Thanks to Tom and Hong for translating.)

Boner Party or Boehner Party?

I think this artist must have meant to write "Boehner Party" since the portrait is a spitting image (please forgive the pun) of John Boehner, the Republican House Minority Leader. This masterpiece can be viewed at Think Coffee on the corner of Bleeker and Bowery.

Man With Deer Head

This young man with a heavily tattooed face is carrying the head of a deer with antlers on his shoulder. Perhaps this is a new fashion trend for the fall season in downtown Manhattan.

The subject graciously consented to having his picture taken. The blurriness of the shot is a function of my BlackBerry operating in suboptimal light, but I think the grittiness of the image is more appropriate than a crisp take would have been.