a brooklyn lad

A very rare thing indeed. We were at the book launch party of these 3 poets.

And my mates have come to visit. It’s all happening over here.

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This is an issue that never fails to get me riled up. Study after study has shown that there is no link between autism and vaccines, yet it’s one of those myths that fails to die out. In England it was The Daily Mail’s most maudlin and ridiculous campaign. Over here, it’s the more educated people who cling despairingly to this this decade old meme.

This was brought up once again in the press a few days ago when all 3 candidates for the election gave utterly nonsensical answers when questioned about the issue.

Here’s Clinton:

“I am committed to make investments to find the causes of autism, including possible environmental causes like vaccines….I will ensure that the NIH has the staff and funding to fully explore all possible causes of autism….

I plan to fully invest in our research agencies so they can protect our children’s health, and so they can find the causes and cures for conditions such as autism….We don’t know what, if any, kind of link there is between vaccines and autism–but we should find out.”

We do know. There is no link.

“We’ve seen just a skyrocketing autism rate. Some people are suspicious that it’s connected to the vaccines. This person included. The science right now is inconclusive, but we have to research it.”

The science is not inconclusive, the jury is in. There is no link. (In fairness to him though, he claims “This Person” was a referral to a person in the crowd.)

Worst of all, unsurprisingly, was McCain:

It’s indisputable that [autism] is on the rise amongst children, the question is what’s causing it. And we go back and forth and there’s strong evidence that indicates that it’s got to do with a preservative in vaccines.

We can draw 2 conclusions from these ignorant statements. 1. The candidates are just winging it, saying whatever they believe the person in front of them would like to hear, or 2. The candidates are stupid. I assume (hope) it is the former.

Whatever the reason though, what they are doing is foolish and dangerous. The mercury that is the supposed cause of the autism was removed from all vaccines back in 1999 and extensive studies have shown that it wasn’t a problem anyway. There is NO issue here, no problem. By saying what they said the candidates are encouraging parents to not have their kids immunized.

We have friends here in Park Slope, Park Slope a privileged neighborhood where everybody has 5 university degrees and reads the New York Times, who have asked us where we stand on the issue of vaccinating our kids. Are we gonna do it? they ask. They know lots of people who haven’t had their kids vaccinated for anything they say, they aren’t sure what to do?

I have an answer for them: Tell your friends they are subhuman scum who are squandering their privileged education in favor of gossip and nonsense. Tell them their selfishness is beyond reprehensible, and that they are causing the reintroduction of deadly diseases into our society, diseases that the wonder of science combated after millenia of abject misery. Tell them I hope their precious little brats contract one of these diseases they aren’t vaccinated against and they get to see first hand the pestilences they are so eager to resurrect. Also, tell them that if anyone I know or love catches an illness because of them, I’ll take a bloody axe to their heads.

But I don’t say this of course. In situations like this it is better to remain silent, for fear of becoming a social pariah. Couldn’t the candidates at least have done that much? Remained silent?

Producers are giving Park Slope the star treatment with a pilot by the same executives who brought “Sex and the City,” starring Sarah Jessica Parker, and “Melrose Place” to TV.

No. Please No.

The show remains untitled and has not yet been cast, but will have the usual staples of a Darren Star project: laughs, drama, heartbreak - and, of course, sex, sources say.

Sex in the City had Laughs? Drama? Heartbreak? Sex in the City?

Please, make it stop.

Fruitless genital gratification, the endless consumption of narcotics (mostly by Jez and Super Hans) and ignorance as bliss; these are just some of the very contemporary themes Peep Show explores. Occasionally, at its very best, it comes over like Eliot’s The Wasteland rewritten as slapstick.

Great article in The Guardian today on the best comedy on TV. Season 5 begins Friday.

And a full episode from the last season:

And whilst we’re on the subject of TV, guess who’s finally gotten into Battlestar Galactica?

H. That’s who.

I dusted down the bike tonight and took Billy to the lake in the park. I think it is 6 months since we did that.

I think he might be getting hay fever like me.

Nice evening though. Very nice indeed.

Guess which one of these I saw last weekend?

This is the third time I have seen Macbeth. The first time was a BBC version on a VHS tape in my university library. I was bored stiff and had very little idea what was going on. The second time was perched on a rock hard bench during a Kurosawa season in a back room cinema in Granada, Spain. ‘Trono de sangre’ – Japanese with Spanish subtitles. I thought I was pretty hot stuff enduring that. (As I hobbled home, tears of boredom splashing onto the cobbled streets beneath my feet).

This time was better, though not much. Seeing my hero Jean-Luc Pica… I mean Patrick Stewart was a thrill. I was 4 rows from the stage, so I got a good look at him.

Whenever I see Patrick Stewart in anything, be it Extras or X-men or whatever, I always think, wow, he’s getting old; but he must look even older right now. I mean when was this thing made? 6 months ago? 12 months ago?

Strangely, I kept thinking the same thing when he was 8 feet from my face. I know it takes a little time for light to travel from one place to another, but not that long. I think I can safely say I saw exactly what he looks like right now. And I clearly need to go to the theater more if my brain can no longer accept a live performance as a live performance.

As for the play, I can’t believe I was an English major. I’ve been away from Shakespeare for so long that the first 20 minutes were just plain irritating. From then on, I was mostly confused and bored. I didn’t know who anyone was, why they were doing what they were doing or why I should care. In my defense I was very tired, but still, I thought I’d get a lot more from it than I did.

Occasionally my mind would drift into the proceedings and I’d enjoy a few lines of dialogue. Like listening to a rock song where most of the lyrics are obscured, but the odd chestnut creeps out at you. The flashy stage production and the enormous amount of blood did get my attention however. It reminded of the new Doctor Who, brash and overstated. The final scene with Pica… sorry, Macbeth’s severed head oozing with blood was disgustingly sumptuous. That is to say, I liked it a lot.

Thankfully, I wasn’t alone in my ignorance. I was sat next to 2 women, both Picard fans, and both as dumbfounded as myself. One got her Treo out during intermission and we read from the Spark Notes to try and find out what we had just seen. A great thing about Americans, they’d never be embarrassed to do something like this. In fact, one woman said indignantly that you’d have to be a liar if you said you could understand the play on just one sitting.

Would I recommend going to see this play? Yes, I probably would. Though if you don’t know the play, you should read about it before you go. A lot.

Taken at Prospect Park Zoo, yesterday morning.