NYC Junta

The upcoming meeting of the Junta looks like it will be one of our best yet. The date is set for December 10, although the venue is not yet confirmed. Our featured presenter is Joshua Cohen, who has kindly penned the following introduction and included a list of references:

I’m currently writing a compressed history of New York City’s late-20th century avant-garde movements, in music, in the visual arts, theater, dance, and in their nexus in “performance art,” but approached through an idiosyncratic admixture of geography, or urban planning, and money, or economics. Altogether, I’m writing about what’s become called “Downtown,” that stretch of artistic-minded Lower Manhattan located between Union Square, or, alternatively, Washington Square Park, and Wall Street. I’m trying to trace a particular type of cultural displacement — a displacement of the residences of cultural figures, and also of cultural venues, including music clubs, and galleries, etc. — in the interests of defining Downtown, or “a downtown.”

Briefly, I begin after the Second World War. Subjects, dates, landmarks covered include, in rough chronological order: Greenwich Village in the 1940s and 50s; Marcel Duchamp; “Abstract Expressionism”; the creation of the suburbs, the concomitant exurbanation of white ethnic populations (Irish, Italian, Jewish); the declines of two generations of American Youth: the “Beat Generation,” and the counterculture of the 1960s, and early 70s; more particularly: the Fluxus happenings centered around Yoko Ono’s Soho loft in the early 1960s; Andy Warhol; the “loft-jazz scene”; the rise of “Minimalism”; the origins of “punk rock”; the history of Downtown venues from The Kitchen through, more popularly, CBGB’s; the passing of the 1974 “Loft Law,” which provided a legal framework for so-called “warehouse-to-loft-conversions”; the cleaning up of the East Village drug scene, begun in earnest in 1984, with Operation Pressure Point, led by ambitious federal attorney Rudolph Giuliani; the growth of New York University throughout the late 1980s; the 1990s’ real-estate-boom; the rise of the Chelsea art district, and its supremacy over Soho; the shuttering of musical venue Tonic; the demise of another venue, The Knitting Factory; the closing of CBGB’s, followed by its conversion into an upscale men’s fashion store, in 2006; this brief history, before it goes on toward prognostication, culminates with two Downtown events of just last month (11/08): Christie’s first auction of “punk rock” memorabilia; and the enshrining of a CBGB’s urinal in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex NYC, newly opened in Tribeca.

Suggested reading (Internet-only):

Peter Cherches’ overview of Downtown Music, compiled for NYU

Kyle Gann, on Downtown Music

Marc Ribot, “The Care and Feeding of a Musical Margin,” from All About Jazz, 6/5/2007

Doree Ashton’s “Implications of Nationalism for Abstract Expressionism,” from Abstract Expressionism, ed. Marter

Fluxus resources

“Art and Commodity,” from Andy Warhol, Priest, by Peter Kattenberg

“Going Cold Turkey in Alphabetville,” an article from The New York Times, 2/19/1984

John Jay College of Criminal Justice Report, “We Deliver: The Gentrification of Drug Markets on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Final Report”

“Law on Tenancies in Lofts Unsettled,” an article from The New York Law Journal

Also, (nonmusical) listening:

Kathy Acker

Meetings art, avant-garde, music, new york city

Check out this story on secret missions carried out in the “war on terror”. I think in the waning days of the Bush presidency we are going to see more stories like this, with out-going officials more willing to spill on some of the decisions made in the last 8 years. This to me doesn’t seem like some of the more scandalous stories that have come out of the Bush White House (torture for instance). The ability of intelligence agencies and special forces to carry out these raids is essential for national security, and covert action like this is better than overt war on a large scale. Working with people from the intelligence and special forces world, I’ve heard numerous stories (all carefully sanitized in terms of details) like this. More often then not they involve cases where there is a threat, sometimes an unconventional one, and these covert resources are mobilized, and then it doesn’t materialize. But everyone should keep in mind, and this story says as much, that there have been so many of these types of missions and who knows what they might have averted. The other side of the coin, some might say, is that these types of raids incur the wrath of the local population (see Pakistan and Syria for two recent examples). But it is hard to balance and the pluses and minuses when we don’t have all the facts about what these missions achieved and didn’t achieve.  With the Bush administration, it has been so hard to give anyone the benefit of the doubt. I’m wondering whether Obama’s administration will continue these policies and whether his greater moral authority will make them more palatable.

In the News terror, war

Monday night’s Junta ended up with four participants, none of whom represented the financial industry. There was also a shortage of McCain supporters. This being the case, the discussion quickly became all about the prospects of an Obama victory and presidency, with little said about the economic crisis he inherits.

All were agreed that the race was over, and predicted 300+ electoral votes for Obama. Familiar issues of the campaign were touched upon, but the atmosphere was one of congeniality rather than contention, due to the like-mindedness of all involved.

While the meeting produced good conversation and new friendships, it hardly lived up to the Junta ideal of advancing new ideas. Partly this was due to the imbalance of opinions, and, I think, partly due to the election being a long and tiresome affair that all were glad to see coming to a close. However, discussions on the Junta itself were productive and will doubtless lead to some improvement in logistics and execution.

First of these is the importance of a discussion leader. As we wrote in the Manifesto, we aim to have designated individuals present their well-formed ideas to the Junta as arguments. Without this basic structure, the meetings easily devolve into regular social activity. The last meeting, on God or the absence thereof, was an example of a well-executed Junta. This meeting was less so.

Another point was the announcement of meetings. We have tried so far to be accommodating to people’s schedules and solicit their opinions about dates, times and locations. In the future we will be more firm on these things, announcing the details and encouraging participation, but letting the chips fall where they may. If you can make it, great; if not, hope to see you next time.

With that, our congratulations to President-elect Obama, and look for the next convening of the Junta around the beginning of December.

Wrap-Ups democracy, politics, usa