Sons of Kemet // Itis

Jazz You Too

Shabaka Hutchings – Saxophone Tom Skinner – Drums Oren Marshall – Tuba Sebastian Rochford – Drums

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a thought provoking post on marital lovemaking

If You Want More Rail Passengers, You Need More Rail Service!

ntbraymer

By Noel T. Braymer

This summer LA Metro extended service for both the Gold and Expo Light Rail Lines from Pasadena to Azusa and from Culver City to Santa Monica. The result was ridership jumped on both lines and these trains are often crowded. Efforts are underway to get more equipment in service sooner to add cars to these trains and to run more frequent service. Earlier this year there were stories in the newspapers that LA Metro ridership was down from previous record highs from a few years ago. What these news stories failed to report was the declining ridership numbers followed reductions in service in an attempt to save money. It’s hard to ride a train or bus if it isn’t there to go where you want to go. It has been observed for years that usually when service is improved either with faster service, service extensions to…

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Day 1320: If

The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally

If you were going to write a post titled “If,” how would you start?

If you were going to use a book of interesting questions for group therapy, which one would you choose?

If you were going to take photos for your thirteen hundred and twentieth consecutive daily blog post, what would they be?

If you had to choose a favorite photo from those, what would it be?

If you wanted to introduce some music in a blog post, how would you do that?

If you were going to provide a link to that music, would you put it here?

If you were going to answer one question in this post, which one would you choose?

If you were to ask your own “If” question, what would it be?

If you were going to end a blog post (or anything else), how would you end it?

If you always…

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Amtrak Is Taxpayer-Funded Trains For The 1%

An estimated 99 percent of Americans don’t use the Northeast corridor at all. Those who do, as Amtrak boasts, are “highly educated, affluent and influential”: 92 percent have college degrees and their average household income is well above the national median, clocking in at $170,000 a year. Yet, taxpayers are still on the hook for subsidizing $60 of each Amtrak ticket to fund the travel of the wealthy and well-connected.
The author of this Op-Ed is Brent Gardner, who is the Vice-President for Government Affairs of Americans For Prosperity. His organization it is well know is largely funded by the Koch family. Much of what Mr. Gardner says is true, but he fails like most people to understand what is the main reason Amtrak loses so much money. Amtrak has many trains which operate at a profit. Around the world most long distance intercity and high speed passenger trains make an operating profit. The problem that keeps being ignored is the cost to Amtrak of owning and running the Northeast Corridor. Owning a railroad is expensive. Most of the trains and the infrastructure of the NEC is needed for commuter trains which don’t operate at a profit generally. What the commuter services pay Amtrak doesn’t cover Amtrak’s costs. There is much that can be done to improve America’s intercity rail service and make it self supporting. But this is unlikely to happen until there is a plan to fund the infrastructure for the many trains besides Amtrak’s on the NEC. An estimated 99 percent of Americans don’t use the Northeast corridor at all. Those who do, as Amtrak boasts, are “highly educated, affluent and influential”: 92 percent have college degrees and their average household income is well above the national median, clocking in at $170,000 a year. Yet, taxpayers are still on the hook for subsidizing $60 of each Amtrak ticket to fund the travel of the wealthy and well-connected.

Read original story in US News & World Report

Buffalo Central Terminal developer would like to see Amtrak return

Buffalo’s old Central Terminal could finally be brought back to life if the community goes along with plans for reusing the iconic structure.

More than 35 years after the Central Terminal closed as a passenger train station, Stinson Developments sees opportunity. The Hamilton, Ontario, based company was named the Designated Developer of the East Side landmark in May.

The Director of Stinson’s U.S. Projects, Steven Fitzmaurice says, plans include holding special events in the concourse, restaurant and waiting room.

“The events there would, much like Hotel Lafayette, provide the basis for a hotel. Our thought is right now that the adjacent baggage terminal building, which is approximately 100,000 square feet, would be a 220 room hotel,” Fitzmaurice said.

Commercial space could be located on several different levels above the concourse.
“There’s three floors in particular, that have 20,000 square foot floor plates, which we think would be very appealing to commercial tenants, because you have views not only of the outside but looking in to the terminal as well,” Fitzmaurice said.

The tower building could be converted into residential units. And Fitzmaurice points out, that the Central Terminal is on the Belt-Line that wraps around the city and a railroad right-of-way extends to the airport. He says, the company is encouraged that Senator Charles Schumer is pushing to replace Buffalo’s dilapidated Amtrak Station on Exchange Street downtown.

“The Central Terminal, we think, is a much grander entrance to Western New York than either Depew or the downtown station and why not use it?” Fitzmaurice said.

But at the same time, he says, Stinson’s plan does not depend on Amtrak’s return. Fitzmaurice says the company has until the end of November to come up with a plan the community supports and to find financing for the multi-million-dollar project.

Find out more on Buffalo Central Terminal.

Finding Hope at Shawshank, the Swing Set in the Backyard, and the Transcendence of Story

Eye-Dancers

There is a scene in the movie The Shawshank Redemption that has always moved me.  Granted, many scenes in this tour de force of a motion picture, based on Stephen King’s novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, leave an impact.  But one in particular stands out . . .

 

Andy Dufresne, an innocent man convicted to life in Shawshank State Penitentiary for a crime he did not commit, has just spent the past two weeks in solitary confinement.  His offense?  He played a duet from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro over the prison’s PA system.

 

 

 

During the rendition, every prisoner at Shawshank stood, transfixed, listening to lyrics they couldn’t even understand.  As  Ellis “Red” Redding, Andy’s fellow inmate and friend, and the film’s voice-over narrator, describes:  “I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about.  Truth is, I don’t…

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