NYC Beats Back at Arizona post by Suzannah B. Troy

Thousands of workers and immigrants demanding FULL RIGHTS NOW and people supporting equal rights, human rights and standing up to what they feel is racism showed up at Union Square to protest Arizona's stance on immigrants as well as attend the the 6th Annual May Day March starting at Union Square which was jammed packed with protestors and all with shoppers at the Farmers Market so I took photos of protest walking through the market as well a very brief clip of just how crowded the protest is and it is going very strong even as I post this.

I was sent an email from the organizers that also used facebook and the attendance was very strong and people of all ages including parents with small children holding flags.

Protestors walking thru the Farmers Market and believe me this photo and the others give you no idea of just how crowded the area was and is and also how hot it is today!


New York is overwhelming liberal and there were no counter-protestors in site just shoppers buying lilacs and fresh fruits in contrast to the many immigrant workers that showed up with their family members and lots of supporters.

NY Budget CRISIS an interview by Suzannah B. Troy with Dan Halloran, City Council member

Miami Dolphins should fire GM Jeff Ireland

Jeff Ireland 

Although this isn't going to happen, yet, the Miami Dolphins should fire Jeff Ireland. After asking then-Oklahoma State and now Dallas Cowboys Wide Receiver Dez Bryant if his mother was a prostitute, then reportedly appologizing for the insult, Ireland used Sports Illustrated to rub salt in the wound.

S.I.'s Jim Trotter reports the following alleged interaction between Dez Bryant and Jeff Ireland and says it comes from unnamed sources but essentially clears Jeff Ireland because Jeff claims Dez said his own father was a pimp:

"My dad was a pimp."
"What did your mom do [for a living]?"
"She worked for my dad."
"Your mom was a prostitute?"
"No, she wasn't a prostitute."

Jim Trotter didn't get the message from Dez Bryant, who calls his blog post a "lie" according to the Palm Beach Post and ESPN's Ed Werner. Dez Bryant says its not true and Pro Football Talk.com explains that ESPN failed to report Bryant's version of the story until after Miami's Jeff Ireland countered Dez Bryant in another publication.

But Jeff Ireland's out of line and should be fired, or at the very least suspended for several weeks without pay.

The NFL needs to send a message that insults that defame the character of NFL Players are not to be allowed. This message needs to be sent to NFL front-offices and Jeff Ireland should be the example Commissioner Roger Goodell uses.

Claudia Shear Restoration NY Theatre Workshop Suzannah B. Troy loved the play and of course Claudia!

Vibeke Hastrup actor and producer visiting from Denmark is  here in NYC hoping to make her own play happen in 2011.  I had an extra ticket because a friend had to bow out last minute so I gave the ticket away and it couldn't have been to a nicer person and someone who truly appreciates the arts and theatre!  Above is a photo of Vibeke Hastrup and artist Suzannah B. Troy

Below Suzannah B. Troy's review of Restoration at New York Theatre Workshop  79 East 4th Street

I love Claudia Shear.  I loved her in "Blown Sideways through Life" which I saw with my friend David Kaufman.   I love her as Mae West.  I loved her tonight in Restoration.  I am her mother.  No we are the same age (well almost).  Claudia represents very passionate outspoken women, brash, intense, New York....did I say passionate?    Add brazen to brash and passionate!!!!!

Tonight was no exception.   Restoration was excellent, smart, fun and worth seeing so support the arts, good actors and one of my favorites Claudia Shear.

The play is about restoring Michelangelo's David and beauty and perfection in contrast to how imperfect humans are and how lonely.     There are the Bill Gates of  beauty and in contrast the star of Restoration although she is "rich" metaphorically - her interior life --- gifted with a good heart, a brilliant mind and a burning passion for her work.  She spends a lot of time with a really handsome security guard played by Jonathan Cake who is almost a living breathing David and the supporting cast was very good with a special nod for the  prof. and mentor played by Alan Mandell.

Well done and I have to say it one more time.  I LOVE CLAUDIA SHEAR!!!  She can play me anytime but she has to act a lot taller!!!!!

Peter Lopez, husband of Catherine Bach of "Dukes of Hazzard", dead

Catherine Bach and Peter Lopez

Peter Lopez, the husband of Catherine Bach of The Dukes of Hazzard and was an attorney for Michael Jackson, is dead in Encino, California. Peter Lopez is a name partner in the LA entertainment law firm Kleinberg, Lopez, Lange, Cuddy & Klein LLP (KLLCL), a 10-member law firm.

Peter Lopez was born in San Francisco June 7th, 1949 and admitted to the California bar in 1974. Lopez received both his B.S. and his J.D from UCLA. He's a meber of the Beverly Hills and American Bar Associations, the State Bar of California and the Mexican-American Bar Association.

KLLCL's website describes Peter Lopez in this way:

Peter Lopez is one of the most respected and well known entertainment lawyers in the country. Over the past two decades, Mr. Lopez has represented some of the biggest stars in the world as well as numerous major corporate clients. He is one of the founding partners of Kleinberg Lopez Lange Cuddy & Klein, LLP.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Peter Lopez to the California State Athletic Commission in 2007, and more recently the Director of the California Exposition and State Fair Board.

With all of this success why would Lopez allegedly commit suicide? According to a number of sources like E!Online, paramedics and police responded to a 911 call at 11:30 AM today, Friday from the home of Catherine Bach.  Gun shots were reported to have been fired at Bach's home and Bach told police that Lopez shot himself.

Why?

Catherine Bach and Peter Lopez married in 1990 and have two children.

Stay tuned.

Carly Fiorina just lost the Latino vote in the California Senate race

Continuing the run of stupid statements made by GOP representatives, we have Carly Fiorina. (As a note before this blogger continues, it's important to get out of the way that Carly Fiorina's successful battle against Breast Cancer is an inspiration to others suffering from this awful problem. I wish Fiorina continued success in that area, but not in politics.)

In a grilling of an interview by Wolf Blitzer on CNN's The Situation Room, Carly Florina, running against U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer in an election battle for Boxer's California seat in The Senate, said that she understood and supports Arizona's controversial illegal immigration law.

Now the catch is Carly didn't say "I support and understand" in one sentence, she danced around the admission but then after Blitzer pressed her finally said "I understand why Arizona" passed the law and said it was because of "fear and frustration." Said she supports the law, but then quickly said the problem was the Federal Government's patrol of the boarder or lack of same.

It seemed that Carly knew she was wading into an area that would get her into trouble so she was talking carefully, but not carefully enough.

Carly should have said "I don't back Arizona."

The "fear" comment was telling. Fear of who, Carly? What kind of fear? Fear of Latinos?

Latino's make up 30 percent of Arizona's population. For Carly Fiorina to even mention that she "understands" what Arizona did and then says they're afraid calls into question if she's afraid of Latinos.

I watched Carly squirm and wondered why she felt it was so important to carry a conservative - er, Coach Potato Conservative - agenda? Somewhere along the way Florina forgot she's a Californian. Here, we expect conservatives to be inclusive and not fearful of others because of the color of their skin.

Hey, let's be honest here. The illegal immigration debate is about Latino's and not hot Irish waitresses or Swedish Au-Pair girls with expired VISAs. My guess is Carly doesn't fear them.

Stay tuned.

Ken Blackwell on Obama does Keystone Cops routine for CNN

Ken Blackwell's on CNN's The Situation Room as this is being written. In attacking President Obama for being what Ken claims is being "subversive" Ken's off base.

Ken Blackwell's a patriot. Ken's the former Mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio, the current head of the Family Research Council, and nearly became the head of The Republican Party. But, while achieving success even though he's part of the GOP, Ken Blackwell's attack on President Obama is silly. And to go a step beyond that, Ken Blackwell just plain sounds like he doesn't know what he's talking about.

Ken's got a new book out called Obama's Plan to Subvert the Constitution and Build an Imperial Presidency that accuses President Obama of trying to subvert the government, which is another way of saying Obama's subversive. The definition of that word is:

tending to subvert or advocating subversion, esp. in an attempt to overthrow or cause the destruction of an established or legally constituted government.

On CNN Ken Blackwell was up against the sharp Paul Begala. Ken started by stating that Obama's health care plan was an example because it mandates a tax payment for those who chose not to have any kind of health insurance.

Begala made Blackwell look like a fool by pointing to Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution and the need to maintain the general welfare of the United States. Because President Obama's clearly operating within constitutional bounds, writing a book that tries to prove he's not is downright nuts.

Instead of sticking with his Health Care Reform example, Blackwell said "well, then how about.." and that's when any credibility Blackwell may have had flew out of the window. Ken intellectually stumbled in a way that reminded me of some of Michelle Malkin's worst rants. Blackwell's CNN performance reminded me of a Keystone Cops routine:



Get the idea? Stumbling all over himself, poor man.

Blackwell will make money from his book because there are suckers who believe this stuff, and never read one part of the U.S. Constitution. Others, like Fox News, will give Ken Blackwell a seat on TV because he's a black conservative talking against an African American President Obama. All of this will make Blackwell a little bit richer, and America a whole lot dumber.

Stay tuned.

Lookin At Lucky tops Kentucky Derby 2010 contenders

Lookin At Lucky 

The 2010 Kentucky Derby is tomorrow and you know its exciting when your gym conversation turns to what your female friend's going to wear at the Kentucky Derby Party they're going to. But for this blogger the interest is in which horse will win, and a number of observers are pointing to "Lookin At Lucky."

Here's the list of contenders in the 2010 Kentucky Derby according to The Huffington Post:

1. Lookin At Lucky (Garrett Gomez)
2. Ice Box (Jose Lezcano)
3. Noble's Promise (Willie Martinez)
4. Super Saver (Calvin Borel)
5. Line of David (Rafael Bejarano)
6. Stately Victor (Alan Garcia)
7. American Lion (David Flores)
8. Dean's Kitten (Robby Albarado)
9. Make Music for Me (Joel Rosario)
10. Paddy O'Prado (Kent Desormeaux)
11. Devil May Care (John Velazquez)
12. Conveyance (Martin Garcia)
13. Jackson Bend (Mike Smith)
14. Mission Impazible (Rajiv Maragh)
15. Discreetly Mine (Javier Castellano)
16. Awesome Act (Julien Leparoux)
17. Dublin (Terry Thompson)
18. Backtalk (Miguel Mena)
19. Homeboykris (Ramon Dominguez)
20. Sidney's Candy (Joe Talamo)

The top contender is said to be "Lookin At Lucky." According to Horse Racing Nation, Lookin At Lucky has placed first in six out of eight races it has participated in over the last year. Yahoo! reports that Lookin At Lucky is a 3-1 favorite and Sidney's Candy's the runner up but neither horse has scored a favorable post position. So which horse to take?

I'm going with the horses that have 50-1 odds: Dean's Kitten, Make Music for Me, Paddy O'Prado, Backtalk, Homeboykris. That's a great payoff because I'm not sure Lookin At Lucky can overcome that terrible post position.

The post position issue will make for an exciting Kentucky Derby. Lookin At Lucky may have the stuff to overcome the problem, but I like the odds against the front-running horse.

Stay tuned.

Suzannah B. Troy interviews City Council Member Dan Halloran on THE NY BUDGET CRISIS!!!!!!!

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to Oakland, Alameda, Coliseum

Yesterday, this blogger filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the City of Oakland and to the following offices: The Oakland City Attorney, the City of Oakland Office of Economic Development, The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority, The County of Alameda County Administrator's Office, and The City of Oakland's City Administrator's Office.

The email with letter attached stated:

Pursuant to the state open records act, I request access to and copies of all emails, written letters and correspondence, and studies of any kind regarding the budget and operation and management of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, and future development plans for baseball, football, and basketball stadiums in Oakland and over the time period from today back to 1/1/2008.
I ask that the agencies wave fees for copies of studies and emails (which can be printed out from a computer) and to avoid charging greater than the the cost to make a black and white copy of a document.
If my request is denied in whole or part, I ask that you justify all deletions by reference to specific exemptions of the act.
Thank you for your assistance.
Sincerely,
Zenophon Abraham

I did this because with the slow death of traditional media and lack of money for investigative reporting (or in my case blogging) there was precious little information on what was going on with stadium efforts in Oakland. Moreover, there seemed to be a veil of secrecy that was first evident when Mayor's Ron Dellums Sports Task Force met.

As one may recall, I quit that Sports Task Force because I discovered there were actually four separate groups meeting on the matter of building a baseball stadium for the Oakland A's and none of them were talking to each other. Nothing against the people in the other groups, or Mayor Dellums, but I did not feel the person with the highest level of experience in these matters in Oakland was being called on.

That person is me.

When I was at The 2010 NFL Draft and for the sixth year in a row as media, I was reminded once again that, more than any other person in Oakland who's not a working sports executive, I was better able to understand and evaluate strategies and plans for building stadiums in Oakland. Working as the Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris' representative in this area and the process of working to bring the 2005 Super Bowl to Oakland, the National Football League's constant and enduring friendship, and the creation and success of my Oakland Baseball Simworld game, were the gantry upon which my expertise was built.

That's why I'm the best person to gather Oakland stadium development information and evaluate it. I want to get as much information as possible to paint a picture of where the City of Oakland and The County of Alameda are in their collective ability to establish a stadium development program in Oakland. I want to learn what budget has been set aside for related efforts. I also want to learn if the process is being done in a logical and fair way, and that women and minority firms are getting a fair shot at landing work.

I'll keep everyone posted on the FOIA progress.

Stay tuned.

Nightmare On Elm Street, Iron Man 2: critics v. fans

Nightmare On Elm Street, the remake of the classic horror movie, is out today. Just one week before Iron Man 2 is released in America. But Iron Man 2 is already out in Europe, and critics are panning it, but not fans. That there was this disconnect between fans and critics did not become obvious to this blogger until the CNN review of Nightmare On Elm Street today. 

The critic didn't like it. The critic said it wasn't scary. Then, in the middle of the critic's review was a link to another review by a CNN ireporter. this one:



He gave the movie an "A." And the difference revealed why movie fans don't pay attention to critics. Fans are hardwired to like movies; critics seem to think they have to find something wrong with movies. I prefer the former and not the latter.

There's a reason the Internet's causing movie critics to lose their jobs and it's not just that one can issue their own view. It's a way of striking back at the critic who has to bash a movie "just because." After a while you get tired of that. You want a fanboy or fangirl telling you about the flick they like. You can figure out if you like it after you've seen it.

Also, even when fanfolks don't like a movie it's for honest reasons. Some just plain say a movie was boring or in the case of the CNN ireporter, it was good.

You get a simple explanation, not the rewrite of War and Peace.

Critics take note: there's nothing wrong with being a fan.

Giuseppi Logan YouTube miracle by Suzannah B. Troy

Miracles do happen and when I  filmed Giuseppi Logan on December 14, 2008 playing Begin the Beguine  I became part of that miracle. I knew I had filmed something powerful. Giuseppi told me to look up his name on the internet. I found out people thought he was dead and that he was a very loved jazz composer and musician that made me two important records in the 1960's. I also immediately found another YouTube of Giuseppi with a little boy in the very same park from 1966. Two years later I would meet that little boy who is now my age and help reunite him with his father after all these years. A jazz writer Tim Madison had contacted me and told me how deeply moving my YouTube was. He told me he watched it over and over. I said I do to. He urged me to continue filming but I said I was very tired and traumatized. I had just had to sell my home of 2o years which is traumatic but it was even more so because I am an outspoken activist. I did not know if I could find the strength but I did. Peter Gershon, publisher of Signal to Noise, wrote a powerful piece on Giuseppi Logan entitled "Out From the Shadow" and Peter Gershon is one of the only people to fully acknowledge my work and contribution because usually people just help themselves and erase me. Pete's powerful piece and my YouTubes I believe helped Giuseppi and one way was generating enough interest that he was able to get back in to the studio and make his first new record from the 1960's that has been received to very positive reviews. Matt Lavelle, a musician recognized Giuseppi Logan when he came in to a store where Matt was working and ever since he plays music with Giuseppi and gets him and the group he formed gigs.  This is huge for Giuseppi because it helps him earn money which he needs and of course it allows him to connect with people who still remember him and love his work. I had suggested to Giuseppi's son Jaee, also a musical genius he should make a documentary and he took my advice.  He filmed the reunion and when we in the park with the camera rolling a guy came up and shook Giuseppi's hand.  He said your records got me through college. Very moving in so many ways and Giuseppi Logan wants to get back in to the studio.  He has new compositions including a piece he named after me, "Suzannah".