Schenck v. US

Mario Savio, Sproul Hall (1966)

Get the fuck out of there is what you're going to do when someone cries "fire" in a crowded theater. That's the reason Oliver Wendell Holmes delivered the famous Schenck decision, cautioning on the limits of free speech. It's a free country. The Bill of Rights allows for the single individual to stand fast against the will of the many. The problem comes  when one deals with limits. Danger to life is an obvious parameter but whaf if there really is a fire? People are likely to be killed not only because of the  smoke and flames, but the stampede which results when the alarm goes off. 

read "Frankel" by Francis Levy, Vol 1 Brooklyn

and listen to "Boogaloo Down Broadway" by Johnny C

Schopenhauer

What do you want? Classically the question arises in developmental stages where love and work are concerned. "Plastics" was the iconic quote from The Graduate. Plastic is a word for a substance as well as emotion or personality. Everyone graduates though not every graduate has the good fortune of being seduced by Anne Bancroft. In another way of thinking the end of study itself is biological. Esse est percipi. You only stop when you can no longer be perceived. Thus eschatologically one can never know until one takes a last breath. Desire is the arbiter until the story is over. Die Welt aus Wille und Vorstellung is Schopenhauer's great tome. Steven Greenblatt's Will in the World, may refer to both the Shakespearian and Shavian "life force."

read "Francis Levy's Divine Comedy," Exquisite Corpse

and listen to "Duke of Earl by Gene Chandler

Phillippe Petit

Phillippe Petit, Allentown, 1974

Free solo is one of the most dangerous sports. Ultra marathons, UFC fights which allow kicks to the legs and choke holds. Diana Nyad braving shark infested waters in 90 mile swims to Cuba and Phillipe Petit scaling skyscrapers or tightrope walling between them and the crew of the dirigible who perished on the way ti the wreckage of the Titanic, the astronauts who never seem to be returning (like the riders in Boston's MTA in the famous folk song), film director Ian Cameron's explorations of The Mariana Trench and the riders of the Tour de France braving ever more difficult courses at record breaking speeds,  Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Judge--does the thrill derive from knowing you can't compete with these daredevils or is it vicarious? Does it lie in imagining what it would be like if you could?

read "Frankel" by Francis Levy, Vol. 1 Brooklyn

and listen to "Make America Great Again" by Pussy Riot 

Harris v Trump Heavyweight Title Fight

Joe Lous v Max Schmeling (1938)

A jab in boxing is both a defensive and offensive move. It keeps your opponent off while inflicting damage on them at the same time. Lennox Lewis won fights with his lethal jab. Tonight's debate is the equivalent of a heavyweight fight, even though the two contenders are not in the same weight class (Harris being the heavy and Trump super light, verging on laughable). Harris needs to put Trump on the defensive by constantly making him pay every time he comes close. When she sees him start to weaken and try to throw a wild punch out of frustration, let her feint, duck and unleash a combo--in this case a mixture of attacks on his inanity, lying and general moral turpitude while showing forth the power and legitimacy of her agenda.

read "Frankel" by Francis Levy, Vol. 1 Brooklyn

and listen to "Make America Great Again" by Pussy Riot 

Fear

Fear can lead to championships. Adrenalin fuels the competitive instinct (in that case it's not clear what comes first the cart or the horse, but most likely the cart since it's apprehension that produces the chemical reaction). Interestingly priapism which creates necrotic tissue is treated with Adrenalin. You don't find too many sprinters running the hundred yard dash with a tent in their crotch.

read "Frankel" by Francis Levy, Vol. 1 Brooklyn

and listen to "Make America Great Again" by Pussy Riot 

The Power Clean and Jerk

Dead lifts, power cleans and jerks, in which you pick up the bar then flip your wrists, and lift up the weight, squats and naturally bench presses are four competitive weightlifting categories. George Foreman heaved cars up a hill as part of his training regimen. He lost one of his last fights to a youngster named Shannon Briggs. When a sportscaster asked what went wrong he simply promoted his grill. He was a real "heavyweight" a brooding malcontent turned into a statesman by the beating he took from Mohammed Ali at the "Rumble in the Jungle." At 96, Jack LaLane was still exercising every day. Hearns v. Hagler, Ward v. Gatti--now it's Trump v. Harris. Will it be a standing KO?

read "Frankel" by Francis Levy, Volume 1, Brooklyn

and listen to "Hooked on a Feeling" by B.J. Thomas (1968)

Stupidest Candidate Trump

 

Lawrence O'Donnell has previously used the soubriquet "stupidest candidate Trump." Commenting on Trump's appearance before the Economic Club of New York Thursday, he remarked New York's "stupidest rich people" clapped after Trump said "childcare is childcare." He also made the point that while the country's economy was suffering, these captains of industry continued to make money from money. Calling someone stupid is usually considered to be a low blow that reflects badly on the speaker, but Lawrence O'Donnell is very smart. Equivocating about evil is what is stupid. Moreover it perpetuates suffering. 

Les Mots

Oceans of words are weaponized against sometimes invisible enemies. You know the conversations that go on in your head with this or that hardened criminal guilty of no ore than the drumbeat of human difference--which is btw truly a misdemeanor. The contrived  enemies are shell companies. You don't even qualify as an account receivable. Then there are the agitators with their bullhorns. The tides of language are monetized by acts that will have to be paid for--in full. Water over the dam is the only way to treat fhe extensions of desire or denial that soon find their way into the immortality of oblivion.

read "Frankel" by Francis Levy, Vol 1 Brooklyn

and listen to "Boogaloo Down Broadway" by Fantastic Johnny C

Procrustean Don

Sassy the Sasquatch  (Bloody Boppa)

OK there's "Crooked Joe," "Comrade Kamala" and "Lyin' Hillary." What about "Procrustean Don?" "Procrustean" is the best adjective to use for Trump. "A rolling stone gathers no moss" is a fitting way to describe his ideology. Think of Gulliver among the Lilliputians. His 2025 agenda is Big Foot. Everyone criticizes the former president for lying but when you're good at something  (say the destruction of democracies), shouldn't there be a reward? "Gaslighting" is a noun which also epitomizes his method. If you arrest an insurrectionist or prevent the state of Louisiana from putting the Ten Commandments in classrooms, you are encroaching on freedom. If you don't allow government to enforce Dobbs, you are depriving right to lifers their freedom. Trump believes six weeks is too short, but he has to vote against Florida's abortion rights amendment since it might allow abortions as late as 9 months. If you recall murder of the first born sons of the Egyptians was one of the ten plagues--and a form of euthanasia. You marvel at the illogic the way you become entranced by someone who's capable of spinning a tall tale.

read "Francis Levy's Divine Comedy," Exquisite Corpse

and listen to "Duke of Earl by Gene Chandler

101 Dalmations

Fantasy is the most cogent argument for determinism. You don't choose the couplings in your head. They come to you first hesitantly and then in more full-blown form, a display of imagery fit for a king or despot depending on the fantasy. Of course, there's the free will crowd who discountenance the effect libertinage has on others. The fact is, everything manifests for a reason and has consequences that are determined by the effect these behaviors have on others. Fantasy itself is naturally a complex issue that can be deconstructed.The beautiful princess in the tower classically dreams of being rescued by her knight in shining armor but her more repressed wish may be to be rescued by a damsel or lady boy or simply be hung out to dry. Not everyone is going to be excited by the same scenario. While it's easy to blame the ferocity of images that tarnish imaginative freedom, it's important to realize that people ultimately only see and hear what they want.

read "Removing Your Unconscious" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

and listen to "Bernadette" by The Four Tops

Dialectical Materialism

Karl Marx (1875)

Not to condone anything, but there is something wrong in the USA just as there was in Germany attendant upon the rise of Hitler. It's easy to blame MAGA Republicanism. Yet that's only a symptom of something else--is it inflation, jobs or the border? Everything is ultimately a symptom of everything else. For instance joblessness leads to tariffs which upends the balance of trade. The balance of trade is exacerbated by the plethora of unskilled workers in countries like China. There is no denying a phenomenon. You can't kill an idea as is the case with radical movements like ISIS and Hamas. Is this an argument for a tragic view of existence? Maybe rather a philosophic one. Neoliberalism may prevail in the current election simply because the threat Trump poses to Constitutionalism is so great. However, there is a historical process going on. Dialectical materialism produced Communism. What is the synthesis that will result from opposing historical forces in today's world?

read "Francis Levy's Divine Comedy," Exquisite Corpse

and listen to "Duke of Earl by Gene Chandler

The Outcry (1957)

Les quatre cent coups (1959)Tirez Sur le Pianiste 1960), Jules et Jim (1962) seem like yesterday as does the famous first line of L'etranger and Before the Revolution (1964) (with its less famous depiction of social class in the seating of the Parma opera house) The Conformist (1970), Last Tango (1972), which Pauline Kael compared favorably to Le Sacre de Printemps and lesser known classics like Antonioni's Il Grido, The Outcry (1957) which takes place in the Po Valley Bellocchio's Devil in the Flesh (1986) which starred the Dutch actress Marushka Detmar's whose "natural" style both of acting and body hair were originally displayed in Godard's First Name: Carmen (1983).The famous Bergman trilogy about the absence of God Through a Glass Darkly (1961),Winter Light (1963) and The Silence (1963) are yesterday as is Superfly (1972) recently revived at Film Forum, with the signature Curtis Mayfield sound track. Don't forget the Una Vita Difficile (1961) whose title is that of a novel its leading character, the tragic-comic figure played by Italy's Chaplin, Alberto Sordi, writes. Sordi also memorably starred in Lattuada's Mafioso (1962). These all also are yesterday for alumni of The New Yorker and The Thalia along with those currently enrolled at Film Forum. Remember "Death Knocks,"Woody Allen's New Yorker parody of The Seventh Seal (1957)?

read "Removing Your Unconscious" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

and listen to "Bird on the Wire" by Leonard Cohen