Man, it is absolute agony to not be able to log on when you want to. I couldn’t check email (and I get tons of it daily), I couldn’t blog or read blogs, or clear out all the spam that hits all of my various accounts. I stopped into a neighborhood Internet café a couple of times, as well as the new Apple Store on 5th Avenue, while I waited for my own DSL to get switched on, but that got old real fast. Especially having to pay by the hour.
Some Atlanta-based wiseguy had comments to make about my previous “free” wireless arrangement. I’ll have more to say in a future blog about the need for cities to embrace free public wireless systems as a way of bridging the growing digital divide versus forcing everyone to pay already rich, monopolistic cable or phone companies for some supposed privilege of getting online. But let it suffice to say, I have acquiesced.
Being offline, I missed an opportunity to preview the very excellent Spike Lee documentary, “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts” about Hurricane Katrina and its impact and aftermath. It is a sad and infuriating tale of government neglect and indifference, that unfortunately still hasn’t been resolved. If you missed any of the two-part, four hour debut this week, it will be repeated on August 29th, the one year anniversary of Katrina.
I haven’t given a gratuitous plug to one of my favorite performers in a long time, Billy Porter, so I’ll rectify that now. I was tipped to an online interview he did recently. I’m not sure who the interviewer is or the context, but you can give a listen here.
My New York Mets are playing absolutely phenomenal baseball right now and are now 25 games from clinching the NL East Division title. Last Saturday night, they honored the 1986 World Series Champion team with a 20 year reunion at Shea, then went on defeat the Colorado Rockies as part of a three game sweep. Tonight, mi papi Carlos Delgado, hit two home runs including his career 400th, a grand slam, as the Amazin’s beat the visiting St. Louis Cardinals, 8-7 on a walk-off two run homer from the other Carlos, Carlos Beltran, in the bottom of the 9th. I’ll be devoting more space to the baseball pennant races as the season winds down and the playoffs heat up in September.