Front of Morris-Jumel Mansion

View of Sylvan Terrace from the front yard of the mansion

We took the C train to 163rd Street in Harlem on Saturday to see the Morris-Jumel Mansion and hear a wonderful concert of late 18th and early 19th century art songs performed by the tenor Rufus Müller, accompanied by Dongsok Shin on a fortepiano. James has more on the subject.

Closed token booth [source]

As I'm sure my readers have noticed, I rarely post about politics anymore. I'm too disgusted. A political system that allows the subways go begging for enough funds to keep token booths open, even in high profile locations like Rockefeller center, and NYC schools to crumble, but lets our elected leaders spend public money subsidizing sports stadiums for rich team owners, is one too ridiculous to comment upon. I've had it. The current proposals are for the state and city to spend at least $180 million directly on infrastructure for the new Mets stadium in Queens, and that doesn't count things like property tax diversions and tax-exempt bond borrowing. The Yankees got a similar deal. A good source for this info is a site called Field of Schemes.

As a free-lancer, I paid my quarterly estimated taxes yesterday to the feds, the state, and the city (including a tax NYC has called the Unincorporated Business Tax just for people like me). I can't stand the idea that it's going to subsidize professional sports when so much that really matters is going begging.

And by the way, the next time the NYPD complains about their pay, suggest that their corporate bosses should kick in some money. I guess the War on Terror is under control if they have time to raid Kim's Video looking for mix CDs, and bring along a "representative" of the Recording Industry Association of America to help them round up and arrest five people working at Kim's. They kept them all in jail overnight.