[CAT] Shakespeare in bed, 29 October 2012

[CAT] On Torontonian Harry Welton's cat circus

Torontoist recently noted the historical contribution made by one Torontonian, Harry Welton, and his cat circus of the mid-1890s, to the position of the cat as darling of cutting-edge media.

Within months of its appearance on the stage of Yonge Street’s finest novelty-act theatre, Harry Welton’s cat circus took its act to the world’s first movie studio, Thomas Edison’s “Black Maria” in West Orange, New Jersey. In July 1894, W.K.L. Dickson and William Heise shot a short film of the boxing portion of Welton’s show, which was touring vaudeville theatres in the New York City area that summer. The result, Boxing Cats, was only one of a number of animal-centric films the Edison Company turned out for its Kinetoscope machines. Compared to the cockfights that the studio also filmed, a pair of boxing cats was far less violent. If title cards had been used, the film would have been the 19th century equivalent of lolcats.

The post's author, Jamie Bradburn, notes that the circus also included cats "trained to perform somersaults, ride bicycles, and walk through burning rings of fire."

[URBAN NOTE] "Gangnam Style: Psy-mania hits Toronto"

Psy, of "Gangnam Style" fame, was scheduled to be coming to Toronto today.

The man behind a video that’s about to become the most watched in Internet history was in Toronto Tuesday.

Psy, the rapping sensation from Korea, was holed up in the Ritz Carlton for a number of media interviews. In town to help promote Samsung’s Galaxy Note II super-phone, Psy talked about his life since his “Gangnam Style” video exploded this summer.

[. . .]

On Tuesday evening, meanwhile, Psy will make his first live Canadian appearance at the Kool Haus, as part of Samsung’s marketing blitz. Doors open at 8:30 p.m.

Tickets were distributed through social media promotions. But if you're determined to see and hear Psy, there is still some hope: Show up dressed like the rapping dancer or bring your Galaxy phone. A few lucky gatecrashers will be selected from the line.

He didn't on account of Hurricane Sandy, but he promises to come back.

The man must be exhausted.

[URBAN NOTE] "Last ditch effort for green space at 11 Wellesley"

It looks like the neighbourhood effort to create a park at 11 Wellesley West is not going well. Xtra!'s Jonathan Forani reports that the provincial government is continuing with plans to sell the vacant lot to developers.

The empty lot at 11 Wellesley St W is owned by the province, but could fall into the hands of a condo developer. If council votes in favour of acquiring a portion of 11 Wellesley, Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam thinks she may be able to negotiate with the owner to build a park. Her hope is to call it Jane Jacobs Park in memory of the late urban planning guru.

But the community's desire to turn the entire 2.1 acre lot into a park will face challenges.

"It would have only worked if the province was willing to come to the table. But the province has abandoned the city of Toronto," said Wong-Tam at the Government Management Committee meeting on Oct 18.

[. . .]

The derelict lot and its high wooden fence has been an eyesore for two decades as proposal after proposal has failed. The property then fell into the hands of the province, who deemed it "public land," says Wong-Tam. But the land was put up for private bids through Infrastructure Ontario on Aug 15.

"The property is being sold in a fair, open and transparent process managed by an independent broker," said Minister of Infrastructure Bob Chiarelli in a letter to Wong-Tam in September.

"Infrastructure Ontario requested comment from the City Planning office over six months ago, and the city did not raise any concerns," he wrote. "The city is still welcome to acquire the property, should it wish to."

But the city can't compete in a "bidding war" against a condo developer, said Wong-Tam in a response to Chiarelli on Oct 15.

[URBAN NOTE] "New York Subway System Faces Weeks to Recover From Storm"

Via Joe. My. God. I learned about the terrible damage inflicted on New York City's subway system by the recent storm. As summarized at length by Bloomberg News, the damage--especially but not only to the vast infrastructure necessary to knit together a megalopolis--is daunting. My sympathies to all, and my most fervent hopes for a rapid recovery.

New York’s subway system may take weeks of work and tens of billions of dollars to be restored to full service as officials assess the toll from floods, hurricane-force winds and electrical damage that crippled the most populous U.S. city’s transportation hub.

“I can say unequivocally that the MTA last night faced a disaster as devastating as it has ever faced in its history,” Metropolitan Transit Authority Chairman Joe Lhota said at a news conference today.

Sandy, the Atlantic superstorm, exceeded officials’ worst- case scenario, Lhota said. It wreaked havoc on the entire transportation system in New York and New Jersey, including subways, buses, roads and commuter railroads.

Damage on the MTA, the largest U.S. transit system that carries an average of 8.7 million riders on weekdays, was so widespread that officials today said they couldn’t tell when they’ll be able to assess it. Seven subway tunnels under the East River flooded, as did six bus depots. The South Ferry station was filled to the ceiling with water, the agency said.

Klaus Jacob, a research scientist at Columbia University who co-wrote a 2011 study forecasting damages of $50 billion to $55 billion to transportation infrastructure from flooding in a severe hurricane, said that scenario appears to be coming true.

[LINK] "GCC Expansion at a Time of Arab Turmoil"

Moroccan journalist Ahmed Charai has an opinion piece at The National Interest talking enthusiastically about the expansion of the Gulf Cooperation Council from its heartland among the oil-rich monarchies of the Persian Gulf to the much poorer and non-Gulf Arab monarchies of Morocco and Jordan. The expansion noted in March 2011 really is going to take place.

Whereas the announcement of GCC expansion was viewed as an exciting, historic development among member states and their populations, in the West it found a cool reception. Coming as it did amid the early euphoria of the Arab Spring—a time when many outsiders predicted that liberal democracies would soon emerge in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere—the news from the Gulf was viewed somewhat cynically. Shadi Hamid, a fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East policy in Washington, interpreted GCC expansion as follows: “The Saudis worried that if the U.S. was able to turn its back on one of its closest allies in the region when former President Hosni Mubarak left, will they do it again if unrest erupts somewhere else in the region? Who will they throw under the bus next?” Other experts characterized the decision as a desperate move by autocrats to insulate themselves from the winds of change.

Sixteen months later, the regional situation has indeed changed. Amid an Al Qaeda resurgence, chaos in Libya, an ascendant Iran and a Syrian civil war spreading beyond the country’s borders, the Arab Spring states are struggling to achieve stability. The United States is also hard-pressed; it turns out not to be so easy for Washington to chart a steady course having lost Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak as a strategic ally and anchor in the region. In this context, a reappraisal of the GCC’s expansion is now warranted. The group is swiftly coalescing into a strong, constructive actor on the Arab stage whose concerns are congruent with those of the United States. Not only can an expanded GCC serve as Washington’s partner in addressing the region’s instability; its member states can also support incremental political change throughout the Arab world—both among Arab Spring states and within the alliance itself.

[. . .]

Viewed as a whole, the new eight-member GCC will border every major flashpoint in North Africa and the Middle East. The Gulf states corner the southwestern portion of Iran; its nuclear-power plant in the city of Bushehr lies barely 180 miles east of Kuwait City. Jordan straddles Syria, Iraq, the Palestinian territories and Israel. And sandwiched between Jordan and Morocco —the GCC’s new outpost on the Atlantic—lie the fires of Libya and the tensions of Tunisia.

Each member of the new GCC has a distinguished track record of mitigating neighborhood crises. Amid lethal violence in Libya and Syria, the kingdoms of Morocco and Jordan have hosted three hundred thousand refugees from those troubled lands. Jordan serves as hallowed ground for risk-averse international NGOs who wish to encounter and engage civil-society groups from Palestine and Iraq. Both Jordan and Morocco have also served as “fire departments” in the war on terror—lending troops, spies and expertise to help snuff out anti-Israel jihadists and Al Qaeda networks. Noteworthy as well is the extent to which these two cash-strapped kingdoms have supported each other in these endeavors; Morocco, for example, has endowed a military hospital at Jordan’s Syrian border to tend to victims of the Assad killing machine. Moreover, the financial viability of both countries will be ensured by a cash injection from the Gulf, initiated by Saudi Arabia, amounting to $1 billion annually for five years. This economic aid will be invaluable to both countries and partly offset the United States’ foreign-aid burden at a time when the American economy faces challenges of its own. King Mohammed VI’s visit last week to four Gulf states as well as Jordan served to underscore the cooperation between these states as well as foster Gulf business investment in Morocco and Jordan.

A desire to end Iran’s nuclear-weapons project preoccupies all eight countries. While Americans and Israelis debate the role of sanctions, sabotage and air strikes in countering Iran, the expanded GCC’s member states are prepared to support all of the above. Saudi Arabia has spoken out boldly against Iran—and invested substantially in destabilizing the country by working with its disaffected ethnic minorities, such as the Arabs of Iran’s Khuzestan province.

The idea of an alliance of the Middle East's status quo monarchies, mostly absolute but including some constitutional monarchies, reminds me of the Holy Alliance of post-Napoleonic Europe more than anything else.

(Noel?)