abroad, pulled into us.

passage now parade,

mundane journeys thwarted by cheers,

the truck bed a stage stacked with Yankees shirts,

the unknown faces our mirrored billboards.

this Broadway celebration cannot be crossed,

and the stars continue to close in

Then all of the photos individually:

One passage I came across this morning, about the power of names, inspired me. This is because part of what storytellers do is try to package and apply labels to chaos (the dominant state of affairs, Lars von Trier seems to say, through a self-cannibalizing fox, in the recent film “Antichrist”) in order to exercise control over it. Though I cringed at the word “control,” I stand by it. A story, understood one way, is a very long name for a human experience. By telling it, we give ourselves a tool to navigate that experience with less harm to ourselves and others, which is great for surviving to be productive the next day, though storytelling seems to consume a hard-to-define component of life in its execution (check out “Mediated” by Thomas de Zengotita).

Here is the passage from Language in Thought and Action, starting at the bottom of page 47:

The primitive confusion of word with thing, of symbol with thing symbolized, manifests itself in some parts of the world in a belief that the name of a person is part of that person. To know someone’s name, therefore, is to have power over him. Because of this belief, it is customary among some peoples for children to be given at birth a “real name” known only to the parents and never used, as well as a nick name or public name to be called by in society. In this way, a child is protected from being put in anyone’s power. The story of Rumpelstiltskin is a European illustration of this belief in the power of names.

Thomas Mann, in Joseph and His Brethren, gives the following dramatic account of the power of names, according to ancient Jewish beliefs:

[Joseph, speaking of a lion.] “But if he had come, with lashing tail, and roared after his prey, like the voice of the changing seraphim, yet thy child would have been little affrighted or not at all before his rage. … For knoweth not my father that the beasts fear and avoid man, for that God gave him the spirit of understanding and taught him the orders into which single things fall; doth he not know how Shemmael shrieked when the man of earth knew how to name the creation as though he were its master and framer. . .? And the beasts too they are ashamed and put the tail between their legs because we know them and have power over their names and can thus render powerless the roaring might of the single one, by naming him. If now he had come, with long slinking tread, with his hateful nose, mewing and spitting, terror would not have robbed me of my senses, nor made me pale before his riddle. ‘Is thy name Blood-Thirst?’ I would have asked of him making merry at his expense. ‘Or Springing Murder?’ But there I would have sat upright and cried out: ‘Lion! Lo, Lion art thou, by nature and species, and thy riddle lieth bare before me, so that I speak it out and with a laugh it is plain.’ And he would have blinked before the name and gone meekly away before the word, powerless to answer unto me. For he is quite unlearned and knows naught of writing tools.”

If you want a more contemporary example of this dynamic being played out, check out “Things To Do in Denver When You’re Dead.” If I recall correctly, the phrase “give it a name” pops up repeatedly in this film. Here is a discussion on IMDb about its significance.

Also, look at the debate around same-sex marriage. People on both sides vehemently battle over the meaning of the word “marriage.” This of course is not just a linguistic exercise; it’s trying to come to a conclusion as to what meanings the word can accommodate, and these types of structures shape how and why we live. In “Things To Do in Denver When You’re Dead” terms, there is a struggle underway as to what name to give same-sex relationships. “Domestic partnership” or “civil union,” even if they came with legal rights identical to those of a “marriage,” would carry a far different weight, no?

And here’s an animated version of Rumpelstiltskin. The real drama about the power of names doesn’t kick in until the 5:32 point:

Finally, the memorable talking fox in “Antichrist”:

Oh, wait, one more “and.”

Shakespeare supplied his own take on these concepts, too, with the cries of Juliet (”What’s in a name? that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”). Gertrude Stein gave an interesting follow-up poem (”Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose”).

As Filipinos brace for the possible arrival this week of a third powerful typhoon — just weeks after two earlier storms killed more than 850 people and destroyed infrastructure and crops worth hundreds of millions of dollars — a museum curator in Marikina, a suburb of Manila, is doing all she can to preserve one symbol of the country’s history: hundreds of pairs of shoes once owned by the former first lady Imelda Marcos.

According to Dolly Borlongan, who runs Marikina’s Footwear Museum, flooding caused by Tropical Storm Ketsana last month did possibly irreparable damage to about 20 of the 800 pairs of shoes Ms. Marcos donated to the museum before it opened in 2001. A museum security guard waded into knee-deep water to save the rest of the collection.

Ms. Marcos amassed her infamous shoe collection during the reign of her husband, Ferdinand Marcos, who ruled the Philippines as a dictator for two decades until he was driven from power in 1986. Weeks after the Marcoses fled the country that year, Fox Butterfield reported in The New York Times that people visiting the Malacanang Palace in Manila were shocked by evidence of the family’s opulent lifestyle. Mr. Butterfield wrote:

Representative Stephen J. Solarz, Democrat of Brooklyn, who was on a visit to Manila, said the most striking sight was the dozens of racks of shoes laid out like a department store. Mr. Solarz, head of the House Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs, said after a tour of the palace today, ”Compared to Imelda, Marie Antoinette was a bag lady.”

The comment by Mr. Solarz, who left Manila today, came after he viewed the palace basement, which is stocked with hundreds of dresses and 3,000 pairs of shoes for Ms. Marcos. On one shelf were four identical pairs of black-and-silver shoes from Charles Jourdan. Arrayed above and below them were rows of footwear with labels like Gucci, Ungaro, Beltrami, Pancaldi and Walter Steiger.

Over a decade later, our colleague Seth Mydans reported from Manila that the first estimate had been high and Ms. Marcos had in fact left behind just 1,220 pairs of shoes — along with 508 floor-length gowns, 888 handbags, 65 parasols and 15 mink coats. But no matter what other indulgences were uncovered after the dictatorship ended, the shoes became the most enduring symbol of the greed, corruption and decadence of the Marcos era.

Still, there are Filipinos who remain entranced by Ms. Marcos. Some of them turned out to help her celebrate her 80th birthday earlier this year. Others make the pilgrimage to the Footwear Museum in Marikina. Ms. Borlongan acknowledged that tourists often visit the museum to sample the “flair of Imelda” rather than to celebrate her efforts on behalf of Marikina’s shoe industry.

The fascination with Ms. Marcos is not limited to the Philippines. In New York, a new musical called “Imelda,” opened this month at the Pan Asian Repertory Theater, featuring the song “3,000 Pairs of Shoes.” A review by our colleague Anita Gates appeared in The Times under the headline: “The Woman (and the Politics) Behind All Those Shoes.”

In 2007, David Byrne — a performer known not just for his music but also for his distinct stage outfits — appeared at Carnegie Hall with a new song cycle called “Here Lies Love,” described on his Web site as a look at “Imelda Marcos meditating on events in her life, from her childhood spent in poverty and her rise to power to her ultimate departure from the palace.”

At the Footwear Museum in Marikina, Ms. Borlongan said that the remaining 780 pairs of Marcos shoes are being elevated to prevent further damage from flooding that could be caused by the storm expected to hit the Philippines on Saturday.

The shoe industry is a key part of the economy of Marikina. The banner across the top of every page of the suburb’s Web site, boasting that Marikina is “Home of the World’s Largest Shoe,” is an obvious clue. According to Ms. Borlongan, the Marcos collection is important mainly because of the attention it draws to local shoe-making. “The shoes of Imelda do not represent her flair,” she told The Lede. “The shoes represent the contribution of Imelda in promoting the shoe industry of Marikina.”

The recent storms have also led to the cancellation of an annual shoe festival in Marikina. The event, celebrating Marikina’s importance to footwear production in the country, was scheduled to occur over a few weeks, starting in October. It typically attracts roughly 50,000 visitors and includes parades, fashion shows and design competitions, Mayor Marides Fernando said. She estimated the cancellation would mean a loss of $2 million, and that overall the city had been hit with roughly 10 billion Philippine pesos, or $214.6 million, in damages.

For the shoe museum, which has been closed for a month and is scheduled to reopen on Oct. 26, the festival’s cancellation will mean fewer visitors, further cutting into ticket sales, Ms. Borlongan said. But given concerns about more basic needs — housing, infrastructure repairs and more — the absence is not registering as particularly pressing.

“Everybody’s busy trying to restore their area, restore their lives,” she said. “Nobody’s really thinking of the parade right now.”

As our colleague Ariel Kaminer demonstrated recently, if you are really worried about catching the H1N1 swine flu, you can don a paper suit and wear a mask and goggles whenever you leave home — as long as you don’t mind being stared at. A lot.

This week a Japanese men’s wear company, Haruyama Trading, announced that it would soon start selling a far less obtrusive form of anti-flu armor: a business suit treated with a chemical which, the makers claim, has repelled the H1N1 virus in tests.

According to a news release from the company (available for download, in Japanese, on its Web site), the suit’s fibers are coated with the chemical titanium dioxide, commonly found in toothpaste. The compound acts as a photocatalyst, supposedly sparking a virus-destroying reaction when light hits the jacket or pants.

In 2006, our colleague Elisabetta Povoledo reported that titanium dioxide was already being used in self-cleaning coatings “because of its photocatalytic properties: sunlight sets off a chemical reaction that accelerates natural oxidation.”

A report from the business news agency Comtex explains:

Photocatalysts are known for breaking down bacteria and for helping fight against infections, eliminating odors. Haruyama says the photocatalyst broke down the spreading A H1N1 swine flu virus and was effective in warding off infection in in-house testing.

In a 2003 article about ways to stop the spread of SARS, published in the journal Symbiosis, Dr. Hwa A. Lim wrote:

Photocatalyst TiO2 can be used in the decomposition of NOx, the exhaust gas from automobile; in the removal of foul odor from acetaldehyde, anemone, trimethylamin, hydrogen-sulfides, methyl-melcaptan; in the prevention of dirt building in living environment; in treatment of water to remove dissolved organic compounds, chlorine, and other pollutants; as bacterial disinfectant; and as sunscreen.

Dr. Lim noted that when it is properly prepared, “the effectiveness of titanium dioxide as a disinfectant can go as high as 70%-99.9%.” The problem, he added, is that grinding the chemical to the ideal size for this use can be highly expensive, and “the effect is drastically reduced” when cheaper methods are used.

The Manichi Daily News reports that the suit will cost about $590 and “will go on sale from Saturday mainly at Haruyama stores across the country.” But, for a limited time, the suit will also be available for just over $200 at one location, a new store near Shinjuku Station in Tokyo, which is reportedly the world’s busiest commuter hub.

The release of the suit is well-timed. The most recent “trend information” on the H1N1 swine flu from Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare noted that the incidence of influenza in the country “was characterized as increasing.”

The Telegraph’s Tokyo correspondent Julian Ryall reported in his article on the suit that “A seven-year-old boy became the latest victim in Japan on Sept. 22, the youngest and 18th fatality from the disease here.”

Worldwide, there have been more than 4,100 deaths from the H1N1 influenza virus and 340,000 cases of the illness, according to a recent update from the World Health Organization.

There are no plans to sell the suits outside Japan, a spokesman with the company said, but they may be available online in the future.

Reporting was contributed by Hiroko Masuike.

Amazing Race: E-Waste Violators’ Best Friend because trash is one of those characteristics of modern life that shocks, worries and amazes me (’The average American throws away a staggering 4.5 pounds of rubbish daily.’).

Vice’s Q & A with Terry Gillam because I’ve enjoyed just about everything he has been involved with.

Our Three Bombs because who doesn’t worry about the effects of the mounting U.S. debt ($11.9 trillion) and the climate?

Canadian prostitutes sue for right to open bordellos because how societies treat sex is endlessly fascinating.

Bugs in Pictures: Incredible Insect Macro Photography because these ostracized and forgotten creatures need our help.

10 Business Ideas That Will Get Your Ass Sued because I’d like to start one.

10 Doomsday Cults because such groups are one launching point for new ideas as they begin their assault on mainstream society (aren’t we all cultists?).

Egyptian Police Arrest Christian Father for Attempting to Free Kidnapped Daughter because it vaguely reminded me of the Savoie case in Japan.

I tried it. No surprise; it was an Oreo-flavored doughnut. Like all powerful and memorable experiences, it changed me. I used to suspect a disastrous future for we Americans. After a few crunchy chews, I became certain we are doomed. Thank you, 2009 82nd Annual Feast of San Gennaro.

More, please. More. I said, More. More.

Rainbow inside the lines.

Dig into the post to see the other two presentations of the same Lower East Side wall.

Textures.

Itch.

The photos were taken with my G1.

That observation comes from a man who juggled wine bottles at the intersection of East Houston and Chrystie on Saturday.

Richard would have been juggling traffic cones, like he was in this video from Bowery Boogie, but they were stolen overnight.

I’ve had lights stolen off my bicycle on 41st Street. My wallet was cleaned out at gunpoint in New Orleans. Car stereo was pried loose in Chicago. Such thefts made sense; the items had value.

But traffic cones stashed next to a subway stop? From a guy with cracked lips, hands hard like crumpled cardboard, collecting a buck here and there, wearing a worn red hat, a dirty red shirt and pants spotted purple with droplets from the glass corpses of a city’s night?

Of course. This is New York. The law: If it isn’t locked down, it’s going to get taken.

But that fact of urban life didn’t stop Richard. Like he said, you can always find bottles. Trash, in all of its metaphorical senses — trash people, trash behavior, trash values — piles up wherever we human beings gather.

Luckily, someone always comes along and makes art out of it. Here’s Richard performing his to the Flaming Lips:

Richard told me he came from 71st Street. I don’t know the significance of this. He said he was trying to return to Los Angeles. Unprompted, he explained to me the difference between rich old performers and poor old performers: The rich ones had good agents.

I gave him a dollar. So did my friend. Someone in a car placed something in his hat. Maybe it was a buck.

Thanks for the reminder, Richard.

1. This video is one of many off a YouTube channel, Fast.Forward, offering “quick perspectives on the changing face of marketing.”
2. In it, Jim Lecinski, the managing director of U.S. Sales for Google argues the importance of speed over perfection when it comes to releasing marketing materials. I translate that as, “If you’re a storyteller, should you tweak your baby for weeks on end, or just get it out there?”
3. Transcript is toward the bottom of the post.

Why am I interested?

1. Marketing is storytelling, and anyone who communicates today will navigate, more than ever, the trampoline of tension between speed and quality.
2. There is an immense, ever-increasing pressure to quickly stake one’s claim on the shifting online landmass of a story so to have a voice in the conversation.
3. I grew up feasting on a diet of media born in a cauldron of slowness; I understand speed, but tend to lean toward the mental activities associated with perfecting a story. I feel a tension between the two, so am attempting to better understand the source and veracity of that tension.

Brain gum

1. What we are losing, if anything, by emphasizing the attributes of speed over the attributes of human communication that slowness more adeptly (but not exclusively) encourages: reflection, analysis, thoroughness and most importantly, signification.
2. Because without meaning, stories, quickly or slowly delivered, are just the howls of a lonely animal locked inside a language of one. Yet with the low-cost, high-speed, one-on-many and widespread communication that is the Internet, perhaps the act of signification is becoming even more distributed, like everything else, and there is no need for an authoritarian individual to deduce what information means in advance of its release. Perhaps this top-down, hierarchical approach simply reflected the limits of our communication technologies of the past.
3. Maybe much of the analysis and enhancement an individual might contribute to a story on his or her own in the past is now occurring as a conversation with online collaborators (the people formerly known as the audience). Yet this still creates a demand for synthesis, a sorting and summarizing task difficult to effectively accomplish with a group, as various constituencies gather and redirect the threads of a story most important to them.

Transcript

Note: The minute and seconds marks represent the end point of the word immediately preceding them. For example, at 0:05, he says “today.”

One-hundred percent agree that speed beats perfection today (0:05).

Again we all learn the craft of marketing the other way around (0:09) — that perfection beats speed, that it was actually OK to delay shipping a magazine ad to a publication until next month’s issue because we were going to work on the spacing between the typeface for another week (0:22).

And that was fine, and that was perfect then in those days (0:26).

The question now is what are you giving up by waiting a month to get your message in the marketplace versus what you might gain by improving the type 5 percent (0:37).

This is now a real question because we can measure these things (0:41).

Before it was hard to know what impact gain or loss would happen. But now we can sit there and say, ‘Well this is the total number of consumers in the market that we would reach; this is how many prospects, leads or hand-raisers we would generate with perhaps something that’s perfect in a month versus what we could generate with something that is 80 percent right today.’ (1:02)

And we just weigh that cost-benefit analysis, and we find in conversations with Fortune 500 marketers that for the most part speed will always beat perfection (1:12).