Thursday, November 8, 2007

What you are about to read is an American life as lived by renowned author Edmund White. His life has been a crossroads, the fulcrum of high-brow Classicism and low-brow Brett Easton Ellisism. It is not for the faint. He has been the toast of the literary elite in New York, London and Paris, befriending artistic luminaries such as Salman Rushdie and Sir Ian McKellen while writing about a family where he was jealous his sister was having sex with his father as he fought off his mother’s amorous pursuit.

The fact is, Edmund White exists. His life exists. To the casual reader, they may find it disquieting that someone like his father existed in 1950’s America and that White’s work is the progeny of his intimate effort to understand his own experience.

Wikinews reporter David Shankbone understood that an interview with Edmund White, who is professor of creative writing at Princeton University, who wrote the seminal biography of Jean Genet, and who no longer can keep track of how many sex partners he has encountered, meant nothing would be off limits. Nothing was. Late in the interview they were joined by his partner Michael Caroll, who discussed White’s enduring feud with influential writer and activist Larry Kramer.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Buffalo, New York —Judge Justice Christopher Burns of the New York State Supreme Court has ordered a halt to an emergency demolition on a 19th century stable and livery on 428-430 Jersey Street in Buffalo, New York that partially collapsed on Wednesday June 11, initially causing at least 15 homes to be evacuated. At least two homes remain evacuated.

Burns orders that both the city and the group Save The Livery (www.savethelivery.com) have to come to an agreement on what to do with the building, and try to work out ways of saving at least some portions if it including the facade, side walls and a lift tower. Save The Livery is comprised of concerned area residents who have grown to love the building’s historic and unique character. On June 14, they won a temporary restraining order to stop demolition. The court ruled that the city was only allowed to remove material in immediate danger to residents and pedestrians, but stated that the demolition could only be performed with “hand tools.” The court also ordered that any rubble which had fallen into neighboring yards when the building collapsed, to be removed.

“It is in the interest of the city to have a safe environment–but also important to maintain a sense of historical preservation,” stated Burns in his ruling. Burns has given the sides until tomorrow (Friday June 20) to come to an agreement and has ordered both parties to return to court at 9:30 a.m. (eastern time) “sharp.” Activists of Save The Livery urge supporters of the stable to “fill the courtroom” to show “continued and ongoing support.” The hearing is scheduled to take place at 25 Delaware Avenue in the Supreme Court building, 3rd Floor, trial part 19.

Currently the building is owned by Bob Freudenheim who has several building violations against him because of the buildings poor condition. He has received at least five violations in three months and residents who live near the building state that Freudenheim should be “100% responsible” for his actions. Many are afraid that if the building is demolished, Freudenheim’s charges of neglect will be abolished.

On June 17, developer and CEO of Savarino Companies, Sam Savarino was at the site of the stable, discussing the building with residents and preservationists. In 2006, Savarino proposed and planned The Elmwood Village Hotel, a ‘botique’ hotel on the Southeast corner of Elmwood and Forest Avenues. The project was later withdrawn after residents filed a lawsuit against Savarino and the city. Wikinews extensively covered the story, and contacted Savarino for his professional opinion on the building.

“[I would] love to see it preserved. I was there to see if there was anything we could do to help, to see if anything can be salvaged. I just want to see the right thing happen, and so does the city,” stated Savarino to Wikinews who added that he was allowed inside the building for a brief period.

“The side walls are beyond repair. The roof has rotted and it could come down at any time,” added Savarino who also said that the building “below the second floor appears to be stable.” He also states that the back wall of the building, which borders several homes, appears to be intact.

“Eliminating the back wall could be a problem for the neighbors. It is not unreasonable to leave at least 12 feet” of the back wall standing, added Savarino.

Savarino did not say if he was interested in buying the property, but did state, “I am sure there are a couple of people interested” in buying the property. On Thursday, Buffalo News reported that a “businessman” might be interested in purchasing the property, though Wikinews is not able to independently confirm the report. Savarino says that with the property still slated for emergency demolition, a potential buyer could face tax fees of nearly US$300,000.

Freudenheim gave the city permission to demolish the building on Thursday June 12 during an emergency Preservation Board meeting, because he would not be “rehabilitating the building anytime soon.” Freudenheim, along with his wife Nina, were part-owners of the Hotel Lenox at 140 North Street in Buffalo and were advocates to stop the Elmwood Village Hotel. They also financially supported a lawsuit in an attempt to stop the hotel from being built. Though it is not known exactly how long Freudenheim has owned the stable, Wikinews has learned that he was the owner while fighting to stop the hotel from being built. Residents say that he has been the owner for at least 22 years.

The building was first owned by a company called White Bros. and was used as a stable for a farm which once covered the land around the building for several blocks. The Buffalo Fire Department believes the building was built around 1814, while the city property database states it was built in 1870. Servants and workers of the farm were housed inside resident quarters situated at the rear of the building on what is now Summer Street, but are now cottages where area residents currently reside. Some date as far back as 1829.

At about 1950, the stable was converted into an automobile body shop and gasoline station.A property record search showed that in 1950 at least four fuel storage tanks were installed on the property. Two are listed as 550 square feet while the other two are 2,000 square feet. All of the tanks are designated as a TK4, which New York State says is used for “below ground horizontal bulk fuel storage.” The cost of installing a tank of that nature according to the state, at that time, included the tank itself, “excavation and backfill,” but did not include “the piping, ballast, or hold-down slab orring.” It is not known if the tanks are still on the property, but residents are concerned the city was not taking the precautions to find out.

Friday, April 6, 2007

YouTube, a popular video hosting website, has been banned by the government of Thailand after at least 3 videos insulting Thailand’s King, Bhumibol Adulyadej were uploaded to the site.

The first video which was “removed by user,” has turned up again, uploaded from a different user than the first posting, claiming to be from Iceland. The second video was uploaded as recently as April 5 and the third has been on YouTube since March 12.

The government states that the ban on YouTube will continue. Google, who owns YouTube, refused to remove the video saying videos of the current United States president George W. Bush are worse than those of Thailand’s King.

“That’s [the removal of the video] not enough. We want the picture removed too before we unblock it,” said Thailand’s Minister of Information and Technology, Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom who also said that he sent a request to Google to have the image removed from the site, but Google has not yet responded.

“It’s hard to tell how they [Google] will respond. In some countries, it’s a norm to have their leaders mocked, but this is different. With the king, it is very offensive to the Thai public. YouTube said it thought there was not enough reason to remove the clip after viewing the video and making its judgement on the content,” added Pookaiyaudom.

Google later replied to the King stating that the video will not be removed, but that YouTube has a plan to only allow certain videos to be viewed without blocking the whole site.

“He said pulling out those clips would not be an effective way to stop the damage, since users could re-post them again. He said a more effective way would be to block certain pages not to be seen in Thailand. It will be a few days before we lift the ban on the entire site,” added Pookaiyaudom.

The text of the first video, scrolled across the screen, stated “This video would give up to 15 years prison in Thailand, because their leaders are evil (sic) and hate free speech. A Swiss man, Oliver Rudolf Jufer, 57, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for spray-painting graffiti over Thailand’s revered King. Fuck Thailand leaders and the ape king.”

The 44 second-long video, posted April 4, 2007 shows images of King Adulyadej drawn over and made to look like a monkey or an ape and a “juxtaposed” image with feet on top of King Adulyadej, pointing just under his nose. In Thailand, feet are seen as a dirty side of humans and people there think of feet as being offensive and rude. Playing in the background of the video was the music of the national anthem of Thailand.

In the second video, posted on March 12, 2007, shows still images of leaders from different nations around the world, King Adulyadej is seen with black painted over his face, imitating thick dark eyebrows and a mustache.

In the third video, the feet are again placed just under the King’s nose when halfway through the film, his image is vandalized by showing his eyed “bugged out of his head” and the Wat Kaow Roop Chang Temple in Songkhla in between his eyes.

The first video was viewed nearly 70,000 times before the original user removed it from YouTube.