The 55% have spoken

A sea change is in the air. Yesterday, the shareholders of Citigroup voted against the proposed compensation packages of its top 5 execs.  While the vote is not binding, the 55% who were opposed sent a clear signal about outrageous outsized pay to these corporate cats.  The tents of Occupy Wall Street have been taken down, but the sentiment has rooted, and not just within a fringe-y radical element.  One of the nay voters represented a Philadelphia money management firm that lays claim to 5 million shares of Citigroup.  I'm pretty sure their rep was not camped out in Zuccotti Park. I can't help but wonder if there was some organzing around this vote.

It's about equity; it's about fairness (The Buffett Rule); it's about stakeholder (and shareholders) exercising their voice.  The pendulum is swinging - it's a long, and not altogether smooth arc.  And this is not a 4-year term, but rather a generational shift, and thus more like 20 years.  I'm recommending a veggie share in your local CSA (community-supported agriculture).  It's a different kind of dividend.   

Music, movement, breath, beauty

Wow.  Isn't this gorgeous?  This interactive media feature in the New York Times shows how conducting works with the musical director of the New York Philharmonic.  With very cool videographics from the Movement Lab, we can see the invisible lines and waves he makes with the tips of his fingers and the swoops of his hands.  We see him crouch and lift, bend and nod, as he explains what he his trying to draw out of two classical pieces.  I especially like the way he explains the draw of the note (how it finishes) and anticipating the arrival of a new instrument.

Classical music can be so  supremely beautiful.  At my trip to the Kennedy Center last month to see a special concert of the National Symphony Orchestra, I was so enchanted with how classical music just holds you.  There is something in classical music where the individual sounds of the dozens of instruments and an odd hundred musicians swirl in the air, blend, and become one beautiful sound.  I remember trying to just listen for the strings or the woodwinds, and it is a difficult task, as they become indistinct from one another as they fill each corner of that magnificent hall.

Beautiful (but also sad)

Isn't this a beautiful infographic representing the voter divide and the voter turn-out data for the DC Primary election for At-large City Council member?  I love infographics, and I love data.  I wish I were better at presenting and depicting data in this beautiful visual and clear way.

Washington, Post. April 4, 2012

On a sad note, this city is so racially divided, depicted so clearly on the map - the white (blue) -black (green) divide feels more demarcated and prominent than ever as the city's demographic change.  See how Upper Cupcake aka Upper Northwest is so blue, and the blue travels south to Georgetown, and eastward to 16th Street NW.  Travels that Golden Mile, crosses over to Mount Pleasant and the now gentrified Columbia Heights, Dupont Circle and the lofts of downtown Chinatown, and condos of NoMa.  It stays blue across The Mall, well into Capitol Hill, and south to the SW waterfront and Navy Yard.  If only we could track that voter spread against real estate prices, household income, and of course race.  Likewise, the green stays east - first in Petworth,  down and over to Bloomington, Trinidad, and Benning Road, and across the Anacostia to Congress Heights and Minnesota Avenue - in the blackest parts of our city.

The red map is good, too.  It seems our low interest in voting traverses the entire city hovering around 15% across the voting precincts.

Will this city ever overcome its racial divide?  And how?  What would that look like?  I mean Marion Barry just got re-elected to City Council in Ward 8 with 72% of the vote!  Then, he got a little giddy with that victory, and began talking trash during his election night speech at the Player's Lounge about getting rid of the Asian-owned businesses.  SMDH.