MASH-N Make America a Shit Hole - Nation

One (?) Nation divisible under Trump.....

Covid Diary May 17 - August 5, 2020 New York

The photos, audio & video files document some of my experience from the first 5 months of Covid-19 lock-down. The audio files capture sound from my long-time home in lower Manhattan and the video documents the Black Lives Matter protests witnessed from my apartment window in New York City.

Covid Audio

Like elsewhere in the world, nature was reappearing in our cities. For a brief moment, on May 17^th, I heard a variety of birdsong I had never heard before from my apartment, located on Broadway below Canal Street. Their song was in stark contrast to the extraordinary quiet that we had experienced in lower Manhattan due to the lock-down of the city as of March 13^th. It was the moment to document the sounds of those days as we slowly made our way back to city life. The magical presence of those beautiful birds evaporated within days of their arrival, due to the city administration’s decision to take advantage of the lack of traffic. On May 19^th daily infrastructure improvement work began and ended on June 8, 2020, the first day of the opening of Phase 1. The following audio recordings display a wide variety of infrastructure sounds documented as early as 7AM and some as late as minutes before midnight. A very disturbing set of gnawing sounds, during a most unsettling time for the soul, at very disruptive times of the day.

Black Lives Matter Protest Video was filmed over many days from my apartment window. I did not protest in person as I was sick 6 times in 2018, culminating in pneumonia. All protests were peaceful. Only one got a bit cranky.

Black Lives Matter Photos of Painted Storefronts document boarded up ground floor retail spaces in SoHo, close to where I live. Many glass storefronts of trendy and luxury boutiques were vandalized during one evening of opportunistic looting that took place at the same time as active Black Lives Matter peaceful protests were taking place , elsewhere all over the city.

Retail Reeling Photos document 1 mile of unoccupied ground floor retail space available for rent, on Broadway between 8th and Canal Streets as of August 5, 2020. Broadway has hitherto functioned as a very active outdoor shopping mall for major retailers. While retail space was struggling prior to Covid-19, it is now a glaring fact that the economy is in free fall from the lack of national leadership from the very administration that vowed to "Make America Great Again".