Jonathan Gross comes to New York and has an experience of a lifetime, he shares it, including performing in Times Square for the International Day of Peace…..

On September 20, I travelled to New York to sing a song I wrote when I was 14. To be in the neon world of Times Square, with its flickering lights, and to project a stone slab from Byzantium,  was, perhaps, too much even for my hubris.

So grateful was I (vanitatus vanitatum) that I repaid Paul Sladkus’ kindness by smashing up my Hertz-rent-a-car, leased only moments before.  I’m an excitable person and the opportunity to play in Times Square for “Pause the World for Peace” was apparently too much for me.  On 42^nd and 5^th I hit a truck, rear-ending the vehicle and potentially compromising the man’s neat aluminium ladder. (damages owed to Hertz?: $3000) I was jutting my elbow into Vince’s face to show him the New York Public library. “Look! Look!” I cried. “ Boom!!” Vince didn’t say a word, accustomed to my stupidities,  but the truck driver jumped out of his car, ready to assault me. I smiled and apologized and raised my shoulders like a chimpanzee. To my left, Iranian protesters were commemorating a holiday, on this U.N. day of peace, showing grisly pictures of people who had been tortured.  Near a newsstand a woman, with a preternatural smile, was selling beads on  the street. Did I want one? No. I did not. I had already paid 5.00$ for a similar version.   My drummer and I were headed to Elmont, New York, to visit my parents’ ancestors. This was at his insistence, I must stress, because I am a coward about graveyards.  To show him around the town, I pulled up to Saddle Rock elementary school and  almost got arrested on Rosh Hashanah for taking photographs. Three police cars detained us for an hour; they thought I had drugged Vince, he was so bored with the Rockford files meets Kojack routine they were running on us). It turns out there was a school shooting (averted) in Benjamin Cardozo, where my mother taught English for more than a decade. A 16 year old had a fully loaded glock in his locker and a facebook post that was not auspicious. We had just returned from the graves of my ancestors, shortly after  my Byzantine moment in Times Square (singing an ephemeral song in front of a decidedly non-ephemeral slab of stone).  Distracted, hungry, vaguely depressed, I wondered about the divine implications of my percussionist uttering a Buddhist prayer at my grandmother’s grave. In Great neck, later that day, I found  that McMansions sprouting like mushrooms had replaced the 1970s houses I remembered, shrunken prune-like counterparts to these swollen houses, obese with pride; a cantor greeted me at the door of my former residence, the only street, perhaps, in the United States that boasts three temples. In my house there are many mansions.

Our house was a colonial affair, decolonized through lack of resources: my parents both taught English. We were a family of  secular humanists (read “atheists and non-believers”), and would hide  on Yom Kippur when the Iranian Jews kicked out of Tehran in 1978 made their way to shul to pray. Our house was up for sale, the Cantor told me. His house, he might have said, the one the temple bought for him. He was moving to Strathmore, a more lucrative village just down the road.  My sister rued the K-Mart furniture and  exercise bike. The children were confined to bunk beds, while the parents ran the roost. A true Long Island story.

Shortly before, in Times Square, as part of the Pause for Peace program, we performed “Byzantine”.  Lofty as ever in our ruminations, we were struck by the lack of bathrooms in this most civilized of cities. It was a problem then (1977, when I grew up) and it’s a problem now (2025). Several performers discreetly made their way to the Disney store a few blocks away, exchanging masonic handshakes, wandering through the dresses devoted to Ariel on the second floor,  to find their bladders miraculously transformed with the help of modern plumbing. When my percussionist had first mentioned the lack of facilities, in a true Don Quixote gesture, I winced with righteous indignation at Sancho’s impudence. How dare you expect that there would be a place to go to the bathroom? In this, the most civilized city in the world. 42^nd street.  Surely they had more important things to do than provide blue plastic port a potties!! What kind of philistine would expect a bathroom in Times Square, the land of prostitution now transformed into Disneyland. We arrived ready to play for Paul: a gorilla was dancing to the left us, promoting another store closure no doubt. Japanese hip hop dancers gyrated to no audience in particular: well dressed and youthful, stars of their own show.

We were a long way from Yeats’ “Sailing to Byzantium”.   Or were we? Life passes by, like a Fellini film, and what remains? A stone from the Byzantium period, projected in pixels on a big white screen, while a 62 year old, middle aged man (that would be me) bleats out a song he wrote when he was 14. Luckily, it only had 3 chords. The poem, on which I based the song, is hard to understand. Is Yeats  talking about visiting Istanbul? Ravenna? Apparently, Yeats visited Ravenna in 1907 and was inspired by the mosaics, to write his poem twenty years later. He didn’t visit Ravenna again (not to mention Istanbul) because he was afraid the bad air would kill him.

I knew nothing about Byzantium when I wrote the song, staring at a pine tree, a pint-sized depressive.  I still don’t. AI tells us:

Byzantium is the original Greek colony  that was founded in the 7^th century. It later became the  capital of the Eastern Roman Empire founded by Constantine; After the Ottoman Empire conquered the city in 1453, it was eventually renamed Istanbul.  Ravenna was the Western Roman empire. Ravenna was the city Yeats visited in 1907 which inspired his poem.

I lived in NYC from 1985 to 1992; like most spoiled brats ( I. borrow the term from my mother), I did so on my parents’ largesse. When I would say something particularly stupid (e.g. I didn’t know there were two twin towers), my music partner would say: “How many years college?” Though I’ve taught in a college for 33 years, I remain as ignorant as the day I was born.  Though I could do a learned  sophistical dance in a college classroom, cobbling together the work of others, I ‘m not sure I can explain what Byzantium or Byzantine means, nor the meaning of Yeats’ poem (and my own song). I remain as ignorant of Yeats and my own song as I was the day I wrote it. Such is inspiration. “If the fool persists in his folly, he will become wise.” If that phrase has a good ring to it, that is because it is not mine but William Blake’s.

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Read Fall Issue

The Heart of the Season

“Autumn has always been a time of reflection—a season where we find ourselves drawn inward, reevaluating what matters most and savoring the comforts of home. In many ways, fall is nature’s love letter to us, an invitation to pause, breathe deeply, and bask in the warmth of the present moment.”

”There is something profoundly grounding about autumn—how the earth seems to whisper that, just like the leaves falling from the trees, it’s okay to let go of what no longer serves us. It’s in this space of release and renewal that we can begin to cultivate more intention, more joy, and more connection in our everyday lives.”

“I am deeply grateful for each of you, the readers of Ile Maison, who inspire me with your passion for wellbeing, art, nature and innovation. This issue is dedicated to you—to celebrating the small moments of magic in our daily lives, and to the bigger vision of creating spaces that nurture us and the world around us.”

“As we journey through the autumn months, let’s open our hearts to the possibilities that come with change, and take time to honor the sacredness of home. After all, in the art of living well, our homes are not just places to live—they are expressions of love, places to dream, and the foundations of a life lived with intention.”
~ with Love, Ilona Lee

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Good News Corporation in partnership with Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, Present: A Moment of Silence for Peace in Times Square at 12 Noon on the International Day of Peace September 21, 2024 & Kick Off for Climate Week NYC

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#thoughtoftheday #happy life #busstop #journey #longterm #blessings

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To get the BEST out of Life,

Realize your Past

without Regret,

Handle your Present

with Confidence,

Prepare for the Future

without Fear.

Good Morning.

#thoughtfortheday #bestlife #realize #regret #handleyourpresent #confidence #preparefuture #withoutfear

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Submitted by Jasmine Tang in English and in Chinese.

哈佛大學推薦： 20種快樂的方法

1. Be grateful. 學會感恩。

2. Choose your friends wisely.明智的選擇朋友。

3. Cultivate compassion.培養同情心。

4. Keep learning.不斷學習。

5. Become a problem solver.學會解決問題。

6. Do what you love.做你愛做的事情。

7. Live in the present活在當下。

8. Laugh often.經常微笑。

9. Practice forgiveness.學會原諒。

10. Say thanks often常說謝謝。

11. Create deeper connections.學會深交。

12. Keep your agreement.信守承諾。

13. Meditate.反思、默想。

14. Focus on what you’re doing.關注你在做的事情。

15. Be optimistic. 樂觀。

16. Love unconditionally.無條件付出愛。

17. Don’t give up.永不放棄。

18. Do your best and then let go.盡力而為，然後隨緣。

19. Take care of yourself. 照顧好自己。

20. Give back. 感恩圖報。

Dear Members and Friends,

I believe that during this most difficult time that the 20 Things That Can Make Life Happier – Submitted by Jasmine Tang says it all. This too will pass.

The Good News is that we connect in Peace and Love.

All We Are is What We Are With Each Other. Good News Motto.

Please join us for our Annual Celebration for the International Day of Peace, September 21, 2020. This year it will be Virtual and happening all over the world, it will be powerful live broadcast starting at 12 noon est with a repeat broadcast at 7pm when Hero’s Bells are rung.

Watch the Broadcast on www.peacedayparty.org, www.goodnewsplanet.TV and thousands of additional broadcast locations worldwide and podcasts.

Our prayers go out to all who lost someone during this time and I offer, as an All Faiths & Spiritual Ordained Minister my listening ear or to perform a ceremony should you or anyone have a need. 212 647 1212.

To share your Good News or advertise/ sponsor or invest in Milestone Broadcast Corporation, please email me at paul.sladkus@goodnewsbroadcast.com

To DONATE and help Good News Corporation, our nonprofit foundation continue go to: www.peacedayparty.org

Sharing Good Health and Safety For All,

Paul Sladkus & Good News/Peace Team
PS. Milestone Broadcast Corporation is a Multicultural, Multimedia broadcasting and marketing organization since 1985. Chinese Media helped to put us in business.
212 647 1212

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