Last week I went uptown to John Jay College of Criminal Justice to hear from former federal prosecutor, Paul Butler. He was a highly educated and well spoken man, capable of convincing anyone in the room, or at least leave one to question their initial thoughts on the matter. Paul was there to discuss the issues featured in his book, Let's Get Free: A Hip Hop Theory of Justice. He was exceptionally moving and persuading. Butler used music, specifically hip hop, to illuminate the injustices served to minority groups.

 Everyone in attendance was enticed by renowned author Joseph's O'Connor humor, wit, charisma, confidence and undoubtedly, his accent. He sounded like an older Porfessor O'Malley. He was interesting and very entertaining to listen to. His stories about dreary Ireland reminded me of the autobiography "Angela's Ashes" by another renowned Irish author, late Frank McCourt. All his talk of Patty Smith gave everyone a good laugh. All of his readings were powerful and some very funny. He read every word with conviction and clarity.

I went to see an opera at the Metropolitan Opera House yesterday, and while at the time at the opera, I looked over the architecture. The architecture is the perfect example of late 60s modernism, when the movement, in my opinion, was declining. The exterior of the opera house is a stone gray cube with some arches but not much else, which was the element that modernism strived for. Inside are concrete curving stairways covered in red carpeting, but not only were the floors carpeted but the walls were carpeted.

I am going to go right out and say this, I did not like the Joseph O'Connor reading. Part of this is because I have a hard time sitting still for long periods of time, though there were other reasons too. His voice, though I heard some people praising it, was melancholy and dull, and it didn't really catch my attention much. Also, the excerpts he read were a bit too long as well. Though he was kind enough to tell us how long each excerpt was, the excerpts were still quite long, according to him, each about eight minutes long.