Just in time for the fifth anniversary of the bombs on Baghdad, and the subsequent shutdown of San Francisco’s Financial District during the next morning’s rush hour, I had to comment on some recent financial news. I’m not going to mention the current USA financial meltdown, which has trickled down (thanks for the phrase Mr. Reagan) to a huge meltdown in California’s government budget, as well as San Francisco’s own mess (and everyone else I know who is hanging on by their teeth). I want to talk about the beast that is the “reconstruction” and occupation of Iraq; a monster that Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz just said could reach $5 trillion of pain for the good ole’ red, white, and blue’s wallet. On the improbable low side, we’d maybe be out $3 trillion, states Stiglitz, who was also a former chief economist for the World Bank and now a professor at Columbia.
Year’s Best Implosions
Coming home for the holidays carries several pitfalls for the rusty suburbanite. Some surprises arise as well, which always helps alleviate the monotony that continues to creep into this strip-malled future. The perfect metaphor for this fell in my lap Saturday when I was flipping channels during breakfast.
CNN Headline News ran a piece on the “Year’s Best Implosions,” playing a reel (this isn’t the clip I saw, but the only one CNN posted) of about a dozen structures being systematically blown up to make way for newer, bigger structures. I had the sound on “MUDO” (for some reason, none of my parent’s remotes work well. The one for their main TV speaks Spanish, while the one for their cable box doesn’t speak to the TV.) and munched on granola in rice milk as humankind’s follies fell down one after another.
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Tomorrow: Clean Fuel Cabaret 2
A Benefit for the Sustainable Living Roadshow and the Green City Gallery
This Saturday, November 17th 7pm – Midnight
featuring :
performances, live music, short films, puppetshow, eco-carnival game , silent auction and dancing
With members of :
- Aphrodesia
- Gamelan X
- Beats Antique
- Sweet Snacks
- Big Tadoo Puppet Crew
Also:
- Hey There Mike
- Danny Cantrell
@ the Green City Gallery,
1950 Shattuck Avenue (1 block north of University Ave/Berkeley Bart)
$10-20 Sliding Scale Donation
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Picking Up M.O.O.P. (Misplaced OIL On the Playa)
Update: The SF Bay Guardian just printed an editorial that voices some of my concerns.
Last Wednesday morning, a large cargo ship named the Cosco Busan, hit the San Francisco side of the Bay Bridge (the first time ever that a ship hit the span). At first, reports stated that the ship’s fuel tanks had been ripped open and only a few hundred gallons of bunker oil had leaked into the Bay. I didn’t think much of the small spill, having read about explosions at the Richmond oil refineries over the years as well as other small disasters in the region (Hunters Point being one of the big small disasters).
By Friday, headlines told a different story. About 60,000 gallons of the fuel had actually gushed into the bay in about 30 minutes. Clean up procedures were slow to start; the Chronicle recently reported that the first five “skimmer” boats responded to the spill over 2 1/2 hours after the last gallon leaked out of the busted ship hull. By almost 5 PM Wednesday, the Coast Guard finally realized the extent of the spill, so a whole day was wasted just figuring out what had happened.
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Flaming Free Speech
larger versions of these photos are below
Halloween Critical Mass filled the streets with costumed goodness, and holiday oddness. But the freaks and strangeness glazed over an underlying unease of massive fires, escalating war rhetoric, sub prime melt down and continued oppression of indigenous peoples in places like Gaza, Oaxaca, and Baghdad. We avoided Union Square early on by turning on to Stockton. Coming out of the Stockton Tunnel into China Town, I rode up to a person trying to light an American Flag. After failed attempts with just a lighter, a fire juggler stopped and handed over a small amount of fuel to get the thing lit. As I took these photographs, some Critical Mass riders groaned and complained about the spectacle. I began to yell loudly that flag burning is protected under the US Constitution as free speech. Time and again the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of allowing someone to express their displeasure with government via burning what for some represents an empty symbol based upon one of the English Corporations that funded colonization of native lands in the 18th Century.
Critical Mass 15 Years Later
Update: SFGate/Chronicle wrote a fairly balanced article about CM:15. “The Question”, an unscientific survey on the sidebar, made me laugh.
Ten years a month ago, I arrived to San Francisco with two suit cases and no plan. Sort of knew one person I met in Italy two years earlier, and had done a small bit of AOL browsing online. I found SRL videos, Chicken John devivals, and BLF billboard jams. Only after I arrived did I discover that Burning Man was based in San Francisco, and was shocked to see that I was in the City the very week of the event. Flipping through that week’s Bay Guardian back in late August 1997, I made an even larger discovery: Critical Mass. The month before, Mayor Willie Brown had decided to try to control the five-year-old, ad hoc bike ride home, and arrested about 200 bicyclists in the process. So things where tense in San Francisco my first Friday ever in the whole state.
Amazed that something like Critical Mass even existed, I showed up to Justin Herman Plaza with a camera full of black and white film and a big grin. I didn’t have a bike, but what I saw inspired me to get my old mountain bike shipped to me as soon as possible. With helicopters flying overhead, hundreds and hundreds of cyclists filled the plaza. I got flyers, stickers, offers to drink beer, and walked through the jubilant crowd as they left for the ride. With the SFPD all over the place, the atmosphere was more like a party than a protest.
Rethink Your PARK(ing) Experience
PARK(ing) Day has become an international event in only two years, and will once again bring temporary PARKs to many places across San Francisco tomorrow. What a simple idea: take over parking spaces, set up a temporary autonomous park (grass, benches, couches, etc.), maybe feed the meter, and turn your ideas of urban living inside out. The people at Rebar have done well with this concept; it is now going to happen in at least 12 other USA cities as well as 10 international cities. Earlier this year, I heard Rebar give a report-back about another project of theirs, COMMONspace, at Southern Exposure’s Situationist-themed Annual Meeting event at the De Young Museum. That project also pushed the boundaries of public space, its use, meaning, and definition in the context of a private-friendly downtown.
Hopefully you won’t miss tomorrow’s great expression of literally taking back the streets. If you do, then organize your own PARK next year!
Battle of Seattle, Hollywood Style
So my birthday party rocked yesterday. Good to have Laura’s friends meet mine and good to see some of my friends who don’t visit much. David Morley arrived promptly at 2pm and got to enjoy the Middle Eastern food I made: yogurt salad, tomato and cucumber salad, and fried falafal. While the pitas got packed, he dropped a bomb to me and Pod; the 1999 Seattle WTO protest was being filmed as a Hollywood indie movie.
What? WTF?!
Help Save Urban Trees in Duboce Triangle
Jonathan over at the Magic Funk Palace (a coop house much like our beloved Flora Bora) on Duboce Ave., sent this call out. He’s volunteering time he doesn’t have to save these trees, and has a few neighbors helping out. I’ve been hearing his stories of this struggle against a huge hospital corporation, a greased neighborhood newspaper, and a planning commission that will build anything at the moment. This is the last chance to save these lofty trees!
I’ve suggested tree sits if all else fails. I’m willing to offer support and CD if needed.
___________________________
Hi friends,
This is really important. Please forward the message below to as many folks as you can to help preserve an urban grove of trees in the Duboce Triangle neighborhood of San Francisco. This is crucial that the Board of Supervisors hear from as many folks as possible on this matter, as it is our last chance with our appeal process. Please send a group email to the attached list of Supervisors so they understand the community’s position. Clearcutting mature trees in San Francisco is not acceptable and cannot be tolerated by the community. Please help take action now.
With Respect,
Jonathan
: EMERGENCY :
Help Save Urban Trees in Duboce Triangle Threatened by Hospital Expansion
Call on the Board of Supervisors to preserve the Duboce Grove from being clearcut
Demand a full Environmental Impact Review(EIR)
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Adrift for 96 Hours
Wow. Who knew that independent journalist/blogger Josh Wolf would score an appearance on the Stephen Colbert show Tuesday. I watch the Colbert Report about once a week, maybe twice a month, so found out after the original airing. I didn’t have time to sit in front of my laptop and watch the segment, but did manage to catch the re-run Wednesday evening on Comedy Central.
I watched Tuesday’s Daily Show first, killing time while the soup cooked at Laura’s place. We where still tired from the Health and Harmony Festival up in Sonoma County, so I soaked in the left-leaning alpha waves to relax. The repeats unsettled me, not in any way that you’d think a lefty show would unsettle someone.
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Sustainable Living Roadshow Hits the Road
May 18, 2 am
OK, so the trip to Portland got a bit sidetracked today. Jonathan got caught up in working on sponsorship for the Sustainable Living Roadshow (SLR), thus pushed about all of the to-do list to the bottom of his priorities. Then Zack, SLR co-producer, left town a day early, making Jonathan the go-to guy for the first tabling event for Bill Graham Presents. That meant we had to organize the truck, get biodiesel, and hand-make a canvas sign before 3 pm. That gave us enough time to drive up to the Concord Pavilion for the Stevie Nicks concert, opening night for the Pavilion.
Had we been scheduled for the Saturday BGP event, we would’ve gotten passes for the Bjork show at the Shoreline. As it stood, we got the inaugural gig up in Concord, a visit with the always good-to-see Sam Bower from GreenMuseum.org, and 1970s/80s top 40 hits. Go to a Stevie NIcks concert and you’ll realize that she had a lot of songs in rotation back then.
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On Tibet and Darfur
A few weeks ago, I got to sit in on a talk from the Dalai Lama. The theme of the talk was “how to make positive change in the world.” His Holiness, as he is addressed, spoke about basic Buddhist concepts that where mostly common sense tactics on living right in a world of suffering, like giving compassion to other beings fills one with positive feelings, thus making the world a better place.
There was a brief question and answer session after the talk, where His Holiness fielded questions from his translator via cards. About three mentioned the current situation in Tibet. Among other things, His Holiness suggested that we visit Tibet, return home, and share our experiences with any Chinese people we know. He also said that what was happening there was ethnic cleansing, and that the Chinese leaders do not decide from within their hearts.
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