Springtime brings sun to the Mission, people on bikes, and the beginning of outdoor fun. This month, Spring brought up a different past where vacant lots began to grow lofts. I rode my bike through the Mission District about eight times a week back then, and began to feel the ‘hood change it’s vibe. At one point during a CELLspace meeting, the group broke down and began to realize that artists were leaving for cheaper rents.
Continue reading “
Squatting in the Attic”
BLSP’s Topsy-Turvy Bus Debuts in Berkeley
This morning, during breakfast, I pulled out Section B of today’s Chronicle and saw a great feature article on Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities’ (BLSP) newest educational-vehicle creation, the Topsy-Turvy Bus. Spawned from the brain of ice-cream wizard, and my former boss, Ben Cohen (with help from others including myself), this latest eye-catcher plans on heading to Vermont soon via Iowa and New Hampshire.
The Chronicle article mentioned a launching today at Sproul Plaza at UC Berkeley, so I contacted BLSP ED Duane Peterson so see what was up. BLSP had planned on launching with the Hip Hop Caucus crew, but HHC canceled their show due to an ongoing janitors’ strike at UCB. Duane didn’t know what, if anything, was happening, but I still hopped on BART and got there around 1pm to find Ben Cohen and the Topsy-Turvy Bus creators about to leave. After a brief chat with Ben, he handed me some coupons for free B&J ice cream, a few 3-year-old pull-out pens, and then boarded the bus to head off amongst gawking, photo-snapping pedestrians. I got a few photos myself.
Papa Ben Cohen affectionately leans on his newest brainchild, the Topsy-Turvy Bus
Continue reading “BLSP’s Topsy-Turvy Bus Debuts in Berkeley”
Big Coal in Black Mesa, AZ
Stop Peabody Coal from Destroying the land and peoples of Black Mesa
Like the Wizard behind the curtain, ignore what Bush said about alternative energy in his State of the Union Address. Look at his concern as simple rhetoric to placate the critics, wash over the bad press, and shift citizen’s thinking to that of a gentle lamb. As Bush spouts desires of a cleaner future, a war looms across the nation. Battles have already been fought, one is going on right now, and a larger framing of the debate has begun.
What the Hell are the Civilian Reserve Corps?
At this week’s State of the Union Address, George Bush did his usual rhetorical spiel. He had a good speech writer who crafted statements that Democrats had to applaud. He said things that are vaporware for the most part, and the idea of balancing the budget while expanding the Pentagon made my skin crawl. Most people that read my blogs know that we all could’ve debated the President on many points he brought up.
After stating that he wanted to expand our armed forces by over 90,000 (Imagine the Pentagon budget after that escalation!), Bush dropped a quiet bomb on those who have a creeping paranoia about our current government system:
A second task we can take on together is to design and establish a volunteer Civilian Reserve Corps. Such a corps would function much like our military reserve. It would ease the burden on the Armed Forces by allowing us to hire civilians with critical skills to serve on missions abroad when America needs them. It would give people across America who do not wear the uniform a chance to serve in the defining struggle of our time.
Civilian Reserve Corps (CRC)? My roomie Pip and I both caught the statement and began to try to figure out what the hell Bush was talking about? I imagined neighbors around the USA, going off to war-torn areas to do tasks that corporations where doing. Then, maybe, they’d come back and march around the neighborhood, snitch on us activists, and create a type of fascist vanguard for taking over our commercial areas in the country.
Continue reading “What the Hell are the Civilian Reserve Corps?”
This Week in Comparative History
Federales in Oaxaca, Martial Law in the US….
A few snapshots of random connections over the past few days
Oaxaca has now reached a tipping point, forcing outgoing Mexican president Vicente Fox to send federal police to take control of the barricaded city. With one more month to go in office, and the looming potential for civil unrest as Felipe Calderon gets sworn in, Fox has decided to move on the successful coalition of dissatisfied Mexican citizens.
At the same time, the story became major international news after a NY Indymedia journalist was shot and killed during an incident at the barricades of the city. Brad Will died from wounds to the abdomen sustained from armed Mexican police. With Dia de los Muertos approaching, Ward will be mourned and celebrated by a community of activists and friends he knew, and those who sympathize with the democratic rights of the people of Oaxaca.
Continue reading “This Week in Comparative History”
Living Beyond our Planet’s Means
According to Global Footprint Network, humans reached a tipping point today. As the world condemns North Korea’s nuclear test, and the Foley Scandal takes a close second in media attention, our species officially began to consume more that our home planet can provide. “In other words, [an Indepentent UK article states] assuming that the world has a certain quantity of natural resources that can sustainably be used up each year, today is the date at which this annual capacity is reached.”
A few weeks ago, I set up the Wheel of Fortune at the annual Iowa Environmental Council conference. Their theme was “How Big is our Splash?” and the keynote speaker was Dr. William Rees. Dr. Rees teaches college in Vancouver, BC, and wrote a book in 1996 titled Our Ecological Footprint. According to Dr. Rees, an ecological footprint “is a measure of the ‘load’ imposed by a given population on nature, or the land necessary to sustain resource consumption and absorb wastes.” His PowerPoint presentation ran deep with his mathematical formula’s results that showed how humans are outgrowing our planet.
Happy Constitution Day from Clinton, IA!
Part I
As told tonight by Freud, Jung, and Couch, whilst posing within the consumer appliances of the mind.
Transcribed, in good standing, from the Latin, by Brother Marcus Antonius Corticus, BFA, VDW, etc.
Entrepreneurial Activism
During my second day on the job with Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities (BLSP), I started asking questions about the carnival games. Ben Cohen, Board Chairman, and Duane Peterson, Executive Director, listened patiently to my questions. I asked about crowd control, doing two games at once, set up needs, and maintenance needs. Most of my questions got a single answer: “We don’t know. You’re the first person to take the games out there, so you’ll tell us.”
After test performances that first week in Burlington, Duane and Ben kept telling me to act bigger, make more noise and be louder. While not working the games, I told their administrative assistant, Vicky, that I felt like I had six learning curves going on at once. I was overwhelmed at first, because I was the new guy with new games going to the newest campaign site in New Hampshire to work with the other newest employees of BLSP. Needless to say, my stay in New Hampshire with Priorities New Hampshire (PNH) ended up being one of patience, frustration, flexibility, and constant adaptation. I loved every minute, but also felt helpless at times due to not knowing how to adapt, or not doing it quick enough.
Continue reading “Entrepreneurial Activism”
World War IV
Another day, another gig in Iowa. Tonight’s event was a Gin Blossoms concert by the Des Moines river. I spent most of the night tired from a late return from Madison, WI this morning. I also spent about 15 minutes debating our position to a young, naive Republican Limbaughist. She argued poorly so spent most of the talk changing the subject. I kept telling her “you aren’t convincing me to change my mind” and correcting her incorrect comments.
Most of yesterday was driving to and from Madison for another Ween concert. This show ended up being the rocker I wanted in Des Moines, and I banged my head on and off depending on which song they played (“Dr. Rock,” “It’s Gonna Be a Long Night,” and Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades” stood out). I heard many songs that weren’t in the other show, this sold out, and the audience of mostly college kids roared and sang along to most of the songs.
At one point in the show, Gene Ween, the lead singer, told the crowd that they had a nice day in Madison. They caught a free classical show in the park near the capital and watched CNN in a sports bar. When he said this, I instantly wanted him to speak out against the growing violence that fills our media channels. The Madison crowd would’ve loved it and roared in approval. I sensed this because I saw many overtly anti-Bush shirts all night. One said “I’m an enemy combatant and I vote.” Another had Bush sucking the Statue of Liberty’s neck.
Continue reading “World War IV”
Al Gore and the ELF
Earlier today I read an article in the June-July 2006 issue of indybay.org’s Fault Lines that spoke with San Francisco Bay Area salmon fishers. Like the fish, and the rivers it lives in, the fishermen are dying off as well. In this article, “Damn the Dams,” Andre Attack quotes one of the fishermen, who stated “I’m all for that [blowing up the damns that are killing the Klamath River and the fish that live in it]. Blow the fuckers up!” Attack then quotes another fisherman that says “I honestly wish someone would recruit me for a job like that.”
This evening, I just got to watch Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, where the former US Vice President states that “we are witnessing a collision between our civilization and the Earth.” Using hard science, and flashy graphs and photos, Gore goes on to show that, according to his documentary’s Web site, “humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb. If the vast majority of the world’s scientists are right, we have just ten years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tail-spin of epic destruction involving extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves beyond anything we have ever experienced.”
That’s right: ten years to fix the problem.
Requiem for Billyburg
New York City, Last Week
Early in Rev. Billy’s Church of Stop Shopping’s service/performance, an elderly man gets up out of his front-row seat and is escorted down the aisle of St. Marks Church. “That looks like Mark Twain,” I think, observing this gentlemen’s crazy hair, bushy mustache, and seersucker suit. “Wait. That’s Kurt Vonnegut!” Rev. Billy sees the man leave and confirms my thought, saying “bless you Brother Kurt” into his mic.
Vonnegut couldn’t stay long enough to give the reading portion of Stop Shopping’s service/performance, so Rev. Billy reads the poem for him. With a four-camera shoot going on, and everyone’s acknowledgment that Vonnegut was old and not well, Rev. Billy reads a somber requiem for the war, it’s dead, and our country’s current state. Sober, respectful, the Rev. takes the poem’s message and calls on his flock to heed the words of our elder brother.
HappyFt’s Patriotic “Terror” Trail
Sons of Liberty Redux
Providence, RI and Boston, MA
Since 911, I’ve looked into the USA’s own “terrorist” past and discovered many precedents that our Founding Fathers themselves created in the 1700s. Similar in scope to uprisings (i.e., intifada) like the Hebrews against their imperial Roman rulers, men like Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, and John Adams became the upper and middle class “leaders” of their own form of uprising against their own imperial rulers – the English King and Parliament. More like the Earth Liberation Front’s tactics than Al-Quida’s, our own Sons of Liberty worked their colonial rulers over via strategic use of violence, intimidation, and, well, terror. Along with a strong propaganda campaign, the Sons of Liberty incited riots, set fires in the streets, trespassed upon and burnt English property, and eventually tarred and feathered those that were loyal to the crown.
I ran across this plaque in Providence on Wednesday. This caused me to reschedule my Thursday plans to try to find more spots where the Sons of Liberty conspired and acted.