The release of Julian Assange after years in a UK jail made me remember an op-ed by Bob Garfield on the subject. Garfield’s key point is that Assange is not a journalist but a broker of stolen goods and that the press is under attack but not in this case. His op-ed is nuanced in a way you rarely see in this absolutist political world. I think that Assange, as the quote above illustrates, became a bit of a media darling with his premature gray hair, his smooth, steady Australian accent and his nobel Robin Hood persona. In this case the loot was classified documents.
Indeed, the U.S government has many dirty secrets and does all kinds of immoral things. It has been this way from the beginning. Shining the light on the malfeasance is a small step in the right direction but I doubt it will truly change behaviors. It is better to simply follow the money. Much of that is in plan view. Journalists are simply too scared to bite the few hands that feed them.
The thing is press freedom, defined under U.S. Law and best practices, doesn’t permit libel or extortion or, by the way, burglary–digital or otherwise. With journalistic freedom, comes journalistic responsibility. And Assange, explicitly, disclaims that–at least where other people are concerned. While he preaches that all information, no matter its sources or dangers, is better public than secret, his own organization is shrouded in secrecy.
– Bob Garfield
Bob Garfield was fired from On The Media and NPR. He evidently had a short fuse and would yell at people. I do miss his opines.
4742 Mission Street is now a five-story building. It has been under construction for a few years. It looks to be a mix of residential and first-floor retail but the end result is still a bit of a mystery. The windows are in. The paint has dried. Who knows? It may be fenced-off for months or years as that is what can happen out here in the hinterlands of San Francisco.
The location was once El Tapatio, a dance hall with live bands. A few years back I wrote about this historic location in a piece – El Tapatio Closed for Good – Another Live Music Venue in SF Gone.
I heard about What Kind of Bird Can’t Fly: A Memoir of Resilience and Resurrection by Dorsey Nunn while listening to an interview of Dorsey on Sheer Intelligence. It is an inspiring read and for anyone in the San Francisco Bay Area a window into maybe a world on the other side of the tracks – in this case, the other side of the freeway.
Dorsey is a remarkable person who really is an inspiration, He proves that it is never too late to have hope and change your ways and create a better world. The book is a memoir that outlines the realities of growing up as a Black person in East Palo Alto, California on the other side of Interstate 101 from the world of Menlo Park and Silicon Valley. In his honest, direct and often profane voice, he paints the picture of what it was like to grow up in community that has been disenfranchised and marginalized. The red-lining. The drugs. The violence. The community. The poverty. The police. His complicated family and their struggles as well. The book then is a journey of a lengthy prison sentence, much in San Quentin and how through learning to read and finding various mentors he educated himself and then went on to advocate for incarcerate people’s rights, eventually making for the passage of some very significant legislation .
The book recalls all of Dorsey’s ups and downs. His drug problems and addictions. The people who ultimately believed in him. The various non-profits organizations that Dorsey started to help “people in cages.” The tone and pace of the book is consistent and the linear nature of the book makes it so you can’t wait to read the next chapter. Its a page-turner and will make you understand the Prison Industrial Complex a little bit better the next time you drive by one of the many prisons along Interstate 5.
While I was reading What Kind of Bird Can’t Fly: A Memoir of Resilience and Resurrection I picked up by chance at the local Goodwill the album Good Old Boys by Randy Newman . It is an amazing album with poignant song writing. The title track Rednecks is basically the soundtrack to Dorsey Nunn’s book. While Dorsey’s book never uses the “N” word, Rednecks has a chorus that ends with Keeping the Niggers Down.
Yes he’s free to be put in a cage in Harlem in New York City.
And he’s free to be put in a cage on the South Side of Chicago and the West-Side.
And he’s free to be put in a cage in Hough in Cleveland.
And he’s free to be put in a cage in East St. Louis.
And he’s free to be put in a cage in Fillmore in San Francisco.
And he’s free to be put in a cage Roxbury in Boston.
They’re gathering ’em up from miles all around. Keepin’ the Niggers down. Rednecks by Randy Newman
While it is evidently one of Randy’s favorite songs, he rarely perform it live. It surely makes a lot of people uncomfortable and definitely not Disney-approved but it could be a song in the movie version of What Kind of Bird Can’t Fly: A Memoir of Resilience and Resurrection. Buy the book. Let me know if you agree.
San Francisco Carnaval 2024 took place on May 24 and 25. The weather on Saturday was a bit cold and cloudy but on Sunday the sun came out for the parade. It was a glorious day. Below are some photos I took of the parade and the fun on Harrison Street. The Radio Valencia Rumberos were amazing. Grand Marshall Rigoberta Menchú was on a float. A very brave and interesting person. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1992/tum/biographical/
These novels will give way, by and by, to diaries or autobiographies – captivating books, if only a man knew how to choose among what he calls his experiences that which is really his experience, and how to record truth truly.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“My takeaway is human adaptability to almost anything is just like much more remarkably strong than we realize, and you can get used to anything as the new normal, good or bad, pretty fast,” Altman said. “Over the last couple of years, I’ve learned that lesson many times.” Sam Altman – OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says he can no longer eat in public in S.F.
Sam Altman is 39 years old and seems to be a darling of the tech industry. He SMS messages usually in all lowercase, was a key player in OpenAI, a new artificial intelligence software company, and seems to use the word “like” in random places.
If Sam were to write a book, it would certainly be a good idea to send it through the AI rewriter. Perhaps it would say instead: “My takeaway is human adaptability to almost anything is just like much more remarkably strongis stronger than we realize, and you can quickly get used to anything, good or bad as the new normal. , good or bad,pretty fast ,”
I am convinced that a lot of the new tools, while remarkable, are making humans less intelligent and dependent. Most people today surely have a hard time writing longhand with a pen. Spelling is an ancient skill. Along comes credit card transactions with predetermined tips and people no longer have to do basic math. Long-form math. Forget about it.
So Sam Altman just realized that being worth billions of dollars and trying to live a life of anonymity is impossible. Probably a good idea to “like” add that algorithm into that “like” ChatGPT thing.
The Quarterly Report: A brief synopsis of the news in San Francisco over the last three months. You are now reading “Slow News That Doesn’t Break” – the exotic internet.
Sporting News
Baseball season has begun. Recently a new lovely park opened just south of the ballpark with tables, places to sit and a lovely statue of Willie McCovey. I was riding my bike when I saw the ribbon-cutting ceremony. The ceremony seemed a bit subdued – like someone wary of a new luxury car getting its first scratch. The Giants are 17 and 21 as of this report. I will check back in after the All-Star Break. That is my usual mode of operation.
McCovey Cove
Weather
The season changed to spring sometime in mid-April. The 20 knot northwest winds started up and you just knew that the fog was next. The temperature of the water at Ocean Beach went from 58 degrees Fahrenheit to 52. Now in early May we are experiencing some exceptionally warm spring weather with temperatures in the 80s and wind blowing from the east. The real news these days is definitely the weather report. Pay attention, as at anytime the temperature can drop twenty degrees and the fog machine will start up.
Politics
The 2024 mayoral race in San Francisco is going to be one wild ride. There is a lot of outside money coming in with front groups like GrowSF and TogetherSF supporting various well-off candidates. What is different this time around is that there are many candidates that San Francisco Chronicle calls “moderates” running while there are just two “progressive” candidates, Ahsha Safai and Aaron Peskin. Good grief! The labels that these newspapers bestow on politicians is beyond silly. Daniel Lurie and Mark Farrell are not moderates. In another era, in another town, they would simply be the usual pro-business Republicans.
Aaron Peskin, with his years of knowledge of the city, his neighborhood credibility, excellent speaking skills and a new-found sobriety may be a tough candidate to beat. I traveled down to Portsmouth Square and heard Aaron Peskin’s mayoral announcement speech. It was extremely refreshing to hear a politician speak in complete sentences and have something meaningful to say.
Aaron Peskin among supporters
I will be a Mayor who loves this city, and doesn’t beat up on it for political gain. A Mayor who works for everyday San Franciscans and their neighborhoods, not just the well-to-do and the well-connected. And I will be a hands-on Mayor, using my 25 years of governmental know-how to once again make San Francisco the city that knows how. Aaron Peskin – Candidacy Announcement – April 6, 2024 Mission Local
Let me be clear. I support arresting fentanyl dealers and holding them accountable. But arresting drug users, and doing nothing more, is a cynical and dangerous policy that results in more overdoses, and not more treatment for addiction. Aaron Peskin – Candidacy Announcement – April 6, 2024 Mission Local
After the event I was able to talk to former San Francisco mayor Art Agnos who supports Peskin. He said that being mayor was the hardest job he has ever done. He said that when the 1989 Lomo Prieta earthquake hit during the World Series he was at the game and then whisked off to a command center where he found out the head of emergency services had just had had a heart attack. For the next few days he was winging it. I thanked him for the great job he did as mayor during those unpredictable times. He was an awesome mayor.
National Politics
When Donald Trump was asked about whether he raped Jean Carroll he said that it was not possible as she was not his “type.” Isn’t it interesting that he has not said the same thing about Stormy Daniels. Perhaps Stormy is his type?
Road Repairs, Parking Tickets, Do Not Parks Signs and Other Treacherous Endeavors
Sooner or later you figure out the plan. Starting at Geneva and Mission and heading north they are repaving the bus stops with concrete. It is about time. What is odd is that they pretty much pour the concrete and then slop asphalt in between the new and the old. Thanks for the effort.
Valencia Bike Lanes and the Sunny Side of the Street
Merchants and many people are still angry about the center bike lane on Valencia. The parking has changed with the installation of individual digital meters. What is strange is that in many places half of the block is for only drop-off parking. This is silly, not practical and a gift to companies like Uber and Lyft.
Valencia Street center bike lane
Parklets, Microclimates and Where the Sun Does Shine
Not much to report. The parklet situation has stabilized but the red-tape for merchants is often too much and they remove their parklets. This is a topic that a city mayor Breed could have a lot of impact and instead it ends up highlighting the incompetence of city government.
“Sooner or later everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
The quote above is by Robert Louis Stevenson. I ran into it while reading a very interesting book, Cuba on The Verge. The beauty of the quote above is that it is timeless and universal – devoid of politics.
I do not know who wrote the Saturday Night Live skit above, but it is very funny. It was probably a team of writers. But nobody knows.
I have always wondered why comedians today do not make more use of historical figures, especially the “founding fathers.” Humor can then merge with irony in a way that reaches a wider audience. It is like slow news, perhaps “slow humor,” where the vantage is long, and the costumes essential. You do not cringe. Instead everyone simply laughs as the truths are often of the everyday, non-political, small world. It is humor that is self-evident.
A while back I had the idea of a skit where Benjamin Franklin uses a time-machine that he had invented but did not tell anyone about as the plans were lost in a fire. Ben travels to the United States in our current era and then to a drawing room where seated are Jefferson, Washington, Adams and probably others. Someone’s wife. Perhaps a black enslaved person or mistress.
Hand on his knee, Franklin would calmly explain what he saw – explain what he had observed in the twenty-first century America on his time-travel. The majority of the content would be the others commenting and asking questions. These comments would be based on history and their actual writings, personalities and known beliefs. The possibilities are endless. It would shine a light on how originalism is an absurd concept. The world changes, but things also stay the same as in the ending line, “where all Black men are free,” to which Washington ignores like a Florida history book. Evidently, we still have much work to do with our weights and measurements. Equality on many fronts is still but a dream.
NOW THE FUN STUFF! FOURTH GRADE WEIGHTS AND MEASUREMENTS
Weights
16 ounces in a pound. 2000 pounds is a ton There is no word for 1000 pounds
Liquids
Liters and milliliters are used for soda, wine and alcohol
Gallons, pints and quarts are used for milk and paint.
There are 3.78541 liters in a gallon (but nobody knows).
1 liter = 33.814 Fl oz
Distances
Inches, feet, yards and miles
12 inches to a foot. 3 feet to a yard,
5028 feet to a mile
1760 yards to a mile (but nobody knows).
Sports
Meters are used in unpopular sports like track and swimming. (Also springboard diving, but no one asked.)
In football, where the field is 100 yards long, an extra-point after the touchdown is worth 1 point. A field goal is worth 3. A touchdown is worth 6. A safety is worth 2.
Temperature
The great nation of the United States of America measures temperature in Fahrenheit. You spell Fahrenheit F-a-h-r-e-n-h-e-i-t.
Water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit and 100 degrees Celsius.
To convert temperatures in degrees Celsius to Fahrenheit, multiply by 1.8 (or 9/5) and add 32
For example
10 C = 50 F
20 C = 68 F
30 C = 86 F
40 C = 104 F
You can also, multiply Celsius by 2 and add 30 to get an approximation.
CODA
Mel Brooks used recent political history and satire in The Producers. He did it very daringly in “Springtime for Hitler” which is over the top. It combines Broadway showtunes and dance numbers in a Busby Berkeley style with the Third Reich. It is absurd and you laugh because of this absurdity. Oddly, it was a premonition for things to come.
Another amazing use of history and satire in humor is Monty Python’s Monty Python and the Holy Grail..
Let us know of other routines that have taken this tack. So far, nobody knows.
Most musicians are much more eclectic than their fans. If he had nothing else to do, Presley sang gospel, as did Jerry Lee Louis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash, three other Sam Philips discoveries. (A recording of the four of them jamming in a studio in 1956 was discovered and released several years after Presley’s death.) Muddy Waters sang “Red Sails in the Sunset.” Robert Johnson sang “Yes, Sir, That’s My Baby.” James Brown liked Sinatra and disliked the blues. Leadbelly was a Gene Autry fan. Chuck Berry’s “Maybellee” was a cover of a country and western song called “Ida Red,” recorded in 1938 by a white band, Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. Race had a lot to do with the music business in the United States. It had much less to do with the music.” Louis Menand – The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War – 2021
Ideas about the quote above. April 5, 2024
Menand is attempting to show that musicians have diverse tastes in music. Many fans do too. James Brown probably did not dislike the blues. He was the blues. He probably did not like the blues when it is played poorly. A more, and better quote is one credited to Louis Armstrong.
“There is two kinds of music, the good, and the bad. I play the good kind.” Louis Armstrong
Coleman Hawkins, the iconic tenor saxaphonist of the post World War II era loved to listen to Classical Symphonies and operas on his new stereo. Lot’s of people did.
The redeeming point of Menand’s quote is that musicians often gravitate to all kinds of music. In that way race does not matter.
A news story that get very little coverage is the Klamath River dam removal project. In January 2024 the last dam was “removed” and the river started flowing unimpeded for the first time in over 100 years. Of course, change of this nature (no pun intended) is difficult for many parties involved. When dams are removed you end up with “mud-flats” and the entire ecosystem has to readjust to the new river.
In 2023 I finally got it together and started really using the San Francisco Public Library, putting books I wanted to read on hold, reading parts of books and checking out books that I was simply curious about. The library is an amazing resource. Below is a list of books that I finished. I do this exercise to simply reflect on the previous year.
Books I Read 2023
The Shipping News
Annie Proulx
Charles Scribner’s Sons
Without a doubt you can find this book in any Goodwill or Salvation Army. A very interesting read.
Beloved
Toni Morrison
Vintage; Reprint edition
In the City of Bikes: The Story of the Amsterdam Cyclist
Pete Jordan
Harper Perennial;
A Black Woman’s West: The Life of Rose B. Gordon
Michael K. Johnson
Montana Historical Society
This is an interesting book I picked up in a restaurant in Glacier, Montana. It chronicles the life of a black woman and family. What is interesting is that the Gordon family became an integral part of the town that they lived in and according to this account the racism was pretty muted.
Two Wheels Good: The History and Mystery of the Bicycle
Jody Rosen
Crown
Candide
Voltaire
Penguin Classics
Whenever I get a bit too optimistic about things, I like to read this classic to bring me down to earth.
Micromegas and Other Short Fictions
Voltaire
Penguin Classics
Very cool book that actually has a short story about traveling by space ship and visiting other planets and alien beings. Sort of amazing that this is not talked about more and on reading lists. This was written in the 18th century!
Two Wheels North
Evelyn McDaniel Bibb
Oregon State Press
American Studies
Louis Menand
New York : Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2002.
Mexico City – Cradle of Empires
Caistor, Nick,
Reaktion Books
A Most Remarkable Creature the Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World’s Smartest Birds of Prey
Meiburg, Jonathan,
Alfred A. Knopf
My Bike & Other Friends
Henry Miller
Capra Press, 1978.
Gulliver’s Travels
Swift, Jonathan
Doubleday, Doran & co., inc.,
Tropic of Cancer
Henry Miller
MEDVSA
One of the great banned books of the 20th century and I found a signed copy! Miller has the ability to make the ugly beautiful. It is understandable why they banned this book. It should only be for adults in the first place, but then again the youth would surely not even understand most of it.
Zionism – A Brief History
Brenner, Michael
Princeton
A very good book for our times. A “just the facts” look at the creation of Israel. Theodor Herzl, one of the early Zionists obviously began something that we are feeling the ramifications of today.
If This Isn’t Nice, What Is?
Kurt Vonnegut
Seven Stories Press
The Quarterly Report: A brief synopsis of the news in San Francisco over the last three months. You are now reading “Slow News That Doesn’t Break” – the exotic internet.
Sporting News
After two very close playoff games, the San Francisco 49ers are headed to the Super Bowl to take on the Kansas City Chiefs. A miraculous catch by Brandon Aiyuk on a very deep pass that actually bounced off the defender’s facemask may be the reason they are in the big game. Of course, the entire Bay Area is excited and it will be a wild weekend. Go Niners!
Weather
The new word of the year is “atmospheric river.” San Francisco has been pummeled by this weather phenomenon which is basically a river in the sky that dumps large quantities of rain in short periods of time. Nevertheless the weather has been wet lately mixed with glorious days of sunshine. Often the sunsets have been beautiful. Out at Ocean Beach the parking lot continues to be eaten by the ocean. It is amazing how the contour of the beach changes.
Politics
Nothing to report as all the entrenched powers that be remain in hold of city government. No one seems to be irate that drug overdoes in the Tenderloin and homelessness are still major problems. Chesa Boudin was recalled a year ago and Brooke Jenkins was installed at D.A.. For the most part, things have remained the same on the street, but for most people San Francisco looks like most west coast large cities. People just living their lives in the tidy neighborhoods. We have a tough on crime D.A. but people often drive their cars like there are no laws. Stop signs evidently are simply a suggestion.
The Depths of his Dishonesty is just astounding… He is the most flawed person I have ever met in my life. – John Kelly on former President Donald Trump as reported in The Atlantic
The Depths of his Dishonesty is just astounding… He is the most flawed person I have ever met in my life. – John Kelly on former President Donald Trump as reported in The Atlantic
Road Repairs, Parking Tickets, Do Not Parks Signs and Other Treacherous Endeavors
A street cleaning ticket in San Francisco is now $90. Always best to keep track of your wheels in this town.
Valencia Bike Lanes and the Sunny Side of the Street
The center bike lane has many people up in arms. Merchants say people are not coming into their stores. The center lane is pretty awkward. I have no opinion on the matter but think that the center lane is ugly from an aesthetic perspective. What is more problematic is the fact that the parking is all done with the new digital pay stations and there are no coin meters. This is very confusing as the parking rules are not stated on the street. After some research I have learned that it is basically the concept that between 9am – 6pm you must pay for parking. To me this is discrimination to those not tied into using their phones for everything. Very confusing.
Here are the Valencia Street Parking Rules for you edification
Parklets, Microclimates and Where the Sun Does Shine
Not much to report. The parklet situation has stabilized but the red-tape for merchants is often too much and they remove their parklets. This is a topic that a city major Breed could have a lot of impact and instead it ends up highlighting the incompetence of city government.
In February 2024 rarely do bands play outside – more often the music is inside. Remember to tip the band
That is The Quarterly Report – February 2024
Photo Gallery of SF
The Quarterly Report – February 2024
End of an atmospheric river in San Francisco
Auto dealship sign uncovered on Valencia Street
Blondies Bar. Great spot with live music
Ocean Beach where the ocean is winning
Ocean Beach where the ocean is winning
Ocean Beach where the ocean is winning
McLaren Park
McLaren Park
“The Cloud” along 101. It looks so romantic!
Castle Peak – Pleanty of snow now in the mountains
At the very south end of San Francisco, at the eastern edge by the bay, along Highway 101 is Candlestick Point. At one time it was home to Candlestick Park, the massive concrete stadium where the San Francisco Giants played baseball and the San Francisco 49ers played football. It has surely been home to many events – monster truck shows, rock concerts, soccer matches. It was a large stadium made of concrete and a place best used to watch the 49ers play their gladiator sport. No soft chairs and few cozy luxury boxes. It was made like a parking garage and had that same lack of warmth. You could get a seat high in the upper deck and watch the little ants down below. If you missed the amazing play, there was no instant replay – too bad. You spilled your beer and missed the interception all at once. The accommodations and locker rooms for the players were surely not as they are today. Candlestick was a fitting place to see grown men push and shove each other around for an afternoon.
In the 1960s Willie Mays caught fly balls out in center field. By the 1990s you could get into the bleacher seats in left field for a few bucks, squint your eyes and see Will Clark nervously try to send a runner in from second. Of course, Candlestick is famously known for the 1989 World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland A’s when the Lomo Prieta earthquake hit and everyone thought for a second the world might end.
In the late fall the weather would often be that Indian summer time of year when the the temperature was at a human ideal, the wind light out of the east and the light would have that warm autumn glow. It was football weather. The 49ers played many classic games at Candlestick. Joe Montana connecting with Jerry Rice. John Taylor running back kickoffs. Steve Young running wild until the doctor said that it may be better just to throw the ball to keep all the marbles upstairs intact. Then there were games in the winter storms when the field would be wet. The storm coming in from Alaska and a high tide would make the field like a pig slop.
When you landed at San Francisco International Airport and caught a cab into town, you would often drive up 101 past Candlestick and see the stadium there poetically on the point. True to its moniker, at night it would often be lit up. It seemed a bit timeless, like the Parthenon, and you innocently thought that it would somehow always be there watching over the bay. For a time the name would be bought out. The speaker cable company, Monster Cable, purchased the naming rights and called it Monster Park, not realizing that people assumed it was for the job website. Other large companies, usually in the telecommunications industries, would then take over the naming rights. No one remembers their names now. People in San Francisco would always just call it Candlestick.
Which brings me to Candlestick Park. The stadium was torn down many years ago. One day it was there and the next it is gone. Phfff! All that concrete surely broken up and hauled away to be recycled one truckload at a time. Now when you get off the plane and drive north along the bay, you have to explain to your friend that once a large stadium loomed there. Remember that hill that you would see from the blimp. That’s the same lonely hill. Where the stadium was is now fenced in. It is mostly grassy fields and when it rains ducks and redwing black birds hangout in the ponds that once was around the fifty yard line. It is quiet save for the never ending hum of Interstate 101 a half mile away.
The 49ers left Candlestick years ago and now play down in Santa Clara. The South Bay and all the tech money bought them out. On Saturday, January 20, 2024 they will play the Green Bay Packers in a classic playoff match up. Two young quarterbacks will duel it out and try as best they can to not make mistakes. They will push and shove, run, pass, block and kick. People will go into the blue medical tent to see if their marbles are still round. There is rain in the forecast so the field may be a bit wet. No one will care how high the tide will be at game time. All that matters now is which team scores the most points and maybe who gets the ball last.
Candlestick Point – Candlestick Park once was here
Candlestick Point – Candlestick Park once was here
San Francisco Bay
Candlestick Point – Candlestick Park once was here
Candlestick Point – Candlestick Park once was here
I checked out Romney A Reckoning from the San Francisco Public Library having heard McKay Coppins, the author, in an interview on public radio. Both Romney and Coppins are Mormon. Romney gave Coppins access to his personal journals, texts and emails and they had weekly interviews while he was a U.S. Senator so that Coppins could write the book. The agreement was that Coppins would be the author and Romney would not have any influence over the final product.
While most politicians these days are extremely careful with their exposure to journalists, media and the spin, this relationship does speak to Romney’s candor and the notion that he has nothing to hide. While Romney became a very wealthy man starting and running Bain Capital, the book focuses primarily on his personal and recent political life. Often quite goofy and more humorous than expected, Romney predictably comes off as someone of character and courage. We get brief excerpts of his private journals, the assessment of the people around him, the turmoil of January 6th., his meetings with Trump. Romney A Reckoning is an interesting, entertaining, alarming, fun and fast read and an important view into our tumultuous political times.
At an event in New Hampshire a man confronted him with an accusatory question. “Are you going to compromise? the voter asked. “I don’t want to vote for anyone who’s going to compromise.” Romney, unable to restrain himself, replied, “Are you married, sir?” Romney A Reckoning
I have never voted for Mitt Romney but gained much respect for him when he was the only Republican to both impeach and convict Donald Trump. Like his father George Romney, Mitt Romney did believe in civil rights and he is documented as marching with Black Lives Matters protesters after the murder of George Floyd. He is a rational person, believes in science and the notion that the planet is warming and climate change is real. But in many ways he is a throwback to an earlier type of Republican – a buttoned-down, well-mannered conservative capitalist who really does have an insane amount of money.
The quote below will always be a political liability no matter how you spin it. The visual of Mitt Romney at a rest stop hosing dog shit off of the family station wagon is simply too funny.
One prolonged subplot of the campaign had to do with a decades-old anecdote about Romney strapping the family dog, Seamus, to the roof of their station wagon during a road trip. One of Romney’s sons had shared the story with a newspaper reporter as a funny demonstration of this dad’s organizational skills: when Seamus experienced a bout of diarrhea, Romney moved quickly to find a rest stop, hose down the dog and car, and get back on the road without losing much time. Romney A Reckoning
According to the book, Mitt Romney is a man who enjoys managing and solving problems whether they mean packing the family station wagon roof rack or working in the private or public sectors. Unlike, Reagan and current Republicans, he does not think that government is the problem, he thinks government just needs to be better managed. Indeed, it was Massachusetts health care plan while Romney was governor that was in many was the blueprint for the Obama-era Affordable Care Act. Perhaps one of his shortcomings as a politician is that he does not actually care for the theater that so often goes along with politics and is motivated by his technocratic, problem-solving impulses. Mitt Romney surely finds reality television shows ridiculous.
I really do believe if you’re not being booed, if people aren’t angry at you, you really haven’t done anything in public life. Mitt Romney
A theme that is persistent in the book is how his Mormon faith often became a political liability. Mormonism for many Americans is and has always been a bit strange. This modern offshoot of Christianity and its Zionism finding a home in isolated Utah seems to often make other Christians uncomfortable. There is a chapter in the book about how Romney realized the existence of extremists in parts of Utah while on the campaign trail. What is odd is that the new Republican Tea Party Evangelicals are more comfortable with a vile, dishonest, racist, misogynist non-religious con-man than a morally upstanding character like Mitt Romney.
Near the end of the book, you get this very chilling realization that the violence unleashed by Trump has really made it into the highest halls of government.
When one senator, a member of leadership, said he was leaning toward voting to convict, the other urgently encouraged him to reconsider. You can’t do that, one said, think of your personal safety, said another, think of your children. The senator eventually decided they were right. There were to many Trump supporters with guns in his state, he explained to Romney. His wife wouldn’t feel safe going out in public.
Senators voting a certain way because they fear assassinations? Sounds like fascism not the home of the free and the brave. Romney A Reckoning . A fun read. You will find this book at a garage sale in a few years. Buy it. Read it. Hopefully the world will be a bit saner by then.
It was probably just a matter of time. I started paying for a subscription to the NYT after a friend suggested I start playing Wordle, the clever five letter word game. It was sort of like giving a taste just to draw me into your house of mirrors. I have enjoyed the game and have had a streak of fifty-four continuous wins at one point.
With the paid subscription I began reading the news primarily and some of the essays by the opinion writers. The guest essays are often quite fun. Big names like Hillary Clinton, Bill Gates and various U.S. Senators have often been interesting reads. I suddenly felt like I was in the “know,” given a view into the rich and powerful. I tend to open the comments section for articles about Trump. Your readers then go on and on in a sort of cathartic release of how insane our times are and “how in hell that guy is not in jail yet” monologues. I have joined in on the ruckus at times but little lately. It really is a waste of time in the end.
And then in November you began publishing your Presidential race polls, which made it so we should rename out country “The United States of Anxiety,” as somehow the guy who was impeached twice and is in all kinds of legal problems is running neck and neck with the other guy. How is this even possible? One thing is for sure. I do not want to spend 2024 watching this horse race that you started.
In a recent episode of “On The Media” – “Is The New York Times A Tech Company?” does a good look at how the The New York Times refactored itself as not a newspaper or even a news publisher, but as a tech company. Publishing is dead. It is about a “platform.” No longer do you make money with good content and intelligent editors and stagnant ads but the with surveillance of your readers. Cull the ads for a demographic. Tease them with sticky content that will make them stay on the site.
I began to notice the formula. News more often than not started to become not events but merely conjecture and what people said. “Trump has decided to not show up in court tomorrow.” “McConnel says he if feeling just fine.” “George Santos says he may parley his fame and become a gameshow host.” And even Ross Douthat goes so far as staging a hypothetical situation where Hillary Clinton (not Donald Trump) stages a coup.
The sticky content just kept coming. The rich and famous, the shysters and scandal were given prime real-estate on your paper. People would often should be in jail were treated as celebrities. Every time Trump would say something outrageous you would put his photo in a suit and a slick red or blue tie on the front page. Make him and our neurotic political environment seem “normal.” Someone who sent an angry mob on the capital is presented as a slick guy in fancy suits. You give the guy free real-estate on a hourly basis. Enough!
So I’m done. Please cancel my subscription to your echo chamber. I will not follow your polls or read your op-eds by your mostly corporate conservative, neo-liberal columnists. I will not read the witty comments from your dedicated readers. I will no longer have to wade through the 10 Ways to Lose 20 Pounds articles. I am done with your high-brow tabloid corporate journalism.
I decided to free up that time I was sucked in to your world for better things. I will get my national news from the many available sources out there. I am giving money to my local paper, Mission Local and 48 Hills. I subscribe to Matt Stollers BIG. But worry not. I will still play Wordle. That was sold to you with the stipulation that it would always be free.
Below are some of the easy to find examples of the new high-brow tabloid journalism at the New York Times.
In the April 2023 issue of The Atlantic is an article by George Packer that was very insightful that oddly did not seem to stir up any debate. The article brings up something that is under the radar in our current society, but on everyone’s minds. The Moral Case Against Equity Language outlines how language today is being regulated by new equity guideline teams. In marketing lingo these guidelines often are a part of what are called style guides. Words have power and the object is to make language more “equitable.” The article explains how these new equity guidelines are used by The Sierra Club, non-profits, corporations, academia and other large organizations to craft their writing. It explains the complicated way that language and words enforce power structures and define identity. How important it is for everyone to “get it right.” It looks at current efforts to equalize and defang language of some of it historical biases and prejudices. Words matter indeed. One cannot help but think of Orwell’s thought police. The article starts out with:
“The sierra club’s Equity Language Guide discourages using the words stand, Americans, blind, and crazy. The first two fail at inclusion, because not everyone can stand and not everyone living in this country is a citizen. The third and fourth, even as figures of speech (“Legislators are blind to climate change”), are insulting to the disabled. The guide also rejects the disabled in favor of people living with disabilities, for the same reason that enslaved person has generally replaced slave : to affirm, by the tenets of what’s called “people-first language,” that “everyone is first and foremost a person, not their disability or other identity.”
The article goes on with
“Although the guides refer to language “evolving,” these changes are a revolution from above. They haven’t emerged organically from the shifting linguistic habits of large numbers of people. They are handed down in communiqués written by obscure “experts” who purport to speak for vaguely defined “communities,” remaining unanswerable to a public that’s being morally coerced.”
That’s the spooky part that is often the elephant in the room these days. Who are these people? The article closes with an argument that the guidelines maybe doing more harm than good. Whether you are “homeless” or “unhoused,” you still do not have a roof over your head. Changing the language does not solve the problem. It really often simply makes people feel less guilty and temporarily more comfortable.
This huge expense of energy to purify language reveals a weakened belief in more material forms of progress. If we don’t know how to end racism, we can at least call it structural. The guides want to make the ugliness of our society disappear by linguistic fiat. Even by their own lights, they do more ill than good—not because of their absurd bans on ordinary words like congresswoman and expat, or the self-torture they require of conscientious users, but because they make it impossible to face squarely the wrongs they want to right, which is the starting point for any change.
Brilliant thinking and something no one dares touch. I am surprised that the article did not stir up more debate. Indeed, “the guides want to make the ugliness of our society disappear by linguistic fiat” is a fair assessment.
It is important to not confuse the new equity guidelines with other issues of freedom of speech. That someone who commits multiple felonies and then threatens judges and elected officials receives a “gag-order” has absolutely nothing to do with the topic in this article.
And to that point, the writing and thinking of authors from before the equity guidelines, who use “slave” instead of “enslaved person” are no less valid in their works because of this use of language. Furthermore, if authors today use the old nomenclature, it does not invalidate their theories or ideas. A vigorous intellectual pursuit is not meant to be a journey towards making everyone feel comfortable.
Buried – The 1982 Alpine Meadows Avalanche is a documentary film from 2021 that tells the story of a massive avalanche. You can now watch this movie on various streaming services including Netflix.
Throughout history the mountains have had various meanings. In the Middle Ages, mountains were thought to be places where evil lurked and venturing into the mountains was a deal with the devil. Mountains were dark, mysterous places where ungodly people hid out. Since the sixteenth century, mountains have taken on a more sacred place in the Western imagination. By the nineteenth century, mountains were seen as a place to regain health and vigor. Fresh air. Clean water. A place to get away from the foul industrial urban centers. Even the tragic story of the Donner Party in 1847, a few miles from Alpine Meadows, did not slow this new sense of the healthful sacredness of the mountains. In many ways, this notion of the mountains being healthy and even sacred lives on today. To this end, there are hundreds of ski resorts high in the mountains of the American West, one of which is Alpine Meadows (now Palisades). Life is short. Drop a few thousand dollars for a weekend. Regain your health and even get a bit closer to God.
The people who live up in ski resorts are a fun-loving bunch. Few who live in the mountains are there for the money. Some enjoy the solitude and quiet. Some the never ending thrills of deep power snow. Some live for the scenic beauty. Other are there to escape something and get a new start. Some are there to endlessly party. Whatever the case, it a place where people’s main motivation is to live in the moment.
Buried – The 1982 Alpine Meadows Avalanche tells that story of people living in the moment. It is a remarkable movie as the filmmakers somehow gathered one by one all the major people that were part of this event and had them candidly talk about the winter of 1982. The combination of these interviews, along with footage from the time, including local news reports tells the story in a very even, engaging way. You even get to watch San Francisco’s Channel 2 reporters, Dennis Richmond and Elaine Corral report on the tragic event – a time when the 6 o’clock news was the news.
This view into a time before the personal computer, cellphones and the internet is part of what makes the movie so intriguing. The ski patrol had only walkie-talkies and snowmobiles. Weather reports came over the weather radio. The young avalanche forecaster Jim Plehn used a system of large paper charts to map the snow densities and where they had used explosives or side-cut skiing to create avalanches. To this day, it is an inexact science that in the end requires more than paper, computer models and theories, but all your senses, experience and instinct.
As the film unfolds, the movie does an excellent job of telling the story of the avalanche and then for the rest of the movie the digging out of bodies and the hope for any survivors. Volunteers with shovels. A few specially trained avalanche dogs. All the while it is continuing to snow and the people in charge have no way of knowing if there will be another massive slide. The majority of the people dealing with this tragic event, the ski patrol were all people in their late twenties. Making critical life and death decisions at a very young age. Even in the hedonistic mountains, people grew up pretty fast back then.
Buried – The 1982 Alpine Meadows Avalanche is an important film telling an important story that is critical part of the history of the American West. Watch it with a bowl of fresh popcorn and a cool beverage of your choice.
UPDATE: OCTOBER 31, 2023: Not a single media outlet celebrated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act 25 Year Anniversary. Amazing!
It is now October 2023, twenty-five years after the passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Seven years ago I published the piece below about the 18 year anniversary of the DMCA. The DMCA has made it so you can listen to just about any recording made in the last 100 years for free on YouTube after looking at some ridiculous advertisement for five seconds. It has made it so tech companies and publishing empires no longer have responsibility for what is published on their applications, websites and what they now call “platforms.” Safe harbor. Everything is just content. Stuff. No one owns the stars.
I predict that on October 28, 2023 very few media organizations will acknowledge the DMCA 25 year anniversary. The world changes and while it is changing hardly anyone notices; we all just roll with it as that is the only option. So pop the champagne corks. To the liberation of content!
FROM MY POST on OCTOBER 12, 2016
Digital Millennium Copyright Act 18 Year Anniversary
Passed on October 12, 1998, by a unanimous vote in the United States Senate and signed into law by President Bill Clinton on October 28, 1998, the DMCA amended Title 17 of the United States Code to extend the reach of copyright, while limiting the liability of the providers of online services for copyright infringement by their users. wikipedia.org
It is 1998 – The Senate Now Has E-Mail
Let’s Have a Party!
25 years ago this month the Digital Millennium Copyright Act was passed. I would wager that very few people even know what the DMCA is, but it has affected modern life substantially. It is in many ways just one more version of an old story of plunder by larger more powerful entities, and the taking advantage of the smaller, but often more vibrant creators. In many ways, it has made it so the copyright laws in such industries as music are pointless.
But let’s back up a bit. Everyone can remember the transition that happened when CDs came out and then everyone was ripping their CDs to MP3s and handing off 100 gig drives full of music files to their buddies. Then there was Napster that simply stitched all these drives together in one big mass orgy of free MP3s. Napster got the injunction primarily because the established music industry had no cut of the racket. Along come tech giants like Google, Apple, Microsoft and Samsung and to cover their liability the DMCA made perfect sense. If someone has “illegal” music on their devices, they should not be held accountable. Furthermore, if someone uploads a Beatles tune as a video with a picture of Ringo Starr as the graphics to YouTube, why should YouTube be held accountable for such blatant infringement? All good and well. But that was 1998. Today is 2016. I am certain that in 1998 most members of the Senate had no idea the true implications of the DMCA. In 1998, most of the members of the Senate probably did not even know how to manage their own email. They were still licking stamps.
The DMCA’s principal innovation in the field of copyright is the exemption from direct and indirect liability of Internet service providers and other intermediaries. wikipedia.org
Let’s look back a bit. In 1998 the leading browser of the day was Netscape 2. Internet Explorer was at version 5.5. If anyone remembers IE 6, imagine how terrible IE 5.5 must have been. Windows 98 had probably just been released. Man, that is scary. My point is that the DMCA has not been updated for 18 years and is an extremely flawed piece of legislation. The large tech companies have in many ways based their entire industry on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. It allows for basically everyone to break the law everyday and not have to worry about it. When was the last time that a cop pulled someone over and wanted to check if the person had pirated music on their phone? There probably is thousands of dollars of contraband on everyone’s devices. Ain’t gonna happen.
Times Have Changed – Google Is Our Master of Information
But this is what is disingenuous about the DMCA. Companies like Google know just about everything about you. What you buy. What websites you visit. Your birthday. Your favorite color.
In 2016 they have the ability to determine if a piece of music is copyrighted via matching wave forms, and indeed this is how they “monetize” this work. But YouTube refuses to acknowledge this UNLESS they are in a position to make money off of that music – they make money anyway but that is another post. The only way the copyright holder can get the videos of their music taken down is with take-down notices. If a song is popular, this can mean hundreds of separate videos with the same song on it. The artists cannot simply tell the ISP such as YouTube “I do not want my work on your network.” YouTube is sort of like that creepy neighbor running a crack-house who borrowed your weed-whacker last spring and refuses to give it back claiming ignorance. Musicians, songwriters and composers have better things to do with their time than chase down illegal version of their work.
YouTube is sort of like that creepy neighbor running a crack-house who borrowed your weed-whacker last spring and refuses to give it back claiming ignorance. Musicians, songwriters and composers have better things to do with their time than chase down illegal version of their work.
Which brings me back to 1998. Do you really think in 1998 anyone could predict such entities as YouTube or Facebook? And unlike the owners of these companies, I believe these entities are not just platforms, they are simply publishers with free content providers and creators. These publishers have to take responsibility as well for copyright infringement. It is within their technical realm but they are playing dumb as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 suits them just fine. The DMCA is to their advantage.
The real master of deception with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is YouTube. Facebook, Twitter and the like have simply entered personal lives and monetized birthdays and other important life events until people depart from this world. Personalized marketing on steroids that the users all agree to though without really reading the privacy policies.
But all such companies are the modern-day plunderers. Instead of grabbing continents, forests, rivers, enslaving the natives and digging for gold, they are plundering your personal events and consumer habits along with the likes of great artists like James Brown, Elton John, Charlie Palmieri, Vince Gill, Willie Green, Slayer, Bette Midler, Woody Guthrie (the list is endless) and any person who has recorded or published a piece of music in the last hundred years.
Conclusion
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act needs to be reexamined and rewritten every five years to reflect and take into consideration the changes in technology, creativity and platforms. It is an important part of combating the many inequities in our society.
“In November 2022, San Francisco voters reaffirmed the previous legislation, making the new JFK Promenade a permanent car-free route enjoyed by a wide range of visitors. Along the route, visitors can enjoy art installations, public pianos, rest stops and enhanced entrances featuring seating and lawn games, and live music.” JFK Promenade
One of the beautiful things that happened during the COVID 19 pandemic was the creation of slow-streets. Entire blocks where closed to through-traffic cars. San Francisco got outside and walked down the middle of streets. Kids learned how to ride bikes. Roller skaters searched out the best blacktop and did their thing. It was and is a beautiful thing.
After a lot of tussle, local propositions and screaming and hollering, JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park is a permanent car-free route. Ride your bike. Go for a stroll. Play a game of ping pong. Take in the various interesting sculptures. It is great to have this large drive free of cars. It helps to makes San Francisco a great city. It is one of those places to rejuvenate your soul.
With the swell measuring around 8 feet at 12 seconds, on the morning of December 3, it was observed that the Aqua Surf Shop was holding some sort of surf contest. The surf was gnarly and the paddle-out ridiculous – rows and rows of white water to paddle through just to get to the outside. It looked impossible but the contestants, both women and men in their twenties seemed to be able to make their way past the inside close-outs. Just nasty out there.
UPDATE: The contest is what is called the ‘Battle of the Bay’ competition. This has been held in previous years when San Francisco State was victorious. It seems to be surf clubs from local colleges – SF State University, Cal, and UCSF get together and organize this event. Very cool!
From the NOAA Buoy Report and San Francisco https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=46026
While the San Francisco Journal is dedicated to “Slow News that Does not Break,” we have breaking news today. Late in the day, on November 25th, 2023, during a northwest swell that delivered waves in the 15 to 20 foot range, it was observed that at the south end of the beach a man caught a rather large wave on a stand-up paddleboard. After catching the wave he went right down the face and stayed comfortably on the shoulder until wiping out when the wave closed out. He then caught the the next wave riding his board on his stomach as the sun was setting and a full moon was observed rising over the city.
Further up the coast near Noriega Street it was observed that there was a pack of surfers and a jet ski, apparently assisting surfers in catching waves.
This story is not developing any further at this point. According to all available reports, all the surfers made it back to the beach safely.
The Quarterly Report: A brief synopsis of the news in San Francisco over the last three months.
Weather
While the world has experienced floods, droughts, earthquakes and hurricanes, the San Francisco weather pattern has been quite normal lately. We had a typical Indian Summer pattern for a while then a bit of rain. The skies are clear and we are now experiencing beautiful sunsets. In the coming week there should be off-shore winds out of the east. If you you come to San Francisco, bring a light jacket and warm hat. It does get chilly from time to time.
Politics
Senator Diane Feinstein died on September 29, 2023. Her replacement chosen by Governor Newsom is Laphonza Butler. So it goes.
So the virtue of the young damsel and the driverless car must wait for another day.
“The fashion in those days, among the ladies, was to to travel around without lackeys or coachmen and to drive oneself; husbands preferred wives to be at all times alone, so as to be more certain of their virtue; which goes directly counter to the view of the moralists, who say there is no virtue in solitude.” -From The One-Eyed Porter – Voltaire
Road Repairs, Parking Tickets, Do Not Parks Signs and Other Treacherous Endeavors
The roads are still terrible in the poor neighborhoods. The pavement on Mission Street looks like a war zone. If you are on a bicycle be careful out there.
Bike Lanes, The Great Highway and the Sunny Side of the Street
The Great Highway opened to vehicular traffic on Mondays at 6 a.m. through Fridays at 12 p.m. and opened to pedestrians and bicycles only from Fridays at 12 p.m. until Mondays at 6 a.m. On holidays, the Great Highway is closed to vehicular traffic.
It is a lot of fun to get out to the Great Highway when it is closed to cars. On the weekends it gets busy with people walking, running a riding their bikes
The Great Highway and Ocean Beach – 0ctober 2023
The Great Highway and Ocean Beach – 0ctober 2023
Ocean Beach – 0ctober 2023
Ocean Beach – 0ctober 2023
Ocean Beach – 0ctober 2023
Sporting News
The San Francisco Giants fizzled away. The 49ers are getting a bit beat up and having trouble winning games when they do not have all of their stars on the field. A young quarterback who is getting a reality check was long overdue.
The surfing has been pretty good overall, with some large, long-period swells now showing up every few weeks. 10 feet at 20 seconds was recorded recently and people were surfing Mavericks.
Parklets, Microclimates and Where the Sun Does Shine
Not much to report. The parklet situation has stabilized. Sometimes bands play outside but more often the music is inside. Remember to tip the band
That is The Quarterly Report –October 2023.
updated: 10/31/2023 with more Great Highway photos.
The 2023 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park was the last weekend of September – Sep 29, 2023 – Oct 1, 2023. My buddy Steve from Atlanta was in town and we went all three days, listened to a lot of bands, and had a blast. When you look over the schedule, you notice right away that it will be a tyranny of choices. So many bands. So little time. We did not even make it to a few of the stages this year, choosing to stay at good front row spots at some of our favorite stages. The new Horseshoe Hill Stage looked like fun but we never made it there.
In 2023 the weather was generally cool and partly cloudy with light winds out of the west.. Often October has some of the best surf, but during the HSB 2023 weekend the swell was a bit mixed up, large and funky and only for the totally committed surf community who seem to get out there and rip on just about anything. Each day in the mornings you could see the marine layer out at sea ready to come ashore in the afternoon.
Without further ado, here are the 2023 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival SF Journal Awards.
BEST BLUES GUITAR PLAYER – Christone “Kingfish” Ingram
It was a gas to listen to this young blues guitar player, just taking the music to another level – B.B King would be proud. Kingfish and the band brought some very funky grooves and it was awesome how the keyboard player would add some substitutions and extended and altered chords at tasty moments. At one point Kingfish headed out to the audience and played an epic solo walking through the crowd.
Kingfish
BEST UP-AND-COMING ARTIST ON THE ROSTER STAGE – Chuck Prophet
Even though Chuck Prophet has played HSB many times, he is getting the UP-AND-COMING ARTIST award only because it was the first time I have heard him play and he sounded great – definitely home field advantage on the Rooster Stage. Chuck is getting the UP-AND-COMING ARTIST award because at 60 years old he is but a youngster when up against the likes of Bettye Lavette and Jimmie Dale Gilmore. With out a doubt the youngster Chuck is now surely getting hounded by AARP.
Chuck Prophet & The Mission Express
FUNNIEST PERFORMER OVER 80 – Bettye Lavette
So many artists at HSB were born in the 1940s. To live a long life you surely have to laugh a little and Bettye is sassy as ever, a bit glib at times, can still dance and one of her fortes is humor. Halfway through her set Bettye announced that she may have contracted a new disease that is problematic for many called CRS, short for Can’t Remember Shit. While there may have been a few pauses in the set, no one knew the difference. Her band was very funky and she delivered a great show.
BEST JAZZ STANDARD SUNG – “Second Time Around” – Rickie Lee Jones
I heard Rickie Lee Jones in New Orleans last year and she brought her horn section and brilliant arrangements (which she writes) . What was she going to do in Golden Gate Park? Will she do her hits from her youth? Will she sing stuff that she isn’t particularly known for? Will she make it on stage? During Rickie Lee Jones’ set on the Banjo Stage it was obvious that she was going to sing her jazz tunes. When she sang “Second Time Around” by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen I wondered how many people even knew the song, but the entire meadow was pretty much transfixed. Great tune. Great interpretation. You can hear Rickie’s version here.
BEST FESTIVAL DOG – The Golden Retriever at the Banjo Staged
Just a chill dog that made you realize how sublime it must be to just stick out your tongue, smell the air and feel the grass.
Chill dog
HSB Map
Kingfish
Chill dog
Rickie Lee Jones
Rickie Lee Jones
Irma Thomas
Irma Thomas
Chuck Prophet & The Mission Express
Beth Orton
Best stage manger
M. Ward
Emmie Lou Harris
Paul Lyons enjoying the fest
Until next year, that is the SF Journal 2023 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival Awards.
ABOUT
The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco is a little like Jazz Fest in New Orleans. Big-name bands, many kinds of music and a festive atmosphere. One of the amazing things about Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival is that even though there are tens of thousands of people, it is always a peaceful event, and in the end people seem to get along just fine and often make new friends. Everyone seems to pack out the trash pretty well too. Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. Warren Hellman’s party. Communal music therapy.
Blindness (Portuguese: Ensaio sobre a cegueira, meaning Essay on Blindness) is a 1995 novel by the Portuguese author José Saramago. It is one of Saramago’s most famous novels, along with The Gospel According to Jesus Christ and Baltasar and Blimunda. In 1998, Saramago received the Nobel Prize for Literature, and Blindness was one of his works noted by the committee when announcing the award.[1] Wikipedia
A few weeks ago I was in Mexico City when I had run out of reading material. When in a country where English is not the first language, it is often very difficult to find books in English. We went to a bookstore and though the possibilities were a bit limiting, I picked up Blindness by José Saramago. It sucked me in and I finished the novel by the time we left Mexico.
But I almost put the book down after the first few chapters. The English translation was so horrible I wondered if I could make it through. When I figured out that the translator had died midway through the work I realized that what I was reading was not really a finished piece but a draft. The translator was Giovanni Pontiero who passed away. Margaret Jill Costa finished the work. I soon realized that they had seemingly worked backwards and as the novel progressed, the writing got better. The story is so good and captivating, the writing can lean on the narrative.
You can read about the plot in Wikipedia so I will not rehash the story. There are so many angles from which to interpreting and understand this novel and that is what makes it so intriguing – the symbolism of blindness, the fragility of society, the psychology of power, the psychology of interpersonal relationships, violence, the act of forgiveness, the power and responsibilities of those that can see, vengeance. All of these themes and others are somewhere inside this captivating novel.
Of course where you read a book like this you cannot help but imagine it as a movie. After finishing Blindness, I discovered and watched the movie. I had reservations about how would you even make a movie from the novel but was surprised at how good the movie is. It brings together all the important themes and in many ways does not stray too far from the novel. Of course, the movie did not do well at the box office as dystopian nightmares are not what people desire in the theaters these days.
I am not usually one for books that are thrillers and on the macabre side, but Blindness is highly recommended reading. Probably best to start with the book.
“The critical massing of conditions that enables a way of life to come into being is almost impossible to detect while it is happening, and so is its deterioration. The world just rolls over, without anyone noticing exactly when, and a new set of circumstances is put into place. But the impulse to hold onto the past is very strong, and it is often very hard to understand why things that worked once can’t continue to work. A lot of energy and imagination are consumed trying to fit old systems to new settings, though the pegs keep getting squarer and the holes keep getting rounder. In the end, the only way to make the past usable is to misinterpret it, which means, strictly speaking, to lose it.” Louis Menand – American Studies
American Studies
by Louis Menand
Essays on some very important characters in U.S. history, most now a bit off the radar – William James, Sir Wendell Holmes, Al Gore – before the present social-media and digital era. The chapter on Larry Flynt and Jerry Falwell and their need to play off one another is particularly illuminating. The short prologue cuts to the chase and gets you scratching your chin.
Apologies if the quote above is incomplete or will be misconstrued. Always best to simply read the book!
La Familia
To the edge of town we ride along this winding river, through gnat-filled forests, over bridges that dodge the morning commutes. Breakfast at a familiar diner busy with ribbon-wearing war vets and regulars, then farewells to a buddy who navigates me each year to the start of this tale. Past cows, horses, pigs and more cows, fields of corn, by mailboxes with clever designs. Silos of corn. Roadkill large and small plastered to the asphalt in various stages of morbid decay. American flags abound tell me the wind.
Nighttime thunderstorms cool the air as hungry mosquitoes buzz outside my simple tent. The morning is clear as I pedal over the Chippewa and streams too many to name. By the evening I arrive at the timeless Trempealeau Hotel on the Mississippi as locals with guitars gather for songs, laughs and beers.
I rise with the sun to venture over wetlands forgotten save for the cranes, robins, yellow finches, redwing blackbirds and blue herons. A hundred miles of trail to ride with tunnels, old bridges and rail stations from long ago. Nervous rabbits endlessly scamper across the trail. Through quiet small towns where even the bars seem asleep I pedal.
Camping in Elroy with my sis and her pooches as we eat, drink and marvel at our rain-free luck. One more day on farm roads, climbing then flying down these rolling hills and glens dodging more rain to then but roll into my brother’s crib, not far from where I was born.
Second Movement
Continental Divide
I hear trombones and french horns.
Stacked fifths.
Parallel motion like a moose crossing the road.
Earth tilted so that streams can sing and dance.
Strings on a unison line with leaps unknown.
A solo trumpet hands off to a flute.
Timpani rolls.
Octaves call out a forgotten
Blackfoot melody to an open unending sky.
Third Movement
I see Meriwether Lewis in the rear view mirror driving a big rig, horn a blastin’ down Interstate 84. His sidekick Clark riding shotgun. Eyes bloodshot, he pulls a long draw on the flask. Back to the scene, two hundred years in the future as a bird of prey unknown soars high above.
The Columbia Gorge once sang a fine tune. Now it is the never-ending hum of the Interstate and the trains that clamber up and down this geological miracle, shaped by glaciers, volcanos and spastic floods building bridges to the gods.
Fires now burn the hairs that grow like fur on the ranges leaving only gray pointy sticks from once verdant pine. Hike up the canyons, the blackberries now just ripe while the timeless waterfalls wash the modern madness away like cymbals crashing persistent.
THE BACKSTORY
July I spent traveling around three regions of the United States primarily by bicycle. The Midwest and the 300 mile ride from Minneapolis to Madison, much on rail-to-trail paths. Glacier Mountain Park and East Glacier to West Glacier. Portland to the Columbia River Gorge. I traveled between regions with an Amtrak Rail Pass ($499) which worked great. You can get your bike on the train ride for $20. Just remember when you get off the train, you get your bike directly from the baggage car not at the baggage terminal!
The writing above is my summary of these travels. I saw some amazing country and met some truly remarkable people.
The Quarterly Report: A brief synopsis of the news in San Francisco over the last three months.
Weather
Often chilly and foggy with a marine layer along the coast. Air quality generally pretty good. Bring a light jacket. If you are by the ocean bring more layers.
View of the “marine layer.” Coming to a neighborhood near you soon!
Politics
In a 3-to-1 vote, the commission decided to let self-driving cars expand their programs and allow them to basically operate like taxis. So now these cars can pick up passengers and charge a fare at all hours of the day. Up until now, the companies had pretty limited passenger pickup programs. – NPR from Driverless cars can now operate like taxis in San Francisco, raising safety concerns
That the driverless cars are now taxis was inevitable as that was one of the main goals all along. New technology that ultimately was and has been driven as a money making scheme. For anyone living is San Francisco the last few years, the new ruling will probably not change things much on the roads as we have been inundated with self-driving cars for years. In the last year, we have observed them wandering up and down neighborhood streets in the middle of the night, like the ghost of some long-lost insomniac uncle, organizing his toolset after hours.
In the last year, we have observed them wandering up and down neighborhood streets in the middle of the night, like the ghost of some long-lost insomniac uncle, organizing his toolset after hours.
Many of the self-driving cars have elaborate cameras and look very sci-fi. Some have the brand of Jaguar however the two companies that run these vehicles are Cruise, which is owned by GM, and Waymo, which is owned by Google parent Alphabet. They are everywhere, mapping every nook and cranny, sometimes clogging up the streets, other times just being spooky.
The Mission Local has good reporting on this topic and one can always just enjoy a famous movie quote.
Dave Bowman: Open the pod bay doors please, HAL. Open the pod bay doors please, HAL. Hello, HAL. Do you read me? Hello, HAL. Do you read me? Do you read me HAL? Do you read me HAL? Hello, HAL, do you read me? Hello, HAL, do your read me? Do you read me, HAL? HAL: Affirmative, Dave. I read you. Dave Bowman: Open the pod bay doors, HAL. HAL: I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that. Dave Bowman: What’s the problem? HAL: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do. Dave Bowman: What are you talking about, HAL? HAL: This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.
From 2001: A Space Odyssey
Road Repairs, Parking Tickets, Do Not Parks Signs and Other Treacherous Endeavors
“If you park here they will come.” Very creative, playful and surely effective as all-caps usually gets the point across.
Many of the main roads in San Francisco are a disaster and are in need repair. A partial list of roads that need love.
Mission Street road in need of repair.
Mission Street by Holly Park. (we may lose small dogs in some of the potholes)
Mission Street south of Silver Ave.
Bosworth under the San Jose Ave and the 280 Freeway.
Bosworth under the San Jose Ave and the 280 freeway is treacherous for bicyclists. Use are your own risk. Bring an extra chin strap.
Even though San Francisco may score “adequate” in roads passements, these ranking are meaningless when for a decade you navigate roads that are terrible. It does seem that there is often less focus on roads that get a lot of traffic and are critical intersections. Feel free to contact the editorial board of the SF Journal if you need more examples of locations where roads are in need of repair. Remember to wear a helmet on these routes and perhaps bring an extra chin strap.
Bike Lanes on Valencia Street are in Full Effect
The new bike lanes on Valencia Street are now fully functioning. Bikes now ride in the middle. Cars no longer can take lefts turns at a lot of the intersections.
New bike lanes on Valencia Street
Let’s see how this works out and always remember, whether on two or four wheels, be kind. When driving, it is probably best to simply avoid Valencia Street. One day the city may realize, parts should be 100% for pedestrians and bikes.
Sporting News
For anything relating to football and the NFL, it is best to go to the SF Gate or SF Chronicle as that seems to be the only sport on their minds. It is August and we are suppose to get excited about American football?
In San Francisco there has been a lot of excitement about the Women’s FIFA World Cup. Colombia has a team of many talented players and their fans sang the national anthem with such passion, you wanted them to win just because of the fans. The United States played well but lost to Sweden in a knockout round. France is scoring a lot of goals. Sweden may be the team to beat.
COVID-19 Pandemic Update
Very few people wear masks. Sometimes people riding public transportation will be wearing a mask.
Parklets, Microclimates and Where the Sun Does Shine
Parklets holding firm. The Page on Page Street has live music in the afternoons, often outside.
The sun does shine and clothes can dry on the line in San Francisco, but you must keep your eyes on the weather, direction of the winds and have your fog meter on at all times.
Poor Lucca’s Ravioli! It closed down a few years back and now a police car, while chasing a car, ends up driving through the front door. Is this a scene out of a Buster Keaton movie, or maybe Smokey and the Bandit? Why are cops chasing cars at high speed on Valencia Street one of the most pedestrian oriented streets in the City?
For some reason when Father’s Day comes around I mostly think about my own father. John O. Lyons was my dad. He had six kids and lived a fascinating life full of youthful enthusiasm during his early years, adventure then the pragmatic realism of fathering during his middle years, and a comfortable retirement later in life while he took his pills and struggled with Parkinson’s Disease. One of his books, The Invention of the Self: The Hinge of Consciousness in the Eighteenth Century, Southern Illinois University Press (1978) is an amazing read. The first chapter “Into the Void” should be required reading for undergraduates going into the field of psychology or history. Today, it would no doubt confuse the youth often obsessed with the notion of the authentic self and identity.
In the mid 1960s, my father who was an English professor at the University of Wisconsin, for reasons unknown at the time, took a side job delivering the Wisconsin State Journal on Sundays. We never questioned why he did this side job. Was the price of milk too high? Were five kids just too much? I have two older brothers and on these Sundays we each took turns waking up before dawn to help dad with his rural paper route. We would take off in the dark in the family blue VW bus. My job in the backseat was to collate the stacks of newspapers, put a rubber band around each one and then hand them up to my dad to stuff into newspaper boxes. I was maybe five or six years old.
Years later I was told that on my first day as my dad’s helper, I was surprised to find out that all the newspapers were exactly the same. Obviously, I was way ahead of my time, predicting the demise of a single source of truth years before Facebook, social media and digital journalism monetized silos of falsity. We would deliver hundreds of identical Wisconsin State Journals. In the wintertime it would sometimes get a bit precarious on the icy roads as spinouts did happen and word of uncontrolled donuts on icy farm roads would reach the discussion at the dinner table. For sure, when we got home I would go back to bed and fall asleep in the warm soft sheets that I had left a few hours before.
John Lyons with his daughter Emma in 1966
When I was in high school, while scarfing down a bowl of cereal in the kitchen, my dad informed me out of the blue that he had a son with a previous wife. Anthony, was evidently my half-brother. Even though I had never been informed or this I looked at him and was neither surprised or shocked. When you are a self-absorbed sixteen-year-old, such news means nothing. Later on we learned that Anthony had died young in a car accident in his thirties – our half-brother from another life we never met.
A few years back, after both of my parents had passed, we all started putting the pieces together. The morning paper route in the blue VW bus was surely to help pay for child support for Anthony. The irony is that while I was with my dad on his morning paper route helping him pay for past deeds, it turned out I was the lucky one as I was the one able to spend those magical mornings with my dad. I still remember the smell of the seats in the VW bus, the noisy sound of the motor and can see his hand reaching back for the next paper.
As a celebration of liberation and freedom, on June 10th, 2023, there was a Juneteenth Parade down Market Street in San Francisco. The parade headed west. On bicycle, I headed down to the event going east down side streets then on Market taking in the many floats. There were a few drum-based bands, lots of beautiful and amazing cars, youth groups, a float dedicated to William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr. (1810 – May 18, 1848) one of the earliest biracial-black U.S. citizens in California and one of the founders of the city that became San Francisco. (we learn something new everyday), the African American Shakespeare Company more really cool cars and holding down the rear about five Black folk riding horseback. It was a pretty amazing site to see.
I saw Mayor London Breed and the ubiquitous Scott Weiner as well as Supervisor Ahsha Safai. The parade was lightly attended. There was a contingent of unarmed police officers in the parade. Hopefully, this tradition will continue.
…the truth is, that when a Library expels a book of mine and leaves an unexpurgated Bible lying around where unprotected youth and age can get hold of it, the deep unconscious irony of it delights me and doesn’t anger me.” Mark Twain – concerning the banning of “Eve’s Diary,” a comic short story by Mark Twain
There has been much news about the banning of books of late. A sort of totalitarian energy in our world has emerged in a way reminiscent of earlier times. The “thought police” is hard at work. With opinion becoming increasingly confused for truth and a reactionary strain has entered the body politic. There has been the banning of books on civil rights, African American history, gay rights and history and queer memoirs one of which is Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe perhaps the most banned book in recent years.
Curious what all the fuss is about, I checked out Gender Queer from the public library. The book is actually a comic book. It is memoir of a young person in rural Northern California discovering their gender identity and becoming transgender. It is poorly written, rather naïve and the illustrations leave a lot to be desired. You can read the entire book in a few hours. I highly recommend that people check this book out from the library and read it as this topic will continue to be in the news. It will certainly influence future elections. While you are at the library also check out some Calvin and Hobbes and perhaps Captain Underpants – far better literary works.
Indeed, I think the problem with the books bans, is the quality of the books they are banning. The banning of books seems only to shine the light on these trendy low quality books which few adults have actually read. The book banning types need to go after bigger fish and bring interest to higher quality work. There are so many to choose from. Without further adieu:
SF Journal Official Short List of Banned Books 2023
#1: Brave New World
Aldous Huxley
HarperCollins
The notion that in the future we will become these sex-crazed perverts is simply unacceptable. The explicit drug use is out of control as well. Do not read this book! It will ruin your brain. #2: Slaughterhouse Five – A Children’s Crusade
Kurt Vonnegut
Random House
One of those books that has been banned, and should be banned because there is perhaps a little sex and nudity, but probably because Vonnegut, a pacifist, takes the whole notion of war to task. In our war-mongering world, peace is simply unacceptable. #3: Free People of Color of New Orleans : An Introduction
Mary Gehman
Margaret Media, Incorporated
This “woke” book goes way too far. Why in the world would we even mention New Orleans in the context of geography, Black history or American culture. That the book points out that African Americans were actually free in New Orleans throughout the history of the United States is just plain preposterous.
CONCLUSION
Of course there are many more books that need to be suppressed. To all the censors out there: please work harder at identifying higher quality books to ban.
San Francisco Carnaval takes place every year during Memorial Day weekend It is one of those “under the radar” events that seems to be attended by the locals in the know. Saturday along Harrison Street featured many musical performances on different stages, food vendors and various activities. I particularly enjoyed the lineup on Saturday at the 22nd Street and Harrison Stage with some very talented and prepared local Bay Area musicians. The stage closed the day with Los Van Van from Cuba.
1:00PM BULULU
2:00PM SABOR DE MI CUBA
3:00PM AKHEEL MESTAYER QUINTET
4:00PM LOS VAN VAN
Tragically, Juan Formell, the leader and bass player of Los Van Van had died on stage in New York the night before so it was surely a profound event. Unfortunately I was unable to hear the Los Van Van set as I had a previously booked gig. Reports came in all positive.
All the stages tended to run late as the day when on. I heard that Los Van Van did not go on until around 6 pm.
Sunday is the Carnaval parade. Many different cultures and peoples throughout Latin America participate. It is an interesting juxtaposition to see all the many colorful dance troops and bands on floats perform while in the background is the gritty Mission Street. Many of the Aztec dancers did the whole parade barefoot. Now that is dedication!
The book In the City of Bikes: The Story of the Amsterdam Cyclist by Pete Jordon is featured in a very entertaining 99% Invisible episode De Fiets is Niets/.
In the City of Bikes is a fast read about both the twists and turns of both Amsterdam and Jordon’s journal with the bicycle. It is well-researched and the quotes about and from the various characters integral to the story make it a light read. Perfect for the beach or nearby lake.
In the City of Bikes: The Story of the Amsterdam Cyclist
By Pete Jordan
Publisher: Harper Perennial; 0 edition (April 16, 2013)
Language: English
Paperback: 448 pages
ISBN-10: 0061995207
ISBN-13: 978-0061995200
The selling and buying of textbooks is a big business and in Florida they are actively controlling textbooks often concerning the instruction of issues of race and social protest. Florida and Governor Ron DeSantis have been much in the news for various censorship bills. Some of the language in the Florida bill CS/HB 7— Individual Freedom is rather strange. It attempts to make it so kids are not made to feel guilty through association. I am not sure whether there are specific incidents of teachers traumatizing kids with guilt through association but maybe that is a Florida thing.
Required Instruction
A person, by virtue of his or her race or sex, does not bear responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex.
A person should not be instructed that he or she must feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress for actions, in which he or she played no part, committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex.
From the Florida Bill CS/HB 7
In Florida, history is evidently not about truth or even the pursuit of truth, but of making sure that certain people feel comfortable.
We’re #1 and Never Question American Exceptionalism
At the core of this sort of legislation is the notion of American exceptionalism. History has always been written and controlled by those in power and the “victors. ” The bills in Florida are just one more explicit example of this phenomenon.
The history of the United States that was taught to me in the 1970s left out a lot of important stuff that I learned about only much later in life. (Juneteenth and the Tulsa massacre are just a few examples). Often, the teaching of U.S. history tended to focus on the the 18th century and the founding of the nation. George Washington and his cherry tree. Benjamin Franklin and his kite and pragmatic habits and little of the fact that he was a vegetarian. The beef industry maybe cut that part out.. The notion that the pilgrims and the Indians had Thanksgiving together and ate turkeys and pumpkin pie. The exceptionalism of democracy itself. The Declaration of Independence and a little of the Bill of Rights until even that started to become uncomfortable.
By the time you finished high school you maybe learned a few details about the World War II but that was mostly to the hum of a film projector playing newsreels of the time – the “Battle of the Bulge” or maybe D-Day. Your history teacher, an audio visual enthusiast, was glad to have the hour of World War II propaganda films so he could grade papers in the dark. The United States saved the world from fascism but what was fascism but some guy with a strange mustache in a large wool coat screaming into a mic and solders saluting with straight arms. Ten minutes on the holocaust. We did not read anything about the Korean or Vietnam wars. Cuba was pure evil. The working of the CIA and the assignations of leaders of various democratically elected leaders around the world was never on the syllabus. Current events were discussed occasionally but always in the context of American exceptionalism. Martin Luther King was but a dream. Books that were banned were more often fiction – Huck Finn, Brave New World, Vonnegut and Henry Miller if they somehow made it to the library stacks. Insulting language and often far to sexy. As is always is the case, censorship had the opposite effect of garnering interest for the forbidden texts.
What I find odd about the whole Florida case and the culling of history textbooks is why would Florida even buy new history textbooks? Are the old history books worn out? If they want to live in the fantasy of the US history as taught in 1965 where America can do no wrong, just use one from a bygone time. Every student knows that the real history is often between the lines. I was often bored to a stupor by the typical history book with the end-of-chapter questions and the summaries meant to fill my brain with often trivial facts. It would be far better to simple use the old history books and teach them in context. See how the American exceptionalism that was promoted is often far more complex than first meets the eye. Fill in the missing pieces with real books that go into detail about all the things that really happened. Read original works from authors of the time.
What is obviously lacking in all of this discussion is the fact what is often not taught is critical thinking and skepticism, two skills that are essential in life. History can perhaps make people feel uncomfortable with the truths of the past but kids, please do not take it personally as it is events beyond your control.
Parking Violations and Fines – SF Transportation Code Penalty Schedule
Effective 7/1/2021
Citations
Div I 7.2.10 Pedestrian Crossings
$77
Div I 7.2.11 Electric Assistive Personal Mobility Devices
$100
Div I 7.2.12 Bicycle Riding Restricted
$100
Div I 7.2.13 NUV Violation
$100
On-Street Parking
Div I 7.2.20 Residential Parking
$97
Div I 7.2.22 Street Cleaning
$85
The Tyranny of Parking Tickets
There is perhaps nothing that can ruin your day in San Francisco more than returning to your car and finding a parking ticket under your windshield wiper.
Every San Franciscan with a car has experienced the wrath of the metermaid – seemingly peaceful and calm people in their blue uniforms driving around in their golf carts issuing pain and misery around town. The reason they wear helmets is surely for self protection. It is a hard job indeed and the fines make it so if there is one thing that San Franciscans take seriously it is avoiding parking tickets. Once you get a rash of these you begin to wonder if you should simply stay in bed all day just so you do not lose money.
The one that is often the most peculiar is the $85 you must cough up for the Div I 7.2.22 Street Cleaning infraction. While you look out your window with your car ticketed and observe the street cleaning truck go by mostly just blowing trash every which way it makes you take a deep breath and hopefully chuckle. I have street cleaning schedule on my calendar with alerts thirty minutes prior to the event.
When you get one of these you soon start think of all the various ways you could have spent the $85. Perhaps a dinner for two at a fine restaurant. Three large pizzas at North Beach Pizza. Six Super Carnitas Burritos at Guadalajara, Tickets for two at SF Jazz, the list is endless.
Whoever said San Francisco is soft on crime never parked their car and forgot to plug the meter!
On-Street Parking (continued)
Div I 7.2.23(a) Parking Meter- Downtown Core
$96
Div I 7.2.23(b) Parking Meter-Outside Downtown Core
$87
Div I 7.2.25 Red Zone
$110
Div I 7.2.26 Yellow Zone
$110
Div I 7.2.27 White Zone
$110
Div I 7.2.28 Green Zone
$90
Div I 7.2.29 Parking for Three Days
$75
Div I 7.2.30(a) Overtime Parking Downtown Core
$96
Div I 7.2.30(b) Overtime Parking Outside Downtown Core
$87
Div I 7.2.30(c) Overtime Meter Parking Downtown Core
$96
Div I 7.2.30(d) Overtime Meter Parking Outside Downtown Core
$87
Div I 7.2.32 Angled Parking
$72
Div I 7.2.33 Blocking Residential Door
$60
Div I 7.2.34 Median Dividers and Islands
$97
Div I 7.2.35 Parking on Grades
$60
Div I 7.2.36 100 Feet Oversize
$110
Div I 7.2.37 Motorcycle Parking
$110
Div I 7.2.38 Parking in Stand
$110
Div I 7.2.39 Parking Transit-Only
$110
Div I 7.2.40 Tow-Away Zone- Downtown Core
$110
Div I 7.2.41 Tow-Away Zone- Outside Downtown Core
$110
Div I 7.2.42 Parking Restrictions
$110
Div I 7.2.43 Parking-Public Property
$79
Div I 7.2.44 Misuse Disabled Parking Placard/License
$866
Div I 7.2.45 Temporary Parking Restriction
$85
Div I 7.2.46 Temporary Construction Zone
$85
Div I 7.2.47 Remove Chalk
$110
Div I 7.2.48 Repairing Vehicle
$104
Div I 7.2.49 Permit on Wrong Car
$110
Div I 7.2.50 Invalid Permit
$110
Div I 7.2.51 Parking Marked Space
$67
Div I 7.2.52 On-Street Car Share Parking
$110
Div I 7.2.54 Large Vehicle
$110
Off-Street Parking
Div I 7.2.60 Parking Facility
$72
Div I 7.2.61 Entrance/Exit Parking Facility
$100
Div I 7.2.62 Blocking Space Parking Facility
$77
Div I 7.2.63 Speeding within Parking Facility
$100
Div I 7.2.64 Block Charging Bay
$110
Div I 7.2.65 Overtime Parking_Off Street Parking Meter
$79
Div I 7.2.66 Misuse Disabled Parking Placard/License Plate
When you live in a city and and your mornings are often spent listening to the sound of rubber on asphalt, your afternoons to the huffing of brakes on the local bus line, and the evenings to the scream of sirens and firetrucks, it is good to sometimes hit the road and explore the quiet hinterlands of California. One of those places is the North Coast and towns like Point Arena three hours north of San Francisco. People are generally friendly survivors of this rugged coast, running a variety of local businesses – cafes, second-hand boutiques, carpenters, handymen, wine laborers, yoga instructors, teachers. and artists. Not a chain store or corporate restaurant in sight.
At the pier in Point Arena I ventured into Point Arena Pizza and was amused at an obviously home-made poster on the industrial refrigerator. In San Francisco such sarcasm with the youth is not very common. In the country, they may be less inclined to refrain from such truths.
Attention Teenagers
If you are tired of being hassled by unreasonable parents
now is the time for action
Leave home and pay your own way while you still know everything.
Point Arena, CA
And indeed, sarcasm is just one of the services that they offer. The quote above is timeless. I am sure it would bring a snicker to parents all over the world.
The Quarterly Report: A brief synopsis of the news in San Francisco over the last three months.
Weather
There has been a lot of rain this year with “atmospheric rivers” coming in off the Pacific one after another like waves. We once called these just “storms.” Now they are “atmospheric rivers” – which I kind of like. “Hey mommy what is that thing in the sky? Don’t worry Junior. That’s just an “atmospheric river.” In between these deluges for a few days we get brilliant blue skies and the entire city of San Francisco seems to jump into their cars to do errands and shop for food until the next “atmospheric river” hits. What is different this year is that there has been a lot of thunder and lightning. For the first twenty years that I lived in San Francisco I heard thunder one time. This winter thunder and lightning has been a regular thing.
In late February it got so cold the Bay Area received snow at the higher elevations. For over a week Mount Diablo was a snow-capped peak and briefly the Bay Area looked a little like Seattle.
Politics
Nothing to report on the San Francisco politics front. The usual urban problems persist but instead of the libertarian right blaming Chesa Boudin they are going after the Board of Supervisors for all the city’s problems.
He says it’s all those loons on the Board of Supervisors; it certainly has nothing to do with San Francisco’s 30-year string of establishment-friendly, pro-business, moderate mayors. – Joe Eskenazi, Michael Moritz’s strange and terrible diagnosis of San Francisco (Mission Local)
Joe Eskenazi’s article makes many good points, but it is a bit like shooting fish in a barrel starting with the title. It should really be “Even Billionaire Democrats Like Me Are Fed Up With San Francisco.” Michael Moritz is a billionaire venture capitalist and developer and states a party affiliation as Democrat only to score political points. He is surely a bit like Rick Caruso who switched from being a Republican to a Democrat only before he decided to run for mayor of Los Angeles. Money does speak volumes, even evidently getting space in the New York Times.
At that time, warehouses and railroad yards occupied the area now known as Mission Bay — today the area houses one of the world’s leading medical centers, mixed-use housing, the home of the Golden State Warriors and Visa’s new world headquarters. – Michael Moritz, Even Democrats Like Me Are Fed Up With San Francisco (NYT)
If you are a San Francisco native, what they did to Mission Bay is for some a disaster and others perhaps a mixed blessing. The area looks more like Los Angeles or San Jose. An area that had some small businesses and manufacturing is now a car-centric industrial park. Most of the businesses that occupy the ground-level shops are of the corporate variety. Furthermore, Mission Bay is one of those places where the majority of the workers drive to work and park in behemoth parking garages. The Mariposa 280 exit is a disaster and an accident waiting to happen as the morning car commute is heavy. Mission Bay is a car centric area. No thank you Moritz. And, no one pointed out the whole thing is on landfill. Not too long ago it was a bay and wetlands and what they built on was under ten feet of water. When things start to shake, things could tumble.
National Politics Quote to Chew On
She was the one who branded Ronald Reagan the “Teflon president,” against whom bad news, like the Iran-contra scandal, did not stick. Of Vice President Dan Quayle, she said, “He thinks that Roe versus Wade are two ways to cross the Potomac.” Patricia Schroeder – New York Times Obit
I have always been a big fan of Pat Schroeder. She was an amazing woman with a sharp wit who wrote and passed legislation that people probably take for granted. She died on March 14, 2023. There are no feminists alive today who have humorous and biting zingers like Pat churned out.
She had to fight blatant discrimination from the start, facing questions about how, as the mother of two young children, she could function as both a mother and a lawmaker. “I have a brain and a uterus and I use both,” she responded. Patricia Schroeder – New York Times Obit
Sporting News
As the Golden State Warriors play five-hundred basketball, the playoffs are probably down the road and then all bets are off. I do not follow basketball until crunch-time. With all the rain and snow the ski season is going to go until the end of April and beyond. There will be snow in the mountains until late June. For much of the season the issue has been too much snow with roads often closed.
COVID-19 Pandemic Update
In public places like busses and libraries masks seem to be common but people are out and about and traffic is definitely back to pre-pandemic times.
Parklets, Haircuts and Where the Sun Does Shine
Some parklets seem to be staying, usually on roads like Valencia Street that are north/south. Music events are everywhere. There are many really good bands in San Francisco. Remember to tip the band!
Jeffrey Cohen, a butter-voiced, bearded man who has been the dean of the humanities at A.S.U. since 2018, told me. On taking the position, he hired a marketing firm, Fervor, to sell the humanities better. It ran a market survey of eight hundred and twenty-six students.
“It was eye-opening to see their responses,” Cohen said. “In general, they loved the humanities and rated them higher than their other courses. However, they were unclear on what the humanities were—two hundred and twenty-two thought that biology was a humanity.” From “The End of the English Major” By Nathan Heller (The New Yorker – February 27, 2023)
The “The End of the English Major” By Nathan Heller (The New Yorker – February 27, 2023) is an illuminating article about how young people today are no longer pursuing degrees in English, History, Philosophy and the other humanities. In many ways you cannot blame them. College is expensive and when you leave you are going to need a way to pay off all those loans. The help wanted listings do not have jobs outright for people who are experts in say Charles Dickens or Renaissance sculpture in Northern Italy. “Go west young man” has been replaced with “get a Computer Science degree you fool!” Be practical and make some loot with ones and zeros.
And the fact that twenty percent of kids today think that biology is in the humanities is understandable as recently the field of psychology has been confusing gender and sex and it is easy to think that they both may be “fluid” and a “spectrum” – not so much hard science, but more about expression, culture and personal preference.
I would say what is at stake with this exodus of people from the humanities is a whole generation of people who are less literate and easily coerced into believing just about anything. Its the death of critical thinking and by the way – biology is a science!
The Coast Starlight to Seattle leaves Emeryville, CA daily at 9:41 pm. It arrives at King Street Station in Seattle at 7:51 pm the next day. For around $100 you get a seat in coach. Probably not for extremely introverted, asocial people but I find Amtrak a fun way to travel. The vacation starts when you get on the train.
It is possible to get to the Emeryville station by BART and a bus at the MacArthur Station. From most places in SF this will take about an hour.
On Amtrak you can splurge and get a sleeper, but I have done this trip in coach, sleeping the first eight hours of the trip without too much problem. The seats are large and recline way back. The legroom is grand. It is a good idea to pack light meals and some snacks and perhaps some beverages as well. No personal alcohol but the snack bar has beer, wine and liquor.
Mount Shasta
The following day is well spent in the observation car enjoying the views. You go through some beautiful forests and next to rivers far from the highways. The view of Mount Shasta is glorious.
We’ll get there when we get there. My proposed tagline for Amtrak
Amtrak overnighters in coach are not for the faint of heart. The food is a snack bar missing half of the menu items. The fellow passengers are always an odd sort. However, the views of rivers, mountains and lakes make it all worthwhile. Even the scrapyards, car junkyards, trash-heaps and way too many homeless camps along the rivers are intriguing. Eugene, Oregon looked particularly depressing. Goodnight America, how are you?
Mount Shasta
In the observation car. The gentleman in the front usually “rides freight” but evidently upgraded to Amtrak. He seemed to be the ghost of Woody Guthrie.
Klamath Falls
Eugene, OR
Portland, OR
Scrapyard
After the Amtrak I took the Seattle rail line to Northgate.
Of course when you get to Washington, the exploration options expand. I took the train in February 2023 to meet up with a backcountry ski party.
If you look in the distance to the right you see the Wallowa National Forest where the Nez Perce lived for at least eleven thousand years. It is now in the state of Oregon. To the left is what I think are the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho. Incredible views and open space.
The One and Only Dick Gregory (2021) is available on many streaming services and I highly recommend this movie – 5 Stars
OFFICIAL TRAILER:
Dick Gregory is one of the many brilliant people from the 20th century who are often overlooked. If you were White, growing up in the 1960s and 70s, the name Dick Gregory came into the spotlight rarely, perhaps a few times on the six o’clock news. He was, along with Gloria Steinem on the FBI list of people to try to minimize as they were “dangerous.” I remember Dick Gregory only as the guy going on juice fasts and advocating for better nutrition. To my nine year old self, he seemed honest and had commonsensical ideas but was a bit of an eccentric. I had never seen him do standup so I probably did not realize he was a comic as well. In this era of having everything on demand, it is easy to forget that the era of broadcast television made it so you could only see things once. Once it was broadcast at 6 pm and the show ended, it was over. Gone into that dream-like world. Even though he made it to the Tonight Show with Jack Parr a few times, to many, Dick Gregory simply disappeared and fell off the radar.
After watching the movie I would ask random friends and acquaintances if they had ever heard of Dick Gregory. The two Black people I spoke with had stories to tell, one about how his mother would play Dick Gregory records, the other about his nutritional supplements. I would usually get a blank stare from White folk. “Dick Gregory? Never heard of him.”
The One and Only Dick Gregory is a two hour retrospective on Dick Gregory’s entire life. It is fairly balanced between each decade. I appreciated the fact that it took this approach as people are often much more complex than just the high points. It would be perhaps more entertaining to have most of the movie about his years as a standup comic and then his association and friendship with Martin Luther King, but that would make it so you did not see the incredible arch of Dick Gregory’s life.
I particularly enjoyed Dick Gregory’s obsession with running. During the segment on the nineteen-seventies, you see the same low-res home movie of Gregory running by the side of the road. One just has to wonder if the fictional character Forrest Gump’s running faze was inspired in some part by Dick Gregory.
In 1976, to combat world hunger, Dick Gregory ran from Los Angeles, CA to New York City. The run was known as the Dick Gregory Food Run. Signature shirts were worn and passed out along the way. 71 days, 50 miles per day for a total of 2,782 miles. Dick Gregory ate no solid food during this run. He solely consumed water and his 4x formula.
Dick Gregory running in Ohio, from https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p267401coll32/id/28839/
I will not spoil any more of the movie. The One and Only Dick Gregory is an excellent way to get to learn about this remarkable man. It places equal weight to all time periods of his life. This is a man who in his twenties smoked four packs of cigarettes’ a day, was good friends and opened up for Martin Luther King at civil rights rallies and later ran from LA to New York to bring attention to world hunger. Just a few of the many incredible moments in a remarkable life. The guy was a mensch.
Remember, before you buy a book from Jeff Bezos consider supporting your local bookstore. There are so many great book stores in San Francisco. I also highly recommend Green Apple Books on Clement Street. They have just about everything and the staff is amazing. When you buy a book from a local bookstore you get that warm fuzzy feeling just thinking that you may have kept a local business alive and you may even make some real friends.
Below are the books I read in 2022. This year I realized how fun it is to keep this annual list and reflect back on these literary journeys. The list is organized in the order that I read them.
I always like to mix up contemporary works with classics. Some of the highlights of the year is reading Brave New World in January and then spending the entire year marveling at the clairvoyance of Aldous Huxley. It is a must-read for anyone in the 21st century. What a great book! I picked up Free People of Color of New Orleans : An Introduction. in New Orleans. It is a short book and illuminates how the issue of race is in the United States is complex, how various stories are rarely told – one being race and the City of New Orleans. I did read a few chapters of the 1619 Project but found that I already knew a lot of the material, so it became a bit of a slog. I was lucky to read No One Writes to the Colonel: And Other Stories while staying in Cali Colombia for a week. Way too fun! I read it twice.
This heat is enough to rust the screws in my head.
No One Writes to the Colonel: And Other Stories
Gabriel García Márquez
Books I Read 2022
Brave New World
Aldous Huxley
HarperCollins Read Review
Finding the Right Notes
Ron Carter
Petrack Production
After a couple of months on the road with the band, Herbie began to feel frustrated. He was copying all the other pianists but not allowing himself to come out from hiding. Finally that frustration came to a head. “I thought , I’ve just got to play, really play.” Herbie said. ” If that conflicts with Miles, I’ll just have to hear the consequences.” So at Sutherford Lounge in Chicago one night, I let it loose. I figured that Miles was going to fire me after the set, but he leaned over to me and said. “Why didn’t you play like that before?” That shocked me. Then it dawned on that that a copy is never as good as the original. Miles wanted to hear me. And so did Ron and Tony.
Finding the Right Notes
Ron Carter
Americanah
Ngozi Adiche
Anchor Books
Robots Men and Minds
Ludwig Von Bertalanffy
Brazziller
The Bomb
Howard Zinn
City Lights
Free People of Color of New Orleans : An Introduction
Mary Gehman
Margaret Media, Incorporated
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitxgerald
Scribner
Ladies Who Lunch
Joseph Woodard
Household Ink
The Septembers of Shiraz
Dalia Sofer
Harper Perenial Read Review
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain
The Mark Twain Library
Witches Midwives & Nurses
Barbara Ehrenreich & Deirdre English
The Feminist Press at CUNY; 2nd edition (July 1, 2010) Read Review
Thomas Merton, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, And The Protection Of All Beings
Bill Morgan
Beatdom Press Read Review
The Bomb
Howard Zinn
City Lights Books
No One Writes to the Colonel: And Other Stories
Gabriel García Márquez
Harper Perennial
The Manufacture of Madness
Thomas Szsasz
Harper and Row Read Review
Skyblue the Badass
Dallas Weibe
Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk
David Sedaris
Little, Brown and Company
Gender Queer
Maia Kobabe
One Forge Publishing Group
A Coney Island of the Mind: Poems
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
New Directions
The Quarterly Report: A brief synopsis of the news in San Francisco over the last three months. Note: this is actually a six month synopsis as the October 2022 Quarterly Report was missed due to labor issues.
Politics
The November 6, 2022 San Francisco election outcomes were all predictable as the incumbents won easily. Brooke Jenkins won the San Francisco D.A. job. In terms of crime, drug overdoses and homelessness, not much has changed since Jenkins became the D.A. save for the observation that Capp Street now seems to have more prostitution and a few more homeless camps. A good friend who works at 850 Bryant Street says that the jail is about as full as when Chesa Boudin was in charge. Boudin was recalled because he came to the job with long term ideas and radical solutions that did not promote incarceration for non-violent offenders. Politically that is a hard road as people want quick fixes for things were quick fixes do not exist. There are no short term solutions to homelessness.
Gavin Newsom and Nancy Pelosi had no significant challengers and so kept their jobs.
In San Francisco, one of the tragic and strange events of the past six months was the home invasion of the Pelosi residence. Paul Pelosi eventually got clobbered in the head with a hammer. Evidently we must all be wary (or have a security detail) as there are all kinds of deranged people out there eating up the conspiracies brewing on the internet. To a speedy recovery Mr. Pelosi.
There has to be some adult supervision on the Republican side, in order to say, ‘Enough. Enough,” Nancy Pelosi – November 2022
Proposition I – Vehicles on JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park and the Great Highway lost and Proposition J – Recreational Use of JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park passed. So confusing! This means that Golden Gate Park’s John F. Kennedy Drive will remain car-free. After all that confusion, what is sometimes lost is the actual schedule for the Great Highway.
Starting at noon on Friday and going until 6 a.m. on Monday, The Great Highway is closed to cars.
The Great Highway in SF
Vehicular Access Schedule
Vehicular access to the Upper Great Highway is open on:
Monday – starting at 6 a. m.
Tuesday – all day
Wednesday – all day
Thursday – all day
Friday – ending at 12 noon
This schedule started on August 16, 2021 and will be in place until the Board of Supervisors considers legislation on the future of the Great Highway beyond the pandemic emergency closure. Additional information can be found on the Mayor’s Press Release.
From https://sfrecpark.org/1651/Great-Highway-Hours-and-Schedule
National Politics Quote to Chew On
By the way, Liz and I are not courageous. There’s no strength in this. We’re just surrounded by cowards. And then [in] complete contrast to cowardism [sic], it looks like courage when it’s just your bare duty.” U.S. Congressman Adam Kinzinger – November 2022 from https://kinzinger.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=403011
Sporting News
Soccer
Argentina won the World Cup against France in double overtime and penalties. It was an amazing World Cup and a perfect activity for some battling the latest round of colds, flu or COVID 19.
Football
The San Francisco 49ers, with a great defense, a lot of stellar skill players on offence and a poised, talented, third string rookie quarterback named Brock Purdy are on an eight game winning streak and headed to the playoffs. This will be fun to watch as everyone loves the home team when they start winning.
Weather
Fortunately we have been getting some good storms this year. The first came in mid-November and dumped a few feet of snow on the Sierra. In December, there have been multiple weather systems come through bringing plenty of rain. Surf is definitely up at times.
End of Year Point Arena Buoy Report. 35 foot waves. Yikes!
COVID-19 Pandemic Update
While San Francisco for the last two years been a place were people wear masks out of respect the pandemic does seem to be waning. In public places like busses and libraries masks seem to be common but people are out and about and traffic is definitely back to pre-pandemic times.
Parklets, Haircuts and Where the Sun Does Shine
Some parklets seem to be staying and music events are everywhere. There are many really good bands in San Francisco. Remember to tip the band!
That is The Quarterly Report – December 2022.
Photo Gallery of SF
The Quarterly Report – December 2022
Ocean Beach San Francisco
Pumpkin pies
McLaren Park
In San Francisco, there are many electric bikes often used to commute kids to school.
A Stitch In Time is now playing at the Pelican Cafe.
It is a song about the 6th Mass extinction otherwise known as the Holocene extinction. Oceans did sing to the sunsets. And once a whale did swim by. That’s all you get. Just a stitch in time.
A Stitch In Time
There was a day
Not so long ago
The sun did rise
To the East
CHORUS
That’s all you get
Just a stitch in time
Dilly dally
And it does fly
And then the sun
Kissed the Mission
And found a friend
In the fog
CHORUS
That’s all you get
Just a stitch in time
Dilly dally
And it does fly
Oceans did sing
To the sunsets
And once the whales
Did swim by
CHORUS
That’s all you get
Just a stitch in time
Dilly dally
And it does fly
CODA
Don’t feel so bad
It’s happened before
Haven’t you heard
There’s bees.
Thomas Szasz’s The Manufacture of Madness – A Comparative Study of the Inquisition and the Mental Health Movement was published in 1970. The gist of the book is that the Inquisition that persecuted witches, heretics, Jews and homosexuals and a variety of “others” is similar to modern psychiatry and the Mental Health Movement that diagnoses people for their insanity and locks them up, against their will in institutions for safekeeping and treatments.
That was 1970. I am sure there is still the practice of putting people with schizophrenia and other diagnoses against their will into institutions and it may be good to remember that The Manufacture of Madness was written in the time of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Additionally it was a time when homosexuality and masturbation were often considered diseases that needed to be cured. I will refrain from the gory details of the treatments.
Of course, comparing the Mental Health Movement to the Inquisition made Dr. Szasz a very controversial academic and he surely had many enemies. In effect he was declaring that mental illness is a myth and the profession of psychiatry a hoax and the people who practice it immoral and dense – not a good way to make friends. Szasz’s thesis surely has merit and it is odd that people then and today dismiss his theories simply because it makes them uncomfortable and they do not like them. In every era we think we become more noble and advanced but time and time again it turns out that more often than not the same dynamics are in play; it is only the words, players and titles that change.
What one thinks of Rush’s tactics depends, of course , on what one thinks of the ideology of psychiatric imperialism and its attendant quasi-medical sanctions.
The chapter The New Manufacturers – Benjamin Rush, The Father of American Psychiatry is an eye-opening account of how Benjamin Rush thought that criminals had mental diseases that needed to be “cured” and that Black people suffered a “disease” from the color of their skin
More surprising than Rush’s self-proclaimed love for the Negro is his theory of Negritude. Rush does not believe that God created the Negro black; nor that a Negro is black in nature… About 1792, white spots began to appear on the body of a Negro slave named Henry Moss. In three years he was almost entirely white. Moss had the symptoms of an hereditary disease we now know as vitiligo. The condition, characterized by loss of skin pigmentation, occurs in both white and colored people… The gist of Rush’s theory was that the Negro suffered from congenital leprosy which “… appeared so mild a form that excess pigmentation was its only symptom.”
By inventing his theory of Negritude, Rush solved the issue of racial segregation. Whites and Blacks could not have sexual contact and God-forbid marry as it would propagate this dreaded disease of being Black. By conflating race with a disease, he was promoting a concept that humans could be cured of their race – or in more modern terms, they would then be cured by becoming transracial. Race (as gender is today) was considered a preexisting medical condition. In the 18th and 19ths centuries, it is clear that unless you were a white male, you had some sort of disease that needed a medical remedy. Women suffered from hysteria and pregnancy was a disease. Black people had the disease of Negritude. It is a sobering fact that this is the basis of psychiatry in America as conjured up by Benjamin Rush, the preeminent doctor and a man who signed the Declaration of Independence.
All students of psychology and psychiatry would do well to read the work of Thomas Szasz as he was a very influential person, intelligently questioning the status quo and his work goes deep into the history of psychiatry. That he is fading into the background of history is predictable. People in the field of medicine that question the profit sector of the industry will always get pushed aside. That the last forty years has seen huge profits in the mental health pharmaceutical industry speaks to this conundrum.
What is interesting is how much has changed in the Mental Health Movement in the last fifty years. Homosexuality and masturbation are no longer considered diseases. Since President Ronald Reagan helped to defund mental health services in the 1980s we see plenty of people that are mentally imbalanced on the streets. If mental illness is a myth, tell that to the homeless person screaming at the moon at 3 AM in the middle of the night. Their condition may go beyond just the cardboard box they sleep in. Indeed. they may have a “problem with living” and a warm, clean safe bed, a toilet and shower is surely part of the remedy, but years of abuse, living on the edge and poverty has its toll. People are complicated. Simple solutions are often overly simplistic.
But then again, as Szasz pointed out, the Mental Health Movement is always manufacturing new diseases. Here are just some of the the latest disorders that people are diagnosed with.
The DSM-5 (2013) The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is the standard classification of mental disorders used by mental health professionals around the world. The manual is the guide by which mental health professionals base their diagnosis. Below is a list in alphabetical order of the 15 new disorders added to the DSM-5.
The list above is just the tip of the iceberg. Dr. Thomas Szasz was definitely on to something no one wants discuss. I highly doubt he is required reading in university programs. Need I say more?
On November 15th, 2022 California College of the Arts will hold a ground breaking ceremony for the San Francisco campus expansion over an Ohlone shellmound (named “Project Double Ground”) During legally required archaeological testing on the backlot of the SF campus, CCA discovered fragments of shells, bones and tools located 40 feet below the surface in the bore samples. The samples identify Ohlone activity before the Bay Area was violently colonized dating back more than 7,500 years. – Hold CCA accountable for building over an Ohlone shellmound (change.org)
A few days a week I work programming websites on Irwin Street across from the California College of the Arts. It is a jovial office of designers who produce very good work. Across from the office, on November 15, 2022, CCA held a ground breaking ceremony for a new campus extension, but this was all simply pomp and circumstance as they have been digging, flattening and scraping the ground for many months on land that last year was a parking lot. You see large equipment that looks like pile drivers (not looking forward to when that gets started) and the area has been flattened and groomed for construction. We all looked out from the second story windows for a few minutes to take in the special event. It was a bright crisp autumn day.
Map of San Francisco California 1853 – wikimedia.org. From this Map it appears that Irwin Street was under water.
What Really Went Down
Irwin Street, like Wisconsin Street nearby is often a place were the unhoused put up tents and hunker down surrounded always by a strange assortment of personal belongings. A week before the ground breaking ceremony, about a dozen police officers and social workers who do homelessness outreach started clearing out the tents and unhoused folks. It was a major operation complete with bobtail trucks to haul away the stuff. Word had it that they were taking them to a hotel – hot showers and some fresh clothes, a fresh start to life perhaps. I do hope that they find their legs, as it must be a drag to camp night after night on the sordid streets at the base of Potrero Hill..
The following week on November 15th, 2022, Irwin Street, outside the California College of the Arts, was once again closed off. This time there were white canopy style event tents and various tables, chairs organized in rows, a lectern and about a half dozen people milling around. It all began to make sense. You cannot have a ground breaking ceremony next to a homeless encampment – it is just not a good look. The largest canopy faced the new campus extension and there was a lectern. It looked like a set up for a wedding or maybe some sort of graduation ceremony. Caterers were nowhere to be found. Food would not be part of this celebration. The sidewalk where the homeless were was all clear and smelled of bleach.
In the middle of the day, about a hundred people gathered. From our second floor window, we heard speeches which we could not make out. On the periphery there were protesters holding professionally printed signs that said “SHELL MOUND.” They stood and listened and were entirely peaceful. A few round of applauses, more speeches and then a multi-racial and multi-gendered New Orleans style second-line style brass band came marching out of the main CCA building playing a joyous tune. They marched around the crowd and played for about five minutes then returned to the main California College of the Arts building from whence they came. It was all a bit surreal and felt a bit odd. Mercenary horn players are always easy hires for well-paid five minute gigs. The band was indeed very good.
Then you had applauses and the whole thing was over, people mingled for a bit and then the staff started taking down the canopy tents and packing away the chairs.
California College of the Arts Extension Construction
California College of the Arts Extension Construction
California College of the Arts Extension Construction
ORDER OF EVENTS
(For those wanting to do a ground-breaking ceremony on native grounds in San Francisco)
STEP 1: Clear out the homeless encampments the week before.
STEP 2: On the day of the ceremony set up tents and chairs.
STEP 3: Give speeches and thank people. (Not sure what they said about the history of the spot)
STEP 4: Hire a New Orleans style second-line style brass band to make everyone feel better about the whole shebang. Have the band march around to spread the joy.
Who are the Ohlone?
Ohlone is a collective of around 50 separate tribes with related languages that were collectively placed under the umbrella term: Ohlone. The Ohlone are Native American people located in the Northern California Coast, tribes inhabited areas from the coast of San Francisco through Monterey Bay to lower Salinas Valley. The Ohlone family of tribes have been living in the Bay Area for 10,000 years
CLOSING THOUGHTS
San Francisco map composite. 1853 -2022San Francisco map composite. 1853 -2022 – Close Up Mission Bay
San Francisco is Ohlone land and over the last 300 years has been completely transformed. It would be amazing to go back in time 300 years and stand at what now is Irwin and 7th Street and just look around. You probably would need a canoe. According to a map from 1853, Mission Creek flowed into the San Francisco Bay (see map above) and the area was probably wetlands and underwater. Humans have completely changed the geography of San Francisco, filling in the bay, making more space for development. This has been going on for hundreds of years. It is Western Civilization’s obsession with conquering, not living in harmony with nature. We see this same ethos today with notion that we must “fight climate change.” Sunrise on Mission Bay must have been a sight with certainly a lot of wildlife and from early accounts huge flocks of birds.
Where the California College of the Arts new extension building is being built is along 7th Street and towering above is Interstate 280. If the Ohlone time-traveled to today, and attended the ceremony they probably would not recognize anything and many would probably be perplexed and perhaps terrified of the brass band. However, that the area in question, the Shell Mound is now the place for an Art School is probably a good thing. It could have been turned into unsold luxury condos, an IKEA or perhaps a headquarters for some tech company with the latest get-rich scheme. Maybe one day the California College of the Arts will make a plaque to acknowledge the Ohlone and their history. Perhaps, a student looking for meaning to their art will stumble upon the Ohlone basket tradition and incorporate the designs and ideas into their work. But one thing is always true. When you are feeling down and out, and perhaps need to smooth over a tricky political situation, or simply want to feel good about something – anything, simply hire a second line brass band. They even do funerals.
EDITED 11/22/2022 – Added images and updated some text for clarity. Fixed typos. Map composite an approximation.
