Arts & Culture, Book Reviews, Essays, Slow News that Doesn't Break
From Steve Leiner’s The Honest Truth Real Happenings Far Funnier Than Fiction
A woman’s car broke down at a stop sign. As she tried to restart it, the car behind her kept honking. The woman calmly got out, walked over, and politely asked the man at the wheel. “Sir, if you could help me start my car, I’d be happy to sit here and honk your horn for you.”
– The Honest Truth: Real Happenings Far Funnier than Fiction by Steve Leiner
San Francisco Carnaval in 2025 took place on May 24 and 25. Both days were mostly sunny with strong westerly winds in the afternoon. I caught a little of the 17th Street stage on Saturday. Sunday we went to the parade. True to form, San Francisco Carnaval is an amazing display of the diverse cultures in San Francisco from the Latin American and Afro-Caribbean worlds – Mexico, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Brazil, Peru, Cuba, Bolivia, Puerto Rico, Trinidad. I am sure I missed some countries. It is festival and parade were there are no corporate sponsors. So refreshing! It is a once a year event not to be missed.
UPDATE: 5/28/2025
The Valencia Street Bike Lane Project is really pretty much done. They got rid of the ugly silly center lane earlier in March and repaved that part of the road with fresh blacktop. The bike lane now zig zags around parklets. Cars have to park further into the street (I like it how now car folks need to watch out for the bikes when walking to the sidewalk – the narrative is flipped). Also, there is plenty of space for cars to drop off people. This is the plan that I thought would work best a few years back. It is like how the bike lane was implemented originally at 14th Street. Bravo!
With the advent of the Great Highway closure and Sunset Dunes Park at the beach, San Francisco is becoming a fine bicycle town.
SFMTA News
https://www.sfmta.com/projects/valencia-bikeway-improvements
SFMTA News: What is happening now:
https://www.sfmta.com/projects/valencia-bikeway-improvements#2
This is a breaking story and updates will be posted here.
“That is why, today, I am directing the Bureau of Prisons, together with the Department of Justice, FBI, and Homeland Security, to reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt ALCATRAZ, to house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders.”
Donald Trump = May 5, 2025, AP News
It never ends. The crazy, ridiculous ideas. Donald Trump wants to save the government money but at the same time wants to open a prison that was closed sixty years ago because it was far too expensive to maintain and run. He seems to have a fetish with incarceration. Someone should inform him that there are many famous prisons in California. For just one of his many offenses and felonies he could be locked up in say San Quentin. That has a ring to it. Or perhaps Folsom Prison where Johnny Cash made that famous album. I am sure they could round up someone to sing the Folsom Prison Blues while Donald lunches on some toxic thin gruel. But I always thought Rikers Island Jail in New York is the most appropriate. Like Alcatraz, it is an island and this way he could get easier visiting rights from the likes of Melania and other friends and family. Just saying.
“The Henry Miller” is a bike trip that I did solo in late April and early May of 2025. I had always wanted to do this ride and get down to the Henry Miller Library along Highway 1, past Big Sur. The trip was encouraged along by a website page https://www.bestcoastbiking.com/san-francisco-to-big-sur. This website has the maps and itinerary. I followed the maps more of less but instead of Big Basin Redwoods State Park on the first night I stopped by my friend’s place in Boulder Creek. Julie, the sister of a high school buddy and her husband Al were great to get to know and hang out with. Thanks for the awesome dinner!
“The language of society is conformity; the language of the individual is freedom. Life will continue to be hell as long as the people who make up the world shut their eyes to reality. Switching from one ideology to another is a useless game. Each and every one of us is unique, and must be recognized as such. The least we can say about ourselves is that we are American, or French, or whatever the case may be. We are first of all human beings, different one from another, obliged to live together, to stew in the same pot.”
– Henry Miller from “Stand Still Like the Hummingbird”
Some of the riding highlights are the first day’s climb out of Woodside up the Old Honda Road. This is 2000 feet straight up an old wagon trail through the redwoods. More bikers than cars do this maniacally climb. Once you reach Skyline Blvd you take a sip of water and have to climb another thousand feet. Light traffic and a good route when the coast is fogged in. Very wild with many nature preserves.
The traffic from Boulder Creek to Santa Cruz is a bit nasty no matter what route you go. Highway 9 for a lot of it with a few backroad detours. Once in Santa Cruz the bike paths are many.
New Brighton State Park in Capitola south of Santa Cruz is a very good park for both bikes and campers. Killer bike camp spot. There are some premier ocean-side camp sites on top of the hill. Would some day be nice to reserve that for car camping.
Biking through the farms of Watsonville is fun as you are definitely in farm land. It is interesting to see where the food comes from and take in the climate. Acres and acres of strawberries that go on forever as far as the eye can see. A lot of lettuce and broccoli this time of year. People hard at work picking and farming. One lettuce-picking crew far from the main road flew a huge Mexican flag and were blasting mariachi music out of a converted school bus.
When you hit Moss Landing there is about 10 miles of dreadful highway shoulder riding which is never fun. The highways in this part of Monterey County are pretty bad. Two lane roads where they need four. Traffic gets backed up with people just trying to get to work. It would be brilliant if there was a dedicated bike path all the way from Santa Cruz to Monterey.
In Monterrey I camped in a spot the bestcoastbiking.com recommended, Veteran’s Park which is up a hill from the wharf. It worked out fine but next time I would get a hotel.
Day three headed down the coast. Checked out Carmel Mission Basilica, started up by Captain Gaspar de Portola and Franciscan Father Junípero Serra. Portola and Serra are the names of streets, schools and shopping malls throughout California. Serra spent most of his life in pain from probably an infected insect bite. Thank science for modern medicine and antibiotics.
It is fun to be around a classic place like Carmel Mission Basilica, where the bones have a presence and seem to talk though the floor boards. Cool paintings like Leon Trousset’s 1887 Father Juniper Serra’s First Mass. Everything looks so orderly. The ship in the harbor. Native Indians looking on in the shadows. I then rode down Highway 1 to Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park with strong tail winds. The further you rode, the less the cars.
Day four had a fun ride to the The Henry Miller Memorial Library and hung out with the locals while the foot traffic rolled in, stopped for five minutes then got back in their cars and moved on. In our family are a few Henry Miller classics, one, a signed version of the banned “Tropic of Cancer.” The book was printed in Mexico to avoid the authorities. The books where definitely my father’s. Henry Miller was a great writer and thinker and lived an amazing life. One of the inspirations for the ride is that Henry Miller liked to ride bicycles. He did not care for cars. In his late fifties he moved to Big Sur.
“After a time, habituated to so many hours a day on my bike, I became less and less interested in my friends. My wheel had now become my one and only friend. I could rely on it, which is more than I could say about my buddies.”
– Henry Miller from “My Bike and Other Friends”
Julia Pfeiffer State Park (let’s just call it Julia) is an 11 mile ride down the coast from the other Pfeiffer Park. At one time there were many Pfeiffer’s down this way and according to the bulletins the women obviously kept things together. Ranching and massive honey farms. Julia has great trails and waterfalls where the fallen redwoods wrap around other redwoods by streams in an obscene orgy of interactions. Much to explore.
On a Monday morning I left early and headed north. The traffic was light. There were clear skies and no wind. To Carmel, then along the coast to Monterey. Up a coast bikeway that runs along the beach, golf courses and opulent ocean mansions and then over to the scrappy Salinas Amtrak Station. The northbound Coast Starlight leaves every day at six-thirteen pm. I caught the train right on time.
Also see:
“The language of society is conformity; the language of the individual is freedom. Life will continue to be hell as long as the people who make up the world shut their eyes to reality. Switching from one ideology to another is a useless game. Each and every one of us is unique, and must be recognized as such. The least we can say about ourselves is that we are American, or French, or whatever the case may be. We are first of all human beings, different one from another, obliged to live together, to stew in the same pot.”
– Henry Miller from “Stand Still Like the Hummingbird”
Way out west we demonstrate daily against the fascist and authoritarian take over of our country. The president ignores the rule of law. He views the courts as some sort of football game where you pay off the refs and the press. I do not know these two in the photo but their quotes are timeless.
Quotes of the day from April 5, 2025 at Civic Center:
Resist much, obey little.
– Walt Whitman
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
– Aldous Huxley
In celebration of Earth Day here is a song I wrote last year in 2024 named High On a Wire. Paul Lyons on guitar and voice. Bird recording is from the Kickapoo River in Wisconsin at dusk that I made while on a bike tour (there are seven different bird songs). Indeed, we are “burnin’ this place down.” I have a strange feeling that the birds will again outlast us.
Em7/B A7/C# Am7 G
VERSE 1
Those are birds
that sing them songs.
Been doing that
all along .
Those are birds
that sing them songs
Quite alright
to sing along.
VERSE 2
High on a wire
they sure looked tired.
From that flying
around.
High on a wire
They sure looked tired.
Chased away
by a fire.
CHORUS 1
D C G //
We’ve been burnin’ this place down.
Just like they said we would.
Got to move now
to higher ground.
A7 // D7 //
The river’s rising all around.
VERSE 3
Up in a tree
they build a nest.
Looks like now there’s
thirty-three
Up in a tree
they dance around.
And sing their songs
because their free
CHORUS 2
D C G //
Sixty-five million years ago
her grandma once roamed these same lands.
Had a big tail and very small hands.
Never played in no rock-n-roll band.
VERSE 4
Those are birds
that sing them songs.
Been doing that
all Along.
Those are birds
that sing them songs.
If you want
just sing along.
Paul Lyons – San Francisco, CA – 6/2024
All Rights Reserved
Photos of opening day at the new park on the Upper Great Highway at Ocean Beach. They call it Sunset Dunes. People will probably always call it “OB.” It is great how they got things in motion so quickly. So many great ideas! Skate park, public art, open pianos, great spots to view the waves at Noriega Street.
We live in a time when everyone is a customer. People are no longer citizens, patients or students.
People do not see themselves as citizens. Sacrifices are just for suckers. Many people voted for Donald Trump because they liked his brand and product and did not like Harris’s laugh. They chose a president like they would toilet paper. They identified with his selfishness and saw themselves or a version of themselves. Rich, selfish, scatterbrained, pugnacious, white, demanding and full of ego. Game the system. Look out for number one. Greed is the new virtue.
The health care world no longer has patients. Now they are customers. “Would you like a pill for that problem? On a scale of one to ten, what is your pain level? After the visit, please fill out this survey to let us know how we are doing.” It is not about health care but more about money. Customer satisfaction is our goal! Oh. Sorry about that opioid epidemic and all those dead people. We got them hooked on those funny pills.
In universities people are no longer students. If a professor can no longer entertain the class, she gets bad reviews. Make students read books. You must be out of your mind! With the advent of the cellphone, the majority of students go to college having never read a single book from cover to cover. I brought this up online about five years and the parents got quite defensive. It has just gotten worse.
No, our average graduate literally could not read a serious adult novel cover-to-cover and understand what they read. They just couldn’t do it. They don’t have the desire to try, the vocabulary to grasp what they read, and most certainly not the attention span to finish. For them to sit down and try to read a book like The Overstory might as well be me attempting an Iron Man triathlon: much suffering with zero chance of success.
Hilarius Bookbinder Mar 31 Guest post – Persuasion Newsletter
The student is now a customer. Anything that makes them uncomfortable and they simply do not show up. An opposing point of view? An angle that is perhaps rarely seen? Reading that is difficult with big words? Learning to expand the mind? No. Sorry. I am here because if I get this degree it will hopefully mean I will not have to work in fast food, microwaving hamburgers for the next thirty years.
The irony is that we live in a world when in past times you were actually a customer. Gas stations pumped your gas. Baggers in grocery stores were common. A travel agent would make sure you got the right flights when things got complicated. When you called a company for information, you could actually talk to a real person. Maybe now we are often just disgruntled customers.
Keep it small and in the neighborhood. That’s what I say.
That is my rant for today. I am sticking with it.
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
William Finnegan’s – Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life is a memoir. It is mostly a true story of a life where the common thread is surfing. Finnegan grew up in Southern California and Hawaii and at one point when he was just a grom the waves were not far from his family’s humble house near Diamond Head, Hawaii. He took to surfing at a very early age and though he does not admit it, became a big wave surfer, riding huge waves on the North Shore of Oahu, Ocean Beach in San Francisco, discovering a wave in Fiji and later in life, Portugal. When he was a young teenager he began to experience the power of the ocean.
I was shaken to the core by the sound of the waves detonating a few yards behind me. I was convinced that if I had been caught inside I would have died.
William Finnegan at fourteen surfing the Rice Bowl in Hawaii
For some inexplicable reason, he kept coming back to these harrowing experiences. He seems to have remembered the minute details of various rides from previous decades were he thought the end was near. Captivating read indeed, and much of it surely somewhere near the truth.
The book is a romp through various times in his life. It is a very fun read not just because of the surfing tales but it gives a window into a time in history when people had the ability to be very mobile, flying to faraway lands, but at the same time communications back home did not exist. A telegram now and then. Regular letter writing but making a call on a phone was far too expensive and not common. People out in the world traveling used random message boards, taping hand writing messages in often feeble attempts to contact others.
In the end, I teamed up with other Westerners, bribed some Bulgarian border guards, made my way through the Balkans and over the Alps and, with the help of an American Express office message board in Munich, found [his girlfriend] Caryn in a campground south of the city. She seemed fine.
William Finnegan at nineteen bumming around Europe
For this reader, the chapters where he travels around the world for a few years chasing waves with his friend Bryan is truly amazing. With nautical charts they head off to the South Pacific and discover a phenomenal wave in Fiji, unknown to the world but for a few. Now the spot is an expensive surfing resort destination. A year in Australia surfing and working odd jobs, searching for waves. Buying a beater car and driving it clear across the country, always a bit concerned if it would overheat or the next day would even start. Such road trips are times when living in the moment seems to take precedence. They seem to be not so much in nature but a part of nature.
Then there is the peculiar way that wave size is measured. While this may not be of interest to people who do not surf, it gets pretty funny.
Indeed, underestimation is practiced with the greatest aplomb on the North Shore of Oahu. There, a wave must be the size of a small cathedral before locals will call it eight feet.
Buzzy Trent, an old-time big wave rider, allegedly said, “Big waves are not measured in feet, but increments of fear.” If he said that, he got it right.
Barbarian Days – A Surfing Life is a very fun read, especially if you enjoy travelogues, you are a surfer or just love the outdoors. There may be times when the author delves into the finer points of a two wave hold-down, or the advantages of a certain fin set up or length of board. This talk must be a bit perplexing and perhaps a bit tedious to the non-surfer. One thing that Finnegan claims is that it is just about impossible to get really good at surfing if you pick it up later in life. I am living proof of this theory and would agree.
Getting old as a surfer, I’d heard it said, was just a long, slow, humiliating process of becoming a kook again.
CODA:EVERY SURFER HAS A STORY
I started surfing at the age of thirty-five, an age far too advanced to every actually get really good at the sport. I mostly do it for the exercise, be with friends and to commune with nature. It is amazing the wildlife you see out in the water. I regularly surf with dolphins and certain times of the year there are whales within twenty feet.
I remember the thrill of the first time I took off on a head-high wave and made it. I also remember the first time I took off on big wave on a long period swell. The waves were overhead at Ocean Beach back in the days when you would sometimes be the only person in the water. It did actually get lonely out there. I went right, stayed high on the shoulder and remember just flying down the wave faster than I had ever surfed. I had never ridden a wave with such power. I also remember a day when my surf buddies and I when out at Ocean Beach and the waves were big but seemed at the time nothing scary. I had only been surfing a few years. We made it out past the shore-break and white water only to discover that the swell, in the course of the next hour, had increased quickly. A huge set came and we tossed our boards and dove underneath. I broke my leash, lost my board which eventually washed into shore. We both paddled in a bit terrified by the whole ordeal. I pledged to never to do that again. It scared the bejesus out of me. Later I saw the buoys from when we were out. It had jumped up to 11 feet at 19 seconds. Big waves. That’s my one captivating story and it is all true.
William Finnegan lives in Manhattan and the end of the book loses the wild adventure of earlier years. Parents die. He becomes a father. Life becomes more urban. In his seventies he must still be a really good surfer as he surfs off of Long Island in the winter and will chase waves in the summer and even during hurricanes.
For those who love the adventure of youth and want to escape into that magical time of traveling before the internet, I highly recommend William Finnegan’s – Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life is a Pulitzer Prize winning memoir.
5 Stars
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.
After a very dry January, while Los Angeles burned, San Francisco had weeks on end of glorious sunshine. Then in February we got two major storms. The wind hit from the west and the storms came down good and hard. The roads turned into rivers and snow piled up in the mountains. People had to drive with chains, just like the good ‘ole days. At Donner Summit they have had over 250″ of snow. I think in the next decade or so people will begin to realize that the weather is actually the real news. Water will be all that really matters as we guard our front doors with our Second Amendments rights terrified that someone will steal a few gallons of Hetch Hetchy. March arrives with unsettled weather and reservoirs not quite full. The snow pack in the mountains is less than average.
Donald Trump took office in late January and began a sort of mobster data coup. His billionaire henchman Elon Musk and his minions started snooping around the Federal Payment systems causing havoc. Cutting off payments to USAID, various research grants and much more. If I was talented in the graphic arts I would make a comic where you see Donald Trump sitting on a toilet and there on the toilet paper rolls is the constitution: “We the People… ” …in scribe of course. And to top it off he is taking a dump while looking at his phone. Such is the state of our world.
On March 4 he gave an address to Congress were he lied continually. He spews out lies and more lies and people begin to believe the lies. I think people are so numb to his antics that the use of the word “lie” has been purged from the English language. I read a transcript of the speech as I have not time to listen to his performances. It is full of lies.
Daniel Lurie is Mayor of San Francisco. The City is still here. For the average citizen it is difficult to notice that anything is changing. The forces in our world are far greater than any individual. He just started the gig and if he can solve homelessness in San Francisco he could set his sites on running for higher office. I am not holding my breath.
Nothing major to report on the sporting front. The Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Kansas City Chief in the Super Bowl 40-22. This is important knowledge for when you have to remember such trivia years later. Of course, far more important than the actual Super Bowl are the people that you watch the Super Bowl with. For me this a “third space” type of group who has returned to a sacred ground near a sacred screen often with sacred herbs, tobacco and cigars. Wagers are made. People marvel at the passage of time. Consumption becomes naturally moderated. We marvel at the connections. See you next year. Same place. Same time. We need some constants in life.
As predicted they are heading north up Mission Street and repaving the bus stops and intersections. Its and big job and everyone seems to be able to drive around the mess. At some point they may have to actually repave where we drive on Mission Street, but anything is progress.
That is The Quarterly Report – March 2025
The Quarterly Report – March 2025
