Arts & Culture, Book Reviews, Essays, Slow News that Doesn't Break
WEATHER UPDATE December 14, 2021
December 14, 2021 – 5 PM
At 8000 feet looking like a little snow. Courtesy of Sugar Bowl Resorts
El agua, muy importante.
WEATHER UPDATE December 12th, 2021
December 12th, 2021 it rained through the night. Nothing too heavy. Today on December 13th the storm lingered and moved west. They call this an atmospheric river. Nice to get the rain.
Pat Martino (Patrick C. Azzara) (1944 – 2021) passed away November 1, 2021. He was an amazing guitarist and had a life story that is interesting on so many levels. The most unusual aspect is that in 1980 after a brain hemorrhage, Pat lost all his memory and had to literally relearn how to play guitar from the very beginning. He then went on to continue his career as a phenomenal jazz guitarist.
Martino had been performing until a hemorrhaged arteriovenous malformation caused a “near-fatal seizure” in 1980.[5] The resulting surgery which removed part of his brain left him with amnesia and no recollection or knowledge of his career or how to play the very instrument that made him successful. Martino says he came out of surgery with complete forgetfulness, learning to focus on the present instead of the past or what may lie ahead. He was forced to learn how to play the guitar from zero. This circumstance is crucial to understand his career and his particular way of thinking. – Wikipedia
Here on Angel Eyes, Pat Martino has the melody and is featured.
There are a few documentaries that follow Pat Martino’s journey. Martino Unstrung is an excellent look into Pat Martino’s musical and medical life and should be fascinating to anyone in the fields of music, psychology, medicine or brain science. I highly recommend this film.
While I have been an avid jazz fan since listening to my dad’s Duke Ellington and Henry Red Allen records in high school, I had not listened to much Pat Martino. I knew his name but did not own any of his music. This is how it worked before the internet.
In 2010, Pat Martino had some gigs in the San Francisco Bay Area. He was playing Kimball’s East. My high school-aged guitar-playing son had just fallen in love with jazz and was a big Pat Martino fan. He had purchased tickets to hear Pat and his friend for some reason could not go. I was invited to go to the concert. We took the ferry over to Jack London Square and arrived a bit early. Knowing where the back stage entrance was my son seemed determined to shake Pat Martino’s hand. The bouncer at the door called up to see if it was alright if a kid and his dad came up for an autograph. “No problem. Send them up.”
We went to the dressing room and there was Pat and his young piano player hanging out. Pat was eating sushi and what we both remember is that he was drinking a quart carton of whole milk. Sushi and milk. An odd combination. Pat was gracious and we basically just hung out for about fifteen minutes. He had these very clear alert eyes that often seem to be enlarged because of his thick glasses. He probably signed a CD and then I took this photo.
It is 2021 and people born in the 1940s are starting to pass on a regular basis. Many of these folks are my heroes. Pat Martino. A beautiful cat. RIP.
Epilogue
If you watch the documentaries about Pat Martino, one of the common themes is how guitarists had a lot of respect and admiration for Pat. There is the story of George Benson. then a young cocky musician, going of to hear Pat Martino for the first time thinking how could this skinny Italian kid from Philly be any good. Needless to say George was blown away and left the show a humbler man. The photo below is of these two amazing musicians and speaks to the diversity in this genre of music the industry calls “jazz.”
For further reading, Pat wrote an autobiography.
Here and Now!: The Autobiography of Pat Martino
This is an excellent book and I highly recommend!
It is always great to get out of the city and head to the mountains. Some photos below of a recent excursion.
The Quarterly Report: A brief synopsis of the news in San Francisco over the last three months.
“Anti vaccine types are like people who wear shirts of a band who have no idea what that band sounds like.”
Anonymous (from a comment on the San Francisco Chronicle)
Baseball
As the World Series ended with the Atlanta Braves winning over the Houston Astros in six games, the professional baseball season for the San Francisco Giants ended in the playoffs against the Los Angeles Dodgers on a ninth inning check swing. There is just something so wrong, ill-suited and anti-climatic about ended your season on a check swing. The Giant’s bats went to sleep in the end and when it comes to the playoffs you need to have hot bats and catch a few breaks. I don’t write the rules. That’s just the way life works. As of today, Buster Posey announces his retirement. So ends an era for the San Francisco Giants.
Surfing
About a month ago, the seasons changed and the surf season started. We now go through a sequence of glorious sunny days, with offshore winds and head-high surf to stormy weather to out of control 25 foot days. Winter surfing has arrived. Buy a new leash.
Because of strange election laws San Francisco is in the process of having recall elections for both the District Attorney and the School Board. Talk about a really stupid system that opens up even more ways for big money to enter into politics. Let us simply vote people out of office when their terms ends if we do not like how they are doing their job. The recalls makes for an endless election cycle that is no good for anyone save the people with deep pockets.
Luckily, in mid-October we got pummeled by a large storm. This was the equivalent of dousing a campfire with a gallon of water. While the “fire-season” did not officially end then it sure did help. After a few more subsequent storms, there is even a little snow in the mountains.
In San Francisco the vaccine rates are above 80%. The streets and roads are returning to their pre-pandemic madness. We even see the Google Buses are back. What short memories we humans have.
source: https://sf.gov/data/covid-19-vaccinations
And the sun does shine now as the summer fog usually has disappeared. Unfortunately the parklets are slowly disappearing as things return to normal. Speaking with business owners, the common complaint is that the city is difficult to deal with concerning the parklets and the cost is exorbitant. Too bad as the parklets are generally a really cool idea and makes for more spaces for musicians to perform.
And many of the “slow streets” are being opened for cars. OK everyone. Go out there and drive around, cart your kids off to the fancy schools make money and burn up this planet!!!
That is The Quarterly Report – November 2021. Be well. If you have not already got your vaccine time to get the jab. Do it for grandma. Drink plenty of water, get regular exercise and for the love of God stay away from “social media.”
Robert Altman, known mostly for his years photographing musicians and counter-culture icons in the late 1960s and early 70s has passed. He was a staff photographer for Rolling Stone for a bit. I read his obit recently and and was saddened to hear of his passing.
In the late 1990s I took a class that was taught by Robert Altman at San Francisco State College of Extended Learning on Market Street in downtown San Francisco. It was a basic HTML class for this new thing called the World Wide Web and in order to get on board the first thing you had to know was HTML. People made websites mostly one page at a time. Robert Altman was the teacher, and probably the only reason he knew anything about this stuff was that he had built a website to sell prints of his photographs. This was the early days of the internet, when for a brief time the idealism of the 1960s took hold in this new digital era. Perhaps the playing field would level out and artists, writers, photographers and musicians could sell their work directly, cut out the middle-men, control their work and get paid their fair share.
Of course, in many ways this was one big pipe dream as over time the internet became more corporate and the monopolies of our day began to dominate the system, control the politics and narratives and literally write all the rule books. And as Ruth Bader Ginsburg commented about sexism “I ask no favor for my sex; all I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks,” the same can be said of the stranglehold on smaller players by the big tech monopiles today.
Back when I was taking this HTML class with Robert Altman he was in his mid-fifties and always had his reading glasses at the ready, perched on the top of his head. He was passionate and generous. He dove right into the more advanced aspects of HTML at the time. We started learning tables, rowspans and colspans on day one. This is back in the day when all websites were made with tables and single pixel gifs to lock designs into place. If someone would have spoke of responsive design then you would have gotten a blank stare. People still made phone calls with payphones and your answering machine was perhaps the most important tool for any freelancer. Robert was this middle-age guy – vibrant, fearless, creative and giving. He was like – “look, if I can learn this coding stuff, anyone can do it!” So we all looked on at this new markup language, most everyone there because it was the unavoidable future and eventually it would lead to a decent job and some sort of economic stability.
Now when people are choosing a career in programming, there is this idea that if you do not start young it is not worth the effort. The notion of the child genius creating something miraculous in the digital world is a common theme. The college dropout who creates an app that disrupts entire industries. If you are in your late twenties, it is too late. However this is silly.
Robert Altman, putting borders on all his tables, creating something beautiful out of nothing is evidence that anything is possible.
Read the San Francisco Chronicle Robert Altman Obituary
https://mattstoller.substack.com/
On the SF Journal website we have not had a post for a while about intellectual property or copyright. We simply felt it was not worth the ink, and besides it tends to bore people to tears. I find the whole topic fascinating, but then again, I find the maintenance of harmonicas enthralling. To read about how the laws in the late 1990s was a huge gift to the tech industry and a sort of shake-down of the creative class, read my posts in https://sfjournal.net/category/copyright/
Many times when writing and reading about how copyright laws in the late 1990s and the digital age have made it so copyrights have become meaningless, people tell me that the problem is not copyright laws, it is about the concentration of power into a few hands and the monopolies of our time – Facebook, Google and Amazon to name the most easily recognized. Matt Stoller’s BIG is a Substack blog that writes about these monopolies and what Matt calls “the anti-monopoly revolution happening today.” I am not so sure it should be called a “revolution” but what is true is that the tech monopiles are being challenged by the FTC and they are fighting back. Perhaps the biggest change was the Biden appointment of Lina Khan as the chair of the Federal Trade Commission. Lina is just 32 years of age, extremely bright and going to court to take Facebook to task for illegal anti-trust behavior.
Long and in-depth articles that get way into the weeds about anti-trust laws and how people like Lina Khan are attempting to break up these monopolies. Highly recommended.
What is interesting about the whole concept of monopiles, is that the major players in the tech industry have always been about controlling and dominating a channel. Amazon, for years going in the red just to undercut small bookstores and put them out of business. Facebook buying Instagram to take out a competitor. The list is long and the secret sauce is all laid out in Peter Thiel’s Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future. This book discloses the recipe for creating a monopoly and crushing everything along the way. The author, oddly thinks this is all for the better, but then again Peter Thiel is a billionaire and may be a little out of touch with people working in an Amazon warehouse living paycheck to paycheck.
Anti-trust laws are often complex and full of nuance that can often leave Congress people scratching their heads save for Amy Klobuchar, who wrote a serious book on the matter Antitrust – TAKING ON MONOPOLY POWER FROM THE GILDED AGE TO THE DIGITAL AGE.
You are now done. Do not vote for any of the candidates on the back.
Just remember to vote by mail or September 14. This is very IMPORTANT. It is quite possible that we could have a complete moron running the state of California.
DO NOT LET REPLUBLICAN SLIME-BALLS STEAL THE GOVERNERSHIP.
KEEP GAVIN NEWSOME IN OFFICE!!!
ACT I:
A dreadful disease has plagued the empire. It is determined that the best way to curb transmission of this ghastly disease is to wear a mask over the nose and mouth. If possible, all the people who work on computers, or can convert to working on computers from home, start working from home. School classes are rows and rows of boxes of faces staring into the abyss. Everyone else who has to work goes out into the storm of virus and disease wearing masks to fend off the wolves, farm food, stock groceries, care for the sick and bury the dead.
ACT II:
The orange-headed emperor thinks the entire disease thing is out of control. So bad for the ratings! “No disease folks. Just a minor cold. Gargle with bleach. Works for me. Look at my beautiful hair!” Said emperor contracts the plague. After a week in the hospital he is saved by all his fancy, expensive doctors. He is not humbled in the least but nevertheless is dethroned by the electorate. He refuses to concede and retreats to his castle by the beach to swing his clubs at small white balls.
ACT III:
One of the regional governors, goes to a party at a fancy restaurant with a name that sounds like a place you wash your clothes. Little did he know that he would soon get stuck in the rinse cycle. Normally he wears a mask, and promotes notions of accountability, peace and good sense but the party is downing a few cases of a wonderful 1982 Napa cabernet that is paired elegantly with the grass fed prime rib. “Let’s just use these masks things as napkins to soak up the gravy.” laughs the Governor.
ACT IV:
The unmasked governor’s rivals from the party of treachery and greed find out about all the bare faces and begin to whine and make a fuss about the Governor’s hypocrisy. “Look at this ruler” they tweet. “He breaks his own rules!!!”
ACT V:
After meetings were they eat wild boar matched with a zinfandel with oaky undertones , a hint of apple and a good finish, the party of treachery and greed conjure up a recall plan. Maskless, they also start bashing the poor Latino help and insisting on more wild boar. “Cigars on the patio gentlemen?” The wild boar gravy stains their pants. They have no French laundromats in sight to clean their trousers.
ACT VI:
Dozens of people, mostly from the party of treachery and greed, submit their candidacies. These include talk show hosts, mayors, YouTubers, former Olympic decathlon athletes who instead of sporty sneakers now often don high heels, a hairstylist, a college student and an LA tour guide.
FINALE: Democracy a la carte
That there is even a recall is absurd. Gavin Newsom has simply done his job during difficult times, is not being tried for a felony offense, is dealing with a horrific wildfire season, to name but a few things on his plate. Considering the circumstances he has done a good job, listening to the health experts, standing up for people in need and the working class. He may not be perfect, but Gavin is driving this ship until the next election. It is just the best option folks.
Save for a few mayors in the race, the majority of the candidates are a joke and simply not qualified – they have no idea how to run a state government. If the party of treachery and greed wins this one, it will put the final nail in the coffin to any notion that the U.S. form of democracy is honest and fair. Shining light on the hill? Yeah, right.
It is like “Calvin ball,” where the rules change not in the name of fairness or equality, but simple as a method to gain power.
It is really easy. Vote NO. You even got your ballot in the MAIL!!!
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Save the Great Walkway Rally
Start: Sunday, August 15, 2021 • 10:30 AM
Location: Great Walkway at Judah • 1398 Great Highway, San Francisco, CA 94122
If you are interested, attend the march this Sunday.
https://actionnetwork.org/events/save-the-great-walkway-rally?source=email&
The Great Highway, due to the pandemic, has been pedestrian-only for about a year and a half. It is a great safe place to walk., catch views of Ocean Beach and the Marin Headlands, and even perhaps muse over the absurdity of life. To the south you see all the way to Pedro Point in Pacifica. Out on the ocean you can often see the large container ships lumbering along. When the air is clear you can make out the Farallon Islands and even see all the way up to Point Reyes. During fire seasons the air at Ocean Beach is often the best around with the ocean breeze far from the burning forests.
Kids have spent the last year with a place to get out and ride bikes. Runners and bikers of all ages use this highway. There is no reason to give it back to the cars commuting from Marin. They can take Sunset Blvd or 19th Ave or simply work from home. If we have learned one thing from this pandemic is that it is not business as usual, and time to slow down and enjoy and protect the public spaces. No cars on The Great Highway!
Save the Great Highway for the people. It is better for our health, public safety and our kids.
Some random pics from the last year and a half out along the Great Highway.
If you live in San Francisco, check out Bird and Beckett Books. A great place to buy books and listen to live music.
Remember, before you buy a book from Jeff Bezos consider supporting your 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.
When I was a younger man, but decades after the bombing of Dresden, Kurt Vonnegut was an author that people took seriously, but he was never taught in your English class. Too modern. Too rock-an-roll. Far too funny. It was just assumed that everyone read Vonnegut. The language was crisp, often ironic, sometimes funny as hell and always profound. The chapters always short, you could often finish a book in a day.
I finally got around to reading A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut. It was a gift from a dear friend and in the end it it made me reread Slaughter House Five and God Bless You Mr. Rosewater; I just needed more Vonnegut. I realized that all Vonnegut’s work is worth rereading. Slaughter House Five should be required reading in high school.
Electronic communities build nothing. You wind up with nothing. We are dancing animals. How beautiful it is to get up and go out and do something. We are here on Earth to fart around. Don’t let anybody tell you any different.
– Kurt Vonnegut
A Man Without a Country is unlike any of Vonnegut’s books. He wrote it later in life when in his 80s. It is confessional and in many ways but a brief autobiography – a great place to get to know some of the core values that undermine much of Vonnegut’s work. Early on he recommends everyone read what he believes to be the greatest short story in American literature – An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce. You can download it as a pdf.
Do you think Arabs are dumb? They gave us our numbers. Try doing long division with Roman numerals.
– Kurt Vonnegut
One of the reoccurring themes of Vonnegut’s life of course is World War II and the realization that World War II was fought, like all wars, by children. This is why Slaughter House Five has a subtitle of The Children’s Crusade.
Reading A Man Without a Country, it is interesting to get Vonnegut’s take on drinking and smoking. I never really knew that he smoked two packs of Pall Malls, unfiltered every day. Incredible, that he lived into his 80s. Born in 1924, He was a man of his times. Most everyone in his generation smoked like chimneys at one point or another.
He was a humanist, pacifist, a stealth stoic, an environmentalist who believed strongly in the notion of community. One of his guiding moral principals was kindness.
And when he reflects back on America he signals out African Americans.
…the priceless gift that African Americans gave the whole world when they were in slavery was a gift so great that it is now almost the only reason many foreigners still like us at least a little bit. That specific remedy for the worldwide epidemic of depression is a gift called the blues.
– Kurt Vonnegut
Experiencing the fire-bombing of Dresden made him a pacifist. He also sees that all wars and the destructive nature of capitalism (he was a huge fan of Eugene Debs) will do us in in the end. The quote below is from almost twenty years ago.
That’s the end of the good news about anything. Our planet’s immune system is trying to get rid of people. This is sure the way to do that.
KV, 6AM 11/3/2004
A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut. I am giving it 5 stars as just being in the presence of Kurt Vonnegut’s wit is 5 stars. You can read A Man Without a Country in an afternoon.
“The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.”
Lily Tomlin
The photo above is the cement factory in San Francisco. I finally figured this out after years of just admiring the cool mural. When there is a road getting repaved the cement trucks line up like ants.
All you can say about the weather these days is “good grief!” Most of the American West is burning up (over a 110 degrees in Portland, Oregon) and summer fires building, We recently got out of town for a weekend and headed to the Sierra and Donner Summit. The lakes are a bit warmer than usual and make for great swimming. Driving back we left the mountains at 80 degrees, drove past Sacramento were it got up to 103 then arrived in a foggy San Francisco were it was was but 55. Two hours of driving and a 50 degree change in temperature. San Francisco has been quite cold and windy this summer, with the marine layer bringing in the cold ocean air and fog. When we get a little sun, we often go outside at the opportune times and soak up the rays.
Since June 15th the mask mandate has been lifted in San Francisco, though in my neighborhood most people still don their masks while walking down the street. We are somewhat back to pre-pandemic activities. Unfortunately, the traffic has also picked up so the drive times have increased. What a joy it was to drive from San Francisco to your friend in Oakland and get there in 15 minutes. Now that same drive is often 45 minutes. Even the Google buses are back running their routes. Nothing lasts forever.
One of the endearing changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic is the rise of the parklet. I have always enjoyed eating outside as there is something about the fresh air that makes eating more enjoyable. Even if it is bit chilly, just having the sun shining down makes the food taste better.
One of the debates in San Francisco is whether the parklets should stay. I say “why not?”
It is now after the All-Star break and for some strange reason the San Francisco Giants are in first place in the National League West and Oakland A’s are just a few games back in their division. The NBA has perhaps a few games left and the Milwaukee Bucks are up 3-2 in the finals. The Summer Olympics in Japan are a strange exercise in how not to put on an international sporting event during the pandemic. It is an exercise on how optimism can be dangerous.
That is The Quarterly Report – July 2021. Be well. If you have not already got your vaccine time to get the jab. Do it for grandma. Drink plenty of water, get regular exercise and for the love of God stay away from “social media.” Read books.
The photos above are looking west down Cortland Avenue in San Francisco. The top one is from the parade for the opening of the Bernal Heights Library. It is October 20, 1940 and is like traveling in a time machine. Who are these people? What is that band and what did it sound like? Who is the woman in front, seemingly running the show? Why do the cops don’t have guns and look like they actually know people? Why is everyone in the crowd white? So many unanswered questions.
Bernal Heights is one of those neighborhoods that resembles a small village. Many of the homes were built soon after the 1906 earthquake with lumber scraps from down at the shipyards. Cortland Ave is similar to a main street in small town America with all the shopping essentials available in walking distance. It is still quaint in this way however has changed a lot in the last twenty years as it has been gentrified, often beyond recognition. Needless to day, there are a lot of fine dining options.
However, the Bernal Heights Branch Library is still standing. It has changed over the years, but it does not seem to be going anywhere. The inspiration for this post is from an awesome website that I stumbled upon – https://livingnewdeal.org/. It is a website or wiki of all the projects that were created from the New Deal. The list is long and the buildings and projects are impressive. Americans, to this day, can appreciate and benefit in many ways from all these projects. It is truly amazing what was accomplished in such a short period of time considering the circumstances. All these awesome libraries made of stone, with east facing windows to catch the morning light. What a great place to read!
While my grandfather on my mother’s side, the hard driving businessman, admonished the WPA, and called it “we poke along” thinking that the whole project was a waste of taxpayer money, nothing could be further from the truth. He may have been perturbed that program funded those “lazy artists” and other creative people. Interesting, that that while the Buicks and Cadillacs that he financed are all in rusty graves, the WPA projects are probably mostly standing. The incredible murals by Diego Rivera and other artists are sprinkled all over San Francisco.
The Bernal Heights Library has had a history of murals. When we lived there in the 1990s the mural was by Precita Eyes and was explicitly political. There was a homage to the Native People and the great Chilean activist and musician Victor Jara was there singing a protest song with his guitar. In the last ten years, the mural was redone and like the neighborhood was toned down with a much more generic and oblique looking approach. Fortunately, there is a display in front of the former mural for historical purposes I guess. The Bernal Library was built according to the times of what I library should be. Later, like all buildings, it was made ADA compliant and a ramp was put in. To improve upon it I can see not too many upgrades except for the fact that as with all the libraries they forgot that pigeons love all those little nooks. The usual metal pointy deterrents where installed. But pigeons always get their way until they get hit by a car.
When Joe Biden says “Build Back Better” you have to really wonder how that is going to all work out. Is he imagining the creative projects of the 1930s? Is he talking about putting artists and other creatives on salaries? Or he mostly talking about pouring money into large construction companies and corporations with a lot of overcharges. Time will tell. The concept of building an infrastructure for renewable energy could be the lasting and most profound achievement. Time will tell. It could take a parade down Cortland with a strong woman in front and lots of drums in the rear to get the ball rolling.
This SF Journal Quarterly Report for May 2021 is brought to you by Chile Lindo Empanadas. Located on 16th Street, Chile Lindo is a great place to get a taste of how the Mission District in San Francisco was before the tech invasion. Great empanadas, beer and wine and live music. See the San Francisco Live Music Calendar for times and dates.
“There are two modes of invading private property; the first by which the poor plunder the rich… sudden and violent; the second, by which the rich plunder the poor, slow and legal.”
JOHN TAYLOR, An inquiry into the Principles and Policy of the Government of the United States (1814)
The last SF Journal Quarterly Report stated: “In San Francisco there has been a fair amount of rain in the last month. With over 200 inches of snowfall in many parts of the Sierra, for another year we can enjoy all that amazing, clean fresh water.”
We would like to update this weather report. While it is true that there was snow in the mountains, on further analysis it has been determined that we are in a drought. The big storms did not arrive and the snowpack is way down. This does not bode well for the upcoming fire season which evidently has started in May and will then run through to maybe November. All I can say is “good grief!” In a coming year we may see a drought were there is actually no rain at all. It is bound to happen.
It is May 15, 2021 and along the coast the fog is thick and the northwest winds howl. Welcome to summer in San Francisco.
Another inaccurate prediction from the last SF Journal Quarterly Report was “I predict once Kaiser starts a vaccination program, things will move quickly. ” If your idea of getting a vaccine means driving for an hour and a half across the state, that was the Kaiser model. Kaiser completely dropped the ball if you ask me. The pandemic has laid bare how a for-profit health care system and the lack of a public heath care system and made it so battling a pandemic virus is problematic. As usual just follow the money and you will see what is really going. I got my Moderna vaccines courtesy of the San Francisco Department of Public Heath in the small parking lot behind the El Chico Produce. Kaiser Permanente is not about public health. If it was they would have dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic differently.
Kudos to Liz Cheney for attempting to call a spade a spade and calling out the “big lie.” Of course it comes about five years too late. While her dad Dick Cheney was a master of disinformation and treachery it is best to take individuals on their own merit. You really have to wonder what was the straw that finally broke the camel’s back. How for four years Liz Cheney played along with Donald Trumps lies. Perhaps the cover is that there are plenty of other Republicans, surely some who embraced the Lincoln Project, who are forming perhaps another party. Time will tell but it is fitting that it was a woman who was taken down for standing up to the wealthy white guys. For some women at least, there is no price tag for a clear conscience.
That is The Quarterly Report – February 2021. Be well. Wear a mask if you have not already got your vaccine. Drink plenty of water, get regular exercise and for the love of God stay away from “social media.” Read books.
This post may read like an infomercial but so be it. It is for people wondering if they should “go solar.”
In 2014 we began a lease with the solar company Sungevity. At the time, installing solar panels came with many financial incentives both from the State of California and the Sierra Club. We have a flat roof that had been replace about 5 years before and was solid. The whole registration process was done by my amazing wife who said that it took a lot of paperwork and phone calls. In a meeting with Sungevity it seemed like a good idea at the time. Installing solar would be good for the environment and would save us money over time. How could anyone be against that?
Sungevity came in and put in the panels and installed a power inverter panel next to our electric service panel that made it so the whole solar thing worked. We would put energy into the grid and take it out when we needed it. In the end, our electric bill came down to the $80 a month which was the monthly payments for the 20 year lease for the panels and the $10 flat rate from PG&E for being hooked up to their grid (it was $5 at first but went to $10 at some point). The logic was that the cost of energy was always going to go up so if you lock in a fixed rate you will always come out ahead. Eventually Sungevity got bought out by SunRun. The lease transferred over without a hitch.
The thing about solar panels on your roof that few consider is that after they are are installed you never think about them. We have a few additional significant items that affect our power use: hot tub and a Fiat 500e electric car. Recently, I got curious about how the whole solar panel deal had worked out. Were we actually saving money?
It was not easy to figure out how much we had saved on our electric bill. After crunching the numbers this is what I figured out.
Sunrun Lease
$82.59
PG&E Electrical
$10
Total
$92.59
PG&E kWh costs around 0.25. We use on average 50 kWh a day.
So every month we use 50 * 30 = 1500 kWh
Every month, without the solar panels we would pay: 1500 * 0.25 = $375!
As a ballpark figure, it is safe to say we are saving $175 each month, or $2100 per year. One extra charge is that at the end of the year you have a true-up charge. This year it was $51.98 as we have used a little more electrical than we put back into the grid. Not bad considering we are running that hot tub, charging up a car and all working at home running monitors, computers, guitar amps, coffee makers, lights and the like.
This is why it is never too late to go solar. My advice is to look for all the various rebates and incentives and the best time to install solar panels is after you replace your roof. Getting a lease is a great way to start saving money without any investment or upfront capital.
For more information, contact SunRun.
You do not hear much about Ralph Nadar these days. Once a public figure, and a household name, Ralph Nadar is not a regular guest on FOX News, ABC, CBS or even NPR. So it was with great curiosity that I listened to an interview of Ralph Nadar by Robert Scheer on Scheer Intelligence, Robert’s podcast. It is a great conversation between two brilliant old sages. While listening I kept imagining these two octogenarians as the old guys up in the balcony in the Muppets, spouting off their wise observations. A very candid conversation.
Below are some quotes.
“One thing I’ve learned is that Democrats are on an infinite journey towards cowardliness,” responds Nader, “because now they’re getting credit for their $1.9 trillion stimulus bill, 100% financed on the shoulders of our children and grandchildren, without a single effort to [rescind] the Trump tax cuts that are at least $2 trillion over the ten years since they were passed in 2017.”
“What we’re seeing is an entrenched corporate state, where Wall Street controls government and turns it against its own people. And the awareness of the young generation, of what’s going on, in terms of the corporate supremacists’ controlling our political economy, strategically planning every conceivable nook and corner, their commercializing childhood, they’re strategically planning higher education, they’ve planned our tax system, they’re strategically planning our electoral and political system, our public budgets, our military foreign policy. They’re strategically planning the public lands and its disposition… daily… one third of America. They’ve strategically planned the epidemic of obesity that they knew full well was the result of their high fat, high sugar, high salt diet that they have seduced young people with billions of dollars of TV advertising over the last forty years.”
– Ralph Nader: Democrats Ushered in an Era of Corporate Fascism – March 19. 2021
And then Ralph takes the kids to task:
“And this young generation, that calls itself progressive, and “change agent(s)”, they just don’t have a clue! They don’t read! You don’t read, you don’t think. You don’t think, you don’t read. If you don’t do those things, you don’t set the stage for social justice movements. We all know this.”
– Ralph Nader: Democrats Ushered in an Era of Corporate Fascism – March 19. 2021
Nadar goes on to show the way and how to bring about change.
“Here’s the rub,” explains Nader. “It has never taken more than 1% active citizens scattered throughout the country representing [or building] the majority public opinion to change Congress on any number of agendas throughout history.”
Ralph Nadar. Someone, who in the year 2021 does not own a computer or a cellphone. Probably the reason we all have and wear seat belts in cars, can drink clean drinking water and have safer consumer products. Unfortunately, also why Al Gore lost the presidential election in 2000 and George Bush II came to power and got the United States entrenched in wars in the Middle East.
Ralph Nadar. Someone to listen to.
11/23/2006 6:06:32 AM
I have always been extremely friendly to The Chicken Lady. She runs a very useful store a block away from where we live called Tienda La Selecta. It is like a mini supermarket and sells both fresh and packaged goods. The major reason people shop at The Chicken Lady, though, is to buy the fresh chickens and eggs. They are simply delicious. You walk in the small entrance and make your way to the back where there is always a line.
A few weeks back I inquired whether I could buy a turkey at The Chicken Lady. She said that she did not deal with turkeys and that I would have to go to San Pedro, the next town over, and find a turkey in the market. But I have learned not to take chances with my meat here. It was The Chicken Lady, some good friend’s turkey that had been fattened on his farm on grain and bugs, or we would be eating chickens for Thanksgiving. All in all, not a bad thing.
Then a few days back I was back talking to The Chicken Lady. I asked her if she was going to be open Thanksgiving Day, for I just had to buy some chickens and did not want to be left high and dry, and have to buy a chicken from some stranger. She informed me that it was her daughter’s birthday but that she would be open in the morning. I then explained that Thanksgiving was an important day in the US and that it was about bringing family and friends together and having a big meal and celebrating the harvest and giving thanks to God for all the good things in our lives. She looked at me with her usual know-it-all look and said, “Why must you have one day for giving thanks? In my family we give thanks to God everyday.” The Chicken Lady – chickens with attitude! Maybe I will bring her a slice of pumpkin pie.
From a Collection of Essays
In 1973, Barretto recorded the album Indestructible, in which he played “La familia”, a song written by José Curbelo in 1953 and recorded by the sonero Carlos Argentino with the Cuban band Sonora Matancera; Tito Allen joined as new vocalist. Allen left the band after “Indestructible”. This series of departures left Barretto depressed and disappointed with salsa; he then redirected his efforts to jazz, while remaining as musical director of the Fania All Stars. In 1975 he released Barretto, also referred to as the Guararé album, with new vocalists Ruben Blades and Tito Gomez.
-Wikipedia
How we learn new stuff every day. Incredible.
And people close to me often wonder why I refuse to give my white pants and long-sleeve red shirts to Goodwill.
UPDATE: PARK CLOSURES
Municipal Pier at Aquatic Park is closed due to safety concerns.
Date Posted: 12/1/2022
Alert 1, Severity closure, Municipal Pier at Aquatic Park is closed due to safety concerns.
Municipal Pier is closed permanently. After a safety review with the U.S. Public Health Service, it was determined that the deterioration of Municipal Pier in Aquatic Park Cove is unsafe for public use.
https://www.nps.gov/safr/learn/historyculture/aquatic-park-pier.htm
Your San Francisco cheap thrill this week is the Fishing Pier at Aquatic Park. This is a public fishing pier at the end of Van Ness Street. In the winter people fish for crabs. At certain times of year large flounders have been caught. Surely strippers and salmon but I have not even attempted such sport. To me The Aquatic Park Pier is simply a really cool place for a short walk to take in views of the bay. Great views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Sauselito, Alcatraz and Angel Island. You also have a good view of the East Bay Hills. Then by the time you get to the end of the pier, when you look south, you are treated with stunning views of the city – Aquatic Park. Ghirardelli Square, Coit Tower, Nob Hill and North Beach.
The Aquatic Park Pier is almost a hundred years old and in quite the disrepair; it is basically crumbling into the bay. Just watch your step and avoid the yellow tape and you will be fine. The pier is a cool place to just chill and get away from world, maybe sing some Otis Redding.
Admission: Free
Hours: Open dawn to dusk, year-round
This SF Journal Quarterly Report once again is brought to you by Gentilly and Taqueria Guadalajara, both excellent options for take out dining in the Excelsior District of San Francisco. Taqueria Guadalajara on Mission Street and Onondaga (4798 Mission St San Francisco) makes the best burrito in San Francisco with the added benefit that one carnitas super will feed a family of four.
Apologies to the many readers who have written in complaining about the tardiness of this Quarterly Report. There were so many distractions: the pandemic, the unruly mob, incited by Donald Trump, storming the capital, the inaugurations of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and the amazing run-off election in Georgia. One thing is certain with all the craziness on the national political scene is that it has made for a lot of new words into the public discourse, my favorite of which is sedition. Sedition is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “incitement of resistance to or insurrection against lawful authority.” Evidently, with the acquittal of Donald Trump on February 13, 2021, forty-three Republican United States Senators seem to not understand the meaning of sedition.
In San Francisco there has been a fair amount of rain in the last month. With over 200 inches of snowfall in many parts of the Sierra, for another year we can enjoy all that amazing, clean fresh water.
In San Francisco they are rolling out COVID-19 vaccines to many front-line workers and people over sixty-five. Places like the City College parking lot and the Moscone Center are being used for the vaccine roll out. I predict once Kaiser starts a vaccination program, things will move quickly. The pandemic has laid bare how a for-profit health care system and the lack of a public heath care system and made it so battling a pandemic virus is problematic. As usual just follow the money and you will see what is really going.
One of the interesting op-ed writers for the last decade in the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle was from the former California Speaker of the House and former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown. Love him or hate him, Willie seemed to always have the inside scoop on what was going down in the world of politics. He always seemed to be someone who could figure out a way to either solve a problem of get out of a sticky spot. Willie Brown retired from his post at the Chronicle in January 2021. We will miss his man-on-the-street, reporting the sage advice of cab drivers and homeless people on his many daily excursions. How will we ever know what is going on?
For the citizens of San Francisco there are many street closures to facilitate places to be outside and exercise. People are out and about, running, biking and skating. I predict that there are more kids that have learned how to ride a bike in the last nine months than in the last five years as you see them out on the Great Highway enjoying the 4 mile stretch of flat, open road with stunning views of the Pacific Ocean.
In January there was an epic run of huge swell that made it so Mavericks in Half Moon Bay was breaking for weeks. To get a sense of what this means you only have to watch a few videos of Peter Mel taking off on these massive waves.
That is The Quarterly Report – February 2021. Be well. Wear a mask. Drink plenty of water, get regular exercise and for the love of God stay away from “social media.” Read books.
While “Stamped from the Beginning: A Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America” is a welcome addition to the scholarship of U.S. history the title is a bit misleading. It is not a “definitive history” as that is impossible. Rather it is a long rant on who is in what bucket: racists, assimilationist or anti-racist. Kendi’s thesis is that assimilation in the end is simply just a facet of racism as it does nothing for justice and systemic racism in society. He pleads for an anti-racist world from all segments of society. Fair enough.
One thing I take issue with in the book is the naive notion of racism having no historical context. That David Hume, the philosopher of the Enlightenment is taken to task about his polygenisist beliefs is silly. Most white people at the time, including scientific organizations, thought humans were many species. (This is probably, though rarely mentioned, the root of modern racism) Throwing Hume under the bus makes it so people do not actually read Hume and dismiss his many brilliant ideas because it is so unfashionable to read the works of a “racist.” Kids these days have not a clue what the Enlightenment was and is. The same can be said for pretty much everyone in the 19th century. John Muir, of course the racist, who just happened to be a naturalist and wanted to “save the planet’ before it was fashionable, and who talked on some mountain top to another racist, Theodore Roosevelt. The list is long.
The other issue I have is that Fred Hampton, the Black Panther murdered by the FBI, who’s politics were far beyond the identity politics of race and terrified the FBI as he spoke of economic injustice beyond the systemic racism is not even mentioned. Harry Belafonte, who was a major figure in the Civil Rights era of the 1960’s is left out as well.
This is but a brief review. Read the book.
Definitive. I think not.
Overture 5.2.1, Fast Track Pro, MIDI, GM Instruments, Audacity 2.42, TASCAM DR-1 (to record the final Audacity production, any digital recorder will do or even another computer)
BEWARE: THIS IS INSTRUCTIONAL:
That is how you can take an Overture 5.2.1 score and create an MP3 file. Make sure you have the latest version of Audacity or you may not be able to play MIDI files.
STEP 1:
I am on a Windows 7 machine. The first thing to do is buy and download the stuff above. Audacity is Free.
STEP 2:
Write an amazing and complicated piece of simple song with Overture. Make note of the tempo of the song. Mine was 170 beats per minute.
STEP 3:
Export what you did in Overture as a MIDI file. The key for me was to just use GM Instruments and not the sound card from my Roland Keyboard.
STEP 4:
Import MIDI you exported out of Overture into Audacity.
STEP 5:
In Audacity create a new track by going to Generate > Rhythm Track.
STEP 6:
Do an offset so that the tempo in the rhythm track gives you a count off for recording other tracks. For some reason my MIDI was a little off. Zoom in and get it at the correct spot.
STEP 7:
When you are finished, plug in the TASCAM DR-1 into the headphone jack on you computer. Set the mode on the DR-1 to “Line In” and play your Audacity file while recording it on you DR-1.
STEP 8:
Plug your TASCAM DR-1 into your computer and retrieve you masterpiece.
A little more complicated than baking a cake. This is here so that in 6 months when I want to do the same thing… I got the notes.
Be careful out there everyone!
UPDATE: January 13, 2025
It comes to no surprise that Mark Zuckerberg so easily began licking the boots of Donald Trump. The character of both men are very similar. Both do not take responsibility for their actions. Both care little about the truth. Both could care less about the mental health of your kids. Both know nothing of virtue but only their own egos, power and wealth. The essay below from four years ago is a rant into how the laws of the late twentieth century set the stage for our current crisis’s. The laws let the genie out of the bottle. The essay does not propose a solution but hopefully illuminates how metaphors from the analog world are dangerous when used in the new digital era. Even though the rich and powerful try to get around them, laws matter.
This essay explores different perspectives concerning Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Movies such as The Social Network have finally made obvious to the broader public some of the toxicity of social media and this essay is to point out that Facebook and other social media companies are not like cork message boards at the laundromat but rather a modern, innovative and complicated form of publishing. For some background, read the New York Times article Tech Companies Shift Their Posture on a Legal Shield, Wary of Being Left Behind where in the comments a gentleman from New York commented the following:
– Kenneth, ny
Section 230 is the wrong tool for regulating tech giants; it’s how people can say something on the internet without bringing down the hosting service. Let’s remove it; we’d lose these comment boards because now the Times is liable for its contents. Twitter gets nuked completely (possibly a good outcome in your estimation!) but so too does every place users can place comments. The analogy that impressed me in law school was the idea of a cork message board — if someone comes along and staples a defamatory statement, you go after the person who posted it. You don’t sue the owner of the corkboard. And if the corkboard owner removes the defamatory statement, then the original speaker doesn’t get to sue them in turn. That’s the point and purpose of section 230. If the corkboard owner owns all the corkboards, then okay, that’s why we have antitrust laws. But unless you want to start scrutinizing all online speech via legislation, we should use other means to attack the power of the internet giants.
Trying to make sense of the new digital world, people conjure up metaphors from the physical world. For many years it was called the Information Superhighway and the internet was something that you surfed. Lately, servers are called the cloud. These are convenient ways we, or probably more accurately, marketing departments, try to give people a reference for this fast moving world. But in actuality you do not surf the internet and it is not a cloud. It seems skepticism is sometimes in short supply these days. The notion that interacting with social media and “posting,” is at its essence, the same voluntary action as posting a notice about your lost cat on the local laundromat cork message board is simply naïve. Facebook is not a cork board. It is far more complicated.
Comparing Facebook with cork bulletin boards is perhaps like comparing horses with cars. Both horses and cars are a means of transportation. Indeed, when the automobile became ubiquitous the motor’s strength was horsepower. This must have been a certain horse in a good mood, and it surely was just an average and not very accurate. Because horses were not cars there were all kinds of regulations about how fast they could go, and how you had to drive with lights on at night and wear seat belts, and eventually it got so bad, you had to have a drivers licence. Cars, as long as they had gas could go for hours on end. Horses need rest. While horses and cars are tools for humans to get from one place to another, they are apples and oranges. Facebook is not a cork board. It is far more complicated.
A cork board in the laundromat always stays in one place . In reality the only reason the owner of the laundromat put up the freakin’ cork board in the first place was because people kept taping room rentals and lost pet posters on the wall and she was getting tired of cleaning off all the sticky tape. People who see Facebook stuff have it on their phone, on their computer at home, in an internet cafe (they still have those) – basically everywhere they are they can get news and messages from people they do not really even know. They see the social media stuff everywhere. The message board at the laundromat hangs out in the laundromat all night in the dark with the florescent lights off waiting for the morning for the door to be unlocked and someone to poke it with a thumbtack in the morning the next day.
Furthermore, your laundromat bulletin board is not a two way mirror where some creepy white guy in a hoody is behind the glass spying on your every move, changing what you see on the bulletin board by gauging your mood and even where your eyes focus. It does not track whether you were in the laundromat last week, or how many loads you did, or whether you just came from the grocery store. Facebook is not a cork board. It is far more complicated.
In reality a cork board in a laundromat is perhaps more like a free classified service like craigslist but the cork board in a laundromat is physical.. However, unlike craigslist and for that matter Facebook, when someone posts a notice on the cork board they do not have to give the owner of the cork board their birth date, email, or any other personal information. On the cork board people post their “stuff” and often write their phone number many times on the notice so that people can tear off the phone numbers and easily call them . People are usually pretty anonymous and everyone sees the same stuff. The woman who owns the laundromat (or craigslist for that matter) does not customize the cork board for different laundromat users based on their politics, gender orientation or sport teams affiliation. Facebook is not a cork board. It is far more complicated.
Unlike Facebook, I would wager that a cork message board in my local laundromat is pretty harmless. It is not a platform associated with radical white extremists that are conspiring to kidnap the governor, or entire governments intent on marginalizing and murdering certain members of society as what happen in Myanmar.
The cork board is probably not a place where strange inaccurate and totally false conspiracy theories propagate. Perhaps Facebook is more often like a toxic dump site, that is oozing falsehoods and devious schemes all night. but appears benign. Facebook is not a cork board. It is far more complicated.
A few years after Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 was the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) which ushered in the 21st century that often marginalized tradition creators of music, art and publishing. The DMCA made it completely legal for hosting companies and most often large monopolies to make money off of the music of the last 100 years and be free of any legal consequences for copyright infringement as the material was posted by users. Sort of like taping your 100 gig drive of all your CDs as MP3’s on that laundromat cork board and telling everyone to just come and make free copies while the laundromat got financial kickbacks.
I have been writing about how the DMCA is unconstitutional for years.
Facebook is not a cork board. It is far more complicated.
Imagine if your Facebook feed came to you once a day in print delivered to your doorstep. It is a “book” by the way. Your print version of Facebook would contain the news from some traditional news source, the warm and fuzzy stories and op-eds from your crazy uncle. It even has comics. It is published in billions of editions and every user gets their own custom versions. This siloing of content is one of the reasons why our democracies are breaking into the tribalism of identity politics. Everyone lives in their custom realities and subjective idealism with their own version of truth. (The customization of various editions is not unlike the New York Times that has a “west coast” version. ) On Facebook and the New York Times are ads and classifieds and Facebook makes billions off the advertising in their publishing business. Facebook is not just a platform, it is a modern, complicated form of publishing with vast editorial power. Indeed, if I posted this essay on Facebook it would soon end up at the bottom of everyone’s feed and eventually the trash. How do I know this? It has happened before when I posted on Facebook such critiques. Facebook is not a cork board. It is far more complicated.
The quote above that started this ramble speaks of anti-trust and breaking up the likes of Facebook as Teddy Roosevelt helped do with the railroads a hundred years ago. Anti-trust laws will surely be the legal path, but I still maintain: Facebook is not a cork board. It is far more complicated. The legal world needs to realize that the internet is not one huge cork message board at the laundromat where no one is accountable.
“I know predators, and we have a predator living in the White House, and let me tell you, there’s a little secret about predators. Donald Trump has predatory nature and predatory instincts. The things about predators you should know, they prey on the vulnerable. They prey on those who they do not believe are strong. The thing you must importantly know, predators are cowards. I have a background where successfully, I have prosecuted the big banks who preyed on homeowners, prosecuted pharmaceutical companies who preyed on seniors, prosecuted transnational criminal organizations that preyed on women and children, and I will tell you we have a predator living in the White House.”
Kamala Harris, U.S. Senator and Presidential Candidate – July 3, 2019
“Women who fought and sacrificed so much for equality and liberty and justice for all, including the black women who are often too often overlooked, but so often prove they are the backbone of our democracy.”
Kamala Harris, U.S. Senator and Vice Presidential Elect
“Can you think of any laws that give the government the power to make decisions about the male body?”
Kamala Harris, U.S. Senator Questioning Brett Kavanaugh – September 2018
Brett Kavanaugh had no answer and looked dazed and confused. And isn’t it peculiar that like Jeff Sessions who said “you scare me” to Senator Harris when she was questioning him on the floor, Kavanaugh seemed a bit terrified. January 20th will be a great day for woman. For little girls it will be a day where being smart, tough and thinking critically is now part of the accepted performance.
For people in the Bay Area there are three camps. People who hold a grudge for Kamala Harris over the simple fact that she was District Attorney of San Francisco and made some mistakes along the way. Those who are simply glad that you have someone who is intelligent, qualified and decent. And, the few Republicans who think she is soft on petty crime and social issues.
There was an op-ed in the New York Times recently that took the point of view that Kamala Harris should be given a more substantial job than Vice President.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/15/opinion/kamala-harris-rural-america.html
All I can say is: there’s still time.
Kamala Harris – For the People, here we go.
Late Night at the Pelican Cafe is an experimental web site where I post historic recordings of various bands from the San Francisco Bay Area. You can just go to the post and music will play. Listen to the sound of a bar or club filled with people, listening and dancing to a live band. Many of these recording are live recordings from a quality analog cassette tape recorder ( SONY TCS-580-V) positioned on the floor in front of the trombone player. For around fifteen years I was a freelance trombonist and arranger in San Francisco.
CANDELA LIVE AT EL RIO – 1992
In the 1990’s I had the fortune to play many Sundays at El Rio. At one point it felt like I was the house trombone player. On this particular Sunday the band was a phenomenal line-up of San Francisco based musicians – many players, including myself, were filling in for regulars. You can hear solos by Wayne Wallace, Rebeca Mauleón, Ramon Lasso, Paul Lyons, Michael Spiro, Jorge Polmar and others. Rebeca Mauleón’s piano Solo on Bailando Asi is outstanding.
CANDELA – 1992
Edgardo Cambin – Congas and Lead Vocal (Solo on Yembeke)
Jorge Polmar – Bass
Rebeca Mauleón – Piano (Solo on Bailando Asi)
Sandy Cressman – Coros
Ramon Lasso – Piano (Solo on Yembeke)
Wayne Wallace – Trombone (Solo on Yembeke)
Eric Rangel – Timbales
Michael Spiro – Bongo (Solo on El Cuarto)
Paul Lyons – Trombone
Current Candela Website
INTRODUCTION
In 1992 I played in a band lead by Marcus Lopez called Cubanacan. In this band, on this night, I was taping the band so as to learn the tunes. The tune is Richard Kermode’s Catalina. and you can hear the solos of Peter Cornell, Paul Lyons and the late great Richard Kermode – a great musician with a huge spirit who earlier had worked and recorded with Santana and Janis Joplin. Richard could play a wicked montuno.
Fito Reinoso – Voice
Marcus Lopez – Bass
Louis Romero – Timbales
Geraldo from Cuba – Congas
Richard Kermode – Piano
Peter Cornell – Sax
Paul Lyons – Trombone
ACT 1 : AN ELECTRIFYING EXPERIENCE
Besides unemployment, anxiety and pondering your mortality, the Covid-19 pandemic is a time for cleaning out closets. Going through some old stuff I ran into a postcard from a bygone era. In the 1980’s and 90’s Bahia Cabana in San Francisco was a hopping club on Market Street in San Francisco with a tropical vibe and live music many nights of the week. The bands were mostly Latin bands playing samba or salsa and it catered to a dance crowd. The place must have been crazy during San Francisco’s Carnaval.
Long before the pandemic and before the rise of the internet, there were many clubs and bars like Bahia Cabana employing musicians. It is hard to imagine but in the late 1990’s, five nights a week there were at least five clubs up and down Mission Street that had bands with full horn sections and multiple singers. Most of these bands were cover bands that played the hits of the day and also the many regional Latin tunes – merengue, rancheras and cumbias. San Francisco is home to a lot of people from Central America where cumbias seem to always be popular.
But that is a bygone era. For years, live music in clubs has been in decline and Latin clubs are few. When you do hear a live salsa band it was often just a quartet with various people sitting in and the entire band playing for a tip jar.
But back to Bahia Cabana – a place were I could have been electrocuted to death. Bahia Cabana had this third world vibe down to the electrical system. I remember playing there in the 1990’s with Julio Bravo and looking at the wiring backstage for the sound system and wondering if everything was legal – wires going every which way like spaghetti. Next thing I know after attempting to plug in an amp, I got an electrical shock unlike anything I have ever received. I stepped back and wondered for a second if I should go to the emergency room only to be reassured by the trumpet player that if may hair was not on fire and there were no visible burns that everything was fine. It was a strange feeling.
Bahia Cabana – an electrifying and shockingly happening hot spot long gone.
A few years later Bahia Cabana opened another club in the basement – music by a DJ, lots of flashing lights, drum and bass, loud pounding sounds and surely a smoke machine. I wondered how they got that by the San Francisco fire department and being in the basement was a bit concerned for safety reasons. Sure enough, sometime around 2000 the entire building caught fire and Bahia Cabana closed down for good. Another victim of using unlicensed, non-union electrical contractors who do not ground service panels. But Bahia Cabana would have closed soon after with the invasion of the tech industry, increased rents and the changing economics of the San Francisco.
I think I will keep the postcard as a keepsake.
Recently some very large swell hit Northern California. December 4, 2020 was probably the biggest day of the year so far with waves peaking at probably around 25 feet. The following day, December 4, 2020 I ventured to the beach to take some photos and surf. These are photos from around 9 am to 11 am at Ocean Beach in San Francisco when the waves were about 7 feet at 14 seconds. Fortunately, even though there is a raging pandemic, surfing appears to be a safe activity. As the saying goes, once you leave the beach, you are in the wild.
Some sequences of rides
Ride 1
Ride 2
At the beach (the little black things on the waves are indeed humans)
It is rather odd that there is not more written about the influenza pandemic of 1918 or what came to be known as the “Spanish Flu.” No one really knows the death totals but it is safe to say that over 50 million people died worldwide and over 600,000 people died in the United States of America. Like most bad things that happen in life, humans seem to be better off just forgetting these tragedies, but then again perhaps that is why we keep making the same stupid mistakes over and over again.
What is different about our current 2020 Covid-19 pandemic is that technology has made it so we can connect with other people in ways probably not even thought possible in 1918. In fact, many are living lives that are more in keeping with the technological imaginations of the 1950’s and 1960’s. Like the spaceship Enterprise on Star Trek we have technology to connect to our alien relatives even if we find them irritating and obnoxious. Like Captain Kirk we have our trusty cellphones even more advanced than his silly flip-phone. We can view and speak with aliens like our strange brother-in-laws on large screens as though they are Klingons from another planet. Perhaps like 1918 our times are often full of solitary activities and our “bubbles” are where we practice our daily and weekly rituals, and many people continue on with their lives working over the internet. That the video conferencing application ZOOM finally figured it out just in the nick of time was serendipitous. Like the crew of the Star Trek Enterprise, people are often found living for days on end wearing what look like pajamas. Instead of getting beamed over to the Covid-19 testing area we get in our spaceships with wheels and are tested without leaving our seats.
Just like Star Trek, sometimes the video connection fizzles out or people just leave like a band-aid torn off with a sudden pull. I am not sure if on Star Trek they had video drinking parties and happy hours but those can be great fun. Rarely does the the narrative get aggressive – “Scotty: we will need more tonic Jim. I don’t think the party will survive without it!!”- as during Covid-19 you are so starved for attention, just seeing another face is often a welcome and novel event. And of course, never mentioned in space travel science fiction, and one thing they always seem leave out, is that to get to Mars, let alone another solar system, is going to take a lot of travel time. Surviving the Covid-19 pandemic is perhaps like training for space travel to Mars.
In 1918 we were just coming to the end of The Great War which eventually gave rise to Hitler and fascist Germany. In 2020 we dodged a bullet as Donald Trump was barely defeated at the polls. Fascism is indeed alive and well and humans are just barely intelligent enough (a little over 50%) to choose between burning up the planet or at least attempting to save what is left of this marvelous place we call Earth.
Books I Read in 2020 is brought to you by Bird and Beckett Books in San Francisco.
Remember, before you buy a book from Jeff Bezos consider supporting your 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.
This year I started a book diary and kept track of all the books I read. I recommend all of these books however special shout-out to three books: There There by Tommy Orange, The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America by Louis Menand and My Song: A Memoir by Harry Belafonte. Below is a list and a short description of each book.
The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America
Louis Menand
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First edition (April 10, 2002)
Louis Menand is a brilliant thinker and The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America is a great read. It is like a play with four characters as leads. It is strange to think that the Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes fought in the Civil War then went on to be on the Supreme Court for around thirty years in the early 20th century. Not brought up in my rudimentary education of the 19th century is the debate between monogenists and polygenists and such characters as Louis Agassiz and how the entire science world was convinced that Africans were a different species. This was the accepted belief until Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. Just a warning to the world on how perception is so often not reality and science when overly influenced by money and politics is often wrong.
There There
Tommy Orange Knopf (2018)
I highly recommend this book as the story telling and writing are phenomenal and the characters memorable. Based in Oakland and written by and about Native Americans – something not often found in published literature. Amazing book!
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz
Erik Larson
Random House (2020)
I read this at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and it gave me an escape from the lack of leadership of the Trump administration. I was curious about Churchill’s speeches, but instead you get the day to day life of Churchill during the bombing of London. A key source for this book are the diaries of Churchill’s daughter Mary. When politicians seem spineless, unable to lead, corrupt beyond belief, this is a good one to restore your faith. Churchill told the people the truth and would end his speeches with optimism and encouragement. What a concept.
Time Will Tell: Conversations With Paul Bley
Paul Bley & Norman Meehan
Berkeley Hills Books
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
Ibram X. Kendi Bold Type Books (2017)
Lot’s of stuff you never got in high school history class.
I Walked With Giants: The Autobiography of Jimmy Heath
Jimmie Heath Temple University Press (2010)
Great read from Jimmie Heath who lived a long productive life.
Cash: The Autobiography Johnny Cash
HarperOne; Illustrated edition (October 7, 2003)
If you are a Johnny Cash fan this is a must read. Given to me a few Christmas’s back by my second child, I finally got around to reading this autobiography. It is sort of interesting how in the first few chapters he skims over his first family, but comes around in the end to explaining things.
Little Bee
Chris Cleave
Simon & Schuster (2008)
This is sort of like a Netflix series that you watch because you have run out of options. Still, well written and engaging.
Dialogues and Natural History of Religion
David Hume
Oxford Classics
I read this because I am a big fan of Hume’s Zen-like skepticism. Heavy read where I understood only about ten percent at times.
Culture Crash: The Killing of the Creative Class
Scott Timberg
Yale University Press (January 31, 2015)
I wrote a review of this book on this website.
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
Thomas Wolfe
Picador (2008)
I had never read this book and was curious. San Francisco in the late 1960s.
My Song: A Memoir
Harry Belafonte and Michael Shnayerson
Knopf; First Edition edition (October 11, 2011)
I wrote a review of this book on this website.
All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes
Maya Angelou
Random House; Reprint edition (May 20, 1997)
Amazing writing.
It is now a week after the November 3, 2020 election. Because of Covid-19 and the large amount of mail-in ballots, it took until Saturday for Pennsylvania to be called for Joe Biden. The United States of America is still counting votes but the outcome is clear. Joe Biden won the Electoral College vote as well as a popular vote margin that when everything is counted will be over 5 million votes. Donald Trump is soon to be evicted from federal housing.
However, Donald Trump is playing the sore loser and claiming election fraud with no evidence that anything fraudulent happened. This is a typical Trump maneuver and this behavior of “deny, deny, deny” is a skill he learned from the notorious scumbag Roy Cohn. The prediction that Trump would never concede was pointed out by Michael Cohen over a year ago.
That just about every Republican supports Trump in his chronic denialism and legal maneuvers is deplorable.; Mitch McConnell has always been deplorable. At this point the Republican party is a party of traitors and treason and the oaths that they took to The Constitution are absurd.
NOTE: The opinion above is only that of the author and does not represent the San Francisco Journal, investors or subsidiaries. Letters to the editors can be sent via the contact link below.
Tools Needed
Phillips head screwdriver
Needle nose pliers
1 ½ inch scraping tool
Rags
Dish soap
Garden hose
Optional: Wet-Dry shop vac
Your hot tub may be very different. This is the only hot tub I have every owned. It is a Hot Springs hot tub from 1987 that was given to me fifteen years ago by a good friend. It still works great.
I change the water probably twice a year depending on use and the condition of the water.
You can simply empty the water and refill, but I find that going the extra mile with the cleaning really helps the quality of the water.
Step 1
Unplug the hot tub.
Step 2
Connect a garden hose to the drain pipe Open the valve. Empty the water directly into a drain. The water is not meant to water your lawn or a garden. The bromide will kill you grass.
I often drain the tub at night as it does take a few hours to drain.
Step 3
Bail out the rest of the water. I often find that the wet-dry shop vacuum works well.
Step 4
Unscrew the plastic fittings holding in the screens. Use a 1 ½ inch tool. I use a scraper wrapped in a rag. Carefully clean hair and lint out of screens with a toothbrush and under a faucet.
Step 5
Replace screens and screw plastic fittings back in. Be careful. This is an old hot tub.
Step 6
Wipe down the hot tub with a rag and a bucket of water with dish soap. Wipe with clean water.
Step 7
Use shop vac to suck out all remaining water. Do a final wipe down
Step 8
Close drain valve and put cap back on
Step 9
Fill hot tub with the hose
Step 10
Plug hot tub back in and start jets. Let run for around 10 minutes.
You are done! It will take 24 hours to fully heat up.
Crane Cove Park will be a major new open space along the currently inaccessible former industrial shoreline. The park will be a part of the Blue Greenway, a necklace of waterfront public access connecting the City to the shore via pathways, parks and open spaces.
https://sfport.com/crane-cove-park
I found Crane Cove Park in San Francisco on the day it opened purely by accident. It was a clear day and I was doing one of my bike rides around the city. Great job SF Port and all the people who made this happen! You can now update your website. (e.g., will be is)
Where is Crane Cove Park in SF?
It is in the Mission Bay, south and not far from the new Warriors stadium along the bay. It is a stones-throw south of The Ramp and Mission Rock. It has a wading beach and a large open space that once was a shipyard. No swimming but I did see some paddle-boarders out there. Just an interesting space along the water.
The entire Mission Bay has been transformed in recent years from a district of warehouses and open spaces to a place with hospitals, UCSF and a stadium. For better or worse, many of the open spaces are now glass office buildings. However, Crane Cove Park is a welcome addition to all this development. During the summer months, May to September, Crane Cove will usually be fog-free and five degrees warmer than the rest of the city – a great respite from the fog for people living in The Sunset or further west.
COOL ACTIVITIES AT CRANE COVE PARK:
Just in time for a pandemic is San Francisco’s Crane Cove Park.
This SF Journal Quarterly Report is brought to you by Gentilly and Taqueria Guadalajara, both excellent options for take out dining in the Excelsior District of San Francisco.
I am a little concerned about the concept of a Quarterly Report as the world is moving far to fast. Since the last Quarterly Report, entire cities in California have been burned to the ground, we discovered Donald Trump paid just $750 in Federal Income Taxes for two years while pretending to be president and while getting exceptional health care on the people’s dime, and the baseball season came and went like a beer fart that thankfully did not even register on the air quality meter. But a plan is a plan, and here is The Quarterly Report – October 2020.
Whether or not you “believe” in climate change or not, California during September 2020 was literally on fire, with massive fires up and down the state. There were fires in Boulder Creek close to Santa Cruz, in the Sierra and north in wine country. After some freakish dry lightening strikes in September, there were so many fires going on at the same time that you simply lost track. For many days San Francisco was dark with smoke and the air quality was at dangerous levels across the state. One Tuesday morning we woke up to a day where the sun never rose. The sky was an eerie orange. We were told the sky was similar to what it would be like if you survived a nuclear explosion – a nuclear winter.
While the expression that people “believe” in climate change (like it was some sort of religious epiphany) always has seemed odd, all I know is that this is “the new normal.” The climate is changing in more ways than we can even measure. The survival of the human species is quite dire.
Early October was fortunately a bit cooler with a lot of marine-layer and fog along the coast, but starting around October 7th we have entered our “Indian Summer” period with warm days and light winds. Many people are heading to the beach to cool off, swim and surf. This is the best time of year in Northern California.
In San Francisco we are doing pretty well in terms of containing the virus. People wear masks and practice social distancing in creative ways. Restaurants have adapted and there are many new “parklets” outside of establishments where people can eat. A few places are hiring bands to play as well. Even though all the public schools are doing online classes, people are getting out and the hum of freeway is about back to normal.
Most everyone in San Francisco seems to be holding their breath hoping that the Biden-Harris ticket wins come November. It is shocking that so many people in the United States of America support Donald Trump as he has always seemed a dangerous fraud from the start. Let us hope that this nightmare ends and in the least we can have some civility in the national discourse. Then there is all the actual work to be done – climate change, racial justice, education equity, the state department. The list is long. Where to start?
The Oakland A’s made it to the playoffs in this shortened season but lost in the second round. Someone mentioned that there are professional football games being played but that is all I know on that front. It sounds like a really bad idea as football tends to be a sport where bodily fluids are exchanged on a regular basis.
For the citizens of San Francisco there are many street closures to facilitate places to be outside and exercise. People are out and about, running, biking and skating. I predict that there are more kids that have learned how to ride a bike in the last nine months than in the last five years as you see them out on the Great Highway enjoying the 4 mile stretch of flat, open road with stunning views of the Pacific Ocean.
That is The Quarterly Report – October 2020. Be well. Wear a mask. Drink plenty of water, get regular exercise and for the love of God stay away from “social media.” Read books.
Continue reading “Riding “The Wiggle” on a Bike in San Francisco”
The latest news on the national level is that Donald Trump has contracted Covid-19 – the Corona Virus. It seems odd that this is a big deal. All along Donald Trump has explained that Covid-19 is little more than a mild flu. Please let us stop with the hyperbole. Donald. Go home and get some rest. It is just a mild illness. Maybe check back in a few weeks after you down a few Dixie Cups of Clorox or perhaps have your “come to Jesus moment” like what happened to Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
“It’s going to disappear one day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”
Donald Trump
“A lot of people think that goes away in April, with the heat, as the heat comes in, typically that will go away in April.”
Donald Trump
“Covid-19 affects ‘virtually nobody’”
Donald Trump
“I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute, and is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning? “Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that.”
Donald Trump
“It’s a little like a regular flu that we have flu shots for, and we’ll essentially have a flu shot for this in a fairly quick manner.”
Donald Trump .
Quotes begin from statements made by Donald Trump starting in February 2020.
The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival that takes place in Golden Gate Park every first-weekend in October is still happening this year, however it is going to be all online or what they now call “virtual.” Not my cup of tea folks. I like the real thing and will not be attending. That said, this year’s SF Journal Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival Awards will take a break.
As it turns out, live music festivals, with thousands of people bumping into each other, spilling beer on you and sharing local herbs is probably the best way to boost your immune system. As an added bonus there is the perilous activity of attempting to hygienically go to the bathroom in a port-a-potty. Wash your hands? Yeah right. Let’s all share germs!
For the past eight years I have written up reviews of HSBG festivals and given out awards. If you are curious or simply getting nostalgic, they are listed below. Until next year hopefully, when the light of health, peace and sanity returns.
Democracy Now! is a daily television and radio news broadcast probably not known to many in the United States of America. The show is hosted by journalist Amy Goodman, who also acts as the show’s executive producer. Besides having the best theme music for any news show ever, Democracy Now! attempts to deliver the news in a style that is actually similar to the way Walter Cronkite read the news in the 1960s. Unlike Fox News or many current news programs, the emphasis is not on the personalities of the host and there are are no leggy blondes perched up on bar stools complaining about the weather and personal skin care products.
If you compare the delivery of the news between Walter Cronkite and Amy Goodman it is striking how their intonation, style and rhythm are similar, albeit Amy Goodman’s is probably a fifth higher. Close your eyes. The similarities are almost shocking.
Just compare these two videos.
Walter Cronkite
Amy Goodman
I am no scholar of the history of television journalism, but this style and approach surely have something to do with Edward R. Murrow and his journalistic philosophy,, approach and style – a thing of a bygone era. They simply read the news deadpan with a consistent rhythm and no chatter.
So if you want to see or hear the headlines like it was Walter Cronkite staring at the camera reading the news, watch Amy Goodman and the DemocracyNow! headlines. It is like a strong cup of black coffee – hold the cream, no sugar.
Reading “I Walked with Giants” the autobiography of Jimmy Heath I ran into a very prescient quote about the United States of America from a speech delivered by Artie Shaw, the great big band clarinetist.
“This is a great country, but there are a lot of idiots in it. That’s why I went to Spain for a while.” – Artie Shaw in 1998 at Jewish Community Center – Washington, DC (“I Walked with Giants” p245)
.
This was in 1998. I fear that the idiots are simply multiplying!
Of all of Donald Trump’s henchmen, Michael Cohen is the only one that seems to have had a personal reckoning and has admitted his mistake of ever dealing with Trump. His closing speech in February 2019, before they took him off to prison for a brief time, is an honest assessment of the situation.
“I fear that if he loses the election in 2020, that there will never be a peaceful transition of power. And this is why I agreed to appear before you today.”
– Michael Cohen, Closing speech to the Senate – February 2019
Which is all at once spooky, insightful and clairvoyant. As of late, Trump repeatedly states that if he loses the 2020 election that it is all “rigged.” What a mess we are in!
I bore witness to the real man, in strip clubs, shady business meetings, and in unguarded moments when he revealed who he really was: a cheat, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, a con man.
– Michael Cohen, – from his book Disloyal
UPDATE: June 13, 2023
Fascism seems to just keep gaining strength is the United States.
Earlier Tuesday in Florida, Trump was arrested in a historic arraignment in a Miami federal courthouse where he pleaded not guilty to 37 criminal charges.
Trump is the first former president to face federal charges and was arrested and booked alongside his aide and co-defendant, Walt Nauta.
This indictment comes just months after Trump was charged by a Manhattan grand jury in a separate hush-money case.
CNN, Trump pleads not guilty in historic federal indictment
It is time that a brave judge simply locks him up in a jail until the trials begin.
UPDATE: September 21, 2022
And here we are, more than two years later, and Michael Cohen’s prediction has proved to be correct. Not only was there never a peaceful transition of power, but the shenanigans continue at an even higher decibel. We do not hear much from Michael Cohen these days, but he probably sleeps just fine at night. It is hard to find tranquility without truth and a clear conscience.
When he gave his testimony before Congress in February of 2019 it was an interesting view into some really basic psychology that every parent knows. Michael Cohen, no longer the glib, brazen New York lawyer who fixes legal woes for rich folk, appeared humbled, calm and sober. One could only surmise that he had conversations with his family and his wife, which may have made have made him change his tune. In the final Senate hearing, Michael Cohen’s entire body language changed, and unlike many on the stand who twitched and blinked in odd ways, anyone in the room could see that Cohen was confessing the truth. His eerie prediction evidently fell on the deaf ears of the Republicans. But then again, I sort of feel that the adults left the room somewhere around 2015.
Today, Michael Cohen is probably saying “I told you so” to the people who will listen.
UPDATE: August 27, 2023
“After surrendering on Thursday at an Atlanta jail to be booked on state felony charges alleging his involvement in a criminal conspiracy to void the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump sat for a mug shot in which he scowls like a psychopath out of a Stanley Kubrick film.”
Politico
I was hoping they would just lock the guy up in jail in a group-cell with other dangerous criminals. Michael Cohen’s predictions and assessments were correct.
The motto of this fine publication is “Slow News that Doesn’t Break.” While you may be able to learn the latest tidbits and disjointed morsels and turds from places like Twitter and Facebook, at the San Francisco Journal you get “Slow News that Doesn’t Break.” I ventured onto Twitter the other day to promote a piece of writing and was a bit disgusted with the whole ethos of the place. Grown adults shouting at each other like carnival barkers, writing incoherent phases like some deranged, mentally ill person outside your window in the middle of the night howling at the streetlight.
The San Francisco Journal Quarterly Report comes out four times a year, and tries to give an overview of the state of things in San Francisco. No need to be a news junkie around here.
The shelter in place order started on March 16th. On July 1, we will have been sheltering in place for 107 days. People are starting to get out and about and as of June 15, we are in Phase 2b which means a few things are open. It is still pretty much shut down mode.
Since the disturbing murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, there have been many demonstrations all around the Bay Area. On June 3rd we went to a large demonstration against police brutality at Mission High. Great speakers. Great group of demonstrators. After the speeches we marched West on 17th Street up to the Castro, took a right on Castro Street then down 15th Street. We left the entourage when we got to Valencia Street. Not reported by the big news outlets is that when the demonstration ended at 650 Bryant, the City Jail and Court House a rather large papermache head of Donald Trump was set on fire in the middle of the street. The police simply stood and watched. What was interesting is that throughout most of the march and especially at Dolores Park there were no signs of police. No one was hurt. No violence erupted. Very calm and peaceful with everyone wearing masks.
With the Vietnam war in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s it took the six-o-clock news and reporters embedded with the troops taking shocking images of innocent villages been napalmed and bombed to rouse the public to protest. War atrocities surely still go on but they have been hidden from our view. What is not hidden from our view, and what people document by video on their phones on a daily basis is police killing black people. This, at least for now, the government cannot censor.
June 3, 2020 Police Brutality Protest outside of Mission High
For the past 100 days I have often ventured out on bicycle and ride 20 miles or so around the city. Sometimes I take “The Wiggle,” other times I explore other parts of the city. I have been taking photos along the way.
With restaurants closed they will often board board up their windows. Many places then go the extra mile and create art. Here are some of my favorites.
Some photos of biking and San Francisco during the last 100 days.
No NBA, MLB and other professional sports at this time. There are some rumblings that the MLB will start up in July but time will tell. People are getting out more it seems – hiking parks, cycling and surfing (even though it is not surf season) are very popular.
June is the beginning of the foggy season in San Francisco. The temperatures usually are from 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. We get strong northwest winds with higher pressure over the ocean and lower pressure over land in the central valley. This brings about increasingly persistent west to northwest winds during the spring months that go until the Indian Summer of September. It is always reassuring when this weather pattern returns, even though after months of fog and winds it gets pretty relentless. Of course the quote often used to describe San Francisco in the summer is thought to be one by Mark Twain: “The coldest winter I ever saw was the summer I spent in San Francisco.” However, another that seems more in keeping with our times is:
“It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.”
– Mark Twain
Before the internet, there were armies of salesman that would go door-to-door selling encyclopedias. It was thought that without the latest Encyclopedia Britannica it would be impossible for your kids to write their history papers. Today, Wikipedia has assumed the role of the encyclopedia but in the realm of video, it is the documentaries of Ken Burns . Home-bound due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I decided to bite the bullet and buy the nine-episode Country Music | A Film by Ken Burns documentary on Amazon. Under $50 it comes out to about five bucks an episode. Country Music | A Film by Ken Burns is a fun romp through the twentieth century and a great way to discover new artists and bands, but in the end it was not so much about the music but a postcard parade of the people and musicians.
Ken Burns approaches his documentaries as though he is writing an encyclopedia; he always goes wide but rarely very deep. This gives the viewer the impression that what they are seeing is the unvarnished truth. Every documentary is stylistically exactly the same in his pedantic, dry, documentary style. If you watch Ken Burns’ The Civil War, Jazz or Baseball they are all identical and Country Music maintains this consistency. The serious voice of Peter Coyote narrates though out and the titling and production are all the same. It is the Ken Burns encyclopedia and while it is great to get an overview of these subjects, the more you know about the subjects, the more disturbing and slightly irritating it becomes. Things are left out. Stereotypes are reinforced. A strange middle ground seems to always be the goal. If a topic seems a bit risky, the next scene brings it back to something more conventional. Controversy is avoided. For instance, even though you can count notable black country musicians on one hand, nevertheless there is Wynton Marsalis as usual adding comments and insights from the wings.
“I was talking with a friend of mine about this the other day; that country life, as I knew it might really be a thing of the past and when music people today, performers and fans alike, talk about being “country,” they don’t mean they know or even care about the land and the life it sustains and regulates. They’re talking more about choices – a way to look, a group to belong to, a kind of music to call their own.”
Johnny Cash – The Autobiography of Johnny Cash
The notion of the genre of country music and what artists are “country,” like the word “jazz,” is forever perplexing and something more to do with the business of selling the music than the actual music.
“Three Chords and the Truth”
– coined by Harlan Howard in the 1950s which he used to describe Country music
What really is “country” music? From a musical standpoint, “Three Chords and the Truth” does seem to get at a good definition but some of the best country songs use secondary dominant chords extensively (e.g., Salty Dog) and the dominant II chord is usually the climax of the song . But do forgive me. I am writing about the music, not the people. I sort of like Cash’s geographical take on country – it ain’t “city.” Ironically, the history of bluegrass was actually aided by country folk moving to the city and longing for simpler times in the country.
One of the most redeeming qualities of country music are the lyrics. What ties all country musicians together is the singer/songwriter, cowboy or as it is often called troubadour. This may be true, but what I find in many of the successful country musicians is a rebellious streak. They seem, from a sociological standpoint, more like punk-rockers than anything else. Jimmie Rodgers, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and even Hank Williams were pushing the boundaries and going against the norms. In the film, it seemed a bit odd, but confirms my take, is that Marty Stewart named Woody Guthrie as being “about as country as it gets.” Which begs the question, then why did not Pete Seeger get even mentioned in the documentary? He was as country as Woody Guthrie and sparked the revival of the banjo with his banjo method book. Surely many country banjo players used his book to learn the instrument. Where folk ends and country begins, blues music ends and country begins, are all blurred lines. Who Ken Burns allows into the country club surely has something to do more with politics than the actual music. Perhaps to be country, is to have played at the Grand Old Opry or recorded in Nashville.
One thing that Burns avoids is how most of the country musicians tended to be far more politically progressive than their reactionary, predominantly conservative, Republican audiences. This is particularly true starting in the late 1960’s after the South went Republican. One of those important factors not really delved very deeply on, perhaps to avoid controversy and not alienate the core country audience, who would prefer to see the rebellious nature as a sort of cowboy libertarian streak, and be done with it. That the documentary ends in 1996 is surely convenient as it makes it possible to avoid bands like the Dixie Chicks that called George Bush out on his criminal and ill-conceived Iraq war.
One of the reoccurring themes in the movie is race, which is dealt with in an often incomplete fashion. From the documentary we learn that many of the early country stars at one point in their youth had a profound experience with an older black musician. Jimmie Rodgers, the father of country, learned how to play from an older black musician down by the railroad tracks. There were two other big musicians that come to mind but who’s names I forget that had similar experiences with older black musical mentors.
Country music is a predominantly white people’s music with a few invited guests – Charlie Pride, DeFord Bailey as noted examples. Perhaps the most amazing country album is Ray Charles’ country album that is pure countrypolitan and a smash hit. But issues like how the heck did Charlie Pride play in the segregated Jim Crow South are never brought up. Why, unlike in jazz, there are hardly any mixed-race bands? And, why, in every episode,as interludes, there are black and white photos of rural impoverished African-American families, gathered outside their shack of a house, with no explanation of why this photo is chosen?
The the 1960’s. Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Emily Lou Harris, Patsy Cline and others became huge country music stars. It is truly phenomenal how many powerhouse women came on the scene. Interestingly, Burns never uses the term “feminism” and instead describes this as – “at the time they called this woman’s liberation or women’s lib.” He goes on to described the woman as “feisty” or “strong-willed.” Just an observation of how language can influence perception and define history. In the late 1960’s there was a massive feminist movement culminating in the E.R.A. that never passed. One wonders if Burn’s never using the word “feminism” was intentional.
Country Music | A Film by Ken Burns. Well worth the price of admission, and a great way to get a broad-brush view of the topic of country music but a film that makes you question everything.
I did not grow up with country music. Folk music, pop, rock and roll, jazz, classical. Not country. My parents were from the north and primarily urban, well-read and educated. Below are albums for people who do not like country music.
Jimmie Rodgers with Louis Armstrong
It is a true fact, not out of some E.L Doctorow novel, that the father of country music, Jimmie Rodgers cut a record with Louis Armstrong. This is simply as strange as realizing that Aretha Franklin’s funkiest rhythm section was all white boys. Blue Yodel 9 is evidently a country song. This was before the music industry was putting labels on absolutely everything.
Johnny Cash many years later got together with Louis Armstrong and played Blue Yodel 9.
Ray Charles
One the the best-selling country albums of all times is Ray Charles’ Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music . Ray Charles would probably sound great reading the phone book, but here you have some heavy New York and L.A. style production and Ray, growing up country, just sings these country songs like he is in the shower.
Willie Nelson
Read Willie Nelson’s autobiography Its a Long Story. I once heard that Willie always wanted to make a bebop album, so Stardust is as close as he got. His early love for Bob Wills and country swing opened him up to all kinds of music and he sings these mostly jazz standards with great phrasing, relaxation and outstanding pitch. Some of the standards sound a bit like music I would hear in a bowling alley in some sleepy Midwest town, but if they call this country, I’ll take it.
An amazing character, Willie is featured a lot in Country Music | A Film by Ken Burns. To get the full story of what happened when Willie’s house outside of Nashville burned to the ground, you have to read Its a Long Story. Willie is sitting in a bar in Nashville and a friend rushes in to inform him his house is burning down. Willie races off in his pickup and when he gets to the house the fire trucks are already there and the whole place is surrounded by yellow “do not cross” tape. At that point, Willie asks if anyone is inside. When he learns that everyone is safe, he makes a dash inside the house. He returns safe with just two things. His trusty, beat up guitar and a guitar case full of marijuana. That is a true story ready for the movies that does not even need a screen writer.
Johnny Cash
An epic career and a unique person and musician. He did a bunch of albums on the themes of Native Americans which would be interesting to check out. Growing up in federally subsidized housing and picking cotton from a young age, Johnny Cash to me is really a punk-rock, soul artist who happens to be white.
https://www.nps.gov/safr/planyourvisit/aquaticparkcove.htm
You have probably heard it a hundred times. “Way to cold to swim there in the Bay.” “How can you go in that water?” “It must be filthy!” “You’re a complete nut!!!!”
Actually, now is a great time to go to Aquatic Park and take a dip. Just think. You may be dead next year. We all may be dead next year. You only go around once as they say.
Wear a mask. Check out the cams online and the best bet is to go when it is sunny. North Beach in San Francisco tends to be sunnier than many other neighborhoods during the summer. Fog does push in at times, but Aquatic Park tends to be protected. There are lovely seats in the bleachers by the cove. Lot’s of space. Bring a picnic. Take in the views. Watch people as they stroll by. Alcatraz. Massive container ships from thousands of miles away coming in and out. Historic ships like the Balclutha docked close by. If you do not want to go for a swim you could make a gentleman’s bet with a friend and the person who loses has to swim out to one of the buoys. Pretty soon you will realize that the water is not too cold and the views incredible. Feel free to float on the salt water. In summer it can get up to 64 degrees Fahrenheit.
But I know you. “There is no way I am going in that water!.” You never know until you try.
Admission: Free!
Parking: Not going to tell
It is a good thing that large newspapers have found a way to keep in business in the digital landscape. For a time, in the world of journalism, it looked like even the big players were not going to make it. I subscribe to the local paper and the N.Y. Times. From time to time I will post comments to various N.Y. Times pieces and enjoy reading the contributions and ideas from the many mysterious contributors – Socrates, CynicalObserver, God on wheels, Great Family and Friends Dish. Pretty much all of my comments are approved and people recommend them and life goes on. About a week ago I wrote a comment about how a certain article seemed to just brush the surface of the topic.
What Happens to Some L.G.B.T.Q. Teens When Their Parents Reject Them
My comment was approved and garnered a fair amount of recommendations and then was taken down. When I asked the N.Y. Times about why it was taken down, I got this for an answer: “While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective.” I find it odd that they censored this comment as it is not off-topic and abusive only if you think the truth is intolerable. What I was simply saying is that this topic is complicated – “a complicated story with many players needing more than 3000 words.”
But in the end the N.Y. Times has every right to not publish my comments. It is a private company and can do what they want, just as Jack Dorsey should have kicked Donald Trump off of Twitter years ago for violating their terms. However, I feel that my comment below is certainly not off-topic, not abusive and perhaps even insightful. For posterity, the comment that was taken down and the N.Y. Times response is below.
What do you think? Did I cross the line?
Paul
And the N.Y. Times response to why they removed my comment.
Michelle (The New York Times Customer Care)
Nov 20, 2020, 8:00 PM EST
Hello Paul,
Thank you for contacting us here at the Customer Care Center here at The New York Times. Let me first personally thank you for your ongoing support and readership of The New York Times. I appreciate your loyalty.
While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Our Community desk will make them as carefully and consistently as we can. Because of the volume of reader comments, we cannot review individual moderation decisions with readers.
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Michelle G,
Customer Care
The New York Times
In a 6-3 decision, the court said the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which bars employers with 15 employees or more from discriminating on the basis of sex, requires them to treat male and female employees equally regardless of their sexuality or biological gender at birth — regardless of whether they are gay or lesbian, straight or transgender.
SF Chronicle – U.S. Supreme Court rules job discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is illegal – June 15, 2020
It is a good thing that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that job discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is illegal ( Bostock vs. Clayton County). To condone discrimination based on who people love and are attracted to and people who are on hormones to self-authenticate their gender is simply unethical. Prescribing hormones to people to self-authenticate has its own set of ethical questions, but that is another topic all together. What is lost on many journalists and commentators who think this is simply a big win for people who are homosexual or identify as transgender is that they miss a key aspect of the ruling. What the ruling does is simply reaffirm the 1964 Civil Rights Act which bars employers with 15 employees or more from discriminating on the basis of sex
Gorsuch wrote. “That’s because it is impossible to discriminate against a person for being homosexual or transgender without discriminating against that individual based on sex.”
What this means, and what the court is saying is that sex is real. In our current world of polarized political rhetoric, identity politics and solipsism this may seem like a minor point, but in reality it is significant. Bostock vs. Clayton County may be framed as a win for LGBT rights but it far more subtle. Gorsuch frames the issue with “it does not matter whether you are gay or identify as transgender you are first, fundamentally a human – female or male.” Surprisingly, he is looking at the issue from a feminist, not really a LGBT, perspective.
Eventually there will be other judgments by the court that will disappoint the LGBT community. They will become shrill and irate and claim that Gorsuch has changed his views and backpedaled but in fact they will not understand the premise of his argument and reasoning. Indeed, the ERA, that unfortunately never passed, is an amendment that would have deemed equality not based on gender but sex.
It is refreshing to see the Supreme Court function as it was intended. A place where cases are argued and laws are created that take the long view and are not susceptible to the politics and fads of the day,
NOTE: The opinion above is only that of the author and does not represent the San Francisco Journal, investors or subsidiaries. Letters to the editors can be sent via the contact link below.
UPDATE: 2/28/2023
McLaren Park just gets better. I brand new playground (McLaren Park Redwood Grove Playground) and bathrooms opened up along John F. Shelly Drive. Also, Shelly Drive is still closed from the parking lot down to Mansell Street and people use it as open space for walks and runs.
Some photos of McLaren Park (not to be confused with MacClaren, or McClaren Park) in San Francisco. A great place to hike, walk a dog, picnic, teach a kid how to ride a bike or just take in views of the Bay Area. With the COVID-19 shelter in place situation. McLaren Park is now being used a lot more than before. People on the weekends picnic and lie around on the mown lawns like they do at Dolores Park. Lots of kids getting to know nature. From McLaren Park there are great views of downtown San Francisco, Bernal Heights, Brisbane, Oakland, Twin Peaks, the Pacific Ocean. Mount Davidson, Mount Diablo. There is a three mile hike called the Philosopher’s Way Trail which makes it seem at times that you are not in a city but on a rural trail. John McLaren, who best loved undeveloped urban parks would be happy to see all the people out in nature.
Before McLaren Park became a park, a hundred years ago it was a horse farm with stables. Easy to imagine.
MORE INFO:
http://sfrecpark.org/Facilities/Facility/Details/McLaren-Park-Trails-401
BREAKING NEWS: The Pelican Cafe has reopened after being closed for a few months because of no apparent reason. We still do not serve any food, coffee or beverages. Newly remodeled, the virtual cafe has been open since April and is now primarily experiential.
At the Pelican Cafe you can experience the Pacific Ocean in a visceral way – at least as visceral as possible in an internet browser. The videos posted are all from Ocean Beach in San Francisco and correlate to the time of day that you visit the web site. Addition videos will be added soon.
GO TO THE ONE AND ONLY pelicancafe.net
Special features include Late Night at the Pelican Cafe. Recently posted is a live performance at El Rio in 1997 of the San Francisco band, Mazacote.
Paul Lyons – San Francisco – April 2020
Cafe Manager
“This came to yet another head last Friday night when Mark (Zuckerberg) decided Facebook would not remove Trump’s post in which he invoked a historically racist phrase to threaten violence against civilians. Mark suggested that it didn’t violate Facebook’s terms of service because Trump was a state actor and so his threat was more of a warning.”
Jessi Hempel, June 3, 2020 Will employee protests fix Facebook’s power problem?
What a strange terms of service. So if you are a “state actor” you can get away with racist hate speech, toxic and dangerous lies and sexist insults. But if you are a black man, in our society you get a knee in your neck and killed by the police for just breathing air. Facebook is toxic. It is really that simple. Mark Zuckerberg is simply a greedy capitalist… a lot like Donald Trump. Mark Zuckerberg is NOT your “friend.”
RELATED POST
Mark Zuckerberg’s Lost Notebooks – Further Proof that Facebook is Not Your Friend
It amazes me that reporters are still taken aback at how vile, misogynistic, sexist, selfish and self-aggrandizing Donald Trump is at press conferences. This sort of behavior has been going on for as long as Donald Trump joined the world of entertainment and politics. Reporters often stand amazed with their jaws dropped while Trump insults them and calls them bad reporters and their employers “fake news.” It is as though they have not realized that the rule book of civility was burned in 2015 as he climbed his way to power. I suggest that instead of ever thinking they will get a straight answer from this guy, play his silly game.
Instead of asking a question like “Dr. Fauci has stated that it is best that many parts of the economy stay in shutdown. Why against expert advice, do you think it is good to open up the restaurants and bars now?” To which they will either get an incoherent rambling or an insult or two.
Perhaps it would be better to ask a question where you catch Trump off guard in such a way were he looks even dumber than he already is. For example, “Mr. President, you stated last week that you have been taking the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a preventive measure for Covid-19. We were wonder if you gargle with bleach before of after you take the hydroxychloroquine?” Such a question would remind the room that Trump has recommended crazy medical theories in the past, and thus he could not deny that he recommended ingesting cleaning products. The reason that this tactic is essential is that Trump refuses to govern and the only hope for the press is to simply state the truth with as much irony and humor as possible.
If Trump insults them once again, at least the press will get the last laugh.
In journalism the choice of words to describe events and the world is critical to meaning. Often in the New York Times articles will state that President Trump “misrepresented the facts” or that he used “false and misleading statements.” This type of language avoids the obvious fact that the best word for what Trump does constantly is “lie.” Trump does not “misrepresent facts.” Every English teacher would take a red pen and cross out those two words and write “be more direct, simply use the word “lie”.”
Today the glossing over Donald Trump’s lies is the most obvious watering down of direct language by the mainstream media. But this weak and soft language is common throughout many topics.
“President Trump was caught flat-footed with the Federal response to the coronavirus.”
– NPR News – May 2020
The term “caught flat-footed” is to my surprise not known by many people but the gist is that person who is “caught flat-footed” is innocent about something and was simply caught off-guard or perhaps by surprise. Nothing could be further from the truth. Trump knowingly disregarded urgent warnings by many of his top advisers – from health experts and even people in the business community. A more accurate choice of words would be that Trump “ignored warnings” and refused to utilize the powers of the federal government to prepare and protect citizens. To this day, he still thinks he can simply wish Covid-19 away.
“The shortcomings of the United States prison system”
– PBS News Hour – May 2020
What an odd phrase. “Shortcomings” allows the listener to project their own meaning on the story. “Shortcomings, you bet you! Let’s lock more poor people and people of color up! ” The United States prison system does not have “shortcomings.” The United States prison system is the “United States Prison Industrial Complex” and as Michele Alexander intelligently points out in “The New Jim Cow,” the prison system is simply used to control black people like laws were in the Jim Crow era.
That the prison system has been largely privatized and a place for large corporate profits is the real story. The shortcomings of this type of PBS Newshour journalism is that it waters down the truth and reframes the narrative to the advantage of the powerful. Language matters and eventually shapes the political dialogue and perceptions.
NOTE: The opinion above is only that of the author and does not represent the San Francisco Journal, investors or subsidiaries. Letters to the editors can be sent via the contact link below.
“A scale is a very ugly thing and it’s a bad discipline to expose your ear to bad music in the name of technique. If you decide what to play and what aesthetics to use in your choices then the “how” will follow. There is a basic advantage in not being able to play well, in that if your music is very simple then you are less likely to play bad notes. The more notes you play the more likely you are to play a lot of bad ones. By limiting your choices you improve the result of your music. I went through a period in my life when rather than trying to make my music sound better I started eliminating things that didn’t sound good and everyone said that I had made a great improvement, but what I had done was just housekeeping.”
Paul Bley – from Time Will Tell – Conversations with Paul Bley (2003) – Norman Meehan
Such an odd perspective, but it makes sense that Paul Bley would say that scales are “ugly.” I think what he is saying is that scales, when played like “scales,” are ugly. When played like music are just music. The notion that you get rid of bad notes in your playing by simply playing less notes is pretty funny!
if your music is very simple then you are less likely to play bad notes
This is perhaps the definition of a bluegrass solo, or what the cowboys call a “break.” Good jazz musicians never have a hard time with “wrong” notes as that is sometimes the fodder with which they create their motifs.
Feel free to comment below.
