What got me roaming around Kevin Kelly’s writings was his recent recommendation of a video of David Simon, creator of HBO’s The Wire, talking about capitalism, health care, Wall Street, corporate greed, the Republicans, poverty, America’s blowing it on so many fronts, the futility of the drug war, the for-profit prison system — and why Snoop (the real life Snoop) was recently arrested. At the end of this long and serious talk, he asked for questions, and quipped that everyone always wants to talk about Omar.
Indeed.
Frank Porter Graham Lecture 2011 with David Simon from James M. Johnston Center on Vimeo.
Posted by Mark Frauenfelder on BoingBoing this morning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JxfgId3XTs
“To announce the grand opening of Westfield Stratford City, which will soon be “the largest urban shopping centre in Europe”, Westfield created this fun short film, 100 YEARS / STYLE / EAST LONDON. The film, directed by Jake Lunt with The Viral Factory, amazingly gives the run-down of 100 years of East London fashion, dance and music in just 100 seconds.”
From Laughing Squid, great website
I’m at Verve Coffee on 41st Street in Santa Cruz, very cool place. Serious barista-meisters, crema perfecta, good wi-fi. A big tan guy came in a few minutes ago, broad shoulders, deep chest, and missing an arm. He sat with a friend next to me and he started talking about paddling. Pretty soon we’re talking. He has a 16′ custom Joe bark board, I have a 12 footer…Turns out he’s sponsored by Patagonia, among others. He competes in paddle races and surfs. Man, what an inspiration! He just left. I looked him up and read this:
“I began paddleboarding in order to keep the edge. Having only one arm I am forced to stay as sharp as a tack in order to simply catch the waves I seek to ride. Growing up in Maine where the sun sets early in winter, our prime wave season, I was forced to embrace the night in my mission to stay fit, to ride waves. Through necessity I was awakened to another level of joy from the paddling experience.…”
https://www.thecleanestline.com/2010/02/keeping-the-edge-night-paddleboarding-with-jeff-denholm.html
Wednesday I took my friend Sherman Welpton to a noon-time concert of the Tom Rigney Band at the Oakland city Center. Sherman is in a wheelchair with a spinal disconnect and Parkinson’s; these days he’s pretty much totally incapacitated. Physically, that is.
Mentally, inside the physical shell that’s not working, he’s the same funny, perceptive, and playful guy that he always was. Several years ago, I wrote something about him for our fraternity brothers (Stanford, class of ’56). To see it, click here.
Over the years Sherm and I have gone to a bunch of musical events. He’s the one who turned me onto Fats Domino (Yes it’s me and I’m in love again) when we were teenagers, and thereby changed my life. We’ve gone to Ashkenaz, the Berkeley world-music club that has good wheelchair access, a bunch of times.
Even though he can’t talk, or even move these days, there’s something about him, some kind of aura that people often pick up on. Once we went to a biker bar in Hayward to see a blues band. When the bikers saw us, they cleared their Harleys away so I could park the van, and helped me get Sherm in. One night we went to see Merle Haggard at the Warfield in Oakland; at the intermission I wandered around taking pictures and when I came back, Sherm was holding hands with a girl in the next row. Dude!
Sherm is always game. These days one of his caregivers always goes with us. There are four women who care for him at his home in Oakland. They all love him to pieces. The other day I said to him. Sherm, you fucker, you’ve got four women looking after you, plus your wife Ruthie. His eyes twinkled.
My good friend from Baja, Chilon, told me that Mexican slang for the grandpa of a boy, is “Abuelito de Batman.” Well, all right!
Here’s me a few hours ago with Batman. I’m awed by babies. The perfect little hands with grasping fingers, the smooth skin, the smiles, and the deep look into your eyes that infants practice before they learn not too. I love the feeling of thus little guy on my shoulder. I took him out to watch the chickens. I watched his eyes as he scanned the scene. Seeing things for the first time. He’s 4 months old.
Boy is this beautiful!
Be sure to click on the 4 little arrows at lower right side of screen to enlarge. This is just magnificent.
Discovered by Lew Lewandowski
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HiUMlOz4UQ
Tags: animals, birds, building, farming, fishing, gardening, homes, nature, ocean, people, surfing
This photo from The Last Men, by Iago Corazza: “Indigenous New Guineans are presented in their full body paint, with extremely striking colors and patterns representing their tribal identity.…fully adorned, fully committed, fully made-up for special occasions, pedal-to-the-metal New Guinea, and the effect is viusually stunning. This is quintessential MAN AS ART …”
–Amazon review by James I. Cole
I discovered this book about a year ago and put it on my calendar for this month, and sure enough, the price dropped. I found a copy on AbeBooks for $15. Also ordered a copy of Man As Art for $6 used from Abe, which is consistently cheaper than Amazon.
Yesterday we visited a straw bale house SunRay built. This little girl’s mom was mixing purple plaster for the walls and the little girl was trying to help. Look at those eyes!
I walked into a coffee shop yesterday along with another guy. The barista girl was standing there, and she was luminous. She had an energy glow. The other guy took one look at her and said, “Look at you!”
There was a “60 Minutes” program on Tony maybe 20 years ago. So I don’t have to explain who he is, go to:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_serra
“Meet Tony Serra and author/artist Paulette Frankl at the book launch at 5 p.m. on Saturday, November 20, 2010 at Fort Mason Center, Room C-370.
LUST FOR JUSTICE: The Radical Life and Law of J. Tony Serra (ISBN # 0-615-38683-0) is the first and only book to appear about San Francisco’s charismatic counter culture lawyer, acclaimed one of the ten top criminal defense lawyers of the century. His long career has made him an icon of the underdog and a champion of civil rights leaders, a hero to some, a trickster to others, always a force to be reckoned with in court.
More about LUST FOR JUSTICE can be seen at https://www.lustforjustice.net/
Partially-full disclosure: Tony’s one of my oldest friends (55+ years!). Little is it known that I introduced Tony to marijuana in the ’60s. We smoked it over ice cubes, then went out to hear jazz sax player Art Pepper at a Fillmore district club. Tony kept saying, “I don’t feel anything…”
