So I’ve opened a store – T-shirts, hoodies, accessories…called tenderloinconcrete. Tenderloin Concrete is a culmination of many years spent in living and working in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco. Despite its often negative reputation, it’s a unique 40 square blocks of beating hearts wedged between the government buildings of Civic Center and the skyscrapers of the Financial District. Along with petty crime, the drug … Continue reading tenderloinconcrete.com
I took three days away from reading the news over this 4th of July weekend. I hadn’t done anything like this in awhile and I legitimately have no idea what’s going on in the world, not that I don’t care. I do, but it will be waiting for me tomorrow. I had a dream last night that Elon Musk died in a rocket-ship and nobody … Continue reading The Three Day Dream…
Some of us choose the shadows for different reasons – concealment, embarrassment, fear or maybe an overall dislike of the sun’s necessity and light. Then there’s this from JD Vance, Vice President of the United States: “I empathize with Americans who are exhausted after 25 years of foreign entanglements in the Middle East,” he said, “I understand the concern, but the difference is that back … Continue reading In the Shadows
The march was a week ago now. I am hopeful it made a difference for the people involved, attending, chanting…etc. A week later, I can’t say it made all of that much a difference to me personally, but that is of no real import. A number of things I could say here but I don’t wish to add to the noise. The only thing I’d … Continue reading Protested Thoughts – 3
Protests to me have always felt like funerals. It’s not that I think they make no difference, for some they do. People who are being oppressed, hurt or disregarded, even eliminated often need to feel a part of a larger group, for reinforcement, for encouragement, for enthusiasm and energy. I am happy for people to have these feelings, but it is not why I attend. … Continue reading Protested Thoughts – 2
I saw Ani DiFranco two nights ago at the Fillmore in San Francisco…great show, some songs I’d never heard performed before like “School Night” or “Overlap,” and she was in fine form, striking the guitar so hard during “Napoleon” or “Shameless,” you’d think it might break, and performing new songs that thanks to Youtube, I knew by name already, “Careless Words,” “Genie,” and more…and none … Continue reading Reflecting on a show: Ani Difranco…
The 4th of July… Tis’ a holiday of conflict. Maybe it’s twenty plus years of social work that has done this to me. Or perhaps it’s simply a matter of giving a damn about people I’ve never met in towns I’ve never been to, concerns about whether they have enough to eat, a place to live, a sense of safety and hoping these random strangers … Continue reading Independence Day…
Once upon a time, there was a tween named Billy in New Orleans, not yet a teenager, but no longer a small boy. He’d been having a difficult life, but his mother taught him the best she could. Billy loved his mother and Billy loved his house. Billy loved his friends and Billy loved his faithful dog, Rex, more than anything. One day, after school, … Continue reading An OPP Bedtime Story…
Best of luck to everyone in New Orleans over the next couple of days…in my thoughts. More to come… PJ Harvey -The Words that Maketh Murder And she ain’t talking about Steve Newhouse killing the Times-Picayune. Have a nice day. Continue reading Across the bow…
Despite the continued insistence of public relations hacks employed by the oil company hell known as British Petroleum that all in the Gulf is either well, or quickly on the mend, troubles persist: “Researchers are trying to determine whether more than 100 dolphins stranded on the Texas coast, most of them in Galveston, died because of the BP oil spill, a deadly algal bloom or … Continue reading What’s ten billion dollars between friends?
Drake Toulouse: Photography and Words 