Be a patriot. Celebrate the founding fathers. Celebrate the country, the formation of the country, the exceptionalism of the country I was blessed to be born within but months ago, on the phone with my father, “I don’t really have that experience of pride about this place. That hasn’t been, not since I was a little kid,” Cloaking pride of patriots and flags and symbols … Continue reading Errant Words on the Fourth
Too many politicians remind me of dry alcoholics. They may want to change, and their poison of choice may have been removed, yet they still hold onto old ways. One new member of the House of Representatives filled out his communications staff and not his legislative. Helping Americans comes a distant second to building their own brand through exclusive interviews and speeches and being firm … Continue reading You Can’t Heal – 7
“There’s a garden on the bay side of Telegraph Hill called the Filbert Steps, and it runs down from the heights of Coit Tower to Levi Plaza right across from San Francisco Bay. They used to make Levis in San Francisco. They used to make a lot of things here. They used to plan for large, public gardens like the Steps, a once beautiful scene … Continue reading You Can’t Heal – 6
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?
Most who have followed the story of the BP Catastraphuk are familiar with the company’s enlisting of scientists and university research departments to silence them with non-disclosure requirements explore what has happened to the Gulf environment, to do the research so all the Gulf States can be made whole, well, complete, fixed like a motherfucker while Dudley sails off to the shareholders meeting, to Texas, into … Continue reading In no way an attack on science…
By the time any of you read this, I will have left my comfy confines in the Midwest for a far more uncertain future on the West Coast…San Francisco to be exact. Got some money saved, a lot of social work experience, several contacts and possibilities and a 2nd job interview already scheduled for three days after my arrival… Oh, and did I mention the … Continue reading Today would be that day…westward.
Drake Toulouse: Photography and Words 