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
In a demonstration that none of Columbia university’s higher ups are capable of requisite scores to attend their own classes: Columbia University has agreed to pay the Trump administration 200 million dollars. They have shut off any sense of being inclusive. They will report their admissions data, and they understand Authoritarian Trump can launch at his leisure any new investigatory humiliations and shakedowns regardless of … Continue reading Columbia University – A Quiz
I’ve been a social worker for many years and you don’t put in that kind of time without seeing a few things: unexpected moments of community, bodies, genuine concern for others, handguns, random acts of kindness, and swords, so many swords, but two years ago I came into a hard scene that occupies my head more than most, finding the remains of a tenant I … Continue reading Secondary Trauma…
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 may have been in attendance at the No Kings protest in San Francisco, or maybe I wasn’t. It’s difficult or dangerous to say where one is these days…with Meta, with Twitter, with Amazon supporting the birthday parade of he who would be king, people should be everywhere, and nowhere. I might have been out by the Pacific Ocean clearing my head amongst the ceaseless … Continue reading Protested Thoughts – 1
Drake Toulouse: Photography and Words 