Like many of you, I have been reading about the coming forced evacuations of the 120 plus homeless people who currently reside nightly underneath the Pontchartrain Expressway in downtown New Orleans. City officials began handing out 72 hour notices on Monday evening, citing health violations, safety concerns and drug use as parts of the problem…
Tired of the shooting…
I was going to write this morning about Bobby Jindal. That was the plan, take the day off of work and just kind of fuck around with a silly idea I had that I found amusing, but as I read the news with my coffee I didn’t really feel like it anymore: Drive-by shooting in…
Thanks to BP, Rahm and the Kochs, Chicago Developing a Serious Petcoke Problem…
Directly across the Illinois border from Chicago stands British Petroleum’s Whiting Oil Refinery in Whiting, Indiana and this huge facility creates petcoke, which in turn creates a bunch of problems in Chicago, problems that only get magnified by the involvement of the Koch Brothers and the lack of involvement by Chicago Mayor, Rahm Emanuel… Yeah…
A Few Rats…and Benjamin Booker…
The steel slats from the bench dig into my legs, and we’re all damp in the air. A thicker layer of water combusts with a breezy diesel, filtering through the odor of overheated trash from the garbage can to my right…and I’m thinking about a few friends who died down here, and the sun’s going…
The Deadbeat Dad of New Orleans…
We’ve all heard the term. Typically it’ll refer to a parent who ignores his children, leaves them behind, is aware of, but does little to nothing to care for those in his charge, regardless of consequence. Well, the city of New Orleans has one of the worst deadbeat dads in history and his name is…
On Leaving San Francisco…Converse All Stars, High Rents and the Fillmore Jazz Fest
I was standing outside the Converse All Star Store on Market Street in San Francisco when it became clear to me it was again, time to leave this city. The sign in the store window yelled, “SHOES ARE BORING! WEAR SNEAKERS!” in large, capitalized letters and behind this sign stood an equally loud, colorful scream…
Remembering…
To the families that lost loved ones that day and to the families that lost loved ones after, to all the people who make their living off that water, the business owners and the families along the Gulf Coast…still thinking about and wishing you the best. To BP who is still trying to weasel their…
Reflecting on a show: Ani Difranco…
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…
Knitting behind enemy lines…
Update: Saints win 23-20…Bwahahahaha…! This is the day I’ve been waiting for… New Orleans Saints vs. the San Francisco 49ers. A day that will live in infamy? The times that try men’s souls? How about it was the best of times, it was the worst of times? Fine, I’ll take the latter and in a…
Independence Day…
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…
