The End Of The World - Carpenters

Lots of people have covered this Skeeter Davis song, Brenda Lee, Patty Page, Abba's Agnetha and Julie London to name a few but Karen Carpenter kills it and makes it her own. She had an incredible voice. Buddy Rich said that she was one of the world's greatest drummers. Live every day like its your last one, never know when it just might be.

Tony Z sent this over...my apologies.

The Washington Post runs a weekly contest in its Style Section called the 'Style Invitational'.

The requirements this week were to use the two words 'Lewinsky' (the Intern) and 'Kaczynski' (the Unabomber) in the same limerick.

Now, remember, the following winning entries were actually printed verbatim in the newspaper, no bleeps or xxxs:

Third place:

There once was a girl named Lewinsky Who played on a flute like Stravinsky 'Twas 'Hail to the Chief' On this flute made of beef That stole the front page from Kaczynski.

Second place:

Said Clinton to young Ms. Lewinsky, We don't want to leave clues like Kaczynski, Since you made such a mess, Use the hem of your dress And please wipe that stuff off your chinsky.

And the winning entry:

Lewinsky and Clinton have shown What Kaczynski must surely have known, That an intern is better Than a bomb in a letter, When deciding how best to be blown.

We Need A Whole Lot More Of Jesus (And A Lot Less Rock And Roll)

This and that

I saw the young red tail hawk on this branch as I was driving out of the canyon this morning. His sibling confidently and gracefully flew away to the security of the air currents. This one stood and let me capture  his or her magnificence. They are really maturing quickly. I jumped out of the van and snapped off some shots as he or she was only about 12' from where I was standing. A truck drove by and scared the young raptor off. Probably the closest I have ever been, we were both too dumb to know better.

*

I see where LinkedIn had its big IPO yesterday and went crazy. All the investors are afraid that they are going to miss out on the next Google. I predict the thing is a massive flop. It will take the big MySpace dive. I made the mistake of signing up once and now I get pestered with messages to hook up on this professional's network. What the hell does it really do and what purpose does the peer network have other than to annoy you? Or force you to let associates know that you don't really want to be their friend. I do not miss Facebook a bit, except for my communications with Jeff from Omaha, of course, but a lot of our greatest material is now lost in the ether.

*

We are supposed to have brunch with Tracy and Stanley, my new cousin, on sunday at Miltons. She said that in the event of rapture traffic will be really light. I read yesterday that some enterprising people are already renting out their pet sitting services to those christians who think that they will be ascending saturday night and are worried about the animals getting fed.

oops...

*

The blog readership is growing dramatically for some reason. I am being picked up by a lot of aggregation sites and featured for some unknown reason. Welcome, all.

*

I was reading the other day about the danger of planking. Planking as far as I can deduce, is laying prostrate in a supine position, occasionally on top of a car or similar moving object. Also something we do in Pilates. Who knew that laying down would be such a hit? There is also now balling, flexting, sphering, teapotting and various other deviant forms of expression fads arising, at least according to the Urban Dictionary. Oh, those kids today.

*

I also learned about gauging from one of my peers who follows such trends. Gauging is the process of stretching your piercings so that you get those long stretchy earlobes like in National Geographic. Common gauging movements are from 8g to 6g, 2g to 0g and 1/2"g to 5/8"g. Gauging too fast can cause tearing or a "blowout."

The winner of the gauging competition gets to live with an eskimo family for a year, the culture that first celebrated the daft look. I remember watching the eskimo olympics as a kid. They would walk around with more and more weight hanging on their ears until the unfortunate lobe finally tore off. Very hip indeed.

The next thing?

Auschwitz Borders

“We have openly said that the map will never again be the same as on June 4, 1967. For us, this is a matter of security and of principles. The June map is for us equivalent to insecurity and danger. I do not exaggerate when I say that it has for us something of a memory of Auschwitz.”
Abba Eban, 1969

President Barack Obama announced today that he is seeking an Israeli pullback to pre 1967 borders in the hopes of brokering a new peace deal. While the notion of peace between angry neighbors with such bad history between them is certainly laudable, the timing of this entreaty gives me a very bad feeling.

Why would you make such an announcement immediately after Hamas and the PLO have reunited? A Hamas that refuses to recognize Israel and is committed to its destruction? We should go back to 1967 borders that didn't work real well in 1967 when Israel thwarted attacks from its three neighbors Jordan, Syria and Egypt simultaneously. Return the Golan Heights, a land captured in response to Syrian hostility? Should there be no penalty for aggressive adventurism by Israel's neighbors. What was lost in conflict will now be deeded back in a diplomatic do-over, until the arabs finally have enough power to finish the job and destroy Israel completely, as is their express desire.

A history lesson; a Palestinian state was created in Transjordan in 1921 by the British Mandate. According to Sir Alec Kirkbride, the British representative in the area, Transjordan was intended to serve as a reserve of land for use in the resettlement of Arabs once the National Home for the Jews in Palestine, which [Britain was] pledged to support, became an accomplished fact. There was no intention at that stage of forming the territory east of the River Jordan into an independent Arab state. Transjordan was originally given to Emir Abdullah by the British. 


In March 1921 the Colonial Secretary, Winston Churchill, visited the Middle East and endorsed an arrangement whereby Transjordan would be removed from the original territory of Palestine, with Abdullah as the emir under the authority of the High Commissioner, and with the condition that the Jewish National Home provisions of the (future) Palestine mandate would not apply there. Effectively, this removed about 78% of the original territory of Palestine and left about 22% where the application of the Balfour Declaration calling for a "Jewish" national home could be applied. Transjordan remained under the nominal auspices of the League of Nations and British administration, until its independence in 1928.


After capturing the West Bank area of Cisjordan during the 1948–49 war with Israel, Abdullah took the title King of Jordan, and he officially changed the country's name to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in April 1949. The following year he annexed the West Bank. That is how a country of Palestinians, created for Palestinians became the subjects of a 3% Hashemite minority.

If I were Israel I would be very scared of this President. As a past supporter I see that his statements, assurances and posturing mean nothing. He is fully prepared to send Israel flaming into the pyre of history in order to slam a deal through and achieve his political aims. Talk is cheap for this "consequentalist", his record of breaking promises and vacating postions during his tenure in office is shameless.

Barack Obama has made it a point to ignore his liberal base, knowing full well that he can better spend his time supplicating the right, all with the knowledge that the left will still vote for him, begrudgingly, as opposed to voting for a Republican conservative. With this move he throws a gigantic bone to the large pool of leftists who hate Israel and the concept of a jewish state and gains a whole bunch of liberal capital. From people who don't understand the realities of Islamic fundamentalism.

I predict a serious split between the United States and Israel. They may have to "go it alone."While I disagree with many of Netanyahu's actions, I do not think that he will be willing to commit Israel to a course of national suicide. Days after Israel's enemies make a concerted effort to broach its borders, orchestrated by Hamas and Hezbullah, we award their malfeasance with a plum and a pat on the back. I think that we should believe Hamas, listen to them in their own words. We can forget them at our whim, Israel can not afford to.  They are committed to Israel's destruction.

Last week Valerie Amos, U.N. Secretary, demanded that Israel open up its borders and allow goods to flow in and out of Gaza. The last time they tried, suicide bombers blew themselves up at the checkpoint. They require the same secure borders that every other country demands for itself. But they are involved in a religious war that the so called civilized world would like to pretend does not exist. Peace is a two way street, it requires two parties aiming for the same stasis. Israel can not go it alone and should not rely on the empty words and promises of Barack Obama.

"We have liberated Gaza, but have we recognized Israel? Have we given up our lands occupied in 1948? We demand the liberation of the West Bank, and the establishment of a state in the West Bank and Gaza, with Jerusalem as its capital – but without recognizing [Israel]. This is the key – without recognizing the Israeli enemy on a single inch of land. ...
"Our plan for this stage is to liberate any inch of Palestinian land, and to establish a state on it. Our ultimate plan is [to have] Palestine in its entirety. I say this loud and clear so that nobody will accuse me of employing political tactics. We will not recognize the Israeli enemy. "

Hamas official Halil Al-Hayya, Al-Hayat newspaper, November 11, 2010

    "We regard this as a continuation of the American policy based on oppression and the shedding of Muslim and Arab blood…We condemn the assassination and the killing of an Arab holy warrior. We ask God to offer him mercy with the true believers and the martyrs."
Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip commenting on the killing of Osama Bin Laden, May 2, 2011

Sly & The Family Stone

Extended Family

Early last year, as some of you may remember, my friends Tracy and Stanley bought me a DNA testing kit from Family Tree DNA. Simple kit, you swab your cheek three times, stick the tubes in the mail and wait a few months. Their wonderful gift allowed me to trace my Y-DNA, my paternal line and my mitochondrial DNA or maternal line. I made some remarkable discoveries with this information. So you know, Tracy is sister to Lynne, one of my oldest friends and Leslie and I share a very warm relationship with both Tracy and her husband, an attorney.

The science has advanced in the last year. The new Family Finder™ tests autosomal DNA blocks at 710,000 pairs of location points on your 22 autosomal chromosomes. This new test allows you to positively match another person as a relative to five generations.

I got an email from Tracy last night asking me if I had seen the results that finally came in last night. I was in for a surprise!

It turns out that Stanley is my closest relative on Family Finder™. Out of hundreds of thousands of people in the database, the guy who helped buy me the test and who I spend New Years Eve with most years is my closest genetic counterpart. What are the odds of that? There are currently 335,475 samples in the database. This represents 39,758 unique twelve marker haplotypes, 77,177 unique twenty-five marker haplotypes, and 91,590 unique thirty-seven marker haplotypes. Of course this is a new test and there will be more and closer matches down the road but this is still extraordinary, especially since we don't share the same paternal haplogroup. I am an E1b1b1c1* - d1 with origins 22,400 years ago in Somalia and Stanley comes from an Aaronic or priestly southern african line. K on the mt-dna side.We share a similar diastoma.

Stanley and I have the longest shared block (dna segment) out of the 418 new cousins I have just en-covered. These blocks prove that we are identical by descent (ibd).

I have also discovered that I am a 100% purebred middle eastern jew. Forget the Khazar stuff.

The population finder compares autosomal DNA to the world population database. It is not uncommon to share your origin with several of the seven continental population groups.

My ancestors apparently never sowed their seed outside of the fold or tribe.


I am excited about this new information. It also might explain why I have always felt so close to Stanley but then again I feel close to Tracy as well to and as far as I know we do not have a shared genetic heritage. I have emailed my close Y-DNA matches and suggested that they too take this new test. I noticed that there is a female Belinkoff on my list and that is the name of one of my closest Y-DNA matches and one of my father's oldest friends.

The test also allows me to compare individual DNA segments with my matches. I include Stanley and four other new cousins in this graph to illustrate:

I am very happy to get the new information from this test. I am still awaiting my Y-DNA upgrade to 67 markers. I am so far an identical match to the one doctor in Seattle at 37 alleles. Will be interesting to see if the match holds up throughout the new alleles.

My brother Buzz wonders why I care. He says he can't stand most of the family he does know, why find more? It's a good question but I continue on my quest to deduce the genetic past. And I want to buy my new cousin Stanley a drink.

Another man done gone

Days of Wine and Raptors

I saw the juvenile hawks flying away from their nest for the first time this morning. I saw them together on an old dead branch as I left the valley in the morning drizzle. They stood hunched over like little cartoon vultures.

They have made a lot of progress in the last ten days and are much more confident. Their mother swooped in to make sure that everything was okay when I stopped in front of the nest. One of the birds flew about sixty yards away to the top of a tall sycamore.

Billy J Kramer & The Dakotas - Trains And Boats And Planes

Que Será, Será.

The San Francisco show failed to ever fire. I could have just as soon pulled two thousand dollars out of my pocket and set it aflame. The mint is a wonderful old girl, purportedly haunted, and only 90 million dollars away from renovation. My booth was in a once grand room with a marble fireplace. It was a fun place to do a show, but there is no show if there are no buyers. Out of 40 dealers I am only aware of one dealer who made money.

This is the second such fiasco with this particular promoter, a man whose heart is on the right place but has failed to understand the basic calculus that promoting a new show requires a lot of initial advertising. Too many people were unaware of the event. Plus, the downtown location is a magnet for some of the most wacked out psychotics I have ever laid eyes on, including the kind soul who took a shit in the doorway on the second day.

The facility manager gave me carte blanche to go to some of the floors and outlying rooms that are off limits and I had a good time exploring the place. Needs a lot of love and a wealthy philanthropist or two.

***

Irrespective of the fact that the show was a financial loser, it had its moments including maybe the greatest impromptu moment I have ever experienced in the business. All day long we were hit with this clarinet version of Que sera sera, the old Doris Day hit. I was walking down the hallway Sunday afternoon facing my pal Michael Haber, a jewelry dealer from Philly. Simultaneously we started to belt out the song full blast and in pretty good harmony.. Suddenly like something from Fame or Glee, heads started popping out of every door and the whole building was singing at the top of our lungs and in key. Whatever will be, will be...It was the absolute best, a poignant and funny moment that will never be topped. A bit of cathartic release for some grizzled veterans who would fail to finish in the money.

***

Leslie and I went to our favorite Bay Area restaurant, Creola in San Carlos for our anniversary dinner. We started off with pomegranate martinis. Leslie had bourbon shrimp with a marmalade horseradish dipping sauce. I had the shrimp and crab fennel bisque. Les tried the blue note salad but switched goat cheese for blue.

For my entree I had the Taste of New Orleans, soft shell crab along with crawfish and shrimp etouffe. Leslie had wasabi encrusted seared ahi with a miso soy base on napa cabbage. Great bread. We have had so many great dinners at this great neighborhood restaurant in San Carlos but this might have been the best of them all. They put us in a nice quiet romantic corner. No room for dessert, unfortunately, they do the killer beignets and crème brûlée bread pudding. Awesome dinner with the woman I love, the woman who puts up with me.

***

We managed to see most of our pals, Cathy, Melissa, Gary, Denis, Kathy, K., Bigdave. Michael L. Doctor Rick. The Oakland meal with the writers and poets was particularly interesting. I thought that my bunch was wild. We had breakfast one morning with M. Dung, Leslie's old pal from her days in radio in Detroit and Grand Rapids. Hadn't seen Dung, a radio icon in the Bay Area for almost twenty years. He is a total gas.

***

Drove to the V.A. home in Fresno and saw my father, who is suffering from early to mid stage dementia. He didn't know my name but recognized me and said that I was looking fat. He is under the impression that he is in the army. He was but that was way back in World War II. He was very glad to see us, very happy to see his wife, who is going to spring him tomorrow.

He was a big guy in his prime but has turned into a little man in his dotage. Looking quite frail and aged. Is really sweet now. The long term health plan is limited to two years of home care and she is trying to be judicious about using it, a very delicate balancing act. Hopefully my step mother can keep getting little breaks for her own mental health and sanity.

My father was a brilliant man who spoke four languages, had a superb mathematical and analytical mind, loved physics, economics and puzzles. Ace black jack player, he taught me the ropes at the Sahara, which I just heard is closing. Time strikes us all down eventually. I hope that his remaining days are as graceful and as painless as possible for all concerned.

***

I have come back with a small head cold. Hope to be in some kind of groove soon.

love and affecton

They're back. Neo Nazis in the Ukraine.

I saw this footage before I left for San Francisco last week. There is a resurgence in right wing neo nazi groups throughout europe and the baltic states that is truly frightening. I find the harassment of the elderly people honoring their war dead simply despicable.



The youth and right wing elements in these countries are reacting to the Stalinist era abuses at the hands of the russians with a new infatuation with the fuehrer and anti-semitism. Ultra nationalism morphs into fascism and man's basest nature quickly reveals itself, the population caught between the twin poles of the oven and the gulag.

Today a monument to jewish victims in the Ukraine was defaced with a swastika. Over one million and a half Ukrainian jews were killed in World War II by the Einsatzgruppen der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD, the Waffen SS Nazi death squads. Bystanders said that the Pogroms perpetrated by the Ukrainian citizens were even more extreme than those conducted by the Nazis.

In any case, seventy years seems to be a blink of the eye in the timeline of history. Regrettably, those that think we have either learned anything since the holocaust or moved forward in a human way are probably sadly mistaken.

John Mayall

Gold Rush

Gold Ingot Press, Old Mint

It has been a very nice week, this being the fourth day of my journey up to the Bay Area. The show at the Old Mint started yesterday and so far my batting average is on par with the collective average of the San Diego Padres, or zero. A soft grounder or two, but both hit right at an infielder and nothing as yet to show for my plate appearances.

Hinge detail

I wasn't going to even do the show, which ain't over, but was feeling a bit of swagger and signed up on the basis of a large sale of a modern painting to an individual in St. Louis. Which promptly went in the toilet. Anyway due to a confluence of events and occurrences I now find myself in the Bay Area for the third time in the last two months and have decided to make the best of it.

Railing detail, Old Mint

I am staying at the beautiful home of a friend, who does a lot of business overseas and has the house to die for in the South Bay. A devotee of the craftsman period, the house is the penultimate in arts and crafts paintings, prints, metal and furnishings, with the paintings typically watercolors emphasizing early San Francisco.

I don't think I want to out him, but Arts and Crafts Homes magazine did a full feature on the home about eight years ago. Some homes furnished in this style are heavy and dated, almost parochial in their pseudo-religious devotion to the time of 1905 to 1920. My friend has introduced some very lovely twists, filling the dark areas with light touches of the present, splashes of color, groupings of tenpins and baseballs and other assorted knickknacks that keep the house light on its feet. 

Last night Steve and I were invited to dinner by an old friend, a jewelry dealer from Philadelphia and his wife and their cohorts from Scottsdale. They love food like I do and have been chalking a murderer's row of fine restaurants off their bucket list this week, joints like Gary Danko and the like. 

Last year they asked me for culinary suggestions and I  mentioned the Hayes Street Grill, a solid but unspectacular choice year after year. Not sublime but usually very, very good. I have blogged about the restaurant before and won't get into a heavy dissertation but they are known for their fish.

We met up at the Grill last night and the place was bustling with people, many of the patrons rushing to get an early bite before the performance of the near bye symphony.

After being promptly seated we were met by the tall waiter, bespectacled in his square red glasses. Very cool guy, a touch of east coast brashness, he gave us a rundown on the ins and out of the evening menu. 

I don't know where Hayes Street gets it's servers but it wouldn't surprise me if they were from some NBA retirement home. This guy was about 6'3", a small forward, the guy across the way was about 6'7" or better, I would put the whole bunch up against any other joint in the whole city in a half court game.

Lois was thinking about the paella and I suggested she stick with fish. Paella is a great choice when done properly but some restaurant versions are a bit dainty for my taste. I asked our server if the paella was prissy or not and he retorted loudly that they had the most butch paella in town and that it was sort of like drinking a cup of testosterone. Everybody cracked up and she proceeded to order the sand dabs, something I assume you can rarely get in Philadelphia.

Steve ordered the soft shell crab, the available count dwindling by the second. They were out of sardines, his first choice. I settled on the Hoffman Ranch quail and cherry salad and  marinated sturgeon from the Columbia River for my entree.

I was less than overwhelmed with the salad. I like quail but I prefer it crispier. These fat little quail sections were a touch gamey and a bit underdone. The salad was sort of plain and the singular components didn't mesh together, merely existing individually on the same plate. Boring.

The marinated sturgeon was excellent. Sturgeon is a fish that is unfortunately getting poached a lot on the west coast by russian criminals for the caviar. They leave the enormous fish gutted by the side of the river and steal the roe. It is something that I rarely see on the menu and had to order it. I had the option of having it accompanied by beurre blanc, olive oil, lemon caper and a few more sauces and stuck with the beurre blanc at the suggestion of our host, so as not to overpower the intrinsic flavor of the entree.

The fish was fantastic but I was a bit taken aback by the presentation, it was delivered on a bare plate without any garnish or accompaniment. A cup of french fries was brought to the table. Last year we raved about them, I think they are cooked in duck fat, last night they seemed dull and unseasoned and kind of mundane.

Joyce, at my right had ordered the dabs at my suggestion and I felt bad because I thought we were getting a boned filet, and it was full of bones and a lot of work. She said it was all right but I think she was trying to be nice and not kvetch.

Sand dabs are awesome when they are done right. These were good but not great. Michael ordered a lovely and relatively inexpensive pinot for the table, just terrific. I don't remember the name but will try to suss it out. 

We finished the meal sharing a couple desserts while we told our war stories about getting scammed. Michael and Lois ran into a couple con men in Hungary and I recounted my recent Facebook fleecing. I had the strawberry rhubarb crisp, which was excellent. 

The whole meal was good to very good, they really liked the restaurant, I think because it was a loud, ambient, neighborhood place like they might have back in Pennsylvania with such a smart and excellent wait staff. Must be why I come back year after year. 

Michael, an early Vista volunteer liberal type who shifted slightly to the right,  turned me on to Dynamo Donuts last year and the great ice cream shop across from Delfina. He was raving about the almond croissants at Tartine and I have to try them one day. He picked up our tab last night, a real menschy move that I hope I can soon reciprocate!

***

I have had a couple other nice meals up here as well. The first night my friend K and I went to Luna Park. I had never been before. I had a delicious braised pork chop on a bed of sour cabbage. K had a burger. Ordered a glass of the house cab, which was so bad it was undrinkable. But I liked the place, even though it was weird to feel like the oldest dude in the room, San Fran being a very young city.

Michael L. took me to Chez Papa the second night. He has a condo nearby and is tight with the manager, who hails from Marseilles. Michael mentioned to our pretty and tall server that I wrote about food and they tightened up their game. We got a few things off the menu, starting the meal with a little gruyere muse bouche. 

Michael had the beet salad, I started with a tuna tartare with lime foam. He had the beef cheek and I went with the lamb. His was better than mine and mine wasn't bad. They threw in a strawberry sorbet at the finish. I will try the place again. There are so many good restaurants up here.

*

There are two Gertrude Stein shows opening up this month in San Francisco this month. We caught the opening of the show at the Jewish Contemporary Museum, the morning of the preview. Lots of great paintings of her and Alice by Picasso, Marsden Hartley, photos from Man Ray and Sir Cecil Beaton, the show was very interesting.

What I loved the most was seeing all of her books opened up and actually reading her. I knew her as an icon but not an artist. She had a word repetition style that actually evokes a lot of power. Shades of Breton and the dadaists and a forerunner to the cut up work of Burroughs and Gyson. I recommend catching the exhibit if you can.

*

I am learning a bit  more about South San Francisco, nicknamed The Industrial City. Exploring its nooks and crannies for the first time in my life. Steve was staying at a hotel off Grand and we found a breakfast dive near the Sanitary Bakery called Ed's. A spartan workingman's diner, lots of grease on the ceiling but an honest breakfast. The guys on the old chrome barstools looked like they came out of central casting for a Rockwell painting. Edible, enough.

*

Leslie flew up yesterday afternoon and rented a car and drove up to Marin to be with her friend Cathy. Tonight we join up with a few chef friends and drive to our friend Denis Kelly's, the cookbook writer and classic's professor, for dinner. He is cooking a whole pork shoulder and is throwing a party for a buddhist poet from Denver who is staying with him. Should be really fun.

Tomorrow is our 17th anniversary of marriage, 21 years together, and we are going to eat at our favorite spot, Creola, after the show. I was so happy to see Leslie when she dropped by the show yesterday, she is the most important person in my world, I love her with all my heart and I am so lucky to have found my soul mate. We will drive home together on monday.

DEEP ELEM BLUES by the Shelton Brothers

Shriver dumps the Arnold

Bored indeed, Arnold.  Maybe Maria Shriver, California's ex first lady, watched her husband's boorish behavior with this reporter and decided she couldn't live with such an asshole anymore. And once again we are reminded that if you come from wealth or privilege, the laws don't apply to you. You can literally get away with murder.

As most of you are probably aware, Schwarzenegger pardoned the son of one of his political cronies, Fabian Nunez, who had been convicted of murder. The Governator did this without talking to the victim's family and has been an evasive schmuck ever since.

Esteban Nunez, 21, had pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon for his involvement in the 2008 stabbing death of Luis Santos on the San Diego State University campus.

Prosecutors said Nunez and his friends were irate after being turned away from a fraternity party and were looking for revenge. After drinking alcohol, prosecutors alleged, they headed out on the street and came upon an unarmed group that included Santos, 22.

Schwarzenegger issued an executive order sealing the correspondence he had received on the Nunez commutation and all other clemency cases that had gone before him.The move was unnecessary because unless a governor chooses to release the documents, all gubernatorial clemency records are sealed by law automatically for 25 years after a case is closed.

Santos father said the action proved Schwarzenegger "knew what he was doing was wrong."

"He knew this was wrong and he wanted to keep it a secret," Santos said.

In issuing the commutation, Schwarzenegger called the sentence excessive because Esteban Nunez did not stab the student who died. Authorities said Nunez stabbed two other men who survived. Under California law, his involvement in the crime made him responsible for the death of Santos.

Santos' parents, who live in the San Francisco Bay area city of Concord, accused the former governor of granting a favor to a political ally and said they had no notice about the action.

The Santos family is suing under Marsy's Law, which amended California's constitution to give victims advance notice of legal proceedings and the right to fight early release of felons. The lawsuit names Schwarzenegger and the state corrections department as defendants.

"Although he's allowed to commute sentences, he's not allowed to violate the constitution when he does so," said Laura Strasser, an attorney representing the Santos family.

Another attorney, Nina Salarno-Ashford, said the family's goal was to secure an injunction stopping the commutation and reinstating the original sentence.

Patton, the attorney representing Esteban Nunez, said Marsy's Law does not apply to the governor's authority to issue clemencies.

"Marsy's Law applies to the criminal justice system, and not to the executive branch," he said.

Whether the law does or does not apply to Arnold, it was a cold, political, chicken shit move. Hasta la vista, baby.  And if you watch this video you will get an idea of what kind of prick the Republican governor really is.

I Wanna Know

Notes

I saw the man and woman walking almost everyday together. Year in and year out, it was obvious that they still loved each other's company. They were always happy and they had a bounce in their step. Across from the Circle K, near the old mobile home park, the one we vote at.

He had to be about six foot seven and she barely touched five feet. Looked kind of funny but opposites attract. Now he walks alone in the morning. I want to stop and talk to the guy, find out why he's walking alone, maybe she's just not feeling really well, fearing the worst...but the truth is that we are absolute strangers. Yet I almost know him because he fills in such a regular spot in my visual canvas. That ought to count for something, you know.

***

Speaking of the Circle K, I noticed that the right side hallway is now blocked so that you can't walk through. I asked the guy on the night shift and he said that they had three different guys run out of the store with a twelve pack that week alone. Another guy did it at Bonita Foods. These kids nowadays.

***

I have to take a picture of the letters delaminating off the sign at Young's Sushi, the place that closed down.  The synthetic letters are peeling and dripping like a Dali clock. Very trippy looking. Twisted logic, twisty letters. The entropic disintegration of our epoch is not going to look like any past efforts. They caught a whale the other day that had choked on plastic bags. They did an autopsy and she had swallowed fucking plastic bags. Man is the most dangerous and backward of beasts.


***

A bar buddy died a few weeks back. You might have heard about the poor guy. Had a few too many and hit his head. Nice guy, I understand he had a lot of dough. But he had been hanging around with hookers, word has it. Fellow said the other day it was the Viagra that finally got him. Guy always was smiling. Tough luck.

***

They got to get my dad out of the nursing home. She says he is too strong. The rest of them just sit and stare at the wall, like vegetables she said. Got to get him outta there. She said he asked about me last week, a rare lucid moment. Last time he felt ashamed that he didn't remember my name. He floated back in for a brief second. I get to see him next week. God bless my stepmother. She is past the breaking point yet still there and in love with and for him. None of the rest of us can carry the weight.

***

Lot of friends are having problems with their parents these days. That time in our lives. JH wrote me about the battles with his, called his wife a b-i-t-c-h and is playing the anxiety diorder con to create a little drama at the home. My mom is in a home now too, and she is working the room, being a great communicator. Says it's like summer camp.

***

This is the first time in my life that we don't have a dog. Over thirty years. We had a chain of great dogs, they trained each other. Two pyrenees/lab mixes. Many large mixed breeds. Then we got the dog from hell, a yellow lab from the eighty year old friend of Leslie that died and let the dog do whatever. Maddie was lovable but a con artist that liked to have extended overnights with the neighbors. Jumped fences and ran a lot. I would always have to drive across town to fish her out of some koi pond. Thankfully, J&J took her off my hands and told me that she is turning into a really great dog. They have really worked with her and given her the attention that she needs. Buddy says that Labs are goofy until about four or so and then they straighten out. No more pure breds.

When the economy sucks and you have to work your business, it is not an optimal time for dog training. But I sure miss having a dog.

Gasoline Alley

Swiss Spaghetti Harvest

First they came for the teachers...

It is obvious that teachers are now being painted as one of the main villains in the conservative right's battle for America. Education is in the crosshairs in the efforts to enact their parochial vision. I just read a fascinating article on AlterNet by Rachel Tabachnik called The DeVos Family: Meet the Super-Wealthy Right-Wingers Working With the Religious Right to Kill Public Education.

Tabachnik shows how the Amway founder and his Blackwater son in law are part of a concerted effort on the part of the right to completely privatize education. I have always felt that the voucher and to a lesser extent the charter program was a subterfuge for the religious right to both tunnel into malleable young minds and create a system where their young scions don't have to mingle with those nasty minority types.

This article is chilling. Read it.

Early Morning Rain

Blue Heron Boffo Bash

Many thanks to all of you who attended our party last night. It was SRO at one point and everybody seemed to have a really nice time. Some of my favorite people showed up and I even made some new friends. The guitar player that was supposed to play got sick and couldn't show but we made due. Even sold a painting.

Thanks to all for bringing the great food and wine. We really didn't drink all that much and the thing wrapped up quicker than any previous soirées. A show of hands showed that many people heard about the party through the blog which I think is kind of cool.

Leslie had to do something this morning that required we get up at 5:30 so we are walking wounded today on four hours sleep. Definitely sleeping in tomorrow.

To all those that missed this one, hope to catch you next time.

Here's That Rainy Day - Art Pepper

Enlightened absolutism

Pundits (and yours truly) are fond of making broad statements about the present. It has been recently stated that this is the most polarized time in the history of the Republic. Oh, really? Even more polarized than that little family squabble we called the Civil War?

However bad it is, I think that the disagreements now have far less to do with actual principles than who's particular ox is getting gored. And things are certainly not real chipper between red and blue state America. Call it the death of the center and of any chance of a nuanced position.

The Dalai Lama says it was okay to waste Bin Laden, the Archbishop of Canterbury thinks it was inhuman. John Yoo says that he should have been captured alive. The Apaches are pissed off because Geronimo's name got thrown into the mission somehow. Bill Koch doesn't think Obama deserves any credit. Sarah Palin says if there is anyone to thank it's George Bush. Oy.

One thing is for sure. People from either side are not in any mood to compromise. Governor Scott Walker said something that I found interesting recently while testifying on Capitol Hill. Walker defended his unilateral throw down against the unions, telling a House committee that protracted, nail-biting negotiations in tough economic times can produce inaction and bad policy. Walker defended his fight to destroy collective bargaining by saying his history with union leaders as Milwaukee County executive showed him that they were unwilling to negotiate. Ironic, isn't it.

"Sometimes," the Republican governor told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, "bipartisanship is not so good."

Walker told Fox News  that he had no intention of watering down his proposals. “We’re willing to take this as long as its takes because in the end we’re doing the right thing,” he said.


***


President Obama officially established the National Day of Prayer by proclamation earlier this week. Not finding a suitable invitee in the current administration to speak at the function, the National Day of Prayer Task Force invited former Sen. Elizabeth Dole to speak ‘on behalf of’ the executive branch, in lieu of a representative from the current administration.”

***

Pardon me for not having the citation or remembering the source, but I remember flinching last week when a congressional Republican figure reported that they were going to draw a unilateral line in regards to abortion rights, the whole issue being too "important" for any compromise. In this time of doctrinaire politics, lots of positions are too important for either side to budge on.

***


House Republican Leader Eric Cantor said he told bipartisan talks on the U.S. deficit that tax hikes were off the table as far as the Republican-run House of Representatives was concerned.

"The House has taken a firm position against anything having to do with increasing taxes or raising tax rates," Cantor said on Thursday. And he won't discuss reducing subsidies to the rich oil companies unless it is part of a much more comprehensive package.

***

My father Amos was quite the reader. He was an ardent student of history and even wrote a book on economic theory, one of his passions. He loved to read Machiavelli and imparted to his children the concept of the benevolent despot from "The Prince". The enlightened dictator who would brook no opposition or discussion and rule by unilateral force and fiat.

It seems to me that there are far too many lines being drawn in the sand nowadays. People like Gov. Walker, launching frontal assaults on the old american tradition of bipartisanship, compromise and negotiation and instead preferring to unilaterally jam policy down the throats of his political opponents.

This type of blunt force political maneuvering can not be good for our country in the long run. But it looks like the new way of doing things. Slash and burn politics. Get the first punch in.

***

I walked to the library yesterday and saw a family getting out of this van. Thought the juxtaposition of the two different bumper stickers laid the whole thing out in spades. "Forgiven" on the one side and "Stop Obama's Socialism" on the other. Says it all, really. We are in a not so civil war.

A poem

I think
that I recognize you
by the cut of your coat, friend

Is it possible that we once both made
the same
big time mistake?

Swore the same oath
to stare
straight into the sun
when our bodies were new

a thousand lives ago
or so.

Can we get back to the part
where it meant something real?
When we danced beneath
that turbulent paisley sky.

Are we supposed to
repeat the old script
we now know by heart

while infinity beckons
a mere eyelash away?

The ravens cackle on the line
without worry or apology

Old folks wail and tear their shirts
and dream of distant apogee.


© Robert Sommers

He Was a Friend of Mine

redhawk down

The young red tail hawks are going through a sort of geeky juvenile stage. They are growing very quickly in their home, perched high up in a sycamore tree. They started to get their dark feathers a few weeks ago and mother now leaves them alone for long periods in the nest. In a month or two they will start attempting their first flights.

JINGLES

One of Fallbrook's most beloved characters, Jingles, passed away on April 12th. Jingles aka Ric Januari had been around these parts for a long time. A talented woodworker, guitar player, astrologer, numerologist, re-enactor and all around free spirit, the man had no enemies.

Jingles lived in a magical home that he created out past the 10 mile mark in De Luz. He lived life by his own terms. Leslie and I went to his memorial celebration at Live Oak Park and saw a lot of people that loved and admired him come out of the woodwork. They put his ashes in his bandana that rested in his hat up on the dais. Jingles was a man who lived through the heyday of the Sunset Strip. He was a handsome fella in his day as the pictures at the memorial plainly showed. He had a hard headed streak but I never saw him get mad, just a wonderful guy. I will miss his tobacco stained mustache and impish grin. A true free spirit.

Here is the obit published in the local newspaper, the Village News:


Riccardo Lyle Januari-Quirk, (better known in Fallbrook as Rick or Jingles), passed away of natural causes in his home on April 12, 2011 at the age of 71.

He was born in San Francisco, raised in a Catholic orphanage in Chicago and graduated from the Maryville Academy in 1958. He found his way back to California in the early 60’s where he first worked as a host dancer at Whiskey A-Go-Go.

In Studio City, he sought out a life that was uniquely "Jingles" through acting, hiking, studying yoga, and honing his woodworking skills. He moved to Fallbrook in 1973 and opened the R & R Wood Specialty Shop. Rick was a skilled artist and wood was his medium. You could trust your precious family heirloom or antique pieces of furniture would be in good hands when he took them into his shop.

His love for music was evident when he played his 12-string guitar and harmonica, or sometimes just the congas to keep rhythm at the Packing House on open-mic nights. In 1993 he produced a self-titled album, "Jingles, the Man."

Acting had always been a passion for Jingles, and his Wild West attitude fit perfectly with the gun-fighting stunt group, the Fallbrook Outlaws. Not only for entertainment, the volunteer- based group raised money for schools, local fundraisers, and historical events by reenacting life in the 1890’s "Wild West." He earned many awards with the Outlaws and was a part of their induction into the Calico Ghost Town Hall of Fame.

Jingles was an honest, lively, one-of-a-kind man who will be greatly missed by those who knew him. He is survived by his daughters, Jazzietoo Januari, and Jasmine Bryant; uncle, Frank Sispusic; and cousin, Tom Sispusic.

A memorial for this unique life will be held at Live Oak Park in Fallbrook, Section E, at 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 30. All are welcome to come celebrate and share stories of his life.

Rose Royce - I Wanna Get Next To You LIVE

Revenge of the Ochre

I don't want to sound like some color nazi, but... Have you noticed the invasion of strange yellow hues that are starting to litter the visual landscape? There are so many bizarre pumpkins and siennas sprouting up you'd think they were the new black.

The first hint of the new chroma was a year ago at the Fallbrook Art Center. Strong but tasteful. Au courant. Bold and slightly off putting. Yes it offended a few people, but there will always be a few of those. Can't please everybody, you know.

When the new Fallbrook Library was built, a few fingers in town started wagging about the funny new colors. Not the fire hydrant look of the Art Center, a bit warmer palette but in the same aesthetic family. Nice enough. I personally like it. Obviously the style gods on high have made their decision regarding the new yellow trend and I never got the memo.

At the north end of town, a nice corner had been hit with entropy and decay over the decades and was starting to look quite shabby. I sat on a committee and drafted up a letter to the absentee owner, a Russian lady from Los Angeles, asking her if she could give it some tlc and a new coat of paint. We would even put up the money for the paint.

She finally assented. Surprise! This is what we got. Hideous.

As if the garish main color wasn't bad enough, she complimented it with a rust trim, not that any color would have saved this one. She told Paul that she wanted a nice fresh modern color. Like putting funky lipstick on a pig.

When Leslie and I were tooling around Los Angeles last week we did see a lot of ochre creeping in. While it looks decent on an extremely modern or postmodern application, it does absolutely nothing for a bad seventies mansard roof.

I used to paint and made my living as a sign painter for a while. My mentor and teacher, the late Les Gampp, told me that certain colors were verboten. You rarely see green signs because the proper shade of green is always very hard to select. Obviously, ditto yellow.

When I was building homes I was also very hands on and careful about palettes as well. I am not sure that I am signing on to this yellow thing and am hoping that it is a temporary aberration. Call me ultra sensitive.

Not to go Mr. Blackwell on you but there are several other notable color fails around town.

The owner of the Spa, a very nice person, told me that she was actually color blind (no kidding...) and a consultant picked out the rouge and olive color scheme for her, so dreadfully accented with the brick red awning. The consultant said that they would be good colors for feng shui. Would a firing squad be too severe for this miscreant? Isn't it time to take some people's crayons away?

And finally my own building. The previous owner, who I still share a common wall with, an architect who should know better, decided to marry pine green and pepto bismol pink for this one. Which I could use a swig of after looking at the incongruent colors. Sorry folks, too cheap to repaint, you're just going to have to live with it.

Eminence Front

No Taxpayer Funding for Abortions Act

Our friends, in the House, those champions of limited government, passed H.R. 3 today. This is the bill that would end tax credits for companies that have private insurance policies that offer abortion coverage. Eight-seven percent of private insurance plans currently include such coverage.

The vote was 251-175. Sixteen Democrats and 235 Republicans voted aye. This amounts to both a massive tax increase and an interference in an individual's right to spend their money as they see choose.

Republicans, says Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) are trying to limit "private choices by private individuals and businesses in the private insurance market." By their logic, he said, "the tax exemption for the Catholic church is the establishment of religion and ought to be forbidden by law."

As is often repeated, the Hyde Amendment has forbade spending federal moneys on abortion since the 1980's. The Republican sponsored legislation is aimed to phase out abortion coverage in the private insurance market. The war against choice moves forward.

From Huffpo's Laura Bassett:

Further, H.R. 3 would eliminate privately funded insurance coverage for abortion in the state-based exchanges set up by the Affordable Care Act. The policy team at NARAL Pro-Choice America estimates that 13.5 million women who receive health coverage through Medicaid and other government-sponsored programs would permanently lose access to abortion coverage if the measure, facing a floor vote Wednesday, passes. 

Some of the more extreme ramifications of the bill, which have attracted a great deal of negative media attention since its introduction in January, include a provision that could subject victims of rape and incest to abortion audits by the IRS. Mother Jones reported in March that H.R. 3 could turn IRS agents into "abortion cops" tasked with determining whether a woman used any kind of tax benefit to pay for a procedure not precipitated by rape or incest. 

Marcus Owens, a former longtime IRS official, told Mother Jones that if a woman received a tax credit for medical costs related to abortion, "on audit [she] would have to demonstrate or prove, ideally by contemporaneous written documentation, that it was incest, or rape, or [her] life was in danger. It would be fairly intrusive for the woman." 

H.R. 3 has achieved further notoriety through its attempt to narrow the definition of "rape" as it relates to abortion. Lawmakers pulled language from the original measure that allowed federal funding for abortions only in the case of "forcible rape" after drawing widespread public criticism, but Mother Jones reported on Tuesday that House Republicans are using a backdoor legislative maneuver to ensure the bill achieves the same effect.

The Jaynetts - Sally, Go Round the Roses [Stereo] (1963)

Wasilla Wackjob

Sarah Palin dropped by the golden state Sunday to spread her inimitable message to the Central Valley farmers that were assembled in Lemoore, California. West Hills College paid $115,0000 to hear the klondike belle pontificate about the issues of the day. She was delivering a red meat message to the masses, who vigorously applauded and pretty much ate the whole thing up. It echoes the standard conservative refrain, just keep on doing what you've been doing.

The former Alaska governor told the approximately 1,400 people in attendance that endangered species regulations protecting the Delta smelt and limiting pumping are "destroying" the lives of those in the Central Valley.

"A faceless government is taking away their lifeline, water, all because of a 3-inch fish," Palin said. "Where I come from, a 3-inch fish, we call that bait. There is no need to destroy people's lives over bait."

She used the event to call for more domestic drilling and called for the government to loosen restrictions on water allotments to the large agribusiness that farm the San Joaquin Valley.

Palin shows her remarkable lack of understanding once again when she chooses to frame the environmental disaster that is the central valley as merely a fight between humans and a three inch fish. The delta smelt is a bellwether species. It is a canary in the coal mine for many more species that are in danger in the estuary.

The term bellwether came from the practice of putting a bell on the leader of a flock of sheep. The term is now used to describe an indicator of a complex of ecological changes. Bellwether species are also called indicator species and are seen as early warning signs of environmental damage and ecosystem change.  The health of the smelt is directly tied to the health of our most important waterway, a waterway that supplies water to two thirds of California. Damage to a bellwether could have implications for countless other species, including homo sapiens.

At least three other harbinger fish species are now also endangered; longfin smelt, threadfin shad and young striped bass. Of course, something that can hurt a fish couldn't be harmful to a human, could it? We are so much taller.

I find people like Palin and her ilk very shortsighted to say the least. Perhaps it stems from some  acceptance of a biblical mandate giving man dominion over his environment, the flora and fauna serving us at our whim. I am not personally willing to trade a future stay in heaven for life in a polluted hellhole but I'm just funny that way.

"It's OK for showers, except it makes you itch so bad you want to scratch until you bleed." Marina Gallo, resident of Seville, CA.

There was an article last week in the Los Angeles Times about water quality issues in the central valley, an issue that is so alarming that the United Nations recently sent a lawyer out to investigate. Well water pollutants have been linked to several diseases, including Parkinsons. Excessive use of nitrate laden fertilizer, pesticides like atrazine, chromium, arsenic and salt all contribute to destroying the fragile ecosystem. The farmers are adamantly against even monitoring their runoff. There are no current regulations in place regarding fertilizer use.

I drive through the Central Valley quite often. The air there is some of the worst in the country, due to several factors including the incessant burning that takes place in the large farming operations. The soil and water are no better. The outlook of the Sarah Palin's of this world, the kind of people that get pleasure from shooting defenseless wolves from airplanes, who fail to see that we humans are merely a link in a very tenuous chain, give me little hope or optimism.

Her comments about the smelt belie her ignorance and give us a clearer idea of the incredible naivete and stupidity that still exists regarding these issues. Jobs and food are important to all of us but not at the cost of our lives and health. Let us hope that the current stewards in Alaska have a clearer grasp than this woman does.