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NOAM CHOMSKY ON OCCUPY. Why is it that Noam Chomsky always gets it right? His statements are always right on the point….read this excerpt from “truthout”, then read it all…
“If the bonds and associations being established in these remarkable events can be sustained through a long, hard period ahead, victories don’t come quickly, the Occupy protests could mark a significant moment in American history. I’ve never seen anything quite like the Occupy movement in scale and character, here and worldwide. The Occupy outposts are trying to create cooperative communities that just might be the basis for the kinds of lasting organizations necessary to overcome the barriers ahead and the backlash that’s already coming. That the Occupy movement is unprecedented seems appropriate because this is an unprecedented era, not just at this moment but since the 1970s.The 1970s marked a turning point for the United States. Since the country began, it had been a developing society, not always in very pretty ways, but with general progress toward industrialization and wealth”. Read the rest here.
DECLARATION OF THE OCCUPATION. Peggy Snider sent this truth-out piece, and I found this amazing link to the document itself. Let us hope that The Santa Cruz Police and our City Council use common sense and live up to some long fought for Santa Cruz traditions of intelligence and understanding.
OCCUPY THE ROSE PARADE!!! I received this email last week and know nothing more than what it says. BUT the concept of Occupying The Rose Parade boggles my mind. Partly because I used to live there and even sold folding chairs at the Parade!!!
http://www.OccupyTheRoseParade.org: We are a one day affinity project of the international “Occupy Wall Street” movement . Please share the URL for the site with other 99%ers via Facebook, Twitter or other social media platforms. 6 am Dec. 31, 2011 to 2 pm, Jan. 2, 2012: We are striving for 40,000 national & international occupiers converging at Pasadena’s Norton Simon (by Orange Grove Blvd & Colorado Blvd). Further details pending (see website also). (Note: If you can purchase tickets for the event in front of the Norton Simon for Jan, 2, 2012, please strive to do so. We will have costumed viewer “stand” actions as well. Details will provided listserve in two weeks regarding OWS/OLA “Human Float” , Banner Drops and other actions). Primary Goals: (1) Legislate real Wall Street Accountability; & (2) Mobilize “We Are the 99%” support for real and truly systemic reform. Facebook Page (please share w/ others & ‘Like’)
ZACH, HIS SUPERVISOR CAMPAIGN AND POLICE FACILITIES. Still no word on any follow up to Zach Friend’s using his Santa Cruz Police facilities for the Democrat Campaign work. We can just assume he’s been warned not to boast about it anymore, or maybe even not do it, when he runs for Ellen Pirie’s Supe Seat.
PEDESTRIAN MALL & CHIPS LAST NAME “NOOLLASSNAMMA”. Philip Boutelle emailed to say, “Hey Bruce, Thanks for your coverage on the push for 2-way traffic on Pacific. There’s a public works meeting on Thursday; maybe they would be more receptive to public comment than the current council. I agree 100% that a pedestrian mall is the best plan, but we’ll never get there with this council–unless somehow the merchants back the plan too, which is unlikely.-Phil Boutelle. Then I received an email from Baba. Baba said, “Chip’s last name is Noollassnamma. The Sentinel has reported it many times*. It is Swedish. It is sometimes shortened and anglicized to Nolanam. It was an immigration mistake, Ellis Island, you understand I am sure”. Thanks Baba, I couldn’t find any Sentinel thing with Noollassnamma in it, but if you say so….
HOMELESS GARDEN STORE AND NEWS. Meg Sandow was my guest on Universal Grapevine Nov. 1st. We got so involved in discussing The Gardens’ future plans she says she forgot to say,
1. Most people hear the word “homeless” and think “dirty, crazy, mooching, unmotivated.” This is far from the truth generally and certainly far from the truth at the HGP. The trainees are all dealing with various difficulties, as are so many of the rest of us. However, also like the rest of us, they are smart, funny, spiritual, creative, hard-working, clean, interesting and engaging. Many of them have previously worked successfully in traditional jobs. I think the stereotype of homelessness allows us to persist in holding an entire population of people in need at the periphery of our social consciousness.
2. The HGP is truly a community project. Money that is donated to HGP, among other things, supports other important community organizations in Santa Cruz with food (Independent Living Program, Live Oak Family Resource Center, Beach Flats Community Center, Santa Cruz AIDS Project, and Women’s Crisis Support) and flowers (Hospice of Santa Cruz County). That is community service at its best!”.
DEBBIE BULGER ON DOWNTOWN STUFF. The Gibbs Report gets it right about our parking garages: “Parking garages are in disrepair and less appealing than private sector industry standards.” (p. 36). She then asks, “What I want to know is why the City is in the parking business. Don’t they believe in private enterprise and capitalism? She continues…Here’s what Gibbs has to say about the town clock intersection: “Shopping traffic could also be improved if the [town clock] intersection had a more commercial character.” (p. 36). Debbie adds, “Perhaps we should put a flashing neon sign on the town clock pointing the way to Pacific. Of course, if we did, it would read “Welcome to River Street”. By the way after only 73 years* of editing “The Ventana” (Sierra Club’s newsletter) Debbie is retiring/collapsing.
*(It’s really only been 15 years). They are looking for several people to replace her. The pay is not only phenomenal, it’s non-existent. Contact dfbulger@cruzio.com to apply.
KBOQ’s DEATH, SCOTT MACLELLAND AND BARBARA ROSE SHULER.
Classical music blamed for station’s demise. I asked Scott if I could run this, he said sure.
“Last Saturday, a student in my long-running Topics in Music class at the Carmel Foundation lamented the loss of KBOQ’s classical music because, as she explained, it helped her get to sleep at night. Obviously, helping people nod off was ancillary to KBOQ’s programming purpose in recent years, on the apparent assumption that some offshore classical “service” that winnowed down the 75 biggest hits of 18th and 19th century European music—chopped up and played over and over ad infinitum—was a sure bet for advertisers. Now, we read, KBOQ’s management blames the advertisers, and by implication the listeners, along with classical music itself for its commercial failure. From long experience in classical radio, I know this is nonsense. Fortunately, most TV cable and satellite services provide classical audio channels, and there’s no end of first-rate, commercial-free, classical stations from all over the world on the Internet. As with the restaurant business, quality presentation is crucial to the success of classical radio. Max Bragado’s recent complaint about The Monterey Peninsula Herald’s release of Barbara Rose Shuler underscores the argument. Classical coverage in the local media requires editors who understand and respect those in the community who present, educate and support the art. Scott MacClelland
| PENGUINS ON ICE. |
PATTON’S PROGRAM. Gary Patton tells about… “An application by UCSC to the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) which can decide whether or not to allow the City provide water for University growth, including its proposed expansion into its undeveloped North Campus Area, and the construction of over three million square feet of new buildings”. He goes on to talk and ask about “fast tracking” for two way traffic on Pacific Avenue and what happened to that plan. He adds ideas about Coastal Zone development and “flexing”, then ideas on weeds and reeds and of course stuff about Land Use and he ends urging us to go see the new film on Henry Cowell State Park by Fred McPherson,(that’s the environmental Fred McPherson) on Nov. 14th. (Gary Patton is “Of Counsel” to the Santa Cruz law firm of Wittwer & Parkin, which specializes in land use and environmental law. The opinions expressed are Mr. Patton’s. Gary has his own website, “Two Worlds / 365” – www.gapatton.net )
Micaela, our intrepid technician, reports more news and opinions about Adelie Penguins than you’ve read in a very long time…
“Two months of foul weather topped by a week of near-constant 35-70mph winds have confined us to station almost every day this spring, and my patience has started to fray at the seams. Projects keep me busy, but I need a change of scenery to stay energized and enthusiastic. Being able to take a boat out to the surrounding islands or hike up the glacier in The Backyard are the two perks of life at Palmer Station. Otherwise, we’re just thirty-four people stuck inside a half-mile square.
The Adelie penguin colony across the harbor has a much rougher time of it. They’re tough little bastards, solid muscle and seemingly fearless, but also among the most vulnerable to climate change. No one knows how Adelies decide when to migrate or lay their eggs, but we do see that they follow a rigid internal schedule that does not adapt to variations in the environment. Warmer temperature along the northern tip of the Western Antarctic Peninsula has caused an increase in precipitation around Palmer Station over the last few decades. That means more snow later into the spring, when the Adelies build their pebble nests. First snow hides the pebbles, making for a poor nest-pile, and then melts away as the summer progresses, scattering the stones and potentially dumping the egg onto the wet ground. If the nests last and the chicks hatch, heavier rains soak their down and cause them to freeze to death. Other penguin species will delay breeding until the snow clears, or start earlier when the retreating sea ice causes a spike in the krill population.
Not Adelies, and we see the proof here at Palmer Station. Our local colony on Torgersen Island has imploded, shrinking from approximately 15,000 to a mere 2,000 within twenty years, trending towards a local extinction. I feel the Adelie penguins are the dinosaurs of our ecological era — a creature so well adapted to one age that it cannot survive into the next. Future societies will look at historical images and wonder that the world once supported such a tottering, delicate thing as penguin, much like we struggle to imagine life dominated by flesh-ripping lizards the size of Volkswagens. Some of those historical images might be my own snapshots, if the wind ever dies down enough for me take some! Special thanks to one of our researchers, Kim Bernard, for her careful explanation of Adelie adaptation as understood from her krill studies.
(Micaela Neus works for Raytheon Polar Services Company as a utilities technician and is currently living at Palmer Station, Antarctica until April 2012).
VINTAGE de STEVEN DECINZO. The Monterey Aquarium loses its Star…view below…
EAGANS DEEP COVER. “You are what you eat” doesn’t hold true for Tim Eagan’s weekly dish of ire…see below.
LANDAU’S PROGRES. Saul Landau laments the American way of denying reality and says, “DRUGS R US – The American Way” Americans have descended into a legal drug culture, while simultaneously retaining the “illegal” one – at great expense. But the government responds by denying the evidence its own agencies produce. Last month, a funding “highlights” of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) showed how the Obama administration had decided to emphasize again its focus on law enforcement – not treatment. For fiscal year 2011, Obama allocated $15.5 billion, more than 3.5 percent more than last year for law enforcement. Treatment allocation barely rose”. The whole thing is here… Saul Landau is an Institute for Policy Studies fellow whose films are on DVD from roundworldproductions@gmail.com
LISA JENSEN LINKS. This week at Lisa Jensen Online Express (http://ljo-express.blogspot.com/), Lisa promises to celebrate shoes, art, and shoe art at the Sockshop’s soleful Art and Wine benefit, expose Anonymous (looks great; less filling), and consider how Pygmalion and Frankenstein merge in the outrageous new Almodovar movie. Lisa Jensen has been writing film reviews and a column for Good Times since 1975.
ANONYMOUS. After all of that hullabaloo, the film isn’t all that exciting, and the direction sucks too. Costumes and sets are wonderful and digital, but it just doesn’t hang together. David Bolam emails to comment on Roger Ebert’s comments on Anonymous, “The most detailed and valuable record of life in London at that time is the diary of Samuel Pepys”. He adds, William Shakespeare 1564 – 1616, Samuel Pepys 1633 – 1703, and closes with, “Exit, sighing and shaking head”. David Bolam. Trying to substantiate another myth about Shakespeare’s credentials is pretty phony, and it just isn’t very interesting or dramatic. I can’t wait to see “Dickens’s Disciple” when we find out it was Sherlock’s friend Dr. Watson who wrote all the Dickens masterpieces. That’ll be followed by “Harry Potter’s Princess” when we learn that it wasn’t really J.K. Rowling who wrote them, it was none other than Marianne Faithfull!! This could be bigger than Paranormal Activity, part 14.
| PENGUIN GOES SHOPPING!!! |
TOWER HEIST. Even with Eddie Murphy and Ben Stiller this is a tired and poorly executed heist movie. It’s impossible to follow (if you even try). Pieces of the plot start and stop and the tension, which should be everything just isn’t there. Don’t go…or rent it during the Holidays when you don’t want to offend your guests. AND it flopped at the box office, because Puss In Boots stayed in #1 position.
MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE. This subtle, sensitive, secretive film is well worth watching. It’s about a young girl who has done time in a cult like the Western Service Workers then tries to join life again by moving in with her sister and her husband. Problem is that there are so many flashbacks and jumps we never know where we, or she, is in time. It’s completely fascinating but don’t take your visitors to see it unless you want to argue a lot.
HOSTETTERS HOT STUFF. Amazing and true to report that Paul’s’ column came in on Monday morning when I put BrattonOnline together!!! So the dates are accurate and even current!!
“A few more things to put on your calendars, including Crooked Still at Kuumbwa and the Freight and Salvage, the inimitable California Honeydrops, the New Orleans-style R&B band with the best attitude and offering the most fun, at Moe’s Alley, Jim Kweskin & Geoff Muldaur with Suzy Thompson at the Freight, Deby Benton Grosjean’s long-awaited CD Release gig, contemporary Indian singer Kiran Ahluwalia at the unlikely venue of Don Quixote’s, New York R&B Soul legends Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings at the Rio. If none of that does it for you, how about “A Classical Evening” at UCSC with Nicole Paiement conducting Mozart and Beethoven with the UCSC Orchestra and combined vocal ensembles at UCSC (this’ll be a big one), or perhaps Carnatic saxophone with Prasant Radhakrishnan presented by the Sangati Center in Berkeley, or the Hot Club of San Francisco, or Kevin Burke? Enough for now. Details as usual are here yrs, ph.
UNIVERSAL GRAPEVINE. Each and every Tuesday from 7:00-8:00 p.m. I host Universal Grapevine on KZSC 88.1 fm. or on your computer (live only, or sometimes old programs are archived…(see next paragraph) and go to WWW.KZSC.ORG. The November 8th Grapevine has former Cabrilho Professor Don Young talking about his book,” The Battle For Snow Mountain”, and then poet Robert Sward will read from his new book, “New and Selected Poems”. On November 15th the winners of Bookshop Santa Cruz’s Youth Writing contest will read their entries. Ralph Abraham will talk about 2 of his new books on November 22 followed by Gary Patton and UCSC Environmental Studies Interns. November 29 has Assemblyman Bill Monning discussing inside Sacramento stuff, then Jim Mosher talks about his teens and alcohol program. Judge Paul Burdick returns to talk about justice on December 13th. Do remember, any and all suggestions for future programs are more than welcome so tune in, and keep listening.
UNIVERSAL GRAPEVINE ARCHIVES. In case you missed some of the great people I’ve interviewed in the last 5 years here’s a chronological list of just this year’s podcasts. Click here, then tap on “listen here” to hear any or all of them… all over again. The Great Morgani on Street performing, Paul Whitworth on Krapps Last Tape. Jodi McGraw on Sandhills, Bruce Daniels on area water problems. Mike Pappas on the Olive Connection, Sandy Lydon on County History. Paul Johnston on political organizing, Rick Longinotti on De-Sal. Dan Haifley on Monterey Bay Sanctuary, Dan Harder on Santa Cruz City Museum. Sara Wilbourne on Santa Cruz Ballet Theatre. Brian Spencer on SEE Theatre Co. Paula Kenyon and Karen Massaro on MAH and Big Creek Pottery. Carolyn Burke on Edith Piaf. Peggy Dolgenos on Cruzio. Julie James on Jewel Theatre Conpany. Plus Rob Slawinski, Gary Bascou, Judge Paul Burdick, John Brown Childs, Ellen Kimmel, Don Williams, Kinan Valdez, Ellen Murtha, John Leopold, Karen Kefauver, Chip Lord, Judy Bouley, Rob Sean Wilson, Ann Simonton, Lori Rivera, Sayaka Yabuki, Chris Kinney, Celia and Peter Scott, Chris Krohn, David Swanger, Chelsea Juarez…and that’s just since January 2011. Hear them all!!!
QUOTES. “I’ve never seen anything quite like the Occupy movement in scale and character, here and worldwide.” Noam Chomsky. “There is only one difference between a madman and me. The madman thinks he is sane. I know I am mad”, Salvador Dali. “Many excellent cooks are spoiled by going into the arts”, Paul Gauguin.
BEST OF VINTAGE DeCINZO.
Deep Cover by tim eagan.
