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Finding Jewish Stories on Interstate 8

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If you go to the website of the publication San Diego Jewish World you will see the motto: “There Is a Jewish Story Everywhere!” Owner and publisher, Don Harrison, delights in traveling, meeting people, and sniffing out that Jewish story.

You can read about his latest adventures in his third book, “77 Miles of Jewish Stories.”  These stories take place on 77 miles of Interstate 8 in San Diego County, from Ocean Beach to the far ends of East County finishing at the boundary line with Imperial County. Harrison decided to see if he could find a Jewish story in the vicinity of every exit off the freeway/highway.

You would be surprised at the wide array of stories he found!   [Read more…]

Mel Freilicher’s American Cream: Rewriting the Radical Past to Redeem the Future

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Longtime San Diego resident, writer, educator, and activist Mel Freilicher was the editor of the regional literary journal Crawl Out Your Window for 15 years and taught at San Diego State and in UCSD’s literature department for several decades. In addition to this, Mel has published in a wide range of publications and anthologies including two chapbooks on Standing Stone Press and Obscure Publications.  

His last two books on San Diego City Works Press, “The Unmaking of Americans: 7 Lives” and “The Encyclopedia of Rebels” engage radical American history in a way that brings together serious fiction, history, fantasy, memoir, humor, and political commentary in the service of excavating some of the lost stories of the American left and countercultures.  

With “American Cream,” Freilicher gives us yet another unique window into the past as a way to cope with the dark present.  As writer Stephen Paul Martin explains, “Within the nimble universe of Frelicher’s language, we see these people as we’ve never seen them—as people.  But also as subversive signifiers in an unprecedented aesthetic design.”     [Read more…]

Geo-Poetic Spaces : After the Fall

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Steel reinforcements
prop up columns
to keep the Forum from falling again

The colosseum
remains a circus
where mobs of plebeians
stab each other with selfie sticks
or throw unfortunate outsiders to lions
dressed in the uniforms of bus drivers
and tour guides   [Read more…]

Geo-Poetic Spaces : Bridge of Sighs

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I feel you
working three jobs
to pay for a house and car
bankers own

I feel you
pushing shopping carts uphill
against
gravity’s
downward momentum

I feel you
reaching for a sense of solvency
that can’t be found
until you are lost in a place like Venice:   [Read more…]

252 Days Under the Trump Regime

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By Lauren Botuck

252 days under the trump regime

just 50 votes needed
and it still didn’t pass
he can still take healthcare
from the middle class

stop the funding
maybe no one will notice
I’m guessing that’s next
from this heartless potus

he must have a win
no matter the cost
if the ACA thrives
in his mind he’s lost   [Read more…]

Geo-Poetic Spaces : Encounter with the Anthropocene

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A woman
is standing at the bottom of an escalator
directing passengers
to departure gates
in the King’s English

She enthusiastically
repeats instructions
without
altering pitch
or tone   [Read more…]

A Modern Day ‘My Country, ’Tis of Thee’

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My country, ’tis of Thee,
Troubled land of shooting sprees,
Of Thee I sing;

Land where 20 Sandy Hook children died,
Land where they tried to kill gay pride,
From ev’ry mountain side, high caliber bullets fly,
When will it end?   [Read more…]

Geo-Poetic Spaces : Paper Cranes

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Fists unfold wings spread paper cranes offer themselves to fire’s fury
before the flame can cast light
into nuclear shadows   [Read more…]

Geo-Poetic Spaces : M.I.A.

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Walking on the beach in Anzio
shuffling through
the memories of my Uncle Joe:

MIA World War II

A marble slab
and empty grave
for the Kansas farm boy
ordered into the slaughter
by old men

The sins of the fathers
are paid for by sons   [Read more…]

Geo-Poetic Spaces : Blown Out of Breath

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In the days of tent cities
furniture inhabits villas

Air swims in pools
cherubs cling to faux vines
while fruit spoils in orchards
  [Read more…]

Naomi Klein’s ‘NO Is Not Enough’ – It’s Up to Us to Fix This Mess

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By Sharon Carr

“NO is Not Enough,” subtitled “Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need,” describes our current political dilemma (precarious) but also inspires us with concrete suggestions on how to step up and take our country back.

Klein is well-suited for this task as she has written three international bestsellers: “No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies,” “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism” and “This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate.”

Donald Trump, a billionaire (or so he would have us believe), is the son of Fred Trump, a real estate developer and Mary Anne MacLeod, a Scottish immigrant. At age 13 his parents enrolled him in military school; he was known for his mischievous behavior and thirst for attention which often lead him into trouble. As an adult, Trump never tires of the spotlight and his favorite subject: Donald.

The book describes how Donald Trump ascended to the presidency. It’s divided into four main sections.   [Read more…]

Geo-Poetic Spaces : Passengers

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Pigeons on platforms
Depart with arriving trains
A feather on tracks
  [Read more…]

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