Dinosaurs in the desert
keep windmills turning
Stop
Drivers
from reaching washes
Flooded
by humanity’s feeding frenzy of fire
[Read more…]
Azalea Park Murals Offer a Mini-Survey of Gloria ‘Glow’ Muriel’s Work, Part II
Probably the most fascinating of Gloria Muriel’s murals in the alley is one she did with friends this year. Framing a large, classic “Glow” woman, a series of faces, beginning with two softly rendered women, evolve into hard-edged geometric faces that burst into triangular forms, all of which are bracketed by semi-circles floating over black space, a kind of evolutionary progression of humanity in time and space over chaos.
When I say this one appears to have a fully developed storyline, Muriel laughs. [Read more…]
Crashing Sean Spicer’s Book Tour, or Trolling with Unicorns | Video Worth Watching
The Full Frontal crew shadows Sean Spicer during his book tour, trying to get answers to pressing questions such as “How do you feel about profiting off of lying to the American public?” And in an obvious homage to Spicer’s descriptive genius, for his Rhode Island Country Club appearance the crew recreates with an actual costume, one of the jaw-droppingly inspirational passages from Spicer’s work: “[Trump] is a unicorn, riding a unicorn over a rainbow.” You have to see it to believe it. [Read more…]
Some Street Scenes of Europe | A Photographic Look
The month of August means vacation all across Europe. Most of the EU nations have legal provisions allowing workers up to four weeks of vaycay yearly, and many workers traditionally take it during August.
Of course, that’s ironic for Americans who don’t know better and go on their summer vacations to Europe in August. I was one of them on my first trip there. Before I learned about “shoulder seasons”.
While many of these images weren’t made during August, here’s a glimpse of what you might find walking the streets of any of these places on any day if you were to do a whirlwind European tour this month. I’ve arranged them roughly north to south; west to east. [Read more…]
Azalea Park Murals offer a Mini-Survey of Gloria ‘Glow’ Muriel’s Work, Part I
By George Howell
Artist Gloria “Glow” Muriel is touching up the large eyes of the “Mystery Lady,” whose wavy hair flows along the wall of El General Market in Azalea Park. Someone has “tagged” her, subtly adding brown paint to her eyes.
Muriel notes the graceful way the eyes were tagged and then squeezes a burst of spray paint.
“I’m improving their work,” she laughs. “I’m helping them.”
I first saw Muriel’s work in Tijuana’s Pasaje Rodriguez, the creative marketplace off Avenida Revolución known for its terrific assortment of murals. Muriel, born in Mexico City and raised in Mexicali, studied graphic design at the Universidad Ibero-Americano in Playas de Tijuana and came to San Diego in 2002 because of a medical crisis in her family. Although she continued to sketch during the illness, she put her art career on hold for several years, and then developed a unique style, a catalogue of female characters with exaggerated eyes and abstracted expressions who range from the childlike to the mature to the mystical. [Read more…]
Richard Nixon resigns – August 8, 1974 | Video Worth Watching
On this day in 1974, Richard M. Nixon delivered his resignation speech. How times have changed. For some insightful reflection on how and why, check out Will Bunch’s column in The Inquirer. Well, we can dream (and still fight back!) (h/t to AGD) [Read more…]
Summer Chronicles 2018 #8: “Already Dead”: A Lunch Poem for Golden Hill
On the back cover of Frank O’Hara’s classic City Lights Books collection, Lunch Poems, he defines his efforts succinctly:
Often this poet, strolling through the noisy splintered glare of a Manhattan noontide, has paused at a sample Olivetti to type up thirty or forty lines of ruminations, or pondering more deeply has withdrawn to a darkened ware- or firehouse to limn his computed misunderstandings of the eternal questions of life, coexistence, and depth, while never forgetting to eat lunch his favorite meal….
While I have always loved O’Hara’s work and sought in my own writing to emulate his temporal discipline and culinary wisdom, what I find most useful about the form he invents is how it can present the most ordinary of moments in a way that captures the extraordinary. [Read more…]
Amazing Red Lotus Sea, Nong Han Lake Udon Thani. (North East Thailand) | Video Worth Watching
Just a short little video with some relaxing drone footage of a lake in Thailand known for its red lotus flowers. [Read more…]
You Gotta Believe In Something – Why Not Believe In Me? | Video Worth Watching
Artist/animator Nina Paley is working on a feature-length animation and she showcases here a brief segment featuring the Pointer Sisters singing Norman Whitfield’s “You Gotta Believe“. [Read more…]
A Forensic Poem | Geo-Poetic Spaces
Diagnostic tests
failed to detect the foreign body
lodged in the abdominal cavity
The wound site
was irrigated
Closed
Dressings applied [Read more…]
Summer Chronicles 2018 #7: When the Padres Still Played Baseball in Yuma
It’s the dog days of summer but it’s Spring Training all year round in San Diego as the Padres sort through their stock of minor leaguers to see who might still be around in a few years when they hope to be competitive. That means losing a lot. Watching a good amount of losing baseball requires a different lens and an appreciation for the small things inside and outside the game.
Recent efforts to increase the speed of the game are a reflection of the fear that America’s historic pastime is too slow for our constantly-plugged-in culture. We are always running, and it is not. Still, baseball is the perfect summer game because, at base, it’s timeless, lazy. There are lots of empty spaces, best felt at the lower tech, minor league parks, but still there everywhere else if you can tear your eyes away from the big screen.
Having some sense of the fact that watching baseball means occupying a seat in a larger tradition or history also helps—knowing what came before, the role the game has played in our culture. What has been lost and where the ghosts of baseball past still haunt us—the remains of old parks in Catalina, Hana, and other out of the way places where the big leaguers used to train or play. [Read more…]
The Right-Wing Firestorm Starting With the Smear of ACORN Rages On
By Peter Dreier
In their recent documentary ACORN and the Firestorm, Reuben Atlas and Sam Pollard not only reveal how the mighty ACORN fell but also show how the attack on ACORN was a dress rehearsal for our current toxic political culture, including the rise of Donald Trump and the alt-right.
Through archival clips and interviews with ACORN staffers, leaders and members, friendly and hostile politicians, and political analysts, the film recounts the group’s history, starting with its founding in Arkansas in 1970 by Wade Rathke, a charismatic and brazen young organizer.
In addition to registering millions of voters, ACORN assisted the working poor to buy homes and avoid foreclosure, challenged banks’ racist and predatory lending practices, stopped companies from spewing cancer-causing pollution in low-income neighborhoods, got local governments to fix up abandoned buildings that had become havens for crime, and fought for fair treatment by employers, landlords, insurance companies, and government. ACORN led the campaign to get Congress to strengthen the anti-redlining Community Reinvestment Act. It organized the victims of Hurricane Katrina to gain a voice in the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast. It spearheaded the living-wage movement in more than 100 cities and helped make the federal Earned Income Tax Credit an effective anti-poverty program. [Read more…]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- …
- 264
- Next Page »
