San Diego Free Press

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Happy Birthday to Us

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The San Diego Free Press was started in June 2012, in association with the OB Rag, to bring San Diego news and commentary from a distinctively progressive and grassroots perspective to the greater San Diego and outlying areas. Our mission is to provide a forum for those views, just as we’ve done at the OB Rag, but on a larger scale.

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The Wikipedia entry for the original San Diego Free Press:

The San Diego Free Press was an underground newspaper founded by philosophy students of Herbert Marcuse at the University of California, San Diego in November 1968, and published under that title biweekly until December 1969, when it became the weekly Street Journal starting with its 29th issue. The paper’s contents were a mix of radical politics, alternative lifestyles, and the counterculture, reflecting in part Marcuse’s Frankfurt School Marxist/Freudian ideas of cultural transformation.

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The modern-day San Diego Free Press is governed by an editorial board consisting of Brent Beltrán, Anna Daniels, Frank Gormlie, Patty Jones, Rich Kačmar, Annie Lane and Doug Porter. We do this because we believe.   [Read more…]

Simple Song #3 ● David Lang ● from Paolo Sorrentino’s ‘Youth’ | Video Worth Watching

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Last night was movie night. I soaked in a film by Paolo Sorrentino—Youth—that deals with all the big issues: life, death, family, friendship, love … I’m still not sure I’ve entirely absorbed it. The cast includes Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel, Rachel Weisz, Paul Dano and Jane Fonda. The cinematography by Luca Bigazzi was exquisite, in fact painterly, in several scenes. There were several surreal passages that still have my mind swirling. The music, by David Lang, was tender, captivating and compelling. Here’s “Simple Song #3” from the closing scene.   [Read more…]

A National March on the NRA Headquarters? Approach With Caution

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If you are an activist receiving emails from an outfit calling itself “National March on the NRA,” be forewarned. It’s not being organized by the young people from Parkland or any of the other groups you might have heard of leading the fight for Second Amendment sanity

The “Voter Reg Street Party” on July 20 and the “March” in Fairfax (where the NRA is headquartered) the following day both have “TBA” locations. This thing is a production of “The Presidential House,” which is, in turn, a creation of Lawrence Deshawn Silva Nathaniel.

Remember him? He’s the guy who organized the Rally at the Border,’scheduled for Saturday, March 25, 2017, in San Ysidro. It never happened.   [Read more…]

The Wall

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By Anita Endrezze

The Wall

Build a wall of saguaros,
butterflies, and bones
of those who perished
in the desert. A wall of worn shoes,
dry water bottles, poinsettias.
Construct it of gilded or crazy house
mirrors so some can see their true faces.
Build a wall of revolving doors
or revolutionary abuelas.
Make it as high as the sun, strong as tequila.
Boulders of sugar skulls. Adobe or ghosts.
A Lego wall or bubble wrap. A wall of hands
holding hands, hair braided from one woman
to another, one country to another.
A wall made of Berlin. A wall made for tunneling.
A beautiful wall of taco trucks.   [Read more…]

Penguin Cafe – the Captivating Product of a Fever Dream | Video Worth Watching

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The kind of music that you’ll hear from Penguin Cafe, one might not expect from a group whose roots were the fever dreams of musician Simon Jeffes induced by food poisoning back in the 70s. Even though some of his visions were bleak and isolating, they also included dreams of a place where people could gather for music, cheer and pleasure, the Penguin Cafe. Since Simon’s death in 1997, his son Arthur has carried on his vision and sensibility in the guise of The Penguin Cafe.   [Read more…]

The Life and Performances of Nathan Gunn – FLYING SOLO

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The San Diego Repertory Theatre production of FLYING SOLO, a collaboration of Nathan Gunn and Hershey Felder, chronicles Nathan Gunn’s life and career. The show captivates the audience not only with musical selections from the operas and musicals that he has performed but with its genuine portrayal of Gunn’s life and his relationship with those who have influenced him.

In addition to numerous operas and operettas at major venues around the world, Gunn has starred in a number of musicals including Sweeny Todd (The Houston Grand Opera), Camelot and Carousel (both with the New York Philharmonic) and Show Boat (Carnegie Hall and the Lyric Opera of Chicago). He will be seen in the revival production of The Magic Flute (directed and designed by Julie Taymor) at the Metropolitan Opera in December 2018.   [Read more…]

Intrusion | Geo-Poetic Spaces

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A stealthy downdraft
whips up the green bladed leaves
mows through sparrow’s song
  [Read more…]

Why Is National City Mayor Morrison Against Rent Control? | A Cartoon Story by Antho

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By Antho

National City is trying to block efforts spearheaded by National City Families for Fair Housing to put rent control on the November ballot. “Mayor Ron Morrison defended the lawsuit, saying it is intended to address “legality issues” and was not a political move.”   [Read more…]

San Diego County’s Continuing War on Marijuana

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Today in Spring Valley – an unincorporated community of San Diego County – sheriff deputies raided an unlicensed marijuana dispensary on Troy Street. This effort demonstrates that the war against pot continues in this area of California.

Twenty-two years after the voters of California legalized medical cannabis and a year and half after voters over the state voted to legalize recreational marijuana, the County of San Diego pushes on against the will of the people, cracking down on pot shops.

The current crop of County supervisors voted in March 2017 to prohibit any marijuana operations in the unincorporated areas of the County and phase out existing ones.   [Read more…]

Democracy’s Schools: A Good Read on the Origins and Evolution of Public Education

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The unprecedented development of a pan American public education system arose between the end of the Revolutionary War and the beginning of the Civil War. In Democracy’s Schools, Johann Neem explains the origins of the egalitarian spirit manifested in the uniquely American system, the system’s rapid development from the bottom up and he presents evidence about ideological debates that are still unresolved in the twenty-first century. These explanations are informed by impressive scholarship.   [Read more…]

Dial Telephones: “How to Use the Dial Phone” 1927 AT&T | Video Worth Watching

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Today, May 29th, marks the 91st anniversary of dial telephone service in the Fresno area. To prepare the public for this new technology the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Co. and the American Telephone and Telegraph Co. (AT&T) produced a “training” film demonstrating how to use these new-fangled instruments. The original, now in the Library of Congress Prelinger Archives, was silent, but this YouTube version has been provided with (somewhat random) background music. You may want to just mute the sound and listen to something that works for you. (h/t to AGD)   [Read more…]

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