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Ritual Dishonesty – How freakin’ formulaic our encounters have become…

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By Bob Dorn

The other day, while I was cruising the pants section of one of my off-fashionable thrift shops, something within me caused me to notice one of those inevitable and pointless engagements between two putative human beings.

“Hi, howsa goin’. ” The cashier was greeting a guy about her age, unsmilingly.

“Hi, howsit goin’, he said, riffing a bit on the theme, also without affect.

Neither one of them changed their expressions and nothing more was said. It was clear they were goin’ nowhere, at least not with each other.

Now, if he’d have said, “Good,” he might have opened up their meeting for her to take another step, like, say, “Sure is a nice day out there.” But I suspect he wasn’t going to go there; how it was goin’ for him was none of her business, really. Nor did he have any real interest in hearing how it was goin’ for her, even if he did re-launch that question, “Hi, howsit goin’.” Those were two calculated dead-ends. A simple nod might have been more friendly.   [Read more…]

Bonny Russell, a Woman for our Times (December 23, 1943 – January 14, 2013)

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For Bonny Russell’s Celebration of Life on 2-17-13 at the Unitarian Universalist Church

Jan says about Bonny,
her wife, her love:

“She brought with her an open and loving heart,
the ability to listen deeply,
and a passion
for addressing injustice and inequality.”
…
Come Inside for the rest of Ernie’s beautiful poem…   [Read more…]

Book Review: “Revolutionary Brain – Essays & Quasi-Essays”

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Written by Harold Jaffe, Published December 2012

I met Dr. Jaffe several months ago and was intrigued by his writings and background.  He is the author of 20+  volumes of fiction, “docufiction” novels and essays.  His writings have been translated into numerous languages, and has been the recipient of several awards.  He is the editor of Fiction International” and is currently a Professor of  Literature and Creative Writing at San Diego State University.

Dr. Jaffe, in this book, explores the changes of millennial culture.  He deplores what is happening to earth in a variety of ways.  It is an intellectual and philosophical look at the changes technology is making – has made – today and how we are unable to “reconstruct ourselves”.   [Read more…]

The Christopher Dorner Complex

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By Mathew Cunningham-Cook / Jacobin / Originally published Feb. 13, 2013

Bradley Manning: imprisoned, tortured. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo: lost her career at the Environmental Protection Agency. Karen Silkwood: died in a suspicious car accident. Gary Webb and Deborah Jeane Palfrey: committed suicide, the former having lost his career, the latter under threat of a 55-year prison sentence. Adrian Schoolcraft: involuntarily admitted to a psychiatric ward.

This isn’t a country that necessarily holds whistleblowers in the highest regard.

For the past week, the media has been struck by Dorner fever, anxiously covering the most minute developments in Southern California’s hunt for an ex-cop alleged to have killed four people: a daughter of an LAPD officer and her fiancée, and a police officer in Riverside county, and an officer involved in the shootout at a cabin in the wilderness.

We can infer that all this has taken place; there will never be a trial. Dorner’s “manifesto” has been selectively quoted, focusing on the sections where his mental illness and homicidal rage come into full view, while the allegations of racism and human rights violations by the LAPD have been slyly deemphasized.   [Read more…]

San Diego For Free: Japanese Friendship Garden – 3rd Tuesday of Each Month

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A weekly column dedicated to sharing the best sights and activities in San Diego at the best price – free! We have a great city and you don’t need to break the bank to experience it.

Location: 2215 Pan American Road East, San Diego, CA 92101 (Balboa Park)

Free Hours: 3rd Tuesday each month, from 10 AM – 4 PM (free admission for San Diego County residents only)

Best For: Contemplation, relaxation, plant admiration, walking, breathing deeply

Website

Just south of the Plaza of the Neverending Debate (aka Plaza de Panama) in Balboa Park you can find the Japanese Friendship Garden (JFG).

From street level the entrance to the garden can be found by looking for the tea pavilion, just north of and next to the Spreckels Organ Pavilion. The garden is currently undergoing a large expansion (adding 9 acres to the existing 2.5 acres of walking paths and botanical beauty). It is also the start of cherry blossom season and a great time for a visit. I would guess that the weather will ideal regardless of when you may visit. This is San Diego after all.

The JFG is a symbol of friendship between San Diego and Japanese sister city Yokohama and was established in 1990.   [Read more…]

PUC Delays Vote on SDG&E’s Proposed Fossil-Fuel Power Plants – Again – and the Sierra Club Is Pissed Off!

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During a period of time when the nuclear power station at San Onofre has been disabled for a year now, there are renewed calls, according to the U-T, to allow SDG&E to proceed with their plans to build two fossil-fuel power plants. Yet, when the California Public Utilities Commission sat down to vote on the utility’s proposals yesterday, Feb. 13th, they refused to take a vote and instead delayed their decision – again – and this time for the fourth time

The San Diego Chapter of the Sierra Club – who has opposed these plants – is pissed off, and they’re demanding answers – and rightfully so. The Chapter head, Lori Saldana, called it “unacceptable.”   [Read more…]

Who said girls can’t play rugby?

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My first introduction to Rugby was when my grandson-in-law, Ben, sent me a picture of him with the blackest eye I had ever seen after winning a Championship Rugby match in Australia. Having all daughters I was almost sickened by seeing this handsome man’s face marred by a “shiner” so large that it almost obliterated his face.

When, five years later, my 17 year old granddaughter informed me that she was going out for the rugby team with the San Diego Young Aztecs (SDYA) my first thought was of Ben and all the cuts, scrapes and bruises he had during the rugby season. (I shouldn’t have been surprised at Molly’s choice. Her Aunt Lynn, my middle daughter, was the first female on the Water Polo team out of Pt. Loma High many years ago.) Still, the remembrance of Ben’s pictures was at the forefront of my mind.

The San Diego Young Aztec Rugby Club was started by its visionary founder Nevin Kleege. He had a dream about starting up youth rugby, in a meaningful way, here in San Diego. Seven years ago six children showed up to practice, and today they serve over 600 children (from 5-19 years old) in our community.   [Read more…]

North Park’s Ray @ Night: What is Art?

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By Mic Porte

The folks on Ray Street, one block just off University Ave. in North Park, on second Saturday evening of the month host San Diego’s longest running ART event: Ray at Night.

Last week’s event (February 9) held on a a crisp San Diego evening, saw the usual friendly crowd of artists and art lovers from all over, locals and tourists alike. Several art and craft galleries, shops and offices turned into galleries for the evening; the Art Center opened their doors, and art spilled out onto the street. Vendors of food, clothing and accessories, and objets d’art sprouted along the sidewalks tempting the passers-by.

Until 8pm, when the band starts up, poets (many of them students from San Diego State) take turns at the open microphone set up in the street, sharing their latest. I would call it a “poetry slam”, but “slam” wouldn’t do justice to the sensitivity, wordcraft , and humor, of the poets. Very cool.   [Read more…]

Gang Girl at ECC

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“Gang Girl”
Friday, March 1, 2013
ECC (Education Cultural Center)
4343 Ocean View Blvd.
Showtime 7pm

“Gang Girl: The Story of a 22-Year-Old Girl in the LA Bloods Gang,” is a work of art in the form of a documentary that I had heard about and now I’m glad that I have the opportunity to see it, thanks to the San Diego Chapter of the Association of Black Psychologists. They’re bringing it to town so that all who care can spend an evening exploring critical issues and strengths in the lives of inner-city youth and their families.
  [Read more…]

Screwed Again –Or Not: The continuing saga of on-line dating

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I have a birthday coming up in a few days. My last experience with on-line dating made me find my birth certificate – yes, they had them back then – to check and see if I was really born many years ago, or if there could have been a typo and I was really born in 1995. Many of the men I am meeting remind me of my youth – yes, I can remember back that far – and the titillating things we talked about during the dating process.

I am not happy to report that things have not changed significantly. Men still want to talk about all the things we read about in “Catcher in the Rye” or “Lady Chatterley’s Lover.” So let me tell you about my latest.

I “met” J. on line about 5 months ago. He, like me, is a widower; a year older than me; lives in Henderson, Nevada, and is about to embark on a million dollar solar plant in the desert. He told me right away that all of his monies were tied up in this project – one that he has been working on for over ten years – and that he didn’t have much discretionary money to play with. As we continued our daily conversations, we found that we had much in common and even though I did not believe a lot of what he said, he was fun and interesting to talk to.   [Read more…]

The Predictable Demise of the Plaza de Panama Plan

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The San Diego City Council arrogantly and knowingly ignored its own laws in supporting the planned Balboa Park renovation.

Last week Judge Timothy Taylor ruled that the proposed Balboa Park redevelopment plan put forward by the Irwin Jacobs sponsored Plaza de Panama Committee violated city law and could not move forward. The controversial plan to remove parking and vehicular traffic altogether from the Central Mesa of Balboa Park, build the Centennial Bridge that would circumvent the museums around to the south as an offshoot of the historic Cabrillo Bridge, and build a three story paid parking structure to the south of the Organ Pavilion, would have cost a projected $45 million, with $25 million being donated by Dr. Jacobs himself.

The plan was highly suspect from the very beginning, and tensions on both sides ran rather high. Shortly after the City Council voted to approve the plan, I wrote a piece explaining how the plan could very well be found illegal, laying out the several ways that the plan was legally flawed.

Turns out that Judge Taylor agreed, at least in part, reaching “the reluctant conclusion” that in approving the Plaza de Panama plan, the City did in fact violate city law. In order to approve the project, city law clearly states that the City Council must find that there is “no beneficial use” for the property; that without the Jacobs plan, Balboa Park would be useless to the public, the entity for whom the park exists.   [Read more…]

Restaurant Review: The Gathering

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The Gathering
902 W Washington St  San Diego, CA 92103
(619) 260-0400

When my husband was alive, we had season tickets to most of the live drama venues in San Diego. Frequently we went on Wednesday evenings, because there was less of a crowd; sometimes the tickets were less expensive and it was more convenient for us. The problem was that we went right after work and by the time the play was over there was no place to go for a bite to eat except the fast food restaurants or places like “Denny’s.”  And then we discovered “The Gathering.”   [Read more…]

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