San Diego Free Press

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Learning to See: Gloomy Sunday – Seeing Art In the Ordinary | Video Worth Watching

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From the artist Memo Atken’s web page, a description of his series Learning to See informs us that it’s:

an ongoing series of works that use state-of-the-art Machine Learning algorithms as a means of reflecting on ourselves and how we make sense of the world. … Artificial neural networks loosely inspired by our own visual cortex look through surveillance cameras and try to make sense of what they are seeing. Of course they can see only what they already know. Just like us.

“What they know” are “tens of thousands of images scraped from the Google Art Project, containing scans from art collections and museums from all over the world.” That is how mundane objects such as cloths, keys, plugs and hands become transformed into seascapes, flowers and flames.

The music selected to accompany this visual exploration is Gloomy Sunday sung by Diamanda Galás, a San Diego native.   [Read more…]

Ethiopian Jazz Master Mulatu Astatke: Yekermo Sew | Video Worth Watching

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Kay Kaufman Shelemay’s recent post on Ethiopian jazz master Mulatu Astatke characterizes Yekermo Sew (“A Man of Experience and Wisdom”) as his signature piece.

[It] was featured in the soundtrack of American independent filmmaker and screenwriter Jim Jarmusch‘s 2005 film “Broken Flowers” and then circulated across the world. Composed following Mulatu’s return to Ethiopia in the later 1960s, “Yekermo Sew” takes its title from a traditional Ethiopian Christian new year’s blessing in Amharic, the national Ethiopian language.

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Why Trump Tells California Voter Fraud Stories | Progressive Activist Calendar April 6 – 17, 2018

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 “In many places, like California, the same person votes many times. You probably heard about that. They always like to say ‘oh that’s a conspiracy theory.’ Not a conspiracy theory, folks. Millions and millions of people.” — President Donald Trump, April 5, 2018.

I knew something was up in the voter fraud rumor mill as I checked our daily statistics in the morning. There it was: hundreds of people searching and ending up at an article from a few years back in our archives on voting in California.

Voter suppression has become a core strategy for Republicans in recent years, and if they can’t figure out a way to block people from casting their ballots, this kind of rhetoric is used in the hope of people just staying home.   [Read more…]

Former UFCW Employees Urge Local Democratic Party to Stand With Women

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By Rosy Miner, Isaura Garcia, Odett McAdams, and Debbie Principe

We are former employees who worked under Mickey Kasparian, President of UFCW Local 135. For more than a year, we have stood with our sisters: Sandy Naranjo, Isabel Vasquez, Anabel Arauz, and more recently Melody Godinez, who all filed lawsuits with serious claims involving our former boss.

We have firsthand knowledge of what it is like to work for Kasparian, and we have volunteered for several Democratic candidates over the years.

Our Party has failed us in its handling of – or refusal to handle – him.   [Read more…]

Driving Through Desert | Geo-Poetic Spaces

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I thought I died a desert
rolled inside
lava beds
paralyzed by the eight legged
photophobic sun

I thought I died a desert
until the coyote laughed
heaps of boulders
into rear view mirror   [Read more…]

‘We Real Cool’ – an Animated Imagining of Gwendolyn Brooks’ Poem | Video Worth Watching

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Using simple, illuminative paper-cut puppetry, this enchanting video imagines the moment of witness that inspired Gwendolyn Brooks to write her landmark poem, “We Real Cool.” Created by Manual Cinema in association with Crescendo Literary, with story by Eve Ewing and Nate Marshall and music by Jamila Woods and Ayanna Woods.   [Read more…]

County Sheriff, District Attorney Races Heating Up

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Gore Tells Reporters He Wants to Fire Opponent; Stephan’s Supporters Under Fire

There are developments in the crucial June 5th contests for County Sheriff and District Attorney. Incumbent Sheriff Bill Gore’s management abilities are under the microscope. And appointed District Attorney Summer Stephan’s campaign has its own problems.

I’ll start with the San Diego Sheriff Department, which is turning out to be a real little shop of horrors. Top dog Bill Gore apparently still feels entitled to his job, even as claims against the department mount.

What the Department did or didn’t do after warnings about the San Bruno shooter continues to be a mystery. Los Angeles Times crime reporter Richard Winton posted a Tweet saying, “@SDSheriff remains silent on what the Dept knew about Nasim Agdam and Youtube after father says he warned them about her YouTube issues.”   [Read more…]

“Things That Make White People Uncomfortable”: Michael Bennett’s Essential New Book

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By Jessie Hagopian / Common Dreams

Today, my good friend Michael Bennett, former Seattle Seahawk, and current Philadelphia Eagle, releases his new book, “Things That Make White People Uncomfortable”—the memoir/manifesto that he wrote with my other dear friend Dave Zirin.

I am going to assume my position as a teacher here and officially assign you homework: read this book! Take notes. Report back on it to your community. Then take action. It is indispensable for anyone who wants to understand why so many players today are refusing to just shut up and play and are creating the new national pastime of protest and play. But this book is much more than just an expository essay about the new Black athlete.

This is one of those rare books you read that will change the way you understand yourself and your place in the world. Only a few books have had that kind of impact on me. Books like “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” and “Angela Davis: An Autobiography.” Uncomfortable has me feeling like a kid again, remembering how those amazing autobiographies turned me upside down and inside out.   [Read more…]

The Science Can No Longer Be Ignored: Legal Cannabis Access Reduces Opioid Abuse and Mortality

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By Paul Armentano / Alternet

Scientific data is growing exponentially in support of the notion that legalized cannabis access can significantly mitigate opioid use and abuse.

On Monday, the esteemed Journal of the American Medical Association, Internal Medicine published a pair of persuasive new studies reinforcing this opinion.

In the first study, investigators from the University of Kentucky and Emory University assessed the relationship between medical and adult-use marijuana laws and opioid prescribing patterns among Medicaid enrollees nationwide. Enrollees included all Medicaid fee-for-service and managed care enrollees—a high-risk population for chronic pain, opioid use disorder, and opioid overdose.

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Helter Swelter | National Poetry Month

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By Amy Fan

San Diego Free Press continues its National Poetry Month coverage with the poem Helter Swelter by Oakland based writer and film maker Amy Fan.   [Read more…]

Rev. Al Sharpton On MLK: He Had A Vision Beyond His Time | Video Worth Watching

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Reverend Al Sharpton joins Hardball to reflect on the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s death and his mountaintop speech.   [Read more…]

Assemblywoman Shirley Weber’s Police Accountability Bill Couldn’t Come at a Better Time

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On the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination, it seems appropriate to write about gun violence and the haters who enable it. Three local events relate to this topic, and there is some news of national interest I’ll add along the way:

  • Two bills introduced in the State Legislature, aim to bring California’s police use-of-force law into the 21st century and open a gap in the Blue Wall of silence surrounding investigations into police misconduct.
  • High school students from Carlsbad and San Clemente joined the weekly protests outside Congressman Darrell Issa’s Vista office to present a petition asking him to hold a town hall to address gun violence and school shootings.
  • San Diego resident Nasim Aghdam was named as the shooter following an afternoon of terror at YouTube’s San Bruno headquarters. Three people suffered gunshot wounds and police found Aghdam dead of apparently self-inflicted wounds.

  [Read more…]

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