From Chuck Taylors to Charles Taylor

Further Adultery

2012-01-25T16:57:00.000-08:00

Yesterday and today, I finally (FINALLY) got it together and set up a new blog. I'm not sure if I'll continue in this space--probably, for now, so that I have somewhere to post the silly videos and crap I share around. I also did a run-through of my photos today and realized that I have a lot of shots that I never shared from Morocco, Sierra Leone, and elsewhere--so perhaps I'll start throwing those up here too. For the 1.5 of you who still check on things here (I love you! Thank you!).

One day, I'll have my own site up and running, but it was really scary when I tried to deal with it today (I have a domain name; I may have a host, but I think not; there was enough money involved that I wanted to wait until I can talk to someone who can use a computer better than I), so I cracked and went with a free Wordpress account for now.

My new blog, Glancing Blows (tagline: truths, secrets, and lies in the city by the bay) will be a collection of vignettes about the history, present, and future of San Francisco and all of the little contradictions and oddities that make this city so wonderful. Basically:

Everywhere has a history, but San Francisco’s is more tumultuous, more chthonic, than almost anywhere else. Everyone here has an underground group, a shibboleth, a hole-and-corner meeting spot. There are cultures that I will never find, much less understand. Cryptic street art, the Bohemian Club, ships buried in the ground. In this space, I’ll try to capture those unknown histories, those secrets, those glimpses you catch when passing a narrow alley or a doorway, on the bus, in the park, on street signs. San Francisco is a place where you can come to get lost or where you can come to find yourself, or anything in between that isn’t quite so conventional. This is the edge of the frontier, no matter the direction whence you came, the place where, when we could go no further, we looked up, saw it was good, and put a stake in the ground.

So, that's that. Thank you, again, to everyone who's stayed with me through this small dark age of cop-out link days and video posts. I'm trying to get back on the writing wagon now, and your support and patience has been wonderful. Onward. Upward.

Wilderness Break

2012-01-25T11:50:00.000-08:00

I've stumbled upon two lovely short videos about possibly my favorite place in the world: the Sierra Nevada of California, the mountains that shaped my childhood and began my love for the wilderness and for camping. One is a trailer for a film about the John Muir Trail (Yosemite to Mt. Whitney, over 200 miles). The second is a timelapse of Yosemite Valley. They filled my heart with joy this morning, so I wanted to share them. Watch them on full screen.

Almost There - The Muir Project from The Muir Project on Vimeo.

Yosemite HD from Project Yosemite on Vimeo.

Music Break: L-I-V-I-N Edition

2012-01-24T18:22:00.000-08:00

From Butch Walker and the Black Widows, the music video return of Matthew McConaughey's Wooderson from Dazed and Confused (one of my all-time favorite films). It's kind of a cool song, too.

Glancing Blows

2012-01-23T07:33:00.000-08:00

Adultery Fridays

2012-01-20T19:14:00.000-08:00

It's a rainy, horrible, no-good day in SF. We can't complain much, though, because it's been gorgeous up to now, California desperately needs the precipitation, and the skiiers/snowboarders have gotten the fuzzy end of the lollipop this season. Today was a great time, however, to bake some bread, light up the Merlot-scented candles on our hearth (our fireplace, tragically, doesn't work...#firstworldwoes, I know), and learn a little bit more about totally drug resistant/extensively drug resistant tuberculosis. Yummy. Take a look at my new post on the matter over at the Foreign Policy Association. And kids, the next time the doctor tells you to take all of your antibiotics (or other meds), for the sake of a safe and drug-resistance-free world, do it.

Glancing Blows

2012-01-16T11:20:00.000-08:00

Link Day

2012-01-11T15:56:00.000-08:00

Almost everyone (including hipsters) derides Thought Catalog for being a den of hipster iniquity, but they do some really great stuff over there. So I don't care, I'll like it all the same. Check out this piece by Stephanie Georgopulos called "Who You Used To Be." And in lighter fare (maybe), Brad Pike's "Dumb Day." I think every day for the past month has been one for me.

In much more serious news, a crowd of prospective students trying to get into University of Johannesburg in South Africa trampled a student's mother to death and injured others. There were several thousand students and parents waiting outside the school to register for a few hundred final spots, and the crush at the gates had tragic results. The NYT coverage is here. This story just broke my heart and is so indicative of the difficult place in which South Africa is currently situated--politically, socially, and economically.

California is set to close seventy state parks in July of this year. What a huge shame. As always, environmental issues get short shrift in budget negotiations: environmentalists' hands are tied and must vote Democrat, and Republicans, generally, just don't give a shit. Furthermore, 20% of state rangers and all seasonal lifeguards will be laid off. It's clear that the California governmental system is broken. Outside Magazine has more information, including the video below. It's a trailer/short film for The First 70 by Heath Hen Films, which recently reached surpassed its goal on Kickstarter (awesome idea, BTW) of raising $35K to complete a film about the seventy parks and the effect of the closures on communities. The three-minute version below is awesome.

In breaking and important news, Beyoncé and Jay-Z's new baby, Blue Ivy Carter has, among other things, a $600,000 gold rocking horse. I know that gossip blogs are not bastions of journalistic integrity (though who is, anymore?) but D-Listed has the story (warning: D-Listed is not 100% safe for work or sensitive eyes. Never stopped me though). I am disgusted with everyone. Additionally, you can kill me with fire for (1) knowing the name of Jay-Z and Beyoncé's baby, (2) caring about any of this, and (3) forcing you, dear reader, to look at it.

Finally, via Belle, Japan-born and SF-based Toshio Hirano, who has a serious jones for some old-school folk-country-bluegrass Americana. I feel you, sir. And I'll look out for you next time at HSB. Below, he sings Hank Williams' "Hey Good Lookin'." Want more? Check out his incredible version of Jimmie Rodgers' "Peach-Pickin' Time in Georgia."

Adultery Tuesdays

2012-01-10T20:14:00.000-08:00

New post over at Foreign Policy Blogs, on totally drug resistant TB (eesh!), the ban on US funding for needle exchange programs (boo), and a new mobile health platform in Kenya (yay?).

I'm starting to get back into the swing of things (someone please explain when it became both January AND 2012), so more to follow.

Glancing Blows

2012-01-10T19:48:00.001-08:00

Adorable-ness Break for NYE

2011-12-31T13:14:00.000-08:00

I just want to marry both of them. And be insufferably adorable all the time. I'd give up snark for that. Seriously. I guess I'd have to learn to play Hendrix-style, however.

Happy end-of-2011, beginning-of-2012, everyone. Big changes are on the horizon--perhaps a new website. Maybe the Mayan Apocalypse will come, though, and I won't have to deal with it. Or I'll live-Tweet it. Fingers crossed.

Music Break

2011-12-20T15:20:00.000-08:00

Love this song. Also love the comment on YouTube* at the top: "I fell asleep with this song on and woke up with a beard."

Bonus track, H/T Kai. The YouTube comment also applies.

*Disclaimer: reading YouTube comments is the most sure-fire way to become convinced that humanity is not inherently good.

Heard Somebody Say (Part Deux)

2011-12-15T17:17:00.000-08:00

I already did this once, but here we are again, at another "official" end to the Iraq War.

Glancing Blows

2011-12-12T18:29:00.000-08:00

Link Day

2011-12-07T15:00:00.001-08:00

First, heartening news from the Obama administration! Secretary of State Clinton announced yesterday that the US government would do more to protect and promote the rights of LGBT(QI...and so on) people around the world. In remarks to the UNHRC (United Nations Human Rights Council, not to be confused with the UNHCR, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees...it gets me every time) Secretary Clinton said: "Some have suggested that gay rights and human rights are separate and distinct, but in fact they are one and the same." Despite President Obama's caginess on his personal stance on gay marriage, this administration has done a lot for gay rights in the US and, with hope, now abroad as well. I love you, Hils & Barry!

The SF-based music blog Positive Destruction put together a list of their 15 fave (local) albums of 2011, which include a bunch of sample tracks. Take a listen--you might find something you like. Oh, and if you haven't checked it out already, Turntable Kitchen's November Mixtape is pretty awesome. Come for the surf-canyon-electronica-pop blends, stay for the Eurythmics cover. Now that I've moved my turntable up from Ojai and (re)cut my teeth on a kickass show from The National (pictured above), I anticipate that this will be an expensive year, music-wise.

Courtesy of Pajiba, here's a beautiful series of photos of paint dropped into water. Jellyfish-explosion hybrids.

I thought I had a bit more than that to share, but with Mercury in retrograde, I can barely focus on anything. I don't go in for astrology, but after I read up a bit, these past few weeks make so much more sense. I was contemplating getting checked out for ADD. There's one more week of this nonsense, so look out. FYI, I can't really tell if I'm joking about all of this or not.

Glancing Blows

2011-12-05T20:54:00.001-08:00

Adultery Saturdays

2011-12-03T15:42:00.001-08:00

New post at Foreign Policy Association on World AIDS Day (it was Thursday). Kind of failing at (self-imposed) deadlines this week, but so it goes. I also can't spell the name of the city in which I live, apparently. Oh well.

President Obama's speech on Thursday was pretty good. Check it out:

Happy weekend!

A Little More Thacher

2011-12-01T11:34:00.001-08:00

My high school (and home), The Thacher School, put together a video of typical Thacher scenes. As you can gather from the video and from the one I shared a while ago, this is a truly special place, one that had an immense impact on my life. My love for the outdoors, my intellectual curiosity, and my morals (laugh away) were all honed and cemented while at Thacher.

Things have changed a bit from my time, however. The kids seem to play a lot more guitar. It's strange to see the buildings that feature so prominently in this piece and now in the make-up of the school, the new Lower School and Hill dorms and the Performing Arts Center/Student Building, did not exist when I was a student there. Although it looks cute to wear a sundress to get your horse from pasture, put on some closed-toe shoes, girl! If that pony steps on you, it's game over for your foot. We would've gotten a Saturday or seven of trail crew for that kind of business. Football wasn't the idyllic past-time it is now--it caused a bit of controversy when it was introduced as a new sport. And we still had a clay track that was a nightmare to navigate after the rain. But the shape of the mountains, that golden slant of light, and the sunsets over the Ojai Valley are just the same.

Adultery Wednesdays

2011-11-30T20:22:00.001-08:00

So, the Foreign Policy Association had us all write a summary of 2011 and our predictions for 2012 on our particular blogging topics. This has been weighing on me, but I finally got it done, just before the deadline. It's here. I'm by no means an expert, but having strong opinions (the Robinson family motto: Often wrong, never unsure), I had a piece or two to say. It's a bit long--we also had to give some book recommendations and talk about our fave person from 2011--so buckle in.

Tomorrow is World AIDS Day, so I'll have more to say on Friday, for a regular Adultery Fridays post. I'll go ahead and say it now: go get tested, friends! Please take a moment tomorrow to remember the people we have lost to the virus and those who soldier on. And if you're feeling in any way solvent, donate some cash to a well-deserving HIV/AIDS organization. There are many. They do good work. And with their help, and yours, we could see an HIV-free generation sooner than you'd think.

Glancing Blows

2011-11-28T16:03:00.001-08:00

I know I've been out of commission. There were friends, fish, camping trips, drives to the Southland, and lots of turkey in the way. Things'll normalize soon.

Glancing Blows

2011-11-21T11:49:00.001-08:00

Spirit Bears, Tar Sands, and Conservation

2011-11-15T22:25:00.001-08:00

SPOIL from EP Films on Vimeo.

The Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival took place two weekends ago. The film Spoil took home the prize for Best Film - Mountain Environment. This documentary is an advocacy piece for the conservation of the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia, which is currently threatened by plans for a tar sands oil pipeline that would put massive oil tankers off the coast. The film is under forty-five minutes and well worth a look--in the time it takes to kill your brain with The X Factor or Glee (guilty on both counts, don't you worry), you could learn a little something about tar sands and the Great Bear Rainforest, listen to some nice music, and drool over incredible nature footage.

The film follows the efforts of the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP) as they put together an environmental campaign to stop the tar sands plans. Along the way, you'll see the lengths to which nature and wildlife photographers will go for that perfect shot--including tromping around (respectfully) in bear country, dodging spawning salmon, and braving jellyfish stings to the face. There are otters, bears (my favorite animal), wolves, whales and plenty of gorgeous forest and ocean shots. It's worth a watch for the natural eye candy alone--put it in full screen for the best effect.

The film also discusses the importance of the area to the Gitga' First Nation, whose members guide the iLCP photographers and take a few nice photos along the way as well. The Gitga Nation opposes the oil pipeline, which endangers their livelihood. The coastal waters through which the supertankers must navigate are treacherous. In one poignant scene, the director chose to compare maps between the "relatively easy" route of the Exxon Valdez and the proposed channel for the new tar sands pipeline, which requires five angled turns to the Exxon Valdez's one. We all know how that story turned out--and these new supertankers will carry almost ten times as much oil. Tar sands extraction is also extremely damaging to the environment. Of course, big bucks are at stake--this project is meant for foreign export, mostly to China. The discussion of this BC oil proposal makes the Keystone XL Pipeline, a joint Canadian-American project currently on hold (thanks for something, Obama!) look like an even stupider idea. An oil spill in this area, or in any area, would be catastrophic, as we have seen only too recently.

It becomes clear over the course of the film that the real star of Spoil, however, is the Spirit Bear--a black bear with a recessive gene that turns its coat white. Spirit Bears are important to the Gitga' and a tourist attraction for the adventure travel crowd. National Geographic photographer Paul Nicklen heads out with local guide Marven Robinson, who has been around bears for many years and knows some of them from when they were cubs. After twelve days of searching, they come across a white bear, who passes within two feet of them. Nicklen described how close they came: "You could smell his breath, you could look into his eyes." In the end, it is this moving encounter (yeah, I cried a little bit) that gives the greatest argument for protecting and conserving this unique area.

If you're interested, you can see National Geographic's coverage from its August issue: Spirit Bears, Paul Nicklen's photos, and more on the BC tar sands project. If you can't see the film at the top, you can go here. If you think you'll dig the films from Banff, check out their awards page for more films or the schedule for their world tour. And if you'd like to get involved, visit PacificWild.org.

Glancing Blows

2011-11-14T12:19:00.001-08:00

Adultery Fridays

2011-11-11T17:34:00.001-08:00

New post at Foreign Policy Blogs, on World Pneumonia Day.

It's another cold, rainy Friday in SF...Although I belatedly realized that the building has turned on our heaters, which would have saved me a lot of shivery, two-blanket grief, as a Southern Californian, all I can say is that it's icky. And unnatural. OK, it's not that bad. I did spend a good portion of yesterday outside at the Wave Organ. Which is awesome. If you can find it.

More Police Violence: Occupy Berkeley

2011-11-10T11:48:00.001-08:00

A new video (warning: it's intense) has surfaced showing police violently confronting a peaceful group of UC Berkeley students at Occupy protests on campus. I really don't understand why the Cal administration or the city of Berkeley thought that it was a good idea to have the police there at all. The Huffington Post has a little more. This video, along with a sound bite of kids chanting "stop beating students" probably isn't a great PR move for UC Berkeley, Berkeley PD, or the city. The video shows the lengths that a (self-styled "liberal") university will go to to control its students and the messages discussed on its campus and demonstrates that even in a higher learning setting, where all ideas and viewpoints should be given air time and free speech and expression celebrated, there is a real fear of actually letting students have their say. What are you afraid of, UC Berkeley?

In my experience at a similarly "radical" university (I take pride in having attended "University of Havana, North," with all of the "fascist liberal anarchists," though not the actions that led to Bill O'Reilly calling us those things), security and the administration set up a lot of hoops to jump through before protests were allowed. In one case, it was easier to get a permit from the City to protest on Broadway than to get permission to have a peaceful assembly on campus (against an appearance by John Ashcroft). Following racist and homophobic events on campus, students were given permission to occupy one of the central lawns my senior year--poor kids were freezing, but it was all very calm and polite. At the time, it was a pretty big deal that a tent city was allowed, but it was allowed. Despite these restrictions, the NYPD was not allowed on campus, unless investigating felonies, after the police brutality during the 1968 anti-war protests put 150 students in the hospital. So, a chilling of free speech on campus, but at least a pretty strong guarantee that the university wouldn't call in the cops to hit us with truncheons.

I've embedded the video from Berkeley below...it's not Tarantino-levels of bloody (or anything close to Chicago '68, Columbia '68, etc.), but I found myself a bit shaken, mostly out of shock that this was allowed to happen. Universities must protect their students.

Occupy Oakland: More Context

2011-11-09T11:45:00.000-08:00

I wrote about the Occupy protests last week and condemned the violence and vandalism committed by a few protesters. I also briefly mentioned the brutality committed by the Oakland Police Department against Occupy protesters. There was an interesting op-ed today in The New York Times by Oakland resident and author Ishmael Reed. It gives a little context to the anger of some Oakland protesters by discussing the long history of excessive force and brutality committed by the OPD. Reed also unpacks the implications of race and local vs. "outsider" (perceived or actual) in the protests. It's worth a read, and I think it adds another dimension to Occupy Oakland.

Well, Hello There, Cape Town

2011-11-07T15:12:00.000-08:00

The trailer for Safe House, the Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds CIA thriller, is out. It was filmed on-location in Cape Town while I was living there, and a few friends (not me) spotted the two stars around town, on and off set. All I experienced were massive traffic jams during day and night shoots around the city. However, I'm pretty excited to see how the Mother City is portrayed on film, even if it looks like CT and its denizens play a back-seat role to the action. Oh well. Baby steps. I'm sure it brought much-needed revenue to the city, maybe employed a few people as extras and on the crew, and doesn't appear to portray South Africa in a negative light...just the CIA. Also, maybe I'm biased, but this looks like a better vehicle for Reynolds that some of his recent action outings, and I'm hoping this is a return of the not-quite-good-not-quite-bad Denzel character, as opposed to the hero-of-various-train-situations one (Training Day--OK, he was all bad in that one, but so good--vs. Pelham 123 or Unstoppable). Add Sam Shepard, Vera Farmiga, and Brendan Gleeson to the mix, and I'm feeling pretty good.

H/T Kai. Thanks, friend!

Glancing Blows

2011-11-07T07:30:00.000-08:00

Adultery Fridays

2011-11-04T21:24:00.000-07:00

It's freezing, I'm tired, and I've been dealing with computer problems all day as I've tried to transfer files from my 2004 PowerBook G4 (yes, the one that's so old it has the round charger pin) to my brand-new baby...I mean...MacBook Pro. The G4 is so old that it can't even consistently power a 500GB external hard drive (or that's my current theory), so I'm moving all my files piecemeal. On top of that, the neighbors continue with their loud and never ending renovations. Which equals grumpiness.

I managed to pound out a global health post over at Foreign Policy Blogs, however, on crowdsourcing HIV/AIDS (yes, we're both old school and cutting edge around here), how genetically modified mosquitoes are probably going to kill us all (or something), and the total complete crapfest that was the G20 summit. Sidenote: President Obama: you cracked your gum in a meeting with David Cameron? Really? Really? After all of that depressing malarkey, combined with my horror that it is November, a recent reminder that every pound of conventional cotton requires a pound of chemical pesticides, fertilizers, and defoliants, and my concern over the general state of the world and of humanity, I am going to go watch "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" and not think about anything.

Update, 10:15pm: OK, so now I've got Migration Assistant running. Which is lovely, and I am a moron for assuming that Apple wouldn't make an intuitive system for transferring files...except it's saying it'll take 105 hours. Hmm.

Occupying Hearts and Minds

2011-11-03T15:44:00.000-07:00

Photo courtesy of Heart of Oak, CC BY 2.0.

I've struggled to write about the Occupy protests. Not because I don't support in their message, nor because I believe protesting is wrong. On the contrary, I think we need to make fundamental changes to our financial, commercial, political, and social systems, and the amendment I most strongly support is the right to free expression. I've done on-the-street, yelling-with-a-sign activism. I've marched in Washington and New York against the war in Iraq and the actions of the Bush administration. I've spoken into a megaphone in front of a crowd of several hundred decrying the policies of the Justice Department under John Ashcroft. I've lead a 24-hour reading of George Orwell's 1984 to draw attention to warrant-less wiretapping and other violations of privacy through the National Security and PATRIOT Acts (also under the Bush Administration). Activism gave me direction and focus during a dark period in American history.

I put that behind me during my senior year in college. I had a difficult time, as I was not-quite-centrist enough for the Democrats on campus and too centrist for the other Leftist groups. And, honestly, I got screwed over from both sides before I took off for Senegal second semester junior year. Furthermore, I found that anti-war marches were mixed-bag affairs, with every left-leaning issue represented by a different sign, slogan, or color. Environmentalists calling for more attention on global warming. Anarchists with masks (though not in New York City, where masks are illegal). Communists calling for class warfare and insisting on tedious collective meetings. Pro-Palestine groups. PETA. Feminists. And so on. They weren't all there to protest the war: they had their own agendas. This made for a disparate, muddled message. And it still does. The most all-encompassing and typical Occupy protest poster I've seen said: "I am very upset." Sometimes I feel that protest is only a way to look cool, or to feel supported in an idea, and not to change policy: it certainly didn't stop George W. Bush.

I approached the Occupy protests with apathy, caution, and hope. It's hard for me to feel that anything can be accomplished these days, that a bunch of left-leaning protesters can actually do something to influence the political debate. I've tried (perhaps not hard enough) to make a difference, and I left activism feeling burned and bruised by my government, fellow activists, and student politicians. President Obama's term has crushed me even further than the Bush Administration, when I felt that I could protest, if that makes sense. Being out of the country for almost three years also left me disconnected from any political process--the problems in the foreign countries in which I lived were not my fault nor my responsibility, and I couldn't do anything while abroad about the issues at home. I was afraid of being disappointed again (and still am), so I've avoided taking a position on Occupy. I just don't have the heart to get out in the streets anymore.

Then the protests gathered steam and spread around the world. I felt a bit more optimistic about their role, about their potential. The police action in Oakland last week was wrong and very poorly handled, as are most police actions in Oakland. It made me angry. Occupy Oakland in many ways revived the movement and my feelings about it. Then, the Oakland march and general strike took place yesterday. That went off well, with little incident in daylight hours. During the night, however, more radical Occupy supporters set fires, broke windows, scattered trash, and threw bottles at police. I'm not sure if self-identified anarchists are these "more radical" protesters, but it certainly wouldn't surprise me. They tend to ruin the fun for everyone. The police have claimed that protesters also threw Molotov cocktails and Roman candles, though I can't find any clear video evidence. You can draw your own conclusions here and here (by the way, I love the Allen Ginsberg "America when will you be angelic?" poster--only in the Bay). There are also some incredible photos here, including a shot of 92-year-old Pete Seeger, still takin' it to the streets. I love that man.

Whether or not there were Molotov cocktails involved (which is well beyond the pale for me), actions such as throwing objects at the police, setting fires, and breaking windows are over the line. I am also sick of seeing acquaintances on Facebook post about the need for violence and armed struggle on "behalf of" the ninety-nine percent or arguing that pacifism is no longer an acceptable form of protest. Violence is not an acceptable means of protest in this case, or in most cases (if you're the French Resistance, then we can talk). Violence and destruction of property delegitimize an otherwise peaceful and rational movement and only provide fodder to opponents. On which do you think Fox News would focus the most attention: a peaceful assembly or a small group of rock-wielding morons?

I think that the Occupy protesters have every right to do as they please as long as they are peaceful. I fully agree that we must make drastic shifts to our overarching systems. But the protests will not succeed if they allow violence and destruction of property to continue. There is a legitimate place for civil disobedience and passive resistance, for instance, the occupation of government-owned property and symbols of corporate greed, such as banks. It's breaking the law, but if you're willing to go to jail or face legal action for your cause, more power to you. That's not a choice I would make anymore (my seventeen-year-old self would hate me). Often, these actions are not in any way passive, even if their authors are peaceful, and draw attention and support to an issue. I hate to bring up the Civil Rights movement because it feels so cliché, but the Woolworth's sit-in did exactly that. Putting police, fellow protesters, and passers-by at risk of injury, however, is unacceptable and only plays into the hands of opponents of the Occupy movement.

Update, like 10 mins later: Great little bit here from SF Weekly on protesters who tried to stop vandalism and violence. Good to see.

To end on a lighter note, and so all you anarchists out there don't think I dislike you or think you don't have a sense of humor, here's one of my favorite songs. The accompanying photo montage is a little...earnest (and was not assembled by the band) but I love the cleverness of the lyrics. I also know how to play it on the guitar.

Halloween in Lo-Fi

2011-11-02T17:46:00.000-07:00

There are Hipstamatic/iPhoneography haters out there. That's OK, I get it. I don't own a lomography camera, I haven't taken an actual film-film photo in a long while (though that will change soon...I'm going to gather up my old Minolta from Ojai on my next trip down the coast), and it's kind of cheating to use a program that does it all for you. It's also a ton of fun to use apps like Hipstamatic. And it requires some expertise, as you will see from the washed-out, weirdly lit, and otherwise amateur shots below. I'm getting better at it. However, on Halloween, when everyone (/many adults) have had a bit too much to drink, have spent too much time sweating their make-up off, and are fighting a food/sugar coma, it's better to do things old-school. With an iPhone. No hi-def, ultra-pixelated for us. Haven't you seen the 30 Rock with the HD camera (sorry, no link, go watch episode seven, season four)? So, in closing, I don't care.

In the following images, you will see two Jeff Lebowskis (with Caucasians), a number of characters from Wet Hot American Summer, views from a Russian Hill rooftop, a one-percenter lurking in the background ("But I have yacht payments!"), a jeans-into-jorts incident, a honey dadger (she don't care), and Egon Spengler, Ghostbuster.

Glancing Blows

2011-10-31T08:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween.

Adultery Fridays

2011-10-28T14:45:00.000-07:00

New Foreign Policy Association post, on polio. We've reduced the number of polio cases by 99% and eradicated the disease in all but seven countries (with a few cases here and there elsewhere). Take a look--it's a short read. And yes, I opportunistically used the "we are the 99%" thing. I'm not sorry.

In other news, my neighborhood is really into Halloween, and lots of houses have gone all-out with decorating. It probably helps to have a huge, creepy Victorian mansion. One of my neighbors has a whole ghost-and-tombstone display out, including a bloody, severed foot coming out from under a planter. Every time I see that plastic foot, my heart leaps a little bit. It's pretty darn realistic. So, good on you, unknown neighbor, for scaring the crap out of me almost every day.

Have a happy (and safe!) Halloween weekend. I might take my camera around with me...we'll see how it goes. If I do, I promise to post a shot or two next week.

A Walk in the Woods

2011-10-27T12:41:00.000-07:00

Being unemployed sometimes has its perks. Such as mid-week trips to Muir Woods. Before loggers put cutting implements (saws? axes? large machines that are possessed by the spirit of pollution, which sounds alarmingly like Tim Curry?) to trunk in California, there were two million acres of old-growth redwood forest. Now, little remains. The area that became Muir Woods National Monument was left alone due to its inaccessible location, and it was purchased by William Kent and his wife Elizabeth Thacher Kent (who must, according to a quick Google search, be an actual Thacher). Today, Muir Woods is a major tourist attraction, and even on a cold and foggy Thursday lunchtime visit, it was packed.

I snapped a quick iPhone photo of the bridge in fog as my friend Sabrina drove us over.

The tallest tree is over 252 feet, and the widest trunk is 14 feet. The oldest redwoods in the park are over a thousand years old, with most of the mature trees aged between five and eight hundred years.

It's dizzying to be among such tall living things, especially ones that feel so primeval. Stepping back into the land of dinosaurs, or something. It can be a very reverential experience--when you manage to escape screaming children and clamorous tourists (note: it's not just Americans who are loud...I won't name names, mais vous connaissez qui vous êtes).

Fog is an important part of a redwood's viability, since it provides moisture in the summer months, condensing on the tree's needles and falling to the forest floor. This makes it dark and damp down where we tread. Moss grows like muppet fur on tree trunks and strange mushrooms sprout in many colors. Some of them looked delectable. Others, like these blue-tinged ones, did not.

We kept thinking about ET. I wish I'd had some Reese's Pieces.

Yep, the trees are big. (And yep, I'm a huge dork.)

The foliage of the deciduous trees (as opposed to the Sequoia sempervirens) was starting to turn and fall.

When informed that the grove would be named for him, John Muir wrote: "This is the best tree-lover's monument that could possibly be found in all the forests of the world. You have done me great honor, and I am proud of it."

Glancing Blows

2011-10-24T08:30:00.000-07:00

Adultery Fridays

2011-10-21T14:08:00.000-07:00

New post up at the Foreign Policy Association. I tackle malaria, mental illness, and female genital cutting (or mutilation). Don't worry, it's actually kind of uplifting...relative to the subject matter.

Next week, I'll try to do a post on the Occupy protests, and I'll definitely write about my visit to Muir Woods and Sausalito with the incomparable Sabrina.

The Best Ad for Concealer that You Will Ever See

2011-10-20T18:47:00.000-07:00

Yep, those are tattoos. Seriously.

Because You're On Television, Dummy

2011-10-18T17:55:00.000-07:00

I've been struggling with how to write about the Occupy protests--this was originally meant to be a post about them, but it got out of hand. So I'll save that for a later date--maybe tomorrow, maybe next week. I just finished watching one of my favorite films, Network. It was released in 1976, directed by Sidney Lumet, and won three Oscars for acting (Faye Dunaway, Best Actress; Peter Finch, Best Supporting Actor; Beatrice Straight, Best Supporting Actress; with another win for screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky). It's a hell of a film--and perhaps one that doesn't get as much appreciation as it is due. There are aspects of it that are dated, of course (unless you lived through it or are a history dork, the "Ecumenical Liberation Army" storyline might make you feel somewhat lost, for example), but it really struck a chord with me today.

Network tells the story of the fictional UBS television network during the recession and social upheaval of the mid-1970s. The news division is in trouble, losing more money than it makes, and anchor Howard Beale (Peter Finch) is fired for low ratings. He announces on-air that he'll commit suicide during his show the following week. UBS executives allow him to stay on when his ratings spike, as the "mad prophet of the airwaves" who rails against the media and big business, and Beale loses his grip on reality. Behind the scenes, UBS executives, members of the board, and executives from the conglomerate that owns UBS conspire to get better ratings for the ailing network, at any cost.

According to IMDB (if such sources can be believed), Chayefsky and Lumet meant for the film, which is dubbed a satire, to be a depiction of what was actually happening. And what is still happening. It's a chillingly accurate characterization of today's media and today's mindset. As Aaron Sorkin said (he also cited Network in his Oscar acceptance speech; skip to 2:00), "If you put it in your DVD player today you'll feel like it was written last week...The commoditization of the news and the devaluing of truth are just a part of our way of life now. You wish Chayefsky could come back to life long enough to write 'The Internet.' " The link above with the Sorkin quotation comes from a New York Times article about screenwriter Chayefsky and gives a very informative overview of his thinking while writing Network and the film's relevancy today.

This is a seriously great movie. I can't overstate that. For the love of Bob, please go see it. Admittedly, there's a lot of yelling. But that's part of what makes it great--scene chewing (in a good way) from some of the best actors of all time--William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Peter Finch, Ned Beatty, Beatrice Straight, Robert Duvall, and so on. There are a number of great scenes, such as Finch/Beale's rant about the importance of independent media (and lack thereof) and Ned Beatty (as the chair of the conglomerate that owns UBS) ranting about the one system that runs the world: money. But below is the piece that most spoke to me. It's arguably the most famous scene of Network, one that's been borrowed, cribbed, and outright stolen over the past thirty-five years.

It's eerie, isn't it? Doesn't it feel like the message the Occupy folks are yelling about every day? This was done thirty-five years ago, and it's just as relevant as it was then.

Glancing Blows

2011-10-17T14:17:00.000-07:00

Adultery Fridays

2011-10-14T18:20:00.000-07:00

New post over at The Foreign Policy Association. Good and bad news for HIV/AIDS. It's always the case, isn't it? I'm picking this out in my new favorite cafe in Cow Hollow. Fortunately, Justin Timberlake hour is over and we've moved on to Etta James. A sparkling water, a sister with outlines to write, and gorgeous you-only-get-this-in-California weather. Working my way through The Omnivore's Dilemma, which is horrifying, inspiring, and slightly obnoxious all at the same time. It's always the case, isn't it?

You Can Be My Wingman Anytime: Fleet Week Photos

2011-10-12T13:28:00.000-07:00

Every Columbus Day weekend, the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard send their ships, planes, and sailors to San Francisco. Although it gives the men and women in uniform a well-deserved chance to blow off steam in the original city of sin (trust me, you can find weirder stuff here than Las Vegas), it's also a blatant attempt to recruit more bodies for the military. Apart from the political, social, environmental, etc. implications of Fleet Week (I won't do it today), it's a lot of fun. And crowded. The air show and rehearsals over Friday, Saturday, and Sunday culminate in demonstrations from the Blue Angels and besiege the city with earsplitting, window-rattling, car-alarm triggering fly-bys for four hours or so each day. It's incredibly obnoxious (and slightly unsettling) when you're not watching the planes but awe-inspiring when you are. I want to share a few of the photos I took while watching the air show on Saturday with friends, who were kind enough to bring a grill and delicious grub. You have to have a much better camera than mine to really do it justice, but it was pretty darn cool.

The opening planes, with patriotic jet trails.

Beautiful weather meant that a lot of people came out to watch.

The support plane for the Blue Angels, making a low pass over the Bay.

The Blue Angels' finale.

Glancing Blows

2011-10-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

Adultery Fridays

2011-10-07T17:12:00.000-07:00

New (short) post up at the Foreign Policy Association. I am seriously pissed off about the US foreign aid budget. Not that anything new has happened, mind you. The New York Times decided to write about it this week, so everyone started talking about it again. Dark days, my friends.

It's Fleet Week in SF (I am somewhat afraid to go to the Castro in this post-DADT world...or so very curious), so there are planes all up in our business. Setting off car alarms as they buzz by, barrel rolling overhead. It's kind of cool to watch--you can't help but have respect for someone with the balls (ladies too!), skill, and strong stomach to fly a jet. It's also a bit scary: although I knew the planes were here for Fleet Week, I still got a little knot of worry. Welcome to life during the War on Terror, I guess. And, on top of cool and scary, it's also infuriating: how much money gets spent on freaking jets when there are starving kids in Africa, et cetera? You know the drill. I won't do the whole thing here. Plus it's a lot of macho BS posturing, a little weenie shaking for a nation that keeps screaming it's the best but feels, well, woefully inadequate. I'm going to go watch Top Gun, stare at some gentlemen in uniform (they're EVERYWHERE), and see how I feel.

Hardly Strictly

2011-10-06T09:00:00.000-07:00

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass was last weekend. The festival, which is free, started in 2001 and has expanded over the years to include more than just bluegrass acts (the "Hardly" was added later). Over 600,000 people thronged to Golden Gate Park on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It was one of those special events where, despite the terrible crowds, everyone was relatively calm, relaxed, and happy. No, it's not pleasant to feel like you live in a tube of toothpaste. But it was worth that crushing feeling to hear incredible music. I spent most of the time wandering on my own, though I did manage to meet up with some friends, which was nearly impossible given the circumstances. You'll be able to suss that out on your own in the following photos.

People had wonderful outfits, like this gentleman in a rose and pistol shirt. I saw him at Robert Plant & the Band of Joy's set and the next day, in the exact same outfit, at Gillian Welch & David Rawlings.

One woman helped a friend with her dreads at Band of Heathens.

I loved this guy's hat. And he loved Robert Plant.

This woman had a great patchwork Earth Mother dress. She was selling headbands, like the one she's wearing, to festival goers. And making a tidy profit, I think. Woodstock for the Consumer Generation. Not everyone appreciated the hippies, but others marveled at the festival, which felt like a throwback to the Summer of Love. With more dogs and fewer people tripping on acid (I think). One guy looked around and smiled, saying "People are drinking PBR and listening to Robert Plant...It could be forty years ago."

The Gaia-Hawker had a stranger hold her parasol as she made a sale. He looked pretty pleased (seriously).

Of course, no concert in SF is complete without matching tie-dye.

Or massive numbers of bikes.

The weather threatened to be wet and cold, as it was the previous year, but it was beautiful out. Just enough cloud cover so you didn't roast.

Did I mention that it was crowded?

Without much of a plan for the earlier shows on Saturday, I checked out Band of Heathens, mostly because I liked their name. They turned out to be a sick, old-school rock n roll n blues band from Austin. They ushered in (and greeted) the sunshine, though they had to break for a quick guitar re-tune as the weather warmed. They ended with a slow, more countrified version of Grateful Dead's "Brokedown Palace" in homage to that San Francisco sound. Pretty brave, if you ask me, but they pulled it off.

Then I fought my way over to see Hugh Laurie, otherwise known as Dr. Gregory House. Although I'm often dubious of actors who try to be musicians (I'm looking at you, Scarlett Johansson), Mr. Laurie is a serious and legitimately good musician. He did old blues, gospel, spirituals, and Southern standards, from "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho" to "Swanee River" (of the latter, he said he plays it to "exorcise the demons"--I'm not sure what that means, but perhaps he just wanted to acknowledge the racist history of the song...or I could be way off-base). Apart from being hilarious, he killed it. It helped that he had a great band, of which he said: "They are the Rolls Royce, and I'm the Spirit of Ecstasy on the hood." You could tell he was stoked to be doing this--when opening his set, he exclaimed (if Hugh Laurie can exclaim), "This is the most exciting day of my life." He also continually referred to the audience as "Bob" and ended by saying, "I'm starting to like you, Bob. I'm going away from here with a firm message: Bob is great." Mr. Laurie, so are you.

At this point, I managed to find one of my childhood friends (hey Melissa!) and her crew. A few of us fought our way back over to see Patty Griffin, one of my all-time favorite singers. We didn't end up in a great spot--it was too crowded and I needed garlic fries--but her voice sort of floated out over the crowd, like a ghost, ethereal. She brought out Robert Plant for a number (she sings with him for the Band of Joy). She's just wonderful.

My final concert was Gillian Welch & David Rawlings. They mostly did stuff from their new album, The Harrow & the Harvest, and all of it was great. There's nothing really more to say--they're two of the best bluegrass/folk/Americana/etc. musicians working today. I thought of a dear friend during "Look at Miss Ohio" (hey Mel-Mel!), one of my favorite songs ("I wanna do right / But not right now"). Ms. Welch promised to "learn a fancy dance step for next time," and attempted a kick-step she hadn't quite mastered. Before singing "The Way the Whole Thing Ends," she said, "I have this fixation. I can't seem to get the word 'cornbread' out of my head," hence the lyrics: "That's the way the cornbread crumbles / That's the way the whole thing ends." To end, in another nod to San Francisco's musical contributions, they covered Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit." Grace Slick was one of the queens (the "Acid Queen," to be precise) of late 60s rock (we will ignore the Jefferson Starship "We Built This City" abomination...ugh), and to cover one of her songs is courageous, especially given her unique voice. But it was a triumphant gamble, and I left the festival buoyant and smiling.

To close, I'd like to talk about my first set, Robert Plant & the Band of Joy, who played on Friday night. I went to HSB on Friday specifically to hear the former lead singer of Led Zeppelin. I've seen a few (once) great rock acts over the years: Bob Dylan (three times, all wonderful), the Rolling Stones (once, still good but a shadow of former times), the Who (I don't think that energy can be captured anymore...and if they're not smashing guitars, what's the point?), and Simon & Garfunkel (still LOVE them). So I thought knew what to expect with Mr. Plant: a crowd-pleasing set with little innovation (Stones, Who) and/or an unrecognizable voice who can't capture that former glory (MAYBE Dylan if he weren't still putting out awesome records...but I'll concede he's very froggy). At the start, it was a combination of both: he opened with "Black Dog," which was risky: it requires pitch-perfect vocals and a face-melting guitar that's just impossible to replicate without Jimmy Page. He then went into a number of covers and allowed his talented band--including Buddy Miller and Patty Griffin--to take over here and there, which was a smart move. Mr. Plant was also genius in using Ms. Griffin to hit the notes he no longer can and in shifting to slower, more bluegrassy/Americana Led Zeppelin standards (i.e., less rock guitar heavy songs), like "Misty Mountain Hop" and "Ramble On." They ended with rollicking versions of "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" and "Gallows Pole" as a waxing crescent moon sunk low in the West. The perfect way to start a weekend of exceptional music.

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

2011-10-05T21:43:00.000-07:00

Steve Jobs died today. The obituaries (carefully written years ago and periodically updated), old features, and unflinching profiles have been circulating around the Internet. There's no denying that Jobs was a controversial figure, but he was also one of the most influential people of my generation, of my own life. This may be incorrect, but I think my generation has been the first to grow up and be educated in the Digital Revolution. We had personal computers in our homes, something that was almost inconceivable in previous decades. I learned to use computers on what must have been a Mac II, which looked like something out of Star Wars--boxy, futuristic in a dated way, sort of beige-ish. I'm writing this now on my 2004 PowerBook 15-inch, which has survived two separate water spilling incidents, several cross-country and trans-Atlantic moves, and a strange and unfortunate infestation by tiny ants in Sierra Leone. The iPod Classic freed me from my cumbersome CD collections. The iPhone has kept me from getting lost over the past three months or so and has allowed me to explore San Francisco in ways I never thought possible. And so on. Without Macintosh, I don't know what my life would be like. That sounds a bit dramatic, but it's true.

I've come across four interesting articles on Steve Jobs today that offer different perspectives on the man. His 1985 interview in Playboy (don't worry, it's safe for work) studies the young entrepreneur and explores his views on excellence, design, and innovation. One great moment details his time at a birthday party for a nine-year-old. He gave the boy a Mac for his birthday and spent the evening teaching him to use it, unfazed by the presence of Andy Warhol and Keith Haring. When asked why he seemed more at ease with a kid (side note: I wish that were MY ninth birthday party!), he responded: "Older people sit down and ask, 'What is it?' but the boy asks 'What can I do with it?'" In a 2008 profile in Esquire, Tom Junod looks at Jobs' control-freak nature and the pall of mortality that tinged Apple in the wake of his cancer diagnosis in 2004. Delving more into the inner, perhaps subconscious, motivations of the adopted Jobs, Junod does not flinch away from showing the ugly sides and the contradictions of Jobs' persona. In The New York Times, Andrew Ross Sorkin talks about Jobs' lack of (public) philanthropy--I can only hope that he left a sizeable amount of his $8.3 billion to a good cause or causes, or that his family starts a foundation. Finally, a short piece from Ken Auletta in The New Yorker today discusses his legacy. The article mentions his commencement speech at Stanford, which I have embedded below.

Mr. Jobs, you were not an easy man, and you did not choose an easy path. You lived a contradictory existence--you could mention traveling through India, Bob Dylan, and the Whole Earth Catalog and at the same time be the man who could call some of his own employees "fucking losers" and had little interest in giving back. Your vision was extraordinary. Your humanity was flawed. Thank you for all that you've done.

A Taste of Home

2011-10-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

There's a new video up on Nowness, a "luxury storytelling" site owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, that shows a sort of everyday experience of the Thacher School, where I grew up and attended high school. It's by Lisa Eisner. Although it's a bit earnest (the photo on the home page of the Thacher site, with the kid ring spearing with his tongue out is maybe more typical), it captures the beauty of Ojai, the bond between horse and rider, and the stillness I got to experience everyday exploring trails and practicing Gymkhana with my horse, Shara. It makes me yearn for home and ache to ride again. I miss that companionship, both human and equestrian, and the serenity that those afternoons afforded.

Thacher: Frontier Schooling from Lisa Eisner on Nowness.com.

Glancing Blows

2011-10-03T09:30:00.000-07:00

Adultery Sundays

2011-10-02T16:11:00.000-07:00

I did write a global health post on Friday; I just didn't get around to sharing it until today. I discuss the outcome and results of the UN High Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases (preview: they were disappointing).

I'll be posting soon on the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, at which I spent some time this weekend. I saw Robert Plant, Band of Heathens, Hugh Laurie, Patty Griffin, and Gillian Welch. So, I'll share some highlights and photos this week.

Grace gave me permission to share her and Dan's wedding video, so if you're interested, take a look. It was a beautiful ceremony and a kick-ass party. The prep was a lot of fun too--if busy and hectic. All around, so full of joy.

Grace & Dan 1 of 2 from Kellen Keene on Vimeo.

An Unwaged Afternoon in Dolores Park

2011-09-29T14:57:00.000-07:00

We've been having a bit of an Indian Summer (Michael's Little Summer, Gypsy Summer, or tiger in autumn, depending on who you talk to) in San Francisco. Interspersed with drizzle and fog, of course, but SF will be SF. My sister and I took a walk the other night in the Marina, and this will only make sense to Thacher alums, but it was nine-thirty to ten weather.* That certain smell of cooling asphalt, a slight warm breeze, and everyone wandering around in the dark. To use her phrase, a mindset and not a period of time. That's how it feels these days in the Bay. I returned to Dolores Park last Tuesday. What follows is what I jotted down in between turning pages of Huck Finn.

There never seems to be an empty moment in Dolores Park. Hordes of Mission burghers, maybe bartenders, or artists, or street performers taking a break now the tourist season is over, or those of us in the 9.1%. Grass is ubiquitous and banal (legal or otherwise). Vendors call out clearly to hawk their wares: hash brownies, pot rice crispies treats, weed lollipops, mushrooms, even acid (really?). People light up and work their way through handcrafted microbrewed six packs purchased at a premium. Dogs wander off-leash and sniff around strangers, sometimes leaving behind shit that doesn't get picked up by distracted owners. In the Marina earlier in the morning, two women all but chased down a runner when her German shepherd pooped on the beach. Not so here. Apart from the group of thrift-store junkies with well-designed tattoos, and eccentric hats, and fixed gear bicycles, there are remnants of a counterculture that did not know where to go but here when their revolution went the way of everything else and became a marketing tool. If you like Communism, antique clocks, or Ann Coulter, they got a t-shirt for that.

A mysterious fire breaks out somewhere beyond Mission High School, big black plumes drifting eastward. It takes ten minutes to hear the sirens. Fifteen later, the news choppers show up and hover like black flies over the scene. No one barely looks, a few shouts of, "Fire! Fire!" are in jest, disconnected from the reality over on Haight and Fillmore, where windows bent and then burst out, thirty-one lost their homes. A woman nonchalantly removes her jeans and sits cross-legged in the sun in her purple underwear, all the while talking on her phone. A man tripping on something or other raves about the reggae culture and wheels around the guy freestyling over a portable speaker. Deadlocked and confused, he reaches out with a laid-back desperation for someone to understand his epiphany. Afropop blasts from a corner. A drunk old man swigs from a wine bottle and sneezes, almost compulsively, for five minutes. The sound of clicking lighters, flint on metal. The sound of clicking iPhones. The sound of clicking bicycle gears.

Frisbees and acrobats spin across the lawn. Girls tell quiet little details of their ordinary lives and discuss fake IDs while lighting up a pipe. Young men on OKCupid dates teach young women how to use fancy camera features, preening their blogging credentials. Old Chinese women wander through the groups with big rice bags, collecting glass for deposit money. A Latino man advertises his ice cream cart with jangling bells, another man with a cooler and newsboy cap sells cold beer. Informal economies spring up anywhere there are people. Cyclists rip by, too close to the sedentary. Platinum blondes in a stars-and-stripes caps, colored feather tattoo peeking out from tank tops, chugging Newcastles. Two sweet-looking lesbians with punk haircuts and tricked-out bikes talk behind their hands, write in journals, and smoke rollies. Young men, shirts unbuttoned and beards perfectly unkempt, split watermelon beers between them and ignore their strategically-placed academic work. A man in a red beard sips a 40 and plays guitar badly and enthusiastically, and you have to love him for it. An older black man in a cycling cap smokes a blunt, foot resting on his handlebars, holding a banana to eat later. Indian Summer, all in their own ways. The smoke dies down, and no one seems to pay it any mind.

*Nine-thirty to ten, or 9:30pm-10:00pm. Perhaps the only true free period of time on the weekdays at boarding school, it was the slot between study hall and check-in (AKA you're in the dorm for the night OR ELSE) when you could play pool at the SUB (RIP, Student Union Building), eat vending machine candy, hang with your buddies, or MO with your SO. Mostly good, clean fun, though subject to increasing restrictions since my graduation year. Poor kids. I mean, that was the only time I could justify talking to upper-class students (i.e. sophomores, juniors, and seniors) when I was a wee freshman. Almost half of your time is spent walking across the campus, anyway. Can't get in too much trouble.

Video courtesy of Ms. Catherine Robinson.

Music Break

2011-09-27T08:52:00.000-07:00

For your listening pleasure in the AM, Fleet Foxes played on David Letterman last night. Ignore ol' Dave at the end getting the name of the song wrong. They kill it. So hauntingly beautiful.

And if you want something a little more upbeat to pep up your morning, try out Tinariwen, a Tuareg desert blues group. They have a strange little history too.

Glancing Blows

2011-09-26T10:00:00.000-07:00

Glancing Blows

2011-09-20T10:00:00.000-07:00

Adultery Fridays

2011-09-16T17:00:00.000-07:00

A new post is available for your global health reading pleasure over at the Foreign Policy Association.

I found this via the phenomenon known as Facebook. I think I love Ojai even more.

Canning My Way Into Food Nirvana

2011-09-15T23:42:00.000-07:00

One of my friends is a farmer (you can check out her farm stand here). Due to an unseasonably cold summer in Lompoc, her tomatoes didn't come in until now...and they came in all at once. When she showed up in SF on Tuesday, the bed of her pickup was filled with tomatoes, plus smaller (though certainly not negligible) amounts of pears, kale, apples, eggs, dahlias, quinces, beef, peaches, and peppers. When she opened the camper shell, a delicious, sweet perfume of pears and tomatoes (some of which had started to split) wafted out. What did this mean? Canning, of course.

Wednesday and part of Thursday were dedicated to this task. Another friend was nice enough to donate her apartment/kitchen in The Mission, which ended up covered in tomato juice. We estimated that we processed about fifty pounds of tomatoes, which came out to just under fifty jars of quarts, pints, and half-pints of tomatoes and tomato-japaleño jam, all-told. This was not, by the way, all of the tomatoes. There were three or four boxes remaining, which we split amongst ourselves. My friend also took one box down to Tartine Bakery, in appreciation of their ridiculously, insanely delicious desserts, sandwiches, and bread. Oh, the bread. I'm working my way through a round of walnut bread right now. Blistered in all the right ways, it has wide striations of flour on either side of the split ridge of crust on top. The loaf's so heavy, it feels like I could use it as a blunt bludgeoning object, and you have to really muscle a serrated blade to get through the crust. When you do finallycut into it, a tangy, yeast-enhanced smell--like the way bread should smell--almost bursts forth. The soft walnut pieces studding the interior crackle a bit in the toaster oven. That deep, almost syrupy taste you get with a perfectly browned crust. A nice, thick slice toasted and topped with cream cheese is pretty close to nirvana. It would fulfill the Vietnamese idea of năm giác quan, which means that it appeals to all five senses. And I won't get started on Tartine's chocolate pudding, lemon tarts, croissants, or coconut cake. This is one of those places that's absolutely worth the money. To be honest, when I first heard of Tartine, I was skeptical--there was no way it was worth the hype or the ridiculously long lines. But it was. It so, so was. Go immediately. Buy bread. Bathe in pudding. No judgments.

Our process started with cutting the tomatoes and prepping them for a quick blanching, to loosen the skins. Then, we peeled off the skins and cut or pulled the tomatoes into large chunks and cooked them down to a nice pulp with some lemon juice for acidity. Once the jars were sterilized and the water hot, we jarred them and processed them in boiling water (I'm being vague on purpose). Jars were removed and cooled, and we checked their seals. Rinse, then repeat with the next round. Jarring/canning requires some amount of knowledge (yay, botulism!) and special tools. Make sure you have a buddy with you, maybe to just shout directions at you from a recipe as you wrangle jar lifters, sterilize lids, and pour near-boiling fruit goop from one thing into another. It goes without saying that I required close supervision. Fire, boiling water, and knives were involved, after all.

We were working with a variety of heirloom tomatoes, including yellow pears (they're tiny and went whole into a jam concoction with sugar, lemon juice, jalapeños, and basil), green zebras, purple cherokees, amaras, pineapples, and brandywines.

There's something very satisfying about taking a whole product--especially one that's close to being unusable--and turning it into a long-lasting something else. For instance, making an iPod case out of a (clean and not ratty) sock with a hole in it, which is pretty much my only DIY skill and isn't going to get me any attention on Etsy just yet. Or, in this case, taking on-the-cusp-of-composting tomatoes, beautiful shouldn't-be-wasted heirlooms, and sealing them up for use in soups, pasta sauces, and so on, for a year (or more) to come. The tomatoes were gorgeous before we cut them up, and they continued to be as we processed them.

We took a break to re-fuel at Tartine and Bi-Rite Market (we did Bi-Rite Creamery on Tuesday night: Basil and Crème Fraîche double scoop). Bi-Rite is a bit amazing. Apart from its absolute ridiculousness--I once saw $10 blackberries there, I am not joking--the market has an impressive selection of food-porn-worthy goods. Frozen rendered duck fat. Dry spaghetti with that perfect rough texture in violet tissue paper. At least twenty varieties of gourmet chocolate bars wrapped in beautiful papers, single-origin, organic, hand crafted, nibbed, or fair trade. A dried bean gallery to die for. For any foodie, further nirvana awaits. We cleared out the last copies of the first issue of Lucky Peach, which has a delicious 3-part haiku recipe for miso corn and a conversation among David Chang, Anthony Bourdain (my current obsession is "No Reservations"), and Wylie Dufresne on authenticity. Did I mention the magazine is devoted almost entirely to ramen?

As the experts talked shop with the butchers/meat cutters on types of cuts--cowboy steak, a novel London broil, etc.--I learned a few things about beef. Of course, if you've read Michael Pollan's The Ominvore's Dilemma (or remain in limbo, never quite finishing it...I'm not describing myself), you know that corn is the devil. I think that's what he was getting at; it might be a bit more complicated. 100% pasture raised means that the cows are eating grass before they go off to a feed lot or are otherwise finished. "Grass finished" means that just before the steers are killed, they're still eating grass (no hay). "Grain finished" means that they get some kind of grain, which is occasionally specified. When a steer is grain or hay finished, it tends to have a better marble on it, which means more delicious fat. When that finishing grain is corn, that can be a problem for steer's health, as well as yours. You can read Mr. Pollan's book for more on that. Something good to know: Santa Barbara County has outlawed feed lots. Those are the tiny, poop-filled enclosures where steers are contained to fatten them up prior to slaughtering. So, if you can source your beef from SB, you're probably in better shape, and the bovine specimen you're eating was in better shape before reaching your table.

After our break, we finished up most of the jarring (apart from the yellow pear tomato and jalapeño jam, which was...a bit fraught), ending around 9pm. After we chowed down on some Vietnamese noodles, we called it a night and did the final bits on Thursday. Which brings us to our final product. A summer's bounty for a winter of lycopene.

No Title

2011-09-11T15:28:00.000-07:00

I don't know what to say about today. Or what I think. So, here's Paul Simon. Don't bother with the video. There's been enough media manipulation already. Just listen.

Adultery Fridays

2011-09-09T12:39:00.000-07:00

New post over at Foreign Policy Association. On non-communicable diseases, the upcoming United Nations High Level Meeting on said diseases, and how we (being the global community) need to do a whole lot more.

Off to eat some ramen and wander around China Town and Union Square with the sis. Have a good weekend.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

2011-09-07T21:55:00.000-07:00

I live in Cow Hollow. It's a green, lush place that sits between the steep slopes of Pacific Heights and the flat Marina. Pac Heights is all big, fancy houses with views of the Bay and gardens that are manicured perfectly, or neglected in the orderly way that means: "We didn't hire a landscaper, but we do have help." The Marina is all residential, apartments and some houses, but perhaps because it was flattened in the 1906 earthquake, it has a strange feel. And none of the stately Victorians that are on the hill above. Cow Hollow is a mix of both and includes Union and Chestnut, two boutique-y, cute-restaurant streets that are great for wandering around. I do that often, as I am unfettered by a job. Currently.

The entire area gets a bit of a bad rap--Pac Heights for its old-money snobbery, the Marina for the same, except of the yuppie variety, and Cow Hollow for being a meeting place for both, as well as for being a bit bro-y or fratty. Although some of this is undeniably accurate, Cow Hollow offers more than the (different kind of) snobby brush-off given by some San Franciscans and tour books, including Time Out. In the past, I've loved Time Out for its ability to give the locals' view of a city, and I used the guide (and magazine) frequently to find new things in New York. Maybe I'm getting too old, at the ripe age of 25, to put up with a certain level of hipster-inspired superciliousness (I also complain about music being too loud in bars, sometimes), but their out-of-hand dismissal of my neighborhood was a bit of a bummer. Boo, Time Out.

I've been doing a bit of walking/jogging/slogging around the neighborhood and surrounds, and I've started to notice a few trends. Jogging is very popular, at any time of day. Probably because of the hills. If you ever want to see your life flash before your eyes, take a little sprint up the Lyon Steps. I can't say I was able to even jog all the way up, but I did, at least, make it to the top. The sharp inclines from Cow Hollow to Pac Heights are totally worth the view, by the way. On a clear day, you can see all of Alcatraz:

Pac Heights and Cow Hollow dwellers take advantage of every available space for flowers, gardens and greenery. This includes carefully maintained tree boxes in front of almost every house (right next to the street), vines and other creepers on walls, rooftop gardens, flower boxes and potted plants, and trees and bushes that trail over fences, usually with beautiful blooms.

Like these.

Or these.

A well-maintained garden is a point of pride. Sculptures optional, but arresting succulents, sprays of flowers, and different shades of green are not.

I love how this Japanese maple just flares up in the late afternoon.

There are quaint leftovers from simpler times. Like these emergency boxes (which do not appear to work).

And great little details or touches that differentiate every house.

Even houses that look the same. Doesn't this remind you of the Bo-Kapp?

There's one final thing that seems to be a must, especially in Pac Heights: having your house renovated. Which means lots of cones, city permits, signs, and, of course, port-a-potties. They're everywhere. See?

When I first moved to Cow Hollow, I was a little intimidated by the way people (mostly women/girls) dress. And I decided that to fit in, I would have to acquire a dog, which is not allowed in my building. Or a baby (plus $2,000 stroller), which is out of the question. And a Mini Cooper. OK, so the area is a bit (a lot) fancy. And I can't guarantee that you won't find young people reliving their college weekends at some of the bars, especially for college football games (last weekend was kind of intense with all the face-painting...I was glad I don't care). But let's be real: in any place with a young, highly-educated demographic (much of The Mission, too, my little hipsters), regardless of their particular scene, you're going to find twenty-somethings "reliving their college experience" in some way. That's just life. On top of Cow Hollow's somewhat questionable population, there are delicious restaurants for every wallet size, shops with unique clothes that make me want to cut up my credit card (yes, I have only one) to stop me from buying anything else, weird bookstores, bakeries of all dispositions and specialties, exciting antiques (I'm a nerd, it's already established, let's move on), and great little cafes for sitting and watching all of the people that walk by. You can hear the fog horn from the Golden Gate Bridge almost every night. And there's so much greenery, which must mean that most people here are a bit happier and healthier. Cow Hollow (and around) is great. It has everything you need. Plus a stinky port-a-potty on every corner.

Walking the Mission

2011-09-03T12:50:00.003-07:00

As I mentioned in my Foreign Policy Association post, I spent some time wandering The Mission during the week. It's a strange area, a limbo of sorts (you can decide which way is heaven and which is hell), because, of course, it's gentrifying. And it has that cooler-than-thou hipster/fringe/wannabe fringe vibe (hey, I dig the coffee and the stores too, it's OK) and then the I-live-here-and-you-a-holes-are-upping-the-rent vibe. It's just how it goes. I don't know how to fix gentrification. It's one of those urban social evils that isn't always evil. But that always ends up hurting a chunk of the community. I just want to acknowledge that.

Anyway. I took some pictures. There's a lot of awesome street art on Valencia and around as well as more formal (though no less awesome) murals.

A mural commemorating the Arab Spring.

On a building being renovated on Valencia, a nod to SF Giants pitcher Brian Wilson, the wildest beard in the MLB. Feel free to disagree (please note: I am still a Dodgers fan).

A panorama (not great, sorry) of the Women's Building mural on 18th St. Seriously boss.

And finally, a sweet street art installation. The sign reads "What do you love?" Below, people have put luggage tags on the fence listing things that they, presumably, love. A nice spot on Valencia to stop, take a breath, and appreciate the community.

Please note that the photo of Bigfoot at the top is not from The Mission. It's actually Polk St.

Adultery Fridays and the Golden Gate Three Ways

2011-09-02T12:31:00.004-07:00

So, it's Friday. Which means a new post at the Foreign Policy Association. This time, I get environmental and discuss why we need green spaces everywhere. For health. Seriously. Also, if you have time, go read the report to which I link in the post. After I read it, I immediately opened all the blinds in the house so that I could see the trees outside. If you're lucky enough to have chlorophyll outside your window, you'll possibly want to do so too. Or please, consider buying a house plant.

I've been doing some (not enough) walking/running around the Presidio and Crissy Field. So, I'd like to share three photos I've taken of the Golden Gate Bridge in various states of fogdom. In order: iPhone with Hipstamatic (topmost), regular camera (middle) and iPhone with Photosynth's panoramic business (below).

Adultery Fridays & Bison & Mixtapes

2011-08-26T14:55:00.005-07:00

I have a new post up at the Foreign Policy Association. Three short bits on why Vitamin A should be everywhere, the shackling of female prisoners during childbirth, and abuses of workers on South African wine farms (boo). FYI, HRW does not identify the wine farms that are illegally evicting farm workers, among a host of other not great practices. If I see anything else, I'll follow up. You can go read my post (please!) and/or watch this video for more info, though:

Also, I went to Golden Gate Park the other day. Did you know they have a bison paddock there (gift of Senator Dianne Feinstein, former mayor of SF, whose husband gave her the bison)? Well, now you do. See?

And I just found this blog, Turntable Kitchen, and it is INCREDIBLE. Go check out their mixtapes. I'm really digging on this one. Partially for the High Fidelity reference. You're welcome.

Unpacked & Unclear

2011-08-22T12:34:00.003-07:00

So, I'm finally in SF full-time. Probably. It's been just over six weeks of traveling, unpacking, packing, re-evaluating, re-packing, driving, wedding-ing, and eating, (of these last two, I'll throw up a few photos soon). Sometimes I think I now spend most of my time hauling things up and down stairs--suitcases, food, and various pieces of IKEA furniture, including a mattress that almost made my sister and me re-evaluate whether we wanted to share genetic material any longer. Overall, it's been great to be "home" (not sure what that means anymore...). A lot of transition and not a lot of time to think, however. But I think it'll all come to me eventually. Whatever that means.

Before I forget, I have a new post up at the Foreign Policy Association. This time, I discuss Human Rights Watch's report on maternal mortality and the public health care system in South Africa.

And here's a cute little video from Andrew Ross Sorkin and Sam Grobart from The NYT. Cute, silly, and a reminder that when you work for the world's best/whatever newspaper, sometimes you get to do stuff like this. In other words, play with smartphones, chill with 50 Cent, and drink a martini in a completely empty Cipriani.

Adultery Tuesdays

2011-08-09T16:22:00.002-07:00

New post at the Foreign Policy Association, this time on the famine in Somalia.

I considered putting the video of the first five minutes of "Get Him to Greek" in the post but then decided that it wasn't really appropriate. Except that it so, so is. Which means that I think you should go watch it. Not really safe for work (the naked bits are blurred out, yes, but there are also lots of bad words), but truly hilariously funny. Unfortunately it won't embed, so hop on over here to watch it. You will not be disappointed.

A Cape Town Reunion in Maine

2011-08-09T12:27:00.003-07:00

I just got back from Portland, Maine, where I got to visit some of my favorite people in the world. You probably know (or recognize) most of them from various Cape Town antics. A few of them are pictured above. And below.

And this is one of the many lovely views I got to take in:

Thanks to James for the second photo (the one with the whole group).

Moving In (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Fog)

2011-07-29T14:38:00.004-07:00

First things first: Adultery Fridays. New post on the House Appropriation's proposal for the 2012 State and Foreign Operations Bill. As per usual, I am unhappy with the state of things.

So, I'm officially moved into my apartment with my sis in San Francisco. We're living in the adorable, admittedly up-market Cow Hollow neighborhood (between Pacific Heights and the Marina). It's apparently the sunniest spot in the city, which is good for a sun-worshiping Southern Californian like me. I haven't done much in SF so far (including a trip up just over a week ago to get all the requisite goodies from Ikea), but this weekend promises to give me a better taste of the city, with two trips across the Bay to Oakland, several appearances at delicious-sounding restaurants, and some dancing on the docket. More to come, slowly, as I figure out how I want this blog to work going forward. So that you feel slightly less neglected, I've added some pictures of the new digs--my room and the living room. It's pretty damn nice.

Adultery (Saturdays)

2011-07-23T12:14:00.001-07:00

I head up to San Francisco next week, but it's a whirlwind after that...I promise I'll get it together. Until then, here's my newest global health post.

Adultery Fridays

2011-07-15T19:26:00.001-07:00

I'll get it together. One day. I promise. But, new post at Foreign Policy blogs. I didn't like the CIA's fake vaccination program.

Adultery Fridays

2011-07-08T07:56:00.000-07:00

I've finally gotten back on the global health blogging bandwagon. Post up here. They have a new layout over on Foreign Policy Blogs. It looks pretty cool, but it takes some getting used to. You can see all the Global Health posts here.

More to come soon...

Leavetaking

2011-06-30T06:54:00.003-07:00

Today's my last full day in Cape Town. I'm not sure how I feel. It's been a wonderful two years, but I've missed the US. And as much as I've loved the life I've made for myself here, it's never quite felt like home. I'm sad to leave and happy to go. As I'm writing this, I'm half-packed. Which feels appropriate somehow.

I'm starting to think that I might continue blogging here once I return stateside--watch this space as I figure it out. That might just be an excuse to avoid the wrap-up post. But I don't feel ready for a post on leaving. So, instead I'll continue with my dastardly plan to put up music instead of actually reflecting on how I feel. In times of change and upheaval, I always turn to Joni Mitchell. The following two songs from her album Blue, released in 1971, echo my current mood. Two for the road.

Homecoming Music #5

2011-06-28T00:41:00.000-07:00

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros performing "Home," The Troubadour, 2007. The sound and video quality are total crap, but the joy and love in this performance made it too good to pass up.

Homecoming Music #4

2011-06-27T00:36:00.000-07:00

Paul Simon performing "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard," 1992. This one is in honor of my dearly beloved car, Rosie, the Queen of Crayola.

Homecoming Music #3

2011-06-26T00:25:00.000-07:00

Led Zeppelin performing "Going to California" at Earls Court, 1975. The song was written for Joni Mitchell.

Homecoming Music #2

2011-06-25T00:23:00.001-07:00

In a continuing trend...

Simon & Garfunkel performing "Homeward Bound" at Monterey Pop, 1967.

Also: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CAT!!! Can't wait to celebrate with you at home.

Homecoming Music #1

2011-06-24T00:16:00.003-07:00

I've been listening to a certain genre of music lately. Homecoming music. Here's one.

Fleet Foxes performing "Ragged Wood" at Glastonbury, 2009.

The Weasels [Are] Closing In

2011-06-23T04:43:00.001-07:00

Second-to-last day in the office. Things are crazy. All for now.

For What It's Worth

2011-06-22T01:21:00.004-07:00

More wonderful photos on the Vancouver riot and aftermath here, courtesy of Alan Taylor's In Focus photo blog at The Atlantic. Original photo here, taken by Guilhem Vellut/CC BY.

Lazy Laze.

2011-06-21T11:44:00.002-07:00

Today I thought I'd write a rant about this article, but I got too pissed off to finish it and couldn't tell if it would still make me angry by the end. Halfway through, I couldn't decide whether I was actually angry or defensive--one of those "I'm allowed to criticize because I'm there, but you aren't a part of this world, so you can't" kind of things. Then I kind of lost steam. So, this is my post for the day. A short piece claiming that I almost worked myself up enough to write something but then got too lazy. Or whatever. Draw your own conclusions from the article. See? Lazy.

I saw a documentary on Sierra Leone (and other on a couple living with HIV in Botswana) this evening, and I'll post about them tomorrow. Need a little more distance on the whole thing. But both films were wonderful.

Reading on Africa

2011-06-20T05:23:00.003-07:00

I'd like to share three pieces today.

The first, a short bit (with lots of links) from Africa Is A Country on who's buying up large tracts of land in various African countries and displacing/evicting local people: your university may be to blame. I tell you, you don't keep an eye on academia, and they're all saying one thing and doing another. It's like Columbia's Manhattanville expansion on a larger scale with fewer legal protections--at least that one went through the courts before eminent domain.

And a really nice, moving Op-Ed from Winstone Zulu on how people with disabilities are often overlooked when it comes to sex ed--resulting in that group having an HIV prevalence rate up to three times higher than the general population (I'm not sure where those stats are from--Zulu is from Zambia). In Sierra Leone, we worked with a pregnant woman who had a severe disability from polio--legs that literally bent backwards--and health workers and others at the hospital would express surprise when she came in with her round belly. As if people of all shapes, sizes, cultures, abilities, etc. don't have sex. I always found that expression of surprise weird.

Finally, FINALLY the UN has endorsed human rights for the LGBTQI community. FINALLY. The resolution was put forward by South Africa, which has been legislatively, if not culturally, (to the Wikipedia!) at the forefront of gay rights since the introduction of the new constitution in 1994. Unsurprisingly but disappointingly, Nigeria (along with Russia, Saudi Arabia, and others) voted against the resolution, which passed 23-19 (Burkina Faso and Zambia abstained, as did China). Gay rights are going to be an uphill battle in many (most?) African countries, I'm afraid. On the bright side, as much as the Obama administration is sketching me out with its unprecedented crackdown on leakers, it's doing a good job on the gay rights front. Apart from the marriage thing. Oh well.

Adultery Fridays

2011-06-17T08:42:00.003-07:00

New post up on Global Health about lead poisoning in China. Do you like all my uplifting posts about sunshine and rainbows, which I find set the tone nicely for the weekend?

This is my two-week mark. I leave in exactly two weeks. In fact, in about two weeks from this precise moment, I'll be headed for the airport. That's all I have to say about that.

Youth Day: Commemorating the Soweto Uprising

2011-06-15T04:20:00.003-07:00

Sam Nzima's photo, above, of Mabuyisa Makhubo carrying the body of twelve-year old Hector Pieterson as his sister Antoinette Sithole weeps beside them, is the most iconic image of the Soweto uprisings.

Tomorrow, June 16, is a South African public holiday to commemorate the students who participated in the Soweto Uprising in 1976. They were protesting a recently-enforced government requirement that instruction take place in Afrikaans. The Bantu Education System, installed under Apartheid, intentionally provided an unequal education to blacks and prepared them for lower-tier jobs in the homelands or laboring for a white grootbaas ("big boss" in Afrikaans). Following an economic recession in 1975, the Apartheid government was spending R644 per white student and R42 per black student. That year, it was announced that half of all instruction would be taught in Afrikaans (the other half was to be in English), despite the fact that many students and teachers did not speak the language. Afrikaans was also considered the language of the oppressor.

Students were increasingly politicized following the foundation of the African Students' Movement in 1968, which became the South African Students' Movement (SASM) in 1972, and students in Soweto, a township in Johannesburg, organized to boycott and march on June 16, 1976, in protest of the Afrikaans requirement. The South African police barricaded the students' marching route and ordered them to disperse, throwing tear gas canisters. The students refused, and police then began shooting into the crowd. In the riots and chaos that ensued, anywhere from 200-500 were killed (or more...the record isn't clear), buildings associated with the Apartheid government were burned and otherwise defaced, and riots spread across the country. Students from the white University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg marched to protest the government's killing of children. The Soweto Uprising was one of the watershed moments of the anti-Apartheid struggle, cemented the role of students in the fight for freedom, and put further international pressure on the Apartheid government. It's pretty amazing, when you think about it, that a bunch of children were able to influence the course of history and willing to put their bodies in the way to stop an oppressive regime.

More here.

Music Day

2011-06-14T05:23:00.002-07:00

It's gorgeous out today. So gorgeous that I needed to put my AC on in the car this afternoon. You get your share of icky, damp, howling days in Cape Town, but one beautiful day like this makes it worth it (and let's be real, there's no snow, so why should I ever complain?). But I've been listening to Adele a lot recently (I realize she's been a big deal for a while now, but I'm a martian at this point, let's let it go). And Adele is a wintry artist--perfect to listen to in front of a roaring fire with a cuppa or to get you all steamed up before you head out into the cold. Whatever your definition of "cold" may be. So, here's the video for her mind-blowing "Rolling in the Deep."

The NYT Bonnaroo coverage this year really made me want to go. And I've already asked around about this, but why do you think Lil Wayne was wearing that backpack on stage? I love the rest of that slideshow--the people in the illuminated costumes reminded me a bit of Afrika Burn and the awesome glow stick outfits some Burners were wearing.

Also, Ozomatli played at Thacher's reunion this year--my sister's 5-year and a member of Ozomatli's 25-year. That's kind of bomb.

Finally, President Obama has taken away the .gov-domain website of the Fiddlin' Foresters--the folk (bluegrass?) band of the US Forest Service--in an effort to cut government waste. Although one can't help but applaud the President's goal, this seems like pretty small potatoes. Plus, how cool is this song? Or the one below (and shades of Joan Baez, anyone)? That harmonica bit that goes into "Oh, Shenandoah?" Fantastic. Music with a nice message about conservation. Oh well. I guess we have to cut the lefty stuff to cut the righty stuff. Compromise shmompromise.

Walking the Bo-Kapp

2011-06-13T02:10:00.010-07:00

Two weekends ago, a couple of friends and I did a walking tour through the Bo-Kapp, the brightly-painted, traditionally-Muslim community that sits between the City Bowl and Signal Hill. Mostly comprised of descendants of the "Cape Malay," or slaves brought to work the gardens in the old Cape Colony (which was a re-stocking point for the Dutch East India Company on its trading routes to the East), the neighborhood is closely knit and steeped in its unique traditions. While visiting the kramats, or shrines, and cemetery in Bo-Kapp, a very nice man gave us a brief history of the Muslim saints buried there. He'd come to pay his respects with his son. You can hear the muezzins calling the faithful to prayer when hiking Lion's Head. The area is most famous for its brightly-colored houses. It can be a bit dodgy in some areas, and I've heard that strangers are not always welcome (an understandable reaction to gentrification), but overall, I found the people to be welcoming, which is surprising and commendable in any neighborhood that gets overrun with photo-snapping tourists. Above, the oldest mosque in Cape Town.

The oldest house in the Bo-Kapp.

Chiappini Street

View of the city from the Bo-Kapp cemetery

Global Plan to Eliminate MTCT Launched!

2011-06-10T02:34:00.002-07:00

This is very, very exciting news. UNAIDS, in concert with 25 countries and 30 organizations/corporations (including mothers2mothers), has launched a global plan, Countdown to Zero, to reduce new infections of HIV among children (mother-to-child transmission, MTCT) by 90% and AIDS-related maternal deaths by 50% by 2015. The plan calls for countries to strengthen community involvement, such as a "mentor mother" model for PMTCT. A mentor mother, according to the report, is "a mother living with HIV who is trained and employed as part of a medical team to support, educate and empower pregnant women and new mothers about their health and their babies’ health." So great to hear.

Of course there are things to be concerned about. The current funding environment is volatile, to say the least. These goals will require a massive coordination of efforts at the local, country, and global levels from a multitude of actors who haven't always played nice in the past. And the plan, of course, could go further. But this is the UN (plus 25 countries and 30 NGOs, foundations, civil society orgs, and private sector companies) we're talking about. In those terms, this is pretty bold.

For more reading, see the m2m press release. Full report here (it's a PDF).

Adultery Fridays

2011-06-10T02:32:00.001-07:00

I copped out a bit and did another link post over at Global Health. Whatevs. It's got some good stuff in there, though. Enjoy!

Eesh.

2011-06-09T05:49:00.002-07:00

That's something I'll miss--that South African expression. Eesh. Anyway, I'm short on inspiration, so I thought I'd try something new. Here's a poem I wrote back in November 2009 that's been rolling around in a folder in my computer.

Devil's Peak

We were walking
Out on the mountain slopes
Before the ground became too steep and rocky
And the old burns were there
Twisted blackened limbs
Trunks cracked and broken like dry skin
Pines and stands of eucalyptus, whispering.
We ducked under barbed wire to watch the quarry
Pied crows collared white, small birds chattering but unseen.
The grass was tall and still wet, old ruins creaking on the mountainside.
Lilies of some kind
All in a bunch.
I pointed over the bay to the grey spots
Where the clouds had blocked out sky from water.
You said that was not right,
But I didn't care.
I liked my way better.

At a loss...

2011-06-08T05:18:00.002-07:00

...for what to write today. I'm trying to post on each weekday of this month, theoretically the last month I'll have this blog. Or not. Haven't decided. Anyway, I thought I'd send out a little links post because, well, that's all I got. Without further ado...

Lady Gaga accidentally called Anna Wintour a bitch, thinking the "Anna" texting her was a friend. That's kind of funny. As is Ms. Wintour's cold response. It reminds me of what my first grade teacher said in response to something very inappropriate being shown or told during Show and Tell (I can't for the life of me remember what it was, though): Thank you for sharing. Via The NYT.

Two great pieces on "Weinergate" with a splash of "Not Blake Lively" (H/T to Dlisted for that clever nickname): one from The NYT (duh) and the other from Pajiba. FYI, I'd call both Dlisted and Pajiba semi-NSFW (not safe for work), the former much more than the latter.

Very, very exciting news that the UN now recognizes that Internet access is a human right! Yay!

In a much weirder vein, someone is imitating (quite well, I might add), my dear friend James Allen Sligh on Twitter. The real Jim Sligh and the impostor. Or was it the other way around? Is this all a Banksy-style hoax? For you to decide. I just wish I'd come up with it first.

Absolutely wonderful piece from Jhumpa Lahiri on writing in The New Yorker. I'm not worthy.

I've been listening to this song. A lot.

This is old, but gosh darn is it hilarious. Reminds me of a simpler time when I was sitting on a lawn in NYC listening to a dictator say there were no gay people in his country. Except this is much funnier. Sorry it's flipped...but I don't get Hulu here, so sometimes we have to go outside of the law.

That's it. Happy Wednesday!

Especially as a (former?) historian...

2011-06-07T02:43:00.002-07:00

...this is very concerning to me. A prime example of why Wikipedia is not a great source. And why Sarah Palin scares the crap out of me--this reaches a Dan Quayle level of worrying. At least The New Yorker is having some snarky fun with it. At least we can still laugh. Because sometimes I think it's too deadly serious.

And then, sometimes, I remember that home isn't much better.

2011-06-06T06:11:00.002-07:00

It looks like the The New York Times went out of its way to have the most depressing articles ever over the weekend--first, the one on the mob killing of a Zimbabwean man, which I posted about on Friday, and now there's this piece of investigatory journalism on New York state institutions for the developmentally disabled and the horrible abuse by staff that go on at some of them. The opening is heartbreaking, as it details the death of Jonathan Carey, a 13-year-old boy with autism, at the hands of one of his caretakers, as another staff member watched, and then it just gets worse. It's depressing and infuriating to read and difficult to accept that any institution, and especially one that offers care to the developmentally disabled, could allow abuse like this to occur. And especially so in the US, where we theoretically have the resources to provide expert care to all people. A reminder that while things might be easier for me back in the US, it's a far from perfect society, and there are so many things that Americans should be aware of, as citizens and strive to change. I'm not a voter in New York State, but I'm wondering how other states are faring. I'm tired of seeing the most vulnerable in our society continually kicked to the ground.

And so you don't think it's all doom and gloom, here's a great little video by Jessi Arrington at TED talking about how all she packed for the TED conference was 7 days' worth of underwear and then bought everything at thrift stores. Eco-friendly, charitable, and fun. Just a little ray of sunshine from a very happy person.

Adultery Fridays

2011-06-03T05:39:00.001-07:00

The new post is up on Global Health. Enjoy!

Things I Won't Miss

2011-06-03T01:29:00.002-07:00

Despite the charmed life that I live here, South Africa is a difficult place. Although the media panic (mostly from UK rags) leading up to the World Cup was ridiculously over-exaggerated--the whole stab-proof vest debacle comes to mind--safety and crime are real and pervasive issues here. And mostly, the victims are poor and, given the strong racial-economic divide in this country, black.

This is too complex to lay out fully in a blog post, but xenophobia is also a huge issue. Other Africans, particularly Zimbabweans, pursuing the idea of a better life in South Africa are discriminated against, blamed for crimes, and sometimes attacked or killed (more on the state's terrible and potentially unlawful treatment of Zimbabwean asylum-seekers here). The New York Times put up a video today about an innocent Zimbabwean man who was beaten to death by a mob in an informal settlement outside of Johannesburg. Warning: it shows actual footage of him being beaten.

Barry Bearak's accompanying article (for the NYT Magazine), lays out the issues. Millions of people live in poverty in townships and informal settlements, often without running water, electricity, adequate food, or the glimmer of hope for a job. The huge wealth disparity here is deplorable: there's nothing like driving past the townships from the airport and seeing a Maserati dealership on the way into town. The police are often ineffective or just non-existent, especially in townships where they don't have back up. Two policemen were killed the other week in Cape Town, and it's a somewhat regular occurrence. Violence and crime and anger are widespread, but there are no easy answers for any of this. Mr. Bearak writes:

South Africa, a nation of 50 million, is the richest country on the continent but has one of the world’s lowest levels of employment. Most of the jobless have never worked, and a third of the employed earn less than $150 a month. Whites, who make up 9 percent of the population, have an average income seven times that of blacks. But poverty is not necessarily a predictor of crime, and while apartheid was horrific, other nations have suffered long histories of oppression, writes the South African criminologist Antony Altbeker, whose book “A Country at War With Itself” examines the common explanations for the nation’s violent bent and finds most of them pertinent but none entirely adequate. However you weigh the impact of apartheid, he asserts, violent behavior has somehow become a “cultural phenomenon” for a significant minority of young men, “an expression of their selfhood.” Violence now feeds off its own energy.
To protect themselves, wealthy South Africans compete in an arms race with their neighbors, the elevated walls of one leading to even higher walls next door. One in 14 newly created jobs is for a security guard.

But it is the impoverished who are most vulnerable to crime, poor people living in the midst of poor criminals. Under apartheid, the police were enforcers of state repression, and they are yet to be fully trusted as protectors. Mob justice is most likely to occur in the nation’s informal settlements. In Diepsloot, where a sea of shanties covers much of the expanse, police officers are often derided as bunglers at best and crooks at worst. Courthouses are a journey away, and the due process of law seems an impractical ideal. Many of the poor, living without electricity and using communal taps and toilets, feel the necessity — the burden — to police themselves. I was commonly told: The more horrible the death of a criminal, the better it deters the rest.

I don't know to write about this. I don't feel right doing it, as a foreigner who's been here a measly two years and hasn't integrated well into South African society, as a white person, as someone with a job and some money. I've stopped and started and deleted and re-written a version of this post many times. And never hit the "publish" button. It never feels comprehensive enough, or clear enough, or correct enough. I don't know what to think. It's easy to say it's one thing, or it's another. It's easy to say all of this is overblown, or, you know what, maybe we should all have guns. That violence has become a national identity, or that this is all about Apartheid, or that this is the fault of the state to provide support and housing and good police. That media coverage of this nature perpetuates South Africa's reputation in the world as a crime-filled, scary place, or perpetuates the idea of Africa as a violent, fly-and-disease-ridden continent. It's all true. It's all false. I don't know. There's no answer.

All I can say is, I'm not going to miss this aspect of South Africa. I know that the US is far from perfect, and has wealth disparity and violence and other problems of its own, but I'm not going to miss this. I love so much of South Africa, the warm and wonderful people I have met, South Africans and expats alike; the breathtaking natural beauty of this country; the life I have made for myself here, but I'm still not going to miss this. As my friends and I were leaving Bulungula, a paradise on earth in many ways (and home to many, many people living in abject poverty), the driver turned to me, as we discussed the upcoming local elections, and told me that without the lodge, he would have no job. That there were no jobs. That he would never again support the ANC, the majority party, the party of Nelson Mandela and of the anti-Apartheid struggle for freedom. South Africa, the land of broken promise, he said.

Things I'll Miss About Cape Town

2011-06-02T00:13:00.005-07:00

It's still cold out, but this is what I woke up to this morning.

Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks.

2011-06-01T04:53:00.003-07:00

It's freezing outside and inside, since Capetonians don't appear able (or willing) to accept that winter actually happens here--Los Angeles, you ain't--and most of us are spending time huddled around a fire, a space heater, or an oven (or are resorting to taking long baths at night). It's grey out, the wind has been ripping off the mountain, and the rain alternates between spitting and pouring. There's no other way to describe it--it's just raw out. Last year, we had the World Cup to distract us. This year, there's little respite. But here's a brief one: Sam Rockwell dancing.

H/T Pajiba. You guys really are the best.

Virtual cookies for the nerds who know from when the title originates. Googling is grounds for disqualification.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Dylan!

2011-05-24T01:53:00.004-07:00

So, Robert Zimmerman turns 70 today. Everyone's writing about it. I'm sure he doesn't like that very much (or maybe he does; one can never tell with Bob Dylan). I could (and tried and then deleted my efforts) to go on and on about why his music is important to me, but it's just too complicated to explain. It's been a very long love affair--from the first time at Monica Ros (pre-K-3rd grade) that Seabury Gould, our wonderful music teacher, had us sing "Blowin' in the Wind."

So, instead, two videos. The first, from D.A. Pennebaker's 1967 documentary Don't Look Back, a young Bob Dylan (with Allen Ginsberg and Bob Neuwirth lurking in the background) with placards on a New York street for "Subterranean Homesick Blues." The second, his Oscar-winning "Things Have Changed," with a fun set of celeb cameos--the cast from "Wonder Boys." Fun fact: both times I saw Dylan live (and presumably, ever since March 2001), he's had his Oscar on stage with him. Fun fact #2: according to Rolling Stone, the last year in which he didn't appear in public was 1977--that's someone who's kept working hard. And if you want a really good, recent live appearance, check out his suite with Mumford & Sons and the Avett Brothers at the Grammys here.

Adultery Fridays

2011-05-20T06:42:00.002-07:00

New post. Not my best, but I still think it's an interesting idea. When I'm a mogul with my own foundation, roads will be mine.

Afrika Burn

2011-05-17T03:02:00.005-07:00

Following our time on the Wild Coast, friends and I headed to Afrika Burn, an art festival in the desert modeled after Burning Man in the US. Here's a taste of what happened.

Loaded up the minibus with everything we'd need to be self-sufficient in the Karoo--water, food, shelter, Russian Bear.

Paying our toll for the Huguenot Tunnel.

Allie's an impressive hula hooper. I completed the most revolutions I ever have (maybe 5) and have now retired.

See that white thing sticking out of the basket? A recently-married bride (and groom) take a celebratory hot air balloon ride.

This was a dance tent at night (it also had swings inside of it...which unfortunately meant people got kicked in the head if they weren't careful). The inhabitants of the supporting camp were known as The Succulents.

Jamie's got sunset on her breath.

The Vuvu Lounge, a club on wheels, and the Lotus at dusk.

On the left side, my all-time favorite thing at Afrika Burn: the van with the tall bamboo poles and the flags. I called it Howl's Moving Castle because it felt like a Hayao Miyazaki illustration that came to life (if you haven't seen Spirited Away, run, don't walk, to your nearest Netflix).

Mal and Al take in our final sunset at AB.

More photos here.

(Not) Finding Myself

2011-05-16T05:24:00.004-07:00

First, quickly, new post over at Global Health. Blogger was down all Friday, so I couldn't put the link up til now.

Expat Aid Workers put up an extremely à-propos post today: #56 Finding Themselves. I put my feet back on US soil on July 2 in the California Republic. I will be jobless, barring any miracles and actual effort on my part to find a job. And after a long stint of avoidance regarding my next steps, I've realized that I actually don't know what I want to do. I don't know what the next step should be. I've jumped from academia to law to medicine to public health to human rights to writing to teaching to film, and that's just the short version of my thought process over the past three years (or more, though as I told my boss last week, I think it's safe to say that President of the United States, astronaut, and Indiana Jones can be struck off my career list...sadly). So, when I return, I'll be heading to San Francisco to live with my much-more driven and ambitious sister, fresh off her first year of law school (right out of college like a real adult person!) and about to finish up her lease on a one-bedroom just between Nob Hill and the Tenderloin. And although this is not necessarily a permanent decision (I'm thinking more of a soft landing), New York will have to wait just a little while longer. SF may be the second-most expensive city in America, but I think probable funemployment in NYC would just kill me financially at this present juncture.

And so, that's the next step. Where I go from there is a mystery. Maybe it'll involve golden idols, moonwalking, and a big veto stamp of my very own. I kind of hope so.

Easter Travels: Bulungula on the Wild Coast

2011-05-15T23:52:00.004-07:00

Over the Easter (and other) holidays, a group of friends and I braved a 20-hour bus ride from Cape Town to the Eastern Cape to spend some time at Bulungula, an eco-lodge on the Wild Coast. Here are a few pictures from our time there.

There were cows and other livestock roaming free everywhere--our driver called cows, goats, sheep, horses, and donkeys "the Transkei's Big Five." Transkei is the old, Apartheid-era name for a part of the Eastern Cape, a former "Bantustan" that was designated "independent" of South Africa. Although today it is beautiful and in many ways untouched by modernity, there is also significant poverty.

The girls take in the view.

We participated in a "women's power" activity--part of the lodge's income-generating tourism activities for locals--which was, in all honesty, a whole lot like all the village experiences I've had. Which means extremely awkward, somewhat boring, and lost in translation. We carried water on our heads, had our faces painted, gathered firewood, and ground corn. Probably not an experience I'd repeat, but it was certainly instructive.

This was a serious labor of love from my friends. Being the most prone to motion sickness/barfing, they let me have the front seat of the shuttle that took us from Umtata to the lodge (3 hours or so on really, really bad "roads").

This little gentleman was very cheeky and would tickle attack without advance warning.

The pictures really don't do justice to how stunning it was.

Following delicious an Easter egg hunt (for Allie's birthday), we curled up by the fire and waited for dinner to be served.

Incredible sunsets, followed by a sky full of shooting stars, every night.

More pictures here.

Blerg

2011-05-11T08:16:00.002-07:00

I've become so neglectful. I'm sorry. I'll blame this most recent lapse (i.e., not getting my pictures up this week) on a lovely bout of food poisoning. If anyone wants a rundown of all the restaurants to avoid in Cape Town (though, curiously, not Dakar or Bo/Freetown), please let me know. My friends' and my devastating culinary experiences have racked up quite a list of no-go zones.

Adultery Fridays

2011-05-06T05:42:00.003-07:00

I'm terrible. Photos will go up. It's been a crazy week.

New post over at the Foreign Policy Blogs Network Global Health Blog.

To tide you over, two pictures of me, courtesy of Ms. MelBoz. Above, the computer hand at Afrika Burn. Below, my attempts at being a good !Xhosa housewife (spoiler alert: didn't go very well).

Touching Down Back on Planet Earth

2011-05-03T02:53:00.004-07:00

My vacation is over. Photos to come soon. Once I no longer have a tent set up in my apartment (it's drying), I have some clean clothes and a full fridge, I've waded through the current event developments over the past week and a half, and my furniture is returned to me (long story), I'll share. But it was all very wonderful.

Until then, here's a ridiculous and somewhat depressing trailer for Clifton Shores (sorry, couldn't figure out the code to embed the video on this post), an upcoming reality show in Cape Town set in the extremely affluent Clifton area. Based on what I'm seeing and reading (check out the post at Africa is a Country, where I first found all the links), I think the show is going to say a lot about the South Africa's unique culture of conspicuous consumption, extreme wealth disparity, racial attitudes, and a whole host of other things. It also will say some uncomfortable things about my own reality of living in South Africa as an American expat. Though I don't wear high heels as often as these girls appear to do.

Adultery Fridays and Vacay

2011-04-22T04:00:00.001-07:00

I have a new post up at Foreign Policy Blogs.

I know I've neglected you. I promise to come back with loads and loads of pictures when I return from my vacation here and here. I'm sure there will be a story or two. The former requires a 15-hour bus ride across the country, followed by a long layover at a Wimpy's and then a three-hour shuttle ride. The latter requires at least a four-hour drive on a bad road (in a minibus!), apparently the only tent pegs successfully sunk in the ground are rebar, there's a lot of wind, and yeah, I think we set art on fire.

Catch you on the flip side.

Adultery Fridays

2011-04-15T08:01:00.002-07:00

New post over at Foreign Policy Blogs. Enjoy.

And, so you have something nice too, Patagonia streams awesome new music. This column by Roger Cohen was fantastic. And kids still care about books.

Happy Friday!