|| default || § ¶Katrina: PBS Reported it in 2002
A friend pointed out that back in 2002 the PBS TV program, NOW with Bill Moyers predicted what would happen to New Orleans if a category 5 hurricane hit the area. The transcript is at pbs.orgToo bad our government officials don't watch PBS. They might learn something.
Here's an excerpt:
DANIEL ZWERDLING: We've tried to find scientists who'd say that these predictions of doom could never really come true and we haven't been able to find them. The main debate seems to be, when the country is facing different kinds of threats, which ones should get the most attention? The federal government has been cutting money from hurricane protection projects. Partly to pay for the war against terrorists.
DANIEL ZWERDLING: Do you think that the President of the United States and Congress understand that people like you and the scientists studying this think the city of New Orleans could very possibly disappear?
WALTER MAESTRI:I think they know that, I think that they've been told that. I don't know that anybody, though, psychologically, you know has come to grips with that as-- as a-- a potential real situation. Just like none of us could possibly come to grips with the loss of the World Trade Center. And it's still hard for me to envision that it's gone. You know and it's impossible for someone like me to think that the French Quarter of New Orleans could be gone.|| default || § ¶Back from Seattle
Back from a brief visit to Seattle. Some images are now up on my photo blog.
|| default || § ¶So I Started A Photo Blog : All I've Seen
I've often thought about what I should do with the 7,000+ slides
I've taken since I started taking pictures around 1964. There are some
really great pictures in the 13 slide boxes. Every slide is numbered,
and I have a hand-written catalog. The slide collection starts in 1964
and goes all the way up to 2002. After that it gets a bit iffy, as I've
been taking more digital pictures with a little Nikon 3100. But still,
that's almost 40 years of photos!
So what I've decided to do is
assign myself a task, a mission: randomly upload a picture to my
website as often as I can, whenever I can. And to make this as easy as
possible, I've spent some time learning how to use Movable Type to
create a photo weblog.
Now, this text weblog that you're reading uses Pivot, but I decided to use Movable Type for the new photo blog because I wanted to learn something new.
I
spent some time getting the templates to look the way I wanted them.
This is not going to be a blog in the usual sense, but an expanding
gallery of pictures. The main page displays the most recently uploaded
photo. Clicking on the photo goes to the previous one, etc. Using the
templates and some CSS, all the pages are formatted the same and I
don't need to worry about HTML.
So far I only have a couple of pictures uploaded, but it's a start.
Take a look: all i've seen :: a photo blog
|| default || § ¶Luc Ferrari -- 5 Feb 1929 - 22 August 2005 R.I.P.
Another sad passing. Our dear friend, Luc Ferrari. See also this.
|| default || § ¶Robert Moog (5/23/1934 - 8/21/2005) RIP
Sad to report, but Bob Moog, synthesizer pioneer, passed away today. He had been fighting a brain tumor for many months. For more information, there is a website.
|| default || § ¶I AM NOT KINKY!
This IS NOT ME
It is true that Kinky Friedman's real name is the same as mine (Richard, not Kinky). But that's where it ends.And now it's in the New Yorker, yet. Sheesh. That's all I need.
There are a lot of Richard Friedmans out there. One I know about is a biblical scholar. I sometimes get email asking questions about the Kabbalah. Another is a lawyer. There's even another one where I work. In fact, I've found that there are even other people who go around using rchrd as an internet name. That I find disturbing.
But, alas, no one is unique in the world.
So what if Kinky is running for Governor of Texas? Maybe he should relocate to Sacramento and run here in California.
|| default || § ¶Mills Concert Series Announced
The Fall season concerts at Mills College (Oakland, CA) have been announced. And it's quite an amazing list.
Terry Riley, Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster, Shoenberg, Milhaud, Frith, Cowell; Italian double bass virtuoso/composer Stefano Scodanibbio playing Berio and Scelsi; cellist Frances-Marie Uitti with Fred Frith, guitar and Chris Brown, piano, and Mills students playing more Scelsi (it is his 100th anniversary after all); and much more!
|| default || § ¶Mother's Vigil in Berkeley
There were hundreds of small, spontaneous vigils in support of Cindy Sheehan all over the Bay Area tonight at 7.30pm. Victoria and I chose the one outside the French Hotel in Berkeley (across the street from Chez Panisse) because we were going to be in that neighborhood anyway.
It was amazing how MoveOn.org managed to organize these events online. Enter your zip code and a mileage and all the events within happening within that radius are displayed. Sign up for any of them. This event at the French Hotel had almost 300 people signed up by 5pm.
It was a very quiet affair. Most people chatted or were silent. The occasional 60's songbook could be heard ("We shall..."). Someone even played taps on a trumpet around 8pm.
The crowd was mostly greying. Too few young people. A handful of Berkeley police officers were stationed in a parking lot next door, and they had already set up barricades to keep people out of the Shattuck Avenue traffic. It was a friendly affair.
|| default || § ¶A Very Brief Vacation
We're off for 5 days at Sea Ranch. About 120 miles north of San Francisco. South of the town of Gualala.
12 miles of coastal meadows and rough beaches. With houses you can
rent. Just to do nothing... just take walks, read, cook, eat, and
sleep. This has become our annual tradition, with friends from the Bay
Area and East Coast who gather here in August. I look forward to this
break every year. There will be no blogging till we get back on the 15th.
UPDATE: Pictures from Sea Ranch are now here.
|| default || § ¶I Go To Yet Another Avant-Garde Concert
I
hope I'm not just turning into an old curmudgeon. I don't get out much
these days. Too busy, etc. But I did feel the urge to drive over the
bridge tonight to attend one of SFSound's concerts at the ODC Theater
on 17th in S.F. I give SFSound lots of applause for carrying the banner
and the tradition of sit-down concerts of new (and not-so-new) music...
what was once called "Modern Music". And, I'm happy to say, the ODC Theater was almost full. Pretty good for a Monday night!Tonight's event started with a solo clarinet improvisation by SFSound's founder, Matt Ingalls. (I think he prefers to be called ma++, but I'll stick with Matt.) For me, this was a repeat of his performance at The Hemlock Wednesday night. And I didn't like what I heard then, nor tonight. This sort of reed-splitting hysteria lacked any introspection and sputtered off into some delirious incoherent scream worthy of a spoiled 6-year-old. I was surprised that someone seemingly so hip would try to reproduce the overused blabberings from previous avant-gardes. Nothing new here. So retro, I was baffled.
Solo instrument improvisation is a special art. In some cultures it's the highest art. For example, the flute playing of Hariprasad Chaurasia. Solo improvisations must be compelling and draw the listener into the web spun by the performer. Unfortunately, Ingall's playing merely cataloged all the aggressive extended performance techniques he's mastered, and only served to separate this listener from the performer while wondering about his state of mind. There is more to read...