Life Along First Street and Other Places

Lately, the weather has been terrific around here. I drink coffee on my deck overlooking the marina, watching the dog walkers below. Well, I don’t need to watch everything. Amazing how much of that stuff gets picked up.

One evening, I walked along the pier at the end of First Street. Fishermen were lined up, casting, waiting. Another night from upstairs at , I saw the sunset, the lights coming on along that same pier. Hard to beat.

Last Saturday night, poets were part of the Art Walk. Joyous Gardens is a small floral shop behind the Plein Air Gallery. They’ve made the patio a really pleasant place and that’s where we read. Though it was a little hard to be heard over the motorcycles that vroomed by frequently, people stopped, listened, stayed or wandered on.

When I first arrived at and went out back where we were to read, I thought we might be reading to each other, but people kept coming out, staying, taking the words in and showing their appreciation. Lots of people. Good energy. I loved the movement of the crowd.

There’s a large wooden sculpture by out there that’s well, vast and attention grabbing. A globe is on the bottom. On top of it is a man, naked and crouching, his testicles just above the north pole. It’s an illustration of the financial and corporate takeover of, pretty much everything. Similar to what Senator Bernie Sanders talked about on Bill Moyers. 

Miss Representation, a film written and produced by Jennifer Siebel Newsom (yes, Gavin’s wife) that premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival is being shown Thursday, September 20th at 7 p.m. at Rizza Auditorium, at the California Maritime Academy in Vallejo. Stories from teenage girls and interviews with politicians, journalists, academics and others speak about gender-biased societal and institutional barriers and how to overcome them. The film will be followed by a panel discussion. Lots of sponsors of this one: Benicia Unified School District, AAUW, League of Women Voters, Solano Community College, Soroptimists, and Vallejo City Unified School District, as well as the California Maritime Academy.

Some other edgy things you might be interested in: The Dangers of N.S.A. Domestic Spying, is a tale of our government turning the surveillance it has used on foreigners on us. Take a look—it’s about eight minutes.

And if that doesn’t leave you sufficiently unsettled, watch this one on PBS—it’s one and one-half hours: 9/11: Explosive Evidence – Experts Speak Out