May tides of cheer wash over you this holiday season ... hmm. It almost works.

In this case the artificial pink scented "pine" has been felled on the driveway of the do-it-yourself carwash. Looking down at its pinkness, I was thinking of the day-glow optimism… Read full post »

The tents are such an icon. Each day the rumors fly, and twice the police have moved the tents back into a small section of land by the San Francisco Ferry Building.

The image of them is burned into our imaginations. A local painter was working… Read full post »

 After this week's Glenn Greenwald speech in San Francisco, there was a gathering of Salon community folks.  Here are a few snapshots, some posed...

some randomly informal in party mode... 

Altogether, a lot of talk and… Read full post »

The wet season has begun again.

California is a strange wet/dry climate like that of Italy and coastal Chile. San Francisco has three summer months of nearly no rain at all, and another two -- May and September -- that are almost that dry over… Read full post »

I'd like to re-introduce myself today as a member of the Salon team, and now as part of the Open Salon team. Hi!

I have been right here from the very start of Open Salon, through the beta teting stage, but only lightly since those days, with a little visit now… Read full post »

Not every sand castle gets until the tide turns! Kids go "climbing" on the scultures after the annual sand castle competition at Drakes Beach, Point Reyes National Seashore.

Why Drake's? The white cliffs in the background are thought to be what the English explorer spotted on… Read full post »

This time of year there is a touch of sorrow in the market place, since we all know the season is passing.

Not long ago the strawberries were everywhere, and now we look for other comforts. I wish I wanted more than a single fruit,… Read full post »

The little girl was walking swiftly with her family when suddenly she said. "whoa!"

 She stopped to stare at the 70-year-old graphic image, powerful and intense.  In a minute she was off to catch up with her family, headed towards the garish gift shops of San Francisco Fisherman's W… Read full post »

 Here comes Irene. Take care of yourself if you are near the path.

 I keep thinking of the last weekend in August six years ago, and the realization of what was happening in New Orleans in the weeks that followed.  The restoral of the WWOZ radio station was a huge part… Read full post »

I don't know if this man was actually laid off someplace, but that was the mood as he walked his box of odds and ends down to the commuter train.

I blurred and rendered this photo a little softer (and perhaps more anonymous) for… Read full post »

How important is it to partition our lives? It's typical to have more than one social context in modern life.  This is why dumping all of my posting presense into Twitter, for example, would not work. (And why Twitter itself gives the option for back-channel one-to-one messages.) This week… Read full post »

The most famous of the original Salon.com user blogs is about to become a movie. A real movie, as in a major motion picture. Nora Ephron as director/screenwriter. Meryl Streep as Julia Child, Amy Adams as blogger Julie Powell, and not to forget the husbands, Stanley Tucci as Paul Child… Read full post »

Recently I returned from a wonderful, heart-warming, musically and culturally rich trip to New Orleans... and what am I posting in my flickrstream? Photos of empty buildings in the Lower Ninth Ward, a place that was once a poor African American neighborhood with… Read full post »

The night after Thanksgiving, Steve and I went to City Hall for the walk to the Castro District for the Harvey Milk 30th Anniversary Memorial march.

The entire tribute was moving, and at the end of the evening one of the young activists working on the event played… Read full post »

I figured this out from context, yipee! 

http://open.salon.com/showcontent.php?tag_id=18773

I want to play.  Here's mine-- is this enough resolution?  (maybe  didn't get it all from the context!)

  Read full post »

Walked though Union Square S.F. just as the lights were finished on the big tree

 (originally uploaded by me  on flickr as fotogail.)

Have a good holiday everybody!   

I'm not big on celebrating Christmas, but I sure love the lights… Read full post »

At emotional and intellectually rich times like these, I crave  context and honest feelings,  two of the things I love Open's sister-community,  The WELL for.  I was moved by stories we told each other last night and this morning. 

We cried.  Starting midstream,  w… Read full post »

A 30 second impressonof early voting, Sunday in San Francisco.  There is only one early vote location, City Hall.  About 300 people were in line outside the building, maybe another 100 in line inside in the hallways, at about 4:00 pm. The wait at the time… Read full post »

" Here is a photo I thought you might appreciate that I took yesterday in suburban Cincinnati while going door-to-door for the Obama campaign. All the Obama signs in the neighborhood had been stolen.  -- Jayson Wechter"

The large handmade sign says: You can steal our… Read full post »

The mighty hunter hides in the bush and contemplates pouncing.

  Read full post »

After i read this post i thought about how the limitless white expanse of the post box invites confession. Perhaps the poster is alone, late, setting off bravely like a cross country skiier into that white space.

It calls for epiphanies and revelations.

The idea that this is… Read full post »

Scoop Nisker, a radio commentator, author and performer, said it for years: "If you don't like the news, go out and make some news of your own." The Media Conference on The WELL cites it in its banner.

Being alive and active in the world is one thing,… Read full post »