Last night I logged into my You Tube account, and discovered ALL my videos had received nominations for their best video competition! I've worked so hard and for so long on my videographer skills, this was such a nice thing.

AND THEN, this afternoon as I was eating a… Read full post »

Earlier this week, a friend I greatly respect shared a letter from her Shaman about the new era we entered into this week. I know, I already lost most of you the moment I said the word Shaman, and hey, I understand, I think I lost myself there too.… Read full post »

Recently I was chatting online with someone I met on a personals site. He had read in my profile that I'm a musician, and told me that he loved to listen to people sitting and playing music, that to him playing music is a God given talent.

Something about… Read full post »

There's been a small controversy regarding public nudity in San Francisco's Castro district for a while now. I had heard rumblings about it, but until last June hadn't seen first hand what it was all about. Basically, at Jane Warner Memorial Plaza, which is located at Market and Castro, the epicenter… Read full post »

 

I was watching Clint Eastwood, who is one of my all time favorite actors, make an absolute ass of himself, fumbling enough to win the Charlton Heston Sad Old Man award, and thought fondly of the previous night of the National Convention Of Straight White People.

I'm sorry, this… Read full post »

In case you came in late to the whole Chick-Fil-A controversy (I did), CEO Dan Cathy recently affirmed the companies anti gay marriage position, and among other things said: “I pray God's mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we would have the au… Read full post »

 

 

Sometimes what I think I'm going to write about, and what I think will happen at an event, are things that don't happen, don't take place as I imagined. Yesterday, President Obama came to Oakland on a fund-raising trip. The local media made it sound like a lot… Read full post »

 

 

I grew up in a white conservative suburb outside of San Francisco. Concord was still a pretty rural place when my family moved there in 1962. Though our neighborhood seemed pretty good at the time, as an adult I've come to understand it was a fairly rough white trash… Read full post »

 

I knew going into the Occupy Oakland May Day Strike that it could be a rough day. I kept trying to talk myself out of going, and as it was, I couldn't get myself to show up until 11:30 AM. I had a feeling of dread; I was pretty sure… Read full post »

 

 

A few days ago I saw a tweet claiming that an affinity group of Occupy SF called SF Commune would be “liberating a building” on April 1st. I clicked on the link and learned that this appeared to be a real plan, and not a hoax April Fools joke.… Read full post »

 

Monday, March 5 saw two different, yet complimentary protests regarding education that came to California's State Capitol, Sacramento.

At 10AM, an annual event called the March In March took place. Thousands of students, along with teachers, parents, and concerned citizens, marched fr… Read full post »

 

  

There were a couple of attractive sounding Occupy actions in my area for Valentine's day. One of the things that sounded enticing was they were both very peaceful sounding. They made for a good day off, and a productive way to spend Valentine's day as a single person.… Read full post »

 

Valentine's day can be a pretty strange, weird and charged day. Not really a holiday, and it's not much fun if you're single. I've been single about 5 years now, and it's been quite a progression. The first year, I went into a See's Candy store, bought 1.5… Read full post »

 

 

Aquapy Lake Merritt

I spent a lot of Monday on the couch, sleeping, replenishing and decompressing from the weekend. After the long day of Occupy on Saturday I was beat. I'm not complaining, and it felt like a productive kind of tired. But, there was a lingering uneasiness, a… Read full post »

 

 

Saturday, Occupy Oakland had their largest action since the Port Shutdown in December. It was “Move In Day”, and the intention was to Occupy a vacant building. I wasn't really sure how I felt about this action, partly due to the necessity of the Occupiers having to ke… Read full post »

 

 

Friday, Jan 20^th was a day of national Occupy Protests named Occupy The Courts. These demonstrations were in protest of corporate personhood, and took place at Federal courthouses in about 80 cities, including Oakland and San Francisco. In San Francisco, an ev/… Read full post »

 

Last week's Republican Debate was hard to watch if you're gay. At least it was for me. I quit midway through Mitt Romney's condescending response to questions about gay marriage. What those guys are all saying is I am lesser than them.

It's a morality play based on scriptures,… Read full post »

 

 

January 8^th was the 1 year anniversary of the Tucson shooting that killed 6 people and wounded 13 others, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Throughout the country a “Too Many Victims Lost To Gun Violence” Vigil took place to remember that, in at least 68 cit… Read full post »

 

  

Yesterday morning, I woke up at the unnatural hour of 4:30 AM to get to the first part of the Occupy Oakland shutdown of the Port Of Oakland. This was a part of an attempt to close all the ports on the West Coast. It took me a while… Read full post »

 

Thanksgiving. Thankfulness. Gratitude. What are we blessed with? What am I blessed with?  Finding myself in the midst of upheaval, at one of several ground zeros in our broken country, I still take moments to pause and reflect on the goodness in the world, the kindness I have found in… Read full post »

 

 

Saturday afternoon Occupy Oakland had a march. It wandered through downtown, to a school in the Grand Lake district, then back downtown to establish a new camp. This time the camp was set up at 19^th and Telegraph in an abandoned parking lot.

The march was a fine… Read full post »

 

This past Tuesday night, I went to Occupy Cal to show my support for a short while. I arrived just as the students were finishing their general assembly and they had decided to set up tents on the steps of Sproul Hall later. After the violence that had been… Read full post »

Have you ever spent time waiting for someone close to you to die? Then you know the feeling of being mired in an unknown void, where one doesn't know if it will be that weekend, that afternoon, that hour. A sickened feeling deep in your gut, that premonition that something/…

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