October 2007

Another beautiful day and more violence inching its way closer to us. Our car was parked in front of our house from 8p -9:30 this evening when the drivers side window was smashed. This was the second car vandalism in front of our house in 10 days. Previously a Honda’s rear window was violently broken.

Since Joel was heading out later to meet some friends, we  didn’t bother to put the car  in the garage.  So, within 2 hours of parking, it was vandalized. Oh well, It could have been worse, at least we didn’t get caught in any gunfire!

Well, actually, it did get a little worse.   Part II came, after cleaning up the mess, parking the car in the garage, filing a police report, and posting to our bernal safe watch list.  Since  the car was full of broken glass, Joel decided  to make the trek out via public transit.  This meant he was hopping the bus to the BART station.

About 15-20 minutes after Joel left, I received a rather disturbing text message from him.  It appeared on my phone, next to my keyboard at exactly  the same time as I was browsing CL for possible neighborhood exit strategies.   Joel’s text message:

"not my evening. Now there is a guy on the bus threatening the driver claiming he has a gun. Bus is stopped."

Not wanting to disrupt the bus with a loud ring, I texted back. We exchanged rapid fire messages for several minutes. I was trying to asses the situation for a potential call to the police (for the second time in an hour)  while Joel was trying to communicate the goings on as they happened.

As it turned out, the bus driver literally threw the guy off the bus. Apparently  as this was happening, half the passengers on the bus had already called the police.  A block or so after the man was thrown off,  all the passengers gazed out the bus windows towards the west.  A loud fight was occurring across the street, blood spilled all about.  Still we texted until Joel got to his destination,  already too burned out to hear Tomas DJ a set at midnight. 

Too much for one evening.  The violence in our neighborhood feels like it is still escalating at least  as much,  if not more so than when I posted about this issue, as did Joel,  earlier this year.

As it stands,  the lure of other locations already tease us. Right about now is when I recall exactly how I felt when I expressed that, " apart from random suicide attacks,  Tel Aviv felt a lot safer than the US."

Not sure how others feel in ’safer’ neighborhoods in SF, around the bay and country, but it does feel like this place is going to blow at any moment. The tension outside is so intense, I feel it so  strongly as I just walk down the street, bike around or pick something up at the store. People are on edge like never before and they’re ready to pop.

After a very long hiatus, I’ve started back at mysore-style morning practice.  During my multi-year break from regular practice, I’d try out a studio randomly or return to an old, much less-favored led approach to ashtanga.  Led courses have never really been to my liking as much as mysore, self-practice just at the break of dawn.

Amazingly, I’ve been incredibly patient with the change of flexibility within in my body. It is very much like being a beginner again, but in a very refreshing way.   This time around I  get to enjoy each micro-movement thoroughly and appreciate each time my body opens up and extends just a little bit more than before.

What is especially sweet is the ritual and how it’s tied into my work day.  Oddly enough, I don’t really wake up any earlier than before — for the past year, I’ve been up at 6a daily, or 5:30, or even a bit earlier.  It can be difficult to manage sometimes because I like to get up early for practice, but I naturally stay up late.

The evening before practice, I lay out my clothes for cycling to the studio and work, the practice itself, and finally work clothes.  I wake at 5:30 have a small cup of oatmeal, half a cup of coffee, and pack up.

The studio only allows mysore students to bring their bike in and shower following class.  To be clear, the shower is completely makeshift and has only recently been rigged. It’s outside, in the back, simply a shower head attached to some exposed hot and cold pipes. 

The great outdoors here is not even a ‘backyard’ in the classical sense, but more of a small open space sequestered by other residential buildings. The outdoor shower has two curtains to draw for some semblance of privacy, a rubber mat on top of concrete for flooring and of course, it’s gender-neutral.  The only protocol is that if you hear the water running, do not disturb, someone is taking a shower and will be done shortly. At first I was a little hesitant when I learned about the outdoor shower. Now it’s a highlight of my day.

This morning as I waited for the shower, I caught up with an old yoga  acquaintance from years ago. He was packing up his bike and  also commuted to work on it directly from the studio. We laughed at the detail involved in the planning and packing of clothes, towels, toiletries, etc.  My friend nicely concluded by saying:
   
"It’s like camping everyday;  it never feels like a work day"

That’s it, pretty simple stuff.    Nothing better than practicing for an hour and a half  and  following  up in the fresh, cool air and hot water outside. Then to round it off, a nice mellow bike ride into work.

Incredible how limitations can be purely self-inflicted and how things which are often strongly desired are also quite often within reach.

Thanks for opting in to the ‘08 presidential race!  This will definitely make the ride a lot less dreary over the next year.  A new edition of the  ThankYouStephenColbert blog should be in order.

In his own words:

"I don’t want to be president. I want to run for  president. There’s a
difference," the host of Comedy Central’s "The Colbert Report" said in
a television interview.

    — Colbert says his presidential run is no joke, Reuters

The entertainment value will be unparalleled and nearly unprecedented.

This does bring to mind  Jello Biafra’s  1979  San Francisco mayoral bid. Something which also started out as a joke.   Even during the process, his campaign consisted of pranks galore. Yet  Jello still came in 4th in the race, out of 10 candidates.

Here’s a  stretch — if you or someone you know is a registered voter in South Carolina, download the petition, sign and share with twenty of your  SC-voter-registered friends. Put the six-degrees magic to work on this one.

We all thought Schwarzenegger was joking around in 2003

The Times ran a great cover story today, “An Internet Jihad Aims at US Viewers“. The article discusses the level of sophistication Islamic Jihadists have mastered in media production and distribution.

After reading this a few things have come to mind:

The article details an American-bred, 21 year old who “produces his blog from his parents home in North Carolina, where he serves as a kind of Western relay station for the multimedia productions of violent Islamic groups.”

If anyone is naive enough to believe our country is not fertile ground for waging violent wars, here’s the case in point. No to mention, we already have Oklahoma City in our collective memory — however shadowed it might be by 9/11. And, not to forget, just how shocked and dismayed the Brits were after learning the tube bombings were the plot of homegrown jihadists. Ditto for the Glasgow airport incidents this year.

The Times piece continues to detail the jihadists commitment to the video medium:

“Dahia al-Maqdassi, 26, a Palestinian who said he produced insurgent videos in Iraq two years ago, said, “In every city in Iraq they had a little office where someone did film operations.” He  described his “media section” as a house near Falluja where 6 to 10 people worked. “We finished the film and then sent it to jihadi Web sites,” Mr.
Maqdassi said.”

For better or worse, this was the article I read at 6am this morning.  No matter how much Arts & Leisure or Business  I read following this article, the impressions of this piece persisted with me throughout the day.

The imagery of a massively networked, high-tech operation sat in the corner of my mind as I read about layoffs 2k.0,  domestic print publication and site redesigns and finally, YouTube’s “video fingerprinting” to fight piracy.

I continued thinking about  Al Sahab, Qaeda’s  “media production arm” and read more about this into the evening.  The Washington Post’s “The New Al-Qaeda Central” captures it well,  when referencing a discussion with Muhammad Amir Rana, Director of the Pak Institute for Peace  in Lahore, Pakistan, a research group which studies militant groups:

“If you want to stop al_Qaeda on the communications front, you should concentrate on their IT manager instead of Osama”

Compare Al Sahab’s level of tech strategy, “network effect”, and customer experience with some of the domestic media-related news today:

• AOL to cut workforce by 20% (expected, but a significant difference in scale and strategy)
• Latest YouTube Content ID tool (1 year after the acquisition, several lawsuits later)
• BusinessWeek mistakenly gloats about their print redesign (18 mos. in the making…)
• Newsweek launches a major site redesign

and last but not least, The Onion brings it all home with:

• NASA announces Plan to Bring Wi-Fi To Its Headquarters by 2017

Truly, the state of US media is barely holding its own.  The old-school folks (and some of  the new kids)  are struggling to maintain a little brand cred in a new world order of citizen journalists, bloggers,  ugc and antiquated business models.

Granted, YouTube might be finding its way, but the others seem lost like children in the wilderness.  I can only believe these companies have paid some smart, dedicated employees and consultants who strategically advised these businesses against their own demise for many years. Alas… status, ego and greed sometimes have the upper hand. Okay, often have the upper hand.

With the exception of a handful some very creative people doing amazing things with technology in the US,  it seems like team jihad are more savvy in their exploitation of media technology production and distribution.  If only some of our most recognized businesses could adapt and reconfigure themselves, both organizationally and technologically, so easily.

Imagine if Al Sahab were to advise some of our flailing businesses on tech strategy, engaging the audience, and of course, the “network effect”.   Clearly, a lot of US businesses could learn a few tricks of the trade.

So unreal… you just can’t make this shit up!

Last week I was delighted to read Analee Newitz’ AltnerNet column discussing the contemporary version of the Bionic Woman television series. Since I have not watched the new version,  I appreciated reading about the substantial differences between this and the classic version.

Of course the generational and time differences between the two shows would be many.  One could not repeat the awesomeness and near-perfection that "The Bionic Woman" of the 70’s represented to girls and women all over the US. 

However time may have its way with things,  I would never suspect Jaime Sommers to be in a dead-end job and entirely dependent on a man for her survival.  I guess the women’s lib factor was dumped in favor of a simulated freedom.  According to Annalee’s review, "Modern Bionic Woman, Retrograde Feminism"  this simulation might project strength, but at the core proves nothing more than a chick looking to score a wealthy man to support her aspirational lifestyle fantasies.

Sad, but whatever happens to the fictitious Jaime Sommers of today is no matter.
The classic character already ignited a generation of young urban girls
who never fully comprehended that a world could exist where they
could not do exactly as they chose. 

As a reminder (and to be fair)  I have not seen the new show. To be clear, I don’t watch broadcast or even time-shifted TV, with the exceptions of the BBC World News, The Colbert Report and our local news on occasion. Maybe because I can’t sit still or because I overdosed on TV growing up. Or maybe it’s because, in the words of you know who, "Television made me what I am" — quite literally. It was our bread and butter, our meal ticket in the 70s and 80s with both my parents gainfully employed and immersed in writing shows.

At any rate, my heart skipped a beat  when I first found out about the remake of the series.  I was just a little kid running around the playground at full speed during ‘76-’78, thinking about super-human powers, comic book heroes and even more inspirationally, fuck you heroes.  I recall watching the Bionic Woman with deep admiration and great loyalty. These episodes preceded neighborhood bike races and skateboarding after school.  Always the smell of warm, sun-roasted asphalt passing by in a blur with the Bionic sound effects spiraling outwards into the smoggy haze.

At the height of the show’s popularity and my ever-lasting crush on the Bionic Woman,  my parents were invited to a dinner party at Lindsey Wagner’s house.  I was all of 7 years old, possibly a senior child of 8 years  and  *begged* my parents to join them for the  dinner party.  However, crying and pleading got me nowhere. 

For my last proposition, I let my folks know that I’d settle for just riding with them to the Bionic Woman’s house.  My parents could go in for the dinner and I’d be happy to wait in the car.  Still, I couldn’t move them — nothing was getting me to this party.

I could not understand why they would not take me.  In retrospect — Sex? Drugs? Rock and Roll? It was 1977, possibly 1978.  As people were getting down at CBGB’s or Studio 54 in NY,  getting pissed on the Clash and Sex Pistols in the UK,  many Angelenos were experiencing their own wilderness in the mighty canyons. Anything could have taken place.

Finally, without me, my parents drove off to spend the evening with my most favorite, idolized,  crushed-out person in the world.  I had a small melt down and eventually cried myself to sleep.

At some point late at night, Michael and my Mother woke me up to show the 8×10 black and white glossy head shot of the Bionic Woman they brought back for me that evening. It is signed:

"To Jennifer   
Happiness -
Lindsey Wagner"

What kills me is that when we drove over Coldwater Canyon after this party, my mother pointed out Lindsey Wagner’s house. To this day, when I drive over Coldwater I look at that private road,  chain link fence and have a nice laugh.

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the  decision ruling Allen Ginsberg’s "Howl" to be of significant artistic importance, WBAI radio in NY, planned on broadcasting the poem yesterday.

However, In fear of violating FCC regulations and receiving fines amounting to the loss of the entire business, WBAI refrained from reading the poem on air.  Instead the station posted a reading of Howl online at the Pacifica news network’s site.

Shame on the FCC for establishing such draconian measures and inciting such fear to quell freedom of speech in 2007.   Especially after a court ruling 50 years ago,  and  similar failed court injunctions to censor the art of Robert Mapplethorpe, the NEA-4, etc.  in the 80’s and early 90’s.

Terribly sad to see these tactics of censorship return to the forefront of our culture after such a rich history of legal precedence.

More:
‘ACLU Howls Against the FCC Destroying the Best Poems of a Generation‘ (ACLU Press Release)
‘Howl’ in an Era that Fears Indecency (NY Times)

update:

bummer, Macy’s corrected the copy.  The original product description included the text below.

——

“…This shit really boost your workweek look!”

Check it out  (via Reddit)