Earthquake!

Yesterday, I went for a walk after work, down Market and then Mission to The Embarcadero. Upon arrival, I noticed a sidewalk extending a good distance into the bay and became interested in taking a walk. I wondered whether or not it was public, but then I saw a few joggers and a guy on a bike exiting it and I made my way towards the end. I got to the end, soaked in the beauty and turned around to face the city. I shielded my eyes from the glaring sunlight and walked back listening to Thom Yorke's jarring sound on my iPod. It was both idyllic and foreign in some fashion and I felt like a tourist in the city of San Francisco. At this point, I thought about all the San Francisco-centric images, songs and moods and tried to feel like an outsider. All of sudden, it hit me: you live in earthquake country. We may be more famous for that than for anything else. I have fear-pangs from time to time and I imagined the earth rocking, jolting the bridge and everyone's screams and cries. I thought about how interesting that would be, were it to happen.

I returned home, ate a sandwich, listened to some music and went to sleep about midnight. At approximately 4:42, was rudely awakened and I felt sick. Something I didn't understand was occurring. Was I dreaming? Was it the big one? A horrible rumble, as if I was in a jeep with bad shocks in the mountains. But I was lying in my bed. EARTHQUAKE! It shook and then petered out. Then, an second rocked my bed again.

I was frightened, but I drifted back to sleep, and forgot it, like a dream. Then, after arriving at work, I read the paper:

From various news sources:
-An earthquake jolted San Francisco Bay area residents awake early Friday, breaking glass and rattling nerves.
-The earthquake was centered about 2 miles northeast of downtown Oakland on the Hayward fault.
-The actual epicenter was in the Oakland Hills near Joaquin Miller Park and the Mormon Temple and had a preliminary magnitude of 4.2 according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
-It could be felt for up to 10 seconds on both sides of the San Francisco Bay.
-According to the USGS, 4.2-magnitude quakes are felt indoors and may break dishes and windows, and overturn unstable objects. Pendulum clocks may stop.
-This quake was strong enough to set off alarms and shatter windows. Pacific Gas & Electric reported 4,600 people in Oakland without power.
-"This is the biggest quake we've had in awhile," reported Rufus Catchings of USGS. "This was a strike-slip mechanism," he said. "These give very strong, if you're nearby, initial jolts from the (primary) wave and then rattling for a couple seconds from the (secondary) wave. It's possible that the temblor was a foreshock that could be followed by stronger seismic events," said Catchings.
-Several business owners in the Montclair District, about 2 miles from the epicenter, arrived at work today to find their merchandise in shambles.

I will be moving my John Coltrane picture from above my bed to a different spot. I don't need that smashing my head in and shattering.

Current music: Roxy Music - There Is Something

Canadian music

It has recently come to my attention that Canada has amazing music. When I was younger, all that I knew of Canada's music was Neil Young, Celine Dion, Shania Twain, Alanis Morrisette, Barenaked Ladies and Our Lady Peace. Only one of those turned out well...... I am now aware that Leonard Cohen, The Band and Joni Mitchell are from Canada and that's definitely better, but that was a while ago.

Today, it continues with bad acts, but they are much more popular in the US: Avril Lavigne, Nickelback, Simple Plan, Sum 41. Canada seems to be as big here as England is!

Now, it has hit me how much music I have that I love that's from Canada.

Black Mountain (opened for Coldplay, from Vancouver)
The Dears (got it from a friend from Vancouver, from Montreal)
Propagandhi (punk/hardcore, grew up listening to them, from Winnipeg)
The Weakerthans (evolved from Propagandhi, saw them live at 17 at the Nile in Mesa)
Godspeed You Black Emperor (silly name, but good music, from Montreal)
Hot Hot Heat (dancy rock, from Vancouver)
Nelly Furtado (dance-pop a la Madonna, from Victoria)
Rufus Wainwright (wrote a popular song for the Moulin Rouge soundtrack, from Montreal)
Arcade Fire (my vote for best new band, just got into them and makes me think that something new is happening in music, from Montreal, fronted by a Texan)

Innumerable other bands that I don't know, but have heard of, are also from Canada. I may be checking them out:

The Pink Mountaintops (related to Black Mountain, from Vancouver)
Broken Social Scene (from Toronto)
A Silver Mt. Zion (related to Godspeed You Black Emperor!, from Montreal)
The New Pornographers (from Vancouver, fronted by a Virginian)
Death from above 1979 (from Toronto)

So, Montreal is the artsy city, Vancouver the eclectic one and Toronto is largely absent...... hmm.....

All in all, I'm sure these cities have always had good music, and I am just left to wonder "why now are they getting recognition here in the us?" Anyway....

Current music: Arcade Fire - Intervention

Sicko

I would like to sum up "Sicko" with one word, "DUH". It's a great movie.

Also, as I walked home along Geary from the movie, I saw the various drug addicts, homeless people and even a dead guy lying on the pavement. The policeman was calling it in. A store owner was frantically trying to distance himself from it and meanwhile, there was A DEAD MAN ON THE SIDEWALK!

What would FDR think of us now? "The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." Well, our world is failing that test miserably.

The beginning of the end for Bush/Cheney?

A response by Senator Leady and Congressman Conyers to White House Counsel Fred F. Fielding concerning the White House's invoking of executive privilege in its refusal to reply to the subpoenas conerning the Attorney firings. This provides insight into the coming actions of Congress against the Executive Branch if (and when) it claims Executive Privilege concerning the subpoenas in the NSA-wiretapping case (served two days ago):

Dear Mr. Fielding:
...We had hoped our Committees’ subpoenas would be met with compliance and not a Nixonian stonewalling that reveals the White House’s disdain for our system of checks and balances.
We urge the President to reconsider this step and withdraw his privilege claim so the American people can learn the truth about these firings. If he is unwilling to withdraw these claims, we call on you to provide more specific information to facilitate ruling on those claims and our consideration of appropriate action to enforce our subpoenas. [...]
Our Committees rejected your "take it or leave it" offer of off-the-record, backroom interviews and severe limits on the scope of our requests as unacceptable, more than three months ago. Since that time, despite our many attempts to narrow the dispute and begin to obtain the information we need, you have not made any effort to work with us on a voluntary basis. Even now, in response to subpoenas authorized by our Committees, you have again merely restated your initial, unacceptable offer. Your proposal is not commensurate with our exercise of the broad investigatory power of Congress. [...]
Please provide the documents compelled by the subpoenas without further delay. If you continue to decline to do so, you should immediately provide us with the specific factual and legal bases for your claims regarding each document withheld via a privilege log as described above and a copy of any explicit determination by the President with respect to the assertion of privilege. You have until July 9, 2007, at 10 a.m. to bring this and any other information you wish to submit to our attention before we move to proceedings to rule on your claims and consider whether the White House is in contempt of Congress.
We were disappointed that we had to turn to these subpoenas in order to obtain information needed by the Committees to learn the truth about these firings and the erosion of independence at the Justice Department. We are even more disappointed now with yet further stonewalling.
Whether or not we have the benefit of the information we have directed you to provide by July 9, we will take the necessary steps to rule on your privilege claims and appropriately enforce our subpoenas backed by the full force of law.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-VT, Rep. John Conyers, D-MI

Pride Not Prejudice

In the last week of June, 10's of millions of people around the world stand up and say no to homophobia. It is at this time of year in order to commemorate the Stonewall Riots, in which gay people on Christopher St. in Greenwich Village for the first time fought back against homophobic police brutality.

For reference's sake: Largest Pride event in Europe: Christopher St. Day Parade in Köln/Cologne (1,000,000+); Largest in North America: Pride in San Francisco (1,000,000+); Largest in the world: Parada do Orgulho GLBT de Sao Paolo (3,500,000). (Oh, and Phoenix has one too in April at Steele Indian School Park and a parade along 3rd St.) Moscow's and Belgrade's festivals have been banned due to violence.

Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of John Edwards, was the keynote speaker at a breakfast to kick off this year's Pride festival in San Francisco. She came out in full support of gay marriage. Moreso even than her husband. This is monumental. This is the first time a major candidate or major candidate's spouse has ever supported marriage equality. Bravo. Of course, Bloomberg participated in New York....

Yesterday was one of the best days I've had in a long time. Agnieszka came over, dressed in white with a self-made rainbow flag taped to her dress. We went down the hill through the Tenderloin to Market St. As we got close, we could hear the crowd. We arrived at Market and Jones and we found a spot behind a gay couple that had made the journey from Dallas for the parade. We started watching, and this, not in the actual order it happened, is what we saw.

There were the obvious characters present: men, women, transgender and third-gender people, etc. dressed in all types of colorful and/or leather costumes, which ran the gammut from extravagant to er, um, minimalist. A few men skated by on rollerblades naked.

Then, of course, there were the politicians: Gavin Newsom the mayor; both gay supervisors as well as three or four others from the city; the city DA; the Police Commissioner; the County Sheriff; lesbian CA State Senator Carole Migden and gay CA State Assemblyman Mark Leno; Mike Gravel, Democratic Presidential Candidate from Alaska.

There were the pet (haha) causes: PETA; Greenpeace; the Humane Society.

There were the political groups, including Ramsey Clark's A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) Coalition with a float which included a Cheney and a Bush in a cage snarling at the crowds. The caption read: STOP WOMEN-HATING, THEOCRATIC, FASCIST HOMOPHOBES. Several groups held signs reading: IMPEACH!

There was the ACLU, Human Rights Watch, PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), and also the Latinos de Ambiente waving flags of all spanish-speaking countries.

But the most interesting parts were the groups you would never expect: groups of trash collectors; police cars flying the rainbow flag and hundreds of policemen and policewomen holding the hands of their gay and lesbian partners; countless companies or product-lines including Tylenol, Macy's, Google, Wells Fargo, the San Francisco Chronicle, Delta Airlines, Comcast, AAA and Diet Pepsi all had floats. AND THE CHURCHES: Evangelicals for Gay Rights; Unitarian Universalists; Methodists; Reform and Orthodox Jews; and the Catholics. A line of Catholic Priests waved gay flags as they traversed Market St.

The highlights that brought us all to tears were: Gays and Lesbians against Deportation; People for Equal Adoption Rights; Marriage Equality Now! This last group included a float of couples who have been denied marriage rights and the time they have been together. The most touching were two men at the crest of the float, easily in their 80s with a sign that said: "Joe and Bill. 59 years. Denied."

I'll leave the parade with the captions from some of the best signs:

-"Don't Deport Our Partners" (from the group for immigrant rights)
-"If God made you, we want you" (from the evangelicals)
-"We love our 2 gay fathers" (from 2 little 6 yr. old girls from the group for adoption equality)
-"We love our son, even if he turns out to be straight" (same group but from 2 fathers)
-"Love is not a sin" (from the Catholics)
-"Closets are for clothes" (from Carole Migden)
-"Who says God didn't create Adam and Steve?" (from the Methodists)
-"My boss knows I'm gay" (from Macy's)

After the parade, we met up with Connor and his band again and sat in front of Civic Center and watched Gay and Lesbian Hip-Hop and a gay punk band I used to listen to from Lookout! Records (Green Day's original label) called Pansy Division.

Agnieszka and I discussed throughout the day how this parade would have been viewed in Poland. She is sending pictures of the parade, including our blatant critique of Bush and the massive crowds in support of gay rights to her parents. She is proud to be here in San Francisco and I was proud to go with her and to stand next to her at the festival.

1 million or so people came from all over the world to celebrate in the de facto world capital of gay rights.

Today, I couldn't possibly be prouder to be a San Franciscan or an American.

Bob Dylan - Corrina, Corrina