Skip to content

Monthly Archives: January 2010

Through a Scanner, Lightheartedly

The only events I am routinely early for are airplane flights, so here I sit like an idiot, spending the first 2 hours of my vacation sitting in an airport terminal. BART to SFO was a breeze—I know opponents of the Oakland Airport Connector point to it as an illustration of how BART always underestimates […]

These Feet Were Made for Walking

I certainly didn’t set out to circumnavigate the city of Piedmont last Saturday, or to walk a half marathon through Oakland’s hilly northeast quadrant. One thing leads to another, however; that’s just the way life works—or my life, at least. You put one foot in front of the other, and then you do it again—a […]

Right Place, Right Time

I was lucky to be walking by Lake Merritt when a rainbow was hovering over the Oakland hills this afternoon. Having the moon hanging out above the right side of the rainbow was just a bonus: If you like rainbows, you may want to click through for a larger version at Flickr. (There may be […]

When standing on principle means defending the status quo

I was talking to a politically active friend about a month ago, as the Senate was about to pass their version of health care reform legislation, and I told him I was nervous that the Democrats in Congress, being Democrats in Congress, would find some way to fumble the ball one yard from the end […]

It’s seen fire and it’s seen rain

I mentioned, back in mid-December, my amusement at finding an abandoned couch blocking 12th Avenue—whoever dumped it apparently couldn’t even be bothered to leave it on the side of the road. The sofa was moved to the sidewalk within a few hours, but there it has remained ever since. More than a month later, it […]

Partners in Help

There are few better ways to spend one’s money than to give it to Partners In Health. That has long been true; this week it’s truer. While PIH is now a large organization operating in many countries around the world, it began in Haiti, and still has a large medical footprint on the ground there, […]

01/11/10

Regular blogging will have to wait until I fully recover my laptop from the malware that took it hostage last night, but I didn’t want the day to pass without honoring the palindrome—a particularly elegant palindrome if you ask me, but I’ve always admired the minimalist aesthetic (ironic, since I always surround myself with clutter).

In the Beginning Was the Word

“The beginning, the spark. an ending count to rains that feLL aLL too quickly/now the blues of her dress. they cover my eyes and all that I SEE.” Author unknown, although it may be the same person who wrote the declaration of despair (now painted over) which I photographed in August less than a block […]

Local Paper Tars City with Knee-Jerk Headline

Since when is it okay for the Oakland Tribune refer to Oakland as “crime central” in huge font in the lead front page headline? A lot of people complain that the media are biased against Oakland—that they focus too much on Oakland’s crime and not enough on the good aspects of Oakland, that they depict […]