a modern Morrissey?

thanks Timmmi for breaking my brain on the Playa in 2005

he was really wonderful at GAMH a coupla weeks ago

So here we go... some vomiting of previous drama and then on to the good stuff (I hope!) And i am putting them onto the appropriate DATES using DATE OUT OF ORDER so that they are collated properly.

the are all tagged Heart Broken... but some are available only to my friends, for obvious reasons

A FakeCrack Easter Egg
- press up,up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, Enter key, then right click, left click then press up and down and magic circles will appear. Put this as your status if it works. After you follow all the steps scroll up or down...then the circles will appear. The only way to get rid of them is to refresh the page.

- found by Joseph Pred

I started riding in 1983

Thrak is my 2nd Triumph Thunderbird Sport. The first, Flick, was a 98 - one of the rare 800 yellow ones brought into this country. I LOVED that bike.... when i woke up from a month-long coma after totaling myself and the bike (run off the road by a drunk driver) I was reportedly asking about my kitteh and my bike. And sobbing when i realized Flick was gone.

In May I bought Frak, (my 7th bike) a 99 ... red (bleah) and i will paint him yellow when i can scrounge $500. I have no idea what they did to the engine, there is no difference in the Triumph Tbird Sport 900cc engine from 89 - 99 (and it is the same engine as the Speed Triple) but it's so fast i have to make sure my pants have some sort of traction ! The test ride was the first time in two years I'd been on a bike again. It's bliss. But i dropped it at a standstill and broke the right footpeg, and the mirrors it came with - clip ons, SUCK so i am trying to find another left mirror. CA BMW Triumph gave me a free right mirror. And a left that doesn't fit - yet. And when switching the nifty but oh-so-Ducati single seat back to the café racer double seat, i left a couple of brackets off and need screws to put it back on (that didn't come with). that's all - it runs! i have bored out one of the footpegs from my 2nd Honda for temporary function. And then the rear lights went out and i am hopeless at electrical. For now.

I do all the work on Bike #2. Even dropped the engine from Mercy, 2nd Honda which is now just parts, into Justice (below) in 2004 by myself. Using a shop manual written in Japanese, badly translated and meant to be a reminder for mechanics who have already done it. And built with chopsticks - so i'm lucky i have small fingers ... heh

Bike #2 is my 3rd Honda Nighthawk S 700 shaft drive. This one is now an Art Bike...
Justice... a flame-throwing motorcycle dragon
http://www.pureeviltm.com/justice/playa/2002/pages/playa_draka_2002.htm
http://www.pureeviltm.com/justice/playa/2002/pages/IMG_2793.htm
http://www.pureeviltm.com/justice/playa/index.htm
http://www.pureeviltm.com/justice/decom01/index.htm

she does tricks....
http://www.pureeviltm.com/justice/playa/2002/pages/justice_chrishardt.htm
http://www.pureeviltm.com/justice/playa/2004/index.htm
http://www.pureeviltm.com/justice/decom01/pages/113-1340_IMG.htm

Motorcycles ... they're in your blood, or they aren't

it's true... so enamored have i been to FakeCrack that I have temporarily abandoned my favorite BLAB forum. Blah blah blah ... i'm back.

I have been keeping journals and writing random crap while i've spent the last 10 months rollercoastering between insanely happy in the company of my friend I met in Dec in Baja, and realizing he's "Not in Love with me, and never will be" as he declared on the Playa this year at Burning Man. Heartbroken.

But we are best friends. And want to be that. And trying to get there with him in constant company was clearly not working. So we agreed to cease and desist until I can be his friend and be in the company of his new girl (he met on the Playa) and stop pining for the fjords.

How long is THAT gonna take? Wisdom says until i find another love / lover. But I'm so damned picky and naive that *that* ain't likely to happen anytime soon. So I have emersed myself in projects (posters, my still-unfinished book, website design, motorcycle maintenance and a little bit of zen) until i get my heart straight and my head back in balance. I'm getting there. Been working on it since Burning Man. But when he stayed at my house for 2 weeks or more at a time since then, i kept falling mroe and more...

Now i have a chance to be a friend - forever! yo! unlike his girlfriends who never seem to last more than a year - if not just a few months.

if they won't talk to you, refuse to see you or respond when you need a friend & now say that hanging out with you is BAD for them ... then what makes this a friendship? The pit in my stomach begs to differ... spinning again... Thank god there's GELATTO!

There's a pit in my stomach that reaches up to my heart. I feared that it would go this way right from the start. There's plenty of songs that say it better than me. When they've traded up and moved on past and leave you down on your knees

alas, i know the answer ...

just a few ...off the top of my head. One-hit wonders don't count.


Hold Your Head Up - Argent

Stuck in the Middle with you- Steelers Wheel

Oh Daddy - Adrian Belew (LOVE him with Bowie, Crimson, whatever, but as a solo artist he ain't all that)

Africa - John Coltrane

Whiter Shade of Pale - Procul Harum

The Matter - Boom Bip (Timmmmi can tell you more, but Boom Bip leaves me cold... while this song broke my brain in 2005 when Timmmi played it on the Slug)
there was this one song by Al Stewart i loved, but it wasn't anything ever played on the radio

Tales Of Brave Ulysses by Cream

A Horse With No Name - America

Avenging Annie - Andy Pratt

I'm a Believer - the Monkees

Alberquerque and I Think I Love You by the Partridge Family

"Behind the Sun", Breaking the Girl, and rollercoaster by Red Hot Chilli Peppers (i am SOooo over them)

Mmmm Mmmmm Mmmm Mmmm, by Crash Test Dummies

Palace of Versailles - Al Stewart

Forever Young (not counting the covers he did - which accounted for most of his hits)
(that said, RevCo does an awesome version of "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" and after hearing Tom Waits' original Downtown Train, i could live without RS's version)

Crazy Horses - the Osmonds

500 Miles - Proclaimers (not that i've ever heard ANYTHING else they've ever done)

Don't Come Around Here No More- Tom Petty (shuddup, Bishop)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7gWzWqJu1k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRf-nHH_63g&feature=PlayList&p=FBC45F9F1428F747&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=37
I Go Insane by Lindsey Buckingham

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc80X4ecnjw
Live - Lightning Crashes
I wasn't impressed with the band until I saw them live at the Warfield (free tix) ... they were totally PUNK and the lead singer had his shirt off, and his glasses off and he was HOT. he looked like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKy8OCxa0UM&feature=related
and come to think of it, i love this song too
ok, nevermind, this should be removed from the category of Band I Hate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_daJjRrv0A&feature=related - now they moved to überCool



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY8APrYU2Gs
um... ok, i'm even embarrassed to say who this... don't go here: really (i had only AM radio for a couple of years when i was little ... i was od-ing on Time in a Bottle and the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald... this was different)

Sorry I was absent from here for so long... i fell into a serious and continuing FakeCrack addiction :) But I have decided to come back and start spewing here where it's a bit quieter. Expect drama - but hopefully this will die down from an inferno to a smolder before too long.

Paul was granted Parole, unanimously, after his hearing on Monday, June 8th. His friends and his family, with some brilliant and generous editing help from his lawyer, Mark Vermullen, wrote letters to the Parole Board over the course of the month leading up to the hearing. Four people - which includes one friend, Dave Cherry, and the stenographer - met in Carson City, and Paul attended on video from Las Vegas, where he is in a work program.

Paul stated his parole plan: he has work lined up as an auto-emissions inspector in Vegas, and only when his time is up, in February 2010, will he return to the Bay Area. And for how long, it's unknown, but I think his heart is on traveling.

According to Dave Cherry, "the entire procedure took only 15 or 20 minutes. Throughout the whole thing, Paul was polite, respectful, and matter-of-fact, showing none of the defiance or residual anger that seemed to be present at the sentencing hearing. As to the commissioners themselves, it was hard to gauge what they were thinking, but they seemed to me like even-handed, civilized women who were only after the truth and not out for blood."

So it went well and we hoped for the best, which we were rewarded with by his Parole being granted. So unlike his first hearing, which occurred in absentia — and didn't even let him know the exact date ...until it was over !!

Turns out they denied his parole on some erroneous and slanderously insulting information that no one was there to even question and negate. (They claimed he had a conviction for something pretty nasty.) He has NO previous convictions. Unless you want to count possession of fireworks out of "season" and taking a red dot marking off his toy gun to play laser tag. The SFPD were embarrassed enough that they had to have even that pathetic concession after keeping Paul in custody on false charges for over 7 months.

And don't forget that the instigation of that whole SF Grace Cathedral fiasco (and the subsequent effective derailing of an artist's career) - not to mention wrongful incarceration for 7 months!!! was the *fear* that Paul was a known arsonist. The SFPD passed Paul's mugshot from his prank at Burning Man amongst the squad sent out to search and seize Paul.

Maybe the BMORG's intractability and inability to embrace its roots in freedom of artistic expression and the spirit of the Prank, and its inability to find its sense of humour is ultimately to blame. Sigh ...

Last weekend, the group of people I refer to as Team Paul, the core support that work to help Paul, help his friends, and help each other get through the last 2 years, met (all except for Dee, Paul's mum) for dinner in SF with Paul's dad, Dave. it was great to finally meet the man, the myth, the legend :) And he was completely different than we'd all expected ! And probably for the same reason -Paul's negative portrayal of his paternal unit in an attempt to lay blame somewhere else. Happily, it was just delusional bullshit, and Dave is smart, funny, a charming and generous host, and very proud of his son, whether he understands or approves of his behavior or not. He loves his boy - and that Paul would ever doubt that or cause anyone else to doubt that saddens me still.

Paul's birthday is July 5th.

Lemme know if you want to send him a card, and I'll send you the address.

I didn't ride today - had stitches out of my eyelid this AM and didn't wake up from my "nap" afterwards til about now.

Yesterday, it was grey and windyt. Chrizz was really, um, "charismatic". He was scared of the trees.First time I've seen that. We rode for an hour, but he never calmed down really. I left the chin strap undone, as i put my martingale there, and his halter on the gate. My last bit of grooming and putting things away were interrupted by some loud banging, crashing, and the stampede and screaming of all the horses in the large pen.

I looked over the fence of the pen and by the trailer underneath the overhang, right near Chrizz's stall, a chestnut mare was down, on the concrete, with both back legs trapped in TWO partial fences surrounding the trailer. I can only figure she slid on the wet, poopy concrete, and slip into the fence. Every time she thrashed to get free, the horses (now all over the whole stable) started screaming and that frightened her more.

As soon as i touched her, she got off her front shoulder and lay down, flopping her head right on the ground. I petted her, gave her an apple treat, which she accepted. and then tried to figure out how to get her back legs untangled without getting kicked to shit.

I could get her top leg out but to get her bottom leg out safely, i needed to roll her onto her back. Get this - i had both legs in the air, and she wouldn't pick her forelegs up and finished the roll.
The kid who owns the Clydesdale came over to help, but was too scared to do anything. But freak her out more. So she kicked herself free and hurt her legs.

Anyway, didn't put Chrizz up properly. And didn';t ride today.

Oh yeah - and i lost my camera between the beach and the chestnut in trauma.

Drama drama drama.... sigh.

Cory McAbee, lead singer of The Bill Nayer Show is coming out with a new film: STINGRAY SAM!



The American Astronaut, a quirky, beautiful, surreal space cowboy tale starring McAbee, shot in black and white, and featuring music by The Billy Nayer Show.This low-budget brilliance is one of my favorite underground movies.


The new film, STINGRAY SAM will be delivered to fit "screens of all sizes." In other words, they are planning a release in theaters, as well as DVD, digital and mobile. Soon. Here's another trailer:



Here's more:
Their blog can be found at http://thesmalleststar.blogspot.com
http://stingraysam.com/

For recent reviews:
TWITCH
http://twitchfilm.net/site/view/imagine-this-stingray-sam-review/
Having never seen Cory McAbee’s previous film “American Astronaut” I had no clue what to expect from his latest sci-fi non-epic “Stingray Sam”. So as I waited for the venue to open its doors, I checked out the scores so far for the Silver Scream Award, which is the Imagine Film Festival’s yearly award based on audience ratings. Guess what: “Let The Right One In” dominated the chart as expected. But to my surprise “Stingray Sam” was in second place with almost the same score!
This made me very curious to say the least, as on paper this title didn’t look like an audience pleaser.

For “Stingray Sam” is mostly shot in black & white and on a below-low budget. It’s also allegedly meant to be seen on mobile phones as a series of six ten-minute episodes, and its director Cory McAbee even gave a masterclass during the festival on how to make mobile phone movies. It also features (gasp) songs.

The version of “Stingray Sam” shown at the Imagine Film Festival had a razorsharp image and good sound, but still… this was the movie that had a good chance of dislodging Alfredson’s much-heralded vampire movie from its first place?!? In fact, it DID reach first spot (albeit for a single day only).

Now that the festival has ended, “Stingray Sam” ended in second place with an audience rating of 8.8 out of 10 which is freaking high. The reason for its success is quite simple: despite (or maybe because of) its humble origins, Cory McAbee’s film is almost insanely entertaining. When you see the audience clapping and singing along with the opening credits (which are replayed in front of every single episode) you know there is something special going on…

Space Cowboys! Bikini-clad Nightclub Dancers! Male Pregnancy Doctors!

QUIET EARTH
http://www.quietearth.us/articles/2009/03/04/Review-of-Cory-McAbees-postmodern-masterpiece-STINGRAY-SAM#extended
Who is Stingray Sam you ask? Stingray Sam is a stand up guy. Actually, he’s THE stand up guy. A lover of justice with a loyalty to his profession as entertainer, Stingray Sam (played by McAbee [musician/ writer/ actor/ provocateur]) is the man you want on your side. If you’re lucky he might even write a song about ya.

But, Stingray Sam is not just a person. Lest I forget, Stingray Sam is also a film. And, as a film, STINGRAY SAM bares a close resemblance to the man. It’s cool. It’s committed to its style. It’s self-aware without being self-assured. It’s a film you want to bring your new love interest too, because it’ll show him or her that you feel comfortable having your postmodernism smothered in hilariousness. It’ll prove to this new love in your life that not only can the avant-garde disturb filmic conventions, but also be kind-hearted and sweet, subversive yet caring and generous. This is not, however, some Ice Storm or Squid and the Whale coming-of-age whinery (though I did enjoy those movies, just not the seemingly infinite rip-offs), this is the wild galactic frickin’ West. Bring your gun. Bring your dancin’ boots.

CASHIERS DU CINEMART
http://www.cashiersducinemart.com
Stingray Sam (Cory McAbee, 2009)
Cory McAbee met and exceeded the high hopes I had for this new outing. Set in the same universe as his American Astronaut, McAbee plays the titular character, a lounge singer on Mars enlisted by his former partner in crime, Quasar Kid (Billy Nayer Show bandmate Crugie) to save a little girl (Willa Vy McAbee) from the clutches of the first male birth, Fredward (Joshua Taylor). Comprised of six smaller chapters, Stingray Sam is a modern serial with each section being a self-contained unit with a cliffhanger ending... and a snappy song!

Stingray Sam is yet another brilliant effort from McAbee. The only bad thing is that the soundtrack and DVD aren't yet available. I can't wait to see this movie and hear these songs again! In the meantime, the opening track, "Mars", can be heard on the Goodbye California EP.

I feel like a bitch.. i mean i am grateful but why is it when she does me favors are they always just "off"?

I am recovering from a rager of a night last night with Don, and she asks me to take her to work, but can see i feel like shit. So she offers me dinner from her restaurant. She called ahead to ask them to make me dinner before we got there. She asked me what I wanted, I said anything ... oh, and CHEEZ!!!

All i could think was the pecorino that i love so much. She has brought it home twice for me. Once she ate it all before i could get to it, and the second time I horded it for days, savoring it's peppery, granulated ripeness. God I love that cheese. I've begged for it for almost a year. So I knew she knew which cheese i was requesting.

She got off the phone before we got into the car and said they had chicken and pasta. Yumm! I thought. She went inside and returned, handing me two white to-go boxes and the chef himself brought out an entire wheel of cheese. It was the Petit' Basque that *she* likes. Nothing like the pecorino.

I opened the boxes at home. There was a very good pasta bolognese, and... salad. No chicken. Sigh. It's not like I need to eat any more! But ... oh well.

I will be doing several fill-ins in Mayhem. And hopefully two specials:


4/30 10p-2a - did that
5/8 10a-2p
5/15 10a-2p - I KNOW YOU KNOW ENO: Six Degrees of Separation from Brian Eno
he's had his hand in many projects, many bands, and I have his lecture from Long Now, back in 2004. It's amazing.
5/21 10p-12a
5/29 10a-2p - MOUNTAIN CON special - amazing band, just called it quits after a decade, and i will introduce you to them in time for their last release to be issued. Interview, giveaways, and just think! you can collect their catalog without worrying about missing the next release :)

As always, on KFJC 89.7 FM
as Rocket J. Squirrel

available via NETCAST at http://www.kfjc.org/netcast

Squeaking of Hugh Jackman [previous post's COMMENT]... the latest Wolverine is some kinda fun! and Hugh? well it's no wonder he goes shirtless (and at one point, pantsless) as he has hit the gym heavily for this role!

I wonder if he's on the "300" workout?

I can't figure out why I'm not losing more weight ... i mean i hardly eat and I contemplate this a great deal while on the couch. hmmmm ...

I have so frakking much to write about here but i haven't had the time. Back to doing battle with the IRS, Foothill College's Parking Nazis, and then to ride.

<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/05/science/05tesla.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&hp>

In 1901, Nikola Tesla began work on a global system of giant towers meant to relay through the air not only news, stock reports and even pictures but also, unbeknown to investors such as J. Pierpont Morgan, free electricity for one and all.

It was the inventor's biggest project, and his most audacious.

The first tower rose on rural Long Island and, by 1903, stood more than 18 stories tall. One midsummer night, it emitted a dull rumble and proceeded to hurl bolts of electricity into the sky. The blinding flashes, The New York Sun reported, "seemed to shoot off into the darkness on some mysterious errand."

But the system failed for want of money, and at least partly for scientific viability. Tesla never finished his prototype tower and was forced to abandon its adjoining laboratory.

Today, a fight is looming over the ghostly remains of that site, called Wardenclyffe — what Tesla authorities call the only surviving workplace of the eccentric genius who dreamed countless big dreams while pioneering wireless communication and alternating current. The disagreement began recently after the property went up for sale in Shoreham, N.Y.

A science group on Long Island wants to turn the 16-acre site into a Tesla museum and education center, and hopes to get the land donated to that end. But the owner, the Agfa Corporation, says it must sell the property to raise money in hard economic times. The company's real estate broker says the land, listed at $1.6 million, can "be delivered fully cleared and level," a statement that has thrown the preservationists into action.

The ruins of Wardenclyffe include the tower's foundation and the large brick laboratory, designed by Tesla's friend Stanford White, the celebrated architect.

"It's hugely important to protect this site," said Marc J. Seifer, author of "Wizard," a Tesla biography. "He's an icon. He stands for what humans are supposed to do — honor nature while using high technology to harness its powers."

Recently, New York State echoed that judgment. The commissioner of historic preservation wrote Dr. Seifer on behalf of Gov. David A. Paterson to back Wardenclyffe's preservation and listing in the National Register of Historic Places.

On Long Island, Tesla enthusiasts vow to obtain the land one way or another, saying that saving a symbol of Tesla's accomplishments would help restore the visionary to his rightful place as an architect of the modern age.

"A lot of his work was way ahead of his time," said Jane Alcorn, president of the Tesla Science Center, a private group in Shoreham that is seeking to acquire Wardenclyffe.

Dr. Ljubo Vujovic, president of the Tesla Memorial Society of New York, said destroying the old lab "would be a terrible thing for the United States and the world. It's a piece of history."

Tesla, who lived from 1856 to 1943, made bitter enemies who dismissed some of his claims as exaggerated, helping tarnish his reputation in his lifetime. He was part recluse, part showman. He issued publicity photos (actually double exposures) showing him reading quietly in his laboratory amid deadly flashes.

Today, his work tends to be poorly known among scientists, though some call him an intuitive genius far ahead of his peers. Socially, his popularity has soared, elevating him to cult status.

Books and Web sites abound. Wikipedia says the inventor obtained at least 700 patents. YouTube has several Tesla videos, including one of a break-in at Wardenclyffe. A rock band calls itself Tesla. An electric car company backed by Google's founders calls itself Tesla Motors.

Larry Page, Google's co-founder, sees the creator's life as a cautionary tale. "It's a sad, sad story," Mr. Page told Fortune magazine last year. The inventor "couldn't commercialize anything. He could barely fund his own research."

Wardenclyffe epitomized that kind of visionary impracticality.

Tesla seized on the colossal project at the age of 44 while living in New York City. An impeccably dressed bon vivant of Serbian birth, he was widely celebrated for his inventions of motors and power distribution systems that used the form of electricity known as alternating current, which beat out direct current (and Thomas Edison) to electrify the world.

His patents made him a rich man, at least for a while. He lived at the Waldorf-Astoria and loved to hobnob with the famous at Delmonico's and the Players Club.

Around 1900, as Tesla planned what would become Wardenclyffe, inventors around the world were racing for what was considered the next big thing — wireless communication. His own plan was to turn alternating current into electromagnetic waves that flashed from antennas to distant receivers. This is essentially what radio transmission is. The scale of his vision was gargantuan, however, eclipsing that of any rival.

Investors, given Tesla's electrical achievements, paid heed. The biggest was J. Pierpont Morgan, a top financier. He sank $150,000 (today more than $3 million) into Tesla's global wireless venture.

Work on the prototype tower began in mid-1901 on the North Shore of Long Island at a site Tesla named after a patron and the nearby cliffs. "The proposed plant at Wardenclyffe," The New York Times reported, "will be the first of a number that the electrician proposes to establish in this and other countries."

The shock wave hit Dec. 12, 1901. That day, Marconi succeeded in sending radio signals across the Atlantic, crushing Tesla's hopes for pioneering glory.

Still, Wardenclyffe grew, with guards under strict orders to keep visitors away. The wooden tower rose 187 feet over a wide shaft that descended 120 feet to deeply anchor the antenna. Villagers told The Times that the ground beneath the tower was "honeycombed with subterranean passages."

The nearby laboratory of red brick, with arched windows and a tall chimney, held tools, generators, a machine shop, electrical transformers, glass-blowing equipment, a library and an office.

But Morgan was disenchanted. He refused Tesla's request for more money.

Desperate, the inventor pulled out what he considered his ace. The towers would transmit not only information around the globe, he wrote the financier in July 1903, but also electric power.

"I should not feel disposed," Morgan replied coolly, "to make any further advances."

Margaret Cheney, a Tesla biographer, observed that Tesla had seriously misjudged his wealthy patron, a man deeply committed to the profit motive. "The prospect of beaming electricity to penniless Zulus or Pygmies," she wrote, must have left the financier less than enthusiastic.

It was then that Tesla, reeling financially and emotionally, fired up the tower for the first and last time. He eventually sold Wardenclyffe to satisfy $20,000 (today about $400,000) in bills at the Waldorf. In 1917, the new owners had the giant tower blown up and sold for scrap.

Today, Tesla's exact plan for the site remains a mystery even as scientists agree on the impracticality of his overall vision. The tower could have succeeded in broadcasting information, but not power.

"He was an absolute genius," Dennis Papadopoulos, a physicist at the University of Maryland, said in an interview. "He conceived of things in 1900 that it took us 50 or 60 years to understand. But he did not appreciate dissipation. You can't start putting a lot of power" into an antenna and expect the energy to travel long distances without great diminution.

Wardenclyffe passed through many hands, ending with Agfa, which is based in Ridgefield Park, N.J. The imaging giant used it from 1969 to 1992, and then shuttered the property. Silver and cadmium, a serious poison, had contaminated the site, and the company says it spent some $5 million on studies and remediation. The cleanup ended in September, and the site was put up for sale in late February.

Real estate agents said they had shown Wardenclyffe to four or five prospective buyers.

Last month, Agfa opened the heavily wooded site to a reporter. "NO TRESPASSING," warned a faded sign at a front gate, which was topped with barbed wire.

Tesla's red brick building stood intact, an elegant wind vane atop its chimney. But Agfa had recently covered the big windows with plywood to deter vandals and intruders, who had stolen much of the building's wiring for its copper.

The building's dark interior was littered with beer cans and broken bottles. Flashlights revealed no trace of the original equipment, except for a surprise on the second floor. There in the darkness loomed four enormous tanks, each the size of a small car. Their sides were made of thick metal and their seams heavily riveted, like those of an old destroyer or battleship. The Agfa consultant leading the tour called them giant batteries.

"Look up there," said the consultant, Ralph Passantino, signaling with his flashlight. "There's a hatch up there. It was used to get into the tanks to service them."

Tesla authorities appear to know little of the big tanks, making them potential clues to the inventor's original plans.

After the tour, Christopher M. Santomassimo, Agfa's general counsel, explained his company's position: no donation of the site for a museum, and no action that would rule out the building's destruction.

"Agfa is in a difficult economic position given what's going on in the global marketplace," he said. "It needs to maximize its potential recovery from the sale of that site."

He added that the company would entertain "any reasonable offer," including ones from groups interested in preserving Wardenclyffe because of its historical significance. "We're simply not in a position," he emphasized, "to donate the property outright."

Ms. Alcorn of the Tesla Science Center, who has sought to stir interest in Wardenclyffe for more than a decade, seemed confident that a solution would be worked out. Suffolk County might buy the site, she said, or a campaign might raise the funds for its purchase, restoration and conversion into a science museum and education center. She said the local community was strongly backing the preservation idea.

"Once the sign went up, I started getting so many calls," she remarked. "People said: 'They're not really going to sell it, are they? It's got to be a museum, right?' "

Sitting at a reading table at the North Shore Public Library, where she works as a children's librarian, Ms. Alcorn gestured across a map of Wardenclyffe to show how the abandoned site might be transformed with not only a Tesla museum but also a playground, a cafeteria and a bookshop.

"That's critical," she said.

Ms. Alcorn said the investigation and restoration of the old site promised to solve one of the big mysteries: the extent and nature of the tunnels said to honeycomb the area around the tower.

"I'd love to see if they really existed," she said. "The stories abound, but not the proof."

results from a quiz on Frakbook
You have come out with Raven as your soul representation. This is a very interesting path for a being. I suppose the most important thing to remember about a persons life when they are under the Ravens wing would be, you have been here before.. you know all about this stuff and what you don't know you are about to find out.
There is really nothing too surprising or amazing to a Raven person.. new things, sure, but as they have been witness to so many massive shifts over the myriad of lifetimes required to lead a Raven life, there are virtually no real surprises.
The danger for a raven soul is landing in an area where there are no other ravens and no real competition for them. A Raven needs some powerful reflection and only another Raven can do that for them as they know that they are the only ones who really understand.
An old soul does not protect a person from falling into a trap of getting too comfortable and growing lazy. Laziness is deadly for a Raven, they need the power of their wings to carry their great bodies high above the world so that they can gain the perspective that they so need in order fulfill their ultimate destinies here on earth.
For each Raven has a particular mission to complete their earth cycle. Find out what it is Raven. You may be comfortable and unshaken, but are you alert and fulfilling your vision?


scarily true except i have always felt like a very new soul... a Brat at heart. And although Synchronicity follows me around like a puppy, I am still shocked and awed by sunsets and stars and the snuggliness of Gargamel and how he loves to communicate and the molten velvet of a horse's eye when it's very comfortable being around you.

Oddly, he also is the Soul of a Raven....

Big Steam Train in Oakland's Union Pacific Yard
Monday 9 am - Wednesday  9 am
gallery.me.com/tbrisson#100055

On Apr 18, 2009, at 7:32 AM, D. Mayeron wrote:

Lester & Ray-

Union Pacific 844 will come through Berkeley on Monday.
twitpic.com/3hmnb

If you join twitter (it's free) you can get updates of its journey.

http://twitter.com/up_steam

Then we can take a break and go watch it go by.

Here's schedule:www.uprr.com/aboutup/excurs/schedule.shtml

http://helpholligethome.blogspot.com/2009/03/i-just-spoke-briefly-with-diane.html

Hollis was in a very serious motorcycle accident in India.
Here's the backstory: http://amacker.livejournal.com/85121.html

Monday, March 16, 2009
Safe at Stanford
I just spoke briefly with Diane. Holli is in ICU at Stanford. They are getting her settled in her room and giving her a work over, I'm sure. Diane is so relieved, thankful and just overwhelmed by everything that everyone has done to make this happen. She is also very exhausted. I don't think she has slept since Saturday night. She is going to see Holli for the last visiting hour and then go to Karen's and crash. She did tell Heather, Holli's sister, that as they were loading Holli onto the plane, she saw tears in Holli's eyes as if she knew they were bringing her home.

We will continue to post on Holli's progress as information comes to us. Now that we have Holli back in the states, we are changing our focus to get her back to her home. Feel free to check in with us to keep up with her journey on the road to recovery.
Posted by Jill at 5:53 PM
1 comments:

amacker said...

HI, I'm Amacker Bullwinkle, who almost died in a motorcycle wreck June of 2007. Because i live in Palo Alto, I was found first by two visitng Norwegian surgeons and they called the EMS & I was taken to Stanford. My injuries were so critical, they didn't think i'd make it thru the night. The next day they discovered I had been internally decapitated. I was in a coma for 6 weeks, and thanks to Stanford's excellent ICU team, I am not only alive, but if you didn't know about the accident, you probably wouldn't guess if you met me. I ride a horse 3 times a week on the beach and ... am looking for another bike as soon as i can afford one. Medical bills are a bitch. :P

One last thing - as I said, I was in a come for a long time. And I remember all of it. And my brother, who never left my side, spent a lot of time talking to me. And his words were part of the script of my "coma reality." In other words, she probably CAN hear you, and depending on her brain,and how she dreams, she can process this into her world in some way. (so don't repeat yourself .. my bro did that a couple of days in a row and i was *so* flumoxed!)

Love to Holli

and if you are at Stanford visitng her, feel free to let me know - i live here. And I have trix ... like a secret underground Art Tour I take friends on late at night.

-amacker

March 17, 2009 1:55 AM


Here's a post Chicken John made on her behalf.
http://amacker.livejournal.com/85464.html

Friday, March 6, 2009

I saw the pre-screening of Watchmen tonight at the Metreon in SF with my FairyGoddessNephew, Danny.

It's either one of the BEST movies you have ever seen (with some of the worst bits- including a sex scene that was so awful, screaming "You're Doing It Wrong!" just wouldn't have sufficed. Please dear god don't let the fanboyz think this is an example of how to get it on? they have enough problems) or one of the WORST movies you;ve ever seen (with some of the *best* bits.) The music is the same - one minute it's perfect and the next you are cringing.

I *love* Jeffrey Dean Morgan... so fraking hot in Grey's Anatomy and a true tragedy when they killed him off.
"Comedian" in real life



Then there's the guy who plays Rorschach...
"Rorschach"

He reminds me of a cross between Clint Eastwood and Seth Green with the voice of Tom Waits. Intriguing, n'est ce pas?

And he looks NOTHING like his Watchman character in real life.



"Rorschach" in real life



The flick is very dark and very gory...surprising hardcore comic fanatics and horror film fans alike. But it's done beautifully. And yo, the Foley team need Oscars.

The One Question everyone asks is: How Does It Compare to the Graphic Novel?

Answer: they are pretty much the SAME. Some of the scenes in the movie are peeled directly out of Dave Gibbons' illustrations. The Characters look identical to Gibbons' depictions. The dialog is as far as I remember, the same. Which is to say somewhat stilted for a movie at points. But the special effects are of course not just a splash of color in a few frames... oh no.

And that's all i'm sayin'

--------------



Ina Roy-Faderman at 3:53am March 6
sounds like it'll be Interesting. gotta find a babysitter.

Rain Graves at 8:57am March 6
But the real question is...was I LOVE YOU, MAN better? I love you jobin!

Debbie Rich at 10:14am March 6
Amacker, great review, thanks! Gonna wait until the crowds are over to see the flick. I own the original comics from my dad's collection and the story is AWESOME. Hoping this becomes a cult classic and the comix make me rich in 20 years. ;)

Scott LaMorte at 12:07pm March 6
Damn i just rolled through SF, too. Would have loved to join you! Well I'm hoping to get with a crew in the Bay Area while I am here, and go see it.

Chris Taylor at 12:08pm March 6
the sex scene was indeed the worst I've seen since Highlander (and do we really need the song they played over it in one more movie? What's wrong with the Billie Holiday track that got them hot in the book? Grumble, grumble ...)

Richard Von Busack at 3:51pm March 6
It's how superheros have at it! (And the way they do it in the 1940s is even worse!) These guys need a safe word.

Amacker Bullwinkle at 4:22pm March 6
Jobin Graves I, gotta say, I Love You Man was a lot easier to like. And before you ask, Watchmen wasn't half bad with 3D glasses on!
RVB - Zack Snyder needs the Safe Word! His sex scene is one of the points where it is far more graphic without actually being sexy or interesting (quite a feat) - and was not like the Graphic Novel which just inferred that that had happened. Moore and Gibbon were far more interested in the accuracy of Dr. Manhattan's genitalia. heh

Amacker Bullwinkle at 4:23pm March 6
Oh yeah. one of my favorite visuals is how the blood gets on the smiley face to begin with... gorgeous.

OK so I know that everyone is broke and people are downright terrified and the economy and the unemployment (10%? Holy Jimmy Carter, Batman!!!) and the rents are sky high and it's raining and we are out of coffee...

I know.

And our partisan government is so confused and ineffective it's like watching 14 year olds on a first date ordering food at a restaurant and noticing the boy is trying add up how much $ he's got and how much he's spent and he just spilled his water and his friends are texting him images of donkey porn and he doesn't have a car or a chance....

I know.

And everyone has a cause and the seals and the climate and the owls and the little children and the Iraq and the drugs and the gangs and unfair and the union and the harassment and Gavin's hair and the storefronts....

I know.

I know. Listen. I need you lock arms with me for a minute. Take a stroll. I have some bad news. Our friend Hollis was involved in a motorcycle accident. She might could use some help. She is in India. She has a brain injury. She‚s on a respirator. A respirator is a violent affront to the human body. To say it‚s un-natural is an understatement. Horrible. Horrible is a good word. It‚s like a compressor, in an auto garage. The tube is big, like a garden hose. Taped to your face with white medical tape. Forcing air into your lungs. Mechanical contraption would be another good description. Infernal device. This machine keeps the blood in Hollis‚ body oxygenated. It‚s dealing with breathing while Hollis figgers out how to do that again. She got smacked pretty hard and forgot for a minute. There is a place that can teach her how to do this again. We would like to introduce Hollis to this place. And for this, we can use some help.

Where are the finest doctors? I ask you good people of San Francisco, the City of Art and Innovation? Why right here of course. Where would you want to live if you were the best doctor in the world. You would be at Stanford Medical Center. Of course you would be. The best of all things. Best and brightest. All here. It‚s us, actually. We are the best and the brightest. If you argue with me, then you‚ve just been here too long. You really need to get out more.

Hollis needs to board at Stanford Medical Center. She has been cleared to travel, and it is reasonable and prudent for her to traverse the 10,000 mile trek safely. How, you may ask, does one travel whilst hooked up to a respirator? In an ambulance. With 2 doctors. A few nurses. A guy in a gorilla suit, I dunno. But there‚d better be at least one guy in a fucking bell-hop outfit for $200 LARGE. Yup. Two Hundred Thousand Dollars. You want to charter a medical air ambulance you better sell your Google stock.

I can‚t begin to solve the injustice in the world. In my city. On my block. I can‚t solve the injustice that occurs in my kitchen, for chrissakes. But a random stranger contacted me about the junk boats the other day, and out of the blue donated $100 to my paypal account to support the project. She is a lady that lives on a boat, and is into things that are ecologically sustainable. It always feels like a freak accident when a random stranger finds out what you doing and wants to help just because you‚ve inspired them. It‚s the world I wanna live in, so I‚m goona donate the $100 she gave me AND I‚m gonna add my $100 to it and give $200 towards the $200,000 ambulance ride for Hollis. I just wanna keep it going. Think of it as an philanthropic stimulus package. Hollis was involved in a freak accident. She fell off a rented scooter going 5 miles an hour and got the handlebar stuck in her helmet. I don‚t even understand it. But when clowns have accidents of course they are „freak
‰ accidents.

Hollis needs to come home, to get the attention she needs. Always the attention whore, that one. She needs to get on that plane. She needs help. Where are we at? Today, 4 or 5 days after the accident, already $20K has been raised. We got 10%. It can be done. It‚s not going to be easy. And there are no angels anymore. All that Microsoft money and the start-up money and the VC money is gone. There is only actual money. But we are many, and Hollis is just one. We can take her. I for one want to be one of the people who helped Hollis and be part of the awesome community that came together when one of us was fucked. Fucked. I mean, she can‚t breathe. She needs help.

The amount you donate is unimportant. Ya got what ya got. ANY donation, even one dollar, is important. Her mom, her boyfriend, her sisters, her roommates, her co-workers at Last Gasp, the people in her dance troupe, DPW, Vaude de Vivre∑ on and on∑ your donation is fuel that powers the beacon of our community. So what if your donation is small? God doesn‚t care if you sing off key, she only cares how LOUD YOU SING!!!!! Every donation not only brings the goal closer, but also invigorates the family. So far there have been 400 unique donations. 5 days, guys. Whoa. That‚s kinda crazy.

Donating is easy.

Paypal: elizastrack@gmail.com

I‚m donating $200. But I‚m an over-achiever. I also plan on making Hollis work the door at some events in the future to pay me back, but that‚s another story.

But since I‚m an over-achiever, I‚m gonna commit to 4 times my $ in a match. I‚m gonna commit to raising $800 more by begging my friends and family IN ADDITION to putting it out on this list here. I‚m gonna send an email to my 20 closest and mostest and beg for $40. I‚m gonna tell them that for $40 they can be a member of the coolest club on Earth. This new group of stellar awesomeites called: Friends of Hollis.

I‚m proud to be a member.


http://friendsofhollis.blogspot.com/

So as many of you know, and many of you don't as I have not even talked
to you in a while. I am in the midst of a crazy tragedy here in southern
India. I was travelling with my sweetheart Hollis by motorcycle and the
worst possible scenario has unfolded. She was in an accident that took a
freak turn and I will spare you the gory details (and they are gory) but end
result, she is in a coma with the most serious injury one can sustain. She
has a serious brain stem injury. This is the part of the brain that
controls and is connected to everything. The accident happened at 11:30 am
on Tuesday Feb. 24th, it is now 5:30 am on Monday March 2nd as I am writing
this (I don't sleep). This is what's going on... The treatment she is
receiving is okay, for India. There are however huge rats scurrying about
on the floor. I am sleeping on the ant covered floor outside her room as I
am not allowed in and the water they have used for many procedures is not
even purified. Today as the final straw they would not allow her own mother
who has just flown here from Tennessee with emergency support from the US
consulate to see her own daughter when she inquired. She has been allowed
some of the time but they sort of shame you/ are mean to you to make you not
ask for visitation. They are not observing her brain pressure and have done
nothing to alleviate the swelling in her brain. These are things that can
make of break her early on in her recovery and healing process. Her chances
are slim. Her chances are slimmer here in Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, India.
So we miraculously got her accepted to Stanford which is one of the best
hospitals in the world. Also, as a charity case which is very rare, since
she has no insurance. So what we need now is to get her there. I am
reaching out to everyone I know to help us get an ICU Plane (a.k.a. air
ambulance) to fly her back to California. If anyone knows anyone with a
plane we could rent or has anybody in the Air Ambulance industry or a doctor
who could volunteer their time to come and get her and fly her to Stanford
and reduce the cost... those things would be amazing. The reality of the
situation is that we need to raise $150,000 dollars, now for the quote we
have. There is a blog that Hollis's best bud Eliza (from her bicycle dance
troupe the SF Derailleurs) started: *<http://friendsofhollis.blogspot.com/>friendsofhollis.blogspot.com* and it
has a donate button on it. I would like to urge everyone to give something
to this button even if it is 5 dollars and then pass it on to everyone they
know. Hopefully we can all figure out a way to give $1,000 whether it be by
sheer generosity or organizing a fundraiser where ever this reaches you.
Send it to people who know her and send it to anyone who is a compassionate
person and knows what its like to lose a bright brilliant star of a person.
She is an amazing performer, heart, bicycle and food activist and so much
more, in San Francisco (and everywhere) and we need to do everything we can
while we have the possibility, to bring her back. It was crazy to go
through my contacts to select everyone to send this to and see the amount of
amazing people who are no longer alive on it and how badly I don't want to
add her to this group. Please help however you can even if its just keeping
her in your thoughts and sending healing energies and magic. You can write
me with any questions or support or call/text anytime, day or night.
Thank you more than anyone can be thanked, for everything you have all done
so far, you have kept me going in my darkest hour. Please forward this on.
Put it on myspace, facebook, your blog, craigslist, tribe, tell everyone.
love and teary thanks,
Harrison
1-415-987-6576
--
Life is precious, Never waste it.

I need a date for the pre-screening of The Watchmen! Rain has tickets with her beau to see Wicked that night.

The showing is at the Metreon at 4th & Mission, San Francisco
at 6:30 PM on
Thursday, March 5th.

Send me an email telling me why i should pick you!
watchmen@marsupialpockets.com

so there's this guy... we met driving down to Baja after Xmas. We talked non-stop, we had a metric fuck tonne of things in common, and - complete surprise to me- ended up having a fling in Baja. It was really fun, and we got along famously, doing some work down there and working well together.

I knew he was going thru some shit but because of the chemistry we had as friends, after a couple of weeks I sent him this email telling him i really liked him but wanted to be friends no matter what, and what was he thinking?

He didn't respond. So i guess i know he's not into me, right?

2 weeks later, he pops up on Facebook and Chats with me, and i say something about him ignoring me and he said he was NOT ignoring me, but he had just been laid off from work and had to spend some time thinking about how he felt and he would respond.

Only he didn't.


So he's bitching on Fakebook about his knee, and i have a knee brace and crutches and a cane to loan him, and am on the way over to Oakland that night to some friends' who were putting on an acrobatic rehearsal for a big show they were doing on tour, and invited him along, and he had a great time. He brought a puppy he'd found a couple of days before, and although it peed on the floor, it was adorable and everything about the evening was nice.

I left after a kiss and a "see you soon" - the same way he'd said goodbye January 4th when i'd seen him last.

Over two weeks, nothing.

And then today, on Facebook, he changes his status from "single" to "it's complicated." I know this cuz a heart materializes on my Profile page, or whatever [stupid UI makes it impossible to remember what the frak is going on between the 3 views you have of your shit.]So THAT's how he communicates a response? After 14 hours of fun, scintillating conversation, great sex, and a lot of affection? Ok, i know, i know, but "we had plans" damnit!!! to do really cool things... arrghhh!

He's Just Not That Into You?

ya think? ::sigh::

I want a Partner in Crime!!!! meh ...

I was invited to compete in the Grilled Cheese Invitational - after the registration was closed in a matter of hours - because they need Volunteers. And somehow they believe I can help out with that :)

The 2nd Annual Grilled Cheese Invitational takes place this Saturday from Noon-5pm.
location TBA, but it will be in SF.
<http://grilledcheeseinvitational.com/norcal/>http://grilledcheeseinvitational.com/norcal/

They need help during the event and to clean up.

One major bonus is there will be 101 Grilled Cheese Sammich creators and you will be fed !

Anyone wanna spend the raining day in a warm and weird world of cheese?

ALSO - each contestant must bring an Assistant. I may not have that nailed down yet. So if you think that would be fun, yay!

x0,
amacker

Chees, glorious Cheese !
Don't care what it looks like --
Burned!
Underdone!
Crude!
Don't care what the cook's like.
Just thinking of growing fat --
Our senses go reeling
One moment of knowing that
Full-up feeling!

(homage to Food Glorious Food from "Oliver")

(homage is a classy way of saying i stole it)

Fakebook changed their Terms of Service on Feb 4th.

They now own the rights to use any of our content.. forever, anyway they see fit. Including for their own publicity and advertising!!


You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof. You represent and warrant that you have all rights and permissions to grant the foregoing licenses.

http://amacker.livejournal.com/2006/02/15/

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/02/15/BAGCJH8EI11.DTL&type=printable

This is gonna ROCK !