fletcher's blog

Obama, measure T, Prop 8

admin — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 04:02:12 +0000

Obama
Well, it seems like the election was a long time past, but it’s only been a couple of weeks. We were thrilled on election night. McCain lost and Obama’s the new guy. Most people I know are totally in love with him, but I’m still waiting to see what he does. I do have a lot of hope, but little faith. My friend, Howard, sent me the following URL: http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/barackobama/a/random_act.htm
Apparently, this is a confirmed urban legend. Let me know what you think. Is this the kind of guy we want for president?
Measure T
The other thing that was really positive about this election, was the passage of Measure T in the city of Richmond, where I live. This is the one that I put a lot of time into to try and get it passed. What it’s going to do, is raise Chevron’s city license fee from about $80,000 a year to about $27 million. What a shame. They can hardly afford it. A few other large manufacturers will be affected as well. The opposition (Chevron) claimed that it would hurt small business in our community. They spent about $350,000 spreading their lies, but they still lost. Hurray.
Proposition 8
The bad news, of course, was the passage of Proposition 8. The Mormon Church spent a bundle of money to pass this one and they succeeded. If you follow the news at all, then you know that this fight isn’t over. It’ll go to the courts and may be knocked down there. People are demonstrating all over the world over this and we’ll beat these narrow minded people yet. The photos below are from yesterday’s demonstration and rally at city hall in San Francisco. If you like these pictures, there are lots more at my Flickr site.

(Click on images to see larger views)

Obama / Real Clear Politics / Indigenous Peoples Powwow

admin — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 19:34:45 +0000

Vote for Obama for President
I’m not a big fan of Barack Obama, unlike many of my friends, and unlike many of the major media outlets in the world that have endorsed him. However, that being said, I do have hope in Obama, if not faith. I want to encourage EVERYONE to vote for Obama. If he is to do any of the good things that he says he wants to do, he will need a mandate, an overwhelming majority vote, in order to achieve what we want him to do. So, remember to vote early, and what I used to hear in Chicago, where I grew up, vote often.

Real Clear Politics
I want to mention the Real Clear Politics website. They have an incredible collection of political news. I like going to their site and browsing. There are articles from all the major papers in the world, as well as links to major newspapers, magazines, and websites throughout the spectrum. Usually lots more than anyone could possibly want to know.

Berkeley Indigenous Peoples Day Powwow
Two weeks ago was the annual Berkeley Indigenous Peoples Day Powwow. “Every year on the Saturday closest to the traditional date of the arrival of Columbus at Turtle Island, this year on October 11th, Berkeley holds a pow-wow and Indian market, to celebrate the survival and revitalization of Indigenous cultures, and to commemorate Native resistance to the forces still threatening to destroy them.” It’s a great event and I took lots of photos.

(Click on images to see larger views)

Pomo Dancer, granddaughter of Susie Moore	Pomo Dancer


Young Cuauhtonal Dancer	Daniel Swimmer, drumming


Julian Brave NoiseCat - Head Man Dancer (back)	Gilbert Blacksmith dancing

Schlepping for Obama

admin — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:52:29 +0000

I am a fan of Sarah Silverman, I can’t deny it. I really like her new video, a political piece asking young Jews to go to their grandparents, lots of whom live in Florida, and urge them to vote for Obama. Remember, Sarah Silverman ALWAYS uses rough language.

from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.

Photographs from my archives.

(Click on images to see larger views)

Activist with Food not Bombs	Detail from mail art piece

Vote No on Proposition 8

Okay, back to politics. Incredible, but at this time the bigots are ahead in California. Proposition 8, which would take away equal rights, making gay marriage illegal, is now ahead and it MUST BE STOPPED. At this time it is legal for anyone in the State of California to be married, but if Prop 8 passes it will take this right away from gays. Please don’t let this happen. If you live in California, vote no on Proposition 8, and wherever you live, donate some money to help stop this evil and misguided move on the part of the bigoted extreme right.

Bark for Obama

Lastly, you can get a pdf version of this poster from MetroDog, a local (Richmond, CA, my home) dog care and boarding center.

Beauty and the debates

admin — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 04:22:42 +0000

Here are a couple of photos from around my neighborhood:

(Click on image to see larger view)

Datura flower	Dahlia flower

When I first came to San Francisco in the late 50’s, I’d go up the stairs on the side of Telegraph Hill, mostly at night, and the smell of datura would just knock you on your butt. Because of the way they look, for years I thought that they were trumpetvines. I’m glad I know what to call them and not appear too ignorant, but I still like to think of them as trumpetvines.

DEBATES

Did you see the debate this evening? I thought that Biden did well and that Palin seemed to know just about as little as we all thought she did. Of course, the conservatives probably see it a lot differently. Read the below paragraphs from Open Debates to get an idea of what the debates are really about.

The Presidential debates — the single most important electoral event in the process of selecting a President — should provide voters with an opportunity to see the popular candidates discussing important issues in an unscripted manner. But the Presidential debates fail to do so, because the major party candidates secretly control them.

Presidential debates were run by the civic-minded and non-partisan League of Women Voters until 1988, when the national Republican and Democratic parties seized control of the debates by establishing the bi-partisan, corporate-sponsored Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). Posing as a nonpartisan institution committed to voter education, the CPD has continually and deceptively run the debates in the interest of the national Republican and Democratic parties, not the American people.

Every four years, negotiators for the Republican and Democratic nominees secretly draft debate contracts called Memoranda of Understanding that dictate precisely how the debates will be structured; co-chaired by the former heads of the Republican and Democratic parties, the CPD obediently implements the contracts, shielding the major party candidates from public criticism.

Such deceptive major party control severely harms our democracy. Candidates that voters want to see are often excluded; issues the American people want to hear about are often ignored; the debates have been turned into a series of glorified bipartisan news conferences, in which the candidates exchange memorized soundbites; and debate viewership has generally dropped, with twenty-five million fewer people watching the 2000 presidential debates than watching the 1992 presidential debates. Walter Cronkite called CPD-sponsored presidential debates an “unconscionable fraud.”

Open Debates has helped establish a truly nonpartisan Citizens’ Debate Commission comprised of national civic leaders to sponsor presidential debates that are rigorous, fair, and inclusive of important issues and popular candidates. The higher values of democracy and voter education will be restored to the presidential debates by the Citizens’ Debate Commission.

Folsom Street Fair

admin — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 05:17:29 +0000

Barbara and I went to the Folsom Street Fair yesterday. This was the 25th annual Fair, which is always scheduled for the last Sunday in September. It is billed as the world’s largest leather event. They say on their website, “We hope to see the fairgrounds filled with people in their most outrageous leather/rubber/fetish attire enjoying the worlds largest and best loved Leather fair.” It is very adult and outrageous event. There is nudity, public displays of sadism and masochism, bondage, and lots of sex related activity. Most people are there having a good time, and Barbara and I weren’t exceptions. There are lots of interesting looking people and sites to see.

Barbara wrote:
“Where do these guys keep their clothes?!

Fletcher and I attended the Folsom Street Fair on Sunday. It is a
fascinating affair, and one of the main events is nudity. For what we
saw of the women, this extended down to the waist. It was only the men
who took full advantage of the chance to completely strip down (though
most often with some form of accessories, be it leather, feather, or
boa constrictor!). We spent several hours roaming, and when we were
heading out, I asked Fletcher, “where do these guys keep their
clothes?!”. What, I wondered, do they do when they get beyond the
entrance gates and cross back over into ‘real time’?

Well, it being San Francisco, and The Folsom Street Fair being an SF
institution, no alarms would go off, and proceeding in nude fashion
down these mean streets for several blocks further would probably cause
no great stir and some great interest. Still, we decided that most
likely these nude ’stars for a day’ (who love strutting their stuff and
welcome the swarms of photographers at this event) probably have an
entourage who are carrying their street duds, much like the carriers of
James Brown’s famous cape.”

(Click on images to see larger views)

Woman dispensing condoms and health info	Fair participant

Large albino snake wrapped around man in lieu of clothing.


Sitting on Folsom Street	Tattoo on back of 75 year old man


Backup singer with Pussy Tourette	Woman in costume

If you want to to see more photos, go to my Flickr set.

Debate - Who Won?

admin — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 22:09:35 +0000

I wanted Obama to kick ass; he may or may not have won, but he didn’t kick butt. Because of the hidden, rampant racism in this country, I’ve heard it said that Obama has to be very far ahead in polls, at least 6-8 per cent, if he is actually to walk away a winner in this election. That is, if the Republicans don’t steal it.

I will be showing a piece at the Eclectix Gallery, in a show called Strange Brew, with an opening next Friday, October 3, 7:00-10:00 PM, running through Nov 2. The gallery is opening in a new location at 10082 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito, Ca 94530, right next door to the Cerrito Theater.

Here’re a couple of images from the Potrero Hill area in San Francisco that I took last year.

(Click on images to see larger view)

Circling the San Francisco Chronicle Building

admin — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 06:38:33 +0000

Week two of Brad Newsham’s latest project of circling the Chronicle Building took place today. He’s got a lot of confidence and I’ll continue to take photos, but it does seem like Don Quixote and some windmill battle. We’ll see.

(Click on image to see larger view)

Demonstrators in front of Chronicle Bldg.

In addition to the above photos, I’ve published a whole bunch of images from the demonstration on my Flickr site. Also, I forgot to link the Flickr photos from last week as well.

Enough of Palin - Impeach Bush and Cheney

admin — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 05:03:51 +0000

I am sick of hearing about what’s her name. Talk about the economy. Talk about the differences between that stupid old man and Barack Obama. We need to do what we can to not let the Republicans win (steal) the presidency again. Help to register voters. Let’s get the current bunch of thieves, liars, and downright swindlers impeached.

Brad Newsham, the guy who organized the Impeach at the Beach events in and around San Francisco, organized an event today, called Ring Around the Chron #1. The idea is to “ring the Chronicle building and implore the Chron to stop censoring the Bush/Cheney/Pelosi shredding of the Constitution.” There weren’t a lot of people there. Brad is hoping that it will build on itself over the next several Thursdays before the election, and eventually there’ll be enough people there (300) to encircle the building. Bring on the media.

(Click on image to see larger view)

Demonstrators in front of Chronicle Bldg.	Brad Newsham and other demonstrator.

After the demonstration I walked on Mission over to about 2nd Street and took some other photos, including the photo below.

SF Mime Troupe and more

admin — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 22:30:56 +0000

San Francisco Mime Troupe - Red State - Written and Directed by Michael Gene Sullivan
I shot photographs of the San Francisco Mime Troupe performances, setup, and teardown for two weekends at the end of August. It was a lot of fun and I got some great photos. They are winding down their season now; this is the last month for this play. They’ll be playing this weekend in Santa Cruz, and then a few dates in the North Bay. See their schedule for more details. The play, Red State, is great, and if you haven’t seen it yet, it’s worth making an effort to go see it in one of their final performances.

(Click on images to see larger views)

Lizzie Calogero as Technician	Intern during set-up



Noah James Butler as Mayor Robert	Adrian C Mejia applying makeup - Ricardo Suave



Detail of stage	Velina Brown as Faustina Page

You can see more shots from that photo shoot at my Flickr site. Check ‘em out.

National Elections. Sarah Palin would be a joke if it wasn’t so scary to think about her as the Vice President of the United States. Her religious convictions are unreal. The religious right are falling all over themselves in their joy at seeing this crazed individual as the potential President. The Democrats can’t lose this one, though they are perfectly capable of doing so. I hope that they concentrate on the issues at hand, and that they don’t let the Republicans frame everything as they have in the recent past. On a lighter, but still scary note, check out John Stewart if you haven’t already.

Eclectix Gallery. The Eclectix Gallery will be Celebrating Halloween and the Day of the Dead with a show called Strange Brew, starting October 3rd and going through November 2nd. There will be an opening reception on October 3rd, 7-10 pm (California Arts Day!). They’ll be in a brand new space by the Cerrito Theater, 10082 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. Check it out. I’ll be showing a piece, a photograph that I took at San Francisco Carnaval this past May.

Amy Goodman of “Democracy Now” arrested

admin — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 03:54:51 +0000

It seems that the authorities are goin’ nuts in St Paul. Very surprising and disturbing ls the report that world renowned journalist, Amy Goodman of Democray Now was arrested and detained late this afternoon and charged with “conspiracy to riot.”

According to some reports the police have been staging raids on potential demonstrators in an effort to stifle free speech. “…this morning’s raids appeared to target members of “Food Not Bombs,” which he described as an anti-war, anti-authoritarian protest group.” These are pre-emptive arrests that can only happen in a police state, and they’re happening here. I can only hope that someone in the media gives this the national attention that it needs to have. Wake up folks. That means you and me.