fletcher’s blog

Enough of Palin – Impeach Bush and Cheney

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.

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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.

Events, Politics | No Comments »

SF Mime Troupe and more

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.

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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.

Art, Events, Politics | 2 Comments »

Amy Goodman of “Democracy Now” arrested

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.

Politics | 3 Comments »

The Albany Bulb

I first started going to the Albany Bulb late in 2000. The Bulb is the site of a landfill that was closed in 1984. In the nineties it became a sizeable community of homeless people and an area that attracted many artists. The artists created a large body of work that was primarily constructed and painted on materials found onsite – concrete, rebar, old plywood, flotsam, and lots of other stuff. In 1999, the City of Albany evicted the homeless, and an assault on the artists has taken place ever since. Despite all the pressure from the powers that be, many homeless still inhabit the Bulb, one of the beauty spots of the Bay, and many artists continue to create true public art.

The art that is there is in a constant state of change. It is exciting to see how pieces weather, how they hold up sometimes despite taggers, the elements, and the authorities. There are times that this can be disconcerting – when you happen onto a location that had some great art, and it is completely covered by someone’s ego trip, or when you discover that the very cool skateboard bowl has been deconstructed and carted away by those who would “improve” the Bulb.

I was going to include some links regarding the Bulb; instead I suggest that you Google – Albany Bulb – and you will find an incredible number of websites that have literature, photos, and history of this great place.

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August 2003	May 2008

The art work in the two photographs above and the two below, were done by SNIFF, a group of 4 artists who worked collectively for several years at the Bulb, doing large paintings that have been slowly been changing and evolving over the years.

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December 2003	May 2008

The photograph below is of a sculpture done by Osha Neumann and friends. Osha is an artist, lawyer, and political activist, who has been working in the Bay Area for many years.

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May 2008

Art, The Bulb | 1 Comment »