Republican Rage

 I try to figure out why the Republicans are so bent out of shape and then I start thinking .. that I sort of resemble a Republican of late. 

 As I try to make sense of the direction Obama is driving our Country, i try not to get angry too

particularly where I live in Marin County, California where Obama worship is possibly at it's highest. So if you don't know I come from a liberal background, anti-war young guy, Draft Dodger, marched in a few demonstrations back in the 60's when I was a teenager, smoked pot, went to Woodstock, I believe in Ecology as a way of life, of course I drive a car again lately and consume crap and create waste like the rest of us.

  Anyways some how I have never strayed from being pretty deeply skeptical about many actions of government Republican and Democrat, national or local. I have tried to do better at being a participant in our system of government at least showing up at occasional town meetings where it seems like to often I am a day late and a penny short to do anything but watch things drift further down the stream of irresponsibility ('the never ending rape' as a female friend in the cab driving business describes it our actions toward the Planet Earth 'the pompous parasite' Kenneth Patchen american poet described us ...sorry don't mean to to offend sensibilities. I know you have to rush off tomorrow to jet away to explore some remote corner of the Earth that hardly anyone knows about. Cool. See ya. Maybe get a tattoo too while you're at it. Buy a condo there, real estate - always a good investment.)

  So we had Bush and Cheney and yes I thought Bush might have been an alien sent to our country to destroy it. Profoundly nightmarish experience unless you love torture, or perhaps you think constitutional liberties are for sissies, maybe you think only terrorist sympathizers care about keeping the government at bay-- 

     as a friend said to me just tonight. 

   Thank God Obama won. 

   I have to think about that. What is wrong with me? Why have I been so thoroughly unimpressed from the beginning? Well I thought the  inaugurational speech was inspiring.

Since then I realize all his speeches are inspiring.

    ......

  

  

911 Peace

 In memory to all those who have lost their lives, beautiful souls whose time on Earth ended abruptly in the unwanted battles of the world. To honor all those who have done their duty against all odds to serve with courage and even sacrifice their own lives on behalf of their fellow human beings.

 A pause to remember and seek inspiration.

  Guy

Woodstock, Counter Culture to American Culture

 That title just added up top is a bit of a challenge. The fact that I went to Woodstock 40 years ago, doesn't make me a counter culture expert. 40 years ago... damn!

 It makes me Lucky.

 I finally caught up with the Heroes of Woodstock tour on their last show, almost caught them at Bethel back in August (well almost is a stretch but I wanted to be there but I had a shortened East Coast tour this year). I also wanted to have caught the Roadshow up in Livermore, Maine. I knew that that was going to be great. Maine is simply... put it this way ... a perfect venue in the summer.  Dave Getz tells me (name dropper - hey I have friends in High Places...) that they had an awesome clambake there.

 One of the things about Woodstock that I think is mostly self-evident but I'll just say it anyways.. it was all about the Music. Not that a thousand hippie type young people, freaks, as

was the preferred way of referring to someone who was really cool or somehow privy to the knowledge* etc.. would refuse the opportunity to come together for a 3 day giant camp out in the country where they could make their own rules and have fun... woo hoo! It does sound like great fun even without the music... however the Music was the force that brought us to our feet

that had us, salivating weeks before the concert .... Hendrix, The Airplane, Canned Heat, Janis Creedence, Sly and the  Who. WOW!  I for one wasn't going there to make any countercultural statement... just let me bathe in the Music, 17 years old and maybe in Love with Music

I just wanted that music. Everything else was just the magic of the times, I kind of took it for granted. I was just a kid. Suddenly Boom! it was all going to be mine. The kid who the previous summer was playing JV Football during the summer and dreaming and wondering why dammit was I born so late that I couldn't be out there part of that wild Rock and Roll scene in SF. 

  What am I getting at? I forget.

  It was all about to come true. They were coming to me. Holy CMoly it did.

  I have been a counter culture believer for a long time, maybe that event kicked it off for me.

  

  Maybe that stuff was already deep in my bones just looking for a path of expression, just ride the music and we'll get there. The Gentle Spirit, was alive at Woodstock as well as the fragility of us all, the confidence in the construction and creation of the event, when I look at the photos in Barry Z Levine's and Linanne Scott's book.. The Woodstock Storybook.. incredibly moving.

I remember the sight of that magnificent stage. It wasn't ticky tacky it seemed like a marvelous piece of 'Freak' engineering. Genius.. maybe that is too strong. The stage stood through the downpours, the light towers stood through the rain and when the ground turned to a stew of mud by late Sunday afternoon --they stood strong and solid. Unlike me the cold and wet had me slept in on Sunday Night (we packed a tent) ah well Saturday Night was the night to never forget and God Bless YouTube and Michael Wadleigh the great cameraman, who I called up out of the blue about 10 years ago to talk filmmaking .. what a great artist. He went on to have a very successful career making incredible nature documentaries for National Geographic that some of you may have seen on TV though who would have guessed that some of the great and perfect beauty of those shows were made by the man who made 'Woodstock' the movie.

  I am going on this subject always makes me go on too much.

  I think I made a prediction somewhere back in my so called blogging career which goes back now maybe 10 years. It seemed like I had some revelation cab driving one night. I predicted that the Counter Culture with it's direct historic routes from Woodstock and from infinite places before and after will become the dominant culture of America, this USA. I believe this, I don't know what we will have to go through to get there but I still believe this. 

  Counter Culture!? What the heck do I mean by this. Define your terms sir. OK for me you can forget the drugs not necessary, forget the free love, cool if you can live it but everything has a price let me put it this way... TANSTAAFL As Kurt Vonnegut described it in Cat's Cradle or one of those 'counter cultural' classics. 'There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.'

  

 Maybe I need not even connect the dots to Woodstock it doesn't matter.. What will triumph I believe.... Well let me backtrack. I was cab driving one night in Marin County here just north of the city of San Francisco, when the dispatcher gave me an unusual call he wanted me to drive across the Richmond Bridge to some hotel over in a neck of the woods of the East Bay and rescue some girls who wanted to get back to Marin County. It sounded a bit adventurous with some promise for a good fare and though technically illegal as cab companies have usually prescribed territories that we jealously protect. (You don't pick up in ours we won't pick up in your territory.) Pirates all of us.. so I got over there and it wasn't all that big a deal. I found the Hotel with the big tour bus out front and two girls came running out of the dark from somewhere and (It's about 3 or 4 AM) They seem incredibly anxious, and nervous and crazy happy to see me and the cab and they said something about how they let themselves be talked into hopping on to a tour bus with some Rock nRoll actually it was a Reggae band and said they were very disappointed that they hadn't gone to a fancy SF location as promised with the group but some cheap hotel in the East Bay and whatever the players in the Band expected and what these girls got themselves into apparently it was not what they wanted and all they wanted was to get back to Fairfax. They were kind of nuts for in there mind they had just escaped some very dire situation..  but before we fled .. around the corner was a Jack in the Box and they were starving so Burgers and Fries coming up. I don't know why this reminded me of Woodstock but there were a couple of young people at the window of the Jack In The Box I don't remember what nationalities or sex or creed or whatever. But in the few minutes it took to take the order it just seemed that those kids serving the food were as happy and having as good a time as these two getting the food in the back and somehow I had the vision... yes children I received the divine Revelation... This is it! This happiness in being, in sharing, in serving one another in laughing together, was the most powerful force in the Universe. The spark of Life was firing joyful bullets back and forth and that really was what the best of all that 60's stuff whatever it was and it's not dead at all. That stuff will never die. Hey stranger, Life is fun! Here you want extra ketchup. 

   So taking it one step further and I might have stopped there but I will add that the so called counter culture, that died out back in the 60's or seventies as some say. That great gift that I think we got a taste of, a glimpse of, was this ability to see in anyone The Spark.. and the joy of sharing It... was great and what was happening and what needs to happen is for the world to recognize.  This is it World, it can't be stopped. We all carry the spark of Life, the Fire of Life unites us all.* I think we still need the Music too. It won't be stopped.  The fire won't go out.

  I sure go on don't I?

 

  Goodnight.

   Guy

    More Woodstock tales to come.. shortly

Optimist in the long run...

  "The Banks might fail, but the people Gonna' stand."

    The chorus to a song that I began to write last year about this time. Maybe I'll finish it in time for it still to be historically relevant.

    I think we are in for really tough times. I think the Health Care plan is way off target.

    Me and Obama, we just don't seem to agree on much of anything, still. I am a cab driver, photographer, he is the President surrounded by the greatest minds he could find.  Hey it's  very complex stuff he is dealing with.. what do I know?

   Out here in California there is an epidemic of business closings on Main Street. At least in Marin. I don't know why or how the landlords haven't figured it out? They want their price and their landlord lifestyles. Good Luck boys and girls. I think we are dealing with the most fundamental issue of Life on Earth and Western Civilization. In collision it seems to me.. that being Life on Earth and Civilization. How do we get ourselves to Harmony and Health on the Planet. I don't mean to sound too New Age but Hell, ... why do we want to create... Hell?

  There still seems to be a ton of Giant speculative projects around here like the Garbage called the San Rafael Corporate Center that hasn't gone bankrupt yet. You have the Millworks Garbage up in Novato in cooperation and Peace and Harmony with Whole Foods and I have a feeling we have a ton of crap projects all over California in the balance, only wanted by greedy developers and our craven Political leaders all over California all there because it's good for you.. it's progress... maybe even it's 'Green' , maybe it's 'Smart' growth ...because we have permanently spared some little piece of wetland in exchange for the right to build our Crap for your enjoyment or because they they own the land just because you are the people and you have formed a government to be a Union of the People to serve the People. I get so mad, sorry, I know I could handle this better.

They are nice people with families and they love their kids and their dogs and because they can get away with it and make tons of money they will keep building until California is a total wasteland, it's been going on for some time and there is no stopping progress. Right?

 Anyways someone in my cab told me that the banks are sitting on 4,800 homes in the Bay Area that they haven't foreclosed on because they are afraid to - because of what that will do to the real estate market. (Hearsay) Better to let people live there rent free or mortgage payment free then evict them. Strange days. The recession is over says the Federal Reserve I think 50% of Americans don't trust that organization very much maybe more than 50%. Let's see... we buy back $300 Billion of bad debt from the banks, by printing $300 Billion of US dollars that's an impressive way of solving the financial crisis. So simple. Debt eliminated... errr... well sorry kids but don't worry because just like after WW2 when the government stimulated, yeah baby, the incredible war effort and lifted us out of the depression we will go full steam forward. That's where all you incredibly talented developers come in let's go more Garbage... from sea to shining sea. More Condo's and Parking Lots and Malls and more people from every corner of the Earth to generate more money for our Economy. That's the plan 400 Million Americans when? Schwarzenegger says 50 million Californians by 2050 (proudly with a smile) (we are now at 30 Million - California Cordwood, I call us). Guess what your vision, your plan, your strategy for America and California and the world sucks. It will kill us eventually if it is allowed to continue.

 I remember what a member of the construction team who said 'please don't ever tell anyone I said this' for one of these national Home building empires probably listed on the stock exchange then. (probably not now)  They were building this garbage up in Ignacio that was formerly small two bedroom homes for military personnel at Hamilton AFB. They tore all that old stuff down, (it was in disrepair) and built this fabulous 'community'. Homes started at $650,000 and up, lots of square footage but you had no yard, a California tradition courtesy of developers. I call it ugly but you might disagree. Anyways I wasn't thinking of anything beyond the covering of the landscape with these giant homes, crammed in, I wasn't thinking about the Mortgage crisis... Just the beauty of California. I've told this story before on my website....Yes so what he said was.... "We F*** America." 

 Let's not let that continue. I am an optimist in the long run.

 Guy