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"How could I fail to speak with difficulty? I have new things to say."
I graduated from Stanford Law School in 1966 but have never practiced. Instead, I dropped back five years and joined The Movement, but it wasn't until the 1970's that I began writing serious prose. By 1978, I was too old to live on the streets and sweat out going to jail, so I got a serious job as a GS-4, clerk-typist with the US Forest Service. I retired 23 years later, as head of the regionwide Claims Program in the California Region, headquartered in San Francisco for 20 years and then moved to Mare Island, in Vallejo. (That early school training always catches up with us, sooner or later.)
I still live in the greater Vallejo area, and I still have radical politics. Last year my major project was contributing to the ending of the Iraq war, with a minor in ending the embargo of Cuba. This year, I'm a little confused, but what the hey, who's not?
Sunday, August 23, 2009 Test - Diary Entry With Pics of Real Estate For Sale (11 comments)
This is a residential property in Bastrop Texas, about 35 miles S/E of Austin on the Colorado River. It lists for $191K and was built in 1985. It has about 1950 square feet and is on a large wooded lot.
Saturday, August 15, 2009 Another Avant-Garde? by Charlie Finch (4 comments)
Will there ever be an avant-garde again? Charlie Finch's answer is "No".
Wednesday, July 29, 2009 A Book Review of The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution (first edition, 1938) (7 comments)
No book review can capture the essence of this classic work by C.L.R. James, and make the revolution it describes more understandable than the author's own words. My only difficulty was finding the precise passage. But I think I have succeeded. And it captures perfectly the reasons why Toussaint was the greatest product of that greatest time in the modern history of mankind, the Age of Enlightenment.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 A Found Poem For Asia (9 comments)
Millions of people in Asia will see the longest total solar eclipse this century on Wednesday as swaths of India and China are plunged into darkness.
Monday, July 20, 2009 A Remembrance: Elly Hakami in Mill Valley, CA, in 1981* (4 comments)
* It was my understanding that Elly Hakami was on the WTA tour very briefly. And she achieved a world ranking of 36 during 1986, then retired either that year or in 1987.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 My Non-Interview with a CIA Recruiter in 1966 (11 comments)
So there we were. My gay housemate along for psychological support, and me, waiting in one of those ubiquitous pavilions at Stanford, outside an office and next to a plain sign saying "Interviews 2 pm".
Monday, July 6, 2009 Goldman-Sachs Pawned? The Market Ticker.... (3 comments)
This week's NYSE Program Trading report was very odd: not only because program trading hit 48.6% of all NYSE trading.., but what was shocking was the disappearance of the #1 mainstay of complete trading domination (i.e., Goldman Sachs) from not just the... #1 spot, but the entire complete list. In other words: Goldman went from 1st to N/A in one week.
Friday, June 26, 2009 My Funny Correspondence With Carl Sagan (2 comments)
In 1975 or so, we were landing something on Mars, and hoping to find something there indicating more life exists inside of Pluto than we now think does. And all the American scientists were hoping for mankind's sake, not to mention for the sake of NASA's funding, that something - anything - indicating life would be found. So I sent a letter to Carl Sagan:
Thursday, June 4, 2009 Artnet Design, by Brook S. Mason
The artist with the most homes, studios and incubation sites preserved worldwide? Donald Judd (1928-1994) wins hands down with a total of 16 living and working spaces preserved by the Judd Foundation in New York and Marfa, Texas.
