Temecula, CA – It was during my first writing gig and I was
living in Louisville, KY, a beautiful old river city located on the Ohio. Louisville
is a very cosmopolitan river town with a rich history. The Kentucky Derby is
held there and is the only major sporting event that has never been segregated,
at least in the infield which is the spot for all the 99%ers. The 0ne Percent
sit in the stands. The Derby started before
the first Jim Crow law was ever enacted because America didn’t start out
racist. It became that way after people like George Zimmerman’s father, a
retired judge, switched the country onto the racist track it is still on today.
Luckily I talked to my grandfather who was born before the turn of the 20th
century. Seventy miles ESE of Louisville is Lexington, KY, voted one of the
cleanest cities in America.
Temecula, CA – Today the story is that the nuclear plant
just over the western hills and directly in our valley’s almost daily wind stream,
San Onofre, is catching the attention of more concerned citizens (see recent
NIMBY nuclear story here for the safety record of the nation’s worse operating
facility and why). KTLA, channel 5 released the following report just today.
‘Concern over the safety of the San Onofre nuclear power
plant is growing among Orange County cities closest to the facility, which has
been shut down since January because of system failures. "San
Onofre is being operated safely -- that's the bottom line," said Victor
Dricks, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, camethe retort. (Where does old Victor
live, um?- Ed)
Santa Monica, CA – My friend John Diaz was in the Right2Know March late last year and
from there with just a brief stopover at his house (and a ‘Welcome Home’ from
wife Suzanne) he opened up his no-GMO table at Occupy Los Angeles where we met. The fact that we met at all is a
wonder, given the ‘3 ring-big top’ atmosphere at the foot of the south City
Hall stairs in downtown LA. Even the LAPD used to joke that all the ‘serious
occupiers’ were on the north side of the Daily Planet building. Well Sports
Fans, even the cops didn’t have a clue on this one. Everyone at OLA was serious with karma was bringing
together the people who needed to meet. Because I met John, I got to see a
revolution in Zanzibar, a human revolution.
First though, let me give you the skinny on Zanzibar, the club. As I stood there in the mostly empty parking lot watching
my ride there pull off into the night, I received a confirmation from John, the
tennis pro and the initial reason for my LA Valentine Holiday. He was on his
way to the Club Z. On his personal voucher, I was there to see an artist that
he became friends with during the R2K
march, see Occupy archives. “You’re
gonna love this guy, I can just tell from the (type of) music scene you have
told me about,” John had said over the red phone when the invite first went
out. “If you can just get to LA, don’t worry.”
I walked across the street to the Zanzibar Club at 1301 5th Street in Santa Monica, a city
that previously I had only been to for
its famous beach boardwalk and Ferris wheel. Tonight Lu Fam Pro Entertainment was starting their Luminous Movementproject to ‘activate yo booty chakra’. This premiere
event featured the CD release party for the album Small Town by The Human Revolution with Amae Love. What
is The Human Revolution? It is a
band and an organization raising conscious awareness about the natural wonders
of the world.
After talking to two young women who were also waiting to
see the headliner, again, in their case,
I got a clue about the fan base. Simply put, the crowd is reminiscent of the
core Java Joz/Cuppy’s Burner bunch that would practice spinning poi in front of
the fabled Murrieta coffee shop venue. What is a burner, you ask? See the picture below for the 1000 word
explanation.
John pulls into the
parking lot with two buds. One is his partner for an upcoming tennis tourney
and the other is a camp-mate from OLA.
The four of us roll up into the Zanzibar
Club, a name that seems a dusty memory from some music group story but just
as familiar somehow as the sight of the ‘Daily Planet’ city hall building. So
much of LA and the surrounding area has been featured in the public eye that
being in the city seems like being on a movie set. It’s pretty trippy, folks,
and enchanting.
The club has a ‘been there for a while’ feel to it, but not
the shopworn look like The Roxy. In fact, the inside of the club has a definite
hipster edge to it. The crowd is young city types who dress clean, but not bro
style. The spotlight graphics beaming over the long front stage are abstract
designs, not pictures or images that are political or cosmic.
The long front stage runs the length of the club’s side wall
and bends around the back wall. The drum riser fits into the corner ‘V’
comfortably while the first half from the door back showcases the two DJs with more
than ample space. The rear half proves to be enough room to handle all the
members of the Human Revolution. The front-man who also strums a big acoustic
guitar is Human. He looks barely 25 but as I find out later he has released six
CDs, two of which I picked up that night.
Small Town is the latest, with The Love Revolution the 2008 release. Both CDs are excellent but exhibit quite a range of
musicianship in style. Neither album is similar to the other in material and I
can’t wait to see John again since he bought 4 that night. I’m anxious to
sample the earlier releases but for now that’s in the ‘save something for the
sequel, Rocky’ category. Both albums I obtained contain some chart toppers and
toe tappers but it is the lyrics that have some meat on them, an observation
that I shared with my radio DJ friend, Catter, recently. However, I didn’t buy
two albums because of the lyrics. It was the live stage performance that sold
me, that and the crowd reaction. Before the last song played, I knew that John
pegged this one right on the nose, er, ear.
Also performing with Human
was a fiddler who played the instrument like it was a violin; drums,
percussion, bass, a lead electric guitar that sometimes dueled for the solo
with said fiddler, and Amae Love,
also on vocals. Together this band, more a tribe, really rocked it. After I
left the front of the stage [watching the band] when the set ended, I got a
chance to meet Human as he was chatting it up with John. i shook his hand on a
fine show. He is very cordial and accessible, a pleasure to meet. Definitely an
ensemble musician, Human is
extremely adept at gathering other artists talented in their own right to make
his music come to light as art.
However, most of my readers know many of my stories are not
one dimensional and the same is true here as this 2007 award-winning music
video shown below will testify.
Before our little group returned to the parking lot for a ‘safety
meeting’ with added member Michelle, a leggy Romanian recruited by John to the
label GMOs [John is a babe magnet with a purpose] petition effort, I asked
Human if he knew the last name of Mary Jane, the personalized moniker for
marijuana. He stared at me with a quizzical expression on a smooth face that
doesn’t seem to want to grow much hair yet. “Green. It’s Mary Jane Green. But hey, you already
knew that,” I said with a sly smile.
We hugged as brothers, parted, and I followed the crew out
to the parking lot after copping the aforementioned CDs. I love LA!
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Temecula, CA – When I relate to my LA friends that have come
because of my participation at Occupy LA,
about how ‘magical’ this valley is, I always use an example as a metaphor. The latest
instance is the local club that has changed owners more times than Maverick has
been dealt aces. In the latest possession, the name was briefly changed to
something ‘brand new’ [Red Lounge] before common sense for a small town prevailed. You see,
in the big city a new name means a crowd to check out the ‘new’ digs but in a
small town, a new name means a lot of ‘what?’;
where is that?; aehhk. So in the end the new owners kept the name the same as it
has been for years, Aloha J’s.
Echo Park, CA – When I ask my peeps in the scene how they
feel about LA, the answers always fall in two slots. It’s either ‘I Love LA’ or
I hate LA; there is nary a wishy-washy in-between. For my readers who have
never been to Los Angeles, or to New York City for that matter, it is easy to
find reasons not to like living in ‘the big city’. After my week long stay in the Big
Apple back in high school, I understood the tagline, “It’s a great place to
visit but…” Before Occupy LA I used
to feel the same way about Los Angeles. That all changed when I got to see the Blade Runner level of the town, without
all the rain.
Having been one of the oldest communal gathering spots [settled
September 4, 1781] and the least racially divided, there is a mystery that is the
art/style of the place and the people. This same quirk, if you can call it
that, is also found in the architectural variety of design found everywhere
around the city. When you spend two months on the ground, sometimes in the rain
and wind with the people of LA, Angelinos
as they are called, rather than just swooping in as a passenger to see a show
like youse lived in Joewzee at twrdy-twrdy and twrd, something happens to you,
especially if you are a romantic at heart. Being back in Echo Park, a hipster
[in the nicest sense] area by night, for a Valentine Holiday was just the break
I needed from the revolution.
Temecula, CA – There is exciting news for those who want to
overturn the horriffic Citizens United
vs. FEC Supreme Court decision, which opened the floodgates for unlimited
amounts of corporate money to corrupt our political system. The California
state Assembly just voted to passAJR 22, a resolution calling on the
U.S. Congress to pass a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United
and send it to the states for ratification.
AJR 22 now goes to the state Senate. If it passes there,
California will be among the first states to officially call on Congress to
amend the Constitution to undo Citizens United. The Occupy Movement is working
because it is still [and started] bringing notice to issues that are finally
getting the attention they deserve to attract a sheeple America to do the right
thing. Evil cannot stand a spotlight on it. You don’t get mugged on a well lit
street. Also see any recent article about Jason Russell and really research Joseph Kony.
Zimmerman and Sandusky are Art Linkletter and Mr. Ed next to Kony.
Temecula, CA – It seems that every day more and more the
curtain is pulled back to reveal that the word ‘citizens’ has been changed
[without your apparent knowledge or consent] to ‘subjects’. Our ‘public servants’
have become our ‘public overseers’, our rights became laws and their laws have
become our rights, because money is speech and corporations are people. One percent
control the 99% and at press time,
one percent, less than one percent actually see what is really happening. Between the circle of clowns and a man who
divides the country along racial lines, for good or ill, stands the man who
gets ignored by everyone but the common folk. Don’t be railroaded, as the
correct political term is, make the jump back to America…
Temecula, CA – After talking to my friend Catter about his
placement of a Samuel Larsen song in his radio playlist highlighting the T-town
underground music stars on his upcoming show from LA (stay tuned here for all
the details on the debut), he asked if I had seen the FOX TV show Glee that now features Sam
in a continuing 7-arc role. “Been covering the revolution” was no excuse as he
said in his radio DJ voice, “Well you’re back now.” So at the first opportunity
I decided to check out the hit ensemble series and see my friend in action. Boy,
was I surprised, at both the show’s premise and Sam’s acting chops. I always
knew he could sing since the 15 North days, but WOW!
Santa Ana, CA – Welcome back for the conclusion to my latest
Occupy weekend. For the sake of brevity
and cutting to the chase, in my last report I revealed the bottom line for the motivation
of Occupy. The forces that plunder
this planet are serious and scary, cough
Jason Russell’s breakdown, but the rebel forces aligned against this evil
are no slouches either. Didn’t we all cheer at the end of the first StarWars?
So in this report we meet some GMO rebels, get a confirmation that short range
atomic weapons were used in Vietnam, and find out another reason why Orange
County was chosen for a TV series. This entire segment is brought to you by
Mother’s everywhere.
Temecula, CA – Stories break when they break and even a ‘Lois
Lane with a penis’ can’t be on top of every story. While I was participating in
this weekend’s Occupy/No GMOs event, the news of Jason Russell’s alleged mental
breakdown reached me in a debate over the film’s propaganda pitch to help NATO/USA
forces encroach the area for American economic control. While we may all be
radicals, we found out in Occupy
camp that we still see things differently from each other’s POV. So when this disturbing
news reached me, my first reaction was to defend my friend and the cause for
which he has poured out his life for. Hang in there, Jason, for this too shall
pass.
Echo Park, CA – Periodically at the Calendar we get a novel
for review. Though I can’t speak for any other writer here, all the book
reviews that I do stem from personal contact just like my CD reviews. On my
Valentine Holiday in LA not long ago, I met a comic book artist as I sat at an
art gallery lounge located slightly off Sunset Blvd, so to speak. He was sitting
with a group of other artists at the table, one of whom I had just interviewed
(see the upcoming Art Made Between The
Streets). Looking much like a young, handsome, scholarly ‘Dewey Largo’ complete
with longish locks, Michael Jasorka, who teaches cartooning, is a spokesperson
for Herbert Schirmer, UFOcontactee of 12/3/67.
KUDOS SOS! HERE’S YOUR NEXT
ASSIGNMENT & IT’S HARDER THAN GRANITE
The town is Okuma. A year ago it had a population of around
10,000. It was a fairly wealthy community, not rich but comfortable
middle-class. It had some of the best schools in the area. There was a popular
softball league. A lot of people worked as engineers and technicians at the
nearby nuclear plant. The radiation levels are high in Okuma, but I learned
that the real danger is the dust. Don’t touch your eyes in the exclusion zone.
Don’t rub your mouth. Don’t pick your nose. And never, under any circumstances, eat anything at all. The question
is, will Temecula become the next Okuma?
