SO LONG, BABY

LIVING IN THE SUBWAY SHADOW -

BSC, CA – [Ed note: this story was written before the new year, 2018, but pushed back from publication due to breaking news stories happening at the time] Fresh back from the latest wrinkle in the exploding pre-2018 legal cannabis scene, I had to add an extra 20 minutes in my start time because the entrance to a neighborhood for married student couple was green-walled off. The reason, a demolition project.

With all the talk around Riverside about needing more student housing and the planned increase in student body [no reference to our previous feature, Food Brood], you might surmise the dorm neighborhood, which has hundreds of old trees and is home to thousands of birds, would be getting the University axe to pave the way toward filling that student need. Well, Sports Fans, you'd be wrong.

Soon [in a couple of years unless the Chinese do the project] the view that you see in our lead-in shot above will be forever changed by a five-story monolith to block out the sun, standing where trees, birds, and grass used to grow; our, er, their brand new 5000 seat Soccer Stadium. Let's hear it. Boooo! When you understand that this neighborhood was built entirely by women and the town-view city mag, Explore Riverside, made a big issue out of one building [also built by women] out in Anza; double Boooo! See the view that's being razed by UCR, after the jump.

BILLY GRAHAM'S CROSS IS OVER

THE LAST GREAT WHITE MAN -

BSC, CA – Legendary evangelist minister Billy Graham died last Wednesday and today his public viewing started after a brutal thunderstorm overnight that settled into a drizzle to start the day. He was 99. The 9s are numerical for double completion. The rain is also a sign as I can never remember going to a funeral on a sunny day. Strange. 

I was born in the South when social segregation was done entirely by skin color, which seems quaint now given the transgender, the nerdy, the homeless, the druggie, etc. Because of this, I was aware but insulated through my position in the fam as an only child. Our neighborhood was all black but the merchants were white. There were also black businesses. The church I was raised in was Protestant, based off the original pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock [an interesting historical story if you look it up]. Our all-black [various skin tones ranging from 'white' to dark but mainly shades in between] church even had the name Plymouth in its name.

As I remember, around 1957 my idyllic middle class view of life began to crack. It was a year after my summer magic [see story of the same name, this site] that I saw the dichotomy in US religion. In the North there was social integration because that was the liberal side of Christianity [NT]. The Southern style was more literal and OT based, starting from Genesis. When I saw my grandfather listening to a Billy Graham radio broadcast the first time, I noticed it and wondered since Billy Graham was out of the South.

MOTHERS SEND LOVING TO LA

SIGNAL HILL STORE OPENS -

BSC, CA – In these days a great idea only grows and so the brainchild of friends 40 years ago to have better food than found in the local Kroger's, Safeway, and A&P, in a market called Mother's, opened its first store in LA Country. It was a beautiful day in Signal Hill for a Grand Opening. The even better news with this organic news article besides it contains pictures is – wait for it – There will be a second Grand Opening this coming Saturday.

In addition to these decorative and delicious sample cupcakes from the onsite kitchen cafe, there were raffles, happy faces, welcoming smiles, and two over flowing parking lots in a day filled with music, Celtic music live. So join us and make the jump, plus...

Yes folks, longtime readers know me. Now on the journey back from Signal Hill I was asked to record the Geo-engineering taking place right above our heads as we rolled back into Orange County. Going over all the pictures, well, I captured something else besides a chem trail. You tell me what [?]. See the last picture in this weekend news report.