how things have changed
and nothing is what it seems
what i get and go for
the in-betweens

best is sort and sum
worst is it’s a surprise
and it’s relative
takes time to rediscover
patience - give another chance
i come back to this
bring focus into longing
to get specific - why?

the eyes soften
the face softens
the neck softens

a low buzz desire
stubbed out still smoldering
in the ashtray

for a new day that
miraculously, continues to appear
defying expectations, stemming fear

to cut it out
how the scar tissue
has warped the body
tensed in anticipation
closed circuit self-defense
breakdown

it’s all right — i’m
cutting the strings one by one

what brings joy?
what’s worth a full commitment?
not a person or thing
the i feel wells up inside me
these disjunctions demand reflection
“but it’s so far away” says the i can’t
“still there’s a way” says the i believe
reconcile the dissonant tendency
get to see things in a whole new light
pass the test, pass this night

Rodney Yee: challenged to a duel! Continue Reading »

“The picture that begins to emerge from this and other analyses of human genetic variation is that variation tends to be geographically structured, such that most individuals from the same geographic region will be more similar to one another than to individuals from a distant region.^[57]”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_%28classification_of_human_beings%29

Continue Reading »

“The primary responsibility for this tragedy rests with the federal government, which holds the Navajo lands in trust for the tribe. Our government leased the lands for uranium mining, purchased the uranium yellowcake produced from the mines to supply our nuclear weapons stockpile, and then allowed the operators of the mines and mills to walk away without cleaning up the resulting contamination,” Waxman said.

“Over the years, open-pit mines filled with rain, and Navajos used the resulting pools for drinking water and to water their herds. Mill tailings and chunks of uranium ore were used to build foundations, floors, and walls for some Navajo homes. Families lived in these radioactive structures for decades,” Waxman said.

“When the U.S. EPA took readings at one mine site, the radium levels were over 270 times the EPA standard.”

Chairman Henry Waxman
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
The Independent, October 24, 2007

[youtube][/youtube]

Students led by Mel put together an amazing Altar to honor Oakland’s deceased.

“[C]reate[d]…out of found objects and old materials. The frame was built from an abandoned door that was in an alley way and a pallet left by the train tracks. canvas and paint from an art class from last year. Painted bottles from my recycling to put a spin on the street memorial bottles. Youth painted messages to their loved ones on the bottles and on sheets of paper that lay on the table. Painted empty spraypaint cans for Dream, Pak and Plan B.”

You can go see the Altar and the other art at Jack London Square until December 16.

Congrats to everyone who worked on this cool project: Melanin Buford, Jose Zamora, Kieth Chang, Evan Holt, Johathan Hall, Darrnesha Green, Kamla Krouch, Yen Nguyen, Loc Huynh, Gorlan Lee, Cami Smith-Dahl, and Mica Smith-Dahl.

More info here:

http://mocha.org/exhibits/re-create.html

http://www.myspace.com/ebaycstreetside

http://www.youtube.com/ebaycstreetside

Please join us on a Sunday afternoon for a citywide tour of installations and word-based art throughout the city. Hop in a van and see some art, come back hear some poems!

We take you to them before the city destroys them, giving you an early chance to see them evolve. The show will culminate in performances and viewings at the Gallery of Urban Art.

Prosody Castle 3.3-
Urban Real(i)ty
Nov. 18th, 2-5pm. $5
Van tours begin at 2:30
Poetry and Performance begin at 4
The Gallery of Urban Art
1746 13th @ Wood
- near Mandela Pkwy/West Oakland BART
www.thegalleryofurbanart.com

Here is a video of me skydiving for the first time on my 30th birthday. This is a highly recommended experience.

 

 Podcast Video: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Swastika building embarrasses US Navy

Friday Sep 28 10:00 AEST - MSN Australia  

 

The Navy now plans to spend $682,000 on “camouflage” landscaping and rooftop adjustments to hide any aerial view of the San Diego barracks, known as Naval Base Coronado.

 

 

ELPAÍS.com - Madrid - 27/09/2007

 

Since 1996, I have practiced and studied with a community of primarily Burmese Buddhist monks in Boulder Creek, CA at the Taungplulu Kaba-Aye Dhamma Center.

I strongly encourage everyone to educate themselves about the process of social transformation taking place in Burma. Buddhist monks continue to play a central role as advocates for a nonviolent and peaceful transition to democracy. In response, the Burmese Government has ordered a violent crackdown by soldiers who are killing and imprisoning and torturing people. Please act in solidarity for these peaceful and kind people!

Democracy Now: More Dead in Burma as Troops Fire on Defiant Anti-Government Protesters

In Burma, the military junta is continuing its violent crackdown on anti-government protesters. Soldiers raided monasteries and fired at demonstrators. At least nine people were killed on Thursday, including a Japanese photojournalist. There are fears the death toll could be several times more. We speak with Burmese activist, Htun Aung Gway, president of the Civil Society for Burma.

Guardian UK: Buddhist monk rally steps up pressure on Burma’s junta

More than 2,000 Buddhist monks took to the streets of Burma again yesterday in the most sustained and widespread protest against the military junta for more than 10 years. The authorities made a rare admission that security forces had fired tear gas and warning shots to quell the unrest, which has spread across several cities over the past month.

Aung San Suu Kyi JAILED — from the Australian

[àu? s?á? s? t?ì]) is a pro-democracy activist and leader of the National League for Democracy in Myanmar, and a noted prisoner of conscience and advocate of nonviolent resistance. A Buddhist, Suu Kyi won the Rafto Prize and the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1990 and in 1991 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her peaceful and non-violent struggle under a military dictatorship. She is currently under detention, with the Myanmar government repeatedly extending her detention. According to the results of the 1990 general election, Suu Kyi is Prime Minister elect of Myanmar, as leader of the winning National League for Democracy party, but her detention by the military junta has so far prevented her from assuming her elected role.

Ko Htike’s Blog: Ko Htike, a Burmese-born blogger. He is in contact with about 10 people inside Burma who send him information and photographs to post on his blog. He joins us on the telephone from London.

Taungplulu Kaba-Aye Dhamma Center:

The Taungplulu Kaba-Aye Dhamma Center (TKADC) was established in 1978 by the forest master Very Venerable Taungpulu Tawya Kaba-Aye Sayadaw of Upper Burma and his student Rina Sircar. The mission of TKADC is to offer Theravada Buddhist teachings as practiced in the Forest Tradition as a way to foster peace for all sentient beings. Kaba-Aye means world peace, and as the Venerable Sayadaw taught, world peace begins with inner peace. By cultivating mindfulness, clear comprehension, and metta (lovingkindness), you will be cultivating a peaceful mind and body for yourself which in turn creates a peaceful atmosphere around you enabling others to benefit. TKADC supports our three resident monks and offers retreats and workshops in both an urban and rural setting.

The Eulipia Series is a monthly exploration of collaborative performance art that interweaves musical improvisation and the recitation of poetry and prose.  Hosted by Douglas “D. Scot” Miller at the Luggage Store Gallery (1021 Market St, SF) and starting at 7:30PM the first Tuesday of each month, this event features a unique “salon-style” forum for comment and participation.  On June 6, 2007 a multicultural audience of approximately 50 enjoyed the work of Kosmic Renaissance. 

Kosmic Renaissance  represents the combined musical talent of David Boyce, Sameer Gupta and Shingo Annen.  Their sound is jazz-meets-electronic-and-world music, created through saxophone/looping pedal, tabla/drumset and a unique musical invention called the Vestax Faderboard.  Rhythms and melodies change, crash and settle in a freeform choreography that showcases the advanced musicianship at work. 

David Boyce (aka Osiris Black Edgar Kenyatta) is a saxophone virtuoso.  When he starts stomping on his array of effects pedals (aptly named Black Edgar’s Musicbox), put your preconceptions aside and open your ears to the melodic agony of convulsing jazz.   Dressed simply in blue jeans and sweater, sporting glasses and a soul patch, the sound of the tenor sax is bright and shimmering, full of rippling tremolo.  On the baritone sax he’s soulful, blowing through all the registers. 

Sameer Gupta (seated at tablas) hammers out intricate rhythms that change and accelerate at mind boggling speeds.  When he switches to the drum set (still in his socks), the familiar bass drum and cymbals comes out fast and funky, alternating between tabla-style rhythms and standard 4/4 time.  His sounds are the structure and it’s a bridge between East and West, expanding the mind and challenging expectations. 

Shingo Annen creates sounds that soar and crash.  He sounds like the wind, like electric water cascading.  And he plays his Chaospad and Faderboard like keys, feverishly manipulating the dials and knobs to create soundscapes in which you’ll hear the electric whirring of lazers and spaceship take-offs, pulsing static, sirens, spin and echo.  With his long hair and black hoodie, headphones and head knocking, he squeezes like an accordion and pulses like an organ. 

The music constantly changes, expands and re-simplifies, achieving complexity, peak and plateau.  Behind the musicians the sun was setting, the trees shook in the windows as the wind picked up.

Douglas “D. Scot” Miller took the stage and shared more of his work in progress – a science-fiction novel that looks through the windows of race and politics to get gritty and defiant with it’s depictions of urban life and street culture.  He presents a view of life at the margins that is both memorable and familiar, exploring historical roots and future possibilities.  His baritone narration brings the characters and conversations to life with an engaged manner of storytelling that calls for unity (“Don’t riot – rebel”).

May 15, 2006: Nonviolent Anti-War Civil Disobedience Shuts Down and Beautifies Downtown Oakland Recruitment Office - Courage to Resist, CCCO, Aimee Allison and more.

here’s the article (w/pictures and comments) on indybay.org

The close of business in downtown Oakland today was accompanied by a rally, march and nonviolent direct action brining a vibrant and diverse crowd of at least 100 from Oakland City Center to the Military Recruiting Station at 21^st and Broadway. Members included multi-cultural youth, families, local residents, the Bateria Lucha drummers, the Int’l Capoeira Angola Foundation, Grandmothers Against War, Code Pink, Not in Our Name, Not Your Soldier, Act Against Torture and more. These groups came together to commemorate May 15^th as International Conscientious Objector’s Day with a symbolic and actual shut down of the local Recruitment Office. Parallel actions were undertaken in New York and Washington D.C. After stopping traffic in one direction for 9 blocks (accompanied by a formidable and armed police escort), several participants wheatpasted banners with antiwar slogans over the windows filled with recruitment propaganda. As in a previous direct action at the same Recruitment Office in September 2005, the police were unwilling to arrest any of the activists engaged in nonviolent civil disobedience Attendees attributed this to the broad coalition of public support for the actions. Jeff Paterson, National Staff for Not In Our Name, whose mission is: “to build, strengthen and expand resistance to stop the U.S. government’s entire course of war and repression being waged in the name of ‘fighting terrorism,’” linked the success of the event to the inclusion of people of many different backgrounds and ages, from youth to grandmothers. Ryan Harvey, part of a anarchist folk collective called RiotFolk, observed that such actions can only happen safely during the day as a group action with public support: “Any one person here alone at night would be arrested.” Oakland resident Gopal came to voice his opposition to war and empire. His 22 month-old daughter Ila was the youngest attendee to start her Conscientious Objector file by posing in front of a sign posted on the Recruitment Office stating opposition to all wars. This was an opportunity for their family to create historic record of their opposition to the war and to commemorate the struggle to end it.

www.objector.org

www.couragetoresist.org

http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/05/1821082.php

https://www.aimeeallison.org/

http://www.notinourname.net/about.html

http://rwor.org/a/v22/1080-89/1087/jeff_paterson.htm

http://www.speakoutnow.org/People/headRush.html

http://www.riotfolk.org/