Nowtopian

I’ve been absent since returning from New Orleans… I had a spate of darkness descend on me for a few days, but at the same time super busy with multiple threads… One thing I should announce up front here is that I’m blogging 3x/month over at sf.streetsblog.org and you can track MY contributions (presuming you might want to since it’s impinging on my blogging here, though they’re not really the same as I write here in terms of tone or content) at this link. Also, I’ll be at ATA/Other Cinema this Saturday, March 21, doing a combined FoundSF and Nowtopia show, to be followed by a documentary on decrepit cities in California. I’m heading to the UK April 2-15 and those locations and times are posted on my upcoming appearances which is linked to at right.

Big news as of yesterday: we FINALLY inked the deal with the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society, after two years of discussion and negotiation! The wiki has been open for a couple of months here, but I’m still waiting for lots of new writers and contributors to jump in… you’re invited!

Right after I got back from New Orleans I was booked to speak at the Main Library as part of an event called “Evolve 2009“… somehow among past, present, and future, I was assigned to speak about San Francisco in the present, so I did a monologue I called “An Amnesiac City Sleepwalking Towards the Abyss.” It was well received, a crowd of 50 or so, and the best part of the evening was the intensity that one woman embraced the urgency of finding more opportunities for public discussion, of which the event we were at was a good but rare example.

Some local Slow Foodies in collaboration with Yerba Buena Center staged an Eat-In on Sunday, March 8, and I had a fun time meeting new folks and anchoring one of about a dozen conversations, and especially happy to renew my connection with Bryant Terry who is a superstar of food politics!

Here I am at the Eat-In! Thanks to Darrow VW and YBC for the photo.

It was my birthday last week (11th) and thus the title, into the 53rd (year)… Adriana gave me a sweet day, lots of TLC, and my parents took us out for a spectacular meal at Firefly on upper 24th Street. One of the best all-around meals we’ve all had in many years of fancy birthday dinners. 4 stars! In the flow of getting re-settled after Adriana finished the Bar, we got back from NOLA and I slipped past the depression that was wanting to suck me in, we’ve been doing the cultural rounds too… Saw “Watchmen” (ick!), “Medicine for Melancholy” (very interesting, poignant, smart, and unusual), “Gomorrah” (yeesh!) and two nights ago we were pulled out to the Independent to see Golem, a spectacular klezmer/yiddish/balkan band from NY (“Where Eastern Europe meets the Lower East Side”). We also had the great pleasure of having Yvonne Moore and Mat Callahan visiting from Berne, Switzerland, and while here celebrating our various birthdays, they treated us to a short heartfelt set of some of their latest. What a pleasure to have such talented and generous friends!

Yvonne Moore and Mat Callahan in our dining room, March 13, 09.

I’ve been reading some good fiction, notably Perdido Street Station by China Mieville (in the middle of Scar now), and for light fun, the 4th installment of Lukashenko’s series Last Watch. Of course I’ve made my usual treks to the top of Twin Peaks, and lately the weather has rewarded me several times. Here’s some photos of spring flowers and my favorite view, earned with a 30-40 minute chug up the hill each time!

Spring flowers and green grass are blanketing local hilltops now.

Mt. Tamalpais and the Marin headlands from Twin Peaks, March 09.

Not this view again!

Riding across the hills recently, I went by Clayton and Corbett, a spot where historically an artesian spring led to a big conflict between early settlers, which you can read about by following links from here. I love that the spring is still springing! Here is the fresh water running across Clayton Street just south of the Pemberton Steps.

Dolores Creek headwaters is somewhere in this hillside near Clayton and Corbett, and eventually runs downhill under 18th Street, past Dolores Park and Mission High, the Women's Bldg. and the police station, eventually finding its way to Mission Bay.

Ok, a short post, just to prove that I’m still here and will be posting a lot when I hit the road in about 10 days. I had a couple of days of wondering if my certainty that this is a terminal crisis for capitalism as we’ve known it might be wrong… well, I might be! But then again, probably not!… when in doubt, read Global Guerrillas and the Automatic Earth and fasten your seatbelts!…