#450:: January Wrap-Up : : February What’s Up
In this post: a review of January and what to look forward to in February–on this blog, in the local lit scene, in the skies, and astrologically too!
For January 2009, my birth month, I set a goal of writing at least one post a day, getting over 50,000 page views, and having at least 50 subscribers.
How did I do? Well, I have published a total of 450 posts so far, and I published 35 posts this month, with at least one every day except on my birthday, and I want to thank you for helping me get there on the page views–as of this minute, on Feb 1, I’m at 50,800! I need a few more subscribers to get close to my goal–a BIG thank you to those of you who have subscribed! If you’re not a subscriber yet, I hope you will click the little box in the upper right on the home page (click the banner image to get there) and not miss another word! I also achieved a google page rank of 5 (0-10, with 10 being o
ne of 1,000 best sites on the web), a technorati rating of 45 and a rank of 126, 551 (that’s out of the millions of blogs out there…).
This month started off with a bang with a lot of interest in the New Year’s eve astronomy and astrology! That post has had almost 1,000 page views! I took you along to Joshua Tree National Park for New Year’s Eve weekend where I wrote 17 American Sentences, then to Macworld in SF where I wrote several posts (and picked up Guy Kawasaki’s book, and have a few more to come in February on people and products!) The following week I took you to the California Cultural Tourism Symposium (I have a few more posts up my sleeve on that too). I also wrote a series of posts along the theme of “Sing Songs, Heal the World” celebrating the Obama presidency; the blog To the Wire chos
e the one on Bruce Springsteen as a Top Blog post for the week which brought me many new readers. I ended the month with a posts about taking action and changing the world by riding bikes, and finished it with more music: Radiohead & Springsteen.
February will bring more global advocacy posts and updates on the bike rides we are planning in hopes you will join us or create your own! Also I plan a series of book reviews–that’s right, I have a collection of awesome, exciting, world changing books that I’m somewhere in and my goal in February is to spend some time soaking i
n the hot tub and reading and reviewing: The Puzzle Box by Paul Squires, Tribes by Seth Godin, Reality Check by Guy Kawasaki, Nowtopia: How Pirate Programmers, Outlaw Bicyclists, and Vacant-lot Gardeners are Inventing the Future Today by Chris Carlsson, author of Critical Mass: Bicycling’s Defiant Celebration from (AK Press), on recommendation of Danika Dinsmore, Pronoia by Rob Brezny and on 
the recommendation of the Burning Moms, Groundswell by new Burning Mom Charlene Li (and Josh Bernoff).
In fact, this month, look for more book reviews and less poetry..unless life intervenes to inspire, of course! Plus I have a series about ski vacations that I plan to put up this month! If you have books or wine or anything else you’d like me to review, send it along or direct me that way, and let the Art Predator have at it! If there’s something you’d like to see me take on, please let 
me know!
Also on the calendar: for this Wednesday 2/4: Explodity: An Evening of Transrational Sound Poetry Contemporary sound poets Christian Bök and Steve McCaffery will be joined by scholar Oleg Minin for an evening of readings in conjunction with the exhibition “Tango with Cows: Book Art of the Russian Avant-Garde, 1910-1917.” Getty Center, 1200 Getty Center Drive, L.A. 7 p.m. Reservations required. (310) 440-7300…
Saturday 2/7: Chris Carlsson, the author of Nowtopia will present and sign his new book. Book Soup, 8818 W. Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. 7 p.m. Free. (310) 659-3110…
and another trip to LA for a Santa Lucia Highlands wine tasting Monday Feb. 9 and maybe to the Moonday poetry reading in Pacific Palisades to see Steve Williams and M with a stop in between for burgers at Fathers Office in Santa Monica..
and locally, Mary Kay Rummel at the Artists Union Feb 10, and Dian Sousa on the last Saturday of the month at Bell Arts Factory.
And what’s up from an ASTRONOMICAL perspective in February? Well in addition to this week’s smiling moon and winking Venus (the closest it’ll be for 3 years and visible at sunset for one month more only!), according to my 2009 Tidelog, the most interesting event in the sky is the full moon lunar eclipse February 9–which most of us in the US won’t even notice, but early birds on the west coast may see some rosiness in the morning’s setting moon (from about 615am-645am). If you’re up early, you’ll also see Jupiter.
And from an astrological perspective, check into Rob Brezsny’s Free Will Astrology or read what astrology.com has to say:
The first month of 2009 is almost over and February is upon us. The cosmos signals that the times, they are a changin’, and we wish everyone the best in these tumultuous economic times.
Mercury turns direct on January 31 (or February 1 depending on your time zone like here on the West Coast), and the first Mercury retrograde of 2009 is now officially over. Let the misunderstandings, confusions and fuzzy thinking end and new conversations begin anew!
Mercury turns direct in pragmatic Capricorn (my sun sign), so it’s time to get a stable plan together. Finish projects that may have been on hold during Mercury retrograde. Whether it was due a muddy mind, unforeseen delays, someone’s non-committal behavior or any other confusion, the barriers should lift now and give way to progress.
The gates have been lifted, encouraging you to charge forward. Whether you want to move ahead with a new job, fresh business venture, creative project, relationship, you name it (or all of the above!) — get going! Cosmically speaking, there’s nothing stopping you! Mercury’s trine to serious Saturn indicates that the support you need is there for you. However, Mercury’s wide conjunction to feisty Mars, and a square to the impetuous Aries Moon, caution you to not overreact to anything. As you move forward, let things develop at a sensible pace!
February begins with feisty energy Read more…
Limbaugh Hopes Obama Fails — How 80,000 Respond
Remember my inaugural day post reporting on Rush Limbaugh’s bad faith words about Barack Obama’s presidency: “I hope he fails”? Over 80,000 outraged and disgusted people like me signed a Democratic Congressional Campaign petition about that issue–so many people that MSM (mainstream media) outlets picked up on the story!
Here’s a short video where you can hear Limbaugh’s words yourself and find info to sign the petition, too. No matter what your politics, maybe you even agree at times with Limbaugh–in this case his negativity is outright WRONG! Let’s make it a million signers on that petition!
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Dear Friend,
This week, you did what seemed impossible – you drowned out Rush Limbaugh. Thanks to you, Rush and his Republican followers in Congress got a taste of what they’re in for if they keep attacking President Obama and Democrats working for change. Rush himself predicted that we would exceed our goal in signatures to our petition drive against him. Maybe for the first time ever, he was right about something. Over 80,000 of you signed our petition to break the back of Rush Limbaugh style politics. Your response was so overwhelming that you caught the attention of media outlets like CNN, Fox News, and Air America. Not to mention Rush himself. More than ever, the party of Rush Limbaugh has proved that they are out of touch, out of ideas, and just plain out to lunch. And thanks to you, those Republicans in Congress who keep supporting Rush by standing against change will soon be out of a job. Thanks again for standing strong.
Brian Wolff, Executive Director, DCCC
UPDATE February 2–Also from my in-box:
Dear MoveOn member,
President Obama has a plan to create or save 3 million jobs. But did you hear what Rush Limbaugh said?
“I hope he fails.”1
Limbaugh might just get his way: he already helped convince every single House Republican to vote against the bill.
Now his listeners are calling Congress to oppose the stimulus plan, and senators are mostly hearing from folks who oppose Obama’s plan. The calls are scaring swing-vote senators—even Senate Democrats are saying they may oppose the stimulus.2
The vote is expected any day. We’ve got to turn the tide quickly. Read more…
Radiohead’s “House of Cards” video: make one yourself
While I was doing the research for yesterday’s music post about Bruce Springsteen, Coachella line-up 2009, and Radiohead’s Grammy nominated Album of the Year In Rainbows video animation contest, I came across some other Radiohead videos and it reminded me how much I love the song “House of Cards” and what they did with it.
So this post offers two versions of “House of Cards” : the first the traditional version at top, and the second from Scotch Mix, plus a “making of” video below, plus links to do your own!
Go to: http://code.google.com/radiohead to find additional pieces of data to create your own visualizations.
Upload the results here: http://www.youtube.com/group/houseofc…
Go here on KCRW’s site to see more about this year’s Grammy nominees and various in-studio interviews and guest appearances or here for the list of nominees. BTW, while you’re at KCRW–subscribe! It’s the right thing to do and you get cool stuff in addition to the best radio on the planet. Pledge through Monday Feb 9.
Up next: a January wrap-up and what to look forward here in February!
MUSIC: Springsteen! Radiohead “Weird Fishes” Animated Video! Coachella 2009 Line-up!
It’s a Friday musical mash up! Springsteen, Radiohead, Coachella (PAUL McCartney?!), Michael Franti and Spearhead!!
Springsteen’s got 3 songs during his 12 minute SuperBowl Half-time show this Sunday. Take a bet on “Born to Run” any body? Two songs from Working On A Dream? Think he’ll be able to keep the music going and leave the stories at home in Jersey? What do YOU think he’ll do and play? Leave your best bets in the comments and go here for more Bruce musings.
Plus I just found this cool Radiohead “Weird Fishes” animation by Tobias Stretch which is one of four entrants from over 1,000 which won $10,000 to produce a full length video. I’ve watched all four, and this one is the best by far–the most amazing and imaginative. Really, the most mind blowing music video I’ve ever seen. You can find the whole contest shebang here.
If you know the song “Weird Fishes” from In Rainbows as well as I do (I admit I am obsessed with this cd and have listened to it more times than you can imagine), get one video going, then count to 12 and play the next for a different, delayed choral experience that is very very cool! Not to mention psychedelic stereoptical craziness of the stop motion animated puppet video drama!
No surprise to me, Radiohead’s In Rainbows is up for a Grammy for album of the year–and obviously would get my vote if I could vote: go here on KCRW’s site to see more about this year’s nominees and various in-studio interviews and guest appearances or here for the list of nominees. BTW, while you’re at KCRW–subscribe! It’s the right thing to do and you get cool stuff in addition to the best radio on the planet. Pledge time today through Monday Feb 9.
And while Radiohead WILL BE playing at the Grammies, they WILL NOT be at Coachella this year. However, the line-up announced TODAY (thanks KCRW for the heads-up! see list below) features some of my favorites including Michael Franti and Spearhead (playing down the block from our house TONIGHT!!), Henry Rollins, X, THIEVERY CORPORATION!! GROOVE ARMADA!!
AND PAUL MCCARTNEY???? SIR Paul McCartney? Next thing you know, they will book Bruce Springsteen! (Knowing him, he might just stick around after his Weds April 15 LA Sports Arena show to go play at Coachella with Conor Oberst on Friday April 17–and then maybe with Sir Paul! Wouldn’t that be a blast? After all, Bruce is not due in Boston until April 22 and he’s got 4 teeenagers–how would he say no Coachella to them?…Shhh, don’t tell anyone about Bruce Springsteen playing at Coachella! Go here to see Springsteen & The E Street Band 2009 tour dates.)
Obviously, Read more…
Poem: This is not my story
This is not my story
I thought I knew the story of my mother:
she died of cancer when I was 12, died
deeply in love with Grant, and me, and Grant’s
daughter Emma. She loved rock climbing
and hiking, adventures and camping,
Yosemite and the Grand Tetons. Me.
I had enough of my mother to figure
out her story: I had her photographs,
drawings, letters, had her day book with notes,
dates, schedules, cycles, could piece together
her where, when, who, birthdays of people who
mattered, her marks on the days of her life.
Then one day I discovered I knew nothing:
that was the day my half brother called, the
brother she put up for adoption, the
brother everyone knew about but never
told me about. My half-brother. My
mother’s son. My mother’s other child.
And then another day, a few days later:
I found out my father loved my mother.
Really loved my mother. Had loved her all along.
Had not just married her because of me.
Had married my mother because of her.
And I knew the story of my mother
was just that—a story I’d made up.
I realized I didn’t know her at
all. I knew my illusion of her.
And losing the illusion of her,
I lost what I knew of my mother.
I had to start over. This is that
story, my story of starting over.
Roxanne Swentzell, Tewa, 1962 –
Window to the Past, 2000
Bronze, artist proof
Collection of the artist, on loan to the Heard Museum
Just a reminder that the speaker in the poem is not always the poet…
Or as Paul Squires puts it: “By all accounts the libraries are ledgers neatly divided into profit and loss, fiction and factions and none but fools do claim to know the difference.”
In this case, the poem was inspired by a story I heard. When I put myself in the person’s shoes, I came up with this poem. In some ways, the poem came out of the blue, insistent that I write it down immediately, my son bleating the while that I make him breakfast. In other ways, this story had a deep impact on me, and when I saw these images for the Read Write Poem prompt, I think it stirred the pot, and the poem came out. I considered editing it into a sestina for another Read Write Poem prompt, since there is so much repetition of certain words, but decided I was happy with simply using pentameter and five of the six sestina stanzas and one of the 3 lines traditional to the envoi. The missing parts of the story…
Thanks for the use of these photos goes to Deb of Read Write Poem.
You might also want to take a ride on the Poetry Train!
First Fridays ArtRide: it’s a PAJAMA PARTY!
According to VCCOOL: Thirty eight percent (38%) of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in California are associated with transportation, so any reasonable plan to address human induced GHGs must look at the way we design our cities and transport ourselves within our community. 
Bicycles can be part of the solution to our transportation woes. Plus they’re fun!
To encourage more bike riding,
from the folks who brought Ventucky SANTACON 2008, it’s…
FIRST FRIDAYS ARTRIDE! aka FFArtRide!
Light up your bikes and the night with a new monthly ride the First Friday of each month to coincide with the monthly First Fridays Artwalk! This month, dress as flamboyantly as you dream–lingerie anyone?–for a preValentine’s Ride and PAJAMA PARTY Friday February 6!!
5:15 Park and meet at the City of Ventura San Jon Road Maintenance Yard
5:30 Park and meet at the Artists Union Gallery, 33 S. California St
5:45 Ride off into the sunset en mass along the promenade, up the river trail and onto Main St to enjoy the open Art Galleries and spaces in downtown Ventura and the Westside
7:15 End of ride congregating at a location TBA.
Free–but bring money for food and libations. Donations accepted to the VCCOOL Bike Pod. The purpose of the Bike Pod is to create a bike culture in our community. 
Read here about LA’s thriving Bike Culture, pictured.
A draft of the goals of the VCCOOL Bike Pod are posted below. For up to the minute FIRST FRIDAY ARTRIDE details, check back here! Don’t miss another word– SUBSCRIBE by clicking on the button in the upper right! Go here for pictures of the last ride–Santacon 2008!
So what’s VCCOOL’s BIKE POD about?
The VCCOOL Bike POD seeks to create a bike culture in Ventura. Goals are to:
1. Encourage and increase bike riding; decrease auto dependency.
2. Lessen our overall impact on the environment.
3. Create safe, direct intra-city bike routes East/West and North/South
4. Increase bike safety.
5. Involve underserved communities.
6. Improve relationships between drivers and bikers through education.
7. Integrate bicycles with public transportation efforts.
8. Provide convenient bicycle facilities that support bike culture.
9. Find funding sources to implement our goals.
10. Advocate the enforcement and development of bike regulations.
11. Make Ventura attractive & competitive as a bicycle-friendly place to live.
12. Increase the social fabric of our communities.
The POD is open to all. We will be accepting of all suggestions and ideas from the whole global community. Goals listed above can be modified or added to. Possible Limitations? We won’t be able to bike to Hawaii. Not any time soon! But we do have future rides on the way:
March 6: Electric Light Parade
Like at Disneyland… and at Burning Man! Join us for a LED and/or EL wire workshop at the ARTBARN before– details under construction! See the photo by Brad Templeton for examples of some VERY elaborate EL wire costumes!
April 3: Bunny Hop ride– Get your bunny ears on! These kids are ready to roll!
May 1: Prom Ride
There’s talk of starting at the Govt Center on Victoria, then riding up Victoria to Telegraph, Buena High, Foothill High, Ventura College, down Telegraph to the Mall and St Bonaventure, then downtown the length of Main Street and Ventura High–in our most wonderful PROM ATTIRE to be followed by our own PROM PARTY and FUNdraiser! Anybody want to help contact the schools and get the students to join the ride?
June 5: Summer Solstice Santacon
July 3: Independence from Fossil Fuels ride
And for sooner bike riding fun and activism, go hear Brock Tully at the ARTBARN tomorrow, Thursday, and head over to Ventura College for the transportation forum–info at the bottom of the previous post below or here!
NOAA: Climate change now irreversible for 1000 years
When it comes to climate change, we want to think that we can stop the bus, turn it around, and go back, or get off. But like a bad marriage, this ride is not that easy to turn around.
“[climate change] It’s not like air pollution where if we turn off a smokestack, in a few days the air is clear,” said Alan Robock, of the Center for Environmental Prediction at Rutgers University, who agreed with the report’s assessment. “It means we have to try even harder to reduce emissions.”
According to a NOAA report released Monday, Jan.26 2009, the effects of climate change at this point are more or less irreversible. Now that’s some bad marriage. But it doesn’t mean we give up and give in. SO TAKE ACTION! It’s time to leave that marriage, get off that bus–and get on your bike! Read more…
August 2, 2008 3:15 Experiment Poem: you can be dethroned by doubts
8/2/08 315am
writing at 315am is like nursing
having a nursing baby
with its own alarm clock
and there’s no shutting up
they both grow and grow
as you feed them
you become more attached
you fall more deeply in love
you don’t always appreciate them
the moment—the squealing child
the incessant insistent alarm
you can be dethroned
by doubts or accept
and move on which
allows much more sleep
just the process
it will be over already
appreciate it while it lasts
the challenges of
middle of the night
rousing are rewarded
in the end writing at 315
is like the bladder that
wakes you—you have to attend to it
it takes some training
and some discipline
we’d rather stay in the warm bed
we’d rather look at the
sky & blank & yawn
but you gotta go before
take the child in the night
before you have wet sheets
or ink
in the light of day
more is here
even for the child
or poem
Danika Dinsmore aka the Accidental Novelist, Tod McCoy (who blogs at todmccoy.com) and I submitted a collaborative 3:15 poem to a journal (here’s the draft of the stanza I put together) and then revised it again last week; now we are writing the poem on a pair of shoes to submit to the Farewell Bush Shoe Show! Submissions are due on Friday at 6pm; wish us luck on getting them from one country to to another and then across the country!
Working on this is inspiring me to FINALLY FINISH transcribing my 2008 3:15 poems and get them up on the 3:15 Experiment site SOON! ANd if you don’t know yet, the 3:15 Experiment is where writers around the world wake up at 315am their local time to write and then publish their 315am mind unedited…
Take a ride on the Poetry Train and see who else is aboard!
Can the Art Predator go see Mozart’s Magic Flute?
Of course I said yes to a last minute invite to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion to see the LA Opera’s “The Magic Flute” by Mozart!! Today’s the last day–hurray!
Guess you’ll just have to wait to see what I have up my sleeve next!
In the meantime, I leave you with this trailer of the Kenneth Branagh film version which received rave reviews from the LA Times!
The other day, I read Ventura City Manager Rick Cole’s blog entry arguing for the closure of the HP Wright Library on the east end of town:
Here’s the case. Wright is going away anyway. It is on the campus of a college that recently built a $40 million “learning center” — a high tech library geared to its students, but open to the general public. Foster Library Downtown is underutilized. Avenue is a dinky Library and is funded largely by Federal funds earmarked for aiding low-income neighborhoods. So the long term answer could be to build a new “state of the art” library like the new Camarillo facility. Closing Wright saves the other libraries in the system from further shaving hours and makes the most efficient use of the existing staff.
In his post, he makes several well made and sensible arguments, and I considered his position–he’s between the famous rock and a hard place trying to fund the city’s priorities on limited budget funds, a budget that’s been cut as close to the quick as can be imagined, and so the cut off of library services to a facility next to a college with a state of the art library when HP Wright is an outdated library in a building due to lose its lease in a few years makes some sense.
BUT it’s not even the City’s decision to make–it’s the County Library system that will make the cuts, although no doubt they will listen to the City, and if the City was in a better position fiscally, it could lend a hand or a few bucks.
Members of the community are outraged over the potential closing of Wright and the perceived sense that the City is lobbying to have it closed. They have expressed their displeasure in the Ventura County Star; they are trying to drum up support and to get people to attend at Monday’s City Council meeting where the County Librarian will speak. I may go. And if I do, this is what I might say: Read more…
art predator 