In a press release, Jay Leiderman writes: Read more…
3 Birthday Shindigs: At Hogwarts, At UCSD Concert Hall & Online in The Orchid Room
November 19, 2011
A few weeks ago, we sent out the following to several dozen children:
11/11/11
11:11:11 – 3:33:33
=you=
are most cordially invited to attend
a Friday of magical adventures at
Hogwarts School of
Witchcraft & Wizardry
West US Campus: Ventura, CA 93001
Potions, Divination, Maps, Charms, Quidditch etc & during which time we will celebrate
Reed (Weasley) Sheridan’s 8th Birthday
please bring swim attire because you never know when there might a moat to cross…
please bring your broom stick for the Quidditch match…
please be prepared for sorting into your house upon arrival…
you may BRING your Muggle or Wizard parents or leave them at home.
Hogwarts/Wizard attire & Wands encouraged.
Because rained threatened, we changed the date to yesterday, Friday 11/18/11–which also meant we were able to add a care of magical creatures class: learn how to take care of your owl.
It went really well and is worthy of its own post full of pictures of Quidditch and the other classes, the cake, the tables, the sorting, the treasure hunt etc. Stay tuned (or subscribe and get me in your inbox!)
Today I was to attend two birthday events: I was supposed to drive three hours south to San Diego to Jeff Kaiser 50th Birthday Concert at UC San Diego where he is finishing up his PhD AND I was to attend an online party in the Orchid Room in honor of Paul Squires.
Sigh.
Is it melancholia? or? All I know is I was so exhausted after my son’s party that I fell asleep on the couch before 10pm–and before I had a chance to visit the Orchid Room for Paul’s party which started on his birthday Brisbane, Australia time–Friday night Pacific Time, a time differential I knew so well from my years of correspondence with Paul.
About 11pm, my husband couldn’t rouse me, but around 230am I awoke thirsty and stiff. I brushed my teeth and headed downstairs where the waxing moon shone on the bed and through the window I could see the bright stars and planets. And I saw them for a long time because I couldn’t get to sleep and I had a headache so bad I went back up stairs in search of Advil…which I never found so I drank a glass of water and went back to bed…
In the morning, I still wanted to go to Jeff’s, headache and all but there was still cleaning up to do and preparations for the following night’s rain. I didn’t have anyone to drive with and no one to stay with. My husband was sick and my son was coming down with something so I made the decision to stay home, do my chores, and take care of my family.
I thought about birthdays all day as I was doing dishes, organizing Halloween and Harry Potter party decor: my own 50th is this January.
The best answer came in the form of a 10 minute video by Paul which was posted in the Orchid Room and contains two of my favorite poems, “Listen” and if i was #2. These are the final two of four poems on the 10 minute video:
And, by the way, did you know I do weddings?
That’s Entertainment: P Weller & P Squires
November 16, 2011
I started this blog the first Saturday night in November 2007 (yes that means I just celebrated my bloggoversary! This is my 1,276 post and I’m nearing 380,000 page views…!) .
Almost immediately, Danika Dinsmore (the Accidental Novelist) told me about on an online writing community called the “Monday Poetry Train” and through that another poetry posting and commenting group “Read Write Poem” that’s now defunct. Through “Read Write Poem” a poet blogger named Paul Squires soon discovered my site and my poetry, and I his.
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted poetry on this site (on a Monday or any other day!) but The Jam is on KCRW (“A Town Called Malice”) and it makes me think of my friend poet and blogger Paul Squires and his website GingaTao who passed away in late July 2010.
Paul made me pay attention to the Jam and to Paul Weller and whenever I hear that music, Paul Squires comes to mind. Read more…
Lead Me Not Into Temptation: Insider Trading & War
November 15, 2011
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7388130n&tag=contentBody;storyMediaBox
From CNN: “Brown’s bill, which he called the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge, or STOCK Act, would clarify insider trading regulations that do not clearly identify whether the use of inside government information constitutes insider trading.”
Yes, I think it is wrong wrong wrong for our elected representatives to invest using insider info. It seems particularly horrendous that Rep Bachus invested in our country doing poorly.
But given the opportunity would YOU take the high road? Here’s how guest blogger Grant Marcus handled a similar situation–inside info coupled with an investment in the war industry.
And if you haven’t yet, MOVE YOUR MONEY!
FOLLOWING THE BLOODY LOVE OF MONEY:
MY GREATEST TEMPTATION WAS TO INVEST IN WAR
A Guest Post By Grant Marcus
Long before September 11th, 2001 and the attacks on the Twin
Towers– when Americans in Armani slacks and ties were given the
choice to jump 124 floors, or to be burned to death– I too was given
a deadly choice, to invest in war and make tens of thousands of dollars,
or to refuse blood money and face the ridicule of my father. Defiantly,
I chose the latter.
You see, our country did not choose to go to war on March 20th , 2002
following the 9/11 disaster. Our government chose to go to war long
before that. In fact, the decision came just one day after George Walker
Bush was selected our 43rd president. Let me explain.
As I remember it, I first learned of the war some time in March of
2000, two months after Bush took office, and six months before our
east-coast Pearl Harbor that changed the nation.
I was working at St. John’s Hospital at the time. My supervisor had
been worried about the recessive stock market, which started plummeting
as soon as Bush was inaugurated. She had been taking a beating, so she
decided to invite a mysterious financial advisor to our unit..
As a “courtesy” to her fellow nurses, she arranged to hold a financial
conference. A high officer from the local navy base volunteered to
serve in the role of our financial messiah .
As we sat down, he leaned toward us instantly, “I’ll cut to the chase,”
he said. “I have some first-hand information that was just brought to
my attention, and I want all of you to benefit from it.” We were all so
silent you could hear the spider matriculate in his web in the corner..
“I want you to take whatever money you have and invest it in Hal-
liburton.” the officer continued. “If you have as much as $40,000, I
promise you a beach house in eight years.”
My father had been trying to teach me about the stock market,
and I knew, from reading the financial page, Halliburton wasn’t
doing well, not well at all.
“Halliburton’s been slumping,” I said. “How can you be so sure?”
There was no hesitation in his response: “Three things. One. Our
vice-president was CEO of Halliburton. Two. I have been informed
that all the no bid food contracts will go to Halliburton, and for all
branches of service. And three. The clincher. Guess where they’re
sending the food? I mean, do you think I’m getting any of it? No.
They’re sending it to Kuwait. That can only mean one thing, we’re
going back into Iraq. And this time, the job’s getting done…It means
we’ll be there awhile, and it also means that if you have money to invest
in Halliburton, at its lowest point in years, you stand to make a killing.”
He didn’t mince words. I mulled it over. “So,” I said finally, “I can
make a killing, as you put it, by investing in war.”
He smiled.
“What if I don’t want to invest in blood money?”
I ended up the lone dove. Eight of the nine nurses at the conference
invested in their future, and I trust they are doing well. My father was angry
I didn’t let him “in on it,” so he could choose to do the same.
All I could do was flash back to Vietnam the divisiveness, the protests,
Kent State, and tricky Dicky. It was a period of time you both loved and
hated, but would have rather not seen happen at all. The names I recog-
nized on the memorial Wall I visited in DC provided an instant sick feeling,
as evidence for how I remembered Vietnam.
And then there was the link between Vietnam and Iraq. Kellogg,
Brown, and Root, which was one of the first war contractors to benefit
from the Vietnam War–which turns out to be a subsidiary of Halliburton.
That war too was fought over oil. But the Gulf of Tonkin was a lot of hot
air, a lot of natural gas, something we didn’t know how to liquify back then.
A few years later, after the fictitious aluminum tubes and “mushroom
cloud,” after the secret meetings with Cheney over oil, after the 9/11
Commission, and our executive leaders refusing to testify in the open,
or under oath, and after the rising whispers of conspiracy–I ran into a
friend, who is a colonel in the armed forces, at a local bookstore. I told
him about my story and the financial advice I had been given.
“That’s nothing,” he informs me, and he proceeds to tell me about
a good friend of his who was “supply commander” for the middle east.
“The day after Bush became president,” said the colonel, “my friend
was ordered to start building bases in Kuwait, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
Everyone knew the war was coming.”
He avoided the question of whether or not he too made investments.
Without intending it, I had been suddenly dropped on money’s bloody
road leading to the Iraqi killing fields of our military industrial complex.
There was so much money to be made from this war, especially if you
got in on the ground floor. $40,000 gets you a beach house, a half a
million dollars or more. Who could resist the temptation? And it’s likely
why no one, to this day, talks out loud about the tips they received. As
long as the war continues, they’re still making big money.
And although oil, defense, and security contractors are doing just fine,
war and its debt are risking the financial stability of the public
sector across the country. We are now in a growing and lengthy recessive economy,
with so many Americans hurting. The issue of war arises repeatedly, as
to how much it is really costing our nation. What could we buy with the
nearly $4 trillion we have spent on Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Pakistan?
How much will we spend on Syria or Iran? And the people who have in-
vested in war don’t want anyone to turn off the faucet. They know their
stocks and dividends will dry up if the handle is turned. After all, we are
a war economy.
So, how much interest will we end up paying on our debt, and how
much will the debt devour what thriving economy we could have had?
It leads me to suspect that I had run into the mouth of the beast,
that ominous creature Eisenhower had endeavored to warn us about a half
century ago: When war is for profit, the first casualty of killing for
money is truth. It’s the reason why it’s so hard to count all the lies
levied for going into Iraq. I question the morality many of us have
when war is no longer a painful and reluctant last resort, but instead
made by those who are willing to kill for a buck.
And if so many people are willing to be shareholders in war, maybe
Martin Luther King was right, “A nation that spends more money on
military defense than on programs of social uplift approaches spiritual
death.” Yes, just what are we willing to do for the love of money, or
at least have our children do for that love? And are they killing for
patriotism, Christ, or the love of country? Or are they killing for
Exxon, or those who profit from war?
I took the high road. I’m not bragging. The economy is as hard on
me as many. And I have nothing to show for my decision. But I think
I can live with that. No need to keep washing the blood from my hands,
or clean the brush from my ranch. I imagine that’s where George is
right now, more from a reflexive need of the subconscious than from
integrity or conscience. Regardless, war was always avoidable and never
the answer.
How To Occupy Wall St From Main St: Move Your Money by Grant Marcus
November 3, 2011
Even though Bank of America has said they will rescind their policy to charge fees for the use of a credit card, Bank Transfer Day or Move Your Money Day is about a much bigger issue than a $5 monthly fee–many feel, as one person put it, that this is just a “token response to how the banks have completely betrayed our public trust.”
Personally, I’ve had my money in Ventura County Schools Federal Credit Union since 1997; tomorrow my husband will be moving the rest of his money from Citi to County Schools and he will move his dad’s money from a bank to a credit union as well. We may not have a lot to move, but every dollar adds up to a significant amount.
Read on for more about “move your money day” in this guest post by activist and poet Grant Marcus. Photo from the Occupy Ventura Facebook Page as posted by Michel Cicero. Need to know where to move your money to? Check out the Move Your Money Project Site: they’ve got answers for your questions. Read more…
“If you can’t occupy Wall Street, at least keep Wall Street occupied!!”
If you don’t want to sit through this video (which really isn’t that long AND he’s got a great dry humor and delivery!), here are his primary tactics:
You know those credit card applications that inundate our mailboxes and landfills with TRASH? They come with postage paid envelopes which you can use to generate a dialogue.
From the simplest to the most time consuming, try one or more of the following ideas from his video:
1. send the envelope back to the bank–just seal & send EMPTY
OR
2. send it back full with their crap so it costs them more in postage as well as anything else you think might interest them
OR
3. send them a note in their postage paid envelope–address it to the person who is opening their mail for peanuts a day w/o benefits, encourage them to join a union
OR
4. put a wooden shim OR a roofing shingle in your envelope so they have to pay even more to pay for their postage …also a message of course about why!
These tactices will force banks to react, to do something–if they get 100,000 “weird responses” they have to deal with…just imagine!
Finally, in your note, please remember that the person who is opening the mail is NOT the person to blame for the current economic crisis. They are in the same boat you are, just trying to survive even if it’s in a dead end job with little or no pay or benefits.
So, here’s how, if you can’t occupy Wall Street you can at least keep Wall Street occupied!!
Wines for Fall Festivities
October 31, 2011
What wine should you bring to Halloween, Day of the Dead or other ghostly ghastly or just plain fall festivities? In addition to Twisted Oaks “River of Skulls” Mourvedre and Ghost Pines Merlot (lovely with this super simple pumpkin soup!), here are some thoughts on some wines you might choose for Halloween dinner or for Dias de Los Muertos or other fall dinners.
Wines for Th
anksgiving dinner to follow soon!
Our fall festivities have included camping at the beach and Zion National Park. Since I prefer to drink my vino in glass, I have found Reidel To Go which comes in its own cardboard tube. But for a group, you can’t beat the plastic Govino for convenience, less worry, and WINE TASTES GOOD in GOVINO!
I’ve tasted several reds, whites and even champagnes and been very impressed. If you loan them out, however, you need to make sure people know these aren’t disposable. They’re about $13 for a box of 4.
A FALL WINE FOR A SPECIAL MEAL
Two Hands Gnarly Vines 2007 from the Barossa is what a glass of wine should be every time if you ask me–rich, balanced, flavorful, with lots of fruit but plenty of acid. It was all we could do to NOT drink it all before our dinner of filet mignon wrapped in bacon was ready! Whether camping in Zion NP on a beautiful fall afternoon or at home, this is a wonderful special occasion wine (unless $40 bottles are a daily occurrance in your budget!) . I am so glad that I brought this special bottle of wine for that meal because the day
and the meal deserved it (I’m also glad I found it on sale for $23 instead of $46!)
Bacon wrapped filet-mignon + Two Hands Gnarly Vines Barossa Valley Shiraz + Fall Day in Zion National Park= ecstasy
The top photo shows some of the wines we brought to the beach campout in mid October. On the left, you’ll find 3 boxed wines. I’ve written before about the Carlo Rossi boxed wines and the Octavins; boxed wine is a convenient way to enjoy a glass of pinot or other wine when you don’t want a bottle because it stays good in the box for a month or more. We brought out the chardonnay because this is a great way to have wine around to cook with–we used it in the clams that we cooked on the fire with garlic, basil, and mushrooms. Everyone who tries the Pinot Evil is surprised by how good it is–a box is about $20.
On top of the boxed wine is una calavera of tequila, a reposado from Kah. And yes, we lost our heads with that tequila we we used for a full moon toast over the fire near the close of the night. This is an excellent tequila in a wonderful handpainted vessel that retails for about $50; I got it on sale for $37.
The Dearly Beloved Forever Red Mendocino Red Blend
Bogle’s Phantom Ranch Zin and Petit Sirah (a spirited wine for $16!)
Henriot Champagne
Smoking Loon and other wines for Thanksgiving to follow soon!
DISCLAIMERS: I bought a box each of Govino red wine glasses and sparkling wine flutes; I later contacted Govino about supplying flutes for champagne day and they sent me samples of all three. The boxed wines were sent as samples as were the bottles of Smoking Loon and the Crusher Petit Sirah.
Celebrate Champagne Day 2011 TODAY!
October 28, 2011
Celebrate Champagne Day 2011 TODAY!.
Yes, that’s right, TODAY is International Champagne Day and I am co-hosting an event at The Jolly Oyster at the Ventura State Beach.
Need I say more?
How about: it’s FREE? And FREE parking? And it’s a fundraiser to Save McGrath State Beach?
See you there!
#occupyventura: candlelight vigil 10/28–guest post by Grant Marcus
October 27, 2011
OCCUPYVENTURA TO HOLD CANDLELIGHT VIGIL FOR
FALLEN SOLDIER IN SOLIDARITY WITH OCCUPYOAKLAND
by Grant Marcus
OccupyVentura, in solidarity with Occupy
Oakland will hold a candlelight vigil in the rose
garden in front of City Hall at 8pm this Friday.
OccupyVentura will hold the vigil in prayer
and meditation for U.S. Marine Olsen in hope
his condition will continue to improve. The
group is currently occupying City Hall as part
of the OccupyWallStreet movement.
If you wish to participate in the vigil, please
bring a candle and hopeful thoughts and prayers
to City Hall. The gathering will meet in front of
our historic building on Poli and California
Streets.
The call for a vigil follows the injury of Marine, Scott
Olsen, 3rd Battalion, 4th regiment at #occupyoakland.
The marine suffered a skull fracture after being hit with
a projectile by Oakland police. Olsen had
returned recently from two tours in Iraq.
“It’s a sad day when a marine, who
defends his country, cannot peacefully as-
semble,” said Jose Sanchez of Iraqi Veterans
Against the War. Members of Olsen’s fam-
ily have stated they are “appalled” by police
actions.
The marine had come from work to join
OccupyOakland when police admittedly
fired stun grenades, bean bags, tear gas
canisters and plastic bullets into the crowd
of occupyers.
Olsen was hit by one of the projectiles.
Several demonstrators then responded, com-
ing to his rescue. When they did, police fired
more projectiles, scattering many occupyers.
But some braved the line of fire to carry
Olsen out of harm’s way.
The marine was then taken by ambu-
lance to Highland General Hospital.and
admitted to the critical care unit. His con-
dition has since been downgraded to fair,
and he is answering yes/no questions.
Police Chief Howard Jordan stated that
he had only ordered bean bags to be fired,
and he blamed outside agencies for the
use of tear gas and the other projectiles..
There have been particularly large crowds
in Oakland and in OcccupySan Francisco,
and the tensions have been building in the
two adjacent cities overwhelmed with pro-
testers. There are 600 occupations cur-
rently going on throughout the country and
900 worldwide. 50 occupations are
going on in California.
For further information, contact Grant
Marcus at 805-259-9725, or email,
grantpeacenurse726ATgmail.com. Free
speech, the right to assemble, and our
democracy should have no fear.
This weekend, #OccupyVentura heads back downtown for an encampment at City Hall. Unfortunately, in order to get a city permit, the group agreed with the City to be in a parking lot above and behind City Hall.
To increase visibility, personally, I encourage participants to hang out on the lawn IN FRONT of City Hall and to spend the weekend traipsing up the hill to the parking lot and back.
The lawn should also provide you with a more comfortable place to lounge, plan, and get on the internet!
That’s where you’ll find me –I hope to be there Saturday afternoon and Sunday too…as well as during the following week!
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28
3 pm — Sign Making and Organization at Ventura City Hall, Poli and California
5:30 pm — March down Main Street
7:00 pm — General Assembly Meeting (GA) *Facilitator —Kendra
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 29
Planning Meeting 10 am
Marches at 12:00 noon, 4:00 pm, and 8 pm
5:00 pm — General Assembly Meeting (GA) *Facilitator —Theresa
During the day there will be Educational Workshops/Circles
—Constitution Study Group 11 am, 3 pm (Eileen)
—Heath Care/Insurance Info. at 4 pm (Grant)
— Q and A on Monetary Issues 2 pm (John)
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 30
Planning Meeting 10 am
5:00 pm — General Assembly Meeting (GA) *Facilitator —Richie
“We Are the 99%”
SHOCKWAVES FROM WALL STREET COME TO MAIN STREET VENTURA
By Grant Marcus
Top photo–widely shared image on Facebook; middle photo is an East coast friend’s poster; bottom photo from New Republic Printing–their #occupy stickers were featured in yesterday’s post for $2.
Occupy Wall Street has gone global, with its shock waves felt in all major cities across the United States, as well as other countries such as Italy, Spain, Greece, Germany, Great Britain, and Japan.
And as many as 1000 came out throughout the day to support the encampment at Mission Park, with some participating in marches down Main Street, Ventura. Organizers here have named the action, “Occupy Ventura.”
As the economic crisis continues to be felt throughout the nation, and as unemployment remains high, with little being accomplished by Congress, its effects are reverberating in over 40cities, large and small in California.
But unlike the Tea Party, which is supported by the Koch Brothers (big oil) Freedom Works (Dick Armey and insurance companies) and FoxNews (the corporate media) the “99 percenters” are not getting the same media coverage. And although there have been daily protests for the last four weeks that has lead to a global response and a “world’s day of protest against corporate greed,” the corporate media has onl recently covered the story, and sparsely at best, often staging interviews to mock the seriousness or popularity of the movement. Perhaps it is because the message of the 99% doesn’t cater to the Fortune 500, i.e., those who sponsor and pay for the major news media.
When a protester was asked by FoxNews how “hippies and commies” could be taken seriously, one youth said, “You know, my mom is American and she had an American son. You don’t have to be a hippie to be against trillions of dollars wasted on war, and you don’t have to be a commie to oppose corporate greed and bailouts, while the rest of America is hurting. What I want to know is, who pays your salary?” The young activist’s comment was apparently excluded at air time.
Major media sources have targeted youth, pinholing them as “neo-hippies, Maoists, idiots, and the like. But when you sit down and talk with unemployed lawyers, struggling business owners, food safety instructors, laid off teachers and counselors, and graduate students who can’t find work right here in Ventura County, one begins to realize just how deeply entrenched the economic crisis is.
Engaged in politics myself, I didn’t want to interview the usual sources. I wanted to meet new faces that had come out in large numbers to support “Occupy Ventura.”
The first fresh face I met was a young Asian woman who was a college graduate, and who had successfully passed the Bar, but was unable to find work for two years, after obtaining her license. She is $250,000 in debt, a debt she hopes “to pay back before the end of my lifetime,” but she is obviously discouraged. At this point, unknowingly, my recorder goes dead (new batteries from China) and so I cannot complete her sad tale. I apologize to her now. It reaffirms in me why we need paper trails, at the voting booth and in interviews.
**************************
Scott Brown’s interview is successful. Scott is a 53 year old aeronautics engineer who lives in east Ventura. I asked him why he was here at the protest.
“I’ve witnessed for many years the middle class being squeezed, and how all the wealth and power is being concentrated at the top. The middle class used to be able to turn to the political process, but that’s awash in money, money unaccounted for in so many ways, which has been bought and sold by both sides of the aisle, I hate to say.”
I ask Scott about the effects of all that.
“A strong country needs a strong middle class. We are losing that. We may have freedom of expression, but it has no power right now. It’s just corporations and pure greed. Corporations take all the money, then they complain of paying taxes when they hardly pay any. Personal income tax for the wealthy has been at its lowest in 50 years, and still we have politicians that go out on the stump to propose even lower taxes under the preposterous notion that it will somehow fix unemployment, it will somehow fix the deficit. Somehow, by giving more money to the rich and taking more money from the public trough, it will make all our problems go away. It’s a preposterous notion, and I am gratified to see people rising up.”
Not hearing a voice like Scott’s on the news, I asked him if he felt his point of view was being represented in the media. Read more…
art predator 