On the Street

On the Street

High Culture, Low Culture All Co-Existing Uneasily In Another Installment of On the Street. As always, read at your own risk...

March Madness (Meteorlogically)

In the second year of the premature time change (Spring Forward), there still doesn't seem to be a complete understanding of the amazing window that this month represents. The sun goes down an hour later at night, yet there isn't the crushing heat of Summer. Luminaria could become a celebration of this phenomenon by default but already that festival has its own engine.

(sin permiso)

The Daylight Savings Time practice has always had its detractors as well as its celebrants. Here is an essay from 1784 where Benjamin Franklin suggests the sun rising an hour early to save money on oil that would be used for lamps at night, not to mention all the wax and tallow. Here it is.

Letters (to the OTS Penthouse Suite)

#1

Here's a letter from OTS Insider Everett -

Kind of interesting, Oscar Nominated director and writer David Mamet ("Wag the Dog", "The Verdict"), who actually also studies Gracie(Brazilian) Jiu-Jitsu himself, has written and directed a film coming out in May called "Redbelt". It's about a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu instructor who is against fighting for money. UFC hall of famer Randy Couture is in this film, as well as John Machado, who is a cousin to the famous Gracie family from Brazil. A red belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is at the level of Grand Master. Very rare. That I know of, only Helio Gracie (inventor of this Jiu-Jitsu), and his oldest son out of his 9 children, Rorion Gracie (co-creator of the UFC), are some of the few Grand Masters in the world living today. Anyway, I hope this movie is good...trailer link below in case you're curious...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M18pszt8iNE

Everett

#2

With the ambiguous title of "Who Loves Cartoons?"

comes this letter and link...

http://www.toplessrobot.com/2008/03/the_10_most_insane_childwarping_moments_of_80s_car.php

#3

And then also came a letter with this equally intriguing title, "Vegan Tofu Freedom Fighters"

and this letter and link...

http://www.metafilter.com/70198/Veganizing-Anthony-Bourdain

Some interesting recipes no doubt. And an interesting response to Bourdain's over the top radicalizing of the veg heads.

#4

And then this letter from Tillamook Cheese...

Hi Mark,

I hope you are doing well. Attached below is the news release announcing Tillamook Cheese's enhancements to its shredded cheese line, as well as a photo. If you would like some samples of the product, please let me know and I would be happy to assist you.

Best,
Ashley, on behalf of Tillamook Cheese

I requested a sample of the sharp and Italian blend. I expect to make a few pizzas coming up in the next few weeks. A review of how I botched it to follow.

#5

And then a letter with this title: "Area Code Map"

Evidently, this link is a cartographic representation of a Ludacris song...

http://strangemaps.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/finalareacodesbig.gif

Here it is for all to enjoy...

#6

This letter had this seemingly sarcastic title, "North Korea Looks Fun!"

The letter, as the custom for the week, was just a link...

http://www.vbs.tv/video.php?id=1438428757

Fascinating stuff.

Blonde Ambition

In a brilliant but depressing essay, the writer Jeffrey St. Clair lays out a theory that Hillary Clinton is now only staying in the race as an attempt to bloody Obama to such a point that he is unable to win the election. There is no mathematical chance left for Hillary in this election, so this theory does have its logic. The theory continues to suggest that Hillary will then try to run again in four more years after McCain obviously fails and the landscape is wide open again.

This brings up a lot of interesting points. For me, tangentially, it reminds that not only do most major politicians look like zombies (Kerry, McCain, Cheney...) and that they always act like zombies but that the population has become infected as well. How could a supposed right wing turncoat like McCain capture more national popularity than feel good story Obama? Perhaps Obama is just a bit player in the larger Romero political scenario, however I would hope not.

I find it difficult to engage in national politics, perhaps most because we don't have a truer representational democracy. I'm pretty much on board for a parliamentary system at this point that rejects the apples/oranges dichotomy of American politics. Everyone knows that mangoes are the world's most popular fruit but you wouldn't know if you only listened to Fox News! (Mangoes = Will of the People; Fox News = Foreign Owned Fruit Monger; Apples/Oranges = Republicans/Democrats; Romero scenario = politicians eating politicians).

(And in full disclosure, I have to admit to agreeing on this one issue with the devil. I suppose it takes a zombie to kill a zombie?)

On Above the Streets

Without giving the milk away for free again, I offer this small sampling of fotos. While most were sleeping in, OTS was interviewing small aircraft pilots and learning how to fly.

More to come at some point in the print version. For now...

I can't remember what Pilot Dave was pointing towards. The prevailing wind? A commie on our tail? Or a good place to stop for breakfast?

Years of flying and eating salty peanuts has desensitized us all to the joys and voluptuous horrors of flight. In seconds we would be doing a 'touch and go' at an old auxillary field for Randolph. (Was that where the record label got their name?)

Or did it have anything to do with what these guys were addressing?

Evidently, flying too close to other planes is a common cause for collision, though that seems to be an obvious prerequisite. Luckily, he was no Maverick. I think it was more aerial comraderie than anything else. Perhaps one could say an aerial bromance...

Force of Gravity/No More Leprechauns

In the grander sense it was still, somehow, a slow week. The return of school, outside jobs stealing my time at knifepoint, a torturous path to finally meet said pilots - it all was coming down like a force of gravity.

On the Street Mountain Time Zone Correspondent Congressman Al has basically gone AWOL. In fact, he no longer lives in the Mountain Time Zone. And as soon as he had left MTZ for CTZ he was back on the road again, either helping on the Obama campaign or working as a tour manager for a band I've never heard of, yet just might sport a member one of some company we all heard of - it might have been Amazon but I can't remember.

Here is former OTS MTZ Correspondent Congressman Al talking from the road and where ever it takes him.

I tried to track down an OTS Insider in LA and elevate them to Correspondent level for their inside knowledge on the making of Leprechaun 5: In the Hood. That still may come through, but not this week.

Meet the New OTS Correspondent: SLO (San Luis Obisbo) Steve

Instead, I finally was able to get in touch with OTS Correspondent Steve from San Luis Obisbo, California. As a a final thought, here is the conversation that touches upon new ways to build community through bicycle do-gooderisms.

The conversation begins en media res, which is another way of saying I didn't hit record on the tape deck at the right time. In this conversation Steve mentions some interesting actions taken by the SLO Bike Coalition. Steve is a contributing member of which he joined recently.

I realize Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle is at work here hardcore for San Antonio on this one. The second we try to use any energy to emulate some other city's coolness, we pretty much destroy it or leave it naked in a vacuum. Yet to do nothing would be nihilism. To willing destroy ourselves would be madness.

Meet Our Local Anthropologist

End of the Ice Age

And in some ways is that not our dilemma with the Spurs asking for 100 million dollars of the tourist tax bonanza? 100 million dollars for unspecified needs to improve the arena. And what might be some of those needs? The need to leave huge bags of cash in the owners offices so they can walk off with it with no paper trail? I thought that's what we did with contracts in Iraq but not here. There has to be accountability. This kills me as lifelong Spurs fan to have to question the owners motivation, however they are already making money off a stadium they didn't pay for. If the team doesn't pay for any of this, yet the voters decide if they get the money, then I think the city should get a stake in that arena. If teams are leaving town if they can't snake money out of citizens, then perhaps cities should follow in the model of the Green Bay Packers.

If not that, I would feel a lot better if we invested that money in a legitimate free agent player. I nominate myself to the head of that citizen committee that selects marquee free agents we could sign with that money and still have enough left over to improve the corporate sky box seats. Because what else is this money going towards but to the very select few? I could live with it giving all the players the latest nintendo game systems or whatever dorky lifestyle items that keep them out of the stripclub. I'm curious to see if the city responds at all to this issue. It's a crime that the arena issue is tied in with other issues. I'm considering voting NO even if that means losing out on things I like. I suppose politics is about compromise. If that's true then the city should compromise and go back to the drawing board and get a better plan. I'm willing to call the bluff on the Spurs owners. Cynically, knowing Spurs fans, the area will be empty anyway in about 5 years when this dynasty is pretty much over. For evidence I refer to the End of the Ice Age (George Gervin traded to Chicago.) And I'm not referring to the warming of the waters and this looming disaster.

(sin permiso)

And so goes another week on the streets of San Antonio. As always, to be continued....