A hat tip to Hugo Schwyzer. If you grew up in California, you'll understand this poem. If you're not, let me just say that California has a tendency to be somewhat ahistorical, and leave it at that.

(If you're curious, I once did an essay attempting to explain why history, which touches on some of the same subjects, but it's not very good. I ( Read more... )

I went on a wild snarfari this weekend. At my best count, I have at least 20 markers to enter. I currently have 26 snarfs in my 2006 challenge ( Read more... )

Well, flip ( Read more... )

Thesis: California is so flipping crazy because we're making it up as we go along.

(IOW, katster's head is bashing ideas together like a supercollider. Don't mind me, I'll just sit here in the corner and spin wheels and damn zibblsnrt for suggesting I turn what are incoherent and nebulous ideas on the subject into a book ( Read more... )

San Franciscans acquire a lost city as soon as they've stayed long enough to remember what used to be in this niche in their neighborhood or that former industrial site South of Market. Then they join the locals whose hallmarks are nostalgia and suspicion of change, maybe because the city changes so much and much is lost in the endless transitions ( Read more... )