(Picture of musical sculpture at Volunteer Park Conservatory taken by me. For more pix of Seattle, see my photostream.)
So, I was thinking I should write about what I've been doing lately - aside from my favorite 'sport' of staying up way too late, and reading depressing stuff on the internet about politics, economics, energy, and climate change.
I recently went to this terrific event called "The Round" at The Fremont Abbey, right across the street from my condo. It would be like walking from my house in CT across the street to my neighbor's house, in distance terms. Except it was like Beatnik night, at an oh-so-cool former church, with 3 local, talented singer-guitarist-songwriters, a poetry slam winner doing live poetry, and a guy painting live during the music. It's just amazing to me that I could walk out my door and go to something of this quality - without even taking a bus into downtown Seattle. The musicians were really good. The place was packed. Apparently, it's becoming quite the popular event.
Here's an article about it. I recommend the place to anyone visiting Seattle. I've also seen a great sitar concert there, and am looking forward to finally catching "Tuning the Air".
We recently had more than a week of rain, general gloom, and record-breaking low temps - excellent weather for reading serious books in coffeehouses. Did you know, BTW, that the Chinese both had a major naval fleet centuries before the Europeans and they had solved the naval scurvy problem by packing raw beans, which they sprouted en route, the bean sprouts being high in Vitamin C ? Well, not only do I know it, courtesy of the Jane Jacobs book that powered me through the gloomy weather, and now you know it, but I made sure the barista at Cafe Lladro in Fremont, who had innocently expressed interest in the book, knew it, too. Because that's how I rock my dorkiness... Nerdcore For Life, Baby! ;-)
Check out my favorite quote from that book; "Not TV or illegal drugs but the automobile has been the chief destroyer of American communities. Highways and roads obliterate the places they are supposed to serve." I was so stunned with the sheer genius of this quote when I read it, that I shared it with the barista, too. I'm sure he thought I was crazy, but he did a good job of fronting like I wasn't.
And, no, I wasn't tying to book mack him. He wasn't my type. Plus, I think he was gay. I was just all impressed that he had noticed the book, unprompted, and volunteered that he was a fan of Jacob's "The Death and Life of Great American Cities".
But, anyway, now the sun and the warmth are back and I appreciate them more than ever! It's beautiful weather for taking the #10 bus up from 3rd and Pike to gorgeous Volunteer Park, like I did the other day. Most Seattle-ish park moment; seeing a 20-something guy, sitting cross-legged and barefoot on the grass, wearing headphones, knitting something - using black wool, of course. This place is just crying out for someone to market a boutique line of organic, Kurt Cobain-inspired yarn, with emo color names like, "Black ... like my soul".
When you're finally ready for a break from the heat, walk down the block and hang out in ultra-cool Victrola Coffee, on 15th, reading The Stranger and watching the local hipsters, with their de rigeur white Macbooks. ( Do they not sell any other laptops in this town? ) Then, it's a nice stroll back down Capitol Hill. Actually, if they hadn't been closed, I would have hit the Seattle Asian Art Museum, in the center of the park, and the well-reviewed Volunteer Park Cafe - oh well, next time. It was more of an outdoorsy day, anyway.
After hanging out at Victrola, I walked back down Capitol Hill, towards Town Hall, on 8th and Seneca, to hear Ahmed Rashid speak about Pakistan and Afghanistan - and how we eff-ed up there. That was kind of so-so. He is very much a voice of the establishment. He didn't have anything particularly new to say, or any unexpected insights into the recent Taliban jailbreak and Kandahar offensive in Afghanistan.
Sorta wish I had gone to Kung Fu Grindhouse at the Sunset Tavern in Ballard, instead. But, usually I've hit really good lectures at Town Hall. I'm looking forward to seeing Jeremy Scahill talk about his new book about the "controversial" (i.e. skeezy) private defense contractor Blackwater, on the 18th. Although I might do some Solstice parade volunteering, instead, as the parade is almost here, and much remains to be done.
Oh, and I couldn't resist, so here are some links to stuff I've been reading. Because reading is a big part of my life, and of what I'm "doing" whenever I have some free time;
Gloom and Doom stuff;
One Simple Question
"It started with one simple question posed by [VT] Senator Bernie Sanders to his constituents in an invitation to a town meeting: What does the decline of the middle class mean to you personally?
Over 700 people replied.
A second question was asked in his e-newsletter, The Bernie Buzz: Do you have a story to tell about how gas prices are affecting you?
Over 1200 responses.
“The volume of responses was stunning,” Sanders told me. “Most people in my state — especially in rural areas — do not feel comfortable telling people about their struggles. ‘He has it worse than I do, I’ll be fine. Thanks for asking.’ It’s just not a natural thing [to share these struggles]…. The other point that has to be underlined — this is not an interview at the homeless shelter. These are letters from working families, from middle class families… [and] people who’ve worked their whole lives who expected to have a minimal degree of economic security but are now finding themselves with nothing.”
...
"Sanders has read some of the letters on the Senate floor. He says, “This is simply an effort to bring a dose of reality to the floor of the Senate. It’s not just Vermont. There are other areas of this country that are worse off. It’s important for us to respond to that with appropriate public policies to address this crisis.”
Sanders notes that corporate media has completely dropped the ball in informing the citizenry of the staggering economic inequality of our times. “When you talk about the collapse of the corporate media in terms of responsibility,” he says, “it’s not just the War in Iraq. The other huge story that they have missed is the collapse of the middle class — the fact that we have tens of millions of people working longer hours for lower wages; that we have the highest rate of childhood poverty in the industrialized world. For the first seven years of the Bush administration, [the media was] simply the stenographers for what the President was saying: ‘The economy is robust. We have strong economic growth. Unemployment is reasonably low.’ The metaphor is — it’s like the operation was a success but the patient died. The economy is doing great, except for 90% of the people in the economy. The reality is that we have the hollowing out of the American economy. Median family income declined by $2500 in the last seven years. 8 million people lost their health insurance. 3 million people lost their pensions. This is a strong economy? You’ve gotta be insane to believe that. And yet that is what the Bush Administration was talking about and that’s what the corporate media kept on talking about.”
Sanders believes the mission of progressives at this moment is twofold. “Number one, we have got to let the American people understand that they are not alone,” he says. “What ends up happening when the media doesn’t talk about the reality facing ordinary people, then people think ‘I must be failing, why can’t I make it?’… And the second thing… we have to come up with a progressive agenda which begins to address this economy.”
Reverse Henry Fordism
"...Under Bush, the cost of food has doubled, and of gas has tripled. (Neither food nor fuel are counted in Bush’s phony Consumer Price Index, which consequently understates the gravity of current inflation)..."
Insurance fraud
The lack of transparency in the US healthcare industry means insurance companies can abuse patients by denying their claims
"...Insurers don't generally give out the basis under which they deny claims. Nor do they generally reveal how often they deny claims. How can a person intelligently decide between insurers if they don't even know how likely they are to see a claim denied?
This is not the only information that you won't get from your insurer. In most plans, when people go "out of network", insurers reimburse an amount that is 70-80% of the "reasonable and customary" rate. Typically your insurer will not disclose in advance their customary and usual rate, so patients will not know how much a trip to the doctor will actually cost them until after the doctor submits the claim. In addition, the insurer is free to change their reimbursement rate at its own discretion. It can also, at its own discretion, change what procedures are and are not covered.
The current law basically gives insurers a free hand to abuse patients. It is equivalent to handing over a $12,000 check to a contractor to repair the plumbing and electric in your house and then leaving it to the contractor to decide which repairs they want to do. A contractor that fixed a few pipes and then skipped out would be prosecuted for fraud. An insurance company that effectively did the same thing, by denying care to policyholders, would be paying big bonuses to the CEO..."
The oil we eat:
Following the food chain back to Iraq
Useful stuff;
Best and Worst Cities for Your Job
Think you're on the top of the heap? It's possible you could be making more money and enjoy a better quality of life somewhere else
Are You in the Best City for Your Job?
A high salary goes only so far if the cost of living is even higher. If you want your dollar to go further, maybe it's time to relocate
Interesting stuff;
Guerrilla gardener movement takes root in L.A. area
"...Scott is a guerrilla gardener, a member of a burgeoning movement of green enthusiasts who plant without approval on land that's not theirs. In London, Berlin, Miami, San Francisco and Southern California, these free-range tillers are sowing a new kind of flower power. In nighttime planting parties or solo "seed bombing" runs, they aim to turn neglected public space and vacant lots into floral or food outposts..."
Tale of the Tracks
"If you live in Seattle's South End, you might encounter postcard-size flyers, photocopied from handmade linoleum prints, advertising Seattle Train Yard Bike Tours. Beginning at Georgetown's All City Coffee, you'll be guided on a three-hour tour led by Cameron, a 30-year-old self-taught train aficionado. By the end of the tour—which snakes through SoDo and along the waterfront, past the grain elevators near Elliott Avenue, and ending up in Interbay—you'll know how to read the trains. You'll be able to tell a road engine from a yard engine, you'll know what The Stinker is and where it's headed, and you'll get a glimpse into the workings of our
economy, based on what's moving where along the rails..."
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