MCT: Wednesday, April 3, 2019

• Forecast
• April Showers
• Rain Totals
• Bake Sale
• Hamburg Oregone
• Abreu Update
• Method Fest
• Headlands Biketrack
• Munson Nuptials
• PVP Forum
• Rachael Kudos
• Water Landing
• Unhappy Inmate
• War Bonds
• Subhumans
• Police Reports
• Yesterday's Catch
• Polio
• Crazy Relatives
• Viva Ocasio
• Generously Angry
• Burn Unit
• Women's Choir
• Impatiens
• Trust
• Plumber's Crack
• Biden's Record
• Lily Okuru
• Davina Concert
• Homeless Center
• Ponderific
• Measles Cases
• Bernie's Budget
• Acting Workshop

PERIODS OF LIGHT RAIN will occur across the region through Thursday. Heavy rain and gusty south winds are expected on Friday. Additional rainfall will be likely during the weekend into early next week. (National Weather Service)

LIFE IS NOT A HIGHWAY strewn with flowers

Still it holds a goodly share of bliss

When the sun gives way to April showers

Here is the point you should never miss:

Though April showers may come your way

They bring the flowers that bloom in May

So if it's raining, have no regrets

Because it isn't raining rain, you know, (It's raining violets,)

And where you see clouds upon the hills

You soon will see crowds of daffodils

So keep on looking for that blue bird, And list'ning for his song

Whenever April showers come along

— B.G. ‘Buddy’ De Sylva

MARCH WAS ANOTHER WET MONTH for the area. Since October 2018, Boonville has received nearly four feet of rain, while Yorkville has surpassed five feet. Here are the monthly totals for the 2018-19 rain season thus far:

Boonville (total to date: 47.02")

• 07.28" Mar
• 17.73" Feb
• 11.54" Jan
• 03.72" Dec
• 05.32" Nov
• 01.43" Oct

Yorkville (total to date: 62.68")

• 10.12" Mar
• 24.88" Feb
• 14.36" Jan
• 05.80" Dec
• 06.04" Nov
• 01.48" Oct

MAKAYLA’S BIG BOONVILLE BAKE SALE

Hi everyone, I am having another bake sale this Sunday, April 7 from noon to 2:30pm at the AV Market here in Boonville. I hope everyone can make it out. It will be from 12pm - 2:30pm!

(Makayla’s Senior Project, this bake sale is a fundraiser for the Mendocino County Animal Shelter in Ukiah.)

FORMER 5TH DISTRICT SUPERVISOR, Dan Hamburg, is moving to Oregon, where he and his latest wife Sarah have bought property. Hamburg has sold his Boonville Road property out from under his children. Hamburg, while sitting as Supervisor, was also married to Lauren Sinnott of Point Arena, apparently to qualify Ms. Sinnott for County medical coverage. Hamburg has apparently been mentally ill for some time, appearing at County meetings with a small dog, his "comfort animal." Over the last twenty years, the County's Supervisors have included three adjudicated mental cases; several other Supervisors merely appeared to be mentally ill.

ABREU CASE UPDATE

Dear Populace,

Here's where we stand right now:

As expected District Attorney David Eyster has submitted his opposition to my SB 1437 petition. He is attempting to decry it as unconstitutional which I am confident will be overthrown by the appellate courts which are already reviewing other cases where this argument has been raised.

Hedging his bets, District Attorney Eyster has also argued that I simply "don't qualify for relief based on the record at trial."

Hmmm.

Even assuming this is correct (and it might even be so) this is but one of many theories which were initially considered. More importantly, this statute DOES NOT restrict us to original theories. We are allowed to introduce new evidence in addition to that which was previously presented. Combined with the fact that the burden of proof lies with District Attorney Eyster, I am confident I will prevail.

Jessica Hoagland (of the Public Defender's office) has until May 6 to draft and submit a response. After that, Mr. Eyster can make a reply by May 28. (It should be noted that nothing in the statute allows Mr. Eyster this opportunity and I object to its allowance.)

After these events a "hearing on constitutionality" is set for June 13. This is when we will argue whether SB 1437 is even legal. We will see if that gets any traction and go from there.

As for myself, I am doing well here at the Low Gap Inn. Suffice it to say that I've seen more drama here in the last two weeks than I ever did in my 17+ years in level 4 and level 3 prisons. Go figure.

Thanks to Walter Miller for the wishes. Tell everyone I said "Wazzup!" And please make sure Bubba knows what's going on.

I encourage public interest and involvement in these proceedings. It doesn't take but a few minutes of conversation with me to realize how much of a waste it is to keep me incarcerated any longer.

Onward!

Tai Abreu, #92781

951 Low Gap Road, Ukiah, California 9/5/42

PS. You guys can write directly to me here at the jail and I can slingshot you a response!

ED NOTE: I just re-read the transcript of Abreu's confession to Detective Kevin Bailey, then of the Mendo Sheriff's Department, presently lead investigator for the DA. Bailey's interrogatory makes it clearer than clear that Abreu was indeed twice advised of his right to have an attorney present. But Abreu's public defender, also the Mendocino County Public Defender, Linda Thompson, convinced the 19-year-old that he had not been properly Mirandized, and that she would take this evidence-free argument to a jury and Abreu would soon be free. No rational person, let alone a defense attorney, could read this transcript and then tell a kid looking at Murder One that he had a winnable case on a Miranda basis. Apart from being found guilty after a one-day trial and subsequently sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, Abreu was defrauded by Thompson, persuaded to take a non-existent defense to a jury. The transcript also establishes that Abreu did not participate in the murder of Donald Perez. At a minimum, one would think that Thompson would offer to testify to her ineffective assistance of counsel. Nope. A personal note: Some years ago, one of Thompson's oafish attorneys out of the Public Defender's Office, had the nerve to tell me that not only was Thompson a great attorney, I was "homophobic" for criticizing her "work" for Abreu!

EVERYONE SAY BOONVILLE

Method Fest film festival went well in beverly Hills. We won three awards; “best screenplay” (myself and Zack), “best supporting actor" (Edward James Olmos), “best director” Michael Olmos. There was also a presentation of a special award for “Generational Cinematic Excellence” given to Edward and Michael by Mexico’s legendary actor Eugenio Derbez.

Julia Brock, Anderson Valley High School grad came with two of her film student friends. Other cast, Ryan Guzman, Chealsea Gilligan, Glynn Turman, Richard Cabral, Julie Carman, and others also came. The only other part time Boonville resident I was hoping to see was Rene Auberjonois who has a part in the movie. Packed house of about 450 people.

See the picture below: actress Chelsea Gilligan on my left, Julia on my right, Michael Olmos below, Edward James Olmos far left…Julia’s two friends in the middle.

Yours for finding an audience.

And we are supposed to play the Mendocino Film Festival.

(Robert Mailer Anderson)

FORT BRAGG CITY COUNCIL MEETING MONDAY:

Headlands Bike Track Wants To Grab More Land

Well, Monday night’s Fort Bragg City Council meeting should be interesting. The backers of a Noyo Headlands Park bicycle “Pump Track” are not content with the 1.06 acres they wanted - they’re coming back for another (adjacent) 1.04 acres to have a total of 2.1 acres for the track.

If granted, that means land that could be used for other recreation, say a kiddies park, basketball courts or other “non-passive” recreational pursuits, could never be built.

Link to project: https://cityfortbragg.legistar.com/View.ashx…

Also on the agenda:

Receive report and consider adoption of City Council Resolution approving a forgivable loan agreement with Parents and Friends, Inc. for the Cypress Street residential care facility for the elderly project with funds through Community Development Block Grant and authorizing City Manager to execute same (amount not to exceed $2,802,880).

Receive report and consider adoption of Municipal Improvement District No. 1 Resolution accepting the bid of Fort Bragg Electric, Inc. as the lowest bid, awarding Contract for the sewer lift station project, to Fort Bragg Electric, Inc. and authorizing District Manager to execute contract (Amount Not To Exceed $1,411,534)

Receive report and consider adoption of City Council Resolution approving a multi-year contract with City of Ukiah for Dispatch Services (FY 2019-20 amount not to exceed $350,123.78)

Here is a link to the Monday night agenda that has all the attachments:

https://city.fortbragg.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_04082019-701

(Via MendocinoSportsPlus)

JOE MUNSON TO JAIL, ATSUKO TO JAPAN: HIM & HER

As Told to Jonah Raskin

Joe: Here’s the set-up. Atsuko and I were on a superbike traveling fast over the Golden Gate Bridge. I was under the influence of cocaine and alcohol. A cop pulled me over and busted me for drunk driving and possession of a “narcotic substance.” I pled guilty and was sentenced to 90 days in the Marin County Jail. Atsuko and I talked about what she should do for the three months that I would be incarcerated and paying my debt to society. But first we got married in the Civic Center courthouse on McAllister between Polk and Van Ness in San Francisco. The judge—a 300-pound woman—read our vows and pronounced us husband and wife. After a celebration, we went to Las Vegas for our honeymoon. When we returned to SF, I went to jail and my wife went to Japan to study ceramics. She had never wanted to be a good little Japanese wife, but she had strong ties to Japan so it made sense for her to go to her own country.

Atsuko: I had met Joe in San Francisco, where he taught me how to shoot pool. When he went to jail, I chose to go to Ishikawa prefecture on the main island of Japan because it’s famous for a kind of pottery called kutani-yaki. I was about twenty-four-years old. I took a tent with me on the plane to Osaka. Now, I’m not a Buddhist, but when I was growing up my parents taught me Buddhist prayers. Of course, I grew up speaking Japanese, but it took me a couple of days to be able to speak the language fluently again.

When I got to the town where I was going to study, I decided to camp out behind the studio. I was there for four days. People brought me books and food. It was pretty nice. I didn’t mean to break a law, but I guess I was. The city authorities told me it wasn’t safe for me to camp out, and that I had to take down my tent and leave with all my things. They said they didn’t want to accept responsibility for anything bad that might happen to me. A man from the art studio came to my rescue. He introduced me to Akiko, a potter who invited me to stay in her home. In exchange for not paying rent, I would help her in her studio.

Fortunately for me, I moved from outside to inside just in time to avoid a big typhoon that hit the island and that would have totally drenched me. Akiko and I got along good. She was a year or so younger than me, but that didn’t make a difference in our friendship and the way we worked and played together. We’d stay up late working. When we were finished we’d go into town and eat a ton of Chinese food: fried rice, Raman, pot stickers, sweet and sour pork, and chinjaorousu, a stir-fry dish with beef and vegetables. The cook couldn‘t believe we ate so much.

A man who worked near the studio came one day to see what was going on with me and Akiko. He looked like a yakuza, a Japanese mafia guy who would have taken one look at Joe and would said, “He’s crazy.” The yakuza had heard a rumor that there was a gaijin, a foreigner, working with Akiko. He looked around and asked, “Where is the foreigner?’ I said, “Me.” He said, “You not gaijin. You Japanese.” After that, everything went smoothly. I learned the art of noborigama, which is a wood-fired kiln. I learned how to make ceramic tools from steel and also the techniques for firing and glazing pottery, and making drawings, too. After three months, I came back to the U.S.

Joe: While I was in jail, I tried to learn Japanese. I thought I was learning, but it turned out that I had learned it all wrong. Mostly, I watched TV, played cards and got into a fight. The jailers added ten days to my sentence. A guy known as “Dirty Deal Harry” called me “a bitch.” I thought he was going to take my head off so I punched him as hard as I could and down he went. Then someone from behind knocked me out. The whole jail went nuts. The guards had a rough time putting us back in our cells. I was glad to be released and get back together with Atsuko.

Unlike my dad, Atsuko never puts pressure on me to do something or not do something. We have been together for about 25 years. I never knew what love was until I met her. Over the course of two-and-a-half-decades, I think some Japanese has rubbed off on me. People think I’m impatient, but I like to sit and observe. Atsuko and I have been to Japan several times. I love the restaurants, and I’ve noticed that the Japanese are serious about getting where they want to go. If you’re in their way you’re damned. If you do go to Japan, stay away from the whole Tokyo area. Much of the land, water and air is polluted.

I’ll probably spend the rest of my life in northern California with Atsuko and our children who are growing up fast. I’ve thought about the future of marijuana, and as I see it, it’s gonna get worse before it gets better. If you want to jump into the canabiz now, I’d question your sanity, but in the long run it will be a colossal new market. Some people will get really fucking rich. It will be interesting to see who ends up with the biggest piece of the cannabis pie. I love the marijuana plant and I’ll continue to be involved with it. I also plan to get into mycelium, soils, beneficial insects and beneficial microorganisms. That’s my future.

---

A Note on How This Book Was Written

The stories and the people in this booklet are all Joe’s. The words are mostly Joe’s. Some of them are Jonah’s. This is the way we worked: Joe would talk; Jonah would write down what he said, then type it up, making some small changes along the way and show the copy to Joe who would edit. Then Jonah made changes to the text on his computer and sent each installment to Bruce Anderson at the Anderson Valley Advertiser. All these chapters appeared in the AVA. Early on, Bruce encouraged us to go on. So did Fred Gardner, the editor at O’Shaughnessy’s. Sometimes Jonah would suggest certain themes or anecdotes to Joe. After each session Joe would come up with new ideas for stories. This doesn’t cover every aspect of Joe’s life, but it does cover many of the highlights. —J.R.

A WOMAN WHO DESERVES MAJOR KUDOS: Rachael Wrede, the swamper at the Forest Club, deserves a plaque and a cash award for cleaning up after the homeless – one in particular, the legendary Charles Hensley, who often camps in the alcove of the vacant building next door to the Forest Club, and who recently defecated there in a drunken stupor and smeared the tiles and glass with feces, scattering broken dishes and other litter from people who give him food.

Ms. Wrede says she does this extra work, disgusting as it is, because otherwise locals point the indignant finger of accusation for the mess at patrons of the Forest Club, and Wrede, as well as the barkeepers at the popular hot-spot want to make it clear to the public that is not the case: Mostly, it’s Mr. Hensley, and one or two others who will remain nameless (for the time being). At any rate, it is Rachael Wrede who deserves the recognition for her labor in cleaning up after these odious louts.

(Bruce McEwen)

SF Bay 1966

OTHER THAN THAT MR. BRAY…

Hello AVA,

My name is James ‘Astro’ Bray. I am an inmate at the Mendocino County Jail in custody since Feb. 15, 2019. The last 35 days of my life of 58 years have been the worst. This correctional facility has paint peeling off the walls, a leaking roof, a lint filled air and heat system… It is filthy dirty and subhuman. I believe prisoners of war have better accommodations. The food has no flavor and half the milk served at noontime is sour. A number of inmates have suffered from food poisoning, puking and shitting themselves for days. The medical and mental service is horrible, the nursing staff is rude and disrespectful and has no empathy or compassion.

I had to provide a Flovent inhaler from my own property to ensure that I got the medication I need. They have run out of antibiotics and abuterol rescue inhalers. On one occasion I waited four days for medication to come from back east, Oklahoma to be exact. During this time, one day I waited five hours for a breathing treatment due to lack of communication between corrections staff and medical staff. No excuse!

After a wrongful death lawsuit the grieving family was awarded $5 million in settlement. You would think the two staffs would get their act together, not just change medical companies, but get a new staff. The building is falling apart and going down the toilet with the medical staff. Sheriff Allman does nothing. It seems to me we need a new sheriff in this county and new employees. The county needs to step up at the next election. Out with the old and in with the new!

Your humble Space Dawg

James ‘Astro’ Bray

Ukiah

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GENTLEMAN JIM

On February 15, 2019 at approximately 8:08 p.m., Mendocino County Sheriff’s Deputies received a call for service for an unwanted male subject inside a residence in the 18000 block of North Highway 1 in Fort Bragg, California. After Deputies arrived on scene they contacted a 54 year-old female and James Bray, 58, of Fort Bragg, inside the residence.

During the contacts, Deputies learned the adult female and Bray were married but did not currently reside together. Bray reportedly arrived at the adult female's residence intoxicated and physically assaulted her after she told him to leave. Deputies observed the adult female had minor visible injury consistent with the assault. Deputies determined Bray had an outstanding misdemeanor arrest warrant for violation of probation and was also on active summary probation with a term that he must obey all laws. Deputies arrested Bray for Felony Domestic Violence Battery and Violation of Probation. Bray was booked into the Mendocino County Jail where he was to be held in lieu of $35,000 bail. (Sheriff’s Press Release)

HOW DARE THEY?

Editor,

Katy Tahja is upset that filthy subhumans and their ratty camps besmirch her view from the train. How glad that this is not allowed in Texas, where poverty is a felony. Yes, all of them should be “disbursed” immediately. I mean, how dare they even exist? They wouldn’t be tolerated in Comptche, no doubt. Philbrick would just herd them all into the ovens straightaway. There’s a man for the times!

Jay Williamson

Santa Rosa

FASTER, TONYA, FASTER!

On April 1, 2019 at about 1:10 AM a Mendocino County Sheriff’s Deputy overheard Fort Bragg Police Department’s radio broadcast of a citizen following a suspected stolen 1995 Toyota 4Runner traveling northbound in the 23000 block of North Highway 1 in Fort Bragg. The Deputy received a formal request of assistance to locate and apprehend the driver of the stolen vehicle from the Fort Bragg Police Department. The Deputy positioned himself at the Ten Mile Bridge (29000 block of North Highway 101) and observed the above listed stolen vehicle traveling southbound on Highway 1. The Deputy conducted an enforcement stop on the stolen vehicle and the driver eventually yielded the stolen vehicle in the 31000 block of North Highway 1. The Deputy detained the driver, Tonya Scheurich, 48, of Fort Bragg, who was the sole occupant of the vehicle.

During the stop Scheurich’s purse was searched and the Deputy located a baggy of methamphetamine, a methamphetamine pipe and learned she also had an outstanding misdemeanor arrest warrant for violation of her probation. Fort Bragg Police Officers responded to the scene and the vehicle was later released back to the owner. Scheurich was eventually arrested by the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Deputy for Receiving Stolen Property, Possession of Controlled Substance, Possession of Drug paraphernalia and Violation of Probation and booked into the Mendocino County Jail where she was to be held in lieu of $20,000 bail.

========================

GENTLEMAN JIM AND MON CHERE

On April 1, 2019 at approximately 12:45 P.M., Deputies with the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office were dispatched to a reported domestic violence incident at a residence in the 26000 block of Oriole Drive in Willits. It was determined the reported suspect, Jimmy Allen, had multiple felony warrants issued for his arrest in Mendocino County. When the Deputies arrived at the residence, they knocked on the door multiple minutes and announced their presence, but no one answered the door. It was learned the female involved in the incident may have walked to a nearby friend's residence, so a Deputy responded to check that residence. The Deputy was able to locate the female and investigate the reported domestic violence incident. The Deputy learned the female had been assaulted by Allen to her face, torso, and leg area over the past few days and had multiple injuries that were consistent with her statements. Other Deputies remained at the residence on Oriole Drive when the female was interviewed at a nearby residence.

Chere Powers exited the residence and the Deputies learned she was Allen's mother. Powers repeatedly denied that Allen was inside the residence and was aware that Allen had multiple warrants for his arrest. Powers was advised that if Allen was located in her home that she would be arrested for harboring/concealing a wanted fugitive. Powers continued to deny that Allen was hiding in the residence. Powers ultimately consented to allow Deputies to enter her home and search for Allen. After an extensive search using a law enforcement canine, Allen was located hiding in the attic and surrendered without further incident. Allen was placed under arrest for Felony Domestic Violence Battery and the two felony warrants issued for his arrest. Powers was placed under arrest for Harboring, conceal, or aiding aWanted Fugitive. Allen was subsequently booked into the Mendocino County Jail where he was to be held on a no-bail status pursuant to the felony warrants for his arrest. Powers was subsequently booked into the Mendocino County Jail where she was to be held in lieu of $15,000 bail.

CATCH OF THE DAY, April 2, 2019

LUIS AYALA-ORTIZ, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

WILLIAM BRASS, Willits. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, suspended license.

ANDRES EMERY, Ukiah. Domestic abuse, infliction of injury on child, stalking and threatening bodily injury, protective order violation, probation revocation.

JOSEPH HOAGLIN, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

MATTHEW RANDALL, Hopland. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

CHARLES RAWLS, Ukiah. Stolen property, probation revocation.

THOMAS TICE, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

CHAD TURLEY, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Few things infuriate me, but one of them is seeing a polio-crippled child here in Indonesia. My God, during the Suharto era the message was carried on all electronic media and in the press and the imam blared it out from the mosque and the community health services were reminding mothers over and over to get their child immunized against polio.

‘I forgot’ the mother mumbles.

Not good enough, lady, not at all.

Those who were around in the 1950s can remember the mass panic: swimming pools closed, all kinds of theories in the air, people in iron lungs.

We won’t even get into tetanus, smallpox or rabies.

This is when my inner SS Colonel rears up and attempts to impose his will. It’s not going to be just nuts like me, either: when the food / health / environment / security situation gets real grim just watch how promptly folks will embrace a totalitarian regime.

¡QUE VIVA OCASIO!

Here I go again, letting something in this dying world catch my attention, offer up some Hope. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a whole different creature. She has Superiority in her DNA! She sparks and hums and gives off light. Too damn bad she's only 29. She'd be our next president.

She's not waiting to turn 35 to take action. The Green New Deal has already faced the sneers of the rich and grown stronger. People debate her arithmetic, but that's part of the usual playbook, which AOC doesn't subscribe to. The environmental apocalypse that is upon us is not waiting for us to get smart. Neither is she. She's not waiting until her freshman-status in congress has matured. No time for that. NO TIME FOR THAT! So she's grabbed that bull by the horns. She has that kind of New Yorker personality--assertive, no BS, get-going-or-get-out-of-the-way, straight-talking NYC manner. Kind of intimidating unless it's working for you.

Also, she's sort've grabbed Nancy Pelosi by the horns. Pelosi tried to pour cold water on this unruly new batch of congress people, especially this incandescent New York kid, but they're not having it, and Nancy STEPPED BACK! I luvit.

Read about AOC at Wikipedia. This young lady winds me up! It's glib and wrong to say the right person always comes along in times of great need. Not true. But sometimes…

(Mitch Clogg)

WHEN ONE READS any strongly individual piece of writing, one has the impression of seeing a face somewhere behind the page. It is not necessarily the actual face of the writer. I feel this very strongly with Swift, with Defoe, with Fielding, Stendhal, Thackeray, Flaubert, though in several cases I do not know what these people looked like and do not want to know. What one sees is the face that the writer ought to have. Well, in the case of Dickens I see a face that is not quite the face of Dickens's photographs, though it resembles it. It is the face of a man of about forty, with a small beard and a high color. He is laughing, with a touch of anger in his laughter, but no triumph, no malignity. It is the face of a man who is always fighting against something, but who fights in the open and is not frightened, the face of a man who is generously angry — in other words, of a nineteenth-century liberal, a free intelligence, a type hated with equal hatred by all the smelly little orthodoxies which are now contending for our souls.

— George Orwell

MENDOCINO WOMEN'S CHOIR, TICKETS NOW ON SALE!

Tickets for the Mendocino Women's Choir's 27th annual Spring Songs concerts, to be held the first weekend in May at Eagles Hall in Fort Bragg, are now on sale at Harvest Market in Fort Bragg and Silver & Stone on Main Street in Mendocino. The concerts will be held May 2 - 5, with 7:30 pm show times Thursday through Saturday and a 2:30 pm Sunday matinee. Founded in 1992, the Mendocino Women's Choir has long been a place for women to come together in a loving space, to get over the fear of putting themselves out there in performance, and, of course, to sing. As a feminist, progressive, loving, sassy, non-audition community choir, the Choir has included women of all ages, from 12 to over 80, and varied in number from 24 to 105 women. The concerts will include the usual array of diverse and worldly music, tap-dance routines, colorful and fun dances, ukulele orchestra, and fantastic singers. And, to keep everyone happily fueled, Robert Goleman, of Bolliver’s fame, will have his fabulous pastries for sale. (And there'll be light sabers and pirates, too!)

For more information on the Mendocino Women's Choir:mendocinowomenschoir.com/introduction.html

To order their cookbook, Recipes for a Song: mendocinowomenschoir.com/cookbook-ordering.html

EATING AS TRUTH

We do anything and everything to keep wild things out of the spaces where we live. Our homes. Our yards. Our cities. We poison them. We squash them. We shoot them. We eat them. Who the hell ever decided that an oyster looked good? We eat pigs. We eat cows and we eat chickens. We don't eat dogs. Many people do. Many more would if they had to. May do it in time. 'Bye, Fido. In time.

What are we afraid of out there? We think everything there must serve us? It is a better question than it appears at first blush. One of our strongest taboos, to be violated only to preserve life, forbids eating each other. No, I don't mean that. What do we fear?

Well of course, there is a good deal to fear. Illness. Berserk shooters. Financial ruin. The Russians. Mexicans. Aunt Ruth. Our mother finding out. No matter how we protest, we do not seem to trust the universe, don't seem to trust what put us here.

Every rational fiber of my being believes that it does little good to continue being a carnivore. The vegan menu always gets better meals on planes. Do they still serve meals on planes? For 'free'? And before all the rest?

Our inability to face up to our fear -- our inability to trust the universe -- seems to be the cause of so much craziness not only in our personal worlds but in our world. Put this way, trusting what we know is the truth, trusting what put is here, my help us see the sense of it all. Trust the Great Spirit. Trust the way crickets are now part of some people's diets. Enjoy your grilled oysters. Together, they have made you what you are. Enjoy eating the Great Spirit. There's a choice? The clock ticks. Inhale. It can be corrected in an instant. It doesn't matter anyway. The season's first day game today. It's your life. Just do it. What the hell! Just do it with love and thanks. Eh?

(Bruce Brady)

THE OTHER REASON BIDEN SHOULDN’T RUN

Anyone wondering about former Vice-President Joe Biden’s fitness for the presidency ought to be concerned about the recent allegations of inappropriate touching. But there is another issue that deserves consideration: his key role in making possible an inappropriate and utterly disastrous war. Biden’s role in making possible the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and the carnage and destabilization that resulted, is something for which he needs to be held accountable. It should be a central issue in the upcoming campaign.

commondreams.org/views/2019/04/02/other-reason-biden-shouldnt-run

"ARCADIA, CALIFORNIA. Mrs. Lily Okuru poses with statue of 'Seabiscuit' in Santa Anita Park, now an assembly center for evacuees of Japanese ancestry." April 6, 1942.

What do you see? Shock and denial? Going along to get along? Irony? I see courage and grace.

FISTFUL OF NOTES: DAVINA AND THE VAGABONDS

by David Yearsley

Davina and the Vagabonds rolled in to San Francisco last night to begin a weekend run at the SFJazz Center, that noise-proofed concert venue of gleaming steel and glass on a busy San Francisco street corner between the trendy restaurants and shops of the once-rundown Hayes Valley and the glowering edifices of cultural and political prestige: opera, ballet, symphony, and the domed cathedral of local government, the Civic Center. In San Francisco jazz has architectural standing: a place to be heard, enjoyed, taught, nourished—and respected.

For its part, the band affected surprise at, if not unease with, with the cultural—and economic—capital lavished on their music. From her bench at the gleaming Yamaha grand piano in the Joe Henderson Lab (the smaller of the two auditoriums at SFJAzz), frontwoman Davina Lozier’s various inter-song remarks bewondered the luxurious surroundings, especially the artists’ green room from which she and her quintet had emerged for the first of the night’s two sets. Also eliciting her praise was the singularly attentive and well-heeled audience along with the related fact that no football game was playing on multiple TVs behind the bandstand. And bemused gratitude was expressed for having to play just two sixty-minute sets instead of their usual “tons of hours.”

Long years on the road had apparently inured her to the competition from blaring TVs and rowdy barhoppers. At times the silence was deafening to her: even the traffic and occasional homeless trolley trundling by outside didn’t intrude sonically.

When drummer George Marich’s snare was disabled during the raucous but tightly delivered kickoff tune—Louis Jordan’s “Knock Me A Kiss”— another was produced within a couple of minutes. SFJAzz has resources and style: the musicians will be able to make their music how they want to make it. The support for them is expert but unfussy.

Davina and her crew had driven up the Coast Highway from a gig in Santa Cruz the night before. Even that stretch of road seemed to have been exhausting not exhilarating, in spite of her wry comment that the lake to their left was somewhat bigger than those spread across their home state of Minnesota.

Since its founding in 2005, Davina and the Vagabonds have done hundreds of dates a year ranging across 45 American states, a couple of Canadian provinces and a dozen European countries. Davina is a laconic humorist, an aphoristic philosopher, a singer of grainy exuberance, a pianist of punch and poise, and an imaginative and unexpected songwriter. She exuded radiant energy in the cool SFJazz interior.

By contrast, the four male Vagabonds looked tired, as if the road miles had taken their toll—not to mention the musical miles done traversing Davina’s songbook. Trombonist Matt Hanzelka, trumpeter (and husband) Zack Lozier, bassist Matt Black, and drummer Marich were uniformed in white dress shirts, dark trousers and vests, ties with big knots askew, five o’clock shadows lengthening towards midnight, rheumy eyes peering down from the bandstand out through the smokeless hall. The sartorial semiotics suggested waiter, bellman, or undertaker having shed the jacket for some heavy lifting. Perhaps their musical itineracy is a kind of vagabondry, but its dress code is rather different than that of the real vagabonds so plentiful around the SFJazz Center and sometimes visible during the show through the plate glass. Davina does not plan her set list and her musicians responded to her spur-of-the moment choices with body language that conveyed not eager delight but dutiful doggedness, as if they were holding it together till the next rest stop. There were cheerleading calls from Davina, and more later from trumpeter Lozier, to find out how we were all doing. The question could have been asked more trenchantly of the Vagabonds.

Yet when they played the syncopated horn lines of their crisp and clever arrangements above driving bass line and perfectly calibrate drum energy, there was panache and thrill. All those motoring and musical miles had polished their machine to a dazzling glint. Hazelka is the most consistently interesting improviser in the ensemble. His solo to Fats Waller’s minor blues strain “You Must Be Losing Your Mind” started sparse and low and skeptical and then grew over its many choruses to a high pitch of incredulous intensity.

Davina’s singing on the tune was, as always, vibrant, personal, compelling: hers is an assured and beautiful voice when she wants it to be, but it can be rough or coy when required. Her singing has the texture, wisdom, and deep confidence of experience. She doesn’t play like Fats Waller nor does she try to. She won’t be boxed in or intimidated by the past. Hers is music in the present tense. Still, the classic William Gottlieb photographs of Thelonius Monk and Art Tatum hanging in the windows of the derelict building across the street seemed to look directly over Davina’s shoulder and made one wonder what these pianists would have thought of her barracking comping behind Hazelka’s trombone work. Whatever the verdict of these legends, Davina’s fistfuls of notes added to the atmosphere of madcap disbelief far crazier than the Waller version.

On the previous number, “Ain’t That a Shame,” by a different Fats (Domino), Davina had already shown herself in full vocal fettle and rightly unabashed in her keyboard bashings.

In her original compositions she likes to take on personal demons, as in the Latin seductions of “How Did the Devil Get His Horns” and “I Try To Be Good.” Her pianism turned crystalline in the declarations of love in “Pocket, ” her voice taking on an intimate quality also capable of great ardor and pathos. Toms Waits and Randy Newman seemed to look and listen over her shoulder in a newly minted song puncturing the ballooning hot-air rhetoric of a mansplaining “Mr. Big Talker”—Marich evoking that inflation with his inexorable crescendo moving from sibilant brushes to drumsticks hissing on that snare and crackling on those cymbals.

Davina’s plaintive cover of Etta James’ “I’d Rather Go Blind” would have closed the set in muted tones if it had not been followed by the rollicking Preservation Hall coda, “Shake that Thing” sung by Zack Lozier and capped by his high-heat brass effusions. Even before the hard-working set was over, Davina, too, had earned a breather.

(David Yearsley is a long-time contributor to CounterPunch and the Anderson Valley Advertiser. His recording of J. S. Bach’s organ trio sonatas is available from Musica Omnia. He can be reached at dgyearsley@gmail.com)

WILL A GOFUNDME SQUASH SF’S PLANS FOR A HOMELESS CENTER?

It began as a disagreement between homeowners and the city. By late last week, that disagreement swelled into a full-fledged battle between groups of San Francisco residents over what to do with a center intended to provide shelter and resources for the homeless.

nytimes.com/2019/04/02/us/california-san-francisco-homelessness-nipsey-hussle.html

ANTI-VAXXERS ON THE MARCH

The number of measles cases in the United States during the first three months of this year has already surpassed the count for all of 2018, health officials say.

There have been 387 cases of measles across the country through March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. During all of 2018, there were only 372 cases. The numbers are likely to change, but this year’s tally is already the highest since 2014, when 667 cases were reported. The spike has been driven by outbreaks in several states, including California, New York, Illinois, Texas, and Washington.

Typical measles symptoms, including high fever, rash all over the body, stuffy nose and reddened eyes, usually disappear without treatment within two or three weeks, according to medical experts, though a severe case of the measles can lead to death.

Most people who get measles have not been vaccinated. The measles vaccine is 97% effective, according to the CDC.

In the U.S., most outbreaks are sparked by travelers who picked up the virus in countries where measles is more common. Locally, an international traveler infected with measles visited 20 places across the South Bay and a Santa Clara County resident was infected with measles while overseas. Nearly 83,000 people contracted measles in Europe in 2018, the highest number in a decade, according to the World Health Organization.

Since 1963, when the vaccine was introduced, the numbers of cases and deaths from measles in the United States and other developed countries have plummeted, CNN reported. Prior to the vaccine, measles caused approximately 450 to 500 deaths each year in the United States.

ACTORS!

LA-based actor Alex Rapport (The Flick, Luna Gale) will give a six-week workshop focused on scene study, beginning April 6th. This workshop is suitable for experienced actors of ALL skill levels, from beginner to experienced.

SIX SATURDAYS

APRIL 6th to MAY 18th

(there is no class on April 20th)

11:00 AM to 2:00 PM

in the MTC rehearsal room at the

Community Center of Mendocino

$125 for the six-week course; that's less than $10 an hour!

REGISTER HERE:

https://mendocinotheatre.tix.com/Event.aspx

From Alex:

To me, actors are behavioral athletes and acting is a sport. I believe an acting "teacher" is really a coach offering specific skills to help you keep the ball in the air while playing a good game. The first two weeks will focus on such skills, like going to the gym. The third week, scenes will go out. You will read the scenes cold while focusing on the art of LISTENING. The following week, the scripts will still be in your hand (at least 90% learned) while we zero in on ACTION, or "the happening". You will learn to play tactics, take risks, and live in the transitions from moment to moment. The next week the scene will be memorized, with a final rehearsal revolved around TRUTHFULNESS. The final week will bring all the elements together in a final performance while having fun LETTING GO! I will spend extra attention on the behavior of "pushing through", making friends with conflict and loading it up. Daniel Day-Lewis says "acting is the most highly developed form of denial". By the end of the workshop, hopefully, that will make more sense.