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Posts published in “Essays”

Spy Rock Memories, Part 11

Udo died in the autumn of 1991. He’d been driving alone late at night, so no one ever knew exactly why or how his car wound up at the bottom of a ravine. The best,…

When J. Edgar Hoover Tapped My Phone

As a kid I listened on the radio to “The FBI in Peace and War.” My parents had listened during the mid 1930s to “G-Men.” FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover helped produce those programs and,…

The Vioxx Settlement

Q: Who killed more Americans —al Qaeda crashing airplanes into the World Trade Center, or Merck push­ing Vioxx? A: Merck, by a factor of 18. One of the most downplayed stories of our time ended…

‘Throw The Bums Out’

Louise "Wheezer" Gonyo was recently elected president of SEIU Local 1021. Gonyo is assumed to be one of the SEIU hardliners who claim the County is insisting on wage concessions simply to break the union,…

Are Drum Circles Protected By The Constitution?

From Manhattan, to Nashville, to St Louis, to Port­land, Oregon, to Oakland, California, the police this week moved in to clear out the Occupy Wall Street pro­testers from the various downtown plazas or squares where…

Panic at PinotFest SF

Refrigerated clouds hovered over Union Square, breathing their wet, cold exhalations against the window panes of the fourth floor of the Kensington Park Hotel. The occasion was San Francisco's PinotFest, a Farallon restaurant showcase of…

A Musical — and Political — Icon, Remembered: Fela Lives!

How many musicians can really be seen as revolutionaries — in not just musical terms but political ones as well? Fela Kuti is one such figure, and Americans are finally learning about him. The award-winning…

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