Hi. Good to see you. Happy Thanksgiving. I mean I hope you had a happy thanksgiving. If you celebrate Thanksgiving. I'm not saying that you do. I hope I didn't offend you. I'm really sorry for presuming that you celebrate Thanksgiving. Again, sorry. Meanwhile, I was down in LA to see J & G, and on the way back saw J&J and their new child, J. Drove a truck. Living large. It was fun. When I got back on Saturday I finished off the last two episodes of Mad Men, so as, now I am caught up. Not that that means anything, but it's nice to come to an end thus far, and now I can talk about it with others, like my mom. One of my favorite parts of the show was its pacing. That is, a lot of these TV shows rely on the cliff hanger to get you through, whereas with Mad Men I felt like I could watch an episode, maybe two and go to bed satisfied. A show like The Wire was intense and non-stop, and was really difficult to pull myself away from. It didn't feel good. It felt bad, like when you're looking at the last third of a roll of cookies and thinking, well, I may as well just finish it off. So thanks Matthew Weiner for not jerking me around. Okay. School work to get to.

On Thursday (and Friday) in class we discussed this article, about putting a tax on junkfood and using that money to subsidize healthier foods. Tied up in this equation are the current government subsidies for corn, which explains why it's cheaper to buy a Dr. Pepper than it is to buy a pepper. That there's a much higher demand for corn syrup than fresh vegetables, and that's why obesity, and the healthcare costs that come with it are such a problem in this country. Because it's more profitable for big food companies to feed us junk. Anyway, we read it in the context of the Proposal Argument (the third essay that students are required to write for the rhetoric class) because it's such an elegant solution to many problems all at once. A solution than not only makes people healthier, happier and takes the money out of the hands of the powers that be, but also pays for itself and generates additional revenue. The question we discussed in class was not the question of do you all think this is a good idea (which, lefty Bay Area us all, there wasn't much "The government can't tell me what to eat!" represented in the room), but the question of if this is such a good idea, why doesn't it happen?

Stephen, the ESL supporter in my Thursday class, brought up the tobacco companies, how it took twenty years for the facts of the relationship between smoking and cancer to gather enough political will to actually lead to legislation. That it takes a long time for a new idea to rise out of these facts and into our our collective imaginations. The parallels for the Occupy movement are obvious, and in this context of long term change, the come down that the Oakland Occupy movement has experienced (or maybe that's just me) does not necessarily mean the end of anything.

In that light, there was a march this Saturday in Oakland that felt redundant and purposeless. It was mostly younger people, not a particularly diverse crowd. We marched through downtown and around the north side of the lake and then stopped in front of the Grand Lake movie theater. There was a truck with a lot of speakers that played dance music that we walked behind for most of the route. It was kind of fun, but it didn't have a whole lot to do with, say, taking money out of politics or putting money back into schools. It seemed like a street party with a vaguely political theme. Later, after we left, some of the occupiers moved to a vacant lot to reoccupy it. Which was cleared by police the next day. The Snow Park encampment, the one just down the street, was cleared this morning. Compared to the Oakland General Strike, which had a real sense of purpose and a real turnout, it was kind of depressing.

Which I think is an unfashionable tack to take but oh well. So be it. Occupy continues. The events at UC Davis were serious, as were the events in Berkeley last week. This Davis video is remarkable for a number of reasons, one of them only happens if you keep watching: how the human microphone actually seems to make the police officers leave. About seven minutes in. Keep watching. And really, if you're interested in all of this, you don't have to camp or scream at police officers to show support, but simply, talk about it. Ask your friends and your family, what do you think?

Today I made this in a support class:

A sunny and warm day in Oakland. It's a little past noon. Yesterday morning the occupation of the plaza in Oakland came to an end. Today there is a march up to Berkeley to support their occupation of the campus and tomorrow the General Assembly will discuss where next to occupy. Which is the question right now, what to do next. This coming Saturday there is another larger march planned, akin to general strike, which is supported and backed by many unions here in Oakland, which partly answers the question of what to do next but only in the short term. Personally, I'm not sure where my support lies, as I agreed with the main stream narrative that occupying downtown was not going to accomplish much more than it had. My hope is that the occupy movement continues to raise awareness, moves indoors, now that they have some funds, and continues to do the work of organizing people towards practical solutions to the immense, long term problems that center around the economic injustices we perpetuate. It moves on. Here is a comment from an article in the Times (name withheld). Regardless of you how you feel about people in a park, here's some hope:

I have an MBA in finance and work in investment management on Wall Street – and I love money more than any Republican. But I see a lot of shallow comments and mixed-messages posted from all over the country criticizing OWS protesters as ne'er do wells and anti-capitalists.

They should appreciate that the protests have inspired introspective dialog among many thoughtful business professionals – top to bottom. Not all wealth trickles down and capitalism is as virtuous or evil as the people involved.

Hi!

Today is my 33rd Birthday. I am 100 years old. I heard Tom Waits say on the radio that when he was young he wanted to be old. My cat just fell off a slippery coffee table. She is getting old. The other cat is already old. He is very wise but not very smart. My sister and brother sent me a frying pan in the mail. It will be awesome. I will make two pancakes at one time. Ratios are old. Like Euclid or Donatello. The one with the triangles and the one with the bo staff, respectively. About me: I am one billion years old. Did you ever read that Dune book, God Emperor of Dune? The one with the sand worm king who lived to be thirty five hundred years old. That's not old. One billion years old is old. Have we been around that long? I don't know. The dinosaurs have all changed into birds. Earlier today we killed off the Neanderthals. Psychosis is one of the oldest professions. When I'm older, I hope to be a professional young person. Like MF Doom says/raps, it's nice to be old. But I guess it's relative. By that I mean some of my relatives are getting old. And some of them are getting young. Can we say that? Is this thing on? Sorry, I'm not good with technology. I need to go eat supper. Goodbye.

I haven't had much to do with the Occupy movement since last Thursday morning, briefly surveying the remnants of Wednesday's general strike. Except for closing my bank account at Chase, which, finally was possible after about two weeks of little steps; opening a new account, dropping direct deposit, and changing a few billing plans. When I went to the bank on Saturday it took about five minutes. The bank's representative asked why I was closing my account (Chase makes me feel bad) and if large bills were okay (yes). Easy. And now I can feel good and and righteous about where I put my money. Cleaning the platform on which I stand, and from which I speak and write. It's an impossible and entirely vain dream to be all of one thing, to be all good (or all bad), but the few moments I gain from not having to enter Chase's ubiquitous corporate temples twice a week, I'm happy to have.

But back to occupy, I was a bit depressed about the whole thing following Wednesday's decent into chaos. In particular, this video that shows somebody (black bloc? paid police instigators?) messing up a Whole Foods (where I occasionally shop) and punching a few protester's who were trying to stop them. If you read the comments attached to the video, most of them suggest that these provocateurs were not part of the movement and were paid by outside forces. Personally I think that's true, but unfortunately it doesn't really matter as whoever did it was successful in taking the focus off of Occupy's message(s). Obviously they need to do a better job in preventing these kinds of small groups, whoever they are, from creating this much havoc, in order to keep the support of those whose are still not sure about the Occupy movement.

Kind of like me when I'm reading the newspaper, which is why I felt a little foolish on Thursday. Did I get swept up in the hype machine? Did I actively support a movement that didn't represent my interests? Was I fooled? Short answer: no. Of course not. Occupy is absolutely correct in their criticisms of our economic systems. Sympathizers in the media at large have been to saying yes, I agree with Occupy but they need to become political in order to be effective. Criticisms closer to home, have been more about the damage that the encampment has been doing to downtown Oakland businesses (though this report contradicts that report. I'm so confused). It's difficult. Making omelets and breaking eggs. Something is going to have to happen soon with the encampments. One idea it to move the occupation to indoor spaces that have been foreclosed on, which makes a lot of sense, not just for occupy but for people who have lost their homes. And is already happening. When there is so much available space and work to be done why does so much of it sit empty? But the best part so far is this, what we did.

Briefly: last night was huge. Ten thousand people? I have no idea but when we arrived at the port, a couple miles walking, I had friends who were just getting started. That many people. Short version is the actions were a success. The port was shut down. Why is that important? To send the message that if we wanted to and were somewhat untied, we control our fate. Or more directly, that we're "producing for an economic system that doesn't produce" for us. And we have a choice in the matter.

The long version, and the one that will be and is being covered in the media (it's unbelievable how wrong places I trusted have been) will focus on the violence, which was carried out by a handful of misguided people and instigated, in part, by the police themselves. For those who say, "you're crazy and paranoid...the police wouldn't do such things." Think about what you would do if you had a week to prepare for an action against your authority. Would you come up with a counter plan? Or just let 'these people' do what they want to do. The police are as smart as any of us, and of course, it's in their interests to overshadow the days' successful actions and in turn, weaken the movement. They just want the occupiers to go home so the streets will be peaceful, and their jobs will be made easier. I can relate.

Anyway, I need to get ready for class. If you're interested, dig around for the real story and skip the The New York Times.

Poetry is a Religious Act

I thought I saw God
in a dark mass of rain
in the puddles on the roof.

I am not prone
to hallucinations or hauntings
but a shape swirled

like a galaxy forming
out of raindrops gathering
on tar paper, bits

of blackened sand
carried by the invisible current
of rain.

Time stopped as I
watched it spin from one darkness
to another.