Favorite
Scrambled Eggs and Lox first-year posts
10/26/02
More
than a year ago I had a conversation with an Alameda County Sheriff
Deputy--a Sargent and an ex-Marine who was retiring. We were talking
about the Berkeley Insurrection and he offered "The demonstrators
today are soft--not what they used to be. [Last week] I was working
a demonstration Downtown and explained to a young woman that I
was going to have to arrest her. She started crying! I didn't
even touch her. I was just explaining." He seemed to think
it was another reason to retire.
10/27/02
If
Jerry is a hunk, then Anthy is a babe, and John, a man of few
words and good-looking, is most like their dad, Nick. After Nick
died some years ago, he appeared to me in a dream. "Don't
worry" he said "Everything's all right." That was
easy for him to say, for judging from his peaceful calm he had
gone to a place of no worry.
11/16/02
Gary
[my UPS Man's] Dad came to California from Arkansas in the 1940s
-- "to get one of them good jobs in the shipyards."
He married, raised a family, bought a house, paid his taxes, and
never spent more than he had. And he, like most Black Folk in
west-Berkeley, is as American-apple-pie as a South Dakota farmer.
Gary
Williams
2/10/03
Our
blossoming Japanese fruit trees now are. See them along 8th Street
in front of Kruse and
École Bilingue, and
on both sides of Heinz between 7th and 9th.
3/12/03
I have
a friend who has been in the USA for just ten months. "I'm
free here" she says and takes great pleasure in what I take
for granted.
4/9/03
I spent
yesterday morning with [Ed] who served in the U.S. Infantry in
WW II in Northern Europe. When the conversation turned to the
war in Iraq, he repeated more than several times "All those
young men dying, they're just boys -- 18 and 19." And you
could see that for those few moments he was not fully here but
was in long-ago-France, maybe in a foxhole.
4/18/03
Goatsrus.com came to Potter Creek
to trim the field at 8th and Heinz. For more goats, see The Potter Creek
Billy Goat Page.
4/22/03
Today
is Earth Day [and the] "white-eyes" development of America
is seen by some akin to cementing over our Mother's face.
5/5/03
Lipofsky
was telling me "I just bought a new hearing aid. It cost
me four thousand dollars, but it's state of the art. It's perfect."
"Really," I answered. "What kind is it?" "Twelve
thirty." Marvin replied.
5/7/03
My
neighbor, Ruth Okimoto writes in her monograph, Sharing a Desert
Home: Life on the Colorado Indian Reservation" "Our family of six
arrived in Poston Camp III on August 28,1942. . . . "
5/10/03
Urged
by a friend to write something political, I paraphrase a favorite
quote. "If nominated, I will not run. If elected, I will
not serve."
5/13/03
Yesterday,
I spent an hour or so talking to John Philips at his old shop. (I really look forward
to him moving next-door. I joked that then I could visit more
often -- he was not amused.) Though John and I more efficiently
solved most of Potter Creek's problems than Marvin and I have,
the minute or so of the Well Tempered Prelude in C that John played
on one of his German instruments was most memorable.
With musical examples,
he also patiently and carefully illustrated the beautiful, delicate
action of his instrument. In this short time, I learned much about
the beauty and simplicity of harpsichords. I also enjoyed his
"factory" SOUTHERN
PACIFIC LINES
sign
6/4/03
I spent
yesterday afternoon with my mentor and former employer, Albert
E. Braver. We mostly talked about the current state of the world
-- about which 85-year-old Albert regularly observed "Those
who the gods would destroy, they first make mad" and offered
when I recalled a particularly absurd event "Look, the Human
Race is a mistake." Never overly optimistic about Humankind,
Albert never-the-less takes great pleasure from his more-than-I-can-count
grandchildren, and tea and black Russian cigarettes. "Better
to smoke here than Hereafter!" But, I did miss some of the
vintage Albert, like "Would you rather be ignored?"
after a greeting-shot in the finest old-New-York-deli-waiter fashion.
For stories about Albert read "Back in the Day."
6/6/03
The Book
of Green Tea is a beautiful and informed
presentation of the green tea culture. Green tea is good for you
and so is this book.
6/10/03
In
these changing times in Potter Creek and west-Berkeley, I'm reminded
of a phrase from the old KSAN Noon News. "If you don't like
the news, go out and make some yourself."
6/14/03
Photos
of Jerry Victor's DodgeViper.
[All together, these pages
are the most viewed of 2003. So much for everything in Berkeley
is political.]
6/22/03
Relaxing in the early evening
sun, last night I was serenaded by a not-too-distant schakuhachi
player -- probably in the new work-units on 7th -- the sort-of-sad
flute sounds mixing with the close-by bird chirps. A V8 pickup
burbled past, boom-boxing, and I returned to Chapter Two, "The
German Blitzkrieg Stuns the World."
6/23/03
After
writing about my neighborhood for over six months, I'm coming
to the conclusion that all the different kinds of people in Potter
Creek fall into two groups. Those who use and contribute to the
neighborhood and those who complain about it. Membership is not
mutually exclusive. And just living or working here doesn't by
itself qualify for first-group membership. Some of Potter Creek's
oldest residents simply use this as a place to crash. Then there's
the '90s and '00s excuse de jeur "Really, I'm just
too busy." This has replaced the one I remember from the
'60s. "Really man, I'd like to make it, but I just scored
some Columbian. And there's this chick . . ."
6/28/03
Why
can't it just be "late-Spring house cleaning" instead
of "making room in your life for change."
7/2/03
The
Bill of Rights & Declaration of Independence
7/7/03
As
a teenager I missed the Doo-Wop movement for reasons I don't now
remember. But the era was firmly brought back as I listened to"Street
Corner Essentials," Hip-O 314 556 264-2. This is a great
2 CD collection of the best-known and less-known Doo-Wop singles.
7/8/03
From the office
of Anthy Victor. Anthy is one of the owners of V & W Door.
7/18/03
Persian Cuisine has taught
me about the perfume of food--not the smell or taste--but the
fragrance.
7/19/03
Emeryville
sounds better in French than in English.
7/20/03
I went
to Lipofsky's opening last night. There are all kinds of ways
to make a buck and Marvin's figured one out where people pay him
to make beautiful glass and travel around the world. Congratulations!
(Oh, where were the Nathan's? They were serving little shells
with crab and stuff.)
8/8/03
The Buttercup and The California
Breakfast
8/17/03
A couple
of my neighbors mentioned that they recently started riding bicycles.
More than twenty years ago, the boss-man at Advance Heli Welders regularly rode a lightweight around the
neighborhood.
Biker-wisdom
from my Harley and Goldwing buddies. "Generally speaking, you
aren't learning much when your lips are moving."
8/19/03
Peter
and Geralyn are relatively new to our neighborhood, yet they make
maximum use of Potter Creek. They not only live here but both
work here within easy biking distance, enjoy west-Berkeley's restaurants,
study at one of our schools, and generally are out-and-about.
These new residents seem to fully use and enjoy Potter Creek.
8/26/03
Yesterday,
there was a great lemonade-stand in the 900 block of Grayson.
Lemonade was 25 cents a cup and you could also buy cookies. The
lemonade was VERY GOOD!
9/2/03
9/7/03
A favorite
composer of mine, Charles Ives, wrote in notes to his small composition
Gup, the Blood or Hearst! Which is Worst? "Gup-a prominent
criminal gets the gallows; Hearst-another prominent criminal gets
the money." Barbara Bush, another favorite person of mine,
is supposed to have offered "Clinton lied. A man might forget
where he parks or where he lives, but he never forgets oral sex,
no matter how bad it is."
9/13/03
[Insightful and] original,
is "Bred
for Power" by the new, New York
Times reporter, David Brooks.
9/22/03
The Washington Post reports China's
Hippies Find Their Berkeley. Oh, . .
. well.
9/25/03
So now just where is our namesake,
Potter Creek? According to a City of Berkeley, Department of Engineering,
1990 Map it runs underground in a 2ft culvert entering Potter
Creek, the neighborhood, at the southeast corner of San Pablo
and Heinz, runs along Heinz and directly under the Scharffen Berger
factory, turns southwest at just before the corner of Heinz and
7th, and leaves Potter Creek at Potter Street and the railroad
right of way.
Thank you David, Peter, and Melody.
10/7/03
Who are these people?
They are some of Potter Creek's leading citizens and their guests.
Potter Creek and The Bark's
Claudia and Cameron and their new book were featured on NPR last
week, but my understanding is that their interview was not carried
in the Bay Area because of "election" coverage. Their
new book's title is the motto of their magazine: Dog Is My Co-Pilot:
Great Writers on the World's Oldest Friendship. NPR's Morning
Edition spoke with three of their contributors, Ann Patchett,
Maxine Kumin and Stephen Kuusisto. Ann and Stephen read from the
book, while the Pulitzer-prize winning poet Maxine Kumin read
an unpublished poem. After the piece aired the book soared to
#7 on Amazon-the highest ever for a dog book. You can find the
book at Borders-Amazon
Site.
10/9/03
Francis
often rides his Honda
CBR600
to work in Potter Creek. Francis can also be seen
at our local bank behind his desk with shirt and tie .
10/19/03
Harvey-the-mailman dropped
by yesterday afternoon with his son for introductions and tour
of my motorcycle collection--Brett, his son is one strapping,
good-looking, smart young man.
10/21/03
Bruce Herman immediately
after his extreme makeover.
Bruce was quite traumatized
last week when a six-pack of 6ft hydrogen cylinders was dropped
a mere 8 feet from him. "Boom, boom," he muttered all
during his make over. The hydrogen cylinders dropped-over next
to him at Adams and Chittenden Scientific Glass were the old fashion
Atlas Welding containers, not to be confused with promising but
still impractical hydrogen cells.
10/28/03
People in École
Bilingue's Halloween Parade
Many more Parade
people here
Remember, "It's the Great
Pumpkin Charle Brown" is on Channel 7 at 8:00 PM, tonite.
(It really is more than a tale of thinking outside the box gone
terribly wrong.)
10/30/03
Do our troops in Iraq have
the proper equipment? Well, there's a vehicle available specifically
for internal security operations and we don't have it. It offers
much greater protection than our soft skinned HUMVEEs. It is the
Reumech OMC Casspir. A writer for Jane's offers "A unique
feature of the Casspir is that it has been designed to give its
crew a high degree of protection against anti-tank mines and for
this reason the vehicle has a very high ground clearance with
the hull having a V-shape to help deflect the blast from any mines."
More information and a photo are at Jane's
Land Forces.
10/31/03
"More than fifty years
ago, the brilliant and outrageous Saul Alinsky wrote the definitive
work on community organizing, Reveille
for Radicals, and it became a best-seller
in an America determined to translate its highest ideals into
concrete deeds."
Border's Book Description
"First published in 1946 and updated in 1969 with a new Introduction
and Afterword, this volume represents the fullest statement of
the political philosophy and practical methodology of one of the
most important figures in the history of American radicalism.
Like Thomas Paine before him, Saul Alinsky, through the concept
and practice of community organizing, was able to embody for his
era both the urgency of radical political action and the imperative
of rational political discourse. His work and writing bequeathed
a new method and style of social change to American communities
that will remain a permanent part of the American political landscape."
My favorite Alinsky story
goes something like he brought to a head an Eastman strike by
having a Bean-In. Before a Eastman-Rochester concert, he stuffed-full
a good number of concert-goers with a meal of pork and beans.
11/3/03
My mentor, Albert E. Braver, died Saturday, suddenly
and peacefully in his wife's arms. He was 85. Albert was a music
soul and the last time we met, he sang a good portion of the Sarabande
from Bach's Suite for Cello in c to me. Stories about Albert can
be read in "Back in
the Day: Selling Records on Berkeley's Telegraph Avenue."
11/5/03
When
Chris Strachwitz was recording Fred McDowell in the mid-Sixties,
he used to stop by Campus Records on Telegraph Avenue. He would
drop off records, schmooze with Albert, and check out sales and
the Scene. I remember Chris talking excitedly about a blues singer
he had just recorded. I didn't understand the significance of
that discovery until recently when listening to some of these
LPs from Richard Adelman's collection. A CD collection from these
records is available on "The Best of Mississippi Fred McDowell"
Arhoolie 501 (c2001).
Jim
Marshall cover photo of the LP, Arhoolie F 1027, Fred McDowell
Vol. 2
11/22/03
I'm reminded of something from Tocqueville's Democracy in America by [the] continuous invasions
of our privacy. "It
must not be forgotten that it is especially dangerous to enslave
men in the minor details of life. . . . Subjugation in minor affairs
breaks out every day, . . . till they are led to surrender the
exercise of their will. Thus their spirit is gradually broken
and their character enervated . . ."
11/30/03
Aesop's
THE CAT AND THE FOX
Once a Cat
and a Fox were traveling together. As they went along, picking
up provisions on the way--a stray mouse here, a fat chicken there--they
began an argument to while away the time between bites. And, as
usually happens when comrades argue, the talk began to get personal.
"You think
you are extremely clever, don't you?" said the Fox. "Do
you pretend to know more than I? Why, I know a whole lot of tricks!"
"Well," retorted the Cat. "I admit I know one trick
only, but that one, let me tell you, is worth a thousand of yours!"
Just then,
close by, they heard a hunter's horn and the yelping of a pack
of hounds. In an instant the Cat was up a tree, hiding among the
leaves.
"This
is my trick," he called to the Fox. "Now let me see
what yours are worth."
But the Fox
had so many plans for escape he could not decide which one to
try first. He dodged here and there with the hounds at his heels.
He doubled on his tracks, he ran at top speed, he entered a dozen
burrows, --but all in vain. The hounds caught him, and soon put
an end to the boaster and all his tricks.
Common sense
is always worth more than cunning.
12/1/03
"Reports that say something hasn't happened
are interesting to me, because as we know, there are known unknowns;
there things we know we know," Rumsfeld told the briefing.
"We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we
know there are some things we do not know. But there are also
unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know"
begins Reuter's "Rumsfeld
Wins 'Foot in Mouth' Prize."
12/3/03
And, an old record-collecting friend I've known
since Campus Records sent "Going to a church doesn't make
you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a
car."
12/5/03
Recently, I had the classic
America chocolate cake made with Scharffen Berger's coca. Just
shortly before, I tasted the same recipe made with Nestle's.The
difference is that of real chocolate and candy.
12/6/03
Not Beethoven, but "longhair"
and also gaaaronteed to make you feel good is Big Easy Strut by Professor Longhair.
It lists at $11.98. And, for years a favorite LP of mine has been
his New Orleans Piano. It is now
on CD also listing at $11.98.
12/12/03
Half-dozen people from Potter
Creek went to the City of Berkeley Planning Commission meeting
Wednesday evening to express their concerns over the effect of
Berkeley Bowl Project on the Potter Creek neighborhood. Specifically,
they spoke and expressed the need for some type of traffic control
if the Berkeley Bowl builds. The Commission and the City Planning
Staff listened and it was felt that they took the concerns seriously.
The project architect was present and indicated there would be
a traffic study by a consultant prior to presenting the proposal,
and that the neighborhood would be kept better informed of the
traffic study results as well as future Commission public hearings.
Also discussed, was the need for a variance or rezoning to allow
the Bowl to build: The project as it is now is out of code. The
variance seemed the simplest solution. Discussion will be continued
at the future meeting. The people who attended the meeting contributed
to this summary.
Don Juan de la Cierva Codorniu,
who with Pablo Picasso and Pablo Casals is properly revered in
Spain as one of the true Spanish geniuses, was the inventor of
the first practical rotating-wing aircraft, the
Cierva autogiro.
12/18/03
Well over two-dozen people crowded-to-overflowing
in the room at Kava Massih's to hear the Affordable Housing Associates'
professional presentation of their Ashby project. I was present
for the first hour and fifteen minutes, which was largely taken
up be Kava's presentation with plans and a model. The people present,
many prospective tenants, offered intelligent suggestions and
questions, all of which were duly noted by the staff. But Kava,
always the charmer, met his match. After one of his quips bombed,
and in answer to his "Where's your sense of humor?"
a large outspoken red-head shot-out "Dancing naked on your
tongue!" (Much more will follow with photos.) Cheese, fruit,
crackers, salsa and chips were offered and eaten. Sadly, there
was no Persian food.
12/22/03
An on-the-road view from the side-window
of Rick Auerbach's Gypsy Van
12/28/03
"Candidate's
recollections differ from historians' views of a turbulent decade"
observes the Washington Post's Paul Farhi in "Dean
Tries to Summon Spirit of the 1960s." When reading this, remember that history
is written by the victors, and it is my memory that Berkeley lost
The Insurrection.
Saturday
afternoon, I took my bike to the "Canned Food Store"--they
have a great price on double-boxes of Corn Flakes. As I was locking
up my bicycle another old man was unlocking his. While locking
and unlocking, we exchanged glances and then broke into smiles.
"How are you" he asked. "Fine" I said "And
how are you doin'?" "Pretty good for an old man"he
said. And then as old men will do, we talked about how everything
has gon ta hell in a hanbasket. Then, as he was ready to leave,
he stopped and offered "I worked in the shipyards, but now
I'm retired and do volunteer drug counseling. It can be real depressing,
but sometime you reach someone--just sometime. Maybe one in hundreds.
But, it's worth it." "Happy New Year" he said as
he left. "Happy New Year to you, too" I said.
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