2. Living in the Homogocene: The First 500 Years, April 23
3. Job opportunity: ED for Bay-Friendly Landscape & Garden Coalition
4. Wild Nature of SF: Golden Gate Naturefest April 14, 15
5. Running Landscapes/Life Studies – Year of Sketching San Francisco’s Wild Areas Apr 19
6. California loses a hero, Peter Douglas
7. Bad news: Ocean protector tossed overboard/Gov Brown reappoints Jim Kellogg
8. East Bay Regional Parks Botanic Garden plant sale Apr 21
9. Feedback: pesticide poisoning bees/East Bay wildlife talk wins praise
10. Some traditional Chinese medicines may be toxic or trade-restricted
11. Using Hetchy water to hose down public toilets
12. Edward Abbey's poop won't need hosing down, alas
13. US Postal Service adding to its own financial problems - catalogues
14. New website for Kezar Gardens nursery and community gardens
15. Lewis Mumford views the supreme office of the city in history
16. April happening in Claremont Canyon
17. Earth Day events at City College of SF
18. New book on The Chemistry of Plants
19. Exceptional Japanese music at Cowell Theater April 15
20. Bay Area's most spectacular wildflower displays - Edgewood Natural Preserve
21. Entrance, by Rainer Maria Rilke
22. The Grizzlies of Yellowstone April 19
23. Thinkwalks
24. The Lost Art of Walking
25. Sometimes if you move carefully through the forest...
26. Beach Chalet debate at Richmond Rec Center Apr 18
27. Inner Sunset FREE Fix-It Fair Apr 21
28. Notes & Queries: Streets, roads, lanes and avenues - is there a difference?
"The white people never cared for land or deer or bear. We don't chop down the trees. We only use dead wood. But the white people plow up the ground, pull down the trees, kill everything. How can the spirit of the earth like the white man?...Everywhere the white man has touched it, it is sore."
Wintu woman in California
"Most of the production and consumption of modern societies is not necessary or conducive to spiritual and cultural growth, let alone survival…mankind has become a locust-like blight on the planet that will leave a bare cupboard for its own children--all the while in a kind of addict's dream of affluence, comfort and eternal progress."
Gary Snyder
"Ecology teaches us that mankind is not the center of life on the planet. Ecology has taught us that the whole earth is part of our 'body' and that we must learn to respect it as we respect ourselves. As we feel for ourselves, we must feel for all forms of life - the whales, the seals, the forests, the seas. The tremendous beauty of ecological thought is that it shows us a pathway back to an understanding and appreciation of life itself - an understanding and appreciation that is imperative to that very way of life." Greenpeace philosophy
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1.
The biosphere
Nature is all we have
Imagine trying to set a value on a reference library that has catalogued only a fraction of its archive, and some of that wrongly. Think of a reserve bank with most of its ledgers missing. Humankind is in that kind of predicament: it depends almost entirely on natural capital to generate food and fibre, fuel and pharmaceuticals, to pollinate crops, recycle waste and maintain the oxygen supply. Living things underwrite all national economies: money, in effect, really does grow on trees.
Fewer than 2 million animals and plants have been formally described and identified, and there may be another 8 million yet to be named. It is not a conceit to compare the biosphere to an archive: it is both a record of life's evolution and a resource for the future. Taxonomists identify around 18,000 new species each year, but in the same 12 months a greater number may slip into oblivion, as humans raze forests, pave grasslands, bulldoze hillsides and drain swamps.
Each extinction represents an asset lost or an opportunity squandered. Yet the human impact on the planetary ecosystem is now so palpable that geologists have proposed a new chronological era, the anthropocene, and biologists already call this "the sixth great extinction". Campaigners have for decades been trying to slow, halt or reverse the process, but effective conservation starts with reliable knowledge: life's library, sadly, has not yet been indexed. All of which is why a consortium of distinguished scholars, in the Systematics and Biodiversity journal, has outlined an ambitious initiative to classify, name, describe and map the astonishing variety of life on earth, and catalogue 10m species by 2050. The authors want to build on the 3bn specimens already in the world's great museums, universities and botanic gardens to establish a global, comprehensive cyber-museum of life.
The cost of an encyclopaedic Book of Life would not be negligible. The price of not completing the catalogue could be catastrophic; and the dividend from its completion could be limitless. Nature is not a luxury: it is literally all we have.
Editorial, Guardian Weekly, 13.04.12
“Ecology is the overall science of which economics is only a minor sub-specialty.” Professor Garrett Hardin
“Education is what you get when you read the fine print. Experience is what you get when you don’t.” Pete Seeger
"Biologists will never be sure that they have found and named every last species on Earth. But they have a long way to go before they can even start to wonder." Nigel Stork and Kevin Gaston, New Scientists, 1990
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2.
(Note: Some biologists and geologists call our age the Anthropocene (previous paragraph), some the Homogocene. They are synonyms; there has not been an official designation. JS)
Charles Mann will be presenting Living in the Homogocene: The First 500 Years on Monday April 23, 02012 at 7:30 pm at the Cowell Theater. See this page for more info - Long Now members get free tickets!
Ever since Columbus, it’s an alien invasive world. Everybody’s germs, insects, vegetables, staple foods, rats, domestic animals, and even wildlife went everywhere, changing everything. That convulsion is still in progress.
You can follow Long Now on Twitter and Facebook for event updates and extras.
Feel welcome to forward this note to friends and colleagues you think would be interested in this talk.
p.s. our Seminar podcasts are free to download
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3. Executive Director position available at the Bay-Friendly Landscape and Garden Coalition.
The Bay-Friendly Landscape and Garden Coalition was formed as a nonprofit in 2009 based on regional requests for materials and programs developed by StopWaste.Org's Bay-Friendly Landscape and Garden program. Since then the nonprofit has brought the professional training programs to 5 counties and trained and qualified over 600 landscape professionals as "Bay-Friendly Qualified" and for the second year the Bay-Friendly Garden Tour has gone regional reaching thousands of home gardeners and more.
Now, the Bay-Friendly Landscape and Garden Coalition is seeking out a dynamic and entrepreneurial Executive Director to assist in creating a suite of programs and funding sources that both create an economically stabile organization and that assists in securing broad adoption of sustainable landscape practices Bay Area wide. Please review the job description and help us get the word out by sending out to your appropriate contacts.
Deadline for submittal is May 15, 2012
http://www.bayfriendlycoalition.org/EDPositionAnnouncement.shtml
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4.
Wild Nature of San Francisco
Golden Gate Naturefest!
Sat & Sun: April 14 & 15, 2012
... come celebrate the natural wonders of San Francisco. A group of experienced naturalists will be leading field trips, hikes bike tours, pond building, and other activities throughout SF and San Bruno Mountain on the weekend of April 14th & 15th! More details about how to get involved: http://treefrogtreks.com/programs/goldengatenaturefest.htm
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5.
San Francisco Natural History Series
Running Landscapes/Life Studies – A Year of Sketching San Francisco’s Wild Areas
Guest Speaker: Nancy King & Mary Swanson
7:30pm, Thursday, April 19th, 2012
FREE at the Randall Museum, 199 Museum Way, San Francisco, CA
Adrian Cotter:
Last year, I was in an art contest (a fundraiser for SFLCV) with Nancy King & Mary Swanson. But really it was no contest. Their 16′ long panoramic drawing covering nine of San Francisco’s habitats with their birds, animals, and plants is fantastically gorgeous.
They’ll share how their art connected them with nature and how time spent drawing the familiar transformed the common into the extraordinary.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
FUTURE TALKS
http://sfnhs.com/upcoming-speakers/
May 17 – The UNnatural History of SF Bay - Ariel Rubissow Okamoto
Jun 21 – Above and Below SF Streets - Glenn Lym
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LAST MONTH'S LECTURE NOTES: http://sfnhs.com/2012/04/08/harbor-porpoises-under-the-bridge/
Return of the Harbor Porpoise with Bill Keener
It was 2008 when they began to see them: Harbor Porpoises slipping into the bay on high tides. They had not been seen there since the 40s. During WWII, a large net strung across the bay to keep enemy submarines out, also kept any other sizable fish out. Pollution in the bay may have also been a part of keeping them away– the Bay was more precious as a dumping ground than a natural resource.
Happily, we know the Bay is doing better than it has for a long time, and this is yet another sign. It turns out that the Golden Gate Bridge is also an excellent observation platform. From the bridge and by boat, Golden Gate Cetacean Research, has been taking thousands of pictures to try an document this somewhat shy and elusive species. In logging all the hours taking those photos, Bill Keener and his colleagues, have learned more about Harbor Porpoises than any previous research anywhere else.
There is of course the things that are generally known. Porpoises are the smallest member of the whale family. The harbor porpoise is one of 6 species of porpoise — up to around 5 feet long, a 150 pounds, and living for 10-12 years. Dolphins and porpoises were once though of as the same thing, but porpoises have a shorter beaks, and flattened spade-shaped teeth. Porpoises are also prefer cold waters, whereas dolphins can more generally be found in warm waters. They eat
different fish, and porpoises do not have the same intelligence.
The whales in general are only very, very distantly related to pinnipeds: seals and sea-lions. Cetaceans originate from hoofed animals, whereas pinnipeds are more closely related to dogs.
Now the bridge and the bay (they have a permit to approach the animals by boat as well) are allowing Keener and his colleagues to learn a lot more. For the first time they’ve been able to identify individuals. From skin tones, markings, and scars they’ve identified almost 250 individuals. This takes a lot of work, not just taking all the photos (nearly 1000 a week), but reviewing them and matching them up to other photos, known, and unknown individuals...
...continue reading at:
http://sfnhs.com/2012/04/08/harbor-porpoises-under-the-bridge/
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6. From Planning & Conservation League
CALIFORNIA LOSES COASTAL HERO By: Bruce Reznik
“I know it is not easy on the spirit or psyche to be constantly pummeled by controversy and ground down in the crucible of conflict. But controversy and conflict come with the territory. If we cannot embrace and engage them effectively in pursuit of our mission, it is time to get out and move on. We betray our trust if the avoidance of conflict, whether done consciously or not, becomes a goal in our work. Conciliation has value, but not if achieved at the expense of ethical and environmental integrity.” --Peter Douglas
On April 1, California lost one of its most visionary, inspirational and important environmental advocates when Peter Douglas, surrounded by his close family, left us after a lengthy battle with cancer. Peter was known largely as the principal author of both Proposition 20, a grassroots initiative approved by voters in 1972 that created the California Coastal Commission, and the 1976 Coastal Act, a landmark law that made the Commission a permanent body and became an international model of coastal protection. He later became the Executive Director of the Commission, a post he held from 1985-2011, where he was, as the Los Angeles Times concluded, “one of the fiercest and most controversial guardians of the state's 1,100-mile-long coastline who battled to preserve its natural beauty and public access to its beaches.”
As we fight the never-ending, and always uphill, battles to safeguard our lands, air, waters and communities, I often refer back to the quotation above from Peter Douglas’ keynote address at PCL’s 2002 Environmental Symposium…and its words ring as true today as they did a decade ago. In fact, my last communication with Peter was to let him know something I had failed to mention in the dozen years I knew him – that this quote was one I use regularly to close speeches I give, and his full address has been required reading for legal and policy interns I have trained through the years.
Let Peter - and all the activists who have come before us - be our inspiration as we tackle the critical issues of today. And remember, as Peter said in wrapping up his remarks at that 2002 event, that “when seemingly irresistible and inexorable forces of environmental destruction push us to the edge of despair, we must think of the life that follows in our wake and reach for another measure of strength within us to never give up.”
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7.
(JS: You need a strong stomach to read these two items from Eric Mills, Action For Animals. Democrats, smemocrats.)
Ocean protector gets tossed overboard
www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100802/OPINION/100739966
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If you're wondering why Gov. Brown reappointed Jim Kellogg to the Fish & Game Commission on Monday, despite great opposition, check out the numbers in the enclosed article. Kellogg has already served 10 years on the commission. If re-confirmed, he'll have another six years, and our wildlife will suffer accordingly.
As usual, it's a case of "Follow the Money," ethics be damned. Drop the Governor a note of your displeasure. (And please send me a copy, if you do.)
Commissioner Kellogg must be re-confirmed by the five-member Senate Rules Committee, but they have a year to do so (and they're likely to take their own sweet time, probably waiting until the last minute).
SENATE RULES COMMITTEE MEMBERS ARE: Senators Darrell Steinberg, chair (D-Sacramento) Bob Dutton (R-Rancho Cucamonga); Elaine Alquist (D-San Jose); Kevin De Leon (D-Los Angeles) Jean Fuller (R-Bakersfield). (NOTE: Jim Kellogg is a registered Democrat in Contra Costa County, and heads up a 30,000-member plumbers union, with access to Big Money.)
Please write to these five Senators and ask that they NOT re-confirm Mr. Kellogg. (Kellogg recently declared the non-native and invasive striped bass to be "a California native species,' despite the fact that the bass is a major predator of our endangered salmon and the Delta smelt. He's also adamant that lead shot in the environment is not a problem for either condors or other wildlife, the science notwithstanding. In the past, he voted NOT to ban the highly unethical "roboduck" from the hunters' arsenal. I only wish Mr. Kellogg drew half the ire as Commissioner Dan Richards has done over that ill-advised mountain lion hunt. Kellogg is FAR worse. Ain't politics grand?
ALL LEGISLATORS (INCLUDING THE GOVERNOR) MAY BE WRITTEN C/O THE STATE CAPITOL, SACRAMENTO, CA 95814.
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8.
Rain or shine, our volunteers and staff will be here to give horticultural advice, sell plants, and celebrate California Native Plants Week!
Saturday, April 21, 2012 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
California Native PLANT SALE
Organized by the Volunteers of the Regional Parks Botanic Garden
The Botanic Garden is located at the intersection of Wildcat Canyon Road & South Park Drive
near the Brazil Building in Tilden Regional Park in Berkeley (admission is free; parking is free)
California shrubs, trees, perennials.
Find many plants that are not available in a commercial nursery.
Horticultural advice gladly given! Come and explore the Garden.
Buy some plants to take home. Proceeds directly benefit the Garden.
Please bring boxes to carry home your treasures and an umbrella if it rains.
Refreshments available.
bgarden@ebparks.org 510-544-3169 http://nativeplants.org
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9. Feedback
Robert MacKimmie:
Watch this Webinar and be informed about bee die off:
https://gomeet.itap.purdue.edu/p32228058/
Everybody should watch this remarkably important Webinar broadcast from Purdue University about one of the scientific papers just out regarding Imidacloprid and other neonicitinoids, which are being linked to CCD.
The wake up call for all people is that these scientists clearly state that these chemicals- Imidacloprid, metachloprid, tiamethoxam are ubiquitous in the environment, being used in common products called Gaucho, Cruiser and others. They are used in parks and golf courses, in addition to being used in agricultural areas which plant corn, soy and other seed crops. The dust from these planting events is completely lethal to bees.
(JS: I posted the following on March 31):
8. (Because our age is so polarized I feel the need of making distinctions between pesticides. Many think all pesticides are bad, whereas some are benign and helpful while others, such as this, are destructive. JS)
SCIENCE | March 30, 2012
2 Studies Point to Common Pesticide as a Culprit in Declining Bee Colonies
By CARL ZIMMER
Experiments in Britain and France found that colonies of bumblebees and honeybees were harmed by common pesticides in a class known as neonicotinoids.
On Apr 13, 2012, at 10:57 PM, Robert MacConnell wrote:
Hi Jake,
Thanks to your note in Nature News, I was alerted to the presentation by Jim Hale in Oakland this evening, which I did attend.
Wow. What amazing knowledge and experience that guy has, along with a friendly, down to earth presentation.
Extremely well worth the time for anyone with an interest in the natural world to seek this guy out.
Thank you!
Robert MacConnell
http://www.saveknowland.org/2012/04/10/coming-event-wildlife-in-the-east-bay-hills-a-talk-by-wildlife-biologist-jim-hale/
Robert: As I post event items or information, always in the back of my mind is a question whether this item will connect with anyone. I don't expect people to let me know every time that happens, but it encourages me to receive occasional notes like this to let me know that, indeed, it has happened. Thank you.
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10. From Lee Rudin:
Deep sequencing reveals potentially toxic, trade-restricted ingredients in some traditional Chinese medicines
Posted: 12 Apr 2012 03:23 PM PDT
Researchers have used new DNA sequencing technology to reveal the animal and plant composition of traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs). Some of the TCM samples tested contained potentially toxic plant ingredients, allergens, and traces of endangered animals.
(couldn’t be too toxic since the demand is so great. Hopefully, a tool to bust these charlatans.)
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated" Gandhi EXTINCT IS FOREVER.
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11. Mike Marshall: I took this picture of a San Francisco city employee hosing down a public toilet with water from the Tuolumne River in Yosemite National Park on my way to work this morning. It has been pouring rain off and on in S.F. for the last 24 hours. Virtually all of that rainwater is directed into the sewage system and never utilized.
8:56 am Friday, April 13, Market & 7th Street, SF
Jane Kim represents the district this photo was taken in. Please call her and ask her to become a leader in the effort to manage SF's water supply more effectively so that Hetch Hetchy Valley can be restored.
Supervisor Kim's office number is (415) 554-7970.
Hints for calling:
• Be courteous
• Give your name and where you live (she needs to understand this is both a local and national concern)
• Offer to email the picture to her
• Speak from the heart and stay positive
Thank you! If you have a moment, email me at mike@hetchhetchy.org and let me know how your call went.
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12.
(Jim Stiles is a maverick [read curmudgeonly] producer of a newspaper in Moab, Utah, and a friend and disciple of the celebrated Edward Abbey. Stiles' slogan: "Clinging hopelessly to the past since 1989.")
Stiles returns to the subject of Abbey's trailer. "Ed and I talked once about cutting the sewage pipe into three-inch sections and mounting them on cheap wooden plaques with the message, 'Edward Abbey's Shit Passed Through This Pipe,' " Stiles says. "He would autograph and authenticate them. We'd sell them for $50. I'd handle marketing, and we'd both be rich! Somehow, we never got around to it."
High Country News 29/5/06
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13. Catalog Choice
We’ve all heard the news that the US Postal Service is facing serious issues. At Catalog Choice, we are concerned that the USPS is adding to its problems and yours. Through a new program called Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM), the USPS plans to increase mail sent to “Current Resident” by five times, generating billions more pieces of unwanted mail annually.
Based on our investigation, the USPS has an ineffective process for companies to omit your address from their EDDM mailing and most companies are unaware of their responsibility. Further, USPS staff have been unable to provide clear instructions to companies or citizens.
We have held numerous meetings with and proposed solutions to the USPS about this issue. It is clear that the USPS will not consider doing anything about this problem unless they hear from thousands of people.
What You Need To Do
Sign our letter to the USPS at Citizens For Mail Choice asking for an effective and accountable opt-out process as part of the Every Door Direct Mail program.
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14. Ed Dunn:
Here is a link to our new website. Would you put the link in a future edition of "Nature News"? http://kezargardens.com/
(JS: formerly HANC)
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15. Lewis Mumford, quoted in San Francisco Beautiful newsletter Summer 2004:
"When cities were first founded, an old Egyptian scribe tells us, the mission of the founder was to ‘put gods in their shrines.’ The task of the coming city is not essentially different: its mission is to put the highest concerns of man at the center of all his activities.
"Before modern man can gain control over the forces that now threaten his very existence, he must resume possession of himself. This sets the chief mission for the city of the future: that of creating a visible regional and civic structure, designed to make man at home with his deeper self and his larger world, attached to images of human nature and love.
"The final mission of the city is to further man’s conscious participation in the cosmic and the historic process. Through its own complex and enduring structure, the city vastly augments man’s ability to interpret these processes and take an active, formative part in them, so that every phase of the drama it stages shall have, to the highest degree possible, the illumination of consciousness, the stamp of purpose, the color of love. That magnification of all the dimensions of life, through emotional communion, rational communication, technological mastery, and above all, dramatic representation, has been the supreme office of the city in history. And it remains the chief reason for the city’s continued existence.
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"... man has still within him sufficient resources to alter the direction of modern civilization, for we then need no longer regard man as the passive victim of his own irreversible technological development."
Lewis Mumford, The Next Transformation of Man
..."There is," Lewis Mumford wrote in the Myth of the Machine, "only one efficient speed: faster; only one attractive destination: farther away; only one desirable size: bigger; only one rational quantitative goal: more."
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16. April Happenings in Claremont Canyon
Saturday, April 14: Upper Canyon Stewardship. All the rain has brought French Broom out in full bloom. This Saturday we will pull bloom along the Summit House and Willow trails in the upper canyon. The rain also is making for muddy conditions but we will do our best to install additional steps along the trails. Meet at 10 AM at signpost 29 across from the chert, 1.5 miles up Claremont from the intersection with Ashby Avenue.
Saturday, April 21: Earth Day Celebration. Come join your neighbors and friends from 9AM to Noon for a morning in beautiful Garber Park. After coffee, juice and snacks at the Evergreen Lane entrance, we will walk along the Loop Trail to Harwood Creek where we will weed and monitor the recently completed City of Oakland Measure DD creek stabilization project. We will remove the rapidly growing invasive weeds surrounding the 200 newly planted natives along the creek to give them a better chance of surviving.
Saturday, April 28: Sudden Oak Death Bio-Blitz. Help with the East Bay 2012 Sudden Oak Death survey--a chance to lessen damage and save some trees! Last Spring's late warm rains may have helped spread the pathogen that now threatens our beautiful coast live oaks. Attend a one-hour training and get materials at 10 AM at the Orinda Community Center or at 1 PM at 159 Mulford Hall on the UC Berkeley campus. Volunteers will then go into the field either to designated spots or in their own backyards to identify threatened trees and then turn in samples by 7 PM Sunday April 29th.
To sign up, go to http://sodblitz2012.eventzilla.net or for information contact Susan Schwartz at f5creeks@aol.com or Shelagh Brodersen at garberparkstewards@gmail.com. The event is sponsored by Friends of Five Creeks, Friends of Sausal Creek and Garber Park Stewards.
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17.
Come one, come all, Thursday, April 19th, 11 - 1:30, to City College of SF's Earth Day and California Native Plant Week celebration, 50 Phelan near Ocean, Ram Plaza. Featuring the California Native Plant Society, a Franciscan manzanita on loan from the SF Botanical Garden, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the SF Weed Management Area, SFFD's Neighborhood Emergency Response Team for earthquake preparedness, solar power, an Environmentalism book cart at Rosenberg Library, giveaways such as endangered-species-decorated condoms from the Center for Biological Diversity and much, much more.
__________________________
Thursday, April 19th Earth Day Celebration at City College of San Francisco, 50 Phelan Avenue .
10:30 AM - 1:30 PM (weather permitting)
This event will be a street fair atmosphere with many community and student organizations joining together. We will have volunteers in front of Ram Plaza where you can drive up, identify yourself and receive a parking permit. At this point you will be directed to where your table is set up. You will be located at either Ram Plaza or the Wellness Plaza . Of course, we encourage bikes and public transportation too!
You will need to bring the following: sunscreen, water, snacks and a paperweight/rock to hold down your papers as our campus is known to be breezy. Dressing in layers is also advised.
PLEASE RESPOND TO CONFIRM YOUR PARTICIPATION. If you have any questions, please contact Stephanie Lyons at (415) 239-3580.
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18. Margarete Sequin: my book The Chemistry of Plants: Perfumes, Pigments, and Poisons is out as of April 3!
It is here: http://www.rsc.org/Shop/books/2012/9781849733342.asp
It is also available at amazon, with a bit of a delay.
For more questions about the book, etc. please contact booksales@rsc.org
(JS: Greti Sequin will talk about plant chemistry/poisons at the CNPS September 6 meeting.)
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19.
Hi Jake,
I'm a recipient and fan of your NN in Boulder, CO.
Japanese music may not be your specialty, but since we were introduced by Karl Young (who is excited about this), I thought I should let you know as well.
Please pass the word around as you deem appropriate.
Cheers,
david
=== David Wheeler, Kansuke II ===
Musician (Shakuhachi) + Musicologist
3660 Buckeye Ct., Boulder, CO 80304 USA
shakudavid@gmail.com
Cell: 720-545-5595
15th Rocky Shakuhachi Camp, Kyoto 2012
Hi Folks,
Here is a youtube clip my friend caught of Tsugaru Shamisen Group Abeya's first stop on their US tour, playing to a packed house at Zipper Hall in downtown LA. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b31y-q95tBA&feature=related
This clip is just a taste, so you can know what to look forward to, or what you'll be missing if you don't catch one of their shows over the next week or so (schedule below).
Sizzling shamisen riffs and soulful singing took the audience to peaks of excitement at times, and to the brink of tears at others, while dance and theatrics added visual effect and comical interludes. Abeya's towering talent, irrepressible spirit and joyful energy—and humor ranging from subtle to slapstick—had the audience laughing, clapping and and demanding more, even after the encore.
This is the best all-around show I've been involved in in a long time, perfect for audiences of all ages and you don't need to know anything in advance to enjoy it, except the time and place of the show you want to attend. AND, with great sponsorship from the Japan Foundation, admission to this amazing show is either free or very cheap!
San Francisco, CA (co-organized by the Consulate-General of Japan in San Francisco)
4:30pm Sunday, April 15, 2012
Cowell Theatre
Fort Mason Center
Landmark Bldg. A,
San Francisco, CA 94123-1382
Free Admission (RSVP is requested but not required.)
Info: 415.345.7554
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20. Don't miss the wildflower walks on the Bay Area's most spectacular wildflower displays:
www.friendsofedgewood.org
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21.
Entrance
Whoever you are: in the evening step out
of your room, where you know everything;
yours is the last house before the far-off:
whoever you are.
With your eyes, which in their weariness
barely free themselves from the worn-out threshold,
you lift very slowly one black tree
and place it against the sky: slender, alone.
And you have made the world. And it is huge
and like a word which grows ripe in silence.
And as your will seizes on its meaning,
tenderly your eyes let go. . . .
~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~
(The Book of Images, trans. by Edward Snow)
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“Everything is blooming
most recklessly;
if it were voices instead of colors,
there would be an unbelievable shriek-
ing into the heart of the night”
Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke
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22.
The Grizzlies of Yellowstone featuring Michael Leach
Berkeley: Thursday, April 19 — 7 p.m. refreshments, 7:30 program
Get ready to enjoy a spirit-enriching presentation about grizzly bears and Yellowstone National Park. This celebration of the Yellowstone ecosystem will inspire those who already know Yellowstone to return to this rugged and majestic region, and will motivate others to discover the raw power of one of North America’s wildest landscapes. Michael Leach will focus on the importance of keystone species, such as grizzlies and wolves, while sharing information about the area’s biogeography, the plight of the Yellowstone bison, and Yellowstone’s hope for the future. He will also describe how his organization, Yellowstone Country Guardians, works to advocate for this important landscape.
Michael Leach, executive director and founder of Yellowstone Country Guardians, has worked as a naturalist and fly-fishing guide. His time as a ranger naturalist and as the Bear Education Ranger in Yellowstone National Park led him to start the Yellowstone-based nonprofit organization. Through youth-driven education and outreach programs, Yellowstone Country Guardians fosters a commitment from local communities to ensure that the Yellowstone region remains a symbol of wildness. Michael is also a nature writer whose essays, opinion pieces, and natural history articles have appeared in many publications.
Free for GGAS members, $5 nonmembers.
Location: Northbrae Community Church
941 The Alameda (between Solano and Marin), Berkeley
Check for current volunteer opportunities at http://www.goldengateaudubon.org/volunteer/
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23. Thinkwalks
Want to meet cool and interesting people? Then this is the volunteer opportunity for you! Help get the word out at Sunday Streets this Sunday the 15th, or in a future month.
The Sunday Streets route on April 15th travels along the Great Highway and through Golden Gate Park. We're looking to spread the love by talking to folks at this great event, giving them fun facts and flyers—with your help.
You can contribute your time and have fun in exchange for a FREE TOUR certificate. We'll provide you with snacks, affable and inspiring people to schmooze with, great weather (it's looking to be 65° and sunny), and that tour (of your choice) we mentioned.
Our expectations:
→ Hang out with us for at least an hour between 11 and 3 in Golden Gate Park (or tell us which Sunday Streets you plan to attend this year)
→ Engage with people traveling along the route and let them know what Thinkwalks is up to (we'll provide you with a little background about Thinkewalks (see more right now at http://thinkwalks.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=09bffa1e07ba337354698cc3d&id=ef0ebc6b67&e=51ed56091b)
→ Give beautiful educational flyers to people who show serious interest
→ Invite people to join our email list or "like" us on Facebook (if they've got their smart phone with them)
PS: Be sure to "Like" Thinkwalks (click the facebook "Like" on our web page. You'll get lots more fun and Deep SF Facts more often!
PS: Which reminds me…Deep SF Fact: Until the redwood flume was built to bring water from San Mateo County by gravity, water for the rapidly growing city of SF was only from local sources and barrels brought in by boat from Marin! Saucelito (sic) Water Company charged 1 & 1/2 cents per gallon, about seven times as much as today, even before adjusting for inflation. Inflation may have been higher then than now, being a more extreme boom than now. Think the dot-com boom was nuts? It was (and will be again) but the gold and silver booms were even crazier!
http://thinkwalks.us4.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=09bffa1e07ba337354698cc3d&id=2e89507628&e=51ed56091b
415-505-8255
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24. The Lost Art of Walking; The History, Science, Philosophy, and Literature of Pedestrianism, by Geoff Nicholson
From the Wandering Jew to the Lambeth Walk, via the Sony Walkman and much else besides, it is hard to find any literary, cultural or historical reference to walking that is not included in Geoff Nicholson's bewitchingly informative treatise.
Lovingly collected factoids leap off the page. British troops in the first world war were given "forced march tablets" consisting of cocaine. It takes a brisk 35 miles to burn off a pound of body fat. Some of the commonest synonyms for walk in the English language (such as trudge, stroll and saunter) have no clear etymological roots.* The best term associated with walking is not English at all: the French flaner, he writes, is "a truly wonderful word...it can mean to stroll, but it can also mean the act of simply hanging around."
...Mr Nicholson lives in Los Angeles where walking is regarded as eccentric and can get you arrested...The wafflier the piffle, the more sharply Mr Nicholson wields his skewer. His deadpan treatment of "psychogeography" (imagine modern literary criticism applied to the layout of car parks) is howlingly funny. So are his demolitions of the sub-Thoreau ramblings of "New Agers". Which bit of nature have they been walking in: "Frozen wastes? Disease-ridden jungle? Malarial swamp? Or just the local park?"
The best thing about walking is that you are your own boss: start and halt, look at everything or nothing, think about a lot or a little. And nobody (except perhaps a suspicious LA cop) will stop you.
Excerpt from The Economist 29.11.08
* JS - Not true:
When asked about the word ‘hike’ John Muir replied, “I don’t like either the word or the thing. People ought to saunter not hike.” When Christians, making a pilgrimage during the middle ages, were asked where they were going they would reply ‘A la sainte terre’, ‘To the Holy Land.’ They became known as sainte-terre-ers or saunterers. Muir seldom hurried. He would stop to get acquainted with individual trees. He would hail people passing by and make them get down on hands and knees if necessary to examine some tiny seedling or to see the beauty of some little bed of almost microscopic flowers.
The goal is not to be the first to the trails end, it is to experience the trail.
Excerpt from The Mountain Trail and Its Message, Albert W. Palmer, 1911.
(Muir seldom hurried? Well, I can't challenge that, but when reading The Mountains of California, The Yosemite, &c I found my credence stretched to the limit at some of his hikes, not saunters. Having hiked some of those routes, I found it difficult to believe that he could accomplish some of them in a single day. He never went into detail about logistics, and you're left to puzzle out how he could have done it with just "a crust of bread and some tea" attached to his belt. Just reading about it sent me into a hunger frenzy, and I would get up and raid the refrigerator.)
Also see: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/06/AR2008110602564.html, • Jonathan Yardley on 'The Lost Art of Walking'
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25.
SOMETIMES
Sometimes
if you move carefully
through the forest
breathing
like the ones
in the old stories
who could cross
a shimmering bed of dry leaves
without a sound,
you come
to a place
whose only task
is to trouble you
with tiny
but frightening requests
conceived out of nowhere
but in this place
beginning to lead everywhere.
Requests to stop what
you are doing right now,
and
to stop what you
are becoming
while you do it,
questions
that can make
or unmake
a life,
questions
that have patiently
waited for you,
questions
that have no right
to go away.
~ David Whyte ~
(Everything is Waiting for You)
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26. SF Ocean Edge:
Beach Chalet debate, Quarterly Membership Meeting, PAR (Planning Association for the Richmond).
April 18th, 7:00 p.m.
Richmond Recreation Center, 251-18th Avenue (between Clement and California)
We will be presenting our point of view about the proposed Beach Chalet fields and suggestions for alternatives. The soccer community will be presenting the reasons for putting in the artificial turf and the sports lights. Come, ask questions, and show support for protecting Golden Gate Park! Sign up here!
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27.
Inner Sunset FREE Fix-It Fair
NW corner of Sixth & Irving
Saturday, April 21, 10a to 4p (last item in at 3p)
Rain or shine!
We'll try to fix ANYTHING — except electronics and relationships— for free.
Bring your wobbly, loose, broken, frayed, splintered, torn, severed item.
If we can't fix it, we'll give you twice your money back.
questions or to volunteer: Barbara 415/246.4748
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28. From the archives
Notes & Queries, Guardian Weekly
Streets, roads, lanes and avenues - is there a difference?
The word street, originally a Roman road, eg Ermine Street, came to mean crowded uniform rows of terrace houses or poky suburban villas to be found in every industrial town. At the end of the 19th century, enlightened community planners avoided the word "street".
When Ebenezer Howard planned Letchworth, the first garden city, in 1903, he only named one street (Cross Street) in the entire town. Early Letchworth, a mixture of Shavian enlightenment and Peter Pannish tweeness, called its main drag Broadway - America was still seen as the land of progress - and there was a plethora of avenues, crescents, ways, shotts and even the Glade Briarpatch and Cowslip Hill.
Other developers took the hint and enticed their genteel customers to live in avenues, crescents, promenades, ways, lanes and even " hoes" and "hays". But never streets.
Nigel Agar, Hitchin, Hertfordshire
- I was always told that roads were ways that led between leys or dwelling places and that if houses were built along them they could be designated streets. A road or a street consists of one or more lanes, each wide enough for a vehicle to pass along. Avenues are, of course, imported from France and ought to be tree-lined. These days with crescents, closes, rises and so on it has to be up to the creativity or otherwise of the developer.
Bob East, Bali, Indonesia
Any answers?
Would it really be so easy to organise a piss-up in a brewery? What are the major technical obstacles in a modern plant?
There is a sign in Leamington Spa consisting of six nouns in a row: "Warwickshire Learning Disability Partnership Board Office." Has anyone come across still longer examples of the genre?
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