Archive for September, 2016

Going Paparazzo

Posted in The Berkeley Scene, The Global Scene Through Berkeleyan Eyes on September 20th, 2016 by admin – Be the first to comment

by Steed Dropout
Sept. 19, 2016


Micah M. White, center in white shirt, a founder of Occupy Wall Street movement, and a new Berkeley resident. Photo by Ted Friedman.

The co-founder of Occupy Wall Street was based in Berkeley where his wife took a post-doc in rhetoric.

During an Occupy General Assembly at Bank of America Civic center Plaza, Occupy’s wife was sitting on a popular homeless bench when I got off a shot from nearby. She saw me take the shot and demanded to know why.

“You’ve got a doctorate in Rhetoric, you ought to know,” I rhetored. Rhetoric, has nothing to do with this. Yet that’s what I said.

The rhetorician complained about me to her husband, Occupy co-founder, Micah M. White.
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More Fucked Up Than You

Posted in The Global Scene Through Berkeleyan Eyes on September 15th, 2016 by admin – Be the first to comment


By Steed Dropout

Sept. 11, 2016


Photo by Ted Friedman

TRUMP THIS

Members of “Trump Nation,” as they like to be called, know that they are fucked-up.

“Dude,” a nation member told me. “Everyone knows I’m fucked up. My mother and father and all my many aunts and uncles were fucked up. now we have a national leader who truly represents us.”

But “…is having a fucked-up leader a good thing? we asked.

“Yeah,” the nation-member confirmed. “Knowing that he[Trump] is fucked up and we are fucked up, too. We feel a special connection more intimate than with NFL football players, who are fucked-up over drugs and spousal abuse.”
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The Mindful Journalist

Posted in The Global Scene Through Berkeleyan Eyes on September 13th, 2016 by admin – Be the first to comment

By Steed Dropout
Sept. 11, 2016


Photo by Ted Friedman

WHY OUR ATTENTIONS WANE

Any journalist worth his weight in dry-salami will tell you that “mindfulness” is over-rated.

This, an unavoidable conclusion, after a recent media-blitz recommending mindfulness for what ails the common man.

It is difficult to quarrel with the basic truths of mindfulness. Its opposites— distractedness, inattention—are unlikely to catch-on. Mindlessness would be a hard sell.

Mindfulness is here to stay. Like hearsay.
Like centeredness. Like the here and now.
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Cal’s Ludwig Fountain Foaming at the Mouth

Posted in The Berkeley Scene on September 9th, 2016 by admin – Be the first to comment

by Steed Dropout
Sept. 8, 2016


Photo by Ted Friedman

Cal’s historic Ludwig Fountain, named after a 60s era dog, sustained a soaping Sunday, to the delight of Sproul strollers, who flocked to the foam for fun and frolic.

Sour-pusses like Andrew Clardy, a Berkeley-based music producer for Yoshi’s Jazz Club, called it “unoriginal,” and the history of this sudsy prank supports him.

Wiki has not yet posted the complete soapy history of this prank, but online sources trace the sudsing of Cal’s Ludwig Fountain, adjacent to Sproul Hall, to 1963. Subsequent sudsings were sighted, reportedly, in 1965, and (recently) in 2013.
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Trees-saver Fires Up Seniors Audience, Tries to Drink Monsanto ‘Poison’

Posted in The Berkeley Scene on September 1st, 2016 by admin – Be the first to comment

by Steed Dropout
Aug. 31, 2016


Request to burn these cuttings in the meeting room was denied.
Photo by Ted Friedman

“No…no…Jack, don’t do it,” the audience at Redwood Gardens (seniors) community room shouted, Sunday, after TreeSpirit founder, Jack Gesheidt tried to drink Monsanto ‘poison.’

Geschiedt also tried to set a fire, but he couldn’t get away with that either.

Geschiedt, famous for nude tree-saving media events throughout Northern California, is also an award-winning photographer.

Gesheidt’s Monsanto poison stunt followed a Monsanto TV ad claiming to save the planet from nature. “Hey, if it’s [Monsanto products] so good for us, maybe we should be drinking it,” Gesheidt mocked.
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