Thread Drift

[divingbiker]

Cute sweater!

On another topic, did anyone see the 2-hour MSNBC special on the Jonestown massacre 30 years ago? I DVR'd it and just watched...it was heartbreaking. I remember when it happened (I was in college) but I had never seen the video of the last hours. Very sad. I don't think I'll ever say the phrase "drink the Koolaid" in a joking way again.

[Trek420]

Cute sweater!

On another topic, did anyone see the 2-hour MSNBC special on the Jonestown massacre 30 years ago? I DVR'd it and just watched...it was heartbreaking. I remember when it happened (I was in college)

Yeah, no interest in seeing the special.

It was quite the time around the Bay Area. A growing sense of hope fueled by activism. Jones took advantage of that and drew good folks yearning for new ways of being.

I forget if Jonestown was right before or right after Harvey and George were murdered but it was all around the same time.

In short order we lost two public figures who could have gone on to make a big difference and of course a lot of people in Jonestown.

It's pure fiction yet a lot of fun but if you want a sense of a historic time and place in San Francisco read Armistead Maupin Tales of the City Series

www.armisteadmaupin.com

The books were originally a series in the S.F. Chronicle. Like a soap opera in the paper. I remember looking forward to each edition. We here could not get enough of the story.

As books they suffer from that; article sized chunk, next chapter article sized chunk, Sunday Edition a longer bit etc. But he captures a feeling of the era like nobody else and his sense of dialogue is spot on.

You'll be informed, uplifted, you'll laugh, you'll cry ... read it

I do want to see the new movie; Milk. From the look of the the trailer (warning to your sensitive eyes, brief shot of two men kissing) Sean Penn captures the look and voice of the man and the movie captures the upbeat feel and excitement of the time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unu-9...eature=related

[Biciclista]

Trek, I think Jones and his henchmen were responsible for the deaths of Harvey Milk and the other guy!

[Trek420]

Trek, I think Jones and his henchmen were responsible for the deaths of Harvey Milk and the other guy!

No, as far as I'm aware Jones had no involvement in the murder of Harvey Milk and the other guy who was S.F. Mayor George Moscone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUB-RCNBDnk

Both were killed by S.F. Supervisor Dan White, a former SF cop and fireman. In brief Dan had a problem with working with progressive people like Harvey, and with having someone out and gay on the board and ... so he resigned saying at first the pay was too low.

Then he quickly thought better of it as in "whoops, I just quit, turned in my letter of resignation, OMG I'm not a supervisor because I quit, whatdoIdo, whatdoIdo , whatdoIdo? Go back to the family Baked Potato store at Fisherman's Wharf?"

But the city has procedures. If a Supervisor leaves the Mayor gets to appoint a replacement. Moscone had someone in mind and Dan was not getting his job back.

Being thus informed Dan White snuck into City Hall (through a back entrance with no security) when he knew both men would be there. First he went to Harvey's office and shot him, stopped to reload and then shot the mayor. or maybe it was vice versa?

He got off with a light sentence. Maybe you've heard the phrase Twinkie Insanity? Defense argued he'd been eating too much junk food and for premeditated murder as in; bringing the weapon and ammo in the unsecured entrance, waiting for one unarmed person, reloading with intent to kill the 2nd .... I think this former cop got 5 years of which he served maybe a couple of them.

When the sentence was announced the city exploded, instantly people assembled to march chanting "he got away with murder" it was a tense time here.

It was sad for all the families involved really. After he was released from prison Dan White committed suicide.

This controversial and famous scultptur by Robert Arneson (it's the sculpture on the top) shows Mayor Moscone.

Imprinted somewhere on the column it reads "he shot Harvey too"

www.verisimilitudo.com/arneson/misc1.html

[jobob]

This controversial and famous scultptur by Robert Arneson (it's the sculpture on the top) shows Mayor Moscone.

Many moons ago I was in Washington DC attending a conference and I happened on an exhibit of Arneson's work at one of the museums (forget which one - probably the modern art one). IIRC the Moscone scupture was there - along with many other examples of Arneson's wonderful work. I've been a fan of his work ever since.

Ed to add: I finally accessed that neuron (with a lot of help from Google ) - it was a retrospective of his work at the Hirshhorn, in 1986. I was in awe.

[Trek420]

Arneson taught at Davis. Duck on Wheels took a sculpture class from him, maybe inspiring that sweater?

Yes, he was a great California artist one of my favorites.

[Xrayted]

i don't like most beers either. There is a local one that is a favorite of mine.


As for me, I'm feeling pretty good right now, snuggled up on the couch in my blankie.

[Zen]

Cute sweater!

On another topic, did anyone see the 2-hour MSNBC special on the Jonestown massacre 30 years ago?

I heard an interview on the Tavis Smiley show (radio). The author was a survivor.
Gotta agree on that "drink the kool-aid" phrase..

DoW, that is some fancy knitting!
I hope I can learn just well enough to make dog sweaters and arm warmers

[Biciclista]

what about DONKEYS? Who here has really never heard a donkey bray?


(I'm painting Donkeys tonight)

[pardes]

what about DONKEYS? Who here has really never heard a donkey bray?(I'm painting Donkeys tonight)

I absolutely ADORE donkeys. Here's an essay I wrote about a donkey that I know.

When Donkeys Fly

I know a donkey named Nellie who once demonstrated the intention of movement so artfully that it would have made you weep with joy. Nellie lived on the farm of a retired veterinarian who owned many championship thoroughbreds and kept Nellie as a "lawn ornament" who was required to do nothing for her keep but be a donkey. She had never been ridden or trained or even asked to walk across a paved road and therefore spent a lifetime flatly refusing to walk on pavement or gravel. With hundreds of acres of pasture, it was rarely an issue.

It's a haughty group of horse people that live in this area. Too much money, too much fox hunting, too much too much. Too haughty to even lower their eyes to mock the substandard confirmation lines of an aging donkey and an aging eccentric woman who came to the stables to visit a donkey.

You'd think a donkey so seemingly starved for personal attention would fawn and beg and bray and heehaw for the carrots, apples, and peppermints I brought. Not Nellie, proud Nellie so busy with living her donkeyness.

I have spent hours in the pasture reading, writing, napping, feeding Nellie all manner of delicacies from the farmers' market, brushing her, petting her, flipping her lovely ears like radar antennas. When I would laugh, she would bray. What gusto there is in a donkey bray! The whole body takes part and infectiously requires some kind of response from the universe.

Nellie moved very slowly and not before a great deal of deliberation went into the decision of whether to move, where to move, and why to move. This was fine with me. I'd hold a carrot in one hand while I read and eventually Nellie would find her way to it.

At the time, I was reading about Chi. All very interesting but I wondered where does chi reside when one isn't moving and in what form. When a dozen thoroughbreds thundered down upon us with flying hooves and tossing manes to steal the fruit and vegetable booty, it was easy to witness the life force coursing through their bodies. They are bred without a rheostat. They are either on or off and bred to run so swiftly that it takes the breath away to witness it and fires our carnal hedonistic desires to saddle up and ride that sense of abandonment so carefully choreographed as an almost out of control flight from gravity.

Yet it was a donkey never ridden that was chosen to bear a messiah into Jerusalem and it was an old testament donkey, not a man, not a thoroughbred, who saw an angel blocking the road and refused to move even when beaten, the same donkey who spoke to Balaam of his folly.

So lie down in green pastures with me and contemplate the chosen nature of a homely aging donkey and try to catch a glimpse of subtle chi as one slender burro leg raised itself off the ground and slowly came down again before another foot started to move and then the next foot and the next and then a pause of movement that was no longer an empty category or the mere absence of movement but a gathering of intention, a wisp of desire that existed with its own sense of purpose and humor.

As a myopic human who can't see angels in the middle of the road, I was not shown this feat of feet with just one step or two but dozens and dozen of graceful steps until I could match my breath to the slow cadence and realize that my own breath existed with its own consciousness, sense of purpose, compassion, and even humor. It made me laugh and dance with a donkey, and the donkey kept time and brayed.

[Trek420]

(I'm painting Donkeys tonight)

I don't know, Bici. Don't you think it's cruel to paint donkeys? They are beautiful just the way they are Why paint them?

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article...6&in_page_id=2

[Biciclista]

I don't know, Bici. Don't you think it's cruel to paint donkeys? They are beautiful just the way they are Why paint them?

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article...6&in_page_id=2

oh what a cute paint job!

Nice story Pardes

but notice, NO ONE answered my question!

[Pax]

what about DONKEYS? Who here has really never heard a donkey bray?


(I'm painting Donkeys tonight)

Our neighbor in Italy had two donkeys he used to pull his work cart, when they brayed, it was really loud! They were cute though, he used to let me pet them and feed them apples from our tree.

[Velobambina]

Are donkeys the same as mules?

[Blueberry]

Tuckervil-

That is an awesome sock!! What yarn did you use?? I love the colors!

Warning: Socks are addictive! I tend to carry them everywhere with me, and work on them whenever I have a few extra minutes. You'd be amazed how much progress you can make! And yes, they will now allow knitting needles on an airplane!

CA