That’s What Friends Are For
David Raleigh, The Friends Project
January 4, 2011
Pelosi: ‘No Regrets’ on Last Day As Speaker
Pelosi, please take a bow and THANK YOU for being such and fighter of all things good! Pelosi has now left the Building.
January 4, 2011
Christmas Trees, Fallen Soldiers
Raped from the ground, tied up with christmas lights and taunted by kids snooping curiosity. Poor little guys. Then dragged to the curb and left for an unknown fate ( dramatic).
Where Do All the Christmas Trees Go?
by J.J. Barrow
Christmas is over. How long will you keep the tree?
From January 3 through 14, kick your naked tree to the curb and Recology will pick it up on your regular recycling collection day. Once they’re on the truck, Christmas trees journey 63 miles to be reincarnated as pure energy.
First, they go to the dump. Recology processes the trees through a wood chipper, and the remains take a special ride on an 18-wheeler to a biomass facility in Tracy.
At the biomass plant, the Christmas trees rise like phoenixes – or at least steam does when their chips burn inside boilers. The steam powered turbines generate electricity that is sold to PG&E. Then, “it powers your laptop computer,” said Recology spokesperson Robert Reed.
Overall, San Francisco’s Christmas tree chips produce about 20 megawatts of power, or enough energy to service 20,000 houses for a month, according to Chris Trott at the Tracy Biomass Plant. The plant paid Recology for chips after the past two Christmases, but only enough to cover the cost of transporting them to Tracy.
The rest of the year, Tracy Biomass uses peach pits, walnut shells and tree trimmings to power the plant.
There’s a reason for Recology’s quick turn-around time – to reduce the amount of Christmas tree related fires. “The San Francisco fire department wants us to pick them up as quickly as possible,” said Reed.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/inthemission/detail?entry_id=79891#ixzz1A7ODaRX2
January 4, 2011
Ellen is a Gay Jock Supporter
Now that
Mickey Rourke (minus two teeth) is going to make him a household name, Welsh rugby star Gareth Thomas is making the American rounds. He tells Ellen DeGeneres today that after coming out to his coach, his coach shared the news with the rest of the team, and everyone gave each other platonic man hugs.
Watch video of Gareth in the Ellen Show ( click link below)
Read more: http://www.queerty.com/gay-athletes-keep-coming-out-to-gareth-thomas-20110104/#ixzz1A5XleaAG
January 4, 2011
Good Place to Waste a Day Away : LA
If you find yourself in LAs SilverLake area and have some time to spare, check out Secret Headquarters Book Store ( s0 much more than JUST a book store). Your senses will be titillated. The comic geek in you will be satisfied, big picture books will let you look like your reading as you are actually people watching ( S.H is great for people watching and the occasional boyfriend catcher). Who doesn’t love a guy that can read, right?
Secret Headquarters
The store’s interior, all warm browns with deep-chocolate wooden racks, looks something like a well-stocked home library crossed with a classic men’s club. “We wanted the store to be inviting to anyone, not just people interested in comics,” says co-owner Dave Pifer.
Pifer and David Ritchie, friends since high school in Florida, opened Secret Headquarters in 2005 (they later opened Vacation Vinyl, now located next door). Pifer says Secret Headquarters stocks an equal number of mainstream comics and independents.
Some indie picks he’s currently enthusiastic about: Catch Me if You Can by local artist Martin Cedreda;Spotting Deer by Michael Deforge, a record album-sized comic that reads like a Wikipedia entry for a deer that doesn’t actually exist; and the newly arrived, long-awaited Crickets #3 by Sammy Harkham (who owns the bookstore and gallery Family on Fairfax — but that’s another story).
“We weren’t sure what kind of store we’d end up being,” says Pifer. “Hipster people come in, and I’m expecting them to buy Harkham or more indie, but they’re buying Marvel like they did when they were kids.”
Those early brand allegiances are strong among comics readers — Marvel fans stick to Marvel, DC Comics readers stick to DC, etc. — but getting the younger generation enthusastic about any of them is a challenge. “These days,” Pifer says, “little kids aren’t picking up comics,” he says. “Video games are more intriguing.”
The store is well stocked with many graphic novels and collections, books geared for adult readers. From time to time, it showcases artwork by the people whose books sell in the shop. And it also caters to collectors: More than 100 comics readers who want every installment of a series have subscribed through the store, which gets deliveries and carefully sets the next issue aside.In October, Secret Headquarters presented a limited-edition set of prints designed to promote the AMC TV zombie series “The Walking Dead,” based on the comic book by the same name. Jordan Crane, Lisa Hanawalt, Johnny Ryan and Jon Vermilyea each drew a creature on an imaginary shooting range target practice sheet for Georgia law enforcement. A few are still hanging in the shop; each print is $40.
Secret Headquarters isn’t the kind of store that will scoff at browsers who don’t know that Crane, Hanawalt, Ryan and Vermilyea are alternative comics stars. “I want people to be interested in coming to our store,” Pifer says, returning to the importance of the store’s welcoming environment. Secret Headquarters, open seven days a week, packs a lot of comic books, graphic novels and welcome into its 500 square feet.
— Carolyn Kellogg
Photos: Secret Headquarters. Credit: Carolyn Kellogg / Los Angeles Times
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January 4, 2011
Eyes On: Ivan Monforte
An artists that’s more than meets the eye. Like a 7 layer chocolate cake, the more you dig the more you find. Listen, learn and BE INSPIRED. I still cannot figure out what art is or for that matter , why the sky is blue.
http://player.vimeo.com/video/16735027
“My art uses simple gestures and materials, as well as emotional language and content as strategic tools to address themes of loss and mourning, representations of class, gender, race and sexuality and the pursuit of love. These gestures typically involve highly emotional and participatory interactions between an individual, an audience, and me. They often result in social sculptures, performance-based videos, and text-based objects.
The economy of the work is rooted in my artistic investment in dialogue and inclusion. I am interested in the complex intellectual and emotional dialogue that can occur between a viewer and the artwork – in particular, the conversation that takes place afterwards, when the viewer is left to process the interaction. Ideally, inspiring people to re-examine and respect/accept universal truths grounded in emotions. ” Ivan Monforte
http://smackmellon.org/index.php/contact/current_studio_artist/
http://www.artslant.com/ny/artists/show/29972-ivan-monforte
January 4, 2011
Accidental Bear 
