BAUMBLOG: Mission Ramble #2

 

Subscribe to My Blog! AUGUST 7, 2020 MISSION RAMBLE #2 PREVIOUS BLOGS: TERRYBAUM.BLOGSPOT.COM PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO ANYONE WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED. IF THIS WAS FORWARDED TO YOU, YOU ARE NOT SUBSCRIBED. My friend Elizabeth announced she wanted to go on a walk with me. She drove up from Menlo Park with her little dog Paisley. So the two of them and the three of us headed out to explore the Mission. I warned my friend that I would be stopping very frequently to snap photos, which can be very irritating to others. I mean, I wouldn't be able to STAND walking with ME. I somehow neglected to take ANY photos of Elizabeth & Paisley, so here's the two of us in our maskless life. This must have been after a performance of HICK, because I'm wearing make-up. Elizabeth is a serious jock. She was doing triathlons into her 60s. So she can outwalk me any day, which is great. Because as I continue my wandering ways, I have fewer friends to wander with me. Just a sign of hope, like all the other signs of hope. But somehow this one got to me -- simple, graphically strong. Also, I am myself seeing signs of hope everywhere. So many people, especially young people, seem very clear that they're not interested in the restoration of what we had, with all its injustices. I am hearing different voices speaking on the radio -- young women, who know what's wrong and have ideas about how to transform our society. It's exciting. I heard a conference on KPOO Radio ... I didn't write down anything about it... but a woman was speaking who was so brilliant and radical, tearing off one veil after another to reveal the truth about our world. It was mind-blowing. And other women were speaking who were just as brilliant! This is not 2016, folks. Since the election of Trump, many new organizations have arisen: Indivisible (Dec. 2016), Swing Left (Jan. 2017), the Sunrise Movement (2017). Our Revolution was founded in August 2016. All these groups are focussed on electing people to political office who share their ideals. They have had MANY SUCCESSES so far! Oh yeah. We're walking. The Mission is an art gallery. I'm praying Dance Mission Theater survives. This is the fulfilled dream of Krissy Keefer, who in the 70s was a member of the Wallflower Dance Brigade, an outrageous, funny and feminist dance troupe. Krissy is devoted to the alchemy of art and politics. I have had many special moments in that theater. Mission & 24th Street BART Plaza is jumping, 'demic or no. This house is out of a dream. Elizabeth pointed out the sneakers on the torch-bearing girl on the right, AND that someone had taken the time to carefully paint the WIRING on the outside of the building. Elizabeth is an artist herself and she notices details that I miss. So she is a perfect companion for a photo walk. Below is one of her watercolors, which graces my living room. Back to the Mission. Above is a particularly wonderful visual statement. Both "No Justice No Peace" AND "Know Justice, Know Peace." Wow. And what a POWERFUL face George Floyd has. The Mission has many little alleys with one garage door after another, that have become fabulous mural museums. Balmy is the famous one. I believe this is Lucky Alley. But it might be Cypress. Left, Loulou & Paisley try to make a friend. "Grow Always." Lovely Nice that Prodigy got a mural when he died. He looks like he's pretty sad that he's gone. This one of Amiri Baraka really bugs me. "Poet Activist Teacher." Wait a minute, he was a PLAYWRIGHT before he was any of those other things. He was a FAMOUS PLAYWRIGHT! THEN he was a poet, an activist and a teacher. Sheesh! This a mural in memory of Chata Gutierrez. Above right is the list of credits. Directly right is a Go Fund Me page that was obviously successful in raising the money to create this beautiful tribute. Below is text about Chata: "Help us raise money to paint a mural of legendary SanFrancisco DJ Chata Gutierrez in the Mission! Chata was a child of the Mission who gifted us with her salsa show “Con Clave” on radio station KPOO for over 40 years. She influenced our community and the entire Bay Area with her love of music and she stuck with us through thick and thin, battling her own illness to bring us music from the heart. Mission native and muralist Carlos Kookie Gonzalez painted the beautiful poster for Chata’s fundraiser in 2009 – now we want to turn it into a public tribute and a landmark." What a transformation from that poster into the gorgeous mural! Two mentions of KPOO in this blog without even trying!  This mural is very hard to get at and so has remained un-graffittied for many years.  Images on top of images on top of images, with a box covered with images in front. I took lots of piks of the different parts, but then decided the overwhelming mish-mash was better. X-Ray visions of dogs --- and why not? Just in case you're wondering, this is: 151 Lucky Alley! Images of lesbians are surprisingly rare. Left is part of a big scene in a grocery store. I wonder if Chata was a dyke. This is the photo from her obituary. I would say a Friend of Dorothy's And on that note, Bloggelinis, I shall say fare thee well and get this bloggy sent on its way. That's about one-third of the photos I took.... no, 1/5.... no, 1/10..... Suffice it to say there's a LOT to see in the Mission. I'm very excited to have discovered Chata Gutierrez from writing this blog! Terry

BAUMBLOG: Mea Culpa, Emma Goldman + Update

AUGUST 4, 2020 One: Mea Culpa, Emma Goldman Two: Update PREVIOUS BLOGS: TERRYBAUM.BLOGSPOT.COM PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO ANYONE WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED. IF YOU RECEIVED THIS AS A FORWARD, YOU ARE NOT SUBSCRIBED. ONE: MEA CULPA, EMMA GOLDMAN My dear friend Stench in Brussels excoriated (never typed that word before) me about my last blog. I mean he was OUTRAGED by my doubting the effect of the bottle-throwing/graffiti-writing activities in Portland -- and my linking anarchists with chaos. I completely agree with PART of what he said, and I apologize to the spirit of Emma Goldman and all other valiant anarchists for equating anarchism with chaos. That was inexcusable sloppy thinking on my part, and shows my unconscious absorption of media cliches. I cannot believe, after being part of a study group on anarchism many years ago, I succumbed to this popular misconception. It is true that now anarchy is commonly used as a synonym for chaos. And it is true that some anarchists DO believe in creating chaos. BUT this is the great Peter Kropotkin's definition of the POLITICAL THEORY of anarchism: ANARCHISM is the name given to a principle or theory of life and conduct under which society is conceived without government — harmony in such a society being obtained, not by submission to law, or by obedience to any authority, but by free agreements concluded between the various groups, territorial and professional, freely constituted for the sake of production and consumption, as also for the satisfaction of the infinite variety of needs and aspirations of a civilized being. It's a beautiful, generous, radical, idea -- perhaps impossible to achieve. But it is NOT about creating chaos. I think Emma Goldman is the best-known anarchist in this country's history. She was a great speaker and thinker and organizer. A great lover of humanity. Also just an amazingly honest and open person. I highly recommend her autobiography. She was deported in 1919, even though she was a citizen. That was at a very reactionary time. Another inaccuracy in my blog was my concern with "chaos" when I was concerned in fact with "the APPEARANCE of chaos." I knew, from talking to my friend Kendall in Portland, that all the political action was in a very small area and the chaos-creating activity was only late at night. In other words, it just wasn't all that BIG --- nowhere near enough to claim that Portland was in chaos at ANY time. But I still believe that in a Presidential election year -- let alone THIS year -- one should be careful about creating fabulous photo-ops for one's opponent. In his email, Stench mourned the disappearance of the courageous radical Terry he once knew who marched as the sole member of the "Lesbians for Penetration" contingent at the Gay Pride Parade. I think the year was 1990.

Here's how it came about: In the old days of the San Francisco Gay Pride Parade, there were no corporations marching, no barriers between onlookers and marchers, and anyone could march with whatever contingent they dreamed up. Or by themselves. We would enjoy marching with a contingent a little way, then we'd spot a friend in the crowd, stop to talk, then jump into another contingent that might be passing. Well, I got the idea for a "Lesbians for Penetration" contingent, which I thought was amusing and subversive. I assumed a lot of women would want to march with me, but I was shocked to discover that somehow I had stumbled on a taboo! Sure, a lot of

lesbians like penetration, but to say it in public? Forget it! Nobody, even my housemate who was into SM, would join my contingent! Every refusal was like a red flag to a bull. The more I knew I was blaspheming some antiquated concept of lesbians, the more I had to do it. Imagine marching all by yourself and being met by an enormous joyous roar of laughter from over a hundred thousand people, as you move along. Only I didn't march. I pranced all the way down Market Street, from Castro to Civic Center. I danced, I leaped, I pirouetted. I waved my sign. I waggled the dildo coming out of my hat at the roaring crowd. It was perhaps the greatest performance of my life, and certainly my biggest audience. But, Stench, it wasn't a POLITICAL act. It didn't take any courage on my part. I was just an exhibitionist with a subversive sense of humor. I hope I still am. TWO: UPDATE Having told you about my first boyfriend saving me from drowning, I went on Facebook to track him down and thank him for giving me a life beyond the age of 19. I sent him a message expressing my gratitude. I don't do social media, but I went on it just now, and he has tried to contact me. Not sure if I'll respond. Last night I watched "A NEW LEAF" on Youtube. I liked it very much. It's very funny, and the great thing is neither Elaine May or Walter Matthau ever play for laughs. They just play their CHARACTERS and they trust the humor will bloom, which it does. The climactic scene is when the hitherto selfish and unloving Matthau character saves the sweet, nerdy May character from drowning -- even though he has been plotting to kill her. It demonstrates that he has come to love her. That was a MOVIE. Just a story. Jon did it for real. I just never really got what he did. I had a sense of entitlement around me like a hardened shell, and I could not perceive the loving actions of others, even when someone was risking his own life to save mine. And I still have that shell or I wouldn't have insulted Jon in the blog, at the same time I described him rescuing me. Whew. You know, the Black Lives Matter movement is causing memories to arise of incidents when I exploited my entitlement as a white person. And my Buddhist practice is making me aware of my GENERAL sense of entitlement. I feel kind of shaken. My image of myself might be shattering. It's scary and exciting. All for now, Bloggelinis.... Terry