We all know California is the greatest country on Earth, and by the grace of God it shall never fall or be torn asunder.
But did you know California is responsible for the greatest oranges on Earth?
In the 1800s a Californian, and Hero of the people, William Wolfskill created the Valencia orange, the greatest orange ever, on his ranch in Santa Ana California. He named it after Valencia Spain, a land rich in oranges.
The Valencia Orange was a success, and spread across the globe. The California orange industry was born, and Orange County got its name.
Eventually Sunkist, the greatest orange soda ever, was born as an offshoot of the Valencia orange company.
Years later lots of rich assholes from around America moved into Orange County, thinking that by moving to the greatest land on Earth their souls would be lifted.
Unfortunately as the assholes came in droves, they pushed out the groves. Land in heaven became too expensive for the heavenly fruit. So it was outsourced to Florida, which wasn't doing anything anyway.
So now, 50% of all Florida oranges, are actually Valencia oranges. But don't take my word for it. Florida admits they are California's backyard.
Yay, do I wish upon this world that all lands bear the fruits of the Republic.
Florida is doing its part. What about your state(country)?
I think I should write a big ass coffee table book called "California: Why it just nailed your sister and bought up your debts." or maybe "California: Better than you"
I'm just going to keep listing books that need to be written.
"California: Why your life means nothing without it"
"California: The only place that matters"
"California: Can't Hear You Over All Its Awesomeness"
"Cool Places That Aren't California: Just Kidding"
"California: The only place that filthy bums and the disgustingly rich flock to"
"California: Put Some Stuff In The Soil, Or Pull Some Out, Either Way, It's Gold."
"California: Everything good "America" ever made was invented here."
"California: Why everyone who sucks needs to GTFO and go back to the east coast."
"California: Fuck You, Well Take Baja Back Before We Split."
Someone get on this. I'm busy.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
World Premier of Dave Brubeck's newest music "Ansel Adams: America"
World famous Jazz Musician Dave Brubeck and Chris Brubeck Premiered their symphonic tribute to Ansel Adams at my college in Stockton. Chris Brubeck was there, as well as the family of Ansel Adams, but Dave was sick in a hospital so he couldn't come. The piece was performed by the Stockton Symphony accompanied by photographs by Adams that alternated with the music perfectly.I got to see it!
You might wonder why Dave Brubeck would choose Stockton, it's because he was born in Concord and went to the University of the Pacific here when he was a teenager. It was here in Stockton at college that he decided to become a professional musician. He has since performed in Stockton many times.
Dave was scheduled to perform his album "Time Out" in its entirety (the first time ever fully performed live)50 years after releasing it, including the most awesome "Take Five". Hopefully he'll get well.
I first learned about Dave Brubeck through his song "Take Five". I was at Kadena Air Force base in Okinawa and a recording of a Dave Brubeck concert was being used as the demo for the TVs for sale. When "Take Five" played I recognized the song and told my friend it has always been my absolute favorite jazz song, I just had no idea what it was called or who was playing it. Months later my friend went home to Illinois and was able to find out through his dad what the song was. It wasn't until I came back to Stockton out of the Navy that I found out Dave Brubeck was one of my grandfather's favorite musicians growing up, and my dad and brother both had some of his albums.
There's a street named after him a few blocks from my house that runs along UOP and the Dave Brubeck Jazz Festival put on by the Dave Brubeck Institute was held around the corner from my house last weekend.
lol.
Just to put icing on the "music near my house" cake, Street Scene in San Diego, that was nearing bankruptcy because they stopped actually doing the concerts in San Diego, finally went back downtown. Local San Diegans know that it was entirely because of the Street Scene concert that downtown and the Gas Lamp were revitalized. When Street Scene first held its concerts on 5th avenue, all the businesses were rundown, there were crackheads on every corner, nothing but slum. The concerts brought people back to the center of San Dog and money came with them, a couple decades later downtown San Diego has become one of the biggest tourist attractions on Earth. I lobbied hard a few years ago when Street Scene left San Diego. I wrote to whoever I could contact that was a part of Street Scene. Back then every idiot in charge, and the general public had this attitude that Street Scene was "too big" and "in the way" of downtown. Well once the "too big" Street Scene moved out of the city it nearly went bankrupt, and the A - list performers stopped coming. I thought it was a tragedy that the concert that made Gas Lamp what it was, was being driven away and killed. Well, either my lobbying helped, or they just came to their senses, because Street Scene last year went back to downtown, not only that, it was held literally one block from where I used to live. Unfortunately I was here in Stockton, but I'm comforted just by its return. San Diego may be a city full of smug douchebags, but I like it anyway, it's beautiful, it has anything you want, it is California at its finest.
Yay California. Made from the best stuff on Earth.
You might wonder why Dave Brubeck would choose Stockton, it's because he was born in Concord and went to the University of the Pacific here when he was a teenager. It was here in Stockton at college that he decided to become a professional musician. He has since performed in Stockton many times.
Dave was scheduled to perform his album "Time Out" in its entirety (the first time ever fully performed live)50 years after releasing it, including the most awesome "Take Five". Hopefully he'll get well.
I first learned about Dave Brubeck through his song "Take Five". I was at Kadena Air Force base in Okinawa and a recording of a Dave Brubeck concert was being used as the demo for the TVs for sale. When "Take Five" played I recognized the song and told my friend it has always been my absolute favorite jazz song, I just had no idea what it was called or who was playing it. Months later my friend went home to Illinois and was able to find out through his dad what the song was. It wasn't until I came back to Stockton out of the Navy that I found out Dave Brubeck was one of my grandfather's favorite musicians growing up, and my dad and brother both had some of his albums.
There's a street named after him a few blocks from my house that runs along UOP and the Dave Brubeck Jazz Festival put on by the Dave Brubeck Institute was held around the corner from my house last weekend.
lol.
Just to put icing on the "music near my house" cake, Street Scene in San Diego, that was nearing bankruptcy because they stopped actually doing the concerts in San Diego, finally went back downtown. Local San Diegans know that it was entirely because of the Street Scene concert that downtown and the Gas Lamp were revitalized. When Street Scene first held its concerts on 5th avenue, all the businesses were rundown, there were crackheads on every corner, nothing but slum. The concerts brought people back to the center of San Dog and money came with them, a couple decades later downtown San Diego has become one of the biggest tourist attractions on Earth. I lobbied hard a few years ago when Street Scene left San Diego. I wrote to whoever I could contact that was a part of Street Scene. Back then every idiot in charge, and the general public had this attitude that Street Scene was "too big" and "in the way" of downtown. Well once the "too big" Street Scene moved out of the city it nearly went bankrupt, and the A - list performers stopped coming. I thought it was a tragedy that the concert that made Gas Lamp what it was, was being driven away and killed. Well, either my lobbying helped, or they just came to their senses, because Street Scene last year went back to downtown, not only that, it was held literally one block from where I used to live. Unfortunately I was here in Stockton, but I'm comforted just by its return. San Diego may be a city full of smug douchebags, but I like it anyway, it's beautiful, it has anything you want, it is California at its finest.
Yay California. Made from the best stuff on Earth.
Sunday, May 03, 2009
What it is
So when I started this blog profile, I had just come back to Yokosuka, Japan from 4 months in San Diego. Before Japan (back in 2003) I had been in Florida, before that, Illinois (2002), before that, my hometown of Stockton CA. So from 2004-2006 I lived in Japan. I had a nice house, I did what I did. In the meantime I was able to see many other places including Hong Kong, pretty much all of Korea, Australia, Guam, Saipan. In 2006 I went back to San Diego and lived in a super awesome brand new apartment right on Market street downtown. I lived in San Diego until about March 2008, then I moved back to my hometown of Stockton CA, where I currently occupy space.
So I need to update my profile a bit.
Friday, May 01, 2009
The Stockton Armed Militia
A man in stockton declared a few months ago that if the police get fired, he's going to activate a militia to patrol the city. Well, 55 cops are being fired. Through technicalities, not all will end up "fired" but rather "early retired" but the figures will be the same. Stockton only has about 400 police as is.
The idea of a militia sparked liberal bitching across the country. The epitome of ignorance "wonkette" had around 100 comments describing Stockton in every derogatory manner they could imagine, having absolutely no knowledge of where Stockton even is, or pretty much anything else, some even confusing it with Stockholm. They still managed to declare everything cliche' white trash, kkk, nazi, they could imagine, and I pretty much almost cried at how fucking stupid these people are.
I like the idea of a citizen force picking up the cop's slack. But there's no room for reason in this issue it seems.
On the one side, you have all the dumbshits who think no one but the police should be allowed to have weapons, including our own fucking mayor. On the other hand, you have hundreds of untrained people who might be missing the point, but will all go out shooting if necessary.
Where's the informed middleground? I'm thinking I need to fucking talk to this guy before something tragic happens.
Let me lay this out. I am 100% pro gun. I think babies should be allowed to own machine guns. I don't mince words. I think Iran should be allowed to point nukes at us and talk shit. I think people should be allowed to work on death rays. I think every human should be allowed as many weapons of global destruction as they want, until they prove they aren't responsible enough to possess them. I had to make that clear.
That being said, I don't trust these guys to do proper law enforcement. It's one thing to have a gun to protect yourself, or people around you. It's a whole different realm to go out looking for shit to get into. Bad training can kill as much as any gun can.
I'm not a police officer, I don't feel qualified to patrol the streets in a law enforcement capacity. Yet I have worn a badge that said "police" on it. I have been trained in many aspects of law enforcement. I am an expert with several weapons, including the 9mm and the expandable baton. I am well trained an experienced with verbal commands, detaining suspects (handcuffing), arm bar techniques, the levels of force, and the circumstances for deadly force. For the small piece of land I patrolled as a military law enforcement, I was experienced, I knew what I could and could not do. But this is Stockton, and the rules are different.
That's the problem. There are so many dynamics to law enforcement. Security (and self protection) is easy, you protect something, you know what you're protecting. Law enforcement means getting involved in really confusing shit that you might not have any right to diffuse.
I won't feel comfortable about this Stockton Armed Militia unless they have positive support from the police, as well as training. I think if Stockton has a militia, it should serve in an official capacity, and it should break down like a volunteer branch of the police department. Volunteer, because the only reason Stockton might need a militia, there's no money to pay police.
I also think they need to take focus away from the guns. I can appreciate good citizens armed, but if that's the militia's only goal, to be an armed presence, they won't help 1/100th of the problems of not having police. If they only spring to action in a gun fight, they won't be springing to action very often. Cops are needed for so much more than that.
Imagine a scenario where the militia witnesses a man beating up a woman, so they swoop in, but they have no training for anything but gun play. What can they do? Pull out their guns. Great, someone's not going home that night.
Cops have "levels of force" at least in the utopia version of law enforcement I was trained into we did. Militia need to consider carrying more than guns, like pepper spray, batons, handcuffs, tasers, basically things that can solve a problem with no one dying.
The idea of a militia sparked liberal bitching across the country. The epitome of ignorance "wonkette" had around 100 comments describing Stockton in every derogatory manner they could imagine, having absolutely no knowledge of where Stockton even is, or pretty much anything else, some even confusing it with Stockholm. They still managed to declare everything cliche' white trash, kkk, nazi, they could imagine, and I pretty much almost cried at how fucking stupid these people are.
I like the idea of a citizen force picking up the cop's slack. But there's no room for reason in this issue it seems.
On the one side, you have all the dumbshits who think no one but the police should be allowed to have weapons, including our own fucking mayor. On the other hand, you have hundreds of untrained people who might be missing the point, but will all go out shooting if necessary.
Where's the informed middleground? I'm thinking I need to fucking talk to this guy before something tragic happens.
Let me lay this out. I am 100% pro gun. I think babies should be allowed to own machine guns. I don't mince words. I think Iran should be allowed to point nukes at us and talk shit. I think people should be allowed to work on death rays. I think every human should be allowed as many weapons of global destruction as they want, until they prove they aren't responsible enough to possess them. I had to make that clear.
That being said, I don't trust these guys to do proper law enforcement. It's one thing to have a gun to protect yourself, or people around you. It's a whole different realm to go out looking for shit to get into. Bad training can kill as much as any gun can.
I'm not a police officer, I don't feel qualified to patrol the streets in a law enforcement capacity. Yet I have worn a badge that said "police" on it. I have been trained in many aspects of law enforcement. I am an expert with several weapons, including the 9mm and the expandable baton. I am well trained an experienced with verbal commands, detaining suspects (handcuffing), arm bar techniques, the levels of force, and the circumstances for deadly force. For the small piece of land I patrolled as a military law enforcement, I was experienced, I knew what I could and could not do. But this is Stockton, and the rules are different.
That's the problem. There are so many dynamics to law enforcement. Security (and self protection) is easy, you protect something, you know what you're protecting. Law enforcement means getting involved in really confusing shit that you might not have any right to diffuse.
I won't feel comfortable about this Stockton Armed Militia unless they have positive support from the police, as well as training. I think if Stockton has a militia, it should serve in an official capacity, and it should break down like a volunteer branch of the police department. Volunteer, because the only reason Stockton might need a militia, there's no money to pay police.
I also think they need to take focus away from the guns. I can appreciate good citizens armed, but if that's the militia's only goal, to be an armed presence, they won't help 1/100th of the problems of not having police. If they only spring to action in a gun fight, they won't be springing to action very often. Cops are needed for so much more than that.
Imagine a scenario where the militia witnesses a man beating up a woman, so they swoop in, but they have no training for anything but gun play. What can they do? Pull out their guns. Great, someone's not going home that night.
Cops have "levels of force" at least in the utopia version of law enforcement I was trained into we did. Militia need to consider carrying more than guns, like pepper spray, batons, handcuffs, tasers, basically things that can solve a problem with no one dying.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)