Video from yesterday's protest march

Prop 8 Protest March

Goodness, YouTube can take for-freakin'-ever to load and process HD video!

So, anyhow, I edited this quickly last night after I got home about 11:30. Then it took four hours this morning to upload the file to YouTube, and another couple of hours for the video to be processed into an HD version.

Three things I want to point out in the video:

(1) around 45 seconds into the video, please notice the numbers of police guarding the entrances to the State Building. I assume this is in response to the AB101 riots of 1991. Then-governor Pete Wilson had promised to sign the state gay rights bill (AB101) when he returned to his office. When he got there, he changed his mind at the last minute and vetoed it. People in San Francisco went to the old State Building to protest this flagrant betrayal, and it turned nasty -- windows were broken, and an office was set on fire. So one cannot blame them for guarding this building. Still, it reminded me a little bit of the riot police that were running around at the US Supreme Court in 1988 at the Bowers v Hardwick protest. That was a memorable protest.

(2) At about 3:20, that's Marga Gomez, the only celebrity I saw that far back in the march.

(3) The band brought up the rear of the march. Unfortunately, this means that you can't get a real idea of exactly how many people were in front of us. Chip ran ahead and got shots of some of the crowd, but the full march was at least two or three city blocks long.

Here are my notes from the event:

First, we were not able to attend either of the rallies (neither the one at City Hall nor the one at Yerba Buena Gardens). At City Hall, we were gathering and preparing to march to Yerba Buena. Then when the march got to Yerba Buena, we all had to leave immediately for (surprise!) regular Tuesday night band practice. That's why the video is only of the march from Civic Center to YBG.

The band did a good job of not engaging. Toward the end, someone shouted very angrily at us, "Why are you celebrating!" My own answer would be that we're not celebrating. But at the same time we're not rending our garments, moaning laments and acting like victims. For thirty years, the band has always come out with "California, Here I Come" and "San Francisco." We have even been known to play "This Is My Country." We're laying our claim, asserting our presence and the fact that we're not going to hide.

Marching at the rear of a march like this is kind of like having to sit at the back of the F-Market -- all the crazies gather there. And they want to talk to you. A lot.

On our way out, we went to Powell Street Station. There was a man (I'm not entirely convinced that he wasn't at least a little bit drunk) standing near the MUNI gates and yelling, "Yes on 8! The will of the people has been done! Deal with it!" and similar guaranteed crowd pleasing remarks. Everyone (ourselves included) gave him a wide berth, again, not engaging him. But I heard a lot of people muttering their responses to themselves out of his hearing.

So I was relieved that the protest was so peaceful. Last week, a couple of people posted things about police barriers being dropped off in the Castro as a sign that the police knew that the decision was coming. A lot of people reacted to these postings by assuming that this meant that the police actually knew the content of the decision and were assuming there would be riots. It reached a point where a few of these people almost seemed to hope that there would be riots. I didn't ever buy into this. First, if the police knew the nature of the decision, it would have leaked. I saw notes on Facebook that clearly indicated that the police had tipped off various groups that the decision was coming. If they'd known what the decision was, they'd have said that as well. Further, the same group that planned the Prop 8 protests last fall have been planning the "Day of Decision" rallies ever since the CA Supreme Court took up the case -- if the court upheld Prop 8, it would be a protest, and if they reversed it, it would be a celebration, so there would be some massive event in all cases. For the police to put out barriers only indicated to me that (a) they knew that the decision was coming and (b) they were just preparing to block traffic so people could have the streets. But enough people kept pushing for riots that I wasn't sure that people would keep cool heads, so I wasn't entirely convinced that at least some people wouldn't try to instigate some kind of violence.

In the end, happily, people kept their heads (to the extent one could hope, given the circumstances), no violence broke out that I witnessed, and the police barriers were used (as I had guessed) to block Market Street when a late impromptu march started from Castro to Civic Center. And when they changed their minds and went back to Castro Street, the police moved the barriers to stop traffic from going down Castro Street so the protestors could gather in the middle of the road.

Mourning View: Castro & Market

With apologies to Joe.My.God. for stealing his "Morning View" designation.

New Yorker cover drawn with iPhone app

New Yorker: Finger Painting

Jorge Colombo drew this New Yorker cover using the iPhone app, "Brushes," and used its companion app, "Brushes Viewer," to capture this video of the construction of the drawing.

"...watching the video playback has made him aware that how he draws a picture can tell a story, and he’s hoping to build suspense as he builds up layers of color and shape."

The barriers

I keep hearing about rumors that police have "set up barricades" in the Castro, with a kind of ominous overtone.

Here are the barricades that I have seen. I took these pictures at about 6 p.m. yesterday (Tuesday, May 19), and the same ones were there this morning on my way to work. Not what I'd call ominous. More like indicative of an intention to block some automobile traffic so that marchers can have a clear and safe path.

I also keep hearing references to the fact that Thursday, May 21, is the 30th anniversary of the White Night Riots.

I sincerely hope that if the Supreme Court upholds Prop 8, people in San Francisco remember that the City and County of San Francisco voted overwhelmingly against Prop 8. To riot here would be a bad idea. To damage property here would be to attack our supporters. It would accomplish nothing except to produce some really ugly photos and video that could be used by Prop 8 supporters to point at and say, "See? See what animals they are?"

[UPDATE 5/20/09: I also saw eight more at the corner of Castro and 18th today. Again, a few barriers waiting on corners looks to me more like "traffic control" than "crowd control."]

The Producers auf Deutsch

Frühling für Hitler

According to the New York Times, "The Producers" has opened to good reviews in Germany. In fact, it seems to be doing better in Berlin than it did in Vienna (where it closed two months earlier than planned).

There seems to be some unease about some specific references -- at least one review has asked “whether it was really necessary to have so much Nazi paraphernalia onstage.” And it sounds like swastikas have been expunged from the production (see the pretzels in the photo below).

Cat Yodeling

Engineer's Guide to Cat Yodeling

If you've never seen the original Engineer's Guide to Cats, you should watch that as well.

Castro & 17th Plaza

This was sudden.

Personally, I knew nothing of this until I saw them painting the street on Monday.

Due to the success in New York of creating public plazas, San Francisco decided to try to copy the idea.

The new plaza extends down 17th Street from Castro to Hartford. The F-Market stop still stands right in the middle of it, so public transportation will parade through the middle of this plaza every 6 to 10 minutes.

According to the Chronicle article about the project, the "benches" in the picture are "excess pieces of granite used by the city for curbs." The "planters" look like steel drums that have been painted tan. In other words, it looks like they spent as little as possible on this upgrade, which I guess makes since if it's only a temporary test -- much less money to lose if it doesn't work and they have to take it down.

When I took these pictures this morning, they were setting chairs and tables and a sound system for the dedication ceremony that was to be held at 10:00 this morning. And, apparently, there is to be what they are calling a "Community Celebration" this Saturday, May 16, starting at 12:30 p.m.

I highly recommend that you check out this article at SF.Streetsblog, which includes a nice, detailed drawing of the plaza plans.

Escape

Karta? Buddha?
Originally uploaded by apes4me!

Source: BBC News

The Adleaide zoo was closed and evacuated when Karta, a 27 year old orangutan (pictured above), escaped from her enclosure. She used a branch to climb over the fence in her enclosure, then started building a pile of debris to climb over an outside wall.

About thirty minutes after she escaped, she changed her mind and went back into her enclosure.

"Zoo curator Peter Whitehead told reporters the ape seemed to realise she was in a place where she should not have been.

" 'She's actually hung on to the wall and dropped back into the exhibit,' he said."

"Ryan Johnston, 11, told ABC News he had seen Karta's escape, and described it as 'amazing'. "

" 'You're talking about an animal that's highly intelligent,' Mr Whitehead said.

" 'We've had issues with her before in normal day-to-day operations where she tries to outsmart the keepers. She's an ingenious animal.' "

Oh, dear...it's happening again....

Star Trek Meets Monty Python

...but when I saw this particular mash-up, how could I not re-post it?

(P.S., This is the first post from the new i7.)