Category: Culture

I just got off the phone with Ken Anderson, one of the co-managers of The Black. He has worked on Newport Ave for 18 years and has seen everything. He is the one who ordered the new, controversial anti-homeless stickers that say “Welcome to Ocean Beach. Please don’t feed our bums,” with a graphic of a 1930’s hobo and dog.

The Black, the iconic head shop that has been a mainstay in Ocean Beach “since 1969” – has entered the Dark Side – get it? The Black on the Dark Side. Their sale of the anti-homeless stickers – is stirring up the community. The Black used to be the only place where you would find items of the counter-culture, smoking instruments, sandals, incense, weird, psychedelic posters, … you name it – if hippies wanted it they could find it there.

By Jeremy W. Peters / The New York Times/ June 10, 2010

A pilot wanted to take a photographer from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans to snap photographs of the oil slicks blackening the water. The response from a BP contractor who answered the phone late last month at the command center was swift and absolute: Permission denied.

Our roving reporter has discovered the source of the ‘don’t feed the bums’ stickers that have mysteriously appeared on municipal signs and a couple local store windows lately around OB: The Black headshop on Newport Ave.

Someone is spending more money on their underground campaign to rid Ocean Beach of its homeless. They are placing slick yellow and black stickers on city signs around Ocean Beach with the message “Please don’t feed our bums.”

The folks who run the OB Street Fair have a new heartache. Someone broke into one of their volunteers’ cars and besides taking personal items, also escounced with a box of Street Fair T-shirts.

The T-shirts stolen were in a huge box of mostly men’s tanks in black and a number of small and medium size men’s T-shirts. Volunteers were taking boxes home to fold the T-shirts over the weekend and bam! . . . some bad guy a steals one of the boxes. The t-shirts were all printed by the James Gang and are sold to raise money for the Street Fair, Fireworks and lots of OB projects. All the shirts have the street fair logo (two sandals, stars and the words “Ocean Beach Street Fair & Chili Cook-Off Festival”) on them.

Today at 6pm, there will be a local protest against BP (British Petroleum) – the giant oil company responsible for the current catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. The protest will be at the ARCO station just in front of the Sports Arena, at 3580 Sports Arena Blvd. ARCO is owned by BP.

June 8th is World Ocean Day, so the event organizers wanted to hold an action in conjunction with like-minded activists the world over. Apparently the local event is being organized by HuffPost Green readers, who are being asked to brainstorm and take action for helping with the oil spill.

For the first time in years – or at least in any of our memories – there’s controversy surrounding the election of Superior Court judges in tomorrow’s primary. Normally, the usual (yawn) campaign of judges takes on the quiet excitement associated with lawn bowling. But not this year, this year of the rise of the tea party.

This year there is a tea party-like group called “Better Courts Now” that is upsetting the apple cart by pushing their own slate of holier-than-thou conservative candidates. As if judges weren’t conservative enough! Most judges were former prosecutors – an already conservative role within the court system – and so by time most don their black robes and step up to the seats – there’s definitely a conservative bias that dominates the courtroom.

Sitting around trying to clear my mind of all that’s going on in a troubled world I found a picture of me almost as gray of hair and beard as one can be. Green leaves of spring adorned the trees that stood behind me and in my glasses I could see the indiscernible reflections of the children who sat listening so appreciatively to my poetry.

These were students at Einstein Academy, a school literally vibrating with positive energy and I view this picture and the gathering as an expression of how the world should be, older generations, the gray, sharing the wisdom of their age with children, the green, who in their innocence, represent what hope there really is on the planet.

by Wonkette / June 5, 2010 Hard to find even the Gallows Humor in this story, so maybe we won’t…

Once in a while, there’s so much going on at the OB Rag, that we just have to share.

ANONYMOUS DONOR BUYS NEW LAPTOP FOR OB RAG

The OB Rag had only been in its second day of fundraising for a new laptop, when the call came. The voice said, “We think we have a laptop for you,” and with that intro, one of our close supporters informed us that they were so impressed by what we’re doing and by the responses from our readers, that they were offering us $500 to get that laptop we’ve been talking about for months. Tears came to all our eyes, as we were so taken. On Memorial Day we met them at Fryes to see what they had to offer, and we ended up going online and buying a $500 ASUS. I’ve been using it all day and have posted three articles now with the new machine. We’ve been using a borrowed one, but now we can set up shop at the local coffeehouses and blog all day.

We love you guys! You anonymous donor(s).

ALL LINKS AND STORIES INSIDE

* Dianne Bell and Jim Grant sticky on OB Street Vendors?
* Sick Eagles Try to Sneak Onto Dog Beach
* Winstons Benefit for Local OB Bartender Tyson Green June 6th
* Arte Fresca Art Show to Feature Local Artists and Live Music on June 11th
* Dave Gilbert’s Rhythm Ranchers Play at Tio Leo’s June 4th
* OB Historical Society Features Derek Casady June 17th
* OB Street Fair and Chili Cook-off Coming June 26th
* Acupuncture Clinic to Hold Open House on June 5th
* OB Planning Board Project Review Committee Meets June 16th
* OB Town Council meeting June 23rd