Category: Culture

FIRE PITS ON OB PLANNING BOARD AGENDA – JAN. 6TH

New Church: “T’was the night before Christmas … and you’re fired!”

Stabbing Death of OB Homeless Man One of City’s Unsolved Murders of 2009

OB Historical Society Presents Local Photographer Steve Rowell in “Our Local Wildlife”

By Dwight Garner / The New York Times / December 29, 2009

Joel and Ethan Coen’s 1998 movie, “The Big Lebowski,” which stars Jeff Bridges as a beatific, pot-smoking, bowling-obsessed slacker known as the Dude, snuck up on the English-speaking world during the ’00s: it became, stealthily, the decade’s most venerated cult film. It’s got that elusive and addictive quality that a great midnight movie has to have: it blissfully widens and expands in your mind upon repeat viewings.

“The Big Lebowski” has spawned its own shaggy, fervid world: drinking games, Halloween costumes, bumper stickers (“This aggression will not stand, man”) and a drunken annual festival that took root in Louisville, Ky., and has spread to other cities.

* OB’s Tsunami Signs Merit a Union-Tribune Quote from the OB Rag
* Pagan Trees to Robb Field
* OB Christmas Tree Comes Down for Recycling on Dec 29th
* OB Parade Committee Email Hi-Jacked!
* Up to 30 Suspected Illegal Immigrants Run from Boat in OB

* Councilmember Faulconer Proposes ‘Sponsors’ for Lifeguard Training and Equipment
* New York Times to Pick Up OB’s “Adopt-A-Fire-Pit” Story
* Local Wonderland San Diego Producer Noah Tafolla Gets Props
* OBMA’s Winners of the Holiday Storefront Decorating Contest
* Sparks Fly – Duplex Burns on Niagara in OB
* Donations Gathered for the Pets of the Homeless
* Don’t forget OB Historical Society’s Meet with Local Photographer Steve Rowell

It’s often assumed that the atheist position on what is politely termed “the holiday season” is one of disregard at best, contempt and annoyance at worst. After all, the reasons for most of the standard winter holidays are supposedly religious — the birth of the Savior, eight days of miraculous light, yada yada yada. Why would atheists want anything to do with that?

But atheists’ reactions to the holidays are wildly varied. Yes, some atheists despise them: the enforced jollity, the shameless twisting of genuine human emotion to sell useless consumer crap, the tyrannical forcing of mawkish piety down everyone’s throats. (Some believers loathe the holidays for the exact same reasons.) But some of us love the holidays.

The other day, as I pondered the words, “Two aging hippies live here,” the greeting on the welcome mat at the front door of my home, I thought about how lucky I am to have had Nancy in my life for so long.

I wondered how we ever got together. I mean Nancy was raised in Pacific Palisades, in L.A., overlooking the mighty Pacific, across a canyon from Grace Kelly, Walter Matthau and Betty Davis, just to name a few.

By: Jon Carr and Tanya Joy Brueckner

Ocean Beach is a community well known, and highly regarded for supporting our local merchants. Our “mom & pop shops” have arguably been the backbone of this great village for decades. Obceans take great pride in our local storefronts, and go to great lengths to protect our shores from large corporate interests. It is in my opinion that the single most effective way to preserve our community, keep local businesses thriving and stave off corporate influence, is by shopping local whenever possible.

Jonesborough resident Jim Stevens admits he’s not a particularly religious person, but even he is awed by what he has seen nearly every morning for the last couple of weeks on the driver’s side window of his Isuzu pickup truck.

It was two weeks ago today that an image, resembling the face of Jesus, made its first appearance on the window.

NEW UPDATE UPDATE: The clean-up being planned for this Sunday, Nov. 8th has BEEN CANCELED. Dr. Ehmann has sent word that he does not want anyone coming by his house this Sunday. Watch this blog for future details.
THE PENINSULA, CA. The people and resources that were mobilized to help elderly Point Loman Robert Ehmann now need help. And the help is needed immediately.

Ehmann is the 84-year old Orchard resident of Point Loma whose medical and physical conditions …

By Javier Morales / WILDABOUTAZCATS.COM

The single-game scoring record of 46 points set by Ernie McCray happened well before anybody affiliated with the present University of Arizona basketball team was alive … The accomplishment on Feb. 6, 1960, also occurred before any of the future NBA players Lute Olson showcased were born.

[Editor: for UA or basketball fans, go to the link inside for more details.}

OCEAN BEACH, CA.  Despite its cancellation due to high surf, the 2009 Clean Water Paddle sponsored by the Surfrider Foundation…

by Mary E Mann

“All this shit – the benches, the trail, the signs – none of it matters if we don’t stop the erosion of the cliffs.”

This is Richard Aguirre’s main message, filtered through a long discussion of erosion, geology, politics, surf culture, and safety hazards.

Editor: We just heard that 94-year-old Pete Seeger has just passed away. When Pete hit 90, we shared the following review of his project by Richard Flacks, a retired UC Santa Barbara professor who has long written about US culture.

BY Dick Flacks

[When] Pete Seeger turned 90 on May 3, 2009, it provided the occasion for a huge Madison Square Garden celebratory concert, featuring a wide array of popular musicians singing his songs and honoring his influence. In the years prior to this event, Pete has gotten more mainstream attention than he’d received in the previous 70 years of performing. Springsteen’s recorded several CD’s called ‘The Seeger Sessions’ and simultaneously went on an international tour featuring material drawn from Seeger’s folksong repertory. There was a documentary film bio, released on public tv and theatrically, called Pete Seeger :The power of song. There’s an ongoing campaign to get him nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.