Category: Media

Tomorrow morning I will be attending a webinar. Well, my brain will be attending, the rest of me will be where it always is in the morning, right here in my desk chair. The webinar has to do with “Search Engine Optimization” or SEO. Wikipedia says SEO is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results.

The webinar, or site clinic as they are calling it, will be hosted by some respected web ninjas. Among them is Chris Pearson, the founder of DIYThemes.com and the geek responsible for the Thesis Theme, the basis for the overall look of the OB Rag.

Late last week, the San Diego U-T published an article by reporter John Wilkins describing a “new” book out that he called “the answer” to the question why wasn’t there a noir book about San Diego. The book, “San Diego Noir”, (Akashic Books) edited by bookstore owner Maryelizabeth Hart, purports to describe San Diego’s underbelly – “a place of sometimes shocking crime and corruption.” As part of a “literary genre known as noir – that dark terrain of desire and desperation, of passion and paranoia ….” the anthology has a number of articles by both well-known and unknown writers.

Michael Franti of Spearhead is hands-down, bar-none my favorite musician alive, today or ever. Lately his music has been popping up on the radio, on TV in video game and Corona beer ads, and elsewhere in the public sphere, so you’re probably familiar with Franti and his band Spearhead’s reggae-funk-ska-hip-hop-world beat fusion, whether or not you know it. But were you aware of how deep his tracks really go?

See inside for the video.

The 17th annual “OB Exposed” is coming up real soon, in fact, on Friday, May 13th. The deadline to submit to this yearly OB Historical Society photo contest is coming up even faster – May 10th.
The annual event is a one-of-its-kind, and it will be held up at the Masonic Hall, 1711 Sunset Cliffs Blvd.

(Originally posted May 4, 2010)
I was sitting on my porch this afternoon pondering the meaning of Kent State. I had more tears last year when I wrote a post about it. Yet – here it is – the 40th anniversary. Kent State, hmmm, OB, hmmmm. Something was there.

And then I figured it out! I figured out how Ocean Beach is connected to the Kent State massacre of May 4th, 1970. Or vice versa.

I was in college when it happened. I was attending UCSD and in my senior-year when it all came down. I had been involved in the campus anti-Vietnam movement and was deeply affected by Kent State,

Editor: We received this request from Lorena Gonzalez, the Secretary-Treasurer/CEO of the San Diego & Imperial Counties Labor Council (known around here as “THE” Labor Council – we got no other in this huge county). Due to KGTV’s intransigence in negotiating a labor contract with one of its unions, the Labor Council is requesting that we do not watch or report Channel 10 news or programs. (Sorry Michael Chen.)

After watching the attacks on workers taking place across the country, it is time to stand up to the union busters in our own community. McGraw-Hill-owned KGTV Channel 10 refuses to negotiate a fair contract with employees for the fifth year. They have actively engaged in union-busting campaigns and employee intimidation.

Hello again! Thanks for following me last week with a departure guest entry, I hope it was as well-received as it was deserving. This week I’m going back to my own idea bin, and I’ve got a video that, even though you might not dig the music, provides an awesome slide show to check out.

Editor: Is it true? Is it true that because of Donald Trump’s racism, Superman has renounced his American citizenship? Or is he just tired of the questions about where his long form birth certificate is? Neither – for the Man of Steel has his other reasons.

Great Caesar’s ghost! The world’s most famous champion of truth, justice and the American way says he intends to renounce his US citizenship. Superman makes the shocking pronouncement in this week’s Action Comics No. 900.

I knew it was coming. I’d seen it on SignOnSanDiego yesterday, so I knew it had to show up in the print version of the San Diego U-T. And there it was, on page 2 of the Local Section:

“Faulconer backs effort to prevent library cuts”

The short piece by reporter Hailey Persinger, as you can read above, is about Councilmember Faulconer ‘partnering’ with two Ocean Beach groups, us – the OB Rag – described as “a neighborhood publication”, which we are, – and the Friends of the OB Library, in efforts to “spar[e] city libraries from drastic budget cuts.”

Jim Miller is a professor who practices what he teaches.

Each semester, Miller guides dozens of students through his English and Labor Studies classes at San Diego City College. He has played key roles in literary projects such as the school’s International Book Fair as well as the San Diego Writers Collective. He serves as a political action vice president and does community outreach for the American Federation of Teachers Local #1931.

And as if he wasn’t busy enough already, Miller also finds the time to crank out the occasional book.

For fear of overexposure, I’m hesitant to add an extra edition of this music thing. But I’ve gotten such a positive response, it’s tempting to make like Catherine Zeta-Jones in all those obnoxious T-Mobile commercials from the late ’00s and start throwing out more than one post every week or so. And you people that read me and watch my videos are coming up with some good suggestions that I don’t want to put on the back burner…and I don’t want to stop firing on all cylinders myself (at least not yet, because I’ve got a few months’ worth of ideas of my own). So with no further ado, I give you Green Day, a suggestion by the esteemed Andy Cohen.

Show your love of OB and your support for the OB Rag

With the help of a benevolent benefactor, we’ve just had a brand new batch of T-shirts – “The Green OB” – printed up by the James Gang, in a whole new style! These shirts have the OB Rag logo on the front and a big, Green OB on the back. We have new colors and also some in a more tailored cut for our uppity women friends!

We still have the “Classic OB Rag” style, with a plain back and the front proudly announcing our affinity for freaks and politicos, too.