OB Rag

It’s been two, baby
Two years since
You went away…

Yet it feels just like yesterday. And I still miss you like it was yesterday. But I’m getting better everyday. Now, I have to say, I still find myself shedding tears (tears that will be around forever, I’m thinking) but the deep intense bone and soul searing emotional pain that wore on me for so many months has faded away. I’m learning to be at ease with my sweet and precious memories of you, giving way to the poetry in the imagery that comes to me, like a click from your camera, to play on your photography.

After taking in a day at ComicCon as a passive observer — and then taking a day off to recuperate (and return to the work force) — I made a second trip to the San Diego Convention Center on Saturday for another round of the madness.

This time, my buddy Alan dressed as Marty McFly, the character Michael J. Fox played in Back to the Future. My wife Kirsten dressed as Jennifer, Marty’s girlfriend in the 1985 film. I donned a gray wig and white scrubs to play the role of Doc Brown, who was played by Christopher Lloyd in the movie.

• Ned Titlow’s Last Historical Walking Tour of Downtown Ocean Beach

Join other OBceans and Ned Titlow – one of OB’s long-time historians – in an historical walking tour down Newport Avenue and down memory land. This is probably Ted’s last tour, so you really should check this out. Ned always has some interesting and personal funny stories, and a lot of great OB historical information.

Bonus: The Hidden Garden will be opened in back for our group following the tour.

O.B. Historical Walk: Sat. July 23 at 10 AM

Meet at OB Library

• Book Sale by Friends of the OB Library

Saturday, July 23, please consider the OB alternative–our always fascinating Book Sale, from 10 am to 1 pm (Costumes optional). This is one of our annual book sales, come join us. OB Friends of the Library

SAN FRANCISCO — Inmates have ended a three-week hunger strike in the high-security Pelican Bay State Prison in Del Norte County to protest conditions in isolation units at the facility and what they said were oppressive gang-security measures by prison officials, California prison officials say.

Advocates for the prisoners said they got confirmation late Thursday from the inmates themselves. Meanwhile, some inmates in three other state prisons who were refusing to eat in solidarity with those in Pelican Bay were continuing their strike until they could also receive confirmation, state officials said.

ComicCon, like the Burning Man festival or a Nico’s beans-cheese-y-papas burrito, must be experienced to be fully appreciated. But at The OB Rag, we believe that vicarious enjoyment is important, too. So here are some pics from Thursday, the first day of a full weekend of ComicCon fun.

It went in about a year ago, another cheap souvenir shop on Newport Avenue. You probably walk by it at least once a week, Pacifica Fashion at 4949 Newport Avenue, between the Old Townhouse Restaurant and Margaritas. Out front stand a couple of lily white mannequins modeling Rastafarian head gear, a rack of $5 bikinis, and hanging from the front edifice are a number of cheap t-shirts referencing OB, surfing and weed. When it opened about a year ago, I thought to myself sarcastically, “Good another cheap tourist shop selling crap, just what OB needs.” Admittedly and disdainfully, I have never been inside.

Theodore Roszak, who three weeks after the Woodstock Festival in 1969 not only published a pivotal book about a young generation’s drug-fueled revolt against authority but also gave it a name — “counterculture” — died on July 5 at his home in Berkeley, Calif. He was 77.

His wife, Betty, in confirming the death, said he had been treated for liver cancer and other illnesses.

Dr. Roszak’s book “The Making of a Counter Culture: Reflections on the Technocratic Society” had gone to press months before the music festival was held in August that year, displaying the exuberance and excesses of a generation rebelling against war and seeking new ways to be and think. But in serendipitously timely fashion, the book provided what many regarded as a profound analysis of the youth movement, finding its roots in a sterile Western culture that had prompted young people to seek spiritual meaning in LSD, exotic religions and even comic books.

At the turn of the last century, as the robber barons’ first gilded age lingered on, many Californians came to regard one powerful enterprise as the symbol of oppressive avarice and of big money’s corrupt appropriation of the political process.

By Katrina vanden Heuvel / The Nation Magazine / July 20, 2011

With too much fanfare , the contours of a “grand bargain” on the budget have emerged with a proposal offered by the Senate’s Gang of Six. It’s a deal that looks a helluva lot more like a Raw Deal than a New Deal or a Fair Deal.

A rally and vigil will be held on Thursday, July 21, 2011, at the Hall of Justice in downtown San Diego in support of the hunger strikers in California prisons. The Hall of Justice is located at 220 W. Broadway San Diego, corner of Broadway and Front Street, and the vigil will go from 1pm till 8pm.

10News has reported that it has identified the person who hired the crane operator to remove the two memorial benches from the bluff at the end of Del Mar Avenue on July 8th.

The television station – the first to break the news of the theft of the benches – reported that Robert Bryson paid George Gonzalez to take out the benches. The station stated that Bryson wished to tell his side of the story but changed his mind when reporters with the station showed up at his OB home. The report did not indicate where Bryson lived.

But a simple internet search shows Bryson lives at 1605 Ocean Front Street, the lot just north of where the benches were located.

I am a political activist. Always have been, always will be. I am allowed to have voice in governance, and I exercise it, sometimes to the chagrin of my friends and colleagues…but it is my right and I will not be silent.

In a day and age of rapid and easy communication, we have an opportunity without leaving our barcalounger to let our representative know our opinions of political issues we deem important in our lives; electronic petitions, e-mails, and cheap long distance telephone rates. Enough from Captain Obvious on that subject.