OB Rag

OCEAN BEACH, CA. Saturday, June 20th, was the first (for some) Great Graffiti Paint-out for Sunset Cliffs, marred by countless taggings. About twenty people showed up bright and early and proceeded to paint clean the entire stretch from Orchard north to the Pier. Special thanks go out to Ed Baer, Lou, and Jon Carr for making this happen. Cheers to you!

I am attempting to cover the situation in Iran this morning, Saturday, June 20th, using several live blogs – so you don’t have to. I’ll do this for the next couple of hours. The original plans of the opposition in Iran was to hold a rally at 4 pm their time. I’m referring to The New York Times’ The Lede, Huffington Post by Nico Pitney, and Andrew Sullivan of the Atlantic. My writings are in Pacific Daylight Time.

by Frank Gormlie

The next day in Iran is very critical. The country is at the breaking point. This morning in his prayer-speech, the chief cleric, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, came out swinging at the opposition movement that has been in the streets for the last week in support of their reform candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Saturday, June 20th – Time to put up or ….

There has been a lot of chatter on this board lately about the sad state of affairs along the cliffs. This Saturday morning is your chance to do something about it! We will meet at the foot of Orchard Street at 7am for a quick pow-wow and start painting at 7:30am.

by Frank Gormlie

The wonderful and warm community of Ocean Beach thrives on, even while it harbors scars of tagging, and while its business folk plan for the annual festival, the residents go about their days and lives with a harmony uncommon in this day and age of high-tech, high-rise and low markets.

The contentedness – yea, even bliss – of the seaside village’s people, can be traced to …

by Frank Gormlie

SUNSET CLIFFS, CA. Ah, the rites of Spring, the rites of passage. Jim Grant, local photographer best known for his amazing sunsets, sent us this pic of local kids doing the jump. Ah, to be young again.

In my youth, just a few moons ago, I did this jump a number of times. I even swam through the yucky seaweed to the cave, walked in a few yards and found the hidden stairs to the old locked door that leads to the secret passageway. It was used during Prohibition for booze runners. They hadn’t heard yet of the ‘no alcohol’ ban in San Diego parks.

TEHRAN, Iran – Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi issued a direct challenge Wednesday to the country’s supreme leader and cleric-led system, calling for a mass rally to protest disputed election results and violence against his followers.

A crackdown on dissent continued, with more arrests of opposition figures reported, and the country’s most powerful military force _ the Revolutionary Guard _ saying that Iranian Web sites and bloggers must remove any materials that “create tension” or face legal action

Robbie Kenner didn’t mean to make a horror film when he started working on Food, Inc.. But you can’t shine a light on our food chain without exposing some ugly truths. As Michael Pollan says in the opening of the film:

The way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than in the previous 10,000, but the image that’s used to sell the food…you go into the supermarket and you see pictures of farmers. The picket fence and the silo and the 1930s farmhouse and the green grass. The reality is, it’s not a farm, it’s a factory.

I cannot stop watching history unfolding rapidly in Iran these last couple of days. I have skimmed and searched through several reports and websites and offer below a compilation:

Today, Tuesday, June 16th, supporters of the reform candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, staged another massive rally in Tehran, the capital.

I remember the morning of September 11, 2001 well. I was sitting in a study hall at my high school in Teaneck, New Jersey, listening to a radio host announce that two planes had crashed into the World Trade Center. Three friends and I hopped in a car and sped down the Jersey Turnpike. We pulled over in the Vince Lombardi rest area just in time to watch the towers fall from across the Hudson River.

Could this be the beginning of the Second Iranian Revolution? Today, Monday, June 15th – 100,000, 200,000 or perhaps 1 million people mobilized in the streets of Tehran, the capital, in a show of support for the reformist candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, who allegedly lost the recent election for president.

Okay, this has been a heckuva interesting ride the last week or so and handful of articles – and very timely too, as I’ve been making similar observations of late. It seems like there’s a lively debate on where political and art-inspired graffiti fits into the general urban landscape.