Dec 10
Like Don Draper in Mad Men who capitalized on the cigarette disaster, a German ad agency has cleverly made hay out of people’s sense of being trapped in their jobs. Only 13 per cent of German workers felt happy in their jobs in the Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle). The Scholz & Friends ad agency in Berlin …
Dec 09
San Francisco Chamber Orchestra leader Ben Simon took classical music forward into the multimedia age this evening at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley. He led the Palo Alto (Youth) Chamber Orchestra in a performance of Beethoven’s Great Fugue accompanied by YouTube virtuoso Stephen Malinowski projecting a synchronized visual animation of the score. The effect …
Nov 27
Provide secular alternatives to 12-step treatment, or else! That’s the message of the Hazle v. Crofoot decision issued this fall by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. My analysis of the case appears this month in Counselor Connection, the online newsletter of Counselor Magazine. This goes out to addiction counselors nationwide, but whether many of …
Oct 10
The Berkeley Main Post Office has been officially listed as For Sale. See listing here. Also check out some of the other gorgeous legacy buildings shown on that site that are on the auction block — it’s sickening. Photographer Ken Osborn, a fellow member of the Berkeley Camera Club, has done an excellent job of …
Oct 05
I’ve written here previously about the smell of corruption arising from the cozy relationship between the Postmaster, the Richard Blum real estate octopus CBRE, and Sen. Feinstein, centering on the sale of historic US Post Office properties into private hands. Now comes investigative reporter Peter Byrne in a recent issue of the East Bay Express …
Oct 01
Andy Borowitz scores again with his satire, “Millions Flee Obamacare,” in the online edition of The New Yorker, here. Almost equally good is his prequel, “Boehner Advises Americans to Delay Getting Cancer for a Year,” here. Borowitz’s humor highlights the cynicism and contempt behind the right-wing Republican attack on Obamacare. These attacks are particularly …
Sep 27
Three cheers for Gayle McLaughlin, the mayor of neighboring Richmond, CA, the site of a leaky, creaky Chevron petroleum refinery. Last year she brought suit against Chevron on account of its failure to maintain the plant, which led to a huge fire that sent thousands to hospitals. This month she traveled to Ecuador to view …
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