The Society Page Yes, it’s another edition of the San Francisco Herald, now an online-only publication, trying desperately to relive its glory days as an actual newspaper found in cafes, bars, and restaurants all around the Bay Area. The Herald is back with the same staff it had in its (sort of) glory days: just a bunch of middle-aged people pathetically clinging to their hipster identities. We’re back together again, like a once-popular rock group whose members went off to solo (and unsuccessful) careers, then swallowed their pride and regrouped, even though they hated each others’ guts. And just as those bands found themselves playing dive bars instead of the big clubs they used to, we’re lost in cyberspace. Actually, that’s not entirely true. The Herald has returned as the world’s first green publication. If you look around the Bay Area you may see these 11”x17” black and white posters with the James Dylan-designed San Francisco Herald logo. The poster is divided into three columns: the first has event listings around the area, the second has a brief description of what’s on SanFranciscoHerald.Net, and the third one has classified-style advertising. So this is a new concept, unless you consider those old Soviet propaganda newspapers that were hung on walls around Moscow the true capitalist pioneers for this project. It seems to be off to a good start as I’ve sold some advertising for it. If you’re interested in dirt cheap advertising email me at sfherald@gmail.com. ********** I was in Cowabunga, this ice cream shop decorated with surfing memorabilia in San Carlos and heard an interesting alternative country-type band playing over the stereo. I asked the guy who owns the place who it was and he said they were a local band that recently performed there. They’re called The Cowlicks and if you want to check them out they’re at… http://www.thecowlicks.com/band_info.html ********** Speaking of bands, I recently received an email from someone I hadn’t spoken to in about 25 years. He was the son of this guy who lived down the block from me on Long Island. He was just a little kid when I knew him but he’s all grown now, and in a band just like his dad was. The band’s called Autodrone and remind me of Metric or Silversun Pickups (yes, I know it’s pathetic that a 46 year old man knows who those bands are.)The guy who emailed me, Terry Taylor, is the drummer and here they are if you want to investigate further… http://www.myspace.com/autodrone ********** I also made contact with another person I hadn’t seen in 25 years. In my senior year of high school I went to this television video production class called Nassau Tech (in Nassau County on Long Island, natch.) I became friends with this guy, and like me, he later did his time in Los Angeles trying (unsuccessfully) to “make it” in show biz. He’s in Seattle now making independent movies. His name is John Giaccone and in the link below you’ll find him playing Charlie the nerd in his flick titled “Beaver Fever”. While you’re there you can probably see his latest short titled “Talking Dogs” (which has the most mind-blowing psychedelic sequence since “Easy Rider”, or at least the “Blue Boy” episode of “Dragnet”.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7r4_e03Es4 ********** I’m going to wrap this column up with something serious. As I write this it’s the 33rd anniversary of the Jonestown massacre. Tom and Kathleen Kinsolving, the son and daughter of Lester Kinsolving, a journalist whose warnings about the Jim Jones cult were censored by the media in the 1970s, wrote a fascinating, and disturbing, article detailing the whole tragic story. When I was a 13 year old kid in New York and it happened I figured it was just some freaky religious cult in California that went amok. But the Kinsolvings expose how Jim Jones was embraced by high ranking San Francisco politicians as well as prominent religious and civic leaders. Highly recommended reading. The link after it is an audio tape of the “social justice” that went on in the Jones house of worship. If Jim Jones were alive today can you imagine how many of those Occupy movement protestors would be joining his Peoples Temple? http://www.rickross.com/reference/jonestown/jonestown43.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6-MXocwB54 ###
|
||
|
All contents © 2011 by Gene Mahoney |
