The Undercurrent by Carlos Fierro

- The Undercurrent -

A few years back, Fresno celebrated its 150th anniversary. I guess it is more than a few years back now, but, in any case, there was a lot of talk about covered wagons, homesteading, and turning this lifeless desert into a lush agricultural hub. Kids were invited to go on wagon rides, schools got in on the act and provided hands-on exhibits, and lessons were based upon the festivities. The earliest settler establishment went up where the foothills meet the valley floor along the San Joaquin River, Millerton. Here’s where the official history/lore of the Central Valley gets bogged down with confusing and contradictory tales. The town of Millerton pulled up stakes and moved southeast to what is now Fresno. The reason for the move was the awesome power of the San Joaquin. On Christmas Eve, 1867, the San Joaquin overflowed its banks and washed out the town of Millerton. Mind you, this wasn’t the seasonal flooding that would occur in the Spring and Summer as the snow in the Sierras would melt off: this was a winter flood. The San Joaquin River was once the second longest river in California, traveling from the high Sierras to the Bay. Not only did it span that distance, but so mighty a river it was that it allowed navigable steamboat travel from the Bay to Millerton. And all along its route it spawned life, wetland and grassland, mule, deer, elk, grizzly, and all number of fowl. Salmon from the Pacific ran the 330mile course from the Bay to the spawning grounds along the Sierras. The reach of the river went far beyond its banks. Along with its mighty sister the Kings River, it created a valley lush with fauna and flora. It wasn’t that white settlers brought the valley to life; truer to fact, white settlers brought the desert to what was once a valley of overabundant life. The tales we tell. Official lore tells us that the first Europeans also brought with them culture to what was a cultural wasteland. Sure, there were people here before European settlers, but there were supposedly no preexisting cultures. To this day, you can still see the remnants of those 2

not so noble “savages.” Spend any time along the streams of the Sierra Nevada and you will see mortars worn into granite slabs and boulders. But, these were certainly not the mound builders of the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys. Nor were they the cliff dwellers of Arizona that built magnificent structure in places like Canyon de Chelly. We are told that the California native population lived a most meager and unremarkable existence. Michael I Black Bull challenges these tales, these illusions of grandeur that early settlers told themselves, that we still tell ourselves. Michael tells the story of indigenous Californian cultures—a counter narrative, a counter history, if you will. That is what we bring you this month: an issue devoted to the history of the Central Valley, counter though it may be. Along those lines, Matt Espinoza Watson brings us a fascinating article concerning the “mythical” figure of Joaquín Murrieta. For so long, Joaquín Murrieta has held a place of lore in California history—semi-mythical, perhaps real, maybe an amalgam of different figures and legends. Know as much for his death, and his executioner, as for his life, Murrieta was a hero to some, villain to others, and a fiction to many. Matt brings the fiction to real life, as The Undercurrent publishes a never before seen photograph of Joaquín Murrieta. Following this theme of forgotten or never told histories, Paul Gilmore tells the story of radical history, and the history of radicals in the Central Valley. From the little commune that could, to the Karl Marx Tree, to the IWW’s historic fight for free speech that brought the City of Fresno to its knees. Fresno’s reactionary present was anything but a forgone conclusion. The natural history of the Valley is perhaps the most mistold tale. As much as it fits into the tale of manifest destiny and the white man’s burden, it simply doesn’t meet muster. Jason Gonzales tells the story of Tulare Lake, the largest freshwater lake west of the Great Lakes, and the largest US lake to exist wholly within the borders of

the US. The natural history of the Valley is very different than the one we learned in elementary school. The history of the great men who brought the Valley to life—the Easterbys, the Churches, and the Kearneys—takes on a different hue when one considers what was destroyed in the making of this Valley. I’ve said so before, but it bears repeating, The Undercurrent is nothing if not for its writers. To that end, we are happy to introduce two new columns to The Undercurrent. First, in our Science/Health/Environment section, we introduce “Cultivating Consciousness,” a guide through the pitfalls of parenting in a world that is decidedly negligent when it comes to concerns for the wellbeing of children. This new column is being driven by a trio of writers that will take turns at the helm. Jason and Step Gonzales will share duties with Gena Kirby. Even if you’re not a parent, or your parenting days are long since gone, this column will be well worth your read. We would also like to welcome Ángel Ricardo Martínez and his new column “Latin America Files” to the pages of The Undercurrent. Ricardo is the America’s desk editor for the Panamanian daily La Estrella. As a sign of crossborder relations, Ricardo and I will be trading articles for our respective papers, and The Undercurrent is better for it. Because of the unusually dire situation in Gaza, Ricardo christens his inaugural column with an article on Gaza. This is not completely random; Lain America and Palestine share a long history of solidarity. In the future, Ricardo’s column will deal with the happenings in Latin America. There is more to say, but sadly I’m out of space. It will be a few months before I join you again in this section. As we did last year around this time, the other editors will be penning this column in the lead up to our third birthday. With that, I bid you adieu. That all for now, more later…

February 2009

Volume 3

Issue 8

Editorial Board Carlos Fierro Editor editor@fresnoundercurrent.net Jessi Hafer Associate Editor jessi@fresnoundercurrent.net

Matt Espinoza Watson Associate Editor mattw@fresnoundercurrent.net Abid Yahya Associate Editor abid@fresnoundercurrent.net Staff Writers Vahram Antonian

Contributors: Michael I Black Bull Jerry Buttles Vince Corsaro Ashley Fairburn Nate Fornicate Paul Gilmore Jason Gonzales Huma Gupta Steven J Ingeman Gena Kirby Ángel Ricardo Martínez Devoya Mayo Tracy Newel Nicholas Nocketback Kenneth Righ PhD H Peter Steeves PhD Ed Stewart Adam Wall For advertising inquiries, please email ads@fresnoundercurrent.net For letters to the editor, please email letters@fresnoundercurrent.net For submission information, please email submissions@fresnoundercurrent.net For subscription information: FresnoUndercurrent.net or send check for $35 to “The Undercurrent” P.O. Box 4857, Fresno, CA 93744 ©2009 Out of respect for our contributors, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the permission of the Editor-in-Chief.

- The Undercurrent -

Eats & Drinks

Pizza Fusion by Jessi Hafer

Taste—Epicurean Adventures in Fresno The Milky Way by Tracy Newel

FILM REVIEW SCIENCE, HEALTH, & ENVIRONMENT Profits Over Children: a formula for disaster 4 by Gena Kirby 5

Cultivating Consciousness: an introduction to a life of radical parenting by Jason Gonzales

STATE, NATIONAL, INTERNATIONAL 6 8 8 10

Gaza Voices, American Silence by Kenneth Ring

Latin America Files: Israel and its descent into barbarism by Ángel Ricardo Martínez The Palestine Report by Abid Yahya

AfterWords by Jessi Hafer & Abid Yahya

LABOR & ECONOMICS 11

SEIU Launches Takeover of UHW West by Mark Brenner

FEATURED TOPIC: A HISTORY OF THE CENTRAL VALLEY 12 13 14 15

Beyond Casinos: Indigenous Reality in California by Michael I Black Bull

The Legend of Joaquín Murrieta, & the Professor Who Uncovered the Real Story...

by Matt Espinoza Watson

The Past You Don’t Know May Help You by Paul Gilmore

Remembering Tulare Lake by Jason Gonzales

CALENDAR 16 UnderCurrentEvents Calendar 18

The Undercurrent’s indie PREVIEW

PLUGS & PROFILES 19 19 21 21 21

VDAY: Until the Violence Stops by Ashley Fairburn

Celebrate Black Friday with Aesop & Swamp by Abid Yahya Black Light Poetry by Abid Yahya

Artists’ Repertory Theatre: Rabbit Hole and Beyond by Jessi Hafer

Poetry on the radio by Matt Espinoza Watson

MUSIC [RE]VIEWS 22

Q-Tip by Devoya Mayo

BOOK REVIEW 23

Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found by Huma Gupta

About the Cover 24 “Sky High” by Jerry Buttles

The Wrestler Nicholas Nocketback

BORED? GAMES! 27

Quiddler & Set by Jessi Hafer

PUZZLE PAGE 28 28 28

The Dictionary Game by Carlos Fierro

Misfortune Cookies by Nicholas Nocketback

Undercurrent Sudoku by Jessi Hafer

COLUMNS 29

The View Looks Good From Here, Fresno by Adam & Ed Dear Nocketback by Nicholas Nocketback

29 POETRY 30

Three Poems by Nate Fornicate

Look for our special Rogue issue next month!

Profits Over Children: a formula for disaster - The Undercurrent -

by Gena Kirby

In my work, I read a lot of parenting magazines. In just about every issue I find an article about formula versus breastmilk. It’s generally presented to women that breastfeeding is a choice, like deciding which sweater to wear on a blustery day, in spite of the fact the AAP, American Academy of Pediatrics, explicitly states that “encouraging breast-feeding among parents is as important to preventive pediatric health care as promoting immunizations, car seat use, and proper infant sleep position.” Now, before you decide that this article does not pertain to you, I implore you to read on and see how a women’s choice to not breastfeed not only affects the health of her child, but your pocketbook, and your environment as well. I intend to illustrate how compassionate, thinking individuals can no longer stand by quietly and let large corporations deceive and confuse parents into giving their children what’s considered fourth best by the World Health Organization (WHO), and also tell you what we can do to make a difference. According to a 2001 USDA report, “A minimum of $3.6 billion would be saved if breastfeeding were increased from current levels (64 percent in-hospital, 29 percent at 6 months) to those recommended by the U.S. Surgeon General (75 and 50 percent).” How could that much money possibly be saved just by nursing a baby? In order to understand

this, you must first understand the The sewage from dairy cows and ferhealth risks to children who are fed tilizers used to grow feed for cows artificial milk. pollutes rivers and ground waters. The slogan “breast is best” is 4. The production of artificial no exaggeration. Breastmilk contains baby milk, baby bottles, nipples and 400 nutrients that cannot be recreated other bottle-feeding accessories in a laboratory, and several studies require a great amount of energy suggest that breastfeeding reduces the worldwide. Not to mention it takes risk of sudden infant death syndrome. vast amounts of water used to clean Not breastfeeding has been linked to used bottles on a daily basis. an increased risk of hospitalization, 5. The transportation of the childhood cancer, diarrheal diseases, raw materials for the manufacturing of lower respiratory illformula and ness, ear infections, "The levels were so low ... that they the transportabacterial infections, tion to and do not cause a health risk to diabetes, infant botufrom the store infants. Parents using infant formu- use up prelism Crohn’s disease, la should continue using U.S.-man- cious fuel and ulcerative colitis, and ufactured infant formula. Switching create CO2 even cavities. It’s not just away from one of these infant for- emissions. children who benefit mulas to alternate diets or home6. from breastfeeding. Breastfeeding made formulas could result in Nursing mothers enjoy infants not receiving the complete is a natural a reduced risk of prenutrition required for proper growth birth control. menopausal cancer, Women who and development." ovarian cancer, are exclusively rheumatoid arthritis ~Dr. Stephen Sundlof, FDA's breastfeeding and osteoporosis. director of food safety, responding for the first six Breastfeeding is advanto the FDA’s new saftey standards months after tageous for people who for acceptable levels of melamine, childbirth have are outside the mothera toxic chemical found in a less than one baby unit, when you infant formulas. percent chance consider healthier of getting babies mean lower health insurance pregnant. This helps to control the premiums for everyone, and lower world’s population. absenteeism among working parents. 7. Mothers who exclusively Increased rates of breastfeeding would breastfeed have their menstruation decrease costs for public health prodelayed, saving on huge amounts of grams such as the Special paper used in sanitary products. The Supplemental Nutrition Program for nursing baby uses breast milk effiWomen, Infants and Children (WIC). ciently and therefore uses fewer diaChoosing formula over pers. Producing diapers, tampons and breastfeeding also impacts our envipads requires fibers, bleaches, packagronment on many different levels. ing, and fuel used in the manufacturConsider the following: ing and distribution, especially if cloth 1. The fabrication of artificial alternatives are not used. baby milk is an inefficient use of land. Each cow used to produce baby forFinally, breastmilk is also free and mula needs 10,000 square meters of convenient. Something new families land, which leads to deforestation and should consider when faced with paysoil erosion. ing a minimum average yearly cost of 2. The manufacturing of $800 per baby if they choose to give packaging for artificial baby milk cre- their baby artificial milk. I spoke ates toxins and uses paper, plastic and with Lisa Gartin, RN and Lactation tin. For every 3 million bottle-fed Counselor here in Fresno, and she said babies, 450 million tin cans of formula formula companies have a unique sysare consumed. The metal in the tin tem. Formula companies are largely cans is not recyclable. owned by pharmaceutical companies, 3. The manufacturing of arti- and formula keeps kids from being as ficial baby milk contaminates water. healthy as they could otherwise be, so

when these children become ill, they will need other products made by said companies. For example, Abbott Laboratories, aside from making Similac and Isomil, also produces Pediasure, an oral rehydrating solution for infants and young children with diarrheal disease. The company also produces antibiotics widely used to treat infant infections, as well as products for diabetics. So, not only are they manufacturing a product, but that product helps to create a customer base, assured to bring in more business. Speaking of business, the formula industry generates $6$7billion in sales each year, and its executives reap huge profits. The CEO of BristolMyers Squibb (makers of Enfamil) earns more than $13 million per year, and the CEO of Abbott Labs earns more than $4 million. Part of the reason the industry is so profitable is the fact that every dollar formula makers charge their retail distribution outlets costs them 16 cents on production and delivery. This is big business, and the formula companies don’t stop at ad campaigns in parenting magazines. The entire last season of “Chicago Hope” was sponsored by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), whose membership is made up of pharmaceutical companies, including those that manufacture and market infant formula. According to a PhRMA press release, sponsorship of “Chicago Hope” was part of a collaborative effort between Johns Hopkins Medicine, PhRMA, CBS Television stations and 20th Century Fox, “to relate to viewers on medical concerns at a

Continued next page...

- The Undercurrent -

Formula continued...

time when their awareness is heightened on such issues.” PR Newswire reported in September 1998 that the PhRMA-sponsored episodes would “educate viewers” on “issues such as ... the risks associated with breast-feeding.” The episode was entitled “The Breast and the Brightest,” and the plot revolved around the death of a breastfed infant due to malnutrition. Woven throughout the episode were inaccurate statements regarding the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) and breastfeeding in general. What can ordinary people do in the face of billion dollar lobbies? To quote The National Alliance for Breastfeeding Advocacy, “You may think that if you have never lobbied for any issue, your efforts will go unnoticed. However, the power of ‘one’ is strong and when one determined individual networks with others championing similar agendas, change happens.” I recommend going to naba-breastfeeding.org, there you can find out more about how to become an advocate for change. For more in depth information go to La Leche Leagues website, llli.org, or breastfeeding.com. An entertaining and insightful blog is thelactivist.blogspot.com. ______ Gena Kirby is a wife, mother of two children (with one on the way), Doula, Childbirth Educator and creator of mommymattersonline.com, a website for new parents. She is the creator and host of the radio show Progressive Parenting, which airs every Thursday at 1pm on KFCF, 88.1 FM. She is turning the show into a live-streaming-video format, with the hopes of creating a television show. Her goal for mommymattersonline.com is to educate parents about gentle birth, share information regarding health and nutrition and to share the joys of parenthood with families using the principles of Attachment Parenting. If you have questions or ideas for her show, she can be reached at progressiveparenting@kfcf.org.

take prenatal vitamins, it may be difficult to find animal free options. If you have decided you want a natural childbirth instead of typical hospital birth (which can include unnecessary medication, interventions, and can possibly damage your body and An introduction to a life different ideas about what it your baby by treating your means to be a family or a parof radical parenting birth as a dangerous emerent, and recognizing this and gency), it can be difficult to being open to new ideas is a If you ask a guy like me if find options in a place like crucial step for communities there is hope for the future of Fresno, and your insurance looking to develop more nurour planet, the answer comes may not even allow you a turing and healthy habits. This easily; no, absolutely not. choice. column will always remain However, I believe the one Even if you were open and interested in the thing that can give us hope is already aware of your environideas of non-“nuclear” famiour children…if we can raise ment, you will start to learn lies, whether that means 2 them to make a positive even more about just how dads with kids, single transimpact on the world. Unless toxic today’s world is; everygender mothers, or stay-atwe change the way we bring thing from food, to diapers, to up the children in our commu- home papas of 2 (like me!). beds, to children’s toys seem nities, we can affect no change We also recognize that not to be dangerous to your child, having kids does not make a in the world. The goal of this as well as the earth itself. family less of a family. The column is to show we can— Speaking of diapers, time to intent of this column will be to and hopefully will—improve learn about cloth diapers and focus on the issues that arise the world by raising our chilother options that are less when raising children in dren well. damaging than the usual today’s world, and we include Greetings, and welchoice! Once the baby comes, family and the community of come to Cultivating you immediately get to battle Consciousness. This column is our children, as we all play a with the bottle and formula role in their upbringing. about the families in Fresno images that industries have Everybody knows who consider themselves radiforced onto America so that cal, progressive, or who don’t that raising kids and having a you can breastfeed. If you are label themselves at all. It is for family is difficult. It is impor- in a hospital and experienced tant for our community to start those who realize that mainany complications, they may understanding the increasing stream media, as well as our try to make this difficult for culture of materialism, wealth difficulties that come up for you. If you have managed to accumulation, and control are those of us who make the find one of the few opennot productive to raising chil- decision to be conscious parminded pediatricians out there, ents and pay attention to the dren or living life in general. you still may have a battle on Let’s make it clear at way our society and environyour hands if you decide not ment affect our families. the very onset of this column to vaccinate. Even if your The challenges begin that we will throw many tradipediatrician is helpful with tional ideas of the word family as soon as you find out there’s this, don’t worry; everyone a baby on the way. If you are out the window, and will be else will still question you, careful in making assumptions vegetarian or vegan, and you including daycares, schools, have decided to see a doctor, about what a family is. Many other parents, your own famiyour physician may question different people have many ly, future doctors, and someyour health. If you decide to

times even child protective services. We have a community that treats children like problems to be dealt with and controlled. In public, I often find disappointment with the way the community interacts with my family, whether it be an expectation that my kids keep quiet and still (seen and not heard), or the constant exposure to gender coding, materialism, pop-culture, and hostility toward one another. Looking forward to the first day of school? You may not be once you start looking into what the American education system is doing to, and not doing for, our kids. This list goes on and on, but it’s not all bad. While it can be difficult in a town like this to find like-minded folks, let alone like-minded folks with kids, they are out there, and they will be a great help, and the joys and satisfactions of having children always outweigh challenges. The point of giving this (not nearly exhaustive) rant of a list is to give you readers a hint towards the types of material you can expect to see coming in future months. Don’t worry, we won’t always focus on the negative, and we will keep you informed of any wonderful family friendly events going on in town, as well as relevant current issues. We will talk about the Fresno parks system, and maybe highlight some of the awesome people impacting Fresno families in a positive way. Never hesitate to shoot questions, comments, or suggestions our way, because we won’t hesitate either. See you all next month with our first article! ______ Jason Gonzalez is usually a stay at home dad to 2 yr old Oli and 6 month old Aiyana. The family is currently hiding in the woods, but can be reached at fresnoalamo@hotmail.com. 5

- The Undercurrent -

Gaza Voices, American Silence December 24, 2008

by Kenneth Ring

[Editor’s note: This article was written three days prior to the beginning of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.]

The baby is crying again. You wake up. Cold. There is no electricity in the house; it went off during the night. For the last week—weeks, months—it has been on only sporadically. You throw on a coat and go to check on the baby. It seems listless. There is no milk in the house, and very little food. The UN shipments have stopped again, and you are not sure when they will resume. In the other room, you hear your husband coughing. He has been sick for weeks and lately he has been spitting up blood. He has tried to get permission to get to a hospital in Israel, but he has been denied permission to leave every time. You go outside to see if a neighbor can give you any milk. The first thing that hits you is the stench. The garbage has not been collected for weeks, and the sewage problem, because of the recent rains, has become even worse. No wonder so many people are sick. You are living in a cesspool. And you, and everyone else, are trapped inside this prison

because the borders are sealed. This has been going on now for a year and half, and there is no telling when it will be over. And with the end of the truce, such as it was, there is a renewed threat of violence from the Israelis. Even now, you see an Israeli drone overhead and know that a missile could be launched from it at any time. This is ordinary life these days in Gaza, the thin strip of land along the southern Mediterranean coast, 25 miles long and 6 miles wide at its maximum, into which about one and half million inhabitants, most of them originally refugees, are packed. Gaza has one of the highest population densities in the world, and most of its population, about 56%, is 16 or younger. Many are malnourished—some estimates put the figure as high as 75%. According to a recent study cited by the noted author, Chris Hedges, 46% of Gazan children are afflicted with acute anemia, and 30% suffer from stunted growth as a result of chronic malnutrition. About a tenth of these children have permanent brain damage. Eightytwo percent are afflicted with post-traumatic stress disorder; the great majority of them have witnessed death first-hand. Eighty percent of the population as a whole is dependent on food aid.

Unemployment is rampant— upwards of 60%. Most Gazans subsist on less than $2 a day. According to Andrea Becker in an article entitled “The Slow Death of Gaza,” the effects of the siege, which has been imposed on Gaza by Israel ever since Hamas took control of this territory in June 2007, have been devastating, and the situation is, if anything, only growing worse. Many on-the-spot observers and prominent international spokesmen have not hesitated to call Israel’s actions genocidal both in intent and effect. The U.N. special rapporteur for human rights in the Occupied Territories, Richard Falk, for example, has condemned the Israeli siege of Gaza as “a crime against humanity” and “a prelude to genocide.” It’s easy to understand why when you read such reports as Becker’s, where she recounts the various forms of misery and deprivation from which Gazans suffer daily: In practice, Israel's blockade means the denial of a broad range of items—food, industrial, educational, medical— deemed ‘non-essential’ for a population largely unable to be selfsufficient at the end of decades of occupation. It means that industrial, cooking and diesel fuel, normally scarce, are virtually absent now. There are no queues at

Iraq Casualty total US

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US soldiers killed in Jan 09

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US sol- 1,033,000+ diers Iraqis Dead wounded (May 2003 - August 2007)

Iraq report is e in Jan d dead 09

petrol stations; they are simply shut. The lack of fuel in turn means that sewage and treatment stations cannot function properly, resulting in decreased potable water and tens of millions of litres of untreated or partly treated sewage being dumped into the sea every day. Electricity cuts—previously around eight hours a day, now up to 16 hours a day in many areas - affect all homes and hospitals. Those lucky enough to have generators struggle to find the fuel to make them work, or spare parts to repair them when they break from overuse. Even candles are running out. Articles such as Becker’s are easily found on the internet and even occasionally in the American press; there is no dearth of damning statistics that can be cited to illustrate the immensity of the problems Gazans face in coping with the challenges of this siege, seemingly without end. But my purpose here is not merely to provide another such recitation of numbers, percentages and other quantitative indices of this situation. Instead, I would merely like to present to you some voices from Gaza that speak directly of what their own lives are like and how they have come to feel as this siege continues. The people whose stories I will cite are friends of mine— though I have never met them. Although I spent most of November in Palestine myself, I was never able to get into Gaza since the walls of a prison exclude visitors as well as those who are incarcerated. Nonetheless, they have become friends of mine through correspondence, and all of them will be contributing to a book I’m writing about life under the occupation. Here, however, I will just let them speak for themselves, quoting from the letters they have sent or otherwise made available to me. One man, a professor, writing about the siege, sent me

this summary several months ago, although conditions have not really changed significantly from the time of his letter: Sorry to disappoint you and tell you that Israel, in fact, is still preventing us from having fuel. They only allowed the only electricity station we have here to have some industrial diesel. But that was not enough at all. I spent the whole night in total darkness. ??The severe shortages in fuel have affected our teaching program. Our students and lecturers cannot attend their classes. Yesterday, I had only three students out of 80! Those who can walk long distances try their luck. But yesterday we had a heat wave and many of those who tried to walk to school had dehydration. Mind you that most of our students already suffer from malnutrition. To add insult to injury, UNRWA has halted all its activities yesterday, for the first time in 60 years. 80 per cent of Gazans depend on food handouts provided by UNRWA. So you can imagine the situation now.?Israel's continued tightened siege on the Gaza Strip has a catastrophic effect on all of us here. In addition to the chronic shortages of fuel, we also have shortages in medicine and some basic food stuffs. The situation is simply disastrous. I've just heard that patient number 138 has passed away. He is one of thousands of terminally ill patients who need urgent treatment outside Gaza, in Israeli, Jordanian, Egyptian, or even West Bank hospitals, but Israel is refusing to give them the necessary permits. Two days ago I visited Al-Shifa hospital and was told that almost all major surgical operations have been suspended due to regular power cuts and the absence of fuel to run their generator!??In addition to the dangerous shortage of electricity that threatens the lives of critically ill patients in all of

Voices continued next page...

- The Undercurrent -

Voices continued...

operational either because of the high gas price, Gaza's hospitals, and the chronic that's when gas is shortages of petrol and diesel and even available. gas for domestic use, we are also But also because suffering widespread shortages of most people are bread, due to lack of electricity to saving their gas run the ovens at bakeries across for cooking food, Gaza. rather than using Another friend, this one a it for heaters, college student, who wrote me especially with a only two weeks ago, after alluding possible invasion to similar conditions that were coming in two affecting her personally, summed weeks and the up her feelings in this way: possible cutoff of My dear, I don’t want to gas. I feel for break your heart with the awful people without news of the late Gaza, peace be access to heat. I upon that place of earth. I am also feel for peosure you follow the news wherever ple like my aunt available, yet media cannot and whose house was An old man in Gaza after the rains. will never be able to honestly demolished and is describe the truth of our reality. living in a halfhopelessness and the crippling People here have reached a point built house with no windows that feeling of helplessness. And so my in which they feel as if they are UNRWA stopped building because uncle, my cousin and my aunt's isolated from the rest of the world they ran out of cement and other husband lie in a hospital, waiting (which they are). I have personbuilding materials. It's the begin- for their permits, and none of us ally heard some saying: “This is ning of the winter. It's only going can do a thing other than pray or not a life, we are dead, we have to get colder. I also can't help but chase around people who may been for a long time, but we are think of Gaza's sick and know someone who knows somelying to ourselves, saying that we dying….in their frailty, lying there one who can help us with a perare alive, we're just some moving helpless…wishing…hoping…pray- mit. But we know full well how dead people.” ? ing that by God's mercy they real death is, and that most just Believe me, it is worse would be allowed a permit to die while waiting. And then a than that, but there are still many leave Gaza, or by some sort of human rights organization issues people who truly believe that the miracle someone will save them. a statement, yet again, another salvation is very close. I am not But most are denied access..…and Palestinian dies because they sure which one of them I am…. most die a slow agonizing death, were denied access to medical And, finally, a letter that and only then are their bodies care. And their only crime was was written a year ago showing free. And the world reads about being born Palestinian in Gaza that even then, only five months it, but it’s just another story, and falling ill. Nowhere else will into the siege, the situation was another one of Gaza's tragedies. you see this but in Gaza. And no just as grim as today and the feelBut I wish the world would realize place else will the world remain ings of hopelessness and abandonhow real this is and how real silent at the obscenity of Israel's ment fully as pronounced. As these sick people are. Some of inhumane acts, except in Gaza. you’ll see, this woman’s remarks these sick patients are my uncle It's hard to not feel like we're in a foreshadow and articulate even who has heart disease, or my little large concentration camp as I see more powerfully the same senticousin with a tumor, and now Gaza's empty streets, and the ments my college student friend unfortunately my aunt's husband, hopeless feeling in the air…and expressed in her recent letter. who one day was walking and the just the gloominess that has covI'm sorry for not being in next day woke up crippled from a ered Gaza. I think most people touch and for not writing sooner, brain tumor. And when you see feel abandoned as we are literally but words are failing me, and I people you care about so sick and locked up in this small, concencannot articulate what Gaza feels unable to leave Gaza, you first get trated space and we don't know like right now. A hopeless prison angry for having such shitty luck, what the world plans for us, or with a dark gloomy cloud over it. and for the injustice of the what to expect next. It's hard to It's been raining for three days world….the type of anger that imagine what being in Gaza does now and it’s starting to get cold. turns into fury and consumes you, to someone's will until you've Unfortunately with rainstorms until it becomes exhausting. You come here. You no longer feel come power outages, so that then resign yourself to the reality alive, in fact, you're not living; means there is no water or elecof Gaza's fate…which finally sinks you're just killing time until some tric heaters. Gas heaters are not in. But with that reality comes

world—look at Darfur, the Congo, Kenya, India, etc., etc.” True enough, but Americans must remember this: It is our unremitting financial support of Israel, amounting to about 3 billion dollars every year, making it the recipient of more of our foreign aid than any other country, that makes this siege possible.* We are paying for all those planes and missiles, for all those bulldozers that demolish the houses of Gazans (and other Palestinians), and for the salaries for all those guards who are keeping the Gazan people locked up in their fetid open-air prison. Yes, these are our tax dollars at work. Do you really want to continue to see them spent in this way? If not, then please, as the Obama adminphoto by Kenneth Ring istration is about to take office, write to the incoming president, to sort of change happens. Sadly, your senators and congressmen, Gaza has become desensitized to and even to the government offithe rest of the world, as it feels cials in Israel, which is holding its like the international community has turned a blind eye to the reali- own election soon, to protest as vigorously as possible against the ty that is Gaza, and as long as continuation of the siege and to Israel is allowing some food in and hasn't completely cut off elec- call for its cessation. Americans have a special responsibility here, tricity or gas…and as long as we and by adding our voices to those are kept alive, no one will ask about us. But just because we are around the world who have breathing, that doesn't mean we're already condemned in the strongest way the siege of Gaza, alive. Again, like the statistics I perhaps we can help to create a cited at the beginning of this arti- wave of irresistible pressure cle, these despairing Gazan voices against the walls of Gaza that will finally bring them down. The could be multiplied ad infinitum, people of Gaza, resilient as many but redundancy would not strengthen my case that the people of them doubtless are, are counting on us not to forget them. of Gaza have been suffering, and continue to suffer, grievously from Listening to their voices, we must use ours not to fail them. this terrible siege that has been ______ imposed on them collectively *Some analyses suggest that the because of the actions of a few. actual amount may be closer to 5 Of this, you are probably already billion dollars per annum, but convinced, whatever you may think of the justifications—or lack whichever figure is used, the thesis is not affected. thereof—for Israel’s actions. ______ The point is that more Kenneth Ring, Ph.D., is Professor than a million people are experiencing a calamitous humanitarian Emeritus of Psychology, crisis, which has been made even University of Connecticut, and worse by so many American voic- currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. His e-mail is es remaining silent in the face of kring1935@gmail.com. this ongoing and, in the view of many, obscene strangulation of Gaza. Of course, you could say, “Well, there are many people who are suffering throughout the 7

- The Undercurrent -

whatsoever.), fuel, medicine, and even journalthat “90% are terrorists from Hamas.” Pitifully, and far beyond ists. To bomb a place in this way, a place that his flagrant inaccuracy, this affir- nobody can leave and in which there has been a premeditated blockade imposed that has denied mation carries with it the biggest the entrance of, for example, medicine to attend lie of them all: that the to the wounded, exceeds any humanitarian stanPalestinian who belongs to dard and violates all international law. It is Hamas is a terrorist, and consesimply a massacre. quently should be killed. After But all these things are merely all, it seems that we have forgotdemonstrations of the barbaric moral abyss that ten that Hamas has been governing the Strip for more than a year, Israel has descended into, and with it all who support or justify what is happening in the and that it possesses (or Gaza Strip, a place where families eat grass, possessed) an infrastructure that took is (or was) able to handle all where kids do not want to live, where there is aspects of daily life, just like any no tomorrow, where there are no rights and no other government in the world. It dignity. A place where one and a half million “sub-humans,” who for years, many years is a fact that Australia and the before Hamas even existed, have been humiliatUnited Kingdom only consider ed on a daily basis by Israel and by the comthe armed branch of Hamas, the Izzedin Al Qassam brigades, to be plicitious and putrid silence of all of us. Not even a million homemade rockets in a day can a terrorist organization. Nonetheless, Israel has succeeded justify the destruction of a people. Not even if all of the children of Sderot became deaf and in selling the idea that the minissuffered from serious stress would it justify the ters, public functionaries, and police force of Hamas are all ter- destruction of the largest ghetto on the planet, a place where 80% of the population are descenrorists, in a poor attempt to hide dants of the habitants of what is now Israel, the extent of their indiscriminate bombing of refugees from 1948, from 67, or from both; one and a half million human beings. But what makes the hairs stand on end people with roots in places like al-Majdal, now is something that goes beyond any Israeli inten- Ashkelon, or whichever other of the 400 Arab January 8, 2009 tion to “defend” their obsessive “right to exist.” villages that have been erased from the map; people who were thrown out of those lands and [Editor’s note: No other country in the world A variety of things disturb me regarding the sitincarcerated in the prison that is Gaza. demands from any other entity (other than uation in the Gaza Strip. The first has to do Hamas is just the enemy of the day, Israel from Hamas) that their “right to exist” with the fact that, for a very long time, and now be recognized.] Recently the daily Haaretz, cit- like Fatah was in its time and like the now-glomore than ever, Gaza is a prison. Since Hamas rified Palestine Authority. It is the excuse necing sources within the IDF, reported that the has gained control of the Strip (in 2007, after essary for Israel to continue justifying its viooperation “Cast Lead” was six months in the seizing power from Fatah (who lence, the excuse that keeps it from looking controls the Palestine into the mirror to see the monster it has Authority, who is supported by become. A monster that speaks the lanIsrael and the United States, guage of bombs and humiliation. A counand who refused to recognize try where the destruction of the the electoral victory of Hamas Palestinians is used as electoral propagana year earlier), Israel has da. I don’t know what the result of this imposed an iron curtain, which catastrophe will be, but one thing is clear: has been described by Richard Israel has lost its moral fiber, and has Falk, sent by the UN to the shown itself to the world as an abusive, Palestinian Territories, as “colviolent, and arrogant country. And, on top lective punishment” against the of it all, it has demonstrated that the only population of Gaza. That thing differentiating it from Hamas, Israel would bombard a prison Hizbollah, or whoever else it chooses to (giving warning of the bombattack is that it uses more expensive “toys” ing beforehand, of course) is and enjoys a scandalous and immoral bone-chilling because people impunity, consented to by a world that cannot get out of a prison. looks with indifference as the Israelis, in Children, women, elders, adothe words of Juan Miguel Muñoz, convert lescents … the million and a Gaza into Somalia. “...for a very long time, and now more than ever, Gaza is a prison.” half Palestinians who live in ______ the Strip are completely making, and that the truce with Hamas had Ángel Ricardo Martínez is the editor for the exposed to the bombs and the Israeli tanks, and been solely a pretext to buy time, gather intelli- Americas section of one of Panama’s top newsmake the situation in Gaza a humanitarian crigence and fine-tune the details. During those papers (La Estrella, laestrella.com.pa). He can sis of a mastodonic magnitude. six months Israel hardened its blockade in a be reached @ armartinezbenoit@gmail.com Another macabre aspect of this operabrutal manner, denying entrance to basic food______ tion is the rhetoric coming from Israel. The stuffs (The UN agency for Palestinian refugees Spanish to English translation for this article Israeli army has now killed some 600 UNRWA, on which more than half of was done by Matt Espinoza Watson. Palestinians. The Israeli Ambassador Palestinians depend, was left without any food 8 in Panama, Menashe Bar-On, assures

Israel and its descent into barbarism

by Abid Yahya 27 January 2009

CARNAGE IN GAZA

Because even the mainstream media has, in recent weeks, been saturated with news about the plight of Gaza, I’ll keep my summary brief. At around noon on the day after Christmas, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) struck hard. They killed over 225 Palestinian men, women, and children within the first 24 hours. It was the worst violence in Gaza, in terms of number of casualties over time, since 1967, the year the Israeli occupation began. Not even during the first intifada (circa 1987-1993, about 1,200 Palestinians and 160 Israelis killed) or the second intifada (roughly 2000-2006, about 4,000-5,000 Palestinians and 1,000+ Israelis killed) was there a day as violent as this. By 18 January 2009, when the obviously untenable ceasefire took effect, around 1,300 Palestinians, along with 13 Israelis, had perished. More Palestinians were killed by the IDF in these three weeks than in the entire 6year duration of the first intifada. This was the IDF on crack. No two ways about it…the IDF, beginning on the day after Christmas in the year of our lord 2008, unleashed an unprecedented rain of fiery shrapnel and death down on the imprisoned masses of Gaza, and did not stop for three weeks. Bombs were falling nearly constantly, and there is evidence that some of them contained white phosphorus. Never was a building not burning. Tanks, helicopter gunships, even warships on the Mediterranean were all hard at work. So indiscriminate and intense was the IDF’s bombardment that three of the 13 Israelis killed in the fighting were soldiers killed by a shell from one of their own tanks. Nearly 25,000 buildings were destroyed or seriously damaged. More than 50,000 Gazans were made homeless. More than 400,000 now have no running water or electricity. And, perhaps most tragically, some 300 children were killed

Continued next page...

Palestine Report contiuned... by the IDF assault. Other things that were bombed by the IDF include a Red Crescent hospital, several UN buildings (including a school sheltering hundreds of civilians), a building housing media organizations (including the Associated Press), a truck being driven by a UN worker (who was killed), a university (several buildings on the campus were hit), olive groves, and numerous civilian homes. And all the while, Obama said not a word.

sufficient medicine and food in Gaza.” Meanwhile, the UN, who had workers on the ground in Gaza, repeatedly pleaded to the world to deliver direly needed humanitarian aid and repeatedly said that this was the worst humanitarian crisis in Gaza since 1947. WHITE PHOSPHORUS

White phosphorus is an incendiary weapon that is banned by international law if used in any area where civilians may be harmed. Its use is permissible only if used to provide DON’T BE CRUEL smokescreen coverage for troops moving in the battlefield. Inhaling The cruelty of the IDF’s assault is or touching even the smoke of burnmade even more apparent by the ing phosphorus can be fatal. If IDF’s inhumane refusal to open the touched, it clings to the skin and can borders for humanitarian aid delivburn right through to the bone. If a eries to pass. To be precise, a few victim survives, the burns are trucks carrying aid were, now and incredibly painful and slow to heal. again, allowed in, but the IDF basiPalestinian medical workcally did less than the absolute miners have accused the IDF of firing imum that human decency requires. white phosphorus shells at civilians The hospitals and clinics in Gaza east of Khan Younis on 1/10. One that weren’t destroyed by the bomb- woman was killed and several ing were swamped with maimed or dozen were burned. “These people otherwise injured Palestinians, not were burned over their bodies in a to mention all the dead bodies piling way that can only be caused by up. Basic medical supplies and white phosphorus,” said Yousef Abu blood ran out quickly. And there Rish, a Palestinian medic. was nowhere near enough staff to Human Rights Watch handle it all. Meanwhile, hundreds claimed that they witnessed multiple of thousands of civilians were hidbursts of white phosphorus shells ing out without any access to food, near Gaza City and the Jabaliya water, heat, or electricity. And refugee camp on 1/9 and 1/10, and when generosity poured in from they have photographs and video around the world, when aid trucks that they say proves it. The United and boats loaded up with medical Nations and Amnesty International supplies, food, water, blankets, and also have accused the IDF of using other staple amenities were lined up phosphorus on the civilian populaat the border crossings, when ships tion, the latter claiming to have similarly laden sailed toward Gaza found, after the fighting ended, on the blue of the Mediterranean, “indisputable evidence of the wideIsrael simply refused to let many of spread use of white phosphorus.” them in. In a few cases, the IDF Christopher Cobb-Smith, working even attacked boats carrying aid with Amnesty in Gaza, said, “We bound for Gaza. On Tuesday 12/30, saw streets and alleyways littered a ship called the Dignity, operated with evidence of the use of white by a group called Free Gaza, carry- phosphorus, including still-burning ing 3.5 tons of medical aid and 15 wedges and the remnants of shells civilian passengers, including a for- and canisters fired by the Israeli mer US congressperson, was, army.” Furthermore, the UN said according to a statement released by that, when the IDF bombed the UN Free Gaza, “surrounded by at least compound in Gaza City on 1/15, six Israeli military ships, and one of three separate phosphorus shells the warships has rammed the civilstruck the compound. ian craft causing an unknown Then, on Sunday 1/25, amount of damage.” Free Gaza also Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert said that shots were fired toward the announced that Israel will offer state Dignity. protection from foreign prosecution All the while, the Israeli for any IDF soldier accused of war government said things like this: crimes in Gaza. So, even if war “All reports indicate that there are crimes were committed—and the

- The Undercurrent -

evidence seems to be suggesting that they were—Israel will refuse to allow any of its soldiers to be prosecuted. The IDF has admitted to using phosphorus in the past, during its blitzkrieg on Lebanon in the summer of 2006. Recall also that, in the final days of that conflict, Israel blanketed southern Lebanon with cluster bombs, whose unexploded canisters continued to maim and kill civilians well past the ceasefire deadline. (Also, the US military, after denying it for a while, admitted to using phosphorus in Fallujah in 2004.)

Pro-Gaza protesters take to the streets on Friday, 2 January, in San Francisco

MAYBE PEOPLE GIVE A SHIT AFTER ALL

Though politicians all over the globe tempered their public statements of concern for the civilian carnage taking place with the familiar reference to Israel’s right to defend herself, and though much of the mainstream media covered Israel’s merciless pummeling of Gaza as if it were somehow legitimate or defensible, the tides of global sympathy seem nevertheless to be turning. For perhaps the first time ever during one of Israel’s now-and-again adventures in inflicting disproportionate violence on a civilian population, people all over the world, in unprecedentedly large numbers, took their outrage to the streets, and wore their sympathy for the Palestinian plight on their sleeves. On the day after the slaughter began, 1,500 gathered in New York City to protest Israel’s action, 1,300 marched in Paris, 2,000 in Copenhagen (Denmark), nearly 12,000 in Cairo and Assiut (Egypt), and hundreds rallied in Madrid (Spain), carrying signs that read, “No to Palestinian Holocaust.” Monday 12/29 saw a number of pro-Gaza rallies throughout the world as well. By the next weekend, the outrage had grown, and tens of thousands marched in Cairo (Egypt), Tehran (Iran), Damascus (Syria), and Amman (Jordan), while thousands also took to the streets in Sydney (Australia), Jakarta (Indonesia), and Glasgow (Ireland). Also, most impressively, up to 10,000 marched in London on 1/3, calling on the British government to

do more to stop Israel’s attack. There were smaller rallies held in cities throughout the world as well, including Toronto, Miami, Washington DC, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and even Tel Aviv. Fresno saw a few rallies held at Shaw and Blackstone. Fifty people even braved the 16-degree weather on Friday 1/2 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota to voice their opposition to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. The next week, many of these cities held rallies again, but other cities joined in. On 1/9 in Nairobi (Kenya), protesters were pushed back by water cannons as they marched toward the Israeli embassy. Thousands marched in Istanbul (Turkey), and 3,000 rallied in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), where protesters carried bundles of white cloth to represent dead bodies. There were also rallies in Bucharest (Romania), Dhaka (Bangladesh), and Jammu (India). Then, on Thursday 1/8, a protest organized by the Syrian government drew nearly a million protesters in Damascus. Two days later, 50,000 marched in London. Protesters also hounded Obama, protesting outside his transition office in DC and his holiday residence in Hawaii, demanding that he speak up in defense of the civilians of Gaza. “Is this the change that you were talking about?” asked one protester in DC. And, in a refreshing development, on the morning of Wednesday 1/14, a group of Jewish anti-Zionist protesters congregated outside the Israeli embassy in Los Angeles. Several of them chained themselves to the doors and blocked the driveway, effectively closing the

embassy for several hours. They carried signs that read, “CAUTION, Israeli War Criminals Are Your Neighbors,” and “Embassy Closed For War Crimes.” The protest grew throughout the morning and ended up shutting down Wilshire Boulevard during the morning commute. Though none of these protests, or even all of them taken together, did anything to stop the IDF’s assault, the significance of this flurry of pro-Palestinian protests across the globe lies in the fact that a seemingly perpetual feature of the so-called conflict in the Middle East is the general tendency for the world at large to remain relatively silent with regard to, or to even defend, the aggression of Israel toward the Palestinians. However, during this particular inflammation of the conflict (perhaps because of the particularly in-your-face cruelty exhibited without shame by the IDF in this go-round), more and more folks—particularly in the Western world—have publicly demanded mercy for the Palestinians. And this, to my mind, is a step in the right direction. I’ve long said—and the example of apartheid’s end in South Africa confirms—that the Israeli occupation of Palestine will only end when the world demands that it end. The optimist in me wants to believe that this sudden and boisterous outpouring of sympathy for the Palestinians perhaps marks the beginning of a shift in world opinion, the beginning of the end of Zionism’s stranglehold on truth in the Middle East. Then again, though, the optimist in me has been disappointed before. 9

- The Undercurrent -

ing food, shelter, and employment resources. The program will maintain a message of encouraging people to stop using and injecting drugs, but it will also provide clean needles to drug users (in exchange for dirty, used needles so these can be removed What happened to Saturday the Bell was that informational— from circulation) to help limit the spread of the HIV and Hepatitis C morning cartoons? At first I was NBC labeled it E/I), while others viruses. The program has the stunned to learn that Saturday tried news, history, and sciencepotential to make a significant morning cartoons were endanoriented shows. impact on the lives and health of gered. Then I learned that, really, All this said, it seems injection drug users, their famithey have been lies, and the community at large. going extinct for The California some time. Legislature authorized needle In late exchange projects in the Health 2008, Fox and Safety Code (Section 121349) announced that due in 2005, but Fresno County voted to legal issues with down a program in Fresno in May its producer 4Kids 2006. In December 2008, Fresno (which had been passed the program with a 3-2 programming Fox’s vote, with Supervisors Anderson, Saturday morning Perea and Waterson voting for the cartoon block), project and Supervisors Case and that the primary reasons for the their Saturday morning cartoons would be replaced with two hours shift away from Saturday morning Larson voting against it. The procartoons are related to the fact that gram will continue to be accessiof affiliate programming and two hours of “Marketplace” program- kids these days probably have bet- ble on a one four-hour event per ming (infomercials, but hopefully ter things to do. Why sit through week basis through a communitybased organization. ~JH commercials and mediocre carof higher quality, based on prepared statements from Fox execs). toons when you can watch a The February 2009 issue of the My initial shock over the DVD? Or play video games? American Journal of Agricultural Besides, with cable, cartoons news came from my own nostalEconomics reveals a link between aren’t limited to Saturday morngia: how could we let kids these ings, either, with several channels increased livestock production and days grow up without this rite of infant morpassage? Yet many networks have dedicated to children’s programtality. The already scaled back or significant- ming and/or cartoons. But even ly altered their Saturday morning better, kids seem to be more active researcher, programming. Cartoons have in various Saturday activities and Wellesley College been under attack, sports outside the Assistant and not without house. ~JH Professor reason. The On December 16, of prevalence of toy Economics and product-ori2008, the Fresno Stacy ented cartoons County Board of Sneeringer, Supervisors shows led to some studied two approved a onebacklash (though decades of year “Community not enough to do countyHealth and Safety away with this specific Collaborative type of programdata and found that a doubling of (CHSC) Pilot ming all togethlivestock farming production was Project,” including a needle er). Federal Communications linked to a 7.4% incease in infant Commission (FCC) regulations in exchange service, which has mortality (controlling for other already been helping people in the 1990s required broadcast stavariables) driven by elevated levspite of the law for many years. tions to air a minimum of three The CHSC program will integrate els of respiratory diseases. As a hours of children’s education/informational (E/I) pro- services of several county depart- nation-wide average, counties with increases in livestock programming each week. Some net- ments and community organizaduction experienced 35% growth, tions to incorporate the needle works fulfilled this requirement which corresponds to a 2.8% with a shift towards “live-action” exchange, substance abuse treatment, medical care, mental health increase in infant mortality in (i.e., not animated) prothose counties when controlling 1 0 gramming (as if Saved by services, and assistance in access-

for other variables. Sneeringer also noted that there were greater effects of livestock production in areas with low well-water usage, so the culprit is likely air pollution related as opposed to water pollution driven. She points out that the industry trend over the past 50 years has been a decline in the number of farms while the number of animals has stayed fairly constant; it follows: “A large number of livestock concentrated in a small area leads to a vast amount of excrement in that same area.” Based on California Department of Food and Agriculture data, 83% of California’s dairy cows resided in the San Joaquin Valley in 2006. Based on the California Department of Public Health data, in 2006, most of the San Joaquin Valley’s counties had infant mortality rates that were higher than the California average (Madera was slightly lower than the California average). While infant mortality is influenced by a number of factors, one has to wonder how our animal agriculture and infant mortality rates relate in light of Sneeringer’s research. Sneeringer concludes that new legislative efforts to regulate large-scale livestock farms under the Clean Air Act are appropriate. When Science News reported her findings, they also quoted Peter Thorne, director of the Environmental Health Sciences Research Center at the University of Iowa: “… the answer isn’t for everyone to become vegetarians.” The Fresno Beehive repeated this quote verbatim. Excuse me—why couldn’t the answer be for everyone to become vegetarians—or, more effectively, vegans, considering the impact of dairies? Imagine the bumper stickers: Save

a baby: go vegan! ~JH

A study recently published in the journal, Intelligence, suggests that smarter men have more—and more feisty—sperm than more simpleminded guys. Specifically, dudes who scored higher on intelligence tests were found to have higher sperm counts and greater sperm motility than fellas who scored lower. So be careful out there, smart guys. Keep those jimmies in stock and wrapped tight. Your boys are dying to get out. Of course, you don’t need me to tell you that. You’re smart. ~AY

On Thursday, 27 November of last year, at 8:40 pm, police in Somerset County, New Jersey responded to an alarm from the PNC Bank in Montgomery Township. They saw, through the windows of the bank and the drawn blinds, the figure of a man. Assuming they had a hostage situation, the police shut down nearby streets, evacuated residents from three nearby apartment complexes, and tried to make contact with the perp inside the bank. Long story short, the standoff ended at 10:20 pm, when a SWAT team that had stealthily made its way in discovered that the perp was, in fact, a standing cardboard cut-out. So a cardboard cut-out kept the police at bay for more than an hour and a half. Wow. That is some quality law enforcement there. ~AY

- The Undercurrent -

SEIU Launches Takeover of United Healthcare Workers West by Mark Brenner come,” UHW’s former head Sal Rosselli said. “Frankly we don’t have a lot of respect for it being some independent report or process.” Medina, a trustee, said the financial improprieties by UHW leaders were sufficient grounds alone for trusteeship. UHW’s refusal to comply with the forced transfer of long-term care workers provided additional justification for the International’s actions.

Members of UHW are vehemently opposed to

January 27, 2009

The Service Employees’ internal battle broke wide open late Tuesday when International President Andy Stern put the dissident United Healthcare WorkersWest into emergency trusteeship. Financial assets for the 150,000-member local were immediately seized, the executive board was dissolved, and full-time officers were removed from payroll. Reports circulated among workplace leaders that SEIU also dismissed UHW stewards, and that employers are holding captive- audience meetings to introduce new SEIU-appointed staff representatives. Stern named Executive Vice Presidents Eliseo Medina and Dave Regan as trustees of UHW. Regan said rank-and-file worksite leaders remain in place. As word of the trusteeship spread, hundreds of members and supporters rallied at the union’s Oakland headquarters, vowing to resist SEIU’s hostile takeover. UHW leaders announced the formation of an independent union, the National Union of Healthcare Workers, and signaled their intention to decertify SEIU in hospitals and nursing homes,

declaring that they would not permit appointed staffers to decide which union members belonged to.

ULTIMATUM REJECTED The trusteeship came a day after UHW rejected an ultimatum from SEIU’s top body to split their local in two. Following meetings with more than 5,000 stewards and other rank-and-file leaders, UHW’s elected officers refused the order, reiterating earlier proposals that would guarantee members a right to vote before a merger would take place. SEIU’s ultimatum mandated that UHW move 65,000 nursing home and homecare workers into a new statewide local for long-term care workers. Such a local would be led by Stern appointees, and UHW argues it would produce weaker contract standards, citing their experience with the International’s partnership in the California nursing home industry. “Merging long-term members into another local will lower the bar, making us take a step back,” said Ruby Guzman, a nursing assistant at Creekside Nursing Home in San Pablo. “This will affect me, my family, and my patients. I cannot allow

WHAT’S NEXT? UHW members see few other options than leaving SEIU. “Our health care workers SEIU's takeover want to be a part of a democratic, progressive movement,” said this.” Before Tuesday’s trustee- Angela Glasper, an optical receptionist at Kaiser Permanente in ship UHW proposed a series of Martinez, California. “Every thing steps to mediate the conflict that has happened in these last between their local and the several days has proven that it’s International. not possible for that to happen in SEIU. All workers deserve to be TRUSTEESHIP REPORT part of a union that workers conThe trusteeship followed recomtrol, not leaders in Washington, mendations from Ray Marshall, the former secretary of labor hired D.C.” Under the SEIU constituby SEIU to investigate alleged tion, the bar for disaffiliation is financial improprieties at UHW. high. If seven or more members Marshall concluded that UHW set wish to remain in SEIU, disaffiliaup a not-for- profit organization in tion is not possible. 2007 to finance looming battles Members and ousted with the International, but did not leaders of UHW announced plans find these violations sufficient to Wednesday afternoon to form a warrant trusteeship. new union. In a surprise move, Chartering an independMarshall still recommended ent local would require members trusteeship for UHW—if they to file for an election during the failed to comply with the earlier “open period” prior to contract decision by SEIU’s top body to expiration. It would require sepasplit off the UHW long-term care rate votes wherever UHW currentworkers. ly has an employer under contract, UHW leaders said it is representing hundreds of workunprecedented to have a trusteesites across the state. With more ship request denied, and argued that Marshall linked two unrelated than 100 contracts re-negotiated in 2008 such a process would take disputes by tying his recommendations to the fate of UHW’s long- years to complete. Even before the Marshall term care members. report was released SEIU began “We suspect that the preparing for a hostile takeover of hearing report from Secretary renting large offices in both UHW, Marshall got amended by SEIU Angeles and disOakland and Los lawyers to get their desired out-

patching dozens of staff to California. Although many staffers were initially told that UHW-related assignments would be voluntary, the International informed organizers that failure to travel to California will be “considered a resignation.”

UNDERMINING LABOR’S AGENDA Labor’s allies worry that the war between UHW and the International could derail labor’s efforts to secure health care reform and pass the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) early in 2009. Hearing officer Ray Marshall concluded his report by noting that “the main beneficiaries of this conflict are anti-union employers and politicians who have geared up to use this conflict against our efforts to pass legislation to help workers, especially the Employee Free Choice Act.” Nelson Lichtenstein, a labor scholar at the University of California Santa Barbara, shares similar concerns. “This internal fight will come back to haunt labor when EFCA gets rolling,” Lichtenstein noted. “The right wing is paying close attention, and this gives them plenty of fresh meat.” ______ Editor’s note: The trusteeship being described here is in process as this issue goes to print. By the time you’re reading this, there are sure to be new developments. To keep up with all the latest, visit www.fresnoundercurrent.net, www.labornotes.org, or other media sources. ______ Mark Brenner is Director of Labor Notes, a 30-year-old project dedicated to putting the movement back in the labor movement. He can be reached at mark@labornotes.org. This article originally appeared at www.labornotes.org. 11

- The Undercurrent -

Beyond Casinos: Indigenous Reality in California by Michael I Black Bull

“Digger, digger, black as a nigger” is a taunt that has for years followed many California Indian children around the schoolyard in a singsong voice. Also, jabs such as “basket maker” or “grub eater.” While all American Indians have been negatively stereotyped in this society, the native peoples of California have been the most maligned. California Indians, we’ve been told, had no culture, no religion, and no art. The celebrated historian, Hubert Howe Bancroft, wrote of the Golden State’s indigenous population, “Lying in a state of semi-torpor in holes in the ground during the winter, and in spring, crawling forth and eating grass on their hands and knees, until able to regain their feet: having no clothes, scarcely any cooked food, in many instances no weapons, with merely a few vague imaginings for religion, living in the utmost squalor and filth, putting no bridle on their passions, there is surely no missing link between them and the brutes.” This smear as knuckle-dragging “missing links” has continued to pollute the image of California peoples and often renders their reality nearly invisible. Prior to invasion, California had the highest human population density of any region now claimed by the United States. California also had the highest language diversity. In the San Joaquin Valley and adjacent foothills, the Penutian language of the Yokuts peoples (such as the Chowchilla, Dumna, Chukchansi, Choinumni, Wukchumni, and Tachi) is related to the languages spoken by the Zuni in New Mexico and the Maya of southern Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, and El Salvador. The Mono language is related to that of the Comanche in Texas and the Aztec in the Mexico City area. The Algonkian language spoken by the Yurok of northern California relates them to peoples throughout the Great Lakes, New England and the Mid-Atlantic regions. The Hokan language of the 12

Chumash, whose territory extended inland to the Grapevine pass, is found only in California. This amazing palette of cultures existed here as nowhere else in large part due to California being a veritable paradise. Just like today, who wouldn’t want to live in California? The climate was temperate and resources bountiful. This natural abundance was further increased by careful and brilliant interaction with the environment. Yearly burns, for example, cleared out dead vegetation, which allowed established plants to grow bigger and stronger and also cut the threat posed by wildfires. The resulting ash fertilized the soil which also maximized vegetation growth. More grass leads to more deer. More deer, more people. Of the fantastic plethora of animal and plant food available, by far the most important was the acorn. Harvested, dried, pounded into flour, and leeched of its poisonous tannic acid, acorn was made into a variety of nutritious dishes. So important is the acorn to California Indians, it transcends mere food and enters the realm of the sacred. California peoples constructed a variety of housing. The Yokuts lived in large, dome-shaped lodges or long, A-frame, multi-family longhouses covered with a thick thatch of tules. Maidu people in the Sacramento area constructed spacious, semi-subterranean earthlodges. The Mono and Miwok lived in conical lodges of redwood planks. These planks infused a pleasant aroma throughout the house and in warm weather could be slid back for cooling ventilation. One Mono elder recalled how, as a child, she would wake to the fresh redwood scent of her home, the songs of birds, and the thumping of squirrels as they ran and played up and down the redwood lodge’s exterior. Many communities also featured large, communal “Sweat” or “Men’s” houses, where adult males not only spent the majority of

their free time, but also slept, the family home being the realm of women and children. Here, in the central region of our state, the Yokuts, Miwok, and others also erected immense ceremonial structures or “roundhouses” that could hold hundreds of people. Just as California Indians carefully and precisely interacted with the physical creation around them, they were equally concerned with spiritual balance. A wide variety of elaborate rituals and ceremonies, many occurring within roundhouses, were observed for world renewal, thankfulness, healing, marking entrance into adulthood, honoring the deceased, and other purposes. On these occasions, participants would don almost indescribably stunning regalia of feather work, shell work, and other materials. California feather work is both amazing and often entirely unique. Tiny breast feathers from a variety of colorfully plumed birds were incorporated into mosaic work of iridescent red, yellow, black, green, and blue on robes and wide ornamental belts, and along the northern coast, the blood red topknots of woodpeckers adorned sacred headdresses and other ritual objects. Yokuts peoples fashioned ceremonial regalia of blue heron feathers and from the plumage of the majestic and holy California condor. Perhaps one of the most spectacular examples of feather work anywhere is the headdress worn by the “Big Head” impersonator during world renewal ceremonies among central California peoples such as the Pomo, Maidu, and Miwok. A huge topknot of

circa 1910

was cut into various shapes from small pendants to huge plaques to shimmer against the skin or from headdresses or women’s skirts. In a ceremony honoring the swordfish, Chumash dancers wore regalia that included headdresses with a wooden base carved in the shape of a swordfish head, with a real swordfish bill projecting from the front and entirely covered with imitation “scales” of sparkling abalone shell. These abalone “scales” continued, pendant- like, to cover intensely white tail and wing feaththe dancers’ backs as well. Shell ers, which virtually obscures the work is worn in such profusion at entire head of the impersonator, many California Indian ceremonies forms the basis of the headdress. that, with every step of the dancers, Radiating outward in every direcit produces sounds like waves tion from this feather cluster, like breaking on the shore or wind genpins from a pincushion, are thin wooden rods about four or five feet tly blowing through pine trees. The indigenous women of in length. These rods are tipped California were and are, hands with tufts of small white feathers. down, the best basket weavers in The entire headdress forms an the world. Ever. They wove storamazing “bloom” of feathers age baskets so large that several around the impersonator’s head people can fit inside and so small from eight to ten feet in diameter. In order to accommodate this head- that they can sit, literally, on the head of a pin, necessitating a magdress, “Big Head” must enter the nifying glass to perceive that what roundhouse bent at the waist and you are looking at is a perfect, backward. Once inside the darkalmost microscopic, basket. These ened interior, lit only by a central infinitesimal baskets served no fire, the wooden rods disappear to practical use, but showed the the eye and the headdress takes on weaver’s skill. They wove baskets the appearance of a “firework” that are waterproof. They incorpoexplosion of feathers, frozen in rated incredibly complex and beaumid-air at its maximum blossomtiful geometric patterns in the ing. weave of their baskets and, someCalifornia Indians also times, covered them in brilliant particularly excelled at shell work, feather mosaic, adding topknot creating magnificent adornments both for ceremonial and secular dis- feathers from male quails, clamshell beads and abalone shell play. Beads fashioned from clam and other shells were not only used pendants. The peoples of California for ornamentation, but also served as a form of currency. These beads lived lives of abundance, health, and accomplishment. They mainwould be strung and hung in great mass around the neck or woven into tained careful relationships with wide girdles to circle the waist and both the physical and spiritual into bands to decorate the wrists, arms, and ankles. Abalone shell Continued next page...

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aspects of creation. Violence was virtually unknown. When it did break out, it was short-lived, producing few or no casualties. This ancient balance was shattered, first, along the coast with the invasion of the Spanish/Mexicans and then, for the rest of the state, with the discovery of gold in 1849. Almost overnight, the indigenous population found itself overrun by exceedingly greedy and violent hordes from virtually every corner of the globe. The extermination was on. California Indians found themselves hunted like animals. It became stylish to decorate ones home with bedspreads, throw rugs—even wallpaper—fashioned from Indian scalps. Riding chaps, bridles, shaving straps, and chair cushions were made from tanned Indian skin. Women and girls were dragged off to serve the invaders as sex slaves. Mexican gangs focused on capturing young women to be sold in Mexico. Many men, such as Major James Savage, kept multiple Indian women to service their lust. John Sutter, of the famous Sutter’s Fort, maintained a harem of dozens of pre-pubescent “wives.” Sexual violence against Indian women was so prevalent that, often, at the mere sight of nonIndian males, women would grab handfuls of dirt or sand and shove it into themselves in an attempt to prevent vaginal rape. The sexual slavery of Indian women in California continued well into the 1920s and 30s. California Indians valiantly attempted to defend themselves, but the odds against them were too great. So many invaders, in so short a time span, brought with them a level of murderous violence never before imagined, and annihilated Indians, animals, forests, and rivers. The genocide inflicted on the indigenous population of California was the worst of any region within what is now the United States. Perhaps it’s this fact that explains why California Indians have had to be so de-humanized. California does not rightfully belong to Mexico, as one sometimes hears, any more than it belongs to Spain or the United States. It was never Aztlan. In the highest moral sense, California belongs to its indigenous population. All of us who live in the San Joaquin Valley, for example, are refugees within the traditional boundaries of the Yokuts nation. California has the largest American Indian population of any state. Ironically, however, the vast majority of that population is composed of out-of-state Indians. But the indigenous nations of California, through their strength, intelligence, and bravery are still here. Although they exist, except for casinos, virtually invisible to the rest of us, they are working to maintain and revive their ancient ways. Coyote stories still inform the next generation in right behavior, basketry that can hold water is still woven, the acorn is still sacred, feathered regalia still shimmers, and shell beads and abalone pendants still make sounds like waves breaking on the sandy shore and wind blowing through pine trees. ______ Michael I. Black Bull is a descendant of the Wolf Clan of the Lenni Lenape nation. He is also of Ottawa, Caddo, Sioux, and Mandan heritage. Michael has been active in the American Indian community for 35 years and was adjunct faculty in the American Indian Studies program at Fresno City College for over ten years.

The legend of Joaquín Murrieta, & the professor who uncovered the real story... - The Undercurrent -

by Matt Espinoza Watson

The story of Joaquín Murrieta is one with roots deep in the Central San Joaquin Valley. It is also a highly contested story; some authors have dismissed the Mexican outlaw Joaquín as a fiction (including Fresno author/academic Bruce Thornton); others have said that he was actually a composite of several different outlaws who, over time, took on mythic proportions; and some have stuck to the story that the infamous Joaquín was captured and killed by Captain Harry Love in 1853, and that that really is his pickled-head-in-a-jar in the historical photos. Our story here, however, begins with Humberto Garza, a retired professor, university administrator, and community activist who resides here in the San Joaquin Valley. Several years ago, I read an article in The Fresno Bee about a professor at West Hills College who had written two books on Joaquín Murrieta; Joaquín Murrieta (El Güero) when I selected Joaquín as my Original photo donated by Julio Cesar Ortega topic, I tracked down Mr. Quiroz y Mora. Caborca, Sonora. Restoration by Garza. We met at a coffeshop in Sanger, and proceeded to Glenn Nakamichi. Selma, CA. Copyright 2008, have a great (& lengthy) conHumberto Garza. Written on the back of the photo: versation, the majority of which "Joaquin Murrieta. 1850. Estocton, California. revolved around the famed Nacio en las Trincheras, Son." (Stockton, CA. Born Joaquín. The story reconstruct- in Las Trincheras, Sonora, Mexico) ed by Garza is one that is as surprising and confusing as it is (For example, how many of us know the hisinteresting…. tory of the small town of Sonora out in the Garza’s project started in 1990. foothills…how a mob of white miners burned After reading Frank Latta’s book, Joaquín the town to the ground to get rid of the Murrieta and His Horse Gangs, he “got Mexicans mining for gold in that area?) pissed off.” He found gaping holes in the The infamous tale of Joaquín tells of story. He knew he could write a better book, a Mexican gold miner living near Angels and started a project that he thought would take a year and a half. Eleven years later, his Camp, (in the foothills east of Stockton) who was claim-jumped, saw his brother falsely first book on the topic, Joaquín Murrieta: A accused of theft & lynched before his eyes, Quest for Justice!, was published. In 2004, whose wife was gang-raped as he watched, because of his continuing research, he pubbeaten, bloody, and tied to a tree (the same lished Joaquín: Demystifying the Murrieta Legend. Both books are available on his web- one his brother was hanging from), who then began a spree of robberies and killings in site, www.JoaquinMurrieta.net. And, after having read the books, I can honestly say that Gold Country that sparked a statewide manthe short version of the story presented in this hunt. Joaquín was a scourge to white miners and a hero in Mexican-American communiarticle is just scratching the surface of the ties. He is the historical basis for the fictional depth of this legendary figure. Zorro. He is, to be sure, an enigma, but For Humberto Garza, the story of before we go deeper into Joaquín’s story, we Joaquín Murrieta is inseparable from the largmust understand a little about when & where er story of the Mexicans who were living in he lived. the Southwest when it became the United Understanding the social & political States. Murrieta’s story is the story of the realities of being Mexican in Gold Rush-era Mexicans who were dispossessed of their California is an important place to start. As lands, raped, killed, & disregarded as America Garza is quick to tell you, other authors have spread from sea to shining sea. It is the story of the Gold Rush we didn’t learn in school…. ignored important context: the Federal Land Law of 1851 (establishing the right of whites

to settle any land they thought was vacant), the Vagrancy Law (used to harass Mexicans and other undesirables), the Foreign Miners Tax (used to keep Mexicans and MexicanAmericans from sharing in the gold), and CA civil code section 394, (enacted to keep Mexicans from filing lawsuits “against claim jumping Americans and land thieves”) (and which reads, in relevant part) “The following persons shall not be witnesses: Indians, or persons having one-fourth or more of Indian blood, in an action or proceeding to which a white person is a party.” Mexicans were not able to testify against Whites because of their Indian blood. Garza writes, regarding the legislative intent, that “they believed the Indians were liars, and the Indian blood in Mexicans made them liars too, placing the white population at the mercy of American citizens who were prone to lie.” What this law meant in reality is quite profound: Mexicans could not do a thing, legally speaking, if their land was stolen, if their brother was killed, or if they (or their spouse) were raped by a white man (nor could, for that matter, Asians, Africans, or Native Americans). Garza cites the example of Manuel Domínquez, one of the signers of the California Constitution and an elected County Supervisor of Los Angeles, who “was declared incompetent to testify because of his Indian blood.” Now, if Mr. Domínquez, who we’d imagine to be a pretty well-educated and well-connected Mexican resident of CA, couldn’t testify in court, what chance did the thousands of poor & lesser-educated Mexicanos have of seeing justice come from a courtroom? As for proof of Joaquín’s existence: Sheriff Marshall, of Calaveras County, was a friend of Joaquín, and documented the story in his diary. The diary recounts the story of Joaquín’s brother’s death & the rape of his wife, and states that the Sheriff advised Joaquín to move on with his life because there was nothing the law could do for him. “Days later, Joaquín recovers from the lashing and goes to his neighbor, Sherrif Broder of Alameda County, to plead for justice. Sheriff Broder also rejects Joaquín’s request to investigate, much less arrest the suspects and advises Joaquín to stop looking for trouble.” Garza writes, in Demystifying The Murrieta Legend, that Anglo-American “Joaquín-is-a-myth” historians have utterly neglected the implications of these details, instead calling Joaquín a myth because “they are not able to locate any newspaper articles on the killings, nor can they find any legal proceedings confirming these transgressions. Anglo Americans could legally rape and murder Mexicans. It was not considered a crime in American California! That is why there are no records of legal proceedings concerning these atrocities.” It was after law enforcement’s refusal to help that the career of Joaquín

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outlaw began. His priority? To hunt down and kill each of the 42 men responsible for killing his brother and raping his wife. According to Humberto Garza, Joaquín and his jinetes (horsemen) tracked down & killed 41 of the 42 men responsible (even crossing back over into the US from Mexico several times, making three trips to Kentucky later in his life in search of the men responsible). But that wasn’t all. “In their quest for justice, they now become outlaws. As outlaws, their business practices change too.” “Most Murrieta historians prefer to disbelieve that a lone, daring jinete could be responsible for the theft of over $1,450,000 in gold, herding over 10,000 horses from California to México, and causing the death of more than a hundred people.” In part, this is because they didn’t take into account Joaquín’s cousins, who were also named Joaquín. The story is actually one of three first cousins; Joaquín Murrieta Orozco (El Patrío), Joaquín Murrieta (El Güero), and Joaquín Juan Murrieta (El Gachupín). Both of the latter two Joaquíns were part of the band of outlaws that avenged their cousin’s honor. Joaquín Juan was a weapons expert and mule-train leader. He would take mules up to the mother lode and sell them at inflated prices to miners who didn’t want to lose their precious spot by going down the mountain. It was in this way that Joaquín Juan would also act as a scout to see who was flush with cash, and then report back to the others. Joaquín El Güero was the horse man; in California at the time, there were wild mustangs all over the Valley that were worthless here, but worth 50 pesos a piece across the border in Mexico. According to Garza, each month (for 9 months out of the year), 6 guys led by El Güero would take up to 350 horses at a time from the Valley down across the border, earning money for their exploits. Add to the three cousinJoaquins the fact that several of the other jinetes who rode with them were also named Joaquín (such as Jose Joaquín Botiller, Joaquín Carrillo López, Joaquín Ochoa Moreno, and many others). Garza writes, “to further complicate the confusion, all of these Joaquins were under the command of Joaquín Murrieta Orozco (El Patrío) and each Joaquin was in charge of their own band of jinetes that were assigned to different geographical areas of California.” This also helps us understand why the physical descriptions of Joaquín given by those who were robbed by him vary so greatly…. Joaquín Murrieta Orozco, the Joaquín thought 14 to have been captured by

Captain Love, actually lived until the ripe old age of 80 and died where he was born: Sonora, Mexico. Joaquín El Güero died at age 90 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, after bringing Mexican-style rodeo to the country and becoming a very wealthy man. And Joaquín Juan died in El Paso, Texas at 112 years of age. As for the pickled-head-in-a-jar said to be Joaquín? Garza maintains that the head was likely one of Joaquín’s jinetes, somebody Valenzuela, murdered in the massacre at Cantúa Creek (check out the books for more on this incident and much more on the individual histories of the jinetes). Besides providing proper context, and thoroughly scouring all the available written material on Joaquín, Garza also found a wealth of his information in places other historians had neglected to look. One very fruitful source that others hadn’t recognized was the living history of Joaquín; the oral histories by the many descendants of Murrieta living in the Valley and beyond. His encounters with the many descendants of (the several) Joaquín(s) and his several jinetes has taken him all around the state and into Sonora, Mexico, where he recently came across an important find. The picture seen here is the only known photo of Joaquín Murrieta (El Güero)—and The Undercurrent is proud to be the first publication ever to print it, and it will published in the new edition of Garza’s book. Garza received the photo from another Murrieta enthusiast in the state of Sonora, Mexico, where he was giving a talk about his research. When one takes into account the historical written sources consulted by Garza, along with the tremendous wealth of oral histories and the memories of generations of Murrietas, it becomes harder to deny Joaquín’s existence. Garza quotes the Reverend Benjamín Tamez Jr., a Murrieta enthusiast and former educator, speaking on the importance of this historical figure and the attempts to erase him from history, stating that, after it became clear that Joaquín wasn’t killed by the California Rangers in 1853, American academics began to “attempt to kill Joaquín with lead pencils and ‘academic studies’…Denying Mexican Americans a historical role model that survived a racist, prejudicial justice system, triumphed over insurmountable odds, and was able to obtain his own kind of justice, is unpardonable.” Garza’s writing doesn’t pull any punches in his endeavor to seek out the truth about Joaquín, wherever and however long that may take him.

The Past You Don’t Know May Help You - The Undercurrent -

by Paul Gilmore

“Where are you from?” is a loaded haps especially to rural Californians) question. We Fresnans seem to be the great issues of the day. They from the center of California conser- were evils to be eliminated, not facts vatism, a red valley within a blue of life to be adapted to. Authors like state. As for those other sorts of Henry George and Edward Reds—real political radicals—well, Bellamy gained great fame we all know they’re a dying throughout California breed, living mainly in San offering radical soluFrancisco and Berkeley. The tions that didn’t seem bay area has a tradition of quite so awful in a radicalism stretching back world in which the generations, from the turn hated Southern of the century socialists, to Pacific Railroad’s the great waterfront battles machinations of the 1930s, to the beats, even drew the the counterculture, and the wrath of otherfree speech and anti-war wise conservamovements of the tive businesspeo1960s. Southern ple. California, too, to And a lesser extent, has the Kaweah its tradition of Colony’s experimental reformradicals l ia or em M l Ch es te r R owel ers and radical dreamwere ers. For many then, themselves California’s radical hisdrawing on a long American tradition tory ends at the Tehachapis and the of utopian communities—decades of eastern edge of the Oakland hills. experiments, many in California, by But the identity of a place is people trying to carve out a new perhaps as much about what has been more humane world within the dogforgotten as what has been rememeat-dog capitalist order growing up bered. Our “conservative” valley has around them. Although its members its own counter-history. And though had laid out their little village and that history has been studiously built a road and a saw mill, the buried, the landscape offers occasion- Kaweah Colony was short-lived. It is al clues, markings of a different past, tempting to say that the failure of the and past imaginings of an alternative Kaweah Colony was inevitable—that future. its members were merely crack-pots, Some of those markings their philosophy foolish—but it took have been wiped away, but it pays to a mysterious act of Congress (encourrecall them. Ever heard of Karl Marx aged not a little, it appears, by an SP Tree? It is east of Visalia, up in the intent on having no independent lummountains and it is visited by thouber concerns in the area) tripling the sands every year, though few know size of Sequoia National Park and it. Yes, General Sherman Tree in encompassing the Colony’s land Sequoia National Park was for a few claims to help that “inevitability” years Karl Marx Tree, so named by a along. group of socialists who attempted to But we don’t have to go to build their own version of the cothe hills to find the marks of forgotoperative commonwealth along the ten history; right here in Fresno is Kaweah River in the late 1800s. another of those clues to a different Carey McWilliams, in his classic valley identity. Downtown, on the Fulton Mall, a plaque and a concrete book, Factories in the Field, offers the Kaweah Cooperative Colony as platform mark an official historic an example of one of many promislandmark—a sure sign that someing roads not taken in the developthing has been forgotten. California ment of California’s system of indus- Historic Landmark #873, just a huntrial agriculture. dred feet from the clock tower on the That the valley would have mall, commemorates the Fresno Free a socialist community that would Speech fight of 1910-11. name a tree after Karl Marx was not A fight for the right to free as unusual as it might at first seem. speech sounds strangely out of place In the 1880s and 90s, concentrated in our valley. It belongs in Berkeley land ownership and industrial or somewhere in the South during the monopoly in private hands were (per- Civil Rights Movement. But it hap-

pened here when the scourge of all “right-thinking” Americans, the Wobblies, came to town. Wobblies are members of the Industrial Workers of the World, or the IWW. Formed in 1905, the IWW eschewed the conservative language and tactics of their union counterparts in the American Federation of Labor. Where the AFL organized according to trade or skill, the IWW called for industrial unionism—every worker, skilled or unskilled, should fight together in One Big Union. Where the AFL accepted the capitalist system, demanding a fair deal within it, the IWW offered a radically romantic vision of class conflict in which the workers, through a general strike, would abolish wages, dump the bosses, and take control of the economy. In Fresno, where the growers and businessmen who ran the city looked on even the AFL with suspicion, the Wobblies were beyond the pale. The Wobblies had their roots in and organized among the poorest and most politically disfranchised of the working class—those lumberjacks and miners, day laborers and agricultural workers totally ignored by the mainstream unions. And as if their radicalism weren’t enough, the Wobblies also accepted any worker. At a time when virulent racism was the norm, when anti-Chinese or antiFilipino riots were not unusual, the IWW was the only union that accepted African-Americans, Mexicans, Filipinos, Japanese, and even the hated Chinese as equals with whites. So when organizer Frank Little came to Fresno in early 1910 to establish an office of IWW Local 66, no one rolled out the red carpet for him. Little was trying to organize the bindle stiffs, the migrant farm workers who, with their bedding on their backs, moved up and down the valley with the seasons. One effective method of organizing was soap box speeches in parks and on downtown street corners, where the poor workers would often gather. As Fresno’s IWW grew, it began to get the attention of Mayor Chester Rowell. Though Rowell was a pioneering California progressive reformer, he had no sympathy for the IWW. Rowell, police chief William Shaw, and the city’s leaders wanted these rabble-rousers out of town.

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History continued...

The confrontation began in the spring of 1910 when the IWW stopped work on a dam just outside of the city. Chief Shaw arrested IWW organizers for speaking, banned further street meetings and ordered that those without work would be arrested for vagrancy. Through the summer the situation escalated, with Little himself arrested and jailed and IWW headquarters in Chicago calling on Wobblies to go to Fresno. In October, Shaw again jailed Little and several more Wobblies for holding an unauthorized meeting. They offered the perfectly reasonable defense that there was no law against public speaking in Fresno. By late fall, a rag-tag army of Wobbly supporters throughout the West were converging to support what was now the Fresno Free Speech fight. By early December, with eighty Wobblies in jail, the city council finally passed a law banning outdoor meetings. Meanwhile, more Wobblies poured into the city, more were arrested, and many were harassed and beaten by vigilante mobs. In response, the Wobblies pioneered the tactics of passive resistance. Little chose solitary rather than work for his jailers. Some refused to defend themselves in court, offering a silent rebuke to a system that would deny the right to speak. Others sang Wobbly songs in prison, keeping up such a racket that their jailers called in the fire department to assault them with high pressure water in the winter cold. Finally, in March, 1911, Fresno’s leaders capitulated. Their jail, courts, and town jammed with agitators, they rescinded the ordinance and released the Wobblies. The Fresno Free Speech fight was won. So, what is the legacy of the Kaweah Colony and the free speech fight? It would seem very little. The Kaweah Colony hung on for as long as it could but eventually its members scattered. The Fresno free speech fight left no lasting organization among the farm-workers. Fresno’s IWW office was destroyed by the “authorities” unleashed by President Wilson in the hysteria surrounding World War One—the same hysteria that hanged Frank Little at the end of a pro-war lynch mob’s rope in Butte, Montana. In 1919, the state of California passed the Criminal Syndicalism Act, a far reaching attack on civil liberties that was used for decades to crack down on labor organizers for the crime of thought. There is an irony in celebrating a failed utopia and a forgotten free speech fight, but I still think there is something here. These are not just colorful stories of “crazy” losers, but rather markers of a much larger hidden history—the remnants of living alternatives—that we can trace into the present. These movements kept alive the possibility, however remote, that another world is possible, even here. In that sense, their history didn’t “end” in failure. History doesn’t end. It lives in what we do, who we say we are, and what we mean when we answer the question “Where are you from?” Utopian dreamers and Wobblies lived here, but in a different world. They knew that this reality of ours wasn’t the only one possible. ______ Paul Gilmore is a history professor at Fresno City College, who is unhappy with the way the world works at present.

Tulare Lake Remembered - The Undercurrent -

On August 15th 1898, The New York Times reported…

“Tulare Lake has passed out of existence. Where once there was a body of water in central California over a thousand square miles in area, now there is only a barren desert of mud. The lands can be reclaimed and used for farming . . . They say the land will grow any kind of crop with very little irrigation.”

There was no mention of the Yokut Tribes who inhabited the area, no mention of the grizzlies that roamed the floor of the San Joaquin valley amongst the elk, antelope, deer, and waterfowl. Of course, they had passed out of existence also, for they all lived off the abundance and balance that was the Tulare Lake. The Great Tulare Lake existed for longer than we can know and until the end of the 19th century was the largest lake west

of the Great lakes. Covering most of what we now know as Kings County, Kern County and Tulare County, the lake was fed by rivers flowing out of the mountains, and sustained large levels of water, even during dry years. In dry years, the lake covered around 500 square miles. In wet years, the lake could explode to well over 1,000 square miles. The lake derived its name from the great bulrushes called “tules” that covered most of its shore lines and the waterways coming to and from the lake. It is rumored that the band of tules could be a mile thick all the way around the lake in some years. Imagine we were to take a trip back over 250 years. We begin our journey from what’s now Fresno, and travel south about 40 miles. The further south we go, the land quickly transforms from mostly dry brush, to a massive ecosystem filled with diverse life. As we approach the lake, from several miles away, you see enormous flocks of birds flying in and out of the lake area—all different types of birds in flocks that shade the land as they take flight in mass, or flying alone, diving into something in the distance you can’t yet see, and reemerging with large fish in their beaks. Now we are close, the sound of the wilderness is anything but quiet, it’s massive. The scene is thick and busy, like jungle, but not as tall. When we reach the tules, the giant bulrushes, you still can’t see the lake, but you can hear the earth living, hundreds of different types of animals chirp and call and bellow in a symphony. The ground is wet now; the tules live in marshland, and the edge of the lake can be somewhat hard to decipher. It is surrounded by swamps and waterways, small and large. You break through the edge of the densest part of the sedge to see clearly in front of you a lake 75 miles across and 25 miles wide. You hear

the blunt sounds of a grizzly foraging and grunting in the distance, but it’s not distant enough to feel very good about. Suddenly, you realize there are many people along the shores of this lake. The Yokut tribe, which spans the entire San Joaquin valley with 50,000 members and 16 regional subcultures, has one of the highest regional populations on the continent. Some of them live here. They use the rushes to build small boats and nets. They fish the lake, they hunt the antelope, the elk, they trap the birds and the turtles and they live in relative peace in a land of plenty. The Yokut have a legend that the world was once covered in only water. Out of the area of the Tulare Lake there stood a pole. On the pole lived a crow and a hawk, and they eventually created a duck who swam to the bottom of the great lake and scooped up mud in her beak, and died upon surfacing. The crow and the hawk used this mud to create both ranges of mountains that we see from the valley. Over the next several decades, everything changed quickly for the Yokut and the turtles, who would fight with each other as they sunbathed on floating logs and shorelines. New people came. They weren’t from here; they built huge boats and began trapping fish in vast numbers, and shipping them to San Francisco to serve in upscale restaurants. They found the Pacific Pond Turtles and decided they were a delicacy; they shipped them everywhere to make the famous “Terrapin Soup”. When the Yokut started dying from new diseases and various forms of exploitation they died fast; their numbers shrank to almost nothing within 100 years. The new men changed the way the waters flowed; they dammed and diverted the great Kings River, and The Kaweah, The Kern and The Tule. When water no longer flowed into the lake they built canals to take water away to other places. They wanted the land under the water to grow crops, and the land was fertile for growing. When the lake was gone they declared victory over nature and started towns and cities. They said the land would always grow, and without irrigation at that. Over the next 100 years, the lake repeatedly fought to return to its home. As late as 1997 in years of high precipitation, the lake would suddenly return without warning. The water flowed to the basin and refused to leave for weeks at a time. Now when the lake returns, the invaders curse the lake as an intruder and fight to once again control

by Jason Gonzales

the water. They send it where they think it should be, and declare victory when it recedes. They rebuild their homes and cities, and reestablish their orchards and crops. When the water isn’t so abundant, which is most years, the growing cities pump more and more out of the ground, where the lake hid its roots in massive underground caverns; they take so much that the surface of the land is falling. And now the Tules have been gone for longer than we can remember, and the people who live here don’t even realize the mighty grizzly once roamed the valley floors. Some don’t know they lived near here at all. The Yokut are hard to find, and harder still are the elk and the antelope. The land is dry; in recent years, the water has run out and the crops are frequently left to die. People have forgotten the great Tulare Lake and the stories about it are few and far between. But we have learned nothing, we build more damns, we drain more lakes, and we keep pumping. We ignore the absence of the grizzlies, and people don’t speak of the Yokut. We can only hope the lake, and all of nature, will continue to defend herself until we can conquer it no longer. Those few who fight for the earth can only wait for the day the natural world refuses to be conquered, and maybe the lake will return, and the Yokut and the Grizzly can live on its shores again, and the hawk and the crow will sit on their pole, and enjoy their beautiful mountain view. _____ Jason Gonzalez is usually a stay at home dad to 2 yr old Oli and 6 month old Aiyana. The family is currently hiding in the woods, but can be reached at fresnoalamo@hotmail.com.

Sunday

w Brian Kenney Fresno, Audie's Olympic/Club Fred, 8p w Superbowl Potluck, Audie's Olympic/Club Fred, 3p w The Freeshow, VVV w ART: Rabbit Hole, $15, SEV, 2p w Jazz Jam Session, TKG, 6p

Monday

w SIN w/ DJ Evil G, Audie's Olympic/Club Fred, 9p w Cafe Scientifique: Charles Darwin & the Tree of Live (Dr. Rick Zechman), Lucy's Lair, 6:30p w Live music, VVV

Tuesday

w Open Mic/Open Jam w/Aesop & the Olympians, Audie's Olympic/Club Fred, 9p w The Licorice Pimps (feat. Jeff Logan), VVV

Wednesday

w 80z Nite Ladiez Night w/DJ Audie 5000, Audie's Olympic/Club Fred, 9p w The Hump Band, VVV w Teach-in: Stop Raping Our Greatest Resource: Power to Women of the Congo," CSUF US 202, 4:30p w Acoustic Open Mic, JAV, 7p

5 Art H w Bike Hop, m

w Love, the Ca Cheetahsaurus, Audie's Olympic/C w Reggae Nigh w The Roaming w Fres Poets' A 7:30p w Rademacher, Aircrash, $ w Open Mic: H w Patrick Contr

15 w Levator, Hypatia Lake, Audie's

24 w Patrick Contreras Band hosts

26 RO

w Brian Kenney Fresno, Audie's Olympic/Club Fred, 5p w Outlaw Country w/ DJ Audie 5000, Audie's Olympic/Club Fred, 9p w The Freeshow, VVV w ART: Rabbit Hole, $15, SEV, 2p w Jazz Jam session, Marsol, 7p

w w w w w

Olympic/Club Fred, 9p Brian Kenney Fresno, Audie's Olympic/Club Fred, 5p Jazz Jam Session, TKG, 6p Madera Wine Trail: Wine & Chocolate, $20, Madera Co, 10a-5p The Freeshow, VVV Vagina Monologues, $10 ($5 stu), CSUF Satellite Union, 7p Wine/ChocolateWeekend, Fresno Co Wineries, free, noon-6p

w SIN w/ DJ Evil G, Audie's Olympic/Club Fred, 9p w Live music, VVV

22 23 w $1 Punk Nite...the Widdley-Wahs, w

w w w

Rites of Retribution, Switchblade327, Church of Hate, Audie's Olympic/Club Fred, 9p Mardi Gras Parade Afterparty w/ Glen Delpit & the Subterraneans, Audie's Olympic/Club Fred, 2p The Freeshow, VVV Tower District Mardi Gras Parade, 1p Jazz Jam session, Marsol, 7p

w SIN w/DJ Evil G, Audie's Olympic/Club Fred, 9p w Live music, VVV

w Calendar current as of printing

w Open Mic/Open Jam w/ Aesop & the Olympians, Audie's Olympic/Club Fred, 9p w The Licorice Pimps (feat. Jeff Logan), VVV

w Rockabilly w/ The Quakes, Audie's Olympic/Club Fred, 9p w Licorice Pimps (feat. Jeff Logan), VVV w Woodward Shakespeare staged reading: Julius Caesar, WWP Library, 6:30p

Mardi Gras, $7, Audie's Olympic/Club Fred, 9p w Motionless in White, My Hero is Me, The Hotness, EXT, 8p w Film: What I Want My Words to do to You, $5 donation, C.A.F.E. Infoshop, 7p w Licorice Pimps (feat. Jeff Logan), VVV

Where:

w 80z Nite Ladiez Night w/ DJ Audie 5000, Audie's Olympic/Club Fred, 9p w Soul Freedom Lounge w/ Mr. Leonard, VVV w Love, the Captive presents... Robopop, ZP, 9p w Acoustic Open Mic, JAV, 7p

w Special Outlaw Country Night, Audie's Olympic/Club Fred, 10p w Chuck Dimes, Exile, $6, SL, 9p w The Hump Band, VVV w Fres Phil: The Czech Symphony Orchestra, $24+, WST, 7:30p w Valley Townhall: Roland Mesnier: White House Meringues and Memoirs, $20 (free to students w/ ID), WST, 10:30a w Acoustic Open Mic, JAV, 7p w HUMP! International House Party, Audie's Olympic/Club Fred, 9p w Soul Freedom Lounge w/ Mr. Leonard, VVV w Acoustic Open Mic, JAV, 7p

2ST: 2ND Space Theatre, 928 E Olive CRS: Crossroads, 3315 N Cedar Ave EXT: The Exit, 1533 E Belmont FAM: Fres Art Mus, 2233 N 1st St IFS: InfoShop, 935 F St ITZ: Studio Itz, 370 N Fresno St

w Love, the Ca The Bloom Audie's Ol w Science of W MET, 6p w Reggae Nigh w Open Mic: H

Art H

w Love, the Ca the Big Sur 9p w Reggae Nigh w Inner Ear Poe w Open Mic: H

w Love, the Ca Audie's Ol w Rogue Fest K w Reggae Nigh w Open Mic: H

JAV: Javawava, 1940 N Echo KPJ: Kuppajoe, 3673 N First St RL: The Red Lantern RR: Roger Rockaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, 1226 N Wishon SEV: Severance, Floradora & Wishon SL: The Starline, 831 E Fern SMH: Smokehouse Bar, 1231 Van Ness TKG: Tokyo Garden

TT: To WST: WT: W WWPL VVV: ZP: Za

Thursday

Hop (Tower / Downtown)

meet at Tower Velo, 5:30 aptive presents Robopop, Buffalo Guns, Silence Interrupted,

Club Fred, 9p ht w/ Reality Sound Int'l, VVV g Soldiers Texas Rock, $6, FCB, 8p Association: Gary Short, $5, FAM,

, The Aimless Never Miss, The 5, TKG, 9:30p Hip Hop, Poetry, Spoken Word, ZP, 9p reras, DB & the Struggle, free, ITZ, 7p

aptive presents…Style Like Revelators, ming Hands, Belly of the Whale, lympic/Club Fred, 9p Wine Series (lecture and tasting), $25,

ht w/ Reality Sound Int'l, VVV Hip Hop, Poetry, Spoken Word, ZP, 9p

Hop (Metro/Outlying)

aptive…Flight 409, We Shot the Moon, rrender, Audie's Olympic/Club Fred,

ht w/ Reality Sound Int'l, VVV etry Jam, $5, FCB, 8p Hip Hop, Poetry, Spoken Word, ZP, 9p

OGUE FESTIVAL!

aptive presents...Jay Smith Biatch, lympic/Club Fred, 9p Kick Off Party, FCB, 8p ht w/ Reality Sound Int'l, VVV Hip Hop, Poetry, Spoken Word, ZP, 9p

ower Theatre, 815 Olive Ave William Saroyan Theatre Warnor Theatre L: Woodward Park Library Veni Vedi Vici, 1116 N Fulton app's Park, 1105 N Blackstone

Friday

6 w Glen Delpit & the Subterraneans, Audie's Olympic/Club Fred, 5p

Fusion Porn, DB & the Struggle, Audie's Olympic/Club Fred, 9p ART: Rabbit Hole, $15, SEV, 8p Cineculture: Before they die, Free, CSUF McLane Hall 121, 5:30p Soul Good w/ DJs Manny Carr & Matt Burton, VVV Meatball Magic, RL, 10p Black Light Poetry: Poetri & the Javon Davis Trio, $8, the Loft (1060 Fulton Mall Suite 216), 8p w 21st Annual SJV Jazz Festival, Buchanan HS & Paul Shaghoian Concert Hall w EvKevEv (Eva Scow, Kevin Hill, Evo Bluestein), $10, FCB, 8p w Hazel & Vine, Sleep for Sleepers, KPJ w w w w w w

w w w w w w w w w

w Aesop’s Record Release, Audie's Olympic/Club Fred, 9p Mike Smith & The Handsome Devils, Audie's Olympic/Club Fred, 5p DJ Prof Stone, VVV Racelegs, Circles & Circles, KPJ Fresno Filmworks: Ashes of Time Redux, $10, TT, 5:30p and 8p Band of Orcs, Skull Collector, Ecryptic, Necrowizard, $10, EXT, 6p Super Lucky Catz, SL, 9p Jazz Jam w/ Karen Marguth & Friends, $5, FCB, 5:30p ART: Rabbit Hole, $15, SEV, 8p Beat Rydaz Black Out, ZP, 9p

w Blues w/ Glen Delpit, Audie's Olympic/Club Fred, 5p w Sci-Fi Nightmares, The Spurts, Midnight Howlers, Luxury Sweets, Audie's Olympic/Club Fred, 9p w All or Nothing, Fayda, The Ember Reign, Icatchfire, $7, KPJ w Cineculture: King of Masks, CSUF McLane Hall 121, 5:30p w Meatball Magic, RL, 10p w Frisky w/ DJ P-Rez, VVV w Lance Canales Trio, $6, FCB, 8p

ROGUE FESTIVAL!

w 40 Watt Hype, Bungalow Downs, JJ Brown, Audie's Olympic/Club Fred, 9p w Critical Mass Bike Ride, meet at Fres HS entrance, 5:30p w The Richard Giddens Quintet, VVV w Cineculture: Constantine's Sword, CSUF McLane Hall 121, 5:30p w Dave Lane, Audie's Olympic/Club Fred, 5p w Canon, the Aircrash, Dalton Mountain Gang, Brother Luke & the Comrades, KPJ, doors open @ 7p w Contraluz Teatral presenta a “Las Mujeres de Juarez,” $10-$12, FAM, 8p

Got An Event

Saturday

w Gabba Gabba Heys (Ramones tribute), Sci-Fi Horrors, Honorbound Heros, $10, Audies Olympic/Club Fred, 8p w The Kris Special, Aspen Hollow, Oso, $6, FCB, 8p w Fres Phil: Classical Mystery Tour (Beatles tribute), $27+, WST, 8p w ART: Rabbit Hole, $15, SEV, 8p w 21st Annual SJV Jazz Festival, Buchanan HS & Paul Shaghoian Concert Hall w The Same Shape, VVV, 10:30p w Blue Divas, Dead Hooker Society, Audie's Olymp./Club

Fred, 5p w The Beat Dynasty, VVV w Vagina Monologues, $10 ($5 stu), CSUF Satellite Union, 7p w Open mic & Blues Jam hosted by Tony & the Ripper, FCB, 5-11p w Last Chance! ART: Rabbit Hole, $15, SEV, 8p w Wine/ChocolateWeekend, Fresno County wineries, free, 12-6p w Madera Wine Trail: Wine/Chocolate, $20, Madera Co, 10a - 5p w Paint Your Words Tour: Mind Theater Records & 2Mex, $15, EXT, 6p w DJ Fuze: Loney Hearts Nite, ZP, 8p w DB & The Struggle, Soular Power, $6, Babylon, 9p

w Mofo Pary Band's 20th Anniversary Show, Audie's Olympic/Club Fred, 9p w Body Rock w/ DJs Don D & F-Plus, VVV w Woodward Shakespeare Audition Workshop, details TBA w Jazz Jam Session, TKG, 6p w Fres Folklore Soc: Bill Evans & Megan Lynch, $20, FAM, 7:30p w Acoustic Highway, $5, FCB, 8p w Pennywise, Authority Zero, TAT, $21, Crest Theatre, 7p w Rademacher recording benefit w/ Sleepover Disaster, TKG, 9:30p w Carnaval & Motorcycle Poker Run, Arte Americas, 3-8p, $15 min w Danzantes del Valle High School Showcase, Fresno Memorial Auditorium, 2p & 7p

28 ROGUE FESTIVAL!

w This Charming Band (Smiths Tribute), DJ Julian, Audie's Olympic/Club Fred, 9p w Word of Mouth w/ DJ Rusty, VVV w Chuck Dimes, Realization, The Suppressors, $7, Babylon, 9p w Picture Atlantic, Queens Club, Monarch, KPJ w Jazz Fresno presents: Amina Figarova Sextet, $12, Bullard HS, 7p w Contraluz Teatral presenta a “Las Mujeres de Juarez,” $10-$12, FAM, 8p

Ongoing Events:

w 2nd Space Theatre: The Man Who Came to Dinner,

you want included on the UnderCurrentEvents Calendar? Email us with Feb 26-April 19 the what, who, where, when, and how much $: Calendar@ w Roger Rocka's: Footloose, Jan 15-Mar 15 FresnoUndercurrent.net

w 2nd Space Theatre: The Trip to Bountiful, Jan 2 - Feb 22

(far left)

The Bungalowdowns

Fairwell Flight

(left)

THE AIMLESS NEVER MISS, RADEMACHER, THE AIRCRASH

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 05

900pm T O K Y O garden 21+ / $5

Devil in the Woods Records recording artists The Aimless Never Miss are more focused than ever. Having endured a number of line-up changes over the last few years, and with members past and current touring the planet with other bands, Aimless are a better live band than ever, and they’ll prove it on this night, as they tour in support of their recent album release. Local indie icons Rademacher and great local up-and-comers, The Aircrash, will ensure that this show is a good time.

VARIOUS ARTISTS (THE J DILLA TRIBUTE SHOW)

T U E S D A Y

FEBRUARY 10

900pm the STARLINE 21+ / $5ish

Hip-hop artist J. Dilla died recently from complications related to Lupus. All proceeds from this all-star show will go to J. Dilla’s mother who also suffers from the disease. An amazing variety of people have gotten together to make this night happen, and it promises to be stellar entertainment in support of a good cause. Featured artists Fashawn, Shon J, Johnny Q, Devoya Mayo, and The Armen Nalbandian Band will play and DJ Mike Oz, DJ Mr. Leonard, DJ F Plus, and DJ Catch will spin before, between, and after.

LEVATOR / HYPATIA LAKE / DIA DEL ASTRONAUTA

S U N D A Y FEBRUARY 15

900pm audie’s OLYMPIC 21+ / $5ish

Shoegaze rock (haven’t heard of it? Look it up!) and psychedelic rock will be in full effect on this otherwise sleepy Sunday night in Fresno. Levator and Hypatia Lake return to Fresno after great 2008 shows to give Fresno a second chance to hear why the Northwest has a unique handle on these genres. Levator, touring in support of a brand-spankin’ new record, promises to please. Hypatia Lake bring the psychedelia, and amazing locals Dia del Astronauta will remove any doubt that this show is Fresno’s February hat trick.

FAIRWELL FLIGHT, THE SLEEPOVER DISASTER, FLIGHT 409

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 28

800pm the V E N U E 21+ / $5 18

For a brand new, all-ages venue in Sanger, CA, this is a pretty ambitious venture. Fairwell Flight from Harrisburg, PA—a band with a huge following on MySpace and, more importantly, in the real world— headline this jam-packed bill of five bands, including The Union and Victory Jump. The night runs the gamut of genres, but it’s all guitar rock in one form or another. All bands bring a unique energy to this show, which should make The Venue a viable spot for all-ages shows in the Fresno area for some time to come.

(right)

Dia Del Astronauta

Love the Captive presents...BUFFALO GUNS / ROBOPOP

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 05

900pm audie’s OLYMPIC 21+ / $5ish

THE BUNGALOWDOWNS, SUPER LUCKY CATZ

F R I D A Y

FEBRUARY 13

900pm the STARLINE 21+ / $5ish T U E S D A Y

900pm the STARLINE all ages / $5

SATURDAY 900pm audie’s OLYMPIC 21+ / $12

The Bungalowdowns (or The BDowns, as those in the know call them) are one of Fresno’s live music secret gems. Featuring Mitch Gordon (Six Ounce Gloves) and former KFSR music director Frank Delgado, this band is all about a good time. Playing an unlikely blend of funk, blues, roots rock, with a little bit of youname-it thrown in for good measure, this crew hasn’t forgotten that live music isn’t just about playing songs, it’s about entertaining. Local favorites Super Lucky Catz provide the “ditto” on this bill.

Love the Captive presents... THE MARDI GRAS SHOW

FEBRUARY 24

FEBRUARY 28

Love, The Captive Promotions, in addition to great Tuesday nights at The Starline, is now booking Thursdays at Audie’s. This is great for bands and music fans alike, as it will add a consistent source of great live Thursday night entertainment to the Tower District and Fresno at large. Buffalo Guns headline this show as they loop back through town during their current tour. In addition to Robopop, we may see From Indian Lakes (who are on the tour with B.G.), and if not, you can count on a talented special guest.

Love, The Captive promotions brings a killer dance party to help you celebrate Mardi Gras with Draft

Click and Robopop, plus DJ Johnny Q and DJ Hectic

spinning the hits and favorites. If last year’s Love, The Captive Mardi Gras night is any indication, The

Starline will be the hot spot for your celebration this

time around.

THIS CHARMING BAND / DJ JULIAN

While there are other bands touring around playing/paying tribute to The Smiths and Morrissey, local consensus is that This Charming Band is the one to see. Returning to Fresno after a remarkable, soldout performance just a few months back, these guys will play the hits as well as the rare tracks for the hardcore Smiths/Morrissey fans in the crowd. As with the band’s last appearance at Audie’s, DJ Julian will set the mood and get the crowd dancing by spinning a set of choice, primarily 80s hits and remixes.

THE VENUES / Cellar Door = 101 W Main St, Visalia / The Exit = 1533 E Belmont, Fresno / Audie’s Olympic Club Fred= 1426 N Van Ness, Fresno / Howie & Sons Pizza = 2430 S Mooney, Visalia / The Starline = 831 E Fern, Fresno / The Partisan = 432 W Main St, Merced / Tokyo Garden = 1711 Fulton, Fresno / Veni Vidi Vici = 1116 N Fulton, Fresno / Babylon = 1064 N Fulton, Fresno / The Venue = 1148 7th St, Sanger

- The Undercurrent -

Celebrate Black Friday With Aesop & Swamp

Every year, communities worldwide join V-Day (Valentines Day? Vagina Day! Victory Day!) in a global, yet grassroots, campaign to raise awareness about violence against women, and to support local organizations who are working to make our cities safe. Last year, over 4,000 events took place to demand safety for women and children, including hundreds of performances of Eve Ensler’s powerful play, The Vagina Monologues, an unprecedented work incorporating the perspectives of women throughout the world, women of every race, class, orientation, age, and nationality. Once again, P.O.W.E.R. and V-Day Fresno State are bringing VDay to California State University, Fresno, this year with more illuminating events to experience, enjoy and learn from than ever before. For the month of February, V-Day Fresno State will feature three exciting events to raise awareness about violence against women, offering an opportunity to help via your donations to important local organizations engaged in the struggle to end sexual terrorism. February will begin with a teach-in on Wednesday the 4th about V-

Day 2009’s spotlight beneficiary, an organization chosen by Eve Ensler to receive 10% of the pro-

by Ashley Fairburn

ceeds from every V-Day event worldwide. This year’s spotlight, “Stop Raping our Greatest Resource: Power to Women of the Democratic Republic of the Congo” is an effort led by women and girls in the DRC to speak out for the first time about the extreme femicide and use of rape as a weapon of war currently taking place in their country. Those attending this February 4th event can expect to learn from the women of DRC about the conditions they are persevering through, as well as what can be done to help. Fast forward a week and an opportunity to help the women of the DRC and local efforts to stop violence will present itself. This year, spend Valentine’s Day showing the ultimate love by attending our 2009 production of The Vagina Monologues. On February 14th and 15th in the Satellite Student Union, a fabulous cast of 18 women will perform Ensler’s touching representations of the lives, experiences, and sexualities of women from around the world, and of course, tales of their vaginas. These monologues draw to light the often hidden and repressed experiences of women, particularly drawing the focus onto women as opposed to the generally male-perspective framed mainstream media. While hearing the stories of women’s perspectives of

sex and violence is certainly an eye opening experience, this year we are pleased to further draw to light a doubly silenced voice, that of transwomen. Whether a night out with the girls or the perfect date for your Valentine’s Day sweetheart, The Vagina Monologues is a heartwarming performance which has moved audiences worldwide. Last but not least, V-Day Fresno State will also be hosting a film screening of Eve Ensler’s film “What I Want My Words to Do to You” at the C.A.F.E. Infoshop on February 24th. This film is

the culmination of writer’s workshops Eve conducted in women’s prisons throughout the U.S. Here, criminalized women teach us about how violence against women is linked to incarceration of women. For this event we are asking for a donation of $5-$20, on a sliding scale. All proceeds from each of these events will go to the spotlight campaign, as well as to local organizations, the Violence Prevention Project, the Resource Center for Survivors, and the Fresno Bad Date Sheet Project. This is your chance to help women throughout Fresno and the world, as well as all Fresnans, to make our community a safer place.

by Abid Yahya

On Friday the 13th (this February), Audie’s Olympic Club Fred will welcome veteran local emcee Aesop, along with the world-renowned DJ Swamp. The occasion is the long-anticipated release of Living the Dream While Awake, the latest solo effort from Aesop, longtime member of the Living Legends. On the heels of the Legends’ critically acclaimed LP The Gathering, Aesop’s latest should attract a lot of attention among hip hop heads, and Aesop’s rare hometown performance should not be missed. DJ Swamp has been genre-bending and crowd-pleasing for years. This widely-revered deejay and sometimes emcee toured for four years as a member of Beck’s band, and has made mention in the pages of such presses as Rolling Stone, Spin, and Urb. Urb had this to say: “Witnessing Swamp torture the 1200s is like watching a magic show.” Known not only for his genius musical talent, but also for his intense stage presence and mischievous onstage antics, Swamp’s set at Club Fred should be a spectacle to behold. The show starts at 9pm. There’s a $10 cover charge, but you get a free Living the Dream While Awake sampler download card. Sounds like a win-win to me.

- The Undercurrent -

Black Light Poetry

by Abid Yahya

Founded by Caleb Werner and Stephen Mayu Jr in 2007, BLP is a recurring evening of spoken word and poetry performances by both local poets and visiting stars of the spoken word scene. Mayu explains, “Black Light Poetry is you, it’s

me, it’s your friends, it’s almost everything you’d want to see if you were going to a Spoken Word event. We take local artists and couple them with bigger well known artists who aren’t from Fresno. The problem with the Valley is there are so many cleverly talented individuals who end up leaving only to make it big somewhere else. We want to bring the BIG names here in order for the naysayers to see that it can be done and done well....” On Friday, 6 February, BLP returns with an event featuring LA-based poet Poetri, who’s performed on Def Poetry Jam and on Broadway, with music by the Javon Davis Trio. In addition, three or four other local poets will perform. The show starts at 8pm. $8 for adults; kids get in free. Come one, come all. The show takes place at the Loft (1060 Fulton Mall, Suite 216, on the 2nd story of the old Security Bank Building). Visit www.blacklightpoetry.com for more information.

ArtistsÕ Repertory Theatre: Poetry on Rabbit Hole and Beyond

the radio

by Matt Espinoza Watson

by Jessi Hafer

Artists’ Repertory Theatre (ART) is performing David Lindsay-Abaire’s 2007 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Rabbit Hole, through February 14 at the California Arts Academy Severance Building on Wishon and Floradora. Rabbit Hole tells of a couple’s sadness, forgiveness, and resolution after the accidental death of their young child. Rabbit Hole is directed by Julie Ann Keller and features performances from Jennifer HurdPeterson, Michael J. Peterson, Carol Love, Hayley Galbraith, and Arthur Koster. Performances are held on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM and on Sundays at 2 PM. Tickets are $12 in advance and $15 at the door (student and senior tickets are $10 in advance and $13 at the door). Advance tickets can be ordered by phone at (559) 222-6539 or ordered online at brownpapertickets.com. ART’s production opened on January 16. I’m one of those people who’s ashamed if I don’t manage to see a play within the first couple of weeks that it’s open, but that’s ridiculous. We all have two weeks in February to catch this show if we haven’t already. If ART’s previous productions (including their fun, engrossing, and hugely successful production of the Rocky Horror Show in October and November 2008) are any indication, Rabbit Hole should be a safe bet. ART will also be performing more selections from All in the Timing at this year’s Rogue Festival; their funny and fast-paced performance at last year was one of my Rogue Fest favorites. ART will also be performing The Fantasticks this spring, starting in late March.

There is a new poetry & prose program on our local airwaves that you should know about… Mike Medrano (a poet, English Professor, & generally cool guy) has begun a show on KFCF 88.1 with David Campos (a local poet who fellow poets have described as someone who “burst onto the scene a year ago like a nice bright star”). The show is called “Pákatelas,” and is named after a poem by the late Andrés Montoya (if you don’t know Andrés’ work, then you really need to tune in to the show…). The show happens on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of each month from 3 to 3:30 pm. The first show in February (Feb. 12) will feature acclaimed Fresno poet and professor Connie Hales. Be sure to check it out.

- The Undercurrent -

Q-Tip The Renaissance (Life is Better Now That I Found You) Universal Motown (2008) Life Really is Better Now That I Found You

immediately hear the focus, energy and maturity of a hiphop scholar. Rather than soleWhen word leaked out that Q- ly catering to the nostalgia of the Native Tongue era, the Tip (former frontman of the album effortlessly now legendary hip hop crew, weaves the soul A Tribe Called Quest) was birthed during the finally releasing the long period in question awaited follow-up to 1999’s Amplified, I wasn’t as excited and masterfully injects it with an as one might have thought. air of hope and Don’t get me wrong, I love optimism for me some Tip. In fact, I what’s ahead, be remember the day I bought it collectively or Tribe’s debut, People’s within. Just Instinctive Travels and the check out these Paths of Rhythm, on cassette lyrics from the and rocked it in my headfunky and bass phones for an entire summer, driven “manbut I’ll spare you further womanboogie,” details of my long love affair featuring sultry with the Walkman and hipguest vocals prohop and get to the point. Yes, I love Q-Tip, but vided by Amanda Diva: being involved in radio and having access to many a DJ Black woman is stripped of crate over the past 7 to 8 her kingdom / and brought to years, I wrongly assumed I breast feed anew. probably owned the bulk of Black man, mentally, he browhat the record was sure to ken too. / But the cream contain. After all, there were always rise to the top. 2 unreleased LPs between That’s what men and women Amplified and The Renaissance. In my mind, the do. new joint was bound to be a collection of what I’d already Men and Women always doin tha dance. / One whops one been exposed to. Well, I’m pops. happy to say I was horribly We be lucky if we both find a wrong. groove / that we both can Yes, there are tracks lock. on The Renaissance that I’d been introduced to before, but Can man be stronger if the woman is there? / I would once you’ve listened from start to finish (12 tracks plus a have to say yes Can woman make it without hidden bonus), you instantly forget what they were and hit man bein there? / She would have to be blessed. repeat and settle in again. From the moment the album starts, its sophistication Woman and Man / are the spiritual forces is evident. With production Brought together to live. / by Q-Tip and the late J-Dilla (on two tracks), an icon Good thing there’s many of us Here in the world today, / find in his own right, you 22

b y D e v o y a Ma y o

a good one and give. Let’s go come on.

The album’s tempo is consistent, steady and relevant, as

heard in “We fight / We love,” featuring Raphael Saadiq, which engages in verbal discourse over the war on terror. He left his friends. He ain’t home no more. He’s in a place that’s far away, Where he can’t understand what they say. They say salaam. They carry bombs In crowded places, and cause alarm. You’re the infidel who’s uninvited, But really an American boy who’s slighted. It ain’t your fault. You want identity. So you join this big fraternity. You get to travel the world. It’s cheaper than college, And you get guns and you get knowledge. Lookin for your soul, and WMDs,

You can’t find nothing, cause it’s empty. You got your gun, and he’s your friend And he’s your man, until the end. We fight, we love.

In a time when we are reminded daily that change is evident and necessary, it is comforting to know that there are still artists brave enough to deliver something worth saying—and with finesse, understanding and sincerity, and without benefit of autotune. Q-Tip has returned with a confident, creative surprisingly seamless bit of music. Hands down, it’s my pick for the best album of 2008! Do yourselves a favor and pick up a copy of what is sure to become a masterpiece. ______ Devoya Mayo is a sometime Poet, Playwright, DJ and Community Organizer who first became interested in social change via the arts. She has dedicated much of her time to creating gatherings, workshops, and events that bridge the divide between the diverse communities that reside within the central valley. When pressed to describe who she is, her response was: I write, I laugh, I craft things you might dig, I play music for people in dimly lit establishments, I enjoy having it seem as though it’s all part of the plan.

- The Undercurrent -

Book Review

Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found

by Huma Gupta

Reading Cities in a Landscape of Terror

Suketu Mehta

26/11: A new date, a new point plotted on the world map. Just after the terrorist attack in Mumbai, Suketu Mehta wrote an editorial in The New York Times stating that religious extremists were appalled by this global city because “Mumbai stands for lucre, profane dreams and an indiscriminate openness.” This could be said of London, New York and Madrid as well. It thus, fits neatly into the pool of “why they hate us” rhetoric. This question of “hate,” “they,” and “us” will remain unresolved for some time, but another one quickly catches our attention. Why is a forty-five year old Bombay-born man living in diaspora (Park Slope, Brooklyn) since the age of fourteen an authoritative spokesperson for the pains or pleasures of one of the most populated cities on the planet? His authority, in part, is derived from the widespread accolades garnered by his 2004 book, Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found. Immediately after the November attacks, when terrorists set a new precedent by taking high class hostages in even higher class hotels, I turned again for insights to Mehta’s book and his highly entertaining, fluid narrative of an inexplicable city. On first reading, the reader is immediately struck by the division of the narrative into three sections: Power, Pleasure, and Passage. The pure joy of alliteration aside, Mehta’s headings and prose style try to mimic the sensationalism, fictionalized reality, and gangsta flavor of Bollywood itself. The first section, “Power,” sets the

Vintage (2005)

stage, where the audience is introduced to Mumbai as if it were the grandiose Indian hero in a film. “I am all-destroying death and the origin of things that are yet to be,” quotes Mehta as he likens Mumbai to the majesty of the Hindu god Krishna. Mumbai’s splendor

though, is quickly dismantled as he immediately tackles the city’s bureaucratic nightmare and corruption. Unfortunately, his criticism is rather short-lived. The details of the unnecessary deprivation of access to basic services for many is quickly smoothed over after he implies that corruption both destroys livelihoods for some and ensures them for others. To Mehta, Mumbai is the free market of scams, and if one is not clever enough to perpetuate one, then one will become its unsuspecting victim. Mehta’s primary protagonists are those who distinguish themselves from the ordinary, runof-the-mill, struggling citizens. He thus focuses on the underworld: conniving politicians, slum-born thugs, religious rioters, violent baby-faced police officers, and transnational gangsters.

“Pleasure,” the next section, is the introduction to Mehta’s heroine, the many secret worlds of women. Followed by vivid descriptions of police brutality, gang warfare and unapologetic political corruption, this section allows the reader to gasp for air, as they would on the streets of Mumbai. Cheap food and beautiful women litter Mehta’s tale of pleasure as he explores the counterpart to the male-dominated underworld: Beer Bar dancers, prostitutes, transvestites and Bollywood actresses. Perhaps Mehta’s dichotomous setting up of a masculine narrative of power, followed by a feminine narrative of pleasure, is an implicit critique of India’s ongoing struggle with patriarchy. One could only hope, as the book focuses on the most sexualized and violent elements of the city’s urban fabric. The last section, “Passages,” transitions into the desperately needed dénouement, as it reveals the more perceptive side of Mehta, who finally gets the blood, gore and sex out of his literary system. He begins to focus on the details of the majority, the ordinary. Though the shortest section, it encapsulates the real mechanics of why Mumbai works. It works because of the peasant migrants, aspiring poets, Jain religious gurus, and the collective rhythms of massive crowds. The gangsters and prostitutes are only there because the masses are there. The choice of each and every individual to move or stay in the city is what ultimately keeps the city functioning. This is Mehta’s primary point. Mumbai is the golden song-

bird, and as long as it has the power to lure, it exists. In the context of his narrative, it is understandable why Mehta would encourage people to run to Mumbai and spend money after 26/11. Without the sustained dreams of rapid success and pleasure, for Mehta, the city would not survive. On reading the book a second time after the attacks, however, I do not find Mehta to be as amusing, astute and accountable as before. He privileges big dreams over little ones, and champions large successes over small ones. The unprecedented and uncontrolled urban growth in developing cities like Mumbai is truly a source of horror. Every woman and man moving from outlying rural areas may dream of becoming a gangster, business guru, or film star, but simply securing a decent place to live is the greatest success many will find. Though Mumbai may have the power to attract, Mehta only barely tackles the question of whether it has the power to sustain. And within this question lies a more appropriate answer to

Mehta’s question above: Why do they hate us? Or why do they hate Mumbai? Because we are still unable to see the other perspective, to give a book a second reading, to look beyond the casualties in our own cities, to provide for most people, or perhaps you the reader prefer to scribble your own answer in the margins. Nevertheless, selfaggrandizement and fervent worship of a grossly inequitable and dazzling urban center is the basis of Mehta’s book. This is what makes it an easy and enjoyable read, keeping in mind that it is plagued with the same type of plot holes and two-dimensional performances you can find in many Bollywood productions. _______ Huma Gupta is an urban planning historian, researcher, and graphic designer. She was employed in Syria by the Municipal Administration Modernization Project (mam-sy.org), a joint venture of the European Union and the Syrian Ministry of Local Administration and Environment. She can be reached at humagupta@gmail.com.

- The Undercurrent -

Jerry Buttles

“Sky High”

sketchbook and draw. On the weekends, I would go to Sugarhill Skate Park and hang with all kinds of different people. A lot of BUS crew guys would be there, so sketchbooks would be flying around. How long have you been creating art here in Fresno? I have been creat“The District” ing art here in Fresno since I was just a young tike. Has Fresno or the Fresno Art scene had any influence or effect on your work? Fresno has definitely had a lot of influence on my art. I grew up in the Tower District and have never left. Growing up here, I was constantly surrounded by art. The scene here is still growing and it’s only getting bigger. The community is helpful and there Tell us about this particular cover image. are plenty of ways to get your work in galleries and differThis cover image was shot in early 2007. I had been out ent types of shows. I think the major effect driving around Fresno, takfor me is networking. I have made a lot of ing pictures of all kinds of fellow artist friends here and that’s great for things. This was one of the last photos of the night and I inspiration. was actually happy with it! How would you describe your style? I would describe my work kind of more on Fresno doesn’t really have the Urban/Street/Modern style. I try to not much of a cityscape, so this limit myself in my work, but I think that was a little difficult, but I knew I wanted a shot of the those three would be a good description. If someone wanted to see more of your city. It took me about 15 minutes to get the lighting work, how would they go about that? I have a website that is almost finished, and the angle I wanted, and thanks to “the Magg,” and the url is about 10 to 12 shots of the www.jerrybuttles.com. I also have a flickr same picture to finally be and that is www.flickr.com/photos/buttles2, finished. What got you started in and my photos are on my myspace (myspace.com/sugarhill) and facebook. your artistic endeavors? What if someone wanted to give you I think what got me started money for your work, how would one go was being around all the art and graffiti in the Tower about that? If someone would like to purchase my work District and downtown. I or set up a photo shoot, you can get a hold of would go skateboarding me through email or my website. Depending every day and the visual on the project, I would bid after consultation. influence while cruising “Medicine” around on my board really My email is buttles2@yahoo.com. Tell us about yourself. started influencing me. I would take out a disposable camera all the time and My name is Jerry Buttles. I am 22 years old. I was born take random pictures of stuff or I would take out a and raised right here in the Tower District in Fresno, Ca. I 24

went to the local Fresno City College, finished with an AA, and now I attend CSU Fresno. I am a Graphic Design major with an emphasis on photography. I enjoy riding my bike, photography, Graphic Design, painting, drawing, skateboarding, SF, Friends, Family, God. I plan on moving to the south of France when I finish school and continuing my artistic endeavors.

“Nature”

- The Undercurrent -

Pizza Fusion

by Jessi Hafer

To be upfront, Pizza Fusion is part of a restaurant/franchise chain, with 4 franchises currently open in California. The franchise has a total of 16 restaurants currently open with 11 more on way, all covering thirteen states. I mention this because, in case you haven’t noticed, The Undercurrent tends to avoid chains and corporate entities in our content and advertising. There are lots of reasons for this, but part of the explanation is that, as a local enterprise ourselves, we’d rather focus on local businesses. Our unwritten policy is that we “let in” a chain when it is truly unique and when there is no locallyowned equivalent. Certainly there are locally owned pizza places, but Pizza Fusion really does offer things the locals don’t (yet). The first difference on my radar was the availability of vegan cheese. Hurray! (Aside: There is another pizza establishment in town that offers soy cheese, but I later learned that their soy cheese isn’t actually vegan because it has casein in it.) Pizza Fusion’s vegan-friendliness doesn’t end with cheese; they have vegan brownies, and everything on the menu that is vegan is clearly marked…even the wine list (many wines are produced using animal products during the filtration process). The vegan cheese and the vegan brownies were both very good. I didn’t end up getting vegan wine, as I ended up getting a New Belgium Brewing 1554, per Undercurrent Editor Carlos Fierro’s recommendation—1554 is as good as he says. Pizza Fusion also has several gluten free options (such as the gluten free pizza crust—it was really good, though I personally preferred their regular crust). They have

1785

lots of “normal” toppings, and over 75% of their ingredient offerings are organic, from the tomato sauce and regular crust to the vegetable and meat toppings (who knew that organic pepperoni even existed?). There is an amazing variety of toppings to choose from. In fact, while the “Farmer’s Market” specialty pizza we got was good, we liked our “Create Your Own” pizza a little better (we got regular crust, vegan cheese, artichoke hearts, roasted garlic, and kalamata olives—and we got the same thing on our second visit). The topping cost can add up quickly, if you’re not careful, though. Not that it’s noticeably more expensive than other good pizza, but this isn’t where you should go when your wallet and taste buds are craving “cheap pizza.” All this is a very roundabout way of saying that their pizza is really good. The business practices of Pizza Fusion are also refreshing, and they seem to be the most environmentally-conscious restaurant imaginable. You may first notice it in their organic ingredients, or perhaps the Prius delivery car parked outside. Then you see the low flow toilets and faucets in the bathrooms and the recycled paper products. You read that they used low-VOC paints, and recycled blue jeans were reincarnated as their insulation. You see the neat-looking counter tops made from recycled glass. Then you see the staff’s 100% organic cotton t-shirt— you know this because the shirts say so in big white letters... Pizza Fusion certainly doesn’t mind telling you what they’re doing to help the environment. In your brief, skeptical moments, it’s almost gimmicky, but it’s done with such thoroughness and style that you can’t help but be impressed and hope that it serves as a model for other restaurants. ... and their pizza is really good.

The Milky Way

local folks at Organic Pastures, whose raw milk has the full spectrum of flora and fauna needed for cheese. Once you’ve got your milk, you start in on the chemistry. It’s a matter of a little rennet (some little vitamin-like tablet that’s a digestive enzyme), citric acid (a sour powder), salt, and water. Mix, heat, and then the whole thing sets up like a giant pot of silky white custard. From there, you separate the curds (future cheese) from the whey (strange translucent yellowed liquid that secretly tastes really good). For mozzarella, you heat the curds until they are almost unbearable to touch and then stretch the whole mess like taffy

My husband has always stood by the claim that if he ever had to get a tattoo, it would be a loaf of bread and a slab of cheese; two passions in life that will never go out of style. I’ve got his back on this one. What could be more primal and delicious than the magic of fermentation to raise and set such delicate foods? This all hit home while reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. I was swept away with a passage about family pizza night. No, no… not a Boboli with bagged cheese and a sauce packet… making pizza from scratch. Dad would gingerly proof the dough in the late afternoon from a little yeast and flour. Stretching mozzarella balls The kids would prep the toppings of choice. And Mom would make to twirl into little balls. Ricotta, you simthe cheese. Yes, make the cheese. ply hang in a little cheese cloth for about I was curious. They swore of a 30 minutes and voila! 30 minute mozzarella recipe that birthed I confess, the mozzarella took little white balls of fresh (and inexpensive) about 45 minutes on the first attempt, but real cheese that melted and browned beauhonestly, it was a milky miracle to make tifully in the oven. I could not resist the something so complex and enigmatic in a pastoral sales pitch. matter of minutes! The taste was fresh After a quick purchase on and silky, moist and gentle. And the ricotcheesemaking.com, the website of the ta was firm and mild, a distant cry from self-proclaimed Cheese Making Queen, his store-bought, soupy, gelatin enhanced Ricki Carroll, I was set. cousin. Let’s just say, I’d do it again… The first and perhaps, most and I’m game for giving lessons. important part of making cheese is the Take back your kitchen and learn milk. Grocery shelf milk is typically to pull off a couple of tricks that would “ultra-high pasteurized” meaning it is have wowed your great grandma or your heated to a really, really high temperature high school chemistry teacher. Now… if to cook out all its beautiful, tiny enzymes. you could just learn to make the perfect These little guys are necessary to make loaf of bread… cheese (and for all you lactose intolerant people out there, also to properly digest lHome Cheese Making by Ricki Carroll at your milk… Hello! It’s no wonder you www.cheesemaking.com clog up like a disposal after lOrganic Pastures Dairy Company at Thanksgiving… your milk has been www.organicpastures.com killed!). But I digress… Fresno State lFresno State Dairy available at www.auxpasteurizes their milk, but not to scorching iliary.com/AGF/farmmarket hot temperatures, so it works like a champ. The other option is of course the

- The Undercurrent -

The Wrestler by Nicholas Nocketback

(2008)

directed by Darren Aronofsky

)5,'$< )(% Â&#x2021; 72:(5 7+($75( Â&#x2021; ( 2/,9( $9( Â&#x2021; 3 0

to my Appalachian brethren), donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t see this movie. This is certainly not a film for the easily queasy; thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a scene in which one wrestler employs the use of a staple gun thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll have you lemon-faced for sure. The only overtly melodramatic event in this film happens when The Ram, after suffering a life threatening setback, tries to make amends for a life passed by. After accepting a demoralizing position at the local grocery mart, The Ram begins to try and create a new life with his estranged daughter. With each passing minute you are cheering for him, hoping that, with this final chapter of his life, things will amend. But then again, this is an Aronofsky film. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s actually too real. By this I mean that the acting is superb and writing superlative, but the emotional toll is quite wearing. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a reminder of how feeble and mortal we are, how animal a human is. After seeing the pain and physical toll his life has endured, it makes you want to become vegan, eat a bowl of Quaker oats and go to bed at 7:30. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m tired of being a film snob; it hurts my heart. I hope Robert Zemeckis makes Back To The Future IV soon.

FRESNO FILMWORKS PRESENTATION

live in a world where beauty and youth are tantamount to financial success. No one wants a middle aged stripper, nor does Hollywood call upon the Junk Yard Dog when they can have The Rock. One stage has a pole, the other three ropes, but the players in this tragic comedy are on parallel footing. Tomei is upstaged by younger, firmer bodies, as is Rourke. The two, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d think, are made for each otherâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;but thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d be too easy, too formulaic, and Aronofsky has other plans for us. Darren Aronofsky, director of Requiem For A Dream and The Fountain, has put aside his sci-fi, wildly experimental pedagogy and picked up a grainy hand-held cam, jump cutting many shots and filming in natural, raw light. The overall effect is realism at its purest. Like he inspired Ellen Burstyn in Requiem, he has highlighted a most inspired performance of Mickey Rourke, who has been nominated for the best actor Oscar. By capturing this tale in such a pragmatic way, Aronofsky has also shown us the â&#x20AC;&#x153;magicâ&#x20AC;? behind the â&#x20AC;&#x153;mysteryâ&#x20AC;? of professional wrestling. Por ejemplo, The Ram tucks a razor blade in his wrist tape in order to give himself cuts to the head for a more crowd pleasing event. So, if any of you folks still believe in or watch prowrestling (Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m speaking here

At its essence, it is a far too painful film about fleeting beauty and celebrity, but on top of that, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a picture that fights Hollywood formula and offers viewers several chances to see Marisa Tomei strip down to a string-cheese thong. Although, if you still have night-terrors about the beginning scene in Only The Devil Knows Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re Dead where Marisa gets pounded out by a zaftig Philip Seymour Hoffman, this does nothing to help. Mickey Rourke plays Randy â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Ramâ&#x20AC;? Robinson, an aged, crumbling wrestler living in a trailer home. A good 20 years after his heyday, The Ram still wrestles in rec rooms along the eastern seaboard, drawing meager crowds of devoted sloths. Ironic and dour, the film opens with The Ram getting in his van and driving home to the accompaniment of Cinderellaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;You Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Know What You Got Till Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Goneâ&#x20AC;? on the stereo. Everything about him is antiquated, from his van, to his clothes, to his Nintendo game featuring himself as â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Ramâ&#x20AC;? that the neighborhood kids wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t play because itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Nintendo One, not Wii. Rourke looks the part in all aspects. His face is a combination of Barbara Walters and Brett Michaelsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;present day. As we see his routing in order to stay in â&#x20AC;&#x153;shapeâ&#x20AC;? we realize it takes more prep time than making mole: tanning, steroids, weights, hair dye, tights, chains, belts, and so on. Like the lady of interest, Marisa Tomei, a stripper at Cheeques night2 6 club, The Ram must

ASHES OF TIME REDUX

Rowdy Roddy Rourker

A FILM BY

WONG K AR WAI

Advance tickets are available by cash or by check DW WKH 7RZHU 7KHDWUH ER[ RIÂżFH ( 2OLYH $YH DQG DW -$ 3KRWRJUDSK\ 1 9DQ 1HVV 7LFNHWV RQ VDOH YLD 3D\3DO DW )UHVQR)LOPZRUNV RUJ 'HWDLOV )UHVQR)LOPZRUNV RUJ RU 7LFNHWV FRVW JHQHUDO VWXGHQWV DQG VHQLRUV Save the date for our next screening: March 13, 2009

Fresno Filmworks

- The Undercurrent -

Bored? Games!

words out of the letters. In the first hand you play through, you are dealt 3 cards, and in each hand you get one more card, ending with a 10 card hand. When you take your turn, you draw a new letter card, and discard a letter card. The first person to lay down their cards has to go “all out,” excluding a discard. And the cards need to be arranged in actual words (you and your opponents will have to agree on your standard—some by Jessi Hafer purists would prefer OED, some pragmatists will select an online 1:33), and when this is the case, dictionary, and the more linguisSet and Quiddler are both great you turn up three more cards (the tically hip might want to use card games made by Set odds that there is not a set in 15 Enterprises, and each costs UrbanDictionary.com…). around $12. Once the first person lays Both are fairdown their words, each ly easy to remaining person gets one learn and more turn (and these remainhave fairly ing people may discard one simple card, if they choose). In a mechanics, friendly game, people may but both are just lay down whatever cards really interthey have and, for the pure esting to play. love of words, help each other Set make the best words they can. is an exercise Actually, often it’s even more of set theory fun to make fake words—but and discrete you won’t get points for those. mathematics disguised as a game cards is 1:2500, and the most You keep score through the cards you can have without a set game, noting any bonuses or (you can pretend not to know is 20). Once you get used to the unused cards, and the person about the “math thing” if math makes you uncomfortable). The mechanics of the game (which with the most points at the end are described more fully in the simple picture on each card in of the game wins. instructions), you can play the deck can be described These are according to four characteristics, through a game in about 15 min- the kinds of games I utes. One of my coworkers each with three possibilities: like to carry around thought that she had better focus with me. You can color (red, green, or purple), after playing through a game of shading (empty, striped, or play through them Set during a break. solid), number (one, two, or quickly when you The game was develthree), and shape (diamond, oval, have some spare oped by Marsha Falco, a popula- time, they’re just the and squiggle). You shuffle and tion geneticist who thought of lay out a grid of 12 cards, and right balance of simyou try to find sets of three cards the game while investigating ple and challenging, where, for each of the four char- chromosome properties and dis- and you can easily acteristics, the cards are either all ease incidence. If you’re interexplain them and ested in the math-y side of the the same or all different. There involve interested are good examples in the instruc- game, you can read more about onlookers. Once it on their web site. tions that come with the game. you’re hooked on And for those times and these two games, It may take a while to start to people that find math games seeing sets quickly, and there you might be interinappropriate or unacceptable, will be times where you think ested in the “Daily there’s Quiddler, a word game you have a set, but it turns out Puzzles” you can do with letter cards. It is somewhat online that for one of the characterisScrabble-ish, but it is more fast- (www.setgame.com). tics, two cards are the same and paced (and you don’t have to put one is different (like two ovals a bunch of tiles away afterand one diamond—not a set). wards). You are dealt letter There will be times when there cards (each one with a point are no sets in the twelve cards value), and you have to make laid out (the odds of this are

- The Undercurrent -

Pick your misfortune...

Then turn to page 31 to see what your future holds

UndercurrentbySudoku Jessi Hafer

The Dicltionlarly Game

Instructions: With the 2 words given, guess the word that comes between them in the dictionary. No word derivations.

1. eltilollolgy, n., study of the causes _ _l _ l_ _ _ _ _ _ n.

of diseases

E’ton col’lar, n., a broad stiff linen collar

_ _ _ l_ _ _ _ ,n.

2. lanltalna, n., tropical shrubs with bright aromatic flowers lanlthalnide, adj., latticework

3. wistlful, adj., characterized by a _ _ _, n.

pensive longing

witch, n., person who professes or is believed to practice magic

_ _ _l_ _ _, n.,

4 castliron, n., alloy of iron, carbon and other elements castloff, adj., discarded

_ _ _l_ _ , n.

5. paltroon, n., landholder with manorial rights to large tracts of land in the Dutch colony in North America patltern, n., sturdy, thick soled shoe

- The Undercurrent -

Columns there is snow. And of course, I’m going to try and bean a friend with a snowball. If not Shaver, I might also drive up to Yosemite and enjoy the iconic views from there. Where’s your day trip destination? Adam—What? You don’t want to slide down the hills without any snow? You’re missing out! As far as day trip destinations go, if it isn’t the mountains, then it’s gotta be the coast. Another year has started and, Adam—If I have a Granted, it’s a bit longer of a as usual, Fresno is spending a free afternoon, I really enjoy day than hitting up the low lot of time under gray skies spending a bit of time in my lakes in the Sierra Nevada, but and the wet, misty blanket of neighborhood. I won’t deny Pismo, Morro Bay, Cayucos, fog. Sometimes you’ve got to that sitting for a spell at Revue San Simeon, Monterey, and just shake up your routine and with a crossword in hand and even the Bay Area all come to do something to ditch the dol- a cuppa joe to keep the neumind. The first three are good drums of the season. We’re rons firing and synapses from for wandering the beach, hithere to help you do that. We failing is one of my favorites. ting the shops, or in the case have our suggestions for the In fact, I’ve just come from of San Simeon, checking out best local change of pace on there. A couple I’ve never met nearby Hearst Castle. If you an afternoon, best distance to sat at the table next to me and want to catch 580 W into the hit in a short drive, and some we shared some answers to B.A., there’s all manner of other random suggestions to today’s puzzle in a bit of sweet things to check out in help you enjoy life right now friendly exasperation. Maybe Oakland. My favorite though, in the San Joaquin valley. you’re not into crosswords. is getting a pitcher of beer, Ed—It’s unusual, but It’s still a great place to sit and ordering a pizza, and sitting sometimes you get an afterpeoplewatch or read a book or down in comfy chairs or noon off. You could go home set up the laptop and browse couches for a big screen flick and watch some TV, or maybe the clickyweb with the quiet at the Parkway Speakeasy hit up a movie theater, but din of clinking glasses, conTheater near Lake Merritt. where’s the joy in that? When versation, and jazz gently Any of you readers with extra I get those unexpected breaks rolling over the top. And for capital in these rough times in my schedule, I want to be all you people that despise the are more than welcome to set out in the crisp air. If I can, cold, they keep the heat up one of those up in Fresno. I’ll I’m headed down to the Fulton inside, so you’ll be toasty tell everyone I know about it. Mall. I’ve got no actual desti- while you gaze through the big Ed—Good stuff. nation, but I enjoy just walkwindows in front. Okay, other than listening to ing down the mall, looking at Ed—That’s a good our podcast, let’s wrap this up people, hearing the sounds and point. Or, if you’re not a cofby recommending one other just taking it all in. If I’m fee person, you can do much random thing. I want to recfeeling peckish, I may stop in the same across the street at ommend going to at least two for a slice at Milano or maybe Teazers. Okay, let’s say Rogue shows . It’s @ the end buy something from one of the you’ve got a little more time of February, so you’ve got vendor carts near the south on your hands and want to time. In fact, I recommend end of the mall. If I’m not take a drive from Fresno. In you check out my Rogue art feeling like a trip to the my opinion, the best spot that show & speaking engagement. Fulton, then I think I may go I can get to relatively quickly Adam—And I recomand enjoy either Roeding or for an enjoyable time would mend that you check out one Woodward Park. Both are be Shaver Lake. I love the of the many live shows over at nice to leisurely drive through idea that it can be totally fog Audie’s Olympic or Tokyo and find a spot to just sit and soup down here and that, as Garden. You’re supporting enjoy the nature. What about you get about 30 minutes out local musicians and local baryou, Adam, what do you want of town, it’s crystal clear. It’s tenders. to do in Fresno when you have fun to slide down the hills an afternoon off? around the lake, assuming

Dear Nocketback, My friend, who’s in his mid 30s, hasn’t had sex in 10 years. He’s an ex partier and doesn’t drink anymore. His last girlfriend was much younger and he played up the party side in order to relate to her. Since then he’s lost his conversational skills with women. Seeing as he doesn’t drink or go to clubs, what can he do to attract a female? He’s a bit of a square peg. —Sexless in the Central Valley Dear SitCV, Beware of false prophets! Many people (mainly desperate and/or married older women) are going to tell your friend to try church, or volunteer, or try yoga. GARBAGE. What your friend needs now is a quick lube & tune—if you know what I mean. You can take him to Vegas if you want, but I think you can save some dough here. In order to alleviate any awkward issues in the future, take him to an outlying city like Firebaugh or Selma. From there, spot out a really seedy club and/or Mexican eatery/disco. Have him buy the biggest gal in the house a drink so as to get a feel for the buffet, if you will. Once the target is acquired (and this could very well be the biggest gal) offer him a couple pills to take the edge off; perks or vics work wonderfully. After a few Vodka bombs and a six pack of Corona, those girls won’t care if he’s duller than a butter knife. Help him along by hooking up with her friend—this may be a Kamikaze mission on your part, but if you care about him, you’ll do it. Don’t waste any dough by renting a room; instead, take a van or roomy SUV and park it in the back. Next stop, immediate regret. No thanks needed.

Dear Nocketback, My friend is a recovering alcoholic drug user. 15 years of coke, dope, and heavy drinking. A certain legal incident made her stop cold turkey about a year ago. She lives in a small apartment behind my house. However, a week ago I found a nugget of marijuana on her dresser. When I asked her about it, she said it belonged to a friend. She’s not a child so how should I confront her about this? —Troubled in Tower

Dear TiT, Well, she is an adult, but it sounds as if you actually care—rare. Okay, this is gonna be painful, but if you do as I tell you, you’ll make it out unscathed. Firstly, when your friend is gone, ransack her room. Check under every sheet and make sure to look inside the cereal boxes. If you can, read her diary (lots of juicy pulp in that bad boy). Anything you find, replace it with something else. For example, you find cocaine, dump it out and pour in Ajax or shaved chalk—that’ll wake her up. If you find weed, replace it with a dense piece of cat poop—mix it with grass clippings and sprinkle on some powdered sugar to make it look like the real deal. Finally, if you find beer or liquor, simply pee in it. If all this sounds too dramatic and you feel you cannot muster the courage to do this, just get high with her. Put on Journey’s greatest hits, invite some guys over, pop on the black light and get ripped like it’s junior year at Hoover High. Quit being such a buzz kill, Mother Teresa. 29

- The Undercurrent -

Poetry

3 Poems ______

by Nate Fornicate t h e ra in

it came back today, this morning the morning after halloween i dont know if it will stay and unwind but it came in loudly no spatters leading up to no half guessing if you felt it if you were in the streets at 630 am at least on this block... it came down loud and cold like lacquered gavels reverberating off of high ceilings and courtroom aesthetics like blunt honesty cutting and undeniable fast and unmanageable the same words used to describe meth binges but much more natural this rain it comes honest and deserving i wish it could fuel more inspiration but we do in fact live in central california this valley only has time for 10 minutes of rain the rest of the day is dedicated to yellow haze and small town fairweather politics pushing progressive seemingly scatterbrain sacreligous remotely radical motif and reinvention i dont have to work that hard for it it comes honest like the rain washing over whoever is mad enough to bear it at this hour there are a few of us we wait for it and let it wash away transgression we take it in like medicine. ______

2 y ea r s

I could very well start off by telling you of mini blind slats creating dim yellow silhouettes of her on our clone apartment stucco light lightly bathing unmoving form but I’m afraid ya just wouldn’t quite get it I’d be afraid of selling it short IT being all, and all being that year and a half that I got drunk I got drunk and I listened to her sing in the keys of beauty and disposition 30

I watched slight steps and meek comments, turn into head down and shoulders wide social momentum her voice turned up from 2 to 10 she went from standin still to dancin to anything with a beat she NEVER used to dance. and thats why it was so good to see now i hope, shes wearing down dancin shoes pair by the day now, two years after apartments thrashed empty hugs reassurance relapse abandonment relapse alienation relapse resentment relapse and healing catharsis what matters most is the flash of her bathed in yellow street light and red letter alarm clock sometimes all the other colors fall gray for me and now, as i sit in my swivel chair early morning screen junky remembering serotonin fueled history chained to it, like arm cut to bone from handcuff and radiator attachment I can see clearly that escape is an impossibility and it feels fine, to never be purged of the simple yellow and red visage of her sleeping. its a part of me, like this state stapled to states like arms in sockets eyes in head and your head only a quarter way secured to your shoulders sometimes I dont know her now what i do know is what she left she taught me how to sing in break up notes to the key of solitude, liquor, and pills behind me, a chorus of wind blowing over the tops of empty wine bottles it was a beautiful song for a while. ______

w h i sk e y i n d u c e d b r a i n s p l a t

give up the ghost, some would say heavy breath held in like noriega cancered self held up in bungalows blasted out by the scorpions or kansas that big huge obnoxious american “rock n roll”

Poetry

and yes i’m aware the scorpions are german irrelevant argument moving on transpose travail and transverse temporal teeming shaking statute of redefined self yeah, i know what im saying so its ok logic clusterbomb reality redefined juxtapose time and time again conflicting contrast again and again makes ya atheistically pray for the definitive undefined character and an end to toil life slugs ya in the gut 3 dollar whiskey slugs visceral in a more organic context warm slug out of cold bottles rot gut that liquor was dont push me i’m close to the edge im try-in not to lose my head uh huh uh huh synthesizer blasted out of red eyed alarm clock speakers are almost as loud as the faces in your dreams every thought line rolling over and relapsing reverberating your recanting of romance fleeting faces forego midnight words and full on phantasms they come in clear as soft as fresno’s non-air they come in loud and keep me up at night or greet me bedside after nights of debauchery welcome home kiddo heres your nightcap your mind is working the 11 to 3 sleep shift today good night ______ Nate Fornicate has this to say: “My full name is Nathan Payan. People in Fresno (the punk or poetry scenes) know me as Nate Fornicate. I’m originally from Merced and have lived in Fresno for a year now, helping out with programs in Chinatown based out of C.A.F.E. (Collective for Arts, Freedom, and Ecology) Infoshop. I am dashing and like long walks on the beach with shotguns.”

- The Undercurrent -

Puzzle Answers Dicltionlary Game Anlswers

Undercurrent Sudoku

manipulated

5. patlsy, n., person who is ealily

of a noble

4. casltle, n., a fortified residence tion and expression

3. wit, n., keen and clever percep-

enclosing a light

2. lanltern, n., portable case for requirements as to proper behavior

1. etlilquette, n., convential

Misfortune Cookies 1

by Nick Nocketback

Shame is like a quilt...it should envelop you on chilly nights, and anyone can add to it.

2 Yo

u’ll find February cern with black histo hot and heavy in the lust departm ent, but, like its co ry, it’ll end just as nabruptly.

3 A family reunion will bring with it an unexpected surprise...—yup, that was your cousin under the sleeping bag in 1998. 4 Happiness was invented by Basque in the early 19t century but ask yourself...whthe o are the Basque, really? h,

the 28th. with false hope on u yo d in bl ill w , re 5 Lady luck, that fickle who RATCH. all means, DON’T SC by t, bu , ed pt m te You’ll be

Did you Know...

That Fresno is the 87th largest city in the US by land area? That Fresno measures 104 square miles? Did you know that Bakersfield is bigger than Fresno by land area, measuring 113 square miles? Did you know that Fresno is the 35th most populated city in the US? Well, itÕs true...