The Undercurrent by Carlos Fierro

From the Editor:

come from the Right, so it’s important rest of us folks who don’t like being to have publications like yours to help shot at! keep the balance & such, nutballs & —Jason Gonzales (can be reached @ fresnoalamo@hotmail.com) all! here’s not much space for me to $1, 5000 times over, goes a long way) ______ Turrentine —Bill write to you today, but I did want to “The Undercurrent, PO Box 4857, to spend this time to address someFresno, CA 93744,” or visit us online n the august 2009 on the Surfing Bill, at www.fresnoundercurrent.net/subthing vital to The Undercurrent’s the web is a lot like walking down I have to admit that I have never existence. As we have said in the scribe and click the “Donate” button. street. some one did not do there the been called a “closet anarbefore For now, good reading. past, The Undercurrent is entirely homework because the story is a joke. chist” it’s kind of strange to me, I made up of unpaid volunteer editors That’s all for now, more later… just look at the part called “the power would think a person “in the closet” and contributors. Writers and staff socket trick” that is a made up lie. would hide or deny their views and receive no compensation for the work To the Editor: keep them secret. Lets clear up a few there is no such thing.. google it. But they do putting together this paper. t’s always interesting to compare things off the bat, I am absolutely an if you look up a keylogger you can What little revenue we bring in goes the fanatics & nutballs on both the anarchist, I do not want any cops find a bunch of software that can capto our printing and, when ends don’t left & the right. Your recent issue ture what people press when around, I don’t believe in “better meet, we put together a few dollars to (9/09) gives some good examples of tytypingut you have to install it on the cops”, I do not want ANY kids to fill in the gaps. the former. For instance, Jason machine you want to watch. the part to be any type of law enforceaspire The Undercurrent is essen- Gonzales & his cop-hating article. It also says ‘according to BBC’ now ment officer, I do not appreciate being tially a part of the gift economy. It is makes you wonder what happened to you need to reference this and I see free to you, and we produce it free for this guy. Reminds me of a guy who compared to your racist scumbag you fact checking department failed. friends, and I do appreciate being you. We haven’t commodified the told me once that he hated black peo- considered mind boggling. But then this is must be why your rag paper, and as such we are free to do, ple (altho that’s not the term he used) is free. well it was all for a laugh too I think its interesting that to write, to explore ideas that main& when I asked him why he said it bag you did not use that space for you accuse Jesse Carrisalez, the 17 stream media can’t or won’t. You was because one of them hit him some real helpful computer tips but year old student shot dead at his high may not always agree with what you when he was a kid. Maybe somethen if you have a computer why school campus, of attempted murder. read in our paper. We don’t always thing like that happened to Gonzales? If hitting someone with a stick is con- would you read you sorry rag for agree with everything in our paper. It’s interesting how he used false computer help... so I’ll guess that sidered trying to kill them, does that Agreement isn’t the end goal. It analogies, such as the the kid trying story was just a joke and most of your mean I have the right to use fatal vionever has been. The exploration of to kill a cop with a bat who was shot lence against a police officer who is paper is a joke. I do a appreciate stodifferent ideas, expression, debate, by the cop. If somebody was trying trained to beat me down with his ries the local arts and music and counternarratives has been our goal to kill ME with a bat & I had a gun, sometimes on the hole in the wall nightstick, even if I were to just sit from the outset. We’ve tried to proI’m sure I would’ve shot him as well. places to eat even though the food vide you, our readers, with something Sounds like Gonzales is a closet anar- down on a sidewalk and refuse to writer needs better taste. LOL move, or some other benign action? unique, hopefully something useful. chist, doesn’t want ANY cops around. Law Enforcement officers in this thanks for all the work good But we are faced with the That’d probably lead to an interesting country and across the globe violently luck next time and please fact check situation that many of you are faced scenario, like maybe in The Postman, assault un-armed civilians every sin- before you publish with. The economy, as it is, is affect- where everybody has to join or put gle day, often times murdering people [Editor’s note: The writer of this leting many of our advertisers. If our together their own gang or private with little to no explanation. You bet ter neglected to disclose his/her editors and writers put the work into army for protection. And so the guy your ass I don’t want them around, if name.] producing our paper, it is our adverwith the biggest army wins. It’s also tisers that make it possible to produce interesting how Gonzales contradicts you ask me, you are a “nutball” if you Dear reader, think that sounds like a good time! I our paper. We would like to address himself. In the article to which you are referwould love further explanation to you on behalf of our advertisers. All On the one hand he seems ring (“Walking Down the Street is a how I used “false analogies”, I don’t of our advertisers are local businessto think that all or most cops are bad think that there is anything false lot like Surfing the Web,” from our es. Real, honest to goodness, local but instead of wanting to improve that about the level of danger police offi- July 2009 issue), my co-writer Daniel businesses owned and operated by situation, he wants his kid & presum- cers bring with their badge and gun Ray and I, in the section we titled local people. The money they make ably ALL kids to “not aspire to be “The Power Socket Trick,” were refwhen they enter a given situation. remains in our local economy, helps them,” thereby tossing out possibility erencing a research experiment conI hope folks in Fresno know to make the local community better of getting better cops. I swear, the to watch out for you now, after admit- ducted by Andrea Barisani and (and some of that money goes to illogic & internal contradictions of ting you would shoot a kid if he had a Daniele Bianco of the security firm advertising in The Undercurrent, this article are mind boggling! Inverse Path, which was reported on bat. People like you scare me the keeping The Undercurrent afloat). Another nutball article was same way you say people like me by the BBC, in an article entitled Our advertisers deserve your support. the anti-Obama screed by Paul “Snooping through the power socket,” scare you. The difference is that I am They are quality, local businesses Roberts. Makes you wonder if he’s a afraid of your willingness to use which you can find online at supplying quality goods and services. closet racist or something. He says news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technoloexcessive violence and force when it Not only do our advertisers that Obama “promised to end the war gy/8147534.stm. In our article, we just isn’t necessary, while you are need your support, but we do too. As in Iraq. stated that we got this information afraid to think that there are those of you may know the economy has hit He hasn’t.” Conveniently from the BBC, whose website is easius who believe we can get along, and media pretty hard. It has even hit leaving out the fact that Obama’s only live together, creating a community in ly searchable (the article is the second local, noncorporate, independent been in office a few months & has which you don’t need a “gang or pri- item that pops up when you search media. Here we are asking you for already set in motion the withdrawal vate army for protection”, a place for “power socket”). We feel that support. We are not asking a lot. We of troops from Iraq, all of which will your criticism of our work in this where some random shiny badge know that money, like wine, doesn’t be gone w/in a year or two. He also doesn’t give you the right to have regard (and in various other regards) flow like water, but if you think that quotes some unknown British journal- your buddies hold me down so you seems perhaps unfounded. what we do is valuable, if you appre- ist as calling Obama “corporate marNevertheless, thank you for your can shoot me in the back. Talk about ciate what we do, then all we ask for keting creation.” And we’re supthoughts, and please feel free to keep fanatics and nutballs! is one dollar. Just one dollar from posed to believe this because .... ? writing to us. As far as Im concerned Bill, each of our readers. $1. That’s all. Now it’s obvious that the —Abid Yahya you’ve got plenty of illogic and conIf each of our readers did that (barely nazi pigfuckers on the right are tradictions to work out yourself, but a donation at all), then The always going to be more dangerous at least your not in the closet with the Undercurrent would be secure for than the nutballs on the left. We five months. See our “One Dollar Per have a LOT more reason to be wor- The Undercurrent, as an independent newspaper (of, by, and for the people), brings together a lot of different folks with a lot of different ideas. That being said, The Undercurrent itself does not endorse any of the views expressed in its pages, but Reader” ad on page 26. ried about such scum as Beck, endorses wholeheartedly the necessity of expressing views in all their variety—openly, honestly, and with an aim for the Donating is easy, either Limbaugh, Coulter et al. ad nause- truth, whatever it turns out to be. To that end, we encourage our readers to send us letters. We’ll print them without edit. send a check (I know it seems silly When a letter addresses a particular article, we’ll let the writer respond. When it addresses the paper as a whole, we’ll am. As a friend of mine said respond. In this way, together, we’ll inch our collective way closer and closer to the truth. writing a check for $1, but trust us, recently, the Brown Shirts always

October 2009

Volume 4

Issue 5

Editorial Board Carlos Fierro Editor editor@fresnoundercurrent.net Jessi Hafer Editor jessi@fresnoundercurrent.net Matt Espinoza Watson Editor mattw@fresnoundercurrent.net Abid Yahya Editor abid@fresnoundercurrent.net Staff Writers Vahram Antonian Contributors:

Alexandros R Acedo Joe Aguayo Christy Cole Vince Corsaro Eatcho Juan C Garcia Henry A Giroux Jason Gonzales Steven J Ingeman Gena Kirby Bart Kubeck Pongo William Saroyan Foundation Randy Shaw H Peter Steeves Ed Stewart Nicholas Anthony Valdez Adam Wall Kurt Watson Sara Rutherford Woody For advertising inquiries, please email ads@fresnoundercurrent.net. For letters to the editor, please email letters@fresnoundercurrent.net. For submission information, please email editor@fresnoundercurrent.net. For subscription information, visit FresnoUndercurrent.net or send a 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-inChief.

ON THE MEDIA 4

A Few Short Media Related Stories by Carlos Fierro & Abid Yahya

SCIENCE, HEALTH, & ENVIRONMENT 5

L ABOR 6

Cultivating Consciousness: Ferocious Parenting or How to Take Your Birth Back from the Man by Gena Kirby

SF Labor Council Backs UNITE HERE Local 2, Rejects SEIU’s Threats by Randy Shaw

STATE, NATIONAL, INTERNATIONAL 7 8

The Palestine Report by Abid Yahya

AfterWords by Carlos Fierro & Abid Yahya

FEATURED TOPIC: JUST ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL 10 11

Pyramid Education Scheme by Juan C Garcia

100 Years Ago, Spain Killed a Teacher: The Legacy of Francisco Ferrer by Pongo

The Corporate Stranglehold on Education

by Henry A Giroux

The Great Awakening

by Kurt Watson

From The Lost Socratic Dialogues: “The Axios 2” Discovered by Ingeman & Steeves

CALENDAR 16

UnderCurrentEvents Calendar

The Undercurrent’s indie PREVIEW

PLUGS & PROFILES 19

I Heart Fresno by Sara Rutherfurd Woody

Hot Off the Press: Michael Luis Medrano’s Born in the Cavity of Sunsets by Abid Yahya

20 21

The Picture Fresno Project by Sara Rutherford Woody

Nominations for the William Saroyan International Writing Prize Now Being Accepted by William Saroyan Foundation

MUSIC [RE]VIEWS 21

Fashawn’s Boy Meets World—and the world likes it by Matt Espinoza Watson

ABOUT THE COVER 24

“Work” by Bart Kubeck

LOCAL EATS 25

Mangosteen by Jessi Hafer

GAME [RE]VIEWS 26

COLUMNS

Bored? Games!: Roll Through the Ages by Joe Aguayo & Jessi Hafer

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

Green Up Your Thumb:

POETRY 29

It’s Time to Get Your Fall Garden Ready by Christy Cole

“What have we...” by Alexandros R Acedo

SHORT FICTION 30

The Old Woman in My Closet (Part 2 of 3) by Nicholas Anthony Valdez

A Few of Short Media Related Stories W

ith Disney’s purchase of the Marvel franchise, much has been called into question. For graphic novel enthusiasts, there is the fear that many of their favorite comic heroes and stories will undergo a Disney makeover. The edginess will be replaced with the maniacal kingdom. Perhaps a spandexed Mickey Mouse battling it out with Wolverine in a super death match.

For those concerned with media consolidation, there is the fear that one more in a long line of big companies have been taken over by an even larger company. There are an ever dwindling number of media companies and independent avenues for entertainment and news. And as that number continues to shrink, variety and value will do so as well. Rather then a wide range of choices, what we will have is a synergistic media that never miss an opportunity to plug one of its other ventures. How long before we have Professor X’s keys to victory on ESPN? Beyond the synergistic programming, there is the added fear that the further expansion of Disney’s empire will mean less news reporting on issues that may harm Disney’s commercial ventures. There is, after all, a history of this sort of thing with Disney. ABC, for one, has shown itself hesitant when it comes to reporting on negative Disney practices or stories. The most famous case was when ABCs 20/20 killed a story concerning Disney’s hiring of child predators at its theme parks. This decision came days after then Disney boss Michael Eisner said on NPR’s Fresh Air, “I would prefer ABC not to cover Disney…ABC News knows that I would prefer them not to cover

[Disney].” Both of these, of course, are important in and of themselves, but another issue that hasn’t gotten as much coverage, but surely deserves it, is that of copyright. Copyright has a long and complex history, which extends beyond our purposes here. As a wholly inadequate treatment, know that copyright began as a rather limited enterprise. Initially, copyright, as it was addressed in the constitution, protected only the creator of the intellectual property, and for a very limited time. As time passed and corporations became bigger and more

powerful, copyright was expanded to include more work and to protect the owner, rather than the creator, of the intellectual property. And the term length of copyrights were continually extended as well, from a mere 14yrs to an astounding 120yrs for corporate authorship. Incidentally, the last extension of the copyright term, the Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) of 1998, is also know as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act. For a more complete and interesting treatment of copyright, read Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig. Effectively, CTEA has locked down the spread of culture

through the pubic domain. Disney has even more to protect now than they had in the past. With regard to Marvel, Disney now has to deal with new copyright claims from some of Marvel’s original creators. According to a New York Times article, the family of Jack Kirby (creator of X-Men and the Fantastic Four) has filed notices to regain copyrights to works that were originally granted for specific time to other entities. The question remains as to whether Disney will fight these claims when they come up as early as 2014. Disney stands to lose a great deal of money and Disney is not wont to lose money. ~CF

he tide of corporate avarice has been pushed back, at least momentarily, and on one particular account. On September 21, the FCC laid out new rules that would prohibit internet service providers (ISPs) from slowing or blocking content that uses a lot of bandwidth.

By doing so, the FCC has, for the time being, insured that Net Neutrality will be observed by ISPs. Lets be clear: the FCC has never been a champion for democracy, but faced with massive support from the American people and fear of massive outrage like that of 2006, which led to the Media Ownership Act of 2007, the FCC acquiesced to the American people. The rules laid out by the FCC insure two things. First, ISPs will not be allowed to block content that they say is too taxing on servers. This part of the rule comes out of accusations made in 2005 that ISPs like Comcast were blocking peer to peer files (P2P). In 2007, the AP ran a story outlining Comcast’s implementation of technologies similar to China’s Internet Censorship System. Essentially, Comcast was

by Carlos Fierro & Abid Yahya

using code that caused software at both ends of the P2P communication to believe that the other didn’t want to communicate any longer. So the P2P communication was cut off. Comcast was doing this without informing its customers of the practice, and when confronted, Comcast denied that they were in fact doing so. When the FCC censured Comcast in August 2008, Comcast appealed the ruling. Comcast claimed that P2P file sharing created too great a strain on their severs and, perhaps more importantly, that the FCC had no jurisdiction in matters of net neutrality, short of federal law or a full public hearing. The second component of the FCC ruling effectively ends the hopes of creating a tiered internet system, which would have essentially favored some content with faster service while sending other content along slower paths. This tiered system, or fast internet and slow internet, would stand to make ISPs a lot of money. The argument that ISPs made regarding tiering the internet was that they shouldn’t have to provide the same service to those sites willing to pay for better service as those unwilling sites. Just as we consumers have to pay for better service (broadband v. dialup), so too should content providers have to pay for better service, argued ISPs. It is almost impossible to overstate the importance of this FCCs ruling. Had ISPs gotten their way, the internet would have ceased to be a democratic medium—the most democratic of mass media available to the American public. Without net neutrality, ISPs could, for political or financial reasons, censor or alter messages. For most of the history of the US, when it comes to mass media, mass media has been a vestige of the elite. For short periods of time, mass media has been available to the masses, be it the partisan press or amateur radio, but in such cases, mass media is

wrested from the hands of the people and placed in those of the corporations. We have certainly suffered because of that. However, with the internet, the American people have, at their fingertips, the ability to not only consume mass media in a freer fashion, but, for the first time in quite some time, the ability to disseminate mass messages again, and in ways that hadn’t been seen since the days of amateur radio. We all had the ability to not only consume mass messages, but produce them as well. And produce them we did, with astounding results. Mass demonstrations against the Gulf War were almost exclusively the result of the internet. May Day marches against the xenophobia directed at unpapered people were exclusively the result of the internet. And, the presence of counter narratives finding their way into our consciences is largely due to the internet. The ability of dissident groups, or the others, to tell their own story without having to rely on the mainstream media to…well, mediate, has provided insight into such peoples that has never been available before. Don’t be mistaken, net neutrality is as important a policy within our democracy as any. Without it, the internet would be little more than an avenue for shopping and pornography. ~CF

his August, much ado was made about Facebook’s acquisition of the internet start-up Friendfeed, but what’s Friendfeed, and what makes this acquisition significant? When FriendFeed was launched in 2007 by four engineers who left Google, it was hyped like nothing else. Its software was beloved by nerds, and the folks at Twitter were keeping a close eye on things. Friendfeed won the

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Best New Startup award at the 2008 Crunchies, which is big shit in the tech world.

Now, I’m no software engineer or HTML junkie, but, as I understand it, FriendFeed basically sets you up with a single webpage through which you can funnel all of your various online social networking tasks. Keeping up with your favorite streams on Twitter, the activity of your “friends” on Facebook and Myspace, your multiple email accounts, the assorted chatrooms you frequent, the various blogs and news sources you peruse, all of this…generally requires you to visit several different websites. As one observer noted,

“Already the stream of activity is fast and furious.” With Friendfeed, though, all of it can be monitored through a single webpage, vastly simplifying online social intercourse. There’s actually a name for it: lifestreaming. So, when Friendfeed came on the scene in 2007, companies like Facebook, Socialthing, and MyBlogLog were concerned about this new potential lifestreaming competitor, but in August, Facebook prevailed over the rest. The folks at Facebook, perhaps still smarting from last year’s failed attempt to acquire Twitter, paid nearly $50 million for Friendfeed, streamlining not only social intercourse, but also their dominion over it. Already, Facebook has somewhere around 350 million unique registered users worldwide, and this number is growing rapidly. Amazingly, over 50% of registered users log in on any given day. About 70% of users

are outside USA, and Facebook is translated into 65 languages. Moreover, despite the fact that online social networking has traditionally been more popular among younger folks, those over 35 are the fastest growing demographic on Facebook. An independent report published on 25 March 2009 showed that the number of 35+ Facebook users doubled in only the first two months of 2009. Given all that, why did Facebook pay $50 million for Friendfeed? In January, TechCrunch.com reported that Friendfeed had nearly hit 1 million users and had grown tenfold over the six months prior to that. However, according to many observers, that’s not all that unique or amazing. Jim Connolly of Thetechnewsblog.com speculates that Facebook’s motives in the acquisition are a lot less obvious. (See www.alturl.com/qiwr.) Facebook, with hundreds of millions of users, has no need of acquiring Friendfeed’s relatively tiny user base. Also, Friendfeed’s software, though “AWESOME,” lacks the instant usability of Twitter, so that can’t be the reason, either. “In buying FriendFeed,” Connolly writes, “FaceBook has just acquired the services of four extremely smart people: Bret Taylor, Sanjeev Singh, Jim Norris and Paul Buchheit. Before founding FriendFeed, these guys worked at Google and helped develop services like Gmail, Google Maps and Google Groups. Their market value is huge and that’s what I believe FaceBook is paying for.” This is the real revenge of the nerds, folks. And the great irony is that they’ve done it by taking over our social lives. ~AY

Ferocious Parenting or How to Take Your Birth Back from the Man arents are ferocious when it comes to their newborn kids. Most of the time however, that instinct doesn’t kick in until after they get home from the hospital. Once home, you can bet those parents are vigilant and wary. You think you’re going to touch my baby before you wash your hands? Think again. I have a friend who is a pediatric nurse; she’s always telling me about parents of her patients. “They ask a million questions and don’t let me do things till they find out every last bit of information they can get from me.” You parents out there reading this know what I mean. Don’t mess with my kid! So why is it that, before the baby is born, most of us are just not

by Vahram Antonian

that ferocious?

When I was pregnant with my first child I thought I could just forgo the whole childbirth education thing. I figured women had been having babies forever, so how hard could it be, besides the doctors would be nearby to help me out if it got difficult. When the nurse said they would start me on pitocin, I asked if there would be any risk to the baby, and she said “Oh, no, we give it to women all the time; it’ll help the baby come out faster.” I thought to myself, “Faster is better and pitocin sounded a lot like potassium so it must be good for me and the baby.” I was offered an epidural twelve times in seven hours and was never encouraged by the staff to try and go without. I succumbed to the pressure at about 6 cm. Before I did, the nurse said I would probably be another six or seven hours, so I felt I had to. (Plus, pitocin contrac-

tions are harder, longer and stronger than normal contractions.) My daughter was born an hour later. Whether it’s your first or third pregnancy, birth brings anticipation, joy, and sometimes fear. As a Doula and childbirth educator I am constantly surrounded by pregnant women. Many of their stories are the same and some are quite different, but what they all have in common is that they want the best for their babies. Nothing compares to the privileged responsibility of giving life, nothing. With that being said, it is surprising to find that most women believe that they have few options when it comes to birth. Very few women know what their choices are, and fewer are aware of what their rights are. And fewer still are willing to stick up for those rights. Why is this true? Even as children, we are reared with the understanding that women should be quieter than boys. We aren’t encouraged to yell, or rough house. We are shown princesses as role models and are told to act like ladies. We are not brought up being told to question everything and to stand up for and maybe actually fight for our rights. So it’s not shocking that most women will sit during an exam/appointment with an O.B. and allow themselves to be talked down to, or be told that their decisions or questions are stupid. We treat ourselves like we are alone on this journey when, in fact, we certainly are not. There are two people on this journey and one of them is completely dependent on the other. A woman taking a childbirth education class I teach said of her last birth, “It was like my husband and

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I didn’t matter, it felt like they took my baby from me and I felt helpless.” How can we as moms and dads take back our kids and become the ferocious parents we need to be to protect ourselves and our babies before and after they are born? Education is the answer and only way we can take back pregnancy and birth. These are two naturally occurring events in nature that should only be medical events about 10% of the time. Learn about birth and evidence based practice. Ask questions and don’t worry about ruffling feathers or taking someone’s time. This is your birth, your child and your body. This is a sacred and blessed event—if you don’t feel your care provider agrees with this, find a new one. Don’t be afraid to do what’s right by you and your baby. Good or bad, you will always remember the way you were made to feel the day your baby was born. Preserve that memory by seeking independent childbirth education. Hospital childbirth education classes seem like a conflict of interest. If a hospital has a protocol for constant fetal heart monitoring, you sure as heck will not learn how, ten years after the monitor was in use in the United States, the C-Section rate rose from 6% to 21%. You certainly will not be told about how the lithotomy position is the craziest, most illogical way to have a baby. Roberto Caldeyro-Barcia, past president of the International Federation of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, states unequivocally, “Except for being hanged by the feet, the supine position is the worst conceivable position for labor and delivery.” So, if you want some insight on what’s healthy and normal, seek out independent childbirth education. Be ferocious about your health and the well being of your baby. No one loves your baby like you do, so advocate for your baby like the lion and lioness you know you are! ______ Gena Kirby is a wife, mother, Doula, Childbirth Educator, and creator of mommymattersonline.com. She is the creator and host of the radio show, Progressive Parenting, which airs every Thursday at 1pm on KFCF 88.1 FM.

SF Labor Council Backs UNITE HERE Local 2, Rejects SEIU’s Threats [Editor’s note: Here’s a little background information. The labor movement in this country has, in recent years, become quite turbulent and soap-operalike as two distinct camps have dug in. Though the tendency is to dismiss a lot of this as just a bunch of union nonsense, the stakes couldn’t be higher. The very soul and spirit of the labor movement, the fight for real economic justice for the working class, depends upon the outcome of these present struggles. Here are the key players. SEIU is the Service Employees International Union. SEIU is based in Washington DC. SEIU-UHW is a local chapter of SEIU, representing some 150,000 healthcare workers throughout California. SEIU-UHW was formerly an independent, democratic union, but SEIU took it over in January of this year. So SEIU-UHW is currently an occupied, nondemocratic union, whose leaders were appointed rather than elected, and whose members now want out. On the night of SEIU’s hostile takeover of SEIU-UHW, members announced the formation of NUHW (the National Union of Healthcare Workers). Workers throughout SEIU-UHW are currently organizing to leave their union and join (and help build) NUHW. Just a few weeks ago, home healthcare workers throughout San Francisco (who are currently represented by SEIU-UHW) filed a petition to have a vote in which they can choose to leave SEIU and join NUHW. UNITE HERE is an international union that represents folks who work in hotels, restaurants, airports, casinos, and other places. UNITE HERE Local 2 is a local chapter of UNITE HERE based in San Francisco. About 9,000 mem-

bers of Local 2 are currently engaged in a contract fight with their employers. Their last contract expired on 14 August as their employers dragged their feet and stalled negotiations over a new contract. The AFL-CIO is a federation of 57 national and international unions, including both SEIU and UNITE HERE. Throughout the country, there are established Central Labor Councils, proportional and democratic organizations in which local chapters of AFL-CIO unions work together to achieve common goals. The San Francisco Labor Council is the San Francisco-based body of the AFL-CIO. Each local union helps to fund the council according to the size of its membership. Local 2 has been very supportive of NUHW’s struggle for independence and democracy, which SEIU is obviously none too happy about. The following article details how SEIU, rather than simply letting its members have a free choice as to what union they want to be a part of, is attempting to manipulate the Labor Council to squash SF homecare workers’ fight for independence and democracy in their union. Mike Casey is the president of UNITE HERE Local 2. Sal Roselli is the former president of SEIU-UHW, who was fired when SEIU took over the union; he is currently the interim president of NUHW. The wildly unpopular Dave Regan is one of the new heads of SEIU-UHW (the other is Eliseo Medina), appointed by SEIU leaders in Washington DC (i.e. SEIU top dog Andy Stern) and sent to California to replace Roselli.]

Aug. 31‚ 2009

by Randy Shaw

and these officials did not respond well to what Teachers n a further sign of SEIU’s Union President Dennis Kelly described as “the two faced-ness growing estrangement from the labor movement, of (Dave) Regan’s presentation and by the threats and bullying.” the San Francisco Labor

Council has rejected SEIU’s threat to withdraw 40% of its Council funding unless UNITE HERE Local 2 drops its support for NUHW’s decertification campaign against SEIU’s home health care workers. At an August 21 Executive Board meeting, representatives of several unions took turns castigating SEIU-UHW Trustee Dave Regan for threatening the Council’s funding, while praising Local 2’s historic commitment to worker rights. Although Regan had threatened the “immediate withdrawal” of SEIU’s $17,000 monthly Council contribution during an August 15 meeting with Local 2 officials, he now denied that SEIU had decided to withdraw funding. Instead, he said that he had requested to meet with Local 2 to see how SEIU-UHW could help UNITE HERE in its contract fight against San Francisco’s hotels. Most striking about the meeting was the widespread criticism of SEIU’s bullying tactics, and the strong defense of Local 2’s efforts to help NUHW decertify SEIU’s local home health care workers. As the epicenter of labor’s internal wars shifts to San Francisco, SEIU now finds itself in deep trouble with the powerful San Francisco Labor Council. Labor officials were angered by SEIU’s threat to withdraw its Council funding,

Council Defends Local 2, NUHW The Council was brought into the SEIU-UNITE HERE fight after Dave Regan told Local 2 officials that SEIU was withdrawing its monthly per capita contributions “effective immediately” in retaliation for Council President Mike Casey’s support for NUHW’s campaign to decertify SEIU’s local home health care workers. Although Regan denied at the Council meeting that any decision to withdraw funds had been made, I confirmed with Local 2’s Northern California Organizing Director Tho Do that her notes of the Regan meeting confirmed that he said SEIU’s dues would be withdrawn “effective immediately.” Not wanting to have his individual union’s decisions negatively impact the Council, Casey began the August 22 meeting by offering his resignation as President. It was unanimously refused, with much of the Council irate over SEIU’s tactics. John Ulrich, of United Food and Commercial Workers 101, told the Council, “for SEIU to continue to try and extort CLCs (Central Labor Councils) over issues is terrible.” Ulrich stated that he “belongs to four Labor Councils, and SEIU has pulled this kind of threat in three of those councils many times over the years over different issues.” Casey made it clear that he felt that NUHW “is the true voice of homecare workers in

Labor continued next page...

Labor continued...

California,” and that “it was Sal Rosselli, former UHW staff and the union’s rank-and-file leadership, not SEIU, who did the work on behalf of homecare workers in San Francisco.” In an ominous sign for SEIU’s relationship to the broader labor movement, nobody criticized Local 2’s support of NUHW’s de-certification. Nor did anyone dispute Casey’s crediting Rosselli’s team for the gains of the home health care workers who will soon be choosing between SEIU and NUHW as their representative.

Council Initiates Solidarity Pledge In order to protect its finances, the Labor Council has initiated a “Solidarity Pledge” whereby unions are being asked to agree to provide additional funding so that if SEIU leaves there will not be a shortfall. Plumbers chief Larry Mazzola, who announced at the end of the August 22 meeting that his union would “step up” to fill any funding gap, kicked off this strategy. According to Labor Council Vice-President Conny Ford, since Mazzola got the ball rolling, the solidarity pledges are “going great.” Ford told me that in response to her single email message about the pledge, “people are either signing up or saying that they are awaiting ratification of the proposed dues increase from their executive boards.” Ford said she had not heard from a single union that they did not want to pledge higher dues to protect the Council from SEIU’s withdrawal. In addition, Local 2’s support among other unions continues to grow. IBEW 1245 Business Manager Tom Dalzell is providing Local 2 with two fulltime organizers to help on its contract fight, and is also providing the services of longtime former SEIU organizing strategist Fred Ross, Jr., who now works for IBEW. [Editor’s note: IBEW is the International

Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.]

Growing Labor Unity – Outside SEIU As the AFL-CIO convention opens on September 13, the union unity exhibited at the San Francisco Labor Council over the dispute between SEIU and UNITE HERE could well emerge at the national level. SEIU’s former Change to Win partners at UNITE HERE and the Laborers Union are negotiating to rejoin the AFL-CIO, and the UFCW – whose San Francisco representatives strongly backed Local 2 against SEIU — may not be far behind. Incoming AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka recently gave an interview in the Las Vegas Sun [see www.alturl.com/m6co] in which he vowed to move labor in a different direction than that promoted by SEIU President Andy Stern. Trumka noted “the difference between me and (Stern) is that he believes you can look at that system and play within that box by accommodating employers. I believe that the system has to be changed because it’s designed for employers to win and workers, every time, to lose.” Whereas Dave Regan told the Labor Council that this “tag line” about SEIU and “top down unionism and corporate unionism” hasn’t “been his experience,” most labor leaders are not happy over SEIU’s vaunted “partnerships” with Wal-Mart, Big Pharma and other corporate interests. Trumka and international union presidents are increasingly joining UNITE HERE and NUHW’s critique of SEIU’s approach, which could soon result in a labor movement with nearly all unions on one page and SEIU on another. ______ Randy Shaw is the author of Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century. ______ This article originally appeared on beyondchron.com.

20 September 2009

WHERE WE ARE

occupied Palestinian territories. So that’s another piece of common ground to stand on. But here’s the rub. Most on the Palestinian side hold that the Palestinians are entitled to all of

Israel has built on or not? So let’s all sit down and work it out, right? We could have a Palestinian state in a few weeks, no sweat. The long war could be over. Hang up your vests and

since the occupation began in 1967, including East Jerusalem, which has historically been the Palestinian capital.

Middle East George Mitchell has been busting his ass to get serious negotiations under way, visiting just about every relevant leader and head of state in the region, and just as Obama has been hyping up the crowd, as it were, with bold and ambitious talk about imminent peace in the region, and

egotiations over how to end the ongoing “conflict” between Israel and the Palestinians have been going on for just about as long as the conflict itself. Now, in this diplomatic arena, I take it as uncontroversial that the conflict and all its bloodshed should be brought to an end (without yet saying anything about how), and that all parties (Israel, the Palestinian Authority, USA, etc.) should agree on at least this, and In the first two weeks of September, Israel announced plans to build nearly 1,000 should work toward this new homes for Jewish settlers in the West Bank. end. This should be the starting point for any negoti- the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. belts, suicide bombers. Park the (Some even say that the Golan tanks and planes, go home and ations—how do we end this Heights and all of today’s Israel see your families, IDF soldiers. shit? If it’s not, if one of should be included, but I’ll disHit the mosque or the synagogue the parties doesn’t actually miss these positions as, whether and thank your god it’s over at right or wrong, unrealistic.) Most last. want to end the conflict, but on the Israeli-American side hold seeks rather to perpetuate it, that the Palestinians are entitled to This is where we are, folks. So then the negotiations are close. most of the land, but not the vast mere pomp and show, bound tracts of land on which Israel has to be fruitless. continuously built settlements However, just as US envoy to the So let’s assume, on faith at this point, that all parties are on the same page in this regard. Furthermore, we know that the current administrations in Israel, USA, and the PA all agree on the need to establish a legitimate Palestinian state in the Israeli-

So the negotiations are almost done, right? It all boils down to a single issue. Should the Palestinians get back the land that

Palestine Report continued next page...

Palestine continued... just as everyone’s getting increasingly excited about the prospect of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas sitting down together at the United Nations in New York in the final week of September to finally hash it out [Editor’s note: Already, this has failed to pan out. They never met in New York.], and just as the time is ripe for peace with the negotiations hanging only on this one issue of the settlements…with all these pieces in place and everyone holding their breath, even the suicide bombers laying low, waiting to see what happens…Israel has, just in the last few weeks, moved forward with plans to build more settlements.

Why the sudden restraint? Just three weeks ago, we cut off aid to Honduras because we don’t like the guys running their country, but here Obama, over and over, lets it be known that America wants peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and that Israel must cease with the building of further settlements, in response to which Netanyahu brazenly announces new settlement plans. And we, amazingly, do absolutely nothing.

I’ve not often been a fan of my country’s tendency toward bullying, but when has USA ever faced such impertinence and done nothing about it? Peace in the region is in USA’s interest, so why are we not throwing the WHERE WE full force of our power—our REALLY ARE superpower, if you will—into achieving it? Why are we It seems pretty principled a holding back? Why is thing to say that Israel, at Obama settling for mere least for the time being, ought statements when he could to stop building on make real demands with Palestinian land. It would be teeth? Why are we being so perfectly reasonable, I proweak-kneed? pose, for Obama to say to The only reasonable explanaNetanyahu, Okay, we’re going to hash it out, and you tion is that perhaps our onfaith assumption was wrong may get to keep all of the land you’ve already built on, from the beginning. Perhaps it’s wrong to assume that all but you’ve got to stop any further settlement-building so the parties agree that the conflict should end. Quite possithat we can end this thing with fruitful, honest, goodbly the negotiations are a sham. It may just be that, faith negotiations. And he has said just that, more or even though we as Americans less, but mere talk is far as may see peace as a good it’s gone. Going further, it thing, the guys at the top would be perfectly reason(along with their buddies who able, I propose, for Obama to work for companies that make killing machines) don’t back it up and add, If you don’t stop building, we’re cut- see an end to the conflict as ting off the millions of dollars being in America’s interests, in aid we give you each year. but would rather see a reliSimple as that. It’s called able, unrelenting war. leverage, and it lies at the heart of all international And that just breaks my heart. diplomacy.

We use it all the time. Why the great reluctance now?

here has been, in recent days, much media hullabaloo and Gaddafi bashing in the wake of his admittedly eccentric, tangential-to-sanity, way-toolong speech at the United Nations on 23 September. It was the dictator’s first visit to USA and, while journalists and comedians (there’s less of a difference these days) have had a field day with the many…well, crazy…things he said, no one has said much at all about some of the not so crazy portions of his discombobulated tirade at the UN. (Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi has been the de facto leader of Libya since he ousted King Idris I in a bloodless coup in 1969.)

For example, Gaddafi lectured the UN delegates on the absurdity of veto power being reserved for certain members of the UN Security Council. Perfectly reasonable, if you ask me. The Security Council has only 15 member nations, while the rest of the world’s countries are relegated to the UN General Assembly, which has no official capacity except for the passing of essentially meaningless, un-enforceable resolutions. Five of these nations (five of the strongest and richest, it should be noted) have veto power, allowing any one of them to simply nix any plan that they don’t like, even if approved by all 14 other countries in the Security Council.

byCarlosFierro&AbidYahya Though there are other problems with the UN, the veto, more than any other issue, renders the UN necessarily undemocratic. Far from ridding the world of bully nations as it was intended after Hitler’s defeat, the United Nations actually serves the interests of the bullies, offering the already rich and powerful superpowers of planet earth yet another means to bolster their global control and influence, largely by use of the veto in the Security Council. Any nation with veto power, or any country whose leaders are cozy enough with a veto-wielder, can get away with whatever villainy it wants because the only means that the world community has to stop said nation is the UN, and the UN, for whatever reason, has given said nation a “get out of jail free” card. Now that’s insane. Call him what you will (an eccentric hero, a terrorist, a terrorist sympathizer, a batshit crazy fascist, etc.), but Gaddafi got it right on this one. (Despite the UN’s fifteenminute limit on speeches, Gaddafi went on for about an hour and a half. The longest UN speech ever was more than nine hours long—India’s Krishna Menon in 1957. Castro went for four and a half hours in 1960.) ~AY

here’s a lot of big news lately involving rail systems in Muslim urban centers. First, in Makkah (or Mecca, as some spell it), plans are underway for building a rail system connecting the various sites visited by Muslim pilgrims performing the Hajj. About 2 million Muslims descend upon Makkah to perform the Hajj every year, and the monstrous crowds are increasingly problematic (deadly stampedes are frighteningly common) for the government of Saudi Arabia, the venerated custodian of harmony and order in the Muslim holy cities of Makkah and Madinah,

The rail system will be built by a Chinese firm and a French firm, working under a $1.8 billion contract. The planners say that the network will be up and running within 3 years, but that a portion of it will be running for the 2010 Hajj. Furthermore, it looks like there are also plans for a high-speed train that can take you from Makkah to Madinah in a mere 30 minutes.

The trip currently takes about 5 hours by car. I myself have made that journey in the back of an ACless taxicab with a couple from Texas who kept mistakenly speak-

AfterWords continued next page...

AfterWords continued...

expected, our local mainstream media (the Fresno Bee and channels 30, 24, and 47) have all toed a ing in broken Spanish to our line, a line given to them similar understandably confused Saudi directly from the FPD and Chief Arabian driver. Thirty minutes Dyer. sounds real nice. In the two news articles And in Dubai (which is that the Fresno Bee ran, as of quickly becoming one of the most September 27, regarding Lonnie high-tech and business-opulent Graham’s death, both refer to the cities on the planet), the highly as either a Bulldog gang victim anticipated Dubai Metro opened member or as a gang member, one its turnstiles to the public on 14 September. Boasting 47 stations, of which refers to him as such in the title. In the three articles or 87 trains, and over 46 miles of track, this high-tech marvel (oper- stories that KMPH ran, Graham was referred to as a gang member ating entirely without any live or a bulldog gang member seven train conductors) should bolster Dubai’s growing reputation as the times. In KSEE’s two stories, Graham is referred to as a gang hot new vacation destination for member or a Bulldog gang memwealthy Westerners. ~AY ber three times. The two stories appearing on KJEO referred to he eighth officer involved Graham as a gang member or shooting occurred in Bulldog gang member four times, Fresno late last month. Lonnie and KFSN does so four times as Graham, 28, was shot in the well. This drum beat of “gang back and killed member” by two Fresno or “Bulldog” police officers is to say serving a warthe least rant for prejudicial Graham’s and, at arrest. For worst, it those who don’t serves as know the story, justificathe officers, tion. Add apparently fearthis the ing for their fact that local lives, thought media that the cell found it phone that worth Graham held in reporting his hand was a the justifishiny object. The officers fired cation/spin that Dyer tossed out, seven bullets at Graham, who namely that Graham wanted to die. had his back turned to the offi- The Bee reported, “According to cers when he was shot. This is Dyer, Graham told his former girlthe fourth shooting death this friend that police were after him, and that he said, “It’s time for me year caused by officers—half as many as the total number of to die.” Never was Dyer quesFresno Police Officers that tioned about how this could be have been shot and killed in the used as a justification or even part line of duty in the last 100yrs, of the explanation, considering according to Officer Down that they didn’t learn this until Memorial Page, Inc. (see after the shooting. It is just as http://alturl.com/jo39). likely that Graham, far from harWhat is just as troubling boring a death wish, simply feared is the way our local media has for his life. covered the shooting, the death, An unarmed man is shot and those involved. As might be in the back and killed and Dyer

remember a time, not too long ago actually, when I didn’t have a cell phone. Truth is, my situation didn’t call for one. I still question whether my situation has really changed so drastically that I need one now. I got my cell phone when we started The Undercurrent, thinking that it would be useful to allow people to reach me ccording to Nature, the California Department of away from home, since, at the Pesticide Regulation (DPR) is time I spent most of my time away from home. Even studying whether or not the pesticide methyl iodide is safe with that, I still had reservafor use in California. The EPA tions about getting a cell has already made methyl iodide phone. I knew that this technology did not so safe for use, but the 2007 ruling by the EPA prompted con- much follow a need, but cern and protest from both sci- rather created the need. entists and citizens groups. At Having the phone meant issue is whether methyl iodide using it. And once I got the is safe for consumers and farm phone, my greatest fear came to pass, namely constantly workers. Methyl iodide is a pesti- being in the situation where I cide developed by Arysta was always within reach. LifeScience, to replace methyl Regardless of where I was, I bromide, a pesticide that was was only a phone call away. and our local media use badly couched justifications. For many, it is not surprising that the FPD, under the out of control Dyer, has failed us, but the fact remains that Dyer’s police wouldn’t be allowed to get away with this sort of thing time and time again without the willing accomplices that are our local mainstream media. ~CF

rule our lives. Using all of the new gadgets on our phones including accelerometer, camera, GPS, microphone, and Wi-Fi, the researchers were able to pinpoint the phone’s (meaning your) location. This research will inevitably help corporate America deliver what the researchers are calling hyperlocalized service. Walking past or in a Target store, for example, might get you a text

mesfound to eat away at the ozone My phone would ring not sage by Vahram Antonian layer. Methyl bromide is being on my schedule, but whenever. I from phased out in accordance to the knew I could turn it off, but again Montreal Protocol, a treaty signed the technology creates the need. I Target concerning a sale on Bic pens, or Starbucks might text you in 1987. Although methyl iodide was like the gambler placing that about their new tall, venti cask of is safer for the ozone, it is decidone last, last bet in the hopes that amontillado. An initial test of this edly more dangerous, in the imme- this time would be the time. What sort of technology by researchers diate sense, for humans. Methyl if that call that was too important resulted in 85% location recogniiodide is a known carcinogen and to miss came when I had my neurotoxin, particularly problemat- phone off. I short, I was becoming tion accuracy. It’s just a matter of time ic in fetal development. All of this a slave to the cell phone. before we’re constantly bombardprompted the DPR to declare that Well now researchers at ed with spam messages from every use of methyl iodide “results in Duke University have made it pos- store we have the misfortune of significant health risks for workers sible for our cell phones to further walking past. ~CF and the general population.” Last year, Arysta LifeScience showed revUS soldiers total US total US US soldiers enues of $1.3bilkilled in Sept 09 soldiers killed soldiers killed killed in Sept 09 lion. And, as more states and nations move away from methyl bromide, Arysta LifeScience stands to see a substantial increase in rev- We have not included numbers for civilian casualties because, though there are many studies and sources positing estimates, there is no single, reliable, regularly-updated source of data regarding civilian casualties. Just assume that the number of civilians killed in enue. ~CF

Casualty Counter 859

4,348

Iraq and Afghanistan dwarfs even the number of American soldiers injured, let alone killed, each and every month.

Pyramid Education Scheme

Just another brick in the wall

e climbed to the some down. top of the massive It was/is an abomination pyramid of the sun how European conquest thinking through the colonial phase, and its today. It is still difficult to current manifestations in American understand how the conquis- thinking, can be considered so supetadores, the colonialists, the rior in culture, society, and mind, independence leaders (both when they were/are so dead wrong. Liberals and Conservatives) All of the players through the centuries have been so wrong. In each and even the institutional phase and stage they have put so revolutionaries could have much effort in making the indigethought that the indigenous nous people feel so inferior. In addition to calling them “mentally peoples were “inferior”. It wretched,” they also thought them comes to my mind that per- ignorant, that they needed to be haps the minds of the soremoved from their “moral prostration” from their “physical abjeccalled “superiors” were, tion,” through assimilation, accomhave been, and to a certain modation, acculturation, and through extent still are the “inferigenetic blending into European and Caucasian stock (Ibid.). This is not ors”. Usually, when one feels inferior, he/she/it cov- such a long throw from the current thinking by Tlaxcalan and current ers it up in a shroud of pro- “colonial” educators, educational jected superiority. Our administrators, and institutions about group of 15 people, climbed the symbolism related to young to the top, the 248 steps, to Mexican American students in the schools. Current educators do not experience the grandeur, the know what to make of these children mystery, the architectural of the sun who are not able to phenomenon of the so-called achieve the “gold” test standards required by the expectations of the “mentally wretched.” current state and federal functionar(Bonfil Batalla, p. 101). It ies. The Indians resisted, have resistook less than a half-hour to ted, are resisting and are the children of the sun. As I stood on top of the climb. Some took more pyramid I called to the winds, Ollin, time, some less, some up, the winds of change. On top of the

by Juan C Garcia PhD

him to go back and again he was Tepéyac was a special denied an audience with the Bishop. place to pray. The whole area was a So he went back a 3rd time to lake as big as Lake Michigan, perTepéyac to talk to the Lady haps, and Tepéyac, rose up from the Coatlicue. This time she asked him water and was seen as mother earth; to gather roses that she saw growing and had been venerated for who on the hill at a time where they were knows how long. The Tepeyac hill not supposed to be growing. He chapel stood in contrast to the masgathered them in his huipil and back sive basilica, the modern structure he went to see the Bishop to show looking like a spaceship (like him that he has not making up the Fresno’s City Hall). It stood in constory. At last he was able to see the trast to the old 16th century basilica, Bishop. He told the audience that which looked like all Italian churchthe Lady he saw asked him to bring es, like a square cavern. Some of the roses to prove that he was not us went to the new basilica to get a making the story up. When he glimpse of that same huipil with the dropped the huipil to show the roses, image of the Virgin the Guadalupe there emblazoned on it was an emblazoned on it. It was hanging as image of the Lady that kept appearthe backdrop to the alter and to see pyramid of the sun there was splening to him. Finally, the Bishop and it you had to go through an underdor, awe, resistance. How could our his associates took him seriously. pass on a conveyer-belt moving indigenous forbearers have been She was called Coatlicue, according walk that took you from one side to considered so inferior? Who is to Estela, nuestra maestra. The the other in a smooth short trip zooming who in this upside down Spanish priests didn’t hear her right. quickly under the image which was world of advanced education? They didn’t understand that he was high up and hard to see and impossiEarlier in the day we had saying Coatlicue. The Spanish ble to take a picture of. visited the Basilica where the Virgin heard “Guadalupe” and since there Nevertheless my eyes, Ceci’s eyes of Guadalupe appeared to the indio, was already a “Guadalupe” in Spain, (my daughter), our eyes saw it. It Juan Diego. He was 52 years of age they thought that’s who had was anticlimactic, in a way, to see it, and a widower for 10 years (accordappeared to the Indio Juan Diego. It but what was important was that we ing to my colega, Rob Darrow was a stretch of the phonetic imagisaw it unfiltered through our own (Clovis Unified School District nation. Internet High School Principal), who Pyramid continued next page... looked it up on the internet). He, Juan Diego, had been converted to Christianity. But it doesn’t take much imagination to also take into account how saddened he must have been with the state of affairs (per Estela Roman, our maestra and host). The Cerro de Tepéyac (the hill) was considered a sacred place by the indigenous, a place to pray and contemplate. They were being stripped of the world they knew, their beliefs, their way of life, their culture. It was a time of sadness and crying, or disbelief about what was happening, a tremendous loss. Juan Diego went to the ancient Cerro de Tepéyac, to pray, to cry, to contemplate, when suddenly, she appeared to him, and asked that he go to the Bishop and request that a chapel be built in her honor. Can you imagine an Indian asking to see the Bishop? They wouldn’t let him see the Bishop so he returned to by Carlos Fierro where he saw the Lady. She asked

Pyramid continued... eyes.

Then we went to the pyramid, the temple of the Sun. When we were all at the top, exhausted from the steep, quick, climb, we took in the majesty of it all. To the north we could see the Pyramid of the Moon and the mile long road, Avenida de los Muertos, south all the way to the Temple of Quetzalcoatl. The wind started suddenly, a little wind, a gust of wind. It was Ollin, making his presence known, taking some hats, feeling its strength. Suddenly, I was transported back 8 years ago when I went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with my parents. We were out on the Sea of Galilee, the priest was talking about the gospel when the apostles were fishing on the sea and suddenly the winds came and the storm rocked the boat, and Jesus walked on the water. As the priest was talking and we were listening, a sudden gust of wind surprised us and several hats, scarves, and umbrellas flew into the Sea. It was the holy spirit talking to us to come over the spiritual divide. It was like that on the Pyramid of the Sun, the winds beckoning us/me to the edge, over past the divide to see what has been fundamentally missing in the educational enterprise. Even Tlaloc had something to say, coming down hard on us. We left the top of the pyramid as the water poured down on us. Monte Albán Spoke to us about the Education of Chicano Children We went to Monte Albán on Monday, 07-21-09, and what a glorious testimony to the intelligience, beauty, and sophistication of the Zapotecs. Monte Alban is located “ . . . situated atop an artificially-leveled ridge, which with an elevation of about 6368 feet above mean sea level, rises some 1312 ft) from the valley floor.” Besides being one of the earliest cities of Mesoamerica, Monte Albán’s importance stems also from its role as the pre-eminent Zapotec

100 Years Ago, Spain Killed a Teacher: The Legacy of Francisco Ferrer

Just another brick in the wall

socio-political and economic center for close to a thousand years. Founded toward the end of the Middle Formative period at around 500 BC, by the Terminal Formative, (ca.100 BC-AD 200) Monte Albán had become the capital of a largescale expansionist polity that dominated much of the Oaxacan highlands and interacted with other Mesoamerican regional states such as Teotihuacan to the north (See Wikipedia- “Monte Albán”). It is challenging to see that they actually existed, the way they organized the architecture, the layout, the structure of the plaza, the various temples. You can visualize thousands of people involved like little ants, taking care of their business, visiting the priests, having ceremony, trading and exchanging their wares, food, flowers for services, ceremony, bendiciones. On top of the various pyramids you can see the people down below or across the expansive plaza, like hormiguitas scurrying about their business. The great courtyard, the various piramedes, altars, sects, design, organization, economics, and religion, all visible and invisible, created a wondrous contemplation. Alfonso Caso really made a discovery. He and his associates conducted the major part of the excavation from the 1930s to the late 1940s. There was a statue of him by the entrance, a bespeckled-nerdy looking guy, who was a genius at discovery and exploration. I remember reading his work when a graduate student at Stanford in the 1970s. There was a beautiful museum that we didn’t even get a chance to check out because just exploring the ruins took up all the time we had. Just to explore the pyramids we climbed endless steps. The Zapotecs must have been physically well-built and they must have had strong built up thighs. Taking in the beauty was breath-taking; the winds cross-cutting the top of each pyramid, the vision, the cosmos, just to imagine all of the activities taking place here on a regular basis. Imagine the

people, thousands of them; the food, the clothing, the wares, and the splendor of it all. It is hard to imagine the color, the beauty. When I traveled in Europe I didn’t see anything like it. I have never been to Egypt, but I imagine that there must be as profound a feeling as that which we have experienced at Monte Albán. I tried to imagine what Jamestown might have been like next to the pyramids, wonder of the world, but I know it was nothing like this. But that would not even be a glitter of comparison. How about Stonehenge? Perhaps it comes close spiritually, but architecturally, hands down, no comparison. At the coliseum in Rome you start to approach the form, but not the content. You start to see what I am talking about. Why do the Chicano-Mexicano children get the short end of the stick when it comes to their self-esteem and who they are? Mr. S and I talked briefly about bringing a group of kids from the barrio or even from Clovis to take a glimpse, the walk the great plaza, to stand on top of the pyramids at Monte Albán. We were really impressed and we took a few hundred pictures between all of us. It was such an uplifting spiritual experience for all of us. (see CSUF.wordpress.com) Again, the question is how do we convey this to the children of the sun? They have no idea, they do not know, nor do they have an opportunity to experience the majesty, this mystery, this opening to the universe. How do we bring this back home and inject it into the curriculum at the teacher training level? How do we tell the Dean, the faculty, administration, math and science, reading, everyone?

Dr. G, from Monte Alban 07-21-09 ______ Juan C Garcia PhD is a faculty member in the Department of Counseling, Special Education, & Rehabilitation at CSU Fresno. He can be reached at juang@csufresno.edu.

by Pongo

Education as liberation...an anarchist education

ctober marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Spanish educator Francisco Ferrer y Guardia. On October 13, 1909, the Spanish government, along with the Catholic Church, executed a teacher. Why?

Ferrer was an anarchist educator in Europe in the early 20th century. In

1901 he created La Escuela Moderna, the Modern School, which drew influence from Leo Tolstoy’s school and other radical schools and educators. Ferrer was falsely implicated in leading an insurrection in Spain, but no evidence was brought against him. In reality, the government and the Church executed him because he created schools which taught students to think critically and independently, to question government and the teachings of the Church (in a society in which the majority of citizens were poor and could not read or write). School was often private and expensive, and when public school was available, its purpose was to indoctrinate students to submit to political and religious authority. The goal of La Escuela Moderna was to provide an educational experience based on freedom. It involved a switch from instruction and memorization to the process of learning and experiential learning. The school was based on rationalism and science rather than dogma. The goals of the school were “independence, autonomy, and self-reliance” (Avrich, 7). If we want a free society based on equality, radical educators pondered, then shouldn’t we start with the younger generation? The basic idea was to inspire students to become revolutionaries. The methods were antiauthoritarian, stressing the dignity and rights of the child. The school encouraged creativity and individuality. The school was a free school in the full sense of the term—free from authority and domination. Several Modern Schools were set

Francisco Ferrer (1859-1909)

up across Spain during the first decade of the 1900s. When Spain killed Ferrer, it created a martyr. Upon his death, there was an outcry across Europe and the United States. Not only were people angry, but they decided to do something about it. Modern schools were created all across Europe and the US. The longest running Modern School lasted from 1911 to 1953 in New York. In California, there were Modern Schools and similar anarchist schools in San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Berkeley (lasting through the 1960s), and Los Angeles. Of the national schools, the most well known was the New York school. Many radical luminaries were involved with the school and the larger Modern School movement in some capacity. All kinds of theorists, intellectuals, artists, poets, writers, playwrights, teachers, and others were involved. Among these famous radicals are Emma Goldman, Voltairine De Cleyre, Alexander Berkman, Man Ray, Robert Henri, Margaret Sanger, Upton Sinclair, and Jack London.

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The Corporate Stranglehold

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The structure and curriculum of the Modern Schools were based on respect for autonomy and individuality. Students could come and go as they pleased. Teachers were more like learning guides, facilitators of learning, than omniscient imparters of knowledge. Teachers and students learned and created together. They acted in plays and had forays in the park. Individual and creative expression was encouraged. The schools didn’t stop with educating children. Many had adult education courses, weekend lectures, art shows, plays, and other activities. Some schools doubled as community centers and libraries, hotbeds of radical thought and organizing. I am in a teacher education program and plan to teach history, so the ideas and efforts of Modern School organizers are influential to me. Although this movement started 100 years ago, it’s still relevant. Schools remain incredibly oppressive institutions. The purpose of schooling is teaching submission to authority and creating productive, unquestioning workers. Although many teacher education programs and education theorists share similar ideas to Modern School thinkers, they often accept the basic premise of schooling. And most schools are a far cry from what we new teachers are learning in school. The Modern School movement gives me inspiration, hope, and ideas. And many new ideas, developments, and discoveries have come about in the past 100 years. While the basic impulse for freedom in education remains, new information and theories can help teachers better understand how to create free, healthy school environments for students. So on this 100th anniversary of the death of an

educator most people have never heard of, let’s remember his purpose and the ideas of contemporary educators and many educators since: creating a form of education that students can take responsibility for and in which they can follow their desires and their natural tendency and passion for learning about the world around them. I see little hope for revolution and meaningful social change resulting from current methods of activism. And I also don’t see tons of hope in trying to reach students and get this message across. But I do have some hope. And although all methods and strategies are necessary, I see connecting with the younger generation, sharing with them the truth about the world, encouraging them to question authority and to become autonomous individuals, as one of the more promising ways to cultivate lasting change. At least that’s one way that I think will work for me. Further reading: The Modern School Movement (Paul Avrich), Walking on Water (Derrick Jensen), works by John Taylor Gatto, works by John Holt, “Toward the Destruction of Schooling” (http://www.anti-politics.net/school/), essays in Emma Goldman’s Anarchism and Other Essays and The Voltairine De Cleyre Reader. _____ Pongo is working toward his/her teaching credential and is afraid to tell classmates and teachers that [s]he is anti-school and wants to inspire students to become revolutionaries and bring down the system. Pongo can be reached at anarchoprimate@riseup.net

by Henry A Giroux

on Education

represent an important market niche. There is also the move on the part of many universities towards embracing market mechanisms as a way of redefining almost every aspect of university life—in spite of the failure and excesses of this system as exemplified in the Bernie Madoff scandal, outrageous executive bonuses, financial corruption, the subprime mortgage crisis, and the corporate greed that caused the current economic recession. Rather than challenge the economic irresponsibility, ecological damage, human suffering, and culture of cruelty unleashed by free market fundamentalism, higher education appears to be one of its staunchest defenders, uncritically embracing a view of itself based on a market model of the academy. It seems that few educators have s the school year just recognized that universities are in need of began, colleges and uni- a moral bailout given that they are embracing the very market values, identiversities in North ties, and social relations that not only perAmerica are doing everything petuated the cut-throat values that caused possible to attract students, the economic crisis, but also put many of them in the dire financial crisis they are including making themselves currently experiencing. The corporate over in the image of a high-end stranglehold over higher education gets mall or a cool brand name. Some stronger regardless of how devalued marinstitutions are giving students ket fundamentalism has become during free Apple iPhones and Internet- one of the greatest economic crises the capable iPods. Others are build- United States has ever experienced. Strapped for money and increasingly ing attractive athletic facilities, defined in the language of corporate culdeveloping more retail stores on ture, many universities seem less interestcampus, and providing plenty of ed in higher learning than in becoming licensed storefronts for brand name corpospecialized coffee shops. Some rations—selling space, buildings, and welcome this change as a brilliant endowed chairs to rich corporate donors. market strategy while others Not surprisingly, students are now referred to as “customers,” while some university believe that any face lift will improve the often stodgy academ- presidents even argue that professors be labeled as “academic entrepreneurs.” ic image many colleges project. Instead of using their platforms to address Even as more and more students important social issues, university presiare excluded from a decent higher educa- dents are now called CEOs and are viewed tion because of the recession, educators primarily as fundraisers. seem less concerned about the plight of In the age of money and profit, poor students than they do about how they academic subjects gain stature almost can find the right brand to sell themselves exclusively through their exchange value to attract new students. But there is more on the market. Twice as many students at work here than the development of a major in business studies than in any other new campus aesthetic or a recognition that major. The liberal arts increasingly students are now considered clients who appear to be merely ornamental, a dying

vestige of an age not dominated by Gilded Age excess and disposability. Whereas the university was once prized as a place where students learned how to be engaged citizens educated in the knowledge, skills, values, and virtues of democracy, today they are trained to be workers and adept consumers. Educational value is now measured according to cost/benefit formulas, and the only rationality that matters is one of economic exchange. Education is increasingly reduced to a narrow instrumental logic, only recognizable as a form of training, just as teaching is removed from the language of social and moral responsibility, critical imagination, and civic courage. In the age of increasing specializations, pay for grades schemes, excessive instrumentalism, and an increasing contempt for critical thinking, higher education is producing new forms of political and civic illiteracy, turning out students who have little understanding of the complexities of the larger world, unaware of their power as social agents, and removed from those capacities that combine critique and a yearning for social justice, knowledge and social change, learning and a compassion for others. And the outcome can be seen in a growing generation of young people and adults who are barely literate, live in an utterly privatized world, and are either indifferent or complicit with a growing culture of cruelty. As higher education is transformed into a business or increasingly militarized, young people find themselves on campuses that look more like malls or recruiting stations for the national security state. Moreover, they are increasingly taught by professors who are hired on a contractual basis, have obscene workloads, and can barely make enough money to survive. Tenured faculty members are now called upon to generate grants, establish close partnerships with corporations, and teach courses that have practical value in the marketplace. What was once the hidden curriculum of many universities— the subordination of higher education to corporate values—has now become an open and much celebrated policy of both

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The Great Awakening

just another brick in the wall

public and private higher education. There is little in this vision of the university that imagines young people as critical citizens or critical agents, educated to take seriously their role in addressing important social issues and bearing some responsibility for strengthening and deepening the reach of a real and substantive democracy. Addressing education as a democratic endeavour begins with the recognition that higher education is more than an investment opportunity, citizenship is about more than consuming, learning is about more than preparing for a job, and democracy is about more the false choices offered under a rigged corporate state and marketplace. Higher education may be one of the few sites left in which students learn the knowledge and skills that enable them to not only mediate critically between democratic values and the demands of corporate power, but also to distinguish between identities founded on democratic principles and identities steeped in forms of competitive, unbridled individualism that celebrate self-interest, profit making, and greed. Put differently, higher education should neither confuse education with training nor should it suggest that the only obligation of citizenship is consuming. Higher education is a hard-won democratic achievement and it is time that parents, faculty, students, alumni and concerned citizens reclaim higher education as a fundamental public good rather than merely a training ground for corporate interests, values, and profits. Education is not only about issues of work and economics—as important as these may be— but also about matters of justice, freedom, and the capacity for democratic agency, action, and change, as well as the related issues of power, exclusion, and citizenship. Education at its best is about enabling students to take seriously questions about how they ought to live their lives, uphold the ideals of a just society, learn how to translate personal issues into public considerations, and act upon the promises of a strong democracy. These are educational and political issues and should be addressed as part of a broader concern for renewing the struggle for social justice and democracy. Let’s give our students the education they deserve in a substantive democracy. Schooling offers more than the promise of a decent job, however elusive that has become; more importantly, it offers the promise of a just and democratic society. _____ Henry A. Giroux's most recent book is Youth in a Suspect Society: Democracy or Disposability?

aving been a public school teacher in Fresno for over 30 years, I thought we had seen a low point under former President Bush when it came to educational policy in this country. No Child Left Behind, however well intentioned it may have been, had devastating effects on our public schools. Now, however, under a President who promised to “reform No Child Left Behind so that we are supporting schools that need improvement, rather than punishing them,” things seem to be getting even worse.

might say dead bones) approach to education, one that emphasizes a small piece at the expense of the whole. This narrow-minded approach does not have as its goal the development of young chilTeachers like myself, dren’s minds, or their ability to with decades of classroom experi- think critically about the world ence, are now being required to around them. have their lesson plans approved One of the craziest by administrators, who are then aspects of this, in my view, is that telling us how to deliver those les- the administration is telling us sons. It’s like a straightjacket. In what to do and how to do it, and school, teachers-to-be are well then, if the students aren’t learneducated in what are called “best ing, the blame is placed on the practices.” Best practices repreteachers. After giving us no leesent years of research into what way, no input as to how (or what) actually works best with kids in we’re teaching the kids, we’re to the classroom. Credential problame for bored students who grams, both the one I attended aren’t learning? The idea that years ago, and programs currently salary will be tied to testing operating, still base their curricu- results is beyond any rational perlum on best practices, and rightly son’s ability to comprehend, given so. However, when new teachers the current setup. (Obama has enter the classroom and begin been a big supporter of the idea of teaching, they quickly see that so-called ‘merit-pay’.) Another best practices get thrown out the crazy aspect of this current system window. What’s important these is that they’re not teaching kids days are the tests, and the test how to actually use the things scores. Administrators, following they’re learning. The focus is not Federal policies, are currently on how to relate concepts to realipushing a bare-bones (or one ty, or on how to apply these con-

by Kurt Watson

cepts in real life, but only on how to use them to do well on the test. It’s becoming less and less of a real education. Learning is turning into packets of information we’re attempting to forcibly download into students. Don’t get me wrong, there have always been elements of this rote-memorization approach in our schools— it’s just that now it’s becoming the only approach that’s acceptable. Obama promised to reform/get rid of No Child Left Behind. He spoke of not wanting to force teachers to spend all their time showing students how to “fill in bubbles on standardized tests.” Not only has he not changed NCLB, he’s taken it a step further. Basically, what we ended up with under Bush was a business model of education (handed down, I might add, from an individual who was an utter failure in business) and the Federal government becoming more involved in curriculum than it had ever been. Obama has taken the erosion of the public school system a step further.. Teachers hoped that under the new administration we’d see a return to a time when kids were encouraged to appreciate literature, enjoy music, produce art related to the curriculum, and when teachers would be able to explore areas in more depth. There was hope that the dictatorstyle reign had ended; that there would be major changes afoot in domestic & foreign policy. But it seems like more of the same… In August, the NEA wrote a response to Obama’s educational proposal (called “Race To The Top,” or RTTT) and stated: “The details of the RTTT proposal do not seem to square with the

Administration’s earlier philosophy. The Administration’s theory of success now seems to be tight on the goals and tight on the means, with prescriptions that are not well-grounded in knowledge from practice and are unlikely to meet the goals. We find this topdown approach disturbing; we have been down that road before with the failures of No Child Left Behind, and we cannot support yet another layer of federal mandates that have little or no research base of success and that usurp state and local government’s responsibilities for public education….Instead of focusing on strengthening enforcement of civil rights laws to promote access and opportunity for students, the Administration has chosen the path of a series of topdown directives that may discourage rather than encourage productive innovation in classrooms and schools across the country. Despite growing evidence to the contrary, it appears that the Administration has decided that charter schools are the only answer to what ails America’s public schools—urban, suburban, exurban, and rural—and all must comply with that silver bullet, despite the fact that charters have often produced lower achievement gains than district-run public schools.” [1] [2] Teachers throughout the country (especially those in lowincome areas) are no longer making decisions about what to teach & how to do it. Before, Fresno Unified School District prided itself on catering to diverse populations. Now everyone’s supposed to be on the same page; teaching the same thing, the same way. Before, kids had the opportunity to get multiple teacher’s versions/methods. Some kids won’t learn one way, but when teachers were actually allowed to make decisions about their curriculum, a

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student could get exposed to many different perspectives, and would be given multiple opportunities at flourishing/understanding. In addition to insulting the intelligence of those who devote their lives to teaching the youth, it’s having devastating consequences on a generation of young minds as well. Stephen Krashen, the leading linguist specializing in language acquisition, says kids take 46 years to learn a language fluently. Kids who come in speaking another language are being tested right away in English, which is not only discouraging, but wrong. Currently, children who should not be tested due to lack of fluency in their second language are being counted as if they were their native-speaking counterparts. Federal policy has thrown out the leading linguistic research, leaving the English-language-learners with the challenge of jumping through the hoops just like everyone else. The education of this group of children has surely been compromised. ‘Drill and kill for specific skills’ is no replacement for a coherent, holistic approach to education, which could serve as a base for further learning. Teachers do not come into the profession to test, but to do good in kids’ lives. But right now, for the most part, teachers are doing as they’re told, and everyone is suffering as a result. Because what they’re being told to do is to change the way they deliver the curriculum, and to change what they teach. This is happening on a massive scale, in a manner that is forceful and dictated from on high. At some point, there has to be a collective awakening, when teachers decide to trust what they’ve learned (both from best practices at the university level and their own teaching experience), and to stand up to the dictates of increasingly narrow-minded administrators & Federal mandates. Obama & Secretary of Education Arne Duncan have already pushed through, along with a commitment of $100 billion dollars of stimulus to the nation’s schools, the requirement that, in

just another brick in the wall order to qualify for those funds, the states must remove any caps or restrictions they have on charter schools. Part of the trend that is continuing under the Obama administration is really about a push to privatize our public education system. [3] As CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, Arne Duncan “presided over the implementation and expansion of an agenda that militarized and corporatized the third largest school system in the nation, one that is about 90 percent poor and nonwhite.” [4] (Funny that under our “socialist” president, the trend to privatize and “let the market figure it out” seems to be just as strong a tendency as under Bush…) It’s time to wake up and realize what is being done to our nation’s schools and our nation’s kids; it’s time to organize against this madness. ______ Kurt Watson is a bilingual elementary school teacher in Fresno and an artist whose work can be seen at Studio Itz. Check out myspace.com/studioitz. ______ Notes: [1] NEA’s comment on Obama’s educational policies/goals—August 21, 2009 [2] [See recent report on Chicago’s Renaissance 2010 initiative: Young, V.M., Humphrey, D.C., Wang, H., Bosetti, K.R., Cassidy, L., Wechsler, M.E., Rivera, E., Murray, S., & Schanzenbach, D.W. (2009). Renaissance Schools Fundsupported schools: Early Outcomes, challenges, and opportunities. Menlo Park, CA: Stanford Research International and Chicago: Consortium on Chicago School Research.] [3] See Danny Weil’s “Neoliberalism, Charter Schools, and the Chicago Model: Obama and Duncan’s Education Policy: Like Bush’s, Only Worse” @ http://alturl.com/f6ya [4] from “Obama’s Betrayal of Public Education? Arne Duncan and the Corporate Model of Schooling,” by Henry Giroux and Kenneth Saltman, @ www.truthout.org/121708R

have performed terribly on the standardized measurement tools year after year. That means you’re a terrible teacher. S: Not true! My student Plato thinks I’m awesome. A: That’s just his opinion. S: A pretty good opinion. A: Plato’s a stoner. Everybody knows that. And all he does is repeat everything you say word for word and call it his own. S: Perhaps that’s why I love his work so much. It’s just good stuff. A: Have you seen his new one about the trial? S: Ooh! Sounds intriguing. Is it ripped from today’s headlines? A: You…probably should take a look at it. At any rate, Plato was recently assessed using the standardized measurement tool exam, and he failed miserably. S: How’s that? A: He took the Scantron papyrus form and just filled in the bubbles so xios: Socrates, what and receive your unique brand of it looked from a distance like the education. But now that it comes is the nature of the Good Education? For back to me, it’s time for me to hand word “Form.” S: Nice. Well, you can’t judge you this edict. I suppose, among all the S: What’s this? You were totally me for that. Athenians, you are the most A: Actually, that’s the whole playing me! likely to know the answer. point. We are judging you based on A: Oh, it’s not a subpoena, Socrates: Axios? What are you Socrates, and I don’t have any rocks. what your students do. And numeridoing here? Last I heard you were a cally speaking, your students underI’m not in the Department of highly paid researcher at an perform on the standardized test. Administering Swift and Absolute Equestrian-leaning philosophy-tank. Meno flunked the geometry section. Justice. I’m in a new branch of the A: That’s waiting for me, yes, government called the Department of Agathon failed the language skills. Socrates. But right now I’m still in Diogenes broadly questioned the very Ensuring Accountability for the the government, establishing my existence of the test. And Alcibiades Teachers of the Hearty Youth of future contacts. didn’t turn in a single answer; he just Athens. S: So, then, you’ve come here used the papyrus to perform a despiS: DEATH-YA? Never heard of to… cable act! it. A: I actually came to engage in a S: Yes, I can see how that could A: You remember our last diaphilosophical dialogue with you. logue, when I proposed an objective happen. S: Really? Oh, boy! I can’t A: Well, what are you going to do and mathematical means of judging remember the last time one of my to make it better? your students’ progress? interlocutors actually wanted to S: What do you mean? They just S: Is that the one where I said engage in philosophical dialogue with have different learning styles. “Sure, why not?” me. Really?! And it’s not some A: That’s a good bet. At any rate, They’re each performing at the limits trick, right? You aren’t actually of their abilities and applying their Pericles was so taken with my idea going to serve me a subpoena or have own unique skill sets. What’s to that he is extending it to all of me beaten or throw rocks at me or Athens’ teachers as well. From now improve? Besides, I’ve intentionally anything? You just want to talk taught them to challenge assumpon, you teachers will be graded about the Good Education? tions, reject blind faith in authority, objectively, quantifiably, and thus A: Socrates, don’t you trust me? and suspend judgment on what they fairly by using the numerical scores S: Should I trust you? of your students as evidence of your cannot prove to their own satisfacA: Why wouldn’t you trust me? tion. effectiveness. S: Don’t you know? A: Well, why did you do that? S: I can’t think of any problem A: How would I know? Wait— They’ll never get a job with that kind with that whatsoever. we’re just going in circles here. A: Well, read the edict. You’re on of attitude. You’re answering everything with S: I’m nurturing their souls! probation. a—ah, it’s the You Method of teachA: You should be nurturing their S: What’s a “probation”? ing! I had almost forgotten how A: Socrates, your students stimulating it is to sit at your knees

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wallets. And the City-State Domestic Product. Real teachers help students get jobs. And real teachers know that teaching is not about passing along one’s wisdom, but rather using whatever fly-bynight theory is the latest touchy-feely idea to be suggested by those who study pedagogy for a living and thus know the most about it. You need to stop nurturing souls and you need to start facilitating learning. Sit your students in a non-hierarchical circle. Break your students up into small discussion groups to talk about how they feel after thinking about philosophy. Have them do projects with each other that they can present in class—you know, stuff that is fun and thus makes them want to “learn”; stuff that involves papyrimâché and colorful charts. And you can make your teaching “dope” and “fly” by telling jokes about the popular shows all the kids watch from the theatron of the orchestra. S: … A: Would it kill you to do a lecture on “The (Seven) Hills”? Or make a colorful reference to “So You Think You Can Please Terpsichore”? S: I suppose I could do those things. A: And maybe start using some audiovisual aids? All you do is talk. With your mouth, for the gods’ sake! You lecture, and you question, and you talk, and you pace, and you blah blah blah with your students. S: That, and I have sex with them. A: You won’t for long unless you snap to. We need to see results. Look, under recently passed legislation you will need to present a plan for improvement of your students’ scores, and your students’ scores will actually have to improve year in and year out, over and over again, forever. Or you’ll lose your teaching license. S: What legislation is that? A: It’s called the No Reasonably Good Looking Athenian Male Youth Born to Land-Owning Adults Left Back Law. Pericles pushed it through the Boule last year. S: Pericles certainly has a way with names. NRGLAMYBLOALBL, is it?

just another brick in the wall A: It’s clunky, I admit. But some are calling it just the No Athenian Male Born to Landed Adults law. And thus in accordance with NAMBLA, you are on probation. Did I already mention that? S: You did. So now what do you need from me? A: I need your plan for improvement. You need to set benchmarks. S: I see. Well then, I suppose, if I were to set benchmarks for my teaching, I guess I would say that by this time next year my students’ epodes will be more delightful. A: That won’t work. It needs to be quantifiable. You know: numbers. S: 20% more delightful? A: No, no, no. The improvement has to be quantifiable and measurable. Socrates, what kind of a teacher are you? You don’t seem to know anything. It’s almost as if you just know how to learn things, and what does that have to do with education? S: Well, what would you recommend, then, since you are clearly the expert on this whole “education” thing. A: I really shouldn’t tell you. I should make you figure it out yourself—that way you would really learn it. But I owe you, Socrates, because you were my first teacher and practically a father to me, so I’m going to give you a hint. One of the other teachers that I probationed proposed giving his students all the answers to the test, so that every student would get all the answers completely right after only one year. S: There you go. That’s my benchmark. A: Actually, I would advise against that, because that teacher will need to show improvement the following year as well. And each succeeding year. How will he be able to improve on a 100% success rate? S: Good point. So, then, you would recommend telling the students only some of the answers? And slowly increasing the number of answers you tell them over time? A: It’s the only way to be reasonably likely to conform to the law. S: Then that’s my benchmark. Thank you, Axios, for having taught me the proper way to apply the new legislation. Now if you’ll excuse me— A: Wait, Socrates. We’re not done. S: Yeah. I figured that was too

easy. I’m about to be beaten, right? A: Not at all. I just want you to come with me. We’re going to take a little walk across the agora to see someone who I think might inspire you and make you a better teacher. Giving your students the answers little by little is a foolproof way to get their scores up. But we will also be watching the teaching evaluations that your students turn in about you as well as the average starting salary of your students once they graduate and get a job. S: Oh, dear. A: You’ll need to keep getting better and better teacher evaluations each day, and— S: They are to evaluate me daily? A: Actually, it’s hourly, but we average out the numbers to a daily score. You can read the results each day at “Rate My Kathêgêtês.” Here, look at the latest scroll. S: Wow. I have a bunch of hottie-peppers beside my name! And the students seem to think I am cute as well as an easy grader and lots of fun! A: No. You’re reading the line for your rival, Isocrates the orator. Your report is below that one. It’s the one with the frowny faces, the 1 out of 5 stars for “Accessible,” and the total lack of hottie peppers. S: “He doesn’t have you buy a textbook but tests you on it anyway.” “His beard scratches my cheek when we study.” “Loves to hear himself ask questions and ramble on—stay away!” “I h8 his snub nose!!!!!” “Took his course on the Forms, now I cry myself to sleep at night.” “Acts like he invented Western philosophy! WTF?” A: You see what I mean? S: They despise me. A: Of course they despise you. You’re objectively terrible at teaching. And it’s not only that. We’re tracking the jobs your students get after they graduate, and your students are abysmal. The top three most common positions they have taken up over the last ten years are “gadfly,” “thinker/drifter,” and “telemarketer.” S: But don’t you think I’m giving the students what they need, even if it isn’t what they want? I mean, if the students are frustrated and feel as if they know less than they knew coming into my classroom, then haven’t I succeeded in teaching them

about the inadequacy of their preconceptions concerning reality and the need to question their assumptions? And if they are uninterested in pursuing the hollow pleasures of material success and the Grecian Dream, then couldn’t we say that I have done my job in getting them to think deeply about the nature of happiness and the Good Life? A: No. S: Oh. A: Socrates, the numbers don’t lie. On all three measures, you come out as a bad teacher. And with this sort of attitude, you’ll never get out from under your probation. You need to start thinking about the statistics and not about the individual students. S: This is really not at all why I got into teaching. I just wanted to be around young people, shoot the breeze, and wear leather patches on the elbows of my toga. Perhaps I was naïve to think I could make a difference, change the world, and maintain youthful erections. A: Ah, here we are. Montessorikos, my good man. Let me introduce you to a fellow teacher from across the agora. Montessorikos: There is no need for introductions, Axios. I know Socrates by reputation. S: You do? M: You’re the least wise man in Athens, right? S: Something like that. A: I brought Socrates over here hoping you might let him in on a few of your pedagogical tricks since he’s in danger of losing his teaching license permanently and you are consistently ranked at the top of our statistical charts. M: Not a problem. Will I get credit for this, Axios, as having led a continuing education workshop? A: I guess so. M: Then let’s get started. Tell me a bit about the make-up of your student body, Socrates. Do you have a charter school of Athens as we do so that you can get extra funds from the government? And do citizens use vouchers to choose to send their sons to study with you, thus increasing your reputation and riches? Have you channeled a good deal of money into a discus team to please the alumni and grow your endowment through marketing and gifting? And have you started ox-carting in youths

from the inner city-state so it all looks good on paper, plus you can blame someone if there is a sudden drop in scores? S: … M: I see. How about your teaching style? I assume you act as a “silent presence” in the classroom, thus letting the students teach themselves. And you don’t give anyone anything less than an “alpha minus” on any assignment. And you lean on your desk, smile knowingly, approve of whatever means they choose to express themselves, and allow all of the students to call you by your first name? S: I don’t think I have a first name. M: Hmm. This is going to take some work. I was saving this as a last resort, but I think it’s best to pull out the big guns now, Socrates, and talk to you about the latest technology that has allowed professors-inthe-know truly to perfect their teaching. If you simply must “present” the students with your “knowledge,” then there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. Do you know how to point? S: Sure. Like this? M: Exactly. Extend that finger. Point with conviction. Point to each and every student. Imagine they are all here with us right now. Look them in the eye, show them you care—not that you care about them individually, of course, but care visà-vis their status as “a student.” Look concerned, extend that finger, and point right at them as if they were individuals. Do it like you mean it, with power and authority. Put some real oomph behind it. S: [point point point point] M: Excellent! You’ve taken your first step toward mastering the amazing, revolutionary, most up-to-date teaching technology available. After you learn the Power Point it will practically run your classroom for you! ______ H. Peter Steeves is Professor of Philosophy at DePaul University and can be reached at psteeves@depaul.edu. Steven J. Ingeman is an independent scholar and Circulation Supervisor at Mary Riley Styles Library in Falls Church, VA and can be reached at ingeman@falls-church.lib.va.us.

Sunday

Monday

OngoinG EveNts:

Where:

2ST: 2ND Space Theatre, 928 E Olive AAM: Arte Americas AQS: Aqui Shi, 1144 E. Champlain Dr. #108 CPB: 389 E Shaw Ave CRF: Fresno Retro Club, 4450 N. Brawley CT: Crest Theater, 1170 Broadway Plz lI

am the Ocen, Let Live, Chrysalis, Life at Twilight, Audie's Olympic, 9p l Fresno County Wine Journey, $15, 11am - 6p l Jazz Jam Session w/Mike Dana, TKG, 6p l Freeshow, VVV

Country w/DJx Auzzie and Gariette, Audie's Olympic, 9p l Jazz Jam Session w/Les Nunes, Pizza Fusion, 6p l Freeshow, VVV l Outlaw

Queers, TA80, The Giddy-Ups!, Check Raised, Audie's Olympic, 9p l Jazz Jam Session w/Craig Von Berg, TKG, 6p l Freeshow, VVV l The

l Joe Buck Yourself, .357 String Band, Stab City, Thrawtle, ROR, Audie's Olympic, 9p l ZooBoo, $12-$14 at event, Fresno Chaffee Zoo, 5p - 8p l Jazz Jam w/Andre Bush, TKG, 6p l Fresno Phil: Mozart & Dvorak, $15+, WST, 2:30p l Streetwalkers, Skin Like Iron, CYC, 5:30p l Freeshow, VVV

Wednesday

2nd Space Theatre: Lost in Yonkers, Aug 19 – October 11 l Roger Rockas: Hairspray, Sept 17 - Nov 15 l 2nd Space Theatre: Babes in Toyland: Barnaby's Story, Oct 29 - Dec 20 l Rogue Festival applications being accepted!

CYC: Chinatown Youth Center FAM: Fres Art Mus, 2233 N 1st St ITZ: Studio Itz, 370 N Fresno St KPJ: Kuppajoe, 3673 N First St LMK: The Landmark MET: Fresno Metropolitan Museum PDP: Piazza del Pane, Cedar & Nees PF: Pizza Fusion, 1785 Herndon Ave

Tuesday

RL: The Red Lantern RR: Roger Rocka’s, 1226 N Wishon SBN: Squoia Brewing, North, 1188 E. Champlain SBT: Squoia Brewing, Tower, 777 E. Olive Ave SL: The Starline, 831 E Fern TT: Tower Theatre, 815 Olive Ave

l Monday Mixer - Industry Night w/DJ Prof Stone, Audie's Olympic, 9p l Valley Café Scientifique, Piazza Del Pane, 6:30p l Soul Control, Dangers, Strike to Survive, Cheack Raised, $9, CYC, 6p l Dangers, Soul Control, CYC, 5p l Eighty Five w/DJ Johnny Q, VVV l Building a Culture of Peace Week, Fresno Pacific Univ: Opening Ceremony, 10a l Accustic open mic w/Abigail Nolte, free, SLGrill, 7:30p - 10p l Open Mic w/Aesop, SL, 9p - 1a

l Menealo Monday w/DJ Prof

Stone, Audie's Olympic, 9p l Eighty Five w/DJ Johnny Q, VVV l Accustic open mic w/Abigail Nolte, free, SLGrill, 7:30p -10p l Open Mic w/Aesop, SL, 9p -1a

l Indie Night, free, Audie's Olympic, 9p l Caulfield, CYC, 5p

l Lounge Night w/DJ Prof Stone, VVV

l Building a Culture of Peace Week, Fresno

Pacific Univ: Jazz at 5:30p, Poetry at 7p

l Country Music Night, RL

Prof Stone, Audie's Olympic, 9p l Eighty Five w/DJ Johnny Q, VVV l Accustic open mic w/Abigail l Nolte, free, SLGrill, 7:30p - 10p l Open Mic w/Aesop, SL, 9p - 1a

Audie's Olympic, 9p l Eighty Five w/DJ Johnny Q, VVV l Accustic open mic w/Abigail Nolte, free, SLGrill, 7:30p - 10p l Open Mic w/Aesop, SL, 9p - 1a

l Acoustic without a net Showcase, Audie's Olympic, 9p l Kevin Hill Trio, Cracked Pepper Bistro, 7p l Bane, Trash Talk, Foundation, Bridges, $11, CYC, 6p l Party Like a Rasta (featuring Ras-I-Chant, DJ Narsty, DJ Bodie, l Upryzin, PyRo, Optimus PRIME, and K-Smoove, $3, Babylon l Soul Freedom Lounge w/Mr Leonard, VVV l Trey Tosh, SBT l Oktoberfest! Ed Hull's Brewpub Polkateers, SBN l Comics Gone Wild, $5, TP, 5p

"Indie" w/Dust, Audie's Olympic, 9p Jazz @ the Library: Brief History of the Jazz Drumset, free, WST, 10:30a WWP Library, 7p l Ani Difranco, $34-$39, TT, 8p l Lounge Night w/DJ Prof Stone, l Soul Freedom Lounge w/Mr Leonard, VVV VVV l Mercury Blues Band, SBT l Country Music Night, RL

l Dia del Astronauta, Audie's Olympic, 9p l Kevin Hill Trio, Cracked Pepper Bistro, 7p l Valley Town Hall: Dr. Alan J. Russell, $20 (stu free),

l l

l Comics Gone Wild, $5, TP, 5p

l "Indie"

w/Bicycles and Velvet, Velvet, Velvet, Audie's Olympic, 9p l Malbec, St. Leonards, Heavy Young Heathens, $5, SL, 9p l Lounge Night w/DJ Prof Stone, VVV l Country Music Night, RL

26DJ HouseWaxParty,On!free, All Vinyl 27Olympic,Indie Night, Audie's 9p l

19 20 Yogoman Burning Band, DJ l

TM: the Manhattan, 1731 W. Bullard Avenue TP: Thai Palms, 7785 N. Palm Avenue WST: William Saroyan Theatre WWP: Woodward Park VVV: Veni Vedi Vici, 1116 N Fulton

Lounge Night w/DJ Prof Stone, VVV l Country Music Night, RL l

l L'80z Nite/80s Night w/DJ Audie5000, Audie's Olympic, 9p l Kevin Hill Trio, Cracked Pepper Bistro, 7p l Soul Freedom Lounge w/Mr Leonard, VVV l Fresno State Student Walk Out (against fee increases, cut classes, and furlough days), CSUF Peace Garden, noon l Oktoberfest! Ed Hull's Brewpub Polkateers, SBT l Comics Gone Wild, $5, TP, 5p

l The Foreign Resort, Space Waves, Audie's Olympic, 9p l Kevin Hill Trio, Cracked Pepper Bistro, 7p

l Soul Freedom Lounge w/Mr Leonard, VVV l Trey Tosh, SBT

l Comics Gone Wild, $5, TP, 5p

1 Art Hop l Wheels

of For l Reggae Night l Hamilton Loom

8Subarachnoid S l

Olympic, 9p

lScience of Wine

Region"), $2

l Fresno Poets' A

Herrera, free

l Reggae Night w

l Building a Cultu

Green Movie

Art

l Glen Delpit and t

l Argyle Pimps, SB l Fresno Phil: the

l Inner Ear Poetry

l Reggae Night w/

22 l Fay

Wrays (cd

Audie's Oly Cross, A l Reggae Night l Terril

l The Inflight Nym

Audie's Olym l Tori Sparks, $6 l Reggae Night w

Thursday

Friday l Rademacher, Mother Hips, Audie's Olympic/Club Fred, 8p

2 (Tower/downtown)

rtune CD Release, $5, TKG, 9:30p t w/Reality Sound International, VVV mis, SBN, 8p

Space, Ovo, Space Hooker, Audie's

e ("California Wines that Define the 25, MET, 6p Association poetry reading: Juan Felipe e, CSUF Library, 7p w/Reality Sound International, VVV ure of Peace Week, Fresno Pacific Univ: e Night, 7p

Hop (Metro/Outlying)

the Subterraneans, Audie's Olympic, 5p

BN, 10p

5 browns (piano), $20+, WST, 7:30p

y Jam, $5/$3, FCB, 8p

/Reality Sound International, VVV

d release), Racelegs,

ympic, 9p Audie's Olympic, 5p t w/Reality Sound International, VVV

mphs CD release w/Tommy D, mpic, 9p 6, FCB, 8p w/Reality Sound International, VVV

l FUSE Fest: Fresno Urban Sound Experience, 40+ bands in 7 venues,

Saturday

$15 festival pass, fusefest.com l Meatball Magic, free, RL, 10p l Greener By Color, Via Coma, KPJ l Cineculture: The American Southwest: Are We Running Dry, free, CSUF McLane 121, 5:30p l Soul Good w/DJs Matt Burton & Manny Carr, VVV l Irish Hugh, SBT l Trey Tosh, SBN

l Let's Go Bowling, The Whiskey Avengers, King Sugar, Audie's Olympic, 9p l Fresno Arts Festival, unveiling of Chris Sorenson sculpture, MET, 10a - 5p l Fresno County Wine Journey, $15, 11am - 6p l Patrick Contreras, TT, 8p l FUSE Fest: Fresno Urban Sound Experience, 40+ bands in 7 venues, $15 festival pass, fusefest.com l Nate Bulter, Piano, $6, FCB, 8p l The Rhythm Do-Gooders, VVV l Live Entertainment, AQS, 10p l Latino Night, RL l Dirt Cheap, SBT l Irish Hugh, SBN

l Libra

B-day Bash w/DJ's Don Do, Fplus, Beset, Bizr, and Defy,

Audie's Olympic, 9p

l Fresno l DJ

Filmworks: In the Loop, $10, TT, 5:30p, 8p

Prof Stone, VVV

l HR7,

SBT

l Rocky

Rock Show, SBN

l Dave Gleason w/The Golden Cadillacs, Sean Wheeler y Zander Schloss, Motel Drive, Audie's Olympic, 9p l The Loungement: South Sea Thythm & Blues, $6, FCB, 8p l A Day to Remember, Parkway Drive, In Fear & Faith, I See Stars, Crest Theatre, 7p l Licorice Pimps w/Jeff Logan, VVV l San Joaquin River Service Project, 8a l Live Entertainment, AQS, 10p l Latino Night, RL l Groove Monkeys, SBT l Krossover, SBN

l The Fusion Porn (cd release), Shiver Fox, Strange Vine, Audie's Olympic, 9p l Woodward Shakespeare Library Reading, free, WWP Library, 6:30p l Vanessa Vasquez, $5, FCB, 8p l Meatball Magic, free, RL, 10p l Falling Up, Archaeology, Josiah James, KPJ l Cineculture: The Canary Effect, free, CSUF McLane 121, 5:30p l Frisky w/DJ P-Rez, VVV l Mozart Season • Goodbye Hidden Betty • Grace Kelly • ICatchFire • Elonera, CRF, 7p l Krossover, SBT l Mofo Party Band, SBN l Knigths of Comedy, TP

l Super Big Surprise Show TBA, Audie's Olympic, 9p l ZooBoo, $12-$14 at event, Fresno Chaffee Zoo, 5p - 8p l Super Lucky Catz, SBT, 8p l Despise You, Crom, Too Many Screaming Children, SEK, Necrowizard, CYC, 5p l Cineculture: Women without Men, free, CSUF McLane 121, 5:30p l Word of Mouth w/DJ Rusty, VVV l Super Lucky Catz, SBT l Groove Monkeys, SBN l Dave Lane, Audie's Olympic, 5p l Mistress of Reality (all female Black Sabbath), Death Alley Motor Cult, Fetish Ball, Audie's Olympic, 9p l Green Eggs and the Met: Opening reception for the Art of Dr. Seuss, featuring El Olio Wolof,

Yesterday's Chonies, Wheels of Fortune, and Uni & Her Ukelele, $10, MET, 8p - midnight l Tempest (Celtic Rock), $15, FCB, 8p l Opening Night: ART All in the Timing, $12 adv, $15 door, SEV, 8p l Kids Like Us, Creatures, Dont Trip, Empty Eyes, CYC, 6p l Cineculture: A Un Poquite De Tanta Verdad (A little bit of so much truth), free, CSUF McLane 121, 5:30p l Soul Experiment w/Mr Leonard, VVV l Rocky Rock Show, SBT l Krossover, SBN

l Ripper Band Blues Jam/Pot Luck, Audie's Olympic, 3p l Pinups of Tower Calendar Release, FUCS Rally Show, Audie's Olympic, 9p l Gabe Rola, $7. FCB, 8p l All that Remains, Lacuna Coil, Maylene & the Sons of Disaster, Taking Down, Crest Theatre, 6:30p l NOTown Roller Derby Rumble in the Park Exhibition, free, Cary Park (behind Fashion Fair), 3p l Body Rock, VVV l Live Entertainment, AQS, 10p l Latino Night, RL l Trey Tosh, SBT l Executive Rockers, SBN l Knights of Comedy, TP l Kate and Dave's Wedding Reception Pary w/The Free Show, Highway City, Audie's Olympic, 9p l Masquerade at the Met, MET, 6p l ZooBoo, $12-$14 at event, Fresno Chaffee Zoo, 5p - 8p l Super Lucky Catz, $5, FCB, 8p l Fresno Phil: Mozart & Dvorak, $15+, WST, 8p l Pooch Parade, Canine Carnival & Costume Contest, Tower District/TT, 1 - 5p l The Rhythm Do-Gooders, VVV l Live Entertainment, AQS, 10p l The Kinzie Affair, Fighting the Villain, Look Alive, Divided We Fall, & Heores Are l Forever , CRF, 7p l Latino Night, RL l DB & The Struggle, SBT l Rocky Rock Show, SBN l Costume

Party, $14, FCB, 8p Entertainment, AQS, 10p l Holloween Party, RL, 8p l Trey Tosh, SBT l Krossover, SBN l Live

w Calendar current as of printing

THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES far left

LOW RED LAND right

AND YOU WILL KNOW US... lefT

CAVE SINGERS• EL OLIO WOLOF • LIGHTNING DUST

...AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD

Less than an hour drive north on good ol’ Highway 99 lies one of the Central Valley’s live music gems, The Partisan. On this, the venue’s 2nd Birthday weekend, they celebrate in grand style with Matador Records artists The Cave Singers. The Seattle band makes this stop in Merced as part of a months-long tour that sees them hitting every major city in the U.S., as well as extensive coverage of the UK and Germany and select stops around Europe. Perfectly matched to The Cave Singers’ subtle, somewhat bohemian folk-Americana are Merced’s own El Wolof, along with CS tourmates S A T O C T O 3 Olio and Jagjaguwar Records artists, 9 0 0 P M • 2 1 + • $ 5 Lightning Dust.

Sound ‘N Vision hosts this exhaustively monikered band for a show not to be missed. Known to fans simply as Trail of Dead, these guys have a reputation for wild, explosive live performances that will simultaneously drain and energize any audience. The band has kept a low profile over the last few years, having returned from major label-land to an indie, but they continue improve with every new release. From Cardiff, Wales comes Future of the Left, one of ToD’s tour partners. Perhaps best described as post-punk/experimental, this 4AD Records band has an inter- S A T O C T 1 0 esting sound that should translate well 9 3 0 P M • 21 + • $ 15 into an exciting live set.

Tremendous Modesto shoegaze band Solar Powered People seem to have kept a fairly low profile for years, and yet they have a respectably large following in the Central Valley and in the shoegaze community around the world. It’s the band’s ability to capture the sonic qualities of that long ago, soon-to-be-again genre that makeS this so: thick, delayed guitar tones and huge vocal reverb written into songs that rock you with intensity and melody at once. See them live to get how they put all of the right elements together and why theirs is a sound S A T O C T 1 0 with an appeal to fans of a broad 9 0 0 P M • 2 1 + • $ 5 spectrum of rock genres.

In sports, the term “careering” is a term used to describe an athlete who’s on a successful run. That term applies to the Sound ‘N Vision Foundation and The Cellar Door, who from month-to-month stack their calendar with amazing acts like this one, Seattle band These Arms Are Snakes. This is a rock band for the still-new millennium; sometimes math-y, sometimes heavy, the band isn’t afraid to experiment with (and they have some of the best) guitar tones, and the sense of urgency with which they play live has the indie music world talking. Toronto experimental/indiemath group DD/MM/YYYY will support TAAS on this night and all over T U E O C T 1 3 the U.S. before returning to Canada 9 3 0 P M • 2 1 + • $ 5 for a junket of their own.

THE PARTISAN

SOLAR POWERED PEOPLE • LOW RED LAND

CELLAR DOOR

THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES • DD/MM/YYYY

THE PARTISAN C E L L A R D O O R

MALBEC • ST. LEONARDS

Los Angeles group Malbec return to Fresno for the first time in too long for this Love, The Captive promotion. Though inexplicably unsigned, Malbec are in the process of self-releasing a series of five EPs of new music over a period of five months, collectively known as The Answering Machine EPs. A monumental undertaking for any band, but certainly a statement about this band’s tenacity and commitment. Fans of MGMT and Thievery Corporation— for starters—will enjoy this band’s pop sensibility and danceable energy. New South Wales, Australia sends coT U E O C T 2 0 headliner St. Leonards to sweep you your feet with their subtle, beauti9 3 0 P M • A L L A G E S • $ 5 off ful pop ambience.

THE STARLINE

THE FOREIGN RESORT • SPACE WAVES

Copenhagen, Denmark shoegaze/new wave band The Foreign Resort come to Fresno, proving that the shoegaze genre is alive and well. This is the only Central Valley stop on an extensive tour for this band that adds elements of new wave and good, straight-ahead rock to the shoegaze mix. The end result is live music that’s great to listen to, but, go ahead, dance if you want to. American duo Space Waves deliver a dreamy, downtempo electro-style that’ll appeal to fans of Mazzy Star or Massive Attack. Opening group Dia del Astronauta are a remarkably good fit for this bill, as they represent W E D O C T 2 8 some of the best melodic shoegaze 9 3 0 P M • 2 1 + • $ 6 rock you’ll hear anywhere.

ALEXANDRIA BURNING

Part of a spectacular goth-themed night called Dark Desires, this eclectic show marks the live debut of Alexandria Burning, a dark-edged local rock project featuring members of legendary local gothic rock band, The Shroud, plus members of locals Wax Erratic and Fresno shoegazers The Sleepover Disaster. This night also serves as the release party for the band’s debut record The Fear Gospels, an album three years in the making. Performances from The Theatre of the Vampires and The Valley Burlesque Society provide the spectacle, and DJ Maverick Cadaverick of the former Futureshockk collective will spin goth, O C T 2 4 darkwave, and more throughout the S A T night. 900PM • ALL AGES • $6ish

THE STARLINE

DREAD ZEPPELIN • RASTA PASTA

Audie’s Olympic is stepping up. Owner Audie Pardon has worked hard, and now established, new, foreign and domestic bands are beginning to flock to this venue in droves, bringing us some of the best live music we’ve seen in town for years. No exception here, then, on Halloween Night as Dread Zeppelin returns to perform for you their own special blend of Led Zeppelin and reggae stylie. Not that that’s all that DZ have in their bag of tricks these days. Local badboys Rasta Pasta (members of a plethora of local bands past and present including Let’s Go Bowling) are the perfect pairing for a that promises to be the best S A T S E P 2 6 show thing going for your Halloween fun.

AUDIE’S OLYMPIC AUDIE’S OLYMPIC 900PM • 21+ • $10

page 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 • Chinatown Youth Center = 901 F St, Fresno

I HEART FRESNO

Holy Trinty Armenian Apostolic Church, from Cathedrals of California

t’s strange how we always seem to pass by things every day and not notice them. I was born here in Fresno, and have lived here most of my thirty years, with the exception of the five years right after college, and am glad to be back. I missed this town terribly when I was away and always thought it was the friends and family that I had been missing, but in the past year I have come to realize that I also missed the places.

find myself falling in love with the “ancient” Fresno that so few Fresnans get to appreciate daily. Sure, we all have seen the Water Tower, and a good number of us are familiar with St. John’s Cathedral and the Meux Home, especially if we grew up attending Fresno Unified schools, having taken field trips downtown at some point in elementary school, but even born-and-bred Fresnans are missing out, and they don’t even know it. I remember the first time I walked into Holy Trinity Armenian Apostolic Church on the corner of Ventura and M Street. It was breathtaking. It was old, and huge, and holy, and magnificent. I I am lucky to have found remember just standing there in a job downtown, working at an old disbelief of how intricate and funeral firm in an even older beautiful it all was. I was ashamed building. Every day I drive to to have not known this place work and am consistently remindbefore, especially after the four ed of how little I know about the years I spent just down the road history of Fresno. Whether it’s attending Edison High. I had working a funeral service at one of missed out. How many others have the old churches downtown or missed out as well? Maybe it’s having lunch on the Fulton Mall, I that I’m not Armenian, or maybe

by Sara Rutherford Woody it’s that I’m not Apostolic, but, for whatever reason, it took me working a funeral at Holy Trinity to just step foot inside. But I’m a Fresno girl and this church has huge history in my town. For that reason alone, I should have been exposed to the amazingly artistic level of beauty that is “that one old church on Ventura,” as it is so often referred to by people calling in to the funeral home, asking for directions to a service. I suppose that level of beauty is to be expected at a house of worship, and that my surprise at how lovely the church is shouldn’t have been so profound, but it was. And I should note that there are many other religious buildings in the downtown Fresno area that are also as magnificent, and each one is a place that should evoke a certain amount of pride in those of us living here, not only because of the architecture, but because of the

many different religions that had a home in this little town fairly early on in the Valley’s history. And it isn’t just the churches—this town is full of amazing places, architecturally, artistically and historically, and slowly I will notice them, and hopefully feel that awe every time.

______ Sara Rutherford Woody is a wife, mother, and funeral director/embalmer. She was born and raised in Fresno. She can be emailed at timidvenus@gmail.com.

HOT OFF THE PRESS: MICHAEL LUIS MEDRANO’S BORN IN THE CAVITY OF SUNSETS

by Abid Yahya

met Mike Medrano when we were both studying English at Fresno State. I remember him as a pensive yet boisterous college kid who already dressed (always in guayaberas) like an old pachuco, as a friendly goodhearted guy never in a rush, always willing to hang around and shoot the shit, making poems out of everyday conversation. Most of all, though, I remember him as a good poet determined to become a great poet.

He went away for a while, got his MFA from the University of Minnesota, and has now returned to Fresno to teach and write. And write he has. His already impressive career as a poet includes a stint as editor of the local journal Flies, Cockroaches, and Poets and the publication of several of his poems in such esteemed national literary journals as Bombay Gin, The North American Review, Bilingual Review, and Rattle. And now, with the publication of Born in the Cavity of

living in the barrio”). But he also added, “I say read the whole book.” When asked about the political nature of the book, he said, “If you’re writing political poetry, you’re writing about the truth in politics, but I make up my own politics. For example, I write a poem about a real incident of a relative of mine pooping in the pool, but I just ran with it in this poem.” (“Not a Poem About La Familia Medrano”) This is, perhaps, the perfect illustration of Medrano’s brilliance. He’ll make Sunsets, his debut collection of you see the meaningful political poetry, we can all get to know this truth, even in a story about a floatimportant local poet a little better. ing turd. He’s a truly irreverent This book’s publication, to be bard. sure, is genuinely a landmark in And his irreverence as a the unfolding development of the poet, his obvious love of language central valley’s vibrant poetry and words, is nowhere more eviscene. dent than in his live readings. I got a chance to sit down Even back in college, his poems with Medrano to talk about the on the page became entirely new book, whose cover is graced with creatures when he was on the mic, a stunning print (“A Murder of full of noise and wildly fluctuating Crows” by Alfredo Arreguin), and cadences, something of hip hop in he had this to say: “The themes I there, revolution and wisdom and focus on in the book are the anger and love all spilling forth. themes of family and grief. I look So if you haven’t seen at our behavior at funerals, for him perform, you’ll have a chance example, the tiny rituals that we on Saturday, 17 October. From 7 do. There’s one poem where my to 9pm at Palomino’s (in the grandmother is putting holy water Tower District), legendary local on my grandfather’s body. Many poet Tim Z. Hernandez will host a of the poems are elegiac in a way, Michael Luis Medrano book signdedicated to past teachers, other ing and reading. Connie Hales artists, and poets who are friends. and Marisol Baca will read, Lance There’s also some fun, language- Canales will perform an acoustic driven poetry.” set, and Medrano will headline. When I asked him if Copies of Born in the Cavity of there are any poems in the book Sunsets will be available for $11, that he would especially recomand Medrano will be on hand to mend to readers, he mentioned provide autographs. And the two, “Villanelle for Father and whole event is free. Don’t miss it. Son” (“It’s a very personal poem If you can’t make it, that deals with the passing of a though, the book is also available generation”) and “Calling Out the at amazon.com and the Bilingual Bulldog” (“A poem for the work- Review website, ing class chicanos and chicanas www.asu.edu/brp/brp.html.

THE PICTURE FRESNO PROJECT

by Sara Rutherford Woody

hile at the Met with my sister, I noticed that the building, which used to be the Fresno Bee building, had some interesting features that I had never noticed before. I made a comment to her about it, and we talked about other places around Fresno that we have seen in the years we have lived here (all our lives, really), and started wondering what sorts of things we had seen that had never really registered, but that certainly were part of the history of the city that we love so much. After a few minutes of chatter about buildings and places of interest, the subject changed, and soon we were discussing other topics, and it wasn’t until a bit later that the idea of Picture Fresno came into our minds.

say of the round window up near the top? There had to be a way to find out if we really know our buildings, places of interest, landmarks and historic sites. Indeed, I had the wheels in my mind turning, and I couldn’t really think about anything else. I decided that I would create a website dedicated to what I was calling “the picture game,” one that anyone could visit and take part in. I talked to my family about it, and immediately we figured out what we wanted to do with it. We decided that we would create a blog on which we would post up-close photos of different sites in Fresno. We’d allow people to comment on, telling us what they thought the photos were of, and see what sort of answers we got. We have been diligently taking our pictures all around Fresno, of places that we thought of, and places that were suggested to us by others, and have learned that this project is a lot larger that we imagined. The site, www.PictureFresno.blogspot.com, has been up for a couple of weeks and we have had some positive feedback from others and are hopI started wondering ing for even more. The specifics about the old Fresno Bee buildof the Picture Fresno project are ing, and decided that if I, a thirty- listed on the site, and, starting year-old Fresno native, thought October 10, the photos will begin there were places around my city to appear. We are hoping for I would actually recognize, even involvement from anyone that if I only saw a part of it, there are would like to try their hand at probably other Fresnans who guessing what the photos are of, could do the same. I also wonand are excited to see the results. dered which ones I wouldn’t be If you have questions about able to immediately recognize, Picture Fresno, feel free to email but about which I would feel picturefresno@gmail.com, and we embarrassed when I realized what hope you check out the site and I was seeing. I wanted to find a take part in our guessing game. way to do that, a game maybe, to ______ show us the things we see all the Sara Rutherford Woody is a wife, time without really taking note of mother, and funeral what it is we are looking at. director/embalmer. She was born Everyone would know the Water and raised in Fresno. She can be Tower if shown a photo of it, but emailed at would they know a close-up of it, timidvenus@gmail.com.

Nominations for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing Now Being Accepted

by William Saroyan Foundation

ominations for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing will be accepted through January 31, 2010. This award, given by Stanford University Libraries in partnership with the William Saroyan Foundation, recognizes newly published works of fiction and non-fiction with a $5,000 award for the winner in each category. The prize is designed to encourage new or emerging writers and honor the Saroyan literary legacy of originality, vitality and stylistic innovation. For official entry forms, contest rules, and other information on the prize, visit the Saroyan Prize website: http://library.stanford.edu/ saroyan/.

Boy Meets World—and the world likes it... by Matt Espinoza Watson Fashawn, Punit, & Hecktick unite to put Fresno hip hop on the map

ashawn is indisputably the hottest MC in the Central Valley right now, although you probably haven’t seen him around lately, as he’s been touring the nation with the hip hop-allstar Rock the Bells tour, and sharing the stage with LA underground hip hop heavyweights Evidence & Alchemist on a European tour. But Fash, as he is known, is planning something big for his homecoming show. In his first big show in Fresno in years, Fashawn is coming back to town and bringing some heavy hitters with him. On October 24, at the grand Tower Theatre (when was the last time there was a hip hop show there?), Fashawn will be supported by the likes of East Coast underground legend Talib Kweli (of Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Black Star, Reflection Eternal, and his own solo albums, & one of the inheritors of the legacy of intelligent politically charged lyrics in the tradition of Rakim and KRSOne) and Jean Grae

(known as ‘What?What?’ in her earlier days; a razortongued MC whose lyrics range from the introspective and personal to the hardest battle raps, and who, in a just world, would be as wellknown as Jay-Z). “It’s a lot of firsts,” says Fashawn, “everything involved, it’s the album release party for my first album, it’s my first show in Fresno in years, my first time performing at this size venue in Fresno, the first time Talib Kweli has come to town,” and, to top it all off, “I’ll be turning 21 on October 19.” For those with their ears tuned in to the local hip hop scene, Fashawn is already well

known. He’s released some solid material over the past couple years, mostly in mixtape form; from Grizzly City to Higher Learning to One Shot One Kill, and the recent (bangin) mixtape collab with Alchemist, The Antidote, but it’s the album coming out October 20 that has everyone talking. Boy Meets World is Fashawn’s official debut album, and it comes out days before his homecoming. XXL Magazine gave the album an ‘XL’ rating and said that it’s “a strong debut from such a young MC, and it resonates a lot more than some rappers decades his senior.” I’ll say this: I was impressed the first time I heard Fashawn’s music, but not nearly as impressed as I was when I checked out his catalogue recently. Fash has been putting in work, or,

Fashawn continued page 23...

Fashawn continued...

brought my attention back to this rising Fresno star. Punit is a young man who has recently emerged as a force to be reckas he himself says on “Fash oned with in the world of video plays it cool”: “Unmatched how directing. He has been behind I’ve evolved in one year—blew all five of Fashawn’s videos, past almost all of my peers….” “Streets of Fresno,” Know that this wasn’t just a “F.A.S.H.A.W.N.,” “Our Way,” clever lyric—he’s speaking “Sunny CA,” and the most truth. recent, and perhaps the masterWhen I asked Fashawn piece (thus far), “Life as a what he wants folks who may Shorty.” “Life as a Shorty” is be hearing about him for the the first of the videos to get first time to know about him; he widespread distribution onto replied, “Whether they’re new cable video networks, and is listeners or old, they should simply a great video (shot in know that I’ve been the same Fresno, featuring a diverse cast since day one, and always repof elementary school age kids) resented what people I know for a great song about the trials would consider traditional hip & tribulations of growing up hop; speaking from the heart. I poor in Fresno. (The video is believe every word that comes currently in rotation on MTV2, out of my mouth, and that’s those folks hearing about him for MTV Jams, BET, fuse.tv, and why I have the impact I have on the first time, and want to familiarother channels.) my listeners and people who are ize yourself with his work, I’ve From the looks of it, hearing it for the first time. I’ve got a great place for you to start: Punit and Fashawn have both never been all I’m the best, I’m the www.vimeo.com/punit. [1] grown tremendously in their illest. MCs are supposed to be all Though I’d heard of Fashawn bravado, but I let my work speak some time ago, and caught a cou- respective crafts; Punit started off doing audio engineering at for itself.” ple great performances by him, it Hecktick Soprano’s studio and And, if you’re one of was Punit Dhesi who recently stepped up to the plate when the

idea to shoot Fashawn’s first video came about, and is now working with some of the bigger names in underground hip hop, and winning awards for his work (most recently, at the CSU Media Arts Festival for the Evidence video, “Far Left”, which also made it into rotation on MTV). In addition to several projects in the works for Fashawn, Punit’s getting ready to start working with the legendary beat conducta Madlib (shooting videos for a Madlib/Strong Arm Steady album to be released on Stone’s Throw), and, as he says, has become the go-to guy for “nobudget creative videos” in the LA underground world. He’s putting his work with Fashawn first though, and just “trying to grow at the same pace as [him],” which is no doubt a challenge. Fash is quick to mention the support of his team as fundamental to his success; “I’m blessed to be able to do what I’m doing, and to have a team like Hecktick [producer/DJ/promoter extraordinaire, who Fash has been working with since he was 16] and Punit.” I asked him how he felt to see his

video on TV: “Its crazy, people recognizing me, even folks not familiar with my music,” who are happy he’s repping Fresno. “It’s a gratifying feeling & what I’ve always dreamed of…” Boy Meets World will be available in stores and online starting October 20, and will be available for purchase at the Tower Theatre show also. Tickets can be purchased at towertheatrefresno.com. There will be a show afterparty just around the corner at Palomino’s. Come out to the show, bring a birthday gift if you want, and show some hometown love to an artist proud to represent the ‘no. ______ [1] While you’re on the website, check out some of the other really dope videos Punit’s done recently (for local artists Chuck Dimes and Clouded Vision, and for Soul Assassins, featuring Sick Jacken & Evidence), and be sure to check the LA riot-footage-inspired Alchemist/OHNO video, “Under Siege.”

Bart Kubeck: “Work”

What got you started in your artistic endeavors? I’d have to say my Dad, he started me drawing and doodling with perspective. My parents have always been very supportive and encouraging. I have also had some great art teachers too. Mr. Friend and Mr. Pittman have always helped out with extra supplies, and different techniques.

influences. I read comics and watched cartoons quite a bit, so that plays into it. I love tattooing and traditional Americana style. There’s also some modern, abstract, graffiti influence, and Basil Wolverton. I used to do a lot of fine art pencil drawings and they would take days. I kind of got tired of that, had to mix it up, started sprayin’ some paint and jerkin’ around with acrylics and there you go.

If someone wanted to see more of your work, how would they go about that? How long have you been Go to Matt or Karson’s house. Just creating art here in kidding, I have a myspace page with a Fresno? few pictures of paintings and stuff. The I have been drawing and url is myspace.com/berserker631. painting my entire life, but I’d say, in the last ten What if someone wanted to give you money for your work, how would years, I’ve been producTell us about this particular cover image. ing more serious pieces. My buddy Kode 3 one go about that? Well, I don’t think anyone truly likes work- and I did a lot of collaboration pieces that They could contact me through the ing. Whether it’s being trapped behind a myspace contraption and we could get came out very cool. We both have very desk, being a slave for the general public, in touch. I have also done some comstrange styles, but they look really cool or anything. It’s kind of a testimony to the when it comes together. It was also a great missioned pieces for folks too, so working life. that’s always another option. Or you way to keep challenging each other. could catch me in a bar with my budHas Fresno or the dies… Fresno art scene had any influence or effect on What projects are you working on your work? or dreaming up for the near future? There are a lot of great I have a few different ideas lined up to artists in this town. The be put into work. I also have an idea crazy thing is that it’s for a comic strip that would deal with pretty damn hard to get all the idiotic things people do these some recognition here. days. The scene itself is getting Please provide a short bio. bigger and better, there are more studios now than Bart has lived in Fresno before, but a lot of the his entire life and has a people who go to the art beautiful wife Janalyn. hops and showings are Turn-ons: long walks on almost afraid to get a the beach, Cheetos, and decent look at the work. Dodger baseball. Bart Almost like they don’t also makes tattoos and know how to just stop and rides bikes with Billy. admire things, kind of a Bart likes hanging out sign of the times. So with Clyde and going on sometimes it kind of bums vacation. Bart can also me out and slows me make one hell of a drink. down. Good day.

“SDHSFR”

How would you describe your style? Well, kind of hard to say. I have quite a few different

“Last Words”

“Putting on the Ritz”

“Untitled”

Mangosteen

crunchy tofu in a spicy (but not too spicy) sauce. As if you’ll still have room for dessert, but when you force yourself anyway, you’ll be impressed with their ice cream list. Vegans can try either the guava sorbet or the passion fruit sorbet. They were out of the passion fruit sorbet when I was there, but the guava was great. My lacto-ovo vegetarian friends said the Lucama (Peruvian Fruit) ice cream was very good. 4965 N Fresno (SW corner of Fresno and Shaw) The décor of this Asian fusion restaurant is M onÐ Thur 11amÐ10pm, Fri ÐSa t 11amÐ2am, S un 11amÐ9pm rather nice, and the staff is quite friendly. The restaurant is named for Jessi Hafer the uncommon (around here) mangosteen fruit. dishes can be made vegan-ly. I angosteen is a You can try a shot of mangosteen really enjoyed the “Uncle Lu’s restaurant you juice or the mangosteen mixed Noodle,” which had a lot of garlic drink (both nonalcoholic). I tried probably drive past and basil. The Sing Chow Mai

M by

229-8300

without noticing. This is unfortunate, because once you’re in this Asian fusion restaurant, it’s great. At the moment, though, the nondescript restaurant façade is easily lost in the shuffle of the adjacent drug store construction.

Mangosteen has several neat appetizers, and the vegetarian ones especially were very reasonably priced. We really liked the spring rolls and roti prata (puffy Indian bread) with curry dipping sauce. There is also deep fried tofu and three cabbage salad on the appetizer menu, and non-vegetarians may be interested in the escargot wrap in banana leaf, the Japanese Kabocha Pumpkin Soup, Malaysian fried chicken, calamari salad, and other appetizer offerings. There are several great vegetable dishes on the entrée menu, and many of the noodle

Fun (Singapore fried rice noodles) were also good with a mild curry flavor, though they were a little drier than I expected. Next time I’d like to try their Pad Thai. Some friends ordered and really liked one of the eggplant dishes— so much so that they ate it all before I could ask to try it or ask what it was. I can say that it looked really good… The “Hot Hot Oelek Tofu” was fantastic,

the mixed drink and really liked it. The juice and seltzer water combination tasted slightly grape-y to me, and I thought it had a nice flavor without being too sweet. I will say that the others at my table whom I forced to try the drink were not as impressed. But regardless, I figured it was worth a shot to try something new, and I was certainly glad I did.

Roll Through the Ages

development will affect the game play. Joe: I like the [Engineering development], which lets you trade stone (a type of good) for men, and Masonry, by Joe Aguayo & Jessi Hafer which give you an extra man whenever you roll men. they’re witches? Do they weigh Jessi: It’s raining men. the same as a duck? Joe: (ignoring Jessi) Joe: (ignoring Jessi) The Jessi: I tend to prefer dice have men, used to build mon- Agriculture, which gives you extra uments and cities. There’s food to food every time you roll food. I feed those cities. There are goods also like the ones that let you and coins (or “cwahn”) that are avoid loosing pwahns for disasters used to buy developments. There (skulls). You have to choose your are also skulls, which give you developments carefully, because goods but also lead to various dis- once someone gets five, the game asters, causing you to loose is over. pwahns. Joe: On your turn, you Jessi: Each player has roll the number of dice equal to their own little board and peg set the number of cities you have. up (fueling one’s Cribbage nostalJessi: You start with three gia) that helps you keep track of your goods and food. Then, each person has a Yahtzee-esque sheet of paper that helps you keep track of your cities, developments, monuments, and pwahns you loose. You loose pwahns for the aforementioned disasters or whenever you can’t feed your cities. Joe: The whole pwahn of collecting goods is to purchase developments, which in bitch detector, if you will. turn offer pwahns and bonewah Jessi: Excellent pwahn (French for bonus). (French for point). It’s like Jessi: The developYahtzee meets Settlers of Catan ments you choose end up affect(without trading). Only this game ing you as you collect food, peohas much cooler dice. ple, and coins (cwahn), and they Joe: The dice make me may help you avoid disasters. feel like I’m actually in the Bronze So when you choose a developAge. Ironic, since they’re made of ment, you have to consider their wood. pwahn value as well as how the Jessi: Does that mean

Gen X Games (2009)

oe: Roll Through the Ages: The Bronze Age is not a bitch game, as some would have you believe. It is the opposite of a bitch game. In fact, one of the sure fire way to detect a bitch is if they call this a bitch game. So this is a

cities, and you can get up to seven. Joe: Like Yahtzee, you have three rolls, and at any pwahn you can set aside any dice you want. Jessi: So you have to think about whether you want to prioritize collecting food, men, goods, or whatever. Overall, I like the game because the dice look neat, you can play in about 30 to 45 minutes, and the game works well for 2 to 4 players. There’s enough strategy to keep things interesting, but it’s not too heavy. I also like the game because I usually win. Joe: I think it’s that you usually forget to keep track of pwahns lost during disasters, but who’s counting. :D Jessi: (ignoring Joe)

d—Education. It’s a weighty topic. And it would be easy to sit back and take pot shots at the education system. But we here at “The View Looks Good from Here, Fresno” choose not to do that. Instead, we would like to celebrate educators and the education system. They face immense challenges and more than make due. From elementary to university, it seems like schools are operating on a shoestring budget. Priorities seem scrambled at times, but maybe we’re just not aware of the whole situation. Perhaps we are taking it easy on education because we both have worked in educational institutions in various capaci-

Remember year round schedule? Those were the good old days when your parents had to negotiate to get you on the same track as your siblings so that the whole family could take a vacation together…in February. But let’s be serious for a moment. Ed, what’s your favorite syllable in the word education? Ed—I went to a year round school, and I turned out fine. My favorite syllable in education is the first one. I’m curious about learning, and not ties. Or, maybe we just just from an educational standlike to look at the sunny point. How do we test the information we’re given? I rememside of life. Maybe it is ber a Rage Against the Machine due to the fact that we song that started with the line, had relatively good edu- “The classroom is the last room to get the truth.” Now, obviouscational experiences. ly that is a very jaded perspecWhatever the reason, tive. Or perhaps it’s a very honwe’re not here to critiest one. How do we decide what is the truth about the informacize. So what do we tion we receive? I mean, obviwant to talk about, ously I accept everything that is Adam? in The Undercurrent as gospel, but what about the Bee? Are Adam—Our educational system is shit! The whole they educating me about the system is bunk and in need of a world around me with truth or is massive overhaul! Just so we’re it something a little less? Adam—Well now clear, those are potshots, not criticisms (though I’d probably you’re charting new waters! I’d argue that news media is less know that a potshot is a criticism if it weren’t for my public about education and more about the creation and dispersal of education). I kid, I kid. No information. I suppose in a really, I have baby goats. But now I’m way off track, like kids broad sense you could call it education, in that it may still on a year round schedule. No, have a formative effect, but I real kids, not baby goats. think that it’s not nearly as intentional as something like schooling or parenting. To put it another way, how one interprets and applies the information given by the newspaper or nightly broadcast would be informed by one’s education and previous understanding of the world. But this is all semantics. You know you can’t trust The Undercurrent to

gold). But seriously, if you want to munch on some of your own winter veggies, now is the time for action!

It’s Time to Get Your Fall Garden Ready

s I write this, the weather is blazing; summer is still staggering around, spreading acute misery. So it might be a little surprising to know that now is the time to start

planting your fall/winter crops. I know, I know—I might as well have asked you if you have finished your Christmas shopping (since you haven’t, I wear a size 4 and despise yellow

steady supply of the vegetable. What are you going to do with 5 cabbages at once anyway? (Some of these crops can be stored in cool storage, but for pretty much If you are like everyone not living on the prairie, me and had a summer garden (that that isn’t gonna happen!) Most of the vegetables are ones that will got COMPLETELY out of concontinually produce heads by offtrol…oops) you get to have the fun job of doing a major overhaul. shoots, like broccoli, or leaves to A few weekends ago I pulled out most of my annual plants, trimmed back some I want to keep for a bit longer, and of course, battled with weeds, etc. If you are planting in containers or have more than one garden space, then your job might be easier. Keep in mind that soil, wherever it is, can usually benefit from an application of mulch or organic fertilizer. In containers sometimes, it is even better to just completely replace the soil. So, after you have your space ready, now what? The first thing to think of (if you are planting things to eat) is, well, what do you want to eat? Fall planting offers lots of options including peas, cauliflower, broceat, like lettuce and kale. I reccoli, kale, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, chard, collard greens, let- ommend either buying immature plants or starting your seeds in tuce, etc. Yeah, yeah, half of those are veggies you begged your small containers to be transplanted later. mom to stop Two great sources for feeding you…but smoth- buying plants are at the Vineyard er them with but- Farmers Market (Shaw and Blackstone, Wednesday 3-6, ter, cheese and garlic, and you’ll Saturday 7-12), especially from John with Madera Flower Garden, be singin a difor from Intermountain Nursery in ferent tune. A Prather (who also have seeds). few of the veggies listed above For seeds, look for organic certified to avoid GMOs, etc. I saw are “one-shot crops,” meaning great prices on organic seeds at Wal-mart (of all places!) the other that one plant day, so I think it is safe to say that gives you just they are everywhere! one head, like Other than the basic feedcauliflower and cabbage. If you ing and watering (yeah, that can’t get enough again!), here are a few extra things that you need to know about some of these, then plant a few, and of the fall vegetables: lMany of these crops are plant them in prone to aphids and caterpillars. succession. Keep a good eye out, and if you Succession planting is when start seeing problems, try to solve you plant one or them organically. (You don’t want two plants every to ingest pesticides and end up like your Uncle Chuck do you?). For week to two aphids there are many organic weeks, so you sprays to apply, and for caterpillars end up with a

there is a natural product called caterpillar killer (death by poetry?). lIf you are crazy for cauliflower, most will need to blanched. (Say wha??) When the heads are about the size of an egg, loop a piece of string around some of the surrounding leaves and gently tie them over the head.

The whole idea is for the head (or, properly called, “curd”) to be shaded while it grows. This produces a curd that is white and mild flavored. (Colored cauliflower or self-blanching types don’t need any help, thank you very much!). lBe sure to harvest “head” type crops (cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, etc) before they separate. You want to harvest while all the crowns or leaves are still packed well together because they lose flavor and nutrients rapidly after they are past their prime. lFor lettuce, try a mesclun mix. There are several varieties of lettuce and greens mixed together in a package. This past spring I planted my first mesclun crop, and let me tell you I will never waste my time even looking at iceberg lettuce again. Happy Gardening! ______ Christy Cole thinks about Christmas shopping December 24th at 11 pm. She is an artist

and teaches for several different departments for FUSD. E-mail her at callansmama@hotmail.com.

What have we... The truth must not only be the truth—it must also be told. —Fidel Casro Once upon a time Before arms and clocks Existence was all on its own A paradox.

Then one day a spirit Said let there be light And like a switch turned it on There was day and there was night. They call it the big bang A most spiritual force That forged galaxies Planets and true-north.

And so masses started to spin And water happened to form Hence the earth’s conception Seemingly began in a storm.

And somehow molecules and atoms Coalesced into life forms A phenomenon that up to then Radically challenged the norm

Hence the greatest mystery of history For how do you explain This phenomenon That alludes and confuses the brain. For how else could Such a great miracle occur Without the guidance and life That the great God served

Then came the bees and the birds And much more A great race of Apes That came to the fore. Lucy’s ancestors,

by Alexandros R Acedo

But wait there’s still more.

Mine I could never ignore Which means we’re all family

So in an effort to explain The purpose of human beings Supposedly God spoke To a man named Abrahim. His people’s history had been rough They were a people distraught So behind a sign of stars This gentleman taught.

A chauvinistic individual He proved to become Preaching the Hebrews were the only people welcomed into God’s kingdom. A messiah was then prophesized To come and save all From miserly wretched lives They had come to appall. For Jesus was that man A truly benevolent soul Who loved all of God’s beings Not just part but the whole.

He befriended Samarians A race then said to be cursed So he approached a Samarian woman And quenched her spiritual thirst. There proving that all people Were meant to be friends After Jesus died That spirit came to an end.

33 A.D. Was the tragic year this occurred During the era of the Roman Empire On its way to the curb. After some time past Europe delved in dis-ray And for centuries they experienced

The cruel dark age.

The churches used the gospel To teach and control Becoming themselves Pharisees Who damned and patrolled.

Then slightly more close Than some came to expect There was a flourishing culture growing With Allah at its apex.

Mohammed was the last prophet And he proclaimed to all That only God was to be worshiped Since people eventually fall.

But the Christian rulers hated Islam Because it undermined their power And under the banner of the crusades They fought and then cowered. Damnation to these brown folks Of all sorts—they’re all beasts They wanted the trade routes And the goods from the east. Money eventually became king

Poetry continued next page...

Poetry continued...

To the rulers of Europe So they started pillaging cultures And enslaving their people.

We want it all, they touted loud To the world as a whole Thinking that God destined them To be great and in control.

What an imperious class of people These rich white folks tended to be As they found ways to profit Magnanimously.

The industrial revolution Was the next era to be An era of smokestacks & wages Earned working in factories.

Oh they hated that spirit In the workers they hired For the workers eventually learned How to struggle and aspire.

This system of capitalism Had potential for good But its hunger for greater profits Squashed that little engine that could.

This is the way toward progress The big business people said While their politicians agreed Not unlike silly bobbleheads.

All the while the world’s population Tended to grow and grow With the Green Revolution And its increased dietary outflow.

You know there’s a better way now To live well and live fit By fulfilling people’s needs ahead of corporate profits.

Where young people toiled Next to grown women and men While the owner’s bank accounts Multiplied by tens.

The bosses then laughed Since they found a better way They moved their factories and jobs Where workers were “better behaved.”

THE OLD WOMAN IN MY CLOSET (CONTINUED from last month…) She grabbed a coffee cup, went to the sink, filled it with water, drank I opened the door to my apartment it down in one gulp, washed the to find everything the way I had cup, dried it with a paper towel, left it. and put it back into the back of the I walked around the place cupboard. to make sure no one was there. I stopped the camera Then I grabbed both cameras and there. I started the other camera, began to rewind the mini-DV which was focused on the bedrecorder. I waited until it had room and the entry to the bathrewound all the way to the begin- room. It started much the same as ning before watching either of the other. Around twenty minutes them. I wanted all answers to in, the closet door began to slide come together in functional order open and the woman crawled out with time. from behind a stack of large plasI played the digital video tic containers I have tucked there. recorder first, which, looking back, She went directly into the bathwas a mistake in terms of mainroom and a few minutes later taining the temporal integrity of came out wet and wearing a faded the audio-visual narrative. For floral towel I had never seen about thirty or forty minutes, there before. was nothing. I was beginning to It didn’t take me long to think I was truly crazy, that I’d realize that the woman, who had made the whole thing up in my been using my apartment for god mind, part of some neurotic knows how many days, was still episode. (We all have them.) there. At that very moment, she Then I saw a small dark figure was stowed away in my closet like emerge from the bedroom side of an old shirt. the frame. It was a woman. Her I didn’t know what to do. hair was wet. She was small and My first instinct was to flee the thin and wrinkled. She was wear- place and to call the police to ing a baggy, button-up shirt and come and remove her. Then I worn jeans. She was barefoot. became afraid to leave. But I She walked into the couldn’t confront her myself kitchen and began searching into either. I was terrified of the possithe back of one of my cupboards. ble look on her face, what she

might think or do, when I began to move the plastic boxes behind which she stayed. I decided to do nothing, to go about my evening the way I always would. Of course, nothing would be like it always was. The presence of the old woman in my closet seized my mind, confiscating every thought, every habitual movement, every inclination. That night, I turned out the lights and listened, hoping and fearing to hear a shuffling in the closet, to hear the popping of a knee or ankle joint, maybe an elbow or a wrist cracking in the cramped space. My eyes were straining in the darkness. I was seeing imaginary non-humanoid beings floating around in my vision. I was seeing horses and cows with awkward designs all over their bodies. I thought about my best friend from back home. We went different directions after high school, even though we both decided to go to the same university and room together our first year. I went into business/management and he went into the arts. I knew that he was an idiot because he never cared about money. We had a conversation just a couple weeks ago in which

And centuries of exploitation Have been creating a mass Of many cultures and people Sick of this path.

(PART 2 OF 3)

by Nicholas Anthony Valdez

he told me about his new project with furfaces. Yes, furfaces. Not surfaces… Furfaces. He is painting on the sides of cows and other large animals. He is painting portraits of Nietzsche and Walter Benjamin. When I asked him if it was legal to do this, he couldn’t tell me. I imagined Talk 2 Me Sweetly with a portrait of Karl Marx on one side and Adam Smith on the other. Then I thought of selling the idea to an ad agency. When I had asked him why he was doing this, he talked about human technicity and animality and a bunch of other things I have no idea about, not for lack of education, but because they are useless, meaningless concepts in a world that actually cares about the use value of a thing. Then he said, the furface is a perfect synthesis of tekne—with a K—and animality. The furface mobilizes to change the actual texture and shape of the painting. My portraits move with every breath, no other canvas can make these kinds of progressions, artistically or theoretically. Then he went on a wild tirade about the zeppelins mobilizing and the animal revolution. He used some form of the word “mobilize” at least sev-

enteen times during our conversation. Finally, he said that he hoped to begin catching insects all over the country, painting tiny portraits on them, and sending them back out into the wild. I was sad for a moment because I knew the guy had completely lost it. But I also felt that, over the years, he had been kind of asking for it. I got up and went to the bathroom, aware that the old woman could hear me peeing. I even felt a minor shame when the length of my urination wasn’t as long as usual. And then it hit me. I would move things around! I went to the refrigerator and removed all of the perishables. I placed them in the middle of the counter. Let’s see what she does with that! I thought. If I wasn’t going to call the police, confront her, or tell anyone else about her, then the only thing I could logically do would be to try to starve her out and hope she’d leave by her own choice. She’d just realize that this was an inhospitable environment, that there was no food, and, like any other animal, she’d have to move on to better grazing lands. I also began to make a

Old Woman continued next page...

Old Woman continued... gestures, the choice of her clothes, mess of things that I normally don’t make a mess of. I ate Ritz crackers on the couch and let all of the crumbs stay on the cushions and on a blanket. I intentionally poured a glass of milk onto the middle of the kitchen floor and left it there. I set up the cameras again. I felt ecstatic. I experienced a lightness of being, the weight of the burden lifting its heavy hand from my chest. Sometime around 4:15 in the morning, I went back into my bedroom, with a smirk toward the closet, and I fell asleep. ___

I woke up at 6:30 the next morning feeling invigorated. The two hours of sleep I got felt like eight. I took a shower and let myself airdry, leaving water all over the floor. I left shaving cream and tiny hair-stubble in the sink and on the counter. I talked to myself so she would hear. I began to sing, loudly, as I walked out the door. At work, I chatted with coworkers about everything and anything. They asked if I had gotten laid the night before. I said, there’s more than one way to scratch an itch, boys and girls. Then I said (and I have no idea why), plus, I never have sex on Thursdays. Afterward, I lingered around the desk of a girl I had been noticing lately. She agreed to have a drink with me some night. I made sure to clarify the terms, and she agreed to have a drink with me the following night, Saturday. Ana, the girl, has a very sexy plainness about her. I’m not sure that I can explain the attraction. She looks a little bit older than she probably is. But there is some movement of the mouth that reminds me of eating blackberries out of the patch in my backyard as a kid. Her mouth and her eyes have an engagement with one another that is rare. And something else…the shape of her legs or the cut of her suit, the statements made by the integrity of her

and the positioning of her laptop (angled slightly) on her desk, as if her left arm might be significantly longer than her right. Who knows, really, what makes the little pins drop into place on the chaotic dot-schematic of our minds, or what percentage of these pin-falls it takes to turn the internal mechanism from mere recognition to attraction? All I knew was that I wanted to see Ana outside of this sterile environment and in one a bit lusher. ___

On the way home, I stopped at the movie store. I didn’t have plans for Friday night, and I wanted to stay in anyway to make sure that the old lady in my closet had gone entirely. I was confident that my mess and the spoiling food and perhaps even the vague awareness, on her part, that I knew she was there would force her back to wherever it was she came from. I didn’t care where. (I even bought cleaning supplies to take care of the disarray.) After looking around for a while, I settled on Abre Los Ojos, a Spanish film about a young womanizing rich guy who falls in love with a woman but is then lured into a car accident by a scorned ex-lover that leaves her dead and leaves his face destroyed. Because science has not yet been able to figure out how to put someone’s face back together exactly as it was before, the guy is given a mask of his old face to wear over his deformity. Then I went to McDonald’s to get a Big Mac, fries, and a Dr. Pepper. I hadn’t been to a fast food joint since I was in college. When the girl over the speaker asked me if I wanted to supersize it, I said, hell yes. When I got to the door of my apartment, with my hands full, I took a deep breath and turned the key. The first thing I saw was a half-eaten double-decker sandwich on the counter. On the floor, just beneath the sandwich were organic potato chip crumbs. It was as though someone had

grabbed a handful of chips, squeezed them, and sprinkled them around. There was intention behind the pattern they made around the milk on the kitchen tile. My first reaction was to say, all right, all right! My second reaction was to go directly over to the closet, tear her plastic box fortress apart, and make her go clean up her mess. By the time I was in the bedroom and saw the bed-sheets messed up and the pillow (the one I never use) indented, I realized these signs were a clear and direct challenge. She knew I knew she was there; now, I knew she knew I knew she was there. The woman had spine; she had spunk. I wasn’t about to let her get the best of it. I cleaned up the left over sandwich, swept up the crumbs, tossed out the spoiled food on the counter, and vacuumed the crumbs I had left the night before on the couch. I went into the bathroom (yes, she used both of my towels) and cleaned out the sink and the shower. I made sure that she could hear me. I whistled “Zip-ADee-Doo-Dah” while I worked. Afterward, I began to write in a journal an ex-girlfriend made for me years ago. On the thick cardboard cover was an interesting design—one that reminded me of what The Yellow Wallpaper must have looked like, even though the colors were pastels. She had pasted it on herself and glued stencil cutouts of a simple equation on top of the cover:

his third year of undergrad abroad in Barcelona, Spain, studying Spanish and Latin American History and Literature. Valdez returned to The Valley for his MA, studying English Literature at CSU Fresno, only to head back to the California Southland for his Ph.D. at UC Riverside. There, he studied American Literature, Minority Discourse, Film Theory, Cyberculture, and Rhetoric. Valdez has been writing fiction since he was 11 years old. His first story blended elements of The Old Man and the Sea with Mighty (TO BE CONTINUED…) _____ Mouse, a pairing that still haunts Nicholas Anthony Valdez was born his imagination. He also writes and raised in Fresno, California poetry and has a vague suspicion and left the beauty of the San that the best thing for a fiction Joaquin Valley at 18 years old to writer is to be a failed poet. He is pursue a university education at now a Lecturer in the Writing UCLA, where he studied American Program at UC Merced. Literature and Culture. He spent to him, thinking he can then use it on other people to make a profit. The old man does. When the young man looks in the mirror he sees nothing more than a reflection of himself, exactly the way he had always seen himself in other mirrors. Hey, says the young man, you’ve swindled me! Why, responds the old man, what do you see? I see my own stupid face, says the young man. Then, dear boy, says the old man, you have not been duped at all.

DO + BE = AM

(I’m still considering the implications of this equation in light of our brief relationship.) In my first entry in this journal, I tried to think of my situation as a kind of mirror, one that would reflect a clearer, more coherent self. But for some reason I couldn’t write about it directly. Instead, I constructed a weird character, an old man, who tells a young man that he (the old man) has a truth mirror, one that shows a person who he or she truly is. The young man begs the old man to sell the mirror