Yesterday I heard someone from the Tennessee Center for Policy Research on a radio talk show discussing the huge amount of power used by the Gore estate. The fatal mistake he/she (didn't get the name) made was by comparing the Gore family to the "average American".

This morning I heard John and Ken of KFI radio, Los Angeles, plugging this afternoon's show by trying to make Diane Feinstein sound like a power glutton because she uses a jet. Should she hitchhike? Again, she was held up for scrutiny in comparison to "...uh...average Americans."

These are such mindless attempts to slam Democrats in a presidential election campaign that it says these conservatives consider American voters, you and me, ignorant or they are ignorant themselves.

If we continue to hear these laughable arguments, I am sure fairness will prevail by commentators including the power usage and pollution contribution by ALL political personalities. I want to see proof of how much of whatever is used by everyone in Congress right on up to the White House residents. I'm fairly certain that power consumption by anyone living on an estate or in a mansion will be consistent to that lifestyle.

The GOP is desperate at the thought of having to rip off the presidency from Al Gore a second time, making 3 election rip offs in a row. Tough odds. We hear of people mentioning Gore's name as a presidential candidate. The reputation of the GOP in the last 6 years is so stained by unbelievable incompetence, blatant scandal, and needless death, that it would make one think a Welsh Corgi might have an advantage against the candidates, simply by association to that political party.

Voters tend to be treated with the respect and dignity they deserve. I can only hope that things will improve and we would actually hear intelligent discussion instead of idiotic partisan mud-slinging.

Blessings, from Lulublue

Today was quite different from yesterday. The sunshine was sparkling like diamonds as it reflected off the Pacific Ocean. The sky was blue and a few white puffy clouds with flat bottom surfaces appeared to be sliding by in slow motion on a huge sheet of glass between heaven and earth.

I drove to the top level of the Granada garage to check out the theater while it was going through it's careful refurbishing and rebuilding. As I looked to the southwest, the inside of the old theater stood completely revealed. I can't get over the feeling of accidentally catching a glimpse of someone caught in a state of indecent dress when I look at it.


Looking to the east, I could see the front of the library with a group of people sitting in the sun, backpacks and sleeping bags suggesting that there was no other place for them to go. Sometimes we see one of the area's homeless pushing a grocery cart full of plastic bags which is filling in for dresser drawers containing all their worldly possessions. I am grateful, at that point, for our dresser drawers full of clean clothes at home.


There are some wonderfully unselfish medical workers that make regular visits to homeless shelters to check up on visitors who drop in. A veterinarian stops by at times to make sure the pets are doing well, too.

The extremes of wealth and poverty in this town always grab my attention when displayed in some unexpected vision of irony. Locals journey to Afghanistan to provide dental services from a large metal container turned into an office with chair or to open a hair salon for the veiled and draped women who so often reveal exotic beauty worthy of magazine covers and silver screens. Meanwhile, back in SB, the new, extremely wealthy owner of the local newspaper sues in numbers that bring private smiles to the attorneys she hires, tries to rid the public beach below her cliff top home of anyone out for a walk or a tan, and fires longtime columnists who are in favor of a union for the paper's empoyees. I give her credit for donating millions to restore architectural treasures and to animal charities. But she is trampling and mutilating any worker's rights, a trend that has ballooned under the corporatocracy administration and that man currently occupying the White House.

No matter how I try to give myself rational answers or reasons, I can't quiet the dismay in my heart over these stark differences. lulublue

Thank you to Sean Bonniwell for the Music Machine images!



My mom and I made the dress and I was told to look like I was dancing - it looks silly, I know. But I was very young. I didn't even begin to do the sex and drugs for, oh, another year! Those few months as go-go dancers (in clothes!) were fun for my friend, Nina, and me. Music Machine, Mojo Men, and Symphony of Sound were some of the bands appearing on the stage at Longshoreman's Hall around that time. Canned Heat, John Mayall, Grateful Dead, and Jefferson Airplane were popular and if you were paying attention you heard the first steps of "garage band punk" like Too Much to Dream Last Night, Little Red Book, Can't Seem to Make You Mine, and Talk Talk, which took us in a new, harder direction. These dynamic songs were not like anything else we'd heard. I went on to become a 50+ year old heavy metal fan!

The funniest thing that happened was when my parents and my older sister showed up to either satisfy their curiosity or shock the hell out of me. I was taking a break with my new "boyfriend" I'd met at Longshoreman's Hall; we were making out in the seats one level up from ground level. As I opened my eyes and took a breath, I saw my parents sitting about 8 rows back glaring at me. My sister was there, too, trying not to giggle!



These guys were in their 20's, Sean (center) was around 26. What a voice! These people, the Music Machine, were, and are, awesome musicians!

My memories of SF, music festivals, etc., are some of my most cherished and the song Talk Talk, is a huge part of that memory as well as some sandalwood incense briquets in a red box I bought in Bay Area. Other incense comes close but not quite. The weekend of the Monterey Pop Festival we moved back to SB.




I've always felt very lucky to have lived through all that excitement and collective power. There was power in numbers to change things and we did. I was in Isla Vista, CA, for the Bank of America burning and anti-war protests. The Nat'l. Guard came marching in one night. It was really a trip. My dad was a conservative banker and I was the youngest, the rebel. So we played out that drama of polarity throughout our lives. Watergate caused him to doubt and later give up on the GOP. His mom was a member of the Colonial Dames and Daughters of the American Revolution, too, so it shook a lot of his early "training".


What were you up to? Blessings, lulublue

I hate to sound obsessive here, but XM satellite radio, channel 6, is having a guest, Sean Bonniwell, of the Wayfarers and Music Machine. I'm listening to that until 8:00 pm PST. They're playing all kinds of old '60s music - so good! I've been reading Sean's book, Beyond the Garage. Back in spring of '67 I was a go-go dancer at Longshoreman's Hall in SF and Music Machine was one of the bands that played there. After not hearing or thinking of that for years, while I was working on my 100 things in my profile, I heard him on Little Steven's Underground Garage, found his website, got the book and CD's. Very interesting life, very funny guy, and pretty brave to write about it all. Talk Talk has always been one of my favorite songs from the '60s. Way ahead of it's time. I was pleasantly surprised to hear about another survivor of the Summer of Love considering how dang many died of drugs, booze, or faded into a private confrontation with personal devils never to be heard from again.


Have a safe President's Day weekend!


lulublue