Dalai O'Brien Does Darfur

One of the oddest confluence of celebrities imaginable occurred in San Francisco's Civic Center Plaza on Sunday afternoon.



The Dalai Lama was finishing up the third day of a meditation/teaching he was hosting at the Bill Graham Auditorium all weekend to moneyed guests.



He must be a very holy person indeed to convey any spirituality in that strange, large barn of a building. Still, the authorities weren't taking any chances and everyone's bags were being thoroughly searched.



A block away, the passageway between the Main Library and the Asian Art Museum, which is usually Derelict Central, had been invaded by network television.



There were huge media trucks parked all over the neighborhood...



...readying themselves for Conan O'Brien's week-long appearance taping his show in San Francisco at at the Orpheum Theatre.



Back in the Civic Center Plaza itself, a Bike Coalition dude had set up an area near the children's playground where he'd look after your bike if you had cycled to the event being held that afternoon.



It was a "Stop Genocide in Darfur" rally...



...and it was very sparsely attended.



The crowd wasn't the usual anti-war protestor types that show up for Get Out of Iraq demonstrations.



In fact, it was overwhelmingly affluent looking young white people.



There was lots of signage and a few grotesque prop tents symbolizing various massacres throughout the last century, with the number of people murdered in each klling field looking disconcertedly like real estate prices ("Darfur: Over 400,000 Dead!").



I got the feeling that many of the people who did attend were uncomfortable at anti-Iraq protests because of all the icky ANSWER folk who yell rude things about Israel and their treatment of the Palestinians. The only problem is that the "Stop Genocide in Darfur" people are urging that the United States use their "moral authority" to make the U.N. and the rest of the world stop the slaughter in the West Sudan, and because of our invasion of Iraq, we have no Moral Authority. It's gone, over, fini. Paul Wolfowitz in charge of the World Bank pretty much puts the last nail in the coffin of whatever "authority" America once possessed.



Rounding up this afternoon of odd celebrities, I walked by a little tent surrounded by scary Secret Service types and yelled out, "Good luck, Senator" and then corrected myself with "Good luck, Governor" to Bill Richardson, the presidential candidate and current Governor of New Mexico who was to be the first speaker at this ridiculous event.

Impeach at the Beach 1

A sparsely attended rally in front of San Francisco's Federal Building on Friday featured a small blimp with "IMPEACH" written across it, while various speakers encouraged stragglers to visit Congresswoman Pelosi's office on the 14th floor to urge her to get rid of the criminals currently in charge of the United States.



The turnout and the vibes were much better the next morning at Ocean Beach, where a "human mural" was being assembled on the sand to spell out "IMPEACH NOW!" for a helicopter photo-op.



I exited the 5 Fulton bus at its final stop with a Dutch woman, Sandra Schaap, who was in town for a conference...



...and who had jumped on the bus simply because she wanted to put her foot in the ocean, which she misses terribly as she currently works at Emory Hospitals in Atlanta.



When I explained to her that she had arrived at Ocean Beach...



...just in time for a large "Impeach Bush" event...



...she was utterly charmed, and asked, "Do you ever have those moments where you find yourself wandering into exactly the right place you're supposed to be?"



After being introduced to the organizers, Sandra decided that since she had an orange scarf, she should join the exclamation mark group at the end since they were all dressed in orange jumpsuits like Guantanamo prisoners.



I left her with the orange people and walked down the beach looking for a letter that needed extra bodies the most.

Impeach at the Beach 2

I finally settled on the letter "W" and sat next to a sweet couple from the town of Richmond.



The weather could hardly have been lovelier for the late morning event...



...and the crowd was being serenaded by an exquisite ensemble of marimba players...



...which had a few people dancing.



There were thousands of beautiful young people...



...in every direction you looked...



...some of them exercising...



...and others just lounging on the beach.



There were interesting props on display here and there...



...along with a few killer T-shirts.



Plus, it was doggy heaven...



...with some of the best-behaved hounds I've ever been around.



The helicopter finally arrived around 11:15 AM and the crowd laid down in their etched-out letters...



...which was followed by another photo-op with everyone standing...



...and waving their arms.



The Dutch visitor Sandra crawled out of her orange jumpsuit looking radiant...



...as did most of the crowd.



Update: One of the money shots is above. It was taken by David B Page and you can see others, including the crowd doing a quick transformation into "PEACE NOW!" Click here for the great photos.

Teachin' and Protestin'

The headquarters for the San Francisco School District is at the corner of McAllister and Gough Streets...



...which is across the street from where I live.



There are frequent organized protests in front of the building, usually in conjunction with the monthly Board of Education meetings, such as this one on Tuesday the 24th.



There was a table set up on Gough Street with loads of premade signage in about four different languages...



...covering a bewildering array of issues.



I asked a number of participants what they were protesting, whether it was something specific or "just everything as usual," and after laughter received a whole range of responses from "our 6% pay raise which has been in arbitration forever," to "the treatment of 'paras' (meaning 'paraprofessionals') to "oh, the usual."



For more information about the meeting, though not about the protest, click here for Kim Knox's account on the "Left in SF" website.



Though I hate the way the crowd baits passing motorists on Franklin Street into honking their obnoxious horns for two straight hours, the crowd itself was quite sweet, and even included the Raging Grannies in a sing-a-long. If any educators are reading this and want to explain further what the noise was all about, please do so in the comments.

Gavin and The Tiaras

Just before the Cherry Blossom Parade was about to begin at Civic Center Plaza on Sunday, Mayor Gavin Newsom showed up with his retinue of bodyguards.



No parade in San Francisco would be complete without politicians riding in open cars, and the newest Supervisor, the small business conservative Ed Jew, looked like he was ready to enjoy himself...



...as did Supervisor Mirkarimi...



...and Mark Leno, who is currently running against Carole Migden for State Senator.



Most ethnic identity parades feature Beauty Queens...



...and the Cherry Blossom Festival had literally dozens of them.



Mayor Newsom posed like a movie star with the various beauties in their tiaras...



...but seemed less at ease with the officials from Osaka who were attending the parade in honor of the 50th anniversary of San Francisco's sister-city relationship with their city.



In fact, watching Newsom posing...



...and uttering meaningless bromides to television reporters...



...just reinforced for me once again...



...that the guy is an empty suit posturing for the rich gangsters...



...who really run this city.