On that newly assertive loutish and abysmally ignorant political thinking

     Earlier this evening, two readers wrote angry remarks, evidently in reaction to things I have recently written on this blog:

(1) You people think you’re so smart huh? Just wait till Nov. and watch what happens. This social-economic justice thing ain’t going to fly for too much longer. That ought to wipe those lib-turd smirks off all your faces. Most Americans aren’t going to just sit back and allow our country to degenerate into a progressive free-for-all, because that’s not who we are and you know it. I think most Americans have had just about enough of the way this covert-communist administration operates. They sit around all day long thinking up new ways of how to fool and trick us into moving their unpopular agenda forward. Not only has the president failed to lead, he’s been working to destroy our constitution and our god-given protections against the tyranny of a government out of control. And who are you calling a racist? I happen to agree with the tea party. I think you’re a moron, Roy. And yes King George did force health care, in the form of moral orthopedics.

(2) Yeah Roy, if you can't stand it here in the US, why don't you go back to Canada? Even better, French Canada.

     The second comment is merely stupid. The first dips pretty low, too, but it does seem to express real outrage. The writer expresses a view that, I suspect, many others share. But I do think she misunderstands what I’m doing and what (over time) I've argued on this blog. So I’ll respond to her:

     There are different kinds of “fringe” thinkers, politically. Some offer criticisms of the status quo that are so radical (i.e., they attack at the root or foundation) that they have no clear role or power in mainstream politics. Libertarians are sometimes in this group. Anarchists can be in this group. Even communitarians. (I am at bottom a communitarian.)
     Such thinkers typically understand that a reform (or whatever one might call it) that addresses the deep problems or utopian possibilities that most concern them is nowhere on the horizon. (And do not imagine that they meet in secret and plot these changes. They are not idiots.)
     We of DtB are in this group, I believe, though I lean toward communitarianism while Reb and Red lean in a more traditional leftist direction.
     I’ll speak for myself. I was pleased with Obama’s Presidential candidacy, not because he shares my political vision—he doesn’t—but because he seemed (and seems) articulate and intelligent—and he refreshingly approaches at least some issues as decent and informed people approach them (i.e., with sensitivity to the complexities and subtleties and realities involved). I never took Obama to be a radical of my kind or any other kind. Yes, he is smart, knowledgeable, sophisticated, and capable of political brilliance. And he talks about "change." But he is essentially a mainstream pol who holds positions and values continuous with what we’ve already seen and heard in the Democratic politics of the last twenty or thirty years.
     I cannot see any basis whatsoever for viewing Obama as a “radical” or a “socialist” (in any meaningful sense of those words). In some sense, I am a radical. Obama is no radical. I wish he were! (And, in a way, I'm glad he isn't. A radical would be powerless.)
     The notion that he is a radical or socialist is an exaggeration or lie promulgated by some very cynical and ruthless demagogues on the political right (e.g., Dick Armey).
     The “Tea Party” movement appears to be the peculiar product of, (1), the aforementioned demagoguery (which serves the interests of a segment of the GOP) and, (2), the familiar American tradition of (mostly right-wing) "fringe" conspiracy politics, which is difficult or impossible to disentangle from the old American traditions of scape-goating racism and anti-intellectualism. (A classic work in this regard: Hofstadter’s Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, 1964)
     The conspiracy people are and have always been intellectually incompetent. Their theories invariably rely on the cherry-picking of evidence and similar gross fallacies. One can find virtually no academics who endorse their theories or even refer to them. Among the educated, they are irrelevant. (The “theories” of Steve Frogue and his pal Mike Collins Piper exemplify the usual crudity and sophistry of this crowd.)
     It is not surprising, therefore, that the mass of self-described “Tea Partiers” are ignorant of basic historical or general knowledge, and they never hold views that admit of subtlety or recognize complexity. It’s always, “arrest and deport the illegals,” “deregulate,” “no taxes,” “eliminate government services,” and the like. (Re the "tradition" of ignorance among American voters, see The American Voter, 1960. See also What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America, 2004.)

     It does not please me to say that, in recent years, a kind of dam of political stupidity has burst: something has allowed many Americans to unashamedly express stunningly ignorant and absurd views that would be ridiculed in a basic Political Science course. I recall saying, at first, “Don’t these people read the paper or watch the news? How is it possible to think and say such ridiculous things!" (Do you recall the interviews of people waiting to attend the McCain or Palin rallies? It was stunning.)
     I now realize that, despite our nation's tradition of promoting and valuing education, many of these Americans are insulated from learning or facts (watching Fox News being one of the salient mechanisms for this odd self-isolation; for some people, going to church is another). These Americans have been allowed to “develop” their political thinking in the absence of challenge or debate; their “thinking” is almost entirely untouched by intellectuals or experts or even educated people. They gravitate to simple, loutish, and (if carried out) disastrous views.
     That is what I see. I might be wrong, but that is what I see.
     I believe that the Tea Party movement is beyond its peak and is headed for oblivion. But the crudity and unsophistication that can allow such a movement to arise, even for a brief time, is still with us. Assertive loutish and abysmally ignorant political thinking is an old and familiar phenomenon in this country; but it is increasingly "normal" and, for many, it is a kind of mainstream thinking. It is now embraced without shame or embarrassment.
     The ignorant rabble, convinced of their purity and virtue, grow. But for now, they remain unfocused.
     Whence this assertive new phenomenon? A very good and hard question.

Feel that one?

     Did you feel that one? A few seconds ago, I seemed to feel something. Then I definitely felt my couch move a bit. That was at 4:54. (I'm up in the Santa Ana Mountains/Orange County.)
     It's 4:56. KTTV is saying it's a 5.9 in the "Palm Spring area."
     4:57: KCBS is saying it's "near Borrego Springs." 5.9. The crew at the station claim to have felt it for "30 seconds." In my case, it lasted maybe five-ten seconds.
     KCBS's website asserts that the quake's epicenter was "13 miles north north-west of Borrego Springs." Further, it "was reported to be 28 miles south of Palm Springs." Hence:

Quake shakes O.C. hard (OC Reg)

Meddling trustees, Kaplan whistle-blowers, and general suckitude

Accreditor Places Peralta District Campuses on Probation (Inside Higher Ed)

The community college commission of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges has placed the four campuses of the Peralta Community College District on probation, citing concerns about the "fiscal solvency and stability" of the two-year institutions, the Contra Costa Times reported. The newspaper said that the letter from the head of WASC's Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges raised concerns about meddling by trustees and other leadership issues as well as financial problems in citing the four Peralta colleges: Berkeley City College, College of Alameda, Laney College and Merritt College….

Justice Department Weighs In for Whistle-Blowers in Cases Against Kaplan (Chronicle of Higher Education)

The U.S. Department of Justice weighed in Tuesday on the side of several whistle-blowers who have alleged in lawsuits that various colleges owned by Kaplan Higher Education defrauded the government of hundreds of millions of dollars by paying incentives to recruiters and lying to obtain accreditation….

'Brutal Toll' on State Budgets Will Have an Impact on Higher Education (Chronicle of Higher Education)

A new report by the National Conference of State Legislatures is another reminder of how the recession has taken "a brutal toll" on state revenues and of how states have relied on federal stimulus money to prevent major cuts in higher education in the 2009 and 2010 fiscal years. In addition to an overview of state appropriations, the report provides short state-by-state descriptions of legislation and policies that will have an effect on higher-education finance.

'Low-Income Students and the Perpetuation of Inequality' (Inside Higher Ed)

With a lingering recession sending Americans (back) to college in record numbers, and an administration determined to improve the country's record on degree attainment, higher education, more than ever, has plenty of public attention. But a new book argues that higher education in the United States is falling ever more short on a variety of fronts – particularly when it comes to those students who, theoretically, should stand to gain the most from it.

In Low-Income Students and the Perpetuation of Inequality: Higher Education in America (Ashgate), author Gary Berg uses both quantitative data and information gleaned from personal interviews with students and professors to show how students from poor families are shortchanged at every stage of their postsecondary education, from admissions practices that discriminate against them, to the numerous obstacles they face getting through college, to the lesser benefits they reap after graduation. There is a great deal to be done on each of these fronts, Berg argues, if higher education is ever to live up to its promise – to disadvantaged students, and to society at large….

1971: Mount Whitney

     Our two-week family backpacking trip of the summer of 1971 ended with a climb to the top of Mount Whitney, the highest point in the continental U.S. (14,496 feet; see not below).
     The peak is extraordinary. The top is somewhat flat, but the flatness ends in spectacular sheer cliffs such as the one above. As I recall, there are many places from which one could (if one were inclined to) throw a rock that would land thousands of feet below.

     The trail to the peak starts at a very high pass (well, you've got to hike to that, too) and continues along a "sawtooth ridge." As I recall, the ridge is very narrow, and one encounters sheer cliffs on either side. It's a very unusual and unusually dangerous trail. (Click on the photos to enlarge them.)

         Annie, sitting atop one of the "teeth," I guess, of the sawtooth ridge that leads to the peak.

     Looking west, I think. The weather was mercurial, and sometimes bad, though it could have been worse. At one point, there was a thunder storm. 

     You don't want to be on a high peak during a thunder storm. We got the hell outa there pretty fast.

     The highest point is (or was) marked by this metal plate.

     Not sure about today, but forty years ago, there was a rock structure on the peak, constructed, I believe in 1909. I do believe that it was permitted to exist (most such structures were destroyed by law) as shelter from the typically bad weather on the peak.

     Looking to the east (the Owens Valley)

     Looking down to Guitar Lake, just to the west of the mountain.

     My dad was still using his old Retina camera, which he bought while a teenager in Germany (c. 1948).

     At a camp later on our trip. We look pretty dusty. 

     Shelter from the rain or hail.

     Sun-bathing at some falls along the way.

     Annie takes the plunge. (She met her future husband on this trip.)

     At the beach, down in San Felipe, Mexico, I think

     A contemporary photo of the "Smithsonian hut." Wikipedia explains that, in recent years, the estimated elevation of the mountain has been adjusted to over 14,500 ft.

My dad's Retina camera, purchased c. 1948. He used it exclusively until the mid-1970s. (It has a Schneider-Kreuznach 50 mm lens.)

Dead Man

One of my favorite films. With Johnny Depp and Robert Mitchum (1996)

Glenn Beck establishes his own ivory tower

Introducing Glenn Beck University (Inside Higher Ed)

     Glenn Beck, the controversial broadcaster, has decided to introduce his own education service: Beck University.
     "Beck University is a unique academic experience bringing together experts in the fields of religion, American history and economics," says the announcement on the Beck Web site….
. . .
     There is no tuition for Beck University, but to enroll, you must be an "Insider Extreme" subscriber to a variety of Beck products (for at least $6.26 a month).
     Two of the three original faculty members (all called professors) are not traditional academics, but one is: James. R. Stoner Jr., a professor of political science at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge….
. . .

     The circles in which Beck is popular tend to regularly criticize academe as dominated by the left. Stoner, while not disagreeing, suggested that the ability of the Beck team to identify one of its first scholars from within academe suggested that scholars don't all think alike. "There are a huge number of people who teach, and certain opinions that tend to be dominant in the academy, but there is diversity in the academy," he said.
. . .
     The arrival of Beck University has not gone unnoticed by his critics. …Mother Jones has come out with suggestions for additional courses Beck U. might offer, including "Semiotics of Tricornered Hats," "Wilde, Proust, and Other Homosexual Europeans," "Middle Eastern and Arab Cultures: What's Up With That?" and "Underwater Conspiracy Weaving."

• This morning, the OC Weekly's Gustavo Arellano presents parodies of that familiar "watch for people running across the highway" sign. On top is Arellano's fave:

Writes Gustavo: "My all-time favorite parody, the logo of the Orange County Dream Team, the group of undocumented college students and their supporters who successfully hounded Loretta Sanchez into supporting the DREAM Act. This sign encapsulates their cause perfectly, plays off the original's notoriety, and is a divine chinga tu madre to those Know Nothings who say illegals never bother with education."

You say "potato," I say "spud"; let's call the whole thing awful

     Yesterday, I alluded to Vern Nelson’s post about San Juan Capistrano’s 4th of July “Tea Party.” According to Vern, only about 140 people (including vendors) were present at the event’s peak. [See correction below.]
     In her report (Tea Partiers gather in SJC Sunday), the OC Reg’s Cindy Yamanak arrived at a very different figure: 375.
     They can’t both be right.

     [UPDATE/CORRECTION: as an anonymous reader points out (see comment below), there were two distinct "Tea Party" events over the weekend, and this accounts for the apparent discrepancy regarding attendance. Yamanak was reporting on the Sunday (4th of July) event. Vern Nelson was reporting on the Saturday event. Both were at San Juan Capistrano. Both featured, among others, Don Wagner.
     The anonymous reader blames Vern and (OJ Blog's) Art Pedroza for the confusion, but it seems to me that the confusion is entirely on me, since Vern made clear (now that a reread his post) that the event he was discussing occurred on the 3rd, not the 4th. In his piece, Pedroza was clearly referring to the July 4 event. Sorry for the confusion.
     The reason I mentioned "this" event was Don Wagner's participation. Naturally, that Don attended and spoke at two, not just one, Tea Party events last weekend is a better indication that he embraces the benighted and disturbing "Tea Party" movement.]

     The Reg has a picture of the crowd (which looks small in each picture I've seen) getting all solemn and quiet during the “invocation” of the Lord (above).
     Who do you suppose led that?
     Why yes, it was our own trustee Don Wagner!

Don serves Teabonics to the moronics

     The Orange Juice blog’s musical progressive, Vern Nelson, posted today about San Juan Capistrano’s Fourth of July “Tea Party.” [CORRECTION: Vern posted about a "Tea Party" event that occurred in SJC a day earlier--on Saturday.]
     Vern reports that what he experienced today was “darkly fascinating.” Check out his piece.
     One of the Tea People (or, anyway, one of the purveyors of tea) is our own trustee Don Wagner, who is running for State Assembly. Reports Vern:

     For the first time I was able to hear [him] speak. His heavily Glenn Beck-influenced history lesson, centered on tough-guy Jefferson quotes and standard calls-to-arms-against-tyranny, was most notable for his innovative use of the word “encrosion” – apparently a Jabberwocky-style conflation of “encroachment” and “erosion” – as in “their encrosion of our borders.”
     Or was it just “Teabonics,” as Gus Ayer calls it?
     One theme sounded in nearly every speech was the eerie similarity between the circumstances which drove our Founding Fathers to rebellion against the British, to what we patriots are facing now under President Obama and Speaker Pelosi.
     As I observed to my traveling companion, “That is so true! Remember all that access to healthcare King George tried to foist on the poor colonists?”
     Snarked he in response, “Yeah, they must have felt like right fools, having elected him after he campaigned on that issue!”

     Well, OK, if you wanted to know what Don squawked about at this Tea thing, that doesn’t tell you much, but you should read the rest of Vern’s piece anyway. It provides a pretty good picture of who these local Tea People are. They ain't much.
     Evidently, at its peak, the crowd today comprised one hundred “patriots,” including (by Vern's count) about a dozen rednecks. (Not included: 40 vendors.)
     That’s just pathetic. Maybe Lindsey Graham is right: this Tea Party thing is just gonna peter out for lack of coherence--or too much Sleepytime.
     But they’re not over yet, and our Don has decided to serenade ‘em while they're still hopped up.
     That’s too bad. Don’s a smart guy. It’s sad to see him wooing a bunch of illiterate, racist morons.

Baja California, late 1970

The beach of San Felipe, on the western shore of the Sea of Cortez,

nearly forty years ago.

(Click on the photos to enlarge them.)

This (U.S. military) amphibious vehicle was used for shrimp fishing.

Don't know what the sub was for

Fabulous beaches, warm water, gorgeous sand dunes

I was fifteen at the time. Ray, at right, would have been nine.

Downtown San Felipe

Church in the background

Yes, we really did drive through the sand in a '65 Lincoln Continental—the kind with the clever suicide doors.

One time, on the freeway, Ray reached over and opened the door (in back). It flew open with great force—cuz it was a suicide door! I caught Ray (he wasn't in a seat belt--maybe we didn't have them; don't remember). The kid never stopped squirming around. Sheesh.

I've simplified the map to match my fifteen-year-old concept of Baja

"Modern" San Felipe: a different kettle of fish entirely

The quiet transformation of American higher ed

Tenure, RIP: What the Vanishing Status Means for the Future of Education (Chronicle of Higher Education)

     Some time this fall, the U.S. Education Department will publish a report that documents the death of tenure. ¶ Innocuously titled "Employees in Postsecondary Institutions, Fall 2009," the report won't say it's about the demise of tenure. But that's what it will show. ¶ Over just three decades, the proportion of college instructors who are tenured or on the tenure track plummeted: from 57 percent in 1975 to 31 percent in 2007….

     Yep, in many sectors of higher ed, essentially, tenured professors will grow older and retire, and as they leave, by degrees, tenure will leave with them. As we all know, for many years, instruction has trended toward reliance on adjunct (part-timer) instructors, who have few rights and little authority.
     So it's a movement toward de facto top-down-itude, and that will continue, only at a faster pace.
     Meanwhile, the for-profit institutions are donning ever-brighter clown pants and ever-snidelier grifter smiles; they'll sell more and more miracle online snake oil. They're luring more of the "customer base"—those millions of marks with their expensive loan money, made possible by Uncle Sam, a clueless shill, and the ultimate mark.
     It doesn't look good for American higher ed.

“Clown and face painting!...Let’s enjoy the 4th together as AMERICANS!”

     Looks like the President of the SOCCCD board, Don Wagner, is moving full steam ahead in his bid for State Assembly. Good for him!
     On the other hand, he continues to sip unsavory tea. In fact, he’s chugging the stuff, ‘cause he’s a scheduled speaker for yet another big “Tea Party.”
     As you know, San Juan Capistrano is a right-wing town. So, naturally, on the fourth, it’ll be Tea Time, or so says the indecorous Mr. Art Pedroza of the Orange Juice blog.
     Pedroza directs us to a “meetup” page on meetup.com. The latter appears to be run by a Tea Party group named SOC912 that was founded over a year ago in Swallow Town.
     Evidently, SOC912 is a “meetup group.” On the website, one learns that “This Meetup Group is about… Glenn Beck…Christian Coalition…Traditional Values Coalition…Right to Bear Arms…End the Fed,” etc.
     They are sponsored by “Richardson Plumbing," which is pretty handy, given that they're a Tea Party.
     The website declares:

     Come on out for a great TEA PARTY RALLY … and LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD!....
     The rapid pace that our government is headed toward socialism/communism is unprecedented. WE THE PEOPLE must rise up and gather, get informed and speak out (and vote) against it….
     Bring your patriotic and protest signs! …. Clown and face painting! … Let’s enjoy the 4th together as AMERICANS!....
     …First and foremost, we will be honoring our military and acknowledging our indebtedness to them. Then onto our speakers …:

Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson – Appears regularly on Fox News, tells it like it is!....
Penny Garcia – What life is like in Cuba now that it has a communist dictator!
Chelene Nightingale – American Independent Candidate for Governor
Don Wagner – Candidate for Assemblyman 70th District
Shari Freidenrich – Candidate for OC Treasurer….

     Evidently, these Tea Party people are unaware that Cuba has been Communist for more than a half century. ("What life is like in Cuba now that it has a commie dictator!")
     Oh well. They don't claim to be intelligent or informed, just patriotic!
     Freidenrich is the gal that beat the pants off of Trustee Dave Lang during the recent primary. He sunk over $100K of his own money into that campaign, which Trustee and OC Public Guardian John "Orlando Boy" Williams recently described as "spirited."

     I think you'll really enjoy listening to what the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, one of Don's 4th of July co-speakers, has to say about slavery:

Speak into the webcam: the state's community colleges partner with a dubious, "online" for-profit outfit

Is outsourcing community college education serving students? (LA Times)
By Michael Hiltzik

     …It turns out that California is trying to outsource our public higher education system to the for-profit college industry. What is surprising is that this is happening without any evidence that the affected students would be well served.
     The issue has been cast into high relief by a two-year agreement struck last year between Jack Scott, the chancellor of the California Community Colleges, and Kaplan University, an aggressively marketed institution that does most of its pedagogy online.
     Under a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, students who need a course to meet their associate degree requirements but can't get it at their community college ... would be able to take it at Kaplan.
     …[T]here's no guarantee that the Kaplan course will be accepted by any four-year college the student transfers to, such as a UC or Cal State University campus.… The deal was reached behind the faculty's back, even though such arrangements are customarily brought to the teachers for discussion.
     …The 112-college system, which serves nearly 3 million Californians, sustained a budget cut of $520 million, or 8% of its budget, in 2009-10. Course sections were reduced by 5% statewide, Scott's office says, with as many as half of new students trying to enroll in a class being turned away at some campuses.
. . .
     Kaplan saw an opportunity in the resulting vacuum. "We recognized the challenges that the community college system is experiencing," says Gregory Marino, president of Kaplan University Group….
     …[The state’s community college] "underestimated the extent that Kaplan would use the MOU as a marketing tool, which they did very effectively," says Terri Carbaugh, the community college system's vice chancellor. "The public perception was that we're hand in glove with Kaplan."
     Campus officials say no articulation agreements have yet been reached, perhaps because some campus officers have been repulsed by Kaplan's crude overtures; one says Kaplan offered a free box of See's candy to the first 10 campus officials who agreed to talk about an articulation agreement.
. . .
     Some for-profit proprietors may have rushed into the college biz less out of a mission to prepare young people for gainful employment than in the quest for gainful investment. The sector's growth coincided with the relaxation of federal regulations governing the quality of their course offerings (drifting lower) and how far they could shove their snouts into the federal trough (ever deeper).
     In 1998, for instance, Congress raised the maximum portion of its revenue that any school could derive from federal student assistance to 90% from 85%. Those exceeding the limit lose their eligibility to receive the government aid.
     Kaplan University's ratio in 2009, according to the annual report of its parent, Washington Post Co. — yes, that Washington Post — was "less than" (in other words, "close to") 87.5%. The Kaplan subsidiary collected about $1.3 billion in federal student aid last year, which helped make it the largest and most profitable unit of the company.
     A congressional inquiry is underway into whether such institutions are gaming federal aid programs to their students' disadvantage — based on evidence that they "spend a large share of revenues on expenses unrelated to teaching, experience high dropout rates, and … employ abusive recruiting and debt-collection practices," in the words of a report by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). A Kaplan spokesman said in an e-mail that such critiques are "filled with inaccuracies and old stories."
     Kaplan is accused by former faculty members in a federal lawsuit in Florida of recruiting possibly unqualified students, pumping up their grades to keep them enrolled, and giving its own employees "scholarships" to keep the school's federal aid ratio below 90%. Kaplan calls the accusations "baseless" and "totally without merit."
     As for "online learning," there's certainly room for new techniques in education. But how much is too much? [State Academic Senate President Jane] Patton, who teaches public speaking, points to a Kaplan public speaking course in which students can deliver their speeches to a webcam….

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1960

Four spankin' new immigrants (well, five, including the fluffy Mr. Prince) arrive in Southern California! Naturally, we had to visit Santa Monica.

I do believe that Annie and I did not speak English at the time.

Just thought I'd throw that out there.

We rented a place in Anaheim at first. It must have been close to Knott's Berry Farm, 'cuz we could hear Richard Nixon speaking there during the notorious 1960 Presidential campaign. (Of course, I had no idea who Nixon was.)

Check out the incinerator. Every home had one. Virtually all of them were demolished years later.

This place doesn't look like much, but it was a big step up for the Bauer family, which was accustomed to trailers in remote power stations in the Canadian bush. But we saved our money and, soon, we moved into a new home.

This is actually from about 1962. I suspect that it's Pismo Beach or perhaps a bit further north.
Ray was born late in 1961.

My parents bought this house toward the end of 1960, I believe. It is in the City of Orange, but very near Villa Park (Santiago Blvd.), where I attended school. As I recall, we paid under $20,000 for this "pink house." My parents still own it (they moved to the Trabuco Canyon area in 1975).
In my view, the home designs of the time were, well, ugly. I wonder if growing up in an ugly, pink home messed me up? That '61 Ford in the driveway wasn't much better.
I've never understood tolerance of those gawdawful telephone and power poles. Don't they strike you as seriously ugly? To me, those poles are like turds on a birthday cake. What kind of people would enter a shiny new neighborhood, even one with pink houses, and not marvel at the absurdity and stupidity of sticking crudely hewn, tar-encrusted poles in the ground and hanging ugly black wires on 'em?
But the zeitgeist of 1960 embraced "progress" and plasticity and new-and-improvitude. It's damned hard to defy a zeitgeist, isn't it?
Well, that explains pink, squat, meandering, crap-encrusted houses and flashy, bewinged Ford crapmobiles, but how does it explain those fucking poles and wires? I dunno.
I seem to be peevish tonight.
Sorry.
And urban sprawl! Even as a bewildered little kid from wild and woolly Canada, I was shocked and horrified by the disorganized and promiscuous spill of humanity that is urban sprawl! How could people flock to this? What is the matter with them? Will they next move onto methane-belching landfills and vacation on oil-drenched slag heaps? Anyone with half a brain knows immediately (I thought then and think now) that any person who is insensible to the soul-killing ugliness of urban fucking sprawl will eventually abandon car batteries on his lawn, toss old couches into the street, and will inevitably shit on the sidewalk.
(Sorry. The weather's awfully nice here, though, isn't it? Yep.)

Archives: 1983-4

Early in 1983, my little brother Ray decided to join the Marines. "Good grief," we all said.

Ray received basic training in San Diego. We all went down there for his graduation, or whatever it's called. Took these pics. (Click on them to enlarge them.)

The next phase of Ray's training occurred at a camp inland between San Diego and Orange County (Camp Horno of the 1st Marines; it is within Camp Pendelton; at a later date, he trained up near Bridgeport). There, he "humped hills," he later told me. He was a squad leader (or some such thing), and this involved kicking colleagues, if necessary, to motivate them up these hills.

Ray actually broke his foot kicking one guy "in the ass." As I recall, he characterized the fellow very colorfully. For some reason, Ray did not consider getting treatment (for his foot, I mean; don't know about that other guy's ass). It became necessary to re-break and mend the foot a year or two later.

One time, he and one of his Marine pals (a "dark green Marine," they said) stayed over at my folks' place. Late Saturday night, Ray, his pal, Kathie, and I were out on the patio, drinking beer and staring at the marvelous night sky. It's really quiet and dark out in those hills at night.

That's when we saw an amazing enormous UFO, flying slowly over us and then off to the east. All four of us saw it. It was impossible to miss.

Ray is now dead, but, for years, I would occasionally bring up that incident. 

"That really happened, didn't it?" I'd ask, sometimes over the phone.

"Sure it did," said Ray.

Kathie remembers it too.

Don't know what to make of it all.

This picture was likely taken near Fashion Island in Newport Beach. Kathie and I used to hang out in Newport Beach and Corona del Mar. Used to eat at the Blue Beat, among other places.

By '83, my little brother Ron was a high school senior. I had encouraged him to take up the guitar a year or two earlier. At some point, he advanced rapidly, and he soon managed to duplicate complex folk/blues pieces by John Fahey and Leo Kottke. We were impressed.

He and I would get together on occasion to record our own songs.

We were terribly serious about this, in a way. But it was always great fun.

In 1983, Kathie and I were living in Verano Place—graduate student housing at UCI.

Here's Kathie on the balcony of our third floor apartment.

The construction of those old apartments was such that the act of typing, with an IBM Selectric, produced a pounding roar--especially in the apartment immediately below us.

At one point, the Iranian couple that lived there complained to officials that Kathie and I were "trying to torture them." I've forgotten how the dispute was resolved. 

I do remember saying, "Nope. We're not trying to torture anybody. We're trying to type."

During my graduate student years, which continued through the early 80s, weekends usually meant parties and drinking. To a degree, this practice extended to my parents' place up in the mountains. Invariably, our friends ended up at some point partying and staying at my folks' place, which became almost a grad student hangout and Teutonic Absurdity Center.

My parents are terribly hospitable people. They've got this Old World charm, I guess. (My mom retains a heavy German accent.) So several of my friends became virtual members of the Bauer family.

Even one of my professor mentors befriended my parents and hung out in the Canyon.

I was horrified. But I was powerless to do anything about it.

Opa, before his stroke, sometimes joined in the fun.

Here he is hammering himself in the head. (My mother, in the background, seems unimpressed.)

I think the hammer broke.

You'd have to ask Ronnie about that. Ronnie and Opa were tight during those years.

(Ronnie's German is pretty good.)

I don't recall what the occasion was. I think my sister Annie had come down one weekend and set up a sheet on the wall for photographs.

I came across a few crazy photos today that involved that sheet.

In that next photo, they're kissing passionately.

My parents don't drink anymore. Haven't for years.

Probably a good thing.

     This slide was in terrible shape--beyond the scope of restoration, really. What you see is the best I could do. But it does give you a sense of the scene at the Bauers' Canyon "Compound" in those days.
     Booze. Hilarity. Art. Excess. Large and lovable German Shepherds. Astounding cats! (Moon Unit, GreyBall, Felix, Maurice, et al.)
     We made movies, played songs, argued about Reagan and Prop 13, and made increasingly extravagant and spicy pizzas.
     Good Lord, the pizzas! They were unbelievably excessive. It was as though there were a contest, and the winner simply dumped more spices in the sauce or piled more meat and junk on top than anybody else. I started to develop the view that we were insane, pizzawise.
     At some point, I incited and accomplished a revolution. I assembled everyone to the kitchen table. In essence, it was a call for simplicity. "If," I said, "one approaches the making of pizza with the foolish notion that more is always better, one will end up with this [I pointed at the offending pie] hideous, bowel-wrecking monstrosity!"
     Everyone in attendance was astonished and annoyed.
     But they were guilty, and they knew it.
     I then pulled out a sheet of paper. Written upon it was an exceedingly simple pizza recipe. I laid it upon the large oak table for all to see. "There."
     And it was good.
     Many grumbled, but all knew that I had spoken, and acted, wisely.