It confounds me how pro-war supporters think that the anti-war protesters don't support the troops, and how anti-war protestors think that troop supporters are pro-war. Well, admittedly showing my bias, I think very, very few anti-war protesters don't support the troops and want them to come home unharmed, whereas I think the majority of troop supporters also are pro-war. There was a pro-troop rally in S.F. that was ostensibly neither pro-war or anti-war. So why were the SFPD, who have been harassing and arresting protesters these past two weeks, donning U.S. flag bandanas and ordering anti-war protesters to leave? I want to give the cops benefit of the doubt that they are just doing their jobs and keeping the peace, but . . . I just can't.

If I bring my bike with me to Tucson, there is no way I'm gonna try climbing aforementioned Mt. Lemmon. I climbed Mt. Hamilton near San Jose today, and on a day of "summer-like temperatures", it was pretty chilly at the top at near 4000ft. Mt. Lemmon peaks at somewhere over 9000ft. My ghost ain't about to travel to Tucson to be friggin' cold.

Mt. Hamilton, home of Lick Observatory, is the Bay Area's highest peak, but not the steepest climb. So although certainly not easy at this point in the season, it was wiser to tackle this than Mt. Tamalpais or Mt. Diablo. I have to admit that reaching the summit was a bit anti-climactic. What did you expect? Cheering crowds? Well, yea, cheering crowds wouldn't have been bad, but I could've used a banner and a trophy. Instead, it was like reaching the top, holding your arms up in victory and . . . crickets.

After climbing to 3960ft., you'd think the descent would be a breeze, but I'm not much for downhills, and the numerous switchbacks that made the climb relatively easy, also made the descent pretty technical for me, and I was averaging less than 20mph (slow) going down.

After I was down to about 1500ft., and there was only one small climb before the final descent, I ran into a young cyclist who races on the college circuit and was home for Spring Break from UC Santa Barbara. We chatted it up the climb, and then he led out for the descent and I followed, and just that was a great learning experience because, as with anything maybe, I don't know what I can do or how to do it. Following this guy down that last descent, a very non-technical one though, I didn't have to think of anything, how tight this turn is or whether I can make it, what's coming up next, how fast should I be going, or what my line should be. All I had to do is follow and do what he did. It was great. He turned off onto the road where his parents lived before we reached the end and we waved each other off at 25mph.

. . . and a wish you were here ride for meghan:
I left Critical Mass around 9:20 after it circled in the intersection of 16th and Dolores, and then headed towards the Castro, in the opposite direction I wanted to go. I rode up to 18th, turned left and then right onto Valencia. Lo and behold! Suddenly I was surrounded by bicyclists again! I brought it to someone's attention that this was a breakaway mass and the "main" mass was headed up to the Castro. At first he was surprised and slightly perturbed at not being in the "main" mass, but then fancied the idea of there being numerous breakaway masses. When I broke off from that mass and headed down 24th St., I thought maybe there were a number of masses still roaming the city. In fact, maybe the one I was in wasn't the "main" mass just because it was the first to leave Pac Bell Park. A bigger one could have left after us and headed elsewhere . . .

The media slant on the event was that "Bikes Not Bombs" joined Critical Mass, inflating our numbers and adding an anti-war political slant to it. I didn't know Bikes Not Bombs was an entity, I thought it was just an idea within Crit Mass and SF Bike Coalition. Media slant notwithstanding, turnout was great with estimates at around 1,000 cyclists, far more manageable than last September's Critical Mess 10th Anniversary debacle which attracted 8,000 cyclists from around the country and around the world. With 1,000 cyclists, the mass was able to stick together for most part and move. It was a sight to behold. Traffic tie-up at any one intersection ranged from 30 minutes to 60 minutes! Woohoo, suckers! Seriously, you had to be living under a rock to not have been forewarned that this was happening, and you must have been an idiot to drive in San Francisco knowing this was happening.

The hands-down highlight was the screaming good time in the Broadway Tunnel, where it was also possible to take in the size of the thing. It was jubilant and loud! The mass went screaming and yelling through the west bore, and then doubled back through the east bore completely filling it. The front of the mass waited patiently at the exit of the east bore until the slaggers at the end of the mass had entered the west bore and contributed their share of the screaming.

We then headed to Pac Bell Park, riding just about the entirety of the Embarcadero. The mass generally splinters or ends once it hits Pac Bell Park when there's a baseball game going on. It splintered this time, but I don't know how it happened. We jammed the walkway along McCovey Cove, where Barry Bonds hits his homers, and by the time I got through, there were tons of cyclists behind me, a bunch just milling about, and way down 3rd St. I could see a mass of blinking red lights, followed by a thinly spread trail of them. I didn't wait to see what would happen at Pac Bell and chased.

Who would have guessed how hard it would be to get out of the apartment after quitting my job? It's gotten bad, and it has to stop, need discipline. I am starting to keep track of everything I do in the day and time-stamping it to guilt me into not being lazy and slovenly. I will still waste time, I just want to be able to review how I'm wasting my time. Mindful time wasting.

I only got out once today in the evening to go for a run, and I haven't run in a week since I bailed on the 12k on Sunday. It was slow going. I haven't gone for a ride in two weeks. I tried this past Sunday. I rode up to Twin Peaks going up the steep north side, struggled with it, got to the top, rode the figure eight a couple times then promptly went home, not even completing 10 miles.

I was supposed to do errands today, it just didn't happen. But I had a productive day researching Tucson so that I have a plan when I go there. I have a pretty good idea about the layout of the town and where I should look first, where I might want to live if I were to move there (big if), sites to check out like Colossal Cave, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, and Mt. Lemmon, where Lance Armstrong used to train in the winter. But the question now isn't whether I should take my bike or not, it's when I'm gonna get my arse in my carse and undertake the fourteen hour drive, and whether I should stop overnight at my ex-housemate who lives in Irvine. I should, what are friends or people we know for? I need to be back in San Francisco by April 6 for the Black Heart Procession show with Delphine. Free ticket and photo pass, and I want to see them. Members of the Black Heart Procession used to be in a band I like called "Three Mile Pilot" with the bass player of Pinback. So I can leave this Thursday and be restricted to being back by April 6, OR I can wait until after April 6 when we will have begun saving our daylight, and I'd have more flexibility to also swing by the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park in Utah.

The big pro towards going sooner rather than later is the discipline aspect. Just go and stop making excuses to put it off! Is putting it off until after the show just an excuse to put it off? I am getting too old for these solo mega road-trips.

People are polarizing over the war issue. The anti-war protests have also been contributing to the polarization. The media feeds the polarization. Polarization erases the common ground that really exists. There is not a single anti-war protester who supports Saddam Hussein or who doesn't support our troops, but pro-war supporters assume the opposite. Anti-war protesters spout rhetoric which doesn't make any sense, and only give reason for pro-war supporters to remain staunchly in support of the war. I still have not come across a pro-war argument that is unrebuttable except by rhetoric.

* Weapons of Mass Destruction: the Bush administration has not provided an iota of concrete proof that Hussein has sustained a WMD program. To go to an extreme measure as war, to violate the sovereignty of another nation, the burden of proof must be very high.
* Violations of U.N. resolutions support military action: The U.S. cannot point to U.N. resolutions to justify unilateral military action, and at the same time disregard U.N. processes to establish an internationally agreed upon course of action.
* We have an international coalition supporting military action: Three nations do not consist a "coalition" when there is a tide of international disapproval. The White House states that 40 other nations have voiced support for U.S. military action, yet few of them have voiced it publicly, and none, aside from England and Australia, are offering military support.
* We must liberate the Iraqi people from Saddam Hussein: If this is allowed as a justification for war, it allows the U.S., or any other country for that matter, to declare war and invade another country where widespread human rights violations are committed by the government. And believe me or do the research yourselves, there are quite a few of them. If you say we must get rid of Saddam Hussein, I say we must get rid of the inhuman military junta in Burma. I can certainly get behind that. Anyone else? What's your human rights violation hotspot?
* Saddam Hussein is a threat to neighboring countries: The U.S. has not provided one iota of proof that Hussein intends to launch a military attack on any of its neighboring countries. Israel is threatened, but Israel is threatened by every nation surrounding it. Iraq fought a war against Iran through the 1980's, but the U.S. supported Iraq through it. Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, but there is no indication that it was going to try again.

So why war? Why innocent Iraqi civilians? Why U.S. soldiers' lives? Why condemn Iraq to the scourge of war? Why when the U.N. unanimously supported a renewed resolve to investigate and to rid Iraq of WMD's? Why contribute to the collapse of the airline industry? Why when so many Americans don't have jobs in a slumping economy? Why when education funding is at a crisis level? Why now? There is an answer to why, and I don't believe the White House will ever willingly admit it. Not exactly the essence of democracy.

(I just spent the weekend with the DVD of "Bridget Jones's Diary", including "making of" featurette and commentary track, so the following posting should be read in an appropriate British accent, even though it has nothing to do with the tone of the movie.)

I hate mornings. It's the most mentally oppressive and depressing time of day, really.

I woke up at six because I was planning to do a 12k run, but it was raining. It didn't occur to me that it would stop raining by the 8 o'clock start time. It didn't occur to me that I could have driven to the registration area. At 6:48, there was still no way I was going to ride to Aquatic Park in that rain. By 7:10, the rain stopped. By 8:00, it was runnable. Nice, in fact. The registration cut-off was 7:30.

So I'm awake at this ungodly time of morning, several hours away from ex-housemate Rosalie calling about doing lunch in North Beach, and maybe Sadie later for music. But I think I want to ride today, so I might cancel on Sadie. I'm antsy for physical activity.

The last physical activity I did was run for 60 minutes last Tuesday in preparation for this 12k. I figured if I could sustain 60 minutes, I was pretty sure I could complete a 12k. At 45 minutes, I felt the possibility of blowing my knees out again, so 12k is pretty much the farthest I'd risk going. 10k would be perfect.

The Bay to Breakers is 12k, and I want to do at least one more before I leave San Francisco. So maybe it's better that I missed this one and just do 10k's until the Bay to Breakers. The last one I did was in 1999. The Bay to Breakers has been dubbed the "world's largest moving block party".

The opening line of the UN Charter is this: "We, the peoples of the United Nations, determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind . . . "

In World War I and World War II, all sides suffered horribly, and that, I believe, is the reason for the choice of the phrase "scourge of war". There are various nuances to the definition of "scourge", the most benign to apply to the UN Charter is "cause of widespread affliction". Other nuances, however, contain an element of punishment, chastisement, which I think might also have applied in that choice of words. The world suffered widespread affliction in those wars, but the suffering might also be viewed as "punishment" for the shortcomings of the nations of the world to prevent those horrors. Hitler and Nazi Germany, Tojo and Imperial Japan, and Mussolini and . . . whatever the hell they were, didn't materialize in a vacuum. They weren't born eeeeevil, though we might like to think that they were. They came to power in specific geo-political-economic circumstances that allowed them to rise to power. There was not an international body where a suffering country, or a country under pressure could air its grievances. The creation of the UN and the use of the term "scourge of war", may have recognized that Hitler and Tojo may not have been able to come to power if there was an international body where Germany and Japan could have addressed the international community. And for Hitler and Tojo to inflict war would mean ignoring and sidestepping the authority of an international body.

Let's not fool ourselves about our assault on Iraq, there will be no "scourge of war" as the UN Charter reflected upon it. It will not be a situation where all parties suffer. If anything, for Americans in support of the invasion, this is light entertainment. There is no threat to a mote of American soil (except to the extent that this might encourage more terrorist acts). Americans watching the newscasts can easily switch over to Seinfeld, American Idol, Survivor, or, god forbid, Everyone Loves Raymond, during the commercial breaks. Americans in support of the invasion will watch newscasts believing we are doing the right thing. It is so morally right that ignoring and sidestepping the authority of an international body is justified. I personally disagreed with the Gulf War, pt. 1, but as a student of international law, I recognize that it was at least executed by an international, UN sanctioned coalition. Even if it was to serve our oil interests, at least it was in reaction to an aggressive military act against Kuwait.

- Is Saddam Hussein evil? Yes, he is evil and has committed unspeakable human rights violations. But so have many other leaders that the US either installed or is doing nothing similar to stop.
- What justification is there for the US military to intrude upon another nation's sovereignty to remove its leader? Hitler: direct and aggressive threat to US allies France and England. Tojo: direct attack on the US.
- Is Saddam Hussein a direct and aggressive threat to US allies, or evidenced a direct attack on the US? No. There is no evidence that Saddam Hussein has the military capacity to deliver attacks or threats of attack on US soil or against allies, and even if Iraq had the capacity, there is no evidence that such an attack is imminent.

One, Two, Three Four, We don't want your racist war. Five, Six, Seven, Eight, No more violence, no more hate
Q: Excuse me, how is this a "racist war"?
A: I'm not sure, I think a lot of it is just rhetoric.
Q: Well, why are you chanting that it's a racist war if you don't believe it. Isn't that just as bad?
A: You know, that's a good point.

Truth to tell, I don't agree with a lot of the rhetoric spewed at anti-"war" rallies. Especially the slogans recycled from the Vietnam war, where they applied. "No Peace, No Justice" falls hollow because where is the justice for the Iraqi people even with "peace". In fact, all references to "peace" can go out the door because "peace" has failed miserably for the Iraqi people.

I have a very low tolerance for racism, but even I have to admit that racism has nothing to do with an invasion of Iraq. Race-based slavery may be described as a racist war. The US simply is not invading Iraq based on the race of its people. It's not a "racist war".

A good half of the slogans chanted at the anti-war rallies I've attended fail scrutiny of rationalism or applicability. But a good half apply.

I guess I'm what may be called a middle of the road anti-war supporter. Based on principles of international law, the US cannot wage a unilateral war, one without an international coalition. I'm also not against military action under any condition, and I don't get much of the anti-war fervor, based on the rhetoric, at rallies. I participate because of my general disagreement and opposition to military force, given the current evidence. If it is the will of the international community, I would reserve my personal criticism of military action. Also if there is a direct and credible threat to reasonable US interests (defending Israel would not be a reasonable threat to US interest as the US pours enough military aid for Israel to fend for itself. When support of Israel means the oppression of Arabs or any other peoples, it is not a legitimate US interest).

As it stands, the suffering that the Iraqi people might be subjected to is not justified by the evidence and sets a very bad precedent regarding what the US is allowed to do in the post-Cold War environment.

What do I think the solution is? I think the UN has failed the Iraqi people over the last 12 years. I think the resolve of George W is something Bill Clinton should have had. But I think the resolve of George W should have been channeled to make the UN inspections work, and give them time to make them work. Instead, he rushed to war because of the time frames involved, the benefit of attacking before the oppressive Summers and sandstorms of the mid-East. Given that Iraq was not immediately threatening anyone, George W did not give diplomacy a chance. And even waiting a year to see how diplomacy played out would be worth the Iraqi lives not killed in a headforth attack.

Each innocent Iraqi killed, if the tables were turned, imagine that it was your neighbor, your co-worker, your friend, your sister, your brother . . . it's hard to imagine when the US is virtually invulnerable to the scourge of war.

"Just love those laser guided bombs
They're really great for righting wrongs
You hit the target and win the game
From bars 3,000 miles away
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
We zap and maim with the bravery of being out of range
We strafe the train with the bravery of being out of range
We gain terrain with the bravery of being out of range"
- "The Bravery of Being Out of Range" (Roger Waters)

We haven't heard anything about what the U.S. military expects to face, we are just told, through the joke that is the media (we now get the Iraqi weather report), of this huge U.S. military build up. All predictions are that it is going to be a rout. The military is going to start with a barrage of 3,000 missiles in a tactic to immediately take out all military targets and terrorize the Iraqi people.

Maybe it's too early to say, maybe I'll be putting my foot in my mouth in several weeks, but if it is a rout, I hope the American people, come election time, remember this ridiculous show of force and how much it costed, and that all through this time, W. Bush publicly did nothing about the slumping economy addendum: and education crisis.

But if people haven't clued into the absurdity by now, what makes me think they'll clue into it then.

I hate to say it, but this whole U.S. invasion of Iraq thing (I wish they'd stop calling it a war) is a pretty strong scenario in support of a Cold War. But who knows, maybe this is ushering in a new age where the CIA stops covert operations controlling or influencing internal politics of other countries for the beneift of the U.S. Maybe the U.S. military will roam the world as a global police force removing dictators and evil military juntas. After Saddam's gone, let's go for North Korea ("Who's chillin'?", "It's Kim Jong Illin'" - from MadTV) and get the people fed there, then we can oust the Burmese military junta that spends 40% of its budget on its military, used exclusively against its own people, then a sweep of South and Central American countries, the plights of which may have been sourced in U.S. interference, and then finally, let's clean up Africa for god's sake. Not botched Somalia jobs. We should go all out and "do an Iraq" against all repressive regimes. As long as the precedent is set, who couldn't get behind that plan?

Remember the good ol' days when we worried about nuclear war?

On the news yesterday, some pro-war woman on the street talked about how scary Saddam Hussein was and how we need to get rid of him because the thought of Hussein bombing us with nuclear weapons is really scary. Speechless. Everyone's entitled to an opinion. I just wish they weren't entitled to stupidity.

Q: So do you feel personally threatened by Saddam Hussein?
A: Why yes, at any moment he can drop a nuclear bomb on us.
Q: What makes you think Saddam Hussein has nuclear weapons?
A: That's why the inspectors are there, isn't it? And since Iraq and North Korea are part of the Axis of Evil, and North Korea has nuclear weapons, I'm sure they share.
Q: And how would Saddam Hussein deliver a nuclear weapon against the U.S. when Iraq is not allowed to have and is currently destroying missiles that travel farther than 150 kilometers?
A: How far is a kilometer?
Q: The missiles cannot fly more than about 80 miles beyond Iraq's borders.
A: Oh, um, well if he has missiles that can fly farther than that now, then maybe he's hiding missiles that can go farther than that. And I'm sure in conjunction with the Al-Qaeda network, he can manage to sneak nuclear weapons into the U.S.

Hm, OK, well I've investigated that line of inquiry and find it viable. But suddenly, the "Jay Walk" segment on the Leno show is not so funny.

Well awright!
A new record, I just went one full week without seeing a person I know. Last Monday I saw a bunch of ex-coworkers when I went there to pick up some CD shelves that I had lent someone. Just standing outside the building for 15 minutes during lunch I must have run into a quarter of the office. It ended tonight when I went over to Sadie's because she wanted to "learn some cover songs". For some reason she's a musician but doesn't know how to play her favorite songs by her favorite artists. Go figure. I showed her the Kinks' "Sunny Afternoon" and the Beatles' "Dear Prudence".

Actually, I did run into someone I knew at the anti-war rally on Saturday, but he was someone I hadn't seen in I don't know how many years, so he doesn't really count. I didn't recognize him but remembered him after he mentioned his name. I was shocked that he recognized me at all. I'm not a very distinct looking person (and I was wearing a hat, covering a Steve-Buscemi-in-'Ghost World' haircut). Anyway, since I saw him last, maybe 8 years ago, he left the Bay Area and came back, and is now trying to do music. He tried his hand at rap the last I knew, and now he's trying to get into rock. He gave me a CD of one of his songs he had on him, and it's pretty rough around the edges, it's pretty novice, but I fancy the idea of working with someone I know. That's been the idea since I quit Fiction and why I'm picky about auditioning.

AAAAAHHHHH!!!! AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH THROWING MUSES WILL BE PLAYING IN SAN FRANCISCO IN MAY!!! AAAAAHHHHH!!!

"The field has melted snow in Summer
Black with lousy rain
One more star above the clouds is not such a bad thing"
- Throwing Muses - "The Field"

YEA BABY!!! When I started this, I resolved I wouldn't post this no matter what the result, but come on:


What lesser-known Simpsons character are you?
Brought to you by the good folks at sacwriters.com.

Yesterday I ran for 40 minutes, distance and pace didn't matter, just to make sure my knees could endure that amount of pounding in regard to time. I stopped running after ruining my knees doing the San Francisco Marathon in 1999, the old, hard course. I started running again this past October after realizing my knees responded so well to Joint Juice glucosamine drink. I stopped shortly after for the Winter, and started up again in February. So far, so good. I still feel heavy, but I'm just amazed and thrilled to be running again.

Last year I took up riding, and today I went for my first serious ride. On Sunday, I headed up to Marin towards Tiburon, not intending to go long. I was 20 miles out wondering if I should turn around, already not looking forward to the 20 mile return trip. I was planning to go no more than 30 miles, and wasn't prepared for 40. I also wasn't quite sure where I or anything was. Fortunately, I remembered the Tiburon ferry, and after a few inquiries, I was lazily floating my way back to San Francisco.

Today I headed out to Tiburon again in earnest, intending to go long. I ended up covering 45 miles total, averaging 15.1 miles per hour (a good pace, but I was hurting at the very end). All through this, I'm fine. My knees are fine, my back is fine, my metabolism is fine. My good health confounds me.

Signs and flyers have started going up on street corners and Muni stops about another anti-war march next Saturday. I hope the protests can maintain the momentum and numbers from the previous protests. France and Germany aren't going to stop Bush. Russia and China aren't going to stop Bush. The U.N. isn't going to stop Bush. All there is left to stop Bush is the American people. And of course we know what that means.

People not clear on the concept. I'm unemployed. No income. Little energy, little motivation to even get out of the apartment. Sadie asks if I want a cheap night, and I say, yes, if I have to do anything, cheap is good. Five hours later, Sadie and Bob leave, leaving me wondering how I ended the evening with a new DVD player. They picked me up, they took me to Best Buy, they helped me choose one, I purchased it, they set it up, they ordered the pizza, we watched DVDs. It's slightly beyond me. Friends. I'm telling you. Watch your back!

I love my new DVD player. I think I'll call it 'Harry'.

Sadie pressed me about when my birthday is. I told her June 31. She wrote it on her hand to remember. The truly funny part of this is that this is the second time I told her that date, but the first time she went to put it in her calendar only to find there is no June 31.

I went to Ex-Girl last night. I bought the ticket in advance because I thought the Bangs were opening, but I was horribly misled. Thankfully, Ex-Girl were incredible! I actually kinda wish they didn't put on the uber-cutesy kitsch, because they have enough talent and great punky-pop songs without it, but that's their artistic decision, so I won't knock it. The thing is when you get three petite cutsy Japanese girls on stage, you get an audience full of obnoxious drooling white men in the audience, with a smattering of punk girls, who wouldn't be there if they had Le Tigre's attitude and politics.

I had a dream last night that ended in horror. I kid you not, I was hanging out, having a pleasant time with friends and family when a bunch of them turned into flesh-eating vampire monsters and started eating and killing the others. I woke up horrified with that feeling you get when you had a nightmare, but I felt so gyped at this cheesy excuse for a nightmare, that I forced myself back to sleep, resolved that the dream have a better ending. I don't remember the alternate end, but I know it did work. I woke up satisfied, but still remembered the blood and the carnage of the first ending. I wish my subconscious would go back to the relationship themed dreams I've been having.

Because of the Interpol debacle, wherein Delphine dragged me out of my apartment to get me in free and to take photos of Interpol for her review, and wherein we got to the Fillmore to find that only one ticket had been allocated and no photo pass, and wherein Delphine had to "send her photographer home" on the bus, Delphine invited me over for dinner to make it up to me. Lasagna. Nothing wins my heart over like lasagna.

I think Delphine can pass the four hour test. My theory is that I can spend no more than four hours in the company of one person, and then I need to get the hell out and back to "me" time. Sadie passes the test, and I think now Delphine could, too. Her brother is scary, though. He can drop any Simpsons quote at the drop of a hat. And re-enact the context.

For Sadie, I dragged myself out to the East Bay tonight. Although I wonder if she drags me out for her benefit or for mine. Han's birthday was on Wednesday and Ikuko's birthday was today, so to celebrate we got together with a whole bunch of people at Shan Dong, on 10th St. near Webster, excellent food. I was feeling particularly anti-social. Even after I got to the restaurant, I waited for a while down the block deciding whether or not I really wanted to go in. But then another person going walked by and recognized me, so then I thought it would be weird if I just took off. After regarding the situation for another 10 minutes I went in.

I was a good boy and mustered up enough energy to carry on conversations. A surprise was an Oberlin connection through Ikuko. Ikuko is hooked into the Ed and Dong Oberlin network, and apparently met me years ago through them, though I don't remember it. The Obie there tonight was Nicole, who I clearly remembered after it sunk in who she was, but couldn't put a concrete instance at Oberlin where I met her and talked with her. Pretty useless actually. You meet up with a vague acquaintance after a thousand years, and you identify the connection, but then so what?

Carnival, The Wheels Fly and the Colors Spin
Afterwards we went to a carnival near the Fruitvale area. It was a "the carnival's in town" sort of thing, but something I would imagine somewhere out in the mulleted, white trash Midwest or the South (thank you, Hollywood). Not in ghetto Oakland where a carnival might take on the feel of a breeding ground or flashpoint for gang fights. It was fascinating. It was "low entertainment". Flashing, blinking, broken lights, swirls of neon, the rattling machines, lines? not really, unfilled rides, screams, laughter, everything a spectacle. It's a great place to take your nieces and nephews. Terrific for people watching, but don't stare too long, lest someone decides to clock you with their gat.

I don't know. I think from the point of view of the carnies, we, the people going to the carnival, are the freak show. They know they're the carnies, but they can just as easily refer to us as "the carnies".