h. “Court Jester” brown
Photos by Luke Thomas
By h. brown
April 21, 2008
Peskin a no-show for guitar jam
Aaron Peskin phoned yesterday around noon while we were listening to the ball game and having a hair of the dog. I appreciate that. I really do. I’ve always liked Aaron though I disagree with him about major policy questions. He’s gotta do what he’s gotta do and I have to attempt to totally destroy him when he steps one inch off my personally drawn Yellow Brick Road.
San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin
Bob Brigham answered the phone which must have surprised the Board Prez. Bob works for Mark Leno and has worked for Mayor Newsom. But, I mean hey … in this town friendships often cross all kinds of political, ethnic, racial, religious and species lines.
I draw the line at the British, of course.
Really, Aaron called and as I said, that’s good. Bob and I were listening to the giants on the radio (only way to go) and hearing them make me look like a genius in predicting that they could beat anyone in the bigs. We came away with a 4-3 edge on the Cardinals who are the class of the National League. I wrote my high school friend, Rich Pointer who’s retired back in St. Louis (where I grew up) and told him our victories over our Cards (yeah, I’m still a Cardinal fan too) were just beginners luck. No even. This team will lead the league in doubles, triples, stolen bases, infield hits and asshole daily sports reporters trying to create dissension and hold them back.
I have to admit that Henry Schulman who covers the Giants for the Chronicle seems to be coming around to the amazing thought that it might not be such a bad idea to support the home team and look for positive things to say about them.
For instance, after watching his colleagues blast the Giants farm system, he noted in his column this morning that, in fact, 13 of the 25 players on the present roster came up through the Giants system. Now, last week when the Giants were in last place, that was a rap on the Fresno Grizzlies. This week, the Los Angeles Dodgers are in last place and this is a different team then the one they beat in the season’s opening series 3 short weeks ago.
Wanna join our Giants’ levitation group? The best record in baseball belongs to the Arizona Diamondbacks. We play them tonight and tomorrow night in their home park. Their two starting pitchers have yet to lose this season and are a combined 7-0. The Giants pitchers on the other hand are 1-6. A betting man would bet against the Giants. They’d be wrong. Listen to em on AM 680 at 6:40pm tonite.
Watch em if you got a tube. Before the Cardinals ran into our roster of Minor League slap hitting roadrunners, they had the best record in baseball. Gonna be a good year, folks. Everything else is gonna be ugly and for keeps. Escape with us for 3 hours at a time another 140 times between now and October.
Land Use (1 pm)
Chair: Sophie Maxwell
Vice Chair: Gerardo Sandoval
Member: Aaron Peskin
On my birthday last Thursday Luke Thomas tossed a beer bust for me at Temple Bar and 15 of my best friends and enemies showed up. Tony De Renzo and Joe Lynn. Hope Johnson was there and I got my picture taken with her and Tony De Renzo and she seemed unimpressed but I do that to women. And, James Chaffee and Michael Strickland his buddy, Tony and whoever the hell ‘Sassy Sam’ is who left a note on a napkin but didn’t reveal self and Sunny Angulo who did same. Jens Nielsen and Ann Kaplan and Allie and Julien and 2 Marcs and Luke and Elaine and Brigham and the Planning Commission.
Hope Johnson, Birthday Boy h. brown and Tony DeRenzo
Marc Salomon, Jens Neilsen, Bob Brigham, Hope Johnson, Tony DeRenzo,
Elaine Santore, Joe Lynn and Birthday Boy h. brown.
h. brown infiltrates a secret meeting of the Planning Commission (not really).
OK, not the whole Planning Commission and it is true that they didn’t come to see me but they were there nonetheless and they’re very popular with my Salon crowd which mostly peopled my birthday party. It’s good to see groups like their commission and staff get out after a hard week’s work capped by their weekly intricate dances with developers, Nimbys and lawyers and lawyers and lawyers and tricksters and …
Director John Rahaim was there and it’s the first time I’ve seen him. Taller than the papers make him look and better looking. Cheerful and not camera shy which impressed me. I get so tired of looking at the scowling faces of Newsom appointees that it’s good to see some not afraid of a camera or press. Of the present Room 200 inner-core, only Wade Crowfoot doesn’t lose his cool and one online photographer says Crowfoot ran away from him a couple of weeks ago.
Anyway, we werent’ about to harass them but I just had to get my picture taken with Sue Lee and Sugura and the super-Olague wonkette. They didn’t complain and I brought them some of my birthday cake delivered personally by FoodHackers.com. It was a good birthday.
Eastern Neighborhoods
I mention Planning because many of my compadres will probably be before this afternoon’s meeting of the Board’s Land Use Committee to get a first go at the Eastern Neighborhoods Plans they’ve been working on (they say) for 9 years.
It’s Item #5 and hang onto your balls or whatever genitalia you possess for a ride. People I know who’ve worked with Planning for years say the department completely ignored them in the end. Well, blood in the water and it ain’t the ‘end’ or anything near it. Everything in this City and on this planet boils down to land use and this is the place to be for a San Francisco slice of it this afternoon.
The committee will also hear Chris Daly on Item # 4 requesting an extension of time for the dwindling number of pot clubs to get their licenses. It’s an idiotic system and I said so when Mirk put it together and I was dead right.
Foot Patrols
Read my lips: Cops don’t walk foot patrols in San Francisco. They do cameo appearances occasionally but there is absolutely no such thing as a real foot patrol deployment in the town. That’s what the consultants from Boston who studied our set up said in the report published last week.
And, the Mayor is not going to make the cops do anything either. He needs their support for his run for governor. Theirs and the State Prison Guards Union.
That’s why you won’t hear Gavin calling for the decriminalization of drugs and prostitution. Hell, 40% of the inmates in jails and prison around the state are in for those offenses. They create jobs for people with badges and clubs and guns and unions with money.
Odds and ends and odd ends
Besides the great computer, I got a cow bell for my birthday too. I got an original painting of the SF skyline and posters and cards and cigars and a collection of George Orwell running 3 volumes and cards and a hundred bucks from my sister an calls from all over the country and email from Maine to Japan and I gave $20 to my bundler for Obama and some of my friends sand ‘Happy Birthday’ under my window followed by the ‘Asshole’ song (honest, my friends are).
That’ll carry us for now.
Eastern Neighborhoods gather storm clouds
Bruce Wolfe for SF City College Board
Mark Sanchez for City supe in D-9
Joe Nation for State Senate D-3
Obama for President (a crack team will watch returns at Chez brown)
The Hunger Site
April 21, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Hmmm … A minimum of ten, circumcised men at Temple on Thursday night … Celebrating Shabbat a little early, are we?
Mr. Brown, I swear, ’twasn’t me who passed you a note on a napkin during the evening’s oblations. But I guarantee you that someone is playfully playing you — just like I am!
How ’bout them Giants???