Dave Morey and Joe Starkey

OK, for those are you who still bother to read Tribe periodically (and my blog *g*), you may remenber my post back in December about two long time Bay Area broadcasters, Dave Morey & Joe Starkey who retired from their posts at KFOG and broadcasting 49er games respectively. I found out they've both been niominated for the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame. If you want, you can vote for them at www.bayarearadio.org/ .

Is Tribe Dead?

I have to wonder. Lately I log on and rarely see new blog posts by my friends, when I used to see lots of them. The tribes I belong to that used to have a few new posts every day or two now have none. One or two tribes seem to be staying busy, but those are the exception. I've also noticed many tribes I used to check out have disappeared completely. A couple of my Tribe friends have recently blogged (when they were here) about how they're not coming here much anymore, if at all. With all the other social networks around, it seems Tribe has been passed by. And Tribe certainly hasn't helped themselves with all their downtime. Over the last year or two, I've lost count of the times I tried to view Tribe, only to get "Donut Freak Out" or "Tribe is down for unscheduled maintenance." Uh huh. So Tribe has only hurt themselves with all this downtime. They seem to have gotten their downtime stuff straightened out, but now nobody cares.

It's too bad really. This used to be a fun place. But like all things Internet, things have changed. Back ten or twelve years ago, newsgroups were all the rage online. Most people have passed those by in favor of mailing lists, social networks and the like. Unless things change dramatically soon, I suspect Tribe will become one of those Internet "relics," things that were once fashionable but have gone out of style. Just like Netscape, Gopher, Archie, WebCrawler and countless others.

Perhaps it is time to move on.

Really Scary news

And no I'm not talking about the stock market, I'm talking about a quote by California's Lt Governor John Garamendi to a blogging friend of mine. Last Friday at the SVEC luncheon in Santa Clara he told my friend who regularly blogs about high tech events that "California spends more on its prisoners than it does on its students."

Is that SCARY or what?

My accountant has a blog

My accountant is way cool and he has an interesting blog that he posts on infrequently. A favorite of his is his "g2g love song list," which is a list of virtually every woman-woman love song ever done. Interesting list and one you can see at rabdrake.wordpress.com/ .

And no I don't get a discount on my tax return for posting the URL. :p

Fire in the Neighborhood

It's almost 2 AM right now. What am I doing up and posting this time of night? Well my fiance & I were trying to sleep an hour & a half ago, and our dogs started going nuts. We then heard people yelling and what sounded to me like firecrackers or gunfire. We opened up a window. I looked to the right and saw flames. I took a closer look and discovered to my amazement and shock that a neighboring structure was engulfed in flames. It was far enough away that our house wasn't in any danger, and luckily fire trucks began arriving almost immediately. My fiance, her daughter & I just sat and watched the flames take down one structure and damage one or two others. I realized pretty quickly the firefighters would just let the structure burn and try to keep the fire from spreading too far. Fortunately, the house that was most damaged was unoccupied. Still it's an amazing and frightening thing to watch a fire take down any structure. This one took probably about 40 minutes. I went outside and walked to the next street to make sure my truck was okay. It was. As I looked around, I saw several fire trucks nearby. In all, I counted around 15 fire trucks. Clearly, this was a major fire, a three-alarm one if you will.

The house next to the structure that burned down (an old windmill I think) itself was being remodeled, and I guess now the owners have to start over. Bummer. The clouds were moving in overhead, in advance of the storm that's hitting us in the morning. And of course, it started to rain after the fire was out. Timing is everything I suppose. ;)

And now the firefighters are starting to pack up and go home. Probably a few trucks will stay here all night to make sure the fire doesn't start up again. I suspect we're not going to get much sleep tonight.

Sam I Am, or why the hell is a middle aged politician having sex with an 18 year old?

I'm unsure how many of you have been following the story of Sam Adams, an openly gay man who was elected mayor of Portland, Oregon last November. During the campaign, there were rumors he'd had sex with an 18 year old man named Beau Breedlove (what a great name..lol). Both Adams & Breedlove denied it and Adams wound up getting elected. This was a landmark election, it was the first time a gay man had been elected mayor in one of America's 40 largest cities.

I'm sure he was considered a hero and role model to the gay/lesbian community. That was all well and good until it turns out Mr Adams lied. He did indeed have sex with Mr Breedlove and admitted it as well as admitting he told Mr Breedlove to lie too. Like a lot of Portlanders, I find this behavior disappointing. Maybe I'm a prude, but I have an issue with any middle aged man doing the nasty with someone 3 decades younger than them. To me it doesn't matter what gender or preference you are, it's just wrong to do this. Most Portlanders have called on Mr Adams to resign. Mr Adams has stubbornly refused to do so. He probably figures this will blow over and people will forget about it. Until his term is up and he seeks re-election. Or should that be "re-erection?" *g*

What worries me (and I'm sure a lot of gay community members in Portland) is now all the right-wing intolerant fundamentalists will be able to say, "hey look at that faggot mayor in Portland, he had sex with a teen boy. Here's another example of how all gay men are deviant." <sigh>

At least one thing Adams has done is put Portland in the national spotlight. Perhaps not in the way Adams would like Portland to get attention, but he's done it just the same. Good job there Sir. You've managed to put Portland smack dab in the middle of nationwide media attention.

Another thing that bothers me about this guy. During his campaign, he made a point of borrowing an old Harvey Milk trick. When Milk ran for public office in SF in the 70s (and this is portrayed in the Milk movie), he would sometimes address people by saying, "I'm Harvey Milk and I'm here to recruit you." A powerful statement and one that gays in Sf rallied around. I guess Mr Adams figured it'd work for him too. Considering how things have now turned out, Harvey is probably spinning in his grave. Well, maybe not since Harvey was cremated. :) He may be slowly shaking his head on the other side. Which reminds me I hear the Milk movie garnered nine Academy Award nominations. But I digress.

On an evening where the Illinois governor got his butt booted out of office because he tried to sell a Senate seat (to which I say "good riddance f***er"), another mayor is kicking back and thinking, "hey if Clinton can get away with this, so can I." He's probably right. I saw a comment on a blog somewhere about this whole scandal and the commenter said, "Portland is trying really hard to be as weird as San Francisco." Clearly, they're off to a great start.

Rain

I was musing this morning as I drove back from running an errand how the local weathermen always seem to regard rain as a bad thing. The last three days or so have been a little wet, but then again it's January and it's supposed to be rainy in SF! Although this January we had a string of ten days where it was in the 70s. Yeah I know, the temptation to say "global warming" is rampant. So the weather folk are saying "Oh lookie, GREAT weather." Gee no, clear weather in what's supposed to be a rainy month is NOT a good thing. It amazes me that TV weathermen must be instructed to say "oh this nice weather will continue for another week." And with the current weather pattern of light rain (or no rain), they're saying "Oh we'll get a break from this rainy pattern middle of the week. What rain? LOL The rain that has been falling has been relatively light. Three days of it and my truck's roof still has dirt on it. Before last Thursday, this January was shaping up as the driest one since they began keeping records. As it stands, we still have only had around an inch of rain this month. How is this a good thing?

Will they think it's a good thing next summer when we have mandatory water rationing again? When the reservoirs are at half capacity? Hey at least we can go up to Mt Shasta to visit the former town that is now a dam. Maybe the water level will be so low that parts of the old town will surface? :) That sounds like fun. I think there's another town that became a dam near Napa. Same thing there. We can go visit one of the old town bridges that will peak just above the water level. *s*

When I was in L.A. last month for Mary's daughter's graduation, I was floored to watch their local news and discover the lead story two nights straight was about "a huge winter storm" approaching L.A. This storm dropped maybe an inch of rain there. Yeah that's huge all right. No wonder folk around the country have a huge laugh when they hear about California weather. I wonder how most of us would deal with freezing rain or blizzards. Or heck, dealing with a storm that drops more than two or three inches of rain. It's been awhile since we've seen that.

I'm discovering I don't watch the weather forecasts much these days. I'm too tempted to scream listening to another weatherperson telling us the virtues of dry weather during the rainy season.

Thinking About Harvey Milk

Last night, I finally saw Milk, the movie about the life of gay rights activist and one time SF Supervisor Harvey Milk. Milk as I'm sure you all know was the first openly gay person elected to a major government office. And just so we're clear, yes I borrowed this from a blog review of the movie at www.buzzsugar.com/tag/Harvey+Milk. I agree with everything this blogger said about the movie. It was exceedingly well done and is a fitting tribute to Milk. If you haven't seen it yet, GO see it. I was living in San Diego back then, finishing up college at San Diego State when Dan White shot and killed him, along with George Moscone.

While I'm not going to spoil the movie too much for those who haven't seen it yet, one topic the movie dealt with hit close to home. I'd forgotten that in mid 1978, John Briggs a conservative state legislator from Orange County sponsored a ballot measure (Proposition 6) that would have banned gays and lesbians from working in California's public schools. It was defeated (thank Goddess) and likely was the first victory of many for gay rights activists. When I saw that portion of the movie, it reminded me of the liquor store I was working at in La Mesa (a city near San Diego) in 1978. My roommate and I both worked there and he became friends with one regular customer, a man who was a schoolteacher. One night, the man asked my roomie if he'd like to go bar hopping with him. My roomie was among other things, kind of geeky looking and also very naive. So the two of them went out.

The next morning, I asked my roommate how things went. He said to me, "Oh I had this awful dream that he's gay!" I asked him why. And my roomate said, "Well he took me to a gay bar!" At which point, I resisted the urge to shake my head and laugh. I told him that what his friend had done was a really good indication that yes he was gay and to get over it seeing that my roomie got home safe and sound. I remember seeing that customer a couple days later walk up to the store and upon seeing us, turned around and walked away. We never saw him again. I never really stopped to figure out why until last night. Now I realize that he was out to us and if either of us mentioned it to anyone else, it would have gotten back to the school he worked at and he could have lost his job. San Diego was (and still is) a conservative area and three decades ago, admitting you were gay was tantamount to admitting you were a child molester. How incredibly sad. I have no idea whatever happened to that man or if he's even alive now.

We've made progress since those days of conservative wackos like Mr Briggs and yet when something like Proposition 8 comes along and wins (albeit narrowly) it makes me wonder just how far we really have come. Once upon a time, I was one of those homophobes too. And then one day I realized "hey why do I feel this way? Gays and lesbians aren't any different from me. They have the same hopes and dreams and opinions that everyone else does." And so I changed my feelings about gays and lesbians.

A movie like Milk makes you realize how far the gay rights movement has come, but when you leave the theater after the movie, you realize there's still a long way to go. All of my future stepkids are queer-identified and one has been attacked in SF more than once. Simply for looking different from others. And that's in San Francisco. I hate to think what might happen if they went to the Central Valley of California or anywhere that is less tolerant than here.

Milk did pave the way and his legacy lives on in the work of others that were his friends. I wonder what he might say if he was around today. It would probably be something along the lines of "not ever giving up" and to continue to stick up for what you believe in.

As for me, I do believe we have a new President being inaugurated on Tuesday. That in itself gives me some hope for the future.

Bye Dave and Joe!

Ah..my first blog of the new year. And in it, I look back a few days and say goodbyes to two SF Bay Area broadcasters who "retired" last month. Any broadcaster who retires or walks away from their job is extremely rare. Having once been a radio announcer in Oregon many years ago, I can say with certainty it happens maybe once a decade. Anyone who gets in radio does because they love it, not because they make money at it or get job security. As a DJ, you're only as good as your most recent ratings are. Hell, not even that any more. If the station you work for gets new owners and decides to change the format, you're out the door. Or if management decides they don't like you any more, you can be gone. You get the picture.

I have a friend I worked with at San Diego State's radio station who has done an oldies show for over three decades. That's pretty damn amazing too. The DJ's that stay at one place forever are the ones who stand out.

Dave Morey, who worked at KFOG in San Francisco since they started in 1982 was one of them. When I first moved to the Bay Area in 1981, he then worked at another SF station which changed format about a year later. And then I heard him at KFOG sometime later. All these years of listening to him, he became like a friend. I could always count on him to be on the air every weekday. He never sounded like some hotshot, he sounded like a regular guy on the air. Which I suspect was part of his success for so many years. It seems amazing he lasted for so long. I thought he'd be there forever, which of course is impossible but none of us wanted to think about what KFOG would be like without him doing the KFOG morning show. I'm glad I got him to autograph a CD for me at a live broadcast he did last summer. Dave has moved back to his home state of Michigan. He'll still do his famous "10@10," ten songs from one particular year so he's not gone completely from KFOG.

Joe Starkey, who has done U of California football for decades (and also SF 49er games for the last 20 years or so) did his last 49er game on Dec. 27. It got to be too difficult for him to do a Cal Bear game on Saturday and then occasionally have to scramble to find a flight to whatever city the 49ers were playing in the next day. So he decided to give up doing 49er games. Again he'd done them so long I got very used to listening to him do the games. I remember listening to him broadcast Oakland Invader games back in the 80s and have listened to him do Cal games for just as long. Joe may not be the greatest play by play guy but he was the consummate reporter, kind of a "regular guy" like Dave and enjoyable to listen to. He'll still do Cal games, so like Dave he isn't totally gone from broadcast radio either. It will be weird next season to not hear him doing the 49er games though.

Dave got choked up when he said his last goodbyes after his last show on KFOG and Joe did the same on his last 49er broadcast. Not difficult to understand why since this was their last times they got to do that. I'm sure I'll miss them both but life does go on.

So with that in mind as I say goodbye to 2008 I also say goodbye to Dave & Joe and I say (to borrow Bob Hope's old song) "thanks for the memories."

Same old Lang Syne or OMG is New Years Eve almost here?

Yep it's the end of the year as we know it. Just a couple more days and we'll be partying like it's 2009 (with apologies to Prince). So everyone will be bringing out the champagne (or Martinelli's Sparkling Cider or whatever your beverage of choice) to toast the brand new year. Which of course, we'll quickly realize is pretty much like the year that just went by. But I digress. And I hope no media outlet has the balls to say.."2008..a year to remember." As if we could easily forget this year. Actually most of us want to. We're facing uncertain times, with the economy in the tank. We're hoping Obama can turn things around, the quicker the better for those out of work or facing that possibility.

And after watching the 49ers win a nail-biter yesterday in person (and now my voice is half gone yelling yesterday), it fills me with hope that maybe just maybe my 49ers will start winning some games instead of blowing them left and right. Same with the Giants. They've made some moves. We'll see if they were the right ones this upcoming season.

With all the reminiscing and hoping for better times it got me thinking to the whole New Years' Eve tradition. You know..the playing of Auld Lang Syne at midnight on NYE. Of course this year they're adding a leap second to it. Imagine the countdown: "10..9..8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1..1..HAPPY NEW YEAR!! *g*

I'm old enough to remember when Guy Lombardo was still around and his band always was live on TV every New Years Eve. Even though Auld Lang Syne was already a popular song on New Years Eve, he generally is credited with starting that tradition. Guy was an interesting person. Not only was he an accomplished musician, he also was a hydroplane racer. He even won a couple big races and apparently made enough of an impact in that sport to be voted into the Hydroplane Hall of Fame a few years back. I mean most of you probably don't give a whit that he's in there, but I always find folk that are multi-talented in areas you don't expect to be worth mentioning. Once upon a time long ago now, Guy was New Years Eve personified. And who knows, maybe he's still leading a band on the other side.

And while I'm at it, ever read the lyrics of Auld Lang Syne? It's like Jabberwocky, after the first stanza the lyrics are virtually unintelligible to the average American reader like me. I looked it up on Wikipedia. Good ol Wikipedia, what a great online reference. *s*

The second stanza goes like this:

And surely ye’ll be your pint-stowp !
And surely I’ll be mine !
And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

The rough English translation of tjhat stanza makes it sound like a drinking song. Hey maybe that's why so many get drunk on NYE huh? :)

The next stanza is:

We twa hae run about the braes,
And pu’d the gowans fine ;
But we’ve wander’d mony a weary foot,
Sin auld lang syne.

The rough English translation talks about running around the slopes and picking flowers. Hmmm how many of us have done THAT after drinking huh? Never thought about picking flowers, it's usually too dark.

There are two more stanzas to the song. If you want to investigate more, look it up on Wikipedia. I guess if I'm singing it Wednesday night, I'll be like most folk and sing the first four lines over and over while drinking champagne and kissing every woman in sight. Oops better not say that, Mary might be reading this blog and get mad. hehe

Somewhere I suspect Guy Lombardo is smiling.

Happy New Year!