Alcatraz

We look at the Golden Gate bridge in the fog and at a group of cormorants hanging out on the western edge of Alcatraz.

The prison on Alcatraz is an amazing part of a visit there, but I was equally interested in the stories about the American Indian occupation of the island and its place in the struggles for Native American rights.

Islands in the Bay

For about four years, I lived on the Presidio in San Francisco, back when it was still an army base. From my bedroom window, I had a view of the bay and Alcatraz island. Tomorrow well go to Alcatraz for the first time, and also to Angel Island. The weather here in San Francisco was great today, and it's supposed to be the same tomorrow.

Scar inventory

Chris Clarke inventories his scars and Orange has some fairly dramatic stories about hers, although she underplays the scary factor. They got me thinking about my own scar stories. Like a lot of people, I have a few chicken pox scars on my face. I remember that all the kids got chicken pox at the same time, while we were living in El Paso, Texas; we were all under five, and the moms just threw us all together in our pajamas to ride it out for a few weeks. One of the Heygood boys scratched one on my cheek and I still have the little round pock. My acne scars are a reminder of high school shame. The less said about that, the better.

I have a small scar on the top of my right foot that I got when I did a cartwheel in the living room and crashed into something metal near the fireplace. A scar on my left shin is a souvenir of my first attempt to shave my legs. I still shudder at the memory of the sensation. I made sure to tell my daughter that cautionary tale, and insisted that if she wanted to shave, she should let me show her how to do it safely. I won't get into the should you shave or not thing, because frankly, if I tell her not to, she will probably want to do it even more, and I want her to do it safely.

I have a few other nicks and cuts on my hands, but the biggest scar is from my appendectomy at age 7-8? back in the days when they just sliced you open. Each hole from the stitches has its own little round scar. I never minded that scar--it had its story. I went into my parents' room and said "My tummy hurts" and threw up (on the floor! not even in the toilet!). My dad the doctor did the little tapping thing and figured out it was appendicitis right away (he knew!) and they were wheeling me into surgery within a few hours. I got to count backwards from 100 when they gave me the anaesthesia but I only remember getting as far as 96 (scary but exciting!)

If you know where to look, it's there, but the burn mark that covers most of the inside of my right arm from the coffee pot scald I got earlier this year is almost invisible now.

Our most dramatic recent scar story is from Blas's head surgery last year. He says the scars still hurt when he is tired, but otherwise he is fine. We continue to be amazed and thankful that this is the only consequence of that frightening event.

Now the scars I inventory are my daughter's. The scar on her lip is from the gash she got when she fell and hit her face on the zipper of her parka and the floor at the age of 14 months. That was the first. It was New Year's Day, and nobody I knew was in town. The only hospital ER available was Children's Hospital, and every sick child in town was there with us for the five hours we waited. I remember looking up at the full moon as I carried her in--it was only 6 PM, but night falls early in the north in winter. I had no food the whole time we were there, and I was ravenous, but she was still nursing and was surprisingly calm. She needed six stitches, and they took special care because they wanted the edges of her lip to match up. Of course the sedative they gave her didn't work, and a large male nurse had to hold her head still while I held down her body and she screamed because she couldn't understand why we were hurting her. You can still see the faint white mark on her beautiful face, but I don't think she remembers.

There were two more emergency room trips for stitches for the cuts on the bottom of her chin. One was the typical childhood fall off the slide at school that meant I got an emergency call at work to go pick her up and take her to the hospital: the reason I carry a cell phone. Another happened while we were in Spain. They are much more brusque in their dealings with anxious parents there, and I was not allowed to be with her while they stitched her up, but they did a great job. What was the hardest about those two situations was not the stitching itself but the removal of the stitches. It didn't hurt, but she did not want to let us do it.

Do you have a scar story?

Some good news from Mexico

The good news is that, although Hurricane Dean hit Cancun with terrible force, destroying property and crops, so far it seems that there have been no casualties. Our friends who were due to fly back yesterday have emailed to say they have been able to change their flight to leave from Mexico City on thursday. I am so grateful to know they are safe--they have friends in the DF who will look after them as well. I'm sure they'll have many stories to tell when they return. I just hope they were able to enjoy the first part of their vacation before the weather went bad.

A pound of fruit a day

In Spain, the fruit is so delicious, and so inexpensive. People eat what is in season, and prize the fruit from certain regions. When I'm in Minnesota, I try to eat what is local, but a lot of local fruit is only available in the summer. Lately, I've been going to the Produce Exchange at the Midtown Global Market, for the very best fruit in town. They are a distributor, and use their Global Market store to sell the fruit that is ripe NOW, ready to eat. It's also mostly organic, often local and/or fair trade, and their prices are half what you'd pay at any other coop for fruit of similar quality. I've bought peaches, cherries, blueberries, raspberries, avocadoes, tomatoes, baby bananas, and more. I haven't had fruit this good in the US since I moved away from California.. We'll be going to San Francisco for a week to visit family, and one of our stops will be the Ferry Building with its farmers market and fabulous food shops.

Flood in time of drought

Most of Minnesota is flat. But southeastern Minnesota, sometimes called the "driftless" area, is a beautiful region of steep bluffs and canyons where rivers and streams converge on their way to the Mississippi. The bedrock emerges through the relatively thin layer of glacial till (sediment). The small farm towns of recent European settlement have had a major impact on the ecology of this region, through grazing, row crop tilling, fire suppression, and chemical use, although recent conservation efforts have begun to slow or reverse the water contamination caused by erosion and runoff.

After months of drought that turned the Minnesota grass an uncharacteristic brown, part of a four-year drought affecting the north, and shorter term drought in the south of the state, the last two weekends have sent us devastating storms. The first one knocked down hundreds of trees and damaged buildings in the northern Twin Cities, including parts of the State fairgrounds. Then, in the last two days it rained non-stop. The rainfall was measured at between 10-17 inches in some areas. The hills and valleys of the bluff country to the southeast of the Twin Cities became the site of flash floods that have already killed several people, and devastated many towns. In some towns, evacuations meant that folks survived while their homes did not. Although flooding is not unknown in this area, this is the worst in many decades. Bluestem Prairie bloggers offer updates and eyewitness accounts of events from Winona, one of the flooded areas. This area now joins more southern parts of the Midwest and Texas that have been suffering record rainfall and severe flooding this year.

One couple took refuge on the roof of their house. The flood sheared it from the foundations and they were sent spinning through the town before the house came to rest and they could be rescued. I can't help but remember the tales of Katrina and the Gulf Coast. While this flood is much smaller in proportion, and the state's relief response will be swift, many of the folks who live in these towns will be faced with the loss of home and livelihood.

I know that the Caribbean islands hit by Hurricane Dean are suffering as well, and I am worried about my friends who are due to return from the Yucatan tomorrow on the day that Hurricane Dean will likely hit Cancun. Because they are people of good sense, I trust that they will do their best to remains safe, but it is quite likely that they will be caught up in some chaos. My heart is sore as well for the victims of the earthquake in Peru. I resist the evangelical history of the phrase "signs and wonders" but we ignore these messages at our peril.

Highlights from SYTYCD, 3

I'm so happy for Sabra. She deserves her win on SYTYCD. Daemon has great recaps with videos and links to the songs, if you want to go back and see any routines. But here's is the dancer that moved me the most: Danny Tidwell

Some of my favorite routines from the show this seasons:
Hok and Jaime in Wade Robson's Hummingbird and flower routine:

Sara and Pasha's West Coast swing, choreographed by Benji

Wade again, with Lacey and Sara as foxes. I love the music.

Highpoint Center for Printmaking

Art Camp! First stop, Highpoint Center for Printmaking. They have an exhibition coming up of young Mexican printmakers called Graphic Reality: Mexican Printmaking Today. This print, "La cucaracha, la cucaracha" is by artist Joel Rendon.

If I become a member, I can sign up for this special tour of the Latin American print collection at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts:

HP supporting members are invited to join HP’s Directors and our host Dennis Jon, Co-Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, for a special evening: we have reserved the Herschel V. Jones Print Study Room, now located on the first floor of the new Target Wing of the MIA, for the evening of Thursday, October 4. Dennis Jon will present works on paper from the MIA’s Latin American collection, including examples by Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros, Jose Posada, Rufino Tamayo, Jose Cuevas, Jose Orozco, Carlos Merida, and Francisco Mora. Following the event, we will re-converge at nearby restaurant Taco Morelos for refreshments and conversations!

I am excited about how many arts events related to Mexico there will be in the Twin Cities this fall, in addition to the major Frida Kahlo show that will open at the Walker Art Center in October.

My baby comes back today!

I have been immersed in the world of So You Think You Can Dance this week, my antidote to the sad news of the continuing recovery of bodies from the bridge collapse, the hell has been created by our our foreign policy in so many parts of the world, and the fact that I must return to physical therapy for continuing pain from rotator cuff impingement, this time on the right side.
I realize I've made a decision not to blog about most of the things that make me sad or angry right now, not because I don't care, but because I don't want this blog to take a lot of time and energy from my day when the pain levels from the fibromyalgia and muscle inflammation have my energy so limited. It is part of taking care of myself right now to ice my shoulder five times a day, rest a lot, avoid what stresses the inflamed area (like typing this!) and prepare myself mentally for the fact that my baby girl is coming home today from Spain, and we are all rejoicing!

Here's a poem she wrote for me for mother's day when, as usual, I told her I didn't care if she spent money on a present for me.


Love's the New Black:
using pennies to buy magic gems,
cling to her skirt like leeches,
and wait for the lines to dwindle
We all know that,
not just today,
the princess of Hallmark holidays,
does she deserve blueberry pancakes,
toast and coffee,
coffee and toast...
being for the benefit of affection,
she'll love the lilacs she said she didn't want.
"all of your love
is all that I need."
Smile.
As her eyes explode with sunshine.
Try your best,
your very best,
because all she deserves
is everything.

High speed internet? O RLY?

I had just written a lengthy and triumphant post about how the four hours I spent on the phone with three different tech support people had finally restored both my ethernet and my wireless connections, but I spoke to soon. Crash and the wireless network disappears. Not happy now.I can get back online by ethernet, and I can SEE my wireless connection, but I can't connect. Now I gotta go mess around with the configuration and settings crap again.

ETA: Fixed. Don't ask me why it worked, but it did.

The songs of summer

Every August in Portalrubio, the village celebrates its saints' day with a three-day fiesta. Everyone comes back from the cities (Barcelona, Teruel, Valencia, Zaragoza) where they've gone to live, and catches up. There is a chocolatada, card games, a paella feast, and three days of music and dancing all night in the plaza. The bands that play at these fiestas will play pasodobles for the older folks, and the latest pop dance craze that the tweenies have learned to dance to that summer. Some past hits (temas, tubos, hitazos) are Asereje de Las ketchup, Que la detengan by David Civera, Coup de boule (in honor of Zindane's head butt).
This year, a company called CTI (makers of an MP3 player) made an ad making fun of "el hitazo del verano" that you can't escape. The ad's song has beome a hit in its own right.


Here's a website Cuando calienta el sol that has links to all the hits of summers gone by, from 1960-1990, as entries into a memory archive of those years.

Rachel Raimist and the impact of B-Girl Be: A Celebration of Women in Hip-Hop

The fabulous Mary Lucia, DJ for MPR's radion station The Current, interviews the equally fabulous Rachel Raimist, filmmaker, scholar, photographer, writer, teacher, activist and all-around wonderful person. She directed the documentary film about women in hip-hop cultureNobody Knows My Name, and is editing a film that she describes as being about "incarcerated intelligence" made in collaboration with prisoners in Stillwater Prison.

You can listen to Rachel talk here about hip-hop as a cultural movement, the work of women and African-American women in film, her clear and sophisticated take on feminisms.

Rachel was an important participant in the group that convened the first B-Girl Be summit at Intermedia Arts in 2005. This summer the third B-Girl Be collaboration convened its third summit in June. The multimedia gallery show will be up until September. I'm going to check it out when my daughter gets back to town. Here's the description:

Welcome to the 3rd Annual B-Girl Be Summit:
A Celebration of Women in Hip-Hop

Building on the last two years’ wildly successful festival, Intermedia Arts is proud to present the third annual B-Girl Be: A Celebration of Women in Hip-Hop, a multimedia festival encompassing the four elements of hip-hop: MCing, DJing, breakdancing, graffiti—and more. The mission of B-Girl Be is to influence and inspire leadership to change the perceptions and roles of women in hip-hop for current and future generations. This annual event is a place to make connections, build confidence, sharpen skills and gain access to the tools to create music, film, poetry, rap, aerosol art and dance.

On June 28, 2007 B-Girl Be kicks off with the B-Girl Be Summit, a multidisciplinary summit that brings international, national and local girls and women in hip-hop together in Minneapolis for dialogues, art-making, screenings, performances, workshops and networking opportunities. This four-day summit (June 28-July 1) showcases women through live performances, fashion, films, videos, workshops and panels.

The summit features national and international guests aerosol artists Lady Pink (NYC), ZORI4 (Puerto Rico); spoken word artist Ursula Rucker (Philadelphia), lyricists Magia Emcee (Cuba), Sistaz in Rhyme (Stacy Epps, Invincible and Bahamadia), main stage host Medusa, (LA); DJ Shortee (LA) and DJ Pam the Funkstress (San Francisco); B-Girls AsiaOne (LA), Rokafella (NYC), Aruna (Holland), and Aiko (CA); keynote speaker Rosa Clemente (NYC); and photojournalist/historian Martha Cooper, who will all perform, present and engage in discussion ciphers and workshops alongside local Twin Cities artists.

The celebration continues throughout July and into August with The Art of T&A: Truth and Activism, an international visual art exhibition and a series of international film screenings. The Art of T&A: Truth and Activism is a multi-disciplinary, cutting edge exhibition that highlights the distinct aesthetics of hip-hop. The exhibit and film series feature the works of women who create new ways to visually represent themselves through hip-hop. These visual artists from all over the world paint on walls, wood, clothing, vinyl, canvas and metal. Female filmmakers direct, produce and edit their visual journeys. Inside Intermedia Arts’ main gallery, viewers can check out aerosol art, clothing, paintings, photographs, sculpture, and illustrations representing hip-hop inspired artwork from women around the world. The Art of T&A: Truth and Activism runs from June 21 ­ September 9, 2007.

Hip-hop scholar was interviewed by the Walker Art Center recently, and spoke of the impact that B-Girl Be has had in the hip-hop world:

Q:You've been praised for highlighting the non-celebrities of hip-hop, local organizers who are pushing for small-scale change in their own neighborhoods. Can you name one in the Twin Cities?

Chang: How can I stop at just one? I think the work of folks at Intermedia Arts and Juxtaposition Arts is amazing–they actually are creating global models. And although I haven’t been to the B-Girl-Be events, believe me I’m feeling the repercussions of their work everywhere I go on tour and the topic of gender and hip-hop cultural production comes up. I think the B-Girl-Be folks are creating a wave of inspiration all around the world, not just among girls and women, who finally get to be centered in the discussions and the cultural production, but among boys and men who now have a space to really express more of themselves.

(Emphasis mine).

I was fortunate enough to collaborate with Rachel on a few projects a couple of years ago, and I have so much respect for her and her accomplishments. I'm glad to see that she had the opportunity to share some of her knowledge on MPR.

Aggregation!

Just a year and a half ago, I had never heard of blogs. This summer I started to learn about social networking. As I'm discovering, he proliferation of on-line usernames and profiles in places like Flickr, YouTube, Netflix, Amazon, Television Without Pity discussion boards, allows us to not only view content or use services, but to create content and share tastes, ideas, etc. But managing all that data and all our profiles becomes cumbersome! Now I'm learning about social networking and identity aggregation.

Here's an example of someone who has been a creative force in this area: Rex Sorgatz, webmaster extraordinaire, futurist, internet analyst, former Minnesota resident, generator of the list of lists, MNSpeak co-founder, (interview with him here) is aggregating his own life over at fimoculous.com. Here's how he explains the name:

What is this? A fimoculous is a micro-organism that consumes its own waste for sustenance. Fimoculli are therefore a self-perpetuating ecology. A mono-parasite, a homo-symbiosis, Fimoculous.com devours the filth expunged on the mediascape. (Oh, and it aggregates my life.)

Here's how he talks about "self-aggregating":

Once you start thinking of your life as aggregation potential, you start to wonder about all kinds of possibilities. ("How dangerous would it be to expose my clickstream?") Although this isn't revoluationary thinking, I like the idea that this site updates even when I'm not explicitly creating content for it. When you start to think about your blog as a receptacle for capturing all parts of your online life (and perhaps even your non-digital life), you can start to imagine a constantly updating page of personal data. To get metaphysical for a moment, the self-aggregator becomes another version of you.

.

One of fimoculous' links today is a very comprehensive round-up of the various means of citizen documentation of the I-35 bridge collapse by a local blogger and internet analyst/marketer. It's a great example of how someone has pulled together in one place a series of links to the the various ways that users/citizens do more than consume content; they create and share, and interact in new an unexpected ways.

Jane Norling

When I go to San Francisco at the end of the month, I will go to see this show by Bay Area artist Jane Norling. I have seen her work as the cover art for a book by Margaret Randall, and she is the sister of a friend!

Knut the cute

OK, I won't say how much I paid the plumber, but I can now flush my toilet without a bucket AND I got a new faucet for the kitchen sink that works, including the sprayer fixture which I had not been using for the last 12 years because it was broken when I moved in. I feel so modern!

Blas and Rosemary went to Berlin earlier this summer, and among the sights they was was Knut the baby polar bear at the Berlin Zoo. I have now suscribed to the video podcast from the zoo's webpage because their films of the stages of Knut's growth are fascinating, and also because I used to know some German and it's fun to listen to the German newscasters say things the German equivalent of "Awww, cutie wootie Knutie bootie!"
Here's the Official Cute Knut song. Warning: cute overload may make your head explode.

Happy Birthday, bro-head!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BROTHER!
My brother is a many faceted person: an artist, a dad, a jokester, and someone who has always been in motion. He started skateboarding in San Francisco in the seventies when he was a kid, kind of like these guys: bombing down hills.

He and my sister also used to make the scene in Golden Gate Park on Sundays for the roller skating, still going on today:

When he lived in Manhattan in the early 80s, he still got around on his board:

Now that he lives near Chesapeake Bay, he has become a windsurfer:

Leo makes a lousy plumber

I had a great time while I was away. I came home to a running toilet and a kitchen sink with only a trickle of water. On the advice of the hardware store guy, I tried whacking the kitchen sink faucet with something to see if there was some sediment blocking it. Whaddaya know? It worked! Sort of. It's clear that I should replace the fixture because the sprayer that has never worked is screwing up the water flow, but I can get water out of it now.

In the spirit of DIY liberation, I also optimistically thought I could swap out the toilet flusher myself. Hey, how hard could it be? I got the kit and the hardware store guy showed me (with a model toilet they have set up in the store) what to do. Looked easy-peasy. But after removing two of the three nuts from the bolts so I can remove the tank (previously emptied, natch) I stumbled on the problem: the last nut is located in such a place that the only way to get access to it is to lie down in the very narrow space between the wall and the toilet bowl, in which case my arm is too long to turn the screw. Or I can kneel over the toilet, lay my head on the toilet seat,and embrace the part underneath the tank, attempting to feel what i"m doing as I work to loosen the nut. But my arms are just a little too short for this to really work. Unfortunately, I'm trying to do this with a pair of pliers, not a socket wrench, so I think I've ended up stripping the threads and the nut just turns but doesn't go anywhere.

I'm flushing with a bucket, and my fuzzy plumber's assistant hasn't been any help at all. I think I need to heed what Susan Miller's Astrologyzone horoscope says to Scorpios for the month:

"With Neptune in opposition to Saturn this month, you'd be wise to protect yourself against water damage as you move forward. Ask an expert to help protect you against all sorts of problems involving water and water damage. Also make sure you have a solid security system in place. There is no guarantee either will give you problems, but I do see these two areas as ones that could use some shoring up. Attend to these two points and you'll rest easy."

Plumbing expert? Moi?

Pawlenty's arrogant veto of transportation funding

This editorial appeared in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune in Februrary of this year (my emphasis added). It concerns how Rep. Gov. Tim Pawlenty was willing to let the state lose federal transportation funding by vetoing a bi-partison transportation bill because it included a very modest increase in the gas tax. Read it and weep.

Editorial: Oberstar to state: Raise the gas tax


Appearing in Minneapolis Star Tribune on 2007-02-25.

Congress will help on transportation if Minnesota steps up.

Jim Oberstar wants a partner. The new chairman of the House Transportation Committee (a title that makes Oberstar the nation's most powerful figure when it comes to planes, trains and automobiles) wants badly to give his home state the full benefit of his influence -- and the ample federal dollars that flow with it -- if only Minnesota will clasp his hand.

But it will not. At least not so far. Gov. Tim Pawlenty has made plain his disinterest in putting up the money needed to leverage federal dollars to begin solving Minnesota's long-brewing transportation crisis. Why? Because, as Oberstar pointed out to an overflow crowd at a joint transportation committee session in St. Paul last week, it would require raising the state's user fee on gasoline, a user fee that the governor prefers to spell "t-a-x." Thus, the discussion is ended and the partnership precluded.

Other states will be happy to take Minnesota's money, Oberstar said. Forty-five of them have raised their gasoline taxes since Minnesota last raised its in 1988, and many have committed local matches for building transit systems, making them more reliable partners than Minnesota. It's a point that business should especially understand: A partner who won't ante up isn't much of a partner. Asked if he had a message for the governor, Oberstar paused, then said politely: "Face up to the reality."

Indeed, Pawlenty's reluctance makes him look out-of-date considering the investments other Republican governors have made on several fronts in recent years. His no-new-taxes song has fallen to golden oldie status as attention shifts to the obvious need for basic investment, in this case, in transportation. Drive through almost any state and you'll ride on better roads. Visit any comparable metro area and you'll find a better and rapidly expanding transit system. Minnesota looks threadbare. It has been slow to grasp the economic peril of falling behind competitors, slow to feel the tragedy of unsafe rural roads, and slow to understand that the right kind of transportation investments are essential to meeting the challenges of climate change and energy independence. This is not just about metro traffic congestion.

On power plants, Pawlenty's shift toward renewable energy is laudable. But on transportation, he keeps pushing the problem to the future with more borrowing and more dreamy talk of a "mileage tax," all the while reciting the old line about people not wanting a gas tax hike. Well, no one wants a gas tax hike except when it's clear that that's the only way to get better roads. And now, thanks to Oberstar, it should be crystal clear. "Minnesota must step up," he said.

Raising the gas tax a nickel would yield $160 million a year and, with the federal match, leverage a total of $806 million more for highways. Applying an additional, similar-sized sales tax to gasoline would solve the transit problem. Asked about the declining value of the gas tax as drivers shift to more efficient cars, Oberstar offered the most sensible solution: raise the tax. Indeed, the best mileage tax is the gas tax because it encourages conservation, helps the environment, reduces foreign oil dependency and lays the foundation for a sustainable transportation system.

The Senate has the votes to override Pawlenty's promised veto of a meaningful transportation bill. House members of both parties must now find the courage to do likewise.

Donate to help out the kids rescued from the bridge collapse!

In reading about the people who died in the bridge accident, I noticed that family members and co-workers had set up accounts for donations to help out their families. I wondered if there was a fund to help out the kids who were on the bus because in the video I saw that some of them had injuries, many were clearly still frightened, and they are from families with very few resources. They were on a field trip as part of a program of the Waite House, a program supported by Pillsbury United Communities.

The young man who helped rescue them, Jeremy Hernandez, has had to drop out of school because he couldn't afford it.

I have discovered that there are two ways to make contributions to support the needs of these children and the Waite House program that serves them.

Please note that

* a number of the students on the bus are from families that are
undocumented and do not have any medical insurance. Pillsbury United Communities is taking up a collection:


Contributions can be sent
Waite House
c/o Pillsbury United Communities
1201 37th Avenue North
Minneapolis, Mn 55412

You can specific a certain % of the donation to pay for medical expenses,
and a certain % of Jeremy's scholarship if you prefer.


I have just discovered this message from one of my city council members, Gary Schiff that tells other methods of making donations to the fund:

A fund has been set up for children from the Waite House summer
program in Phillips who survived the 35W bridge collapse on
Wednesday, August 1st. All the occupants of the bus, which was
returning the youth from a field trip at a water park, reached safety
in the moments after the disaster.
Images of the bus resting against the bridges guardrail have become
a symbol of survival and heroism stemming from the tragedy. The fund
will support the students on the bus for what they need in the
process of recovery, including medical bills, Francisco Segovia,
director of Waite House said. Donations can be made online through at
www.puc-mn.org, click on donate and select the Waite House Bridge
Disaster Fund in the designation section. Donations are also being
accepted over the phone by calling toll free 888-642-3040 or by mail
to the Pillsbury United Communities, Development Office, 1201 37th
Avenue North, Minneapolis, MN 55412. Please specify the Waite House
Bridge Disaster Fund when mailing in donations.

A miraculous escape

The woman in this story, Djana Andic, was one of our majors and a co-worker in our department. She tells the story of her escape from one of the cars that plunged into the river when the bridge collapsed.

I'm so very grateful that she escaped with only bruises. Her experience was terrifying, but she is alive and well.

Rescue workers tell some of their stories. This man was riding his bike and was one of the first on the scene to help rescue people.

I think I"m not alone in feeling a kind of delayed shock. I've been thinking a lot about what happened in the earthquake of 1989 in San Francisco, where my family lives, and in New Orleans where the catastrophe was monumentally more dire. I'm also thinking of my experience in Spain of having passed through Madrid one day before the bombings of the train station in Atocha. I'm thinking of the victims of the plane crash in Brazil where inadequate airport facilities made such an accident a matter of time.

Every day in Iraq when a car bomb goes off and dozens, hundreds of people are murdered, the citizens of that country must experience the fear, horror and despair, compounded by the desperate lack of basic resources such as water,electricity, safety in the streets.

I believe that we will discover that budget constraints forced the state agency to spread out needed repairs to infrastructure in a way that contributed to the likelihood of such an accident. Some people wish that the "finger pointing" or political discussions would wait until all the victims have been identified, and I understand that desire. But we will need to understand how such a thing could happen, in spite of the fact that this state's agencies do a very good job in general, not commonly marked by corruption or incompetence.

The last budget cycle has been marked by acrimonious contention over the funding of transportation, with the governor and Republicans blocking bills that would have provided for more investment in roadways and public transportation, even losing out on matching available federal money in the process! I think that once the recovery work is done, we will see a set of hard-hitting reports on the fact that in the last six years Republicans have starved state and municipal agencies of all kinds in the name of "no new taxes."

We need some laughs

Anyone in need of a good laugh?

The bridge

Jeremy Hernandez, the Waite House youth worker who got sixty kids off the school bus, handing them down to other rescuers who got them off the bridge.

Thank you so much to the friends and family who've been in touch. I've felt the need to reach out as well. Considering the magnitude of the event, it is astounding to me how many people were rescued and helped in the very first minutes. Watching and listening to the coverage, reading blogs and comments, seeing pictures from eyewitnesses who live and work in the area, like blogger Noah Kunin all have made clear how many people, both professionals and those who just happened to be there, acted immediately to rescue and comfort people who were injured, confused, or trapped. Sharon over at Birdchick wrote an eloquent post that shows a before and after picture, and links to a flikr set of photos taken from a boat on the river close by.

I used to live a few blocks from the bridge when I first arrived in Minnesota, and didn't have a car. Walking or biking on the river road around and underneath this bridge towards downtown was something I did quite often, and in recent weeks I've been walking several times very near that area. I crossed that bridge on my way to work almost every day at least once for the last twelve years, mostly without paying attention, but quite often (because I moved here from California) I'd think to myself, "I'm crossing the MISSISSIPPI RIVER!!" a fact that never failed to delight me. I love the river, and although this was not a walking bridge, or a beautiful bridge, the bridges we cross every day in this town are an intimate part of our lives. I don't feel a reaction of fear, but a senes of sadness and loss.

This is a message I received from the Deans of my College at the University. It really expresses well one of the ways this event has affected me and many others I work with.

Words cannot express the sadness we feel with yesterday's collapse of the I-35W bridge. Many of us have been deeply shaken by the suddenness of this event. Bridges hold a special importance for us in CLA since we are located on both banks of the Mississippi, and the ease with which we are able to cross the river reinforces our sense of a unified collegiate community. The I-35W bridge was virtually in the University's back yard and traveling across it was a normal part of the day for many of us and for our family and friends. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those whose lives have been affected by this tragedy.

This disaster is a stark reminder of own mortality and the fragility of life. But such events also remind us of the human ties that bind each of us to our community and to each other. We witnessed spontaneous acts of bravery by the first responders in rescuing many of their fellow citizens, and we remain grateful for the extraordinary dedication of our emergency service workers in trying to save as many persons as possible.

We hope that this email finds you and your family, friends, and colleagues safe and well. If there is anything that the college can do to support you during this time, please let us know.

ETA: Noticiero en castellano:

some video clips

still photos:

Ana and I are safe

We both left campus right about the time that the I-35 bridge collapse happened into the river. On another day, we would have been on it, but she was on her bike and I almost never take the freeway home during rush hour, so although we were crossing the river about that time, neither of us was on the span of the bridge that fell into the river. Instead, we took the 10th Ave bridge that crosses the river just a little way to the east. I came home and turned on the TV to check on something else, and saw the news unfolding. I immediately called my mother to let her know I was OK. Then my brother called me from Maryland because he'd realized that the freeway is the one that goes by the University.

Right now, the news is trickling in, rescue workers are on the scene. Boats and divers are in the water trying to find the vehicles that went into the water--maybe up to 50.

A few eyewitnesses are telling what they saw. A University colleague heard the noise and saw the whole thing from his fifth floor office on the West Bank of the U of MN campus. It looks as if there was some structural damage, some stress fractures in the steel structure.

A storm is moving in--I can hear the thunder. We badly need the rain because of the drought, but it is going to make rescue efforts more complicated.

Back in the USA

This one is for my favorite pug-lover, from her momo. Mwah!


And here, courtesy of Non-Birding Bill from Birdchick.com, is a rabbit named Momo! I have to say that the song is one of those old This-is-your-life tracks, because when our high school class went to Disneyland overnight (it only cost something like $19 to fly from SF to LA back then) one of the acts was Olivia Newton-John, who appeared on stage by rising up through a stage trapdoor singing this song. Also, catch the credits with Led Zeppelin.