Bluoz

why, out the window, of course, just like everything else at Tenderloin Housing Clinic. And you get to pay 24 million a year for the privilege, San Francisco, of having this dropped on your head, because it goes out onto the sidewalk as well

You don't think Randy Shaw and Paul Hogarth actually cares about public safety, do you?

An American tradition

set to open officially at 4pm today, part of Market street near 4th becomes a Ride Away textured 10MPH bike lane

SEIU staged a protest tonight in the middle of Market Street at 9th. At least part of it, according to the news, was parking control officers expecting layoffs and wage reductions in expected upcoming budget cuts

"shame on the mayor" was one of the chants

Heron's Head Park, San Francisco

David and Linda LaFlamme, from the San Francisco band It's A Beautiful Day, October 25, 2009, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

7.david.laflamme.westfest.2009b.mp3



above photos - davegolden, flickr







more photos and a song by IABD

mid market, near 4th. Kind of hard to tell, but all the street lights are out on Market between 3rd and 7th

"And if you want to delight in the existence of a wild parrot flock, then the wild parrots must be left to their own devices. Let's keep them wild. Let's keep them free." - Mark Bittner, of The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill

Some of the following photos show people feeding the famous parrots down on the Embarcadero. This is now illegal and helped passed by Supervisor Aaron Peskin a few years ago. It was made illegal with the help of Bittner and for good reason. Some of the parrots have already been kidnapped because of this. The parrots, just like any of the wild birds in San Francisco, do not need anyones help to get food. The parrots like olive trees which are all over the city

Here is a very important read by Bittner himself on the subject

At the meeting of the full Board of Supervisors the vote was 10-1 in favor of the ordinance to ban the feeding. The only vote against was by Supervisor Ed Jew, who, oddly, had voted in favor of the ordinance at the initial hearing of his own subcommittee. San Francisco law requires that the Board of Supervisors vote twice on these things. In between the two votes the feeders mounted an intense lobbying campaign with petitions, letters, emails, phone calls, and videos on YouTube - videos that revealed the location of the feedings, something that they had previously acknowledged would be a bad move. Despite their efforts, the second vote was identical, 10-1.

I personally have no problem taking photos of the parrots when they're in the wild, up in the trees., like I did before on Russian Hill

I happened upon the scene today by complete accident and revealing the location might be a bad idea, but it also might be good, as it shows how and when and who the current feeders are as of November 18, 2009. It's a very tricky situation because if there are people around who can stop it, and stop any possible kidnappings, then it's good.

But in any case, I agree with Bittner, it should be stopped, so if anybody is down there and sees this, let them know. I didn't know until I looked it up later. It's not just pigeons, but ANY wild birds in San Francisco, DO NOT FEED in public parks. Only in certain designated areas is this allowed, per the Department of Public Health

when I came upon the scene, they were first up in the trees, munching on on olives









then, all of a sudden they flew across the street and it was like this







On second thought, this is not good. Feeding them is not helping them at all, and in fact, makes them vulnerable to kidnapping and to hawks, which have already been preying on pigeons for years as a direct result of feeding. Hawks also prey on parrots too

this entire episode lasted for maybe 5 minutes, then the feeders went away. I don't know if they're regulars or what

view from the 18th floor, 555 Mission

Self described 'progressive' Randy Shaw wages more war in Beyondchron's latest piece, SEIU Wages War on Progressives.

Most of the war started after Randy Shaw began experiencing his own problems after his Tenderloin Housing Clinic joined the union. Shaw, being an attorney, might recognize the legal term unclean hands regarding this story

We here at Bluoz are betting the farm that you will not see a disclaimer from Shaw in Beyondchron, nor will you see anything like the below comments that were posted on Indybay yesterday

Randy Shaw needs to add a disclaimer in all his "labor" writings
by Rank and File SEIU
Tuesday Nov 17th, 2009 9:28 AM
This author needs to put up a disclaimer on all his articles about SEIU: He is a Boss at the Tenderloin Housing Clinic (THC) where the workers are under SEIU 1021. In fact, he is a progressive boss, every year he gets worse and targets the workers at the THC.


§SEIU1021 and Randy Shaw
by THC employee
Tuesday Nov 17th, 2009 9:42 AM
When will the Labor dispute with Shop Steward Nate Holmes and Tenderloin Housing Clinic be resolved? It has been over 1 year since Nate was fired and yet this matter is not settle. I am an employee at Tenderloin Housing Clinic and even our union here fails to even keep workers informed as to what is happening with Nate's case. This does not speak good for our union nor does it speak well for Shaw. Shaw had his Human Resources Director send out a memo stating that if we would have any dealing with Nate we would be disciplined and several months later the Human Resources lady is no longer at THC. Our union still just let serious violation of workers rights go unnoticed. Randy Shaw is a big hypocrite but no here does anything for fear of retaliation.


§1021 Union Representation and Nate Holmes
by Rank-And-File member
Tuesday Nov 17th, 2009 3:02 PM
The new bylaws for SEIU 1021 allow for the grievances to go through rank and file Members. We've been stuck in a set of bylaws where Union Staff get to decide (competently or incompetently) how to handle a lot of our Union grievances and terminations.

Nate Holmes's case is well-known in SEIU 1021. The Union staff dropped the ball. I would like to say the staff was incompetent and missed the deadline. However, Nate Holmes was under attack from Randy Shaw's deranged mind (he doesn't like being criticized for being a Boss asshole "Progressive") and threatened with being fired on a similar incident one year earlier. Back then, Union 1021 staff made a backdoor deal with Shaw when the THC members made a lot of noise and were fighting back. That was when Shaw was buddies buddies with Andy Stern.

Right around the time that UHW was trusteed and NUHW formed is when Nate Holmes' case should've been processed for arbitration. Maybe Randy benefitted one last time from his old connection to SEIU because he is now enemies of the upper white men echelons of SEIU now that he is more buddies with the white men upper echelons of NUHW.

No excuse for SEIU 1021 dropping Nate's case. It's a fucking shame. But that's how bad trusteeship is with Andy Stern-appointed leadership (Damita Davis, etc.). No accountability to the members.

As a rank-and-file member of 1021, I look forward to having officer elections in the next few months and getting rid of the people who haven't served us. Bring back the power to the members!


§Amazing
by John Reimann
Tuesday Nov 17th, 2009 6:01 PM
What is most amazing is that Shaw can continue to parade as a "friend of labor". With friends like these, who needs enemies?

this video shows food donated by Safeway, Trader Joes, and others for the purpose of feeding the homeless literally being thrown out the window for the birds, minutes after it was donated



stay tuned for far more dangerous items thrown out the window

Last Thursday the San Francisco Board of Supervisors responded to the San Francisco Civil Grand jury report called Non Profits, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Nate Holmes and Kate Walker spoke at the Board of Supervisors about Tenderloin Housing Clinic and the need for oversight following the San Francisco Civil Grand Jury report on homelessness. Nate Holmes tells the Board of Supervisors about how Tenderloin Housing Clinic, the largest homeless contractor for the city of San Francisco, intimidates and threatens workers, Kate Walker follows during the public comments and mentions websites that document all kinds of problems that aren't being solved for the homeless with Tenderloin Housing Clinic. She also mentions the case of the beating of former employees, which is now scheduled for trial next Monday



This video is only a 4 minute clip from the 4 hour Government Audit and Oversight Committee. The whole committee video can be found here (November 12, 2009). The Board of Supervisors response and recommendations can be found here and below


sf.grand.jury.non.profit.sup.response -

The song is Little Hands by Alexander 'Skip' Spence of San Francisco's own Moby Grape and the Jefferson Airplane. The musicians are featured this week in Becks Record Club. The original version is on the 1969 album Oar, one of the most notorious solo albums ever made

Record Club: Skip Spence "Little Hands" from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

the original members of Moby Grape and the Doobie Brothers came together to perform another song by Skip Spence, never actually recorded on any album called Dark Magic at his memorial a few years ago in Santa Cruz. The memorial concert was recorded by only 5 people, including myself here at Bluoz and never was released to the public. It still has to get approval by Skip Spence's son, Omar Spence, (and Skips estate administrator, hats off to the mighty LQ...hehe) to release all the tapes to the public, but the one song, Dark Magic, was released earlier here on this blog as It Crawled From the Vault #10 The entire memorial concert was recorded at the Brookdale Lodge in 1999, just after Skippy died

now you know some of, theeee rest of the story


Don't ever tell me that younger musicians don't appreciate the previous generation (their forefathers music, grandpas music)


They certainly do...yes indeed

this happens once a year in the Bay Area and is sad to see and so easily prevented with accurate information

Chronicle story, Mercury News, Stockton Record

(11-12) 17:23 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- Three members of a Lodi family who ate so-called death cap mushrooms are hospitalized in intensive care in San Francisco, officials said Thursday.

The mushrooms, formally known as Amanita phalloides, are among the world's most lethal. They are starting to sprout in the Bay Area because of the recent rains, presenting a particular risk to immigrants who mistake them for harmless varieties found in their native countries. Even experienced mushroom gatherers have been fooled into believing death caps to be edible.

NBC4 news also did a story, however, they royally messed up by posting a photo not of the deadly Amanita phalloides, but of the most famous magic mushroom in the world, the sub tropical Psilocybe cubensis, which doesn't grow in the Bay Area unless it's indoors in a terrarium. Somebody at Channel 4 NBC is trippin hard on shrooms, man. Intentional or not, it's extremely irresponsible to post the wrong photo, replacing a deadly one with a non deadly one, and could result in future poisonings (the chronicle posted the correct photo, also an AP photo) (NBC Bay Area has since changed the photo. The story itself is just a repost from January 6th, made to look like a current story. The current story is in the Chronicle)



This is the real mushroom the Lodi family ate, available from the Mycological Society of San Francisco website, Amanita phalloides, the death cap



The Chronicle also had some errors, although the photo was correct. See the comment section



a poster made by the North American Mycological Society can be ordered for free for educational purposes. This poster includes warnings in Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Cambodian, Laotian, Vietnamese, and Thai. Incidents of mushroom poisoning have been notable in people speaking these languages, newly arrived in North America.



and finally, here's your NBC Bay Area K-Mart school of journalism key to toxic fungi, duuuude

Only two days left in the festival. click photo for more