I hate to write letters like this.

But I'll do it. And I'll put it on the blog.


6 August 2010



Target National Bank
PO Box 59317
Minneapolis, MN 55459-0317


Dear Sir or Madam,

Re: Target VISA 4352 XXXX XXXX XXXX

In light of the recent news reports that Target executives have donated upwards of $4000 to political groups opposed to same-sex marriage in my state, I have decided to close my Target account and not shop at your store anymore. I am deeply offended that Target’s leaders support amending my state’s constitution to deprive me and my spouse of the legal rights we deserve, and have worked hard to attain.

I take it for granted that today’s retailers make financial decisions while in possession of considerable personal information about their customers. It is only fair that customers do the same.

I have attached my destroyed credit card. Please close the account immediately.


Sincerely,


[redacted for web publication]


cc. Gregg Steinhafel, Target CEO

May in the garden of my guru

No garden has excited or inspired me more than my friend Emma's garden in Menlo Park, a natural ecology unto itself full of visual sensual interest--color, fragrance, and sound (a yellow jacket's strange, loud clicking noises interrupted our conversation today; a pair of spotted towhees fluttering through were a second distraction in a five minute period).

The example of this garden, with its wide-ranging interest in plants, has empowered me to explore the limits of my space and experiment freely in ways that many garden advice-givers would reject. I'm so glad I've ignored so much advice!

At this point, I feel strongly that gardens should strive to be more than just beautiful, they should be interesting. Beauty has been exhaustively hashed out. I'm exhausted with beauty. The next time I hear about structure, foliage, contrast and repetition I'm going to scream (because I'm tired of yawning). Wake me up when someone wants to talk about making the garden a more interesting place to be.

***

Okaaay...rant over. Pictures now!










































































ADDED: In the comments, Pam asks: "But, at the risk of a scream, don't 'structure, foliage, contrast' contribute to that goal? If not, what does make an interesting garden?"

And I replied, Certainly those things contribute, but they are not the only contributors, and those are not sufficient qualities to make the garden interesting. And the conversation is ALWAYS about how the garden is beautiful. How to make the garden function and still be BEAUTIFUL. I'm sorry, so many of these beautiful gardens bore me to tears. Tell me why the garden is interesting, not beautiful.

After all, I can decide for myself if a garden is beautiful.

"The mural means a great deal to me"

Until very recently there was a 200-foot-long mural on my street. The painting depicted people enjoying our neighborhood's most notable geographical feature, Bernal Hill. You've been to Bernal Hill many times on this blog, and portions of the mural have appeared here as well. An example:



Well, the mural is gone. Where there was once a large piece of public art, now there is a blank wall as far as the eye can see. This happened a week or two ago, without notice. I was shocked to find the mural suddenly gone.



This notice appeared sometime after the mural was painted over. I saw it for the first time today.



My first reaction? Please don't paint murals if you're a control freak. Find another outlet. Murals fade in the course of time. That can't be a surprise to anyone, least of all a muralist.

I appreciate the need to maintain public art. And the mural needed some repair for sure. But it was nowhere near blight. There are faded, cracked murals all over San Francisco. Are they blight? I don't think of them that way.

And what about this idea that an artist "should have the right to protect the integrity of his/her work". I don't know anything about the legal status of the mural or the artist's right to possess it. This wasn't a copyright issue. Morally speaking, when you give something, don't you give up some interest in it? Does art deserve an exception? All art? I'm not even addressing whether "should have" and "does have" are equivalent.

This is all very recent and I haven't thought about it much. But right now I want to say thank you but no thank you to future art from this artist. Please don't make gifts to the community that you might decide to take back one day when you deem it necessary. Or at least give notice in the mural that it only exists at the artist's discretion. Then maybe I won't grow so attached next time.

I am very interested in your comments on this issue. If you have any, please weigh in.

The 32% UC fee hike

The Regents of the University of California voted to raise tuition fees 32%. Formally, UC says California residents pay no tuition for a UC education but that's a load of crap.

There are protests of course.

"The noise of protesters came through the window as the regents voted. It was only lightly discussed, with UC President Mark G. Yudof urging that students explore all the financial-aid possibilities so they don’t get scared away or drop out."

Another load of crap. President Yudof is telling students to borrow money to pay for their education. And why not, that's what California does to pay for everything--borrow money. Heaven forbid anything be paid for out of general revenues. Better to pass a bond measure instead.

UC does a terrible job explaining the reality of borrowing money to college students. Yeah, you borrow $40k (minimum!), but you pay back so much more. Students financing a four-year degree on loans will be paying those loans back well into middle age. Down payment for a house? Forget about it.

And as a UC alumnus myself I hate to say this, but the quality of a UC education is not so great. Really, it's a lot of political propaganda. It may seem vital when you're young but it's not very useful beyond your 20s.

Community college instructors are better teachers, hands down. Unless you're getting a degree in the hard sciences, I see no reason to attend any UC. You can get an equivalent or better education in the liberal arts from a school in the state university system.

Which is not to say that this whole thing doesn't suck. It does. It especially sucks for students half-way through. They talk about having to go to a community college.

"Mark Villela, a junior at UCLA, also said he would probably have to drop out of school and attend community college in his hometown of Palmdale."

Honey, you're junior. There is nothing left for you to take at a two-year community college. Get a part-time job and transfer to State.

November 15 anti-Prop 8 demonstration

I really don't like to talk about politics on this blog; that's not what I want to do here at all. But I also don't want to re-read my blog at some future date and find that I was mostly silent about larger events going on in the world that mattered to me.

There will be a nationwide political demonstration this Saturday to protest the outcome of Proposition 8 in California, and I'm going to attend.

I'm not going to bash Mormons or Catholics or Blacks or any other group of people. I understand that Americans have different opinions on the subject of same-sex marriage, and I respect that. At the same time, this is my life. I just got married and that means a great deal to me. I'm not about to let 52% of California knock it down without a fight.



ADDED: The rally, here.