Parks in Profile: Stern Grove
It's been a month since I last posted and for that I apologize. The pace of my life has picked up considerably in many areas. April was also a month of travel, ill health and astrological angst. Things happen so fast now; I don't whether it means I'm living a full life in rapid San Francisco or if all of our countrymen are being thrashed about on this wild ride in the spring of 2014 in the U.S.A. or at least feeling like they are being thrashed about. A week ago, I picked up a fascinating page-turner at Aardvark Books called Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now (New York: Penguin, 2013) by Douglas Rushkoff. It's about the collapse of narrative since the year 2000 and how art, literature, media and politics has moved far away from personality and emotions and biography to a more austere, scientific take on how systems work. It's a rather heady read. For instance, Rushkoff delves into explanations for pop-culture t.v. series like the wild