Category: living by the sword

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The Unrest of Revolucion

Deadly Riots Dispatch

U.S. State Department Orders Families Of Staff Out Of Nicaragua

“At Least 24 Dead…” ~ NPR

The words below are a reprint from the 4/23/18 Facebook post of American expat Tim “McSheep” Bolen in Nicaragua:

5 days Protesting were not in vain!
Please share, repost and comment! Sometimes history needs an active audience.

I wrote a post earlier but think I accidentally deleted it so here’s a rewrite.

(Updated and revised as of 4:45 p.m. my time.)

The protested changes to pensions and income have been repealed! But the 30+ lives that were lost and ongoing damage to property will remain. Right now in Managua, Nicaragua’s capital, electricity is in and out and water has been cut off. It’s been days since three of the country’s independent news outlets have been cut off the air and silenced, as the other Sandinista stations continue. As of two days ago the military was deployed to Managua and to other cities. In Leon whole city streets have been burnt, there and in Masaya and the capitol, rock roads have been taken apart and formed into barricades to protect neighborhoods and are being patrolled by citizens. Police, military and Sandinista agents have been looting supermarkets all over the country. Now citizens are protecting the gates of the markets and retrieving stolen goods, though all blame is being put on protesters. Remaining open markets are expected to close if discord continues. As of this morning many gas stations have been closed and the one in town is empty (but it is said to have some more this afternoon).

The president, after talking to business leaders, has repealed the issue that started these protests. But since that time so many people here have other issues to handle with the ruling “party”. Once police had locked students in universities and shot in them and also at churches a wave of disgust and anger has echoed through the community.

I put out my best intentions for this conflict to be over soon. Though some people think that revolution or civil war may be on the horizon. I put my best in tensions out to people here, in Syria and all over the world, for peace. So many kind people all over the world trying to just live a decent life and provide for their families are being destroyed by the bad decisions and greed of the wealthy few.

The USA Today update on unrest is HERE. The Independent UK story is HERE. ~Editor

Photo below from nbcnews.com.


Nicaragua students pension protest.
Nicaragua students pension protest.

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review: Club Decades

[You Can Dance]

Stripclub Goth


by Reviewer Rob

This location has history which for San Diego as a navy town that was developed after the big war is rare. A Portuguese immigrant war vet prize boxer, the late Horatio Vella, built it as a touring band venue dance/night spot (not a strip club) called The Green Onion in the mid 1960’s and later sold it to the Dirty Dan’s strip club chain in the 1980’s when it was time for him to retire and amazingly it’s still operating. Bryan Pollard, a local promoter, is doing another club night in the back room there now (which in the 1970’s was where the pool tables were) for the college students and goth denizens every Thursday night. It’s called Decades for the 1980’s and 90’s era of music it has. Also he does a fetish/bdsm-themed industrial music night that’s thrown on, I think, the second Friday each month. You can call the club for more details. Back to the review. It was dismally slow last night. In the goth club one couple danced to the dj. After paying the doorman $5 and entering I greeted Bryan who was on the couch in the back of the club and got an update on his health woes. I then passed through the glass doors into the strip club for a drink and maybe less than half a dozen dancers we’re working the crowd of as many patrons. One dark haired dancer was on stage doing something and no one was at the rail.

Fine, no big deal. I sat at the west end of the curved bar and a pretty big-boobed dancer and wide hips who said her name was Natasha immediately came over and sat next to me, telling me it was her first night working there. I tried telling her right away that I just got there and wanted to chill but she said the same. I liked her looks okay. I’ll credit her with being very sweet, not pushy, not asking for money, talking for a while, listening to me, and not ever taking me to on my offer go buy her a drink. Plus her face was 9 or a 10, long blonde hair with serious nice big boobs. Large butt though, but hey. Afterward I talked to the Bryan promoter in back sitting alone in his goth club and heard his story for a while before leaving. I’ve seen him around this town forever, as he’s one of only two industrial club promoters in San Diego. I’ll see if this club’s better on the bdsm night later this month. Hopefully it and the strip club will have more action happening.

One can hope.

Club Decades flyer, Sn Diego, CA.
Club Decades flyer, Sn Diego, CA.
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2018 plans

[Print Lives On]

Happy New Year

We survived, but 2017 sure sucked didn’t it.

by Reviewer Rob

I should probably address this first — happy new year, by the way — before I get into any explanations. I recognize that especially after 2016, 2017 was a tumultuous year for many people, MOST people, probably. Stories in the news, and I won’t get into the list of them, floored everyone. Things happening in Washington D.C. that filtered down into the cultural ethos have been enough to make the most optimistic among us consider moving into a cabin in the woods.

In 2017 I wrote a blog post announcing the demise of Reviewer’s print version. That was impulsive and unwise. At the time it seemed like maybe an appropriate time for a big change like that. I had and have other ideas for print I could implement (it’s all about, you can guess it, the money) and I was planning to relocate to a different city (San Diego’s gotten really expensive to rent in if you haven’t noticed), perhaps move to a different region altogether. I was looking for a fresh start. But now I know after thoughtful reflection that I can’t abandon Reviewer Magazine like that. I have too much investment in the idea of The First Amendment to let these recent social shifts unmoor Reviewer as a print venue, even ones as cataclysmic as what have happened in the last year or even ten years.

So let me put that to rest right now. I’ve changed my mind. I can’t abandon this baby. Reviewer Magazine is NOT dead as a printed publication. It’s just taking a vacation.

When I announced it would cease printing but stay online as a blog I was juggling many conflicting plans and intentions and the magazine had been going consistently for 20 years and had printed 50 issues, and those seemed like nice round numbers at which to stop and make a change of direction. I had started the “review” format back in the mid-1990’s before sites that crowd-sourced reviews of everything from music and movies to your local plumber became common and the concept appeared revolutionary in its simplicity. I wanted to print a newer type of magazine after publishing 50 issues, delve into other types of print publishing. But I can still do that. I just don’t want to drop off Reviewer Magazine at the orphanage.

When I started Reviewer in 1996 it was on a small light board in my second floor one-room Pacific Beach studio apartment where I would layout the Bristol paper pages with scotch tape and shrunken typewriter copy I’d xerox late at night at the Garnet Avenue Kinko’s. It was in black and white and I didn’t know that photos had to be half-toned. The printer had to inform me of things like that. Issue one was printed at 10,000 copies and was as much of a thrill as I could imagine. Contributing to the community Zeitgeist via print is a feeling of fulfillment that comes from knowing you’re doing what you’re meant to do.

Everything journalism-related is a review anyway, be it feature, news, or opinion. “This is what we know now, this is what we don’t know yet” — it’s a structure that meshes well with the ‘who-what-where-when-why-and-how’ upside-down pyramid of the basic news story.

But although digital print production has grown considerably easier than cut-and-paste layout, the computer revolution changed the newspaper and magazine advertising economy in ways that many saw coming but few were willing to accept in the early days of the late-twentieth century. Oh, there’s still a market for print. It’s just a downsized shadow of its former self. If you can accept that and move ahead of it then you can still do the job and be happy. I choose to be happy.

So getting back to the point: Look for another print issue from Reviewer Magazine relatively soon in 2018. When exactly I’m not sure. But if you’d like a deal on an ad let me know. 🙂

~RR

Another year has gone and a new one has arrived. But it's hard to find anyone who is sad to see the sun set on 2017.
Another year has gone and a new one has arrived. But it’s hard to find anyone who is sad to see the sun set on 2017.
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Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, signed by author Dr. Kary Mullis, for sale: $195, three-item bundle

[Rare Books]

Dr. Kary B. Mullis, Nobel Prize Winner

 

4sale: $195. Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, 1998. This is a signed and dated first edition with mylar wrap on fine dust-cover and is to be sold bundled with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing an interview with the author that preceded the issue of the book by several years. Other ephemera includes the book’s press release from Pantheon. This is a review copy that was annotated and highlighted in various places throughout by the reviewer.

by Reviewer Rob

I should say this is a review copy that was used for a book review in Reviewer Magazine, first of all, and that I was the reviewer who received this book by Random House/Pantheon in 1998. The interview and article in Celebrity Magazine which preceded the book’s release from 1994 were also written and photographed by me. So all the notes and highlights in the book are mine, full disclosure. It’s not an “immaculate” copy, but other than the annotations it’s in very good if not “fine” condition. I enjoyed reading it only once and then shelved it for almost twenty years until now when I brought it out for sale. I think I covered Dancing Naked In The Mind Field in either issue 9 or 10 of Reviewer, I’m not sure, I’ll have to go back and look.

This bundle includes the signed first edition with the dustcover wrapped in clear plastic, the copy of Celebrity Magazine, and the original press release from Pantheon who released the book.

I’m selling all together for $195.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.

Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with dustcover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.

Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with dustcover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with dustcover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.