Sad

Sad.

I was not having "better days" until I was kicked out of a mosque.

I was having the best while teaching Arabic translation of the Koran with some girls.

The stupid Christians knew no diplomacy and will get it closed again.

I am not happy.

So sad....really darn sad.

Like if my tears were blue, purple then black, I would be a model crying ink that spatters
blots on the page...maybe like a Japanese cherry blossom tree.

I seem to like cherry blossom trees. My sister wanted to go to the cherry blossom festival in D.C. May still work out in the future.

Tears of ink speak of a lot of sad things this year.

Stern

Harold had a wife who was great and so did Fred.

I am a great wife who will have a husband who is my equal not my superior.

I am equal to any man.

Macy's

Macy's bought out Hart.

Fleurs

Merci beaucoup!

Thanks for the people who have given me some time in the sun.

I have been in the shade for decades.

Some advice for other flowers or bees:

If I am in a vase, cut by suffering and choices of good.

I want to be planted where I can bloom continuously.

I want to have another flower strong and weak,
to mature with,

or to meet Jesus with face to face as best friends.

Harts and Sterns were both kidnapped.

The Retail Tradition
Early Jewish immigrants staked their claims downtown
By Cecily Barnes

A sign by the railroad tracks is all that remains of the once mighty Hart's retailing empire. Photo by Christopher Gardner.
'Those who were more prosperous stayed in San Francisco because, to expand their businesses, they needed access to the ports," recalls San Jose Jewish historian Steve Kinsey. "The Jews that came here came for different reasons. It was a totally different environment that didn't lend itself to contribution. You wouldn't have found the kind of culture here that was in San Francisco. We just didn't have those types of things."
Instead of building museums, libraries, schools and opera houses, San Jose's earliest Jews constructed a simple and sturdy business community. Market and Santa Clara Street became lined with Jewish merchants, all of whom knew each another from business and the temple.
Hyman Rich, Bickur Cholim's first rabbi, ran a clothing shop with his friend Max Blumenthal. Up the way on Market Street, the tailor shop was owned by Hyman's brother, Jacob Rich, and his friend, Hyman Levy. Down two streets on the corner of Santa Clara and San Pedro, Lazard Lion ran his general merchandise store. Lion later acquired the San Jose Glove Factory, opened a carpet shop across from the Music Hall building on Knox Block and directed the Commercial and Savings Bank on First and Santa Clara. He, too, had a relative working up the street, his half-brother Leopold Hart, who owned a drugstore that later became Hart's Department Store. Mayer and Jacob Levy set up the Levy Brothers on First and Santa Clara streets. Jacob Atlas started Atlas Auto Wreckers, the South Bay's first automobile dismantling business. The Fox family started the recyclery, Markovits and Fox. Marcus Stern ran his saddle shop downtown. Out of all these businesses, only Stern's, Markovitz and Fox and Atlas Auto Wrecking remain.

Photo by Dan Pulcrano.
Hart's Department Store left downtown for the Westgate shopping center in the late 1960s. "Retail went where the customers were," 77-year-old Alex Hart Jr. says. It was later bought out by a regional chain and closed in 1982. Hart remains convinced that had Macy's selected downtown over Valley Fair, downtown "would have remained a wonderful, viable, important shopping district." He debunks rumors that merchants didn't want competition and attributes the loss of Macy's to the store's failure to reach agreement with a landowner over the amount of rental payments on a lease.
Directly across from Millers Outpost in the Oakridge Mall, Stern's luggage shop looks like any other chain retail establishment except that in the cluttered back office, framed photos of Marcus, Fred, Harold and Howard trace the store's legacy back to 1854. Clayton Stern, whose picture hasn't been mounted yet, will take control of the store when his mother, Gloria, retires. He will be the fifth-generation Stern to run what is the oldest family business in Silicon Valley.
Marcus Stern moved to San Jose in 1852 and founded his business two years later. When his son Fred took over the leather shop, it was with little passion--Fred was more enamored with politics and Judaism. Besides being extremely active with Bickur Cholim, Fred Stern served on the City Council and county Board of Supervisors, says his great-granddaughter-in-law, Gloria Stern. Fred's son Harold, however, was all business. Quiet and focused, he had a distaste for both politics and religion. He would chastise his father for being too involved with politics, and when he inherited the business, a ledger of unpaid debts came with it.
"People would come into the store, and Fred would just write down their name and tell them to pay later. But he wouldn't always know who they were, so he would write things like, 'the man in the gray hat,' " says Gloria Stern, who married Harold's son, Howard. "When he died, there were all sorts of debts, and they didn't know who to collect them from."
When Gloria's husband took over the business, he could juggle both the shop and an interest in community service and politics. Gloria and Howard's son Clay, Gloria tells, is solid business--just like his Grandpa Harold.
"Sometimes we still have people come in and say, 'Oh we remember your store on First Street,' or tell us they knew Harold," Gloria says. "But it happens less and less now. Most of the time they don't leave their name. Sometimes they'll just talk to one of the girls out front, who don't know much about the history."

I joined the temple again and restored my family line. The Sterns are back in San Francisco.
. The Retail Tradition . Pioneer Meyer Bloom >
From the March 12-18, 1998 issue of Metro, Silicon Valley's Weekly Newspaper.

I met you and are lives were rebuilt for two

I wanted to sing at The Met alone.

Now I want to rest in the hand of a friend of my own.

Caitlin Berrigan

I cried so hard when I found Caitlin Berrigan.

I saw her when she was 14 years old. She was so sweet, innocent and beautiful.

I was her Jr. high camp counselor at Railroad camp.

I slept in a barn with her best friend, Meredith and another girl who was a foster child.

I took the week off from work at a developmentally disabled, deaf adult group home that
I was the main couselor at.

I begged the owner for the week off and prayed the whole week for these girls.

I gave them Bibles, jewelry, and promise books.

I knew it was my privelege to share Christ with them.

I know they all are geniuses.

I know the girl who was a foster child never wrote me, maybe she felt like she had too many
problems.

I feel like that, now.

I asked Caitlin and Meredith to write me and they did. I didn't write Caitlin back and I think I wrote Meredith. If the other girl wrote, I am sorry I neve wrtoe her back. My mail was disorganized and it sometimes takes me a literal decade to get back to people.

Caitlin's brilliant and ingenious, website:

MIT VISUAL ARTS PROGRAM work and research caitlin berrigan
(E) Tisch School of the Arts Photography & Imaging Faculty & Staff Show, New York, NY ... 55th annual Berlinale International Film Festival, Berlin, Germany ... Caitlin Berrigan. “The Smelling Committee,” Glowlab, September/October 2006 ...web.mit.edu/.../workandresearch/workgrad/work_berrigan_exhibit.html - Cached - Similar -

Please support her art as it is a cutting edge career we need to have in our world.

Green Day

Gabe an editor in my hometown, invited Green Day to my high school.

Gabe was a Zine editor and used to show me them as we walked to the bus stop.

He accompanied me on guitar as we sang, Joan Baez and I thought I was off key because
we didn't use a chord sheet and just jammed.

I didn't know how to use a monitor and couldn't hear myself.

I loved "Heaven Help Us All" and sang it often.

I danced on stage in a short skirt twice with Gabe.

First listening to Primus,Violent Femmes? at the Phoenix with Erik Tokle who drove too fast in a sportscar and there was some
front row toking involved.

I never did drugs, just hope.

Green Day gave me hope.

They sang at a twang star high school for cholos, special ed, severely disabled
children and some drama students, that afternoon. Their video shows me dancing.

I hope they release the video.

I just never saw it.

I love you, Herr Meline.

I love my MtV.

In less than a month, Green Day's 2004 punk opus American Idiot will come to life onstage as a bona fide musical at California's Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Idiot's creative team includes Michael Mayer, the Tony award-winning director of Spring Awakening (music by Duncan Sheik), and Tom Kitt, the Tony award-winning composer of this year's rock musical Next to Normal. The show's cast features several Spring Awakening alums as well as former and present cast members of Rent, Hair and the Queen-based musical We Will Rock You — along with a few performers with solo music careers.
Check out the actors' resumes and samples of their performances — and read how Mayer and Billie Joe Armstrong bonded to create this production — as Rolling Stone goes behind Green Day's ambitious stage show.

Unai for President

Unai is an artist who serves God.

Art

Paying artists helps us not join army wars.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- While hundreds of thousands of disability claims lay backlogged at the Department of Veterans Affairs, thousands of technology employees at the department received $24 million in bonuses, a new report says.

Lawmakers want to know why some IT workers in the VA Department have received millions in bonuses.

A report issued by the VA's Office of Inspector General said the department issued millions of dollars in awards over a two-year period in 2007 and 2008.

"The frequent and large dollar amount awards given to employees were unusual and often absurd," the report stated.

The reports also called the payments "not fiscally responsible."

Four high-level employees received about $60,000, $73,000, $58,000, and $59,000, respectively, according to the report, without sufficient justification. Another employee received a $4,500 performance award within the first 90 days of her employment from a manager who said that she did not even remember her.

The annual average award per employee was about $2,500 for both years, according to the report. About 4,700 awards and bonuses were issued in 2007, and about 5,000 in 2008.

The inspector general said one recently retired official, Jennifer S. Duncan, improperly approved numerous bonuses and "acted as if she was given a blank checkbook to write unlimited monetary awards."

During the two years in question, Duncan received over $60,000 in bonuses, according to the report.

In addition, the report concluded that the Office of Information and Technology managers were fiscally irresponsible when authorizing nearly $140,000 in improper academic degree funding, some of which went to Duncan's family and friends. The inspector general recommended the money be repaid.

The VA said it is pursuing a thorough review of the situation and it "does not condone misconduct by its employees and will take the appropriate corrective actions for those who violate VA policy," according to a statement provided to CNN.

Duncan could not be reached for comment.

Lawmakers in Washington have taken notice.

"I am extremely troubled by the Inspector General's findings," said Richard Burr, R-NC, the ranking Republican on the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee. "I believe Congress should use its oversight authority to further investigate these matters," he said in an e-mail to CNN.

President Obama has told Congress it is a priority to reduce the number of backlogged claims at the VA, where claims are coming in at a faster rate than they can be processed.

According to a Government Accountability Office report, the VA processed 60 percent more claims from 1999 to 2008 than it did a decade earlier, but the number of claims still pending jumped 65 percent.

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Friend

A friend is like a brother and site filled with tears
on the altar of pure love.

Sweet dreams to babies and mothers.

Dulces to suenos of Colombia,
may Juanes and Shakira sleep blessed.

They are so important to the world
as some of our best.

I would buy you an ice cream or chocolate cake,
Horchata, on a blistery day,
friendship-
to warm up your

heartache.

"Barack"

Blessed be Barack.

The Lord says you are blessed.

Stand for Israel and stand up for the U.S.

You are not Lincoln, Washington was
threatened and lived.

God had a surprise.

A family man having a hard time.

Other great presidents had a hard time
being, blue.

Too much pressure on you.

You cleaned up after a Bush
and became trees,

olive branches are needed

and doves for liberty.

Stand tall as a tree of strength,

God has binded himself to you

so we can remain.

I am neither greek nor hebrew. I am all.

I am a man. I am a woman.

I am rich. I am poor.

I am humble. I am dignified.

I am less. I am more.

I need money. I need love.

I want to give. I want to earn.

I want justice. I need law.

I need forgiveness and courage.

King's and Queens

Sovereigns are important right now.

In a world of little education, less class and culture,
the dreams and strategies for past times are being renewed.

The one world takeover by the EU.

The one world takeover by the NAFTA agreement,
where we can have water from five different countries that is polluted
and not know where it came from in one bottle,
is not okay.

Privatization is needed again.

Also, we need our queens educated.

Every person needs a home and a college degree.

Every child needs healthcare, not the state,
but private run.

Every person needs dignity and food.

The world needs to share, conserve water, and love.

Cannes and Arab works in the U.S.

The Arab Film Festival will take place between October 15th to October 24th 2009 in San Francisco, San Jose, Berkeley, and Los Angeles.

I am a promoter of art, film, and culture with my company, Irreconcilable Differences in San Francisco.

All this was is a reponse to a film festival and support for a part of community that is persecuted currently since 9/11.

Do not be afraid to assemble or speak Arabic.

I learned some Arabic at college and people were investigated by Homeland Security if they spoke Arabic.

Wa-salaam or wa-saalam.

Welcome.

Second ammendment, right to assemble. If people assemble they are not hurt.

Third ammendment, right to free speech.

People need to stand up for me and each other against tyranny.

The supreme court needs to overturn the gay ammendment to not have a choice
of marriage. It is a states right issue.

Gavin Newsome went into hiding and couldn't stand up for my city because of Lou Engle.

The Supreme Court and Ruth Ginsburgh need our support to stand up against the President.

Kristallnacht

Jews, guys with dresses and gangs, are being pushed out from the corrupted, very money supported life of the city.

We can stand up for what is right.

God wants us to share in clothes, books, in food. Let's get together and be a great community.

We are stronger than them by our numbers.

We do not need to be afraid.

Stand up for your neighbors and for yourselves and your family.

Secrets of the Lord's return are near.

Stand up and be not ashamed of who you are, your religion, or sexual preference.

Dance. Sing. Act.

Truth

The Jews built this city and have been shut out all year.

They are the best musicians and so are being persecuted.

Arabs have Rumi, Jews have David.

David is equivalent of David.

There is none other.

Bless Israel.

L'Shalom

Amadeus

Genius in motion.

Teach the art of aristocracy

My grandma was termed an aristocrat.

She taught me how to misbehave.

I say, "Teach the children well" was a song.

Because no child left behind,

left a generation unemployed,
lying in the dust,
with no graduation,
diploma.

Do you want to teach?

The children are waiting to listen.

The value of our economy is nothing
more than the value of our education.

Let them eat books!

Wolfgang

Mozart is like rap,

he flowed in styles of
lyrical expression.

He stayed in form
but led to a rise,
a horizon.

His art was his soul,
poured out on a page,
hour after hour

of writing notes
with a metal pin
on parchment,

ink dots with lines
that show a mind
of a genius.

Wolfgang

Mozart is like rap.

His music was thoughts freeflow
of type, and expression.

Words and notes
of his indiscretion.

Maybe his lasting affairs with Constanza
led him to marriage with music.

They were more than wed,
they were lovers.

Midway

I used to sing Joni Mitchell from the record, "Clouds" when I felt lost love.

Here is the first verse,

I met you on the midway

I met you on a midway at a fair last year
And you stood out like a ruby in a black man's ear
You were playing on the horses, you were playing on the guitar strings
You were playing like a devil wearing wings, wearing wings
You looked so grand wearing wings
Do you tape them to your shoulders just to sing
Can you fly
I heard you can! Can you fly
Like an eagle doin' your hunting from the sky

I am coming home

I sat at a bar today and talked to a great DJ, jazz musician who needs to finish college.

I told him about my friend, Brendan McCarthy, who is classically trained and is too good for the Christian music scene. He's urban and also cutting edge in ways yet expressed.

O how the mighty have fallen for cheap dates, drinks, and cowboy boots.

I wrote a poem at the bar.

My whole year
has become a night.

I woke up
this morning and
said
I like
being
awake.

www.brendanmccarthymusic.com

Chagall

My mother was an artist. She was a great painter whole life long, a great singer of opera invited to La Scala in Milan, and a cermacist who molded me into glory.

I bought a Chagall, an original lithograph, now I have to finish paying for it. That is what college is for to afford luxuries like art and studying opera.

I sang tonight and filled the downstairs and dining room. I never sing full voice and surprised even myself.