You will find samples and excerpts below from some of our clients. As we often work with privileged information, some of what you will see is altered from the original or masked.
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Here are excerpted samples of technical writing done for some of our clients:
ZD Comdex
InteropNet Technical Overview
The Network
Design
Management Challenges
Unique Cabling
NOC (Network Operations Center)
ToursThe InteropNet at NetWorld+Interop is the most important and influential model of multi-vendor, multi-protocol interoperability in the industry. This sophisticated network of equipment from over 100 vendors, the largest civilian mobile network in the world, gives exhibitors and attendees the opportunity to personally experience the melding of different technologies and equipment. It is also a test bed that cannot be duplicated. One engineer reported saving over $2 million in company testing costs by participating in the InteropNet. Finding bugs and problems and their solutions here is much better than fielding angry phone calls to Customer Support.
The InteropNet is a stable production network that enables the showcasing of established and emerging network technologies. It is a controlled environment that is a proving ground for vendors. It is a place where experts from established disciplines meet and confer with pioneers in new technologies. Thus the InteropNet is an industry catalyst, giving exhibitors and attendees many opportunities for learning about and seeing leading edge technologies and the proof of their interoperability in a multivendor, multi-protocol environment.
The Network
Don't confuse NetWorld+Interop with an ordinary demo. This is not a contained environment. The InteropNet demonstrates the joining of new technologies like Gigabit Ethernet, xDSL, and enhancements to ATM with classical technologies such as 10BASE-T and FDDI.In the explosive evolution of solutions to technologies, Networld+Interop is more than a mirror for change, it is a magnifying lens that collects the talents of many diverse groups and individuals to focus on new challenges and exciting new ideas.
Design
InteropNet '98 continues an emphasis on a technical environment of modularity, flexibility, rapid deployment, logical standards, and consistency. Two separate networks, Gigabit Ethernet and an ATM cloud, provide 10/100 connectivity to exhibitors, and vendors who need the speed receive direct ATM and Gigabit Ethernet drops with up to1000 Mb per second throughput.Strategically placed equipment racks provide the basic 10/100 switched Ethernet connection to every exhibitor on the show floor. For the ATM-supported locations, these connect to the network using ATM LAN Emulation (LANE); Gigabit Ethernet-supported locations connect via Layer 3 (L3) switching technologies.
Connections are provided using an ATM edge device using ATM LAN Emulation. Each ATM edge device contains a single E-Lan for the 10BASE-T drops and another E-Lan for the 100BASE-T drops. There are several other separate E-Lans for additional networks, such as a wireless network, and network management. One side of the edge device offers dozens of switched Ethernet ports, while the other side connects the edge device to an ATM cloud encompassing the entire show floor. The NOC provides many different services on the Exhibitor ATM cloud, including LAN Emulation, Classical IP, PVCs, and support for emerging ATM standards such as MPOA and PNNI.
Virtual Network Routers in three big equipment racks provide routing between the E-Lans. The routers, ATM edge devices, and ATM switches are all interconnected via OC-3 (155Mb) and OC-12 (622 Mb) links. We also support backup paths and backup routers.
We have 10/100 switches with Gigabit Ethernet uplinks which are all returning to Gigabit Ethernet switches, that is, switches with multiple Gigabit Ethernet ports. They are Layer3 (L3) switches so they are actually routing. Each of those devices on the edge of our network is on its own IP subnet. They come back into an L3 switch that essentially acts as a multi-port router which attaches to a Gigabit Ethernet Backbone, which is an entirely separate network that forms the core of the Gigabit network.
The Gigabit Ethernet Backbone connects the Gigabit Ethernet Rib Network as well as the core traditional routers in a tree configuration. These routers also connect the ATM Vendor Network, the Gigabit Vendor Network, and the ATM Rib Network.Traditional routers connect with an FDDI ring to reach the external routers. Traffic going from the booth to the Internet will cross the FDDI demarc, but traffic going between booths or across halls from Gigabit Ethernet edge devices or fan-outs will go across the Gigabit Ethernet backbone, as the ATM connected networks will transit the main ATM cloud.
For externally connecting to the Internet we use dual 45Mb DS-3 connections linked to Tier-1 providers. This gives us fast Internet access, load balancing, and redundancy.
The InteropNet primarily supports IP. OSPF is used between the routers as the IP routing protocol, and BGP-4 is used as the routing protocol to the Internet Service Providers. Additionally, IP multicast service is provided across the InteropNet using DVMRP. A connection to the Internet’s Multicast Backbone (MBONE) provides the vendors with complete Internet multicast capabilities.
IPv6 will be routed across the InteropNet and through a v6 tunnel to the 6BONE, the experimental Internet IPv6 backbone. Why IPv6? Because it supports increased addressing space and it handles hierarchical routing. ISDN is using ATM as a transport, showing how versatile and multifunctional it is, as well as providing a demo of SOHO and remote access.
We are experimenting with exciting technologies: At the Las Vegas Networld+Interop we will test xDSL (which will go head to head with our trial of cable modems in the Atlanta InteropNet); On ATM networks using PNNI (Private Network Node Interface) we are giving inter-switch routing our first large-scale field trial and we are deploying OC-12; We are experimenting with WDM (Wave Division Multiplexing), which reads discrete frequencies so that you can have multiple frequencies over the same glass fiber.
Management Challenges
In switched networks of this size, traditional methods of monitoring shared media networks do not work. The NOC is exploring ways of managing this new class of interswitched networks, including port mirroring, conversation steering, RMON, and custom scripts. The NOC is also working with manufacturers of networking hardware and software to find the best management support methods for switched networks.Unique Cabling
Typically, every two aisles of booths are connected by a cable bundle or "rib" suspended from the ceiling. These ribs terminate into concentrator equipment racks. Individual drops are patched into ATM edge devices or Gigabit switches. Concentrator racks are connected with a custom fiber bundle containing 29 fibers each. Because it is pink we call it "bubble gum" or just "The Pink". The Pink is tactical-grade (mil spec) fiber optic cable with quick-connect ends. According to one engineer, a tank can tow a jeep with it and the cable will still work reliably. Additionally, dedicated fiber-optic cables connect directly to exhibitor booths that request high-speed services such as ATM and Gigabit Ethernet. The physical network of twisted pair and fiber optic cable joins thousands of pieces of equipment, including routers, switches, and network management stations. And every drop is tested both physically and logically before any vendor connects their equipment.Network Operations Center (NOC)
The entire network comes together in the Network Operations Center (NOC), the mission control center of the InteropNet, where teams of experts (NOC Team Members) use a variety of tools for performing protocol analysis, configuration management, fault determination, and resolution. Men and women from many companies and backgrounds pool their expertise to keep the InteropNet smooth, coherent, and reliable.Tours
Go to the InteropNet Kiosk next to the Network Operations Center for information on tours of the industry's premier multivendor network. There are Tech Tours and Walking Tours. Tech Tours are led by NOC Team experts who focus on a specific technology, such as ATM, IPv6, or Multicast. Walking Tours are led by ITMs (Interop Team Members) who provide a general overview of the Interop show. InteropNet tours are conducted every hour on the hour and last approximately 45 minutes. Take this opportunity to learn and see how technologies you are considering for your network behave in an enterprise-class environment. NOC Team Members leading these tours can answer your questions regarding the InteropNet. Tours fill up fast, so sign up early.You can also learn about the InteropNet and see current network statistics on the NOC website at http://www.noc.interop.net.
Silicon Graphics
Silicon Exchange
Executive Summary
The Silicon Exchange program seeks to address redeployment of Silicon Graphics®, business partner, and commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies to address Global Risk Management (GRM) opportunities within the sphere of Financial Services. GRM entails enterprise-wide control of risk and allocation of capital‹a middle-office function which complements such front-office functions as trading and sales.
This white paper proposes a technical architecture whose framework capitalizes on proven technologies for building, configuring, and delivering solutions for GRM executive decision-makers in financial institutions. Key component roles:
- Financial Data Mining
- Financial Visualization
- Financial Objects and Models
- Financial Analytics
- Financial Data Warehousing
- Application Development
Each will have well-defined sets of published services and Application Program Interfaces (APIs).GRM framework components provide complementary sets of services. Financial Data Mining entails discovering patterns in data sets. Financial Visualization entails rendering financial data to present it in a compelling, revealing manner. Financial Analytics entail algorithms aimed at deriving financial measures, trends, results, and more. Financial Objects and Models provide representations of diverse financial instruments, models, activities, situations, scenarios, constraints, events, and transactions. Application Development entails programming support, (for example, source code editing, compiling/linking, debugging), as well as multimedia services and Web services.
Cornerstones of the proposed architecture include:
- Open, interoperable components filling each defined framework role
- A client-server-based architecture with flexible assignment of resources to client and server platforms, as well as cross-platform uniformity of functionality
- Focus upon object orientation (OO), including object-based encapsulation and distribution
- Compliance with emerging OO standards and toolsets (Orbix, for example) Integrated financial data mining/data visualization, including data services/servers (for example, DBMS)
- Linkage to multimedia services and Web-based services, content, and applications/applets (for example, Java)
- Supportive enterprise management facilities
Vision
By applying the best available technology, as a competitive advantage in the creation, management, and distribution of capital, Silicon Exchange seeks to offer executives in financial services industries powerful solutions for addressing challenges and opportunities within the arena of Global Risk Management (GRM), a ³middle office² financial function, which complements ³front office² functions such as trading and sales. This white paper proposes a technical architecture which includes a framework for exploiting and integrating proven technologies for building, customizing, packaging and delivering those solutions for executive GRM decision-makers in financial institutions. This framework makes several important contributions, including:
Risk Identification: Promote formulation of enterprise-wide definitions of risk and controls for handling risk.
Leverage: Promote configuring component types to facilitate maximum leverage, thus letting GRM practitioners focus upon situations requiring their unique skills rather than upon enabling technologies. The emphasis becomes usability and composition/assembly, rather than programming.
Processing Engines: Develop and use an extensive suite of processing engines for such diverse functions as risk measurement/evaluation, capital allocation, tracking/monitoring, cueing/alarming, transaction evaluation, position exposure/evaluation, value-at-risk evaluation, credit scoring, portfolio evaluation, cash flow, return evaluation, yield determination and trending, rating, pricing, reporting, scenario generation and evaluation, data access/management, real-time capture, profit/loss calculation, and optimization.
Financial Engineering:Promote the definition, design, implementation, integration, usage and presentation of financial objects and processes.
Open Architecture: Create a system architecture promoting openness, interoperability and plug-and-play connectivity of components.
Superior Technology: Use leading-edge technologies as powerful aids to financial decision-makers (for example, Silicon Graphics sparse matrix technology, which gives a 1000 times advantage over the competition in stochastic portfolio optimization).
Object Orientation (OO): Exploit object orientation, whose components utilize objects with published interfaces; sets of services implemented via APIs; and established roles. Noteworthy here is use of emerging OO standards (for example, CORBA/COSS, OLE/COM) and toolsets (such as Orbix or Java) for developing, packaging, distributing, and delivering object-centric applications, and for supporting global risk management functions.
COTS Technology: Approve commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products to fill each component role by drawing upon:
- Key Silicon Graphics core competencies;
- Tool offerings by Silicon Graphics business partners and other reputable providers; and
- Modules derived from such tools.
Utilize the Web: Use the World Wide Web (WWW) to aid authoring, publishing, collaboration, communication, conferencing, document interchange, ordering, navigation/browsing (for example, NetScape, WebFORCE, Cosmo MediaBase), and invoking tools.
Strategic Programming: Minimize the need for programming wherever possible, while not foreclosing the possibility for it where appropriate.
Support Services: Provide a full range of support services, including system integration, consulting, training, and customer support.
Customizable: Support customization of solutions to meet specialized user needs and preferences.Strategic Focus
The Silicon Exchange framework for GRM offers modular, open solutions for GRM decision-makers... Preferable to closed, inflexible turnkey systems. Important observations motivated this approach, including:
Success of the GRM framework should be judged by a variety of criteria including: leverage provided, customizability of solutions delivered, extendibility of framework components (that is, Financial Objects Models, Financial Data Mining, Financial Visualization, Financial Analytics, Financial Data Warehousing, Application Development), and interconnection configurations. Measures of this success will include:
- More leverage is delivered to GRM executives by directly connecting them to various powerful information and navigation sources (for example, data feeds, wire service feeds, Web-based browsers/servers), and presentation/integration tools within a distributed global environment; the key here is giving you the power to act quickly and effectively in a manner that rewards creative alternative assumptions and parameters.
- It is useful to differentiate appropriate vendor roles (for example, data management, building blocks) versus customer roles (such as, proprietary data, objects, models and analytics).
- Multivendor approaches and solutions are preferable to single components or systems.
- Domain-specific and task-specific component libraries are emerging, (some very detailed), which can greatly contribute to solution-building.
- Industry-standard platforms and components with published interfaces are preferable to proprietary ones in contributing to openness and interoperability.
- The stakes in GRM are too high to restrict solution approaches to build versus buy, but to rather exploit build and buy approaches.
- Customers will most value those solutions that help application migration, development, and integration.
- Asset development and reuse is vital (for example, strategies, assessments, portfolios, scenarios, calculations, curves, flows, trades, positions).
- It is assumed that professional system integrators will determine and realize optimal configurations of solution components.
- Time-to-market for new/revised applications and applets
- Speed in exploring and evaluating alternatives
- Quality (measured in money) of decisions made
- Flexibility in varying time frames, parameters, search criteria, and more
Framework for GRM: Overview
Addressing global risk management (GRM) entails harnessing technology and data to realize solutions for executive decision-makers. Whereas there is no single turnkey solution that fits all potential customers, Silicon Graphics believes that:
- A common set of solution elements recurs across many solutions.
- A common solution approach, detailed in the Silicon Exchange Framework for GRM, can provide high leverage for a large subset of this potential customer base.
A framework comprises a set of components/tools assembled for a specific use. It has a number of functional slots. Moreover, the arrangement and interconnection of the components is absolutely crucial. The framework imposes and exploits standard intercomponent roles, interfaces, interconnections, and flows. Each slot of the framework is filled with both a component type and a representative instance of that component type (that is, a specific Silicon Graphics, vendor and/or customer product). A framework is sharply differentiated from a workbench, an alternative approach to delivering functionality, which comprises tools that are loosely coupled and whose structure comes via usage, rather than via prior packaging.Silicon Exchange focuses upon the framework approach because it delivers superior leverage into the hands of GRM system builders by permitting them to concentrate upon modular solutions, which utilize replaceable building blocks conforming to published intercomponent interfaces.
Green Productions
Funding Proposal: Green Productions, Inc.
Note: Proprietary information has been changed for legal reasons.
In this document:
Executive Summary
Patents
Initial Projects
Initial Capitalization
Salvage
BackgroundersPlease note that budget information is available in a separate file.
Green Productions, Inc. (GPI) was formed based on the insight of the most advanced technical, commercial and cavernous divers in the world. The vision and goal of the company are one in the same. The vision and goal of GFPI is to capture the most explicit digital imagery of the earth’s underwater mysteries and untold secrets, then distribute the content to the commercial, consumer, educational, internet and direct retail markets internationally. GFPI’s distribution will be readily established through xxx.
As a byproduct of our research and by the necessity of our advanced underwater diving excursions, we have been required to design certain apparatuses that meet the specific filming and or survival requirements of a given situation. These apparatuses are unique in design but applicable both on a commercial and consumer basis. It is the intention of GPI to patent, license and distribute the reference designs of these products to established manufacturers involved in similar technologies to increase revenues for GPI and improve the safety conditions for other companies and individuals involved in this line of work or participating from a recreational standpoint.
GFPI will be structured in a strategic/protective manner. The company will be formed off-shore from the United States and will have two subsidiaries formed below the parent, being GPI. The first of the two subsidiaries will hold all licensing rights to the content produced by GPI and will be the distribution arm of the parent company. The second subsidiary will be the R & D company holding all patented technologies developed by the research teams employed by GPI. This company will have the exclusive rights to license and distribute the technologies developed by the parent. Nintey percent (90%) of adjusted gross revenues will be returned to the parent, from the two subsidiaries owned by GFPI.
Initial Projects (Three)
GPI has identified three significant underwater film production projects that will be completely new areas of discovery for the commercial and consumer audiences targeted by GFPI. The first project is to be filmed off the shores of xxx. There are currently underwater xxx that are larger than xxx, thousands of years older and have been barely researched, although the "eighth wonder of the world" lay in one hundred feet of relatively safe water.
The only dangers regarding this project are the monsoons that begin moving through this specific region during the months of xxx through October. Additionally, because the dive team would be researching the internal structures of the underwater xxx, recovering undiscovered artifacts, it would be considered a cave-dive, which again is considered inherently risky.
The other two dives slated for filming by the advanced dive teams of GPI will not be described in this document, but will be disclosed under non-disclosure with qualified investors intending to invest with GFPI. The other two dives offer significant discovery to the missing pieces of international history and will be the shared success of the investment team and the dive / research team of GPI.
GPI is currently seeking the initial capitalization of $1,500,000. This investment will support the production of three completely documented, digitally recorded dive excursions, retain legal / financial counsel, patent key GPI technologies, provide the divers with the necessary monetary compensation, gear and uniform equipment, while in return, provide the investor(s) with 10% ownership in the three off-shore entities formed.
The overall corporate structure of the three companies remain undefined, the intention is to authorize a substantial amount of stock in each corporate entity and distribute / issue the defined equity within each company to the founders and the direct investors. There will be a "stock-pool" available for either a public offering, reverse (public) merger or leverage for negotiations in an acquisition / merger strategy, based on the exit strategy determined best for GPI, by the nominated board of directors.
These projects have short-term returns and long-term residual merit and will create significant revenues for GPI as a company. This is based on the resumes of the internationally recognized divers forming GPI, the production specialists affiliated with GPI, the distribution partners affiliated with GPI, the technologies held by GPI, the management and financial strategic partners of GPI. Green Productions will move forward on all opportunities described in this document immediately, upon successful funding of the company.
The three different dive excursions will create three separate finished products (episodes) ready for commercial, educational and consumer distribution, within ninety days of the full investment. As these three products are released into the above stated distribution channel(s), GPI will begin to reinvest the up-front licensing fees, related Non-recurring Engineering (NRE) fees and related licensing fees associated with our patented reference designs, to produce more content and create an ongoing business model tied to real revenues, real residuals and a real corporate valuation. Some of the manufactures that will be targeted for licensing our technologies will be: ScubaPro, UWATEC, SeaPro, U.S. Diver, Ocean Technology Systems, Inc., Farallon, DIVECOMM, Inc., and others.
GPI will be the leading source of underwater digital film content and the provider of the most advanced underwater commercial / recreational dive utility solutions available in today’s market(s).
Salvage
Note also that GPI has legal representation for salvage. This means that GPI will be able to film wrecks in the process of recovery and we will retain salvage rights to those vessels.BACKGROUNDERS OF GPI FOUNDERS:
Jeffrey Kieffer
13282 Any Road
Santa XX, CA 9xxxx U.S.A.
(xxx) 2x1-6959 Office
(xxx) 2x1-6696 Fax
Wxxx@Xlink.comJeffrey Kieffer began his career taking a photography course at UCLA, from 1985 to 1987, with a BFA. After graduating college, Jeffrey attended The XXX Corporation for extensive commercial diving/ technical training, certifying him in surface supplied air & mix gas diving, hyperbaric chamber operations & hyperbaric treatment, saturation lock-out bell diving, oilrig repair, underwater inspection, underwater rigging and welding/burning to 1000’, deep-water salvage & recovery, nuclear power plant inspection & repair. Trained in R.O.V. (Remote Operating Vehicle) and N.D.T. (Non-Destructive Testing of Metal) Ultrasound 1-3 levels, Magnetic Particle 1-3 levels, Liquid Penetrant 1-2 levels 1989 to 1990.
Jeffrey has been working in many capacities for last twelve years in the film industry, filming full-length feature films, commercials and sporting events. Additionally, Jeffrey has filmed underwater projects in depths from the surfaces to 300 feet. Jeffrey received an xxx award for technical advancement in filming for xxx. This is an extreme xxx camera filming system.
EDUCATION:
UNIVERSITY OF xxx. Graduated 19xx Bachelor of Arts. 2 years of continued graduate level course work towards Masters Degree in Underwater Archaeology.
<snipped>.
First Step Distribution Network
Spy Rock: Chapter 1 Excerpt
Mel Baca was a leathery sixtyish cowboy who chewed and spit Wintergreen Skoal and who happened to own all of the horses we were riding. It was amazing to see him skitter his rig down the mountain on the dirt logging roads without flipping the horse trailer and himself over a cliff. Great plumes of dust billowed through the trees and puffed out into the canyons as we watched from the clearing beside the house, the dogs barking and disturbed crows flying and cawing. When he pulled up to the fence next to Marge's house the horses backed out of the trailer with the whites of their eyes showing. He would pat them and talk to them and feed them a carrot and they would calm down enough to walk to the corral next to the pig pens.
He used to work in construction, too, with Henry, until he went up a bank at too steep of an angle and the D7 Caterpillar tractor that he was driving flipped. He tried to jump clear but didn't have time and got his back broken. It had healed, sort of, but he was still taking it easy and collecting disability pay. Two of his favorite hobbies were fishing for steelhead trout and deer hunting, and he could do both from Marge's property. He wore the usual uniform of white straw cowboy hat, big silver belt buckle and pointed cowboy boots, except that he stuffed his jeans into his boots in the style of Nevada buckaroos.
Mel had known Marge and Henry for many years. He used to come up twice a month until his wife died last year when she ate herself to death.
A local lumberjack named Luther Locke was visiting by accident. He had planned to go to the Indian reservation nearby to visit some friends in Covelo but took the wrong turn and ended up at Marge's way past dark. We invited him to go with us for our deer hunt and he decided to have an adventure. He was somewhere in his middle twenties or early thirties, clean-shaven and close-mouthed, but he revealed a wonderful talent at harmonica playing. He couldn't play anything that you knew note for note, although you could usually recognize some familiar parts, but he played a great improv, and he could bend notes like the best of the Southern Blues kings. He tried to sing, too, but he had a nasal voice and a tendency to forget lyrics, in which case he played the harmonica which was all right. It was a Hohner Golden Melody in the key of C, and he kept it buttoned in his left shirt pocket when he wasn't playing. I asked why he wore suspenders. "It's because you don't want a snag to catch you and flip you or drag you under to grind you as the log rolls", he said, "Belts don't give, suspenders do."
He lived down in Laytonville on Ten-Mile Creek with his wife. He hated it there. "The neighbors drive me crazy," he complained. "Just about every time I go out to the porch in the evening after dinner to play my mouth harp, the kids next door start screaming like they're being butchered. The first time it happened I went running over there with a gun and a flashlight and my hair was sticking up on my head like a scared cat's. When I got to their house a man and a woman barbequeing on a grill in their front yard bolted when they saw the gun in my hand. Two kids, a boy about nine and a girl of about eleven, were behind them. When they saw me they started laughing and giggling and pointing at me. It turned out that the man and woman were their parents but they were both deaf and dumb. However, the kids were not. It was their malicious pleasure to howl and carry on and raise hell such that everyone in hearing range would come on the run, but of course Mom and Dad were clueless."
Satanic Verses
Bookstore owners and clerks are members of a gentle profession. It's rare that they are asked to commit themselves to risk their lives for a principle. That, however, is exactly what they are doing in deciding to display and sell the controversial book, "The Satanic Verses", by Salman Rushdie.
Muslims are insulted by Rushdie's calling their prophet Mahound, a derogatory name, instead of his proper name of Mohammed, and the portrayal of him as a womanizer and an opportunist who rode at the head of a conquering army of his fanatical followers, reaping the spoils of war and aggrandizing himself. The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, spiritual and political leader of Iran, has issued a death warrant against Rushdie and anyone else involved in the publication of the book. Rushdie has stated that his book is a work of fiction, but apologized to the Ayatollah and any Muslims that his book offended. The Ayatollah refused the apology and reasserted the death warrant.
At the De Anza College Bookstore, De Anza student and part-time clerk Frank Lee declares that he's willing to risk selling the book for the sake of the principle of free speech. At A Clean Well Lighted Place for Books at the Oaks Shopping Center across from Flint Center clerk Dion Egan, also a De Anza student, said that a shipment would be coming in a week or so, and it would be displayed. He, too, felt that it was an issue of free speech, and that it was his responsibility to do his part in providing intellectual information of all kinds to the public so that they could make up their own minds upon issues. The manager, Ann Seaton, felt that it was hard to believe that something could happen in Cupertino, but there was a possibility, and she was prepared to accept the risk. Seaton also said that the original 15 copies that they received were sold almost immediately, "which wouldn't have happened if it weren't for the controversy because it isn't a very good book. We expected to return at least half of those." Their new order is for eighty-six copies of The Satanic Verses. The co-owner, John Wichman, stated that there were several hundred queries about the book by interested customers.
Early Tuesday morning, Cody Books and Walden Books in Berkeley were fire-bombed by persons unknown. The bookstores have been selling The Satanic Verses despite the Ayatollah's death decree, underscored by the offering of a 5.2 million dollar reward for the person who kills Rushdie, allegedly hiding in Britain. A call Tuesday afternoon to Cody's Books was received by an unknown person who stated that the store was closed today and there was no comment about the fire. Lt. DeLatour of the Berkeley Fire Department reports that Walden Books and Cody Books, both on Telegraph Avenue, were fire-bombed with Molotov cocktails at approximately 4:30 am. Walden Books experienced light damage while Cody's Books damage was moderate. In addition, a pipe bomb was discovered at Cody's Books, which was exploded at the scene by the University of California Police Department Bomb Disposal Squad. According to DeLatour, there were witnesses to the event, and it is being investigated by all appropriate agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. As of Wednesday no group has claimed responsibility for the act.
An anonymous source at the Muslim Student Center in San Jose , an American and a former De Anza student which we'll call Joan, refused to comment on the bombing, but spoke freely on Islam. According to the Koran, Mohammedan Scriptures which are the equivalent of the Christian Bible," The blood of a Muslim man is not lawful but for one of three reasons: - an adulterous married person; an avenger of blood; and the one who leaves his religion, that is, splits the community" (Salman Rushdie was raised as a Muslim in India.) In the Revelation or Sura called The Cave, it states, " Who more iniquitous than he who deviseth a lie concerning God?" In the Sura called The Holy War it states, " Fight for the cause of God against those who fight against you: but commit not the injustice of attacking them first: verily God loveth not the unjust: And kill them wherever ye shall find them, and eject them from whatever place they have ejected you; for seduction from the truth is worse than is slaughter."
It is the strict interpretation of these Suras and others that the Ayatollah uses to justify his edict. Joan feels that the writings of Rushdie are blasphemous, and mislead unbelievers into thinking that Islam is some strange form of mumbo-jumbo. She feels that it doesn't hurt God or the prophet Mohammed. Yet followers of Islam take it personally."I wouldn't want this kind of thing said about my father, my grandfather, my favorite friend, my husband. We feel that strongly about our prophets and their families. I can understand how, when people are not informed, they feel that we're putting down freedom of speech. The fact is that we don't like to see people making money off of complete abuse of other peoples' high spiritual beliefs. We (Islamics) are not supposed to be vengeful but for social reasons sometimes the better way is to take the penalties that are allowed in order to make an example for others.
But there are differences among Muslims as well, in their interpretation of the Koran and the way that they stand up for their belief. The strict interpretation which the Ayatollah is using is not shared by Joan and other members of her mosque."We have this group of the Khomeini followers who many of us don't really follow. We can't refuse them the fact that they are Muslims but we don't agree with many of their tactics. We definitely don't consider Khomeini our leader."
The Ayatollah's actions are certainly not helping the cause of Islam. The controversy over The Satanic Verses is further isolating Iran from the rest of the world. All European consulates have decided to withdraw personnel from Iran and break diplomatic ties. Many countries are considering economic sanctions, also. In America, people are clamoring for the book, and at least one English instructor at De Anza College, Bob Dickerson, is considering making The Satanic Verses required reading in his courses.
The Use of Force
"The Use of Force", by William Carlos Williams, is a study of the breakdown of cultural behavioral patterns during a clash between the rational and the irrational in human nature. The vehicle for the study is a family in crisis (father, mother, sick child) and their interactions with a man of authority, a doctor. The story, written in first person singular from the point of view of the doctor, begins with a factual account of the circumstances and proceeds to follow the unfolding events in chronological order. The story reaches a swift and powerful climax in a little more than three pages.
The doctor begins the story with the statement that this family is new to him, that, " all I had was the name, Olson". As he encounters the members of the family, individually and as parts of a unit, he perceives their negative reaction to him: " they were all very nervous, eyeing me up and down distrustfully". The mother and father attempted to covertly sublimate their feelings of awkwardness and anxiety through social affectations but their appearance and their actions reveal their nervousness. The mother was " startled looking", "apologetic"; the father, "tried to get up" (from his chair); "they weren't telling me anymore than they had to". In contrast the child made no pretenses. She sat, wordless, on her father's knee and stared intently at the doctor with her " cold, steady eyes, and no expression on her face whatever. She did not move and seemed, inwardly, quiet." Up to this point the story has been straight-forward, even mundane: a doctor is called to a home where the parents are nervous because they suspect that their daughter may be seriously ill, and the doctor is confronted by a child who is apparently not pleased to see him. However, a discrepancy becomes apparent in the doctor's attitude. He begins to mix his rational, clinical, objective observations with irrational, emotional, subjective, sensual observations: the child was " unusually attractive"..." strong as a heifer"..." had magnificent blonde hair".
As the story progresses, we see the doctor losing more and more of his rationality. The child refuses to recognize the culturally accepted standards of behavior, standards that help to avert violence and sublimate aggressive actions; for speech is an action, an action intellectual, one that requires an un-written code of rationality, but the girl refuses to speak. She forces the doctor into a physical confrontation: the doctor was " speaking quietly and slowly " when with one cat-like movement both her hands clawed instinctively for my eyes..." When she is physically restrained ( her hands held) she is forced to speak. Her wild animal spirit must have an outlet.
The doctor's spirit must have an outlet also. The animal passion of the child has kindled kindred feelings in him. He sees the affected attempts at social niceties in the face of the crisis as "contemptible". He makes a few feeble tries at being rational bu finally succumbs to " a blind fury, a feeling of adult shame, bred by a longing for muscular release". The following paragraph illustrates the final breakdown of his rationality:
Get me a smooth-handled spoon of some sort, I told the mother. We're going through with this. The child's mouth was already bleeding. Her tongue was cut and she was screaming in wild hysterical shrieks. Perhaps I should have desisted and come back in an hour or more. No doubt itwould have been better. But I have seen at least two children lying dead in bed of neglect in such cases, and feeling that I must get a diagnosis now or never I went at it again. But the worst of it was that I too had got beyond reason. I could have torn the child apart in my own fury and enjoyed it. It was a pleasure to attack her. My face was burning with it.
This story is clearly intended as a symbolic parallel with the society in which we live. The doctor represents science and all that science implies while the child represents the animal instincts and spirit. Without a marriage, a synthesis between their disparities, they will always brutalize one another.
Swept Away and Adele H. Compared
"Swept Away" is an interesting study of the different methods and styles of domination and manipulation used by two people of contrasting sexuality and social backgrounds. The following is an outline of the plot:
A private yacht is sailing the Mediterranean. Its passengers are the idle rich. Its servants and crew are of the working class.
The rich are abusing their economic power over the servants and crew by verbal insults, unreasonable, picayune demands, and blatant displays of unavailable sex.
The member of the crew with the most pride, Signor Carrunchio, is singled out for continuous prodding by the most obnoxious of the rich, Signora Panchetti, described as a " ball breaker".
One day Carrunchio is required to take the Signora in a small launch to meet a swimming party in a place inaccessible to the yacht. When out of sight of both land and the yacht the engine of the launch fails. Subsequently, they become lost at sea for a period of days.
At no time does the Signora become aware of the gravity of the situation. When, after hours of patient trying, Carrunchio catches a fish with his bare hands, the Signora tosses her portion away in disgust... though obviously dying of hunger and thirst she remarks that, " Dieting is good for you". Throughout the ordeal she shuns his help, and continues to upbraid and belittle him.
Eventually they drift to an island. Carrunchio climbs the highest peak and discovers that the island is small and uninhabited. Still in the role of servant, Carrunchio climbs down and makes his report. Unwilling to accept the bad news, she commands him to climb the peak again, cruelly indifferent to his physical condition and the difficulty of the climb. At last, he rebels.
He proceeds to pay her back for the contemptuous mental brutality that she has given him with vindictive, physical brutality. What follows is the enlightenement of Signora Panchetti: enlightenment as the result of direct confrontation with absolute reality...Without the option of mental barriers, or the ability to run away. One result of this enlightenment is that she truly falls in love with another human being for the first time on a completely equal basis.
Unfortunately for Signor Carrunchio, circumstances never force him to become as purged as the Signora of theoretical abstractions. She lives content in the "here and now" while she is troubled by the " what if..?" syndrome: what if she were in Milan rather than here? Would she walk proudly down the streets with him, a swarthy Southerner? Would her love for him change? Would " things be the same?"
She has verified her love once already (to him and especially to herself) by allowing a yacht to pass unsignalled. But Carrunchio demands as a final test the return to civilization. She pleads against it, reallizing how special and fragile are the circumstances of their relationship. But he insists, anxious to be assured of his complete mastery of her.
In the end she does leave him, but not, as he feared, for the sake of a stronger attractionn, nor for lack of respect or love, but because of a new empathy with others as a result of her new ability to love..When she sees the look in her husband's eyes at their first reunion, when she sees Carrunchio's wife running down the dock into his arms and learns of his children ( a family which he'd never mentioned before), a sense of caring and of responsibility forces her into a painful but inevitable decision. She has grown to be a new woman, the antithesis of the shallow, insensitive, meanly narrow-minded woman that she was.
Adele H.
To understand the story of Adele H. it is necessary to know something of her background:
Adele Hugo was the second daughter of Victor Hugo, a famous and influetial French author of socio-political novels, tracts, essays, and poetry. His was a psychologicallyl turbulent household: Mme. Hugo was having an affair with one of her husbands' three best freinds, a critic named Saint - Beuve who was a frequent guest. After approximately ten years of suspicion and eventual sure knowledge of his wife's infedelity, Victor Hugo took as a mistress a young actress, Juliett Drouett, who occasionally took charge of the Hugo house during his wife's absences, and whom he maintained in apartments either close to his home or in Paris.
Seven months after their marriage, Adele's older sister Leopoldine and her husband died in a tragic boating accident. Her death was a severe trauma to Adele for several reasons: Leopoldine was only one and a half years older, they shared the same interests (primarily music), and they looked much alike; Leopoldine was their father's favourite: he became dazed, incoherent, and unable to write for nearly a year; her parents morbidly installed the stuffed wedding dress of their drowned daughter in their home! It was during this time that Mssr. Hugo, a believer in reincarnation, became deeply involved in " table tipping" (what is now known as a seance). The featured spirit was that of his drowned daughter, Leopoldine. Adele would attend these sessions and was profoundly disturbed by them.
During the last years of Adele's stay with her parents, prior to her entanglement with a young officer, her family was being persecuted for the political views of her father, eventually forcing them into exile, common in the 19th century.
The movie, Adele H., picks up on her life at the point where she has left her family in secret to track down her disdainful lover. She discovers that he is quartered in the town where she has taken board. What follows are a series of scenes that illustrate Adele's inability to relate and contextualize her romantic fantasies with reality.
Adele's attempts to make her fantasies become reality turn into a manic compulsion. Some examples are: the pretense of passing herself off as his cousin in order to have letters delived with out suspicion; attempting to blackmail him into marriage by threatening to go to his superiors; stealthily watching him make love with other women and then offering him an open marriage; placing notes in the pocket of his tunic declaring her love and threatening him with disgrace if it is not returned; pretending to be pregnant to break his engagement with another woman; attempting to embarass him in front of his troupe on maneuvers by appearing with a pillow under her dress simulating pregancy, and tossing him fist-fulls of money; falsely informing her parents that she had married, etc. And all of this is being done in the face of the fact that he does not want to marry her, does not love her, and repeatedly tells her to go away.
In the end Adele becomes a hopeless zombie. She no longer even recognizes the object of her pseudo-passion but wanders the streets aimlessly, captive of an abstract, irrational compulsion.
For the last forty five years of her life she is kept in a sanitorium.
Summary
All people learn to cope with life on different levels according to their backgrounds and needs. Experience provides the basic information necessary to form judgements: the more thorough and inter-related that the information is, the more accurate and coherent are the judgements and projections based upon that information.
In comparing Adele H. and Swept Away, the main theme of both is that, due to ignorance, incorrect assumptions are often treated as absolute conclusions, bringing about decisions that may have painful or even disastrous effects if their fallacious nature is not discovered in time. An example: a native of Brooklyn and an Australian aborigine would have difficulty ralating to each other; if the Brooklynnite was dropped into the Australian Outback he would quickly die unless he found a native familiar with that environment...He would still die if he couldn't relate to the aborigine on the level of survival rather than on the trivial level of appearances, which the luxury of his society has accustomed him to operate upon.
Swept Away is an example of people's ability to cope with each other and love one another once they are able to get past the trivial barriers of abstract political theories and disparate attitudes.
On another level, the woman, insulated from the basics of existence, represents intellect. Hers is a cerebral, hedonistic existence prior to her ordeal with Carrunchio, who represents Eros, emotion. He knows the techniques of basic survival and, being enured to hardship, has learned endurance and fortitude.
When they are forced to survive together the woman makes the largest adjustment and thereby gains most from it: he is in his element, she is not. Therefore she is more strongly compelled by necessity to obtain keener perceptions of Carrunchio than he is of her. The result is that she can see the beauty in his soul more clearly with her heightened perceptions, whereas his perceptions are blurred by lack of necessity, causing a reservation of his love exemplified by selfishness, dominance, and doubt.
Adele H. is a counterpoint to Swept Away in that it shares parallels of circumstance ( both have rich women attempting to relate to environments outside of their norms; both begin by representing their characters as having shallow relationships; both are set in static locations; and the nexus of their relationships are broken by shifts in location) but it differs in one major aspect: Adele never is forced to cope with reality.
In Swept Away, the woman maintains her fantasies until her companion stops coddling her and starts treating her as another person rather than as an employer. He provides the catalyst, the literal slap in the face that shocks her into the process of learning to cope with a new and unfamiliar set of circumstances. Unfortunately for Adele, no one ever provides her with that crucial slap.
Swept Away and Adele H. clearly illustrate the choice that is available to members of affluent societies and easy circumstances: shall you choose to be eased into insanity, ennui, or some other shallow form of existence with velvet gloves, or will you choose to become involved with life and make the effort necessary to communicate with others on a real basis while achieving goals that have context in reality?
JUST FRESH
Blend a modern Italian restaurant with a modern California restaurant, stir in the scents of herb breads, steaming espresso, customized barbecue sauces on rotisserie meats, and spicy sautes prepared by an executive chef. Add light jazz music, plenty of open space, and efficient, thoughtful, service by an experienced staff. This is the recipe for Just Fresh, a restaurant, bakery, rotisserie located in Cupertino directly across from the Flint Center in the Oaks Shopping Center.
Just Fresh is a relatively new phenomenon in Cupertino, having been born from its predecessor, the Sand Piper, in October, 1987. Word of its good food and quality service has traveled quickly, however. How many other restaurants can boast a 30-40 percent increase in sales since the previous year? Another indicator that they are providing what the public wants is the fact that about 60 percent of diners are repeat customers from the local community and businesses. Many buy a deli box lunch, then return after work for cocktails at the full service bar before sitting down to dinner.
The box lunch is a wonderful idea. It's a complete meal, prepared per your phoned-in order. It comes in a nice little box with a handle. Selections include smoked chicken and jarlsberg salad; peppered porkloin (Tasso) sandwich; Caesar Salad and bowl of soup. Most selections include fresh potato salad, fruit, and dessert or rosemary herb bread and dessert. Merely call 252-TOGO, choose from the daily selection, and they'll have your box with your name on it waiting for you. It's available until 2:30pm daily. You can buy individual items, too, such as bread or pasta, even a single lemon.
Community involvement for Just Fresh management goes farther than attracting customers. General Manager Brian Bokman, President Richard Hamner, and Executive Chef Gary Fenimore are innovating a celebration of food called, "Share the Love", in which the net proceeds from one full day of a four-day food extravaganza will be donated to the hungry and homeless of Santa Clara County. Distribution of the proceeds will be by the Santa Clara County Food Bank and Loaves and Fishes, two organizations dedicated to feeding the needy year-'round. This will be a yearly celebration focused around the Holiday of Love, Valentine's Day.
Thoughtfulness extends to every facet of Just Fresh, from the physical layout of the restaurant to the preparation of food. Assistant Manager Jeffrey Eustis description of the saute process illustrates this: "Separate oil, lemon, butter, flour, corn starch. Cook the fish mildly, then add each ingredient and saute it right in the pan instead of having one big vat and just pouring the saute sauce in. This way adds a lot of flavor to the fish and you can taste a difference, in the sense that, the lemon is real lemon, it's not burnt-off lemon. There's a much fuller butter flavor to it."
Something new at Just Fresh is Breakfast, begun in early January of this year. A few examples include Eggs Benedict Polenta, served with cayenne hollandaise ($5.95); Scramble with crab meat and Jalapeno Jack cheese ($7.95); or Berries 'N Biscuits ($5.95): locally grown strawberries mounded on Carolina style biscuits topped with fresh cream.
When I visited on a Tuesday evening there was a good mix of customers, from the casually dressed to the up-scale fashion-conscious. From the dinner menu I chose as an appetizer Charcoal Grilled Pasilla Pepper: filled with three cheeses and served with salsa Mexicana. $3.95. Warning! It was stimulating and delicious, but the salsa is caliente. A glass of Chardonnay wine,$3.50, was a pleasant way to quench the peppers' fiery tangyness. This was followed by Caesar Salad: Crisp romaine, traditional Caesar with grated aged Parmesan. $5.95. Dinner was Szechuan Chicken Linguine: Snow peas, red peppers, scallions in a hot and spicy sauce,$11.95. Everything was first quality, with a rainbow palette of tastes and aromas to please the palate.
Dessert was Just Fresh Cheesecake: Creamy style cheesecake with Chef's special topping (strawberry). $3.25, followed by a steaming mug of Jamaican Java: Pusser's rum, Tia Maria and coffee,$3.50.
Whether you've just flown into the San Francisco Bay Area, you're taking in a concert at the Flint Center in Cupertino, or you are just looking for a new place for yourself or your guests to find delicious food, good service, and a good atmosphere, try Just Fresh.
Just Fresh is located at 21225 Stevens Creek Blvd., in Cupertino across from the Flint Center (De Anza College), in the Oaks Shopping Center. All major credit cards accepted. Full wheelchair access. For reservations call (408) 252 - 5311.
Mr. Sadham
© 2004 by Brian McCracken
(sung to the tune, "Mr. Sandman" )Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung Bung,
Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung
Bung, Bung, Bung, BungMr. Sadham, give us a break
(Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung)
Twelve years of shell games is too much to take
(Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung)
Take it from me you wacky Iraqi,
(Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung)
Soon shells will come from Americans in Khaki
Sadham, no more French-kisses at the UN,
(Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung)
For dragging out negotiations 'til who knows when
(Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung)
Your troubles are much worse than they seem,
Hey Mr. Sadham, this is no dream.Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung Bung,
Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung
Bung, BungMr. Sadham, you raving nut,
Get out of town or we'll kick your butt
No time now for Kuwaiti invasions
For gasing Kurds or bribing the United Nations
Sadham, bombs may soon make Bagdad glow
Mr. Sadham, it's way past time to go.
(Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung)
Your troubles are much worse than they seem,
Oh!
Mr. Sadham, this is no dream.Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung Bung,
Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung
Bung, BungMr. Sadham, please do get a clue,
We're really pissed and we're coming for you
(Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung)
Don't dare to turn on your radar beam
Our bombs will find you and you will get creamed.
(Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung)
Sadham, we've dealt with tyrants before
Be kind to your people, don't go on with this war.
(Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung)
Your troubles are much worse than they seem,
Mr. Sadham, this is no dream.Sadham, it's time to go
Bad actors don't know it's the end of the show
(Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung)
So pack your camel and hit the sand
Hey Mr. Sadham, this is the end.
(Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung)
Sadham, you make our blood boil,
The cost in blood can't be repaid with your oil.
(Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung)
Your troubles are much worse than they seem,
Mr. Sadham, this is no dream.Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung,
Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung
Bung, BungSadham, you lied to Blix
He asked if you were armed and you just said nix.
(Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung)
Our president's wise to your style of lying
(Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung)
Stop beating around our Bush or you'll be dying.
If you ignore our last ultimatum
We will do more than just spank your bottom.
(Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung)
Your troubles are much worse than they seem,
Mr. Sadham, this is no dream.Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung Bung,
Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung
Bung, BungSadham, here's a message for you
Clearing out now is all that you can do
Pretend you're not a fool and stop this war
(Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung)
It's time for your exit, go out the door.
Saying goodbye would be such a sensation
(Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung)
You'd save your people and the Iraqi nation.
(Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung)
Your troubles are much worse than they seem,
Mr. Sadham, this is no dream.So Mr. Sadham, (yes?) please end this show,
Save the Iraqi people a whole lot of woe,
Pack up your pride and your gigantic posters,
(Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung)
Our Cowboys are coming and they're no jokers.
So get a clue, Sadham, you murderous clown
Hey Mr. Sadham, get out of town.
(Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung)
Your troubles are much worse than they seem,
Mr. Sadham, leave Iraq, no more schemes
Mr. Sadham, this is no dream.Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung, Bung
Copyright © 2003-2004 by Brian McCracken. All rights reserved.
LA DON RON GONZALESFormer De Anza student Ron Gonzales, Santa Clara's newest County Supervisor and first Hispanic-American elected to the Board, is a beefy man, powerfully built. He works without a coat in his office, exposing his red 'power' braces. He looks shrewd and comfortable in the ways of politics. "I was on the City Council of Sunnyvale for eight years and a two term mayor there," explains Mr. Gonzales. "While this job is not going to be easy for any new-comer, I think that the experience I had there, being in government, and reading through agendas, and being able to pick out the important from the unimportant is certainly important. I'm not sure I know what I'm doing but I know what I need to do. That's part of the solution."
Mr. Gonzales attended De Anza College from 1969 through 1971. During that time he was very active in MEChA, holding the presidency during his last year. He was on the Student Body Council as a representative - at - large. The year of his transfer to the University of Santa Cruz he received the annual Trustees Award from the Board of Trustees, which is a great honor given only to one student per year. " Though it's been18 years it seems like only yesterday. I enjoyed the two years I was at De Anza. I have always felt like I got a quality education there. It was close, it provided the flexibility I needed to get a lot of the course work done very inexpensively, and as I said, the quality was top-notch. Since I transferred I've had members of my own family go there, some younger sisters, and they were all pleased. I have friends and other relatives who attend there now and they seem very pleased, so it seems to me that the quality has continued on. And of course, I think it was last year that it was picked as one of the top ten community colleges in the country so they must be doing something right out there.
"I feel very good about the fact that...I was instrumental in working with De Anza to get their Extended Campus program going. My only concern, during the eight years I was on the Sunnyvale City Council was that I wished that, whenever the big decisions were made on the location of De Anza, I would have preferred to have seen them in Sunnyvale, being that Sunnyvale is the largest city in the Foothill-De Anza Community College, thus the tax payers of Sunnyvale contribute a great deal to that system, and it would have been nice to have had the main campus there."
Gonzales is Supervisor of District 3 in Santa Clara, a very large district that faces the major issues of Transportation, Toxics, Traffic, and Drugs.
Drug testing is becoming common for companies to require for employment. Mr. Gonzales prefers a system that analyzes the health of the employee. It makes sense to pursue it in the context of the mental and physical health of an employee, but " ...if it's strictly drug testing, I have a problem with it, excluding certain occupations in which the publics' health is at risk, such as bus drivers, airline pilots, police officers, those kinds of things. But for general drug screening I think you run into severe questions of individual rights."
His district is criss-crossed with major freeways clogged with his constituents. He sees mass transportation as an option that needs to be studied more closely.
"In the area of toxics," he says," the general feeling in the community is that we still have a long way to go to make them feel comfortable that government,industry, and environmental groups are doing everything they possibly can to provide a safe environment for our future."
Perhaps some future or current De Anza student will be inspired by Mr. Gonzales. The Hispanic community too, could look to his example, as a man who respects his heritage and is proud to be an American to the extent that he pays back his country for its opportunities through dedicated hard work in community service.
“ A lively expression of color…”, says Emily thoughtfully.
“Whoa! Totally sick!” brays Rosie the Barrista.
They are both complementing the paintings of Vanessa Stafford, an artist who specializes in the subtlety of night scenes, of light and water, and city scenes… a visualist painter, a narrative artist, whose current canvasses have the tones and flavors of Klee, Gaugin, Chagall, and James Doolin. Her earlier work is surrealistic whimsy that floats closer to Peter Max or Aubrey Beardsley than Heironymous Bosch. Current paintings are more structured and harmonic, but still tinged with a dream-state and a curiously muted intensity. A musical rhythm is evident in her orchestration of movement that unifies disparate elements. That is an extension of her training as a cellist, as well as the influence of her parents, both jazz musicians.There is also a sense of boldness of imagination and a willingness to pursue it.
For nearly thirty years Ms. Stafford has been a significant artist in the seaside community of Santa Cruz, California. She began at the age of fourteen decorating eggs in traditional Baltic style and colors, selling them for eight dollars each. Today, her canvasses hang on the walls of collectors and, tellingly, on the walls of other artists. She has exhibited at San Francisco’s Palace of the Legion of Honor as well as at galleries across the United States and internationally.
“I respect her work quite a bit” declares Russel Brutsche, a Santa Cruz artist who exhibits extensively in the West. As a mutual member of Artwork Network, an informal artist support group, Mr. Brutsche has watched Ms. Stafford’s style and technique progress for ten years. He notes her interest in capturing movement and the quality of light in night scenes as an indicator of her personality and style. ”She uses a lot of glazing in her acrylic…in fact, to the max…to get a sense of depth. But it is not just her unique and distinctive style that strikes me. It is the fact that she chooses challenging projects. She really takes chances. Vanessa is not a safe painter.”
Another artist, Kevork Mourad, says, “Vanessa Stafford is highly gifted. She has an insightful use of light. I love her colors… Her colors are vibrant.”
“Doing realistic scenes and going after the essence of nature, including the chaos, is crucial in art because that is where original ideas come from.” says Stafford. “A combination of order and chaos is important. Too much orderliness is sterile. Too much chaos is self-destructive. I grew up in a very chaotic background. I wanted order. But looking back I see the value in the chaos. I am pleased when images manifest themselves on paper or canvas. I do art for my own satisfaction but I do like to show and I do care what other people think of my art. I want the people who buy my works to see them as joyful, magical. They should be warm, graceful, to be loved.”
Stafford paints scenes of inner journeys and external realities with command of her mediums, which include watercolor, pen and ink, oil, acrylic, and inlaid glass mosaic. “I especially like the intensity, biting vibrancy, and versatility of acrylic,” she explains. “Oil I use when I want a softer effect. Something I am getting interested in is hiking and discovering the patterns in nature, for example, the abstract quality of streams. You can see the pattern of strips of sunlight going through to the bottom, and then you can see the shadows. I am very intrigued and challenged by the transparent quality of water and of the patterning in different layers as it appears, disappears, and reappears very quickly. I focus on the different levels of light and shadow: at the surface, in the middle of the water, and the bottom, integrating them with their patterning on plants, boulders, muddy ripples, coarse pebbles, sodden leaves, fine sand, moss, and organic debris. It’s tricky stuff but that’s what’s challenging to me. It’s totally thrilling and challenging, because it’s like, IMPOSSIBLE! Most people think it’s impossible, but I think, ‘Yes, I can!’, and I will!” Ms. Stafford’s ability to become absorbed in reflection over the puzzles of patterns during her walks has a hazard: “I sometimes walk into trees!“, she says.
From her home on a bluff overlooking Santa Cruz Harbor, the sound of breaking surf and barking elephant seals rolls faintly through the screen door. The air in her living room is scented with sea salt and linseed oil. One wall is a shrine to her mother. The other walls are covered with her framed paintings. More are stacked in a corner. In another corner is her painter desk speckled and daubed, an elegant black cat sleeping in a banded rectangle of sunlight leaking through the Venetian blinds. A bookcase spills books onto the carpet, especially her favorite author, Katherine Anne Porter. CDs, classical and jazz, are stacked near the boom box pointed at her work area. Debussy is playing as she paints. “I get visual images while listening to music. I don’t like to draw silence or be in silence as I create.”
Ms. Stafford’s journey to her current level of technical expertise was a long and thoughtful one: “When I first started painting I used watercolors, and I would lay down the idea with ink lines. I used a German technical instrument called the Rapidograph. My other school chums had them as well, and we loved using them. We used the tiniest line imaginable, called a four ot line (in terms of line width). I would draw these very fragile outlines and then paint in the colors with watercolor. My beginning watercolors were very pale, as I applied the color hesitantly. I was a teenager (14 years old) and was shy. Those paintings looked shy. About twenty years later I had exhausted the possibilities of watercolor. I wanted to use colors that were stronger, or different, or be able to get a different ‘look’ to my paintings.
I started using acrylics. Acrylics are sort of like watercolors, since they are water-based, but they have a polymer binder in the pigments which allows you to paint in an ‘opaque’ way.
I started with acrylics by squeezing the color out of the tube, onto a palette, and thinning them down quite a bit. I painted the so called ‘undercoat’, the very basic background colors. Then with the next applications of color I would squeeze the color out of the tube and not thin it down as much, so that the brush strokes began to be opaque. I would use the opaque strokes selectively, like the side of a building for example. That's a good place to lay down opaque brush strokes. I would use a flat brush of different sizes, anywhere from a 4 "000" (small tip) to a 1 "0" (wider tip). I experimented using opaque brush strokes and fusing water into a part of that brush stroke to make it suddenly thin. That would create a variety of opaque levels, as well as create a change in texture. An example might be a boat harbor scene where the surface of the water changes and has opaque parts and translucent parts.
I also wanted to become proficient at oil paintings since they are so traditional. I was determined to ‘conquer’ oils. Oil paint is basically opaque: you can achieve a translucent layer with enough linseed oil, but it looks funky because it produces a very uneven surface texture if you thin it too much. I painted "nature" subject matter, like dead tree branches halfway submerged in a pool of water. I painted outdoor scenes, like that salt pool place in Moss Landing. I did get a lot of practice in. I was out there in the fields with other artists, and it was a blast. Very exciting and adventurous. But my back paid a price for hauling around all these heavy easels, canvases, boxes with oil tubes, and brushes.
It was a lot of physical work but I painted a lot and when you keep painting you develop this automatic response, kind of like driving a car. You're not thinking about every little maneuver when you're driving, it becomes automatic. You know when to down-shift and do it evenly, without thinking about it. That's the way it is with painting when you do enough of it. Part of the painting process becomes automatic, and you can experiment while in that automatic mode. It's like combining opposite modes(automatic with experimental) to achieve something new.
There's an intuitive aspect to experimenting. You have to try things without analyzing it too much, otherwise there's a premeditated look, a kind of predictable flatness that happens. If you let these weird brush stroke combinations of thick and thin, opaque and translucent happen, it has this fresh spontaneity. I think it takes years to paint in a stream of consciousness kind of way. You have to be very familiar with the media you're using. Usually in the beginning, when a painter is not familiar with the media, the paintings look stilted. It's interesting how brush strokes and applications of color can portray confidence , or lack of it!”
Another aspect of Stafford’s career is her teaching. She has a teaching credential in Art from San Jose State University. “I’ve taught art classes in public schools”, she says. “I like the enthusiasm of elementary school students. They usually like my classes because I have really fun art projects. I design art lessons for the different age groups. There are lessons I have that involve introducing watercolors as a medium, as well as other mediums. For example: pastels, colored pencils. I give short, entertaining lectures (for short attentions spans) and teach the basics. At older ages I'll introduce one point, two point perspective lessons. I'll show the railroad tracks disappearing into the horizon, explaining the vanishing point as the rail road tracks come to a point off in the distance. Nine year olds are old enough to grasp some of these concepts, as long as you use concrete examples. Perspective can get very confusing and tedious but it's important. Otherwise they might be in a state of ignorance for the rest of their lives.
The fun part is opening their world. For a lot of them, this is the first time that they have experienced Art. I like teaching. I like opening the door of possibilities for other people.”
A Living View of Death
Click, click, click...Death is prancing;Death is a universal that affects all living things. Many animals mourn the death of another. Witness the sorrow and puzzlement expressed by an elephant when a mate dies. The dead one is stroked and nudged with much bugling, and the tusks in particular are "nosed" by the grieving elephant's trunks. But unique among animals (or in our ability to communicate it with other sentient beings) the human species seeks always to "know" or explain the "why" of all things, to penetrate that impenetrable, mysterious end-point,
Death at midnight, goes a-dancing,
Tapping on a tomb with talon thin,
Click, click, click goes the grisly violin.
Henri CazalisDeath in its imminence or its reality provokes powerful emotions which in turn provoke humans to deal with these emotions in a ritualized or rationalized (some would say ratiocinating) manner:"Death, the sable smoke where vanishes the flame."
Lord Byron"If matter mute and inanimate, though changed by the forces of Nature into a multitude of forms, can never die, will the spirit of Man suffer annihilation when it has paid a brief visit, like a royal guest, to this tenement of clay? No. I am as sure that there is another life as I am that I am alive today."
William Jennings BryanPreoccupation with death and what happens to both the body and spirit at that juncture can reach extremes of morbidity and absurdity: When I was seventeen a friend asked me to go riding in his new GTO. Because of homework, I could not go with him. Several hours later I heard a knock at the front door, a solemn conversation followed by a shriek - then my mother rushed into the room. A policeman and the county coroner had just informed her that I had died in a fiery collision between a car and a freight train...
At my friend's funeral, I was a pallbearer. The casket was nearly impossible to lift because his parents went $20,000 dollars into debt for a waterproof coffin. They could not bear the thought of his body decaying or being consumed by worms. The point was moot. The coroner came to my house by mistake for a reason...I later walked down the tracks where it happened. I found my friend's shoe. I saw hair stuck by blood to the metal railing of a railroad bridge. I saw burnt flesh. The train struck the car at eighty miles per hour broadside, carrying it a half-mile down the tracks in flames, crushed under the engine.
It is such thinking that gives people the leap of faith, the hope, the demand for reincarnation: "Do you stay dead forever? Surprisingly, this question can be answered with a fair degree of precision. You can expect to stay dead about fifty two years." according to Ian Currie in his book, "You Cannot Die".
Of course, reincarnation implies that the dead are sensible, that a conscious spirit lingers with the corpse. In defining "burial", the New American Bible says this: "It was considered a great tribulation for a corpse not to be buried and to become food for beasts. It was, therefore, a primary obligation of a family to see that their dead were buried properly." This theme has had constant play. Note myths of death and the underworld; of damnation in Hell- fire; of Purgatory; of Elysian Fields; of Houris and Abaddon.
As evidence of life after death proponents point to the OBE (out of body experience) related by people clinically assessed dead but later revived to tell wondrous stories of shining lights and blissful beings, dead relatives come to greet them, and sensual and intellectual images (presumed to be heaven) that tempt a return to death!
Doctors and chemists point out that hallucinations are common during anoxia (lack of oxygen to the brain). Also, the mind triggers release of a kind of natural opiate when over-stressed that could be a possible source of these "pipe" dreams. After Death Rituals
Among natives of Madagascar (to whom death is considered merely another step in the journey of life), flowers play an important role in helping to keep spirits sufficiently satisfied with the world beyond to stay there. To these folks, flowers are not enough, however.
At frequent intervals (approximately once every four or five years, depending upon advice of the family astrologer), members of prosperous families take the skeletons of dead relatives from mortuary casks. New clothing is draped on the bones, and then the skeletons are taken to see the sights of the town in ordinary commercial taxis.
Completion of such a guided tour for the dead does not end rites. Before being returned to its box - with the hope that it has had such fun that its spirit will not trouble the living - a skeleton is usually treated to hit music played by a hired band and regaled by news of the living (delivered in a monotonous chant). Interrogation of the Spirit
Despite a person having done everything they can before death and is given aid by survivors who provide passage money or pray for his soul, the spirit is not promised automatic entrance into eternal bliss.
Christian thought portrays Peter as guardian of the portals of heaven. Following, of course, divine instructions, it is the role of this heavenly doorkeeper to determine which spirits are admitted and which are turned away.
Mohammedan thought is even more explicit. According to traditions of Islam, two angels interrogate the spirit of every dead person: Munkar ("The Unknown") and Nakir ("The Repudiator"). Final exams conducted by Munkar and Nakir take place immediately after burial, while the spirit is still hovering near the body.
Even a deeply pious spirit is in danger of becoming frightened and forgetting the answers when subjected to such a final exam. Hence, a long- established burial custom of Islam involves placing into the grave a tablet of stone or clay, inscribed with a condensed version of the creed. A spirit who is not able to think and answer coherently under the questioning of Munkar and Nakir has only to take the tablet in hand to produce the right answers.
There are other opinions. A pragmatic French philosopher, Pierre Gassendi said, "I was born without knowing why, I have lived without knowing why, and I am dying without knowing why or how."
For myself, I am in accord with these words of Leonardi de Vinci: "As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death."
