What We Need To Know About Homelessness In Anchorage - Working My OLÉ Class Notes

Our Friday Homelessness OLÉ class speaker was late Friday afternoon.  The class monitor, at one point, was going to call the day's class off.  But someone in the class suggested we get to know each other and why we were taking the class.  And as we did that, we learned the speaker was on the way besides.  I had my iPad and took notes.

There were about 30 students.  Everyone's 'older' since OLÉ classes are aimed at retired folks.  A lot more women than men.  I gave the class monitor my notes to go along with hers to give to the speaker - there are seven more sessions.

I went home and sifted through the notes which were chronological by speaker.  I wanted to focus more on the ideas than the speaker.  I grouped similar comments.  Then I tried to see differences in the kinds of comments, the different perspectives they represented, etc.   I was trying to condense this as much as possible without losing content, but also to help make us as conscious as possible of how different kinds of comments reflected different needs and interests.

Then I did that again.  Here are my final two iterations of people's comments.

Here's the second cut:

General Issue	Specifics
Opinions - general	Never seen it so bad System isn’t working Need to do something
Opinions - Specific	Protect public spaces In My neighborhood Tired of being afraid
Solutions  - housing	Build Housing Homeless Housing on Park Strip Use empty buildings - like Sam’s Club Tiny Houses
Need to Know more	Learn from the homeless What are the resources? What are the different types of homeless? How much low income affordable housing is there in Anchorage? What are trends from past until now? Definitions of homelessness.
Things individuals can do to help out Larger societal problems that create homeless people	-

And here's the third cut.

General	More Specific
Perspectives for Looking at Homeless	View of ‘victims’ of the homeless View of the homeless population View of ‘solvers’ of homelessness
Ways to ‘solve’ homelessness	Solve problems caused by homelessness -To community -To homeless Solve problems that cause homelessness
Information we want	Definitions of homeless Categories of homeless (assuming different categories can be handled in different ways) Total # of homeless # in each category of homeless # of those transitioning out of homelessness each year # of new homeless each year # of chronic homeless Definitions/categories of low cost housing Data on available low cost housing in Anchorage Data on successful approaches elsewhere Current costs of homelessness to -MOA -Residents with homes -Homeless residents -Others Resources available -Funds allocated -Positions allocated -Expertise available -Resources still needed Sources of homeless people (why people become homeless)
Solutions	Money -Taxes -Lottery More low cost housing Mental health services Addiction help Employment help Health Costs help

There are a lot of savvy people in the class coming at this from different perspectives.  I hope I've been reasonably faithful in how I've pulled together the comments.  Once I had these frameworks, I did add a few more items in (particularly things we want to know).  I was concerned that we distinguish between short term fixes to help individuals who are homeless and people who are affected negatively by nearby homeless cams on the one hand, and how to 'fix' the societal changes in the US that are causing homelessness, that Anchorage, on its own can't 'fix'.  Changes in wages, job security, student debt, veteran's physical and mental health issues resulting from their service, access to health care, etc.  It's in there, but not that explicitly.

We've got different people coming in to talk to us over the next seven weeks.  Though I don't think that we've got any homeless folks coming in to talk.

Please Go To The Alaskan Youth Climate Change Lawsuit At The Supreme Court Wednesday - I Have A Conflicting Obligation

I saw this message today:

As wildfires rage across Alaska and salmon die in the state’s warmed rivers after a summer that reached the hottest temperatures on record, these young Alaskans are standing up for their rights and for a future free from climate chaos.
WHO: The 16 young Alaskans who are suing the state of Alaska for violating their constitutional rights by knowingly contributing to climate change.
WHAT: The youth plaintiffs have a hearing before the Alaska Supreme Court after appealing a lower court’s ruling against them and they need YOU in the courtroom to show the public that their community stands behind them in their fight for climate justice.
WHY: The lower court mistakenly ruled that the youth had not identified a state policy that contributes to climate change, even though the youth clearly identified the statute declaring the State’s Energy Policy to promote fossil fuels and explained how the State’s implementation of that policy causes climate change and violates the constitutional rights of young Alaskans.
WHEN: Wednesday, October 9 at 1:30 p.m. Arrive early to secure your seat in the courtroom. There will be a press conference following the hearing at about 2:30 p.m. near the courthouse (location TBD) where you will have a chance to hear from some of the youth plaintiffs and their attorneys.
WHERE: 303 K Street, Anchorage 99501

I should be there!

But Wednesday is also Yom Kippur.  Although I have lots of issues with the persona of the Old Testament God, the time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is an important, traditional period set aside to think about one's deeds of the last year.  Whom have I wronged?  Who has wronged me?  How can I make things right?  Can I forgive those who did me harm?  And just as important, it is time to think about how I can be a better person in the next year.

And there is something much greater than thinking about attending Yom Kippur  as one individual act.  Going to high holiday services, even though I miss most of the other services during the year, is a way to honor my ancestors who struggled hard, and even died, because of their membership in this family of people that goes back to Moses and Abraham.  I can't just walk away from that. So I cringe at the demanding, paternalistic diety in the prayer book, and the fatalistic sealing of people's fate:

Oh Rosh Hashanah it is written,
on Yom Kippur it is sealed:
How many shall pass on, how many shall come to be;
who shall live and who shall die;
who shall see ripe age and who shall not;
who shall perish by fire and who by water;
who by sword and who by beast;
who by hunger and who by thirst;
who by earthquake and who by plague;
who by strangling and who by stoning;
who shall be secure and who shall be driven;
who shall be tranquil and who shall be troubled;
who shall be poor and who shall be rich;
who shall be humbled and who exalted.*

OK, you've got ten days to change what is written, before it is sealed, in this narrative.  You do have some say in this.  And while some of these seem like ancient fates, most are still fairly common even in the US.  And around the world there are people still being stoned to death, but how are these sorts of fates due to an individual's unholy behavior? Are the people dying by fire more sinful than those who have less painful deaths or even those who live for another year?  Are the rich really better people than those who are poor?  There are so many examples of this not being true.  (Of course I'm accepting our society's belief that rich people are somehow better than poor people.)

But other parts of the prayer book are more subtle and relevant to today's world.  So I concentrate on those parts.  Such as:

We sin against You when we sin against ourselves.
For our failures of truth, O Lord, we ask forgiveness.

For passing judgment without knowledge of the facts,
and for distorting facts to fit our theories.
For using the sins of others to excuse our own,
and for denying responsibility for our own misfortunes.
For condemning in our children the faults we tolerate in ourselves,
and for condemning in our parents the faults we tolerate in ourselves.

For keeping the poor in the chains of poverty,
and turning a deaf ear to the cry of the oppressed.
For using violence to maintain our power,
and for using violence to bring about change.
For waging aggressive war,
and for the sin of appeasing aggressors.
For obeying criminal orders,
and for the sin of silence and indifference.
For poisoning the air, and polluting land and sea,
and for all the evil means we employ to accomplish good ends.

These are behaviors that people do every day and these lines force them to face the consequences of their seemingly minor and benign behavior.    And I'm comfortable with "O Lord" being a metaphor for humanity or nature, or some other collective being other than a tyrannical deity demanding obedience of the imperfect creatures he's created.  (So very much like many parents.)

*After writing all this, I found a discussion above of the list of ways people might die, by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg who shares some of my reactions, but offers this more as a collective rather than individual fate.

". . .how can we accept that tefillah (prayer) and teshuvah (repentance) and tzedekah (acts of righteousness, usually translated as “charity”) are going to save us from earthquakes, car accidents, persecution? We know that lots of very good people suffer every day, and that many people who do horrible things prosper. One could write off the prayer as reflective of an era in which people found solace in trying to control their fate, but I think that’s unfair and dismissive of the liturgy. . .

What if it weren’t about my individual repentance as it affects my individual fate? What if our repentance as a society (which demands that each individual do his or her part) is the thing that affects our collective fate? What if the reason a person gets cancer is not because he or she personally has done something wrong, but because we as a nation and a globe have poisoned our air, our water, and our food with toxic chemicals and negligence? Are the tsunami of two years ago and the hurricanes of last year a sign that entire sections of the world were filled with sinners, or a tragic by-product of global warming? Are the women killed by stoning–yes, today–in honor killings around the world guilty of insufficient prayer, or should we assign responsibility to everyone who perpetuates a culture in which this is considered acceptable? Are the war refugees (like those fleeing the genocide in Darfur or the Lost Boys of Sudan) who sometimes fall to wild beasts personally responsible for their situation, their fate? Of course not. "

I can live better with this interpretation, but why not change the language of the prayerbook to reflect this?

So, in my life, I've accepted that attending High Holiday services is something I should do.  My mother took me with her, even though she didn't go to weekly services.  And there were times when going was difficult - as a student in Germany when the Jewish community was not yet visible again, and as a Peace Corps volunteer in a remote Thai province.  But I usually attend.  I work past the language that's troubling, and focus on the language that connects me, individually, with righteousness and humanity.

And so, I hope that many of my friends who believe in the importance of fighting Climate Change in as many ways as possible, are at the Supreme Court Wednesday afternoon to support the 16 who are suing the State of Alaska.

A Recovery Day

That's me, like the sun, trying to see through the clouds.  101˚F, chest full of crud.  It wasn't quite that bad yesterday when I went to my OLÉ classes.  But I did try to sit away from others.

I'm staying in today.  I'm not good at being sick  I'm drinking lots of hot water with honey.  But I'll try to get some stuff done.

The sun has broken through a couple of times.  The trees are losing their leaves.  I do want to write a bit about SB 91 - the criminal justice reform bill that was essentially repealed this year because that was the main topic of our state and federal courts class yesterday.  And also about how our class talked about homelessness (the other class) while waiting for the speaker to come.  Actually, it was a good thing we had time to get to know each other better.

OLÉ - The Innocence Project: "50 To 150 People In Alaska Prisons Are Innocent"

It's sort of like I ordered way more off the menu than I'm going to be able to eat.  Yesterday was the Pecha Kucha (pronounce in the four syllables you see) class and today began with the Innocence Project and the Pebble Mine.  And I seem to be coming down with a cold.  

But let me get a little up here since I didn't post yesterday.  Let's get some of the Innocence Project up.  This is the work of saints - helping people wrongly convicted to get out of prison.  The speakers were Mark Johnson, (sitting) the head of the board for the IP, and Bill Oberly the employee who does most of the work.  I took the picture after the presentation when they were answering individual questions.  

Every time I read about a prisoner getting out of prison after 10, 15, 30 years because of evidence that clearly exonerates them, or a confession by another of the crime, it breaks my heart thinking of someone taken from the family and thrown into a cell.  For example from The National Registry of Exonerations.

Many prisons are inhumane for guilty prisoners.  Imagine if you didn't do the crime.  

If imagining that is hard to do, watch Netflix's When They See Us*  about five teenagers who were imprisoned for a rape they didn't commit because of a prosecutor who coerced confessions and ignored evidence that didn't fit her story.   This is the story of the kids convicted of the Central Park jogger rape.  I confess, that I didn't want to watch it, but saw it was getting awards and so we decided to try the first episode.  It's mostly painful, but the actual rapists eventually confesses (after meeting one of the five in prison) and they do get out.  There's an extra episode which is an Oprah show of sorts (she was the producer I think) where all the actors who played the boys and their older selves are interviewed.  And then the original real prisoners are interviewed as well.  

*This is not a great link here, but when I link to Netflix, to goes to my subscription which won't work for others.  It may go to the right place for other Netflix subscribers, I don't know.  And reviews at Washington Post and New York Times have paywalls.  You might also want to check Wikipedia.  

It's pretty powerful, and one line from the film's director really caught my attention.  She challenged people who talk about the system being broken.  It's not broken, she said, it was designed that way.  And when it comes to people of color and poor folks that seems to be accurate.  

So that was my most recent connection to this sort of injustice and was good background for understanding the enormity of the wrongs that the Innocence Project tries to right.  

A little bit from today's class from my notes.  

Innocence Project's MISSION

1. Identify , investigate, and exonerate individuals who have been wrongly convicted in the State of Alaska
2.  Education - doing that today (at OLÉ).  Provide ed opportunities for advocates and for the public that foster a culture that champions the defense of the innocent.  
3. Implement policies, practices, and reforms  that will prevent wrongful convictions and hasten the identification and release of innocent persons.

Number 1 is the main priority.  

History

The Alaska IP is part of a national Innocence Network   All independent, but share experiences, best practices.  There originally was just one, but it became clear quickly that they couldn't cover the whole country.  A Northwest PI was started, but they couldn't even handle all of Washington, let alone the rest of their territory.  Alaska's Project Innocence began in 2006.  

The Project has 6 criteria for accepting cases.

1. Individual is incarcerated
2. Individual has at least two years remaining on sentence.
3. Factually, the client is actually innocent.  (They don't work on technical legal issues for people who aren't innocent.)
4. Evidence is available which may prove actual innocence
5. Individual has exhausted all court actions under the facts of the criminal conviction upon which the individual is incarcerated where the individual has appointed counsel as a matter of right
6. Notwithstanding numbers 1 through 5, the Board of the Alaska Innocence Project may accept any case at its discretion.  (but number 1 - actual innocence - is necessary)

They said that research suggests that 1-3% of people in prison are innocent.  Given Alaska's prison population, that means 50 - 150 people!   

The only people exonerated so far through the Alaska Innocence Project have been the Fairbanks Four, which is a big deal.  There are more potential cases in the pipeline.  

Here's a link to their website.  You can find more there.  We've got three more session on this topic.    

Sorry for such a truncated post, but really need to get to bed.  I have a 9am class on State and Federal Courts tomorrow and a 3pm class on Homelessness.  

Once Upon A Time I Thought I Might Catch Up. Fat Chance.

As I wrote the title, I realized we never can catch up in life, but I was referring to little things like writing blog posts and paying the bills.  Today was my wife's birthday.  We went for a movie and dinner.   It seemed like a good day to spend the early afternoon in a movie, but the rain had stopped and there were even breaks in the clouds when we got there.

 And the snow was mostly gone from the Chugach.


I've already  written about my mixed feelings about going to see Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.   Now that I've seen it, if I hadn't, I wouldn't have missed anything important.

Even though I've eaten at Musso & Franks, went to movies at the Bruin theater when I was a student at UCLA, and even interviewed George Putnam (there was an ad for his newscast on a bus stop) for my junior high school newspaper.  Putnam arrived in a gold limo - a Rolls, I think - and he smoked through the interview even though his bio said he didn't smoke. (At least that's what my memory tells me.)

The movie began in a Pan Am 747, which set alarms off right way, since the date posted was 1969.  I'd read that the period details had been carefully done.  And yes, I know some odd details.  In this case because I first flew on one of the early Pan Am 747 flights - from Honolulu to Tokyo - in March 1970. (I was flying from a Peace Corps training program I worked at in Hilo to the second part of the training in Thailand.)  Pan Am 1 and 2 had just started flying. I think it was Pan Am 1 that flew around the world toward the west and Pan Am2 to the east.  Did it start earlier in 1969?  I've now had time to look it up and the first commercial flight was in January 1970.

It wasn't a bad movie - though I generally skip movies with lots of violence - but it felt artificial throughout.  Cardboard.  I assume that was intentional since it was about Hollywood and all the phoniness of that life, but as the birthday girl said over dinner at the Thai Kitchen, with all the really good stuff we're seeing on Netflix, it just didn't cut it.

So I'm reduced to writing filler pieces like this because I just haven't had time to finish my thoughts on the Joseph Maguire hearings and several other drafts that probably will never get beyond that stage.  

And tomorrow I start a slew of OLÉ classes.  (Continuing ed classes aimed at retired folks at UAA.  I think they pay for themselves so maybe they won't disappear next year.)   I have an actual project in one that I need to spend extra time on and I haven't figured out what I'm going to do.  It's a Pecha-Kucha class - you present 20 pictures in seven minutes with narration of the story they tell. Well, I've got plenty of pictures, but organizing a compelling story is the challenge.  As I see it now, though I'll probably discover that was the easy part once I get the story figured out.

Other classes I enrolled in include:

• An Overview of the Pebble Copper-Molybdenum-Gold Prospect 
• The Innocence Project
• State and Federal Courts and Current Legal Issues
• Homeless, Homelessness and Finding "Home"

And a one time short class that's a trip to an Escape Room.

I'm hoping the classes will provide plenty of fodder for the blog.

How Did A Jewish Comedian Become President Of Ukraine? Netflix Has Season One of "Servant Of The People"

Volodymyr Zelensky burst into many people's consciousness last week.  Some knew that he'd been a Ukrainian comedian with a hit TV show already.  In the show he plays a history teacher who's caught on video by one of his students while he's ranting against the corruption of his government.  The video goes viral.  His students use crowdsourcing to get enough money to register him as a candidate.  And he wins.

And then the comedian actually runs for President.

I just discovered that Season one of the television show - Servant of the People - is on Netflix.  The episodes are short (about 25 minutes) and we got through about five last night.

The show doesn't tell you much about the actor himself, but it does give you a sense of what caused Ukrainians to elect a man with no previous political experience.  And you get a sense of the overwhelming corruption in the Ukraine government.  And it's fun.

So if you have Netflix, this is definitely worth your time to give you a better sense of the Ukraine and Kiev and the man Trump tried to force into finding dirt on Biden's son by withholding several hundred million dollars in aid.

Of course, you may want to know more.

This April 4 Slate article looks into the crystal ball to predict what sort of president he might be.

An April 27 Al Jazeera report.

Here's an alternative bio with some quirky English from Height Of.


In the episodes we've seen on Netflix, the school teacher/president is having some problems dealing with the layers of corruption and wealth of the many, many friends and relatives of government officials whorls  hold positions in the government.  It's not clear how the now real president of Ukraine is handling these problems.  At least he's been introduced to the dilemmas he's facing through his role in the show.

But there may be more to this.  He's an owner of the production company and a writer of the show.    Was the show a setup to get him elected?  It will be interesting to see how this all unfolds.

[I'm not linking to the Netflix show because while I know how to get there from my Netflix account, I'm not sure how to send others there.  In any case, when you're into Netflix, just put Servant of the People into the Netflix search.]

Solstice Is Past And It's Fall In Anchorage

There's more termination dust.





Ravens Roost had an apple festival the other night.

There were clouds in   Goose Lake.

Trees are getting yellow and losing their leaves.

I got some radishes on the last day of the Muldoon Farmers Market for this year.

And this woodpecker visited our yard today.  

Some Things Change Slower Than Others - Denali Sunset

This was the view this evening from O'Malley on the Green where we went for an event.  The day started at six am when I turned on the radio - still in bed - members of the House Intelligence Committee questioning Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire.  I thought he was a reasonable witness - well last one I saw was Lewandowski so the bar was low.  But he seemed respectful and caught in a difficult position.  He'd been recently hired (after much of the subject of the hearings had already happened) and he couldn't come out directly against his boss.

But in bed, I wasn't taking notes, so if I'm going to write about it, I need to review transcripts.  But today I was busy going through a to-do list that's been getting three or four things added for everything I actually get done.

So you get the mountains.  Foraker on the left, Denali on the right.  Everything changes.  These mountains change daily as the weather changes.  And the mountains are slowly wearing down.  But very slowly.


Denali is 20,308 feet tall (6,190 meters).  It's about 150 miles from Anchorage as the raven flies, (or  241 km.)  Unlike Everest and Anaconda,  it's pretty much a free standing mountain, towering over the rest of the Alaska Range..

Let's Get Beyond The Politics of Impeachment And Brexit - Wos - Canguro And Argentina Upcoming Election

[This post is not what you were expecting.  Nor me.  It began as a way to step back and remind folks that there's more than US and UK politics happening in the world.  While we were in Argentina this summer we learned a little about their presidential elections.  I thought I'd offer bit of Argentine politics for folks.  That led me to the political trap video that's near the bottom, which is worth a post all of its own.  It's very catchy, even without understanding the lyrics.  Be sure to watch it.  Will this sort of thing be part of the US election in 2020?  I've also added the lyrics and a translation.]

I don't see much coverage of the Argentine presidential election this October.  On our visit in June and July people all agreed they were being squeezed by high inflation and life was getting harder.  Argentina is a country with a history much longer than the US and in the early 1900s was one of the wealthiest in the world.  People are sophisticated.  They have free health care and university education.  Current President Macri has imposed harsh economic restrictions.  People we talked to were not shy in voicing their opinions for one candidate or the other.

From AS/COA (Americas Society/Council on the Americas)

"Argentina’s first-round vote on October 27 will see the election of president and vice president, and nearly half of congressional seats (130 deputies and 24 senators). While President Mauricio Macri is in the running for a second term, Argentines chose who else will appear on the ballot in the August 11 primary elections, known as the PASO. The main obstacles to the pro-business president of the Together for Change coalition are Argentina’s economic recession and a peronist front. He polls behind center-left Alberto Fernández, who's running mate is former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
Some 33 million Argentines are eligible to cast the compulsory vote, which will go on to a November runoff if none of the presidential candidates wins at least 45 percent, or 40 percent with a 10-point margin over the runner-up."

From Forbes:

"On September 29 the Argentine province of Mendoza will elect its governor and renew one-half of its bicameral legislature. Mendoza is Argentina’s fifth most populous province, and one of only five provinces (out of 24) currently governed by a member of President Mauricio Macri’s Together for Change alliance. A Together for Change victory in Mendoza would provide a glimmer of optimism for a dignified loss by Macri in the October 27 presidential election against Peronist Alberto Fernández (and against Fernández’s vice presidential nominee, former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner) as well as provide hope for some Together for Change down ballot success in congressional races. In contrast, a defeat would foreshadow a potential shellacking on October 27 and demoralize the Together for Change forces even more than they already are. . ."

This article was written by "Mark P. Jones[who] is the Joseph D. Jamail Chair in Latin American Studies and the Director of the Center for Energy Studies’ Argentina Program at Rice University’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy."

That, of course, gives me a chance to post some Mendoza pictures from last summer I didn't post yet.

 The fountain in the huge Parque San Martin

Vistante Winery - Mendoza is the center of the Argentine wine industry

Mendoza is also a center for olive oil.  This picture is from the Pasrai olive oil factory.











And here's a more personal reporting style that leads this post in a different direction from Americas Quarterly:

"BUENOS AIRES - “He can’t stop coughing/working 12-hour-long shifts/he makes two meager coins a day to support a family of four/and don’t talk to me about meritocracy, don’t be funny, don’t screw with me/because without opportunities/that mierda doesn’t work.”
It’s hard to miss the frustration driving the lyrics of “Canguro,” a song written by 21-year-old Argentine trap star Wos, whose criticisms of the status quo under President Mauricio Macri have struck a chord with many. Debuting just days before the August primary election that delivered a blow to Macri’s reelection prospects, the song quickly climbed the charts and has racked up over 44 million views on YouTube.
Wos is among a cohort of young public figures who have used popular culture and social media to mobilize opposition to Macri among youth. The demographic has been hit particularly hard by the recession under the current government. In the second quarter of 2019, unemployment among ages 14 to 29 rose to 18.6% for men and to 23.4% for women, according to the latest government figures."

Here's Wos' video.  With the introduction above you can get a good sense of the power of this song even without understanding Spanish.  It says it has 50 million hits since August 8.  That's about six weeks.




And here's a version with the lyrics as he sings.

Here are just the lyrics from Genius.com.  I've added a Google Translate English version in purple.

[Letra de "CANGURO"]

[Intro]
Hoy no voy a salir y voy a quedarme en la' nube' donde nadie sube

[Estribillo]
(Uah) No vengas a molestar, dicen que está todo mal‚ bueno
(Uah) Yo estoy más que bien acá y no te pienso ni mirar‚ ciego (Ciego)
Vamo'‚ repriman la mierda que tienen guardada en el pecho
Traguen y callen hasta estar desecho', párense siempre derecho
"Cállenlo, sédenlo‚ que haga lo que quiera, pero sáquenlo" y
"Cállenlo, sédenlo‚ que haga lo que quiera, pero sáquenlo"
Ey, háganme caso, ¿o no tienen claro que soy el rey?
Háganme caso que soy la ley, dame mis blíster', mis Parisiennes, wah


["CANGURO" lyrics]:
[Enter]
I'm not going out today and I'm going to stay in the 'cloud' where nobody goes up

[Chorus]
(Uah) Don't come bother, they say it's all wrong ‚well
(Uah) I'm more than good here and I don't even think about you ‚blind (Blind)
Vamo '‚repress the shit they have in their chest
Swallow and shut up until you are wasted ', always stand straight
"Shut it up, know it‚ do what you want, but take it out "and
"Shut it up, know it‚ do what you want, but take it out "
Hey, pay attention to me, or are you not sure that I am the king?
Listen to me that I am the law, give me my blister ', my Parisiennes, wah

[Verso 1]
Patada de canguro, golpe duro
No vamo' a parar con esto, negro, te lo juro
Traje cianuro pa' meterle' en el trago
Cinco minuto' acá y ya estamo' causando estragos
Un mago nos quiere hacer desaparecer
Pero esta plaga rara nunca para de crecer
Somo' de los pocos locos que andan buscando placer
Y aunque quieran vernos roto', no damo' brazo a torcer
No para de toser, trabajando doce hora'
Cobra dos moneda' al mes pa' mantener cuatro persona'
Y no hables de meritocracia, me da gracia, no me joda'
Que sin oportunidades esa mierda no funciona
Y no, no hace falta gente que labure más
Hace falta que con menos se pueda vivir en paz
Mandale gas, no te perdás, acordate dónde estás
Fijáte siempre de qué lado de la mecha te encontrás


[Verse 1]
Kangaroo kick, hard hit
I'm not going to stop with this, black, I swear
Cyanide suit to get him in the drink
Five minutes 'here and I'm already' wreaking havoc
A wizard wants to make us disappear
But this weird plague never stops growing
Somo 'of the few crazy people who are looking for pleasure
And even if they want to see us broken ', I don't dare' arm to twist
He doesn't stop coughing, working twelve hours'
Charge two coins' per month to 'keep four people'
And don't talk about meritocracy, I'm funny, don't fuck me '
That without opportunities that shit doesn't work
And no, you don't need people to work anymore
It is necessary that with less one can live in peace
Send gas, don't get lost, remember where you are
Always notice which side of the wick you found


[Verso 2]
Dice: "What up? Esto pega como coca"
La gente baila loca, el cuello se disloca
La droga en lo' dedo', que vaya de boca en boca
Sentís como te choca, esa vaina subió la nota
Salto como una pulga, empezó la purga
Largo todo fresco como un PXXR GVNG, hijo de…
Otra vez con sed entre fiebres y migraña'
Vuelvo a soñar con un viejo en el medio de una montaña
Me miró y me dijo: "De la vida nadie se salva
Y eso de la juventud es solo una actitud del alma"
Qué virtud extraña, ahora me queman las entrañas
Mi mejor conversación la tuve ayer con una araña
No sé qué hora es, ni me interesa
Acá siempre son 4:20, y estamo' de la cabeza, con simpleza
Birra barata y mala en lata, má' la planta santa esa
La que calma el cuerpo y te lo desestresa
El hood está de fiesta, el culo se te tensa
Entiendo que te molesta, la empatía te cuesta
Y si ahora gritamo' y cantamo' en modo de protesta
Es porque preguntamo' bien y nadie nos dio una respuesta
Se creen dueños, salgan del medio, lo digo en serio
Fuera la yuta que meten al barrio, le tira a los pibe' y le mata los sueño'
Bueno, juego, del underground, del agujero
Estamo' agitando de nuevo, sacando pa' afuera a eso' carroñero', ñero

[Verse 2]
He says: "What up? This hits like coca"
People dance crazy, the neck dislocates
The drug in the 'finger', that goes from mouth to mouth
You feel how it hits you, that pod raised the note
I jump like a flea, the purge began
Long all fresh as a PXXR GVNG, son of ...
Again thirsty between fevers and migraine '
I dream again of an old man in the middle of a mountain
He looked at me and said: "No one is saved from life
And that of youth is just an attitude of the soul "
What a strange virtue, now my insides burn
I had my best conversation yesterday with a spider
I don't know what time it is, nor interest me
It's always 4:20 here, and I'm right in the head, simply
Cheap and bad canned birra, plus the holy plant that
The one that calms the body and unstresses you
The hood is partying, the ass tenses
I understand that it bothers you, empathy costs you
And if now I shout 'and sing' in protest mode
It's because we asked 'well and nobody gave us an answer
They believe they own, get out of the way, I mean it
Out the jute they put into the neighborhood, he throws the kids 'and kills them the dreams'
Well, play, underground, hole
I'm 'waving again, getting out' that scavenger 'outside, ñero


[Estribillo]
(Uah) No vengas a molestar, dicen que está todo mal, bueno
(Uah) Yo estoy más que bien acá y no te pienso ni mirar, ciego (Ciego)
Vamo', repriman la mierda que tienen guardada en el pecho
Traguen y callen hasta estar desecho', párense siempre derecho
"Cállenlo, sédenlo, que haga lo que quiera, pero sáquenlo" y
"Cállenlo, sédenlo, que haga lo que quiera, pero sáquenlo"
Ey, háganme caso, ¿o no tienen claro que soy el rey?
Háganme caso que soy la ley, dame mis blíster', mis Parisiennes, wah

[Chorus]
(Uah) Don't come bother, they say it's all wrong ‚well
(Uah) I'm more than good here and I don't even think about you ‚blind (Blind)
Vamo '‚repress the shit they have in their chest
Swallow and shut up until you are wasted ', always stand straight
"Shut it up, know it‚ do what you want, but take it out "and
"Shut it up, know it‚ do what you want, but take it out "
Hey, pay attention to me, or are you not sure that I am the king?
Listen to me that I am the law, give me my blister ', my Parisiennes, wah

Tiny World of Mushrooms

With all the dry weather it seemed like we might not get any mushrooms, but more recently we've had plenty of rain and some of the mushrooms are popping up in the back yard.

And something a little bigger.

I wish I had time to go through my Field Guide to North American Mushrooms to share what these mushrooms are, but too much happening.  Just relax and enjoy a more natural post.