Izzy’s update

Israel Rind informs me that they’ve opened a second Izzy’s at 783 E. El Camino Real in Sunnyvale. (408-523-1333). Why does South Bay have all the luck!?!

Uncle Luigi’s Kosher Pizza. PIZZA and KOSHER used to inhabit two different worlds. Izzy brought them together.

Hippie to yuppie

I subscribe to the Guardian Weekly. Occasionally, I get the latest issue on Friday, but more often it arrives on Saturday. That’s “on time” as far as I’m concerned, and I can still enjoy reading it over the weekend. Once in a while it doesn’t get to me until Monday, which meant Tuesday this week since Monday was Memorial Day.

Ah well.

John Harris quotes British rock writer Charles Shaar Murray in his opinion piece “Tune in, turn on, drop out, cash up” in the 25.05.07 issue. I thought I’d pass it along:

“The line from hippy to yuppie is not nearly as convoluted as some people like to believe,” Murry said. “A lot of old hippy rhetoric could well be co-opted now by the pseudo-libertarian right, which has in fact happened. Get the government off our backs, let individuals do what they want — that translates very smoothly into laissez-faire yuppie-ism, and that’s the legacy of the era.”

Izzy’s is gone!

I walked around my old South of Market neighborhood yesterday. A lot has changed since I moved away 9 months ago, most of it not for the better. The residential building boom of apartments, condos and “live/work” lofts continues at an alarming rate, altering the light industrial character of the area with relentless gentrification. Upscale businesses are proliferating, yet there’s no commensurate expansion of public parking for the customers those businesses hope to draw. The Academy of Art University has spread like a cancer, occupying more and more real estate. Perhaps most disheartening of all, Izzy’s Brooklyn Bagels at 151 Townsend is no more.

I regularly walked down to the waterfront for exercise when I lived in the neighborhood, passing Izzy’s on the way. I always bought a bagel to nosh on for the remainder of my walk, and occasionally picked up a few more for home. I ate them plain, savoring the smell and taste of Izzy’s authentic, kosher bagels. Their bialys were to die for. Izzy’s bagels never failed to transport me in my memories to the times I spent in Brooklyn and Manhattan visiting friends.

Izzy sold the San Francisco store, and it’s now the non-kosher Bagel Bakery. There’s another Izzy’s down the peninsula in Palo Alto (477 S. California Ave.), but that’s a long way to go for genuine Brooklyn bagels. I’m saddened more by Izzy’s departure then I am about SOMA’s inexorable transformation into yuppieland. (Izzy’s website)

Blackwater in the news (privatization of war, part 1)

On Friday, May 25, 2007, Reuters reported (here) that a US judge moved a wrongful death and fraud suit, brought by the families of four civilian contractors against Blackwater, out of the courts and into private arbitration. A victory for Blackwater, the decision confirms that Blackwater’s contract with the contractors “is iron-clad and that its terms absolve the company of liability” according to legal expert Jeffrey Addicott.

And today, The Washington Post reported that Blackwater contractors opened fire in Baghdad in two separate incidents this week (here). Blackwater will neither confirm nor deny that there were casualties.

There is plenty of information out there about the insidious nature of Blackwater in particular, and about the dangers of military privatization in general, beginning with Jeremy Scahill’s excellent book Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army. No need for me to belabor the point.

In the fast-paced BBC TV drama “The State Within,” one of the characters in the last episode comments that military and security privatization is the Klondike (or was it the Yukon) of the current century. The reference is to the 19th century Alaskan gold rush. “The State Within” is about a conspiracy between US State Department officials, a Halliburton-style development corporation and a private security firm, modeled after Blackwater, to overthrow the government of a former Soviet republic in central Asia using a fabricated terrorist incident, the blowing up of a British airplane in America, to create an international crisis. Chilling, and well worth renting at your local video store.

With no apologies…

…to Joseph Goebbels.

Whenever I hear the words “U2″ or “Bono,” I reach for my gun.

U2 jetted into Cannes and staged a short concert on the red carpet. They also premiered U2 3D, which captures the band on their 2006 Vertigo world tour.

–BBC News, 5-25-07

Hey, Ho, Let’s Go!

I spent the last three days creating and perfecting the website, “What’s Left?,” for the mostly monthly political columns I write for Maximum Rocknroll under the name “Lefty” Hooligan. (check here) I learned quite a bit in the process, so constructing “Playing for Keeps” for my personal blogsite was a snap. I’m still not completely happy with this theme, but it will do.

“What’s Left?” piggybacks on the blog format, allowing me to post my columns on the web as I write them. It will also be a place for limited archiving of my past columns. The idea here is to get some web exposure for the columns in a way that allows comments and feedback. I’ve written “What’s Left?” for MRR now for 15 years. It’s pretty much taken for granted, and raises little commentary or controversy.

“Playing for Keeps” is intended as a true blog. It’s also intended to inspire me to write more frequently, on a wider range of subjects. I’m new to blogging, so we’ll see how it goes.