There are many ways the story of Jocko Graves has been told. Here's Larry Meek's version, from his column 'Ethnically Speaking'.
The lawn jockey originated from the story of when Gen. George Washington was about to cross the Delaware River to attack the British at Trenton. Jocko Graves, a 12-yer-old black lad, wanted to go with Washington to fight the British. Washington thought he was too young to fight and told him to stay behind to tend the horses. Jocko was also told to hold a lantern so the returning troops could find him in the dark. When the troops finally returned, the little Jocko was found frozen to death with the lantern still clenched in his hand. The general was so touched by the lad's devotion to duty that he commissioned a sculpture to be made in his honor. The name of the statue was called the "Faithful groomsman."
While there's no record of the statue, Jocko became a familiar part of the landscape in the 1800's, and played a part in the 'Underground Railroad' as a signalman of safety or danger.
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Nicolas Brothers Ballet legend Mikhail Baryshnikov once called them the most amazing dancers he had ever seen in his life. Fred Astaire told the brothers that this "Jumpin' Jive" dance number in Stormy Weather was the greatest movie musical sequence he had ever seen.
When the victory arriveth, every man shall profess himself as believer and shall hasten to the
shelter of God's Faith. Happy are they who in the
days of world-encompassing trials have stood fast in
the Cause and refused to swerve from its truth.--Bahá'u'lláh
Two years after being discharged from the regular army in '73, I was called up for Ready Reserve training at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. I, and seven others like me, was temporarily attached to a National Guard unit from Santa Monica, California, for their annual two weeks of training. It was an odd outfit to say the least. For example, four or five of them concealed shoulder-length hair under wigs, which was permitted at the time. Joining the National Guard at that time guaranteed that you wouldn't be deployed to Vietnam, and for many such an enlistment was a calculated risk against that possibility by being drafted into the Regular Army.
The most out of place among the eight of us misfits among misfits was a large American Indian, who reported in his Class A's. If I recall, he wore a RVN ribbon, among others. His most striking feature was his nose---it was enormous. His demeanor was stolid and intimidating.
I learned that day how a friendly word can affect a person when I asked him if he was Navajo. His face brightened like the Sun rising over the mesa.
Whenever decisions are to be made by a group, these Bahá'i principles of consultation form the most noble framework imaginable. -jt
1) Universal participation: everyone within a body (such as a
family, an Assembly, or a Convention) should participate. It is the
collective responsibility of each body to ensure that everyone has the
opportunity and the necessary encouragement to participate. A broadly
based consultation is a healthy barrier against the opinions of the
forceful.
2) Objectivity: prayers to set the tone and perspective; clear
statement of the problem; spirit of objective (scientific) inquiry;
establishment of the facts; investigation of the relevant spiritual
principles; full and frank discussion; consideration of alternative
solutions, including the unconventional; converging to the ‘best’
solution; preference for unanimity; the apparent truth; offering of
resolutions and voting if necessary;
3) Detachment: the group acts as one composite mind; the ideas do
not belong to the speakers; therefore no one has a ‘position’, no one
offends, and no one takes offense; one may speak against ones own
previously stated opinion.
4) Unity: As a prerequisite of effective consultation and in
subsequent support for implementation of the outcome, the final decision
belongs to the body, not to any individuals. Even though the decision
may have been made by a majority vote, there are no minority opinions;
unity in support of decisions is more important than correction of a
possible short term mistake.
From the paper Principles of Baha’i Consultation by Farzin Aghdasi
The sculpture looked like the ruins of the adjacent Embarcadero Freeway, and to at least one critic, it was more like "A pile of excrement from a large dog with square entrails", as Herb Caen passed along in his column in the San Francisco Chronicle.
The cascading water drowns out the freeway noise and challenges the user to stay dry while exploring the sculpture. It is successful participatory urban art.
The sculpture is named Québec libre! and it echoed in material and structure the short-sighted folly of the Embarcadero Freeway. The irony is that the freeway was torn down after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake that rendered it unsafe, while the sculpture remains.
The name of the sculpture is obviously political, but I have never cared about nor have I been interested enough to learn why Canadian politics landed on the embarcadero in San Francisco.
...
Efficient traffic engineers routed a freeway in front of the Ferry building, a San Francisco landmark.
As a 12 year old, I remember thinking that it must be what progress looked like. At the time, I was traveling with my father and brother, heading to Seattle from Burbank. My father was looking for work and for a change, I presume--I never questioned why we were moving or to where, or even with whom I would be living --and I was happily along for the ride. We stayed at a motel on Market Street near Van Ness Avenue. A friend and colleague of my father visited us in our room, but I can't remember who it was. George Lamont? Russ Coghlin?
George Lamont
Russ Coghlin
How to separate citizens from their port..
The Embarcadero Freeway was planned to improve the movement of automobile traffic through San Francisco, but sanity prevailed in time to save the neighborhoods.
As short as the freeway was, it provided a useful link on my commute from the Presidio, where I was stationed in 1970 at the Letterman Army Institute of Research, and south of Market, where my wife worked for Pacific Telephone. I took the Folsom Street exit, and it put me close to 3rd and Howard, where I picked up my pregnant wife after work at her office building.
I almost died on that freeway riding with a friend in his Triumph TR3, but that's another story.
Watercolor by Dong Kingman
Tear down
San Francisco Embarcadero Fog 1947 Fred Lyons
In 1958, my twin bro and I were living in South San Francisco with our aunt and uncle, a longshoreman, who worked on the embarcadero a few piers south of the Ferry Building. We'd accompany our aunt when she'd pick him up in the late afternoon. The picture is as I remember it, but we were in a '49 Plymouth.
The Ferry Building was designed as the terminus to the most important street in San Francisco.
The interior is a friendly space with ample natural light and intimacy thanks to the delicate steel trusses. The concrete over metal decking floors provide solidity.
At least one structure--the new high school in Salinas, California-- was architecturally fashioned after these elements.
