'You saw me standing alone...'

1. First hint of fall. Yesterday, shorts, flip flops and a chai boba tea. Today, hoodie and a cuppa of java. Blue Moon tonight..the second full moon in a month. The first one was on August 1st. Lots of cloud cover today. If you can peek, do it. The next one won't be until 2015. One of the greatest songs ever written, 'Blue Moon,' has been covered by Ella Fitz, The King and Cowboy Junkies, to name a few.

2. Cosmic irony that today is the funeral of Neil Armstrong...once in a blue moon, my man.

3. Stepping out tomorrow to scope out the renovated/retro-fitted Memorial Stadium. Over the years, fans jokingly played Russian roulette with the Hayward fault which runs right down the center, like a streaking half back, of the playing field. Would it or wouldn't it? Like the lyrics, 'should I stay or should I go..' No one really knew when the Hayward would go off. And so my friends, as I check out the new restroom facilities which were neither 'golden' nor fit for 'bears' in the glory years, rest assured that though hacked campus budgets and forced retirements may come and go, there will always be a 'resting place' (not in my parking lot, thank you rollingstones) for the deeper pockets, the athletic departments, of this world. Um, 'roll on you bears.'

F the Gulag

1. Ripping a page from their NY sisters, the masked Guerrilla Girls, who dis, rail and  expose sexism and corruption in the art world and beyond, a Russian Feminist punk collective, Pussy Riot, styling their fashion in brilliant colors, and signature masked balaclavas apparently went too far for the ruling Russkies with their anti Kremlin punk prayer and performance inside a cathedral in Moscow. Hauled off to jail in March, three members of Pussy Riot, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova 22, Maria Alyokhina 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich 29 were charged with hooliganism. Whaaat? As the feeble bogus charge went viral, enraged groups started marshaling; flash mobs hit the streets and 'Free Pussy Riot'signs sprang up like weeds. Who knew balaclavas would suddenly be the rage of dissonance? Sentenced to two years in a penal colony, the three women are a reminder that artistic expression and gender can expose a glaring fundamental truth: sexism, political corruption, and gulags are alive and well. Fuck this. We will not forget. Power to the sisters!

2. Whatshisface...the congressman, a genuine piece of work, who called 'rape legitimate'....only a matter of time as recall petitions hit the 'net.

3. Gillian Anderson. The truth is out there. Props to you.

'Going to Fly Now...'

The Olys. In a nod to the Rocky's, here are some of the smaller stories
which flew under the radar in London, under the Missy's, Phelps, Kerri's, and lightening Bolts.

1. Claressa Shields. Already featured in a New Yorker piece profiling women's boxing, the 17 year old showed no fear stepping into the world's boxing ring, and ringing up Russian Nadrezda Torlopova to win the gold medal in the middleweight division. Impervious to the rocking sold out arena who had come to see Katy Taylor, the all world pugilist from Ireland, Claressa Shields took care of business and flashed glimmers of pride and hope back to her home town of Flint, Michigan. Hard scrabble life, father in and out of prison, living with an Aunt who stresses education, Shields has been boxing since she was 13 saying she knew it was real: how good she was. How light on her feet, and how the energy flowed from her fists. On the platform, draped with the gold,  her infectious smile for a nano second arced over and lit up the hood in Flint. Yeah, now they all know it was real, baby.

2. Kim Rhode. Bet you a hundie you don't who she is. Give up? Kim is the 1st American athlete to medal in 5 consecutive Oly's. Move over EII, Kim Rhode is the Queen of skeet. Under windy, gray, and drizzly weather, Rhode set an Oly record and tied the world record by nailing 99/100 targets tossed into the unpredictable sky. The road to London has been sketchy. Rhode survived a breast cancer scare, and during the Beijing games her prized custom made gun was ripped from her car. Scrambling to replace the hardware, Kim Rhode shot her way into the record books shooting with another rifle. For relaxation Rhode has been known to build a muscle car or 2. There is longevity in skeet. Rhode might like Rio.

3. David Rudisha, a Kenyan, set a world record in the 800m in a tremendous overpowering display of front running leaving elite middle distance runners in his wake. Three national records, four personal bests, and one season best were etched in the record books. On a night before the mercurial Jamaican, Usain Bolt, would set foot on the track, Rudisha, a Maasai warrior, who began his training on dirt tracks he pick-axed himself electrified London and the world.

4. Jamaican sprinters. Sponsored by the Puma. Instead of the Swoosh. Blitzed and smacked down in London. Just saying...