This originally appeared in my Broke-Ass City column for the SF Examiner in February. Considering the success of yesterday’s elections I figured it was perfect to repost. When someone is terminally ill, dying from cancer or some other horrible disease, he or she often has a brief period right before

This originally appeared in my Broke-Ass City column for the SF Examiner. There’s a scene in the movie “Empire Records,” where all the record store employees hold a funeral for Deb, even though she’s still alive. Earlier in the movie, Deb had tried to kill herself. So her friends and

This originally appeared in my Broke-Ass City column in the SF Examiner  By now the dust is doing anything but settling in Black Rock City. Minds and other flammable things are exploding while a sense of all out revelry, exploration and wonder descends on some 70,000-plus people. In a way,

This originally appeared in my Broke-Ass City Column for the SF Examiner When Julius Caesar took Alexandria in 48 BC, the city’s famous library burned to the ground. History isn’t sure if the Library of Alexandria was torched on purpose or if it caught fire during the ensuing pillaging, but