Happy Pride! My friends and I checked in on the Seattle Pride Parade today, and here are a few pictures.
Sunday/ Happy Pride!
Saturday/ the Stonewall riots, 50 years on
It has been 50 years since the Stonewall riots in 1969.
A series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations were made by members of the gay (LGBTQ+) community, against a police raid that had begun in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City.
The Stonewall riots are widely considered to constitute the most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights in the United States.
Friday/ on tennis tournament duty
I helped out as a volunteer at the Seattle Classic tennis tournament today.
The tournament is sanctioned by the Gay & Lesbian Tennis Alliance (GLTA). The GLTA is an international body that oversees an impressive worldwide circuit of tennis tournaments (check out the table below).
The tournaments do not have prize money to speak of, but it is a great way of encouraging the LGBT community to participate in the wonderful sport of tennis (of which I am a lifelong fan).
| Date | Tournament | Location | Surface |
|---|---|---|---|
| June | Alegria Open | Rotterdam, Netherlands | Clay |
| June | Seattle Classic | Seattle, WA-USA | Indoor and Outdoor Hard |
| July | Prague Friendly Tennis Open | Prague, Czech Republic | Red Clay |
| July | San Diego Open | San Diego, CA-USA | Hard |
| July | Liberty Open | New York, NY-USA | Outdoor Hard |
| July | Eurogames | Rome, Italy | TBD |
| July | Hanse Cup Hamburg | Hamburg, Germany | Clay |
| July | The Philadelphia Open | Philadelphia, PA-USA | Hard court |
| July | Madrid Tennis Open (Masters) | Madrid, Spain | Green set (outdoor) and clay (covered) |
| Aug | Chillli Tennis Open (Masters) | Katowice, Poland | Clay |
| Aug | VIP (Vancouver International Pride) | Vancouver, BC, Canada | Hard Court |
| Aug | Second City Tennis Classic | Chicago, IL-USA | Indoor Hard |
| Aug | Ad-OUT Cologne | Cologne, Germany | Clay |
| Aug | Paris Summer Cup | Paris, France | Clay |
| Aug | Zurich Rainbow Open | Zurich, Switzerland | Red Clay |
| Aug | Barcelona Open (Masters) | Barcelona, Spain | Clay |
| Aug | New Hope Open | New Hope, PA-USA | Hard Court/Clay |
| Aug | Tallinn Colour Games | Tallinn, Estonia | Hard Court/Carpet |
| Aug | Montréal Coupe de la Reine | Montréal, Québec, Canada | Indoor Hard |
| Aug | The Peach International | Atlanta, GA-USA | Hard |
| Aug | Rose City Open | Beaverton, OR-USA | Hard |
| Sept | IGO-Italian Gay Open | Milan, Italy | Clay |
| Sept | Kiss My Ace-Manchester GLTA | Manchester, England | Grass |
| Sept | IndyTennis Classic | Indianapolis, IN-USA | Hard Court |
| Sept | Bali G-Slam | Bali, Indonesia | Hard Court |
| Sept | The Capital Classic | Washington, DC, DC-USA | Hard and Clay |
| Sept | WrocLove Cup | Wroclaw, Poland | Hard Court |
| Sept | Queen City Open | Cincinnati, OH-USA | Hard |
| Sept | VicTennis Hard Court Championships | Melbourne, Australia | Hard |
| Sept | Texas Open (Masters) | Dallas, TX-USA | Hard |
| Oct | Gran Canaria Open | Maspalomas, Gran Canaria | Clay |
| Oct | Out in Hong Kong Open | Hong Kong, Hong Kong | Artificial Grass |
| Oct | Peter Deacon Tournament | Sydney (Concord), NSW, Australia | Synthetic Grass |
| Oct | San Diego Doubles | San Diego, CA-USA | Hard Court |
| Oct | Tennis London International | London, England | Indoor Hard |
| Oct | Brilliant Games (Masters) | Antwerp, Belgium | Hard |
| Nov | HOUTEX | Houston, TX-USA | Hard Court |
| Nov | Sunshine Doubles Gran Canaria | Maspalomas, Gran Canaria | Clay |
| Nov | Segundo Abierto del Orgullo Argentino LGBT | Buenos Aires, Argentina | Clay/Hard Courts |
| Nov | Palm Springs Open | Rancho Mirage, CA-USA | Hard Court |
| Nov | Citrus Classic (Masters) | Tampa, FL-USA | Har-Tru Clay |
| Dec | Frankfurt Open | Maintal, Germany | Carpet |
| Dec | 10th Bangkok Pride Tournament (Masters) | Bangkok, Thailand | Hard Court |
Thursday/ the second debate
Below are the other 10 Democratic candidates that debated tonight. I missed some of the debate, but Senator Kamala Harris (from California) did very well. Joe Biden (76) and Bernie Sanders (77) – struggled a bit. Joe Biden was confronted by Harris, and Eric Swalwell (a mere 38) chided him for not ‘passing the torch’.
If I may say so, 76 or 77 seems a little old to make a bid for President of the United States (and 37 or 38 a little young) .. but if Biden or Sanders became the Democratic Party nominee, they will nonetheless have my unqualified support.
Wednesday/ the Democrats start debating
We watched the first of the two groups of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates debate tonight.
Nobody made a fool of himself or herself. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar both did very well. (Can they stand up to Donald Trump, though?).
Of the men? Texan Beto O’Rourke disappointed some commentators, and lost a mini-debate about the humanitarian crisis at the Mexican border, against fellow Texan Joaquin Castro. (They both spoke a little bit in Spanish as well. Impressive, but a risky strategy). Our own Washington State Governor, Jay Inslee, pushed for addressing climate change.
Tuesday/ the Nile monitor
I am still scanning old pictures from my shoebox to add to my online photo albums.
This picture of a Nile monitor (Afr. ‘Waterlikkewaan‘) was taken in the early 1990’s close to my grandfather’s guest lodge in Botswana’s Tuli Block district.
I knew the spot in the rocky outcrop where the monster had been hiding, and had to wait patiently for it to make an appearance.
Monday/ your whole life is a scam
I finally cancelled my TIME magazine subscription, and got the last issue in the mail today.
Just as well, I thought: I do not need to see Trump on any magazine cover even one more time. Besides, I go to the library to read all kinds of newspapers and magazines.
Sunday/ South Lake Union construction update
Some of the construction projects in South Lake Union are nearing their completion: the Nexus condominium tower, the Denny Substation and the Google office buildings. I took these pictures today.
Saturday/ frying fish in South Carolina
It was South Carolina’s turn on Saturday to host the 2020 Democratic hopefuls in the state’s annual ‘World Famous Fish Fry’, originally started by SC House Rep. Jim Clyburn in 1992.
South Carolina hosts one of the early primary elections in Feb. 2020 (to determine who the 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate is). It’s considered a key state in the primaries. Black voters make up 61% of the electorate.
Friday/ summer solstice in the North
It’s the official start of summer here in the North today.
We have had mild temperatures (68°F/ 20°C) and not much rain in June, tracking at about 50% of the month’s average.
Sunset tonight was at its latest for the year, at 9.11 pm here in Seattle.
Thursday/ about that drone that was shot down
Wow .. that drone shot down by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was not a garden-variety drone.
It was a Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk.
Here are some of its attributes:
Wingspan: 130.9 ft / 39.9 m (wider than that of the Boeing 737)
Range: 14,000 miles / 22 500 km
Speed: 357 mph/ 574 kph
Ceiling: 60,000 ft/ 18 288 m
Endurance: 34 hrs
Cost: $200 million
So what will Trump do now?
He talks tough, but on Thursday called the incident ‘a big mistake’, meaning the Corps made a miscalculation and was not following orders from President Hassan Rouhani.
At this perilous time the United States has no Secretary of Defense (has not had one for more than 6 months, for the first time ever).
And now Trump seems to be the one that has to push back against Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton. Both seem to be itching to start a war with Iran.
Not a good situation at all.
Wednesday/ beer night
Only two of the five amigos could make it to the Elysian for beer night tonight.
Our beer of choice was an Elysian Space Dust, a hoppy Imperial Pale Ale with a whopping 8.2% alcohol by volume.
Tuesday/ Facebook’s cryptocurrency
Facebook revealed the details of its cryptocurrency, called Libra (symbol ≋), today. Its planned launch is in early 2020. The digital wallet will reside in Messenger, in WhatsApp or in a stand-alone app.
Libra currency will let people buy things or send money anywhere in the world, with nearly zero fees.
Facebook will not have full control – they are recruiting founding members for the Libra Foundation and have signed up the likes of MasterCard, Visa, EBay, Uber and Vodafone.
Facebook’s subsidiary company called Calibra will handle its crypto transactions, and they promise to not combine payment data with Facebook social media data (so that transactions cannot be used for ad targeting). Hahaha. Tell you what, Facebook. Twenty bucks at a time is all I will ever use of your Libra. MAYBE. To buy beer and burgers with on Wednesday nights.
From this article on techcrunch.com:
A Libra is a unit of the Libra cryptocurrency that’s represented by a three wavy horizontal line unicode character ≋ like the dollar is represented by $. The value of a Libra is meant to stay largely stable, so it’s a good medium of exchange, as merchants can be confident they won’t be paid a Libra today that’s then worth less tomorrow.
The Libra’s value is tied to a basket of bank deposits and short-term government securities for a slew of historically stable international currencies, including the dollar, pound, euro, Swiss franc and yen. The Libra Association maintains this basket of assets and can change the balance of its composition if necessary to offset major price fluctuations in any one foreign currency so that the value of a Libra stays consistent.
Monday/ the anger in Hong Kong
An incredible two million people flooded the streets in Hong Kong this weekend, to continue to protest their government’s proposed extradition law (that will allow extradition of Hong Kongers to mainland China and other countries).
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam was essentially selected by Beijing, and Hong Kong residents do not trust her. She has ‘postponed’ the legislation, but it has not been cancelled.
Sunday/ Happy Father’s Day!
I am fondly remembering my dad today.
Happy Father’s Day to all the dads!
Saturday/ weed or not a weed?
Whoah .. is this a giant weed? It looks like one, I thought, as I walked by it tonight.
I looked it up and it’s the great mullein or common mullein. Mullein itself derives from the French word for soft, and yes, it’s a weed – kind of.
Friday/ Timothy hay, for the chinchilla
The stock market here in the States does not seem too freaked out yet by the Trump Administration’s tariff wars and threats of starting a real war in Iran, but we will have to see where we end up at the end of 2019.
Today an online pet food purveyor called Chewy, had its IPO, and ended the day 60% higher.
Just for fun, I wondered if chewy.com would have food for say, a pet chinchilla that I might have. Well, it turns out 1. that they do, and 2. that chinchillas love Timothy hay. I did not know that! Washington State is known worldwide for the quality of its Timothy hay.
Thursday/ gold made early Seattle prosper
Johannesburg in South Africa is sometimes said to be the real ‘El Dorado’: the city that was built on the discovery of gold*. Seattle, for its part, was a pioneer outpost in the late 1800s, and was lifted out of an economic slump and prospered by 1900, due to the discovery of gold.
Here is a brief timeline of Seattle at the end of the 1800s:
1889 Seattle’s Great Fire reduces 50 blocks of downtown to rubble.
1893 The financial Panic of 1893 causes a national recession.
1897 On July 17, the Portland Steamer docks in Seattle, carrying half a ton of gold from the Klondike region in Canada.
Some 10,000 men and boys leave for the Alaskan and Canadian goldfields.
1898 Canada creates the Yukon territory.
1900 By the time the decade and the century ended, Seattle’s population had doubled to 81,000.
*The Witwatersrand Gold Rush was a gold rush in 1886 that led to the establishment of Johannesburg, South Africa. There was once a massive inland lake, and its silt and gold deposits from alluvial gold that had settled there, formed the gold-rich deposits that South Africa is famous for.
Wednesday/ hello, Steller’s jay
Here is a Steller’s jay that sat for a few minutes on the fence here at my house.
My camera’s 200 mm-equivalent zoom lens is not quite up to the task to get a tack sharp picture, but that’s OK. I’m not ready to splurge on a 500mm lens just yet.
Tuesday/ new rainbow paint
It’s nice to see that the City of Seattle has applied new paint on some of the rainbow pedestrian crossings here on Capitol Hill.
I guess it’s too bad we cannot stop pedestrians and traffic from dirtying them up all over again, right?
