It was a plane crash that killed 32 people, mainly illegal immigrants, and spawned Woody Guthrie’s song “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos).” For over 70 years, “Deportee” has come to signify the heartlessness of the American public, media, and law enforcement system towards illegal immigrants. Recorded by Joan Baez, Kingston Trio, Hoyt Axton, Nanci Griffith,… Continue reading Woody Guthrie’s Song “Deportee”: Well-Meaning Fantasy
Author: Lee Wallender
Deception, influence, fakes, illusions, themed environments, simulations, secret places, secret infrastructure, imagined places, dreamscapes, movie sets and props, evasions, camouflage, studio backlots, miniatures.
Capping San Francisco’s Panhandle Freeway: a Plan That Never Happened
The plan made a lot of sense. If you were going to have a freeway running right through San Francisco’s Panhandle, which itself connects to the eastern end of Golden Gate Park, why not partially cap it off? Edmund G. Burger, principal at Burger & Coplans, wasn’t the bad guy here, not by any stretch… Continue reading Capping San Francisco’s Panhandle Freeway: a Plan That Never Happened
Birth, Life, and Death of the Niles Backyard Monorail
Backyard dreamers are those true visionaries who build their dreams at great expense and for only personal reward. They are seized by a vision and they must realize this vision in physical form. If anybody can be called the patron saint of backyard dreamers, it would have to be Kim Pedersen of Fremont, California. In… Continue reading Birth, Life, and Death of the Niles Backyard Monorail
Pink Floyd in 1889
Fans of Pink Floyd know the origin story by heart. Band member Syd Barrett combined the names of two blues musicians Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. But the name Pink Floyd predates all of that. We’ve got the Pink Floyd who, in 1889, killed Cornelius Lowden: Then, of course, there’s the Michigan Pink Floyd who… Continue reading Pink Floyd in 1889
May They Forever Be Old: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Death at Age 44
Growing old means that people you once viewed as old are now younger than you. Life is always safest when you are buffered on all sides. We buffer ourselves with family and friends. Money is a buffer. The battlefield is safest if you’re the person in the middle, not the edges. Life’s edges bring great… Continue reading May They Forever Be Old: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Death at Age 44