October: Look Up
"No matter how corrupt, greedy, and heartless our government, our corporations, our media, and our religious & charitable institutions may become, the music will still be wonderful." - Kurt Vonnegut in A Man Without a Country
"It's the time of the season / When love runs high" - The Zombies
NOTES:
When I went door to door with petitions, it was about McNamara and Nixon. When I organized fund raising events, I did it to pay for advocate lawyers. I was one young member of a larger diverse community and we had a soundtrack. Today, I do what I can do. If you want to know what happens at the end of all this, Spoiler Alert: Love wins.
I donate to Democracy Forward https://democracyforward.org/. They fight to preserve democracy.
I mentor others and provide daily support to those trying to create art and participate in this democracy.
I keep up with the news without the negative clickbait. Jimmy Kimmel's monologues are often spot-on and give me hope. For news without slant I use 1440: https://join1440.com/. Subscribe for free to their newsletter.
Fourth, I continue to work on my projects. This month the reviews here are about the research I do for my fiction and the music that keeps me moving forward.
BOOKS Nonfiction: "Little Manila Is In The Heart: The Making of The Filipina/o American Community in Stockton, California" by Dawn Bohulano Mabalon
Reading this well-researched nonfiction book by Dawn Bohulano Mabalon published in 2013 by Duke University Press was a personal journey for me. This books is at the core of a revival of the understanding of the cultural impact of the Filipina/o communities in California, throughout the United States, in Stockton, California, and in the neighborhoods where my father made his living and where I grew up.
This book is especially meaningful for many of us who enjoyed the restaurants and the culture of downtown Stockton before it was destroyed by the so-called urban renewal programs. Little Manila was part of a mosaic of diverse downtown neighborhoods linked by good food, music, and fun. There were so many losses. My father had a juke box in the second-largest Black Elks organization in the United States that was scattered when their building was leveled.
These were land-grab programs pure and simple. In Stockton, the developers, corrupt politicians, freeway-planners, and crooked law enforcement worked together to level an area primarily inhabited by Brown, Asian, Spanish, Mexican, and Black people who had lived and worked in that area from the very beginnings of the city.
SCREEN: DOCUMENTARY "Little Manila: Filipinos in California's Heartland
If you cannot commit to the book, then watch this short doc.
My grandmother's house was on San Joaquin near Church Street. That corner was the crossroads for the Chinese community, the Mexican community which started one block south of the Santa Fe station, a Black community of some of the original founders of Stockton one block east, and Hunter Street just west where the Villa Basque restaurant was located and the block where my grandfather first opened the Wool Growers Hotel. Little Manila was on El Dorado Street, but had business and influence throughout the downtown.
Here is a video by The Black Eyed Peas that honors the taxi dance culture of that time in Stockton. The exterior of the building shown in the video is the Rizal Social Club in Stockton which was a members-only dance club at night. You got a membership card when you paid the cover charge. During the day it was a boxing gym. "Bebot" is a Tagalog slang word for "babe."
MUSIC VIDEO: "Bebot (Generation One)" by the Black Eye Peas
BOOKS Nonfiction: "Competing Voices A Critical History of Stockton, California" by Ronald Eugene Isetti
I've mentioned this book before. It is so well written. "Competing Voices: A Critical History of Stockton, California" by Ronald Eugene Isetti describes simply the history of Stockton and in doing that show how important this city was, and is, to California.
It appears that his original publisher let the book go out of print and Isetti took back the rights and is publishing it himself at https://outskirtspress.com/CompetingVoices2. Please support his work and the work of Dawn Bohulano Mabalon
The racist policies of the real estate developers did not finally turn downtown Stockton into the utopia they promised. When you remove diversity and culture, lose all compassion for the elderly and children living in low-income circumstances, and use poverty to weaken your opponents, what you are left with is despair and violence.
The house where my grandmother lived, and where I spent many hours, is not safe to leave at night. The restaurants we loved are now closed or centers of conflict and violence. The developers created a problem with no easy solution that confirmed their prejudices.
MUSIC: "Sally Go Round" The Roses by the Jaynettes
This song was on the radio when the bulldozers were tearing apart downtown Stockton. The music and lyrics haunted me: Baby don't you go / Don't you go downtown.
NEW MUSIC: September 2025: Greg Freeman's single "Wolf Pine" from new album "Burned Over"
Greg Freeman's influences are front and center: Jason Molina, Neil Young, the later years of the Beatles, discordant jazz, and lyrics that seem to come from a lost The Band album. Listen all the way through. The musicianship is astounding.
He is touring this December and January. Those dates and locations are on his website: https://greg-freeman.net/
Freeman is based in Burlington, Vermont. A city that continues to fight hard to keep their downtown largely original, definitely vibrant, and safe.
Music: "Time of The Season" by The Zombies
Has he taken any time / to show you what you need to live. The organ solo alone is enough to deliver hope. A hit in 1969. Love wins.
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