Earthquakes Happen In Turkey

You probably heard about the giant 7.2 magnitude quake that hit the eastern Turkish city of Van a couple weeks ago, killing roughly 600 people. Well, there was an encore yesterday, a 5.7 magnitude earthquake knocked over 25 buildings, killed a least 8, and wounded at least 20. One of the buildings, the popular Bayram Hotel, was "at least 40 years old, and had been renovated last year." To make matters worse, there were violent clashes between police and protesters upset at the lack of the government's earthquake preparedness.

In Berkeley, where I've lived most of my life, all buildings are under strict code for earthquake preparation; buildings are designed to withstand a sizable amount of disturbance in the event of a quake. It would be illegal for a building not to meet earthquake standards, especially if it had been recently renovated. Turkey's buildings are not up to code, not from what I saw while living in Istanbul. In my neighborhood of Bahçeşehir there was a big surge in construction of rectangular, cinder block apartment complexes - mine, built 2 years ago, was 12 stories high. In the event of an earthquake like that in Van, Bahçeşehir would crumble.

The good news is that Turkish authorities are working on new disaster measures. The bad news is that those measures probably won't have anything to do with bringing buildings up to code, instead focusing on "evacuating settlements in areas of high risk and offering residents new homes built by state-run construction company TOKİ [the company that built the apartment complex I lived in] through long-term payment schedules." In other words, Turkey isn't going to try and build better earthquake-safe buildings and minimize the damage done. It's just going to improve efficiency for the clean-up.

It is clear that earthquakes happen in Turkey. There have been three quakes larger than 4.7 in Turkey since October 23rd when the huge 7.2 quake hit and 1,400 "smaller tremors." To prevent deaths and injuries caused by earthquakes, Turkey needs to construct smarter buildings in addition to having an efficient evacuation plan.

Concert At Noon

On August 18th I saw my friend Erika Oba play a free show, sponsored by the Jazz School, outside for the Berkeley public (Peter Hargreaves on alto sax and Rafa Postel on trumpet were with her). Somehow I'd forgotten all the pictures I took, so now I'd like to belatedly share the best of the crop with you:

Erica's piano solo

Rafa's trumpet solo

Peter getting ready for the next part

Rafa playing the melody

Susan B [Who?]

Today Mom and I went to the Contemporary Jewish Museum here in San Francisco to see the exhibit on Gertrude Stein, moments following a phone call from the Obama campaign that really offended her. It's kind of galling to think he'd be soliciting money right after the brutal debt deal he's putting America through, especially since Democrats here in Berkeley are probably the most alienated of his liberal base right now. You all probably know that I'm still a supporter and I've always thought people unfairly labeled him farther left than he really is, but after this debt deal that seemed to make no one happy would make him want to hold off asking for donations for a time. It's just not smart.

So we went to the museum and had a really wonderful time. The exhibit was well designed and pleasurably interactive, a couple of iPads scattered around the rooms with sound catalogs of audio recordings, cartoons, newspaper clippings, quotes, and so on to browse. It was easy to take at whatever pace felt most comfortable for me, even with my mother going at a different pace.

But I was most moved by the original posters for Stein's second opera, "Mother Of Us All," about Susan B Anthony and celebrating her accomplishments. For some reason I was particularly touched by that, as if women had only gained the right to vote last week and I was living in monumental history, finally having achieved something embarrassingly basic but fought so long and hard for. The right to vote, something so small that too many of us throw away with negligence or disdain, felt worth struggling and protesting for even now that we take it for granted. Such an inalienable right has rarely felt so present for me - I'm not a woman so I've never been confronted with equal protection discrepancies; I could have gotten married to a stranger in Nevada when I was 16, and because I'm not gay I don't know how it feels to be barred from marriage in most of the United States, disgustingly including California; I have white skin so I've never felt the butt of racial slurs, segregation, or cultural alienation. And yet I walk through each day without even paying any attention to my great fortune, nor to the many who aren't as fortunate. And in comes Susan B Anthony to uncompromisingly remind us and to win those forgettable but essential rights for those without.

Who is our Susan B Anthony of today? Who's out there fighting for what's undeniably right and deserved for the unfairly persecuted and the unrecognized minorities in the world? Looking at the posters for "Mother Of Us All" I thought about Mom's anger at the Obama caller earlier in the day and the deep frustration inside her, feeling that the man she voted for won't fight for her rights or well-being. I voted for Obama because I thought he would be willing to compromise, and I turned out to be too right. Mostly it's great to compromise, but there are some rights (equal marriage, for example) that can't be won through compromise. The most-remembered leaders throughout history aren't remembered for how they sacrificed their convictions to the pressures around them. No one would know the name Susan B Anthony today if she'd struck a bargain at the polling office, and women would've had to wait for even more painstaking years for the rights they're due.

Before and After the Wedding

Greg Mulford

 My family and I have just returned home from my cousin Andrew's wedding - and what a wedding it was! It was on a public beach, complete with the sandy children with their boogie boards and a sunglasses-wearing man probing the sand with a metal detector in the background. The groom put on his ring while wearing sunglasses and sneakers, and the bridesmaids and groomsmen didn't wear shoes at all. And within this layer of fun and childlike joy there was also a serious sweetness, quite a few tears, quite a few more cheers, and a wealth of good wishes and good feelings going forward. Congratulations Andrew and Lindsey!

My brother Joel and his sunburn

Bert, Joel, and my father

Nana and Great Aunt Bea under the blanket... it was a cold evening!

 I didn't take many pictures of the event because there were professionals running rampant all over the place so there wasn't much of a need. All the pictures you see here were taken at the dinner on the night before the wedding.

Now I'm preparing to take a trip into Detroit to visit the rest of my family, leaving no stone unturned! Next time I write it will probably be from the motor city.

Dad posing for his book cover

Nana and myself, or as I like to say, "Homie G(rannie) and the pimpin' pop top"

And finally - how could I have forgotten this? - I failed to mention in my Portland posts about my trip to the TV on the Radio concert. I wasn't expecting much because when I saw them in Oakland after the release of "Dear Science" the show wasn't that great. But they nailed it on this tour. I was most impressed that they played a lot of their old music, waiting until the third song to play something from their newest project, "Nine Types Of Light" (the second song, a southern-rocking-feel version of "Wrong Way," left many in the crowd in the outdoor venue standing around wondering if it was a cover, but I was geeking out over how utterly amazing it was). They ended up only play about half of the new record, which was great because it left room for "Young Liars" (another geek-out moment) and the encore set finisher, "Satellite" (my heart geeking all over the grass). It was ridiculously fun. This is a tour worth seeing.

Back Home

For years of returning home to Berkeley from New York during my university, I've felt my hometown slipping away from me, feeling less and less like home. I would fall into a standstill where my life acquired abroad had no impact on the life I lead back home. I would fall into old lazy habits and spend my time reminiscing instead of progressing. Creativity would slow up and procrastination would rule - which is okay when I'm on vacation but still distanced me from that feeling of home sweet home and introduced the feeling of having nowhere that held the special place in my heart.

As I said before, Istanbul started feeling like a home to me before I left. I felt entirely comfortable there. And yet as I return to Berkeley I feel the same about this place as well, more at home than I've felt here in years. Maybe it's because I was gone for so long, about 8 months longer than I've ever been gone before. But either way, despite being afraid that returning to America would be a let-down, I'm glad to be back.