XINGOLATI

As defined on their website: Xingolati embodies a creative and bold spirit and is all about the blending of worlds. The event blends the live music community together with performance artists and the beautiful creatures of the underground art scene.
Last May upon returning from Jazzfest in New Orleans, I received an email from the promoters at Jam Base. My head was still foggy as I read it, but something in my reptilian brain registered "very cool" as I quickly scanned the description of the maiden voyage of “Xingolati: the Groove Cruise of the Pacific.” Later that day one of my friends from New York who was at Jazzfest with us emailed me to ask if I had read the description of Xingolati. Mind you, this is the kind of guy that can tell you who is playing from 2a to 6a at some still-to-be-built wherehouse in Atlanta 6 months from now--if you’d only ask.
“Looks REALLY good,” he declared.
“Yes it does, now let me shake off Jazzfest and I’ll revisit later,” I said.
Revisit it I did. The next day I started reading the details. A three night October cruise from Long Beach to Ensenada featuring such acts as the Flaming Lips, G.Love and Special Sauce, Particle, BassNectar, Mutaytor, Slightly Stupid, DJ Motion Potion etc… I thought that sounded like a pretty solid line up, especially for a cruise ship. I figured it would sell out in no time, so I booked passage for my wife and I without giving it a second thought. I then hastily dashed out an email to The Posse—most of whom were still recovering from Jazzfest – and said something to the effect of, “look what I just booked, get on it dogonne it!”
I expected a lot of “hummms” and “haaaaws” from the gang, so I was truly shocked when I received 8 “I just booked it too” ’s back in the space of about one hour. When I got home and told my wife that we were going on a cruise in October, her immediate response was to look at me quizzically and ask if I was feeling ill. Everybody knows cruises are for bluehairs after all. After reading the details it didn’t take her long to warm to the idea of 24 hour room service, spa treatments, gambling, sun bathing, great music and umbrella drinks—if nothing else.
The summer months ticked away punctuated by the High Sierra Musicfest, Lollapalooza, Reggae on the River, Burning Man and many other activities that make summer great! Now and then we would discuss how we were going to dress each night on board. We debated a few themes and one that stuck was superheroes. The promoters helped us out by saying the first night on a cruise was traditionally “formal” so everyone be sure to dress their freaky-formal best, which we all did. Everybody knows that you have to dress like a furry animal to see the Flaming Lips, so just like that we had our costume scheme down—Friday night 70’s cheese-prom formal, furry animals (primate) Saturday night, and superhero SundayFunday. The many costumes we had made for Burning Man came in handy too, as everybody was essentially in some sort of costume the whole time.
As October neared we began to see that several cabins were still unfilled for this cruise. The cost is a big nut to swallow if you don’t consider what you are getting for your money. In any case they began to drastically cut the price of the remaining cabins for which we had paid full price. One of my friends sent an email to the promoters of the event and explained nicely that we were a little put off for paying full price when they were now practically giving away rooms. The promoter’s answer to our concerns was to give us two cabins for free! Free is good, and it allowed us to invite four more people. After much jockeying and a few false starts, those four spots were secured by the right people. I say the right people because in retrospect they all greatly contributed to the overall experience.
The Coast Hotel where we all stayed hosted a pre-Xingolati party the night before we were to set sail. Most of our group arrived that evening and we enjoyed good music and fire-twirling as a taste of things to come. We even picked up a couple of strays that night. One gal from Denver had decided to come on the trip despite her friend bailing last minute. It didn’t take long for one of the single guys in our clan to swoop in on her. She became a permanent fixture for the rest of the trip. A good girlfriend of another in our group lived close by, so she joined us for Thursday’s festivities. She had known another one of our friends on the trip from a wedding the prior summer, so they “re-kindled” things that evening. The next morning she was on her way home to pack for the cruise since “Denver” now had an extra spot.
It was that kind of trip.
Friday morning we had breakfast and lounged around the pool. About half the crew was eager to get on board so they headed over to the ship.
The rest of us took our time and paid for it. It took us about 90 minutes to get on; evidently this is common when boarding a cruise ship. The process is like getting on an airplane except there’s 2,000 rather than 200 people trying to board. Fortunately the weather was nice and they were selling beer outside.
Once on board we made our way to our cabins to drop off our carry on bags. When we booked our rooms months prior we took care to all book on the same deck. This turned out to be a GREAT call as we were on the Verandah deck very close to most of the action. I was a bit worried about our rooms being on the interior (no windows) but this was not a problem at all. The bed was very comfortable and the blackness was welcomed on the rare occasions that sleep was absolutely required.
We went out and joined the rest of the posse for welcome cocktails and rooted for one of our gals who was frantically trying to make her way across Friday afternoon LA rush hour traffic to get on board. I believe she was third-to-last to make it on the ship.
We shoved off about 5pm, witnessed a beautiful sunset and headed down to dinner in one of the “formal” dining rooms. This was actually quite fun as everybody was dressed up and the food was great! My wife decided she was going to let me speak on her behalf during dinner so she could witness the group dynamic without her usual conversational input. That was entertaining—for me at least—and it lasted a lot longer than I thought it would!
After dinner the line up I wanted to see was Medesky, Martin and Wood then Particle late night, but the great thing about having a music festival on a ship is that nothing is ever that far away, so it was easy to bounce around from venue to venue. The ship, by the way, had a total of 5 music venues. There were 3 stages: 2 were comedy club type set-ups, and one was outside on the top (lido) deck. Then there were two lounges for late night dj action. One thing all had in common was intimacy. One could literally reach out and touch whoever was on stage. Bassnectar (Lorin) was the best act Friday night as far as I’m concerned. The lido deck was goin’ off while he spun, and The Mutaytor kept the Burning Man vibe flowin’ when he was done. I went down to see Particle after that—not one of their best shows, but good nonetheless. It was about 4 am by then and I was pretty hungry, so I headed over to the 24 hour buffet and made myself a chili dog topped with scrambled eggs and sausage. Yeah, that’s right—you should try it sometime, it satisfies.
Saturday morning early my wife and I decided to go have a Jacuzzi at the stern of the ship. We were bubblin’ away with some other characters when Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips strolled by with a beautiful woman by his side. We called him over to see wazzup and find out who the hottie was. He said she’s his girlfriend and photographer, to which I commented, “it’s good to be a rockstar, huh?” He replied, “why yes, it is.” He took a few minutes and posed on the edge of the Jacuzzi with us whilst she clicked away. One of the guys in the tub was wearing a lion’s head costume—no doubt it was that furry animal that caught his eye.
We docked in Ensenada around noon Saturday and debarked by 2p. We pretty much made a beeline for Papa’s and Beer to celebrate one of our friend’s birthday. Our waiter put a Papa’s and Beer sticker over his eyes and did everything in his power to humiliate him. This was mostly offset by the gal we recruited to lick salt and lime off his nipples and from his bellybutton. Mostly. Everybody made their way back to the ship in their own way. My wife and I did a little shopping. A portion of the gang opted to go to a strip club where they got whipped by a stripper and turned one of our gals onto the joys of a lap dance! Who knew Ensenada could be so educational?
We got back to the ship and got into furry animal costumes then had a birthday piñata smashing. After scattering candy all around somebody’s else’s cabin we headed out to see G.Love’s first performance. All of the performers did multiple shows (sans The Flaming Lips) which resolved any potential schedule conflicts one may have had trying to see everybody. The G. Love show was not his best, but that was more than made up for the next day during his happy hour show.
After G.Love it was time for the main event—the Flaming Lips show. I’ve seen the Flaming Lips about 5 times now. I’m pretty sure they’re the only band I like that I’ve only seen live which means I don’t have any of their cd’s and they’re not on any of my mixes—it’s a peculiar situation. Subconsciously what I think it means is that they’re SO good live that I do not want to sully my mind’s image of them by listening to a recording. This show did not disappoint. It was pure energy through and through. True to form was the stage full of furry animals shining their spotlights all around and giant balloons bouncing off of a room full of uplifted arms. There were 3 marriage proposals on stage (two hetero, one lesbian) and Wayne personally sang happy birthday to our pal. It’s one of those shows that you just had to experience. I will put it in my top 2 best shows I’ve ever seen (I think the Porno for Pyros show I saw at Fitchburg St. U in Massachusetts back in 1992 topped it, but that was my first experience seeing a performance art skit custom choreographed for every song of an entire show). I looked around and realized I was standing in the front row in the center of the stage in what had to be one of the more intimate places they’ve ever played. I looked up and there was one of our boys onstage with the rest of the furry animals. He had hollowed out a teddy bear and was wearing it on his head—he fit right in.
I cannot be sure what happened after that show, I think we hit Perpetual Groove and DJ Motion Potion. I was pretty cooked after the Flaming Lips.
The next day was SundayFunday. My wife and I started out the morning in the hot tub again with a whole different cast of characters. I think it must have been Birthday Suit Sunday because there was no shortage of nudity at that early hour. As it turned out it was the harbinger of things to come. The security guards on board must have gotten very tired of telling people to put their clothes back on in the hot tub. Of course they’d observe a while before issuing their orders—they’re human after all. As morning gave way to noon, our troops mustered on the Verandah deck above the pool and the lido deck stage. We had a box full of Hawaiian leis that were quickly distributed to everybody in our vicinity. Nothing screams “PARRRTY” like a lei! Somebody ordered a double citron and lemonade and it became the Drink of the Day. Once it touched your lips it just tasted sooo good…! A completely empty hot tub right behind the lido stage splashed water up at us and beckoned us to “come hither.” One does not ignore the siren song of the hot tub, so we moved our party down a level and into its warm, bubbly embrace.
Slightly Stoopid kicked off the music on the lido deck stage. Basically we were in a backstage hot tub. Anybody coming to the stage had to pass us first, and things got pretty kooky after a while. There was a time when the Jacuzzi shenanigans were the main event. The waiters kept the double citron and lemonades coming, and a steady stream of tattooed circus freaks and not-quite-porn stars kept the Jacuzzi Soup plenty spicy. When G. Love was getting ready to go on we got him to come over and chat us up. I can’t blame him for keeping on his toes because I can assure you he would have ended up in the water with us had he given us the opportunity. We did get a round of hi-fives and plenty of smiles from him though. It was Happy Hour from 5-7p during the G.Love show, so the waiters kept the free beers and cocktails coming. There’s not much more that needs to be said concerning the Jacuzzi on that SundayFunday afternoon that hasn’t already been said. Again, it was just one of those things you had to be there to see. It was a vortex of positive energy, and many people jumped in with eyes wide open and both feet flappin’.
After 8 hours in the Jacuzzi it was time to shower up and get into superhero garb. The group was pretty fragmented at this point. My wife and I went to the formal dining room for dinner then met up with the rest of the marinated superheroes afterwards for the Particle show. This show was much better than the first one I thought. Things were blurry after that—I remember going in to one of the lounges for some dj action, but I couldn’t tell you who it was. It didn’t really matter anyhow. It was ALL good as they say!
The next morning we got up entirely too early. We were supposed to debark around 8a, but they did not start letting people off the boat until about 11a. The details are sketchy but one young lady died of a drug overdose onboard. Not sure if it was a suicide or what, but they had to complete the investigation before anybody could get off the ship. Truthfully, I was surprised more people didn’t die. I figured maybe a couple of people would fall overboard in a drug induced zombie trance. I’m glad I was wrong about that at least.
I try not to have expectations going into a new experience, but I have to admit I did have a few regarding this trip. In retrospect this trip exceeded all expectations. The vibe on board was really positive and I guarantee the crew never experienced a freakshow anything like that before. We were surrounded by a multitude of creative, beautiful people, which is easy to take for granted until you walked off the ship and saw the next crop of humanity waiting to get on board. My fellow travelers really made it complete. I am blessed to have such a good group of friends.

10-OCT-2006 UPDATE: Here's a link to the story about the young lady, Ashley Barnett, that died on the cruise. Sad story. My opinion of what happened: she had a dramatic flair, so she took some methadone to get her boyfriend's attention. Not having ever used drugs in her life, she was not familiar with what a proper dosage should be, so she overdosed and died. Methadone is particularly dangerous if it's abused.

18-MAR-09 UPDATE: My bouyiee Tim who met his wife on this trip sent me this link from another happy Xingolati veteran. Sounds like another happy customer...!

Worker's Paradise

The next time you see somebody wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt or you walk past an A.N.S.W.E.R booth at the latest Anti-Everything rally, it's worth remembering what they're advocating.

Deserter: 'Worst Mistake Anyone Ever Made'
Friday, October 21, 2005

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A U.S. Army deserter who spent decades in North Korea says his communist keepers abused him and controlled every aspect of his life, down to telling him how often to have sex.
"It was the worst mistake anyone ever made," Charles Jenkins said. "In words, I cannot express the feelings I have towards North Korea, the harassment I got, the hard life."
In an interview airing Sunday on CBS' "60 Minutes, Jenkins said he was given no painkillers when a tattoo on his forearm that read "U.S. Army" was cut off with a scalpel and scissors.
"They told me the anesthetic was for the battlefield," said Jenkins, a North Carolina native. "It was hell."
Jenkins was a 24-year-old sergeant when he crossed the border into North Korea. He stayed for 39 years, appearing in propaganda films and teaching English.
In 1980, he married a Japanese woman who had been kidnapped and taken to North Korea to train spies in Japanese language and culture. She was released in 2002 and Jenkins followed two years later, surrendering to U.S. authorities and serving a month in jail for desertion.
The couple now live in Japan.
Jenkins told "60 Minutes" that his government handlers assigned him a Korean woman with whom he was supposed to have sex twice a month, and they beat him severely when he balked.

The Legacy of Robert Mugabe

Spin is an inherent part of storytelling. Everybody has a perspective, and the way they choose to spin a story reveals a lot about the storyteller.
Robert Mugabe has personally done more to destroy Zimbabwe than any of the numerous factors he blames for taking one of Africa's most productive exporting nations and placing it firmly on the road to just another hopeless African basket case in the space of approximately 5 years. At the heart of the problem lies his land redistribution program in which white owned farms were to be purchased at market prices and turned over to the black majority in a bid to equalize things following years of civil war and minority white rule. He went about this in a methodical way for a short time, but it didn't take long for him to resort to outright seizure of Zimbabwe's most fertile land in order to turn it over to political cronies with little interest in maintaining the productivity of the farms. This has led to widespread food shortages and much national chaos as the black farm workers suddenly found themselves unemployed. Those farm workers fortunate enough to have acquired a piece of property from this program found that although they had land, they lacked the proper equipment to farm the land as anything of value was either looted by political cronies or carried off by the former owners. This goes a long way towards explaining how Zimbabwe went from being a net agricultural exporter to a net importer so quickly. Of course, this is my spin on the subject, but one thing I have found is that financial markets are very efficient when it comes to cutting through spin and getting to the truth of the matter. I found the following story this morning:

Zimbabwe to Replace Dollar, World's Worst Performer Since 2000
2005-10-20 11:03 (New York)
By Lukanyo Mnyanda
Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Zimbabwe plans to dump its dollar, the
world's worst performing currency over the last five years, from
next year, the central bank said.
The bank has been working on the introduction of a new
currency and is ``pleased to give notice that this will be done in
the new year'', central bank Governor Gideon Gono said in his
monetary policy statement today, without giving reasons.
To buy a U.S. dollar at the start of 2000, Zimbabweans had to
pay about 38 of their dollars. A U.S. dollar cost them 26,004.45
of their dollars at the rate set on Oct. 17, a 99 percent drop,
according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The Zimbabwe dollar has fallen 78 percent this year so far,
the worst performance of currencies tracked by Bloomberg.
Export earnings have slumped since President Robert Mugabe's
government started seizing white-owned commercial farms in 2002.
The economy contracted by 40 percent between 1999 and 2003,
according to International Monetary Fund data, the most recent
available.
The central bank will introduce a "more flexible'' system of
managing the currency to ease shortages of foreign exchange, Gono
said in his statement. The bank currently manages it by selling
foreign currency at bi-weekly auctions.
Zimbabweans should ``hold cash sparingly'' to ensure a smooth
changeover, Gono said.

Spin away Mr. Mugabe, for the financial markets have reached a verdict: your country is in shambles.
The rich irony in this is that just this last weekend the U.N. invited Mr. Mugabe to speak at a hunger conference in Rome to mark the 60th anniversary of the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization. I heard that he received a standing ovation led by none other than Hugo Chavez, the generalissimo of Venezuela.

You can tell a lot about a person by the company they keep.

They're not all inside playing Xbox

Yesterday I went for an afternoon run after work. It was a gorgeous fall day--sunny, warm, very light breeze-- the kind that makes one breathe deep and feel glad to be alive. I was running down the sidewalk not too far from home when I saw three kids--one boy and two girls about 11 years old--playing on some sort of contraption. When I drew closer I saw that they had made a catamaran out of two of those razor kick scooters that are pretty popular these days. They had constructed a wooden platform that spanned the distance between the two scooters and they were having a ball bombing down the sidewalk trying not to crash. I ran along behind them for about 1/2 a block just listening to them laugh and chatter. It so reminded me of my childhood I could taste it. They abruptly swung the catamaran into a driveway where three other kids were hanging out waiting for them. I heard the laughing and tones of bravado fade into the cacophony of the city as I got further down the sidewalk. It was then that it occured to me that not all the kids were inside playing Xbox on a beautiful sunny afternoon...

Haitian Zombie Recipe

I just found the Haitian recipe for zombies (just in time for Halloween!) Actually it was passed along to me by a friend on a slow news day here at work.
"The recipe included puffer fish which has a poison called tetrodotoxin which is a potent ion channel blocker. Tetrodotoxin poisoning can kill but at other times it leads to a near death state with such a lowered metabolism that the poisoned person is thought to be dead. Somehow along the line Haitian's discovered this property and may at times have used it nefariously. Poisoning someone with the Zombie recipe caused their seeming death. After they were buried the poisoner would unearth the not quite dead victim. The next step was also one of the slick aspects of this scheme in that the unburied and now resuscitated poison victim would be fed a paste made from a plant that contained atropine and scopalomine. These toxins are potent dissociative hallucinogens. The victim was first "killed", buried, and brought back to life. Then given a heavy duty hallucinogenic drug. The dead had come back to life and was walking the earth. Just like in a movie. These guys were then sold to labor camps to work in the fields."
Enjoy!

Feelers vs. Thinkers

There's this economics professor named James Miller at Smith College that writes for Tech Central Station from time to time. His perspective is in the minority as he is a conservative professor at an extremely liberal all women's school. He wrote an article on Monday titled "Feelers v. Thinkers" in which he tried to connect thinkers with conservative thought and feelers with liberal thought. I agreed with much of what he had to say, however there was one paragraph that absolutely dumbfounded me:

Bill Maher, the former host of Politically Incorrect, got in trouble with feelers when he said that the 9/11 hijackers were not cowards. A thinker would have to concede that those who deliberately give their lives for a cause, regardless of how horrid the cause, don't fit the conventional definition of cowards. A feeler, however, would violently reject associating any positive qualities, including bravery, with the 9/11 hijackers. A feeler would believe that Maher would have done this only if he sympathized with the terrorists.

I finished the article and continued what I was doing, but that paragraph continued to grate on my nerves, so I decided I would write him a letter and explain to him why I thought he was wrong:

Prof. Miller
I enjoy reading and agree with much of what you write--especially your thoughts regarding lefty bias on campus. Your recent Feelers v. Thinkers is mostly spot on, but I would like to add something to your conclusion regarding Bill Maher's comments about the 9/11 hijackers. You say, "A thinker would have to concede that those who deliberately give their lives for a cause, regardless of how horrid the cause, don't fit the conventional definition of cowards." I believe that is a true statement, however it cannot be applied to the hijackers. Since they believed that their rich reward for their atrocious actions lay waiting for them in the after world, I believe what they did was the ultimate form of cowardice. There's nothing inherently brave about embracing that which has been guaranteed to be yours, no matter what you must do in order to realize it. I believe that point was lost on you, Mr. Maher and anybody else who would believe that the hijackers were anything but cowards.Al Qaeda must know this too, which I would speculate is one of the reasons why not all of the hijackers were aware they were about to become martyrs.
Signed,
J

I felt better after writing that and I did not expect to hear back from him. It's been my experience that people you disagree with seldom write back to defend their position. I was wrong this time. The next morning I had the following message in my in box; short and to the point:

Hi,
Good point, but many of the fire fighters who ran into the burning towers on9/11 believed they were going to heaven after they died. Surely these men and women should still be considered brave.
Jim

OK, now I was confused. Here was a self-described conservative professor sounding like any number of leftist apologists for terrorism. Here is my reply:

Jim,

Unless you can say with a straight face that the entire police and fire response team was made up of unambivalent Christian fanatics, you would have to concede that their motivation for rushing into the WTC was not because they wished to find a shortcut to heaven. Their reason for rushing into the WTC was because they were protecting the public they took an oath to serve. If you ask me that is among the bravest and most noble things one can do--putting strangers before oneself. I suppose you could counter that Mr. Atta and company's sole motivation for mass murder was not to gain early admission to the Land of Virgins and Wine--that they felt they were serving Allah to whom they took an oath to protect and serve, but if you made that argument I might have to conclude that you were trying to draw moral equivalency between the premeditated actions of mass murderers and civil servants doing their job.
I'll leave you with this by Leon Wieseltier writing for TNR. He puts it much more succinctly than I ever could: "A hero is somebody who risks everything for what he believes. A martyr is somebody who risks nothing for what he believes, because he believes that his reward is certain, and that his life really begins with his death. Martyrdom, unlike heroism, is an extreme and repugnantly rigid _expression of certainty. Martyrs make dogmas, heroes make wagers."

Martyr = Atta &.Co = Cowards
Hero = police & fire = Courageous

signed,
J

I have not heard back from him yet but I hope I do. I would love to hear him defend his position from a conservative, or any point of view for that matter. I don't think my thoughts on the matter are specifically conservative, but when contrasted with the crowd that thinks that Islamic terrorism is simply a symptom of the West's failure to understand their grievances, I can see how it could be labeled as such. Most people don't like to have their ideas and assumptions challenged; especially college professors.

Golden Gate Bridge Toll for Bikes

I love riding my bike. Actually, I love riding any one of the three bikes I currently own. I'm no bike snob though, like a lot of people. Mostly the bike snobs are guys who dress like Lance Armstrong and ride like the road is only for them. They'd rather run you off the road than yield an inch--then cuss you out cause they had to break their rythm. The other group that's snobby is the Puck the Bike Messenger crowd on their fixed gear single speeds with no brakes. They figure they're holier-than-thou because they have a minimalist bike. I say big deal, it's only a bike for crissakes. If you're on a bike you're alright by me--it doesn't matter what kind it is. Everybody unites under common cause when Critical Mass rolls around at 6pm the last Friday of every month. Eventhough some of those guys can be pretty militant I think Critical Mass is a positive event that adds to the flavor of San Francisco.
For whatever reason the GG Bridge District has been claiming poor for as long as I can remember. The current vehicle toll is $5. In addition to funding bridge maintenance this toll also subsidizes ferry and bus service from Marin County into the city for commuters. The GGBD's most recent scheme for generating more cash flow is to start charging pedesterians and bicycle riders a toll as well. Most of the pedesterians are tourists so they don't really have a say in the matter, but the bicycle crowd is less than enthusiastic about this as one can imagine. The SF Bike Coalition has organized numerous letter writing campaigns and petitions with the hopes of convincing Governor Schwarzenegger to sign AB 748 which would prohibit tolls for bikes and pedesterians on all bridges in California. He vetoed the bill. Here's what the latest SFBC email has to say about the matter:

Governor Vetoes Ban on Bike/Pedestrian TollsWe have learned that the
Governor has vetoed Assembly Bill (AB) 748, legislation that would have
prohibited tolls on cyclists & pedestrians on bridges and highways around
the state, including on the Golden Gate Bridge. Despite rising gas prices,
increasing obesity trends, and more environmental concerns related to motor
vehicles, the Governor unfortunately still chose to send a message that the
state discourages - rather than encourages - healthy, sustainable transportation
such as bicycling and walking. Bay Area bicyclists have worked hard in support
of this bill in the past few months, including sen! ding more than 1,000 letters
to the Governor & gathering thousands of petition signatures. (Thank you to
all of you who support these efforts by signing our petitions!)---> To see
the Governor's veto message, see http://www.sfbike.org/ggb

That sounded like an uncharacteristic thing for a man who has spent his life body building to do, so I went to the website to see what his reasoning was:

To the Members of the California State Assembly: I am returning Assembly
Bill 748 without my signature. I strongly encourage Californians to use
bicycling and walking as modes of transportation when possible because of the
physical fitness benefit, as well as the congestion mitigation and air quality
benefits. However, this bill would inappropriately usurp control from the local
governing body, the Golden Gate Highway and Transportation District. Since the
District has been authorized to operate and maintain the bridge, the state
should not tie its hands by foreclosing certain funding options.
Sincerely, Arnold Schwarzenegger

If one only reads the opinion of the SFBC, one would think the governor is against bicycles and alternative transportation. But if you read WHY he vetoed the bill, it makes sense. It's about not exercising power outside of his jurisdiction. Now that I think about it, I don't think I'd mind paying a dollar to access the Marin Headlands and beyond. Riding across the bridge sure as heck beats putting my bike on my back and swimming. That's worth at least one dollar.