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Steven T. Jones

Reports from the end of the world

In the Yucatan, a New Age fest turns into chaos

12.26.12 - 11:17 am | Steven T. Jones |
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TULUM, MEXICO — Sometimes you need to just listen to the universe and the many ways she conspires to set your path. That seems particularly true while visiting the Yucatan to cover the end of the Mayan calendar, the galactic alignment, and the winter solstice. Things at the grand festival that was supposed to be happening did not go according to plan — to say the least.Read more »

Synthesis 2012 Festival marks Mayan date with a creative contribution

12.26.12 - 10:56 am | Steven T. Jones |
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The Synthesis 2012 Festival near Chichen Itza, Mexico got off to a rocky start, but by the time the Mayan Long Count calendar ended on Dec. 21, it had transformed into an inspiring example of working through adversity to build community and connect with another culture. Read more »

Waiting for the end of the world (2)

12.20.12 - 2:58 pm | Steven T. Jones |
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TULUM -- So rather than taking the 2:45pm bus today from Tulum to Chichen Itza for the Synthesis 2012 Festival and tomorrow's end of the Mayan Long Count calendar as planned, my sweetie's bout with some bad ceviche has delayed us by a day.
And frankly, I can't say that I'm disappointed as I hear the stories flowing back from the festival. The universe does indeed seem to give us what we need.Read more »

Waiting for the end of the world (1)

12.19.12 - 2:52 pm | Steven T. Jones |
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TULUM, MEXICO -- The Yucatan is filled with Americans and Europeans who have come for the Dec. 21 end of the Mayan Long Count calendar and/or the end of 2012 next week, and those looking to spend time in paradise before the end have come to Tulum.Read more »

Preaching that the end is near

12.19.12 - 1:52 pm | Steven T. Jones |
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Rev. Billy Talen started off as a trickster, a performance artist, and a political activist appropriating the role of the evangelical preacher (a la Jerry Farwell or Jimmy Swaggert). He was the pastor of the Church of Stop Shopping, standing in front of the Disney Store in Times Square railing against the evils of sweatshops and consumerism.Read more »

The end of the world as we know it

Pondering the alarmist, the mystical, the way-out-there ... and the surprisingly hopeful sides of Dec. 21, 2012

12.18.12 - 5:47 pm | Steven T. Jones |
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steve@sfbg.com

It's easy to dismiss all the hype surrounding the auspicious date of December 21, 2012. There's the far-out talk of Mayan prophecy and the galactic alignment. There's the pop-culture lens that envisions the apocalypse. There are the extraterrestrials, about to return.

But even the true believers in Mayan folklore and its New Age interpretations say there's no end of the world in sight. Time doesn't end when the Mayan cycle concludes; it's actually a new beginning.Read more »

Final step?

Marriage equality advocates hope the US Supreme Court definitively ends the long quest for justice

12.11.12 - 5:35 pm | Steven T. Jones |
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steve@sfbg.com

President Barack Obama is fond of reciting the Martin Luther King Jr. quote, "The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice." On the issue of marriage equality, that arc looks more like a zig-zagging path that began when San Francisco unilaterally began issuing marriage license to same-sex couples just before Valentines Day in 2004 and ending — its backers hope — in June 2013 with the US Supreme Court affirming the basic constitutional right of everyone to marry whomever they want and to have those marriages treated equally under the law.Read more »

Lee ducks tough questions about Alvarez and diversifying SF's economy

12.11.12 - 4:37 pm | Steven T. Jones |
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For a career bureaucrat who was appointed mayor supposedly as a sort of straight-shooting un-politician, Mayor Ed Lee today once again demonstrated a real talent for addressing tough questions with a whole lot of words that don’t seem to say much at all. First came his non-responsive answers during Question Time at the Board of Supervisors meeting, followed by the hollow filibuster with reporters asking about the Housing Authority scandal as he briskly walked back to his office.Read more »

Herrera and other officials disappointed but hopeful as Supreme Court takes marriage equality case

12.07.12 - 5:34 pm | Steven T. Jones |
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City Attorney Dennis Herrera, Deputy City Attorney Theresa Stewart, California Attorney General Kamala Harris, and other officials who held a press conference at City Hall today admitted they were disappointed that the US Supreme Court has decided to review the Ninth Circuit Court ruling that Proposition 8, the 2008 measure banning same-sex marriage in California, was unconstitutional.Read more »

2012: Don't call it the Apocalypse

12.07.12 - 12:25 pm | Steven T. Jones |
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There's been growing media coverage of the widely anticipated 12/21/2012 date – which marks the end of the Mayan Long Count calendar, a rare Winter Solstice galactic alignment, and associated New Age predictions – with journalists and skeptics scoffing at doomsday predictions that it will trigger the apocalypse.Read more »