This Saturday night, Blake Jones & the Trike Shop bring their eclectic pop music, their clangy guitars, and their whirring theremin to Tokyo Garden.

Joining them (from Patterson, CA) are The Panduhs and
(from Fresno, CA) It's an Icicle.

---a perfect capper of local and not-so-local music to a beautiful summer week here in the Big 'No.

From FiveThirtyEight.com:

Like most Americans, there are few things I would like to see more than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's hateful President, to be voted out of office. Elections in thuggish, authoritarian states like Iran need be treated with the utmost skepticism and scrutiny. I can't say I have any real degree of confidence in the official results, which showed Ahmadinejad winning with some 62 percent of the vote.

By Ramzy Baroud

From a distance, the struggle between Hamas and Fatah appears commonplace, a typical third world country’s political scuffle over interpretation of democracy that went out of control, or simply a ‘power struggle’ between two political rivals vying for international aid and recognition. In fact, the conflict may appear as if it popped out of nowhere and will continue as long as the seemingly power-hungry Palestinians carry on with their self-defeating fight.

by MediaLens.org

It is a mistake to imagine that media corporations are impervious to all complaints and criticism. In fact, senior editors and managers are only too happy to accept that their journalists tend to be ‘anti-American,’ ‘anti-Israel,’ ‘anti-Western,’ indeed utterly rotten with left-wing bias.

In June 2007, an internal BBC report revealed that Auntie Beeb had long been perpetrating high media crimes, including: "institutional left-wing bias" and "being anti-American". ('Lambasting for the "trendy Left-wing bias" of BBC bosses,' Daily Mail, June 18, 2007)

Tuesday, May 19, 4:00 PM, in front of St. John's Cathedral, Mariposa & "R" Streets, Program "STOP THE EXECUTION OF TROY ANTHONY DAVIS," a Georgia man who is very likely innocent of the crime for which he was condemned to death. Amnesty International has declared May 19th an International Day to Save Troy Davis. Join with us and the civilized countries of the world to protest this man's unconstitutional execution. His 30 day stay of execution expired on May 15, so it is believed that the state will declare an immediate execiton date. [Amnesty International/Death Penalty Focus event]

The Gerrymander Bystander
an Anecdotal Study of Social Division in Our Town
by Nicholas Nocketback

I was enjoying the magical splendor that is public inebriation at a local haunt of mine the other night when I learned a very important lesson about this town and its denizens. With a single sentence, an otherwise stunning, albeit tipsy, young woman summed up what everyone here knows but normally never says: You live in Tower? We gotta go, nice meeting you.

THE CRAZIEST ART EVER SEEN IN FRESNO!ON JUNE 4TH(ARTHOP NITE) AT THE BROADWAY STUDIOS IN DOWNTOWN FRESNO,THE EXHIBIT "CTRL+ALT+DEL:BINARY REINVENTED" WILL GO ON DISPLAY.ART THAT SHOULD REALLY BE EXHIBITED IN THE SILICON VALLEY BUT IT'S HERE!.COME SEE WHAT THE HELL ALL THE TALK IS ABOUT.BE PREPARED TO ASK QUESTIONS!!YOU HAVE TO SEE IT TO BELIEVE IT!!THAT'S ALL I'M ALLOWED TO SAY!CRAZY ART,INDEPENDENT FILM, MUSIC...FREE REFRESHMENTS!!WHAT ELSE DO YOU NEED?PEACE

FRIDAY MAY 1ST:THE LEGENDARY ZAPP'S PARK PRESENTS THE PATRICK CONTRERAS BAND!!! $10 COVER AND FREE SIGNED POSTER FOR THE FIRST 40 PEOPLE!!! $3 ALL BEERS $3 WELL DRINKS ALL NIGHT!!! GET READY TO ROCK THE NIGHT AWAY AT ZAPP'S!!!!!!

Hi, I am Pete Grant of The Stepsons blues band. We are playing our first Fresno gigs soon, at Full Circle Brewery on Saturday May 9th at 8:00pm ($6 cover) and at Crossroads the following night at 7pm.