There are approximately 84,233 people with the last name Benson. This Surname ranks the 332 most common in the United States. There are an estimated 41,359 Males with the last name "Benson". It is further estimated that there are about 318 Males with the exact name, John Benson.
one was born today 42 years ago. that was me!

pacific high school

i never finished a whole year at one school.
my kindergarten was on a closed down ohio naval base. they tore it down part way through that year.
first grade got moved to a portable. i moved half way through second. third grade the building
got torn down. 5-6th i moved 4 times to different schools. finally ended up in california.
pacific highschool was shut down at the end of 10th grade. it was the newest school built in
sanleandro at the time but was on the "wrong side of the tracks"
this video is from one of the times we broke into the school after they closed it. creepy as hell.
i tore the clock off the cafeteria wall that was stopped at 3:00. the hour we got let out.
1988.
the music is night ranger
im sporting totally rad fashion in this video by damian potesta:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WvjrWm0l9Y









we all got moved to the rival highschool, sanleandro hi. one of the more violent times of my life. there was a full blown race riot that made national headlines, they
installed metal detectors and security cameras and narcs patrolled the halls.
still do

not from damian but cool phs history:

aurielia aurita

lake merritt oakland was where many
creeks met the sf.bay. really its a
tidal lagoon. there are cement
tunnels flowing from the s.f. bay
into the lake.







this jelly fish was stuck in muck
in lake merritt,

even though the lake and its creeks
have been reshaped and mostly covered by concrete the critters still
come, still an occasional salmon
tries to spawn unsuccessfully into
the sewers. crabs, jellyfish,fish and others
get into the "lake" and get trapped.







this one went to an oakland birthday party and
listened to the band "bulbs" before it was released
back into the bay.

a.m.f.

whollly smokes.
i just spent five hours going thru boxes of flyers and letters
and photos.
ugh.
man, whew. im pretty mentally taxed scanning over 150
show flyers. lots of memories, and many times i wondered
"..wha?" (no recollection what so ever)
1993 to 1997 ish, mostly i was impressed at how many shows were not represented, like our last show or first tour.
now what...

howl at the moon

sometimes the moon covers the sun



im not sure how, but my mom knew lawrence Ferlinghetti.
he came to a pot luck and we drew on paper plates together.
i didn't know that he was a famous beat poet and that he opened "city lights bookstore" at that time.
later that same week i learned that he had been arrested in the mid 1950's on obscenity
charges for publishing allen Ginsbergs "howl"
it kinda blew my 17 year old mind to hear how some one could start a book store,
and pay to have a book of poems printed and then get put in jail and have
all the books taken away by the cops. i had no real way of understanding how that could happen.
it made me think poems must be very powerful.
A Coney Island of the Mind was perhaps the first book of poetry i every saw.
my dad had the poem about the "dog trots freely in the street" memorized.
it had a picture on the cover that
i thought was old disneyland and thought the book
must be about the most awesome stuff ever. i had to read it over and over to figure out
what the hell it was talking about. i romanticized it long before i ever knew what "poems" were.
after i drew pictures on plates with lawrence, i bought a copy of "howl" from him at city lights
along with some of ferlingehetties other books.
he wrote some stuff inside the cover for me.
i don't remember what he wrote, however he encouraged me to keep being creative.
those books all got stolen when i was in college. i still look in used book stores at copies of the books to see if i can find what he wrote to me.
i still feel there is something about poems that i don't get. they must be more powerfull
than i know. those cops sure thought so.

great kulti -bonner

in maumee ohio marge bonner is back in her home
her husband built it 46 years ago.
the photo on the left is her at the age of four with her
mom and dad, mr. and mrs. kulti.
my great grand parents.

today she is 91.
she has lived alone in the house that her husband built since he died 40 years ago.
my grandfather was also involved inthe building of the
maumee mud hens stadium and cort house.
the familly brags that when all other buildings in maumee have fallen this house will be as strong as new.
i think that may be true.
one of her stories is how her dad put her on the school bus when she was 9 and she never saw him again.
he went to california and started another family.
she found this new half family when she was in her 80's
i met them this year. her father wrote music. he worked for the Wurlitzer organ company.

pacific to lake michigan

-robot santa, a foot spa, stephanie b.s skirt, mechanical monkey head is in the bed.
monkey head is pensive usually but some times i would go around back and there
would be a big ol' grin, like " ooooh, im super happy with santa right now!"








some where between the pacific ocean and lake michigan, robot santa
and mechanical monkey head were looking back at the long road behind.
"nostalgia, curse you."
i can't seem to drink my coffee black.
i wish i could but i need the cream
to not make the bitter face.
when i asked for cream at the
mechanics waiting room next to their free coffee stained table scattered with brouchures for the best lubrication available they pulled out this powder stuff in Tupperware that had a piece of tape that said "cream" on it.
(its not really cream)