Yep, it's fleet week here in the Bay Area which can only mean one thing- strip clubs on Broadway are gonna be overrun with drunken, rowdy sailors inches away from puking (and a few in the Castro too, but that's our little secret). It also means the Blue Angels. You know the Blue Angels, those blue navy fliers who go 'round the world doing all sorts of Top Gun like aerial stunts. The highlight of Fleet Week is that sometime during the weekend, the Blue Angels put on a show over the Bay. As far as backgrounds for an aerial show go, the Bay (with Alcatraz front and center and the Golden Gate Bridge to the right) doesn't suck. Beats the hell out of an airshow in say, Latvia or Utah. Thousands, maybe millions of people trek into SF to watch the shows. Parties are thrown, roofs are occupied, and picnics are thrown. It's a hoot.

This being SF, of course, none of this can go down without some sort of protestations from the usual quarters.

First there are the anti-noise people, the people who hate the thing because the planes are so damn noisy, especially on the Weekdays when they practice and fly all over down-town. They are pretty damn noisy, especially when you're not expecting them to show up and you're right in the middle of something and -VOOOOM. These people complain because, you know, noise is really bad and annoying and you live in the city because it's a place of peace and quiet (don't get me started about San Franciscans and noise, that's something for a whole other time).

The main complaints, though, are from the usual suspects. They hate the Blue Angels because it's a waste of taxpayers money that could go to creating a worker's paradise and the planes used by the Navy are built to do bad things and it's being done to promote the Navy and it's glorifying the military and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I think the only way that people wouldn't protest here would be if, they say, rechristened themselves the "Justice Angels" and told everyone that what they were doing is really Performance Art. All the pilots, who are made up of every single minority and color possible- including a few Vegans, a gay and one transsexual- would then announce that what they're really trying to do is represent the soaring spirit of the Oppressed Masses who are caught underneath the power of their corporate oppressors. Not to mention to Free Mumia.

Me? What do I think? I've climbed up hills to watch them practice, gone to roofs to watch them perform and gone to parties in North Beach where we'd all sit around drinking for the air show. I think they're kewl.

Do people say kewl anymore? Did I just date myself. Hmmm……