TWEAK

Wednesday, June 23 -- Three days to go



TIME CHANGE

Thank you for your understanding.

It came to me a bit late in the game, but this morning I realized, "Hey, we're all in this together -- shouldn't we share 'our' helicopter!"

So, bottom line, I've moved the start time back approximately half an hour, and when we're done doing our thing at Ocean Beach, we'll send the helicopter to film the folks at the Hands Across the Sand events at China Beach and Crissy Field.

Please now shoot for a 10:30 a.m. arrival, and please DO arrive and have your spot selected no later than 11:00. The helicopter is now due to arrive overhead at approximately 11:25 - 11:30.

There will be an instruction sheet handout at the beach, explaining everything, but here's the gist:

After the helicopter arrives, our photographer, John Montgomery, will spend approximately ten minutes photographing above the Slash Oil image. As soon as we get the 'all-clear' signal, we'll all move down to the water's edge -- quickly, please -- spreading out in a long line, holding hands. If you are not so nimble, please take a direct route to the closest water. If you are plenty nimble, please head north or south along the beach so that we can create the longest line possible. When we've gotten ourselves into place, John will capture photos of this stage. I'm hoping that we can complete the Ocean Beach segment in 20-25 minutes from the time the helicopter arrives, and then we'll send it off to China Beach and Crissy Field. John expects to have the photos of all of these event posted online by sometime Saturday afternoon.


THE IMAGE

Oh, boy -- this is some new and tricky territory! The block letters of Beach Impeach were much simpler. I've spent much of my day hunched over my graph paper, ruler in hand, trying to remember long-lost geometry and math. I think I've got my head around it all now, but it's going to be pretty complicated, and I KNOW I'm going to need a lot of help stretching the long tape measures and pounding stakes and digging heels through sand to create the outline. I'll be there no later than 7 a.m. Any time after that that you can show up, I will do my best to put you to work. And if we (doubtful) have too many volunteers, you can do worse than hang out for a while at Ocean Beach.

I think I've got contingencies that will produce a worthy image even if the crowd is just 300, and I think we can probably handle 5,000 if that's how many show up -- and honest, I've got no real clue. Who knows?