Thursday, May 4, 2006, 11:14 PM
but I kind of like it. It has been a crazy intense day - last night in VC partyland with Ken and his crowd, rescuing my car from the Hollywood tow this AM, walking into a MomsRising crisis as the MoveOn member mailing traffic (and our tech guys' lack of thoroughness?) crashed the site. It's all turned out nicely, though, as we're close to 20K members today and I'm heading out to dinner with Claud and Angel and Ken at Blair's. Off to SF tomorrow for some orthodontic adventures...and something from La Taqueria.A day without immigrants. Actually, for me it was a day when I spent way more time than usual with immigrants. Where were all the other white people at this march, anyway?
Monday, May 1, 2006, 03:21 PM - Politics
I'm not buying anything today, and will probably try to get down to the afternoon protest on Wilshire. It's not like LA needs a reminder that our city functions on immigrant labor - but I wonder how much people staying home today will impact the perception of immigrants in cities in the middle and eastern parts of the country. I am losing hope that the Dems will step up and take a proactive position on the immigration issue - I would love an honest acknowledgement of the net benefit that immigrants have on our economy (whether legal or illegal) - I mean really how else do you think we're going to pay for social security 30 years from now without immigrant-driven population growth? I find the hardline conservative criminalize/ deport position so disingenuous, it's disgusting. I've never seen anyone work harder than undocumented grape pickers in Napa vineyards, and I have huge respect for people who take personal risk to better their own and their families' lot. Why capital should be able to flow freely across borders, while people are limited by the accident of their birth is one of those hypocrisies that drive me up a wall. We're a nation of people (with the obvious exception of descendents of slaves and native people) who took the initiative to get here - what is more American than doing what is necessary to support your family? And don't get me started on how our free-trade policies throughout Latin American have failed to make a dent in poverty there - so I hope we're not surprised that there's considerable 'push' out of those countries, as well as 'pull' through the economic incentives to work here. I guess as someone who's at heart a relativist, I have no problem with an amnesty program. I think a principaled realistic immigration reform package includes a path to legal residency/ citizenship for people who are here, increased quotas for new immigrants, a guest worker program for people who only WANT to come for a season/ a short time, increased border enforcement with a national security focus (what's more dangerous, a dirty bomb or a woman who wants to be your nanny?), and a real focus and aggressive enforcement against employers who exploit undocumented workers. A good start towards integrating new immigrants into our civic life is opening up local elections (such as school boards) to all residents/ parents of children in their schools, regardless of immigrant status. We've got so many resources, why can't we be more accepting?
Update: March was great - tons of families, endless crowds, a sea of white t-shirts and american flags, there was even some cute young actor couple (don't ask me who). I liked walking down the middle of Wilshire.
Monday, May 1, 2006, 03:02 PM
In yet another attempt to transform into a southern Californian, I went to the Coachella music festival on Saturday with Claudia. Getting in was a horrendous logistical nightmare (they've been doing this for 6 years, I think, so I really don't understand why they haven't figured out traffic patterns - we missed Lady Sovereign because it took so long) but once we were there is was fun. I don't think I'd go back, but I'm glad I went. It felt like Burning Man with training wheels - lots and lots of people wandering around happily with pretty desert mountains in the background, but with grass underfoot and food for sale. Not nearly as much outlandish attire, and no middle-aged naked men, but a bit of the Burning Man vibe (bicycle carousel, a tesla coil). It wasn't particularly persuasive (and the whole thing is predicated on spectation) but it did make me sad that the drum and bass oasis test was as close as I'll get to Burning anything this year. (I've been told that Moontribe is the LA analog and Jeff B is pushing a monthly dance night with their djs, I think...). Best sets were Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Carl Cox and Derrick Carter (dj sets), Cat Power, Devendra Banhart (surprisingly), Kanye West (not surprisingly). I was not so thrilled with Daft Punk, Common, or Sigur Ross, but Ladytron was cute and weird. Only thing I'd have wanted more of was She Wants Revenge. Kanye apparently loves A-ha, and danced around on stage like Molly Ringwald in the Breakfast Club, which alone was worth half the price of admission.
Saturday, April 29, 2006, 03:32 PM - Dancing
of my new job is that my office is on the next corner from the Hollywood Amoeba record store. So far that means I've gotten to sneak out to see in-stores from Calexico, Pretty Girls Make Graves, and my favorite from this Thursday - the Coup. Nothing like a set by some radical Marxist Oakland rappers (and some amazing breast-facilitated scratching by the wonderful Pam the Funkstress) to make a Bay Area girl feel right at home in Hollywood.
Wednesday, April 26, 2006, 11:01 AM - Travels, Art
;)
I saw Matthew Barney and Bjork's latest project last night. The most horrifying thing about it was not the underwater romantic dismemberment, but rather the number 9 at the end of the title, suggesting that I'll be spending two hours a year for the next 8 on Mr. Barney's stylized, well-lubricated fantasies. This one fugues on Japanese culture, which apparently even the uber-weird Mr. Barney finds perplexing. At times it seemed like Leslie's and my trip, had we been shooting ourselves up with Ketamine and dropping acid daily. That said, there are stunning panoramic pageant moments at the beginning that I adored (that man is our generation's .Busby Berkeley), exquisite thoughtfulness in the oceanic tea set, and fabulous shots of congealinig icebergs of vaseline. It does crack me up that this was the first film I've seen in a theater since I arrived in LA; apparently I'm not totally assimilated into mainstream film culture quite yet.
Saturday, April 22, 2006, 06:25 PM - Technology
So part of why I've been so slack on the blog front is that our new site launched this week - I've been working to help get MomsRising.org off the ground, and it's finally happened. I'm really pleased with the site, and I'm itching to get Phase II social networking and user content components up and running. Would love to hear your thoughts on the site...
]| related link
Saturday, April 22, 2006, 06:14 PM
I never properly chronicled our snow weekend with Lizbet, Louise, Ladle and Otto. They were sweet enough to invite me and the Republican into their spring break snow retreat paradise, and we were lucky enough to have PILES of snow rain down on our heads. Ken was just using me as a ruse to get to spend more time with Ladle and Otto, but I didn't mind. I got my annual heart-stopping chute day at Kirkwood, and we all marvelled at the violence of a blizzard experienced from a hot tub. Be sure to note the snow behind the window in this too-cute picture of Lizbet. Sadly Ladle has had some health problems since our weekend, and Lizbet and Louise had a terrifying car crash, but everyone is safe and recovering well... please remember to be careful and to appreciate what you've got.
Saturday, April 22, 2006, 06:06 PM
I'm starting to feel like I really live here. I think I've made my first new friend, I had plans every night this week (geek dinner, drinks at AOC, RAN benefit at the Ashes and Snow exhibit, swing dancing with Claudia's mother-in-law...). I am happy to be settling in, but it's the first time that I've been sad to have left SF, too. Probably doesn't help that I had a lovely time at Jeff and Dawn's wedding with the Republican (!). There are some unexpected benefits to my new job (being next door to Amoeba records makes it easy to catch all the hip in-stores, like Calexico last week). It's great to spend so much time with Claudia and Maya and Angel, but of course I miss Angela and Aurora and Erik. Work is fun but overwhelming, I'm finding that (unsurprisingly) I'm not exactly a perfect fit with the GCI organizational culture- but the project is humming along nicely and I'm doing a bunch of interesting analysis. I am poised to unpack my last box and hang all the art this weekend, and then I think I'll be fully transitioned, at least externally. There's part of me that's still a little amazed that 'moving to LA' wasn't all talk...Friday, April 7, 2006, 10:02 PM - Technology
This week I signed myself up to be the hostess/ instigator of Net Tuesday LA. I had such fun in SF cocktailing with the progressive geek elite - I think it will be fun to start the same kind of event down here - there are lots of cool projects happening around the southland, and hopefully we can get the people behind them to drive to the same place once a month and plot the revolution in person. Anyone have suggestions for a good bar/ backroom space that would be geek-friendly? I'm aiming to have the inaugural event the second Tuesday of May.Friday, April 7, 2006, 09:58 PM - Politics, Friends, Technology, Art
This feels like it's been my first real week in LA - I've been working like a dog on the CA_50 special election that will happen Tuesday...setting up all kinds of hyper-geeky autodialiing/ web-based phone system tests to see if we can create a super-streamlined and foolproof phone bank infrastructure for the fall. Hopefully we'll help Busby win outright on Tuesday, but the evaluator in me wants another election in June to perfect the model...
I am getting used to the braces but feel horribly sibilant. You can catch my orthodontic voiceover debut on a MoveOn volunteer training call Monday, if you're lucky.
And yesterday I also had my first taste of what it will be like to have a community here - I went to an opening at Stephen Cohen gallery of photos from Democratic Republic of Congo with Jeannette- a fundraiser for Medecins Sans Frontieres - and ran into Noah Craft. Maybe someday I'll have a new network of friends to run into?? Maybe I already do?
I promise to post some braces photos this weekend, and will dish on what Ben Ball's party is like, too.
;)
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