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Friday, May 29, 2009

Why Can't I Stop?!!


Might the next Super Size Me--the indie film that asked the question 'what would happen if someone ate only at McDonald's for a month--be called Add Shot Addict?

If so, I could be the star of such a cinematic indictment of Starbucks as the kiosk of chaos for so many who had never even drunk coffee before 2000. That was me. I used to say, "my coffee is my shower; nothing wakes me up like a steaming, hot shower in the morning!" Now, the shower is just enough to get me out the door, heading in a yet-to-be-caffeinated stupor to the temptress, the priestess, the baristas down the street.

The problem is I don't want to do it anymore! I don't want to spend four bucks a day on vente soy-vanilla iced (easy ice) or hot lattes.

Why not?

There's a recession. I'm a vegan. Soy milk will supposedly give me breasts (no doubt an urban legend from a worried dairy industry, but still...). I want to eat fruit in the morning, and the sugar and acid in my coffee means the fruit will ferment in my stomach unless I ix-nay the attay-lays.

So why not just stop going to Starbucks and buying the stupid latte?

I did. But then I went back.

I missed it all. I missed the anticipation of spotting the green-white-and-black insignia on the sign of each store as my car seemed to automatically glide into dock with the mother ship--I mean as I located a parking spot.

I missed the camaraderie. You know, that feeling of crossed-arm, patient impatience as you stand amid people with whom you at once have nothing and everything in common. I missed looking for the hotties in line. I missed judging the hottie factor of the person behind the counter. I missed the mild curiosity I experienced each time I waited for my drink to arrive at the comfortingly familiar palette-shaped bar. It's a curiosity that begs the questions, "will I have to enforce the your-drink-should-be-perfect-every-time rule posted on the wall at each store?" I rarely have, but I always wonder nontheless.

However, I didn't miss the four-dollar hit. I hate that hit. I even spent $25 on the "Starbucks Gold Club" card, which entitles me to 10 percent off of every purchase. I assume it's paid for itself by now. Although, I never really did the math. Still, I kind of feel like I'm vested financially in continuing to consume, or to be a connoisseur of, Starbucks--even if it is against my will.

Then there's that other urban legend: the one that we all promulgate when we (half-jokingly) tease each other that we're actually drinking crack. But shouldn't someone be asking seriously does Starbucks have a secret ingredient? For now, only the Preistess knows, and she isn't sayin'.

Monday, May 25, 2009

The Return of the California Republic may Mean the Demise of the Ballot Initiave Movement





AND REPUBLIC OF L.A. SAYS 'GOOD RIDDANCE'

Californians, and Americans hate taxes. Who doesn't? Every generation has complained about them. But with Proposition 13, one generation decided to do something about it. They decided "enough was enough." They decided only they mattered...only their moment mattered. They decided they would freeze their tax burden in time. To hell with the consequences, they said. We're mad as hell and we have the ballot-initiative process!

Bye-Bye Ballot Initiaves
Well, here's a prediction: The 1978 measure that froze property taxes--the taxes that pay for state education--may have begun a decades-long process that will ultimately limit access to the initiative process itself--if not eventually end it.


Imagine this: A populous decides, with the passage of a proposition (in this case Prop. 13), to stop their government from raising taxes. It also demands their government, oh I don't know, let's say the state government of California, have a balanced budget every year: No deficits allowed. The people also demand an endless ribbon of freeways, and limitless capacity for prisoners, and a three-strikes law that captures hundreds of thousands of non-violent offenders (for instance, anyone whose third strike was carrying a joint, which was a violation of probation for some other nonviolent crime--life in prison baby!) Then, when a Great Recession hits (as it has) and tax revenues go down as a result, the state starts letting prisoners go because it can't house and feed them all. The state also stops supporting destitute schizophrenics who go off their medications as a result.

Let's not forget the hundreds of new police officers who won't be hired to replace retiring ones. Can you say crime wave? Then of course there's the fire fighters who won't be hired either. Can you say burn baby burn?

At the same time, poor children, whose only square meal is the one they get at school, and the only medical care they get is paid for by the state, start failing at school because of cutbacks in services. Poor: it's that synonym for illegal immigrant in the minds of many taxpayers, even though there are PLENTY of natural-born Americans who grow up in poverty...a lot more than some would like to believe.

You be the Politician
Now, imagine you’re a politician holding a statewide job in California, and you can only have two terms in office. The first term you have to learn where everything is and how Sacramento works. The second term you have to figure out what your next job will be, and how to get the funds and support to get their, rather than getting good at fulfilling the obligations of your office so that your record will get you re-elected.


Now add these things to the fact that, if you're a politician in California, the budget crisis is your fault even if you just got there. The recent raising of the sales tax is your fault. The state of public education is your fault. The fact that it takes months to pass a budget bill is your fault, because no one wants to be the politician who voted for raising a tax that will balance the mandatory-balanced budget, or who had to call for the laying off of teachers or the closing of mental-health facilities.

So what got us here? Special interests whose sole priority is to lower all taxes all the time regardless, REGARDLESS, of the consequences, have applied sophisticated, focus-grouped marketing power to ballot-initiative campaigns, amping them up with manipulated populist fury. I mean come on, how hard do you think it is to get someone made about paying taxes and convincing them that they pay too much. Add some random (and often completely wrong) statistical anecdote or rankings and guess what? We’re mad as hell, and we’re not going to take it anymore!

The Catch!
Here’s the catch, eventually everyone gets painted into a corner. We’re in that corner today, 31 years after Saint Jarvis gave a generation of Californian’s the power to freeze their property taxes in time. Now, however, the generation that benefited from Proposition 13 is becoming a small minority. Now, the cuts are coming and everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY, will be feeling the real, long-deferred consequences of that self-centered revolt of the Me Generation, i.e., Prop. 13, in the form of higher crime rates, worsening roads, more mentally ill on the streets and believe it or not, even worse public education.


What will we do? We’ll either grow up, shut the you-know-what up and stop whining about “high” taxes and just pay the price of living in a civilized, modern world. Oh yeah, what about the loss of income Californians will suffer as a result of paying a realistically priced state tax bill?

Okay, let’s see, before the crisis our sales tax was 8.25 percent. Remember, if we all just paid less than $40 per year more in state income taxes, we wouldn’t need the new sales tax of 9.25 percent (a figure that includes all county and district sales taxes as well). I’m officially a middle-class earner in California, and my state income tax last year was less than $300. Is that really so bad? I can’t help but wonder how much money is spent by companies, lobbyists, special interest groups, in their efforts to eliminate taxes. And, I wonder just how big the get-out-of-paying-taxes-at-any-cost industry in this state is. I wouldn’t be surprised if that figure is equal to the amount of taxes that could have led to averting the compounded revenue-shortfall mess the state has found itself in now.

Don’t be surprised if Republic Of L.A. researches those questions.

But more importantly, don’t be surprised if liberal, moderate, and even conservative politicians realize the corner they’re in can only be overcome by applying well-funded sophisticated, focus-grouped marketing techniques to one more ballot initiative…one that ends the easy access to the initiative process itself, and returns some power to the idea of a California Republic. Remember, in a republic, the people elect other people (politicians) to run government on their behalf, so that they don’t have to vote on every single matter directly.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

The Red Building Cometh


Adding another 400,000 square feet to the already monumental space of the two existing buildings of the Pacific Design Center (PDC), the new "Red Building" will complete the triumvirate of edifices promised when the old, blighted rail head property was first redeveloped in 1975.

While it will have taken 35 years for the vision of the original structures' architect, Cesar Pelli, to finally be consummated when the project is completed next year, it will not look the way originally expected. In fact, as first proposed the three buildings would have had a very 1970s, post-modern totality in their exterior aesthetic, as this was the plan as I have been told:

The Blue Building (aka, the Blue Whale):
A long, blue horizontally oriented cylindrical and rectangular blue building encompassing a million square feet. It was built as expected, in spite of a lone holdout--a business called Hugo's Plating--which occupied a postage-stamp parcel of land outside the sleek grand entrance on Melrose Blvd.

The Green Building:
A green pyramid. One could argue that the Green Building is a pyrimad. But it's really pyramid-esque. It's actually more like an upside down pyramid with it's point dipping into a giant shoebox. My favorite part of the Greeen Building is the back wall of the new parking structure that came with its construction in 1988. The structure is a ultra-pale green which, with its several floors of tree-filled terraces rising over the classical WeHo cottages and bungalos, makes me feel cool just by looking at it even on a hot August day.

The Red Building, which I will attempt to give an aka to now, that being The Giant Letter Opener
However, the original plan would not have rendered so apt a nickname, because it called for the final structure at the Pacific Design Center to take the most elemental geometric shape of all time...the sphere. Yes, the red building was expected to be a big round ball 35 years ago.

FINAL THOUGHTS ON PDC:

I believe the City of Los Angeles and the City of West Hollywood; the State of California and the U.S.A are lucky to have been graced by the work and talent of Mr. Pelli, who also designed the renowned Petronis Towers Kuala Lumpur--the first structures to snatch away the from the United States the mantle of home of the tallest buildings in the world--on all three buildings.

I always think of the made-for-tv movie, lipstick, starring both Hemmingway girls, as well as a Jeep CJ-7, and the Blue Whale--all four icons of my childhood.

While the 1990s brought vastly improved landscaping and outdoor public spaces and art, as well as the MOCA cube (actually an annex of the "real" Museum of Contemporary Art, whose primary space is located downtown), it's the massive color-changing lightscapes that adorn the the Blue Building's facade.

However, it is the 1970s, 1980s, and the current decade (has anyone figured out what we're calling this decade yet?) whose stylistic signatures will forever live on in the heart of the nation's most creative cities.

Friday, May 15, 2009

L.A. City Council Adopts Resolution to End Torture of Gays in Iraq: Republic of L.A. Interviews Rosendahl


I
n an impassioned presentation, which included the testimony of Hossein Alizadeh, from the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, L.A. City Council Member Bill Rosendahl (pictured to the right), introduced a measure to urge President Barak Obama to demand action from the Iraqi government to do more to stop the systematic torture and murder of gay men in that country.
“I was extremely gratified with the vote, which was unanimous with 12 members present,” Rosendahl told Republic Of L.A. “And I want to give special recognition those members who spoke with great passion: Council members [Wendy ] Greuel, [Herb] Wesson, [Tom] LaBonge, [Tony] Cardenas, and [Richard] Alarçon.”
Rosendahl said the entire council chambers was moved by the information presented by Alizadeh, who is Persian (from Iran).
Iran’s torture, mutilation and murder of gays is institutionalized by court sentences of execution as punishment for homosexuality. There, executions are carried out en masse in soccer (football, for the rest of the world) stadiums filled with jeering spectators.
One assumes the same would be happening in Iraq without American funding and the presence of U.S. media. For now, it’s all unofficial—carried out by civilians, or police in plain clothes.
“The IGLHRC has more than 600 documented cases of murder of gays,” Rosendahl said before the vote, which created an official Resolution issued by the City of Los Angeles condemning the Iraqi situation, and demanding action to protects gays in the Muslim nation.
“Some folks misinterpret the Koran,” said Rosendahl, who insists his research shows no condemnation of gays by the prophet Muhammad. “They believe they have to kill their own child if they are suspected of being gay.”
Rosendahl’s measure went beyond the condemnation of some Iraqis’ behavior.
“I went further on this and amended my motion, saying we need to get our president up to snuff, by saying our president needs to make a statement condemning the inaction by the Iraqi government to stop the torture and murder of gay men.”
According to Rosendahl, tough-looking labor union leaders present in the gallery of the council’s stately chambers we’re seen to be clearly moved, some with tears in their eyes as practices, such as the stitching up of the anuses of gay Iraqi men, who are then filled with liquids and solids until their internal organs literally explode.
“I asked for a show of hands from the audience, and everyone showed their support for the resolution,” said Rosendahl.
Asked why a local resolution matters, Rosendahl said this:
“We are the second largest city in the United States of America. We unite and speak up for something, believe me, Washington listens—and so does the rest of the world.”
Past City of Los Angeles resolutions include support for the recognition by Turkey and the world community of Armenian genocide, and opposition to the invasion of Iraq.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

L.A. City Council Votes to Urge Obama, Congress to Demand Iraq's Gov't. Stop the Murdering of Gay Men

Councilman Bill Rosendahl's gut-wrenching presentation about the way gays are slaughtered and tortured in U.S.-backed Iraq in Council Chambers provokes tears and anger from a mass of tough union leaders (there for labor issues), regular citizens of Los Angeles, and fellow council members. Visit tomorrow for an interview with Councilman Rosendahl I conducted today, minutes after the 12-0 vote in favor of his resolution....and find out why it matters on the world stage.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

"Our Seats Suck" .................................................................................. - IMAX Staff Introducing Star Trek


(Photo courtesy innersource.com)

So, my friend Josh and I came out of the closet to each other in the line to see Star Trek at the IMAX at Universal Studios last weekend. Yes, we admitted to each other that we were both, indeed, closet Trekkies.

We spent a solid 45 minutes in line discussing the aesthetics of the 1960s Star Trek series, vs. the 1970s animated series, vs. the decidedly Clinton-era sensibilities and aesthetics of the 1990s Next Generation, all the while nursing our anticipation of getting reacquainted with NCC-1701 (that is, the USS Enterprise for non-Trekkies) face-to-face on a megalopolis-sized IMAX screen (hopefully one that would wrap around the periphery of the theater, as we both believe we have experienced and some--but not all--IMAX venues in our lifetimes.

Now, however, I'm not sure I have actually seen an IMAX theater with a wrap-around IMAX screen (feel free to comment and educate me if you know the answer). Josh says he definitely has in Boston, in seats that recline. But, I'm wondering if it was actually a planeterium showing a film in IMAX that he actually saw. But I digress...

Once inside the theater, we were a little disappointed that the screen was indeed not at all curved. Instead it seemed almost bluntly flat, and somehow only sort of gigantic. The fact that the bottom sixth or so of the screen was obscured by the heads of the people in the rows ahead of us made the "sort-of" qualifier worse. We knew that either the film itself would be marginally obscured by those heads, or that the only sort-of gigantic screen would not be utilized by the projector anyway. The latter turned out to be the case.

The worst came, however, when a staff member announced that the sold-out crowd should leave toute suite to accomodate the midnight showing, followed by an acknowledgment that the theater's seating was uncomfortable. It went something like this:

"...as you leave, please take your trash with you; ushers will greet you at the exits with plastic trash bags. Also, we have been hearing that our seats are not as comfortable as we would like. The good news is we just got approval for a funding request to buy new seats, so be sure to come back again later this summer when we will have comfortable seating. Now, enjoy Star Trek!"

I guess the bad news didn't need mentioning. But I'll mention it anyway: The only thing missing from the seating "devices" at Universal's IMAX Theater, for now anyway, is the buckets of water, the rags for stuffing down moviegoers throats, and Dick Cheney to oversee the torture of sitting still in a hard-surfaced, straight-back plastic chair for two and a half hours.

Still, the movie was so good, in this humble out-of-the-closet trekkie's opinion, that it was worth it in the end.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Hubble Space Telescope Changed Everything; Watch Online, Last Mission to Keep 'er Goin'



Watch a live, six-hour (or at least parts of it) webcast of STS-125, Monday, May 11, at 12:30 p.m. PDT at spaceflightnow.org, hosted by Robert Crippen, former space shuttle astronaut, who will give viewers truly unprecedented access and a virtual presence of nearly every aspect of a shuttle launch and spacewalk.

The mission is to further improve the Hubble Space Telescope, and refit it to survive another four to five years. The web event is unique for a couple of reasons. First, Crippen, who has performed many extra-vehicular activities (EVAs), or spacewalks, will give special insight into this, the last shuttle mission scheduled to work on the space telescope. Second, the show will offer full-length, live coverage of the entire operation, which involves hundreds of people on the ground, during an uninterrupted continuum, with no edits or censoring for national security reasons. Presumably, NASA will have hidden away all the really cool stuff that nobody else has. (LOL).


What's so important about Hubble, anyway?

The big answer you will usually hear is that Hubble has helped us understand where we come from by looking back in time through space, getting us closer and closer to the Big Bang. However, I honestly think the big thing that people really care about is closer than that. I think Hubble's big story has been the finding of planets, and with it, finding that it is more likely now than ever before that we may one day meet E.T.


Before the Hubble Space Telescope Launched with it's bad case of astigmatism (a mirror had been ground with an imperfection a fraction of the diameter of a human hair), there was no evidence that planets existed outside our Solar System.

In fact, there were credible astronomers who said it may be likely that our star system was an aberration--unique and alone--in having a system of regularly orbiting planets. Without planets outside our Solar System, forget about life elsewhere.

However, since the advent of Hubble, and the addition of its corrective lens (yes, it's a giant contact lens), astronomers have discovered nearly conclusive evidence of thousands of planets around hundreds of stars in our galaxy, intimating the likelihood of billions of similar results possible throughout the universe.
----------
As a refresher, a star system--such as the Solar System (Sol being the name of our star, which we call the sun), is a system of planets or other bodies orbiting a star or group of stars. It turns out that many if not most systems are binary star systems, or systems with two suns at their centers.

But, I digress.

A galaxy is a gigantic conglomeration of billions of stars, planets, and innumerable other bodies, such as the Milky Way Galaxy, in which our planet and Solar Sytem live. The Universe is, of course, everything in the cosmos (cosmos is the everything of everything), in which billions of galaxies and untold trillions of stars reside. I know; it makes me fell dinky too.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

First Gay Supreme Court Justice?

Will Prof. Kathleen Sullivan (pictured, center; photo courtesy Georgetown Law School), who teaches law at Stanford University be the first openly gay nominee for the highest court in the land? Politico.com is reporting a push by some prominent gay and lesbian advocacy groups are pushing for the president to make up for his failure to appoint any (openly) gay men or women to his cabinet by doing so to the bench of the United States Supreme Court.

If he does, it may be the most controversial thing the new president has done to date. There is a potential corollary to Bill Clinton's effort to end discrimination of gays and lesbians in the military at a time that was later deemed too early, and in a manner that was too visible. The end result was one of history's worst "compromises:" the policy known as (and still in effect) Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell.

However, there is no way to time a Supreme Court opening and no way to fill a vacancy on the high court in a discrete manner. It will be interesting to how Obama acts. If he makes a bold move, such as nominating Prof. Sullivan, who is a lesbian, or fellow Stanford law professor, Pam Karlan, who is also a gay woman, it will put this president down in the history books for one more first...and why not; it's beginning to feel like the 21st Century has finally arrived.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Newspaper Warns Fellow Journalists: Our Lives are in Danger


Downed Pakastani Reporter, Musa Khan Khel,
Slain by Taliban in Late Feb.


Pakistan was once a beacon of hope for democracy in the Muslim world, and perhaps it still is. Until very recently, it was also a country with a solidly free press. Even under military dictator Pervez Musharraf, the media enjoyed surprising freedom. And perhaps it still does, but only among journalists who possess great courage, and willingness to give their lives for the story.
The wanton neglect of foreign policy toward Pakistan by the U.S. during most of the post-9/11 era has yielded just the rotten fruit of which thoughtful diplomats, such as Former Sectys. of State Madeline Albright and Warren Christopher have warned: a failing nuclear-armed state, which threatens to be overtaken by none other than the Taliban.

The Bush administration's so-called Pakistan policy was a one-dimensional, one-dictator relationship. As Vice President Joe Biden said when he has still a senator, serving on the Foreign Relations Committee, "We don't have a Pakistan policy; we have a Musharraf policy."

Musharraf is no longer the self-appointed president/despot, but the current government, while apparently more law-abiding (although probably only nominally so) has been mostly impotent to stop the Taliban from taking over entire regions of the country. True to form, as soon as they're in, women are thrown into bondage, and journalists are killed--or at least stifled.

Here's the latest warning--not so much a story, but a direct message to any reporters trying to tell the truth in Pakistan--from Pakistan's English-language daily newspaper, The International
News:

Warning to journalists
Saturday, May 02, 2009
The Taliban have made it clear they have every intention on clamping down on the right to express opinions – or even merely to report facts. They have warned that certain journalists were promoting western ‘propaganda’, and that if they did not refrain from doing so those publishing ‘lies’ would be tried in Qazi courts in areas controlled by the Taliban. This threat is not a hollow one. Journalists in Swat and elsewhere have complained on constant harassment and intimidation by the Taliban. Some, like Musa Khan Khel, who was shot dead in Swat in February, have apparently paid with their lives for their attempt to simply perform their duties and tell the truth as it unfolded before them. We still do not know who killed the TV reporter, and this failure to apprehend his murders or those of others who died before him surely puts others too at risk.

The Taliban, quite evidently, want to crush all freedom to voice opinions critical of them. They have made this quite clear. To do so they are willing to resort to the crudest of tactics, the worse threats possible. They must not succeed. The fact that so few are willing to speak out openly against them – in parliament, on TV talk shows, in the Urdu-language press – shows they may be winning the battle to control minds and thoughts. Citizens and authorities must act together to prevent this, for such a victory could be even more potent than any gained on the ground where territory is fought over between the militants and our armed forces.