Notes on how things seem to me from out here in Hollywood... As seen from Just Above Sunset
OF INTEREST
Click here to go there... Click here to go there...

Here you will find a few things you might want to investigate.

Support the Just Above Sunset websites...

Sponsor:

Click here to go there...

ARCHIVE
« April 2004 »
S M T W T F S
1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30
Photos and text, unless otherwise noted, Copyright © 2003,2004,2005,2006 - Alan M. Pavlik
Contact the Editor

Consider:

"It is better to be drunk with loss and to beat the ground, than to let the deeper things gradually escape."

- I. Compton-Burnett, letter to Francis King (1969)

"Cynical realism – it is the intelligent man’s best excuse for doing nothing in an intolerable situation."

- Aldous Huxley, "Time Must Have a Stop"







Site Meter
Technorati Profile

Thursday, 29 April 2004

Topic: Local Issues

Nathaniel West, cellos and mountain lions... Strange Times in Los Angeles

Readers of this site will note I have not posted much over the last several days. This is partly the heat (see below) - the first two days of the week were hot, record-breaking hot. As I wrote to my friends - this was two days of well over a hundred degrees in the shade. Of course there was no humidity, and we had that interesting light breeze blowing the alkali-laden dust in from the Mojave, across the city and then out to sea. Look up and the sky is cloudless steel blue - but look out to the horizon and the air is brown in all directions. Thirty-miles east in Riverside County the brush fires were running through the low hills. The usual end of the world stuff here at the edge of the world.... We call this earthquake weather. It does give one apocalyptic, murderous thoughts.

I didn't like the idea of sitting at the computer and reading, and writing? But finally the weather broke - and it has been in the low-eighties in the afternoons. The breeze has shifted around so it comes in off the Pacific - and this comes with a slight white haze (the marine layer) instead of chunky brown crap off the desert. In the evenings now the fog slides in, working its way up Sunset Boulevard from the cold Pacific.

As for current events - well, Tuesday afternoon I listened to and read about the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) sessions on this business of detaining folks incommunicado with no council or redress, forever, for the good of the country - achieving public safety through executive fiats that pay no heed to the niceties of habeas corpus or due process or any of that sissy stuff - and I got depressed. Did the congress really authorize that? I don't think so - but those congress folks are idiots too. Monday at SCOTUS it was the energy advisors to Cheney - do we have the right to know who they were? Folks out here in California who got screwed big time by the energy companies two years ago do have a bit of a beef with whoever it was that came up with the overall policy. We'd like to know who's running the show, if anyone. But I suppose that's none of our business. Those arguments weren't really centered on Executive Privilege, but I still liked the comment from Scalia - "I think executive privilege means whenever the president feels that he is threatened, he can simply refuse to comply with a court order." Right, Tony. (What - Fat Tony is channeling Marlon Brando in the Godfather movies?)

But I don't know much about the law - and when my attorney friend on Wall Street explains to me his afternoons spent arguing what Sarbanes-Oxley really implies about IPO issuance, well, I'm kind of glad I never went down that road. When I was in graduate school at Duke I looked up famous folks who went to Duke Law School. Try Angela Davis AND Richard Nixon. Ha!

The law is a puzzle. So the Supreme Court will do what they do. These days I suspect that means they will rule the president can do what he wants, whenever he wants, to anyone he wants, and tell no one anything about anything if he so chooses. This is all allowed, and implicit, in his role as Commander-in-Chief? Guess so. The arguments presenting the issues were made this week, and the rulings are due in late June. What will they rule? These SCOTUS folks - as least those with key votes - were appointed by his father, and in turn these guys appointed the somewhat feckless son president, so the June rulings on these matters are unlikely to surprise anyone.

And after June it will be an even better time to keep your head down and make no waves... or leave.

As you can tell, this seems to me to be all too much of, as they coined the phrase out here in Southern California goes, a bummer.

Hey, even the minor news is odd out here, as anyone who follows the hot items knows. The FBI told the LAPD that they received a threat that some terrorist group intended an attack at one of the shopping malls here on the west side of the city. One call. No specifics. No actual mall named. But the city was on edge today, and I suspect business was off at the big malls. By late afternoon everyone is pretty much in agreement that this was a prank call - perhaps some thirteen-year-old fooling around. Another day in paradise?

And note too that Mother Nature is trying to weird us out too.

This hit the local paper this morning:

A Mountain Lion Far From Home
Griffith Park officials won't kill animal unless it attacks
Steve Hymon and Christiana Sciaudone, Los Angeles Times, April 29, 2004
A mountain lion has taken up residence in Griffith Park, one of the nation's biggest and busiest urban parks eight miles from downtown Los Angeles, park officials said Wednesday, prompting them to begin posting signs that warn visitors of dangerous animals living in the area.

After receiving several reports of lion sightings by hikers and horseback riders in the last month, rangers say they found evidence of a lion bedding down in the higher reaches of the park. They said they also found the partially eaten leg of a deer nearby.
And it goes on and on in great detail. You will also discover that mountain lions in this state have attacked fourteen people, killing six of them, since 1890, according to the California Department of Fish and Game.

Obviously this is a dangerous place. From my office window I have a view of the park - I can see Griffith Park Observatory a few hills over to the east - think Sal Mineo (Plato!), James Dean and Natalie Wood in that "Rebel Without a Cause" movie. Now the beast is roaming there.

Between here and there is the neighborhood of Los Feliz. And a different sort of bad stuff happens there.

Consider this:

Stradivarius cello owned by L.A. Phil is stolen
Diane Haithman, Los Angeles Times, April 28 2004
A $3.5-million Stradivarius cello owned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic has been stolen from a home in Los Feliz. No other items were taken.

The instrument, played by Philharmonic principal cellist Peter Stumpf, was last seen Saturday and was stolen either late Saturday night or early Sunday morning, said Deborah Borda, president of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Assn.

The cello, built in 1684, is known as the "General Kyd," after the man who brought it to England at the end of the 18th century.

"I loved playing on this cello," Stumpf said Tuesday. "It was a sheer joy, it has seemingly unlimited expressive range. It opens up all kinds of doors artistically to someone who plays it.

"I've had a pretty long career, and I never expected to play on an instrument of this level
," added the cellist, who has borrowed another instrument from a colleague for the time being. "I was on a high for the past two years, playing this cello. I feel kind of desperate about being able to play it again."

"It is very emotional for Peter, but it is also emotional for the association," Borda said of the cello, which the orchestra purchased in the early 1970s. "The premiere of the Dvor?k Cello Concerto in England was performed on this piece in 1896." She said that musical dealers worldwide have been notified, meaning that it would be virtually impossible to sell.

Anyone with information on the missing cello may call Los Angeles Police Department Detective Donald Hrycyk at (213) 485-2524. Anonymous tips can be directed to a hotline, (213) 972-3500. The cello may also be returned, no questions asked, at the artists' entrance of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 North Grand Avenue.
No one has returned it yet. Perhaps the mountain lion ate it.

Odd stuff. The end of the world is near?

Of course with the Dvor?k connection one does wonder about this particular LAPD Detective, Donald Hrycyk, and this famous cello. Hrycyk is a Czech name - and I should know given my mother's family was Czech and my father's Slovak. Could it be that Don is in on this? No - conspiracy theories are just the product of oppressively hot weather.

So commentary has resumed at this site, and know Los Angeles still here - with the usual fires, earthquakes, and drive-by shootings - and the Tongan gangs are still fighting the Samoan gangs down in Long Beach - the smog is thick. Compton and South Central are still mean places. The Lakers, led by an inspired accused rapist, are winning games in the NBA playoffs, and terrorists may blow our malls. And now we a have a new city-dwelling mountain lion who may be pinching cellos.

And here on the 1600 block of North Laurel Avenue? As I mentioned in the magazine, F. Scott Fitzgerald was living at 1403 North Laurel Avenue when he died in 1940, while working on The Last Tycoon. Ah, an end-of-all-things depressing book. And in case you're wondering, that's the corner of Laurel and Sunset - and 1403 was torn down and replaced by a giant Virgin Megastore. Ironic? I suppose. Nathaniel West - who wrote Days of the Locust and Miss Lonelyhearts - lived a few blocks east, on North Ivar Street and was a friend of Fitzgerald.

West's 1939 novel Days of the Locust is about the bitter and sensation-seeking lower-middle class out here. As in this- "Their boredom becomes more and more terrible. They realize they've been tricked and burn with resentment. Every day of their lives they read the newspapers and watched the movies. Both fed them on lynchings, murder, sex crimes, explosions, wrecks, love nests, fires, miracles, revolutions, wars. This daily diet made sophisticates of them."

The novel ends with an apocalyptic riot at a Hollywood premiere (this fictional riot takes place a mile east of where I sit now) - but there is no mountain lion involved, as far as I recall.

But Nathaniel West was onto something. These are strange times.

Posted by Alan at 17:42 PDT | Post Comment | Permalink
home

Wednesday, 28 April 2004

Topic: Election Notes

Selling ersatz personal responsibility to the masses...

Another item from James Benjamin, Assistant Professor of Psychology in the Department of Behavioral and Social Science at Oklahoma Panhandle State University. Yes, a minor school in an odd state. But the man is a psychologist, for whatever that is worth. Some readers know that my surly cat Harriet - and photographs of her appear regularly on this site - was named after a prominent psychotherapist here in Los Angeles - the author of Lethal Lovers and Poisonous People: How to Protect Your Health from Relationships That Make You Sick. The trendy psychotherapist Harriet is no longer with us, and the feline Harriet is no psychotherapist. But Benjamin is, indeed, a psychologist.

Anyway, here are Benjamin's comments on George Bush. Of course he's discussing how the mantra of the right, the conservatives whom we have gladly chosen to lead us in these troubling times, is personal responsibility. The essence of political theory, economic theory, and of morality, is contained one core concept - owning up to one's choices. Benjamin comments that time and time again, we find this is all empty words.

Here's his point -
Maybe it isn't so much that Bush failed to finish his commitment to the National Guard. Maybe the issue is broader: that the man has a consistent pattern of behavior that makes him far from presidential material. That pattern: using family and friends' influence for personal gain, failing miserably, and then getting said family and friends to bail him out. Over and over again.

If Republicans want to claim that character counts, that's cool. But, here's the rub: their guy in the White House has an enormous character flaw. He cuts and runs when the going gets tough or if it interfers with nap time or his golf game. And he hides behind his friends, expecting them to fix whatever he broke. In the lingo of counselors, psychotherapists, social workers, and leaders of self-help groups there is a word to describe those who consistently bail this guy out time and time again: codependent. Makes for very dysfunctional family dynamics. As we've seen these last four years, it also makes for very dysfunctional governing.
Ah, spoken like a true psychotherapist. GWB as codependent. Curious.

Benjamin then quotes John Kerry on the MSNBC show "Hardball" this week speaking on such matters:
"I've never begrudged people the choice that they made, but once you've made a choice, I think you have a responsibility to honor the choice that you made."
Say what?

There's something strange going on here. Kerry, what with volunteering for Vietnam and doing his duty, was acting the way George Bush says "good people" should act. Bush, and Cheney too, by ducking the Vietnam business in spite of their enthusiasm for that war, were not. But most people see Bush (and Cheney) as paragons of accepting personal responsibility (perhaps because they chat up the idea so much) - and thus Bush is sure to be elected to another four-year term. He says what he means. He does what he says. No one can change his mind - because of his rock-solid convictions and deep Christian faith. He knows he is doing God's will.

The fellow who actually did what he said he'd do and didn't ask for any favors? He's the fellow with no "personal responsibility." He even (gasp!) now than then changes his mind. He ended up thinking that war we had in Vietnam was a really bad idea. But he went, and he did his duty. Irresponsible? That's how he is being defined.

So Bush is responsible and Kerry is not. We've all seen the flood of television advertising telling us that. And people buy it - with relish. A neat trick.

How did that happen? This is just one of the wonders of careful, targeted advertising and well-thought-out public relations. It works.

Posted by Alan at 15:46 PDT | Post Comment | Permalink
home

Tuesday, 27 April 2004

Topic: Oddities

Nothing new here today

Here?s why ? the second day of this stuff:
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LOS ANGELES/OXNARD CA
530 PM PDT TUE APR 27 2004

...PRELIMINARY RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURES FOR APRIL 27 2004...

Location - high today - previous record...

BURBANK 100 - 89 SET IN 1972
CHATSWORTH 102 - 96 SET IN 1992
LOS ANGELES DOWNTOWN USC 102 - 94 SET IN 1881
LOS ANGELES AIRPORT 93 - 82 SET IN 2000
LONG BEACH 99 - 90 SET IN 1992
PASADENA 99 - 92 SET IN 1992
UCLA 98 - 84 SET IN 1992
This site, halfway between USC and UCLA as shown above, will reopen tomorrow.
It?s supposed to be cooler.

Posted by Alan at 21:43 PDT | Post Comment | Permalink
home

Monday, 26 April 2004

Topic: Oddities

The Revenge of the French Against America

See this item:
Joel injured in third car accident in 2 years
Slightly hurt; no evidence of alcohol or drug use, police say
The Associated Press - Updated: 9:28 a.m. ET April 26, 2004
BAYVILLE, N.Y. - Singer Billy Joel was involved in his third car accident in two years Sunday when he slammed into a house on a wet road on Long Island. No one was seriously injured.

There was no evidence that alcohol or drugs were involved and Joel was not suspected of any crime, said Nassau County police Officer Joan Eames.

Joel suffered a small cut on a finger but refused medical attention, Eames said.

Joel was alone in the car, and no one in the house was injured, police said.

Thomas Phillips Jr. was on his front lawn when he heard the crash and went over to see what happened.

Joel "seemed embarrassed that he lost control of the car," Phillips said. "He said, `I can't believe I got in another accident.' He was just going out to get a pizza."

A call to Joel's publicist, Claire Mercuri, was not immediately returned.
Well, here's the real reason for this crash - an odd French car, actually a classic. No wonder he was embarrassed....


Posted by Alan at 09:43 PDT | Post Comment | Permalink
home

Sunday, 25 April 2004

Topic: The Culture

Religion (Christ and the Pythons)


I have sent a note to my friend in Chicago that she should keep an eye out for something at the Shubert Theatre there in December - the stage adaptation of the "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" film, in its pre-Broadway work-out-the-rough-spots run. As it is, Eric Idle of the Monty Python troop lives near me out here in Los Angeles and writes today about his other legendary film, "The Life of Brian," about to be re-released - and of course he comments on Mel Gibson's Jesus film, wishing Mel Brooks had made it, not the odd Gibson fellow.

See Recalling the view, such as it was
Monty Python's messiah relives his days on the cross, as "Life of Brian" returns to the big screen. Call it crucifixion lite.
By Eric Idle - Special to The Los Angeles Times, April 25 2004

Idle opens with this:
I was crucified once and frankly I don't recommend it. It's a scary experience, especially when you find John Cleese next to you, and there's that odd Graham Chapman smoking a pipe, and Terry Gilliam is complaining about the shot and Michael Palin is nattering away to everyone in particular.
Idle goes on to explain that even though he was singing "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" that there was something a bit chilling about turning up first thing in the morning and finding a cross with your name on it.

No doubt.

Idle discusses filming "Life of Brian" in Tunisia and how it came about. It seems George Harrison, hearing that the Monty Python group had been dumped by EMI, mortgaged his home and put up all the money because, he said, "he wanted to see the movie." It was a whim, so to speak.

But the movie is back.
Now, thanks to Mel Gibson and his holy snuff film, you're going to get a chance to see the second coming of "Life of Brian," a movie that was made during the lifetime of three popes. (Two died and two were elected during the eight weeks of location shooting.) I haven't seen Mel's film "The Passion of the Christ" -- I am a lapsed anti-Catholic -- but I gather that Mel doesn't handle the comedy too well, and he seems to totally ignore the singing opportunities of the crucifixion altogether.

... Personally I think that the wrong Mel made it and that it should have been done by Mel Brooks, though I suppose if Mel Gibson had done "The Producers" we would have had to sit through 40 minutes of Nathan Lane being flayed alive. How appropriate that Mel's long and violent film should be replaced at the box office by a horror film ("Dawn of the Dead"). Actually we were planning a rerelease long before the whole Mel thing, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the movie, for which reason Vanity Fair recently photographed us all in our coffins.
And Idle gives more detail of how this Grail of the Pythons movie came about - which is, of course, idle detail. (Sorry.)
Brian began life as a bad joke at the opening of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" in New York. When asked what our next movie would be I ad-libbed glibly "Jesus Christ, Lust for Glory." This struck a chord in the collective unconscious of the Pythons. It was such a naughty idea to even contemplate a comedy about religion that it was virtually irresistible. For a start there was a totally clean palette. No one had done any biblical gags since the Medieval Mystery Plays. Secondly we had all been dragged up in British schools with compulsory attendance in the Church of England and had been subjected to the peculiar tedium and hypocrisy of that church, founded by an adulterous king to escape a tedious wife. This would be a wonderful way to get back at our tormentors.
So, is Idle anti-religion?

No. Not really.
Now I have nothing against Jesus Christ; what he says is actually great: forgiveness, love one another, peace on Earth, turn the other cheek -- all are excellent principles, and if only more Christians would practice them the world wouldn't be in such a mess today. Our current crusaders, with their anxiety to strike the other cheek, first seem to be closer in philosophy to Reg the Revolutionary: "What Christ fails to realize is it is the Meek that are the problem." Oddly enough, although almost all religious bodies came out and attacked the movie, thereby ensuring it was a hit, the Communists and Lefty Revolutionaries left us alone, although the French did complain a lot about our movie not being blasphemous. But then they are Catholics.

... I'm an Alzheimer's agnostic: I can't remember whether I don't believe in anything or not.

However I do believe religions are the cause of most of the problems in the world today and there should be a moratorium on the use of the G-word. I think it should be replaced by something less controversial that we can all agree on. Like Chocolate.
Well, the whole item here is cute in this way. Some won't see it as cute at all.

I suppose the Times will now get a flood of angry letters and the pious, born-again, love-Bush, love-the-war, love-Jesus, hate-the-Muslims crowd will cancel their subscriptions. Let them. We don't live in a puritan theocracy just yet.

Posted by Alan at 22:15 PDT | Post Comment | Permalink
home

Newer | Latest | Older