Thursday, October 26, 2006

LA Celebrity Sighting #3


Juliet Landau, usually recognized as the character Drusilla from the TV series Buffy, turned to my ex-girlfriend while they were both standing in line for tickets to see a show at the Electric Lodge in Venice, and asked her if she could hold her place in line for her. Sure thing Drusilla!

Friday, October 20, 2006

Cut and Run

While I am mildly encouraged by the fact that public opposition to the brutal U.S. occupation of Iraq is beginning to have a real effect on the mid-term election campaign, I am still horrified (though not surprised, of course!) that politicians only seem to change their opinion on an issue when it becomes an obvious political liability for them.

The war and occupation are not wrong because they are going badly; they were always morally and legally wrong. And while I appreciate the real impact these changes of minds may have in the up-coming election, I am also appalled that ALL these folks that are now distancing themselves from the Chimp-in-Chief and the debacle in Iraq were originally all jingoistically in favor of the policies they are now pooh-poohing.

Thanks, but we are about 600,000 Iraqis too late for that, and frankly, that keeps me up at night.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Pessimism

I can't help it. At root, I am a pessimist. A. It's easier. B. It's funner.

Nevertheless, like a good Existentialist I am taking a Sustainable Development class. This week, the homework assignment was to say, in one page or less, whether we thought that "Sustainable Development," however defined, was likely to become a reality or remain a myth in coming decades.

I once worked for a non-profit organization that tried to give people hope in a bright future. I am no longer so employed, so my pessimistic side was free to take over on this assignment. Here's what I wrote:

Given the current global situation, my prognosis for sustainable development in the coming decades is unfortunately quite bleak. I foresee a two-tiered world that combines two possible scenarios envisioned by the Global Scenario Group’s Great Transition Initiative (sorry about the atrocious illustrations). In the Developed World only, the GSG’s “Conventional Worlds” scenario should continue to prevail, consisting of a regulated market with ongoing policy reform designed, as GSG puts it, “to achieve greater social equity and environmental protection” (for its own citizens, primarily). This Developed World, consisting of roughly 25 percent of the world’s population, will prosper behind a global fortress in the form of U.S. and allied military forces. As the GSG describes its “Fortress World” scenario, “ensconced in protected enclaves, elites [will] safeguard their privilege by controlling an impoverished majority and managing critical natural resources, while outside the fortress there is repression, environmental destruction and misery.”

I believe this Fortress World is already under construction in the form of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and its large oil fields. An indication of the permanence of this stance can be found in the massive expenditures the Developed World makes to maintain its fortress. As Lawrence Korb, former U.S. Assistant Defense Secretary in the Reagan Administration, has pointed out, the U.S. and its allies will spend over $750 billion on defense in fiscal year 2007, not including the cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. This is five times as much as Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Cuba, and the Sudan will spend combined. Such a disparity suggests that the U.S. and its allies are interested not in protecting themselves from potential foreign enemies, but in safeguarding access to and control over a natural resource – namely, petroleum.

Free-market optimists would argue that free trade and technology, along with price signals to spur the development of alternative energy, will eventually be able to deal with a planet of 9 to 10 billion human beings who will all expect enjoy a US level of consumption. They point to the relatively prosperous and clean Developed World and argue that there is no reason that the Developing World cannot develop in the same way.

However, the widening income disparity between the richest 20% of the world’s population and the poorest 20%, from a 30:1 ratio in 1960 to a 150:1 ratio in 2006, suggests that development of the Developed World has come at the expense of the Developing World. If the Developing World is to follow the Developed World’s development path, they have a problem: no one left to exploit. The Developed World was first on the field, which gave it an enduring advantage – it could exploit the resources and despoil the environments of other countries while accumulating enough income at home to build regulated markets that produced high incomes and relatively clean environments.

China and India are closing the income and consumption gap, but their consumption is still so far behind that of the United States that it seems unlikely that they will be able to achieve parity with the United States without touching off an environmental catastrophe inside their own borders.

Sunday, October 08, 2006

LA Celebrity Sighting #2


It's been a busy weekend for celebrity sighting thus far: This morning, the ex-girlfriend and I spotted Mr. Andy Dick, with entourage, sampling jujubes at the Hollywood Farmers' Market. It's good to see him eating fresh fruit and off the blow! There, I said it...

Today's soundtrack



I will forever associate The Psychedelic Furs' self-titled debut album with Mike, my junior year roommate in college. He used to play this album all the time when he was in a good mood, like before a date, or on a Friday night after a major exam. I lost track of Mike the summer after we graduated. The last time I saw him was in June or July of '91. We met for drinks at a local dive bar, and he told me this story about how, just the week before, he had met this Australian woman at the bar of the Westin Hotel in Copley Place, and impulsively rented a luxury room there after they'd had a few drinks because they couldn't wait to tear each other's clothes off. He also told me how the Aussie bird, after a mind-blowing go in the sack, offered to call her female traveling companion and have her come over for Round Two. Mike chickened out and turned down the offer... we both agreed that he had blown a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and Mike lamented how, in retrospect, he should have done it, especially given the price of the room! I went home that evening wondering what a menage a trois with two beautiful and horny Australian women might be like. I never saw Mike again, but I think of him - and horny women from down under! - everytime I hear this album...

Saturday, October 07, 2006

LA Celebrity Sighting #1 (sorta...)

Since my relocation to Los Angeles a little over a month ago, I had yet to run into a celebrity of any kind, and I was wondering why, given their high concentration in these parts (Westside of LA).

Well, I can finally report that board is no longer scoreless: My ex-girlfriend and I were at the Bagel Broker on Beverly Blvd and Fairfax this morning (GREAT bagel sandwiches!), and when I sat down to join her at the table, she pointed out that I had been waiting in line in front of actor Seth Rogen, known primarily for his role as Steve Carell's hilarious Smart Tech coworker Cal in "The 40 Year Old Virgin":


"You have a framed ASIA poster?!?!"

I was tempted for a moment to go up to him and say "you know how I know you're gay?", but he was accompanied by what looked like a female significant other, and I decided to not bug the man this early in the day on a Saturday morning. Stay put for more sighting reports!

Thursday, October 05, 2006

You Know How I Know You're Gay?


You already have your ticket to the ASIA reunion concert!

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Def Classic??

I'm currently watching this series on VH1 called "Classic Albums". Tonight, they are covering Def Leppard's "Hysteria", their commercially-acclaimed 1987 release. Now, this album has been thrown in the same bag of "classic albums" as Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon", Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" and Jimi Hendrix's "Electric Ladyland". I very much remember when "Hysteria" came out, my senior year in high school. I also remember how the other "classic" albums in that series greatly influenced me and made a huge, indelible impression on me. I'm really trying hard here, but no matter how much I think about it, I simply cannot understand how "Hysteria" can be put in the same category as those other albums. It's not a simple matter of personal taste; I just don't see how "Hysteria" can implicitly be compared to the rest of that group, and it really bugs me! Granted, other than a few, mostly US-based bands (REM and Sonic Youth being a couple of major ones), no one was coming out with anything particularly interesting in 1987, but still! I'll concede that maybe "Hysteria", in that context, can be argued to be a decent pop-rock album, but a CLASSIC of the stature of "Dark Side" or "Yellow Brick Road"?? I don't think so. Go ahead, and pour some sugar on me...