Local Republican Candidate, John Colbert, proves he's no threat to Schiff

So, I've never read the Glendale News-Press, but they published an article on John Colbert, the Republican Congressional Candidate for California's 29th District (currently occupied by Rep. Adam Schiff). The article is here. I'm loathe to link to it because the article isn't very enlightening, and comes across as biased. On the other hand, read for yourself and decide what you think of Colbert. I suppose I'll look into Colbert's platform a bit more, but as it stands he just sounds like a poster-child for the Party of No, and dangerously, one who doesn't seem to have a very good grasp of how legislation gets done in Washington DC.

Oh, if you do read the article, don't skip the two comments. They're classic ideological nonsense.

I tried to post the following comment in the paper's forum but couldn't seem to get it to work:

Sorry, but the statements made by Colbert don't give me confidence he'd do a good job as our representative. Hackneyed statements about Rep. Schiff being from the "far left" are either just colorful rhetoric or indicate a candidate who truly has no idea how the lawmaking process actually works. Sure, if you don't provide (or understand?) the context, it's easy to make it sounds like a Congressperson is voting for a fish over farmers! Healthcare reform: what, specifically, are you opposed to, Mr. Colbert?

And sorry the reporter, Bill Kisliuk, introduced his article in a way that seems to agree with the candidate he's supposedly objectively reporting about rather than, well, objectively reporting. What proof do you provide that "Congress is killing jobs" other than Colbert's assertion that it is? This is just an ideologically loaded statement.

Well, from the two posts so far it looks like Mr. Colbert will get at least two votes.

whoa!

As a Google employee I can't comment much on the following blog post by my employer, but I have to say that this is a potential watershed moment primarily for corporations and the way the interact with state (national) governments:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html#links

McPain Flailin' and Bill Ayres

I am cautiously optimistic about this November's election.  I think Obama can win, and I think that an Obama presidency will be one modest step toward repairing the damage of the Bush presidency.  I am, however, saddened by the direction the McCain campaign has recently taken with exaggerating Obama's connections with William Ayres, former domestic bomber.  A critical component of the Ayres connection is apparently to use innuendo rather than substance to scare people into thinking Obama is a terrorist, supporter of terrorists, Muslim, Muslim terrorist, etc.  Amazingly, if one actually takes the time to do no more than five minutes of research--i.e. by reading Ayres' Wikipedia entry--to better understand what this man did during the tumultuous 1960s, what he regretted, and what he has done since.  Labeling Bill Ayres a "terrorist" is a terribly shallow gesture that neutralizes critical thought about our country's history, about how our society was divided in the 1960s and early 1970s, or what to think of people who once made poor decisions and have since tried to change their lives.  It is not really an argument to label someone a "terrorist" rather, it is a position that refuses to engage in dialogue.  In this case, the refusal is merely an unwillingness (or inability?) to acknowledge others in society that disagree with you.  Yes, there was this time in American history when our society was polarized.  And, dare I say, there were people on both sides that were saying and thinking sensible things.  There were also people who were unyielding, dogmatic, or even dangerous.  Is it really so much to ask to spend a little bit of time trying to think about what those who disagree with you think?  The "Ayres=terrorist" seems to be this kind of sad flattening of thought.

Not only does this sad refusal undermine our society's efforts to find common ground and develop shared goals but it's patently reactionary.  Is Bill Ayres redeemable?  What sins are redeemable?  Can we look at his past actions and make an informed decision about his humanity?  Apparently, John McCain and Sarah Palin cannot.  

The sad position of those who refuse to understand is a position of ignorance.  When we have to deal with real terrorists, I want an elected leader who isn't afraid to understand what motivates our enemies.  You can't win "hearts and minds" when you're not willing to understand what's in them.

Restaurant Review: Traxx, Union Station, Los Angeles

I wanted to take my partner to a restaurant for a surprise dinner this Friday. I was looking for something different. I told her we were going out for dinner but didn't tell her where. As we are both like Los Angeles history, I had on my mind a retro experience and thought about Traxx, which is located in Union Station, just north of downtown. While the restaurant opened in 1997, the station itself was built in 1939 and the restaurant borrows design elements from that period. After reading a few reviews of the restaurant I sensed that we weren't going to have a superlative experience, but probably at least a positive one. If the food didn't do it for us, I expected the surroundings to at least be a treat.

I didn't make reservations, since it was unlikely to be crowded. Union Station primarily serves Amtrak passengers, Metrolink commuters and subway riders, and Traxx isn't cheap. I imagined only a small percentage of the traffic moving through the halls of the rail station would seriously consider stopping there, except for a drink. The large number of empty tables confirmed my suspicions. Traxx actually has a bar closer to the entrance of the station and the main restaurant, which consists of a main--and very well air-conditioned--room, and seating outside. The restaurant is on an interior corner the main thoroughfare of Union Station and both entrances afford good views of the goings on within the building. While we sat inside primarily due to the heat there were also no other patrons seated outside and we didn't want to be the only ones. The interior space of Traxx is nice enough: it mirrors the sturdy style of the station, yet also has muted design elements reflective of its 1997 inauguration and the warmth of a recent paint job.

Traxx has a small wine list, but I did notice a few memorable inexpensive wines, like the Riesling from my hometown, Bonny Doon Vineyard. To keep with the retro experience, we went with martinis from their bar: vodka for her, gin for me. While the drinks were well mixed, the olives were of mediocre quality: hard and flavorless. Dommage!

The menu is divided into small plates (soup, salad, appetizers, etc.) and large plates (main dishes). The high prices gave me pause: I almost considered suggesting we just have a drink and move on to another restaurant. The desire to experiment, though, won out. We decided to order two of each and share. I'd read in ChowHound that a few foodies recommended the Waldorf salad, the crab cake, and pork chop. We ordered all three, plus the roasted chicken.

Service was a bit slow, somewhat inattentive, but overall about what I expected from my prior research. Our small plates came and the Waldorf salad met my expectations. The apples were crisp, contrasting nicely with the blue cheese, arugula and radicchio. The crab cake was literally a giant puck of crab, breaded, deep-fried, and served on a chipotle remoulade. My wife found the crab cake overly heavy. I liked it, despite it not being very traditional. I'm accustomed to cakes that have some breadcrumb mixed with the crab. This variation was almost solid crab.

Our main dishes were decently prepared, fair-sized portions (though a tad overpriced, even for a couple accustomed to the occasional expensive dinner out). I started with the pork loin chop, which was served with a fig balsamic glaze, spinach, and a tasty, but somewhat dry fig polenta. The pork was juicy and well cooked, though quite fatty. My partner's half-chicken appeared to be a Cornish-game hen and was served in the middle of a large wide bowl of green chili-tomatillo posole. The chicken was moist, and the posole had a very nice texture. It was an unusual combination that would have worked better with the chicken if it weren't dominated by the tanginess of the tomatillo. The menu noted that the chicken was served with a cilantro-almond pesto, but it was lost in the sea of posole. Of the four dishes we had, the hands-down favorite was the small Waldorf salad we started with.

Overall, our experience of Traxx was decent, though far from stellar. I would consider returning, but probably just for drinks and maybe a selection of their small plates. They have a great location, but perhaps like train stations themselves, Traxx may be best as a stopover on the way to someplace else.

Traxx
in Union Station
800 N. Alameda Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 625-1999
http://www.traxxrestaurant.com

If the Creek Don't Rise Released!

A year ago this month my neighbor, Rita Williams, published a book she'd been working on for some time. She called it If the Creek Don't Rise and it's a memoir about her time growing up with her grandmother in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. We were all very excited for her not only because she got a great book published but also because it was very well received. Rita got an incredible break when Oprah Winfrey reviewed her book in O Magazine. Having someone so famous describe the emotional connection she had with the memoir really helps get people to notice a lot more quickly than they might have otherwise. Over the last year, it seemed like Rita was flying everywhere promoting her book. She put together a web site, and has been busy giving talks all over the nation. And this month the paperback was released.

A strange thing happened early this Monday. I had signed up to help with organizing talks in our local office as part of the Authors@Google series at the urging of one employees who's been doing the bulk of the organizing for the Santa Monica office and wanted some help and input from others in the office. He'd gone to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books and met a number of authors he thought might be interested in coming to our office. When I went into our meeting, whose book was on the top of the stack but Rita's new paperback release of If the Creek Don't Rise!

I figured it was a wonderful coincidence and I knew I needed to invite Rita to speak at our office. I can't wait to see her talk and look forward to my colleagues getting to learn about her memoir too.

Review: Grbavica, Land of My Dreams

Jasmila Źbanić’s 2006 film, Grbavica, Land of My Dreams, is about to be released for the first time in the United States. I was lucky enough to see a sneak preview of her film through Matt’s Movies, a film club of sorts sponsored by Los Angeles radio station, KCRW. Grbavica is the story of a woman (Esma) and her 12 year old daughter (Sara) living in the Sarajevo of today, a city haunted by the ethnic conflict and still suffering from the open wounds from the war of the previous decade. The film is a meditation on the aftermath of conflict: how does a society recover from the wounds of ethnic cleansing? And when brought down to the personal level, how does a person deal with seemingly irreconcilable emotions of the past?

The film’s title refers to a neighborhood in Sarajevo and literally means “woman with a hump.” As metaphor, the community, Grbavica, is a woman who keeps on living, despite a deformity or condition that makes life more challenging. As a metonym, Grbavica is the city of Sarajevo and the country of Bosnia that struggles to live despite the past. Of course, this also applies to Esma, the protagonist, who is but one of the many women who has survived war and continues to live with this hump on her back.

Dialogue is peppered with plenty of harsh language, itself mirroring the violence and terror of the past as it continues to erupt in daily life. conflict as well as the threat of violence in present in everyday Sarajevo. The music in the film was great. It included chanting (llahijas), traditional folk music as well as the turbo folk and music played in the nightclub.

Most of the film was shot in wintry Sarajevo. The major scenes of the film include the apartment of Esma and Sara, the nightclub where Esma works and meets a kind coworker, Pelda, a women’s center where she receives social assistance and bides time with other women similarly situated, Sara’s school, and a few minor scenes shot around the city, including the markets, streets, hills, and abandoned buildings. The spaces of Esma’s existence are supremely claustrophobic: all of which seem to offer no reprieve from confrontation with the past. In her apartment, we see precious few moments when home is a reprieve from the harsh daily life of a Sarajevo not fully recovered or rebuilt. The tension only increases as Esma desperately saves money to pay for Sara’s school trip and Sara becomes more insistent on getting answers about her father’s past. Similarly, the nightclub guests’ profligate expenditure on drink and dance only reminds Esma of the disposable income that constantly eludes her. Even more challenging for Esma is the sexual debauchery, which only reminds her of the terrifying union of sex and violence during the war. Serving as a complex metaphor for reconciliation, the women’s center metamorphoses along with Esma, beginning as site of burden and denial and moving toward an acknowledgement with the past shared with the women of Sarajevo.

In one set of scenes I didn’t quite know how to interpret, Pelda and his friend are propositioned by a mafia man with a score to settle with their employer. The man offers a large bounty and a nice car for killing their boss, arguing that during the war their employer spent his time profiting rather than participating in armed conflict. Ultimately, Pelda refuses the offer. Interestingly, the entire scene is shot on the hills overlooking a newly reconstructed mosque. There are no other moments in the film that so openly situate religion. Is the message that religion inserts itself into Pelda’s decision not to pursue the violent path sought by his associate, or that the nationalist motivations of the mafia boss are informed (guided?) by religion? What is the filmmaker’s view?

I really enjoyed this film. It is a difficult subject matter and has a bleakness that won’t appeal to mainstream audiences; however, it is a well-constructed story and a prescient reminder of cost of war.

Details:

Length: 90 min
Format: 35mm, color
Language: Bosnian (English subtitles)
Distributor: Strand Releasing

Cast:

Mirjana Karanović (Esma)
Luna Mijović (Sara)
Leon Lučev (Pelda)

Stay the Course?

I was listening to President Bush's press conference today. As an informed citizen, I've always thought it critically important to keep myself up to date on current events, administration policy, etc. In the past few years I've generally avoided listening to him whenever possible, mostly because I end up yelling at the radio. Also, since the administration has been something of a broken record for several years now, I guess I haven't felt it necessary to listen to Bush's misguided, unreflective pronouncements. The president's use of language (dripping, as it is with ideologically-charged words designed to key into emotions but otherwise utterly lacking in substance) seems to me the ultimate catachrestic endeavor. Of course, his choice of words is made to elicit fear amongst voters: fear of change, fear of taking responsibility for our past choices, fear of attack from vague, ill-defined threats.

His urgings to "stay the course" over the past several years have started to fall out of favor in the public. It's about time. The phrase has never made much sense to me, since it implies that self-reflection about the Bush Administration's Iraq policy is off-limits, anti-patriotic, and somehow a bad thing. "Staying the course" also carries with it a host of problems, since it also implies that we Americans supposedly accept the assumptions that Bush does: that it was correct to attack Iraq, that finding/destroying alleged weapons of mass-destruction was the reason to attack Iraq, that it is sound policy to plunge a country into civil war in the name of "taking the fight to the terrorists" (i.e. the terrorists that didn't exist in Iraq before we invaded their country).

It is comforting to see Americans beginning to wake up from their long slumber and recognize that the Bush Administration's "stay the course" policy--along with most of its undergirding assumptions--is a dangerous one. They have an opportunity on November 7th to send a message to the Bush Administration that it has clearly failed the course.