The Streets Speak

In the LA Weekly, Daniel Hernandez sends a letter from Mexico City, featuring a traveling gallery of street art: graffiti, stencils, and stickers. I yearn for it to come to LA.

Clinton's Two-Step

Harold Meyerson, who is sorely missed here in Los Angeles by those of who loved his column in the pre-corporate LA Weekly, writes a column for the Washington Post. His latest installment takes on the bullshit being slung by the Hillary Rove Clinton camp, regarding Florida and Michigan:

"Clinton's supporters have every right to demonstrate on Saturday, of course. But their larger cause is neither democracy nor feminism; it's situational ethics. To insist otherwise is to degrade democracy and turn feminism into the last refuge of scoundrels."

The Tide Is Turning

According to the Field Poll - the most respected statewide California poll - the electorate here in the Golden State, which just a few years ago strongly endorsed a statewide ballot initiative against same-sex marriage, is coming around on the issue.

Fifty-one percent of those polls said they oppose a likely November referendum amending the state constitution to outlaw gay marriage. News accounts of the poll are here and here, and you can read the actual Field Poll report here.

The results are encouraging, but close. The battle over this referendum will be long, tough, and costly. You can learn more about the coalition forming to fight the assault on LGBT rights, and donate to the campaign for our rights, by going to the website for Equality for All.

A Window to the Future?

Microsoft is saying its new operating system will have a touch-screen technology instead of a mouse. I can't say I'm wild about the idea of fingerprints on my screen.

Saving the Venice Art Walls

Over 40 artists are donating artwork to raise funds to support the Venice Art Walls program. Faced with potential budget cuts from government sponsors, the organization that curates the walls are in dire straits.

ICU Art and its allies are having this benefit art auction to keep the program alive until they can secure more substantial long-term funding through grants or other sources.

The majority of the artwork will be sold in a silent auction with a few important works being auctioned in the live auction. They will also have a raffle for goods and services that are being donated by businesses and individuals. Tickets will be sold in advance as well as at the door the night of the event. Please come out and support the Venice Art Walls – an important cultural historic landmark and a Venice art resource.

Here is the info:
Venice Art Walls Benefit Art Auction
Tuesday, June 3, 2008 6-9 PM
The G2 Gallery
1503 Abbot Kinney Blvd Venice, CA 90291
$10 Admission
Celebrity Auctioneer: Richard Montoya (Cultural Clash)

www.veniceartwalls.com

How the Media Fails Us

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., gives a talk on why and how the mainstream media is failing America:

Pulver v. Faber

I'm already stoked beyond belief about the Pulver-Faber fight, airing on the Versus cable channel 6 p.m. PST Sunday June 1.

WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber (20-1) says Jens Pulver's (22-8-1) only chance at victory at Sunday's WEC 34 event is via knockout; Pulver doesn't disagree.

Faber is the clear favorite, but my heart is with Jens.

The Orange County Register has audio ciips ofinterviews with both fighters here.

And here is a video clip of both of them talking about the fight during separate training sessions:

Obama Loses KKK Endorsement

Michael Gene Sullivan publishes this hilarious gem over at the Huffington Post:

Racist Rejection Revives Dark Questions of Electability

Dateline - Lynchburg, Virginia

In a surprising move, which some are calling a deathblow to his candidacy, the Ku Klux Klan today decided to not endorse Senator Barack Obama in his bid for the Presidency of the United States. Seeming to validate Hillary Clinton's assertion that Obama cannot win the all-important poor white racist vote which had became the cornerstone of her support, many are now speculating that rejection by the influential domestic terrorist organization could spell the end for the Illinois Democrat's race for the White House.

You can read the whole article here.

Down with Dobbs!

Media Matters Action Network published a report last week aimed at CNN's xenophobic douchebag Lou Dobbs and others, regarding their "vitriolic rhetoric," on the topic of immigration. "On their eponymous programs, Dobbs, O'Reilly, and Beck serve up a steady diet of fear, anger, and resentment on the topic of illegal immigration," says the site.

The Visitor

Go see it.

The story is moving. The cast exceptional.

Our Forgotten Veterans

on Memorial Day, Joel John Roberts over at LA's Homeless Blog reminds us of the forgotten veterans dying slowly on our streets each day.


"During this day of memorializing the war dead, I also think of those veterans who struggle on our streets, battling emotional ghosts that have haunted them since they left the battlefields.

. . .

"But let’s not honor them with speeches and honor guards. Let’s honor homeless veterans with real homes and a caring community of support."

Hands on the Wheel

The LA Times' Steve Hymon has a regular column about traffic and transportation. This week, he publishes a handy Q&A about the new rules, effective July 1, regarding driving and cellphone use.

A Bad Choice, But a Clear One

One of the most consequential elections in Los Angeles County for the next decade will take place in eight days. It is for a little-noticed but enormously influential office. The implications are profound, but the candidates disappointing.

We're talking about the race to succeed Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, the longtime county supervisor for 2 million people, including some of the region's neediest, poorest and most chronically neglected. Burke and her four colleagues oversee and massive and sprawling county government, responsible for criminal justice, health care, welfare, and social services. With over 100,000 employees, the county is also the largest employer in the state of California.

The two top contenders to succeed Burke are Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard Parks, the former police chief, and state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, who preceded Parks on the council. The stakes are enormously high. The board sorely needs two things: a progressive and a genuine leader.

Whoever wins will be the likely swing vote between the more conservative Don Knabe-Mike Antonovich wing of the board, and the more liberal Gloria Molina-Zev Yaroslavsky bloc. When it comes to health care, homelessness, overcrowding in the jails, environmental programs, and labor issues, that ideological difference matters - a great deal.

Parks is one of the least labor-friendly members of the L.A. City Council. He has the strong backing of business groups, was adamantly opposed to mandating a living wage for LAX-area hotel workers, and has been a consistent critic of rent control.
While he has softened and warmed considerably since joining the City Council, Parks' tenure as police chief can only be described as autocratic.

Ridley-Thomas, the choice of organized labor and most environmentalists, generally votes progressive and has displayed a fervent desire to forge a much needed black-brown coalition in LA politics. But his accomplishments have been more about process (starting the Days of Dialogue and forming an Empowerment Congress) than in actually getting stuff done.

Ridley-Thomas will likely be a solid progressive vote, but it's hard to feel confident he'll lead the board or the county in a new direction. He is a more a technical wonk than a visionary or a creative thinker. Moreover, he is one of the more annoying public figures in Los Angeles, in love with the sound of his own voice and never satisfied to choose a word with one syllable when a word with eight or more will do.

The problem is that the Board of Supervisors needs a progressive leader, a local legislative equivalent of former Supreme Court Justice William Brennan -- someone who can bring some energy, creativity, and direction to a massive, stagnant and stinking bureaucracy that does too little to serve the poorest people in the region.

We could have had that type of leader in Karen Bass, who instead opted for a two-year stint as speaker of the state assembly. Our next best shot is in a few years when Yaroslavsky finally retires, making room for progressive champion Sheila Kuehl.

In the meantime, in the race between Parks and Ridley-Thomas, the choice is easy, but not very inspiring.

UFC 84: Wrap-up

Man, what a fight night.

As as I had hoped, BJ Penn kicked butt. Although the fight barely went to the ground, where BJ's skills are sublime, Penn relentlessly pounded Sherk with jab after jab, resulting in a TKO at the end of the third round. By the time BJ was done with Sherk, the Muscle Shark looked like Wanderlie Silva.

And speaking of Silva, he dominated. If there was any doubt of Dana White's wisdom in sticking by the former Pride champion, it was erased in this fight. Silva dispatched Jardine in a matter of seconds, demonstrating how he still has the ability to be one of the most entertaining fighters in MMA.

That's a distinction that few few would bestow on Lyoto Machida. While Machida took down Tito Ortiz in the the Huntington Beach Bad Boy's UFC Swan Song, his fighting style -- smart, precise and technical -- struck many as cautious, defensive and downright boring.

Looking forward, Penn said in his post-fight interview that he is eager for a rematch with Georges St. Pierre. Penn would need to go up to 170-lb division for that fight, which could be one of the hottest bouts of the year.

Art Attack

I've somehow missed that there is a new local magazine, Malibu, which is also available online.

In the lastest issue, they feature a profile of and Q&A with Robbie Conal, the irrepressible guerrilla artist whose posters adorn buildings and light posts throughout Southern California. His work has attacked the war, the Supreme Court, politicians of both major parties, and a lot more.

The magazine reviews his work thusly:

"The product of prolonged pressure and heat, each of Conal’s works emerges as yet another priceless diamond, sparkling from all angles with a witty, gritty social consciousness never before seen in the world of artistic expression. Adorning America’s cityscapes with badges of civil disobedience, Conal and his “get-up” army view the streets as their own personal CNN, broadcasting their message under cover of night, town by town, block by block, street by street. People are definitely watching. And more importantly, they are thinking."

Conal's work is as brilliant as it is unsubtle. His website is here.