Archive for March, 2004

A day at the beach

Sunday, March 28th, 2004

So we tend to take the Pacific Ocean for granted. And the sunshine, for that matter. We’re constantly getting messages on the answering machine that are some variation of "…well, I’m sure you’re out enjoying the California sunshine [while we tramp through the sludge of Midwestern winter]…" Meanwhile, we’re sitting in the dark at the cinema or negotiating the crowds at Trader Joe’s for groceries. But today was different. Today we went to the beach.

We went to the only beach in LA county that welcomes dogs, (and apparently, Karate Kids? [excuse the pop-up, click to their Locations page and scroll down]), Leo Carrillo State Beach, well north of Malibu. It took a while to get there, mainly because I decided to take Bob past one of the schools where I’ve been teaching on the border of Ventura county, and from there we had to wind our way (amongst some crazy hard-core bicyclists) through the hills to the coast. It was really hot by the time we finished our picnic, and when we went for a walk in the wet sand, Gordon, normally averse to any water not found in his drinking bowl, plopped right down in a receding wave to cool off! Poor bugger was panting nonstop like the obese creature we adopted last summer!

The highlight of the afternoon – well, it definitely wasn’t my lame attempt to fly a kite. It happened when we were loafing and reading (and wishing we had a beach umbrella in the worst way). I re-started The Whale Rider, this time for good (maybe sitting by the Pacific helped me connect to Kahu’s story). I was just getting into it when a couple of soggy 10-year-olds trotted by and greeted our overheated pooch. Before I knew what was happening they were showing me the strange little crustaceans they’d dug up and smuggled away in the mini-environment of sturdy plastic cups filled with sand and water. They prattled on about the creatures, telling and showing me how they burrow and play dead and look! here’s a baby and do you want to hold one and feel how it tickles you? The boy proceeded to blow my mind by engaging me in an intelligent conversation about The Whale Rider story! He told me how much he liked the movie, but it sure was sad and made him cry(!!) Reluctantly we parted ways – they ran off to picnic with their families and I returned to my reading, humbled by their enthusiasm and wisdom.

Posted in Biblio-mania, Still in East Hollywood | 1 Comment »

The Essential 55 by Ron Clark

Friday, March 26th, 2004

Thanks to friend Kelly or sister Emily (I can’t remember which of you two education stars it was) for recommending this book, as the subtitle goes, An Award-Winning Educator’s Rules for Discovering the Successful Student in Every Child. After a long wait in the public library system I got it last week. I liked a lot of his ideas about giving students structure and discipline, letting them know exactly what’s expected of them (something I definitely struggle with), and following through with threats/promises. His stories were sometimes inspiring. Yet I don’t feel the gimmick of the Essential 55 really works – it’s a bit of a contradiction really. I mean I can master the Sierra Club’s 10 essentials for backcountry traveling, but govern a classroom with 55 often complex and overlapping rules? And so this guy’s energy was ultimately more exhausting than inspiring for me – he definitely didn’t convince me to run out and throw myself at a teacher certification program! At the end I had the sneaking suspicion that he’d quit teaching to be a highly-paid speaker and full-time schmoozer (just read between the lines on his jacket biography: "Since winning the 2001 Disney Teacher of the Year Award, [he quit his low-paying classroom teacher gig and] he has spoken to teachers, PTAs, and school boards across the country.") All of which is sadly confirmed by his web site. Now I’m definitely sick of his perky face and can’t wait to give the book back to the library!

Posted in Biblio-mania | 3 Comments »

The rise and fall of public radio in this saga

Wednesday, March 24th, 2004

Commercial radio makes me want to pull over to the shoulder of the road, get out of the car and bang my head on some pavement. For a while, NPR and the locally-produced programming on KCRW were a balm, helping me cope with all the discomforts of driving. All good things are only good in moderation, I guess, because lately with the excessive driving at all hours of the day I’ve started imagining Morning Becomes Eclectic’s Nic Harcourt to be an arrogant bastard and I’ve begun to hear the same damn news story over (Morning Edition) and over (top-of-the-hour news break) and over again (Marketplace or Day to Day version). And the rhythms of the sponsorship and station identification scripts have become way too familiar…

When I heard that Sandra Tsing Loh’s Loh Life show was canceled in the wake of an obscenity scandal, I puffed up all indignant and grumbled about those KCRW bosses – they think they’re so big and important but they’re just chicken! The Loh Life was consistently beautiful radio – it was driveway listening, so engrossing that I’d kill the car but stay sitting there in the driveway to hear it through to the end. Now I read this moving lament for Bob Edwards of NPR’s Morning Edition. Although I don’t personally feel such attachment to any of the NPR news hosts, that report has only managed to fuel my public radio backlash. Not very logical my grumpiness…I’m sure it’s all my car’s fault.

Posted in Other A&E | 2 Comments »

Cross yourself and drive

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2004

On the morning walk Gordon and I usually accompany Bob toward the Metro station. Today I turned at Bob’s chuckle to catch, just barely, a neighbor’s meaningful ritual: sitting alone in her car, she crossed herself, then drove off.

I figure this powerful image can well launch my polemic against the automobile. It’s been a rocky affair, my relationship with The Car, and I have noticed an accumulation of *negative* thoughts lately as I drive the insane slave-ways of Los Angeles county.

I loathe cars because they are dirty, ugly, stinky, noisy, needy and deadly. I hate my car for making a hypocrite out of me, for coaxing me into a lifestyle of laziness and hyper-consumption. I despise the way swarming, wheezing automobiles have transformed this land into a sprawling, smoggy metal insect colony.

Meanwhile, trapped in a personal hell with screaming commercial radio channels (and even stately and benign NPR is getting old), I hurl myself forward at speeds no average human should attempt by herself (er, did I mention my hypocrisy?), and the odometer tracks these sins and mocks me!

Posted in Loco-motion | No Comments »

Atkins schm-atkins

Monday, March 1st, 2004

On Saturday afternoon I sat on the Sunset strip and ate a taco with a classic Coke. As I contemplated the beauty of the Poquito Mas vegetarian taco, the different aftertaste of Coke in a glass bottle, and the strangeness of enjoying a meal for $3.29 in such a trendy, expensive part of town, my eyes drifted to Mel’s Drive-In next door and their banner proclaiming new Atkins-branded low-carb menu items. Wha-thuh? Folks, you’re supposed to be a diner, a drive-in no less, where automotive grease meets hamburger grease. If you’re gonna eat that diner burger, just down the fries too, c’mon! But thinking about their ploy from a business perspective, it all falls into place. Of course for a 1950s name to survive into our day and age it must cling to the mainstream as the fickle tide of fashion washes to and fro. And on the Strip, the mainstream lives the latest diet craze. I guess in terms of its faux-’50s anachronisms, Mel’s is just more blatantly lame Ghost World diner than the quirkily indulgent Pulp Fiction one.

Posted in Still in East Hollywood | 1 Comment »