In my junior year of high school, I read about Cibo Matto in Spin and Rolling Stone magazines. The internet as we know it as a commercial enterprise was just getting going, and lord knows we didn’t even have cable in our household. They sounded interesting: two Japanese women, the singer writing songs about food because her English wasn’t so good. Hell, food is a metaphor for everything, right?
I didn’t buy Viva! La Woman then since I never heard them on the radio. I happened to catch a live performance of them on some PBS show. Then on some grainy UHF channel, I saw their video for “Know Your Chicken” and “Sugar Water”. Yet, I still didn’t buy their album. In fact it wasn’t until I was in college that I finally bought Cibo Matto.
After Stereotype A Miho Hatori and Yuka Honda went their separate ways to work on their projects. They reunited for a tsunami benefit concert in 2011, started touring and made this new album Hotel Valentine.
I did not like the new album at first. It’s a concept album about a haunted hotel, simply put. Musically it’s all over the place. But with each successive listen you get hooked into it more an more. After listening dispassionately at first, I found myself grooving to it while I was doing my Sunday cleaning. Like ghosts, the beats start haunting you until you get completely immersed in it. Next thing you know as I’m on my knees cleaning the toilet, I’m chanting along with Miho “Motherfucking Nature”.
I then realized that Viva! La Woman was the same way. There was the punk “Birthday Cake” mixed with the mournful “Artichoke” with the steel drums of “Thema” with the trip hop “Sugar Water” and the silliness of “Beef Jerky”. Hotel Valentine is similar but with more gloss thanks to nearly 20 years of technological advances in music production. “MFN” really shows that — it’s like looking back at history while moving forward at the same time.
Knowing they’re back together, it makes me wonder how we survived their 10-year hiatus.
About 1,300 feet in the sky lies two radar beacons that are now used by the FAA on top of San Pedro Hill (most commonly known as Palos Verdes). I’m shocked that I didn’t find out what the hell they were until several years ago. Growing up I thought it was some sort of observatory or some other nonsense like that.
I walked up a mile uphill before I got on the trails which were still soft from the rain. It’s amazing to see the view from on top of the hill, although it was a bit cloudy out today. There was only the faint of an outline of Catalina Island on the horizon.
Words to live by up on the hill. Just keep moving motherfuckers.
Look down, and you see San Pedro. If you look closely enough you can see the breakwater jetty, the Point Fermin landslide and the newer White Point landslide by the Nike missile site.
I ain’t no lord, and I got no rings. But here are two towers.
Trying to head up to Highland Park/Eagle Rock/Whateverthefuckyouwanttocallit for some long overdue time with friends. I start heading out and find out once it’s too late that the CHP has closed down the freeway at Carson Street because of flooding. So 1 hour, 10 miles travelled and I decide just to head home. Traumatized.
Mother Nature can be a right cunt when she wants to be sometimes.
Thousands of anti-government students lie on the ground during a protest in front of the Venezuelan Judiciary building in Caracas on Feb. 15. (LEO RAMIREZ / AFP – Getty Images)
The failure of all of our traditional news sources to keep us informed of what’s going on in the world is ghastly. Thankfully we now have VICE and VICE News which is in private beta right now. I got an invite, and it’s wonderful filled with news about Caracas, Ukraine, Central African Republic, South Sudan and even here in the United States.
Reporter Alex Miller has been reporting for VICE News and today reports that anti-government protestors have taken to mobile caravans to take their message to the middle class neighborhoods. Miller is reporting that no violence has broken out where he is today, but as with all things that is subject to change.
From what I’ve read and watched in his dispatches you have the student protesters and Nicolás Maduro’s government, the offspring of Hugo Chávez’s. The students want an end to the dictatorship; the government is claiming the protestors are right-wingers who want to overthrow them with a coup.
That brings me to Pedro, a 21-year old student who lives outside of Caracas but studies in the city. I asked him if he wanted to bring the Maduro government more accountable for the actions and be more transparent, he agreed.
“In all honesty, that’s what we want,” he said but he didn’t think that would be possible with this regime. “When you see an oil-rich country with far-right communists (they exist! Who would’ve known?) that blatantly lie to people and Photoshop pictures on the official tv channel and call the opposition fascists and insults all who differs. The only real way you see out of this is to overthrow the government.”
Pedro pointed back to the Venezuelan Youth Day on February 12 as the origin for this uprising. Students from different universities got together to protest the arrest of fellow students in front of the Public Ministry in Caracas. They also protested the general state of insecurity and the high crime rate (24,000 were murdered in Venezuela in 2013 according to the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence).
“The paramilitary killed two students, and ever since, we’ve been protesting against violence, illegal arrests and armed paramilitary killing our students,” Pedro said.
One thing that marks a difference between Venezuela and other popular uprisings we’ve seen over the last several years is the fact the poor sides with the Maduro government.
“Propaganda works in here as rascism and classism,” Pedro said. “It’s bad if you’re white, if you differ, if you have money or if you have ambitions. Ever read 1984? That’s exactly the idea. It’s a fascist state, you survive only by it and you have to worship it or else.”
There have been reports that right wingers have co-opted the student movement.
“That’s what the official tv channel says to alienate their followers, to keep them from joining the protests,” Pedro explained.
“I actually hate some opposition people, but we, the youth, have one focus: we need to live and we want to live here. Most of our parents tell us to finish school, uni, whatever to get out of the country and we don’t want that. We want to produce here.
“It isn’t something about opposition or not. It is a social yearning for a better lifestyle. As they say, ‘we don’t live, we survive.'”
With the 18 claimed to have been killed already in the protests, the hundreds detained and scores injured, I asked Pedro if he was scared. He said the fact that people have been killed, that over 200,000 have been murdered in 15 years, are the reasons he’s willing to stand up.
“By now we rather die fighting for a free country than being part of some statistics,” Pedro added.
After chatting with Pedro, it became even clearer that what’s happening in Venezuela isn’t as simple as black-and-white, rich-and-poor, left-and-right. Something has gotta give. While I hope it’s peaceful, I’m not very optimistic. People clinging to power are always desperate, and lord knows what they will stoop to.
Who will win: Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club) Who should win: Either Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips) or Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave)
We need to remember that the Oscars etches films and actors forever in film history. It should memorialize the best performances and films of the year. Of course it doesn’t always do that (see Crash).
They’re going to say Jared Leto did a great job. He didn’t. Jaye Davidson probably did the best job portraying a MTF transgendered person in The Crying Game. Leto’s performance was completely over the top, it bordered on insulting. And don’t tell me about his character being real — his character is fiction, created just to make the main character look better.
I really did like Abdi’s performance as a Somali pirate. You sensed the urgency, the fear, the hesitation and desperation he was in. And kudos to Fassbender for acting without showing peen. I’ll be pleasantly surprised if either makes that walk.
Best Supporting Actress
Who Will Win: Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave) Who Should Win: Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave)
What a devastating performance. Just no words. If she doesn’t win, I don’t know.
Best Actress
Who Will Win: Amy Adams (American Hustle) Who Should Win: Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)
Putting aside the Woody Allen perv issue, Blanchett is among the titans of actresses we have right now. It’s her, Meryl Streep, Kate Winslet. Perhaps more that I’ve not thought of. In Blue Jasmine she plays the repressed New England WASP suddenly flung into poverty perfectly. I thought the movie dragged a bit, but Blanchett lit it up.
I’ll give Amy Adams credit though. She did a great job in a godawful film. Her and her sideboob did their best to try and salvage the muck that was American Hustle. It didn’t.
Best Actor
Who Will Win: Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club) Who Should Win: Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street)
I hated everything about Dallas Buyers Club. People are remarking about McConaughey’s transformation for the role. Then why hasn’t Christian Bale won multiple Oscars?
Leo’s performance blew me away. Everyone can accept that The Wolf of Wall Street isn’t Scorsese at his best, but Leo made sitting down for three hours bearable. And no one can tell me the Quaalude overdosing scene wasn’t the best Buster Keaton tribute this side of The General.
Best Director
Who Will Win: Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity) Who Should Win: Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave)
The best things Gravity has going for it: it looks pretty and is only 91 minutes. The problem is that it means it should win for special effects and editing, not directing. McQueen made a film that is damn near perfect and doesn’t fall into the same traps as his previous films did.
Best Picture
Who Will Win: American Hustle Who Should Win: 12 Years a Slave
I’ve made no secret I really fucking hated American Hustle. Like Fox Sports 1, it hyped fun. Look at this fun film with fun actors having fun with this fun story. The problem was it wasn’t fun, was so thoroughly haphazardly made and was 2 hours too long.
Since my favorite films from the past year aren’t represented here, the best remaining is 12 Years a Slave. If you’ve not seen this movie, you should. I don’t have the words to express how amazing this movie is.
Etc.
My favorite movie of the year was The Act of Killing. It should win for best documentary feature.
It’s good to see that Wong Kar-Wai’s The Grandmaster is up for best cinematography and best costume design. I believe these are his first two nominations. Incredulous.
I’m still aghast that Fruitvale Station and Spring Breakers were completely snubbed.
Having to deal with among the worst drivers in the world — Korean drivers in Korea Town — I’m rewarded with beef dumpling buns from Hannam Chain Market. You can see the dude taking some of the veggie buns out from the steamer. I also bought some steamed peanuts. They’re sorta like boiled peanuts that I loved to eat in Louisiana.
Another good part about schleping my grandmother to her doctors appointments is seeing the old LA buildings. Here’s the First Congregational Church on 6th Street by Lafayette Park.
So most Dodger fans can’t get SportsNetLA, but who cares? (A horse’s ass is better than yours!) The season hasn’t even started, so really what’s to watch?
But the biggest Dodger news this offseason isn’t Cubans with hilariously long surnames signing with the Dodgers, the new channel or even Zack Greinke trying to avoid going to Australia by faking a hamstring injury. No.
Of course anything related to beef jerky reminds me of Cibo Matto, so here is them performing this song among others on the PBS show “Sessions at West 54th” back in the late 90s.
Since we’re supposed to be getting rain from tomorrow to Saturday night, I figured I’d go for a jaunt alongside the beach. It was low tide so I could walk along the rocky beach. Some people like Runyon Canyon. Some like Griffith Park. I say fuck the whole lot of them. I’m a San Pedro/Palos Verdes boy. So suck it!
I’m sure this abuse of sex workers goes on everywhere, but Molly Crabapple at Vice exposed the goings on in Arizona.
Project ROSE is a Phoenix city program that arrests sex workers in the name of saving them. In five two-day stings, more than 100 police officers targeted alleged sex workers on the street and online. They brought them in handcuffs to the Bethany Bible Church. There, the sex workers were forced to meet with prosecutors, detectives, and representatives of Project ROSE, who offered a diversion program to those who qualified. Those who did not may face months or years in jail.
Things already look problematic here. The workers who were detained were not allowed to speak to lawyers. In fact, they were not considered arrested at all. They were merely lawfully detained in a program. Whatever that means.
So what is this program?
Project ROSE is the creation of Dr. Dominique Roe-Sepowitz. She is the director of the Office of Sex Trafficking Intervention Research and a tenured professor at Arizona State University, where Monica Jones is a student. Once, she and Monica had even debated Project ROSE…
At first, Project ROSE may seem similar to the many diversion programs in the United States, in which judges sentence offenders to education, rehab, or community service rather than giving them a criminal record. What makes ROSE different is that it doesn’t work with the convicted. Rather, its raids funnel hundreds of people into the criminal justice system. Denied access to lawyers, many of these people are coerced into ROSE’s program without being convicted of any crime. Project ROSE may not seem constitutional, but to Roe-Sepowitz, “rescue” is more important than rights.
In November 2013, Roe-Sepowitz told Al Jazeera: “Once you’ve prostituted you can never not have prostituted… Having that many body parts in your body parts, having that many body fluids near you and doing things that are freaky and weird really messes up your ideas of what a relationship looks like, and intimacy.”
Taxpayers foot the bill for this program with money going to the officers conducting the raid, to the church that serves as the “staging area”, to the Arizona State students who serve as volunteers for the program.
Here’s a story that Al-Jazeera America did on this:
I have no clue who the hell they are, but apparently they are the most distinctive pop music artist in my state. I guess I could look them up on YouTube, but I can pretty much guess I will be disappointed.
