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Superman – where’s yo’ cape?!

January 16, 2012 in So Cal, Uncategorized | No comments

I spotted Brandon Routh today at Los Feliz Elementary School.

You’re like – Huh, who’s that?

Right?! That’s what I was thinking.

He’s the actor who plays Clark Kent from the new-ish Superman movies. He was out and about giving a shout to people volunteering to paint and garden around the school in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. day. I didn’t expect to see him. I was there covering an event…the guest speakers were mostly politicans. Well, and SLY STONE was supposed to be there – the funky funkmaster who performs the song “Family Affair.” So when Sly didn’t show up…and THIS superman guy does instead…It took me a minute to even figure out who he was. When I told one guy I saw “Superman,” he said, “Oh, you mean that “old” guy? Oh wait, I think he’s dead.” Nice, dude. Way to pay tribute to Chris Reeve. Anyway, I thought Superman was a poor substitute for a funk legend…he’s eye candy, but nothing to make you fall to your knees like jello. He’s almost too cookie-cutter…especially because he didn’t wear any Superman schwag! Maybe he was going for the Clark Kent look?

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Instant fun: just add moustaches

January 15, 2012 in Uncategorized | No comments

My cousins, brother and I prove a 99 cent sharpie is all you need for a night of laughs.

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Boutique service fail – à la “Pretty Woman”

January 15, 2012 in Reflection, So Cal, Uncategorized | 1 comment

My first experience at a designer consignment boutique in LA was awful. Now, as someone who gets most of their wardrobe from Target, I can tell you I didn’t really expect to ever find myself in a place that carries Dolce and Gabbana and Chanel. I ended up there as a favor…instead of getting respect though, I was ignored.

I felt like Julia Robert’s character in the movie “Pretty Woman.” She plays a hooker who takes some cash from her client-turned-prince-charming, Richard Gere, to go shopping for new clothes at a fancy boutique. In my case, I was trying NOT to buy, but sell fancy shoes at a LA-area boutique.

See, my dad’s girlfriend, Michelle, used to work for a fashion designer. After runway shows, the models would discard their shoes – after only wearing them maybe once or twice. A crime! Michelle’s designer boss gave her the leftover Manolo Blahniks (which I only know of from Carrie Bradshaw on episodes of Sex and the City) and Christian Louboutins (which I only knew about maybe two weeks ago, which I’ve been told are known for their signature clown-red bottoms). All these shoes retail at more than $500 a pair. And that’s being conservative. They are beautiful shoes, but they’re large. Michelle wears like a size ten or eleven…so I couldn’t keep any of the shoes for myself since I sport a 7 or 8 at best. Believe me, I considered it. I’ve settled for staring at them longingly and petting them. Don’t judge! These are satin shoes. They feel nice to the touch!

Anyways, I have about ten pairs of these beautiful, overpriced shoes that I need to find new homes for. I just want to haggle with a consignment boutique to sell them for me. I’ve tried selling them online and it’s been a major pain. But when I went to this LA-based boutique, I realized it could be even more of a pain.

I spoke with the owner of the store, we’ll call her Linda. Linda gave me the impression that she just needed to finish helping a customer and then she could speak with me about my shoes. There were three other women working that day. None of them talked to me or acknowledged my lurking. Linda kept speaking with her customer, but it wasn’t about fabric types or prices. They were talking about $30,000 cruises, obnoxious amounts of volunteer work (yes, it’s possible for volunteer work to be obnoxious) and how to arrange jewelry to make the most bang for your buck. I kept waiting and waiting..It was clear Linda was more concerned with this cooing senior than some cutesy 20-something. I was sick of hearing all of it. I didn’t like feeling ignored. I didn’t need a Richard Gere to save me, but it sure couldn’t have hurt.

The best part about LA? You don’t have to put up with feeling like a nobody. There’s millions of other people you can choose to interact with. You just lift your head up and move on. I still have to find a boutique to take these damn shoes to…but maybe next time I’ll “dress” the part – both inside and out. You gotta fight fire with fire.

As Eleanor Roosevelt said: “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

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Like a dream: Hot Men. Hot Music. Hot Wings.

December 12, 2011 in Music, So Cal, Uncategorized | 2 comments

There are some nights you never want to forget. This was one of ‘em.I saw a handful of amazing bands as part of KROQ’s Almost Acoustic Christmas concert at Universal Citywalk’s Gibson Ampitheater. My date? My KPCC buddy, Paige. We found that each band brought something different to the table.

Foster the People

I had never listened to their music. I ran into their blonde drummer once in the hallway at work. He had just finished a radio interview with our afternoon on-air host. CUTIE. I recognized him as soon as Foster started their set. I nibbled on buffalo hot wings in my orchestra seat just rows away from the stage. I said to my friend Paige “I couldn’t have even dreamed this.” I kinda have an unhealthy obsession with hot wings, so the fact that this was happening was part of my dream. The sexy men played upbeat rock/pop/indie music.  I bobbed my head until the next band started.

Cage the Elephant

I had never really listened to them much, either. They put on an energetic set that you had to stand for. Hell – you had to DANCE for. They kinda remind me of the Strokes. Or what maybe the Rolling Stones were like back in the day (that might be granting them a little too much cred). The lead singer jumped into the pit at least three times. He was howling at the top of his lungs.

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds

I told Paige: “I don’t know who this is so we can go to the bathroom at this point.” She’s like “Dude, it’s the guy from Oasis.” Oh, no way! It totally was! I missed a lot of this set which I will regret for awhile. But I did see Noel sing “Don’t Look Back in Anger.” There was lots of swaying in the crowd. Lovely.

Florence + The Machine

Florence wore this long draped gown. I loved that she stopped in the middle of her set to fling off her high heels. Go girl! She had this magical – what Paige called “mystical” – kinda floaty presence to her. She kind of reminds me of a gypsy. But she has the most beautiful voice. It filled the entire theater. Everyone in the crowd was going wild. She has such incredible energy and her smile…it was real. You could tell she was really enjoying herself. We enjoyed her, too. I’ve been wanting to Florence live for so long and she was everything I could have hoped for. I only wished she had played a song off her last album called “Drumming Song.” It’s my favorite – so intense and sexy.

Death Cab for Cutie

They are nostalgic for me. This was my third time seeing Death Cab and I felt comfortable with my expectations. After seeing so many “new” bands, it was soothing to see a band I was very familiar with. Death Cab for me is like drinking a cup of tea after a long day. They played a scatter of songs from various albums. I’m really glad because I love singing along. And of course when they play live, Death Cab is all about its instrumentals. They want to show off their endurance…often playing 8 minute long sections. I’m impressed by that. Ben Gibbard (in plaid of course) is looking sharp, too. He has a slight emo shag of hair that he waves around,  but he definitely doesn’t look as messy as I remembered him. This show was good for the soul.

Mumford and Sons

AH-MAY-ZIIIING. I know this sounds corny, but Mumford and Sons make me believe in love. They sing about a lot of pain, they sing about awakening. They sing about things that are lost, regained. Whatever it is, they sing with passion. They show you that the things worth caring about are worth fighting for. They have the cutest Irish accents and one of the bandmates was wearing a coon skin hat. It was all too appropriate. I only wished my friend Karen had been there. I thought of her because she listens to their albums on repeat all the time.

The Black Keys

Sexy rock and roll. I shook my hair out, swayed my hips. A lot of people had cleared out next to me and I was like “Good! More room to dance!” Poor Paige and I were running short on energy from a long weekend, but we kept the good fight. I don’t have any Black Keys albums in my iPod or anything, but after this show…I’m planning on it. They were so classic.

We ended up leaving before Black Keys finished to beat post-concert traffic. Janes Addiction went on after them, but we’re like meh…not so much interested in Janes. I know they’re legendary, but I had seen them once before and they’re just not for me.

All in all this was definitely the best concert of my life. I became acquainted with some new bands, I delighted in some of my favorites. It made me feel so ALIVE. I will cherish it forever.

Orange County court gives combat veterans a second chance

November 20, 2011 in Reporter's Notebook, So Cal, Uncategorized | No comments


 

Many veterans face mental health issues after returning home from combat. Most can cope, but some don’t. Three years ago, Orange County opened a special court to handle cases of veterans who get caught up in the criminal justice system. It’s one of nine of its kind in the state.

Cheers, laughs and smiles abound inside this Santa Ana courtroom. The audience is mostly men that served in combat in Iraq or Afghanistan.

These vets, in their 20s and 30s, are here because they’ve committed crimes, and they want to turn their life around. One of them is Mike from Orange, a 29-year-old Army veteran who’s in court for sending a text message threatening a man’s life.

“I lost my leg out in Afghanistan,” Mike said. “I was going through a mixed range of emotions — anger. You know, just the transition from commando to civilian is a rough one, and I definitely was not handling it right,” he said. “Once you push your friends and family away… I got through in this program, it gave me a lot more support. Now I’m starting to get friends and family back.”

Much of the family-like support here stems from Orange County Superior Court Judge Wendy Lindley. She helped start the county’s veterans court. It handles only cases involving combat veterans that have somehow been caught up in the criminal justice system.

Lindley said the idea of veterans court came up after she’d handled the case of a vet who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. She said the young man later died from a drug overdose.

“It just seems like the right thing to do. I feel that we have a real moral obligation to assist these individuals in restoring them so that they can participate fully in their community once they return,” she said on the Patt Morrison show Thursday. “If you remember that they once had the pride of success and earning their uniform and being a respected person who was entrusted with protecting our country, it is so nice to see them restored back to those feelings they had of self respect and dignity.”

The vets that come before Lindley often have drug or alcohol problems that won’t get cured by jail. “When they come to us they are facing so many significant problems that if we don’t really provide them with a lot of structure and a lot of opportunity for change, they aren’t going to get well,” she said.

For a vet to be accepted into veterans court, a multi-agency team must decide first if rehab will best serve the vet and the public. That vet then has to plead guilty to the crime charged. He or she will get probation, and then enter a four-phase recovery program that takes at least a year and a half.

Lindley is the drill sergeant and her orders are clear and direct: stay clean and sober, stay in school or work or complete volunteer service, go to counseling, take medication, come to court and stay in touch with a probation officer. Follow those orders and everything’s fine. Don’t follow those orders and it’s jail.

Lindley said there are about 50 vets in the program right now. She asked that we not use their last names. She’s worried that people might get the wrong idea about the vets.

Lindley has graduated 15 since the court began. “We’ve had no recidivism from our graduates. They now have jobs. They have reunited with their families,” she said. “So even if we just didn’t use the statistics, we would see that the enormous gains they’ve made in relatively short periods of time have certainly justified setting aside this time to assist these combat veterans.”

Lindley said most of these vets are “good kids” that never got into trouble before their time in combat. She often hands out Target gift cards to the ones who do well in recovery.

Army veteran Mike said he’s about halfway through his rehab program. “I wasn’t in school when I started this. I’m in school full-time, doing good and I have a 6-year-old, spend a lot of time with him and just trying to move forward — put the past in the past… just be overall happy,” he said. “You know, that’s all I want — be happy.”

Mike said he’s studying psychology. He wants to be a social worker so he can help other struggling veterans be happy, healthy — and out of veterans court.

Note: This is a re-post of a story I reported for KPCC Southern California Public Radio. Listen to the story here.

Spotted! Me!

November 9, 2011 in Adventures, So Cal, Uncategorized | No comments

By Sam Slovick

 

1. I’m famous on Huff Post! See me here.

2. I share the spotlight with Bill Maher. (well, I’m in a photo…he’s in a video and is actually famous. You decide)

3. Boo. Why didn’t I see Bill Maher at the Occupy LA protest last weekend? I’m horrible at celeb-spotting.

 

Warning by Jenny Joseph

October 30, 2011 in Reflection, Uncategorized | No comments

WHEN I AM AN OLD WOMAN I SHALL WEAR PURPLE
With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people’s gardens
And learn to spit

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

-Jenny Joseph

Experts say gunman’s son needs continued support after Seal Beach shooting

October 26, 2011 in Reporter's Notebook, So Cal, Uncategorized | No comments

Thursday night, police and city officials in Seal Beach will hold another town hall meeting on the salon shooting that took eight lives. The Seal Beach community has struggled publicly to shake away the pain of the murders. In private, the 8-year-old son of accused gunman Scott Dekraai is doing the same.

The boy was the focus of an angry custody fight between Dekraai and his ex-wife. Investigators say Dekraai shot her first to begin his rampage while his son was at school barely a mile away.

Experts say the youngster can heal from the worst shooting in Orange County history, but he’ll need continued support.

Psychologist Ginger Clark directs the University of Southern California’s marriage and family therapy program. She said children like Dekraai’s son — kids that have gone through enormous traumas — feel angry, sad and very alone.

“Even when the extended family rallies around them, it’s hard for them to know, ‘is it OK to trust people?’” Clark said. “‘Because these folks who I always believed were here to protect me and take care of me have now sort of betrayed me and left me.’”

There are still adults in the boy’s life — teachers, coaches, new caregivers, the parents of friends. Psychiatrist Anand Pandya said they should decide now how to protect the youngster from cruel talk.

“Even as unusual as his last name is, even as big a media story as this is, this is not necessarily going to be the defining moment in his life,” Pandya said.

Pandya heads the psychiatry department at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He’s counseled the close relatives of murderers.

He said the Dekraai boy probably doesn’t need to know every detail of his father’s criminal case now. Pandya said as the son grows up, he’ll form his own opinions.

University of California Irvine criminology professor Sara Wakefield, who’s writing a book about children with fathers in jail, said the kids that bounce back don’t take the blame for what their parents did.

“He’s going to have to figure out what story to tell that distances himself from his father, but is honest about what that relationship is,” she said. “Even if you move, I mean that’s a story you have to figure out how to tell to yourself and to others.”

But how do you explain to, say, your prom date, about a shooting like this? USC psychologist Clark had an idea.

“You say, yeah it was a tragedy. I know it was devastating for me and the rest of my family,” Clark said, “and to just be honest about the vulnerability that it created and to remind people that he was a survivor and a victim, too.”

The Seal Beach community has reached out to those who lost loved ones in the shooting. Clark hopes they’ll treat DeKaraai’s son the same way, “which is with love and tenderness and kindness, and give him the space he needs to heal and grieve, and that this doesn’t change the way they feel about him or the rest of his family.”

Clark said the continued support of his extended family is crucial so the boy can heal and grow.

Note: This is a re-post of a story I reported for KPCC Southern California Public Radio. Listen to the story here.

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In LA, mixed reviews of Obama’s student loan plan

October 26, 2011 in Reporter's Notebook, So Cal, Uncategorized | No comments

Ron Cabrera of the San Fernando Valley is advocating for higher education during his time camped outside Los Angeles City Hall for Occupy LA. He says he's deferred paying back about $20,000 in loans since he gradauted from UCLA a few years ago. Ashley Bailey/KPCC

At a makeshift campground outside the Los Angeles City Hall, Ron Cabrera from the San Fernando Valley is participating in the Occupy LA protests. Cabrera says one reason he’s demonstrating is for a better way to pay for higher education. He’s not impressed with the President Barack Obama’s efforts to help students repay their loans: Obama announced Wednesday a plan to help college graduates repay their student loans.

“The bottom line is all the money that we’ve spending on the wars would pay for the education of everyone in the United States,” said Cabrera. “It’s all just a smoke screen — what is it — a dog and pony show.”

Cabrera graduated with a political science degree from UCLA a few years ago. He says he’s deferred paying back about $20,000 in loans.

On a park bench outside Occidental College senior Rebecca Miller says she dreads the day she’ll have to pay back thousands of dollars in student loans. She welcomes any help the government wants to send her way.

“It would make it a lot easier for me to focus on doing what I want to do after graduation instead of just having to get the first job that comes my way and having to give all my energy to that,” she said. “I’d have a little bit more room to actually pursue my goals.”

When Miller graduates, she says she hopes to use her English literature degree to teach in another country. Miller says her plan may not become a reality, however, because her parents are putting her and two other siblings through college. Miller says she may have to focus first on repaying her debt.

Miller’s story is a familiar tale among millions of American students — after mortgages, student loans are the second most common form of debt in this country.

Note: This is a re-post of a story I reported for KPCC Southern California Public Radio. Listen to the story here.

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Staycation: Jetting out to the Channel Islands

October 24, 2011 in Adventures, So Cal, Uncategorized | No comments

Santa Cruz Island

My partner in crime for the day, Karen

I had 50 bucks and a dream. I wanted to be in a beautiful place away from my cell phone ringing and/or my dog barking. People who don’t visit Los Angeles often (or at all) usually DON’T think of it as being an outdoorsy-type’s paradise. I beg to differ. I’ve lived in the area for about seven months and I’ve seen things that would make your mouth drop. Canyons, wildflowers, crazy ass bugs, the bluest blue and the greenest green waters. And all within a 45 minute drive!

One of my best friends, Karen, came to visit from Sacramento on a whim this past weekend. We decided: let’s go to the Channel Islands. They’re about an hour boatride off the coast of Ventura. That’s a small hippie/surfer/farmer community about 45 minutes (without traffic mind you) north of LA. There’s a company called Island Packers. You reserve a slot on the boat. Once you get on it’s very chill. You can move around, buy some hot chocolate. We got on the boat and not even ten minutes later, we saw DOLPHINS! They were so cute jumping in herds of four or five chasing birds and fish. I don’t know if they were actually chasing the birds…but it sure looked like it.I tried to get pictures and then I was like…meh…the best moments you just can’t catch on camera. You just can’t. Karen and I spent a good half hour speaking with a cute couple from Missouri. They were visiting the islands for their 40th wedding anniversary. They gave us a tube of sunscreen after we told them we forgot ours back at the car. They had a bottle of wine to take hiking with them. They had done all sorts of research, printed maps and permits to hike in special areas. They made Karen and I look so unprepared. But hey, there’s more than one way to skin a cat, right? The couple ended up going to a different part of the island than us so we didn’t get to hang out with them for too long, but it was nice to just chit chat about outdoorsy stuff with visitors and not sit by tons of people clicking away on their i-phones or laptops.

Karen and I spent about five hours ashore Santa Cruz Island. It’s the largest of the Channel Islands National Park. You can camp there. I saw dozens of kayakers manuvering caves. The adobe visitor’s center is solar-powered. The cool ocean air was so refreshing. As soon as we started our five mile hike, I had to strip about three layers of clothing off my back. We lived on granola bars all day. There were no services on the island. There weren’t even bushes to squat behind! Weird. No gift shop. No snack bar. That part I didn’t mind. Like I really want to buy cheap crap when I’m trying to relax. It was so quiet there! No cell service…no dogs….peace and quiet. I could stay out there forever. A boat came back to get us in the late afternoon just as the fog was surrounding the entire island. I’d say there were about 40 people on the boat. Karen and I sipped some cheap canned beer on the way back to shore and talked about life. It was the best 50 bucks I’ve spent in a long time. Some days I feel like I need a vacation. But sometimes staying close to home can feel worlds away. I like that :)

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