It's a mallomar, i guess that's what i'm describing

Where the worlds of pants-filling terror and head-throbbing annoyance meet: ACTION MOVIE MARKETING:

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. (AP) -- A newspaper promotion for Tom Cruise's upcoming "Mission: Impossible III" got off to an explosive start when a county arson squad blew up a news rack, thinking it contained a bomb.

The confusion: the Los Angeles Times rack was fitted with a digital musical device designed to play the "Mission: Impossible" theme song when the door was opened. But in some cases, the red plastic boxes with protruding wires were jarred loose and dropped onto the stack of newspapers inside, alarming customers...

awesome 1970s flashback headline

UNITED 93 AUDIENCE EXPERIENCES SUSPICIOUS MALAISE

Don't call them trailer trash

In my part of Orange County, affordable housing is rare. One of the disappearing features of the landscape is the trailer park. We used to have quite a few around here but one by one they're disappearing to be replaced with more familiar suburban things like parking lots and office buildings. The one down the street from me exists solely because the land is owned by a family that is resistant to change and has lots of money already, for example.

Until recently there was a trailer park on the campus of UC Irvine, where my father was charter faculty in 1965. The University, being college administrators, needed a new parking lot, so off it went. But not after some spirited student resistance from ornery and inventive graduate students!

A film has been made of the last days of Irvine Meadows West: http://trailerparkfilm.com/

I recommend seeing the trailer. It's a bit hippiebongoburningman but gives a good idea of the scene. One of my college friends from the 80s, Maggie Sullivan, was involved in this scene but I don't see her in the trailer. I mean the movie trailer, not the actual trailers in the movie about trailers.

It was 20 years ago today...

...that 350 men and women of the Los Angeles Fire Department saved that city's Central Library at great risk to themselves.

Via Brian Humphrey's summary at the LAFD Blog.

It should have been a total loss. Thanks again for saving it.

YOW!! I'M POSTMODERN!!!

( kwiz )

meetings with remarkable men

I have renewed faith in the coffeehouse experience. The last two nights when I've stolen an hour from the on-call stuff, once each at D's and at Kéan, have been fruitful. Last night I talked to an artist about his art, how to survive financially, meditative practice, the difficulty of explaining things, and a lot of other topics. We both learned a lot. Tonight, I shot the shit with an airline pilot about travel, cities and their virtues, the madness of money, aviation, and the local criminals. We were joined by another friend of his who did some kind of airport work and I mostly listened as they discussed money, sex, and cars.

I learned a lot and met some interesting people. Yay coffee houses.