I made it to the FYF yesterday. As music festivals go it was a lot of fun. The event organization was horrible. My friend and I showed up to buy tickets there and we blasted past the 2 hour wait will-call line that had formed for people who bought their tickets in advance. Not enough water stations and huge lines everywhere made planning your moves essential. But in spite of itself, FYF gave us the opportunity to have fun. Here are some of the highlights and missteps.
Warpaint
We got in a little late so Warpaint was just starting to play. It really got me excited for the rest of the day. This band is a tight all-girl foursome that veers towards experimental without getting pretentious. They reminded me of a combination of Radiohead and Mazzy Star somehow, although, I don't think that really fully describes them. Worth a watch if you can catch them.
http://www.warpaintwarpaint.com/
Local Natives
This band was the best one I saw at the festival. The live performance these guys have put together is pretty thrilling. Everyone in the group is incredibly talented and it was refreshing to hear such fantastic harmony work. It was one of those rare experiences where every song seemed to be better than the last. You can tell they are all having a great time up there and the excitement is contagious. I will be following these guys for the duration.
http://www.thelocalnatives.com/
Dead Man's Bones
The brainchild of actor Ryan Gosling and Zach Shields, Dead Man's Bones is more a live performance experiment than it is a band. A children's choir (dressed in costumes) accompanied them for a majority of their songs which was adorable. But Gosling and Shields didn't bring their a-game to the show. I had the sense that if one of the members wasn't an an oscar nominee, they wouldn't be performing in a major time-slot at this festival. What they lack in musical ability, they make up for in imagination, but the group never rises above its own novelty. After all the hype, it was pretty disappointing.
http://www.deadmansbones.net
!!!
Good ol' reliable !!!. They put on a great live show. But they are also a little evil. I have the impression that they would take that as a compliment. The energy of their songs is pretty hypnotic and soon after they start a show, the audience becomes a little evil too. !!! is a dance-funk group whose members perform on the stage as if it were an afterthought, or like they have better things to do, but somehow got wrangled into this damn performance. And they still manage to control you with their goofball banter and primal rhythms. I wonder what would happen if everyone dropped the ego act and actually concentrated on doing their thing. They should take a cue from the bass player who was driving the ship with the drummer. This band is worth catching for sure.
www.chkchkchk.net
Panda Bear
I love Animal Collective. I think Panda Bear is visionary. But taking in a challenging, alienating performance at the end of a long hot day must have been too much because I thought Panda Bear didn't live up to his reputation. Almost intentionally so perhaps. Panda Bear gave me the impression that he is like the Godard of live music shows without the political component - always experimenting, always trying something new, always subverting expectations and provoking his audience. But when you do that you don't always succeed. This potentially drives your audience away, but I don't think Panda Bear cares. He'll keep on being Panda Bear.
http://www.myspace.com/pandabear
All in all it was a successful day. I wish the organizers of the festival were more on top of it, but they probably got what they came for - a big bag of money. If you go to this festival next year, try to buy your tickets beforehand and avoid will call. Drink a lot of water before entry to stay hydrated because the long lines confound any attempts at doing so inside the venue. Note to organizer's - consider changing "yeah" to "you". It will be more honest that way.
Sunday, September 05, 2010
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
A Short Trip to the Mojave Preserve
I went to the Mojave Preserve with my friend Chad over the weekend. We stayed at the Mid Hills Campground. Its about a 4.5 hour drive from Los Angeles. Once in the preserve, you still have about an hour to drive.
Sadly, a fire decimated the Mid Hills area a couple years ago. Some sites were left unscathed and we found one that was quite excellent. There was always shade provided by the trees at our site. Also, we were able to hide from the heat because Mid Hills campground is over 5000 ft above sea level. It probably didn't break 85 in the sun.
Chad sat reading The Road under a tree. I wanted to see what the world of The Road might look like so I journeyed just a little ways outside the perimeter of our campsite. The bleak landscape was eery, but if this were a scene from The Road, I don't think we'd be seeing blue sky.
The little hill above seemed like a good destination for a short walk. Behind that hill there was a hidden device and a view into oblivion.
Did you know that the Joshua tree forest off of Cima Road is the largest collection of Joshua trees in the world? Also, did you know that Joshua trees will draw blood if you press against them hard enough? Chad knew and therefore only touched the tree gently.
Joshua trees grow as far as the eye can see. I am amazed by this fact in the picture below.
The trail we decided to hike was the Teutonia Peak/Cima Dome trail. It was late in the day when we started the hike.
The views were well worth the effort.
The next day, we drove around the preserve. The Kelso Dunes stood in the distance for quite some time.
We didn't visit the dunes on this trip, but I'm sure we'll be back.
The Mojave Preserve is a wild place. I went on a trail run the second morning we were out there. I chose to run a portion of the Mid Hills to Hole in the Wall trail. Unfortunately, this weekend was also the first weekend of quail hunting season. There were a couple hunters on the trail and you could hear them shooting their guns. They were leaving their shotgun shells on the trail. I'm sure this bristles any responsible gun owner's nerves. It didn't do much to help the stereotypes out there. Its a frightening feeling trusting your life in the hands of gun wielding strangers while running in a vast wasteland.
One of the best reasons to go out to the Mojave isn't really represented by photos well - the night sky. We had two good nights of star gazing. The light pollution from Las Vegas and Los Angeles is distant enough that you can still make out a great deal in the heavens above.
Friday, October 02, 2009
Death Valley - June 5th - 7th 2009
In lieu of a bachelor's party, I went with some friends to the glorious Eureka Dunes and nearby areas for exploration, philosophizing, and whiskey consumption.
On the way out to the dunes.
Eureka!
After setting up camp, we decided to take a walk.
The blustering sand ate two of our point and shoot cameras on this day!
The sand blowing on the crests could be painful on the bare skin.
We decided to go back to camp and journey to the top of the highest dune on day 2 so we could make dinner with some light still left. But before that, Gentry decided to fly.
My best man Jason really isn't this angelic.
Day 2, we climbed up top.
Walking on sulphur feels quite strange.
This is the first big fall in the White Cliff Canyon. We went beyond it by going the way Michel Digonnet describes in the Cucomungo Canyon section of his new book.
On Day 3, some of us went down into Ubehebe Crater while others walked around it. The climb back up was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be.
My friend Jason thought it would be fun to walk across the flats to the other side. GPS said it would be a 10 mile walk. It was cool this day, only in the 90s. We advised against doing that and pulled Jason in the car with a cane.
The trip was one of the best natural world experiences I have ever had. Thanks guys for such a great trip!
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Friday, October 10, 2008
Five Misconceptions About The Financial Crisis
My friend Nick Martin wrote the following and I thought it would be good to post. Right on Nick!
I, Nick Martin, am no John Maynard Keynes, but these ideas (which are all over the news and the water cooler) are just plain wrong. Comments welcome!
Five Misconceptions About the Financial Crisis
1) If Congress didn’t force banks to lend money to poor minorities, the crisis would have been averted. This is completely false. In reality, the worst offenders have been unregulated companies like American Home Mortgage and giant firms like Bear Sterns, leveraging themselves at 33:1 and taking advantage of the most de-regulated economic system in history. Underprivileged people involved in Carter’s Community Re-Investment Act actually defaulted at a LOWER rate than the average citizen in 2008.
2) The bailout plan will “only” bail out Wall Street. This displays a basic misunderstanding of the way the U.S. economy works. Our economy runs on credit. If the top financial companies stop giving credit, the economy will come crashing down in a heartbeat. Warren Buffet, who has as much authority as anyone in the country right now in economics, called the bailout plan a necessity. Without credit, the value of everything will drop precipitously and all of us will be reduced to our physical assets, like a Third World country. The State of California needs $7 billion in credit just to meet its annual payroll. Furthermore, the bailout plan isn’t just a $700 billon gift. It actually resembles a hedge fund, where all of the investors (the taxpayers) have a managing interest in the fund, and pay the Treasury Secretary a small fee to run it. The bailout bails out everyone who has a stake in the market. Period.
3) Government restrictions and laws regarding banks brought the crisis about; to avert this crisis, we need less regulation. False. I think, after twenty years of Reagan-omics, we ought to know what it’s good for – making the CEOs of companies like Enron and World Com very rich while encouraging highly leveraged positions, market manipulation, and criminal action. The more you read about the financial meltdown, the more it resembles Milken’s junk bond crash of the 80s, or the collapse of the California energy markets in the late 90s. For example, AIG’s dependence on “credit default swaps,” which are basically leveraged bets that a troubled company will not default, resulted in losses of over $18 billion. Like junk bonds, credit defaults only succeed in a bull market- Buffett calls them “financial weapons of mass destruction.” Credit default swaps and other over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives on this scale are only possible in a laissez-faire economy. We need more regulation, not less.
4) We are in The Great Depression. No, we’re not. First, the Great Depression didn’t hit until nearly a year after Black Monday. At that point, the Great Depression boasted a 25% unemployment rate, ours is currently at 7%. Second, stocks have already dropped 36% - in the Great Depression, they lost 50%. We are close to the bottom, not the top. Third, FDIC regulations have ensured that there will not be the massive bank failures of the 1930s. Finally, because this crisis is largely based on lack of credit, it’s more a matter of finding the right economic stimulus than, say, building thousands of bridges to generate jobs, or, say, getting involved in a profitable conflict overseas.
5) The economic system is too complicated to understand; better leave the thinking to the experts. Absolutely not. As this crisis has already proved, CEOs at major financial firms and top dogs in our government have made colossal, unthinkable errors. Would you roll the dice on your paycheck if the odds 33:1 against you? A crash course in high school economics and some careful reading of reputable news sources (The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Economist) and perhaps a class or two in market research, and you will be fully equipped to make intelligent, informed decisions on your own, as opposing to leaving your money in the hands of self-interested morons who might not even have a college degree. Just like politics, the best weapon against a financial crisis (or a stupid President) is well-informed, thoughtful voters.
I, Nick Martin, am no John Maynard Keynes, but these ideas (which are all over the news and the water cooler) are just plain wrong. Comments welcome!
Five Misconceptions About the Financial Crisis
1) If Congress didn’t force banks to lend money to poor minorities, the crisis would have been averted. This is completely false. In reality, the worst offenders have been unregulated companies like American Home Mortgage and giant firms like Bear Sterns, leveraging themselves at 33:1 and taking advantage of the most de-regulated economic system in history. Underprivileged people involved in Carter’s Community Re-Investment Act actually defaulted at a LOWER rate than the average citizen in 2008.
2) The bailout plan will “only” bail out Wall Street. This displays a basic misunderstanding of the way the U.S. economy works. Our economy runs on credit. If the top financial companies stop giving credit, the economy will come crashing down in a heartbeat. Warren Buffet, who has as much authority as anyone in the country right now in economics, called the bailout plan a necessity. Without credit, the value of everything will drop precipitously and all of us will be reduced to our physical assets, like a Third World country. The State of California needs $7 billion in credit just to meet its annual payroll. Furthermore, the bailout plan isn’t just a $700 billon gift. It actually resembles a hedge fund, where all of the investors (the taxpayers) have a managing interest in the fund, and pay the Treasury Secretary a small fee to run it. The bailout bails out everyone who has a stake in the market. Period.
3) Government restrictions and laws regarding banks brought the crisis about; to avert this crisis, we need less regulation. False. I think, after twenty years of Reagan-omics, we ought to know what it’s good for – making the CEOs of companies like Enron and World Com very rich while encouraging highly leveraged positions, market manipulation, and criminal action. The more you read about the financial meltdown, the more it resembles Milken’s junk bond crash of the 80s, or the collapse of the California energy markets in the late 90s. For example, AIG’s dependence on “credit default swaps,” which are basically leveraged bets that a troubled company will not default, resulted in losses of over $18 billion. Like junk bonds, credit defaults only succeed in a bull market- Buffett calls them “financial weapons of mass destruction.” Credit default swaps and other over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives on this scale are only possible in a laissez-faire economy. We need more regulation, not less.
4) We are in The Great Depression. No, we’re not. First, the Great Depression didn’t hit until nearly a year after Black Monday. At that point, the Great Depression boasted a 25% unemployment rate, ours is currently at 7%. Second, stocks have already dropped 36% - in the Great Depression, they lost 50%. We are close to the bottom, not the top. Third, FDIC regulations have ensured that there will not be the massive bank failures of the 1930s. Finally, because this crisis is largely based on lack of credit, it’s more a matter of finding the right economic stimulus than, say, building thousands of bridges to generate jobs, or, say, getting involved in a profitable conflict overseas.
5) The economic system is too complicated to understand; better leave the thinking to the experts. Absolutely not. As this crisis has already proved, CEOs at major financial firms and top dogs in our government have made colossal, unthinkable errors. Would you roll the dice on your paycheck if the odds 33:1 against you? A crash course in high school economics and some careful reading of reputable news sources (The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Economist) and perhaps a class or two in market research, and you will be fully equipped to make intelligent, informed decisions on your own, as opposing to leaving your money in the hands of self-interested morons who might not even have a college degree. Just like politics, the best weapon against a financial crisis (or a stupid President) is well-informed, thoughtful voters.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
First Night at the Opera
Last night, Stella and I caught the final performance of Puccini's El Trittico at the Chandler Pavilion. The show has had a lot of press because of its directors - the first two one-acts were directed by William Friedkin (of The Exorcist, and The French Connection fame), and the final one was directed by none other than Woody Allen. It was my first time sitting in the audience of a professional opera, and it will most definitely not be my last.
The three stories are very different from each other. The first act, Il Tabarro, deals with a love triangle that ends, not surprisingly, with the cuckold husband taking revenge on his wife's lover. Then, in Suor Angelica, the evening's most powerful hour, a banished woman in a convent takes her own life after discovering her young illegitimate son has died. The final act, Gianni Schicchi, is a comic farce about a greedy family pursuing their patriarch's fortune.
The sets were also extremely different, but each one equally lavish and detailed. I was once an opera stagehand at the MAC at Indiana University, so I understand a little about what goes into a scene change with sets on such a scale. I wish I could have had a backstage view to watch the crew change out these gigantic three dimensional paintings.
All three acts were strong, although Friedkin demonstrated a more thorough understanding of the medium from the point of view of the last row in the house. This is especially clear in Suor Angelica, where every character wears the same costume (except for a few nuns and the wicked aunt who comes to tell Angelica the bad news.) When it began I was worried that I wouldn't be able to keep track of the main character! But the direction and choreography were deft; once Angelica rises out of the group after the beautiful introduction, not once was I left confused. This demonstrates to me that Friedkin had everyone in the theater in mind.
Allen's offering, which was entertaining, light, and joyous, was harder to follow. The set was magnificent (I think its reveal caused the biggest gasp of the evening), but is was cluttered and the choreography was busy. There was so much movement on the stage at moments, it was difficult to know what to look at. I'm certain that several jokes only played to the people on the lower levels; you could hear guffaws and chuckles rising up through the house. In some ways, the first act of the evening was funnier, not because Friedkin has a better handle on comedy, but because he has a better handle on how to play an opera to everyone in the theater.
With that said, my mixed response to the last act wasn't necessarily to its execution. The second act, Suor Angelica, was so powerful and exhausting, that the light farce afterward full of caricature and goofiness didn't resonate as well. I think that perhaps they should have ended the evening with the tragedy, although that's not how Puccini intended it. Watching the second piece was unlike anything I have experienced in live musical performance. The moments where tragedy and beauty reached their pinnacle had me weeping for a very long time during the show. Puccini's music is extraordinary, and when put into dramatic context, it has the capability to overwhelm the senses. The whole evening was a grand surprise. I went for a good time, and I came away challenged (its almost 4 hours long with two intermissions), and rewarded beyond all expectation.
The most important aspect of opera I learned last night is that you can give a paragraph synopsis to tell what happens in an opera, but that synopsis rarely describes what the opera is about. The subtleties of meaning have to be experienced first hand to gain the most from the work. Puccini's sympathies for the working class are lost in a paragraph about Il Tabarro. His careful rendering of a despairing mother in Suor Angelica does not translate fully if you listen to the music alone. You have to watch it live for all the nuances to breathe, and meanwhile, the virtuoso singers take you to places you didn't know existed.
The three stories are very different from each other. The first act, Il Tabarro, deals with a love triangle that ends, not surprisingly, with the cuckold husband taking revenge on his wife's lover. Then, in Suor Angelica, the evening's most powerful hour, a banished woman in a convent takes her own life after discovering her young illegitimate son has died. The final act, Gianni Schicchi, is a comic farce about a greedy family pursuing their patriarch's fortune.
The sets were also extremely different, but each one equally lavish and detailed. I was once an opera stagehand at the MAC at Indiana University, so I understand a little about what goes into a scene change with sets on such a scale. I wish I could have had a backstage view to watch the crew change out these gigantic three dimensional paintings.
All three acts were strong, although Friedkin demonstrated a more thorough understanding of the medium from the point of view of the last row in the house. This is especially clear in Suor Angelica, where every character wears the same costume (except for a few nuns and the wicked aunt who comes to tell Angelica the bad news.) When it began I was worried that I wouldn't be able to keep track of the main character! But the direction and choreography were deft; once Angelica rises out of the group after the beautiful introduction, not once was I left confused. This demonstrates to me that Friedkin had everyone in the theater in mind.
Allen's offering, which was entertaining, light, and joyous, was harder to follow. The set was magnificent (I think its reveal caused the biggest gasp of the evening), but is was cluttered and the choreography was busy. There was so much movement on the stage at moments, it was difficult to know what to look at. I'm certain that several jokes only played to the people on the lower levels; you could hear guffaws and chuckles rising up through the house. In some ways, the first act of the evening was funnier, not because Friedkin has a better handle on comedy, but because he has a better handle on how to play an opera to everyone in the theater.
With that said, my mixed response to the last act wasn't necessarily to its execution. The second act, Suor Angelica, was so powerful and exhausting, that the light farce afterward full of caricature and goofiness didn't resonate as well. I think that perhaps they should have ended the evening with the tragedy, although that's not how Puccini intended it. Watching the second piece was unlike anything I have experienced in live musical performance. The moments where tragedy and beauty reached their pinnacle had me weeping for a very long time during the show. Puccini's music is extraordinary, and when put into dramatic context, it has the capability to overwhelm the senses. The whole evening was a grand surprise. I went for a good time, and I came away challenged (its almost 4 hours long with two intermissions), and rewarded beyond all expectation.
The most important aspect of opera I learned last night is that you can give a paragraph synopsis to tell what happens in an opera, but that synopsis rarely describes what the opera is about. The subtleties of meaning have to be experienced first hand to gain the most from the work. Puccini's sympathies for the working class are lost in a paragraph about Il Tabarro. His careful rendering of a despairing mother in Suor Angelica does not translate fully if you listen to the music alone. You have to watch it live for all the nuances to breathe, and meanwhile, the virtuoso singers take you to places you didn't know existed.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Letter to a Despairing Friend
Hey there Liz,
Thanks for the article! Great read. I think that Letham makes a lot of heady and fascinating points about The Dark Knight. But I also think the movie doesn't hold up entirely to the model he puts forth. I am not smart enough to answer Letham's analysis point by point. I think he is definitely on to something, but its not all hopeless.
I think The Dark Knight is a reflection of the times at hand, not necessarily a propaganda piece for the administration. (That partisan hack, Andrew Klavan, who interpreted the movie as a defense of W is an idiot, and his op-ed doesn't hold a candle to Letham's thoughtful analysis.) I think its funny that I had an allergic reaction to Iron Man, and you to the Dark Knight. I'm not sure what it says about us, maybe that at the times we saw each movie, we saw the real evils that haunt us and thus, were horrified.
My only criticism of Letham's article is that he sounds beyond pessimistic. Granted, it may be a time to despair, but you cannot allow your despair to totally paralyze you because when you do that, you give your enemies power over you. I'm not about to do that anymore. Pessimism is a poison. McCain/Palin will not stop us. They may make it harder, but they will not stop me from living a free life or doing what I can to help others live free lives. It may be small consolation in a world where even Amy Goodman gets forcibly arrested in the United States, but she isn't giving up and neither should we.
Don't lose hope! I realize its hard living in Oklahoma with two fascist idiots as your senators. But the tide is turning. Obama isn't the end all be all, but his election will demonstrate a shift. And he has a great chance -
www.fivethirtyeight.com
Stella's mom volunteers for Andrew Rice in Oklahoma. Sure, he has a very small chance at beating Inhofe, but he has a better chance than a Democrat has had in OK for a long time. That's big! And a sign of a shift. Keep the hope alive Liz! Don't despair (too much). You're a bright shining beacon in that state of yours, and even if you don't feel like you are penetrating the haze and apathy created by No Child Left Behind and video game binges, I guarantee that you are reaching some of your students in ways you can't possibly imagine. And the effects of your teaching will live on long after we are all gone.
God, I sound maudlin and I'm not even drunk. Yet.
Thanks for the article! Great read. I think that Letham makes a lot of heady and fascinating points about The Dark Knight. But I also think the movie doesn't hold up entirely to the model he puts forth. I am not smart enough to answer Letham's analysis point by point. I think he is definitely on to something, but its not all hopeless.
I think The Dark Knight is a reflection of the times at hand, not necessarily a propaganda piece for the administration. (That partisan hack, Andrew Klavan, who interpreted the movie as a defense of W is an idiot, and his op-ed doesn't hold a candle to Letham's thoughtful analysis.) I think its funny that I had an allergic reaction to Iron Man, and you to the Dark Knight. I'm not sure what it says about us, maybe that at the times we saw each movie, we saw the real evils that haunt us and thus, were horrified.
My only criticism of Letham's article is that he sounds beyond pessimistic. Granted, it may be a time to despair, but you cannot allow your despair to totally paralyze you because when you do that, you give your enemies power over you. I'm not about to do that anymore. Pessimism is a poison. McCain/Palin will not stop us. They may make it harder, but they will not stop me from living a free life or doing what I can to help others live free lives. It may be small consolation in a world where even Amy Goodman gets forcibly arrested in the United States, but she isn't giving up and neither should we.
Don't lose hope! I realize its hard living in Oklahoma with two fascist idiots as your senators. But the tide is turning. Obama isn't the end all be all, but his election will demonstrate a shift. And he has a great chance -
www.fivethirtyeight.com
Stella's mom volunteers for Andrew Rice in Oklahoma. Sure, he has a very small chance at beating Inhofe, but he has a better chance than a Democrat has had in OK for a long time. That's big! And a sign of a shift. Keep the hope alive Liz! Don't despair (too much). You're a bright shining beacon in that state of yours, and even if you don't feel like you are penetrating the haze and apathy created by No Child Left Behind and video game binges, I guarantee that you are reaching some of your students in ways you can't possibly imagine. And the effects of your teaching will live on long after we are all gone.
God, I sound maudlin and I'm not even drunk. Yet.
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