Wednesday, July 8, 2009
House updates
The thesis has stopped me from writing on this much, or rather its sucked the life out of anything I do, and hence no need for updates. The house is coming along well, though no name yet. Welcome the new addition of the pool and multiple bike storage racks:
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Some small house updates...
The veggie patch now has some plants, and is fenced due to the imminent threat of Task Force Chicken, due to the work of Sasha and Max
The hallway now has a completed map of the earth, 'sin fronteras', and with the black abyss that is Antarctica taking up much of the lower portions of the staircase. Morgan's Phd has clearly not gone to waste, as demonstrated by his technical mapping skills.
The hallway now has a completed map of the earth, 'sin fronteras', and with the black abyss that is Antarctica taking up much of the lower portions of the staircase. Morgan's Phd has clearly not gone to waste, as demonstrated by his technical mapping skills.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Earth First! Roadshow in L.A., Sunday February 22nd
Please spread the word and come out to hear a presentation by Earth First! at KIWA in Koreatown, Sunday 22nd at 2pm!
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Recommended Radical Readings on Los Angeles
One of my advisors was interviewed by AK Press this week to give a list of radical readings on Los Angeles...
By AK Press | January 21, 2009
Editor’s note: As part of our ongoing “Recommended Reading” series, we asked Laura Pulido, an activist scholar and geographer at the University of Southern California, to share her thoughts with us about the best books on Los Angeles from a radical perspective. Pulido authored the very excellent Black, Brown, Yellow and Left: Radical activism in Los Angeles and co-authored the forthcoming A Guide to the People’s History of LA (which you can get a taste of here).
This is what she told us:
* * *
While Los Angeles has always attracted a good deal of attention, it wasn’t until the 1980s that it actually became a focus of serious study. While writers and scholars from many quarters began publishing on Los Angeles, several academics dubbed this growing body of work, “The LA School.” Although the title “the LA School” has generated plenty of debate, one of the indisputable central texts of this era is Mike Davis’s City of Quartz: excavating the future in Los Angeles (1991). This was one of the first books to offer a dramatically different historical perspective on Los Angeles. Not only does Davis attempt to tell history from the bottom-up, but he directly takes on the dominant economic, political, and cultural players in the city, writing very much within a noir tradition. Not since Carey McWilliams has Los Angeles received this kind of treatment. Another wonderful book is Gerald Horne’s The Fire This Time: The Watts Uprising and the 1960s (1995). Horne is a committed historian who leaves no stone unturned in his detailed exploration of the Watts uprising. In addition, Horne provides a larger picture of the national and regional social forces that were impacting South LA, and a scathing critique of the Los Angeles Police Department and the City’s response to the civil unrest.
More recently, there have been a series of books which expand on this tradition. Perhaps not too surprisingly, some of the most radical scholarship continues to be focused on South Central. Joao Costa Vargas’s Catching Hell in the City of Angels: Life and Meanings of Blackness in South Central Los Angeles (2006) examines different facets of African American life in South LA. Costa Vargas is an anthropologist who does an amazing job of treating his subjects with great respect and dignity. He doesn’t gloss over the ugly stuff, but manages to convey the deep humanity of all the people he writes about. Ruth Wilson Gilmore’s Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis and Opposition in Globalizing Galifornia (2007) offers a different perspective by focusing on the macro-level economic and political forces shaping California (including Los Angeles) which have led to the development of the world’s largest prison system. Finally, if I may be so bold, I would like to include my own book, Black, Brown, Yellow and Left: Radical activism in Los Angeles (2006). In this book I examines the Third World Left in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 70s by comparing radical activism among Japanese Americans, African Americans, and Chicanas/os. Besides the focus on radical political activism among people of color, I also think its worthwhile for its comparative angle.
Scholars have continued generating a wealth of scholarship about Los Angeles - but these books are an excellent starting point for anyone interested in a critical take on the City of Angels.
By AK Press | January 21, 2009
Editor’s note: As part of our ongoing “Recommended Reading” series, we asked Laura Pulido, an activist scholar and geographer at the University of Southern California, to share her thoughts with us about the best books on Los Angeles from a radical perspective. Pulido authored the very excellent Black, Brown, Yellow and Left: Radical activism in Los Angeles and co-authored the forthcoming A Guide to the People’s History of LA (which you can get a taste of here).
This is what she told us:
* * *
While Los Angeles has always attracted a good deal of attention, it wasn’t until the 1980s that it actually became a focus of serious study. While writers and scholars from many quarters began publishing on Los Angeles, several academics dubbed this growing body of work, “The LA School.” Although the title “the LA School” has generated plenty of debate, one of the indisputable central texts of this era is Mike Davis’s City of Quartz: excavating the future in Los Angeles (1991). This was one of the first books to offer a dramatically different historical perspective on Los Angeles. Not only does Davis attempt to tell history from the bottom-up, but he directly takes on the dominant economic, political, and cultural players in the city, writing very much within a noir tradition. Not since Carey McWilliams has Los Angeles received this kind of treatment. Another wonderful book is Gerald Horne’s The Fire This Time: The Watts Uprising and the 1960s (1995). Horne is a committed historian who leaves no stone unturned in his detailed exploration of the Watts uprising. In addition, Horne provides a larger picture of the national and regional social forces that were impacting South LA, and a scathing critique of the Los Angeles Police Department and the City’s response to the civil unrest.
More recently, there have been a series of books which expand on this tradition. Perhaps not too surprisingly, some of the most radical scholarship continues to be focused on South Central. Joao Costa Vargas’s Catching Hell in the City of Angels: Life and Meanings of Blackness in South Central Los Angeles (2006) examines different facets of African American life in South LA. Costa Vargas is an anthropologist who does an amazing job of treating his subjects with great respect and dignity. He doesn’t gloss over the ugly stuff, but manages to convey the deep humanity of all the people he writes about. Ruth Wilson Gilmore’s Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis and Opposition in Globalizing Galifornia (2007) offers a different perspective by focusing on the macro-level economic and political forces shaping California (including Los Angeles) which have led to the development of the world’s largest prison system. Finally, if I may be so bold, I would like to include my own book, Black, Brown, Yellow and Left: Radical activism in Los Angeles (2006). In this book I examines the Third World Left in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 70s by comparing radical activism among Japanese Americans, African Americans, and Chicanas/os. Besides the focus on radical political activism among people of color, I also think its worthwhile for its comparative angle.
Scholars have continued generating a wealth of scholarship about Los Angeles - but these books are an excellent starting point for anyone interested in a critical take on the City of Angels.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Are you living in a 'constitution free zone'?
The ACLU's report on the 'constitution free zone' - within 100 miles of land and sea borders you can be stopped and searched. More internal checkpoints, more racial profiling, and the continued expansion of the police-state
Friday, January 16, 2009
Feel My Legs, I'm a Racer 2009
Feel My Legs, I'm a Racer
Sat March 14, 2009
10 hills, 10 stages, 1 morning
A race for some, an epic adventure for others
A tour of the less traveled streets and neighborhoods in Los Angeles.
There is no entry fee and limited support. No cars please, spectators welcome on bikes (you won't have to ride all the hills).
Just riding up any one of these hills is an accomplishment. Ten in one day is seriously hard. Come prepared.
Sunset Blvd and EdgeCliffe Dr.
(Silver Lake Farmers Market)
Sign-up at 745am, leave at 815
A Swarm! event. Tell others.
(This race is based on Danny Chew's Dirty Dozen. Thanks to Swarm!, Danny Chew, Steevo, Chris Moeller and Dave Clymer)
Hills? Los Angeles? How hard could it be?
Fargo St, one of the steepest paved roads in the world, is only one of ten. Yearly the LA Wheelmen do a hill climb here with lots of hoopla for just riding up this one hill. For you it will only be hill number five. Are the others equally hard? No, but they will feel like it.
Do I have to race?
No. Only a few of the people out there are racing for points. Most are there just to attempt every hill.
I want to race and am totally going to win. How does it work?
Each place, five deep, is worth points starting with 1st place and five points. Each new hill is treated as a separate stage with a group ride between hills.
What does the winner get?
Recognition and bragging rights.
How should I prepare?
Climbing is a unique cycling skill. You may be fast and strong, but being both on these steep climbs requires a lot of training in the hills. This year I want to have a few training rides leading up to the 14th and will post them at nowhip.blogspot.com.
Why so early?
If you can ride these 10 hills in one morning then you can be out of bed and at the market by 745am. If you show up without having slept I'll buy you a cup of Coffee Cellar coffee at the market. Most of these hills are in quiet neighborhoods with narrow streets. I want us to be in and out with as little impact as possible. The earlier the better.
What should I bring?
Water, some snacks, a tube, the ability to fix minor mechanicals and rain gear. It's rained all three years so far.
How long will this take?
Expect to be out well past noon. We only do about 30 miles, but getting to the hills, getting set up, etc takes longer than you would think.
Do I get a t-shirt and brunch?
In the past we've had one or both, but I can't promise either for 2009. Hopefully we'll have a 'Bryan Farhy Commemorative' vegan brunch somewhere.
Who puts on Feel My Legs?
"A bunch of fucking boring semi-employed geeks" also known as Swarm! Hit us up via bikeswarm at gmail.
Will this be more fun than being stuck in an elevator in Newark?
Definitely.
PREVIOUS YEARS WRITE-UPS:
http://nowhip.blogspot.com/search/label/feelmylegs
Sat March 14, 2009
10 hills, 10 stages, 1 morning
A race for some, an epic adventure for others
A tour of the less traveled streets and neighborhoods in Los Angeles.
There is no entry fee and limited support. No cars please, spectators welcome on bikes (you won't have to ride all the hills).
Just riding up any one of these hills is an accomplishment. Ten in one day is seriously hard. Come prepared.
Sunset Blvd and EdgeCliffe Dr.
(Silver Lake Farmers Market)
Sign-up at 745am, leave at 815
A Swarm! event. Tell others.
(This race is based on Danny Chew's Dirty Dozen. Thanks to Swarm!, Danny Chew, Steevo, Chris Moeller and Dave Clymer)
Hills? Los Angeles? How hard could it be?
Fargo St, one of the steepest paved roads in the world, is only one of ten. Yearly the LA Wheelmen do a hill climb here with lots of hoopla for just riding up this one hill. For you it will only be hill number five. Are the others equally hard? No, but they will feel like it.
Do I have to race?
No. Only a few of the people out there are racing for points. Most are there just to attempt every hill.
I want to race and am totally going to win. How does it work?
Each place, five deep, is worth points starting with 1st place and five points. Each new hill is treated as a separate stage with a group ride between hills.
What does the winner get?
Recognition and bragging rights.
How should I prepare?
Climbing is a unique cycling skill. You may be fast and strong, but being both on these steep climbs requires a lot of training in the hills. This year I want to have a few training rides leading up to the 14th and will post them at nowhip.blogspot.com.
Why so early?
If you can ride these 10 hills in one morning then you can be out of bed and at the market by 745am. If you show up without having slept I'll buy you a cup of Coffee Cellar coffee at the market. Most of these hills are in quiet neighborhoods with narrow streets. I want us to be in and out with as little impact as possible. The earlier the better.
What should I bring?
Water, some snacks, a tube, the ability to fix minor mechanicals and rain gear. It's rained all three years so far.
How long will this take?
Expect to be out well past noon. We only do about 30 miles, but getting to the hills, getting set up, etc takes longer than you would think.
Do I get a t-shirt and brunch?
In the past we've had one or both, but I can't promise either for 2009. Hopefully we'll have a 'Bryan Farhy Commemorative' vegan brunch somewhere.
Who puts on Feel My Legs?
"A bunch of fucking boring semi-employed geeks" also known as Swarm! Hit us up via bikeswarm at gmail.
Will this be more fun than being stuck in an elevator in Newark?
Definitely.
PREVIOUS YEARS WRITE-UPS:
http://nowhip.blogspot.com/search/label/feelmylegs
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