Communities

A friend of mine is having a hard time with their new job and was asking for ways to deal with the stress.

A lot of people suggested yoga, exercise, positive affirmations, remembering to take vacations, movies, blogging, etc. all things that one could do by themselves to relieve the stress / frustration of his job. And while those are good ways to relieve the symptoms of stress, I don’t believe that doing those things will help you deal with the actual cause of it all.

My recommendation was ‘going to Happy Hour at the local Bar,’ which I admit SOUNDS like a bad way to relieve stress (“drinking makes the pain go away, lolz!”) But in my experience, “Happy Hour at the Bar” is when / where people go after work to blow off steam & complain with other co-workers and is a very good place to build a community of support. Exercise, meditation, etc. may do a good job of relieving stress – but so does talking with other people who know what you’re going through.

These people listen (something that a ton of other people in therapy have to pay $$$ for) and help by giving advice, sharing their own experiences, and agreeing that “yeah what you’re going through is pretty tough.”

I think people these days try to replace the idea of “building a community” with things like “commodities” & “comforts,” but I just don’t think it has the same effect.

What do you all think?
Also - how do you relieve stress?

My New Obsession

So I’d like to show you some pictures from The Magic Garage 6 that I went to this weekend, (because honestly, words just don’t cut it at Art shows) but I can’t – because I didn’t buy a new camera yet. (It broke several weeks ago)

But here’s some words anyway: Evan had some oh his photographs posted up there so he invited a bunch of us for support. I went & I saw, along with Nico, Arturo, & Andrew (who I haven’t seen in a long while – I suggested they throw another party to remedy that) and got to listen to a few of the musical artists that were performing as well. (I thought Zaptra & Icy Lytes were particularly good)

So that’s that.

But what I really wanted to post today about is my new obsession, which is learning how to do this:

 

It’s called “The Big Apple” and when I first saw the swing team at Memories perform this, I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I have about half of it memorized (up until “The London Bridge”) but still need to work on learning that last half.

Unfortunately, the rest of my practice group wants to work on Aerials – we’re having a workshop on that in October – so we’ve been doing all exercises where the follows jump / step / climb on us leads while we try our best to remain grounded. (My legs are pretty sore right now from being stood on last night) 

So I guess I'll have to learn it by myself. :-p

Let the Flame War begin!

Apparently one of my friends started a friendly “flame war” with me over Facebook, implying that I’ve said some horribly racist / discriminatory things by referring to them in posts that he writes on my Facebook wall.

It caught me off-guard at first, but I’ve learned to just “run with it” whenever he hits me with something like this and try to “give as good as I get” whenever possible. It’s actually kind of fun, trying to think of new ways to slander / libel old friends like this.

So, just in case you were wondering (those of you who can see my facebook profile), I don’t really feel that way about interracial marriage, the working class, or white slavery.

But I do think the characters on Seinfeld got what they deserved. (just sayin’)

Oh yeah – and my so-called "friend" is indeed a racist…….a BIG one. 

And a pedophile.  (No, I don't know why I'm friends with him) 

THIS SHIRT

WHERE CAN I FIND IT??? 

I've got a small collection of 'awesome' shirts like this.  A bunch of them are from Amorphia Apparel, but I find similar ones every once in a while on the merchandise pages of the webcomic sites I read. 

I saw this one the other day at the 826LA Time Travel Mart (in Echo Park); but they only had it in a kid's / girl's medium. 

So I tried looking up the text online ("All my friends are dead") and found the design on Etsy - but here's where the trail ends & the drama begins: 

Apparently, the shirt design (or something similar) was being sold by rival t-shirt companies and a huge debate arose over who ripped off who. 

So now, maybe it doesn't exist anymore???  That would suck. 

DOES ANYONE OWN THIS SHIRT / KNOW WHERE I CAN GET IT?? 

**EDIT 8/19/10**
So if you read the comments, you'll see that the designer of the (above) shirt found this blog & told me how I could buy it!  I had to put a little work into "tracking it down" (i.e. calling a store in S.F. called Little Otsu that carried it) but I think it was worth it. 

Many Thanks to the people at Little Otsu Publishing & Avery Monsen of Big Stone Head! 

Update – Volunteering

So I’m finally getting into the swing of this whole “Volunteering” thing.

This Saturday, I went down to the Norton Simon Museum (got in for free!) to help out 826LA with a writing workshop they put on for kids; this one was about “symbols” and how they can tell / help us develop stories:  it consisted of a short lecture by the Museum staff about how the symbols found on Indian Art work was used to tell a lot of stories about the Culture and religion. The children then roamed around the museum, looking for / listing all the commonly-used symbols found on Indian artifacts that they liked. Finally, they sat down to write a story based on either the symbols they found, or ones that they made on their own. The hardest part about this project was getting the kids to think of a story; they only had a half-hour to write one but lot of them seemed to think they had to come up with something good to share.

I figured the best way to get them to overcome this was to write a (rather crappy) story of my own. So here’s the story I wrote:

Once upon a time there was an elephant. He had 8 legs!
Way more legs than all the other elephants!
He felt pretty bad about it until he was discovered by Hollywood and became a movie star. 
The End. 

Surprisingly, it worked.

One of the kids eventually asked me how I thought that one up. I told her all great stories start with “once upon a time,” so I just started from there.

(I wanna try and see if I can come up with my own worshop for them - doesn't seem too complicated!) 

They also held a Fundraising event - Spelling Bee for Cheaters! - out of their west coast Branch (in Santa Monica) where they raised a lot of money & invited a lot of celebrities!  But I didn't go to that so I can't really tell you anything about it! 

Afterwards, I hung around and checked out the Hiroshige Art exhibit they had up - it was pretty cool to see the hundreds of intricate woodblock paintings he drew. 

After that, I drove down to Garden Grove with my friend, Susan, (one of the people I practice dancing with) to “Keep Alive the Spirit of ‘45” - a Celebration of the 65th anniversary of the end of WWII put on by the American Veterans (AMVETS) Dept. of California……but really, we just went to see the Bill Elliot Swing Orchestra (from Boston) play.

The event itself was a lot of fun – the band was great & a lot of people were dressed up in Vintage 1940’s clothing - and Susan & I got to show off a lot of the moves we’ve been practicing. Several people (mostly U.S. Veterans) came up to compliment us on how good we were. 

……that was a nice boost to the ol’ ego.

Today is a Special Day

Just wanted to jot down that today I did something that my gut tells me I'll regret for the next couple of years (should everything go as planned) 

Since this is a public blog, I can't really say anymore without shooting myself in the foot, but look at the labels to get a hint at what this refers to. 

PRAY THAT IT ALL WORKS OUT FOR THE BEST! 

Optimistic Pessimism

I can never tell if I’m an optimist or a pessimist.

Some time ago – I forget when – someone told me it was better to be pessimistic about everything because it meant that you would never be disappointed, only pleasantly surprised , when things turned out differently than you expected.

The ‘never be disappointed’ aspect of that philosophy really appealed to me (I wonder what that means) so I tried to adopt this way of thinking from that point on. And I’ve found that it’s helped to keep me grounded in a lot of ways.

Anyways, I’ve just always wondered if this outlook was considered ‘pessimism’ or ‘optimism’: I mean, on the one hand, I never expect anything good to happen. (Maybe that explains why I didn’t get that job) But on the other – I’ve noticed that I tend to look on the bright side whenever I hear something negative happen. (People have told me this)

I think the two are connected somehow…..!

What about you, readers?

Are you more of an Optimist?

Or a Pessimist?

The Bechdel Test

Have you all heard of the Bechdel Test?

It’s a simple 3 question test that points out the lack of female characters in movies and a lack of female character development for them other than how they relate to men. I read about it here on John Scalzi’s blog – Whatever.

Here are the questions for the test:

1. Are there at least two women in this movie?
2. Do they ever talk to each other?
3. About something besides a man?

If the answer to all three of these questions is “yes,” then the movie passes the Bechdel Test. A list of movies that pass / fail the Bechdel test can be found here.

I looked through my shelf of DVDs and discovered that a lot of the films I like don’t pass the test.

Not to say that a movie which fails the Bechdel Test is bad. A lot of movies that pass the Bechdel test are awful. (ex."Alice in Wonderland") But still, it’s a little odd that, in this day and age, there aren’t better roles for actresses these days.

So listen up Hollywood – hows about we change some of our male characters into female ones, huh?

How many movies do YOU own that pass the Bechdel Test?

My Theory on the L.A. Hate

So I think I’ve found one of the reasons why “people from L.A.” have such a bad reputation:

Los Angeles is one of the largest cities in the U.S. As such, a lot of people who want to “make it” in the world eventually want to move here - the logic being that larger cities have more opportunities, ensuring its inhabitants a greater chance of success.

And while this is true of all major cities – such as New York, which some consider is ‘the greatest city on Earth’ –L.A. stands out from the rest of them in the way that, over the years, it’s become increasingly notorious for making people “famous” for no apparent reason.

Because of this phenomenon, Los Angeles has become known as this place that grants fame to people just for living here. And this “fast track to celebrity” (which we so often mistake for “success”) attracts a certain kind of people – the kind who want to be noticed.

Keep in mind that I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting to be noticed or appreciated. It’s a very human trait that’s inside all of us at some level. But some people want / need it more than others and those are the ones that flock to L.A. (specifically Hollywood)

But what these people fail to appreciate when they finally get here is that everyone else has the same goal. And it is incredibly difficult to achieve that goal in a city this large with that much competition against you.

For a person to truly stand out, they need to market themselves..… constantly….to a greater degree than everyone else….who are already doing the exact same thing.

And it’s this kind of 24/7 “mega-marketing” that has them practically shouting LOOK AT ME! all the time (to no one in particular) that creates the kind of self-absorption, elitism and conceitedness that everyone hates about this city.

But the only reason people think “everyone from L.A.” is like this is because that’s how well those people market themselves.

So….yeah. L.A. attracts a lot of obnoxious people that get a lot of attention. And I think that’s one of the reasons why people from here get such a bad reputation. Am I right / wrong?

What do you all think?

Camp Hollywood XIII (2010)

So lemme just tell you how awesome Camp Hollywood XIII was:
VERY MUCH SO.

 I’m not sure if this year was just an incredibly great year to be there, but Camp Hollywood just meant more to me this time. I think it has something to do with all the friends that I’ve been making while dancing; as I become more involved in the ‘swing scene’ / get to know more about the people who are so active in the community, the events  become more and more significant.

Special thanks go to Nathan, Susan, Alan & Heather for letting me crash at their hotel room in between dances / classes / competitions.

Speaking of which – on to the Competition videos!

Unfortunately, I don’t think I can accurately describe how many people “brought it” this year in words – I’m just not that good a writer.

ALSO unfortunately, there was some rule about not filming the competitions unless you had some kind of “video pass” (which I knew nothing about).

What’s even more discouraging was the fact that my camera decided to crap out on me after only a few pictures (same problem as last time, too!)

But FORTUNATELY, a lot of other people have already uploaded youtube videos from this weekend that I can use!

1st PLACE IN THE TEAM COMPETITION: The Fly-Rites

1st Place (?) for "Showcase" (couples performance):  Patrick & Natasha

SHOWCASE HONORABLE MENTION:  JOEL & VALERIE

Look at how amped the crowd was by their performance.

UNDERGROUND FINALS

If you’re noticing that people are tired in this video, it’s because this contest was held at 2:00AM with even more dancing afterwards. I didn’t got to bed until 4:00AM myself that night.

As for my competition (the amateur Jack & Jill contest), I did about as well as I expected. In other words, I didn’t make it to finals. That’s about as specific as the scoring can get when the judges have to keep score for over 100 people. Either you stand out, or you don’t. I had a lot of fun though, and that was the whole point.