DIMINISHED THOUGHT

I saw them cut down a palm tree the other day. One thing that struck me when moving to Los Angeles was all the palm trees. I should have expected it. I'm told they're a type of grass and looking at them surviving in this concrete jungle I can believe it as they seem able to sprout from any crack the sidewalk provides them. They are ubiquitous. Still I remember hearing on NPR a while back that they're not native and that many of them are sick. It's not hard to believe as they often have dead fronds hanging from them even as they tower over all the single and double story buildings that seem to make up LA. I guess that's why when I saw them cutting one down it seemed so interesting. They're not going to replant them and as they die they'll slowly disappear from the cityscape. The workers in hard hats had stopped traffic on Flower Street behind my parking structure and were using a sling attached to a crane to lower it to the ground. The palm was springy, wobbling a little bit in the air as the crane slowly lowered it the pavement and dropped it so carefully that it was almost possible to believe that it didn't make a sound. Of course, I couldn't know that. I was in my car with the windows up and the air conditioner blasting.

Perhaps one of the scarier things about my new home.

Labels: bad things, LA

Howard Rheingold linked to a seminar paper I wrote last year for Perspectives on Communication and technology. You can read his blog post here. You should follow the links on this post.

Labels: smart mob, social interaction, social psychology

So this morning I woke up, went downstairs to the parking lot which lies beneath my hostel to find my door open and my trunk ajar and all my stuff gone. I've lost somewhere between three and four thousand dollars worth of stuff and I'm unlikely to see it again. Oh well.

The most surprising thing to me is how I'm taking it. After the initial "oh shit" moment I've been pretty laid back about it. I mean it's not coming back. You can't cry over spilled milk. Still I liked my clothes, my pictures, my journal, and my computer. I loved my ipod and the little mementos I've picked up throughout my life. They're gone now. In some ways it all makes a sick amount of sense to me. I'm in a new city, a new school year, and whether by force or choice my life has been washed clean of a lot of it's former trappings.

Wish me luck.

I’ve been traveling all summer and I’ve come to the conclusion that the tourism industry is really all about who is the most skilled at cultural pimping. The worst thing is that they often destroy, modify, or subvert the very landscapes and cultures they are attempting to sell. They should remember what every good pimp knows: Discipline the ladies but never on the face.

Ok, so what brought this tirade on. Well I’m back from China and I’m roadtripping across the United States in my little Nissan Altima praying that the little engine holds out till I get to California. I’ve already passed through Oklahoma (flat with funny looking trees compared to Arkansas), through Texas (home of W), and I’m currently in New Mexico.

Last night I stayed in Tucumcari at a 1940’s motor court complete with little drive in garages. Bill, the owner, struck as an aging hippy that was extremely glad to be living a laid back, small town life. Today Paul and I went and saw petroglyphs that were chipped into black volcanic stone. The designs were pretty cool and hopefully I’ll get a chance to upload some pictures before too much longer.

Currently, I’m at the Acoma Pueblo. I haven’t been up but down in the visitors center they have chanting and drum beating playing through the PA. It strikes me as a little cheesy.

So a lot has happened over the past week or so. I didn't end up going to the
glaciers. Where I did go was a place called Jo-tsai-go (yes it is misspelled)
which is basically the equivalent of Yellowstone national park in China. They
have these series of clear, tidy bowl aquamarine lakes that come down from the
mountains along with a series of fantastic waterfalls. Some well known
Chinese movies are filmed here apparently. The lakes are like glass as the
high mountains sheild them from the wind and form a reflecting pool in which
the mountains themselves appear inverted.

After that we went to nearby Songpan, and took a horseback "trek" through the
country side. Many people go out for several days but we only went for a
few. It was neat because you could see the way that the mountains had been
terraced in the past for agriculture and as you rode the horses you would
occaisionally come across a herd of goats blocking the path. The would bleat
and move out of the way. Our guide cooked us dinner near a little Tibetan
temple with a series of prayer wheels built into the side. I walked around
and looked at it for a bit. Very cool.

When I got back to Chengdu (which believe me takes some doing, it's about a 9
hour bus trip) I went to go see the pandas. Pandas are damn cute especially
the sub-adults but they're lazy as hell. Most of the time they spend sleeping
and the staff had a heck of a problem getting the little ones to come down
from the high trees to eat. They would climb up there on a branch and try to
coax them with a bit of apple until one came within reach and then they would
drag it down the tree a bit. They were very patient and careful not to let it
fall. I think by that point I would have been ready to start shaking
branches.

Ok, the only other thing of interest is that last night I had a monkey jump on
my head. When I say jump I mean the little sucker climbed to the top rooted
around for something to eat and when he didn't find anything he started
stomping on my head. Go figure. It was a beggar at an outdoor bar and he
just let his monkey do whatever and then asked for money. I don't give money
to stuff like that.