southland nomadicity

[nibot]

So. The Gipper has kicked the bucket. Maybe now they can re-release the prewritten obituary that was leaked a few years ago. Maybe now the Cold War is really behind us. Or not. Gipper dead. Economy up. D-Day anniversary. Guy goes crazy in armored bulldozer, emulating San Diego man who did same. Exhibit: Orange County Register opinions page bears title "ACLU: America's Taliban." Exhibit: "Have You Forgot", observed on 95.7 FM San Diego. Prediction: W. barfs on pope, Gipper inaugurates presidential mausoleum. Exhibit: "W.'04!" Remember, even Nixon was eulogized, except by HST, who stuck to the facts: "He Was A Crook"

(MEMO FROM THE NATIONAL AFFAIRS DESK DATE: MAY 1, 1994 FROM: DR. HUNTER S. THOMPSON SUBJECT: THE DEATH OF RICHARD NIXON: NOTES ON THE PASSING OF AN AMERICAN MONSTER.... HE WAS A LIAR AND A QUITTER, AND HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN BURIED AT SEA.... BUT HE WAS, AFTER ALL, THE PRESIDENT.)

Sure, he was a lovable man. We have his "Reagan Ranch" calendar up on the wall at the Wilde House. Yup, this is the man who, after he was Rambo, but before he was President, was censoring hollywood and then rounding up Berkeley students from helicopter gunships and then dumping teargas on them once they were conveniently trapped in Lower Sproul Plaza, and things generally developed from there. So click on that 'He Was A Crook" link and think what you'd write about Reagan.

---

Spent the week crashing on the living-room futon at John's place. Will continue to do so until renting his roommate's room. It's sure to be an adventure.


FRIDAY - Went to a "Brazilian Party" last night with Aditya, a splorg success story whose now happily and productively working for The Man, aka Microsoft Corporation, and more specifically Hotmail, where he is allegedly the youngest (??) employee. As an international man of mystery, Mr. Bansod commutes to San Diego for weekends, at least when he's not running off to Belgium.

Met a lot of cool people at said party. At 3:00am, rendezvoused at some 24-hr taqueria on the Claremont Mesa (note usage of San Diego vernacular). Gourged selves on tacos and burritos and quesedillas. Returned to $1,000,000 pricerange neighborhood, location of said party. 04:00 Slept on the floor of the VW van.

07:30 SATURDAY -- woke up. suprisingly not surrounded by SWAT team called in by jaguar-driving residents. Made quick getaway to McDonalds to use the restroom and get some beverage. McDonalds at 8:00 on a Saturday is fearful indeed. All the freaks and punks and working people are inside the store. All the rich freaks and "suburban professionals" in the drivethrough. Station myself outside, watching the drivethrough. Probable gated-community resident driving Lincoln Towncar interrupts cell-phone conversation to make order. Grown-up (er, older) version of Berkeley gutter punk (with wife/girlfriend with dog) asks if I can spare "anything to eat."

Comments

[shamster.livejournal.com]

Bitterandjealous much? I'd love to read your argument for the jaguardrivingrichfreaksuburbanprofessionallincolntownecardrivinggatedcommunityresident bashing. Excuse my german.

[nibot.livejournal.com]

Bitter and jealous? Are you serious?

[shamster.livejournal.com]

Not very serious, just curious and confrontational. I'm not going to pretend that anyone raised in Mission Viejo was that far off from people living in San Diego in affluence or upbringing. There's not THAT much of a cultural rift, but there's obviously enough to cause some friction (expressed as some yup-ee bashing). So I want to know where it comes from. I'm guessing that it's the aversion to the sedentary lifestyle. There's a lot of the same around here - I'll overhear the suburbanites that get dolled up like cadavers and then wander into the coffee shop and bash everything around them, but I still don't understand the hostility.

But you've just gone through a major scenery change, so I can understand a bit of confusion... ;)

[roxymartini.livejournal.com]

Met a lot of cool people at said party. At 3:00am, rendezvoused at some 24-hr taqueria on the Claremont Mesa (note usage of San Diego vernacular). Gourged selves on tacos and burritos and quesedillas.

Sounds more exciting than you let on. Tell us about these cool people.

[ocexile.livejournal.com]

Inevitably, all the media outlets are tripping over themselves in trying to out-eulogize Reagan, concluding that "he tore down the Berlin Wall and ended the Cold War." Um, excuse me? I think the Germans had a hand or two the former, and Gorbachev and Eastern Europe did something to foment the latter. You know, those pro-peace and anti-nuke activists whom the Republicans love to hate? They helped end the Cold War.

Last year, I wrote a column on this subject, entitled Cold War and Peace, Revisited (http://www.dailyemerald.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/02/20/3e5509799c946). I wasn't thinking about Reagan per se, but it's a healthy antidote to propaganda blitz we'll endure over the next week.

[easwaran.livejournal.com]

Nixon was exactly the example I was thinking of - I only heard that Reagan died from headlines of forwarded news alerts, which I haven't actually read. But I remember when Nixon died, for a few weeks everyone was saying all sorts of good things about him. And so of course I thought of Iran-Contra.

I didn't even think of the free speech movement and all that, with the tear gas. That was just hideous.

[nibot.livejournal.com]

The TV retrospectives are making even me love the man. I think, unexpectedly, TV provides a major rift between suburbanites and college kids, or at least co-opers.