What I'm listening to at work

I'm the only one in my office today so I made a work-friendly playlist of music:

Lame duckitudeness

Via Slate:

Hillary: Yes I Will

Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Friday, November 21, 2008 -- 2:44 PM ET
-----

Clinton to Accept Secretary of State Nomination, Confidants Say

Hillary Rodham Clinton has decided to give up her Senate seat
and accept the nomination for secretary of state after
additional discussion with President-elect Barack Obama about
the nature of her role, two confidants of Mrs. Clinton said
Friday.

Read More:
http://www.nytimes.com/?emc=na

Nightclub in Westwood?

MTV article describing the Twilight Premiere in Westwood:

WESTWOOD, California — The nightclub-and-movie-theater-packed neighborhood nestled between Brentwood, Hollywood and UCLA has always served as a playground for excitable young adults, head-turning celebrities and couples looking for love. But never before have all three groups collided quite the way they did Monday night (November 17) when Bella, Edward and a few thousand of their closest friends stormed into town.

MTV, I'm not shocked but get your facts straight. Westwood isn't even allowed to have a nightclub. Duh.

The fist bump waiting to happen...

Via Slate cartoons:

Repeat Assault: "You Are the Best Thing"

Song of the Day: Ray LaMontagne, "You are the Best Thing"

Got this song for free on iTunes courtesy of Starbucks. It's currently on repeat assault as I played it all morning.

NYT Blog: Bay Air-ree-yaaa Bailout (?)

The city of Vallejo gets to be the opening for a New York Times blog post:

VALLEJO, Calif. — This city is broke. Bankrupt. A ward of the courts. The police have pared their ranks, and every day two fire stations temporarily close, a rolling blackout of basic services.

Do we bailout Vallejo?

During the campaign season, both candidates kept repeating that Main Street, not Wall Street, is really suffering. But what is Main Street? Where is Main Street?

All too often we forget that it's home. It's the next city over. It's where Aunt Beth or Uncle Joe lives.

Let's not forget what is happening locally. Take time to try to understand the issues, form an opinion about it, and find ways to help those around you who are feeling the crunch.

Obamamania: Obama The Smoker

In today's WaPo, Michael Kinsley says it's ok if Obama needs a cig:

Obama's steely calm is now one of our country's major assets. If he needs an occasional cigarette to preserve it, let's hand him an ashtray, offer him a light and look the other way.

I don't care if Obama smokes or not. It's his choice. I'm sure he's well aware of the ramifications and he probably gets railed about all the time from the people around him.

WaPo, what's next? Will you find another columnist to contribute a piece that explores the evolution of Obama's hair cuts and what it means for tomorrow's future leaders?

Obamamania: Licking the streets he walkED on

The Chicago Tribune made it easier for Obama supporters and crazies to walk the same streets and eat at the same restaurants The One has graced with an interactive map.

God Bless America: "Country First" vs. "God First"

Kathleen Parker.  Does the name ring a bell?  She was one of those conservative writers that the party "faithful" deemed a traitor for criticizing the Palin pick.  

In a Wednesday column for the WaPo, "Giving Up on God," Parker urges the GOP to let go ofthe strong, Christian base.  Well golly, says I, that sounds like blasphemy.  She should be ejected from the Republican community.  But Parker's evocation reiterates Christopher Buckley's solemn conviction after "resigning" from The National Review about the GOP: "I haven’t left the Republican Party. It left me." 

Here are some of the LOL-funny and highlights of her column: 

To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn't soon cometh. 

So it has been for the Grand Old Party since the 1980s or so, as it has become increasingly beholden to an element that used to be relegated to wooden crates on street corners. 

But preaching to the choir produces no converts. And shifting demographics suggest that the Republican Party -- and conservatism with it -- eventually will die out unless religion is returned to the privacy of one's heart where it belongs.

Suffice it to say, the Republican Party is largely comprised of white, married Christians. Anyone watching the two conventions last summer can't have missed the stark differences: One party was brimming with energy, youth and diversity; the other felt like an annual Depends sales meeting.

With the exception of Miss Alaska, of course. 

The young will get older, of course. Most eventually will marry, and some will become their parents. But nonwhites won't get whiter. And the nonreligious won't get religion through external conversion. It doesn't work that way. 

Echoing what many analysts have been calling for, the GOP needs to broaden it's appeal. Diversifying is just plain, sound business practice.  Conservatism, as it is today, needs to take a few steps back.  Republicans need to redefine their basic tenets.  Like I wrote in an earlier blog post, although the Republican party espouses small-government, what they do today completely contradicts that.  

They want a 'small government' that doesn't take money from their paychecks--money which is used to build essential infrastructure like roads, freeways, hospitals, fire stations, public restrooms, water fountains, etc.--but they also want the same government to put restrictions on your social/private life, like who you can marry, praying at school, keeping a baby, etc.   

I wholeheartedly agree with Parker: the GOP needs to let go of The Base.  It was a not-so-good turn in the history of conservatism and the Republican Party.  

As a country that was founded upon tolerance, sectarian government, and freedom, religion should remain a private matter.  The GOP needs to decide whether or not they want to put country first or God first.  Is a God-fearing, real Amerrican, anti-Amerrrican if they put God first?  Or is a real Amerrrrican blasphemous if they put country first and God second? Yannowhaddimean???

Obamamania: Tacky Memorabilia

I'm all for capitalizing on hip trends, but this latest one needs to stop: Obama plates. It's not just tacky, it's creepy. This is just another indication that capitalism transcends the Democratic-Republican divide. Obama's celebrity and international popularity equals money-money-money. But I'm 100% sure that those "commemorative quarter" companies had stockpiles of Obama and McCain quarters ready to be shipped on November 5th.

They just give me the heebie-jeebies. I think its because the coin and plate things are cheesey and are always associated with crazy, old, and maniacal collectors. Obama furnished a cool, Coltrane-listening, young, and hip image. The 'Obama Commemorative Plate' simply contradicts that.

This is how I felt at work today...

Song of the morning

Although it's Wednesday morning, "Sunday Morning" is still a good song to wake up to at the office.

Cedric Diggory's Westwood Premiere

The air in Westwood was suffocating, and not from the smoke from the fires in Sylmar and

Yorba Linda, but from the exruciatingly painful screams of hundreds of teen girls lined up on Weyburn and Broxton for the premiere of Twilight.

They were premiering the movie at both movies theaters, the Bruin Theater and the Fox Theater.

This is Weyburn/Broxton in the day:

Westwood is considered the movie premiere capital in the world.

Celebrity Sighting in Westwood

As I walked into Urban Outfitters early this evening (my friend told there was a $10 jean sale!), the Jo Bros--The Jonas Brothers--were walking out of there with a caravan of drooling tweens behind them.

If you're not between the age of 5-16 years old, the Jonas Brothers are these guys.

They are sort of like the Backstreet Boys of this tween generation.

And yes, like BSB, they are annoying, they are fairly talented, sing bubble-yum pop, and they pout all the time.

Christmas time is here!

I love the holidays. Yesterday, I started decorating my living room with lights. My favorite are the lights I put along the front door (the 4th and 5th pictures). Like it??

Captivated by the light

It's always sunny in Los Angeles. There is some awesome lighting in my living room right now--natural lighting, of course--from the (waning?) sun. Enjoy the view from my balcony.  

B-Rock is in the (White) Hoooouse

From the WaPo (which was apparently Obama-leaning in it's '08 campaign coverage) has a nifty piece on the crossroads of hip-hop and politics. Nas--someone I first really learned about this past summer thanks to his number one fan--makes an insightful point about our president-elect:

"The next generation of kids will have something new to rap about," said Nas. But he also previously wrote lyrics expressing his hope -- and his uncertainty -- about Obama's presidency:

I'm thinking I can trust this brother

But will he keep it way real?

. . . When he wins, will he care still?

The beginning of the end...

Via The Daily Telegraph is a picture gallery of some of their favourite Bush moments.

The pictures don't really convey the presidential legacy thing than how those British folks really feel about our Bushie.

I too, am suffering from campaign withdrawal

Unlike Joel Schwartzberg ("I Suffer From Campaign Withdrawal"), I don't see Wolf Blitzer in the face of every bearded man that walks by.  But I do feel odd.  The November 4 elation has slowly faded away as I'm now refocusing my attention on the transition.  

After the election, I remembered why I wasn't an avid MSNBC or CNN watcher.  I hate all the oddball news mixed in with interviews with foreign diplomats and every other story rendered "Breaking News."  I miss all horse race.  I miss the ginormous touch screens with the electoral maps. I'm going to miss Olbermann and Maddow bashing on McCain and Palin.  

What am I going to do with myself?  

At least I'm not an Obama-supporter-zombie: 

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

Sunday Quotes, 5 days since Obama won the election

"This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny." 

     - Franlkin D. Roosevelt 

"It was a great hour to live." 

     - Winston Churchill 

"With him we get a president with the political intelligence of a Bill Clinton harnessed to the steely self-discipline of a Vladimir Putin. (I say this admiringly.) With these qualities, Obama will now bestride the political stage as largely as did Reagan." 

     - Charles Krauthammer, "The Campaign Autopsy," The Washington Post, 11/07/08

(As heard on Meet the Press, 11/09/08) 

The first President-Elect Obama post

Cool news: Half of the babies born in the village near the birthplace of Barack Obama Sr. were named either Barack or Michelle on the day after the election.

Would you name your kid Barack or Michelle?

My potential offspring will probably be named after the president-elect or his wife. But I also have first dibs on Aiden, Nelson, Madeleine, and Christiane.