LA Festival of Books!

First of all, who says LA isn’t cultured?The LA Festival of Books took place this weekend and was a glorious, dizzying event, and apparently, the largest book festival in the country. As Mr. P and I wove through the crowd, I kept thinking to myself that this is as close to an ideal society as one could get: lots of free stuff, many different kinds of people, different ideas, and most importantly, a world exalted by books of all kinds and levels. Lest I wax (too) rhapsodic on this issue, let’s get to the pictures.

Smokin’ hot Stephan Pastis! Usually I’m quite suspicious of men in goatees, but I have to say that Pastis was a charmer. Not in a direct way, but in a shy, clearly-was-awkward-when-younger, incredibly polite adorable way. I have always enjoyed Pearls Before Swine (wonderfully twisted), and he was gracious enough to draw a picture of Pig on my book.

That would be Wiley Miller of Non Sequitur and Bill Amend of Foxtrot. It was remarkable how much Amend resembled Jason. Like Pastis, he was clearly introverted, but very funny during the panel and friendly to his fans. I got a little sketch of Jason from him.

This picture doesn’t do justice to the size and busyness of the whole affair. I got 6 books (7 including a free copy of the Qur’an; I would’ve taken a free bible but those people wanted a home address. Pfft.), one of which was a signed copy of the Martian Chronicles. I was happy to hear that Ray Bradbury is still going strong (I saw him at the Festival last year). I didn’t get to see him this year, unfortunately. Other popular notables at the festival included Harry Turtledove, Julie Andrews (yes, Mary Poppins!), Mary Higgins Clark, Martin Yan and so on. I’m always amazed by the people they manage to pull in. There were plenty of academic presses there to keep things interesting for academics and boring for everyone else, and I got a good sense of what press publishes what. Filed away for post-dissertation times.

My only complaint is that the food prices were ridonkulous–Disneyland ridonkulous at $5 for lemonade, $7.25 for a measly Panda Bowl! Luckily Mau and I could just head back to my apartment for some grub.

It was nice to see UCLA populated by more than just a bunch of blasé college students. I’m already looking forward to next year’s fair.

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The shooting

Words fail.

Mr. P and I were talking about it last night and he asked if I was surprised to learn that the shooter was Asian. I thought it was an odd question, but as I got to thinking about it, I discovered that yes, I was surprised he was of Asian descent.

I think that speaks to some cultural assumptions on my part. And probably on many people’s parts. Never has the Model Minority myth gone down so abysmally and horribly. I admit that I am a little disturbed to see news article that regularly cite the shooter as “a student from South Korea”, which makes it seem like he was a recent immigrant or exchange student. Finding out that he was an English major makes me think he was probably fairly well-steeped in American culture, so just how relevant is his racial/ethnic status? He and I are the same age, and we only had a few years separation between our respective immigrations, and we were both English majors; what’s immigration got to do with it? Not a whole lot, I think.

I think this shooting is symptomatic of something wrong with American society. I think it has something to do with the respect that we, as a culture, accord human life. I don’t think that violent video games make people kill per se, but I think it’s likely that the idea of killing-as-entertainment or shooting-as-entertainment or death-as-entertainment has some effect on our real-life attitudes.

As for the gun nuts who point to this as proof of our need to allow everyone to carry a gun to protect themselves–stfu. Why are these school shootings happening in America and not everywhere else in the world? Why? I know there are ideological reasons people murder each other (in Iraq, for instance), but this shooting was non-ideological.He had no political or religious agenda. It was mechanical, precise, and soulless. What is it about our culture that contributes to this kind of behavior?

I know that the kid had some psychological/brain chemistry problems. But people have always had these issues. Why are these mass killings happening now? In our schools?

Time for pointe?

I was leaving my Sunday morning ballet class when the teacher shouted at me from across the room: “don’t forget to get new pointe shoes! It’s time for pointe!”

Those are probably the words that every ballet student waits to hear from the moment she puts on her first slippers. It takes at least 3 years of 3 technique classes a week to get to this stage. But I’m feeling slightly ambivalent; why?

I’m concerned that I’m not strong enough to do it. I do trust my teacher’s judgment; she’s been watching me since September ‘06. But I weigh more than most dancers; it’s going to be tougher to get up and over the box than, say, if I weighed 110 lbs. On the other hand, the extra weight will work my feet and ankle muscles harder, so that when I do lose the weight, I will be able to do amazing jumps, turns, etc. Also, pointe shoes force one to work the feet harder and more correctly. If only the darned things didn’t cost 70 bucks a pair.

One final con: pointe shoes=hideous feet. Corns, bunions, blisters…just in time for summer.

Still, pointework is the heart and soul of classical ballet. Hard to decide what to do. What would you do? Well; for inspiration’s sake, look at photos of this year’s Prix de Lausanne winners. The nice thing about these dancers is that a lot of them are from Asia, and they have smaller insteps like I do (and unlike the monstrously gorgeous fat instep of the photo above)!

New digital camera!

Introducing my new digital camera, the Canon A460. I love it. It’s so excitin’! Of course I don’t plan to abandon my faithful Nikon N80, which will be used from now on mainly for artsy black and white film photos. This Canon will be used for day-to-day snappage.

And what better way to demonstrate its capabilities than through FOOD? Here’s the tomato-egg soup I whipped up today.

What I love most about it is its super macro function, which lets me get absolutely gorgeous closeups:

More to come for SURE.

Total Recipe Success: Garlic-Parsley Fries with Aioli

It’s not often that I turn out a perfect product, but..these garlic fries were amazing. The side of garlic aioli just added to the odiferous goodness. Not only were they yummy, but they’re actually pretty healthy–3 tbsp of oil, and then baked in the oven for 20 minutes. Tastes exactly like the real thing. The aioli’s pretty unhealthy (egg and a bucket of olive oil), though, so it doesn’t get to go in the picture.

Christine, I miss WRWF! Hope you and Thor are cooking up a storm.

High heels

I bought a pair of high heels over break. They’re fabulous: black leather, with weaving over the toes. Wore them to dinner at a prof’s house last night and they were AGONY on my feet. They fit well, but I still don’t see any way–barring the alteration of cosmological constants–of making heels comfortable to wear. They tip you forward, and you’re walking only on the balls of your feet; your toes usually feel the painful pressure of your weight. I also tend to wobble a bit. On the walk back to my apartment I gave up and walked barefoot on the pavement, purse in one hand, heels in the other.

Perhaps I am missing some vital clue as to how to walk and hold yourself up properly while in these heels. Frankly I think pointe shoes would be more comfy. Anyone know how to walk in them? Anyone? I do remember 2 college friends who could SPRINT in STILETTOS. So it must be possible. In the meantime, I’m back to flats.

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