The Oscars

Ahhhhhh, my first Oscar Sunday since my travels and I'm back on the job. What's Oscar Sunday without me working?

I'd worked the Oscars for seven years prior to my trip to Argentina and there I was again on Sunday, burning the midnight oil. This time was different though: I wasn't at the Kodak with the rest of the reporters, I was at the Hollywood Reporter office; proofing blogs, cropping photos, setting up slideshows and doing whatever needed to be done.

The office was buzzing when I arrived at 3:30. In the past it had been me, myself, and I going to the ceremony, recording backstage sound, and reporting and sending audio from home or the office. Now I was the low woman on the totem pole. No one was really counting on me. I was backup. 'Twas fine with me. Didn't feel pressured.

My big job was putting together a slideshow of exec arrivals. The pictures were of mostly middle aged, white men and their younger dates. In some cases, as with Harvey Weinstein, the guests were wives (his wife Georgina Chapman is gorgeous and I'm sure would not be with fat mean Harvey if he was broke). Ex-wives were in force too (Sumner Redstone) as were plain 'ol dates. A couple of people brought their kids (Pixar's John Lasseter, a Disney exec) and there were, I think, two female execs with their husbands. One lady was black AND an exec. I was impressed.

The Hollywood Reporter bought everyone pizza and salad. Nearly the whole staff was working. At one point, one of the copyeditors and one of the reporters roared with laughter and one of the main editors told them to cut it out...didn't they have work to do? It's old school like that sometimes.

I dig the newspaper vibe. It is exciting beating deadlines and triple checking for accuracy and finding just the right picture to tell the story. It is a team effort. Someone drops the ball and everyone takes the heat. And this is the Oscars too, the biggest night of the year in the biz. If you're not working it, then you're not in it.

Little India

My friend Richard's annual All Oscar's Eve party is Saturday night and the theme is "Slumdog Millionaire." We have been asked to dress in our finest Indian attire for the event, which includes booze, food, and an Oscar-themed trivia contest.

My date Chris and I have no Indian attire and as it turns out, no Indian friends either, so we ventured to Little India to see if we could find the appropriate garb. Little India is a two or three block stretch of stores and restaurants on Pioneer Ave. in Cerritos bordering Artesia. It's close to the Cerritos mall and the 91 and 605 freeways, but is it's own little world.

I honestly have never seen so many Indian people in one place in Los Angeles. There were sari stories everywhere and other ethnic wares up and down the street. The saris were beautiful and out of my price range, but we looked anyway.

The highlight of the trip was definitely lunch. We'd seen the names of a couple of restaurants online but in the end, walked into a place based solely on its looks and the looks of its clientele. It was a corner cafe called Jay Bharat that had a decent amount of people in it and nice windows. You couldn't see into some of the other restaurants and for tourists like us, it was better to think we knew what we were getting in to.

One orders his or her food at the counter and they bring it to your table. We poured over the menu for quite some time, not recognizing a thing on it. No chicken tikka masala here. It was Southern Indian cuisine, which meant it was vegetarian. Okay by us.

We finally settled on two things we thought we might like and ordered. I asked the man at the counter if he thought that was enough food. He said "no" and suggested another dish. Then he nixed one of the plates we had ordered and replaced it with a combo plate of some sort. Chris ordered a mango lassi, figuring it had mango so what the heck, and we sat at our table, thankful that the worker had basically picked our meal for us.

The restaurant was filling up by then but we had snagged a table and were happy. Two flat screen TVs were attached high up on the walls and played Indian music videos. Chris stopped talking. The visuals were mesmerizing. You can't be an Indian star without knowing how to dance. I like all the group choreography. And the women don't dress like skanks either. That is refreshing.

Chris's drink came out and was tasty. It was a mango smoothie with an Indian twist. Yogurt or something gave it an almost sour aftertaste. We got used to it though.

The combo platter was next to arrive as was a crepe-like concoction filled with potatoes and spices. Mmm. A bunch of side dishes came with the meal too and Chris and I taste-tested to see what would go good with what. There was a sweet, smooth little dish that Chris started spreading on the crepe thing. We ate spoonfuls of it too. Then we thought, "What if this isn't meant to be spread or eaten directly? What if it's some sort of butter or mayonnaise and people think we're crazy the way we're eating it??"

It turned out to be pudding. We had a big laugh. Good times in the foreign land known as Little India!

Pain, pain go away

Today, Monday, was spent either in bed or moaning elsewhere. See, I had a headache that started yesterday, got really bad during the night, and laid me out all day today. I wanted to do so much today but could not. Head hurt too bad to read, to watch TV, to do much of anything.

The headache followed a typical M.O. It came on after I had exercised and had a couple of beers. This leads me to think dehydration is part of the problem. Thing is, I drank lots of water after working out and only had two beers. Is that what did it? Must I leave afternoon drinking in my past?

I got so desperate, as my pain medication is all but gone, that I called the Valley's version of Dr. Feelgood. Apparantely, Dr. Marc Abrahams is liberal with the prescriptions. But, you have to show up at his office after 6 and wait for hours to be seen. He doesn't take uninsured patients either, so there goes my office visit. Looks like I'll get the free clinic experience firsthand from here on out.

Inaugural thoughts

I am very happy. I've been singing farewell songs to George Bush all week leading up to today. Good riddance to him. Let Texas have him. I never need to see or hear from him again. Done.

President Obama gave a perfectly competent speech. A hightlight for me was when he said something like..."Christians and Muslims, Jews and Mormons (OK, I know he did not say that), and NON-BELIEVERS...." Good for him. Everyone always talks god this and god that and I get so tired of it. I am all about church and state. Keep 'em separate. Don't swear on a bible or say "under god." The constitution doesn't make you and let's keep your lord out of it.

Then there was Minister Joseph Lowery. I heard his benediction on NPR on the way to work. Couldn't make out what he was saying at first but really got into his closing words: "Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right." Awesome! This rhyming was way more moving than what that poet lady said and got the point across.

We all need to settle down now. Bush is history and Obama needs to prove himself. He took a step in the right direction by suspending Guantanamo trials today. Nice move. Shut that place down! Let's reclaim the Geneva Conventions, please.

I come from a family of liberals and we were pleased today. I watched the swearing-in ceremony with my mom and she snuck a teeny American flag into my wallet before I left for work. She thanked me for sharing the Inauguration with her and it moved both of us. I'm glad we experienced it together. Later in the day, my dad left me a voice message proclaiming, "Hail to the chief! Hail to the chief!" Good people, my mom and dad. My lefty ways come from directly from them, thank goodness!

Urgent: Molotov

My most favorite, raging Mexican band Molotov is coming to town and I am torn. Should I pay an outrageous $45 for a ticket through Ticketmaster? Or should I take my chances on a $32 ticket at the door? What if they sell out??!!!

Another way in would be to write a concert review. I am contacting and/or pitching everyone I know, but the question is: should I wait and see if I can work the event, or should I buck up and pay for the peace of mind of knowing that my ticket is in hand? (I am pretty good at picking up last-minute tickets through Craigslist or at the venue the night of the show, so those are other options.)

I have seen no publicity for this tour except for an ad in the LA Weekly. I can't believe it! Followers of my previous blog will know that Molotov blew my mind when I saw them live in Guadalajara in May. I expect this show will sell out, as they don't come to L.A. very often. They're going a whole U.S. tour too! New York, Atlanta, D.C., New Orleans, Nashville -- all the big music towns.

I encourage everyone to see Molotov live! They rock the "f" out.

Yoga Works worked me

It's a new year and I need to get back on the yoga train. I exercise a couple of times a week but I mostly jog, leaving my poor little muscles tight and keeping me vulnerable to headaches. I used to go to yoga twice a week but now I'm lucky if I go once every three weeks. A lot of this has to do with location: there are very few Iyengar yoga classes in the South Bay. There are a few decent yoga classes but nothing rivaling Iyengar taught by Marla and Paul at Yoga Works. Yoga is also expensive. It is not a discipline for the unemployed.

Now that I'm earning a little bit of money, I thought it was time to throw down for a proper Iyengar class at Yoga Works. There's a studio not too far from my current office and a class at my level happens every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday at 6:15. I scouted out the location at lunch time today because I'd be rushing to make the class after work. I prepaid my 20 dollars to avoid having to wait when I got there.

I dashed out of work at 6 on the dot, fought more traffic than there was a lunch, and ended up parking at a public lot instead of street parking like I did earlier in the day.

I paid $3 for parking after my perfectly decent class. Then I realized I could have used my KCRW discount. Then I was mad. I had just paid $23 for 90 minutes of stretching. That is too much. Not just because I'm unemployed, that is too much in general. There were at least 10 people in my class, which means the studio cleared more than $200. The instructor can't earn more than $100 and we were just one of a couple of classes being conducted at that hour.

Yoga is supposed to be spiritual and beneficial but in L.A., it's for wealthy residents. For all of Yoga Works' preaching, they do not give anyone a break. I asked for the new student discount since I hadn't taken a class in a least a year and a half but they said "no." I could have bought a series of 10 classes for $150 but it's not like I have $150 at my disposal either.

A welcoming yoga studio in Long Beach called Free Spirit Yoga costs $15 a class and $11 if you buy a series of 10 classes. That is much more reasonable and in the end, I'd rather give my money to an independently-owned studio than the corporate machine known as Yoga Works. And since running is free, I'll probably continue to do more of that than anything else.

Work And The New Year

Today was my first day at my new temp job at the Hollywood Reporter. I am a web editor, which means I copy-edit, post stories and pictures to the web, write headlines and pick up the slack where ever the staff needs it. Training went slowly today but I managed to post two music stories and crop a couple of photos. The office uses Macs so a simple thing like opening a new web browser on Firefox takes some thought on my PC-trained-brain. It's not so bad though: it's for 30 hours a week, Tuesday-Friday, and I get paid more for 30 hours there than I did for 40+ hours as a freelancer with my old company. I came back from my travels swearing I was through with entertainment but I couldn't turn down this opportunity. We'll see what happens with it -- at the very least, I am learning new web skills that will help me down the road.

The most noteworthy happening of the day occurred on my lunch break. There's a "park" behind my office building with tables and benches and greenery. There's an identical "park" behind the building next door and that's where I decided to sit because the sun was hitting its benches.

There were three strollers and three nannies already camped out at the bench area when I arrived. I nodded "hello" when I approached and sat myself at the one vacant bench left. These nannies all spoke Spanish and all had young Anglo charges. One lady excused herself soon after I arrived but the two others carried on with conversations about potty training, their bosses, and the English words for various berries. I minded my own business until one of the kids did the most precious thing. His caretaker was feeding him berries and one did not suit his fancy. He exclaimed, "No sirve!" cracking up the ladies and myself.

"No sirve" roughly translates to "it doesn't work" or "it's no good." That little kid is more bilingual than I am! I would never had thought to say that even though it was exactly the right thing to say. The nannies laughed and laughed and laughed at the boy's ability to express himself so succinctly. It was cute. That little boy understood everything his nanny was saying to him in Spanish and could answer back in Spanish too. If only my brain worked that way!

I did get to practice Spanish over the holidays with my relatives from Mexico City. I was not as good as I was this summer but it did come back to me a bit. After hearing me speak to my cousins, one relative noted that my Spanish had improved quite a bit since returning to L.A. That's all I can wish for.

Christmas and New Year's was all about the family. My dad was in town from Gig Harbor, Washington, the Mexican relatives were staying at the house, and my sister was in town from Atlanta. There were birthdays, get-togethers, Christmas Eve, shopping, field trips, and more gatherings all revolving around the family. I went up to LA only once in three weeks, the rest of the time was spent down here driving people around and hosting events. Busy but fun.

The last event we hosted was my mom's 70th birthday brunch on Sunday. There were at least 40 people here but things went smoothly with catered posole, rice, beans, and enchiladas. Lots of desserts and mimosas too! My mom is a lovely lady and friends and relatives came out to wish her the best. It was moving and worth it.