dribs and drabs

First a word about the new header. I know it's gross! I tried to do a Christmas one but the sizing was wrong. I will change it soon.

Next, a little reportage on the mayor's Greenwise meeting. I wasn't going to take notes but then UC Davis Chancellor Katehi was there unexpectedly (to me) and she made me barf by talking about the UC allying with business. A quote is something something "bring manufacturing to this region because that's where the jobs are". Excuse me, is that a really important part of the UC mission? I thought the primary UC mission was to provide affordable education to the top graduating seniors in California.

The Greenwise meeting was wayyy more business-y than I expected and corporate culture always freaks me out because I'm never exposed to it. Everyone sucked up to the mayor like crazy (pretty much the whole meeting was about everyone congratulating everyone else), and he got called "hip" AT LEAST ten times. The mayor of Portland got up and said a lot of vague things. Then KJ got up and patted himself on the back and told a pretty funny story (I have to admit) about being taken to Chez Panisse when he was a basketball player at Berkeley and had no idea what any of the food on the menu was. I know I probably sound naive about how these things go, which is true. I am. I try to avoid things like this because they make me feel really powerless, even in my own rather small city.

Alice Waters seemed to be the only speaker with a pulse. Some of her talk was rote, but she got looser during questions and even got in a line about how terrible things are with the UC system these days and how she paid 95 dollars a semester to attend UC Berkeley. That may have made Katehi squirm a bit. Steve Cohn asked a question about chickens, because apparently he is pro-chicken but others on the city council are not. Right then I wanted to jump in and ask a question about the food cart ban because it seemed like a good opportunity to bust his chops for voting for it but then questions were over.

Anyway, yeah I watched Star 80, the movie directed by Bob Fosse about Dorothy Stratten, the playmate who was killed at age 20 by her boyfriend.

It looks really cool but it's sooo grim!
I was reading about in Fosse's (excellent) bio last night and I guess no one could understand why he wanted to film such a sordid story and critics loathed it in general. Pauline Kael hated it. I think Siskel and Ebert liked it, especially Siskel.




Yay Christmas