Adam needs to be patient because I am trying to get this up for him to see.

Look at beautiful Kade, with my beautiful friend Larissa. I had brunch with them last Sunday.

And last Friday I went to the Billtmore with Jason and Dara for "Gay Guerilla."

Those were the highlights of the weekend. Twas a good weekend, which made the beginning of the week look gray in comparison since my car broke. it was this time last year that my other car broke before I traded it in for the one that's broken now.....

A HAIKU FOR THE FUTURE...Both houses have changed,

Both houses have changed,
A change for when the same rain
Is caught by diff’rent drains.

I know this sounds bizarre, but I have been thinking quite a bit about Borat and what is represents artistically. Yeah I know it’s offensive, and reveals all sorts of things about American society that are quite embarrassing, and yada yada the typical things said about Borat all over. But I have been thinking about it in a different way; a more Claudia way if you will (I am sure I am not the only ones who thinks in the way either, but hey it’s my blog and I can be as pompous as I want about my opinions cause you’re reading it anyway )

As many of you know I read about physics, and one of my favorite books has been Art & Physics, by I forget who, though not Thomas Friedman who I often quote. The book argues, theorizes, (whatever) that major revolutions in the art world sorta set the stage for major shifts in change in physics. He lays out a pretty good argument with some strong evidence, too. Anyhow, last weekend the writer’s crew and I were discussing how we all sorta of feel things boiling lately in the art world, as if theres going to be a shift soon. And I hear the same thing around other tv and movie people. And I think it’s pretty interesting that Borat blurs the line between real and unreal in a way other mock-umentary have not. (I apologize if there are and I haven’t seen them) And sure, we have movies and plays that tell stories about the blurring of real and unreal, but Sacha Baron Cohen (did I mess up that spelling?) really, I mean really does it. What does this mean about physics? Who knows. We’ll see. But I know there is a woman who working to prove the existence of a twelfth dimension..whatever that means for our reality.

Other thoughts:

I have always been inspired by the Futurists, the avante-garde movement in Italian in the early 20th Century. And by inspired, I mean artistically since Mussolini(however you spell that) did consider them the precursor and youth movement to Fascism. But they were constantly trying to push the lines of what was considered art, and they used new technologies and tried to do away with old dated forms, and they were fiery youths politically inspired. One of the things they believed is that in order for an artist to fully represent life, or comment on it, or change it, he must have no personal morals. Now at first that may sound crazy, rash, bold, I mean that’s what I used to think, being a person who is always in pursuit understanding what morals mean for me individually, but it’s true. I mean, I have read articles saying how great of a person Sacha is, and I am sure he is, but in order to pull off some of that shit, you really have to put that behind you in the moment.

Speaking of the futurists…

I am sure they’d like my little idea which I had last yr in Minneapolis but never did.
I want to start a little series of five minute tapes/videos (documentary style), about girls well….i wont say all that since I don’t want my idea taken.
But I want to stick them on utube.
If anyones interested in helping me out (ie someone with a camera) let me know.
I’ll let you in on the info.

One down, and one to go!!

The House of Representatives is now blue!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hope.
Now lets see about the senate....

Unfortunately for balance, the universe is allowing for arnold to be re elected.

Go see Borat.

I had (have) really fantastic parents. I couldn't ask for better guides, inspirations, support, than they. Which is why I was so hurt to hear my mother say my father thought I didn't want to be around them, or he thought he was not a good parent and thats why I wanted to move away. I was hurt because it saddens me that that could be an idea in my father's head. Most of the time I wish I was around them, but this is where life and my career has brought me.

To better explain my father's sentiment, you've got to know a little bit abotu Mexican culture. Not Mexican-American, but Mexican. My father, afterall, didnt move to the US untile after he married my mother and went to grad school here. So in Mexico a girl doesn't leave home until she marries. Now, my father never tried to keep me home...he understood that I wanted to go to the best school and would go wherever, and he encouraged that and my education and even encouraged me to leave Minnesota to move out here. But I know he misses me, and deep down wants his daughter close to home again. I don't think I could tell him enough how much I want to be near them...he teaches me so much (and yeah angers me a bit sometimes too), but until I am home again I am sure (like the little gemini that he is) he will be sad that his little girl isnt by his side all the time. What he also doesnt realize is that he has set a high standard for the other men in her life, so until she finds better....he's enough.

The New York Times

Insulting Our Troops, and Our Intelligence

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: November 3, 2006


George Bush, Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld think you’re stupid. Yes, they do.


They think they can take a mangled quip about President Bush and Iraq by John Kerry — a man who is not even running for office but who, unlike Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, never ran away from combat service — and get you to vote against all Democrats in this election.

Every time you hear Mr. Bush or Mr. Cheney lash out against Mr. Kerry, I hope you will say to yourself, “They must think I’m stupid.” Because they surely do.

They think that they can get you to overlook all of the Bush team’s real and deadly insults to the U.S. military over the past six years by hyping and exaggerating Mr. Kerry’s mangled gibe at the president.

What could possibly be more injurious and insulting to the U.S. military than to send it into combat in Iraq without enough men — to launch an invasion of a foreign country not by the Powell Doctrine of overwhelming force, but by the Rumsfeld Doctrine of just enough troops to lose? What could be a bigger insult than that?

What could possibly be more injurious and insulting to our men and women in uniform than sending them off to war without the proper equipment, so that some soldiers in the field were left to buy their own body armor and to retrofit their own jeeps with scrap metal so that roadside bombs in Iraq would only maim them for life and not kill them? And what could be more injurious and insulting than Don Rumsfeld’s response to criticism that he sent our troops off in haste and unprepared: Hey, you go to war with the army you’ve got — get over it.

What could possibly be more injurious and insulting to our men and women in uniform than to send them off to war in Iraq without any coherent postwar plan for political reconstruction there, so that the U.S. military has had to assume not only security responsibilities for all of Iraq but the political rebuilding as well? The Bush team has created a veritable library of military histories — from “Cobra II” to “Fiasco” to “State of Denial” — all of which contain the same damning conclusion offered by the very soldiers and officers who fought this war: This administration never had a plan for the morning after, and we’ve been making it up — and paying the price — ever since.

And what could possibly be more injurious and insulting to our men and women in Iraq than to send them off to war and then go out and finance the very people they’re fighting against with our gluttonous consumption of oil? Sure, George Bush told us we’re addicted to oil, but he has not done one single significant thing — demanded higher mileage standards from Detroit, imposed a gasoline tax or even used the bully pulpit of the White House to drive conservation — to end that addiction. So we continue to finance the U.S. military with our tax dollars, while we finance Iran, Syria, Wahhabi mosques and Al Qaeda madrassas with our energy purchases.

Everyone says that Karl Rove is a genius. Yeah, right. So are cigarette companies. They get you to buy cigarettes even though we know they cause cancer. That is the kind of genius Karl Rove is. He is not a man who has designed a strategy to reunite our country around an agenda of renewal for the 21st century — to bring out the best in us. His “genius” is taking some irrelevant aside by John Kerry and twisting it to bring out the worst in us, so you will ignore the mess that the Bush team has visited on this country.

And Karl Rove has succeeded at that in the past because he was sure that he could sell just enough Bush cigarettes, even though people knew they caused cancer. Please, please, for our country’s health, prove him wrong this time.

Let Karl know that you’re not stupid. Let him know that you know that the most patriotic thing to do in this election is to vote against an administration that has — through sheer incompetence — brought us to a point in Iraq that was not inevitable but is now unwinnable.

Let Karl know that you think this is a critical election, because you know as a citizen that if the Bush team can behave with the level of deadly incompetence it has exhibited in Iraq — and then get away with it by holding on to the House and the Senate — it means our country has become a banana republic. It means our democracy is in tatters because it is so gerrymandered, so polluted by money, and so divided by professional political hacks that we can no longer hold the ruling party to account.

It means we’re as stupid as Karl thinks we are.

I, for one, don’t think we’re that stupid. Next Tuesday we’ll see.

Weekend Review.

Yesterday I volunteered for the CA Dems. I figured since I can't vote I am going to try to encourage others to vote, especially those that can help me have a voice. They paired me with a 17 yr old named Mayra, who had been volunteering for a while, good for her. SHe must have thought i was the craziest person after a day fo going door to door with me. She told me she had been paried with others who would just go on and on about their poltical beliefs, and I thought, poor kid, these adults were using her to spit out all their information because they know she probably doesnt knwo otherwise and she wont argue back. So I ask her about what she thought, and instead we got a day of learning about each other, learning some french, and fun running from angry dogs- all while reminding people to vote.

On the field, I actually got asked out by a guy holding a yard sale. His name is Micah- and the whole situation is rather funny now. He gave me earrings, and asked to hang out with me last night. So we did, and he was so wrong for me, but he seemed to think things went well cause he tried to kiss me but only met my cheek and my voice saying, um no. Poor kid. He called me today to go bowling. Heh. We swang on swings...that was fun.

More exciting news: Justin invited me to a writer's circle. Pretty cool set of kids (big kids), and we're all going to meet to support each otehr in writing. Talk about synchtonicity- I had just been thinking...gee I wish I had a group here like Many Voices. And one of the guys used to work for the production company I work for now. I'll keep you posted on the writing.

And lastly: My mentor- Caridad Svich- well she was my mentor during the Many Voices residency, is a wonderufl writer and scholar. I really connect with her work...or what i have read of it. I mean I had never seen it in production...until this weekend in LA. I saw one of her more well known pieces and sadly they did not do her work justice. Mainly, the acting did not cut it.

Plays I will direct: Nathan's Silent and the Blue Loons; Blood Weddingl; the Impossible Plays(lorca); my own

MOVIES I NEED TO SEE: Borat, Babel, Marie Atoinette, The Departed, and so many more.

Ben says i am a hub of connectivity. You have to read the World is Flat to understand that.

WEEKEND TRUTH: Art is about life. Ideas...sure...but life is also comprised of ideas.

Hallow-days

West Hollywood goes nuts for Halloween!
Dara and I walked around our packed neighborhood and checked out all the crazy costumes and people.
I met her friend Jason who has an awesome costume, Jack (see below).
People were constantly stopping him to take pictures.
I didn't have a costume or money to buy one, so I was just French.
Dara was a lion.

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

Rules that were applied in West Hollywood Last Night....

1. Dress as someone from a recent movie. Apparently we will never get old of Ali G on TV and 500 of them on the street.
2. No matter what innocent cartoon you decide to go as....slut her/him up. Rainbow brite was never meant to be sweet and innocent, right? i mean she screams gay pride all around.
3. Bring your child, infant...to the super crowded parade. they don't need sleep, and they loved being pushed around by the crowd and being exposed to the lingering smell of pot.
4. Pick the scariest person to sing at the Halloween concert- ie Kevin Federline.
5. If you want attention...wear stilts.
6. When the street home to gay bars and clubs is filled with thousands of party people, only allow men into the gay club/bar. Lesbians don't count as gay on Halloween night. ( I mean really. The places werent letting you in if you were a woman!)

Quote of the evening.

"It smells like sausages everywhere...and not just because we're in West Hollywood."