So the other night —

My friend Vivi is in Austin and we hit the town. Which really means we just walk a few blocks to Sixth Street and have some beers at a local sports bar. This guy bums a cigarette from me at the outside bar. He moved to Austin from Los Angeles. He used to date an actress. He hates Los Angeles. I say how ironic, he has parked himself next to probably the only two industry people in the bar. He says we should name people we know and see who we know in common —

See, this is how it goes at Los Angeles parties. All the non-smokers converge on the single obvious smoker and bum cigs. And in L.A. I would be expecting this and have the mandatory second pack in my bag so peeps who delude themselves into believing they are non-smokers can smoke a pack of my cigs without thinking maybe they should just give it up, say they are smokers, and go buy their own. (In L.A., the only way to actually smoke any of your own cigarettes is to bring an extra pack for others.)

He asks where I lived in L.A. Simply saying “Los Angeles” is not good enough. “No, WHERE in Los Angeles?” This is to find out if I was in the right zip code and about what I was paying for real estate to gauge my income and success level. It’s like a gold digger asking a man what car he drives to figure out whether or not he can afford her — but more Hollywood power player and less “Can you support me in the style I would like to become accustomed to?”

Then the chitchat begins. It’s not really chitchat though. It’s name dropping, gauging how powerful or important your list of contacts is stacked up against the list of contacts your opponent — I mean the person you are chatting up — has. Even though I dodged this because I really don’t like this game and don’t think I should have to play it at a sports bar in Austin Texas, Bar Guy still managed to drop the biggest name he probably had on his list on my head just to ensure I knew he ran with important people.

The next thing that happens is someone across the bar waves at Bar Guy so he totters off. Whew! Maybe I can smoke some of my own cigs after all. But moments later he is back. He is enraged. He introduced that guy to everyone in town, that guy knew no one when he got to town, now that guy’s too good for him?! Bar Guy can destroy him!

This is very L.A. too. The expectation that someone you introduced around will stay lower on the pecking order totem pole than you and will damn well acknowledge he or she is lower and beholden to you — and unfettered rage if he or she isn’t or doesn’t. Also, “He’ll never work in this town again!” Though I guess in this context it was, The bartenders in this town will never be nice to him again!

He was so enraged, he needed to smoke two more of my cigarettes to calm down.

 

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where the art work comes from: that is from dave barstow

 

That is the cover for The Crown.

One of my students [Nancy Bilyeau] wrote The Crown and is steadily taking over the world, even Oprah is suggesting you grab and read that book. Whoa. Pretty soon my students will be bossing me around.

[Not really.]

I am supposed to have a copy of that book. It is signed just for me and Nancy packaged it up and mailed it back in late December/early January. The book did not show and did not show and I thought, Oh well lots of late Christmas gifts in the mail are slowing things down still. And I waited. But it still did not show.

Then Nancy got the book back in the mail. The address label where my name and address were supposed to be had been ripped off the package so it was sent back to her.

She repackaged it up and put it in the mail to me —

And it hasn’t shown and hasn’t shown and hasn’t shown.

I am beginning to wonder if maybe an ex pissed off boyfriend is working at the Post Office in Queens ripping my name off packages.

:::grrr:::

 

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*Postscript: FB Mail From Nancy Today: “You know what? I mailed it again today — a third time. PRIORITY MAIL. Supposed to be there by Friday at the latest. You WILL get this fucker!”

 

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*There is a spiff trailer for Nancy’s book The Crown :::here:::
*You can order the book The Crown :::here:::
*Also I have been sprucing the AFW site and it has a new nifty gallery page :::go see:::

 

Who was always vaguely trying to apologize for me. We had these really interesting neighbors. Every once in a while in the hearing of others I would mention how really interesting the neighbors were — and not in a good way. And my partner would smile apologetically and say, She’s a writer. She over dramatizes.

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Two months after I left, my ex life partner driving home was stopped by police.

The whole neighborhood was cordoned off and surrounded by police.

The really interesting — and not in a good way — neighbors had bombed a house with a body inside that had a bullet through its head.

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I do not over dramatize.

I notice things other people do not.

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I have noticed this country will be dead in ten years or less if we do not stop the wars.

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where the art work comes from :
that is naty chabanenko by hugh lippe

The internet on January 18th. Everyone. All at once. It is a show of might for OWS [Occupy Wall Street] and Anonymous. Lots of people are going to do it. Wikipedia. Craigslist. Reddit. Probably not Amazon. Who knows. The tweets are crazy and mashed up and it just looks like a helluva lot of people are shutting down on the 18th.

That last time most people were off not paying attention on the internet, i.e. New Year’s Eve, Barrack Obama signed NDAA [National Defense Authorization Act] into existence.

The shut down of the internet on the 18th is a protest of SOPA [Stop Online Piracy Act]. And PIPA [Protect Intellectual Property Act]. [Yes I know they sound like hobbits what can you do?] These are allegedly anti-piracy laws supposed to protect intellectual properties. Actually they are kind of like the whole indefinite detention thing. If someone accuses you of being associated with terrorists, you can just get thrown in jail with no lawyer and no trial, under NDAA. Under SOPA and PIPA? If someone accuses you of piracy or piracy affiliation, they can shut your website down, bam. All your communications links. Bam. And any website you are affiliated with. BAM!

All it takes is a whisper. *1

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No one was watching, on New Year’s Eve – or at least very few people, most people are celebrating on New Year’s Eve, not watching to see if their president throws a fast ball at the Constitution – when Barrack Obama signed away your rights to trial and to face your accusers and to your day in court and also to hello legal defense.

No one will be watching January 18th. They’ll all be on internet silence, in protest. *2

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*1: the hollywood 10
*2: probably no one in ows has ever played hard ball with a studio during a strike before, this is exactly how they work: make you think it’s your idea to turn away and then while you have your back to the action strike like a fucking cobra

*mashable has listed websites pledging to blackout on wednesday

With self described “progressives” is a sense of moral superiority which translates to “I can do no wrong.” For example, the “progressive” man who continued to harass me on Twitter for stating I support Ron Paul. I asked him to stop. He didn’t. Apparently, “no” only means “no” if you are not a progressive with a moral superiority complex. I finally blocked him. He continued his tirade on Facebook. I again asked him to stop. He didn’t. I told him this was harassment. He still didn’t. So I blocked his ass there too.

I think this kind of belligerent “I’m right so you don’t get to say no” attitude is one of the problems with the progressive Left. I say this, being a member of the progressive Left. I get the irony in that. But it translates into the desire to continue massive federal controls on all aspects of life. You can’t let states do what they want because then you wouldn’t be able to impose your moral superiority on every other state in the nation. The cognizance of the fact it’s not always superiority or the progressive agenda that gets imposed makes no difference to them. The fact people in a less progressive state who oppose legalizing marijuana can continue to press for sending federal agents into California to ransack and close down medical marijuana dispensaries even though medical marijuana is legal in California doesn’t seem to penetrate. The fact a federal mandate against same sex marriage would allow the federal government to mass deny all same sex marriages in states that have legalized same sex marriages also makes no impact on the perception, If you just put the federal government in control of everything, everything will be okay because then YOU get to tell everyone else what to do.

Since saying I support Ron Paul, I have been called a racist, an idiot, stupid, ignorant, an enemy to women’s rights, and much worse. And have been harassed and hounded by members of my own progressive community to the point of blocking people after numerous requests they stop.

Dear “Progressive” Left:

“No” does mean “no.”

Harassment is not “moral superiority.” Nor is it justified by the belief your agenda is morally superior.

Harassment for the purpose of enforcing political homogeny and ideology is fascism and bullying.

When did that become okay with the Left?