The Friends of California Libre...

04 November 2003

The Wonderful World of Disney's Art Planet

Greetings, friends,
IF ANYONE is downtown tomorrow (Wednesday), I am going to relax at a free performance of Bach concertos at 7.30 (Alfred Newman Hall at USC). ON FRIDAY LACMA is showing "Alice in Wonderland", I kid you not, on the big screen (also at 7.30 PM) and I don't see how I cannot go to this. I mean, it's been YEARS (and I mean big years.) C'mon, you know you want to.

On Saturday, for fans of "Amores Perros", there is a premiere of the director - writer - cinematographer team's new film "21 Grams" (w/Sean Penn) also at...yah, 7.30...at LACMA. Yep, like the photo proves (thanks, Simon), it's the good life in C-A-L-I-F-O-R-N-I-A.

In reference to the title of this screed, may I offer my 2 bits about Disney Hall, Frank Gehry's big steel contraption which opened up last week, to much fanfare and tight security (and terrible traffic in the middle of a bus strike)? It's pretty, I hear it sounds nice (though the tickets are too expensive for most people in the city), it'll fill Downtown with even more snobs and aggro panhandlers, and finally, really, truly, WHO CARES.

Who cares indeed. Listen, I know the French are worried about our bad influence on their kids (recall the previous screed about the little m's and mlle's not being able to smoke any more) but Halloween? Did they not see the fab costumes sent from PARIS? Grab onto this holiday and make it your own, don't reject it in favor of (yeeeccchhh) a fetid CATHOLICISM:
French Fighting Halloween with Cake
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20031031/od_nm/halloween_dc

I mean, we're still hankering after that Gallic savoir faire:
What Boycott? Americans Splash Out on French Wine
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20031031/od_nm/wine_dc

Okay, next, maybe some of you heard about this quiz which was given all over the EU; the question, who's more dangerous? Iran? Iraq? North Korea? The US? Israel? Guess who came in first (and deserved it) and then accused the Europeans of being anti-Semitic (which they are) and, as I said above, WHO CARES. When they stop shooting each other and blowing themselves apart, then maybe their trivial little word games will be more entertaining:
http://www.EUobserver.com/index.phtml?aid=13324&sid=9

The EU takes a perverse pride in pricking the US, and I must admire them for it:
EUROPE SEEKS SYRIAN TIES DESPITE U.S. SANCTIONS
By Andrew Borowiec
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
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http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20031028-083513-4503r.htm

If this issue really interests you, I highly recommend this article, written recently by Tony Jutz in the New York Review of Books and since spread widely on the Net. His conclusion: it is too late for the "two-state" solution in Israel. There will never be a viable Palestine. So either Israel becomes a two people theocracy with a fake democracy (remember the old South Africa?) or it gives up the idea of being the "promised land" of the Jews. Because guess what, democracy is majority rule and the Jews are losing their majority:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/16671
israel: the alternative

Look who else is picking the EU ahead of the US; the CHINESE. George Bush is sealing the fate of this country like no one since Abe Lincoln, and in the opposite direction:
http://www.EUobserver.com/index.phtml?aid=13331&sid=9

And lastly, the EU is finally flexing that weak martial muscle there's been so much stir about, in Screedlandia, anyway:
EU ARMY TO THE RESCUE?
By Helle Dale
-----------------------------------------------------------
Last May, people in the war-torn northern Democratic Republic of the Congo received hope of help from an unexpected source. It came from none less than the European Union (EU). For the first time ever, the EU launched a force of peacekeepers, under the leadership of France. The Congolese got up their hopes of much- needed relief, but given the dearth of manpower and the constraints set by U.N. engagement rules for peacekeepers, the three months' deployment in the province of Ituri was not exactly a great military milestone.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20031028-083512-2901r.htm

Vive le screed!

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