Jude Law is da man

I shook hands with Jude Law. Yes, this is not a dream! One of my biggest idols in showbiz shook my hand.

I was out to have dinner in Westwood near the theaters, and I saw that there was a premier of Closer, a movie I've never heard of before. But it was starring Julia Roberts, Natalie Portman, Jude Law, and somebody else I didn't recognize.

Natalie Portman was cool, came out in a purple dress, and greeted the fans. I was on the opposite side of the road, and she went up to the people on the other side to sign autographs. Later Jude Law crossed the road to sign autographs on our side. Unfortunately I wasn't prepared, and didn't have any piece of paper, or even a decent camera (only the cellphone at 0.5 pixel resolution). So don't have very convincing proof, but he was there. He shook people's hands, and I wasn't really quite comprehending that he was so close. Then I finally extended my hand, but he was almost done shaking people's hands, so he stopped. But then he realized he left me hanging, and said - hello. I said "How is it going?"

Then he proceeded to tell us, that if we couldn't get into the movie Closer, we should check out this one (pointing to the opposite theater, which was running Alfie, starring himself).

How nice! :-)

elections - the end of democracy

Well, this is the end of democracy as we know it.

• Bush has pretty much won, aside from minor technicalities in Ohio, which shouldn’t take that long.
• Tom Daschle, the senator from South Dakota, one of the few remaining semi-decent Democrats got unseated
• Ohio, along with many other states, chose to ban any sort of legal unions.
• The Senate and the House of Representatives are both in firmer control of the Republicans

This country is going to hell faster than most people anticipate.

more weather

So a few days ago, I noticed a severe weather warning for the Los Angeles area. What does “severe weather” mean in Southern Cali? Rain! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, there is a special announcement for that around here. But it is indeed remarkable. Apparently this is the first significant rain in Los Angeles in 180 days (since April 17^th)! But now it’s been rainingn 4 days in a row. Interesting.

Elections

Well, I finally got my absentee ballot from Ohio. I thought I’d never get it, because it took about 3 weeks, and the Board of Elections phones were always busy.

Immediately on the ballot, there were two big bummers. While the Green Party presidential pair Nader / Camejo actually made it on the ballot in Ohio, there was an official note in the package saying that the votes for the Green Party candidates will not be counted, because of some irregularities. I don’t really know if this is actually true, or a manipulation of the electoral process by people who do could not prevent Nader from running. But OK, I was gonna vote for Kerry anyway in this state. I just feel like Nader’s right to be voted for should not be infringed upon, whatever the cause. This is supposed to be a democracy after all. Let’s keep the pretense, at least for a while. There are actually two other candidates for president – a libertarian and an independent. There was no official note saying anything about the votes cast for them. Of course neither the libertarian nor the independent will get nearly as many votes as the Greens would have gotten, so they’re not a threat. Read more about the Nader issue here

The second bummer was one of the issues on the ballot. It was a proposed amendment to the Ohio constitution that would legally ban gay unions. It’s sad that the people in power in this country (at all levels) are trying to turn the wheel back, instead of forward. One would hope that the state that has the second biggest gay city in America, Columbus, would propose an amendment to legalize gay unions, rather than ban them. What is this world coming to. I hope this doesn’t pass. Read more about the gay issue here

Another thing about voting is that besides the big boys (presidential and senatorial candidates), I’m not really familiar with anybody else. I can only go on party affiliation and name recognition. And there’s very little information available about issues / candidates on the local level. For example the judges in the Ohio Supreme Court get elected, not appointed. But they’re not supposed to have a party affiliation, so then one must know their stance on issues, and there’s a lot of reading up to do. With all the hustle and bustle about telling people they should vote, once a person does decide to vote, he’s on his own.

Racism

Today I witnessed the scariest thing. I was shopping with my Romanian roommates at this store called “Smart and Final”. As we were checking out with our stuff at one register, I started overhearing some whining and complaining from a customer at the other. The customer was a white, blonde woman, overweight, with high blood pressure problems (she got red really easily). She was complaining about the Mexican woman standing behind her in line. I don’t know how the whole thing started, but as I listened more closely, I hear things like “You come to our country and take our jobs” “You don’t even speak any English”, “ Go back where you came from”, “I pay taxes here”.

The Mexican woman’s English was indeed quite limited, so she couldn’t quite come up with a rebuke. As soon as she raised her voice to say anything in broken English, the white woman got more agitated and red in the face, and carried on with her rants.

At some point the white woman said to the cashier “Get this woman off my back … I spend thousands of dollars in this store”. The cashier by the way was not white.

So it’s like the Mexican woman is some kind of annoying animal, and the white woman owns the freaking store because she spends money there regularly. Plus she pays taxes, and the stupid Mexicans want to take her job and her tax money. Oh boy, I wanted to say something, and probably should have. But I was in shock, and not really used to a situation like this – I mean I’ve been in America for 10 years, and this is the first time I heard something as blatant as this.

Weather

Well, I haven’t a single cloud since I came here. It might seem like a good thing, but it’s getting difficult. The heat is oppressive, there’s nowhere to go from the sun, and the temperature today is a bit above 35C / 95F. In this temperature you can’t really do a whole lot outside, and can’t really open windows (like you could in Copenhagen at 10-15C and rain). Just a 30 minute walk to the store is already difficult, and forget about running. Also the ultra-violet index is 10 out of 12, so it’s actually kinda dangerous, sunglasses are a must, and sunscreen is highly recommended.

Labor, mexicans

Yesterday I observed an interesting phenomenon when we went to a restaurant.
There was a regular (white) server / waitress taking the order and bringing
the food. And then there was a mexican guy, who was taking away plates and
drinks as we were finishing up. So basically when the dinner is finished,
you pay the white waitress a tip, while the mexican guy does a lot of the
dirty work. 

Then this morning I saw a mexican guy near a store holding a sign promoting that
store with an arrow. It was a very sad sight. Apparently it's cheaper to hire a
mexican to hold the sign in place than to put it up properly on a pole or something.

Also a lot of times there are certain places along the road where you can pick up a
few mexicans to do a daily chore - like help you move, or buy groceries or whatever
else you want. 

On another note, but still related. This morning I saw a yard sale in an apartment
near where I live. Even though it was the same neighborhood, the people selling the
stuff didn't speak any English, I mean they couldn't even name the price without
using their fingers. Also they were selling all kinds of videotapes, all of which
were in spanish. It's very bizarre, coming in from Denmark and being able to speak
English with just about anyone, and finding people in America who can't speak any
English whatsoever. In particular for Spanish speakers and some areas of Texas,
Florida, and California, you can live your entire life without speaking a word of
English, there's Spanish TV, Spanish movie theaters, Spanish grocery stores, Spanish
documents. I guess you don't even have to know English to pass the citizenship test,
since America doesn't have an official language.

Commercialism, Danish

In the cafeteria at UCLA (as well as a large number of other US schools), there are TVs all over the place, with college television broadcasts. These TVs are visible (and quite often audible, too) from any corner of the cafeteria. Half of it is obviously commercials, and 90% of it is not informative – entertainment, shopping tips, and junky corporate news. The latest and greatest is the snippets from the Republican convention, and W’s charming smile. Unfortunately puking buckets are not accessible as easily as the crappy television programming! I really don’t miss the intrusive bombardment with information I didn’t ask for.

I checked into Danish courses today. There is a pretty sizeable Scandinavian department at UCLA, with Elementary / Intermediate / Advanced courses for Norweigian / Swedish / Danish. Also there are some courses on Scandinavian literature, such as Kirkegaard / H.C. Andersen / H. Ibsen, as well as Scandinavian cinema. That sounds really cool. To my utter dismay, however, in the Autumn 2004, only Elementary Danish is offered. And even that was cancelled, for lack of interest. The Swedish course on the other hand has a waiting list on it. What a bummer!

HigherEducation, Consumerism

This morning I had jetlag and got up at 4:30. Went to school on the first bus after 6am, and to my utter amazement, the campus was quite full of ppl by 7am. Med students in scrubs getting off their night shift, but also a lot of people who came in early to get a head start on their day.

UCLA is one of the best schools in the country, so I suppose ppl have to be quite disciplined to make it. But this is more than I expected.

Yesterday, I went looking for cell phones, and I had a lot of requirements:

1) The cell phone had to have a built-in organizer

2) Which synchronized with MS Outlook

3) It had to work in Europe (be “quad-band GSM”)

4) It had to come without a subscription

5) It would preferrably have a built-in camera

Despite this heavy series of demands, I found 2-3 satisfactory options in the first phone shop I walked into. Then I went to several others, and was able to find the fancy phone of my dream – again and again. That’s one thing I love about America – being able to walk into a store and immediately find exactly what you want – and for a reasonable price. (OK, the price is a bit high, I’m gonna have to investigate better options)

What else did I notice in LA?

Everyone has blinds and mosquito screens on their windows, ppl use paper towels in the kitchen (instead of toilet paper like in DK). The sun shines all the time, the humidity is generally very low and it rains rarely. The sun sets fairly early – it’s actually dark by 8pm. I think LA is around the 35^th parallel.

Gas prices have gone up significantly since the last time I was there – by about 10%. Driving in LA still sucks, just as I remember it: lots of traffic, and the distances are long to get anywhere. I don’t know if it’s my imagination, but there seems to be more large cars in California, than I remember from last year: Hummers, SUVs, pickup trucks, semis, and other disgustingly huge vehicles with only one person in them. It was probably the same before, it’s just that I was coming from Ohio instead of DK.

The air is not so fresh, a bit opressive actually. It’s harder to run – it could be partly because of the dryness, but I think it’s the general air quality too.

The plane trip

Today I’m flying to LA from Copenhagen. The flight is with Air France, and it goes thru Paris. The service is nice, the food is great. The only problem was that during the food service on the plane, they either just gave you the food, which was non-vegetarian, or offered two choices – both non-vegetarian. The food was great, but this lack of consideration was annoying. I would have chosen the vegetarian option twice.

One cool thing about the plane was the electronic gadget built into the seat. It was the most advanced gadget I’ve seen as of yet. You could see movies, play games, watch the news, and see where you are on the map.

Speaking of the map, I was very surprised by the route the plane took from Paris to LA. I expected the plane to go west or even southwest, but instead it shot up almost directly north, over all of England, Scotland, and past Ireland. We passed some distance from the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and then even went over a considerable portion of southern Greenland! Then we went over Baffin Island, the Hudson Bay and Saskachewan / Manitoba. The part of the flight over the United States was barely over 2 hours, and it was almost directly south, passing over Salt Lake city and finally LA. I guess it must be the shortest way to go, even though it doesn’t look like it from a flat map.

Baffin Island was beautiful. Even though it’s only the end of summer, the whole island was covered with snow. Of course it is quite far north and away from Golfstream, but I was still surprised. Hudson Bay is huge – it took us about 3 hours to cross the whole thing. Salt Lake City was the first big city we flew over, and it looked gorgeous from the sky. The Salt Lake itself was actually white in parts from salt. I didn’t get a chance to see it when I was there in 2000. The Wassach mountains was also the only significant part of the Rockies we got close to. They looked great, even though there was no snow on them this time of year.

LA itself looks quite impressive from the sky, perhaps in a bad way. It is so sprawled, that even from a plane, you can see areas where all the way to the horizon it’s populated. There’s very little water, mostly just plains, mountains, and 80% is concrete – roads, malls, parking lots, and rooftops.