Who's up for brunch?

With the Mother Hips!!! Yes. Me, definitely. Plus, it says, bring your own Bloody Mary (which I will definitely do). Saturday, Feb 27th, noon, Oragami Vinyl in Echo Park. That night in Solana Beach? Maybe.

The Magicians

The Magicians by Lev Grossman is going to be one of the next books I read. You (this is directed specifically at you, whoever you are that is reading this) should check it out. We could do a mini-book club. Online. Or a teleconference. Something to that extent.

Heard about it here: http://www.salon.com/ent/critics_picks/2009/08/12/magicians/index.html
and generally think Salon has pretty decent book taste.

Grande Ave.

Our story begins in an inner-city neighborhood. Our main character skins his knees while rollerblading, the only white kid with a fro in the ghetto. The woman who treats his injury is clearly a working girl, a "hooker with a heart of gold."

Our main character grows up, moving to rural Kansas, where he works at a local DQ. He and a co-worker begin to discuss business ventures. The boys light on the idea that the "working girl" industry could be reformed to provide benefits. Health-care. Dental. They decide to move to New York to start their own business.

The next segment of our story involves our main characters searching for their first employee. They solicit the girls of Grande Ave., and one girl becomes the only employee they can get to sign a contract with them.

The boys search for ways to provide comforts for their employee. Most of their gifts are juvenile, especially compared with the other working girls of the area. The protaganist gives her a giant stuffed panda, which is forever in the background of the scene in Grande Ave., and is sometimes even being pulled into the cars of her customers.

Gradually, the protagonist develops a love for his employee, which develops an ethical conflict for him because he believes that they need to maintain a strictly working relationship. This also becomes more convoluted as the protagonist gets frequently intimidated by her former pimp.

The story ends with the girl leaving the business because they have scared off most of her business, even the regulars. The boys head back to rural Kansas, where they regain their former jobs at the DQ. They discuss other business opportunities, such as turning a junk-yard into a petting zoo and creating calendars of ferrets in various locals.

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You can download the soundtrack by clicking this link, filling in the text box, and waiting about half a minute (damn free megafile sites). Or just listen to it below. It's a pretty sweet mix. Wes Anderson, eat your heart out.

Wes Anderson

Bike to work week

So, while I don't yet have my bikefriday, I'm trying to make a conscious effort to bike more often to work. Since this is finals week (in some messed up educational equity idea of trying to evenly distribute weeks between the two semesters), Tisa and I rode to work yesterday as an experiment.

First off, on the way there, I realized that there are several hills in the area surrounding the school. When I commented on this to a student, he said, "Of course, Mister. That's why they call it Boyle Heights. If there weren't any hills, they'd call it Boyle Flats."

Second, we tried a different way back, taking the 6th street bridge into downtown (pictured above). It's such an amazing bridge... it must span close to a half mile, and most of it is completely flat, with this great view of downtown.

Third, sweaty collared shirts aren't fun to work in.

Fourth, my bike Friday should be shipped out in the next month :-).
Fifth... Lost... Sayeed is the new Jacob?