Road Trippin in LA

This was not actually a blog entry but an email to my girlfriend Leslie. It was only meant to be a quick description of my day but it took on a life of its own and after reading it I thought it would make an appropriate entry for my blog. I hope you enjoy the journey...on with the show!

I apologize for not being able to respond to your email yesterday as I was on the road all day doing a classic Los Angeles road trip with Jon. It's the kind of experience one can only get in LA. It's one of the few things I miss about LA, being able to get in a car and take an all day odyssey and explore the different worlds that make up Southern California.

We started out in Venice of course, the beautiful California coast, and drove north on the 405 through the sprawling San Fernando valley to the 5 which connected us to the 14 (Antelope Valley Frwy) which took us to the high desert. We we pulled off the highway in a small podunk town called Little Rock and pulled off the road into the open space of the desert with its chaparral flora and somber desolation finding a parking spot on a dirt road amidst what seemed to be thousands of snake holes leading into some unknown place in the earth. Like we have done many times in the past Jon and I just walked around, he taking pictures and me taking videos (and pictures with my new phone). Joshua trees stood silent and lonely all around us and on the horizon were the mountain ranges of the Angeles National Forest topped with fresh snow. On the ground we found various human artifacts left for dead like old mattresses, burned wood, rusted tin cans, beaten up and broken toys, and a huge pile of religious cassette tapes. The most interesting find was a set of bleached white bones. I first spotted an almost intact set of vertebrae which I thought could be human (shuddered at the thought) but a short distance away my eyes set on a tooth filled jawbone that looked like it belonged to a deer like animal. All around us were these towering, straw-man like energy towers with cables stretching from one direction to the other as far as we could see. The buzz of the electricity from the wires overhead and the stoic breeze of the desert made for an interesting soundtrack to our Homeresque odyssey. All the elements of man and nature combined made for an eerily beautiful landscape.

The air was chill so after our hands became numb we climbed back in the car and drove the lonely open highway to Devil's Punchbowl, a state park built around an ancient rock formation. If you ever want to see the majesty and power of the San Andreas fault the DP is the place to do it. Huge, flat, smooth, slabs of rock vertically explode from the earth's surface as a result of millions of years of fault activity. We tend to forget the power of the earth that birthed us and will one day swallow us up again, but a place like this brings feelings of humility and acknowledgement of the uberness this planet possesses. After getting our fill of wonder and amazement we hopped in the car and hit the road again aiming straight for the mountains which stood like a Great Wall separating us from the LA basin. We traveled on Fort Tejon Rd which took us through the microscopic town of Valyermo which had an old post office that looked right out of an 1870's western movie. I half expected Clint Eastwood to coming riding up on his horse wearing his pancho, squinting quietly and munching on a stub of an old cigar. After a few photos we proceeded on our journey by way of the Big Pines Highway that took us into the Angeles National Forest. In the shade of the mountain ranges we were treated to volumes of pine trees and snow on both sides of the highway. On the way we passed by a frozen pond and on occasion would see a large family of hispanic people frolicking in the snow. Memories of old swept into my mind when we passed Mountain High ski resort with its snow making machines going full blast and the handful of skiers getting what they could from the one lift that was operating. Many of my first ski adventures happened here decades ago. We also passed through the small moutain town of Wrightwood, another teeny place for Los Angeleans to get there ski on. There were times at Wrightwood where me and my friends would be the only people on the mountain giving us the feeling that it was our own personal ski resort. The lift operators would often blast the sounds of Bob Marley and always sported big grins which I am sure was due to on-the-job herbal remedies.

From Wrightwood we proceeded on Lone Pine Canyon Road which took us to the 15 (Mojave Frwy), back to semi-civilization. The land was still open but we were at the edge of the desert/mountains and heading straight for the outer crust of the sprawling LA suburbanry. These are the odd parts of California that bridge the magnificent wilderness and the endless litany of residential communities with their planet sized shopping malls and freeways teeming with commuters and big rigs. It was late in the day as we drove westward directly into the sun. We were still far enough away from LA proper to be in non hazed air and we enjoyed the clear views of the mountain ranges to the north and the not-so-dense-flatlands to the south. With each passing mile the communities and retail shops on the side of the freeway became more dominant. Again we passed landmarks that stirred my memories like Glen Helen Park, the site of one of the best but forgotten musical events, the US Festival. We also passed by the University of Redlands, a school I was set to attend my sophomore year to play basketball after flaming out at UCLA but I withdrew a week before classes began, a decision I sometimes regret to this day. Once we joined the artery of the 210 Frwy we were leaving the San Bernadino area and entering in to what most locals consider the LA basin proper. The communities of Rancho Cucamunga and Pomona was about as far out as you could get and still claim to be from "LA". Soon, on the distant horizon, like the Emerald City of Oz, we could make out the skyline of downtown Los Angeles silhouetted against the reddish orange Southern California sunset. Even at this distance we could make out the clear shape of what I call the Nakatomi building (blown to smithereens in the original Die Hard movie), as iconic to the LA skyline as our very own Transamerica pyramid is to us San Franciscans. From the 210 we shifted to the 10 freeway that would take us straight to downtown LA. Palm trees lined the freeway as we cruised the southern end of the San Gabriel Valley, through the spanish surnamed cities of West Covina, El Monte, and Monterey Park, the irony being these enclaves have been populated mostly by Chinese people going back to the late 70's. I recall back in the 80's legislation aggressively pushed by Regan Republicans to have English as an official language and English only retail signs specifically aimed at these cities that were dominated by Cantonese speech and endless store signs in Chinese characters. LA being the melting pot it is always soundly voted down these race fearing attempts at complete anglicization of the southland.

The LA skyline loomed large in our faces as we hit East LA and the many freeway junctions that spread like tree roots to all parts of LA and of course this crisscrossing of travel routes brought crunch-to-standstill traffic conditions so Jon, who's knowledge of the secret routes of LA is unparalleled, pulled off the freeway somewhere near the 4th street bridge so I could get a clear photo of the Los Angeles cityscape skyline. Being a photojournalist in LA for nearly 30 years, Jon knows every nuance of LA traffic and all the good spots to get the best photos of LA. We pulled off and parked in a area full of factories, auto shops, and the occasional strip joint as this was the seedier part of LA you rarely see in movies (check out William Friedkin's "To Live and Die in LA"). We parked adjacent to the commercial train tracks that run through LA and admired the graffiti that completely covered the intert train engines. After getting some photos we crossed one of those small bridges that crossover the cemented Los Angeles River seen in every movie or tv show with a chase scene through LA. The sun had gone down and the neon lights and denizens of downtown were the eye candy of our trip now and after being away from LA for 20 years it appeared to me that it was actuallly beginning to look and feel like the movie Bladerunner. The skid row streets of the garment district gave way to the ritzier shops and restaurants the closer we came to the ancient Harbor Frwy that cuts through the heart of the downtown high rises. Jon expertly navigated us to the 110 frwy on ramp while I clicked away at the well lit christmas decorations and soon we were on the 110 in a sea of cars and never ending red brake lights going on and off in a bizarre stop and go menagerie. To my left as we approached the 10 frwy intersection, just past the old LA convention center, stood an amazing looking building I was not familiar with. It had a futuristic look reminiscent of a futuristic sail boat that looked fully worthy of the surreal, science fiction like skyline of Shanghai. By the signage I could see it was a Marriott Hotel, JW something, can't remember the full name but it had that real pricey look to it and near the top I could see what looked like a luxury restaurant which I have no doubt had killer views of all of Los Angeles. I was completely mesmerized by the grandness of the architecture and how it stood solitary in it's own space away from the rest of the cloud touching buildings of downtown.

After regaining my senses we were rounding the bend to get back on the 10 Frwy, a route I was all too familiar with have taken it about a thousand times on my many travels to the west side of LA when I was a resident in LaLa land. LA has its own charm and I admired the beauty of the landscape as there was still a hint of glow from the disappeared sun so I was still able to see the details behind all the shining city lights that define the mini cities of Century and Westwood and get the feeling of magic in the air. As we passed the always jammed packed 10 to 405 connection I was happy we were sailing straight through to the near end of of the 10 frwy, exiting at Olympic in the shadow of the Santa Monica Convention Center. To make our odyssey complete Jon decided to drive down Main St. instead of Nielson Way/Pacific (which we never do). Main street is the high end retail and restaurant street for locals who shun the touristy ghetto of the Promenade. It's all chic and sassy as we pass by supremely lit salons and restaurants populated by people who look like they are trying to be too cool for reality. It makes me want to jump out of the car with my missing tooth and mohawk and run into one of these places and scream "What's up people! How y'all doin?!" In just a few minutes it is clear that we have returned to the edginess of Venice from whence we began this epic journey as the gloss and shine was now replaced by the darker somberance of low end lighting, leathery skinned men pushing their entire existence in a shopping cart and teenaged zombie like skateboarders floating across the street like they are living in another dimension where they can not be hit by cars. Alas, we pull into the back of Jon's apartment building on North Venice blvd just across from the canals and park the car, tired, but satisfied and eager to download the day to our laptops to relive the adventure all over again.

I don't know of any other place in the world where one can have a day like this. Trash LA all you want but I know at times it is truly a special place full of mystery and odd eccentrics, you just need a full tank of gas and the knowledge of where to look.

There you have it. I have to mention my co-conspirator and navigator on this trip, my best friend for 25 year and award winning photojournalist and Master of the Hipsotmatic, Jonathan Alcorn, a long time resident of Venice Beach and chronicler of the Venice and greater LA experience. You can check out some his work at http://jonathanalcorn.blogspot.com/,

O Brother Where Art Thou?

It is most likely that my drop off in blogging has gone unnoticed by the vast majority of the world. My lengthy blogs didn't exactly attract a huge throng of followers...not even a trickle, and to be truthful I didn't expect it to. I started writing the blog as a way to shape some ideas I had for a documentary called "The Human Palette". The documentary was going to explore American identity from the perspective of people of color and other minorities. I wanted to examine the ways which minorities cope with developing an identity in a country that heavily promotes a white, Christian, heterosexual standard.

i started writing the blog and soon the idea of doing a documentary film became remote. I found I was able to address a broader set of issues by just writing the blog so I decided to focus on that but to also start making videos as a way to hone my skills so that when I was really ready to make a documentary I could just jump right in and do it.

To make a long story short, let's just say that making videos has just completely overtaken my creative capacities. i wish I had discovered this passion 10 or 20 years ago. Writing a blog is a rewarding but also a lonely and solitary affair. it's just you, the computer, the research, and your own thoughts. I also tend to write blog entries that are much longer than most blogs even though I know that most people are not into long blogging. So I would write up my entry, post it, and pretty much go on to the next one. There was no give and take, there was no engagement. Sometimes I felt I was just dabbling in some form of literary masturbation.

Video had a completely different dynamic that really appealed to me. It was social, it was public, it was engaging, it was artful, and it was just simply a lot of fun. As a writer I observe
and I intellectualize. As a videographer I act, I mix, I'm in the moment (not in my head), I am constantly making choices on where I should point my lens. There is no control in video, whatever happens happens. Writing a blog I have all the control...and to be truthful it was quite boring. I needed someone or something to challenge me, that's how I grow.

Video was the perfect antidote. It was challenging because when I started my skills and equipment were very limited but there was all kinds of room for growth. I started out as just some dude showing up at events and shows with my Flip camera and posting vids on Youtube and Facebook and now over a year later I am getting requests for my video services. And that's not even the best part. The best part is that I get to engage with people. All I have to do is point the camera at someone and usually the ice is broken in an instant. I have actually made several new friends that are a direct result of making videos. I find that the majority of people are keen to play along when I'm filming. Rarely have I had anyone react negatively to me while I film them. Sometimes I ask permission, sometimes I don't. It works because I am a nobody.

I have fallen so hard for video that now it is becoming a Godzilla like beast that is taking over my life. I am fully committed. This is not a complaint mind you. I'm loving every minute of it and this boost of creativity and excitement may just save me from the abyss I have been teetering on for quite some time now. Video may have killed the radio star but it might save me.

If you are at all interested in my videos i have two Youtube accounts. This one http://www.youtube.com/user/grendelk31 which is my original account. And this one http://www.youtube.com/user/blackifilms which is a new account dedicated to black i films, the name of my film "company". I still enjoy writing so I have reaffirmed my commitment to this blog and plan to write in at least once a month. if you have been following and are still around, I thank you for your support.

Bachmann History Overdrive

Fools must be rejected not by arguments but by facts.

-Flavius Josephus (Judean General; 37-105 A.D.)

Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters can not be trusted with important matters.

-Albert Einstein

If I was a superstitious person I might believe that America has been cursed (for its historical wrong doings most likely). How else to explain the last 10 years? It feels like one night we all went to sleep near the end of the millennium and woke up in some bizarrely retarded alternate universe. We stand at the beginning of the 21st century armed with finest communication technology with the ability to gather information at light speed. You would think this would be leading us into an age of unprecedented enlightenment. You would think the world would be revolutionized in the way that it was when the printing press was invented which brought literacy and a voice to the masses which directly resulted in religious, economical, political, and cultural revolutions.

Yet we stand here today with the likes of Michele Bachmann. I am sure you are all aware of what she said in Iowa yesterday prior to her rebuttal to President Obama's State of the Union address. What I want to focus on is her statements of the United States beginning as a country where everyone was equal and that the Founding Fathers worked tirelessly to end slavery. Taking into account that she was addressing her faithful, why would she say something she has to know is a complete falsehood (straight up lie)? She is an educated woman. If she truly believed what she was saying I would have to believe she was mentally ill. But she is not mentally ill. She knows her constituents and what motivates them so she designed a speech to appeal to their...to their...intellect (can't use the word intelligent as that would assume they actually have some).

Yes, I am being harsh on her constituency and that's because nobody there challenged her. They just all applauded. They can't all be as dumb (or uninformed) as turnips, yet nobody present challenged her with the truth. A truth that is not only undeniable in its truthiness (they tell me that is an actual word now), but readily available from an uncountable number of sources. You could take someone who knows nothing about U.S. history, sit them in front of a computer with internet access, and within 10 minutes they would have enough information to rebut her statements. Can you imagine being a constituent in the room and knowing what you are hearing is bullshit? Do you take the risk to call her out? Do you risk the wrath of your fellow constituents? Would you at all think about getting Jeremy Loughnered? But then again, if you are a constituent and you are hardcore enough to actually be there in person listening, the chances are your are just loving every minute of it.

If this wasn't so sad it would be comical. The GOP had nothing to say about Iowa but they are very upset because CNN aired Bachmann's State of the Union rebuttal. It was only supposed to be heard by constituents. The GOP is accusing CNN of trying to undermine their message. What!? Undermine? All CNN did was put it on the air. The official rebuttal we all know was from Paul Ryan. You would think that after Christine McDonnell that this particular sector of politics would have no credibility but they just keep on chugging along like the Energizer Bunny with their idiocracy, grabbing major headlines on a daily basis.

Being of African heritage and descended from slaves and having gone through the school system in the U.S. I am familiar with the "white washing" of history. Much of the historical detail that is necessary to understand the convergence of time, people, and events, is omitted from standard U.S education. I have learned more about Black History from reading books as an adult than I did in school. Yeah, we know Lincoln was of the Republican Party and that he signed the Emancipation Proclamation but do we know that Lincoln's Republican Party was directly descended from the Whig Party or that the Abolitionists lobbied Lincoln heavily (with the aid of Fredrick Douglas) for the Emancipation Proclamation and the only reason he signed it was because the Union Army was in danger of losing the war and they needed more soldiers , a lot more soldiers? You may know some of this if you watched the movie Glory. Do you even remember at all being taught about the Abolitionist movement? Were you taught about John Brown, or the Beecher-Stowes, the Bellamy's, or William Lloyd Garrison and his abolitionist newspaper called The Liberator?

These are the people who actually worked tirelessly, and in John Brown's case, gave his life, to end slavery. Why didn't Bachmann give these folks a shout out? It's because her point was not to give credit where it is due or to be truthful. It was the propaganda of the "way things used to be" and much of their platform is about "taking back America" from the liberals and taking us back to those good ole days when white meant might and everybody else was in the backseat just along for the ride.

I wonder what Bachmann's opinions are on the history of lynching. There was a time when "white" meant specifically Anglo-Saxon protestant. Jews, Greeks, Italians, Poles, Germans, the Irish, even the Dutch did not have rights equal to Anglo-Saxon Protestants. They were lynched just like black people were (although nowhere near in the same number), same with gays, socialists, and communists. Why don't these details of history ever appear in any modern political speech? Perhaps it is because the truth can sometimes be very ugly. It is hard to make claim to being the best nation ever when our historical foundation has parts rotted to the core. Sometimes in order for modern propaganda to be effective in today's world history must be reinvented, reshaped, retold, and repackaged. That's how the lying game works, you just keep adding more lies, on the front end and the back end and you keep doing it until people start to believe it is actual truth. That's why we will be here again very soon, if not with Bachmann it will be another from that political sector.

The run up to the 2012 election is on so the players are at home sharpening their knives and forked tongues with unsatiated hunger. They are going to feed on our politically unsophisticated electorate who offer themselves up for the easy taking. The truth at times can be difficult to handle but it in the end it is the only method that leads to true resolution. Lies and untruths perpetuate myths and fallacies and in the end that might be the whole point for the likes of Bachmann.

Inception

I rarely go to a theater to see a movie. I usually just watch them in the comfort of my home through various audio/visual means. I could write a whole blog entry on the merits of home vs. theater movie viewing. Every now and then I am compelled to go to an actual movie theater to take in a film. Sometimes it’s on invite but today it was because word of mouth.

I went to see Inception a few days ago at the Metreon IMAX theater. In the last week or so it just kept coming up in conversations around me so I had to go see it. Inception has people talking. I spent an hour listening to Ali, the owner of the neighborhood coffee house, try to describe to me his impressions of the film without giving away the plot. My producer at my temp job said Inception is going to change the way people view films. Publications were hailing Christopher Nolan as the next Kubrick. I’ve seen his body of work and Momento by far is my favorite Nolan film. It had a well executed concept that if you really understood, could really be devastating in it’s comprehension. Nolan took us there by taking the narrative out the standard linear context, creating an experience similar to what protagonist Leonard Shelby struggles with in constructing a reality without the aid of memories, discombobulation and disconnection. With Inception, through the use of dreams, he again examines a concept similar to Momento…what is controlling or what are the controls of reality? What are the rules? What are the tools? What are the consequences when we try to play god with the natural order of things? How fragile or how durable is our identity? There are of course many subtexts to all these questions and Inception offers enough layers to illuminate the many ideas that spring from the well of metaphysics and philosophy. There’s a lot to chew on in this movie.

While watching Inception several films came to mind, most notably, The Matrix. Not only do the stories have many parallels, they also share many visual techniques and post fx work, like bullet time slow motion, shattering fragmenting glass and concrete, and squibs galore. Inception is being marketed as a “thinking person’s” film but it has a healthy dose of action sequences and just about as much gun play as The Matrix but not nearly as stylized. There were times when I found the action to be distracting because of the way the movie deals with real time which lead some of the action scenes to be really drawn out. In what is possibly the key scene of the movie, violence plays out in several dream sequences simultaneously but at different rates of time. What is seconds in waking reality is hours in a dream layer, which can be weeks in a deeper layer, which can be decades in the deepest layer. This is one of the subtexts that can really get your mind going while watching the movie. It is in this aspect that the film is reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey but unlike 2001, Inception doesn’t quite take you to the point of psychedelic revelation or even more literal revelation as you have in The Matrix when Neo takes the red pill and is “awakened” and discovers the truth of his reality. Inception is more open ended and it is not so much about revelations as it is self discovery.

Another theme explored is the origins of ideas and how they take root in our conscious and unconscious mind. Where as the dream layers deal with the Cartesian the idea theme is firmly rooted in Freud and the active and uncontrollable unconscious mind. Characters in the movie are able to be “architects” of dream worlds fully able to control and create at will but the beings populating these dream worlds spring from the subconscious so not only are they uncontrollable, they have to be bamboozled by the architects if specific outcomes are to be achieved.

Have you ever had an original idea? Has anybody ever had an original idea or do all ideas have external origins? Is the idea of God original? In the modern world marketing and advertising make heavy use of subliminal messaging planting the seeds of ideas in our heads that take root and prompt us to specific action. This was the foundation of John Carpenter’s underrated film They Live. I was just reading about the concept of “dog whistling” in journalism where rhetoric goes out over the media airwaves with certain coded language that is meant to effect a certain demographic. Some people believe that the assassination of abortion doctors are a result of “dog whistle” messages in the propaganda of anti-abortion groups. Some think the right wing anti-Obama movement is full of dog whistle messages which is why certain terms are used over and over again to describe him by his detractors. He’s a Muslim, he’s a socialist, he’s a Nazi, he’s a communist, and he needs to be gotten rid of. It’s as is they are saying someone needs to assassinate President Obama. Not quite the Manchurian Candidate but you get the picture.

This is a vital key to the plot of Inception, the planting of an idea in the subconscious mind through dreams to bring to fruition a desired result. This was also explored in an episode of the Outer Limits called The Inheritors. On a symbolic level it begs the question of mind control. Do we control our thoughts? Does “I think therefore I am” still apply? The rise of artificial intelligence has given us many challenges to the idea of consciousness, self awareness, identity, and life itself. It is at the heart of Bladerunner, the Terminator films, and The Matrix films except with Inception it is not about artificial intelligence, it is about our own organic and spiritual intelligence with emotion as the wild card.

We know we are conscious beings, so where do we go from there? For thousands of years humankind looked up at the stars and imagined the heavens while becoming masters of the earth. In 1969 humankind walked on the moon, we reached the next closest celestial body and walked upon it planting a flag of stars and stripes and claiming a giant leap for the race but in the context of this new frontier, this new environment, it was merely the first step of a newborn into a paradigm we weren't equipped to handle, infinite space. We are firmly rooted in the alpha and the omega. We take creating and sustaining life for granted while death has become our obsession and we fetishize mass destruction.

We have evolved as linear beings and perhaps we have gone as far as we can go with linear thinking and a linear reality. For all of our technological progress we are still beings ruled by superstition and propaganda living in absurdity as if it was bath water. We don’t even believe what our eyes tell us. It is arguable that we prefer dogma and propaganda over being responsible for developing our thoughts and actions, which ultimately is free will. Consciously we want to feel that we are in control and that we make choices in life but unconsciously perhaps we desire to be controlled, to be told what do and how to live, to conform to some kind of standard. Is it not the point of all of our major institutions? Education, religion, family, the workplace, consumerism, finance, politics, and the military are hardly bastions of free will. What is demanded is our obedience. Dissent is tolerated but it’s not exactly a virtue. Tradition is revered while radicalism is viewed with suspicion and distrust.

In Inception, the act of inception, at its basest form, is fraud. It is having an idea that is thought to be self generated, and thus owned, actually be a third party implant. It is fitting for our times to have the vehicle for the plot be corporate espionage, an acknowledgment of where corporations stand today, at the center of our universe in the modern world. They are shaping the world more than any other singular force, much more so than governments, armies, and the collective people. It is so ubiquitous the movie doesn’t even bother telling us if it is taking place in the present or the very near future. With a wink and a nod the movie tells us it’s already here (corporate control), like it or not, present or near future, it has arrived.

In Ursula K. LeGuin’s 1971 book, Lathe of Heaven, protagonist George Orr is an everyman who discover’s malevolently that his dreams can literally change reality. For Orr this extraordinary ability is not a gift but a curse. He can’t control it. He submits himself to psychiatric care where his therapist, Dr. Haber, discovers his powers and tries to use George to create the perfect world, but in trying to create a liberal utopia through manipulating George’s dreams Dr. Haber destroys himself while inflicting much harm on the world. The doctor was using inception on his patient, becoming the harbinger of unseen and deadly consequences. Psychiatric institutions, universities, and the government were dominant in the world of the Lathe of Heaven. Corporations were barely mentioned. My how times have changed. Leonardo Di Caprio plays the protagonist in Inception, yet in many ways he is like Dr. Haber in Lathe of Heaven. Initially he tried to use inception in a benevolent way and it ended up costing him everything, but as in every hero quest, and this is a hero quest, he must return to the belly of the beast, to the scene of the crime, to confront, who else, but himself.

Therein lies the inherent danger of inception. In manipulation of systems there are always side effects and unintended consequences and then there is the danger of abuse and addiction. If you get in too deep you may not be able to get out. As you watch the film you get drawn in, deeper and deeper, trying to keep the pieces together, and at times you are not sure if you are watching reality or another dream layer. The movies final action, literally, leaves it (the answer) on the table in a brilliant display of ambiguity. In our brave new world of technological socializing and virtual environments people line up overnight for the latest hand held device. Once you get a taste there is no going back, gotta have the best and the latest device. In my day the only thing we ever lined up for overnight were concert tickets. We had a different agenda.

The last movie comparison I want to make is with the Wizard of Oz, another film of dreams and alternate realities. We live in the age of the Conspiracy Theory. There is a certain paranoia that exists that says do not trust anything in this age of corporatism. The New Order is out to get you. Just as Dorothy and her crew of misfits travel Oz looking for the way home, so does Cobb (Di Dcaprio) and his crew of misfits, traveling in multidimensional dream worlds, trying to get back to reality. Dorothy finds the man behind the curtain, unveiling the Great Conspiracy, will Cobb do the same? You’ll have to see the movie to find out, no bean spilling going on here but I do feel we live in times that find many of us looking for the man behind the curtain, to uncover the great conspiracy. Dorothy returns from her dream and all is as it should be. We return from the dream world in Inception and we aren’t certain of anything, which is the perfect metaphor for these times we live in, uncertainty.

I found Inception to be a very intriguing movie when it focused on it’s concepts and it’s opened endedness but often the movie veers off into straight action shoot em up territory. It is a large budgeted Hollywood film so I really can’t sit here and begrudge that. For my own personal taste I would have like to seen more time given to the esoteric of the dream state and less time spent on people shooting and blowing shit up but that’s me. Action and violence aren’t the heart of this film, emotion is, not just any emotion but intimate emotion that is the result of familial bonding as shown through a husband/wife marriage relationship and a father/son relationship. The two most driven people in the movie are the ones driven by their memory of people lost to them. Corporate theft may be the catalyst for the plot narrative but it’s emotional issues that motivate the characters in the movie. Why all the subterfuge?

Before the movie began I met a young guy who was a triathlete and he had ridden his bike to the Metreon from South San Francisco. He was new to the the Bay Area from St. Louis. I asked him what kind of lock he had and he told me it was a cable lock. I warned him that his bike was in danger of getting stolen if all he had was a cable lock. I took the bus to the movies instead of riding my bike because I didn’t want to lock it outside. He went out to check on it before the movie and it was still there but when we walked out into the daytime light after the movie his bike was gone. Someone had stolen it. I felt bad for the guy but I did try to tell him that San Francisco was a different reality. There are written rules as well as unwritten rules, he just learned one the hard way.

Justice

"You go down there looking for justice and that's what you find, just us!"

Richard Pryor on the court system.

The justice system is inexplicably tied to the history of black people in the United States. The Greek goddess Themis, the symbol of justice, wears a blindfold, and carries a sword in one hand a scale in the other. It is arguable that justice is hardly blind or balanced. The sword may be the only true symbol of justice because very often justice is used as a weapon and black people have been on the wrong end of it too many times.

Johannes Mehserle, the BART officer who shot Oscar Grant in the back, killing him, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter last week and not guilty of murder. Has justice been served? Well, as always, it depends on who you ask. Grant's family doesn't think so and neither does Mehserle's defense team.

I remember very well the night of the incident. I was home on New Year's Eve watching all the ceremonies and celebrations when news reports on tv and on the internet started humming about someone being shot and killed by police at the Fruitvale BART station. From the very beginning the so called legitimate media outlets were spinning the story of police dealing with a riot like situation and the shooting being justified. It wasn't until the videos appeared that it became clear that this was no ordinary police shooting. An officer had shot someone in the back at point blank range and there was no "riot", just a lot of angry and shocked citizens who witnessed what they considered to be police brutality that culminated in the shooting of an unarmed man.

Once the videos appeared the media began to shift the focus to Oscar Grant and his background, specifically his criminal background. The media was also the first to introduce the idea that Mersherle may have mistaken his gun for a taser as this was not information that came from Mehserle. He didn't speak to anyone or make any statements for over a week, yet in the immediate hours after the shooting Grant's criminal background and the mistaken-gun-for-a-taser was the story the media was running with. It seems to me the media was taking the position that Oscar Grant was dangerous, but because he was unarmed the shooting had to be a mistake or an accident.

A line in the sand was being drawn. In the public commenting sections of the internet Mehserle was getting a lot of support from people who saw Grant not as a victim but as a thug who got what he deserved. He had a criminal record and he was allegedly resisting arrest, even though the many videos show the police in complete control of the situation. The flip side was the public outrage brought on by the videos showing Mehserle shooting Grant in the back. There are clearly those who see the police as the good guys and those who see them as the bad guys but they represent the extremes. For most people it's situational or it's based on personal experience. Black people for sure have a specific view given our history with law enforcement.

I have experienced hostile police behavior directed at me just because I am black. In my early adult years I was stopped often by the police for "DWB", driving while black even though I have a spotless record and have never committed a crime. When I was stopped it wasn't for suspicion of a crime, it was just a "phishing" expedition. They would run my plates and my license to see if any warrants came up. Usually I would be sitting on the curb in the flood of patrol car headlights where I was clearly visible to anyone driving by, looking like I was being arrested for committing a crime, but in the end I was always let go because they had nothing on me. That still didn't stop officers from getting up in my face and calling me names and trying to get me to do something I would regret. If I was stopped in a "nice" neighborhood the police's first question was always, "what are you doing here?" I remember running out of gas in Glendale, California late one night. I was 17 and wearing my letterman's jacket, walking and carrying a 5 gallon gas tank. The police stopped me and asked me what I was doing. I hesitated, looked at the gas tank and then looked at them and said what I thought was completely obvious, I had run out of gas. They asked me where I ran out of gas and what I was doing in Glendale. I told them the truth, I had been at a party celebrating our football team winning a playoff game. They took a closer look at my jacket and saw it was from St. Francis, a nearly all white, football worshipping, catholic school. They let me go. When I asked for a ride to the nearest gas station they just ignored me and drove off. Some years later I was leaving a club with my friend Joey Kraut, who is white, and we were pulled over by the cops as soon as we left the parking lot. We were in Joey's 1965 powder blue VW van and he was driving but when we were pulled over I was the one who was harassed. It was the classic good cop/bad cop routine. The one cop asking Joey for his license and registration was being very polite but the other cop came to the passenger side and started busting my balls ordering me in a drill sergeant voice to put my hands on the dashboard and then ordering me out of the vehicle. There I was again sitting on the curb with the headlights shining on me. Lucky for me Joey's father was a sergeant with LAPD. Joey handed them his father's card. The one officer went back to his car and got on the radio. A few minutes later he came back and apologized and said we were free to go. Never at any time did the officers say why they stopped us. Joey felt bad for me and he was more pissed off than I was. I think it was the first time he had seen this type of harassment.

That is not uncommon when my friends who are white witness blatant racism against me. They get angrier than I do and it is only because for them it is a reality they don't live with and rarely encounter so they are not used to it, but for me, it is a reality that is constant. One could even say it is a rite of passage for any young black man in America, to be harassed by law enforcement. I joke with my friends and tell them that I started riding bicycles because I was tired of being stopped and questioned by the gestapo. Of course that is not the reason but it has been a nice by product. Until they actually see it happen, many white people just don't get it and some feel that a black person's suspicion of law enforcement is just paranoia. Sometimes it is just paranoia but most of the time it's just how law enforcement sees black people. We are seen as a threat and in their minds it is their job to neutralize the threat.

I don't know Johannes Mehserle but like many white police officers I would bet money that he lives in a community that has very few black people and that a majority of his experience with black people was through his job as a police officer. I would bet money he has never had a black friend. These are all huge assumptions that I am making and I could be totally wrong but I am going out on a limb here to say I think many law enforcement people have negative opinions about black people and I think it affects the way they do their jobs. I think it goes back decades to when a large part of the police's job was to enforce segregation laws and to keep black people confined to their place designated by segregation, whether it be actual laws on the books or local custom. It was once the domain of the police to keep black people confined to their side of the tracks but that domain was not undisputed. During the period of lynchings mobs would overrun police stations to get at black suspects and would threaten the lives of any police officer who tried to stop them. Some were killed but most would step aside and let it happen. It was endemic that the evolution of law enforcement would be shaped by this. The public's message was you (the police) keep the black people in line or we, the lynching public will.

Of course this is all made possible by our court system. Where the police are tools, the court is the weapon. It is a system that can be wielded and manipulated. There was a time when white people could blatantly commit assault and murder against black people without fear of prosecution or arrest. The case of Emmitt Till and the Birmingham church bombings are classic examples. When these atrocities occurred everyone in the communities knew who did it but the local law enforcement and the courts wouldn't even bother trying to prosecute because they knew all white juries would not convict a white person for killing a black person, even if it was a child. It was only through the petitioning of the federal government that this changed, thus invoking the battle between the federal govt. and state's rights. It is almost ironic that the greatest victories for black people in the United States has been through the court system. Plessy v Ferguson was the first attempt to topple legal segregation back in 1896 and although it did not end segregation it did introduce the concept of "separate but equal" which at the time was considered progress. Over 50 years later the victory would be won in the 1954 landmark Brown v. Board of Education case which ended legal segregation with constitutional amendments. Neither case was an accident. They were both organized and planned to bring cases to court that would end segregation and bring equality, at least on paper, to black people.

Here we are in 2010 with what could be called Grant v Mehserle. It is the kind of case for the greater community to use a gauge as to where we stand now, the verdict and public reaction acting as barometers measuring our progress, or lack of, in relationships between black and white people, and black people and institutions. Back in the 90's we had the Rodney King beating caught on video. The video is key as it is the "witness" that is needed to move the non believers. The Civil Rights movement became a real movement in 1961 when the Freedom Riders were attacked in Alabama, their busses lit on fire by mobs with the backing of local law enforcement. The intent was not to scare but to kill. It made the front page of newspapers worldwide and the international press saw it for what it was, straight up terrorism. How could the United States be the leader of the free world if they let this happen within their own borders? What moral high ground was there to stand on when citizens exercising their rights are violently attempted to be murdered under the authority of law enforcement? The international press "bore witness" and it changed forever the course of the Civil Rights movement and the United States. In the Oscar Grant case cell phone videos provided "witness". Without the video I am completely convinced that Mehserle would not only be free, he probably would have never gone to trial. Rodney King had video of his beating and the officers still walked and people wonder why there was rioting.

So what happened that night at the Fruitvale BART station? Oscar Grant and a few others were taking off the train by BART officers because of a report of fighting. Not for assault, but for fighting. The officers had sufficient number to handle the situation and though there were some local and agitated onlookers nobody was making any attempts to interfere with the BART officers. Grant was on his stomach with Mehserle on his back and another officer with his foot on Grant's neck. Grant was unarmed. Mehserle rose up, pulled his firearm, aimed, and shot Grant in the back, causing his death. In his trial Mehserle claims he was attempting to use a taser on Grant. My question is, if he meant to taze Grant why did he draw his gun instead? Why didn't he draw the taser? He is a trained law enforcement officer. From the moment he drew his gun he had opportunity to realize he was holding a gun and not a tazer. Why did Mehserle draw his gun? Who knows? Only he knows. The fact is he drew his gun and killed Oscar Grant. Do we need to know why? No, because it won't bring back Oscar Grant. Should Mehserle be held accountable? Yes he should because homicide is a crime. He killed someone. Those are the facts. What he meant to do, that is a debate that can never be solved. In the court of law can we be allowed to walk if we didn't mean to do what we did? Or do we prosecute people for what they actually do?

Mehserle put on a badge and carried a gun and it was his responsibility to act within certain guidelines for the use of his weapon. He did not. Drawing the gun by mistake is one thing but drawing it, aiming it, and pulling the trigger is a conscious act not a mistake. Only Mehserle knows what was going on in his head at the time but what we all know is he drew his weapon and shot and killed Oscar Grant, that is a fact. The court system operates on facts and those are the only facts in this case. He was in control of himself in a rational state when he pulled the gun and shot Oscar Grant. He had other choices available to him but pulling his gun and shooting it was the choice he made, now he has to pay the price for that. He has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter.

The jury didn't buy the taser defense. Should they have? I wasn't a juror at the trial but in my following of the shooting from the day it happened through the trial I never heard any satisfactory explanation of why he drew the gun and not the taser. I'm not buying that he thought the gun was a taser. He's a trained professional. If Mehserle was found not guilty it would give rise to a new defense precedent in court, the "I meant to" defense. In my opinion, in the court of law, what we mean to do is outweighed by what we actually do. Trials are for what actually happens and in this case one man shot another unarmed man in the back, that is what actually happened. Oscar Grant may have had a criminal record but as far as we know he never hurt anybody. He didn't commit violent crimes. Nobody has come forward during this media saturated trial to say that Oscar Grant had raped, robbed, assaulted, libeled, or slandered them. His offenses were most likely drug related. He did not cause the shooting. He had never taken a life. Johannes Mesherle, on the other hand, has taken a life. He has killed another human being.

Oscar Grant was shot and killed by Mehserle. It was a homicide the jury felt was unjustified but at the same time they were not certain if he intended to kill Grant, that is a big maybe, just as the taser vs gun is a maybe. When we remove the maybes and look at the facts Oscar Grant lies dead, shot in the back by Johannes Mehserle. Whether you think the guilty verdict was just or unjust, that is a window into your own soul. Look deep, look hard.