Dispatches from the City of Angels
I'm a writer and humorist living in and writing about Los Angeles. You can catch my novel LOSING CLEMENTINE out March 6 from William Morrow. In the meantime, feel free to poke around. Over at my website you can find even more blog entries than I could fit here, as well as a few other ramblings. Enjoy and come back often.
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Favorite Quotes:
"Taint what a horse looks like, it’s what a horse be." - A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett
"Trying to take it easy after you've finished a manuscript is like trying to take it easy when you have a grease fire on a kitchen stove." - Jan Burke
"Put on your big girl panties, and deal with it." - Mom
"How you do anything is how you do everything."
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Proof the world is shrinking
Five years ago, I moved to Los Angeles from Corpus Christi, Texas, which was a little like moving to another dimension and speeding up the tape. Making it to the post office and back in one piece seemed like a major feat - especially since the post office had bullet-proof glass, which I'd never actually seen before.
About five minutes after landing on this alien planet, my car needed an oil change. I drove to the nearest Honda dealership, which couldn't have been more than ten minutes from my apartment, and collapsed in the waiting room like someone who'd just survived a near-death experience.
Maybe he felt sorry for me. Maybe I was wearing a low-cut blouse. I don't know. But a middle-aged man in the waiting room struck up a conversation. He said he taught Chinese studies at UCLA. I wasn't nearly as impressed with that as I would be now. Now, I'd have a million questions. Then I was wondering if I'd have to club a sewer rat to death for my dinner or if this strange city actually had grocery stores.
He gave me his card. I kept it. I keep all business cards. It's a personal tic.
Five years later, I'm in a different apartment quite at home in my adopted city, and I'm reading the International Herald Tribune edition of the New York Times over coffee.
"Petition over detained Chinese writer goes international."
The story concerns writer and dissident Liu Xiaobo who was taken from his home by security officers and has not been heard from since. A petition for his release is gaining support from well-known authors and academics.
The article read:
"Just as notable is the fact that an array of foreign China scholars have signed the petition...(Richard) Baum, the political scientist in Los Angeles, helped popularize the petition by circulating it on Chinapol, a listserv managed by Baum that is read by many scholars of China...'While I have always tried to maintain Chinapol's political neutrality, some violations are so egregious that I cannot, as a sentient being, remain neutral,' he said in an e-mail exchange."
Baum. Baum. Baum.
My brain worried the name until I got up and went through my stash of cards.
Found it.
Richard Baum, Director of the Center for Chinese Studies, Director of the Asia Institute, UCLA professor.
Five years ago in a Honda dealership.
The world really is small.
About five minutes after landing on this alien planet, my car needed an oil change. I drove to the nearest Honda dealership, which couldn't have been more than ten minutes from my apartment, and collapsed in the waiting room like someone who'd just survived a near-death experience.
Maybe he felt sorry for me. Maybe I was wearing a low-cut blouse. I don't know. But a middle-aged man in the waiting room struck up a conversation. He said he taught Chinese studies at UCLA. I wasn't nearly as impressed with that as I would be now. Now, I'd have a million questions. Then I was wondering if I'd have to club a sewer rat to death for my dinner or if this strange city actually had grocery stores.
He gave me his card. I kept it. I keep all business cards. It's a personal tic.
Five years later, I'm in a different apartment quite at home in my adopted city, and I'm reading the International Herald Tribune edition of the New York Times over coffee.
"Petition over detained Chinese writer goes international."
The story concerns writer and dissident Liu Xiaobo who was taken from his home by security officers and has not been heard from since. A petition for his release is gaining support from well-known authors and academics.
The article read:
"Just as notable is the fact that an array of foreign China scholars have signed the petition...(Richard) Baum, the political scientist in Los Angeles, helped popularize the petition by circulating it on Chinapol, a listserv managed by Baum that is read by many scholars of China...'While I have always tried to maintain Chinapol's political neutrality, some violations are so egregious that I cannot, as a sentient being, remain neutral,' he said in an e-mail exchange."
Baum. Baum. Baum.
My brain worried the name until I got up and went through my stash of cards.
Found it.
Richard Baum, Director of the Center for Chinese Studies, Director of the Asia Institute, UCLA professor.
Five years ago in a Honda dealership.
The world really is small.
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