It's been a somewhat slow week at work. A couple really busy days, a couple days where I take my time catching up on things that I should probably have done a while ago. Today is the latter. And it's Friday so I definitely don't want to be here. I want to go home and play with the puppy that I'm puppysitting. And also try to get Harry Potter play tickets, because every Friday they release 40 tickets to each show the following week, and I want to try and get tickets for next Sunday. But for now I'm here so I'll write a blog.
After our big trip down the coast we made it back to Orange County, where I had about 3 days left. One of those days was spent at Disneyland, which Mathias had never been to. Anywhere in the world. Poor kid. I'm glad I could fix it. We were there on a weekday so it wasn't super packed, despite being summer break for all the schools, and we actually managed to get onto basically every big ride. We did a lot of single rider and lined up our fastpasses pretty well, which helped. The only things we actually had to wait for were Space Tours (which was like 30 minutes, so not too bad), and Star Tours (which was like an hour). Otherwise they were pretty short lines. Single rider is the way to go, really. In fact, I think we made all the big ones. There were parts of the park that we didn't see, like Toon Town, but we made it to the rides, so that was ok. For me, the exciting part was seeing the new video at Soarin'. It used to be Soarin' Over California, then they opened one in China which is Soarin' Over The World, and I was told that video would come to California in like 2 years. So I didn't wait in the 4-6 hour lines at Shanghai Disney to see it. Luckily for me, it took 2 months and not 2 years to get to California and so I got a fast pass and only waited 10 minutes. And I'm glad I did because it was actually kind of disappointing and I would not have been happy at all if I'd waited hours. Or even hour.
Other highlights of the week were just seeing family I guess. And we went to the Venice Canals, which I've wanted to go to for years. It's this neighborhood in LA that's built onto canals in Venice Beach, with super nice, expensive houses. I'm not sure if it's because of the drought or low tide, but the canals were really low when we went. It was still nice though, and there's some great houses. Also I continued the tradition of feeding my nieces weird food. Not weird, really, but rather stuff I love which they have never had and maybe wouldn't have. Last time it was Korean, this time Ethiopian. They did like it a lot (so did my brother, first for him as well), but they said they liked Korean food more! I'm very happy about this. Now I just need to figure out what to feed them next time.
I think that was pretty much it for the week. Saw a few more friends, dropped Mathias off at a hostel in LA where he was staying after I left America, spent some good family time, ate more In n Out and tacos... Yup, that's it. I may have said this before, but it was really nice having Mathias around because as I played tour guide I was reminded of how great of a place LA is and why I love it. There really is a ton of stuff to do there. And a lot of it free! In fact, even OC wasn't so bad when I'm not just there living my life, but when I'm trying to find the best of it. Not to say I'd go back to OC. No way. But it was fun. In fact, as great of a time I had at home this trip, and as much as I felt that urge to maybe think about heading back, I don't think now is the time. Because America is super fucked up at the moment.
We all know about that dickhead running for president, so no need to go into the details of that. I am in utter disbelief as to why people would vote for him. I had heard that one of my uncles is voting for him, simply because he's the Republican nominee and my uncle is a Republic, so yeah of course he needs to vote for Trump! Stupid. But I did actually have a conversation with a family friend about it, and she's voting for Trump as well. From her point of view as a small business owner, she made me understand why logically someone might want to vote for him in a very narrow set of circumstances. But the problem with her analysis, in my mind, is that it was so self-centered and really only considered what would be best for her personally. Not what would be best for America and the American people. And that man is definitely not it. I knew that these Trump supporters probably had their reasons, even if I didn't get them, but what this conversation made me realize is that there's probably a huge portion of Americans out there right now that may have their own reasons for voting for him, but the problem is the reasons are selfish. Trump will do nothing to create a better society, and without even being president is already dividing Americans and making the country a worse place. There are so many people out there right now whose vision of America is so far removed from my vision for America, and I think that even if Clinton (or anyone else) becomes president, there's still going to be so many upset people in the US who will not be working towards creating a country which I want to live in and which I can be proud of. So that makes me not want to be there. (I feel like that was a bit rambly. Sorry. It makes sense in my head).
I realized while I was home that this is perfectly embodied in the Black Lives Matter movement. It was only recently that I realized the problem with All Lives Matter and why it upset people. I was never against Black Lives Matter, but I definitely didn't understand it. And I'm not saying I do now, but understanding why All Lives Matter is not an appropriate response made me start to understand it. And for whatever reason it made me so angry to think about the fact that our society has come to the stage where black people have to feel this way about their life in our country. And that while they are basically screaming at the top of their lungs asking for help to solve issues, the other side is basically just ignoring them. The other side is taking their cry for help as an attack, and rather than listening and talking is getting offended and discounting the Black Lives Matter movement. Which is creating this toxic environment and a terrible culture of hate that's just turning the US into a shitty, shitty place. For now. Hopefully people will get their shit together and realize where we're headed, and that it's an ugly place. But I think that until they do, I'm going to be very hesitant about going back to the US.
OK. Rant over. Sorry to get political. Actually not, but I feel like that's what you're supposed to say after something like that. So yeah, the backlash against Black Lives Matter made me really angry while I was home. Probably angrier than any other social issue ever has. I definitely feel it less now that I've been gone for a month, but at the time it was not great. And a song that gets me thinking about it is Black Man In A White World, the first single off of Michael Kiwanuka's new album, Love & Hate. He put the single out earlier this year, and I was blown away by it. It's a fantastic song, even without listening to the lyrics or paying close attention. But once I started feeling strongly about Black Lives Matter and listened to this again, I found it even more interesting.
After our big trip down the coast we made it back to Orange County, where I had about 3 days left. One of those days was spent at Disneyland, which Mathias had never been to. Anywhere in the world. Poor kid. I'm glad I could fix it. We were there on a weekday so it wasn't super packed, despite being summer break for all the schools, and we actually managed to get onto basically every big ride. We did a lot of single rider and lined up our fastpasses pretty well, which helped. The only things we actually had to wait for were Space Tours (which was like 30 minutes, so not too bad), and Star Tours (which was like an hour). Otherwise they were pretty short lines. Single rider is the way to go, really. In fact, I think we made all the big ones. There were parts of the park that we didn't see, like Toon Town, but we made it to the rides, so that was ok. For me, the exciting part was seeing the new video at Soarin'. It used to be Soarin' Over California, then they opened one in China which is Soarin' Over The World, and I was told that video would come to California in like 2 years. So I didn't wait in the 4-6 hour lines at Shanghai Disney to see it. Luckily for me, it took 2 months and not 2 years to get to California and so I got a fast pass and only waited 10 minutes. And I'm glad I did because it was actually kind of disappointing and I would not have been happy at all if I'd waited hours. Or even hour.
Other highlights of the week were just seeing family I guess. And we went to the Venice Canals, which I've wanted to go to for years. It's this neighborhood in LA that's built onto canals in Venice Beach, with super nice, expensive houses. I'm not sure if it's because of the drought or low tide, but the canals were really low when we went. It was still nice though, and there's some great houses. Also I continued the tradition of feeding my nieces weird food. Not weird, really, but rather stuff I love which they have never had and maybe wouldn't have. Last time it was Korean, this time Ethiopian. They did like it a lot (so did my brother, first for him as well), but they said they liked Korean food more! I'm very happy about this. Now I just need to figure out what to feed them next time.
I think that was pretty much it for the week. Saw a few more friends, dropped Mathias off at a hostel in LA where he was staying after I left America, spent some good family time, ate more In n Out and tacos... Yup, that's it. I may have said this before, but it was really nice having Mathias around because as I played tour guide I was reminded of how great of a place LA is and why I love it. There really is a ton of stuff to do there. And a lot of it free! In fact, even OC wasn't so bad when I'm not just there living my life, but when I'm trying to find the best of it. Not to say I'd go back to OC. No way. But it was fun. In fact, as great of a time I had at home this trip, and as much as I felt that urge to maybe think about heading back, I don't think now is the time. Because America is super fucked up at the moment.
We all know about that dickhead running for president, so no need to go into the details of that. I am in utter disbelief as to why people would vote for him. I had heard that one of my uncles is voting for him, simply because he's the Republican nominee and my uncle is a Republic, so yeah of course he needs to vote for Trump! Stupid. But I did actually have a conversation with a family friend about it, and she's voting for Trump as well. From her point of view as a small business owner, she made me understand why logically someone might want to vote for him in a very narrow set of circumstances. But the problem with her analysis, in my mind, is that it was so self-centered and really only considered what would be best for her personally. Not what would be best for America and the American people. And that man is definitely not it. I knew that these Trump supporters probably had their reasons, even if I didn't get them, but what this conversation made me realize is that there's probably a huge portion of Americans out there right now that may have their own reasons for voting for him, but the problem is the reasons are selfish. Trump will do nothing to create a better society, and without even being president is already dividing Americans and making the country a worse place. There are so many people out there right now whose vision of America is so far removed from my vision for America, and I think that even if Clinton (or anyone else) becomes president, there's still going to be so many upset people in the US who will not be working towards creating a country which I want to live in and which I can be proud of. So that makes me not want to be there. (I feel like that was a bit rambly. Sorry. It makes sense in my head).
I realized while I was home that this is perfectly embodied in the Black Lives Matter movement. It was only recently that I realized the problem with All Lives Matter and why it upset people. I was never against Black Lives Matter, but I definitely didn't understand it. And I'm not saying I do now, but understanding why All Lives Matter is not an appropriate response made me start to understand it. And for whatever reason it made me so angry to think about the fact that our society has come to the stage where black people have to feel this way about their life in our country. And that while they are basically screaming at the top of their lungs asking for help to solve issues, the other side is basically just ignoring them. The other side is taking their cry for help as an attack, and rather than listening and talking is getting offended and discounting the Black Lives Matter movement. Which is creating this toxic environment and a terrible culture of hate that's just turning the US into a shitty, shitty place. For now. Hopefully people will get their shit together and realize where we're headed, and that it's an ugly place. But I think that until they do, I'm going to be very hesitant about going back to the US.
OK. Rant over. Sorry to get political. Actually not, but I feel like that's what you're supposed to say after something like that. So yeah, the backlash against Black Lives Matter made me really angry while I was home. Probably angrier than any other social issue ever has. I definitely feel it less now that I've been gone for a month, but at the time it was not great. And a song that gets me thinking about it is Black Man In A White World, the first single off of Michael Kiwanuka's new album, Love & Hate. He put the single out earlier this year, and I was blown away by it. It's a fantastic song, even without listening to the lyrics or paying close attention. But once I started feeling strongly about Black Lives Matter and listened to this again, I found it even more interesting.
Love & Hate is the follow up to 2012's Home Again, an album I was very excited about, due to the strong first single (Tell Me A Tale), but then very disappointed by when Tell Me A Tale was the only really great song on that album. Luckily this time that is not the case. I'd still say that Black Man In A White World is the best song on Love & Hate, but there are plenty of other great tracks. For example, the title track, Love & Hate (the other choice was Father's Child, but I can't find it on Soundcloud or YouTube).
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