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Just this week this documentary opened in cinemas. I saw it last summer at the film festival. And I learned. Officially, the Vietnam Protest was organized and strategized by hippies, anarchists, anti-Americans etc. People who don’t care about the nations consensus and feelings. Someone has to be the enemy of the state being blamed for the disaster. This documentary was about the GI’s who initiated protest movements. Army People in Vietnam who realized one day that what they hear from their families and friends back home doesn’t reflect what they are actually doing. So they started to spread the word, trying to inform about the real situation. You can say that was the beginning of the end. A lot of these Informants faced trials, traitors, communists etc. Most of them had to spend years in prisons. Government, the army and officials tried to keep these voices quiet, turn the events in the opposite. At the screening the director showed up with a big group of these people. And the audience was obviously more than satisfied to finally see someone standing up in this case. The documentary was mostly financed by non-us producers, mostly Europe. I thought this film will have a hard time to find a distributor for the US-market. And here we are.

I am trying to get a password for Westside Rentals, a major apartment rental agency here. You buy the access to their listings for a limited time. Some people sell it reduced after they found a place within a short time, so there is still most of the total time left they paid for. I contacted a woman who wants to transfer hers and she asked me to meet her in Sherman Oaks, where she works. After I explained her that I am in Palms, far away from Sherman Oaks and that I have nothing to do there, she thought I could meet her in Hollywood, where she lives, I guess. So I was wondering why she didn’t look for a place in Sherman Oaks since she was moving? I would never move to Hollywood and working in Sherman Oaks. A commuting nightmare. She Asked me when it is a good time in the morning for me. She would get up at 6am…Talking to her I just realized that she has totally different habits regarding commuting than me. These days I cross the Hollywood Freeway twice a day. Both times, morning and evening, traffic jammed. Some people endure this every day, twice. I think you can only do it if you don’t know anything else, it’s part of your live.

The apartment search itself seems to e very painful. I thought I would move closer to the office to reduce my commuting time. But all I saw so far was compared to what I have now smaller and more expensive. I don’t think I am able to get used to the idea of paying more for less, despite the location. Today after wasting a lot of frustrating apartment search time I thought maybe I should stay where I am, a location between the office and the site of the project I am working on.

Sorry we’re short on our freshly baked bread due to yesterday’s organized protests. That was at Trader Joe’s on Monday. So I was affected by the immigration protests. 1 May was called out to be the day without immigrants. Instead of going to work refuse service and protest. Plans by the Bush administration to build a wall along the boarder to Mexico are compensated with a guest worker program that allows illegal immigrants to stay. The battle has started. Opposition in Congress of both side – it’s discriminating or more restriction – and the immigrants fight back for their rights. A new minority raising the voice, like the black people in the 60-ies. Everybody knows the economy would collapse if you really build a wall along the boarder. But it’s hard to sell politically. Who is taking care of your garden, cleaning your apartment, babysitting, collecting your trash, serving your dinner in a restaurant? Everybody knows you cant’ really say they take our jobs. But in times of struggle you need some excuse, you need to be able to point on someone. Another job taken by immigrants. A relationship.

In addition to satisfying our elementary needs, we all aspire to something which gives meaning to our life and elevates it.”

“It is not important where you put the camera. What is important is why you put the camera where you put it.”

Krzysztof Kieslowski

Other people pay for cable, I have netflix. You pay monthly for unlimited dvd rentals, it’s organized by mail. The good thing about this: it’s still far cheaper than cable ($20 vs. $60 and up) and your tv is showing what you like, you don’t get lost in some 500 channels. These days everytime I watch a movie I normally almost fall asleep, which is kind of annoying. Except, I found out, with movies by wong kar wai. ‘Fallen angels’ is running. You don’t need to understand. It’s very emotional, expressive. You get lost in these pictures, characters. When I saw ‘2046’ I didn’t understand a lot of the story but the film was great. I learned it followed what started with ‘In the mood for love’. So I saw this one afterwards, wonderful. But I had to see it about three times until I fully understood the story. And then I realizes the concept, also behind ‘2046’. It’s not necessarily about the story, it’s about everything around it. That’s when I started to really enjoy these movies without focus on the rational part, tired sometimes, pictures, movements, colors, emotions, people, time…are beautifully passing by.

I was looking for apartments closer to work. There was one in Silverlake, from Sunset you turn west, up the hill, its located on the west slope. Spanish Colonial Style from the 1920s as it’s commonly called. The other one they use is NY style. Both identifiable, you imagine a specific picture immediately. NY style is mostly a big city apartment unit, with fire escape stairs, brick, nasty hallways, who’s your neighbor? Spanish colonial are small single one story houses around an open courtyard. This one very nice, separate kitchen and bath with a private space in the back yard. But really small and expensive. About half of the size I have now for $200 more. You stand in a room and you can just see your bed taking most of the space. After I saw it I went to a café back on Sunset. I paid more the $11 for an espresso and a cherry pie. Just a casual café. And I thought I don’t need it. Moving to a place to pay just because everybody else wants? The guy renting the apartments told me to move quickly since he has 25 applications and he had to decide on Monday. Overrated. What’s the history of such areas? Silverlake must have been a totally abandoned neighborhood, avoided, somehow remote behind a hill disconnecting it from the bay. And suddenly, for whatever reason, probably some creative folks with no money in desperate need of community and space, it was (re-)discovered. And as soon as other start to realize there are trendy people living there with all the shops, bars, the live, environment…it’s too late. It keeps the city moving.

What has the 1^st amendment to do with anish kapoor? I thought of the 1^st amendment, always present these days. I just read another column by nat hentoff before. And just after I posted the amendment I had the feeling to ad this sculpture by anish kapoor I had in mind from a gallery visit a few weeks ago. Form and poesy. A balance, achieved with a formal object and an expression beyond. The interaction. Not visible. Transcending, oscillating, reflecting, transforming.

I think both, the 1^st amendment and the sculpture, are endless. As far as you can see behind anish kapoors sculpture, as far you can see behind the 1^st amendment. I guess that’s what we call freedom.

US Constitution

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.