Lee Sevilla

she needs only $500 more a month to get an apartment. for now, ms. sevilla, 71, lives in her car with her dog and works as a part-time receptionist. she's also an artist. not your typical hard luck story.

this from the la times: Anyone who wishes to buy hand-drawn postcards can send a photo or other request to Sevilla at P.O. Box 5484, Playa del Rey, CA 90296.

Looking for an End to Her Skid

Steve Lopez
Points West

May 7, 2006

Six days a week at 7 in the morning, a gray Dodge Neon pulls up to a bluff overlooking the beach in Playa del Rey. The driver, a bespectacled 71-year-old woman named Lee Sevilla, is accompanied by her shaggy dog, Sandy. The two of them have lived in a car for more than eight years.

She never would have imagined it, said the silver-haired Sevilla. She was a wife and mother with a pretty normal life until a divorce and a couple of bad breaks put her on the street. It seemed like a temporary setback at the time, but the weeks became months and the months continue to drag on.

Sevilla sleeps in nearby El Segundo, where she pulls up to the same parking spot beside a public ball field each night and settles in. At dawn she uses the restroom at the nearby Chevron station, then buys a cup of coffee and drives to Playa. It boosts her spirits, she explained, to start each day with a million-dollar ocean view.

"It's wonderful," she said, looking out over Dockweiler State Beach, near the edge of LAX. "If it's clear I can see from Malibu to Palos Verdes, and sometimes Catalina. You can see the dolphins from up here too."

The one day she's not there is Sunday. That's when she pulls her church clothes off the hanger in the back seat of the Neon, goes to services at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, then splurges on a $45 room at a Motel 6 in Santa Ana. Don't tell anyone, but she sneaks in a hot plate to cook spaghetti, her one big meal of the week.

As for the Crystal Cathedral, "I'm not overly religious," Sevilla said. "But I do depend on Him more lately." read the rest here

What Makes a Star?

from the NYT today, the story answers: "When someone is very good at a given thing, what is it that actually makes him good?"
the answer: "deliberate practice."
brilliant.
freakonomics blog

Freakonomics
A Star Is Made
By STEPHEN J. DUBNER and STEVEN D. LEVITT

The Birth-Month Soccer Anomaly

If you were to examine the birth certificates of every soccer player in next month's World Cup tournament, you would most likely find a noteworthy quirk: elite soccer players are more likely to have been born in the earlier months of the year than in the later months. If you then examined the European national youth teams that feed the World Cup and professional ranks, you would find this quirk to be even more pronounced. On recent English teams, for instance, half of the elite teenage soccer players were born in January, February or March, with the other half spread out over the remaining 9 months. In Germany, 52 elite youth players were born in the first three months of the year, with just 4 players born in the last three.

What might account for this anomaly? Here are a few guesses: a) certain astrological signs confer superior soccer skills; b) winter-born babies tend to have higher oxygen capacity, which increases soccer stamina; c) soccer-mad parents are more likely to conceive children in springtime, at the annual peak of soccer mania; d) none of the above.

Anders Ericsson, a 58-year-old psychology professor at Florida State University, says he believes strongly in "none of the above." He is the ringleader of what might be called the Expert Performance Movement, a loose coalition of scholars trying to answer an important and seemingly primordial question: When someone is very good at a given thing, what is it that actually makes him good?

Ericsson, who grew up in Sweden, studied nuclear engineering until he realized he would have more opportunity to conduct his own research if he switched to psychology. His first experiment, nearly 30 years ago, involved memory: training a person to hear and then repeat a random series of numbers. "With the first subject, after about 20 hours of training, his digit span had risen from 7 to 20," Ericsson recalls. "He kept improving, and after about 200 hours of training he had risen to over 80 numbers."

This success, coupled with later research showing that memory itself is not genetically determined, led Ericsson to conclude that the act of memorizing is more of a cognitive exercise than an intuitive one. In other words, whatever innate differences two people may exhibit in their abilities to memorize, those differences are swamped by how well each person "encodes" the information. And the best way to learn how to encode information meaningfully, Ericsson determined, was a process known as deliberate practice.

Deliberate practice entails more than simply repeating a task — playing a C-minor scale 100 times, for instance, or hitting tennis serves until your shoulder pops out of its socket. Rather, it involves setting specific goals, obtaining immediate feedback and concentrating as much on technique as on outcome. read the rest here

Flea Mail

Flea calms down. no worries. we're gonna buy the record. i bought the record through itunes and am likely to buy the CD for the art!

from RHCP

Date: Saturday, May 6
Subject:
From: "Michael Balzary"
To: members@redhotchilipeppers.com

so we have been here in new york for a few days
i have been lying pretty low
just tooling around a little bit
i went to see pearl jam last night
and they were great
it makes me so happy to see our contemporaries
after several years have rolled by
rocking better than ever
they continue to write good songs
they hit it hard and raw
and the sound of eddie vedder's voice fills me up with hope

after the other morning when i found out our record had leaked
i freaked
it leaked i freaked
after calming down a little bit
and finding out more about what actually happens
it has been bought to my attention by some intelligent people
that most of the people who down load the record before it comes out
are people who really love our music and believe in what we do
and they go out and get the real thing anyway
but of course they can not wait to hear it
and are willing to hear a substandard version first
because they are excited to hear it
and of course i understand and i would do the same thing
it just really scared me that people would be hearing something
without the depth of sound that we strive for

well we are playing saturday night live tonight
i am excited about it
and i dedicate our performance to john belushi
the great performer
and cultural treasure
produced by the united states
who made so many people happy
in front of their televisions

Chili Peppers SNL

tonight!
chilis KROQ weenie roast sold out.

Minutemen Caravan

the mi-nutemen are caravan-ing. funny stuff. not really.
here's from the la times today:

As Ali chanted "Minutemen go home!" through a bullhorn, Gilchrist treated his message as a metaphorical call to arms.

"Minutemen, stand your ground. Do not fire unless fired upon, and if it's war he wants, then let it begin here," Gilchrist cried.

Gilchrist then yelled "Let's roll," and the Minutemen boarded a fleet of recreational vehicles, campers and cars to begin their cross-country trek aimed at raising awareness of their cause.

The caravan plans to visit rural and urban communities in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and Virginia.

The group will hold rallies in Phoenix and Crawford, Texas, before ending the trip at Capitol Hill.

At rallies, Gilchrist will wear a bulletproof vest in addition to having three or four private bodyguards, Minuteman Project spokesman Tim Bueler said.

gilchrist is the mi-nutemen's fearful and misguided leader.

the mi-nutemen, as i like to call them, have much fear in their hearts. they fear immigrants and regularly post on their site what sort of crimes are being committed by folks with hispanic names. how do people like the mi-nutemen become so misguided?

seriously, i had a conversation with a racist in florida. he was wrong in assuming i might be racist too. he told me things i wouldn't care to put in words. he was old, 60 something. too old to change. i tried to reason with him but it was pointless. he was arrogant and self righteous, mostly fearful. not in a scaredy cat way, but in an ignorant way. he just didn't know any better.

on an earlier post i pasted a bit of the obvious racism from the mi-nute women's web site. they are caravan-ing too. the post has since been removed from their site.

but for fun, here it is:

The passenger windown was down a tiny bit! All I needed was a hanger! Dozens of folks meandered in that lot, none of them in possession of a hanger or ANYTHING close. I went into the store [running], remembering I had left my cell phone next to the computer at home, and didn't have the radio station's number with me. No one was home to do anything for me. AAA comes to mind as I run through the store asking one idiot after another if they can come up with a tool to help me open my car! YES,OF COURSE THEY WERE ALL HISPANICS. And NO, none of them were of much use.
In the Garden dept., I thought for sure someone would come to my rescue. Now it is 2:35. Nope! Narry a soul had ever seen a wire hanger or any kind of tool that could help me.

Just as I picked up a roll of flimsy wire in Hardware, a little Mexican gal from Garden hurried up to me. She thought the Automotive dept. might have hangers for their uniforms! And they did. I hugged the little miha (sp?) hard and thanked her, then I ran, full speed across the entire length of the huge parking lot!

Salary.com Moms Worth

From salary.com
What is Your Mom Worth?
Families Customize Mom's Job Description and Create a "Mom Paycheck"

Are you wondering what mom should be paid for her work as mom? Salary.com has now valuated the "mom job" of both the Working and Stay at Home Mom! We consulted Stay at Home and Working Moms to determine the top 10 jobs that make up a mom's job description. If paid, Stay at Home Moms would earn $134,121 annually (up from 2005's salary of $131,471). Working Moms would earn $85,876 annually for the "mom job" portion of their work, in addition to their actual "work job" salary.

why do they do this stuff?
we all know mothers deserve lots more than they get but as if, AS IF a mother could ever get what she deserves. sacrifice is the definition of motherhood.
it's just a feel-good mother's day story. it ain't working.

Picasso's Dora Maar

a mystery bidder paid $95 million at a Sotheby's auction.
i'm coming clean. it was me! lovely picasso, isn't it! it goes well in my library.


NYT Photo

Stadium Arcadium May 9

a few years ago, i used to download individual songs off the free sites. i got over it.
it seems the chili peppers new stadium arcadium is running free on the internet for the taking. don't do it. it's only money. just buy it. musicians are our friends. feed them, even if they're loaded.

here's a flea plea:

Date: Tues, May 2
Subject:
From: "Michael Balzary"
To: members@redhotchilipeppers.com

when i woke up this morning
i was was confronted with the news that our record has been leaked to
the internet
it does not come out til may 9 but now it has leaked
and not that i know alot about this kind of thing
but i guess now it is possible to down load it for free if you want
well
that's not very nice
if you down load it now off one of these file sharing sites
you will be getting a pale imitation of the record
it will be of the poor sound quality of the technique they used to
get it on there
and that will break my heart
it will break john frusciante's heart
it will break anthony kiedis's heart
and it will break the heart of chad smith
yes, we worked for a year and a half to make the epic record of our
lives
and it is sad to me for the business reasons of course
i think we are selling something really cool and we put all we had
into it, 28 songs, 2 hours of the best that we can offer
and i think it is a fair deal for everyone
and for people to just steal a poor sound quality version of it for free
because some asshole stole it and put it on the internet
is sad to me
but, equitable business reasons aside
the thing that really bums me out is
we worked so hard, and so thoughtfully, all of us, for so long
to make this record sound as warm and full from top to bottom
as was possible
we spent day and night for a year making sure every little sound was
just right
that they were all put together in the most beautiful way we could
we did not leave a stone unturned in doing that work
i can not put in words how much this record, stadium arcadium, means
to us
how sacred the sound of it is to us
and how many sleepless nights and hardworking days we all had
thinking about how to make it be the best sounding thing we could
and now, for someone to take it and put it out there with this poor
sound quality
it is a painful pill for us to swallow
let me tell you
this bums all of us out
and i know that, as sensitive as john frusciante is about sound
the idea of anyone getting and hearing this thing that way
will devastate him
for people to not hear the work the way we meant it to be
will really hurt him deep inside
and all of us will hurt

yes, it is stealing from us, and that is lame
everyone has to live with their own conscience on that one
let it be your guide
but to take a version that has been defiled sound wise
a version in which some idiot has taken our year and a half of soul
baring work and pissed all over it
that will break our hearts

sincerely,

flea

Harvard Student's Kaavya Cryptomnesia

Kaavya Viswanathan's ongoing tale of woe from a teacher's perspective
a case of cryptomnesia, proffers the teach.

Danny Way Hard Rock Bomb Drop

watch skateboarder mr. way jump hard rock's fender stratocaster

Stadium Arcadium Radio NY Radio

check out the interview here.
woo hoo! great songs, more funky. for john fans, lots of guitar solos and sweet harmonies.
more new RHCP stuff at invisible movement

Akeelah and the Bee No. 8

what's up with that? apparently, not enough hype or hyped too much
box office guru

Akeelah and the Bee Quote

a movie worth its hype.
the quote on Akeelah's coach's wall:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously
give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.
"a return to love" - marianne williamson

Darfur Update

from the NYT

April 30, 2006
Rebels Reject Draft Darfur Peace Deal
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 4:41 p.m. ET

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) -- Sudanese rebels rejected a proposal to end the bloodshed in the Darfur region on Sunday, throwing into question the outcome of yet another series of negotiations to put a stop to fighting that has left tens of thousands of people dead.

The rebels called for changes to the deal hours before an African Union deadline -- and after the Sudanese government indicated it would accept the proposal.

In Washington, actors, athletes, politicians and religious leaders rallied to call attention to the Darfur conflict and urge greater U.S. involvement in ending what the United Nations has called one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters.

Years of fighting between ethnic groups and Arab militias in western Sudan have left at least 180,000 people dead and about 2 million homeless. Darfur's violence recently spilled into neighboring Chad and threatens to escalate: Osama bin Laden last week urged his followers to go to Sudan to fight a proposed U.N. presence.

Amid the negotiations, the plight of 3 million refugees in Darfur has worsened. The U.N. World Food Program said Friday that it was cutting rations in half, citing a lack of funds. read the rest here

Writertopia

meters for writers



Writing

Golden Gate Bridge Suicides

now a movie

Uproar Over Film of Golden Gate Suicides
A documentary that records almost two dozen leaps from the landmark bridge has generated praise and scorn for its maker.
By John M. Glionna
Times Staff Writer

April 28, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO — For an entire year the cameras rolled, capturing death amid the eerie fog and shifting tides.

One by one, filmmaker Eric Steel documented the final moments of nearly two dozen despondent men and women, and the agonizing, four-second fall after they leaped off the Golden Gate Bridge, drawn by the span's tragic beauty.

His intent, he says, was to illuminate "the darkest corner of the human mind." If he watched enough people take their own lives, he thought, he could "spot the outward manifestations of their interior demons."

Steel says he too once considered suicide. "It's that Humpty Dumpty moment when it's all going to fall apart," he said. "For me and many others, it didn't come. For the people in this film, it did."

His documentary, "The Bridge," which opens at a film festival in San Francisco on Sunday after debuting Thursday in New York City, has already provoked outrage.

"This is like a newspaper carrying a front-page photo of someone blowing his head off; it's irresponsible, exploitative, voyeuristic, ghastly and immoral," said Mark Chaffee, president of Suicide Prevention Advocacy Network-California, who has not seen the movie. His 16-year-old son took his life in 1998.

"The phenomena of copycat suicides come from people just reading about this. Now we're showing it in full color on the big screen? That's just beautiful."

The project set off alarms soon after shooting wrapped in December 2004 after 365 consecutive days of filming.

Officials from the Golden Gate National Recreation Area said Steel misrepresented his project when applying for filming permits, telling them he wanted to capture the grandeur of the iconic orange suspension bridge.

Instead, they complain, he made what one San Francisco supervisor dismissed in media coverage as a "snuff film." read the rest here

Red Hot Chili Peppers Germany

Germany show photos.
here the chilis Stadium Arcadium on VH1 monday
Peppers at New Orleans Voodoo Music Fest in October

Red Hot Chili Pepper Live Radio

interview on May 1. for 90 minutes. YaY!
this from RHCP
04.27.06 Red Hot Chili Peppers Premiere Stadium Arcadium Live from New York!!
On May 1st at 8:00pm EST,
Live from New York City Anthony, Flea, John and Chad will join radio host STRYKER for this 90 minute live radio interview. Not only will Stryker be talking with the guys but the broadcast will include the debut of songs from Stadium Arcadium. For those not able to go to the broadcast (there are not many only 20 and our 4 fan club winners) don't worry you will be able to hear it live on the following radio stations in the US and Canada live. And don't forget during the broadcast dates and venues will be announced for the North American tour.

Radio Stations in USA:
WAXQ New York
KROQ Los Angeles
WKQX Chicago
WIIL Chicago
KSAN San Francisco
KITS San Francisco (taping and running back at a later date)
WMMR Philadelphia
WWDC Wash DC
CIMX Detroit
WNNX Atlanta
WBCN Boston
WAAF Boston
WHDR Miami
KNDD Seattle (broadcast may be delayed for PST)
KEDJ Phoenix
KXXR Minneapolis
WXTB Tampa
KPNT St. Louis
WRNR Baltimore
KTCL Denver
WXDX Pittsburgh
KNRK Portland, OR
WMMS Cleveland
KWOD Sacramento
WAQZ Cincinnati
KISS San Antonio
KBER Salt Lake City
KXTE Las Vegas
KOMP Las Vegas
WLUM Milwaukee
WAZU Columbus, OH
WBZX Columbus, OH
WRZX Indianapolis
WBBB Raleigh, NC
WMFS Memphis, TN
KHBZ Oklahoma City
WZNE Rochester, NY
WLRS LouisvilleKY
WXEG Dayton, OH
KFMA Tucson
WBSX Wilkes-Barre
WZZO Allentown
KIWR Omaha
WQXA Harrisburg
KRAB Bakersfield
WLZX Springfield, MA
WRWK Toledo
KFRR Fresno
KDJE Little Rock
WXNR Greenville, NC
WYBB Charleston, SC
WJJO Madison, WI
WXZZ Lexington
WXTW Fort Wayne
KXFX Santa Rosa, CA
WWIZ Youngstown, OH
KRZQ Reno
KDOT Reno
WRQK Canton, OH
WWWX Appleton
WRRV Newburgh
KNCN Corpus Christi
KQRA Springfield, MO
WCYY Portland, ME
Waitt Radio Network Various
KFMW Waterloo - Cedar Rapids
KZIO Duluth/Superior
WRXS Salisbury, MD
WZXR Williamsport, PA
WZBH Ocean City/Salisbury, MD
WCLG Morgantown, WV
KBAZ Missoula, MT
WWCT Peoria, IL
KXNA Fayetteville, AR
WPDH Poughkeepsie
WOBX Elizabeth City/Nags Head, NC
WRKR Kalamazoo
WAMX Huntington, WV/Ashland, KY
KEYJ Abilene, TX
WEHM Long Island
XTRE Southern Utah
KDVV Topeka, KS
KATS Yakima, WA (Airing delayed by one hour)

CANADA:
CFOX-FM Vancouver
CKLZ-FM Kelowna (airs May 3 at 7pm)
CJRX-FM Lethbridge
CIZZ-FM Red Deer
CFWF-FM Regina
CJDJ-FM Saskatoon (airs May 6 at 6pm)
CJKR-FM Winnipeg
CFPL-FM London
CFNY-FM Toronto
CLIV-FM Ottawa
CKWF-FM Peterborough
CIKR-FM Kingston
CFRQ-FM Halifax
CJMO-FM Moncton

Save Darfur

The rally tomorrow to stop genocide
join the cause here
send a letter to pres. bush here.

What: "SAVE DARFUR: Rally to Stop Genocide"
When: April 30, 2006 -- Program 2:00 - 4:30 pm (Crowd Assembly 1:30 - 2:00 pm)
Where: Washington, DC, National Mall, between 3rd and 4th Streets in front of the US Capitol (Metro Station -- Federal Center SW [Orange and Blue Lines])
Who: Click here for a complete list of speakers.
Contact: Chuck Thies, Rally Director, (202) 478-6148, click here for email
Background: "The Rally to Stop Genocide" is organized by the Save Darfur Coalition, an alliance of more than 160 faith-based, humanitarian and human rights organizations. www.savedarfur.org

The rally is part of the "Million Voices for Darfur" campaign to generate one million postcards for delivery to President Bush, who recently pledged to push for additional UN and NATO help to protect the people of Darfur. We applaud the President's leadership, but the work is far from done. We are urging President Bush to take steps necessary to end the genocide and build a lasting peace.

The rally is also the final stop of the "Tour for Darfur: Eyewitness to Genocide," a 21,000 mile photo exhibit and speaking tour of 22 cities in 11 states to raise public awareness about the Darfur crisis. The tour's featured speaker is Brian Steidle, a former Marine captain and U.S. representative to the African Union's peacekeeping mission in Darfur from September 2004 to February 2005.

what is darfur? what's going on? why should you care?

here are some links to get you started:
Amnesty International
wiki
infoplease
wiki2
NPR, of course, always has great info.
more from NPR

How Opal Got Recalled

The publisher pulled the plug on the plagiarizing young harvard student's book.

From Harvard's school newspaper, the crimson

Publisher Pulls ‘Opal Mehta’
Viswanathan’s London book tour cancelled; Little, Brown will revise ‘Opal’
Published On 4/28/2006 5:33:54 AM
By DAVID ZHOU
Crimson Staff Writer

Four days after Kaavya Viswanathan ’08 came under scrutiny for possible plagiarism in her novel “How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life,” her publisher yesterday asked stores across the country to pull the book from their shelves.

In a statement yesterday, Little, Brown—the publisher that reportedly gave Viswanthan a two-book, $500,000 contract—asked stores to send back any unsold copies of “Opal Mehta.” The move came only a day after Michael Pietsch ’78, senior vice president and publisher of Little, Brown, told The New York Times that the publishing house would not withdraw current editions of the novel from bookshelves.

The sophomore’s novel contains numerous passages that are strikingly similar to those found in two books by Megan F. McCafferty, “Sloppy Firsts” and “Second Helpings.” In a statement on Monday, Viswanathan apologized to McCafferty and said that any similarities between the texts were “unintentional and unconscious.”

Viswanathan also said Monday that she will revise her book to take out all of the “inappropriate similarities” between “Opal Mehta” and McCafferty’s novels.

“We are pleased that this matter has been resolved in an appropriate and timely fashion,” said Tina Constable, vice president of Crown Publishers, which published McCafferty’s novels, in a statement last night.

McCafferty said yesterday in a statement that she is not seeking restitution “in any form.”

“In my career, I am, first and foremost, a writer,” McCafferty said. “So I look forward to getting back to work and moving on, and hope Ms. Viswanathan can too.”

At the Harvard Book Store last night, Ben Newcomer, a supervisor, said that he had not yet received any request from Little, Brown to withdraw and return the store’s copies of “Opal Mehta.”

read the rest here

From the NYT:

April 28, 2006
Publisher to Recall Harvard Student's Novel
By MOTOKO RICH and DINITIA SMITH

Just a day after saying it would not withdraw "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life" from bookstores, Little, Brown, the publisher of the novel whose author, Kaavya Viswanathan, confessed to copying passages from another writer's books, said it would immediately recall all editions from store shelves.

In a statement issued last night, Michael Pietsch, senior vice president and publisher of Little, Brown, said that in an agreement with Ms. Viswanathan, the company had "sent a notice to retail and wholesale accounts asking them to stop selling copies of the book and to return unsold inventory to the publisher for full credit."

The publisher had announced an initial print run of 100,000 and had shipped 55,000 copies to stores. Ms. Viswanathan, 19, a Harvard sophomore, has been under scrutiny since The Harvard Crimson revealed on Sunday that she had plagiarized numerous passages from "Sloppy Firsts" and "Second Helpings," two novels by the young-adult writer Megan McCafferty.

"We are pleased that this matter has been resolved in an appropriate and timely fashion," said Crown Publishers, which publishes Ms. McCafferty's books, in a statement. "We are extremely proud of our author, Megan McCafferty, and her grace under pressure throughout this ordeal."

Ms. McCafferty, who until now has remained silent, also issued a statement last night.

"In the case of Kaavya Viswanathan's plagiarizing of my novels 'Sloppy Firsts' and 'Second Helpings,' " she said, "I wish to inform all of the parties involved that I am not seeking restitution in any form.

"The past few weeks have been very difficult, and I am most grateful to my readers for offering continual support, and for reminding me what Jessica Darling means to both them and to me. In my career, I am, first and foremost, a writer. So I look forward to getting back to work and moving on, and hope Ms. Viswanathan can, too." read the rest here.