The District Weekly

MURDERED ENGLISH PROF LINDON BARRETT SUBJECT OF KUCI SHOW

The District Weekly — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 02:02:36 +0000

[FROM A KUCI PRESS RELEASE]

Irvine — On the next edition of Subversity, a KUCI public affairs
program, we commemorate and celebrate the life of Prof. Lindon Warren
Barrett, who was murdered in his home in Long Beach 7 July 2008.

Joining in reflecting on his life and scholarly career are colleagues
and students who knew him, both during his long tenure at UCI and,
more recently, at UC Riverside, where he ended up last year. He was
a beloved English and African American studies professor at both
schools, and for several years, director of the African American
studies program at UCI. His family in Winnepeg, Canada, has posted
this obituary in the Winnipeg Free Press:
http://www.passagesmb.com/obituary_details.cfm?ObitID=138240.

Born in 1961 in Guyana, he migrated to England when he was just one,
moving to Canada in 1966. He grew up in Winnipeg, earning his BA from
York University, an MA from the University of Denver, and ultimately a
Ph.D from the University of Pennsylvania in 1990. His Ph.D thesis was
titled: “In the dark: Issues of value, evaluation, and authority in
twentieth century critical discourse”
(216 pages, AAT 9101135; Abstract:
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=744336891&sid=2&Fmt=2&clientId=1568&RQT=309&VName=PQD).

He is the author of an influential published work that grew out of the
Ph.D thesis: Blackness and value : seeing double (Cambridge/New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1999; UCI call number PS153.N5 B296 1999).
At his tragic death, he was working on another project, “Racial
Blackness and the Discontinuity of Western Modernity” about the
central role of slavery in the evolution of modernity. From
1997-2000 he was associate editor of Callaloo
(http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/callaloo/).

Faculty participating in the memorial program are Katherine Kinney,
who chairs the English department at UC Riverside, and her UCR
colleague, George Haggerty and from UCI, History Prof. Winston James,
who is chair
of African American studies program here.

Former UCI Ph.D students Arnold Pan (now teaching at UCI) and Lelia
Neti (now at Occidental College) will also be participating. Jamie
Park, former UCI undergraduate student and now pursuing her Ph.D at
UCR, will also be on the program.

We’ll also be reading tributes from other colleagues and friends of
Lindon during the program.

The program airs Monday, 21 July 2008 from 9-10 a.m. on KUCI, 88.9 fm
in Orange County, Calif., and is webcast via http://kuci.org.
This special program will also be simulcast on KUCR, 88.3 AM in
Riverside County via http://www.kucr.org. Our thanks to KUCR for this
collaboration.

A podcast of this program will be made available later on Monday at:
http://kuci.org/podcasts/?ShowID=600

A brief service will be held Tuesday July 22nd, starting at 6:30 p.m.
at McKenzie Mortuary Services, 3843 East Anaheim Street; Long Beach,
Tel. (562) 961-9301. Afterwards, participants will head to New Beach
and take a yacht (limit of 45 people) out into the Pacific Ocean to
scatter his ashes in accordance with his wishes.

On Saturday August 23 a Canadian memorial service will be held in
Winnipeg, MB, Canada.

Other services are envisioned at UCR and UCI later in the fall.

The family suggests in lieu of flowers, “[b]ecause of Lindon’s love of
reading, if so desired a donation to the Winnipeg Public Library or a
charity encouraging literacy would be most appreciated. WPL donation
page: http://wpl.winnipeg.ca/library/contact/donations.asp.

JULY 19, 2008

Miles Clements — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:30:11 +0000

Adopt-A-Wetland: Learn about the fragile wetlands and how to protect them. 10am.
MEET AT Pacific Coast Hwy and Loynes Dr, Long Beach 90803. 562.570.4876.

Forcefield On: With The Transmissions and Happy Hollows. 21+.
THE PROSPECTOR 2400 E Seventh St, Long Beach 90804. 562.438.3839; myspace.com/theprospectorlongbeach.

4-D: Downtimer mastering the graffiti arts.
ALPHA CULT 408 E First St, Ste 102, Long Beach 90802. alphacult.com.

Garden Tour: A self-guided garden tour in and around Long Beach. 10am-4pm.
ALFORD’S ENGLISH GARDEN 550 Pacific Coast Hwy, Suite 101A, Seal Beach 90740. 562.528.6259.

Devon Williams: With Residual Echoes, Silver Daggers and more. 5pm. $8. All ages.
THE ECHO 1822 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles 90026. attheecho.com.

CHECKED OUT: COLD WAR KIDS AT PROSP FRI NITE

Chris Ziegler — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 07:51:40 +0000

Secret ten-minute-warning Cold War Kids show at Prospector for free? Let it be, as the pros used to say: they were just packing up some stuff, said guitarist Jonnie Russell, and they really wanted to play, so karaoke interrupted and Cold War Kids follow “Push It” and “Don’t Fear The Reaper” with a set of all-new songs (from upcoming Loyalty To Loyalty, teased beautifully here and perfunctorily here) plus one Fugazi cover (“Furniture,” delivered ferociously) and one oldie (“Quiet Please”) which was nothing but a wisp of a demo the last time they played Prospector. Trainspotters will want to know: new songs (as not atypical for the wild-west Prospector mix) tonight were uniformly more fierce than the Kids of “Hang Me Up To Dry” or “Hospital Beds.” I was catching less of those instantly inviting choruses that made the peak points on Robbers and Cowards—don’t get grumpy because “Welcome To The Occupation” (introduced by singer and ex-teacher Nate as for “all the teachers”) transferred in that sturdy old charm, as did as another title-unknown that built everything from Jonnie’s gurning organ—and finding instead lyrics and music fit closely together to pursue something sharper and darker. (Will this be the “She’s So Heavy” album?) Nate (who already populates a lot of his songs with protagonists who could get temp roles in Jim Thompson stories) seems like he’s recruiting only the most anti of heroes for new songs like stand-out “Something Is Not Right With Me” and “Every Man I Fall For,” which gives Harry Powell a graveyard shift to go with his knuckle tattoos and (I think?) turns it into a love story. I’ve been very curious about the second album from this band ever since we talked just after their White Stripes tour got cancelled. I wouldn’t want to make a clinical assessment based on cheerful Prospector wildness for a crowd sometimes wondering why none of these songs had lyrics on the TV screen—though I heard at least one comment to the effect of who-that-they’re-good!—but tonight did not sound at all like more of the same, which is something I am heartened to hear. Next local show is Sunset Junction and album is out in September.

P-T UPDATES CONDITION OF LOWENTHAL STAFFERS AFTER COLLISION

Dave Wielenga — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 05:11:02 +0000

Heather Burke is the most-seriously injured of three members of Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal’s staff who were riding in a small car that was broadsided Friday afternoon by a bobtail truck that apparently ran a red light at Third Street and Atlantic Avenue in downtown Long Beach. Also injured were Ramon Aguilar and Chief of Staff Broc Coward. All were hospitalized. Press-Telegram staff writer Samantha Gonzaga supplies the latest details on the collision on the newspaper’s website tonight.

READER COMMENT ROUNDUP

Miles Clements — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:29:25 +0000

“Looks like ‘Surfer’ Dana didn’t lift a finger to push this measly request through - again.”
835 on NO FEDERAL MONEY FOR BREAKWATER THIS YEAR

“Long ago, there should have been a complete purge of everyone in city management with any kind of influence from the Hankla/Taboada/Miller years. Hell, PURGE HANKLA.”
Sam Lowry on MAYOR FOSTER AND HIS INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN

“The elected bretheren of Long Beach, are the ones who got the municipal government into this financial malaise.”
Juan Pardell on MAYOR FOSTER AND HIS INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN

“Thank you Rachel for publishing my story and the stories of my fellow veterans. It was truly an honor to be able to explain our stories to you and the community of Long Beach.”
Jeff Beauchamp on MEMORIALIZE THIS

“The RDA scumbags don’t give a damn about you or any other less than high rolling types. They WANT to get rid of anybody who can’t afford the glitz they love.”
Barricade Bob on ACRES’ BOOKS SALE STARTS THURSDAY

WORLD’S MOST EXPENSIVE TOILET?

Theo Douglas — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:00:38 +0000

Maybe there’s something I’m not understanding, but $89,000 buys you an automatic toilet. In Seattle.

According to the New York Times, which monitors such activity, the city of Seattle spent $5 million fours year ago to install five automated public toilets around town. Now it’s, well, shitcanning the whole project and selling the commodes on eBay.

Explains the Times‘ Christopher Maag: “Automated toilets have been common fixtures on European sidewalks for decades. But they have been less popular in American cities, where concerns including their appearance, cleanliness and tendency to attract illegal activity have slowed their installation.”

It’s true: visit the online auction site, and you’ll see them–scrubbed within inches of their lives, and gleaming. Here’s a link to the Pike Place Market toilet.

“The units clean themselves after each use, disinfecting the seats and power-washing the floors,” Maag writes. (What about sound-proofing?)

Trouble is, a use lasts 20 minutes–a time-frame some found irresistible.

“I’m not going to lie: I used to smoke crack in there,” a homeless woman told the Times, indicating the toilet behind Pike Place Market. “But I won’t even go inside that thing now. It’s disgusting.”

Regardless of their home-having abilities, people left so much trash in the toilets that the power-wash feature had to be disabled. And because of its own laws, the city couldn’t sell advertising space on the outsides of the toilet kiosks–forcing it to foot the whole $5 million bill.

And so, what worked in New York, Boston and San Francisco (sort of)–and what’s apparently been contemplated in Los Angeles–is being discontinued in Seattle.

The city paid the toilet maintenance company an additional $540,000 to end its contract early, and its toilets will flush their last on Aug. 1.

“Other cities around the world seem to be able to handle toilets civilly,” Seattle Councilman Richard McIver told the Times. “But we were unable to control the street population, and without the benefit of advertising, our costs were awfully high.”

JULY 18, 2008

Miles Clements — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:30:53 +0000

400 Blows: With Black Elk, Horns and Telomere Repair. $5. 21+.
ALEX’S BAR 2913 E Anaheim St, Long Beach 90804. 562.434.8292; alexsbar.com.

Wine tasting: The wines of Latin America. 4pm-8pm.
VIN DE PAYS 252 Elm Ave, Long Beach 90802. 562.495.4499; vindepayswines.com.

Of Mice and Men: Steinbeck on stage. 8pm.
LONG BEACH PLAYHOUSE 5021 E Anaheim St, Long Beach 90804. 562.494.1014; lbph.com.

Darker My Love: Plus Crystal Antlers. 8:30pm. Free.
THE ECHO 1822 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles 90026. attheecho.com.

Sound!: Inspired by the Beatles to the Chemical Brothers.
{OPEN} 2226 E Fourth St, Long Beach 90814. thestoryofopen.com.

HAULS FROM THE ACRES OF BOOKS SALE

Chris Ziegler — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:34:09 +0000

There was a little line at Acres of Books at 10 AM sharp today—people already ready to make the first picks from the two million books now set to sell (or else) as the landmark bookstore officially begins its slow but so far dignified death. As long as you didn’t look around and imagine the first bulldozers punching through those old walls sometime in the next few months, it wasn’t too sad, though there’s plenty of righteous anger among the customers. (Except the one who stuck his head in and asked, “Is this a used bookstore?”) I even met the man who put LOWENTHAL 451 on the back of Acres—he identified himself only as “Agent J” and slipped back into the stacks after I shook his hand. He may be there even now. I would like to share my buys today in the hopes others may head down there. I left a first-edition P.K. Dick biography, a bio of Little Richard, a Ring Lardner collection, some French foto-comic mags, bunch of SF paperbacks and more in a stack as big as the one I carried home. I asked one publisher I met today if there was any happy aspect to the demolition of Acres of Books, and he said: “For me the only bright side to this is that there was—and this will sound a little poetic—but there was an enchanted place like this that I could come to for over fifty years, and I still have the treasures I bought, and those treasures and the memories of where I got them will survive.” My most recent below:

(no title itals for speed listing)

Kingsley Amis (ed.) ‘Spectrum’ (first ed. pb 1961)
Isaac Asimov ‘Asimov’s Mysteries’ (first ed.? hb 1968?)
Isaac Asimov (ed.) ‘Where Do We Go From Here?’ (first ed. pb 1973)
Jerome Bixby ‘Space By The Tale’ (first ed. pb 1964)
Leigh Brackett ‘The Long Tomorrow’ (first ed. pb 1955)
John Brunner ‘Double Trouble’ (first ed. pb 1969)
John Brunner ‘The Long Result’ (first ed. pb 1966)
John Brunner ‘Out Of My Mind’ (first ed. pb 1967)
John Brunner ‘Stardroppers’ (first ed. pb 1972)
John Brunner ‘Web Of Everywhere’ (first ed. pb 1974)
John Brunner ‘The Whole Man’ (first ed. pb 1964)
Carleton Case ‘Case’s New Book of Conundrums and Riddles’ (first ed. 1927)
Thomas Disch ‘Echo Round His Bones’ (first ed. pb 1967)
F. Scott Fitzgerald ‘The Crack-Up’ (first ed. pb 1956?)
Peter Fonda et al. ‘Easy Rider’ (first ed. pb 1969)
H.L. Gold (ed.) Bodyguard (first ed. pb 1962)
Albert Goldman ‘Freakshow: Misadventures in the Counterculture 1959-1971′ (reprint 2001)
Imagination, October 1958 issue (w/Harlan Ellison’s ‘The Assassin’)
Noel Keyes (ed.) Contact (first ed. pb 1963)
Donald Keyhoe ‘Flying Saucers Are Real’ (first ed. pb 1950) (awesome find — cz)
Keith Laumer ‘The Monitors’ (first ed. pb 1966) (dedicated to Harlan Ellison)
Salazar Monroy ‘The Sacred City of Cholula’ (1954 gov’t pamphlet?)
The Philistine, March 1911 issue (’A periodical of protest’)
William Sambrot ‘Island Of Fear’ (first ed. pb 1963)
Various ‘Transit Of Earth’ (first ed. pb 1971)
Nathaniel West ‘Day of the Locust / Miss Lonelyhearts’ (fifth ed. pb 1962)

That’s the first sack. I got another I’ll do later.

ONE MORE REASON TO HOOF IT

Jeff Gould — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:02:04 +0000

According to WalkScore.com and TheDailyGreen.com, Long Beach is one of the 10 most walkable cities in America.

From Walk Score, “52% of Long Beach residents have a Walk Score of 70 or above. 85% have a Walk Score of at least 50—and 15% live in Car-Dependent neighborhoods.”

I have no idea what that means, but it sounds pretty good. So now you have one more reason to hoof it on your next trip to work/the store/the rubber tree/the beach, but you probably drove today, huh? Look at you sitting there, smelling of non-renewable energy sources and greed. You don’t even care do you? You’re not going to walk today, or any other day are you? You disgust me.

(Photo Used Under Creative Commons License - by Mugley on Flickr)

MICHAEL COOPER

Daniel de Boom — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:23:27 +0000

Lakers legend Michael Cooper with the Sparks at Trader Joe’s.