Lights. Camera.

I only saw the lights and camera today, but no action.

Some movie was being filmed next door to our office today. It isn’t out of the ordinary to see such things around here, especially where we live in Malibu. Still, for a guy who grew up in small town Arkansas, I always find it interesting.

You learn a couple things with time, too. You can know when a movie is filming on location by noticing some discreet signs posted at intersections leading the necessary parties to the right place. The signs consist of some random word and arrows – the random word is meant not to attract the attention of sightseers. The signs blend in, looking sorta like a yard sale sign.

Today’s sign said “biscuit.” It is obvious that there isn’t a Southern boy convention in town. If you don’t want to attract a crowd of sightseers, you best not dangle the prospect of biscuits in front of a bunch of Southern boys.

Anyway, nothing of substance to write today. Just that I find it cool to live in Los Angeles. And that I’m suddenly hungry for a biscuit.

Riddle Me This?

Explain to me how telling a new welfare recipient in a welfare-to-work program that she has to skip her college summer school class tomorrow to attend an orientation on how to secure permanent employment someday helps anyone?

Here is my first piece of advice for someone trying to secure future permanent employment: DON’T SKIP YOUR COLLEGE CLASSES!!!

Sheesh, I’m a patient guy, but sometimes I think I should check into immigrating to Mars.

My new Armenian friend moved to the U.S. from Iran just over a year ago. She has a math degree and is trying to develop the credentials she needs here to teach in a community college setting. She had been waiting for over 2 1/2 hours when I met her. All in all, it took 5 hours to complete the entire process, only to find out at the end that she was supposed to be back at 8:30am for the job hunting orientation. Her summer school class is from 7:30am-10:30am Monday through Friday.

We fought with the DPSS folks for a while, only to learn that there is no way to do any of these orientations at any time other than 8:30am. The only thing we accomplished was getting it postponed for a couple of weeks in the hopes that her professor might be understanding with a little notice (she doubted it, but sometimes punting is the best option available).

In the meantime, I’ll just have to wonder if there is a rational answer to my riddle.

I’m not holding my breath.

The Soloist

After Homeless Court this past Thursday, I went with several fellow law clerks to an old movie house in Pasadena for a matinee showing of The Soloist. I loved it. Great, great movie. It may be too late for anyone who has missed it to catch it on the big screen, but when it comes out on DVD I’d highly encourage everyone to check it out.

It isn’t often that you get a full-fledged movie to define an entire summer of your life, but for those of us working in Homelessness Prevention at Public Counsel, The Soloist does a pretty good job of capturing our 2009 summer.

The Soloist does a nice job of communicating the problem of homelessness in Los Angeles. Specifically, it does a terrific job of communicating the HUGE incidence of mental illness among the homeless as well as how hard it is to combat that problem.

But in the end, what I liked best was that it didn’t claim to be a movie with secrets on how to change the world. Steve Lopez is not portrayed as Nathaniel Ayers’ savior. Instead, it is the story of an unlikely friendship. And how friendships across social chasms may be the most beautiful thing we can create.

Cool Hillary Link!

All who know my daughter, Hillary, will get a kick out of THIS LINK. Remember last week’s dance performance when we discovered that Heather Locklear & Richie Sambora’s daughter is in her class? Well, I stumbled across a website that sells paparazzi pics to celebrity magazines, and this link has a BUNCH of pictures that have Heather, Richie, and HILLARY in them!!! Looks kinda like she’s theirs.

Birthday Party Fun!

Hillary will turn twelve years old this week, but today was the day to party. I don’t know if hanging out with ten pre-teen girls sounds appealing to you or not, but Jody & I will tell you that it was a great way to spend today.

Jody was the hands-down hero today, having planned everything and all. One of her extra smooth moves was to recruit her friend, Kate, to help out, and Kate was wonderful. I don’t think we could have done it without her.

The party began in Alumni Park where we divided the girls in two teams for a scavenger hunt all over Pepperdine’s campus. This team went with Kate…

The other team went with me…

Along the way, we picked up items we had to add to our wardrobe, and yes, even though I was the only member of the male species along for the trip, I too got to add a hula skirt and wrist leis to my outfit. Darn, we didn’t end up with any pictures of that. Oh well, I’m sure you can use your imagination.

We eventually made our way back to our apartment complex where we enjoyed grilled things, cake/ice cream, presents, a little Pink Panther 2 on DVD, and a bunch of made-up games.

One of Hillary’s friends is a world-class gymnast. We’re hoping we’ll see her in the Olympics soon. Jody & I enjoyed just watching her show off her flexibility while hanging out with the girls.

I think you can spot her in this picture…

And see if you can notice her pose in this one…

Here is the whole gang at once…

Here is Hillary at present time…

Here she is at cake time…

And last but not least, with full credit to Kate for snapping this one, here is my favorite picture of the entire day…

The Day After

So my office this summer is three miles from Hollywood, and since I got out of work early today I thought I’d run up to Hollywood and see if I could get a picture or two of the memorials that formed around Michael Jackson’s star on the Walk of Fame. Okay, that was a mistake. It is a little crowded around there.

The picture above shows how close I got to taking a look. If I had an extra hour or two to spare, I could’ve fought my way up and had my chance to visit the star. But to tell the truth, I never was that big of a fan.

On the positive side, I might be on CNN tonight. I’ll be the bald guy taking this picture of reporter, Richard Quest.

I took Sunset Boulevard home and drove past the house that will long be famous as the place where Michael Jackson died. Police have the entire street blocked off today, but one day I will stop and take a picture of it, too.

I know, so many folks are saying that this shouldn’t be such a big deal. And, of course. We can say that every single day when it comes to celebrity anythings. But the truth is that it is a big deal. Celebrities get a certain level of attention, mega-celebrities get an extra level of attention, and the untimely death of mega-celebrities get an extra, extra level of attention. Welcome to the untimely death of a mega-celebrity.

Part of this phenomenon is that celebrities become a part of our families in some ways. People peruse the obituaries to see if they know anyone, and when it comes to celebrities, LOTS of us know them. In this case, you must add to the mix the strangely powerful medium of music. Songs shape our lives on a spiritual level, and Michael Jackson performed many of the songs that composed the melody of many of our lives.

I do not own an iPod, and I was never much of a music collector. I did own one of the King of Pop’s cassettes way back in my high school days. I think I bought “Bad” because of one song: Man in the Mirror. It is easily my favorite Michael Jackson song. In addition to the beauty of the music, I loved the message of the song – “If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself, and then make a change.”

I wonder if my decision to preach was shaped by lyrics like that song? I wonder if my later decision to leave that profession and go to law school came from that same thought? You never know with music, but I know that the philosophical offering of those lyrics are part of the fabric that makes me “me.”

Michael Jackson was an odd one. Talented. Controversial. Unforgettable.

But he sure left the world with music, and no matter your opinion of him, I for one am grateful for what he left us.

Quite a Day

First, Farrah Fawcett, and then Michael Jackson. Two celebrity deaths are big news around the world, and especially here in Los Angeles. The famous actress died in Santa Monica, about fifteen miles from our apartment, and the King of Pop died at UCLA Medical Center, about twenty miles from here. It might be poor form to talk about traffic at a moment like this, but I’m glad my work had me in Pasadena today – Jody heard that traffic was horrible on my normal route home because of these sad events.

Many of my fellow clerks and I went to the Salvation Army in Pasadena today to participate in Homeless Court. Let me explain the premise.

One of the problems faced by many homeless people is unpaid tickets. You may or may not be surprised to know that many homeless people in L.A. are given multiple tickets for such nefarious activities as illegal use of a milk crate (sitting on it), illegal use of a shopping cart, the storing of personal possessions on a sidewalk, and jaywalking. When the homeless person is unable to pay the ticket, it transforms into an outstanding warrant. Then, when the individual tries to get a license, a bank account, a job, or an apartment, they are denied based on their police record. It becomes an inescapable cycle of trouble.

Well, not necessarily inescapable, thanks to Homeless Court. Homeless Court works with people who have completed 90-day transition programs and simply wipes the record clean, giving these folks a chance at success. Today was a glorious day for over fifty such people in Pasadena, and I got to represent three before the judge.

Jimmy had knee surgery two days ago, has turned in over a hundred job applications unsuccessfully because of six outstanding tickets totaling over a thousand bucks, and is ready to get to work even with a crutch under one arm. Sondra is a single mom living in a slum hotel with her boys, unable to secure permanent housing for her family (and get a job) because her record includes tickets received when living on the streets after losing her house to foreclosure. Marshall was homeless and on the waiting list for ten years for Section 8 housing before getting his own apartment, but afterwards, tickets led him to lose his license and left him unable to secure permanent employment.

I got to stand beside Jimmy, Sondra, and Marshall today and see “the system” treat them well for the first time in a long time. It was one of my greatest honors.

(Note: Several of my clerks and I went to see “The Soloist” after Homeless Court, but I’ll have to save my movie review until tomorrow.)

How Did They Miss Us?

Somehow Us Weekly missed Jody and I and had to settle for this picture of Heather Locklear and Richie Sambora at Hillary’s dance performance last weekend. It must have been our disguise. Here is the link.

All Sorts of Interesting People

So I’m in a DPSS office in Compton today, and I start to think about some of the interesting characters I’ve seen over the last few weeks.
* Today, there was a guy who kept slapping himself on top of his head. I don’t know why. At first, from the back, it looked like he was trying to pull off that old test of patting his head and rubbing his belly, but on closer inspection he just had this habit of slapping himself on top of the head repeatedly.
* Yesterday, there was a little old lady on Skid Row (picture an African-American Rose from Golden Girls), and one of our associates reported back to me that this 65-year-old lady thought she was 40 years old, mostly because she was convinced the Russians were turning back time.
* My favorite guy was on Skid Row a couple of weeks ago wearing a pirate’s hat and eyepatch. Nothing to report from him, just a guy living this life wearing a pirate’s hat and an eyepatch. I liked him immediately.

I’m sure I will have a collection of interesting folks to report on over the course of the summer, but beyond the little smile the stories bring to our faces, the reality is much more tragic than fun. Over half of the homeless in L.A. have some type of mental illness, and only 19% of that group are receiving treatment of any kind. I cannot imagine even the most hardened “homeless people are lazy” type of person thinking that the mentally ill deserve to be homeless.

Can you imagine what it’s like to try to navigate “the system” when you have the combination of mental illness and homelessness? Although we live in a country that does have a significant amount of resources for the mentally ill, getting the people in need matched up with those resources is… well… it’s just that the devil is in the details.

Literally.

Miguel

Miguel is intelligent, well-dressed, from a prestigious law school, and a summer associate at a large L.A. firm. Today, he was asked to be an advocate for the poor at a social services office on Skid Row. He, like his fellow associates, did a great job of approaching the clientele and doing what he could to help.

Late in the afternoon, Miguel came to me and my fellow supervisor, Julie, about a young lady who had been told some suspect information from the office workers. Miguel started to fill out an inquiry form when Julie noticed the young lady had left the office with her two male friends. Miguel informed us that he knew she was going to leave, and we suggested he might want to catch her to see if we could provide her with some help this afternoon, so he gave chase.

Soon, Miguel came back with the young lady, filled out the form, and submitted it for her. Before long, they were called to meet with the office staff. When Miguel came back to us, he had a huge smile and told us that they got her the money she needed today!

I’d love to have a picture of the happiness on Miguel’s face. I heard him say, almost more to himself than the rest of us, “Man, that feels good.”

Yes, it does. No matter who you are or where you come from, the ability to successfully stand up for someone who doesn’t have the ability to stand up for herself is a privilege that carries with it a feeling like no other.

I’m glad Miguel got to feel that feeling today.