Work it out, shake it little momma

C-philly,

I felt like I was back working for UCLA Live again last night because I got a free ticket through my office to see a performance. Just like all those times you would meet me at Royce Hall to see a show and flirt with the box office manager (okay, I was the only one who did that) and we’d go to the donor lounge where Daniel wouldn’t remember your name even though he saw you there three times a week, munching on magic bars and gulping wine before the big spenders came in because you were working two jobs and hadn’t had time for dinner. And you would proudly show me your shoes, because I had made a rule that you couldn’t wear flip-flops to events because I worked there and had a reputation to uphold. After the show I would drive you to your car in the Expo parking lot below Ralphs and wait for you to walk into the lot and drive out, and then you’d call me on your cell phone to tell me there was a good song on Indie 103.1 (or STAR 98.7, we didn’t discriminate) and we’d talk on the 10 West until we drove up to our respective apartments (which were eventually the same apartment). Man, if I didn’t know us I might think that was weird.

So last night I got to see Howard Zinn and a group of actors do readings from his book Voices of A People’s History of the United States with Anthony Arnove. You would have loved it! Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States has been on my reading list for a long time, and now I have to add his Voices book. Zinn came out and made numerous jokes about the president and he talked about how the history taught in schools is limited to that of the presidents and business leaders and other dead white men. He was then joined by actors on stage for a dramatic reading. Marisa Tomei, Lucille Clifton, N. Scott Momaday, Ruben Martinez, Kerry Washington and Jane Fonda came on to give life to the words of Frederick Douglass, Emma Goldman, Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, Black Elk and Cindy Sheehan. Ruben Martinez read a North Star editorial from 1848 against the Mexican-American war, and the descriptions of the government’s imperial motives sounded eerily similar to things we hear today. Cindy Sheehan’s speech, given the day before she camped in front of Bushy’s vacation home last summer and read last night by Jane Fonda, was incredible. It was one of those nights that made you want to run out and protest something. It was also nice to be surrounded by so many liberals -- it felt like California! Jane Fonda was seriously amazing, never mind that every time I hear her name I think of the "Jane Fonda" song by Mickey Avalon that you sent me (“you could see her ass from outer space/ so I landed on the planet/ and planted a Mickey Av flag dammnit”).

I left the event charged up but was disappointed when I realized I couldn’t call you to discuss it. Before it gets me too upset again I’ll go back to another memory of a time you hung out with me for the free tickets. We went to dinner at Enzo’s, which may not have been the best idea because the cheese on their pizza always does me wrong. I lived through the meal and we drove your car to Lot 3 for a show at the Freud. We still had our Styrofoam soda cups from Enzo’s and then realized we also had an open bottle of white wine Daniel had sent home with me since we hadn’t used it all up in the lounge…. Yes, we poured white wine into our soda cups and drank in your car, and then took them to the courtyard in front of the theater and drank wine until the show started, so proud because no one knew what we were doing! I can’t remember which play we saw that night, but the dinner and drinks were awesome.