Mary Jane to the rescue

It is an uneasy embrace that comes with frequenting a certain chain of coffee stores and thus supporting a huge corporate entity – but I admit I succumb to their lattes (which I happen to really like) and the free WiFi and the guaranteed social gathering I can be part of once I sit at my table at one of their many many manifestations. Those corporate coffee shops take blatant advantage of the weakness of the American inner city that has lost its ability to be a place for people to walk and hang out and interact in a public space - without the need to shop. An ability that European and Mexican cities still have, a tradition of a market square, a place where you can sit, inside or outside, watch people, chat, read, for hours on end. Or a Cafe where you know the guy behind the bar, where the afternoon turns into evening, where the same people hang out and you develop a feeling of connectedness by just seeing that “that guy” is there as well. Life in your ‘hood, your Kiez.
Traces of that can be felt during an afternoon at a, I dare say that name, Starbucks. People need to connect, feel part of the social fabric of their city. And yet it is just not like an afternoon at a Cafe in Berlin. Too many plastic cups and cops and deal makers with guaranteed money schemes in loud conversations. My afternoons at Starbucks are an eternal search for the feelings of ease I have in those coffee shops of Europe where I wouldn’t dare sit down with a laptop and write. Too pretentious in my German world.
But here’s something that made me reevaluate the dread of supporting a corporate profit scheme because of my need for social connectedness (and yes, there are privately owned coffee stores I go to as well). L.A. – city of surprises. Ta-ta!!! Starbucks isn't really all that ubiquitous. There are more marijuana dispensaries in this city than there are Starbucks coffee shops, a public TV show just revealed. Estimates say over 500. Triumph of pot. Not that I have any need for it. But those dispensaries are legal in California, because they are meant to be medical marijuana clinics. Yet their growing numbers in this city are quite impressive. Permits are free with little enforcement on how the business is run. It’s a funky little snafu that no one in the city government has yet the willpower to tackle. So it gives me the giggles albeit being sober. Step back Starbucks. Feels like living in Amsterdam. Sometimes the people just do it their way. And of course the new man in the White House is also at fault. This legalized distribution is still against federal law, but he made it known that he won’t prosecute the medical marijuana law in California at the moment, something Bush Light wanted to do (That's a name some one at a conference not too long ago came up with when referring to No.41, Bush Classic which makes in turn his son Bush Light). So Pasadena Patriots, get ready, here’s another dramatic fault in the system. Dress up as your favorite 60s Hippie and get cracking.

worker's day

As I write this sitting at my desk I wish I was in Pasadena. I should be there but work keeps me stationary. And Friday traffic, which can be quite abysmal, miserable and sometimes...non-existent. The mysteries of LA. I know for fact that every day there is a magic hole in the traffic that lets you zoom through, despite the odds. Last week I've found it, I made it in 35 minutes from Universal City to Santa Monica in the thick of the afternoon. I was prepared for stop-and-go and went 65 with an extra half hour to kill upon arrival. Where else do they give you back time? As far as I know though nobody has ever really found out when or where to find the hole in the traffic. So I can't risk going on a freeway now. I am too late already.
I digress. Pasadena. May First. International Labour Day. Where I come from this is a nice little holiday at the beginning of spring. Schools, banks, stores, offices are closed, obviously - we celebrate the hard work of the working class. It deserves its day off. Lots of demonstrations and union rallies, opportunities to show those capitalists that the people they have working for them are watching and organizing and making sure it is all fair and dandy. Or complaining that it's not. Ah the good old European ways where the workers find strength in numbers, fight exploitation, poverty and inequality. The street belongs to them and that is good, on that day. It relates to a tradition of socialistic ideas, that as far as I can see, are in today's climate just that, ideas and ideals of a more just society. An important asset in the dialogue about how to distribute the wealth generated in each community of a nation. Nothing unusual and with a history of societies whose attempts at real existing socialism failed without doubt, no one raises an eyebrow over the idea as such.
Now I live in a country that has its own weird idea of socialism. I think when people say socialism here it has nothing to do with anything in existence but a lot with some dusty ideas of people who are immune to history. Whatever socialism is synonymous for to them plays formidably into the hands of people who like to make lots of money without payback to those who put their sweat into it. So the Pasadena Patriots are probably quite indicative of that particular subgroup of Americans who have socialism-panic. They are using, right now, this May Day for a rally to protest the "current path to socialism" they see in this country and the state of California. "The Pasadena Patriots encourage citizens to join the Pasadena May Day rally and fight for capitalism, a free-market, lower taxes, lower regulations, less government and freedom of the individual." Now there's a rally invitation you could not get away with in Kreuzberg (which is a district in Berlin with its own 22 year old history of May 1 rallies, a very peculiar ritual which often requires throwing rocks at policemen in riot gear).
But the funky fresh take on Labour Day would not have made me want to watch those patriots in Pasadena. Neither the odd out-datedness of their concepts. It was the last sentence on the invite: "Participants are encouraged to dress like your favorite Communist dictator." Whou-hou! Pretty funny those Republicans under threat of Socialism. Too bad, would have liked to photograph that. Bummer. Hope my work day is off soon...