PHOTO by DANIEL DE BOOM

Tues | Nov 6 So, it is agreed: the guy from Interpol sounds like what would happen if Ian Curtis of Joy Division and Fred from the B-52’s had a baby.

Wed | Nov 7 Resolved: The guy from The National sounds like what would happen if the guy from Interpol and David Hasselhoff—drunk, can’t-eat-a-burger-off-the-floor-to-save-his-life, David Hasselhoff—had a baby.

Thurs | Nov 8 The Press-Telegram reports that the Long Beach Veteran’s Day Parade has denied the application of three veterans groups to march in the parade. The groups—Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out and Veterans for Peace—are out because they oppose the current war in Iraq. Parade organizers say that a Veterans Day parade is no place for politics and I think we’d all rue the day when warfare gets mixed up with politics. Yes, it’ll be a sad day when the military and politics cross paths, as I think Presidents such as General George Washington and General Andrew Jackson and General Ulysses S. Grant and General Dwight D. Eisenhower would agree. Thing of it is, if parade organizers are convinced that these groups are going to make a ruckus it isn’t based on, oh what is that word, facts. Members of these groups marched in last year’s parades and did nothing except support and cheer for veterans, probably because THEY ARE VETERANS OR THE FAMILIES OF VETERANS. As Pat Alviso of Military Families Speak Out put it, if she were to protest during the parade “I’d be protesting my own son.” That would be the son who has served two tours of duty in Iraq.

Fri | Nov 9 Managing Editor Ellen Griley leads a fascinating life. For one, she’s an alumnus of Notre Dame, a university that, like clockwork, wins nearly one out of every 10 football games it plays. Two, she has interesting friends who land jobs in such exotic locales as Johannesburg, South Africa. In fact, here’s how one of those friends described South Africa: “South Africa is really hard to get around—like Los Angeles, except you can be carjacked at any point. Also, everyone’s from Alabama. And dresses like they’re from Cleveland.” Hey, why no love for L.A.? Oh yeah, because it’s lame. Not refuse-to-allow-veterans-to-march-in-a-Veterans-Day-Parade-lame, but lame enough for its city council to vote unanimously today on a symbolic resolution banning  the use of the “n-word” in the city. Isn’t it great that Los Angeles is such a well-run city with absolutely no problems when it comes to schools, crime or infrastructure that the city council has time to engage in meaningless exercises such as this? Next on the agenda: a non-binding agreement that cancer is often a “bad” thing. Also, a strongly worded, unsigned declaration speaking out against that icky feeling you get when you say “I love you” to someone and they answer by saying “Me too.” What is that?

Sat | Nov 10 The Long Beach Veteran’s Day Parade goes off without the three excluded groups, so apparently democracy has been protected from itself. You know, despite all the attention—we’ve written like 10 things about the parade and it’s been on the front page of the Press-Telegram the past two days, as well as the subject of local TV news coverage—when I arrive at the parade I realized this is just a small town parade, you know, the kind you might find in the Midwest or some place like La Palma . . . well, except La Palma, located in conservative Orange County, has invited the excluded veterans groups to march in their veterans parade. In Long Beach, organizers who were so adamant that politics not be a part of the parade (and that groups take no stand on the Iraq war) provide a free parade program that reads on its cover “One Team . . . . One Mission.” Hmmmm. That part about a mission sound familiar? I wonder if that mission was ever accomplished? Anyway, the non-political parade goes off—nine of the first 15 participants being politicians. The excluded groups showed up and did exactly what they said they would do all along, cheered long and loud for vets, just standing on the side. Two things that hit me while at the parade: one, the number of men, age 55-and older, who showed up by themselves wearing a cap, jacket or shirt designating their branch of the service and watched the parade grim-faced and tight-lipped, making it clear they didn’t want to talk to anyone. The other was the sweet young boy who kept yelping “Santa! Santa’s coming!” conveniently ignoring his mother who kept telling him this wasn’t that kind of parade.

Sun | Nov 11 Norman Mailer died over the weekend and for those of us who like to pretend we’re better read than we actually are, this is a sad day. Mailer’s big personality and willingness to share it on TV allowed us to reference him without referencing his work. Just mix in some phrases such as “macho narrative” or “two-fisted honesty” and you were good to go. Mailer also started the Village Voice—the first “alternative newspaper.” To be honest, I’ve never known what that term means, though, apparently, I’ve been working for alternative papers the last dozen years. So far, the only thing that I’ve noticed that distinguishes us from mainstream papers is that we’re willing to write with a two-fisted honesty that comes out of a literary tradition that includes Mailer’s Executioner’s Song. Great book; I find Charles Manson fascinating.

Mon | Nov 12 Say hey, and rest in peace, to Long Beach’s Laraine Day.

Tags: anti-war, interpol, Long Beach, norman mailer, the national, two-fisted honesty, Veterans Day