“Waiting for Tsunami”

The message was posted on my Siberian-Angelino friend Sasha’s Facebook wall. My Exurbian-Malibu cousin, Jennifer’s, posted Tsunami watch updates on her Facebook wall, as well.

My anti-social-media dad left me a concerned voicemail warning yesterday. Uncertain, due to my transient existence, which coast I would actually be on when the anticipated Tsunami hits, he also warned of the foot of snow on the ground, waiting to greet me in NYC.

How are residents of California –the state hit hardest, first by the recession and now the upcoming 40% health insurance hike– bracing up for the supposed seismic sea wave headed their way?

Is it concern for our own shorelines or is it a sense of connectedness to the recent Chilean tragedy that has us hovering in anticipation or is it anxiety or the upcoming Health Care Reform legislation?

Went to see Mr. & Mrs. Fitch with my friend, J. Hotham the other night. While, it was impossible not to love the tender yet jaded but still lovingly crafted characters, I was constantly distracted by playwright, Douglas Carter Beane’s limited understanding of social media.

From Susannaspeier.com

Its not like everyone has to follow every subtle nuance of the perpetually fluctuating world of social media. Given the fact it was the literal as well as metaphoric world of the play, however, couldn’t Beane have solicited the assistance of a slightly more tech savvy dramaturg? If that wasn’t in the budget, all he’d have needed to do was offer up free lattes and he’d have had a swarm of geeks at his beckon call in no time flat.

Lithgow as Fitch on Twitter

John Lithgow portrayal of Mr. Fitch was sublime. No surprise there. Had the guy been a Brit, he’d have been knighted years ago. But once again, I couldn’t help but be hopelessly distracted by his character’s Twitter dismissives:
I inhaled/
I exhaled/
which do you like more — inhaling or exhaling?
Twitter characterization.

From Susannaspeier.com

How could Lithgow’s character –a journalist whose success had bought him a luxury loft in a great neighborhood–  not have known better.

The First Thing Mr. & Mrs. Fitch Would Have Known About

The epic paradigm shattering, “arrested” Tweet that photojournalism student James Buck sent his followers in April 2009 from the backseat of a police car headed towards the Nile Delta city of Mahalla, Egypt! Not only did this epic tweet succeed in alerting the US State Department –who  arranged diplomatic intervention that would lead to a subsequent tweet of “Free” in less than 24 hours–  it defined the vital role Twitter would play on future hotspot stages.

The Second Thing Mr. & Mrs. Fitch Would Have Known About

The New York Times hosted Social Media Week Crowdsourcing Panel and the upcoming Shorty Awards, (also scheduled to take place in the Times building). If this isn’t proof enough that the new era of journalism is now being championed and embraced by print journalism then Jennifer Preston’s @NYT_JenPreston recent appointment as New York Times Social Media Editor ought to be.

How To Fix All This

Had the playwright asked lead actor, John Lithgow @john_lithgow for a guided tour of the Twittersphere, the story that probes the delicious topic what happens when a credible journalist fabricates would likely have taken too ambiguous a route for its traditional narrative arc to sustain. Mr. & Mrs. Fitch, like the fictitious article the leading characters create are there to entertain, rather than draw their audience into a metaphysical Charlie Kaufmanesque quandary. An up to date depiction of how social media is changing print journalism might have therefore caused the genre’s hard drive to crash. Set the play sometime in late 2007 or even early 2008, however and the portrayal would have been relatively accurate.

Lithgow as Lithgow on Twitter

From Susannaspeier.com

Dad does not share his daughter’s enthusiasm for social media. In fact, if anything, its something he goes out of his way to avoid…

…this kinda stuff.

Imagine my surprise when my brother reported my Stepmother –in response to his new found obsession with the iPad– had come up with an idea gift for a gift for one of the most difficult people out there to get gifts for.

He’d been watching Steve Jobs video demonstration religiously.  Apparently, the name didn’t put him off. Nor did the fact that it wasn’t paper.

Analog History

It’s not as though Dad isn’t a computer person.  In 1984, thanks to my Mom, the Speier family was an inaugural Mac adapter. In the 90s, during my college years, Dad provided my first Powerbook and even pushed a modem on me when I had to clue as to…you know, back in the day…

As far as “pads” go (and, yes, its also difficult for me to resist the urge to insert the “maxi” prefix, punctuated by girlie giggles) for as long as I’ve known him, Dad’s been very particular about using those standard spiral bound reporter notepads he routinely purchases in bulk along with the NASA developed Fisher bullet shaped space pens he’s always used.  In other words, Palm Pilots, Crackberrys, iPhones — never held any appeal for my dad.

Yet, there was Stepmom, Mathilde, insisting that this is what Dad keeps talking about. So Mathilde and Bro and Sis-in-law (with little bean on the way) and me all chipped in and presumably, when these monolithic ten commandments becomes available in March or April or whenever it reaches D.C., Dad’s gonna be among the first.

Can you guess who that cute little baby in the photos is?

Can You Believe My Dad Doesn’t Trust Me With Digital Photos?

Far as Dad’s squeamishness about social media is concerned, I’d no idea why.

From time to time he is loathe to send digital pictures to me and says things along the lines of, “you’re not going to put that on Facebook, are you?” Its almost as though he harbors this fear that I might deliberately post an emberassing picture of him on my blog and it would end up all over the internet.

And why would I do a thing like that?  Especially on his birthday..give me SOME credit, okay?

Ohhhhh, whadda cute pudgie little baby…and whadda big head…ohhh, so, soooo cute…HI Dad!

Saint Valentine

St. Valentine’s Day –the day originally established to commemorate a priest who defied Claudius II to perform marriage ceremonies against the explicit orders of the tyrannical Emperor’s ruling that young men remain unmarried in order to maintain a strong army –is political in origin.

From Susannaspeier.com

Sex and Politics

The connections made between politics and Valentine’s Day in 2010 however, brings sex scandals to mind.  The public needs to know whether or not their elected officials are having extra-marital affairs as it could reveal a greater history of corruption. A sex scandal will affect public trust and and sometimes, as in the case of John Edwards, even destroy a political career.  Should politicians who are no longer even on the federal payroll continue to get this much media attention, though?

Former Rep. Charlie Wilson (D-TX)

Earlier this week, Amy Anderson, a high school friend, who I recently reconnected with through Facebook, posted Charlie Wilson’s obituary on her Facebook wall.  The retired Congressman’s heart gave out just four days before Valentine’s Day.

From Susannaspeier.com

Photo of the real Charlie Wilson taken a couple of years ago

Wilson, known as much for his womanizing as for his controversial politics, was played by Tom Hanks in the 2007 movie, “Charlie Wilson’s War.”

Mike Nichols’ and writer, Aaron Sorkin’s work on the film was nothing less than sublime in the way it rose above and beyond Hollywood’s pedantic tendency to enlighten the public with pre-packaged moral high ground conceits, wrapped in red tin foil and placed in heart shaped boxes with ribbons around the edge.

Amy, who had interned for Charlie Wilson a decade after events portrayed in the film took place, however, called my attention to other areas that had been, well, Hollywoodized. The buxom secretaries who were referred to as “Charlie’s Angels,” for example, were actually, “really smart” unlike the bubbleheaded bimbos Hollywood had taken the liberty to inflate.

From Susannaspeier.com

The Hollywood and the real Charlie Wilson story.

In honor of the late Saint Valentine as well as the late Charlie Wilson I am featuring Amy’s Politiku in this Valentine’s Day Politiku post.

Amy Anderson Politiku
known for his tales of
too much whiskey and women
but he did much more

Good Time Charlie drank
whiskey and fought soviets
Hanks played him too sweet

tall in suspenders
wearing a crooked toupee
a real deal Texan

Amy Anderson has had many jobs, but her first was an Intern for Charlie Wilson.

Brad MacDonald Politiku

Love and politics
accommodate the extremes.
What is your safe word?

Rebecca Lieb Politiku
Strippers and whores aren’t
on the valentines day tab
this year, Blackwater.

Brandon Ruckdashel Politiku
Obama and John
Were two sides of the same coin
A Hope turned to naught

From Susannaspeier.co

Mistress with child and John Edwards
Melissa Parrish Politiku
roses a good choice
for wife of an official.
what to get mistress?

Ken Wheaton Politiku
VD also stands
for venereal disease
so back off Cupid.

Wei Shin Politiku
South Carolina?
Nay, Sanford’s Valentine’s in
South America.

From Susannaspeier.com

Governor Mark Sanford

Much as I find the actions that brought about the sex scandals distasteful, I also fear the obsessive public fixation on them might be harming us more than we realize.

I wont pretend that sex scandals are less interesting than a 2,000 word health care overhaul bill. I will, however stipulate that if we recognize the collective tendency to turn sex scandals into media magnets and then make an active choice to only follow subsequent investigations if they serve the public interest, we could find a better use for our time and attention.

Susanna Speier Politiku
Okay, Congressman…
…bring back the Public Option
and I’ll sleep with you.

Pending approval by The Huffington Post’s editorial staff, the complete version of this article and several other fabulous Politiku on this topic will post on my Huffington Post Column as “Sex Scandal Politiku.”

Please follow @Politiku on Twitter, as well.

Friend went back into noodle place to retrieve forgotten hat. Man wearing a white apron salted the sidewalk around my feet. The patter of tiny clusters of salt crystals being sprinkled on freshly shoveled sidewalk. Wind gust. Umbrella that shields me from it turns inside out.

I haven’t laughed this hard at a Saturday Night Live sketch since Tina Fey played Sarah Palin.  It aired November 2008, during Obama’s visit to China, obviously…

Friend’s hat has now been retrieved. In the interest of full disclosure, I should probably mention that the Hollywood Studio being discussed –the one that resembles the Chinese government– has a name.

I’ve worked in and for several Hollywood Studios.  Have, at some point or another, been inside all the major ones.  What this means is that it’s not your studio my friend and I were comparing with the Chinese government — its the other one.

How does social media make you transparent?

From Social Media Week

Photo of @mameres and me taken by @holaphil (founder of @pegshot) following the @meebo sponsored Social Graph Optimization panel

Submission Deadline is Past.  Click here to read what ended up posting as “Social Media Politiku.”

Posted using ShareThis

Am concerned Kee-hap’s transition from Daniel and Jamie’s West Hollywood paradise to NY’s Arctic front when we head to NY tomorrow. And it’s more than just weather I’m concerned about.  Kee-hap a great traveler and makes friends wherever she goes so it’s not the social aspect I’m worried about either. It’s the ascent and the descent. Specifically, the part when her ears pop. I know the entire time its happening cause she wails and wails and its not like I can just tell her to swallow or chew gum or something.

From Daniel and Jamie’s

Really wish the airline would let me hold her during this part of the trip.  I mean, okay, I understand why cats need to fly in carrying cases because last time I flew with Kee-hap, I waited until the fasten seat belt sign had gone off and then opened the case just a little bit so I could pet her and try and calm her down after the ear popping trauma and before I knew it, Kee-hap was bolting down the aisle.  In order to retrieve her I actually had to ask row after row of passangers, is there a cat under your seat? as the flight attendant reprimanded me for endangering the lives of everyone on the flight (how this is possible given the fact that the cockpit has security doors?)  That wont happen tomorrow, though.

How sustainable is it?
What happens after the end of oil? and…
What if the internet doesn’t work?

From Exurbia

Max: I don’t care about the end of oil but without internet I’d die.

Hannah: We’d be completely alone in the world.

Lily: And we’d never, ever be able to meet anybody.  We couldn’t even call anybody.

Hannah: We wouldn’t be able to get out of Exurbia.

Lily: No, we wouldn’t be able to get out of Exurbia in our lives.

Max: We have seven Macs.

Jason: Eight Macs, with Max. 
(Jason is the dad, btw)

Max: Any my iPod Touch.

Jennifer: Who left the door opened?  We don’t want to leave the door opened because of snakes.  Rattlesnakes.  Saw a four foot long one the other day.
(Jennifer, is the mom)

And thanks to yours truly, you can now (as of yesterday) discuss Nick’s questions with each individual family member on his and/or her respective personal blog.  Here are their urls:

lilypiette.blogspot.com
hannahpiette.blogspot.com
outoftheboxorganics.blogspot.com
slowlifeadventure.blogspot.com
jasonpiette.blogspot.com

From Exurbia

Photo of Jason and Lily, blogging in Exurbia.

I asked my cousins Hannah (age 10), Lily (age 7) and Max (age 12) to blog with me about Malibu, Exurbia.  We started by taking turns typing Exurbia blurbs:

From Exurbia

Lily’s Exurbia Blurb - Exurbia is some where out of the city, it is some where were we live, it feels like your far away from shops, and anything. It looks like nothing but tree’s and wild all around you. the only other living things we see are wild animals. One wild animal could be a coyote, or a mountiain lion, or a deer.

From Exurbia

Max’s Exurbia Blurb - I don’t have much to say about living in Exurbia, except that it is not really Exurbia it’s isolated Exurbia. We are fifteen minutes away from any civilization.  We’re the Exurbia of Malibu.  Every town has its Exurbia.

From Exurbia

Hannah’s Exurbia Blurb - No, civilization is right down the road! There is a restaurant called Neptune’s Net, just 5 minutes away! The bad thing about living in Exurbia is that say, you don’t have any milk, and you have a biscotti, which is the only thing that you can eat in the house, you have no milk to dunk the cookie in, so the biscotti is rock hard! But the nearest grocery store is 15-20 minutes away, its not worth driving that much for a gallon of milk. Also, if you are a kid, you don’t have billions of neighbors who have kids to play with, so it is hard to meet new people.

From Exurbia

Susanna’s Exurbia Blurb - There’s a lot of light in Exurbia, and I like how you can diffuse it at different times of the day, and feel time pass.

From Exurbia

Hannah then pointed out that we still need to define Exurbia since readers might not know what Exurbia is. A good point given the fact I’d only learned about Exurbia yesterday when Nick Roberts, who designed the home with his wife, Cory Buckner, told me that living out here on the farthest edge of Malibu was living in Exurbia. So, I decided to transcribe our attempt to collaboratively define Exurbia. At Max’s insistence, I am putting “collaboratively” in quotation marks.

From Exurbia

The Definition of Exurbia

Hannah: I think we have to define what Exurbia is.

Susanna: Okay.  What is Exurbia?

Lilly: Exurbia is somewhere out of the city.

Max: Basically where nobody is.  A town that really isn’t because everybody moved into the suburbs.  It’s basically a ghost town.  Where nobody lives.  If Malibu was a heart, we’d have pins and needles.

Hannah: What?

Max: Because pins and needles is when you don’t have enough blood.  If Malibu was a heart and people were blood; we’d have pins and needles.

Hannah: Which is when you don’t have enough blood.

Max: What’s that sickness when you don’t have enough blood in your body or something?

Hannah: It’s not a sickness.  It’s just when your foot goes all tickly.

From Exurbia

Lily: Can I say something about Exurbia?

Max: This is amazing.  You’re just, like, writing.  She’s writing down everything we say.

Lily: Oh, I know what I wanna say.

Max: I like that I can say anything and everybody will read it.

Lily: Okay, I know what I wanna say.  Exurbia is.  Somewhere.  Where there’s basically no, um.

Max: The government should like hire you for those people at interviews who write down what the suspects say.

Hannah: Don’t interrupt Lily.  Otherwise this blog is going to get boring.

Max: You wrote down—

Lily: –now, nobody interrupt.  Okay this is what I’m gonna say.  Exurbia is somewhere where there’s no buildings or cars or streets or houses or pollution.

Max: Well, yeah there is.  It floats up.  You can see the smog from where we live.

Lily: uh.  and there’s gonna be.  there’s like.  no.  No traffic lights.  And there’s no grocery stores.

Max: And this place caught on fire as well.  Like a long time ago, though.

Lily: Max, don’t interrupt.  I’m trying to say something.

Max: Yeah, but you’re just blabbering on.

From Exurbia

Hannah:  Max, don’t interrupt please.

Max: You constantly interrupt me.

Lily: This is what I wanna say.  Just stop it Max.  I think that Exurbia is somewhere where there is nothing that you see in a city.

Max: It’s warmer here.

Hannah: No, no, no.

Max: No, no, no.  It depends on which suburbs.  Because we’re a suburb of Point Doom which is closer to the sea and the sea makes it cold.  It’s true.

Lily: Okay but this is what I wanna say.

Max: We’re also a suburb of a Thousand Oaks.  Which is much hotter than here.

Lily: This is what I say.  That Exurbia is nothing like a city.

From Exurbia

Hannah: You already did that.
Max: You said that already.

The People of Exurbia

Hannah: Okay.  I’m going to give my explanation of Exurbia now.  Exurbia.  Is basically the mountains or the desert where its the wilderness except for some occasional houses.  There are other people living in Exurbia.  We know two or three.  Like.  four.  We know a lot of people that live near us.  That also live in Exurbia.  It’s not like we’re the only ones here.  The whole mountainside full of people.

Max: Well….full

Hannah: Still quite a lot.  I think Lily and Max are exaggerating on how unpopulated Exurbia is.

Max: We may be exaggerating but you’re underestimating.

Hannah: There are many other Exurbias than our mountainside.  All over the world.

Lily: Okay, this is is.  Well, I think Exurbia.  Well, actually.  We.  I only know two people.

Hannah: I know much many.  I know one, two, three, four, five six, seven.
Max: Oh, seven’s a big number.  It’s just an itty, bitty…

Hannah: It’s just that you don’t know anyone, Max.

From Exurbia

Click here, if you’d like to read an earlier Hannah, Lily and Max post.

Click here to read their next adventure in Exurbia