Disqus - Latest Comments for D. Peeve

Re: PROPERTY LINES IN THE SAND | The District Weekly

D. Peeve — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 14:39:45 -0000

So where do I sign up to use one of these decks—just the part extending over public land, mind you—for my friend's daughter's Quinceanera? Does Parks & Rec maintain a reservation list, or should I just get there early with my beach chair and tunes? Will a TV news crew help hold my reservation?

Re: HS FOOTBALL PREVIEW: WEEK 2 | The District Weekly

D. Peeve — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 16:42:55 -0000

WTF?????

Why are you covering high school football????

Re: LAKEWOOD THUMPS MAYFAIR

D. Peeve — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 17:51:09 -0000

Taking their cue from The District website's coverage of high school football, local educators today declared that high school athletics would henceforth be considered performance art.

"We zeroed out our athletics budgets and increased our expenditures on the arts by about a kazillion percent," said Bud "Bud" Jockstrap, Moore League Fine Arts Director. "Let's hear those whiny parents of uncoordinated kids complain about THAT!"

Jockstrap also said it was about time that high school dancers, musicians, ceramicists, photographers and painters recognized the superior artistry of the popular games of physical skill played by their schoolmates.

"Kids who want to create compelling portraiture or who aspire to play challenging Coltranesque solos in the jazz band are finally taking a back seat to the athletes," Jockstrap said. "The District got it right, and I hope our young people are listening: unless you're a boy exposing yourself to high risk of orthopedic and spinal injury as a member of a highly regimented team playing a violent game at the sub-sub-professional level, who cares?"

Local readers seconded Jockstrap's praise for The District's adventurous news coverage.

"That horendous Long Beach daily was where I used to find run-of-the-mill, insipid and soporific high school sports reporting--but not any more," said Myrtle Glunder, high school fine arts booster. "Now I can click on The District's website and save on the price of a newspaper subscription -- and still get all the dispensable news content I crave!"

Re: GRIFFINS RUN OVER BRUINS | The District Weekly

D. Peeve — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 18:53:31 -0000

In a move that caught everyone but discerning readers by surprise, The District today announced it will team its web-only coverage of high school football with web-only coverage of local dog fighting.

"Yeah, we know it doesn't have much to do with the arts or with cosmopolitan-socially-alert-affluent-and-influential-young-adult culture," said Vincent van Bubba, The District's strategic confusion editor. "What's your point?"

Acknowledging that The District's idea of a newsworthy event lately seems to be anything that draws a crowd, van Bubba said District editors are considering several other web-only features:

-- a web-only calendar of local gang jump-ins,

--a web-only column about traffic jams on the 405, and

--web-only round-the-clock coverage of really big holes in the ground -- "but only if our web-only reporters can differentiate them from other naturally occurring features," van Bubba said.

"Of course, our web-only reporters will continue to evoke that special feeling of nostalgia for lost youth among our editors," van Bubba said. "Whether they do it with bland beginner's writing, adolescent angst about building a resume, or just a short skirt -- doesn't matter."

Van Bubba also acknowledged that The District will continue to ignore and trivialize high school sports other than football. "Girls' athletics?" van Bubba said, suppressing a chuckle. "Isn't that an oxymoron?"

Re: VECTOR CONTROL | The District Weekly

D. Peeve — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 02:15:25 -0000

Sorry, but the Loweryster has it right. Maybe if Tiger were Jewish, Kelly Tilghman could have joked about the other members of the tour getting together and finding a "final solution" for him. Golf magazines could have run pictures of Auschwitz on their covers. My guess is that Kelly Tilghman has no African American friends with any sense of racial justice. If she did, I am sure they would have long ago set her straight about the "joking" use of the word "lynch." Tiger's wimpiness on this one is not surprising -- he has all along been blanding himself into a more perfect receptacle for our projections, his horrifically awkward shaving commercial notwithstanding. Oh, and Kelly, um . . . in case you don't have any Jewish friends, well . . . don't use that final solution comment, OK? That could get yourself into a whole genocide of trouble. . .

Re: VOTE, SCHMOTE | The District Weekly

D. Peeve — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 03:57:20 -0000

Allison, I'm sorry to hear about your grandmother's poor health--someone I love died recently and it's not easy. Are there things you can do such as visiting more, speaking to her more frequently, helping with accommodations to her living space, monitoring her health care? Small steps like these helped me deal with an awful situation and actually made things better for my loved one. Whatever you can do will help. Always ask yourself: Is there something you can do about it to make it better? and are you doing it?

I'm sorry to hear that you think rationalizing your avoidance of civic participation is the same as justifying it--even if it was to Chris Matthews. But is there something you can do about it to make it better? and are you doing it? (and how DID you swing a political-journalism-institute resume line while being staunchly against the point of political journalism? You must be good--this can only help you at the Britney/Paris Desk.)

I'm sorry to hear you're turning away from becoming a more courageous human being by focusing on commoditizing yourself. But is there something you can do about it to make it better? and are you doing it?

I'm sorry to hear that you think we now live in the best of all possible worlds. God knows our current political process, on darn near every level, can be enervating to encounter. But is there something you can do about it to make it better? and are you doing it?

(Putting all criticism of your shallow essay aside--have you been screened for depression? If your interest in politics disappeared around the same time your grandmother's health started to turn for the worst, this is a genuine possibility.)

Re: THE LAST PICTURE SHOW | The District Weekly

D. Peeve — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 12:10:19 -0000

It's been a pleasure to watch the Fourth Street Revival over the past decade. I always thought the Art had a tricky, tenuous connection to the rest of the street--the awkward older friend of the group that everyone thinks is cool without knowing why, other than being quirkily old. Though it is distinctly retro, I don't think it ever drove the revival--I think Portfolio gets the nod.

Speaking as a former resident of the area: back in the 80s the "real" imaginary permanent neighborhood boundary was Cherry, and I think it remains so today--if Van Dijs can bridge that, he will have pulled off something special. I hope he can do it, but I think he'll have a tricky balancing act to perform, scrubbing off just enough downscale demographics to do so without stretching the street into a stillborn pretender to its current fecund soul. Fourth Street is no longer fragile, but it's still a very subtle thing.

Re: VECTOR CONTROL

D. Peeve — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 12:40:57 -0000

Thanks for connecting the "Marriage Protection Act" and the tragedy in Oxnard. Unfortunately, power in this country--pastoral and political--usually flows to creators of the "inhuman," whether those "monsters" be nonbelievers, homosexuals, Democrats or Republicans. As of now, the deaths of experimenting 14 year olds, and the wasted futures of the frightened children who kill them, maintain our current political balance. And that's sickening.

Re: GORDON: CHAMBER USED ELLIS RECALL ‘TO RALLY THE TROOPS’ | The District Weekly

D. Peeve — Fri, 09 May 2008 21:00:56 -0000

Dave,

Your articles on this issue remind me of the story of the late night drunk (not a school board member) looking for his car keys under the streetlamp -- not because he lost them there, but because that was where the light was better.

Would a California Teachers Association-backed takeover of Long Beach schools be inconsequential for area families and children? It's a big union, Dave, far vaster in scope and power than the LB Chamber. Are our schools good? Bad? Based on your reporting, I have no idea. I don't think you do, either, and your articles suggest the topic doesn't interest you. Shouldn't it? Shouldn't you actually investigate whether or not Randy Gordon has a valid point, and either validate it or invalidate it?

Please stop with the sideman's easy riffing on spotlight hogs like Randy Gordon and start spreading some journalistic light on the sunshine-averse waterbugs who aren't nearly as forthright. If I haven't misjudged you, you're good enough to do stories on people and organizations who WON'T return your calls. (If you need a model, Steve Lopez in the L.A. Times does this routinely, and well.)

I luv ya, Dave, and I'll continue to read every word you write. But honestly . . .

Re: GORDON: CHAMBER USED ELLIS RECALL ‘TO RALLY THE TROOPS’ | The District Weekly

D. Peeve — Sun, 11 May 2008 12:29:56 -0000

Dave,

You're right about the Chamber's pronounced entry into local politics, and your coverage of it (yep, read every word) was valuable, important, unmatched by any other media outlet (daily or otherwise) and critical in every good sense of the word.

What's dismaying to me about your coverage of school board politics to date is any balance about the California Teachers Association's entry into our local politics. It is, and was, massive. The 2006 elections in which two CTA-backed candidates made the board, and a third narrowly missed (which would have given CTA control of our local schools) came about with massive CTA infusions of cash and an avalanche of outrageously deceptive campaign literature of a slickness and mendacity never before seen in Iowa by the Sea.

The CTA local here is still mired in financial doo-doo over this (and why hasn't the local district attorney looked into the financial mismanagement of the Long Beach teacher's union? The CTA babysitter comes here, orders up an audit, says there's nothing wrong here, and everyone believes it? and isn't it time by now for the babysitter to go home?)

Just frustrated with what looks from these seats like a blind spot in coverage. And I think it would make a fascinating Wielenga-type story. Are alternative weekly writers eligible for Pulitzers?

Re: I WANT TO FORGIVE KOBE … PLEASE TELL ME HOW YOU DID | The District Weekly

D. Peeve — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 21:48:12 -0000

Dunno, Dave -- sadly, the first step is to recognize that you have a problem that extends well beyond your feelings for a self-important, petulant, justice-purchasing multimillionaire athlete. If you don't do that, nothing else can help you with your anger.

If you genuinely want to put your Kobe hate aside, take the red pill and wake up. Recognize that, as a person who uses athletes as emotion receptacles, you are no longer a sports fan. You are a sports MEDIA fan, something actually harmful to your mental health. Eliminating your hatred of Kobe may be as simple as ceasing to be a sports media fan and becoming once again a sports fan.

To do this -- sorry, cold turkey. NO SPORTS MEDIA FOR YOU! Do two things for the remainder of the finals:

1. Attend all the games in person (heh-heh), or watch the games with the sound off--you know, like you're actually intending to watch the game, and

2. Don't read about the games or watch video clips or listen to audio about the games afterward. NO MEDIA! If you happen to miss a game, you are only allowed to learn about it by asking someone else to describe it to you. (This exercise will also help you to identify the sports media fans in your life -- their game accounts will be sketchy, incomplete and invariably histrionic. You'll want to listen to someone who actually watched the game.)

As you proceed through the finals, use the intensity of your feelings about Kobe as a guide to how deep a sleep you still need to wake from. When you finally see Kobe and his teammates and his opponents and his fellow professional athletes as corruptible humans, like all of us, but unlike us in their being ludicrously remunerated in an industry designed and callibrated by tailors working with invisible cloth, your anger will be gone. And, believe it or not, you'll still like basketball -- as basketball. And you'll like Mr. Bryant as a basketball player, which, media assertions to the contrary, is really all he is to you.

After awakening, you will discover many interesting things about people who choose to talk about sports with you. They will tell you exactly who they are, what they really think of the world, and what they really think about you, all without intending to. Be prepared for this flood of new information, which can at first be disorienting, but which will also allow you to play the best poker of your life. In fact, I'm playing Sunday, with some people I've never met who I'll be watching the game with beforehand. I like my chances.

Or you can take the blue pill and continue to slumber. It lets you stay in Wonderland, measuring out your life in the coffee spoons of ESPN's latest manufactured outrage and continuing to displace your emotions onto professional athletes who don't know you. You will likely find it even easier to converse about sports with others who want to sleep through life. Genuine human voices, however, will wake you to a watery death, so you'll want to stay away from those.

Dare to eat a peach! Or shall you wear your hate of Kobe and walk upon the beach? I hear the gamecasters calling each to each, but they do not call to me.

"If I thought my answer were given knowing you would certainly return as a sleeper to the sports world, I would not share it. But since never from this abyss of recognition has anyone ever returned thoughtless to a sports bar, without fear of infamy I answer you." (with apologies to Dante -- and that's Aligieri, not Culpepper)

Re: CONGRESSWOMAN LAURA RICHARDSON GETS HER HOUSE BACK? | The District Weekly

D. Peeve — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:10:28 -0000

If I were Richardson, I'd get Randy Gordon to launch a recall, call me a disgrace, bad example to children, worst elected official in LB history, the works.

Job Security City, baby!

Re: FIRST HALF OF LONG BEACH ART MUSEUM AUDIT IS HERE | The District Weekly

D. Peeve — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:26:32 -0000

This just shows you how impoverished of imagination the local art scene is.

What needs to happen is for the management under investigation to organize as a teachers union, hire Gerrie Schipske as its legal counsel and offer to buy her all the campaign posters she wants for her next election.

This strategy worked at TALB, where much of the same kind of activity took place (according to the California Teachers Association's internal audit), but where no criminal investigation has been launched.

Thousands of local teachers are still wondering how much of their dues were misappropriated by management there. Maybe none, maybe a boatload.

I bet Gerrie knows--but she ain't talkin'.

See how it works?

Re: FIRST HALF OF LONG BEACH ART MUSEUM AUDIT IS HERE | The District Weekly

D. Peeve — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:12:08 -0000

In honor of my favorite Caller of Bullshit, here are The Seven Words You Can't Say to Describe the Audit of TALB Management While G. Schipske Served As Legal Counsel:

1) INDEPENDENT -- The audit was arranged and paid for by either TALB or the California Teachers Association. In Law School 101 and Journalism School 101, these are known as "interested parties," those who would benefit from having an audit turn out a certain way. Interested parties are not automatically good sources of credible information. An investigation by law enforcement or an independent regulatory agency could be seen as independent and would be more credible. This has not yet occurred.

2) LAUDATORY -- Compromised as it was by direct union sponsorship, the audit concluded (if memory of press reports serves) that there was "egregious" management behavior. EGREGIOUS, as in "conspicuously bad." I could be wrong, but I believe press reports included such details as management personnel writing checks to themselves, critical financial records going missing (wonder where they went . . . ), and so on. The union-sponsored audit did conclude, however, that such actions did not rise to the level of criminality. Maybe Gerrie Schipske thinks this means the audit gave management a clean bill of health. Those of us in a reality-based world might think the audit actually said management was conspicuously bad, and accounts certainly left the impression that worse behavior could have occurred but could not be documented or proven in a court of law due to those pesky records going missing.

3 & 4) FULLY DISCLOSED -- As far as I recall, all media reporting of the audit results was based entirely on interviews of the CTA trustee brought in to assume control of a union waylaid by egregious management. I don't recall a single news story actually quoting from an audit report. They were all based on quotes attributed to a very interested party -- the CTA trustee. While this is egregious journalism (and I'm talking primarily about the P-T here, I don't think The District was following the story), it was also, on the face of it, superlative media management by the trustee who was faced with having to turn around some egregious union management. "You want to SEE the audit report? Sorry, no can do. But, hey, let me tell you about it . . ." Anyone else see a problem with this?

5) EXONERATING -- Word on the street says the audit didn't even bother to name names, just referred to "management" as the target of its investigation. So here's the beauty part -- as long as there is more than one person working as management, anyone in management can claim exoneration: "Wasn't me," you say. Fact is, this is how I keep alive my flicker of belief in Gerrie Schipske as a politician of some occasional courage and value. i see her take some courageous stands on the Council from time to time and it's hard to square that sense of her with these accounts of egregious union management. But still -- is it exonerating to stand tall and say "Yes, I was a party to conspicuously bad management?"

6) PUBLIC -- I'm not sure about this one, but -- has this audit been made public? or even available to the media? As I mentioned, I don't think a single news account acknowledged the reporter actually receiving such a document. CALLING WILL SWAIM -- thousands of honest, credible, fair-minded local teachers could be the best ambassadors The District will ever have if they can count on you to give them the first unbiased account of what actually took place. They haven't gotten that account yet. I understand that this story may be a few months past its expiration date, but couldn't you just report what happens when you look up the P-T stories and request this audit report and see if it squares more with my understanding of events or more with Gerrie Schipske's clean-bill-of-health pronouncement? I'd trust your judgement. News of such an honest accounting would sweep through the schools in the city and make The District a household name.

7) IGNORANT -- oops, this is actually a word Gerrie Schipske might have used to describe ME! Sorry, my bad.

7) FORTHRIGHT -- unless you believe "audit" should be defined as a non-independent, non-laudatory, non-fully disclosing, non-exonerating, non-public report of an "investigation" of suspect behavior.

You know, Gerrie, there are many passionate defenders of teacher unionism who believe that teacher unionism's greatest enemies are corrupt, venal, incompetent, asleep-at-the-switch, or egregious teacher union officials who try to sweep crappy union behavior under the rug. And we actually need to let the world know about them -- 'cuz they make organized labor and teachers look bad and lose influence when we protect them.

And God help us all if unions disappear.

Ignorantly yours,

D.

. . . and rest in peace, George Denis Patrick Carlin. The world needs more, not less, of your generous spirit, moral clarity, and joyous outrage.

Re: FIRST HALF OF LONG BEACH ART MUSEUM AUDIT IS HERE | The District Weekly

D. Peeve — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 01:16:46 -0000

Gerrie,

I hear your continuing, deafening silence on this issue. I'm feeling charitable, so I will understand from your second post here that you are probably barred, legally or politically, from commenting more directly on this sad chapter in Long Beach union history and want to move on.

I'm all in favor of moving on, though I think the closing of the ranks that follows most union decision making is, in general, a mistake that will take unions to lesser power, not more. I think this is especially true of teachers unions, which organize those who, at the height of their skills and talents, are demonstrating, extolling and instilling in our young people the capacity for independent critical thought. My two cents.

(From Webster's) "IGNORANT -- lacking knowledge, information or awareness about something in particular." Gerrie, you didn't use the word itself (didn't say you did), but that's precisely how you attempted to characterize me.

On a happier note, I understand that the current interim executive director at TALB is a reportedly stand-up guy with sensible ideas about the effective deployment of union power for maximum benefit of the membership. Funny thing -- I don't think I've read a profile of him yet. Did I miss one in any Long Beach news outlets? I'd be interested in learning more about the guy -- I've heard he has a very interesting background.

(End of thread hijack)

Re: FIRST HALF OF LONG BEACH ART MUSEUM AUDIT IS HERE | The District Weekly

D. Peeve — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 01:27:47 -0000

And John,

You should really talk to Bill Pearl, who runs LBReport.com. He is God's Own Bulldog on the subject of westside particulate polution. If anyone can help you get the facts you want, he can.

Re: CONTROL Z | The District Weekly

D. Peeve — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:52:14 -0000

Yup, that surfer-paparazzi incident was just a complicated expression of Matthew McConaughey's insecurity about his reproductive gear.

Re: CONTROL Z | The District Weekly

D. Peeve — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:52:14 -0000

Yup, that surfer-paparazzi incident was just a complicated expression of Matthew McConaughey's insecurity about his reproductive gear.