17 posts tagged “san diego”
Annie posted a comment made by lofty editors at Draft Mag (reposted by Jeff Hammett ) about the Festival of Beers,
annie then insightfully points out,"Occasionally, we consider moving to San Diego. It’s warm. All the time. It’s beautiful. All the time. The people are attractive. All the time. Honestly, what’s not to like? Then you visit, however, and realize it’s essentially a city devoid of culture, unless you consider being a stop on the way to Tijuana an important cultural experience. We don’t."
I am really glad that Annie posted her response. When I read Jeff's comments I became very upset but I couldn't articulate it at first. Because one, I am not a fan of San Diego and often find myself talking about why I am uncomfortable when I am in SD, and two I agreed with parts of what Jeff wrote - that sure it is warm and sure most people consider a visit to Tijuana a "cultural experience.""We just have to look harder… I know there are some pockets of culture here and there (music! delicious food! lotsa museums!), but definitely not in La Jolla."
After a few minutes of Tricia the Wolf personality where I wanted to bite off Jeff's head and the heads of every tourist who make comments about "culture" and san diego I decided that a more constructive approach was better than nurturing cannibalistic thoughts.
What is culture? I define it as beliefs, practices and values.
Many of time tourists want to have a "cultural experience" when they visit a town - but this usually means they want to eat food that interesting enough but not so authentic that their taste buds would have to be challenged into liking it and go to museums that are artsy enough so that they feel good about learning about "others."
The problem is that most tourists come to SD and they visit just a few miles - between 30 to 40 miles I would conjecture - they will go south on the 5 to Coronado but no farther, and then up north on the 5 to La Jolla. The brave ones will say I want to go to Mexico so they will bypass everything between downtown SD and Tijuana. Tourists then say they either LOVE SD or they HATE it. LOve it because great weather and people. HAte it because no culture. So Jeff here sits on the latter. Actually this dichotomy is one that is most often reified by those who live within the 30 mile swatch.
so what's my beef with the lofty editors at DRaft Mag? From here on, I will refer to the Editors of Draft Mag as "Crocodile Face."
- culture is more than a beer festival and a 30 mile swath of predesignated tourist stops. So if you don't leave the 30 mile swatch that I have circled in orange, then you will feel that there is "no culture" in San Diego
- Actually that feeling that Crocodile Face has of "no culture" points to the the dominance of white, elite, culture. So what's is beef with white culture? I don't like it when people claim that white people don't have culture - especially it sounds most lame when white people go to places where the white population forms the majority in demographics and they walk away screaming, "there was no culture!"
- if one defines culture as the experience of lots of public events with people of color all around you smiling and talking, then Crocodile Face is right - there is a lack of public cultural events in SD that brings together a diversity of people. So yes the beer festival that Crocodile Face attended probably didn't have all the blacks and latinos out of ther neighborhoods. Oh and probably not a lot of asians either huh? That's cuz we like to have private tea festvals with dragons (just kiiidddding)
- so you don't want to live in SD cuz there's no culture here huh? Let me explain to you the position that you are in to EVEN make that statement in the first place. The author, Crocodile Face, is in a position of luxury to even say that he could pick up and leave his city and move to another just because it might be more cool than where he is living now - - now I am in his position also - I am the person who is in position of priviledge to say that I can pick up and move. I picked up and left california to move to NYC solely based on the reason because I wanted to - I didn't know anyone - I had never been there - but it sure looked great from the movies and NYC has this feeling of cultural greatness that I wanted to understand. But I knew that for me to experience culture in NYC, it had to be beyond just eating authentic food and going to museums - I knew that I wanted the experience of being adopted into a community, to work with a community, to share common values and goals and to work towards similar missions. But tight communities have tight ties. Neighborhoods that are seem to have a strong sense culture tend to have strong social ties and networks - that means people know each other, they hang out together, and they watch out for each other. But it's hard to get into these networks So I knew that I had to work extra hard to become involved and to gain the trust of the community that I wanted to work in. I also knew that I wouldn't be able to join the communities that I wanted to work in (mainly lower-income, black and latino) by living in Manhattan. So I made the choice to live in areas where I wanted to invest my time to getting to know my neighbors. So if the author, Jeff, makes the decision to not move based on his perception of lack of cultures other than dominant, white, middle-upper class san diego culture ---perhaps that decision can be re-evaluated once he stops through Chula Vista and see those cultures.
- Now if an outsider (this includes me), goes to Chula Vista or National City or parts of Escondido - it may still feel that the most culturally diverse place is Walmart! So where are all the people of color on the streets in these areas south and north of the 30 mile SD dominant culture swatch? One of the issues with SD that Crocodile Face picked up on is the lack of visible diversity - and Annie says that we must look harder- Annie is right. We do have to look harder. But i think SD is particularly hard city to "Look in" if one doesn't understand the culture of migration and fear in San Diego and as two cultures that are inextricably linked. Even though SD has one of the highest populations of Latinos - why is it so hard to see see Latinos? Why isn't it like other cities where you can step out in certain neighborhoods and feel culture dripping from the clouds? It's because SD, with help from the federal government's ICT unit and leftover autocratic, facist Bush administration policies, has done a wonderful job at creating one of the most hostile city environments for Latinos in the USA. SD sits at one of busiest border border crossings in the world and the busiest in the USA - it is also the site where undocumented Mexican migrants come to support our economies. What's been happening lately is that the immigration officials have been rounding up anyone who has dark skin, detaining them, and questioning them. What they are doing is illegal and the ACLU San Diego Chapter is doing a lot to fight this. With all the immigrant raids on Mexican families - many who are citizens and unevenly documented Mexican families (e.g. in some families the parents will have citizenship but one of their kids may be undocumented), the ICE officals along with the silent compliance of local and county police officials, have created a widespead fear among neighborhoods with high numbers of Mexicans. The levels of fear are so high that families are scared to leave their houses. Undocumented people are scared to walk around on the streets. Even those with documentation are getting harrassed. All of this has created a culture of fear among the Latino community in SD - So tourists of SAn Diego - if you wonder why you don't see more Latinos on the street - it's because they are not comfortable walking around like you or I - like someone who is a citizen.
- In the context of the culture of fear and an understanding of the culture of migration, SD doesn't lack "culture," it just has a lot of "hidden culture." A lot of cultural practices, celebrations and etc are taking place indoors. The kind of public celebrations that could possibly bring lots of different cultures together aren't as frequent - with the exception of JOB's annual fiesta - which is an organization that is doing some of the most exciting coalition building and community organizing work in SD. It's hard to get people out of their houses when they are afraid to come out! JOB, lead by Norma Chávez- Peterson, is organized by people of color who work within and with Mexican and black communities - so there is a higher level of trust to attend their annual Fiesta - which you should be attending in August if you want to find evidence of vibrant culture in SD. Last year my girl norma rodriguez organized the festival.
** for an example of the unbalanced representation of Latinos in SD, read my post on what happened in the 2008 San Diego Wildfires,
San Diego Fires - How Race and Class are Covered by the Media - We have no "refugees" here, and how I and others created a roundtable to discuss these issues
Adriene is the queen of pho decoration. I beleive that she has pioneered a new style of food photography, combining food photography + purikura design = new food aesthetic. Check out her pho designs here.
What I love about our friendship is that adriene takes part in documenting my love for food. I mean just alone - we have a whole history of pho love together.
Below are some of my favorite pho designs of adriene's pho that she has made over the years. you can see how her style has evolved over the years - moving from simple experimentations to exciting splashes of tacky images to more symbolic territories. Truly, she has become a pho-natic and pho-tastic pho-tographer.
Here are some pics of other documentations she has made of pho-baby over the years. After we eat pho - my stomach extends as if I were 3 months pregnant. no kidding. not pushing it out at all.
we all have to thank leah muse-orlinoff for introducing the wonderful world of pho ca dao to us! PHO-EVER!
El naco es Chido!
kenyatta, adriene and I created a tumblr blog for Jack called, JACK NEEDS A HOME. check out adriene's video here below and go to Jack's blog to see other wonderful photos of him and for the contact info if you want to adopt him!
I got my hair cut SUPER short!! and I love it! I won't be able to see Sal, my wonderful amazing hair-master until October. and I figured China's and India's weather may make me want to shave my head - so short hair is better than shaved hair.
This is what it looked like before it became SUPER short:
And before I forgot - I AM IN LOVE WITH SAL!!!!!!! he is the most amazing and patient hairmaster in the universe!!!! I wont' reveal why I tested his patience, but let's just say that he should be an uncelibate nun.
here's some photos of the perm process and our first date together - kinda love at first sight if you ask me!
On another notes, my friend Mia pointed out to me that lately, when I talk I move my left
lower lip to the side in a weird way - as if it was detached from the
rest of my lips - when she showed me what I looked like I was horrified
because it looked like I was talking like I had a stroke!!! she said I
only do it when I talk about academic stuff, like migration,
citizenship, rights, border policy and etc. So now I thought i would
try a test and take a picture of myself pursing my lips and I am
HORRIFIED to see that left lower lip really does kinda sag on its own
and doesn't purse with the rest of my lips - I look like I had a
stroke? Academia is not only turning my teeth yellow, making my hair
gray but now it also making me lose muscular control of my lips!!! Well
you know that aphorism that it takes more muscles to frown than smile -
well scientifically it's true - so maybe I have been frowning too much
in grad school!!!! Do people with Phds frown more than non-Phd's -
unequivocally YES and I can produce a study to prove it.
Leah says that I'm crazy and it's more a skeptical look, but I still think I look like a half-stroke/half-skeptical victim.
jinge and I were having lunch at El Cuervo -my FAVORITE FISH TACOS in the WORLD!!! anyways - he pointed out to me the posters on the wall, which I had never noticed until he said something. All around us were posters of the winner of the Miss Makita Drill Competition! I thought it was the oddest thing to have these women holding the tools, which suggestively are stand ins for phallic imaginations. When I looked this up, I found out that indeed this was a real competition! and not only was there a MISS Makita but this year there was a Senorita Makita! Unbelievable! And why these posters were hung up at El Cuervo and over this beautiful TABLEAU (thank you adriana), was so interesting! Does Makita tools send these posters around to Mexican restaurants every year? And why is there also a senorita makita? what does that mean? how she different from the miss? And interestingly in their bios they both love sushi? sushi ? Oh El Cuervo this is why I love you! you are just like NYC - full of contradictions and surprises just like every block- I can walk into your restaurant every day and find something new.
MISS MAKITA 2006
MISS MAKITA 2007
MISS MAKITA 2008
THE TABLEAU - 
OUR WONDERFUL LUNCH!!!
friends, you all know I spend a lot of time in San Diego but I don't ever have time to enjoy san diego - grad school is a world of its own - for all I know I could be in Siberia. My eyes are either on my laptop writing or my book reading. But when favorite friends come into town then - especially friends who work just as hard as me - then there is no excuse. This is the first time I've take more than a few hour off without even thinking of about my research in 2 years!!! thanks zadi and steve for being such great friends! and kenyatta is happy with you guys in SD - it's slower here huh? If you came more often then I just might drop out of grad school.
mojitos + beach + ramen + fish tacos + yogurt world + puri kura = fun
I jump for seaweed!
Come this Wednesday night to UCSD for a roundtable of local urban planners, activists and lawyers who will give presentations on the unequal treatment of immigrants during the fire and misleading explanations for the causes of the fire. All the information for this is located on the roundtable wiki.
Presenters:
Andrea Guerrero - ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union)
Pedro Rios - American Friends Service Committee
Rick Brady - City of Santee (UCSD Urban Studies Planning alumni)
Enrique Morones - Border Angels
A Roundtable follow up to the 2008 Culture Conference:
Crisis, Emergency, Global Processes
Sponsored by the UCSD Sociology Department
disaster," instead of a case of mismanaged urban planning, ill-led concepts of fire "prevention." Therefore the causes fell on to nature, instead of socio-political reasons.
For many around the world who watched the news coverage of our local crisis, it appeared that only middle- to upper-class, Caucasian home-owners were affected by this disaster. Newscasters biasedly compared the state-of emergency disaster to New Orleans's Hurricane Katrina in a fashion that portrayed San Diegans as wealthy, coordinated, charitable and peaceful in contrast to New Orleaneans who were portrayed as poor, disorganized, and violent. Essentially, San Diego "citizens" were framed as united, while New Orleans "refugees" were portrayed as lacking in unity. Just like Hurricane Katrina, the media coverage and the treatment of the San Diego fires were embedded in long-standing issues of class, race and ethnicity.
This roundtable aims to bring out many the socio-political reasons that contributed to the fire and the politics of who's stories were represented in the media and which ones remained untold. For example, many of the fires’ human victims were migrant workers living in canyons who, largely because of their extreme marginalization, were not able to be reached and informed about the fires. In stark contrast to the mainstream coverage of property owners (like the TV reporter standing outside his own house for hours of coverage). The human toll of the fires was largely ignored, or even blamed on these victims for consuming UCSD Regional Burn Center resources for instance.
Please forward this invite to your networks!
Serious Eats, one of my favorite food blogs, run by the amazing foodie of all foodies, Alaina, has just featured a whole article on Frozen Yogurts! They feature 5 places to go that are NOT - NOT - Pinkberry! I am sooo grateful that someone is writing about how Pinkberry is not the only place to go - and is actually not the BEST either. Pinkberry gives you no option in yogurt flavors and their selection of toppings pale in comparison to other yogurt establishments.
However, as a yogurt aficionado, I think Yogurt World in San Diego needs a little more love in this description. Here are some reasons why Yogurt World is the BEST BEST place to go for yogurt:
1. They have a sign congratulating themselves - "CONGRATULATIONS TO YOGURT WORLD" - that they kept it up since their opening 2 years ago.
2. Their cows are happier than those other so called wannabe-yogurt places, and the use scientific research along with ancient Chinese secrets to create the best yogurt in the world. And if you don't believe me, they've put it in writing on their wall.
3. They are experts at explaining the nutritional health benefits of daily yogurt intake. It improves your digestion, prevents acne and increases metabolism. Again, if you don't believe me, they hung it up in writing on their wall.
4. They have provided instructions for best practices in Yogurt Nirvana, institutionalizing the practices behind this nebulous art form that has crossed into popular culture. As a result, Yogurt World has democratized access to Yogurt, leading the world in social change one yogurt at a time.
5. The San Diego Convoy location is special becase after you eat the yogurt, you can walk down to the Wow! Photo Sticker Studio and engage in some PuriKura love.
6. One of the their 16 flavors is Taro Cookie - the best!
7. They offer lactose-free boysenberry - so they are ethnically sensitive to those who don't have enzyme to digest milk. You can bring your vegan friends and lactose-intolerant friends along!
8. The owner Michael is unpretentious, warm, and caring business owner. He cares about his client, and has sat down with numerous of times, open to suggestions in architectural design of the next Yogurt World that will open at UCSD!
thanks N! your idea of drinking a litttttle bit of alcohol to take off the anxiety that comes along with writing anything related to dissertation stuff was a GREAT ideas. I won't be doing my fieldwork for another 2 years - and then writing it in 3 years - so to plan for all of this "future stuff" is stressssful! Mimosas on a sundays are the new thing! And of course Mimosas with friends! thanks Crissy and Leah!
