Homepage of Patrick Burns

November 2001: Little Harbor, Catalina Island, California.	This homepage is maintained by Patrick E. Burns (patrick@burns.net). Please use this site to contact and learn more about me.
	This site contains: Biographical profile Work and experience Research interests Internet Commentary & Links Reading - Music - Movie Lists Burns Family Tree Graphics Biography: Edward Michael Burns Photo Album Raynald's SPSS Tools	Quote: Gandhi wrote that there are seven sins in the world: "Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Commerce without morality, Knowledge without character, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice, and Politics without principle." "One-Love People Never Gonna Stop" - Michael Franti "The country we carry in our hearts is waiting" - Bruce Springsteen "The explaining of things in words is always a huge problem" - David Lynch

Biography So Far:

I was born at the Lawrence General Hospital and grew up in the Merrimack Valley of Northeastern Massachusetts. Childhood revolved around my extended family in Boston and Maine, public schools (k-12), playing outdoors (kick ball, capture-the-flag, street hockey, soccer, lots of driveway basketball, cross-country running, tennis), piano lessons, attending catholic church, boy scouts, and so forth. I graduated from high school in 1987, and then enrolled as a freshman at Clark University in Worcester, MA. Although I initially intended to pursue work by becoming some kind of studio/graphic artist, issues of social equity and economic development -- regionally and internationally -- grabbed my attention. Thus, I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Clark in the spring of 1991, with a double major in Geography and International Development. While studying at Clark, I was advised by Geography Professor Richard Peet and International Development Professor Barbara Thomas-Slayter. All during the years  I studied at Clark, I worked during the summers at the Lighthouse Inn in West Dennis, Massachusetts. First cleaning dishes, then waiting tables, and finally joining the "Lower Deck" staff (a jack-of-all-trades job that combined bartending, bell-hopping, and after-hours maintenance), you can still find me in the staff photos in the lobby.  I also worked part-time in the "Physical Plant" maintenance department during my Clark years, assisting the carpenters, painters and plumber.

After bartending another summer on Cape Cod in 1991, I traveled to Kent State University in Northeast Ohio. I earned a Master of Arts Degree in Geography in 1994. My master's thesis, entitled "The Growth of Part-Time and Temporary Employment Among Clerical and Secretarial Workers in the Akron, Ohio, Metropolitan Area," was completed under the advising of Professor Barney Warf. That thesis is unpublished, but please read the abstract. Living in Kent was a fun, mid-west, small-town experience par excellence. Aside from the university which accounts for much of its population and economy, it features sedate meadows, drive-thru liquor stores, late night train whistles, and the winding Cuyahoga River.

By the mid-1990s, I moved further West to Los Angeles, California and the scholarly prestige of UCLA. What a change from Kent, Ohio! At UCLA I studied in the doctoral program of the Geography Department, but have not completed my dissertation ("ABD"). The chair of my dissertation committee is Professor Allen J. Scott, and the rest of my committee includes Geography Professors Mark Ellis and David Rigby, and Sociology Professor Roger Waldinger. Although my dissertation has been on extended hiatus while I've found full-time work and greater connection to the Los Angeles community, I am still seeking to conduct primary data collection, and ultimately file my doctoral dissertation in Westwood. My dissertation research investigates demographic changes in the labor force composition of the LA data processing services industry, trying to understand the complex processes involved in a shift from a predominantly native-born, white, male work force in the 1960s to a more heterogeneous one today -- and how the quality of jobs (wages, benefits, skills, status) also seems to have changed. My other scholarly interests include: labor migration and the international division of labor, the neo-liberal model of international development and its impacts upon the U.S. domestic economy, world cities & urban geography, environmental justice & sustainability, and the geography of modern capitalism.

Since 2002, I have been working full time as a senior researcher for the Economic Roundtable. We carry out research that analyzes regional labor markets so as to better inform economic planning and broader social policy in Los Angeles, a city and region with a long history of laissez-faire development. It is challenging work that allows me to apply confidently the varied skills I've worked hard to build. Since arriving at the Roundtable, we've researched a wide variety of topics, including:

• County and national welfare programs and policy
• Linkages between employment, health and family/child development
• The match between housing supply and workforce / population size
• Causes and characteristics of homelessness
• The growth of informal jobs and immigrants' contributions to the overall economy
• Neighborhood redevelopment and job creation
• Changes in employment, industries, wages and benefits over time

Our work projects are conducted for local government agencies, other non-profit groups, and pursuing our own research agenda, when funding permits.  Our goals are to contribute to the economic self-sufficiency of individuals and communities, and to help workers make economic progress in the region.

Work and Experience:

• Senior Researcher at the Economic Roundtable of Los Angeles. The Economic Roundtable is a nonprofit 501(c)3, public benefit corporation organized to conduct research and implement programs that contribute to the economic self-sufficiency of individuals and communities. Research areas include understanding and improving the working lives of welfare recipients, job creation and sustainable employment for low income communities, and overall investigations into regional economic development in Southern California. Winter 2002 to the present. Some selected research papers include:
• Briefing Paper: Public Outlays, Local Jobs by Patrick Burns and Daniel Flaming. November 2006
• Referral Guide for Homeless Children, Youth and Families by Patrick Burns, Daniel Flaming and Rick Mantley. October 2006
• Jobs in LA's Green Technology Sector by Patrick Burns and Daniel Flaming. March 2006
• LA Workforce Investment by Patrick Burns and Daniel Flaming. February 2006
• From the Pockets of Strangers: Economic Impacts of Tourism in Los Angeles by Daniel Flaming, Patrick Burns & Brent Haydamack. January 2006
• Benefits of CRA/LA Social Equity Policies by Patrick Burns, Daniel Flaming & Brent Haydamack. February 2004
• Prisoners of Hope: Welfare to Work in Los Angeles by Patrick Burns, Mark Drayse, Daniel Flaming & Brent Haydamack. July 2003
• Member of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Alliance, a 501(c)3 nonprofit community based organization. The Metropolitan Alliance develops alternative economic development strategies for the City of Los Angeles.   These strategies prioritize the creation of good paying jobs with career laddders in targeted, growth industries.  The beneficiaries of these programs are those most in need: the under- and unemployed, people of color, undocumented immigrants and other hopeful workers who subsist on marginal jobs or public assistance. My present commitments include: member of the Metropolitan Alliance leadership team, participating in campaign steering committees, and member of the board of directors. I am a proud member of Los Angeles Metropolitan Alliance since 1997.
• Mayor Villaraigosa to Highlight Bold Plan for Clean Energy and Good Jobs in Los Angeles - Apollo Alliance / Challenge
• Organizing for Green Industries in Los Angeles by Elsa Barboza
• Campaign to Transform King-Drew Medical Center
• Selected Supporters of SB 921 - The Health Care for All Californians Act (Kuehl)
• Los Angeles Advocates Ensure Restitution Funds Are Wisely Spent
•  Policy Link "Regional Equity Success Stories: Los Angeles"
• "SEIU Local 347 Joins Los Angeles Metropolitan Alliance In Creating a Model Jobs Program"
• "Workfare and Community Marchers Demand Jobs And Worker Protections" by Aida Pavletich of GLUE LA
• Volunteer with the Alliance of Local Leaders for Education, Registration and Turnout (ALLERT), a 501(c)4 nonprofit organization. When election cycles come around, I volunteer with this group to help boost the number of registered votes, especially in L.A. neighborhoods with historically low voter turnout. We also conduct voter education drives so that voters have more information upon which to make their decisions about California's often complex and poorly written propositions. Why get involved in this type volunteer work? I believe that our political lives should continue beyond just voting on the one or two election days held each year. And in order to have a more authentic democracy that responds to communities' most urgent needs and is not controlled by the wealthy and powerful, each of us needs to involve and educate ourselves. [I plan to add a bullet list of improvements for the US election system here soon...] I have volunteered with ALLERT since its founding.
• "Black, White, and Brown All Over" by Bobbi Murray of the LA City Beat
• "The Search of the Occasional Voter" by Bobbi Murray of the LA City Beat
• "LibertyVote! Revitalizing Democracy in Los Angeles" by the Liberty Hill Foundation
• "Intense Political Mobilization: The LA County Federation of Labor" [PDF] by Larry Frank and Kent Wong
• "Do Ballot Initiatives Favor Democracy or Big Business?" by William Bole
• UCLA Computer Programming Analyst I for the office of Social Sciences Computing (SSC), under the supervision of Mike Franks. My work supported the Division of Social Science's ClassWeb project, maintaining 300+ class we pages per quarter. These sites augment existing classroom education at UCLA, rather than being distance learning sites. Duties included: Outreach to and training of faculty in the use of our on-line software, training of students, maintaining web site content, user support, multimedia projects, HTML design and programming. Summer 2000 to winter 2002.
• ClassWeb open source software, developed by staff and students at UCLA.
• ClassWeb project on SourceForge
• UCLA Research Assistant IV: for Professor Joshua Muldavin, a specialist on international political ecology, China, and the transition of socialist countries to market/hybrid economies. My work included: library & on-line research, text & citation editing, assisting preparation of manuscripts for publication, graphics development and general research assistance. Fall 1999 to Spring 2001. I have also worked as a research assistant to Professors Allen Scott and David Rigby on several research projects. These include investigations of:
• The geography and competitiveness of the Los Angeles household furniture industry;
• Technical innovation and changing competitiveness in the Southern California apparel industry;
• Institutional and labor market dynamics of the California multimedia industry; and
• An exploration of the Los Angeles "cultural products" sector, with special emphasis upon automobile design.
• UCLA Undergraduate Counselor and Program Coordinator: for the UCLA International Development Studies (IDS) Program. My duties there included: undergraduate counseling, development of student internship resources, oversight of IDS Program accounts and ledgers, web page development, and general operations of the IDS office. I was employed at IDS from July 1996 through to August 1998.
• IDS Course Web Sites
• UCLA & KSU Teaching Assistant: I worked for the UCLA Department of Geography from fall 1993 to spring 1996 as a teaching assistant. In this capacity, I led two to four discussion groups per week in courses such as "Economic Geography" and "People and the Earth's Ecosystems". Discussion groups commonly held 20-25 students each, and served to expand upon professors' lecture materials by leading group discussions, staged debates, field trips & exercises, and computer work.
• (Spring 1994 - Spring 1999) While working as a teaching assistant at UCLA, I was a member of UAW Local 2865, the union representing 10,000 academic student employees -- TAs, tutors, readers, and others -- at 8 campuses of the University of California. Roles I played in the union included: departmental shop steward, strike shift captain, and walkout committee member (1995).
• (Fall 1991 - Spring 1993) I also worked as a Teaching Assistant for two years while at the Geography Department at Kent State University. Those duties included: grading, office hours, substitute lecturing, and assisting with the creation of tests and lecture materials. Subjects which I assisted for included: Maps & Map Reading, Urban Geography, Economic Geography, World Regional Geography, and Population Geography.
• Internships: During the winter and spring of 1990, I interned at the National Association of State Development Agencies (NASDA) in Washington, D.C. In that capacity, I carried out a survey of state development officials regarding local economic development policies and strategies, attended relevant congressional hearings, and researched periodicals and journals for new developments in the field, working under the direct supervision of Bryant Monroe.
• Other Work Experience: Although not academic in nature, below is a listing of my early work experiences ("the college years"):
• From winter 1988 through spring 1991, I worked as a carpenter's assistant for the Physical Plant Department at Clark University. Work included assisting with carpentry projects, housing rehabilitation, masonry work, basic plumbing, electrical work, painting and wall papering. Experience includes independent as well as supervised work.
• During summers from 1987 through 1993, I was employed at the Lighthouse Inn of West Dennis, Massachusetts. While there I worked several jobs which include: dishwasher (1 summer); waiting tables (2 summers); and bar tending/ bell hopping (4 summers). The restaurant seats 120+ persons while the Inn features 60 rooms. During my employment there, I worked (mostly) under the direct supervision of Maureen Dougherty and Ron Emler.

Research Interests:

My areas of research interest include: the political economy of industrial development, changes in the geography of local labor markets and labor organizing, the industries of the service sector, urban economic geography, the sustainability of international development, and issues of environmental justice. Some examples of my research interests appear below:

• Briefing Paper: Public Outlays, Local Jobs
  by Patrick Burns and Daniel Flaming. November 2006. Local purchasing model based upon the 2006-07 budget for the City of Los Angeles, examining the amount of budget spent locally and non-locally, and the economic ripple effects of those outlays. Prepared for the Los Angeles City Council.
• Referral Guide for Homeless Children, Youth and Families
  by Patrick Burns, Daniel Flaming and Rick Mantley. October 2006. This expanded and updated guide to homeless service providers in LA County provides detailed agency information for each Service Planning Area, with accompanying reference maps. Commissioned and underwritten by the Los Angeles County Office of Education.
• Beverly-Virgil Economic Strategy
  by Daniel Flaming and Patrick Burns. July 2006. An analysis of economic conditions and strategy recommendations for economic growth in a redevelopment study area. Prepared for the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles.
• Jobs on LA’s Grand Boulevard: An Economic Analysis of the Wilshire Boulevard Corridor
  by Daniel Flaming and Patrick Burns. June 2006. An industry and labor force analysis of the Wilshire Corridor in the Greater Koreatown area, with strategy recommendations for creating living-wage jobs for local residents. Prepared for the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles.
• Jobs in LA's Green Technology Sector
  by Patrick Burns and Daniel Flaming. March 2006. Underwritten by the Departments of Water and Power & Community Development (WIB), City of Los Angeles.
• LA Workforce Investment
  by Patrick Burns and Daniel Flaming. February 2006. Briefing paper on the City of Los Angeles' labor market preparedness and workforce training system. Findings drawn from the LA Economy Project.
• From the Pockets of Strangers: Economic Impacts of Tourism in Los Angeles and Five Competing Metropolitan Destinations
  by Daniel Flaming, Patrick Burns & Brent Haydamack. January 2006. Underwritten by the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau.
• Los Angeles Labor Market Strengths & Weaknesses
  by Daniel Flaming, Brent Haydamack & Patrick Burns. December 2005. Underwritten by the City of Los Angeles for the LA Economy Project.
• Homeless in LA: Final Research Report for the 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness in Los Angeles County
  by Daniel Flaming, Patrick Burns & Brent Haydamack. September 2004. Underwritten by the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority.
• Referral Guide for Homeless Children, Youth and Families: LA County Homeless Service Providers with accompanying Reference Maps
  by Patrick Burns. Summer 2004. Commissioned by the LA County Office of Education.
• Benefits of CRA/LA Social Equity Policies: Measuring the Requirements of City-Subsidized Redevelopment
  by Patrick Burns, Daniel Flaming & Brent Haydamack. February 2004. Commissioned by the Community Redevelopment Agency, City of Los Angeles.
• Prisoners of Hope: Welfare to Work in Los Angeles
  by Patrick Burns, Mark Drayse, Daniel Flaming & Brent Haydamack. July 2003. Underwritten by the J. Randolph and Dora Haynes Foundation.
• Running Out of Time: Voices of Parents Struggling to Move from Welfare to Work
  by Dan Flaming, Patricia Kwon, and Patrick Burns. Spring 2002. Commissioned by the Los Angeles Children's Planning Council.
• Proposal of my Dissertation Research:
  "Local Labor Market Dynamics & the Sociocultural Division of Labor in the Los Angeles Data Processing Industry" 1997.
• Paper from my UCLA Field Exam:
  "Technology & Labor Market Adjustments in the Los Angeles Animated Film Industry" 1997.
• Abstract from my MA Thesis:
  "The Growth of Part-Time and Temporary Secretarial and Clerical Workers in Akron, Ohio" 1994.
  (Full-text may be coming soon in PDF format, although I'm slowly trying to convert it from WordPerfect 5.1 format...)

About this page and the Internet

The Internet is available to only a very limited number of people in the world, excluding large numbers of people who are still struggling just to satisfy their most basic needs. And despite its beginnings as part of the "public domain" (having had its research and development costs underwritten by the U.S. government in the name of defense), the Internet has been increasingly utilized and dominated by the private sector. However, I still feel that it is a technology and infrastructure that can allow distant peoples and organizations to share easily update-able information. In an ideal world, the Internet should be used to augment our sense of place and community, record our diverse and interconnected histories, and share powerful ideas for social change. In reality, however, it is only a narrowly-defined and inequitably-accessed tool; the communities that need to organize are still out in the neighborhoods and in the streets. Enough rambling, here are some links...

Reading List

• John Roosa. 2006. Pretext for Mass Murder: The September 30th Movement and Suharto's Coup d'Etat in Indonesia. University of Wisconsin Press.  Was referred to this book after reading alot about East Timor's struggle for political self-determination.  Although cloaked in Cold War era myths, this was the watershed moment in 1967 when General Suharto seized control of the government, ousted President Sukarno, and established a US-friendly beach head in Southeast Asia.  The US government was an ardent backer of Suharto's anti-communist, military regime from the outset, and benefited from unprecedented access to Indonesia's mineral wealth and markets for decades to come...
• Zinn, Howard. 1980. A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present. Harper Perennial.  Reading an edition borrowed from Mike Franks.  Somehow I never got around to reading this until now...
• Menzel, Peter and Faith D'Aluisio. 2005. Hungry Planet: What the World Eats. Ten Speed Press: Berkeley, Calif. Amazing book that is irresistible to read. Presents the detailed diets of people all over the world, with beautiful pictorial looks into their lives.
• Hanson, Janet. 2006. More Than 85 Broads. "Women making career choices, taking risks, and defining success on their own terms" recommended by Jenny.
• Pogue, David. 2003. Mac OS X: The Missing Manual. Just "switched" to the iMac G5. I used to know OS 9, but needed to borrow this manual in order to figure out the new OS X.
• Klein Healy, Eloise. 1991. Artemis in Echo Park. Picked up this poetry collection on a whim, but found it to be really relaxing and introspective.
• Goodman, Amy. 2004. The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media that Love Them. This is yet to be read.
• Reisner, Marc. 1986. Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water. A Southern California classic that I'm long overdue to read.
• Nevins, Joseph. 2005. A Not-So-Distant Horror: Mass Violence in East Timor Cornell University Press. Documents the violent history of the Indonesian invasion and occupation of East Timor, 1975-1999. Lest we forgot or have not learned it, the author brings out into the light the tremendous suffering endured by the Eat Timorese to gain self-determination, as well as the shameful, active support of Indonesia by nations around the world. A very inspiring book.
• John D. Lee. 1880. Mormonism Unveiled; Including the Remarkable Life and Confessions of the Late Mormon Bishop. St. Louis: N. D. Thompson and Company. Found in the footnotes of...
• Krakauer, Jon. 2003. Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith New York: Doubleday. Shared by a friend, and of interest due to the incessant attempts of Mormonism to achieve mainstream status, despite it's ever-present fundamentalist fringe. Plus, and apologetic [PDF].
• Jones, Edward P. 2003. The Known World Amistad/Harper-Collins.
• Ganter, Amy Kim. 2003. Reman Mythology Self-Published. Online Graphic Novel by a NYC-based artist and writer. She clearly deserves to get paid for this and derive a living form it, but maybe her talent is still developing.
• DeParle, Jason. 2004. American Dream: Three Women, Ten Kids, and a Nation's Drive to End Welfare Viking Books.
• Moore, Michael. 2003. Dude, Where's My Country? Warner Books.
• Rodriguez, Luis. 1991. Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. Touchstone Books; Reprint edition. Saw Luis speak at the LA downtown public library in the summer of 2002, and recognized that this was a part of the LA canon I hadn't yet read.
• Conrad, Joseph. 1907. The Secret Agent. Dover Publications.
• Miller, Russell. 1986. Bare Faced Messsiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard. New York: M. Joseph. A revealing account about the founder of one of the world's most bizarre and entrepreneurial cults. A fascinating read for Rondroids and Wogs alike.
• Allen, Worth. 2002. In Mind, In Country. National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). The journal of a NOLS student who participated in their East Africa semester course, which lets the reader follow his journeys into that region and into himself. Worth should have hooked-up with the girl...
• Kingsolver, Barbara. 2001.The Poisonwood Bible. New York; Harper Collins. Finally got a copy of the Poisonwood Bible from the LA Public Library, and it was worth the wait. Terrific story of a missionary's family in the 1950s Congo, rotating through the multiple perspectives of four daughters.
• Roth, Philip. 1998. I Married a Communist. New York: Houghton Mifflin.
• Roth, Philip. 2000. The Human Stain. New York: Houghton Mifflin.
• Lutz Leisering & Stephan Leibfried. 2001. Time and Poverty in Western Welfare States: United Germany in Perspective. New York: Cambridge. Research reviewing conceptions of poverty in social science, putting forward a "life course" approach.
• Peck, Jamie. 2001. Workfare States New York: Guilford Press. Documents the origins and evolution of contemporary workfare policies/programs in the United States, Canada, and Britain.
• Schlosser, Eric . 2001. Fast Food Nation New York: Houghton Mifflin. What a great book! The kind you're happy to lend out to friends, since it brings together insights into our food systems, diet, work culture, corporate histories, and environment.
• Various Authors. 2001. Getting to Know ArcGIS. Redlands, CA: ESRI Press. Relearning ArcView for business and pleasure, this time with version 8.
• Ehrenreich, Barbara. 2001. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. New York: Holt. Great contemporary ethnography, compelling accounts of low wage work from across the country.
• Kingsolver, Barbara. 2001. Prodigal Summer. New York; HarperCollins. I was waiting to read the "Poisonwood Bible," but all of the copies were checked out, so I read this instead. A good read, nice themes of ecology woven throughout.
• Robbins, John. 1987. Diet for a New America New York: H J Kramer. Subtitled "How Your Food Choices Affect Your Health, Happiness and the Future of Life on Earth." A good recommendation, finally got me over the hump to being a pescatarian (a vegetarian who also eats seafood).
• Nevins, Joseph. 2001. Operation Gatekeeper: The Rise of the 'Illegal Alien' and the Remaking of the U.S.-Mexico Boundary (w/ Mike Davis) New York: Routledge Press. Written by an inspiring and dedicated activist-scholar.
• Cobb, James C. 1993. The Selling of the South: The Southern Crusade for Industrial Development, 1936-1990. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. Recommended by Mark Ellis. A little bit too anecdotal, but very insightful after interning at NASDA in the early 1990s.
• Stern, J. and Lettieri, R. 2001. QuickTime 5 for Macintosh and Windows: Visual Quickstart Guide. Berkeley, CA: Peachpit Press. Reading for work, glad to be picking up such a fun skill as this.
• Reicker, Marion Gilchrist. 1984. A Time There Was : Petersville and other abandoned settlements in Queens County, New Brunswick, 1815-1953. Documents the history of Irish Catholic settlers in Enniskillen/ Petersville, Queens County, N.B.
• Walter C., Md Willett, P. J. Skerrett, Edward L., MD Giovannucci. 2001. Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating. New York: Simon & Schuster. Debunks the USDA traditional guidelines for diet and eating, so that's a welcome update. Integrates exercise and a more nuanced understanding of different types of fats (saturated vs. unsaturated, etc.) into practice.
• Schwartz, Randal L. and Phoenix, Tom. 2001. Learning Perl (3rd Edition). Cambridge: O'Reilly. Picking Perl Programming is pretty easy with this book. Now, if I only had time to actually practice with it!
• Albom, Mitch. 1997. Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man and Life's Greatest Lesson. New York: Doubleday. My grandmother Elizabeth (Sheehan) Foley passed away in mid-February at 97 years of age, and a friend recommended this book on death and dying.
• West, Rebecca. 1969. Black Lamb and Gray Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia. New York: Penguin. Started but stalled on the book early on ... may pick it up again.
• Tan, Amy. 1991. The Kitchen God's Wife. New York : Putnam, c1991. Also read this over the 2000-01 winter holidays, a great companion to the Woman Warrior below. Starts off interestingly enough in a contemporary setting, and then kicks into high gear as the narrator switches from daughter to mother, recounting the latter's entire life story.
• Kingston, Maxine Hong. 1976. The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts. New York : Vintage Books. Read it on a plane finally, a terrific book of inter-generational family experience spanning from rural China to Stockton, California.
• Updike, John. 1971. Rabbit Redux. New York, Knopf. Borrowed from the El Carrizito library, a good book to reconnect you to the larger world after wrestling with bailing wire, chasing chickens and digging holes all day...
• Weinman, Lynda. 2000. Photoshop 5.5/ImageReady 2.0 Hands-On Training. Peachpit Press. You probably don't need Lynda to hold your hand in learning the basics of these two software programs, but why does every other Adobe Photoshop manual get published in black and white???
• Padova, Ted. 1999. Acrobat® PDF Bible. IDG Books Worldwide. Comprehensive overview of Acrobat PDF authoring, with all of the mundane details. Explains font embedding really well.
• Gladwell, Malcolm. 1999. The Tipping Point : How Little Things Can Make a Difference. New York: Little Brown & Company. Billed as a book about "understanding why change so often happens as quickly and as unexpectedly as it does," it neatly categorizes how different types of people come together to popularize new ideas, styles, etc. Different than Hagerstrand's diffusion theory. I am a "maven" or sorts...
• MacDonald, Michael P. 1999. All Souls : A Family Story from Southie. Boston: Beacon Press. Author recounts his childhood growing up in the 1970s amidst South Boston's Old Colony housing project, connecting the growth of violence and drugs in the streets with the culture of denial and silence promoted by the Irish Mafia. A nice counterpoint to the oft-romanticized Irish-American immigration experience.
• Mintz, Sidney W. 1985. Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History. New York: Viking Penguin Books. Reviews the colonial and imperial history surrounding that sweet little commodity, sugar. Of personal interest to me given the relationship between diabetes, the modern agricultural modernization project and diet/health.
• King, Joseph A. 1994. Ireland to North America: Emigrants from West Cork. Toronto : P.D. Meany Publishers. Irish history & emigration account from Southwestern Ireland (Cork).
• Bechdel, Alison. 1993. Spawn of ... Dykes to Watch Out For. Ithaca: Firebrand Books. Funny and politically smart comic strip, can be viewed on-line at Dykes To Watch Out For - The Definitive Website.
• Wright, Angus L. 1990. The Death of Ramon Gonzalez: The Modern Agricultural Dilemma. Austin : Univ. of Texas Press. Account of the author's research into the Northwestern Mexican/South Western U.S. modern agricultural complex, examining the growing use of toxic pesticides and their effects upon the health of workers (and, by default, consumers). Great narrative format.
• Hochschild, Adam. 1998. King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa. Houghton Mifflin Co. If you hear news accounts about chaos and conflict in Zaire/Congo, this book opens up a scary, complicated and inspiring (background) history of colonial-era Central Africa. The author alternates between well-researched accounts of ivory/rubber extraction in the Congo and biographical profiles of people who figure prominently in the Congo's colonial-era history.
• Constable, Nicole. 1997. Maid to Order in Hong Kong: Stories of Filipina Workers. New Jersey: Cornell University Press. Anthropological study of Philippine domestic workers in HK. Combines a good background study of domestic servitude in China with contemporary anecdotes of Filipinas who emigrate to find work in the changing global economy.
• Timerman, Jacobo. 1981. Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Biographical account of an Argentinean newspaper publisher who was imprisoned by the nation's military junta in April 1977. The book recounts his experiences before and during his imprisonment, and emphasizes the torture he experienced and anti-Semitism in Argentine society.
• O'Flaherty, Liam. 1937. Famine. Dublin: Wolfhound Press. Story of three generations of an Irish family during the Great Famine of the 1840's. Well set against the context of changing land tenure systems and village life under colonial rule.
• Thompson, Hunter S. 1971. Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream. New York: Random House/Vintage. Saw the film, had to read the book. Borrowed from the Reardon collection, Beverly, MA.
• Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. 1981. Love in the Time of Cholera; translated from the Spanish by Edith Grossman. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
• Davis, Mike. 1998. Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster. New York: Henry Holt.
  Great read! Despite the criticisms of his ever-present detractors, Davis serves up another great collection of essays on life in Southern California.

Periodicals, Newsletters & Serials...

• Los Angeles Times When you live in a one newspaper town, you've got to read it...
• This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow A syndicated cartoon appearing in urban weeklies. Has a good spin on the politics and popular culture of the day.
• Current History Academic oriented periodical, with an emphasis on political economy and reviewing top stories in depth.
• The Ecologist The world's longest running (radical) environmental magazine. Political ecology.

Music Suggestions:

Los Super Elegantes video for "Nothing Really Matters" Los Angeles-based band/performance artists, first single from their upcoming album.	Joanna Newsom video for "The Sprout And The Bean".
Michael Franti & Spearhead video for "Sometimes," from their earlier album 'Stay Human'.	Dealership video for "All The Kids," off their third album Action/Adventure. Director: Jason Koxvold.

Movie Recommendation List:

Hollywood Movies Crash **** Gosford Park **** Goodnight, and Good Luck **** The Hours **** Proof ***3/4 Finding Neverland ***3/4 Babel ***3/4 The Bourne Supremacy ***1/2 Mystic River ***1/2 The Matrix Reloaded ***1/2 Birth ***1/2 The Matrix Revolutions *** Lord of the Rings, Two Towers *** The Business of Strangers *** Snakes on a Plane ** The Moguls (test-screen version)* Jackie Chan Favorites Project A (1983 HK) **** Shanghai Noon (2000 HK) *** Legend of Drunken Master (2000 US re-release) *** Rumble in the Bronx (1996 US release) **3/4 The Tuxedo **3/4 Jackie Chan's Who Am I? (1998 US release) **3/4

Art House / Indie Cinema Mulholland Drive ***** Garden State ****1/2 Little Children ****1/2 Yes **** The Last King of Scotland **** Brokeback Mountain **** Being Julia **** The Reckoning **** Crónicas ***3/4 The Illusionist ***3/4 Dot the I ***1/2 Caché (Hidden) ***1/2 The Gatekeeper ***1/2 Stage Beauty ***1/2 The Center of the World ***1/2 My Life Without Me *** The Good Girl ***   Ratings: ***** = Instant Classic **** = Excellent *** = Recommended ** = Enjoyable * = Mediocre

Foreign Films Machuca (Chile) ****1/2 In the Mood for Love (HK, Canal+) **** Baran (Iran) **** Not One Less (China) **** The Queen (UK) **** Volver (Spain) ***3/4 Huo Yuan Jia (HK) ***3/4 Kung Fu Hustle (HK) ***3/4 2046 (HK) ***3/4 The Fast Runner (Canada) ***3/4 The House of Flying Daggers (HK) ***1/2 The Motorcycle Diaries (US/Argentina) ***1/2 Maria Full of Grace (Columbia) ***1/2 Samia (France) ***1/2 Iklimler (Turkey) *** Documentary Films An Inconvenient Truth ***** The Corporation ***** Life and Debt ***** Fahrenheit 9/11 ****1/2 The Control Room ****1/2 Who Killed the Electric Car? **** The Weather Underground **** Seniorita Extraviada **** Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers *** Paragraph 175 ***

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Credits: This home page was last modified in November 2006, and has been visited times since migrating to this new domain in March, 1999. I originally wrote the pages of this web site using my favorite text editor, NoteTab Pro and sometimes use Dreamweaver MX to update it. The inspiration for this web page theme comes from one of my favorite foods: egg plant (purple text links) and curry sauce (background). Sorry if it is difficult to read!