matthew’s alibi

So these past few days have been chock full of the mundane. Maybe some of it is not so mundane, but none of it is particularly overwhelming, either– it just seems like the stuff uneventful days get crammed full of.

Last night, we went to the 1-year anniversary party of Tiger Heat. I wasn’t sure if I would like it, but in the end, I liked it a lot.

It was a lot like Velvet Nation in DC, except the second room at Tiger Heat plays all 80’s, and they play the videos for all the music they play. Also, the people seem much friendlier and more approachable.

I hurried my friend Chris all night so we could be among the first 200 in line– they gave the early folks a gift bag. Mine had a few CDs, a video tape of music videos, and a little mirror which I am almost certain is intended for cocaine users. It’s a tiny little square mirror in a jelly-plastic slipcover. Virgin records provided the bags. Not a bad haul.

The club itself was amazing– held in the Hollywood Athletic Club, which housed the first telecast of the Oscars in 1949, according to a plaque. The best part is the lights and lasers, which criss-cross the room everywhere through fog– it’s an amazing sight.

Work is about the same as it has been. I never thought I’d get sick of office work, but I’m getting to that point. Tonight is ok– there are times when all the lines will be lit up with parents who want to take their children away from the site for the weekend, and there are times when it’s pretty quiet, like right now.

I’m listening to my new John Wesley Harding CD, JWH’s New Deal, an out of print treasure I found last night at Amoeba Music, which is on Sunset Boulevard a block from the Athletic Club. They claim it’s the largest independent music store in the country, which excited me very much. I’m such a dork. I told Chris on the way out that I bet every person in that store liked the movie High Fidelity (which is my favorite movie). He agreed, but was less certain that this was a good thing.

So, here I am in Los Angeles, fielding phone calls from tearful moms upset about the lack of phone calls from their children. An aggravating factor is the terrible phone situation here at Loyola Marymount this year– nothing seems to work.

It’s not such a bad job for me, since I know when I was a student here, my mom probably made the same kinds of phone calls. I have a soft spot in my heart for moms who worry too much. It’s really hard not having anything useful to tell them, though.

I’ve got a new web host now. After nomonthlyfees.com deleted tech support tickets for no reason, left emails unanswered for weeks on end, switched servers with little notice (and what notice they gave got sent to the wrong email address) and therefore lost a good chunk of my data and all of my mailing list addresses (which they later recovered, under more than a little pressure from me), and ultimately stopped answering their phones entirely, I decided renewing my contract with them was probably not the best choice. I’m with a company called FrontDrive now, who seem okay– not the cheapest plan out there (which is probably a good thing), but it has all the features I wanted, and the tech support guy is a vegan, which cinched the deal for me.

It’s such a quagmire out there in terms of web hosting that veganism seemed as good a criteria as any to make a choice. So far, so good– I needed some tech support today, and got it, which was a nice switch for me. I don’t have a problem with glitches in a system as long as the person on the other end seems to have some idea about what s/he’s doing and also seems interested in resolving the problem– two things that didn’t ever seem apparent from nomonthlyfees.

I think I’m going to call a close to this entry. There’s so much to tell about all that’s going on, but I’d be typing all night if I wrote about everything I want to remember from these days.

I’ve officially been in Los Angeles for a week now. I’ve been meaning to add stuff to the blog, but it’s just been so crazy around here. Today we helped move over 400 kids and their parents on to this beautiful campus. It was truly a monumental achievement– almost mind-blowing.

For the next six weeks, CTY will be the majority on campus, a force to be reckoned with.

Which, for me, hopefully means some smooth sailing ahead: regular hours, no day longer than 8 hours (unlike the 14 hour one I just finished, or the 18 hour one earlier this week.)

The good news is that I finally got to go out last night. It’s pride week in West Hollywood, and it was packed. Chris, the Latin Teaching Assistant and I went. We walked around a lot, argued about politics, gossiped about the staff and a particular unfortunate misunderstanding with a co-worker and mutual friend.

We went to the Abbey and a new place called Here. Here was having a party called “Baby Here,” and all the bartenders were buff guys in diapers. It was pretty cool– just because they were really buff and showing it off. And I really enjoy the attention I get when we go out in WeHo– it’s a great ego boost.

I felt I should update the blog, though, since Mike made reference to it on the WV Economic Justice Coalition listserv, adding “he hasn’t updated it in a few weeks.” I started feeling guilty. There’s so much that’s happened already out here in LA that I want to write down so I won’t forget it, but I don’t know how much I’ll actually write of it.

I can’t imagine anyone would be interested in these (mis)adventures, or for that matter that I’d want most people to have access to them. Still, I’m freshly resolute to write more regularly.

By Grant Smith, Staff Writer

A West Virginia University freedom of expression policy will remain under review until September. In the meantime, a Virginia-based civil liberties group has filed suit challenging the constitutionality of the policy.

The policy was revised and approved for recommendation to WVU President David Hardesty by the faculty senate on May 13. Hardesty and his legal counsel have reviewed it since that time.

“They have already looked at some suggestions for it,” said Carolyn Curry, vice president of institutional advancement. “This policy is evolving all the time.”

WVU’s regional campuses also need freedom of expression policies, Curry said.

An original draft of the policy was officially put in place on April 1, until a final draft has been totally approved.

“We’ve been working to try to get the University to reconsider its free speech policy for months and months now,” said Matthew Poe, Students for Economic Justice Free Speech Consortium member. “Zoning constitutional freedom is just not OK.”

The Rutherford Institute filed suit last Thursday on behalf of SEJ and the West Virginia Animal Rights Coalition.

Curry said the University has about 30 days to respond to the lawsuit.

A yet-again revised policy will be put out for comment in August and voted on by the WVU Board of Governors on Sept. 6. It will then require additional approval from West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission Chancellor Michael Mullen.

This article appeared in the Daily Athenaeum

By The Associated Press

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A civil rights group sued West Virginia University in federal court yesterday, arguing a policy that restricts public demonstrations on campus is unconstitutional.

The Rutherford Institute of Charlottesville, Va., filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Elkins for students Matthew Poe, Mike Bomford and Brooke Thomas, as well as the Free Speech Coalition, Students for Economic Justice and the West Virginia Animal Rights Coalition.

The group wants a judge to declare the new “Policy on Freedom of Expression” a violation of the First Amendment right to free speech and assembly, and to stop WVU administrators from enforcing it.

“In effect, this ‘free speech zone’ policy gives university administrators the authority to permit or deny student expression based solely on their personal opinion of the particular message or viewpoint,” said John W. Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute.

“The Supreme Court has said that a public university is the ‘quintessential free market of ideas,’” he said, “and the Rutherford Institute has filed this lawsuit to ensure that it remains so.”

WVU President David Hardesty, the WVU Board of Governors and J. Michael Mullen, chancellor of higher education, were named as defendants.

School officials have not seen the lawsuit and are not prepared to comment on it, said WVU spokeswoman Becky Lofstead.

Many colleges and universities have tried to adopt policies like WVU’s, but Whitehead said most back down when the constitutionality is challenged. The Rutherford Institute wrote Hardesty to inform him of its position, but Whitehead said he got no response.

“There’s been complete silence on this,” he said. “If they would have gotten back to us and said, ‘We can talk,’ there wouldn’t be a lawsuit.”

WVU has wrongly scaled down what was intended to be a public forum and has given administrators too much discretion to prevent protests, the lawsuit alleges.

Besides creating a cumbersome and unnecessary reservation process for large groups, the policy contains terminology that would make compliance all but impossible, the lawsuit says.

One provision bars demonstrators from “attempting by repeated demands … to coerce individuals into stopping or participating in a debate or discussion, or accepting materials.”

“These terms are neither self-defining nor patently unambiguous,” the lawsuit charges. “Their vagueness and ambiguity preclude an individual of ordinary intelligence from apprehending what conduct is forbidden by the policy and conforming his/her conduct.”

Students and a few faculty supporters began publicly objecting to the little-known free-speech zones in February, arguing the U.S. Constitution invalidates the need for any further regulation.

Although no one has claimed credit for it, the initial policy created just two small zones for some 22,000 students. It first appeared in a WVU student handbook in 1995. Enforcement began in 2000, when students picketed companies recruiting on campus.

The policy has been revised, but the administration has resisted wiping it off the books, and the Faculty Senate endorsed it last month. Hardesty and a lawyer are now reviewing it.

Supporters of the free-speech zones say the right of the public to gather and demonstrate must be balanced against the need for a quiet academic environment.

But many areas traditionally considered appropriate for public expression are now suddenly off limits, including the Mountainlair and other main campus buildings, and the offices of the student newspaper, The Daily Athenaeum.

With the designated public assembly areas, black students cannot gather in front of the Center for Black Culture and Research to protest racism or support affirmative action.

“They have to protest by the football field,” Whitehead said. “That’s where we think the policy is just totally irrational and overbroad. Why not? Why can’t they protest at the Center for Black Culture?”

The Animal Rights Coalition, opposed to using animals for research, cannot picket near the research labs or most areas around the Health Sciences Center.

And the Students for Economic Justice cannot picket recruiters or protest corporate globalization near the business and economics building.

“There’s just no overriding governmental interest here,” Whitehead said. “It’s really not a ‘free-speech policy.’ It’s a restriction policy.”

From FreedomForum.com

So I’m sitting here listening to “Like Humans Do,” which comes packaged with Windows XP, and I have to admit, I kind of like it.

This is shaping up to be a Larry King-type column– lots of disparate thoughts with no real thread or point.

I accepted a job with Johns Hopkins CTY this morning– I start a week from next Monday. I’m happy about it– it means I’ll get to spend another summer in LA, and I’ve always enjoyed the work. I’m still disappointed about the internship fiascos of the past few months, but CTY is definitely a job I can enjoy. I’m really eager to get off of the farm and have something to do during the day again.

This weekend, Justin and I went to the lake house. He mocked me for hating nature as much as I do. I admit, it doesn’t make sense that a crunchy liberal like myself should hate the outdoors so much, but I do. I mean, I certainly don’t begrudge the animals and nature their place– I just don’t want any part of it. Give me some air conditioning and a t1, and I’ll be set.

Monday we went to see Dick Dale, surf guitar guy. It was a fun show, Dick Dale actually left the stage and went outside 123 Pleasant Street and played one song from the street. The guy is a consummate entertainer. The show was awfully long, though. I got home at 2 AM, and felt as though it should take more than that to tire me out. It was the first time I had a band around my wrist– over 21 and whatnot– which was very, very strange.

I won’t miss the symbols from the necromicon that the doorman draws on the hands of all the underage patrons (and which absolutely will not wash off for days– I imagine my skin has these spongey pores that just suck it in. I’ll probably have permanent brain damage from the chemicals… oh well…), nor the smell of that ink. But still, it’s an odd feeling to know my days of inky hands are over. It’s kind of liberating, and a little bit sad as well.

I’ve been reading How to Be Good to Justin during our car trips, and we finished it yesterday. It was really phenomenal– confirms Nick Hornby as one of my favorite writers ever; maybe my hands-down favorite, even (although I wish he could write an ending that didn’t involve a big meat dinner). Hornby really deftly satirizes the hypocrisy that is inevitable when humans try to do the right thing. It’s so well written and funny that it’s easy to miss that Hornby is really talking about some heavy stuff, and saying some really cool things.

Rounding out the media report (ha!), we watched Songcather and L.I.E. last night. Songcatcher was quite good; although the acting was a little sketchy in parts, the story was incredible. L.I.E. was a little less impressive, although it was a decently made film, it really seemed to lose momentum, and left me thinking “who cares?”