And I'm out...

With last week’s involuntary forced closure of (temporary) Grand Central, and the making Itinerant of Neverland Transit Authority and its Conductor, a hard look upon was called to on life in the San Francisco Bay Area and the greater California region. The kind that requires more than two Space Balls and a jumbo economy sized Ace hair pick. And after much ruminations what was the outcome?

Given the trends in the economy, and the direction that the state is taking, that there is little to no value to remain in the place of my birth and the first forty two years of life.

This was not an easy decision to come to. All factors were considered in the making of this. I looked up north in the Sacramento area but nothing in my job field paid as good as this one; which would be required to stay. I looked to see if I could endure a further commute. However, the first affordable place was Santa Rose; making my commute almost one hundred and seventy miles round trip… daily… plus a toll bridge. That would be four hours commuting – if I’m lucky, plus eight hours working with a cost so prohibitive that it priced itself right out of range.

I also took my case to my management team; explaining the economy of the area, showing them rental prices and sizes, and explaining the finer points of living in Silicon Valley (My company is based out of Waterloo, Ontario.) But, despite their assured understanding, there was no way they could issue me a cost of living increase large enough to make it worthwhile to hang on to my home.

My last day at the office is July 29^th. I’m spending this month getting things in order and getting the whole of Grand Central mobile so it can move up and into storage until I can find more stable digs. Through the grace of friends there is a place for me to land when I get up there and get solid ground under my feet.

    

I’m trying to take my anger, frustration, and trepidation and channel that energy into making this a positive adventure of change. A new city, a new state, with possibly new friends, opportunities, and building roots in one of the newest, fastest growing comic book communities in America. (Not to mention home to one of the oldest Comic Book stores, too.) I’m no stranger to Washington, but life there is certainly not life here. So this is going to be a thing, for sure. 

I am, however, not cool with how this went down. I am not cool with being forced out and away from family; especially given the timing. I am not cool being forced away from those I'm close to. I am not cool with being made into a second class citizen. And I am certainly not cool with what the San Francisco Bay Area, my home, has done to the people I know and work with around here. For as frustrated as I am with this place it does have quite a great many people and places I will miss.

But, if I have learned anything in my now four plus decades it’s that sometimes you just have to let go and move on. So, that’s what is getting underway here at Neverland Transit Authority. It’s a long haul, so we’re making sure there’s enough in the tender, the box cars are secure, and the boiler is clean and ready. If we’ve any business or personal issues needing attending to now is the time, because once this engine gets rolling there’s really no stopping it.

Or, as a mass of departing hyper intelligent mammals once said:

(Except, you know, we couldn't understand it...)

Californication; Red Hot Chili Peppers and the "California Dream"

There's this illusion that's sold to not only Americans, but of folks abroad, about the “California Dream” and how life here is about all dreams coming true, instant fortunes, and living the glamorous life. It's a scam; a false pretense that's packaged and pitched by the very heart of the entertainment industry.

As this industry has grown, and become more convoluted, more and more of those in it have begun to express the disillusion they, and others, have come to experience in Hollywood. Of those, Californication, by The Red Hot Chili Peppers, is probably one of the more masterful. Formed in the mid 1980's in Los Angeles, the band is no stranger to the twists and wilds of the music scene, and have expressed as much in many of their songs. Here, in Californication, the band puts forth, through lyrics, exposing some of the realities of what folks have come to believe is the dream of living in California.

One of the primary elements of the myth of California is its near exotic location; always envisioned as idyllic weather, beaches, and beautiful scenery. “It's the edge of the world /And all of western civilization/The sun may rise in the East /At least it settles in the final location” pretty much sums up this idea that California is the end all be all; the place everyone wants to be.

In his book, Scar Tissue, lead singer Anthony Kiedis says he was inspired by something he heard from a ranting lady in New Zealand, opening the song with “ Psychic spies from China/Try to steal your mind's elation /Little girls from Sweden /Dream of silver screen quotations”; referring to how wide spread this notion of the Hollywood myth is, across the globe – how invasive it can be. In many cases, it also goes to talk about how this romantic notion of life, adventure, and fortune have infected some's expectation of how life should just fall into place; much like a movie, or even a song.

This is perfectly exemplified in a bit of lyrics, written in the first person of one chasing that very dream, in Hollywood with “Marry me girl be my fairy to the world /Be my very own constellation” but goes on to reveal “A teenage bride with a baby inside /Getting high on information”; directly commenting on how the system can lead young and impressionable folks astray. And with the final line of this particular verse, we get our real first glimpse of what everyone who dreams of coming to the west coast has their eyes blinded by; “ And buy me a star on the boulevard /It's Californication”. Here we can get this sense that, while everyone comes here for fame and fortune, no one's really aware of how much hard work it takes, or how many fail miserably trying.

The term “Californication” is the blending of the state name, for which most attach the ideas of fame, fortune, and romance, with the term “fornication”; giving the meaning of prostituting the Californian life to create a form of marketing brand in order to make a profit. This is noted in the song with lines that end each verse, such as ; “ And if you want these kind of dreams /It's Californication”, and “ It's understood that Hollywood /Sells Californication”.

This notion, then, of glamor and glitz is exposed in the line “ Pay your surgeon very well/To break the spell of aging/Celebrity skin is this your chin/Or is that war your waging” is referring to the urgent need to look young and beautiful, and how its sold to everyone en mass; affecting the very way we see and perceive ourselves, and how we judge ourselves for and against it. The song revisits this, and really questions it with “Pay your surgeon very well/To break the spell of aging/Sicker than the rest/There is no test/But this is what you're craving”; bringing to light the very idea that, somehow, Hollywood has warped our ideas of beauty and self.

While the song does note how we're all colored by this ethereal image sold to us by Hollywood, who controls who is, and gets famous - “Born and raised by those who praise/Control of population/Everybody's been there/And I don't mean on vacation” - it also can't help but point out that, while it can be destructive, if you can keep your head and wits about you, then it's not necessarily an evil place; “Destruction leads to a very rough road/But it also breeds creation/And earthquakes are to a girl's guitar/They're just another good vibration”. Though there is consideration about how much we really need Hollywood and its fake dreams for sale; “ And tidal waves couldn't save the world/From Californication”.

Having been at the heart and center of the Hollywood music industry, themselves, for some time, The Red Hot Chili Peppers have been able to pull from a wealth of experience; weaving a lyrical tapestry that reveals, in its prose, some of the darker truths behind the notion of the “California Dream”, the myth of wealth, romance, and fame often promised by Hollywood. Giving us the hard sell, Hollywood has ingrained in the American people, and, to some extent, the world, this image of a good life, beauty, and success. In Californication, The Red Hot Chili Peppers peel back the facade, giving us a better look at the reality of this myth; broken dreams, wasted youth, and the desperate clinging to impossible ideals of beauty in a desperate attempt to remain hip, relevant, and noticed. Maybe even, in the process, trying to show how we can be enamored by it, ourselves.

The Dream and Myth of California...

What is the “California Dream”? As described by my English 1B instructor, Brian Lewis, it’s “the American Dream on steroids”. The prevailing idea is that California is, among the fifty United States of America, that here, in the thirty first state, and here alone, the ideals of opportunity and fortune thrive and abound in every corner of the state.

But, do they?

Offered, as example, are two select pieces of reading, for considering. In an excerpt from Nathanael West’s The Day of the Locust, we meet and follow Tod Hackett; costume designer for a small Hollywood studio. Tod was lucky enough to get scouted out and recruited to move to California while in art school. He considers how lucky he is to have been picked; as he’s not what you’d consider particularly a choice individual; “his large sprawling body, his slow blue eyes and sloppy grin made him seem completely without talent, almost doltish in fact.”

In Under the Wire, Francisco Jimenez retells the story of his family as they left Mexico to look for work in California; seeking the same fortune and luxury that they have heard about from people like his cousin Fito; who lived in near populate luxury with his “two bedroom house [that] had electricity and a water well.”

Of course, as you can expect, Under the Wire is the story of illegal immigrants coming to California to find

work and a better life. Why? Well, because California just is better than the poverty of Mexico. But when they finally get to a work camp, Francisco’s brother Roberto isn’t even sure they are in California because not only is it not what they’ve heard, but there isn’t even any work, yet.

And Tod in Hollywood? Well, for one, he wonders if, in pursuing his fortune, he hasn’t sold out his art as a painter; which was his goal to be, in art school. Not only so, but also even considers the ugliness of his new home, by the end of the excerpt.

The other important thing to point out is the age of these readings. The Day of the Locust was published in 1939. Jimemez’s stories, from the book The Circuit: Stories from the life of a Migrant Child is his retelling of his family’s arrival to the United States in 1947. How accurate can these tales be, against the idea of today’s California?

In California: a place, a people, a dream James Rawls points out, siting Nathanael West as one example that “California’s writers have often provided a counterpoint to the myth of California as the land of boundless opportunity, success, and romance.”   As he’s quick to point out, the mystique of California is built on the paradoxes of its promise and failures.

And nowhere is that probably more accurate than today. California wealth, the supposed lure of so many to the Golden State, is actually held by a small minority of its residents; most of whom either inherited, or simply built wealth through fast stocks and investments – the legacy of the dotcom boom and bust of the late 1990’s. California is currently tied for fourth highest unemployment rate according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (8.6% with North Carolina) And that’s not even counting the amount of “under employed” workers who cannot find full time employment, or are forced to work for a considerably much lower salary than their predecessors in the same field; or their contemporaries abroad. Californians are also some of the most regulated and taxed in America; including fuel, property, and local sales taxes, as well as laws, statutes, and regulatory bodies in Sacramento, the state capitol. This ads to the already staggering cost of living that, to this day, grows more despairingly disproportional to the average worker’s income. 

Businesses have been also slowly moving to greener pastures, as it were. Companies like Network Appliance, Intel, and even Microsoft have either moved all their manufacturing to other states, or even countries, in order to save profits, rather than stay in California. And states like Washington and Arizona have gone to great lengths to make themselves more attractive to companies looking to relocate.

Since the gold rush of 1848, and through the 1850’s, California has been a land of “get rich quick”, more than opportunity. From Sutter’s Mill to the starlet dreams of Hollywood, more folks come here to get a fast grab at the perceived pie, than any actual opportunity. Nowhere is this better illustrated than the afore mentioned dotcom boom and bust of the late 90’s; when techs took off and investors flooded the new market. In their quick turnaround tactics of stocks and options, investors managed to over inflate the online economy, then pulled out with a quick, tidy profit; leaving the market to crumble. This was a cycle we would see, again, with the Enron scandal of the early part of the 21^st century, and then in 2008 with the housing scandal; which actually spread nationwide.

Biotech companies, like Genentech, were supposed to be the new boom economy. However, to date, that’s been more a slow steady ride than a new exploding economy. And perhaps that’s just as good, if not better. Because today the California myth is built around the boom/bust model of just a fraction of the state; namely the San Francisco bay area. The reality is that nearly 70% of California is actually agricultural; as it’s been since the turn of the 20^th century. And while the get rich schemes of the 49ers and the businessmen have come and gone, the farms and ranches of the central valleys have been going strong and stable all that time.

As Spooner points out, himself, in A New Perspective on the Dream, we can’t deny the lure of the images of starlets, romance, and the quick fortunes that have been had here; dreams that drew in the post war mid-westerners. But, where does that leave the supposed “California Dream”, today?

Most Californians, myself included, work very very hard to just get buy. Living here quickly dispels the fantasy of the bountiful land of opportunity. Home ownership is out of the reach of the majority of California’s residence; who must leave to more affordable places, if home ownership is a goal. Jobs aren’t as plentiful with job seekers more numerous than available work; when the work can pay enough.

That’s not to say that this state isn’t without its charms and culture. But the idea of the California Dream? Well, that’s more a myth, a relic, left over from bygone eras. With technology being what it is, and as available as it is, getting into entertainment – indeed, nearly any lucrative profession – is relatively easy in this day and age. And with the Internet and crowd-funding sources, like Kickstarter, building capitol and reaching target audiences no longer requires Hollywood or Silicon Valley. The California Dream… the myth… is no longer the “American Dream on Steroids”, but, instead, just back to a small part of the American Dream.