Tag Archives: Palm Springs

Financially Motivated Murder in Palm Springs: B-movie plot come to life

Link to: Sentencing delayed for two convicted of financially motivated murder

Jay Calderon / The Desert Sun

This story is almost too delicious to be happening in the dimension we all share – except for the fact that it involves a real-life murder, with a real dead man whose body has never been found.
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Like with the O.J. story – it’s awfully hard as a fiction writer to even imagine that you could come up with something so …. insanely good. The older, rich and lonely gay man who craves attention from younger, slick guys who initially appear to be the answer to all his dreams…. their “vulture” confederates, a conman (who claimed to be Nepalese royalty) and the older man with the legal background to mastermind the crime …. the cynical authorities… the neighbors who saw nothing, then remembered something… finally the jailhouse “rat” and as witness, the vast expanse of desert wildness holding the secret under its scorched covering.

As much as I truly admire the absolute grandiosity of such a scheme – purely for the story elements and their effect – I’m always amazed in real life that people who plan such “perfect murders” ever hope to get away with them. Didn’t they see enough movies to know that the more people you have involved in such a plot, the more likely – the absolute certainty – is that someone is going to feel they get shafted and then rat out the rest of the vermin?

After threats, no evidence of gay boycott of Palm Springs

Desert Sun story: After threats, no evidence of gay boycott of Palm Springs.

from PS Pride 2010

I’m certainly relieved to know that gay tourists and others won’t boycott PS as a result of the ill-advised Warm Sands Sex Sting in 2009.
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The Sting, in which the Palm Springs police allegedly used entrapment techniques to lure gay men into exposing themselves in the gay resort-heavy Warm Sands area, has become a lightning rod (pun intended) for selective enforcement issues – for example, it seems gay men have been selectively targeted for this kind of sting even though the majority straight population has never been targeted for their own anecdotally documented public sex habits.

This Sting became so much of an issue that Palm Springs Police Chief Dominquez was forced to resign. IMHO, he did the right thing. Hopefully, eventually, all charges will be dropped against the men involved in this alleged entrapment and Palm Springs will find a police force that works in concert with the public they are sworn to protect and serve.

Modernism Week in Palm Springs

Modernism Week website

My sister has a lamp like this.

This week is Modernism Week in Palm Springs. I went to the show on Sunday at the Palm Springs Convention Center – I took some pictures and here they are for you. I don’t know much about Modernism, to be truthful, but always get this nagging feeling that if we’d just kept all the junk we had in the early 60s, we’d be rich now.

Still, the more I’m exposed to it, the more I like it. I like the scale of the furniture, which in general, seems smaller – perhaps a reflection of a world before an obesity epidemic?

Anyway, that kind of design seems to fit better in small places. I snapped the shot of this lamp here because one of my sisters has something quite similar, and she’ll be delighted to know the price of this one was $1295. (It was a pair, I believe that was the price for the pair, though I could be wrong.)

Headboard I covet.

This next photo is a queen-size (!) headboard with built-in reading lights on both sides. I think the guy at the booth said it was from 1955. As you can see, the cabinet pulls out and down, and not only is there the adjustable light inside, there are little drawers and other little cubbyholes, too.

Lies, lies, everywhere I go, it's lies...

The item I noticed first in this next picture was not the “LIES” electric sculpture (is that what you’d call it?) but the painting of the hip/butt/crotch POV below it. However, I soon tired of that and focused on the LIES. I thought, how perfect, and what room would it belong in? Would it be most effective in the living room, over the TV? Or in the bedroom, on top of the bed itself – or would that just stop any welcome guest dead in their tracks? Perhaps the kitchen would be the best, as a comment on our sad state of our industrial food production (it’s all corn and soy…. yumm).
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it's always about dress-up, isn't it?

I was surprised to see vintage clothing displayed at the show, though on second thought, I don’t know why that should surprise me. When I was there, this was one of the more popular booths, as everyone seemed to want to try on something – who could resist the boas, the feathers, the faux fur?

This reminds me of The Shining. Must be all those Ghost shows I've been watching

Finally, here is the view from inside the new Palm Springs Convention Center west entrance, looking out toward Mt. Jacinto. For some reason it reminds me of the Overlook Hotel in The Shining, but it was all very benign this particular day. The columns and sweep of the roof are all very Flintstonian, don’t you think? I love it.

Palm Springs Modernism Week goes on for another few days, through the rest of this coming weekend. Check out the website for their full list of faaabulous events…

L.A.-Indio rail expansion plan might actually happen (?)

Desert Sun story on L.A.-Indio rail expansion plan

This is the main story in the Desert Sun this morning. I have been waiting for this – rail expansion between Palm Springs (Indio) and Los Angeles the entire time I’ve had this place out here (almost 10 years).

It just makes so much sense. There are no good public transport options between the Coachella Valley and the L.A. Metro area. Can I tell you how much I hate that drive?

There is a Greyhound Bus, but since they eliminated the downtown Palm Springs station they’ve made it oh-so-unbelievably inconvenient – you either have to backtrack to Indio (30 miles in the wrong direction) or get yourself out to the sandy, desolate and windblown train stop to pick up the bus.

Sandy, desolate and windblown station.

Then, it stops at every little bumf*** burg between here and the city, before finally terminating at downtown L.A.’s bus station – which isn’t even adjacent or walking distance to Union Station or any other kind of subway/bus terminal, making it even more complicated, time consuming and just plain stupid.

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No thanks.

In all my dreams of simple, efficient, fast and pleasant Southern California train travel I’ve never had the mistaken impression that someone would build the train line just for me. But I can tell you, I’d be a loyal and frequent customer! I learned to navigate L.A.s’ award-winning Metro system of light rail and buses and came to realize how much cheaper and less stressful my life would become the more I used it.

The era when the conventional wisdom about mass transit in L.A. – that you were either poor, stupid – or both – to use it, is long past. I believe it’s only a matter of time before trains connect all the urban areas of Southern California from Santa Barbara to the Mexican border and inland. I’d love to see it happen while I’m still breathing.

Record crowds flock to Palm Springs International Film Festival

link: Record crowds flock to festival | mydesert.com | The Desert Sun.

Yesterday was my final day of working for the Festival as one of their box office supervisors.

If you read the article linked above, you’ll see that Peter Bart (from Variety) says that the PSIFF has become more and more important in the film festival calendar, and that in many ways is a more important film festival than Sundance, which is or has become “more of a marketplace.”
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They beat attendance records. That’s good to hear; it’s the town’s signature event during the high season that pumps up the local economy.

Despite my work schedule, I managed to see a few films, including The Double Hour, Bibliotheque Pascal, and Little Murder. (more on them later)

Mesquite Tree, Part 2: The Replacement

As promised, here’s a photo of the Japanese Oleander bush/tree the HOA planted to replace the Mesquite Tree, which was removed a couple of weeks or so ago.

Japanese Oleander - the new tree

What it replaced - The Old Mesquite

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In the meantime, have a great Christmas if you celebrate that, and enjoy the downtime regardless. I’ve got a bookcase to put together, and then I’m driving to L.A. to have dinner with my friend Tim. Look for new posts on Monday!

Ho Ho Ho!

My Year of (Under)employment, Job 2: Census

Census Worker, not yours truly

I had applied for the census positions shortly after my layoff last November (2009) in Los Angeles. Since I moved to Palm Springs in April, they transferred my application there. I worked for the Census in May, June and July 2010.

My job for them was to basically check up on the work of other enumerators (interviewers) to make sure their data was accurate (i.e., that they didn’t just make all the shit up, etc.).

We were trained for two or three days out at the La Quinta library. Training consisted of a supervisor reading us the manual as we followed along. I’m not kidding. To be fair, there were a few quizzes every now and then. This wasn’t a job where there was a lot of gray area – the procedures were pretty much cut and dried and they knew exactly what they wanted from us (conformity and obedience).

What I liked about this job:

it paid a fairly decent wage for part-time work, and they reimbursed you for gas.
there were professional colleagues – nearly all of my Palm Springs cohorts were people in the same boat – professionals who had lost their jobs because of the recession. My boss owned a realty company!
Independence – you got to do the job alone either at home on the phone or by visiting the contacts out in the field, and you got to choose your own hours (within broad guidelines).

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What I didn’t like about this job:

There wasn’t enough of it! It turned out to be intermittent, very part-time. I had been under the impression that it would be full-time for a couple of months, but it wasn’t.
Dullness of the target population. The vast majority of people we had to visit in Palm Springs were ghosts – meaning, they just weren’t there. Since we were following up on previous work, it mostly involved people who couldn’t be found because they were seasonal residents and had long fled for more temperate climes, where they’d be counted at their permanent residence. I was hoping for a broad range of colorful characters I could use to inform my writing.
The weather. It got insanely hot during this period, so we had to go out and try to find people in 115 degree (and more) heat.
Forms. It was the government, for heaven’s sake. There was a ton of esoterica to fill out everyday. It seemed I always missed something.
Dogs. Not many nasty canines, but a few that would not let this census worker anywhere near their castle!
Rage-filled American citizens. They were fairly rare, but there were just those people who did not want to take part in any way and did not want you at their door, and were not shy about vocalizing their irritation. Names were called. Doors were slammed. Threats were issued. (Yes, these are the ones to use in fiction.)

So, they just announced the other day that there’s 308,745,538 people living in the U.S. I guess I counted a few of those myself.

Dangerous times: Third pedestrian killed near Ramon Road and Sunrise Way in Palm Springs

Link: Third pedestrian killed near Ramon Road and Sunrise Way in Palm Springs | mydesert.com | The Desert Sun.

Ramon near Sunrise, location of 3 recent fatalities

Disturbing story of yet ANOTHER fatal accident last night at the same intersection where 2 other pedestrian fatalities have occurred in the last couple of weeks.

I live a couple of blocks from here. There are a number of circumstances which contribute to the danger level of this particular intersection:

it’s fracking dark. Palm Springs just loves to be able to see the stars at night – and it is nice – but the result of that obsession is that there are hardly any streetlights in town. So, when it gets dark, it gets really, really dark and it’s nearly impossible to see anything that’s not lit up like a Christmas tree.
We go fast. Both Ramon Road and Sunrise Way have speed limits in that area of at least 35 if not 40 mph. People speed – I’d say most cars go at 45 which makes it nearly impossible to stop if there was, say, a man lying in the street – which there was (one of these fatalities sounds like a suicide).
People jaywalk. Not only is there a park (Sunrise Park) directly across the street from this little shopping center (which includes a Ralph’s, a Starbucks, a CVS, a Domino’s, and more) but people (many homeless, many high school students during the day) jaywalk from the park to the shopping center driveway halfway up the block from the intersection. It seems to be worse during the day when the high school kids run across the street dodging cars (the HS is about a block east of there) but at least you can see them and teenagers generally run fast.

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I’m not absolving any of the drivers here by any means – in fact, this latest accident was apparently a hit and run. Drivers – you need to slow down and keep your eyes open. Pedestrians – you need to cross at the light and don’t trust that drivers will see you and stop. When it’s you vs. a 2-ton mass of steel, plastic, human frailty and highly combustible fuel, there’s really no match.

Liberace reborn, at Milwaukee Rep’s Stackner Cabaret with Jack Forbes Wilson

Liberace reborn, at The Rep’s Stackner Cabaret – Milwaukee Metro, WI Local News – Fwix.

Jack Forbes Wilson and me a few years ago in MKE

Giving a plug and best break-a-leg wishes to Jack Forbes Wilson, an Arnold family friend, who’s starring as Liberace in a show at the Milwaukee Rep. It opens tomorrow.

Jack has been a very close friend of my sister Pati for years, as well as the rest of the family. He’s been a piano teacher for nephews and nieces, and he almost always lends me his bicycle when I come to town.

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Liberace, truly larger than life. I was always so embarrassed he was from West Allis, Wisconsin (a suburb of Milwaukee), as if that were our only claim to fame. People couldn’t focus on Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne – it had to be Liberace. Like the article says, I know he liked sausage.

The other photo is from a furniture and art sale earlier this year, held at Liberace’s former home in Palm Springs. A friend and I just happened to be passing by and decided we wanted to see what it looked like inside. Ostentatious beyond belief and totally inappropriate for a desert environment, the palace did not disappoint.

Palm Springs Pride November 6-7, Authors’ Village has great line-up…

Palm Springs Pride Authors’ Village

… including me. But hey, yes, I will be there to sign copies of Benediction. There will be an amazing group of writers there, everyone from Armistead Maupin and Felice Picano to Radclyffe, who is also the grand marshal of the parade. Radclyffe is not only a writer but a publisher (and a surgeon!). In a time when GLBT publishing (as well as all traditional publishing) is in a place of decline, her Bold Strokes Books is still out there with its collection.

Come on out to Palm Springs Pride – we got your parade, we got your boys and girls, your palm trees, sparkling pools, mountains, sand. You know the drill. It’s next weekend, Saturday and Sunday, November 6 and 7. We all may need some nurturing down time after Tuesday, to regroup for the good fight.
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If you want to see me, I’ll be at the Authors’ Village from 3 to 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, November 7. It’s at the stadium in Sunrise Park, where the festival takes place both days. I’ll have a pen.

Thanks again to Rick and Craig of Q Trading Co. in Palm Springs for your sponsorship and commitment to GLBT writing and publishing!

Oh and BTW, this is a new location for the blog. The old posts have layouts that are f***ed up with the photos etc. – so I will have to play around with them. I admire your patience.