Please Happy

Nothing says travel like watching this dude play a Shoot ‘Em Up game while Frank Sinatra mixes with the sounds of the iPhone’s guns and shouting, a girl calling home in another language and people wheeling their little wheeled bags down the linoleum.

Update on the dude across from me (who looks innocuous in this video, but believe me, his iPhone sounds alone would send even the most ardent war supporter running): His mini water bottle next to him is for spitting his chew spit. He’s now rolling his head in circles (think jazzercize warmup, 1985), doing exercises, readying himself for the next onslaught of machine guns. Gross. Please please please please PLEASE don’t let him be next to me on this 14-hour flight!

Full time grad school and full time kitty mommyhood has been taking up most of my time. Well, that, and sitting in traffic. Things I’m really psyched on these days: my public radio class, the hike we went on last weekend (first time hiking since August), thinking about the power of new media to enact environmental change, watching the kittens grow from helpless rats to cats who can clean their own butts, and that one day that it rained last week.

I’m taking some time off from Please Happy in the name of sleeping more, playing more and concentrating on the studies that will be over in May. Working on a thesis that includes radio, photography and video about finding (and creating) natural spaces in urban places.

If I start updating this site regularly, I’ll let everyone know through my Facebook and Twitter pages.

Until then, I’ll be eating cereal for dinner, sleeping with my clothes on, dancing in the living room, reading theory about sustainable cities, writing papers on prosthetic fingers, making videos about native plant landscaping and, of course, sitting in traffic. All with a smile and lots of love!

Gertude rages in Punk Rock Hamlet at Pasadena’s Boston Court.
(I’m also trying to get out more and enjoy all that L.A. has to offer, while trying to sleep a few hours each night.)

Of course, I think Thich Nhat Hanh should win* the Nobel Peace Prize (not only for a call to action regarding the recent struggle at Bat Nha and in honor of his 83rd birthday on Sunday, but obviously his lifetime of tireless advocacy and patience). But, I think Obama handled the award with grace. As usual. When I heard about this, I was surprised and a little annoyed. I’m sure Obama’s critics will chalk it up to international celebrity, first black president and all talk no action. This award may actually hurt the president. But, I believe he will earn it. I believe We will earn it.

Big fanfare yesterday around The Annenberg School for Communication’s new name. I thought maybe there’d be a new family or foundation supporting it. I got excited. Excited like I got before reading about the Sorting Hat in Harry Potter. Just as the sorting hat determined each kid’s school, and therefore path at Hogwarts, so this name would dictate our future.

And, it will. The Annenbergs are still around. In fact, it was one of their ideas for the name change. It’s more like a Name Add-on than a change. They simply added “And Journalism” to the title. Now, as Wallis Annenberg said, “Journalism will no longer be the little step child it’s right up there with communication”

My only question: after all the streamers are cleaned up and our new logo becomes integrated, what happens to the letterhead, the stationary, the business cards? Please tell me they’ll be used as scrap paper, as little kids’ book covers. Or, at least recycled.

For all its innovation, Annenberg still remains light green on the environmental front. But, that’s for another blog post. For now, I’m three cheers for And Journalism. Now, it’s up to us to decide what that means.

Jane Goodall would be proud of Juliette West and Sydney Custer. Both girls – ages 14 and 9, respectively – had enough courage to stand up and ask Goodall a question after her talk Tuesday to about 1,000 people at USC’s Bovard Auditorium.

West loves elephants and wanted to know what she should do to become the Jane Goodall for the elephant world. Likewise, nine-year-old Custer wants to be a marine biologist. While Custer was surprised that Goodall speaks only English and Chimpanzee despite a lifetime of global travel, Custer says “the talk was amazing.” The nine-year-old is interested in sea cows, sand-sized creatures that live in seaweed and the reusable bags she and her Girl Scout troop bought with money from cans that they’re passing out along with cookies this fall.

Goodall’s advice to the young ladies? Same that she herself received from her mother: Find a passion, and pursue every opportunity you can. Pursue your dreams, and never give up.

Goodall’s talk to the USC audience coincided with the publication of her new book, Hope for Animals and Their World: How Endangered Species Are Being Rescued from the Brink.

“It’s a book filled with success stories,” said the 79-year-old biologist. It’s a book that profiles the “often superhuman efforts” of conservationists determined to save species from extinction.

In this time of severe environmental degradation, of loss of biodiversity, of desertification and global climate change as well as poverty, disease, hunger and ethnic violence, Goodall has hope.

“Each one of us must do everything in our power to slow down climate change,” she says. This includes limiting meat consumption (cow farts and burps are a serious contributor to greenhouse gasses) and limiting emissions (she mentioned different cities 10 x 10 carbon curbing initiatives and the recent governors’ climate change summit).

Her suggestions: Have hope, learn, share, write to your congressmen, write to advertisers, support a project, encourage your child to learn and care.

Of the dozen or so question askers at the end, at least half were children.

In addition to her well-known work with Chimpanzees in Tanzania, Goodall has done a marvelous job at reaching out to youth around the world. She highlighted her work through Roots and Shoots, her youth organization that aims to “make positive change happen for our communities, animals and for the environment.” Through the organization, she connects youth of all ages from over 100 countries (there are several here in L.A.) with the “desire to create a better world.”

One organizer helped young people collect 438,000 empty cans and bottles, which turned into $16,000, which then bought 300 “live straw” filtration systems, each which went to an African family and provided one year of clean drinking water.

Goodall’s message was about action, about the power of youth and about the beauty of species, about the importance of each species in an ecosystem, and the importance of the human-animal connection.

She greeted us with a Chimpanzee hello. She held up a California condor feather – as long as she is tall – to show its beauty and enormity. Then, she told us a story of the endangered American burying beetle. She talked about its crazy sense of smell (it tracks carrion many miles away). She talked about its team work (mom and dad bury a carcass, mate and lay eggs, then chew up the meat to feed to the babies).

Dr. Jane, as students called her, spent only a short time talking about the Gombe Stream National Park, where she has spent nearly half a century researching chimpanzees (50th anniversary this spring). She talked about her meager beginnings and her perseverance. She talked about working to reclaim the barren land around the reserve in an effort to empower the local people and protect the chimps.

The doctor, an adjunct professor here in USC’s anthropology department, is hopeful.
And that hope spread to her audience, which was still waiting in a line wrapping around the building for about two hours after her talk finished.

Juliette West waited in line with her mother and father. The family had driven in from Santa Monica to hear the biologist speak. West wanted to know what she could do to become an elephant researcher and activist. The 14-year-old has already visited Billy, the elephant at the Los Angeles Zoo, gone to an elephant sanctuary near Sacramento, and may travel to Chiang Mai, Thailand in coming months to participate in a conservation-minded National Geographic documentary.

For the bright-eyed teenager, Goodall brought it all into focus.

“She was really inspirational,” West said, looking down at the new hardcover book in her hands. “I kind of want to be her.”

Other Resources:
1. Jane Goodall Institute.
2. Roots and Shoots.
3. Gombe Reserve Coffee!

Tiny Inspirational Story from Dr. Jane:

Read on the beach this weekend. Drove 60 miles roundtrip. Took 3.5 hours. Spent about an hour at the beach.

But, it was worth it for this moment. People playing. Together enjoying the big nature.

And now, another week. We’ve got sunshine, we’ve got blue skies, we’ve got each other. Who could ask for anything more?