3 LA voting recommendations and 3 random pictures from my week
Plus the only thing I liked about Dune 2--sorryyyy, clickbaityyyy I knowwww
Est. Read Time: 3 minutes. Read Time brought to you once again by the Ashburton Energy + Hair Logistics Group, in association with the Bradley Hills Bureau of Corrections + Housing.
New to the SternJourn? You’re getting this email because you subscribed or asked me to ass you! It’s a place where Julian (me) talks about comedy, writing, productivity, and whatever the hell else he wants. Check out the best of 2022, 2021, or 2020!
SHOWS:
Comedy Store Belly Room (LA). March 28th. more details soon!
Bergamot Comedy Festival (LA). April 1st-5th. more details soon!
Comedy Loft (DC). May 28th. featuring for the great Sam Salem. Sam is one of my famous friends, and he’s hopefully famous enough to sell out this 250-seat space but if not, maybe I can be that famous for him instead.
You live someplace you want me to perform?? Let me know, I’ll be there tomorrow, I never overpromise!
Howdy Sternal Journalists,
It’s an election week here in California! I’m going to tell you the three elections that I think are important or cool or otherwise good to be aware of in my opinion. One is hyper local, one is local, and one is statewide. I will also provide silly pictures from the week to ensure you outside-of-California folks scroll through.
1. Hyperlocal: Nithya Raman for Council District 4
If you live in Studio City, Sherman Oaks, Van Nuys, Reseda, Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Hollywood, or Encino, you likely have the opportunity to vote for Nithya! And I genuinely think she is the most important person on the City Council.
She has put homelessness and housing at the center of her first term in office and she has an extremely hands-on background in homeless outreach, having cofounded the SELAH nonprofit. In short, she has experience getting resources for and housing the homeless. She did this outside the system and has had success doing it inside the system.
And if you look at that list of places she represents, she got gerrymandered to hell so she needs every vote she can get. Please please please vote for Nithya if you can.
2. City of LA: Vote YES on Measure HLA
This one’s pretty simple. About a decade ago, Mayor Garcetti and the City Council put forth a mobility plan with detailed bike, bus, and pedestrian improvements. It has largely remained unimplemented. Measure HLA would require the city to implement these changes any time meaningful repaving or roadwork is already being done.
This does mean that you might get the occasional bike lane to nowhere at first, but it would speed up the rate at which streets are more equitable and safer for pedestrians and bikers. Feels no brainer-y to me. Here is the LA Times Editorial Board expressing their skepticism over fear mongering about HLA.
3. Statewide: I’m leaning NO on Statewide Proposition 1
It has all the right words in it—”billions in bonds to build mental health treatment facilities for those with mental health and substance use challenges; provides housing for the homeless”—but multiple sources I tend to trust (Knock LA, Cal Matters, League of Women Voters) highlighted the fact that (a) a last minute amendment made it possible to spend the money on locked facilities, and (b) the Prop is restrictive in how much of the money can be spent on certain facets of treatment. This might be well-intentioned, but it ends up making it much harder for counties to respond to the needs of their constituents.
I say I’m LEANING no because the “good” does sound really good and I wanna do a little more research, but I don’t expect my mind to change because the “bad” is also very bad. If you’d like a notification if I change my mind, lemme know.
That’s all for voting recs. Now…
Normal recs!
One Day. Television Show. I’m obsessed with this Netflix rom-dram about two people who meet on the final day of college in 1988 and then see them every year on the same say for twenty years. I just got to the part where they are my age (35) and I am full of every emotion possible. I have two episodes left and will be ready to discuss.
The Last Repair Shop. Short Film. This Disney+ Oscar-nominated short film (also available free on YouTube at the link!) about the LA Unified School District free musical instrument repair shop made me cry and made me proud to be a public school student and an honorary Angeleno. Truly fun for literally anyone.
Drive Away Dolls. Movie. I saw this extremely kooky Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke film last night, and it is kooky. Philly. 1999. Two best friends go on a mental health road trip and tour of lesbian bars of the Southeast while unwittingly the craziest maguffin I’ve ever seen in a movie. I cannot overstate how kooky this movie is.
Specifically Javier Bardem’s Character in Dune 2. Character. I know I’m in the wrong, but the beautiful, breathtaking, undeniably cinematic Dune movies are so boring to me. That being said, I would watch a supercut of Javier Bardem’s character in Dune 2 any day.
Alrighty, that’s all! Please vote! Please watch One Day and The Last Repair Shop!
P.S. I spend anywhere between two and twelve hours a week on the Sternal Journal. If you enjoy receiving it (and are RICH) consider becoming a paying subscriber. For just a few bucks a month, you can provide me with a bit more time to come up with fun topics, poems, and interviews; and you with probably fewer typos (Update: I have gained some paid subscribers since originally writing this bumper and I don’t think it’s had a meaningful impact on typos. Workin’ on it!)