Booked!

I’ll be doing only light to non-existent posting this weekend as the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books will be eating up most of my time.

If you’re in the So Cal area, I encourage you to come out to the UCLA campus and partake in one of the great cultural events that L.A. has to offer.

I’ll be participating in three events:

Saturday
1:00-2:00
Moore Hall, C100
Panel discussion: "Creative Nonfiction “

Sunday
11:30-12:30
Korn Convocation Hall,
Panel discussion: "Commerce and Aesthetics in the Making of America's Culture"

Sunday
2:00-3:00
Booth #344, Royce Quad, signing copies of my latest book, "The Last Honest Place in America"

Comments

[steve]

Juan Cole answers Macho man hitchens:

http://www.juancole.com/2004_04_01_juancole_archive.html#108270330328907049

[Crid]

Saw you wiht Postrel this morning. I liked your point about Vegas being the place where the myths of capitalist achievement are ignored.

Only Klein used the word "monument," and while I think the world of Starbucks and Target, I'm surprised that no one noted that so many modern aethetic treasures nowadays are not only commerical, they're PRIVATE. The boomer generation has no Golden Gate or Rushmore, only Trump Towers and Wynn-land (or whatever). In Vegas, you could argue that the most majestic work is still Hoover Dam. Since the war, the greatest aesthetic monument, for all its faults, might well have been the semipubluc WTC. (The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis is probably another exception.)

[Marc]

Good thoughts Crid. I agree wholeheartedly. Hope we didnt bore yon into numbness at the UCLA panel! I thought it was kind of fun when Norman and Virginia got into the final minute wrestling match.

[Crid]

Steve- The Cole post is weak. He dismisses Hitchens' points, he doesn't answer them. And I have no patience for people who use "homeland" without irony (including mr. ridge): The USA is about ideas, not geography.

[steve]

He dismisses Hitchens' points, he doesn't answer them.

--yeah, but saying that we should 'flatten' fallujah...now there's some powerful logic for ya...
and he's right, behind hitchens' 'questions' are a whole set of weak assumptions or outright falsehoods (like, say, Sodom and bin laden were close, allies, etc. )...And he's right that the most important question should be would you support your child's decision to go and fight this war in Iraq. I assure you Hitchens would never be dumb enough to let one of his kids go and die in Iraq.
I doubt Hitch has any patience for people who don't use the word homeland like ol Ridge does...no small irony there...
But what is even more amusing is you seem to see Hitch as a more reliable source of analysis on Iraq than Juan Cole...that is amazing.