Angelina's Big Gun

"Wow, that's a big gun!"

The minute I heard my four year old, "T", say this on our walk home from school this afternoon, my split second reaction was that someone walking toward us had a gun.

It's been eight years since I was robbed in my neighborhood and the cold feeling of a metal pistol stuck in my chest, right over my heart, is not something I care to ever experience again. So I immediately snatched up my child and prepared to run into the street shouting, "Fire".

But unlike eight years ago when I could clearly see two guys running up on me in t-shirts and baseball caps, tattoos covering the skin on their necks, there was not even anyone else walking on our side of the street. And on the other side of the street I could only see another mother and her child.

I didn't have to ask my son what he was talking about though because his eyes were trained on the building to our right. "Whoa, that's a cool gun!"

My eyes followed his gaze and I saw the (see above photo) five-foot tall posters for the upcoming Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie, and James McAvoy action flick, "Wanted".

Now, "Wanted" is definitely on my list of films to check out this summer, mostly because every time I see the slick preview for it, I get all, "Whew, that looks awesome!" and, "Angelina is hawt!" Plus, Morgan's acting is always a fave of mine and McAvoy is pretty easy on the eyes and a good actor as well.

Indeed, I plan to see the film sometime in the next three weeks while I'm away in the Midwest, preferably someplace where one measly movie ticket isn't almost $13 like it is at my local theater. However, just because I want to go see this flick, that doesn't mean I want my kids to see these gun glorifying advertisements, especially when they're a mere block away from my child's school.

My first thoughts were, yes that is a big gun. A larger than life gun. The handle is almost as wide as Angelina's arm. I know she's skinny and all, but dang, that's just ridiculously massive. I'll admit I was pretty shocked to see such an advertisement up where kids can see it.

But I didn't need to share all those thoughts with T so I just told him, "Oh no, honey. Guns are not cool and I don't like that picture because guns are very dangerous and they hurt people. Remember, you should never touch one."

"Well that woman's got one and so does that guy!" The sass in his voice matched the gleam in his eyes. "And they look cool!"

We had to talk, yet again, about how guns and gun toys are not OK and that being cool and looking cool is not the end all, be all. But I felt like he's saying, "Mommy, you're such a hypocrite. You wanna go see this movie with guns precisely because you think it looks cool, yet you're telling me that guns are not cool and being cool is not important."

He's right. But I'm also not four and I know the difference between movies and real life. And even though I want to go see the film, I'm not OK with advertisements for an "R"-rated movie being put up a block away from a school where kids can see them.

Then I looked next to the "Wanted" advertisement and saw the ginormous Heineken ads. Clearly, the road from bad to worse is quite, quite short in my neck of the woods. I guess just having guns up there on prominent display isn't enough. Kids in my neighborhood need to be exposed to both guns and booze on their way to and from school.

Gosh, I wonder if gigantic ads featuring guns and liquor are a block away from a school over in Pacific Palisades where Governor Schwarzenegger's family lives. Do they have to see this kind of crap on their way home from school?

What do you think?

I'd hop in the car and go do some investigative reporting for y'all but 1) it's the end of rush hour so it'd take me like an hour to get over there and 2) regular unleaded is up to $4.69 a gallon at the gas station by my house.

As you can see, I'll have to pass on a Palisades road trip. BUT, I'll hazard a guess that no, they don't have to see such things over there. Lucky them.

I know in a week this advertisement will be replaced with something else but honestly, I'm tired of the endless parade of age-inappropriate stuff being shoved down my kid's throats by the billboards in my neighborhood. I plan to email this photo to City Council President, Eric Garcetti's office. Garcetti doesn't live too far away from me. I wonder if he'll have any issues with Angelina, her gun and the beer being strategically placed where every child strolling to school can see.

I'll just have to wait for his office's response. In the meantime, I wonder what would happen if someone in the neighborhood were to decide to take this poster down on their own?

Tax Day Public Service Announcements

Ah, Tax Day is here again.

I hope you're already filed and planning how you're going to spend save your forthcoming return or rebate check. However, if you're on track to be one of those poor souls we all see sweating bullets at the post-office on tonight's 11:00 news, stop reading right now and step away from blog addiction.

Now that we have that all cleared up, if you are finished with your taxes, you deserve to keep reading. I have some public service announcements (PSA) for you!

PSA #1: Be Bitter AND Elite
The words "bitter" and "elite" are not mutually exclusive.

I'm a little bitter that gas is about to hit $4 a gallon here in El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula.

I'm also elite because when I head to the 'Bux, I order a soy chai with a shot of sugar free vanilla, extra hot. Oh, and I went to some super prestigious universities and got a great educmakasion. And, I have lots of student loan debt to show for it! -- Oops, forget about that little mention of student loan debt because we weren't talking about bitterness anymore, were we? Hmm, now I know why people love Jon Stewart.

Could you possibly be bitter and elite, too?

PSA #2: Free Iced Coffee
I don't drink coffee anymore but I know you probably do. So, if you live in driving distance of a Southern California McDonald's, today's your lucky day! Here's a coupon for you to enjoy a FREE iced coffee at Mickey D's! I'm sure it'll be loaded up with sugar because it is McDonald's and the sprinkle sugar on everything over there, (watch Supersize Me if you don't believe me) but heck, it's free and you might like it. And did I mention it's free till May 5th? You could print out a bunch of these coupons and go to a different Mickey D's every day of the week!

If you don't live in Southern California, bummer. Maybe you should move here -- and bring your kids so the enrollment at our schools will stop going down. Plus, where else in the country can you get...

PSA #3: Free Trees:
I know. You were hoping I was going to type "Free Winning Lottery Tickets". Sorry. I don't have a hook-up like that. But, if you live in LA, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power will give you free trees to plant in your yard. Never mind that they're gonna jack up your light bill 23% and your water bill by 10%. At least you'll have a nice shady tree to plant in your yard as a gift for forking even more of your hard earned moolah!

To get the tree, all you have to do is take a 20 minute online tree care class. Seriously easy, so go get yourself some trees.

And since you're already in the mood to save something...

PSA #4: Go Clean a Beach
I promise that after you do it, you will want to slap the next person you see throwing a cigarette butt on the ground. I know from personal experience because I've done three beach clean-ups. They were sponsored by Heal the Bay and I took my 3rd graders out to Dockweiler State Beach to pick up trash. When you do stuff like that, you think about the environment in a totally different way. So now, every third Saturday, Heal the Bay picks the dirtiest area beach and sponsors a clean up. You can head out to Redondo Beach this Saturday and put in some time. They provide all the supplies for you so all you have to do is put your back into it from 10 am to noon.

You say you're into saving something but afraid of upping your skin cancer ante?

PSA #4: Save the Los Angeles Public Library
While our mayor, Mr. Villaraigosa has been hamming it up in the national media and getting out the Latino vote with Hillary Clinton, our city budget has been going to hell in a hand basket.

Case in point, the Los Angeles Public Library is so cash-strapped that they stopped buying new books back in February and they started canceling periodicals and database subscriptions. Oh, and say your local neighborhood branch in the hood is craptastic and doesn't have half the books that the nice branch in Los Feliz does, on July 1st you'll have to pay a dollar a book to get the tome you need sent to your branch. (See, I use words like "tome". I really am elite, n'est-ce pas?)

What can you do to stop this travesty of literary justice? At the very least, go to the Save the LAPL website and click on the link there to send a letter to Mayor Villaraigosa. We need to let him and the rest of his city hall buddies know that this ain't gonna fly. Plus, you'll feel like a rock star because you'll be contributing to literacy and preventing the masses from obtaining hair weaves, kissing trashy looking women and wearing Ed Hardy t-shirts all the time!

I seriously would love to get Bret Michaels a different hairstylist and makeup artist but unfortunately, I can't pay it forward like that. Instead, I'll participate in the...

PSA #5: Pay It Forward Exchange
Okay, okay. All you non-Southern California peeps are feeling left out. Sooo, I have to give you the opportunity to get a nice gift from me, courtesy of the Pay It Forward Exchange. I read about it on Anali's awesome blog like three weeks ago and signed up to participate. Here's the way it works:

"I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog."

Unfortunately, I don't know how to make much of anything. I'm just not very crafty like that. That means I know what the handmade gift from me will probably be.

Hint: Put "Depeche Mode" + "my favorite songs" + "burned onto a CD" + "just for you" together into a sentence.

And that's about it for our Tax Day edition of Public Service Announcements. Earth Day is coming up so I have even more PSAs for you (and a cool giveaway from these lovely folks) coming up!

Is There More To Life Than High Gas Prices?

Something wonderful happened to me this morning.

I had the distinct privilege of paying $3.05 for regular unleaded gas at the Mobil down the street on Melrose. I could have gone ahead and splurged on the $3.25 super/premium, but you know I'm struggling to keep my spend-thrift ways in check. I can't get too wild and crazy. Who knows what might happen if I really let myself go at the gas station?

Just kidding. Rewind. We all know there's nothing exciting about gas prices.

Actually, I'm very excited to share with you all that I'm now a columnist for another site called Anti-Racist Parent. This is a site that's dedicated to raising children with an anti-racist outlook, something our society desperately needs. It's run by a company called New Demographic and they're an anti-racist training company. My columnist intro is on there today so go by and check it out. I'll probably contribute over there at least once a month.

I also have to give a special shout-out to Mrs. J. over at Our Kind of Parenting. She recommended me for this and she's a very insightful blogger in her own right so go over and say "hi" on her site as well.