LA interjection:

This article on dance party gangs in LA has been much discussed in my household over the last few days. I find it profoundly disturbing, but I also feel a little hypocritical for my shock, since I know I was carousing at houseparties and raves in high school too. What is different here? One is perhaps an age thing, barely teens (like the Seattle rave murders last year), and another might be the marketing around these girls - less the playful feel-good sexuality of 90s rave days and more explicitly sexual. The flyers look less like high school parties and more like b&t meathead club flyers, advertising the women more than the party atmosphere/experience. Then there's the bartering to holdoff gang violence, which is something my newly LA-brain still can't really comprehend.

On the other side, here's a Mr. Roger's-esque peep into the LA school district's instrument repair shop.