Paradise Lost

Just in case Kerry’s voice wasn’t enough, his face also turned up on a 15-minute promo video — a carefully crafted piece of salesmanship, leaning heavily on Kerry’s war heroism in Vietnam, with anecdotes from Kerry’s crew mates balancing the senator’s statements as the head of Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Kerry’s wife, Teresa Heinz, was prominently included with “equal partnership” implied, à la Clinton. Other subtle parallels: Kerry’s novice guitar playing in place of Clinton’s sax and Kerry’s hockey fanaticism replacing Clinton’s golfing. Still, among the faithful, questions lingered: How did Kerry feel about corporate dominance, the botched war in Afghanistan, the takeover of the news media by the right? Not an ordinary focus group.

But there was one strange common thread that bound many in the room. A love of Boston, Kerry’s home. At least three of the women in the room had gone to school there, at Boston College, Harvard and Wellesley College, and Ms. Jacobs’ mother-in-law hailed from the suburb of Brookline. The room was filled with a strange, misty-eyed nostalgia for the “Athens of America.” Which made the Women for Kerry gathering not unlike a Mission of Burma, Upper Crust, lots of expats getting together in the presence of a Townie homie!

Jennifer Hodges — neither a New Englander nor a New Breed Professional Democrat, but evening news anchor at KPFK — surveyed the scene somewhat warily. But in the end, she seemed impressed by Kerry. “Here in California, where the Democratic base is more liberal, Kerry and [former Vermont Governor] Howard Dean are the big guys, they’re preaching to the choir.” “Does that include your choir at Pacifica?” I asked. “No, Kerry is probably not for them,” she admitted. “A lot of the listeners are stuck in a time when politics was different, but we fill a vital function anyway, even when we’re wrong. Gadflies need a home too. And I was impressed with him. The best thing you can say about Senator Kerry is that he’s electable; he can win. Right now, with Bush in power, what else matters?”

—Johnny Angel

We Have Our Issues

looking back at 25 years of l.a. weekly

The fashion establishment is quickly realizing that American design can no longer be exclusively defined by the New York collections. L.A. has created its own fashion aesthetic, and the rest of the world is buying it. The many designers living and working in L.A. are producing distinctly individual fashions, but they share some things in common. They are influenced by our climate . . . They are influenced by the Orient . . . They are influenced by the rock culture . . . California fashion is blowing across the country like a fresh breeze. It succeeds where the stiff shoulders and peplum waists of this year’s haute couture fail, and the fashion industry is coming to realize that it sells.

—Joie Davidow, “Style in L.A.,” August 24, 1979