This morning I attended an event at UCLA called “Millennials in the Next Economy,” put together by The Atlantic Monthly and sponsored by Allstate.  The topic: “the economic prospects of the Millennial Generation (people born between 1981 and 2002) – how they are making their way through this job market, how they are coping with economic uncertainty, and what they can expect in the years to come.” (This link will take you to more information, including the results of a nationwide survey of Millennials.) After about fifteen minutes of the presentation, I texted my 19-year-old to say, “You’re screwed.”

A few key takeaways:

• 24% of recent college graduates have been unable to find a job. For the last two graduating classes, their entry into the job market was “a rout.”
• About a quarter of people aged 26-29 are living with their parents.
• Nationwide unemployment of Millennials is about 16%. In some areas, it’s 28%.

The second speaker was a guy who did market research and polling for Bush/Cheney 2004. Shortly after his remarks — and after I didn’t applaud — I put my hand up. I never got called on, so in frustration I posed my question to the other people at my table:  “Do you think Millennials are really pissed at the cost of a trillion-dollar misadventure in Iraq, when that money could have been invested into our economy?”

Here were the responses at my table:

From a middle-aged Latino man to my right: “You are sitting next to the right guy.”

From two other people: smiles and nods.

From the young woman across from me:  “This Millennial is.”

There’s plenty of blame to go around for the subprime mortgage meltdown (some of it in our collective mirror). But blame for the Iraq war, as well as recognition of the enormous ongoing cost of it, needs to be delivered to a certain address in Texas.

Mike Love is talking up plans for a “Beach Boys reunion” next year to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the band. (Here’s a story about this in the Guardian.) I’ve seen the Beach Boys — back when it was still actually The Beach Boys, and not Mike Love with assorted sidemen — and I’ve seen Brian Wilson, and let me say, this is a very bad idea. Carl Wilson was the heart of the band’s live act; his death, more than Brian’s submergence below the waves of sanity, ended the band as a touring vehicle. Carl is dead; Dennis is dead (and I actually saw him in his last concert performance — he was howlingly bad then); and Bruce Johnston’s health problems have sidelined him. That leaves Mike Love, aka “The Annoying Nasal One,” Al Jardine, and Brian.

To put it generously, Brian Wilson is not really in a state to perform. He’s not really in a state to tie his shoelaces. I saw him perform a couple of years ago and I’m still wondering if I wasn’t accidentally party to someone profiteering off a forced day trip from the home. The concert was a painful experience, with Wilson unsure at times where he was or who he was. My friend and I felt very bad that we were there. (For more on that remembrance, and on Brian’s disturbing appearance on the Tavis Smiley Show, click here.) It was so upsetting that afterward my friend mused long and hard about “the Beach Boys’ mixed legacy.” Ouch!

I love the Beach Boys. “Pet Sounds” and “Smiley Smile” are on constant replay in my car. I think we should leave it at that.

You have to give the City of Santa Monica credit for doing their utmost to protect their resident businesses. Last week’s emergency preparedness seminar covered every likely eventuality — right up to zombie attacks. (See bullet points below.)

I just got in from “ASAP Fables,” Moving Arts’ entry in the first annual Hollywood Fringe Festival. In our show, randomly assembled teams of Moving Artists created 8-minute fables built around a witches’ brew of  strange ingredients

• a randomly chosen animal
• a randomly assigned location within Hollywood United Methodist Church
• a moral to the story
• and an impossible assignment.

In our case, we were given:

•  a crow
• the chapel
• the moral “Nobody cares that you’re miserable, so you might as well be happy”
• and the assignment to “Fill the sky with your beauty.”

And, you had to work in the quote “Be who you are, and say what you feel” (from Doctor Seuss). And you couldn’t spend more than ten bucks on your show. How much did we spend on our particular impromptu play, “Reach for the Sky?” Ten bucks. Glad the budget wasn’t nine, because we would’ve had a problem.

More about how we accomplished this, and about the overall event, tomorrow. This morning I taught my workshop, ran an errand, then got over to the church to figure out some last-minute logistics on our show with my three scene partners, then performed the show seven times. As a miserable crow, this meant lots of running around and cawing on my part. After that, it’s now time for drinks. So tomorrow I’ll let you know what we did.

But here’s my favorite audience line of the evening. One of the people who came to see the show was an older gentleman who’s been following us around almost since our inception 18 years ago. I saw him in the first group that came in and later in the courtyard he was waiting to talk to me.

“Hi, Walter,” I said.

He looked at me and said, “Lee. I didn’t recognize you at first.”

“Yeah. It’s a lot of makeup.”

“No,” he replied. “I think since last time I saw you you’ve put on weight.”

Stan Lee on last night’s Craig Ferguson show. It’s nine minutes long, but well worth watching all of it. Stan is loose and funny and vainglorious and quick-witted — all of which must have been central to his success, and which almost must have driven his collaborators (I’m sorry, co-creators), to drink.

Last week I had my new suit fitted by a tailor. I don’t think she did a good job:  the legs now ride too high and the waist is too expansive. But listening to this call in which President Johnson specifies precisely how he’d like his new pants to fit made me think that perhaps I wasn’t explicit enough. LBJ was someone who always knew exactly what he wanted, including extra room from the bunghole to the brass tacks.

Slate helps us understand why it cost Alvin Greene $10,440 to get on the South Carolina ballot.

Now if they could help us understand how an unemployed unknown who lives with his father came up with $10,440 — let alone winning the Democratic Senate primary —  they’d really be providing a public service.

Here’s what it’s like to be one of the locals caught in the oil situation, where people are wrestling with their options: help in the clean up (but risk your health and sign away your rights), or sit it out and starve because the fishing industry is wiped out. Horrible options.

I also enjoy the PR show the lead local claims BP is putting on for the President every time he flies over, and the company’s inability to answer basic scientific questions about the aftereffects of the spill.

The end of this video, which is co-produced by Edward James Olmos, tells us to “visit the Gulf” rather than forget the people there, because they “need our help.” True. But I’m unclear how visiting them is going to help. And I can’t resist noting the awful irony that visiting them would mean consuming more petroleum — and it’s our consumption, ultimately, that led to the spill.

My theatre company, Moving Arts, is playing along with the Hollywood Fringe Festival this week. Our offering is called “A.S.A.P. Fables,” in which randomly formed teams of performers and writers concoct new fables drawn from audience-suggested fables.

Here’s the Moving Arts website for more information. If you’d like to come out and play, we’d love to have you. (The team meeting is this Thursday night.) If you’d just like to come watch, please come do that on Saturday at 5. We’ll be performing five of these fun little plays at different locations all around the historic Hollywood United Methodist Church.

In the meantime, here’s a fable you think you know, but don’t.

This tells you everything you need to know.