ADVISORYTuesday, February 10, 2009
For Immediate Release
Contact: Edward Headington
E-mail: EHeadington@Coro.org
Direct: 818.720.7181Coro Southern California – Center for Civic Leadership The Executive Vice President of the Hospital Association of Southern California will speak to the “State of the State of Healthcare Reform”
Los Angeles artist paints John McCain and Sarah Palin as Batman characters
October 11, 2009. Los Angeles based artist paints John McCain as "Two Face" from the Batman series. The acrylic painting on wood is 4' x 8'. He also paints Sarah Palin as the Joker. This image is also acrylic on wood, 2' x 4'. The son of a prominent Republican official, the artist wishes to remain anonymous.
The GM of LA Animal Services, Ed Boks, is claiming that LAAS is 95.75% no-kill, in spite of the fact that Boks admits that killing at LAAS is up 37% in 2008.
STEPHEN VERONA, LEGENDARY FILMMAKER AND ARTIST, TO BE HONORED AT A PREMIERE RECEPTION, OPENING “MEMORIES”
THE FIRST SOLO SHOWING OF HIS COLLECTION OF PAINTINGS
Saturday, August 9, 2008…6pm---9pm at the prestigious Karen Lynne Gallery,
216 North Canon Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210
Karen Lynne Gallery is pleased to announce a new solo exhibition by renowned artist Stephen Verona. Memories will be a collection of paintings inspired by Verona’s travels as he captures everyday life from quaint café’s in Paris to afternoon bike rides in Shanghai.
Ed Boks is the General Manager of Los Angeles Animal Services (LAAS).
Ed Boks pretends to care about converting LAAS into a no-kill system of sheltering, but all that he has done is cost the TAXPAYERS of Los Angeles their hard-earned MONEY, with his questionable programs, and undocumented spending.
Ever heard of TED? If not check out TED.com. They host a series of amazing talks / films / presentations with highly relevant / entertaining / inspirational / educational subject matter in the true Al Gore style.
LOS ANGELES – Architects Scott Johnson FAIA and William H. Fain, Jr. FAIA will receive the Gold Medal -- the highest honor presented to individuals and given by the American Institute of Architects Los Angeles (AIA/LA) for their design contributions to the profession of architecture. Johnson and Fain are partners of Johnson Fain, the Los Angeles-based architecture, urban design + planning and interiors firm that they co-founded in 1989. The Gold Medal will be presented at the 2008 AIA/LA Design Awards event on June 4, 2008, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
February 27, 2008
For Immediate Release
Contact: Marissa Gonzalez, USC
Email – Marissag@usc.edu Phone – (213) 740-2866
Los Angeles, CA -- The USC Mexican American Alumni Association (USC MAAA), USC’s premier Latino alumni organization, is holding its 34th Annual Scholarship Dinner on 14 March 2008 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. The evening is co-chaired by Latino leaders Henry Cisneros, former HUD Secretary and current Chairman of the CityView companies, and Maria Contreras-Sweet, former California Secretary of Business, Transportation, and Housing Agency and current Board Chair of Promerica Bank. In addition to actor Tony Plana serving as master of ceremonies and Poncho Sanchez providing live entertainment, George L. Pla, Founder, President and CEO of Cordoba Corporation, will be honored with the Raúl S. Vargas Alumni Award.
Based on a bold urban agenda put forth by the D.C.-based Brookings Institution, local leaders and scholars tackle issues affecting greater L.A. and the state of California. The Honorable Henry G. Cisneros (CityView) will moderate the event.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February, 27, 2008
Contacts:
Los Angeles is one of the most hopelessly car-dependent cities in the world. With its wide sprawl, unaffordable housing, and currently pathetic public transportation systems, most citizens feel as if they have no other choice than to spend significant parts of their day driving in the traffic-laden streets of the city. The Los Angeles Peace and Sustainability Project offers a viable solution that will enable a significant population to live independent of automobiles. This project features a plan to create urban villages near the revitalized Los Angeles River. Utilizing mixed-use vertical expansion, these villages will create compact communities where almost everything residents could need will be within walking distance. In contrast to Los Angeles�s currently sky-rocketing rent rates, these high rises will feature affordable housing units for all residents. These communities will also feature workplaces where employees will not only be able to walk to work, but will enjoy full job security no matter what the state of economy the country faces. River-front recreational facilities, outdoor shopping pavilions, and excellent community services will improve the quality of life for all. For those who choose to make the leap to full car independence, an efficient high-speed electric rail mass transit line will connect residents to downtown LA and the existing public transit system and several community cars will also be available. All of this is ensured by a sophisticated plan that promises to make these communities into successful models of peaceful sustainable living. The goal is for these Los Angeles urban villages to serve as models for cities all over the world, which will learn how to incorporate this system themselves. Learn more about this project and the Transition Race to Peace and Sustainability at www.holigent.org
Posted by: springintoaction on Monday, February 25, 2008
The need and urgency to address urban policy issues has never been greater than at any point in our history. Earlier this week, the New York Times editorialized on this (In Search of a Real Urban Policy) and I pleased to remind you of next month’s event with Bruce Katz, Henry Cisneros and others at USC entitled “Blueprint for American Prosperity: Unleashing the Potential of a Metropolitan Nation.”
You might note that Mr. Katz was mentioned in the editorial and will be offering interesting and incisive commentary; and Mr. Cisneros will be moderating.
There are still seats available for this free public event so RSVP today at www.usc.edu/esvp (and enter the code “sppdkatz” when prompted).
Coro Southern California Training Tomorrow’s Leaders since 1957
ADVISORY
Monday, February 11, 2008
For Immediate Release
Contact – Edward Headington at (818) 720-7181
E-mail – eheadington@coro.org
Coro Southern California to Launch New Speaker Series: Coro CrossTalk on Healthcare
Los Angeles, CA. For over 50 years, Coro Southern California has been training tomorrow’s leaders and promoting civic engagement. This Wednesday, for the first-time ever, the venerable leadership development organization launches Coro CrossTalk, a new and lively healthcare speaker series.
Never has the need to discuss urban planning issues been greater than that of today—especially when it comes to the metropolitan areas of our nation. Next month, USC is hosting a presentation and discussion of “Blueprint for American Prosperity: Unleashing the Potential of a Metropolitan Nation.”
This is a free event open to the public but you must RSVP at www.usc.edu/esvp. Please enter the code sppdkatz when prompted.
SAVE THE DATE ADVISORY
Monday, February 11, 2008
For Immediate Release
Contact – Forrest Beanum
(310) 566-8718 or fbeanum@cityview.com
Think Chivalry is Dead? Check Out the Latest in Martial Arts…
Bored? Overweight? Never leave the sofa? Why not try martial arts? After all, there’s a dojo on every corner. Karate, Judo, Tae kwon do. It’s all so very Crouching Tiger. The eastern martial arts certainly have a distinguished history and commercial appeal, but have you ever considered the western marital arts? Never heard of them? Well you’re not alone.
Nearly every Sunday and holy day Donald is out front of Our Lady of Angeles Cathedral protesting Cardinal Roger Mahony for failing to expel pedophile priests from the Church. The 80 year old native Angeleno and retired pipe organ repairman stressed that while he too has his flaws, he is still a faithful Catholic.
The Mission to Our Lady Queen of Angels. Also known as Iglesia Nuestra Se�ora Reina de los Angeles. This is not the church itself but the easily-missed mission adjacent to it. Among the tourists with cameras (such as myself) there is a steady contingent of true believers, the kind who, upon leaving, walk backwards so as not to turn their backs to the altar.
Earlier this month, Los Angeles officials celebrated the 10,000th passenger on United's Palmdale flights. But LAX serves this many people in about 90 minutes.
Ouch. In six months of service--or 180 days--with four boardings or landings with 50 seats each a day, there could have been as many as 36,000 passengers in six months--or these planes out of Palmdale are flying at a little over 25% capacity.
Serving Southern California since 1913
For Immediate Release
Los Angeles, CA. Every month, the Los Angeles Press Club holds events for its members and invites speakers from various sectors of society to address issues of the day and/or offer insights into their line of work. In December, for the first-time ever, the Press Club will hear from social entrepreneurs and civic leaders, Paul Vandeventer and Tom Riley.
Statewide, the 10 cities and communities with the greatest median home price increases in August 2007 compared with the same period a year ago were: West Hollywood, 35.8%; Los Gatos, 35.7%; Encinitas, 27.7%; Los Altos, 26.2%; San Carlos, 21.9%; Los Angeles, 20.9%; Newport Beach, 18.3%; Burlingame, 18.3%; Cupertino, 17.4%; Novato, 17%; Santa Monica, 16.8%.
What seems to be happening is that the bottom is falling out of the housing market. Lower-priced homes just aren't selling because people cannot afford them--and they cannot get mortgages--so the higher-end homes are inflating the housing data--that's what yesterday's SRAR report from the Valley indicates. So it just looks like home prices are going up--leading some folks to think that prices will never go down!
Posted by: ScottSchmidt on Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Our Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa made a campaign promise to make Los Angeles a NoKill City for animals. After two years in office it is clear that he has failed miserably. Last week in order to stem the flow of animals coming into the shelters they decided to just refuse them because the shelters are full. The shelters are so overcrowded that now twice as many animals are dying from illness and injuries suffered in the shelters. Fewer are making it out alive. What went wrong? And is the Mayor going to do anything about it?
When it opened in 1870, The Pico House was the finest hotel in Los Angeles. Located across from Olvera Street, it's fortunes declined with the rest of the area during most of the Twentieth Century but is now listed as a California Historical Landmark.
Is it a freak in LA's zoning laws that allows one and only one strip club on so far north on La Cienega, north of Beverly? Or is it technically in West Hollywood?
Nearly two hundred years old and located adjacent to Olvera Street, Our Lady Queen of Angels, also known as La Placita, appears to be very active in immigration reform.
On Vermont, north of Los Feliz, approximately 9:30 pm. For the most part, the fire seemed to be on the other side of the ridge although at one point it was clearly ahead as well as to the east and west. Police bullhorns repeating "Mandatory Evacuation, Mandatory Evacuation." No panic among the residents. The wind didn't seem to be too strong. Much smoke in the air of course.
The brutal rampage by LAPD in McArthur Park on May 1, 2007 was culmination of a 6-year old secret but intricate policy by the Bush administration and local forces of the extreme right in reversing attempts to reform LAPD after Rodney King Beating and Rampart Corruption Scandal.
Note: Editor's Note: We'd like to remind everyone that LA Voice is an open-source public media platform and that the views expressed on LA Voice are solely those of the individual posting the content.
Built in 1927, this building, located at Olympic and La Cienega, was originally a water treatment plant for the city of Beverly Hills. Restored in 1988 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, it is now The Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study.
It's not like Mijares Mexican restaurant in Pasadena needs any free publicity-- it's packed all the time-- but it's getting the mother of all promos, courtesy of actor Will Ferrell.
Born this afternoon and both weighing in at over 5 lbs., the girls (I haven't heard the names yet) will no doubt be two of the most athletically gifted humans on the planet.
Nomar missed the birth as he was in flight returning from Florida (see, if the Dodgers had moved their spring training facility to Arizona sooner, he would have been in the delivery room!) (I'm kidding, I'll miss Dodgertown as much as anybody..."), but he was dialed in on speaker phone.
Posted by: Ryan_Knoll on Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge is never short on big ideas. But sometimes the boisterous politician, like all of them, has those perfect foot-in-mouth moments.
Daily News columnist Rick Orlov points out LaBonge's remarks at the St. Patrick's Day Parade downtown earlier this month.
"This isn't the Hollywood Christmas Parade yet, but it will be some day," LaBonge said.
Orlov then slyly reminds us, "[t]he Hollywood Chamber of Commerce pulled its sponsorship of the Christmas parade last week."
The A380 landed without incident this morning at LAX and, as advertised, it’s a monster.
The world’s largest passenger jet—8 stories high, 1.2 million pounds, with a 261 foot wing span—appeared to “wobble” a bit in the landing gear on touchdown, but officials say it was no big deal.
There appeared to be minor “wobble” in the landing gear on touchdown, but officials say it was no big deal.
You’ve no doubt heard all the controversy surrounding the new Airbus A380—the superjumbo jet that forced runway modifications at LAX and other airports? It has been hampered by expensive delays attributable to a dysfunctional manufacturing system that relies on several different companies in several different European countries. Well it’s finally coming to LAX.
"The Airbus A380 -- the world's largest airliner -- is scheduled to make an historic first visit to the U.S. West Coast when it lands at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) at 9:30 a.m. Pacific Time on Monday, March 19, 2007. The historic flight is being conducted by Airbus, Los Angeles World Airports and Qantas Airways to test airport function and compatibility in anticipation of Qantas' A380 passenger service at LAX, which is scheduled to begin in 2008. The aircraft is scheduled to depart between 7:15 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. on Tuesday, March 20."
The Times is reporting that the Encounter Restaurant that is part of the signature arches at LAX has been closed and will remain closed for probably six months.
The arches were deemed to be unstable after a 1,000 pound piece of concrete broke loose and crashed into the restaurant roof.
The new gate areas and lounges are fantastic if you're flying a foreign carrier, but for the rest of us, it looks like we'll be stuck in the line snaking outside Terminal One to fly Southwest or left with one of the worst airport lounges in the country in Terminal Seven for a few more years.
Posted by: ScottSchmidt on Tuesday, February 27, 2007
I've been seeing Ronald sell his stories from the corner of Hillhurst and Hollywood Blvd for months now but only today did I have the time to talk to him. Ronald sells a sixteen page newsletter, some pages are xeroxed, others are individually drawn. The content is political, not hard to follow if you're up on current events (as Ronald seems to be) and occasionally humorous.
In other words, if Ronald had the ways and means, he'd be writing a blog.
This statue at Sunset and Vine has always struck me as odd:
A young lady - a putto whispering into her ear - is perched backwards on a bull that's leaping to the southwest, accompanied by a pod of midget dolphins.
Anybody know the artist, or a reasonable interpretation of what it all means? If not, go 'head and make one up!
Posted by: Mack_Reed on Thursday, January 11, 2007
Can anyone confirm that this homemade plaque really marks the center of Los Angeles?
I was out hiking yesterday in Franklin Canyon and stumbled upon it but I have no idea of its true. But if it is, and if people could see the relatively pristine patch of California wilderness that Franklin Canyon Resevoir has managed to mainitain, their ideas about living in this city might change just a little.
(We googled "Allan E. Edwards" and discovered he published an academic paper on Franklin Canyon in 1991 but that's as far as we could get.)
After 10 days off, I skim back into the working groove on the glow of a perfect Venice sunset, New Year's Day 2007. Back to news and regular blogging Tuesday morning, but first, a photo or two.
Ocean mist and Krylon overspray mingled in the afternoon air there by the boardwalk, where graffiti artists sprayed huge full-color burners onto walls already many layers thick with tags thrown up and forgotten. This one is a message from "Hinge," whose full piece follows the jump, along with some other graffiti and scenes of the day ...
This is by far my favorite musician in L.A. He can be found nearly every Sunday at the Hollywood Farmers Market (just west of Hollywood and Vine). Pitching his head down into the side of his extremely worn guitar, he gets extra resonance for what I take to be Mexican folk songs.
In the coming days I hope to post a video of him on my blog - www.jimsonweed.blogspot.com
Meantime, I'd like to wish everyone a happy and healthy New Year.
Saw this in my morning ride - something small and wild that won't make it to 2007. Almost perfectly preserved - the L.A. Bureau of Streets maintenance hadn't spotted him (or was studiously ignoring him) and the bugs hadn't found him yet. He didn't smell much - it was quite cold out on upper Commonwealth Avenue, just after dawn.
Here's how we all looked this morning from the top of Griffith Park on this, the shortest day of 2006. The good news: It's all a downward coast from here into 2007 and longer days.
Posted by: Mack_Reed on Thursday, December 21, 2006
Although he didn't seem drunk or stoned, talking with this gentleman was difficult so I wasn't able to get his name. But he does seem to epitomize what homelessness in Los Angeles looks like.
The kids and I hustled down to the Ivanhoe School water station just as the runners came past at around 8:15 - a couple thousand of them, sweaty and determined - en route to the finish line downtown. We hung out for a few minutes at what turned out to be the foot race's halfway point, and got caught up in the fun of passing out water cups to grateful marathoners ...
At one o'clock this afternoon this hooded figure walked through the Farmers Market and The Grove. As its the day before Thanksgiving, I'm inclined to think it was a political statement meant to remind everyone that Abu Gharib, Iraq and death are still happening even tho we might not want to think about it.
On the other hand, maybe it was someone having a psychotic episode.
When smog-tinted vermillion sunrise started blasting through the cool, green trees, I wished I'd brought a proper camera. But once I started snapping with the phone, I had a lot of fun with the camera's low-rez, high-saturation, auto-exposure, time-stamped view of the top of Griffith Park. Here's what it saw:
I've never been a fan of the building, inside or out, but after getting rousted an hour ago by a Beverly Center security guard who double-parked in the middle of Beverly Blvd to tell me I can't take a photograph from a public sidewalk, I'll just guess that it's the same old soulless Beverly Center.
I didn't know until recently that there is an El Camino Real bell in front of it. Therefore, the church has been a part of the history of Los Angeles before there was a Los Angeles.
I'm sure at one point the thing at the corner of 3rd and Rossmore was just another large but modest mock-colonial. This quiet, stately Hancock Park split-level, was likely home and hearth for a family of two lower-rung studio execs and their 2.4 children.
Then the guy with the orange/gold-metalflake Navigator moved in. He found himself an ironworker who liked crank, bought a grossload of cement "David" knockoffs and lion's-head casts, and went a little nuts with the white Krylon. Home, sweet wedding cake.
Click to enlarge it. It's ... impressive.
For four long years, L.A.'s had plenty of time to wonder what the hell they were doing up at Griffith Observatory.
What renovation or newfangled exhibit could possibly be taking all that damn time, and costing $93 million - a buck for every mile between here and the Sun?
After a tour, I can assure you, it was well worth the wait. Once you see what they've done with the place you'll be amazed they did it in only four years. In addition to completely re-frosting the art-deco temple of the skies, the engineers hollowed out the mountain underneath the front lawn to install 37,000 square feet of new exhibits underground ...
Livedigital is hosting an event called CampaignUSA which calls for participants to upload a 2 minute video discussing 3 issues. Below is my entry. My ideas for how Los Angelenos can begin to transform their transportation system can be read on LAVoice.org.
Posted by: FranciscoFrias on Friday, October 06, 2006
I love this place on the L.A. River. I keep returning to it - the Tonka-scale industrialism, the filthy water, the tufts of indomitable grass, the grainy concrete with splashes of graffiti. Photos never quite do it justice, but here's another:
MAKE H U G E to see the detail (763kb)
(To view full-size in Firefox, change Preferences/Advanced/Browsing/Resize Images)
Hiking this evening along the western end of Mulholland, we were warned by the LA Fire Dept. of the fire along the Encino Reservoir. For the two hours that we walked along the ridge, helicopters were constantly dousing the scattered fires with water. By sundown (7:15?) the fires seemed to be out.
The IAAL/MAF rolled out last night for a bracing 2-wheeled tour of Vernon, Huntington Park and industrial South L.A.. I took a bunch of mental notes and a passel of photos.
But until somebody perfects the olfactory browser plug-in there's no way you can get the ponk, the reek, the stench and smell of the ride - so words will have to do ...
En route home from Dodger Stadium - or perhaps to friendlier spawning grounds, it passed about 200 feet overhead, its zipper-board flashing, its props a-roar. You gotta love the Goodyear Blimp.
I'm proud to announce that Wednesday morning, a small group of folks that I am leading will be announcing a new effort to unify America as one, if only for just one moment.
Our vision is simple: At noon, PST on July 4, we ask every radio station in America (and TV stations for that matter) to play the National Anthem simultaneously.
At our Web site, www.starspangledmoment.com, you can download a particularly rousing version of the Star Spangled Banner and countdown to the exact moment.
This is not about politics or ideology. It is about being a proud American ...
Everybody's come here from somewhere. They all have something to say. Post (or send in) the bumps that crack you up and I'll publish them. Make sure to include time and date you saw them.
Spotted this fine exemplar of American brashness in a Hollywood garage. You can imagine how dangerous it is to drive - V6-powered, full-width front tire, no sign of anti-lock brakes - Dig it.
Click through for more photos ...
After yesterday's multimedia orgy I cruised back down the Red Line to E3 at the LA Convention Center for more eye candy and sonic assault.
This time I started out in Electronic Arts' "booth" - at the heart of which is a huge 360-degree theater. Nine high-def digital projectors feed a single circular screen, making a seamless image across which EA's game trailers play non-stop.
A crystalline multi-thousand-watt sound system pumps roars, orchestral scores, cannon fire, flak attacks and screaming sports fans' voices into the room. The entire floor is one huge subwoofer that booms and vibrates with every punch, gunshot and explosion ...
Nothing you read or hear or remember ever really prepares you for the brawling, assaultive swamp of humanity that is E3. More on the next-gen gear and games below, but first some atmosphere:
Your every sense comes under attack the second you step inside. After waiting until 11 a.m. for the doors to open to the public, your herd of sweating, impatient geeks, journos and businessmen stampede inside to let the world's biggest game companies focus millions of dollars, watts, decibels and candlepower on your quivering nerves.
You stagger-shuffle from one place to the next, body throbbing with the multi-channel dub mix of PA and game sound. Your eyes flit from pixellated battleground to racetrack to gridiron, soaking in the stench and bump of your fellow man ...
I can't afford a Ferrari or a villa in Nice or a private tennis court.
But there is one thing I can do just like a rich person...I can have fresh flowers throughout my living space.
Every week, I go to the Los Angeles Flower Market downtown and fill my arms with the most fabulous flowers. It's such a pleasurable self-indulgence! ...
Someone's actually editing the graffiti along the L.A. River bike path near Griffith Park. Check this out:
A while back, someone spraybombed this biketoon onto the Colorado Street tunnel wall. A few weeks ago, someone else defaced it - or as the taggers say, crossed it off.
But by this morning, someone had covered the tag by meticulously painting out the tagger's mark with brushfuls of concrete-toned paint ...
Yesterday, in the lot next to the Los Altos apartment building on Wilshire, I saw what looked to be a wild rooster. I went back this morning with my camera to see if he was still there. He was.
I was taking pictures of this interesting, semi-abandonded building when a man came out to ask me if I knew what I was photographing. After telling him no, he said this was the building in which Marliyn Monroe was discovered.
Visual musings on a morning ride in three phases - streetscape, landscape and cityscape.
Right: A chunk of graffiti outside Marshall High School - (click ENLARGE to get the whole picture) - is this a gang tag? Is it a trenchant social commentary from a disillusioned kid who just woke up to the artifice of all media? Is it going to last long before the LA Bureau of Street Maintenance paints it over?
This morning, without intending to, I came upon the memorial for Jesus del Solar, one of the first Californian soldiers to die in the Iraq war. Although I don't speak Spanish, I could understand the deep pain of his parents and could see their true diginity as they stood outside La Piacita Church next to Olivera Street. It has been determined that Jesus died after stepping on an illegal US cluster bomb.
We've got some new blood now: -K- from the Jimson Weed Gazette will be posting exquisite photos once or twice a week. If you shoot, write, draw, pixelize, model or interpret Los Angeles life in any way, you're welcome to join us and post.
The only rule - it has to be recent, and it has to be about Los Angeles ...
As of March 7, 2006, Downtown LA has officially lost its grass
roots theatre troupe, Will & Company. We had been resident at LATC for
the past 13 years and are now literally, kicked to the streets by the new
managers. Councilwoman Jan Perry had publicly announced that no one would
be kicked out of the theatre, but she has not proven true to her word ...
Should the City of L.A. spend your tax dollars to support and even expand "LA's Best," an after-school program for elementary school students?
According to recent articles in all the local papers, a new U.C.L.A. study proves that LA's Best "reduced the dropout rate among participants by as much as 20 percent."
If you read the study itself, however, you'll come up with a much lower number: 6.2% ...
Northbound traffic roars past on my left. The L.A. River Path is deserted. ENLARGE THIS
Some people go to nice, warm gyms and work out next to gorgeously fit, witty, well-toned people, before retiring to the comfort of a nice shower and a sauna.
Me? I get on my bike, risk my neck in traffic and pump my way up the L.A. River Bike Path in the bitter, cheek-chapping cold before dawn.
Alone.
Far as I'm concerned, a bad morning on the bike trumps even the best morning in Nautilus-land. Here's today's ride ...
Three reasons why I get up at what vessel-agent/poet HectorOchoa used to call "oh-dark-30": A) Blue mountain bike. B) Twisty hill-climb to Griffith Park Observatory. C) 10 pounds of ugly fat.
New reason not to add A, B and C: Mosquitos lurking near (B). Hungry, tiny monsters that have grown accustomed to the taste of construction-worker flesh.
At least they're the reason not to climb Vermont Ave. so hard that you stand panting on a hillside long enough in sight of the observatory to shoot a Quicktime VR and be eaten alive by a vicious cloud of the little f*$#ers ...
Some weekends in Los Angeles bore me. I shuffle along in my weekend ruts from chores to pleasures or vice versa - Costco run, drinks with the usual suspects, a nice plate of sushi, a car wash and maybe tickets to either a Dolbyized brain-hammer of a movie or some twisted little art flick if we're lucky enough to find a sitter.
Sunday is bagels from Junior's and a slog through the Timeses, more chores. And before I know it, it's Sunday night, we're 70 minutes into a really bad DVD wishing I'd rented something else and bedtime is near, with Monday bearing down on me like a jail on wheels.
I don't write about myself here much, but I have to share some art notes, househunting horror stories and other info that may be of use, or worth a snicker ...
The WeHo Annual carnival attracts half a million bodies every Halloween. Stretching along Santa Monica Boulevard from La Cienega to just west of Robertson, one of the cleanest stretches of Los Angeles street becomes home to some of the dirtiest get-ups. The wild, the beautiful, the scary, and the scared - all come to see and show, and the scared carry signs.
With a serene face, the woman-in-sweater bounces a placard emblazoned with "Jesus Christ Gave Himself for Our Sins to Deliver Us From This Present Evil World." The "evil world" flutters past her in the usual array of butterfly wings, giant wigs, and leather thongs ...
Not sure what to be for Halloween? Are you tired of boring, predictable costumes? Are Frankenstein and Dracula just not that scary anymore? Why not be David Gest for Halloween! Imagine the fear you'll inflict upon children and party goers when you wear this frightening mask to parties all over Los Angeles. Whatever you do, don't let Liza Minelli see you ...
Paris Hilton declares, "I'm the closest thing to American royalty". It's only fitting that our Royal Highness would make this bold announcement in the pages of Stuff magazine, a second rate "lad mag" that features glossy photos of Hooters waitresses, articles about beer, and rocker Tommy Lee modeling back to school fashions ...
If driving on Sunset Blvd wasn't hard already, the billboards are multiplying, filling every bit of horizon’s negative space with faux-nudity. Properly sterilized to sexual imagery and not at all repulsed by it, I normally wouldn’t find it distracting. Unless the tits in question are forty feet tall.
I am more disturbed by the billboards that actually move in colorful hypnotic animations on the side of the Hollywood and Highland Center. I guess I’ll have to get used to that too.
Cluttering all space with brands and breasts is very LA after all ...
Ya gotta hand it to the left -- I'm pretty sure you won't see American flag-draped coffins, hula hoop dancers, and Martin Sheen at any Republican rally. (Democrats demonstrate; Republicans rally.)
My friend Karen spotted the acting president at the back of the crowd that marched to the federal building. When they called for him to come to the speaker platform, I was right behind him. I followed him through the crowd for seven minutes -- it was like that famous scene in the Godfather when the Don makes his way down Mulberry Street ...
You take these full-moon bike rides, each one slicing a cross-section through vivid, raw Los Angeles at night.
The last ride was all rough funk and city smells - a twisting crack-the-whip chase up through Griffith Park and down the L.A. River. It left neon and car noise in your hair, taco fumes in your eyes and a sense of rattled peace at journey's end - the feel of having survived something.
This time (Saturday night) you followed city drainwater to the sea and down the coast. You mutated slowly from Red-Bull-fueled urbanites to sandpipers in the long, broadening flow of a massive culvert that spat you out way down south - not shaken, but dazed and dreamy. You rode differently this time, and emerged changed - however briefly - by what you saw ...
To channel private donations to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives provided the Federal Emergency Management Agency with a list of relief agencies. Sounds good, doesn’t it?
But check out just which agencies are on the list: Some people say it’s payback time for all the religious groups that supported the Bush campaign in the 2004 election – including Pat Robertson’s organization, Operation Blessing. Except for a handful of secular groups, the Red Cross, the Humane Society, and the Salvation Army -- most of the listed NGOs are church groups, some of them obscure, utterly unknown within the relief community. Hundreds of other relief groups didn’t make the list, which severely inhibits their ability to share in the outpouring of generosity sure to come in response to this extraordinary disaster.
Operation USA is a progressive nonprofit organization that specializes in sendingmedical supplies and medicines to people in crises and emergencies. The group began by sending aid to Vietnam after
the U.S. pullout and has since sent aid to dozens of countries around the world, including Cambodia, Nicaragua, Poland, Iraq, and in inner city and poor rural clinics in the U.S.
So I dropped by because I knew that Richard Walden, OpUSA's founder and president, would be in the thick of aid to hurricane victims. Sure enough,the whole crew is putting in 14 hour days...
Roadette's on the road again, cruising the 'vards. I spied some cool people slipping quietly into a boxy building at Argyle & Vine Streets and just had to follow 'em in.
They were headed for the offices of the A.N.S.W.E.R./LA Coalition. The group is the lead org for planning the LA march demonstration on Sep. 24 that starts at 12:00 noon at Broadway and Olympic ...
ON my way home from work I stopped off at south Grand just a block down from the Disney Concert Hall where young skateboarders were perfecting the art of spinning their boards in the air and freshening up the scabs on their knees. I took an entire 1GB card of shots then went into Photoshop and stitched some of them together. As I was walking back to my car I was thinking that I could use the shots I took and super-impose them onto some of the other downtown buildings. But I bet it wouldn't take much to get them to actually try some of their tricks off the spots I was thinking. With the seventies, magenta and cyan blue flare around the figure and letters I was thinking something like this could make a cool album cover.
Whatdya think?
(Ed: Note - to learn more about L.A.VISION - and submit your own multimedia blog posts on Los Angeles, check the L.A.VISION FAQ here.)
Took a weekend trip through the staggeringly broad collection of the Natural History Museum, and found myself mentally stacking specimens.
Now phylum, now class, now order; On family, on genus, on species. The fractal array of minerals and artifacts, the stuffed carcasses of moose and sea lion - what do they do at night when the visitors go home and the place is dark? I imagined a meeting of the specimens at play.
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The impact of religion upon the current state of politics is without a doubt one of the scariest things happening to our country today. The current political agenda of the 'ruling class' is to use religion to polarize the entire country, and manipulate every citizen's judgment on a purely emotional level ...
They don't call me Roadette for nothing. I was up early...or had I just stayed up so late that the night got light on me? I grabbed the loaded cam from under the car seat and followed the beeping GPS all the way to the beach.
7 a.m. and I'm already trolling for some nutritious video. Caught the crosses of Arlington West in my long lens and shot for a couple of hours. All around me, tourists and beach lovers, laughing, jogging, bicycling, breakfasting. Good to be alive, isn't it? ...
Back home, I cut clips together, stuck some free music...if you can call it that...under the pix and paid my respects to this season's war dead. I shot the vid on a Panny 24p cam with a telephoto lens. Edited in Vegas 6.0 and converted to Flash. File is 3.58 MB, encoded to run at 320 kbps. It'll look really good on a T-1. C'ya at the Sep. 24 demonstration!
IMAGE: "Manhattan Beach breakdown" (642kb) | View full image
Time to mess with the formula.
Until now, LAVoice.org has been a text-based community newsblog - an open web space that gives all voices of this city a place to express themselves. We've seen some great posts - even scoops - on Los Angeles' arts scene, car culture, environment, media, neighborhoods and power structure.
But sometimes words aren't enough. Life in Los Angeles is something beyond news or opinion: It's more like an emotion, a condition of the soul, the stomping ground for your id.
This post marks the launch of L.A. Vision, a new experiment in multimedia blogging ...
Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge is never short on big ideas. But sometimes the boisterous politician, like all of them, has those perfect foot-in-mouth moments.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa held a ceremony yesterday 
