Pixeltown
links for 2009-01-06
By Pixelbot
January 6, 2009
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From Good Magazine: if the architect Teddy Cruz gets his way, the shantytowns of Tijuana, Mexico, will act as a blueprint of sorts for a new kind of urban development.
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from We Make Money Not Art: A review of The Infrastructural City - Networked Ecologies in Los Angeles, edited by Kazys Varnelis.
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Blogger plans to eat 365 days in one year!
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from Streetsblog: [Metro] is prepared to offer 4 alternatives to extending the Gold Line at this month's Metro Board meeting.
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from Los Angeles Metroblogs: There’s a metric bleep-ton of locations throughout the greater Los Angeles area where you can take your Christmas tree for recycling
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from the Los Angeles Times: Increased fees and extended meter hours have some North Hollywood business owners concerned about losing patrons in an area the city spent millions building up.
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from the comments of MetroRiderLA: "Here is a partial list of people who carry escalator keys …" [h/t the Bus Bench]
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From the Bus Bench: Despite the alleged ease of school children being able to stop escalators, metro has ample cameras aimed at the escalators yet appears to have no policy involving a quick call to any of the many station personnel who possess keys, to turn the things back on.
links for 2009-01-01
By Pixelbot
January 1, 2009
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From LA Observed: Noting the deaths of prominent, newsworthy or interesting Los Angeles figures and of LA Observed's colleagues in the media is a regular thing we do here.
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from the Los Angeles Times: The failure thus far of lawmakers and the governor to wipe out any of the state’s projected deficit of nearly $42 billion leaves California just weeks away from running out of the cash needed to pay all its bills.
Best of the SoCal Web for 2008-12-31
By Pixelbot
December 31, 2008
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from LAist: The annual Improv Everywhere event is spreading across the nation including Los Angeles on the afternoon of January 10th. "
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from Mashable.com: The Governator has apparently had enough, and is turning to social media to urge constituents of the nation's most populus state to pressure their lawmakers in the state legislature.
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from the NYTimes: "California officials estimate that there are tens of thousands of abandoned pools in the state, with as many as 5,000 in places like Sacramento County, where a building boom in the capital's suburbs has gone bust."
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from Slate Magazine: A review of Smogtown: The Lung-Burning History of Pollution in Los Angeles, journalists Chip Jacobs and William J. Kelly. [h/t LAGreenGirl]
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from voiceofsandiego.org: Nearly 30 percent of homes in San Diego County with a mortgage are worth less than their owners owe on their mortgage, according to new data.
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The Bus Bench: "Some people say that they can drive faster than the Gold Line, well this video calls you a storyteller. You'd think the marketing executives at Metro would have come up what this, but of course they all have cars."
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from photographer Thomas Hawk's blog: "They asked us not to shoot the refinery and suggested that it was a "double standard" that we'd insist on our constitutional rights to shoot in public while not honoring BP's request that we not shoot their facility from a public sidewalk." [h/t Lalawag.com]
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from Blogdowntown: On December 30, 1882, at roughly 7:40pm, Mayor Homer Toberman threw the switch to send current to the first two arc lights installed by the Los Angeles Electric Company.
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from the Los Angeles Times: "Reiterating her call for more air traffic controllers, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Monday warned President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for Transportation secretary that chronic staff shortages at Los Angeles International Airport and the main radar facility that guides aircraft between airports pose an "alarming risk" to aviation safety in Southern California."
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from LAist: "Police across the region are telling people not to shoot guns into the air on New Year's Eve."
Best of the SoCal Web for 2008-12-30
By Pixelbot
December 30, 2008
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Charles E. Young on the future of MOCA.
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from LA Observed: To save a very small number of bucks, the Los Angeles Times has again decided to close the building's historic entrance -- and to block public access to the carefully restored Hugo Ballin murals and the paper's own newspaper museum.
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from the Los Angeles Times: When it rains, Lennie Arkinstall scrambles to stanch the outflow of urban debris churning along the Long Beach area's swollen rivers and channels.
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From LA Daily NewsL "We either are going to figure out how to make Scouting the most exciting, dynamic organization for Hispanic kids or we're going to be out of business," said Rick Cronk, former national president of the Boy Scouts, and chairman of the World Scout Committee.
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These descriptions are always (and sadly) the same.
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from the Los Angeles Times: A Times investigation shows that the problem of Inglewood police officers shooting unarmed suspects isn't new.
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From the NYTimes Style Section: News about [Linda]. Sánchez, or her sister, Representative Loretta Sanchez (who does not use the accent in her name), is bound to be interesting.
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From the Los Angeles Times: The Los Angeles school district has suspended a key arts program because of a spending freeze, a sign of what may be ahead for the state's largest district, which is facing a serious budget shortfall.
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The creator of the "Great Bronze Doors" at the Cathedral of our Lady of the Angels, "Olympic Gateway" at the entrance to Memorial Coliseum and "Plumed Serpent" at Plaza de Cesar Chavez Park in San Jose dies. From the San Jose Mercury News.
VOD: California Argot
By Gary Dauphin
December 29, 2008
Best of the SoCal Web for 2008-12-25
By Pixelbot
December 25, 2008
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Democratic political action group Courage Campaign's slideshow of married gay and lesbian Californians asking not to be forcibly divorced.
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Everything you ever wanted to know about the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special of 1977. Merry Hollywood Pangloss!
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Curbed LA's Dakota Smith tells you everything you ever wanted to know about the Century Plaza Hotel.
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from the Las Vegas Sun: "Trip between Vegas, Anaheim, Calif., could take only 86 minutes." [h/t Curbed LA]
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From the Los Angeles Times: The Madoff scandal has hit many Jews particularly hard because it connects to two deeply felt emotions: reverence for Jewish charity and anxiety about what the rest of the world thinks of Jews
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from the Los Angeles Times: "Police seized $2.7 million in counterfeit items bearing names such as Air Jordan, Ed Hardy, Coach and Sony in the weekend raids, resulting in the second-largest take of knockoffs in Los Angeles County history." Did you shop at Santee Alley?
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from the Daily Breeze: "Naval prosecutors had charged [Robert Truman Reece, 78, ] with two unauthorized absences and missing a ship's movement. He was initially sentenced on Oct. 12, 1949, to 15 days of confinement, 30 days of extra police duties and ordered to give up $15 of pay for six months. "
VOD: A Satirical (and Political) X-Mas Carol
By Gary Dauphin
December 24, 2008
In time for the holidays, progressive political action group Courage Campaign turns CA governor Arnold Schwarzenegger into a modern-day Scrooge.
Best of the SoCal Web for 2008-12-24
By Pixelbot
December 24, 2008
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Writer Donnell Alexander remembers Los Angeles native and pitcher Dock Ellis.
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from NPR's Day to Day: " The Los Angeles Fire Department is using Web-savvy techniques like Twitter and blogging to reach out to residents. "
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from LA Eastside: I'm here to present you with a quick roundup of everyone's favorite holiday treat: Tamales! There's a small stretch on Brooklyn with a few different tamalerias which I've dubbed Tamal Row.
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Hector Tobar in the Los Angeles Times: "I can't say for certain if [Fabian Nuñez's son] is or is not a "gang member." But if he is, he strikes me as the most politically connected "gang member" in the history of "gang members."
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from the Los Angeles Times: "All he wants for Christmas is a good defense attorney. "
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We have a winner. From the Los Angeles Times.
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Jeff Jarvis has advice for the Los Angeles Times. [H/T Fishbowl LA]
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from Fishbowl LA: "LATimes.com Achieves 143% Audience Growth in 2008." Not all bad news on Spring Street.
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This is so wrong. The Daily Mail is on the case.
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Los Angeles' own Jewish Journal has a blog tracking the ongoing fallout of the Bernie Madoff scandal. Hat-tip our own Adolfo Guzman-Lopez's Movie Miento.
Best of the SoCal Web for 2008-12-23
By Pixelbot
December 23, 2008
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Streetsblogs talks to Robert Gottlieb, Henry R. Luce Professor of Urban Environmental Studies and Director of the Urban Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College, about transportation reform in Los Angeles.
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from the SacBee: "Democratic state Sens. Gil Cedillo and Gloria Romero say they're exploring running for the East Los Angeles County congressional seat that's expected to be vacated by Rep. Hilda Solis, reportedly President-elect Barack Obama's pick for labor secretary."
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from Jonathan Turley: In a surprising reversal, California Attorney General Jerry Brown asked the California Supreme Court on Friday to overturn Proposition 8 on the grounds that it violates basic rights guaranteed in the state Constitution.
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from the SF Chronicle: "Los Angeles can continue to seek racial balance in assigning tens of thousands of students to specialized magnet schools despite California's voter-approved ban on race preferences in government programs, a state appeals court has ruled." [h/t LAObserved]
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From LAist: "For the fifth consecutive day, prices in the Los Angeles region have increased." Admit it: you went and bought a new SUV when the prices were down, right?
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from the OC Register: "The 4th District Court of Appeal ruled late Friday against the city of Anaheim, which has been fighting to overturn the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim baseball team name for about four years."
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from the Los Angeles Times: "With just nine months left before it opens, a new arts high school in downtown Los Angeles still lacks a principal, a staff, a curriculum, a permanent name and a clearly articulated plan for how students will be selected -- critical details for a school that aims to be one of the foremost arts education institutions in the United States."
VOD: The Grinch of Blogland
By Gary Dauphin
December 22, 2008
LAist shares this video (and a healthy does of seasonal snark) about a string of Christmas ornament thefts in Beverly Hills:
LAist contributor Lindsay William-Ross adds:
[T]he boundless joy of Christmas has been curtailed by someone helping themselves to people's Christmas decorations put out by Peter (Columbo) and Shera Falk, Charo, and Gregory himself. Wow, it's not such a wonderful life after all for the people who live on Jimmy Stewart's old block!What's priceless isn't Mrs. Columbo's stolen $1000 elf, but rather this video that features the residents detailing what was stolen and how much they spent on it, actual surveillance video of thieves taking the wreath, and the ire expressed in the tone of voice used only by the truly spoiled at having to "chain down" their snowmen and reindeer lest the bandits make off with more of their merriment on display.
While stealing is indeed a crime, publicly bemoaning the loss of your thousand-dollar, twenty-pound elf decoration just might be more of crime. Whose heart bleeds for these Beverly Hills-ers--especially in a time when thousands of people are losing their jobs every day, and most people in So Cal are struggling just to stay afloat?
A better story to tell would be how you took all the money you would have spent putting Santa and his elves on your lawn and put it towards getting homeless people sheltered and fed during this chilly holiday season.
Only in Beverly Hills...
One solid gold elf - $1000
Two jewel encrusted wreathes - $750
Getting to make fun of the Hollywood rich - priceless!
More Blogs
404 City- Read Ophelia Chong's latest post, Electric Love
Blur + Sharpen- Read Holly Willis's latest post, Disoriented in Cairo
Cakewalk- Read Erin Aubry Kaplan's latest post, One For the Books
Movie Miento- Read Adolfo Guzman-Lopez's latest post, Mission
The Other Room- Read Kevin Ferguson's latest post, It's Spooky?: Edwards V. Eubanks
Think Tank LA- Read Jeremy Rosenberg's latest post, LAT Piece Points To Tanks' Role
Where We Are- Read D.J. Waldie's latest post, 17. That old red magic
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