Weekly archive
January 22 - January 28, 2006
Saturday, Jan. 28
Since the last time I looked, CBS 2/KCAL 9 has added The Reporter's Blog by veteran Paul Dandridge and In the Field by news photographer Bryan Frank. Dandridge is using...
Friday, Jan. 27
The original Lamplighter Restaurant on Laurel Canyon Boulevard in North Hollywood closes for good tonight. It's making way for a massive redevelopment project by J.H. Snyder that will transform the...
In the February issue of Los Angeles magazine, RJ Smith examines Pajamas Media to ask whether it is a fledgling media phenomenon or a blip with $3.5 million in seed...
State Sen. Gil Cedillo led a junket—er, fact-finding trip—to New York City this week to look into how that city has improved its homeless problem. If you wondered where City...
Some of you might remember last month's item about Peter Ladefoged inspiring the rare addition of an African sound—the labiodental flap—to the International Phonetic Alphabet. Professor Ladegofed died Tuesday in...
Mark Kroeker, who used to be a senior guy at the LAPD and was a contender for chief, said today on the Public Radio International program The World that Haiti's...
City Controller Laura Chick adds her name to the list of pols lining up behind Mónica García for the open seat on the L.A. school board. City Councilmembers Jose Huizar...
Scenes from Mayor Villaraigosa's media availability this morning in his third floor conference room at City Hall: ⇒ First words: "Why is it so dark in here?" The mayor steps...
Lose your craving forever....
Antonio maps out his war plan for conquering the school board, Rocky takes it on the chin (twice), gang war in Watts and every Oscar-eligible film of 2005—plus Byron Miranda,...
Thursday, Jan. 26
Controller Laura Chick, in releasing her latest city audit, said the Los Angeles Fire Department "lacked strong and decisive leadership, and a clear and understandable vision." She began the audit...
Joel Stein will be on Oprah at 3 pm on Channel 7, but not to talk about his own controversy of the moment. The LAT op-ed columnist is one of...
Defrocked Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is also an Orthodox Jew from Beverly Hills, talks in the cover essay in tomorrow's Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles. The piece is...
Snopes.com weighs in on the case of the USC cheerleader on the side of she may not be to blame—after all, it was a close play. * Another alternate take:...
Here's one more thing you can't do on regular radio but can on pay radio. The Young Turks, which airs from here on Sirius Satellite Radio with hosts Cenk Uygur,...
⇒ Three Los Angeles-based blogs—perennial number one Boing Boing, plus The Huffington Post and Crooks and Liars—are in Technorati's Top 10 based on link popularity. ⇒ Remember the USC cheerleader...
This won't help Mayor Villaraigosa convince people his desire to take over the LAUSD isn't at least partly a scheme about political power. In a report to the Joint Commission...
This is the anniversary of the Metrolink disaster near Glassell Park. Unrelated, we think, fictionating non-fictionist James Frey will guest on Oprah to address the literary hubbub he has created....
Wednesday, Jan. 25
Fayard Nicholas, the Tony Award winner and Kennedy Center honoree who was half of the groundbreaking Nicholas Brothers tap dance team, died Tuesday at home in Burbank. Fayard and his...
Simon Rutberg's Hatikvah Music International on Fairfax Avenue is closing January 31. Before he goes, Rutberg wants to give hundreds of music cassettes a good home. The store specializes in...
District Attorney Steve Cooley's website designed to put pressure on felons who flee to Mexico—and authorities who tolerate it— is getting credit for the arrest in Mazatlan of accused murderer...
The Santa Monica Daily Press interviewed neighbors outside Chris Penn's condo on Ocean Avenue yesterday who claimed (not for attribution, apparently) that they weren't surprised by the actor's death. Prior...
While the right continues to hammer Joel Stein for his "I don't support the troops" op-ed column, and bloggers channel his possible response, Tabloid Baby thinks the piece was a...
⇒ Sam Rubin called The CW the "Can't Win" network on the KTLA Morning News. Notable only since his station will carry CW. (LA.Comfidential) ⇒ Elizabeth Spiers, the original Gawker...
Attention LA and OC: New Times has begun the New York end of its takeover, installing a new publisher at the Village Voice. Michael Cohen had been the publisher of...
Mt. Vernon Middle School, in Mid-City near Venice and Crenshaw, will be renamed for the late attorney Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. The LAUSD board made the decision last night. "This...
Antonio Villaraigosa will give part of the Democratic response to next Tuesday's speech—the part in Spanish. His remarks will be broadcast from the mayor's City Hall office over Spanish-language networks....
Yahoo's hiring of Dave Morgan, the #2 editor in the LAT Sports section, gets a thorough dissection in the forum at SportsJournalists.com....
Meruelo rejected...AOL targets Beverly Hills...spotting old Three Stooges locations...the end of DVD Exclusive...plus some blogs observed, the front pages of eleven newspapers and more after the jump....
Tuesday, Jan. 24
Homes in California that sold for a million or more last year: 48,666 Ratio of all homes sold: 1 in 13 Most million dollar sales: La Jolla with 478...
The actor and younger brother of Sean Penn was discovered about 4 pm in his Ocean Avenue condo. Police aren't making any suggestions of foul play. Chris Penn's film credits...
After the two entertainment companies complete their $7.4-billion acquisition deal, Pixar CEO Steve Jobs will be the single largest shareholder in the Walt Disney Co....
Kobe Bryant is #5 on GQ's list of the ten sports stars who are most hated by their peers. T.J. Simers considers the evidence and writes, "Sure it's true that...
I posted this morning that Joel Stein would get letters about his Warriors and Wusses column on the Times op-ed page. Reuters has moved a story quoting Stein saying he...
On the LA Weekly website and in Thursday's paper: Navahoax Did a struggling white writer of gay erotica become one of multicultural literature’s most celebrated memoirists — by passing himself...
Late last year the L.A. Times hired Amy Moynihan, who used to direct corporate branding for McDonald's. When you bring in a new VP for Brand Marketing, corporate culture pretty...
This morning's news that The WB and UPN will come together and spin off the new CW network (to air on KTLA here, apparently) caught the television industry and journalists...
I've already noted the LAT's addition of Rob Greene and Matt Welch (his job is actually assistant editorial page editor.) Today Andrés Martinez posted his memo to the staff and...
Joel Stein's going to get letters [finally?—ed.] for writing that its wussy to "support the troops" if you oppose the war. Also if you fly a yellow ribbon. And don't...
Los Angeles' big downtown embarrassment is discussed on the blog of Warren Ellis, a writer in England who specializes in comic books, graphic novels and videogames. It's like walking through...
Monday, Jan. 23
Just catching up to last Friday's Variety story on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences deciding where it wants to build a movie museum. Steve Rosen reports the...
Anne-Marie O'Connor had a good piece on Monday's LAT front page about the Los Angeles lawyer who is about to recover a Gustav Klimt portrait looted by the Nazis in...
Recent buyouts and transfers pretty much cleaned out the religion desk at the L.A Times. To fill the void, veteran state desk reporter Louis Sahagun is moving to the religion...
By March 15 there may be a Flyaway express bus connection to LAX from downtown. The airport commission gave its go-ahead today, with some details (such as fares) to be...
The new issue of The Planning Report has a Q-and-A with departing L.A. planning director Mark Winogrond, a discussion with planning commissioners Jane Usher and Robin Hughes, and urban critic...
Just Above Sunset's Alan Pavlik likes to take up-close, warts and all pictures of local landmarks. So in keeping with this morning's Manchester Boulevard mini-theme, here is a series on...
A job posting from Joel Sappell, Executive Editor/Interactive at the Times, hints at a new approach to putting news on the Web. He's looking to staff "a different kind of...
The Radio & Television News Association of Southern California (RTNA) handed out the year's Golden Mike awards on Saturday night. Here's the full list. A small sampling of highlights: News...
High winds are taking a toll up on Mt. Wilson. KPCC was temporarily knocked off the air last night—and again this morning—by a transmitter outage. Also, at about 2 am...
The co-creator of the old L.A. Examiner website, editor at Reason magazine, longtime blogger and occasional L.A. Times skewerer is going inside the tent. Welch is joining the Andrés Martinez...
A new week begins with happy birthday greetings to the mayor, a glitch at KPCC, the Defamer-in-chief in Vanity Fair and a dustup between Cathy Seipp and a New York...
Sunday, Jan. 22
Yeah, I guess Kobe Bryant is on fire. His 81 points for the Lakers tonight is the second-highest total in NBA history, bettered only by Wilt Chamberlain's 100 points in...
Some goodies from here and there. Late adds will go at the bottom. ⇒ Former LAT syndicated columnist Norah Vincent's book on going undercover in the male world, Self-Made Man:...
The Huffington Post Contagious Festival is a new exercise in traffic building and also, in their words, "a unique opportunity for talented designers, political activists of any persuasion, filmmakers and...
The balky escalators on the Beverly side of Beverly Center are closed for a complete replacement, putting added pressure on the elevators—never a good thing there. Target date to reopen:...
