Weekly archive
August 20 - August 26, 2006
Saturday, Aug. 26
Cory Doctorow of BoingBoing writes extensively on what he sees as the abuses of copyright and the law's dampening effect on free exchange of ideas and art. Just because he's...
Some highlights from the past week on the LA Observed blogs, for the review-minded: Welcome to Gentrification City, Leland Wong indicted, Sunset Junction kisses up to celebrities, Dopest Lawyer makes...
Friday, Aug. 25
Anna Richardson is the former British late-night TV personality who said that Arnold Schwarzenegger pulled her onto his knee, fondled her and asked if her breasts were real after a...
It's been awhile since those mysterious smells wafted over Los Angeles, but Long Beach firefighters were dispatched this week to look for the cause of an unexplained "foul odor" that...
Adam Carolla sidekick and occasional L.A. Times contributor Teresa Strasser elaborates in her Jewish Journal Singles column about a recent stormy break-up — which I guess makes her single again,...
An LA Observed reader sends word to expect a creative movie tie-in for the Brian De Palma film in the Los Angeles Times. More around than in, actually: The Sunday...
Reports the Star-News: Residents living in South Pasadena's only senior housing complex are demanding the city put a stop to a new owner's plans to turn their modest units into...
AB 1381 lacks the votes Mayor Villaraigosa's school bill couldn't get out of the state Senate on Thursday, but President Pro Tem Don Perata said it should have the...
Thursday, Aug. 24
Blogger Tim McGarry at Angels and Vagabonds captures the trees in Windsor Square, near the mayor's official residence. "The camphor trees along Sixth, among the largest and most beautiful in...
It's Michael Chow's palace in Holmby Hills, designed by Chow and his wife Eva with a 28-foot-high central atrium and many Chinese touches, but with Mexican arches and carved wooden...
Los Angeles subscribers to the New York Times missed a juicy Bert Fields quote about Tom Cruise that the irate reporters got restored to this morning's later NYC edition,...
Jenny Burman blogs at Chicken Corner that the LA Weekly's David Zahniser is a fellow Echo Parkster and describes the view of gentrification from her corner of the neighborhood. Next...
Reader William Etling emails an observation: I live near the Grove and I've seen almost every state's license plate in the last 48 hours. Wyoming, South Dakota, Indiana, New Jersey,...
Blogger Francis Stokes was schmoozing with the enviro-types of Green Drinks on the Edendale Grill patio when they came under attack from above. He posts: Apparently Silver Lake’s rise to...
There's no denying that palm trees are an iconic feature of the Los Angeles landscape, despite being non-native and ecologically almost worthless. In this week's CityBeat (out today), David Davin...
Martin Miller in the LAT's Calendar Weekend section says that radio offerings on Saturday and Sunday used to be richer, but he found some programming he likes. On his list...
Wilshire stretch closed by shooting It's in Beverly Hills between La Cienega and Robertson. Just a little mess for the morning commute. DWP pipe leaking since Easter Tujunga residents...
Wednesday, Aug. 23
I just received an email from a local editor-in-chief which reads, "David Zahniser's piece in this week's LA Weekly .. is brilliant. I'm jealous." The subject of the rave is...
Sumner Redstone's pique at Tom Cruise's, uh, personal style (reported yesterday at LA Biz Observed) broke the basic Hollywood social contract of always — always — lying when you...
David LoCicero covered the Korean War, shot sports for Associated Press and worked at the Herald Examiner for 7½ years until 1973. He retired in 1983 as chief photographer for...
Pay to play is back in the news, in a big way. Former Hahn Administration power broker Leland Wong pleaded not guilty this morning to a twenty-count Grand Jury indictment...
Beirut | Los Angeles calls itself a "nonpartisan albeit progressive project for peace, linking Americans with Lebanon in particular and the Middle East more generally." It's from the Levantine Cultural...
Amending AB 1381 Former mayor Richard Riordan likes Villaraigosa's reform move, but he along with opponents ex-Gov. Pete Wilson and Eli Broad want to delete the severability clause. LAT...
Tuesday, Aug. 22
Today's heat sneaked up on people, even in the Valley — though you should never really be shocked when the thermometer crosses a hundred in August. Reader Arthur Medrano emails...
NBC4 yesterday ran a half-hour special report on the political fight over the future of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Didn't see it, but the station's website has a...
September's Los Angeles Magazine offers a primer on finding a good and safe elementary school, putting the spotlight on sixty schools around the Greater L.A. area (not just the parent...
I figured I would leave any mention of today's page one LAT feature on Allison Margolin down below in the Morning Buzz. After all, she's nothing new to LA Observed...
Central area commander Andrew Smith posts today at the LAPD blog. He doesn't link to Steve Lopez's column in the Aug. 19 L.A. Times about observing drug sales downtown, so...
Catherine Elsworth of the London Telegraph credits the Pasadena institution with introducing "proper, English-style tea drinking" to the Lipton-sipping heathens of Southern California. The tea shop faces imminent eviction from...
Monday, Aug. 21
Engineers and Architects on strike Thousands of city workers are out, with picket lines up at City Hall and elsewhere. Mayor Villaraigosa says he plans to cross and has...
Bad case of indigestion at Cheesecake Factory, brought on by unwanted attention from Nasdaq and the SEC. LA Biz Observed The OC Post tabloid debuted today in Orange County,...
Superior Court judge Dzintra Janavs (her again!) ordered about 200 "essential" city workers not to join the walkout called for tomorrow by the Engineers and Architects association at City Hall....
Blogger Zach Behrens (In the Oaks and LAist) is running for a seat on the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council. He's unopposed, so it looks like he should be addressed in...
This weekend's festival will have a "first-ever VIP hospitality lounge." It will be at the Cliff's Edge restaurant on Sunset, where the flakkery says that "headliners from the street fair...
El Mirador: Alan Pavlik of Just Above Sunset captures S. Charles Lee's classic apartments on Sweetzer in West Hollywood. Liquids on a plane: Tabloid Baby catches Homeland Security chief Michael...
Mayor Villaraigosa took his LAUSD campaign to UTLA's leaders on Sunday in La Quinta and got a good reaction, despite some catcalls at the start. Up north in San Francisco,...
Ca Del Sol in Toluca Lake was robbed at gunpoint about 10 pm last night. Two gunmen came in wearing masks and emptied the cash register. Sound familiar?...
The Planning Report didn't think that West magazine's stab at the hundred most powerful Southern Californians went far enough. So TPR's August issue adds 23 more names, among them essential...
JonBenet Ramsey suspect in L.A. John Mark Karr flew back to the U.S. from Thailand in Business Class, escorted but not handcuffed, and enjoyed champagne, fried king prawns and...
Some highlights of the past week from LA Observed contributors: Eric Estrin's ten tips for enjoying Dodger Stadium include go late, leave early and buy from scalpers. You can shuttle...
Sunday, Aug. 20
Two letters make it into today's West magazine praising James Ellroy's July 30 essay about moving home to Los Angeles, but it's the zinger that's more notable. Ellroy must be...
According to Amy Wilentz in today's West magazine, creationists have a theory that's wackier than anything they can pin on Darwin. In this theory, the thousands of fossils extracted from...
