Number six

Veronique de Turenne joins the LA Observed family today with a clear agenda: to raise the blogosphere profile of her hometown. Here in Malibu will feature her observations on coastal life and culture, her photographs and her occasional forays across the border into L.A. She is the book critic for "Day to Day" on NPR, has been a staff writer for the Orange County Register, Los Angeles Daily News, Pasadena Star News and Ventura County Star, and has written for the Los Angeles Times, Variety, Salon, Buzz, Wahine and Los Angeles Magazine.

I've wanted to live here ever since I can remember. Even so, when my very proper French mother learned we bought a trailer on the beach in Malibu, she was shocked into silence. No matter that it once belonged to Otis Chandler, that it looks quite like a house and sits on a roomy lot. My home is registered with the DMV. It's attached to a chassis. It has a serial number. Paint it, tile it, call it what you will, it's a trailer. (A 1973 doublewide Meteor, to be precise.)

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Veronique makes an ideal match of observer to subject for the sixth blog in the mix at LA Observed. More than a dozen writers are contributing here now, a 1200% increase since the last full moon. They are adding a stimulating new dimension, and are just the beginning. When we hit on a great match, like with Veronique and Jenny Burman in Echo Park, we plan to add more community blogs. In the meantime, look for more depth across the site in the coming months.

Speaking of Jenny Burman, over at Chicken Corner she interviews Richard Montoya of Culture Clash about "Water and Power" and the changing neighborhood they share. Sample:

CHICKEN CORNER: Did you ever spend time at the Short Stop, the former LAPD hangout, which was made notorious in the midst of the Ramparts scandal, before it changed hands? Have you been there since it turned into a hipster bar?

RICHARD MONTOYA: I liked the cop bar more sometimes. Hipsters can be annoying, but I like the mix of them and everybody else.

At Native Intelligence, Denise Hamilton accompanies her husband to a downtown landmark in his life and finds a hidden speakeasy, complete with secret password, on Main Street. And Eric Estrin shows what blogging on LA Observed is all about: He has already been to Israel this summer during the "situation" and to the Bay Area, so when his family left today for Sequoia he stayed behind to post items. That's what I call a mensch.