Weekly archive
February 28 - March 6, 2010
Friday, Mar. 5
Men just don't listen to women, Jay says.
Satirical website Not the LA Times challenges readers to spot which ads really did appear on (or wrap around) the front page of the Los Angeles Times, and which are merely inspired by the paper's stumbles in the crazy world of innovative ad-editorial separation.
Variety has restored that missing "Iron Cross" review to its website and says it was only down for factual vetting in response to a legal threat, not because of...
A: So low that "blood-chasing local television news stations will have to import footage from other cities to uphold their reputation for practicing the nation’s worst and silliest local reporting," writes New York Times online commentator Timothy Egan in a piece that praises L.A.'s turnaround from the depths of 1992.
It's a wrap around the real L.A. Times front page this morning, arguably not as bad as last year when the paper sold an actual story spot on the real front page.
Sheriff Baca releases inmates early, Joel Grover goes after bogus disabled parking, Arnold and Maria get paid to promote California, editor hospitalized after meeting with New Times' Mike Lacey, and more...after the jump.
Thursday, Mar. 4
Raimund Abraham, a visiting faculty member at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, died in a Downtown crash hours after giving a lecture at the school.
Roberta Busby, the exotic dancer who was severely burned outside a Tarzana club, testified today at the sentencing of one her attackers to life in prison. She also talked on camera about her life, including that she and her two children are about to lose their home.
Sure was strange to see the Los Angeles Times lead the Calendar section with a big photo and Kenneth Turan review of "Alice in Wonderland" on Thursday, instead of the usual Friday. The reason for the change, according to a soft-section insider at the LAT, is that the ad department sold Disney two front-of-Calendar spots for Alice ads in Friday's paper.
City Attorney Carmen Trutanich kept to his vow to go after more illegal supergraphcs, obtaining four more arrest warrants on people allegedly tied to sign violations at Hollywood and Highland. No million-dollar bail this time.
Tonight at Getty House, Mayor Villaraigosa is hosting a pre-Oscars reception for Academy Awards nominees
KCAL's news went out in the field this afternoon for a report from that Prius flower patch beside the 110 freeway where that makeshift memorial to Toyota victims was taken down — four days ago.
Other duties call this morning. Check out Mark's morning headlines at LA Biz Observed....
Wednesday, Mar. 3
It's impossible to know with this group if anything is ever final, but the initial group of 542 positions being eliminated went out to department heads with a message from Mayor Villaraigosa’s chief of staff, Jeff Carr, that “full cooperation” was expected.
The annual lecture series at UCLA in memory of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl continues at 5 p.m. with author and journalist Christopher Hitchens.
Thomas Friedman, the New York Times' well-read Op-Ed columnist, starts his latest column on America's need to be more innovative and competitive with a short riff on how bad Los Angeles International Airport looks.
DA Cooley told to stop punishing his deputies who belong to the union, Trutanich called out for that excessive bail gimmick, LAT loses another top Washington reporter, a new Janice Hahn video hit on Newsom — plus Jello Biafra looks back at Jerry Brown. All that and more after the jump.
LAPD chief Charlie Beck has apologized to the Kennedy family for including items worn by the slain Senator in a Las Vegas display.
Tuesday, Mar. 2
Rob Eshman got soooo much strong reaction to last week's list of nine things wrong with L.A. food culture that he tries again this week with an up-beatier Nine Ways to Make LA the “Ultimate Food City."
White crosses were laid out over the former site of Toyota's floral ad for the Prius beside the Pasadena Freeway near Downtown. A sign reads, "You Reap What You Sow."
City Attorney Carmen Trutanich tells KTLA's Eric Spillman that the $1 million bail he got for that sign misdemeanor at Hollywood and Highland was based on the public safety threat...
Slate blogger Mickey Kaus posted at Kausfiles that news of his run against Sen. Barbara Boxer got out sooner than he hoped and explains a little of what it's all about.
Jay Leno returns, Jerry Brown and Sun Tzu, Ebert on Oprah, a local college president resigns and a media person drives and survives Laurel Canyon for the first time.
Monday, Mar. 1
Yeah, don't call 911 to ask about possible 911 surcharges.
Tsunami surges killed hundreds and devastated ports and towns along the Chilean coast in the first hours after Saturday's 8.8 magnitude earthquake. Check out the animation.
Mickey Kaus, the Slate blogger who delights in needling his fellow Democrats, liberals and the L.A. Times — and even sometimes a Republican — confirms via email that he's looking...
Jerry Brown plans to announce officially that he's running for governor, and other notes from the day.
The curiously high bail amount levied on illegal sign purveyor Kayvan Setareh was slashed by 90% after he agreed in court today to take down the supergraphic he posted at Hollywood & Highland, scene of the Oscars in less than a week.
I posted about Serchia in January, when I was introduced to his blog Thinking Positive, where he wrote with humor and insight about his life as a cancer and AIDS patient.
Remarks by curmudgeonly Time critic Richard Schickel stole the show at a weekend panel to discuss the state of film criticism, pegged to the screening of the documentary "For the Love of Movies," by Boston Phoenix critic and filmmaker Gerald Peary.
Gawker suggests that a $400,000 advertising campaign by the producers of "Iron Cross" led to Variety's publisher spiking a mediocre review by Robert Koehler from the trade's website
The SoCal legal assistant who became famous when Julia Roberts portrayed her in the movies now runs Brockovich Research & Consulting with a couple of assistants out of her Agoura Hills home.
An essay in the Chronicle of Higher Education traces the history and decline of film reviewing in the face of competition from Internet critics. "If the traditional film critic was...
Villaraigosa wants another new fee on DWP customers, AP covers L.A's budget problems, Speaker Perez's influence issues, the Rafu Shimpo in big trouble and Ban Ki-moon comes to town.
Sunday, Feb. 28
While the suits and editors continue to discuss internally how to gear up in the Los Angeles market, the New York Times on Monday takes over content on video screens in L.A. coffee shops and restaurants and in other cities,
Airfares from LAX to New York are heading higher — and delays will be more numerous — because of four months of repair work on the long runway at JFK.
I wonder if there was a DWP power surge from all the TVs switching off as Bob Costas tossed viewers from the Olympics closing ceremonies to the debut of "The Marriage Ref
Lauren Williams and Aneya Fernando moved from Los Angeles to Santiago last month and have been blogging about the quake and its aftermath.
