TJ Sullivan in LA

And It Was Parked On Overland Blvd

2008-08-13T22:45:00.000-07:00

Photo By TJ Sullivan

Click to e-mail TJ Sullivan in LA

Downtown LA: City Hall Reflected

2008-08-07T17:31:00.000-07:00

Photo By TJ Sullivan

Click to e-mail TJ Sullivan in LA

LAO: One Yacht, $1 Per Second

2008-08-04T00:02:00.000-07:00

My new post at LA Observed:

Not many yachts equipped with on-board helicopters cruise within scoffing distance of Venice Beach, so when the Princess Mariana drifted lazily past on Sunday afternoon it was … well, OK, only a few people actually seemed to notice.

Perhaps everyone but yours truly was already aware that the Princess Mariana, a 258-foot vessel that CNNMoney.com calls one of the most desirable charters, reportedly rents for a whopping $606,500 a week.

That works out to about $1 per second, which is about how long it took to focus and snap the photograph above. I couldn't find any references to fuel consumption, but it's got to be horrible for something so …

Read the rest at LA Observed.

Click to e-mail TJ Sullivan in LA

Walt Disney Concert Hall, LA

2008-07-31T22:17:00.000-07:00

Photo By TJ Sullivan

Click to e-mail TJ Sullivan in LA

A 5.8 Earthquake Shakes LA*

2008-07-29T12:07:00.000-07:00

Just had a good-sized shaker in Los Angeles. Lasted for about five to 10 seconds here in Westwood Village, near UCLA. Phone service is spotty. Still can't get a call out on my mobile and it's been half an hour. Here's the particulars from the USGS:

Tuesday, July 29, 2008 at 11:42:15 AM (PDT)

5.8 - local magnitude (ML)

Approximate Epicenter Distance From:
Chino Hills, CA - 3 km (2 miles) SW (235 degrees)
Diamond Bar, CA - 8 km (5 miles) SE (127 degrees)
Yorba Linda, CA - 9 km (5 miles) NNE (23 degrees)
Pomona, CA - 11 km (7 miles) S (178 degrees)
Los Angeles Civic Center, CA - 47 km (29 miles) ESE (103 degrees)

*The quake magnitude has since been adjusted to 5.4.

Click to e-mail TJ Sullivan in LA

LAO: Beyond Baroque Better Clear This Up

2008-07-23T17:58:00.000-07:00

Crossposted at LA Observed:

Photo from Beyond Baroque at flickr

The issue of Beyond Baroque's lack of a lease may not be as simple as suggested in the press release sent out Tuesday by "Friends of Beyond Baroque." [See prior post here.]

Writer and blogger Veronique de Turenne, over at the Los Angeles Times blog L.A. Now, reports that the hitch looks to have more to do with a disagreement about sharing performance space with longtime neighbor L.A. Theatre Works, and not an outright loss of "the lease pertaining to its historic theater," as stated in the news release from "Friends of Beyond Baroque."

Prior to posting today's item here and over at LA Observed, yours truly attempted to confirm the veracity of the "Friends of Beyond Baroque" press release via e-mail with Fred Dewey, executive director of Beyond Baroque.

Dewey's initial response: "I am afraid it is true. It appears something has gone very badly awry ..."

This afternoon, however, Dewey followed with an e-mail emphasizing that the "press release was not from us, to be clear, but we will probably issue one shortly."

Indeed.

Surely this can't just be a matter of Beyond Baroque being selfish, can it?

Of course, there's no reason to expect Beyond Baroque to do anything less than dispense with the ambiguities and say it like it is. As a proponent of self-expression, Beyond Baroque will surely settle for nothing less than the plain truth. To do otherwise would make those who take the trouble to defend its good works feel ... um ... used.

Click to e-mail TJ Sullivan.

LAO: Beyond Baroque In Another Bind*

2008-07-23T09:14:00.000-07:00

Crossposted at LA Observed:

Photo from Beyond Baroque at flickr

A news release put out Tuesday afternoon by Friends of Beyond Baroque makes it sound as though someone was duped, discombobulated, or maybe just plain defiant when the Los Angeles City Council resolved in February to renew the venerable arts organization's lease in Venice.

Here's the gist of it:

PRESS RELEASE JULY 22 2008

After a delay of four months since the unanimous passage of the Los Angeles City Council's Resolution of February 29, 2008 renewing Beyond Baroque's lease to all its current space at 681 Venice Blvd., for the next 25 years, the lease remains unsigned.

We have learned from sources inside City Hall that, contrary to the City Council Resolution of February 29, 2008, Beyond Baroque, a nationally recognized cultural institution based in Venice, may lose the part of the lease pertaining to its historic theater, the heart of its operations since 1979. Loss of the lease to its historic theater would cripple Beyond Baroque's control over its future and severely impair its capacity to represent and serve the community as it has for forty years.

We, representatives of the Friends of Beyond Baroque, call upon all people who care about Beyond Baroque to contact Councilman Bill Rosendahl [Snip ...] to urge him to uphold the Council Resolution awarding Beyond Baroque's lease to all its historic space and protect this precious Venice institution intact ...

Los Angeles City Councilmember Bill Rosendahl said in February 2008 that Beyond Baroque had been saved after the City Council unanimously approved his motion to direct city agencies to renew and extend a low-cost lease intended to allow Beyond Baroque to keep its headquarters at 681 Venice Blvd. through 2032. No public mention was made at that time of any plans to subdivide the building.

[For background see 02/20/2008 post ... 02/28/2008 post ... 02/29/2008 post ... and 03/01/2008 Los Angeles Times story.]

*UPDATE: See updated post here.

Click to e-mail TJ Sullivan in LA

LAO: Editing Broadsheets Abroad*

2008-06-26T09:34:00.000-07:00

My latest post at LA Observed:

The Orange County Register's decision to outsource some editing to India shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone in our ailing newspaper industry, particularly here in Southern California, where a Pasadena news outfit flirted briefly in 2007 with the notion of outsourcing reporting to the subcontinent.

With 2008 shaping up to be the worst year on record for ad revenue, more creative solutions, and associated workforce reductions, are likely.

Not so in India.

They're accepting applications in India.

The company that the OC Register hired, Mindworks Global, has several job listings* posted on its Web site.

Because I've never worked on a copy desk, most editors would probably say I lack the experience necessary to perform the duties of a "copy editor." However, as Mindworks has made copy editing part of its mission, I thought I might help clean up its Careers* page. Consider it a bit of reverse outsourcing.

My edits are noted ...

Read the rest at LA Observed.

* UPDATE -- June 28, 2008 -- See footnote at LA Observed.

Click to e-mail TJ Sullivan in LA

Nailed Down, Or Not ... Sell It

2008-06-25T22:44:00.000-07:00

LA Times photo archive, UCLA Library.

LA Times owner Sam Zell made a lot of money in real estate before he considered buying the biggest daily on the West Coast. But now that he's stuck with it he appears willing to consider selling anything -- nailed down or not -- to squeeze a few more dollars out. And so, despite the down market, it appears he's looking to unload the "under utilized" LA Times building downtown, which more than a few people say is virtually worthless.

At this rate, one has to wonder when the paper's Pulitzers will show up for auction on eBay. Printing presses to follow by Christmas? Sad days continue on Spring Street.

Click to e-mail TJ Sullivan in LA

Fuck! George Carlin Died

2008-06-23T13:43:00.000-07:00

As a kid, I kept his records hidden in a very special collection, top of the stack, right before Cheech & Chong.

His seven dirty words did not scar my young mind, particularly since he always used them in a sentence.

He was, by any measure, one of the greatest comedic performers and writers of the 20th Century.

Click to e-mail TJ Sullivan in LA

LAO: 'Toasts evenly, too'

2008-06-19T10:44:00.000-07:00

'Hollywood Bread' advertisement, Oakland Tribune, 1941

My latest blog entry over at LA Observed:

While researching a project completely unrelated to Southern California's well of weight loss secrets, I came across a newspaper advertisement — pictured at right — for Hollywood Bread, and, as summer is the get-skinny season, it seemed as good a reason as any to share it here (view the full ad at this link).

You don't have to be a Los Angeleno to greet all diet claims with immediate suspicion, if not full-on Fran-Drescheresque laughter, but given this Hollywood Bread advertisement was published in the Oakland Tribune nearly 70 years ago, it not only amused me, but deepened my understanding of human gullibility and the pitfalls of misfiling long-term lessons in the short-term memory bin of our brains ...

Read the full entry at LA Observed.

Click to e-mail TJ Sullivan in LA

'You'll Remember It Forever,' They Said

2008-06-17T13:45:00.000-07:00

Prom night.

They started talking about it before I even got to high school.

"The best night of your life," they said.

Some Brits are buying it. Some aren't.

A story in today's Wall Street Journal says British youths have reportedly developed a fondness for the American tradition, so much so they've taken to planning proms of their own, complete with all the frippery of kings and queens (they're British, after all). But the front-page WSJ piece characterized this not as a form of celebration, but as an "Alien Invasion," a cultural US export that the middle-class teen population of Great Britain could do without.

Says the story:

British teenagers say they've seen the events in movies like "American Pie" and television shows such as "The O.C.," and they want the chance to dress up and rent limousines themselves. That means a new reason for Britons to worry about the dilution of their culture, a new burden on parents' pocketbooks, and new businesses selling prom essentials such as tuxedos and corsages.

The piece goes on (and on) about the excess — parents renting hot cars for kids who promise to study harder ... young women splurging on expensive dresses …

A couple of the Brits quoted by the WSJ spoke as though this whole prom thing is an abomination of indulgence, a waste of time and money — the sort of concerns that few American parents have ever contemplated themselves. Nope. Never.

Personally, I paid my own way to prom, and if it were it my choice to do it all over again, I wouldn't. It's not that the whole party-in-a-golf-clubhouse thing turned tragic. I didn't get beat up. I had someone to dance with all evening. I even learned a few life lessons, such as how to identify "chicken cordon bleu" by sight and smell. Regarding tux styles, I also learned to never take fashion advice from someone old enough to be my grandparent, like the tux store owner who assured me that all the coolest tuxes had piping down the pant legs, and on the lapels. That frilly shirt was another of his recommendations. After all that, I insisted on the cane. At the very least I had enough sense to keep a weapon handy, just in case the whole piping thing when horribly wrong in the parking lot. But, really, in terms of it being that "special night to remember," all I recall relates to what a boondoggle it turned out to be.

I suppose I might have different memories if someone else had sprung for it. Unearned dollars spend so much more easily, especially when used to rent something like a Lamborghini. "They" never told me that was part of the tradition too.

Click to e-mail TJ Sullivan in LA

Tim Russert's Lessons Live On

2008-06-16T11:23:00.000-07:00

After a weekend of moving commentary about the life (and untimely death) of journalist Tim Russert, it was no surprise this morning to see the top three titles atop the Amazon.com bestseller list were all works by Russert:

1. Big Russ and Me: Father and Son: Lessons of Life
(Paperback)

2. Wisdom of Our Fathers: Lessons and Letters from Daughters and Sons
(Paperback)

3. Big Russ and Me: Father and Son: Lessons of Life
(Hardcover)

Same pattern at iTunes, where the audio version of "Big Russ & Me" was tops for audio book sales.

Click to e-mail TJ Sullivan in LA

Russert's Death A Tragic Loss

2008-06-13T13:31:00.000-07:00

Journalists don't do it for love, they do it because they love what they do.

They don't do it for dollars either. Those who think it's about the money are usually the ones who have the most trouble of all when it comes to relating to the press.

There's no denying that the most well-known anchors and hosts at the network level are well compensated, but anyone smart enough to get to that point knows there are many other ways — far less public ways — to work less and earn more.

Tim Russert had his critics, same as any reporter who has ever strived for fairness, pursued truth dispassionately, and dared to ask the same question more than once when the response was nothing close to an answer. A journalist who does that is bound to upset people on every side of any issue at least once and awhile. But Russert remained above it, a professional who continued to ask questions that needed to be asked, and probably a few that didn't. He was, after all, flesh and bone, as imperfect as the rest of us, but certainly more driven than most.

Russert's death of an apparent heart attack today, at the age of 58, came far too soon. He will be missed for years to come, yet, the spirit with which he approached his work will surely live on in the young journalists he inspired. It's a tragic loss.

Click to e-mail TJ Sullivan in LA

More Big Sur Photos Online

2008-05-29T18:52:00.000-07:00

Still going through the photos I shot recently at Big Sur and points north. I uploaded a few more today. Click for image index page.

The shot at left is of Pfeiffer Beach, which is owned by the U.S. Forest Service.

Click to e-mail TJ Sullivan in LA

POINTS NORTH: Sea Lions At Point Lobos

2008-05-23T08:44:00.000-07:00

I just returned from doing a bit of writing and shooting up around Big Sur. I've set up an image index page at this link and will be adding more photos to it in the next week or two. In the meantime, here are a few highlights:

The photo at left was shot at Point Lobos State Reserve, from Sea Lion Point. Click each image to view a larger one. It can be expanded three times in most browsers.

The second and third photos from the top (at left) were taken at Pfeiffer Beach, part of the US Forest Service. The lengthy beach is enhanced by boulders and several rock formations, some as big as two-story buildings. The beach at the trailhead is in a small cove backed by sandy cliffs. A long, one-lane access road off Highway 1 gets you there, though I can't imagine what it's like on busy beach-going days.

Third photo from top (at left) was also taken at Pfeiffer Beach.

The fourth photo from the top (at left) was taken along the mile-long trail to the beach at Andrew Molera State Park. Be prepared to shed the shoes and wade through the icy, knee-high waters of a stone-bottomed creek to access this one. The stones are slippery in spots, sharp in others. Not advisable for most parents pushing strollers (the spandex-clad über-dad I saw tried it, stream be damned, or something like that).

The critter in the fifth photo from the top (at left) was in the waters of China Cove at Point Lobos State Reserve.

Sixth photo from the top (at left) is China Cove at Point Lobos State Reserve.

* Thank you to Veronique de Turenne at the LA Times blog LA Now for today's mention [05/27/2008].

Click to e-mail TJ Sullivan in LA

Having A Summer; Wish You Were Here?

2008-05-18T19:47:00.000-07:00

"What" weather?

Click to e-mail TJ Sullivan in LA

LAO: Go Detroit Lakers!

2008-05-16T00:25:00.000-07:00

From a new post at LA Observed's Native Intelligence:

I grew up in Detroit, which is to say I did not grow up in the suburbs. Not in Northville, nor Birmingham. And, much as I probably could have learned to like it, I also did not grow up in Grosse Pointe, a place where life was so good they made four more: Grosse Pointe Woods, Grosse Pointe Park, Grosse Pointe Farms and the village of Grosse Pointe Shores.

Alas, I grew up in the one and only Detroit, in the city, a distinction that likely matters little to all but those of us who actually grew up in the actual city. But, with the Detroit Pistons showing enough potential to end up facing the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA finals, that Motor City distinction could soon force me and my fellow former Detroiters to pick a side. I was born and bred in one place, but have long lived in the other. There's a lot between these two towns, far more than me, and not the least of which is...

Read the rest at LA Observed's Native Intelligence

Click to e-mail TJ Sullivan in LA

LAO: Fighting Signs with Signs

2008-05-06T15:51:00.000-07:00

My latest post from LA Observed's Native Intelligence:

No stopping …
No Parking …
Loading Only …
Street Cleaning …
Permits Exempt …
Sundays and Holidays Exempt …
Anti-Gridlock Zone …

Los Angelenos learn the meaning of these terms the way most people acquire knowledge, by paying tuition, albeit in the form of parking citations and fines. Those who say we in LA don't read have obviously never parallel parked on our streets, where we not only read, but debate the subtext and hidden meanings intended by the author. Is "stopping" the same as parking, or something permanent? Is "Flag Day" a holiday? What exactly qualifies as "loading?" And, can Hondas park wherever in Beverly HIlls, or is that particular privilege afforded only to late-model Jaguars and UPS vans?

Confusing as it can be, there's now one more lesson -- a sign that regulates unregulated signage -- the course materials for which have been posted at various locations throughout the city, most recently along Olympic Boulevard on the Westside ...

Read the rest at LA Observed's Native Intelligence

Click to e-mail TJ Sullivan in LA

LAO: Q&A with Larry McMurtry

2008-05-04T10:10:00.000-07:00

My fellow Native Intelligence blogger Deanne Stillman at LA Observed posted an insightful Q&A with Larry McMurtry this past week.

It begins with an unfortunate truth, McMurtry's take on the short life and quick death of cowboy culture in America:

... I don't consider us a cowboy culture. We're a suburban culture. The cowboy survives as an image because it's an image of independence. In reality, that independence only survived for about twenty years. The cowboy myth comes out of the trail drives. Once the railroads came into existence, there was no need for cowboys to do cattle drives. Since then, they've been workmen--hired hands in a rural trade, and have become more and more marginal.

Read the entire Q&A conducted by Deanne Stillman at Native Intelligence.

— TJ Sullivan in LA

LAO: Writing, And Righting, A Wrong

2008-04-22T08:46:00.000-07:00

My latest post from LA Observed's Native Intelligence:

As noted on the LAO Blog, Los Angeles Times Calendar TV Critic Mary McNamara made one of those mistakes the other day, the kind that all writers dread, yet eagerly ridicule when a colleague falls prey.

Readers can be almost as vicious.

Nothing else is like this. Make a mistake in the day-to-day course of most any other profession and, at worst, a few dozen people become aware of it. But do so in a newspaper and … you quickly learn to understand why reporters can come off as cocky. If they didn't keep their confidence (some might say "egos") pumped up, they'd deflate daily at their desks.

The initial responses of writers vary, though most I've known jump right to denial and do all they can to prove the mistake is no mistake. Once the error is verified as an error, the next step is often to blame the copy desk: If they didn't inject that nonsense, then why in God's name didn't they catch it? The initial responses of writers vary, though most I've known jump right to denial and do all they can to prove the mistake is no mistake. Once the error is verified as an error, the next step is often to blame the copy desk: If they didn't inject that nonsense, then why in God's name didn't they catch it? A writer I knew in the late '80s became notorious for blaming his every gaffe on his computer, as though that boxy cyclops of a Mac had achieved consciousness and was determined to get him terminated.

But not Ms. McNamara.

When next I teach a journalism course, I will distribute copies of her LAT Show Tracker blog entry from yesterday (04/21/2008) -- A TV critic's walk of shame -- and explain that this is how to do the right thing, and do it with class. Before there was an Internet, newspapers never did anything like this. Here's an excerpt:
If you want to know if anyone is reading your stories, make sure you insert a mistake about George Washington.

Oh, if only I could claim it was all a ploy by Calendar editors to gauge readership. But when I wrote in Saturday's story about HBO that George Washington stepped down from the presidency after serving only one term, it was just a stupid, blind error, the sort that leaves you smiting your forehead, literally and repeatedly, the moment it is pointed out to you.

[Snip] ... we entertainment writers are held just as accountable for flubbed historical references as any other journalist. The correction runs today online and in tomorrow's print edition, and I will try to comfort myself with the knowledge that a good, strong dose of humility is always good for the soul. Especially the soul of a critic.

Click to e-mail TJ Sullivan in LA

LAO: Ramirez wins again

2008-04-14T15:34:00.000-07:00

LA Observed has the lowdown on former LA Times cartoonist Michael Ramirez winning the 2007 Sigma Delta Chi Award, announced today. Ramirez already won a Pulitzer this year. The Sigma Delta Chi Award is the second-oldest national journalism award after the Pulitzer.

Regardless of how you feel about his, erhm, politics, you have to admit, he's a helluva cartoonist.

— TJ Sullivan in LA

Daily Primer

2008-04-11T08:38:00.000-07:00

I've read a number of books about writing in the past four years, a list I hesitate to
post in its entirety because some of them aren't worth recommending. My favorites include:

Carolyn See's Making a Literary Life: Advice for Writers and Other Dreamers

Robert McKee's Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting

Laura Whitcomb's and Ann Rittenberg's Your First Novel: A Published Author And a Top Agent Share the Keys to Achieving Your Dream

Ray Bradbury's Zen in the Art of Writing: Releasing the Creative Genius Within You

John Gardner's On Becoming A Novelist

Among others ...

Somewhere in those books, or perhaps in all of them, was the suggestion of priming the creative pump by reading the work of someone else before writing (taking into account, of course, the theory of "junk in, junk out"). It's something I've practiced most of my writing life, either on instinct, or maybe at the urging of some colleague or professor. So, I thought it might be interesting to start posting a paragraph or so here each morning from whatever I used to prime myself that day.

Today, it was The Pearl, by John Steinbeck:

It was a tiny movement that drew their eyes to the hanging box. Kino and Juana froze in their positions. Down the rope that hung the baby's box from the roof support a scorpion moved slowly. His stinging tail was straight out behind him, but he could whip it up in a flash of time.

Kino's breath whistled in his nostrils and he opened his mouth to stop it. And then the startled look was gone from him and the rigidity from his body. In his mind a new song had come, the Song of Evil, the music of the enemy, of any foe of the family, a savage, secret, dangerous melody, and underneath, the Song of the Family cried plaintively.

— TJ Sullivan in LA

LAO: Miss USA, NASCAR Style

2008-04-11T08:25:00.000-07:00

From a new post at LA Observed's Native Intelligence:

NBC has begun promoting its coverage of this year's Miss USA competition — set to be broadcast live Friday from Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas — as though it were a car race in which anyone could crash and burn.

"Anything can happen!"

A commercial* that aired this weekend emphasized the event's unpredictability with a clip of Last year's Miss USA winner, Rachel Smith, as she fell on her rump during the Miss Universe competition. But the centerpiece of the spot was a sound bite from last year's Miss South Carolina, Caitlin Upton [see inset], now infamous for becoming horribly tongue-tied during her Miss Teen USA performance (That's TEEN, as in, like ...

Read the rest at LA Observed's Native Intelligence

— TJ Sullivan in LA

LAO: Drivin' With Your Eyes Closed?*

2008-03-31T07:21:00.000-07:00

From a new post at LA Observed's Native Intelligence:

Every other commercial during the news hour, or so it seems, promotes some drug or medical treatment, which conditioned me long ago to tune out the warning list near the end.

But this evening I was so struck by what I thought was said ...

Read the rest at LA Observed's Native Intelligence

*With apologies to Don Henley.

— TJ Sullivan in LA