Category: Links

Marco D on L.A.

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405 at Palms., originally uploaded by hereinvannuys.

Some good philosophy on living in LA from Marco D:

” To commemorate my 100th review….YES…damn right, I’ve reached the century mark, it’s my fucking 100th review, biatches(am I supposed to get a Yelp t-shirt?)…I’d pay homage and give 5 BIG YELP STARS to Los FuckinAngeles, my adopted home! Damn right this city deserves all the stars Yelp can give me, despite her shortcomings, faults and what-have-yous!

If you guys hate LA so much because of its sprawl, of its congestion, its traffic, its lack of history and character, then what the hell are you doing here still? Bitch, pack your bags and leave this city already! This is not a damn communist country, you are more than welcome to leave. And besides, do you think that LA loves you?

Oh, and don’t tell me that you’re here because of work, or you didn’t have any choice, boo hoo hoo… Then why the hell did you accept this job in the first place? You’re an idiot, that’s what you are. Or you can always divorce your partner, if you moved here because of that, and find a better ass somewhere.

Stop bashing the city you’re living in. It’s not just wrong, it’s rude, you uneducated motha-fuckin bitch, yes you, and you know who you are.

Yes, it may be superficial, yes, there are crimes, yes, there are those actor/waiter/model/director/posers and whatever you call them fakes or celebs…and so is every fucking major cities in America, or the world for that matter. If you can’t handle it, then fucking move to a prairie and build your farmhouse already…next thing you’ll know, you’ll be fucking your sheeps! Yeah, that’s what you call life.

And don’t even try to compare LA to New York, to San Francisco, to London, Paris, and Tokyo…same way you wouldn’t want to compare your asshole to mine. Okay, yours is bigger, I admit.

In the end, it’s not about the city, the geography, the climate or the people. It’s how you fucking live your life and make the most of what is in front of you, you got that?

Deep down, you know you’re hooked, LA’s got you. You’re just too fucking full of shit to admit it!

Peace the fuck out!”

Written by Marco D. on Yelp

Who Uses Their Backyard Anymore?

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A UCLA study confirms that most Angelenos rarely use their backyard, the LA Times reports today.


Anthropology professor Jeanne E. Arnold, lead author of the study that will be published in the March Journal of Family and Economic Issues, says that Angelenos put a lot of money into making their yards attractive and entertaining. “They are a buffer of green” from the outside world, she says, but “backyards might as well be blocks away considering how often the families go in them.”

From my own personal experience, it seems that the backyard has been shrinking, both in size and importance from the days, 30 years ago, when I played for hours in our family yard in Lincolnwood, IL.

In older neighborhoods of Los Angeles, like Venice, Pasadena or Hancock Park, there are many tree shaded yards, often small, but lovingly tended. But in the new areas, such as Santa Clarita and Calabasas, enormous houses take up 95% of the lot, and the backyard is often a harsh, concrete, fenced and cinder block prison without trees.

Then there are the crazed schedules: mom works, dad works, kids are in programs. On the weekends, people are running to the mall, sitting on the freeway, or in cyberspace.

The decline of the backyard parallels the rise of the flat-assed fatties who one sees all over the Southland.

Only 99 Killings!

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I found a great little blog published by the LA Times. “Homicide Report” is described as:

“The Times’ inaugural effort to chronicle every homicide that occurs in Los Angeles County. The Homicide Report is continually updated; comprehensive lists of victims are posted weekly.”

Today is February 13th, the 44th day of 2007, and so far we only have 99 murders in Los Angeles County.

The wonderful thing about the way Americans kill each other: we don’t even care about religion or political power, the way some do in Iraq. We just destroy life for the heck of it.

Here is one of the 99 deceased cases:

Melissa Paul, a 16-year-old Latino girl, was shot in the back at 3222 Verdugo Road in Glassell Park and died at 8 p.m. Feb. 6.

The Franklin High School student was walking with two other teenagers when the Latino suspects rolled up in a car and asked their gang affiliation, then fired. Police arrived to find Paul wounded, her friends trying to help her. She died later at County-USC. Arrests were made late last week but charges have not been filed. LAPD Northeast detectives seek any leads or witnesses. Call (213) 847-4261.

Walking home from school. Sixteen years old.

Daniel Hurewitz: Bohemian Los Angeles.

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I am reading a wonderful book right now about the artistic and cultural life of Silver Lake in the 20th Century. “Bohemian Los Angeles” by Daniel Hurewitz explores an area that was called Edendale, roughly from Echo Park to Los Feliz, where actors, writers, artists, and political leftists gathered to create literature, paintings, and politics that challenged the mainstream views of the time.

Hurewitz takes us into an intimate place, almost rural in isolation, but only minutes from downtown Los Angeles.

The LA Times reviewer wrote:

“Wooded and hilly, with some of the steepest streets in California, Edendale in the 1910s was the location of the first movie studios. Mack Sennett’s studios, Essanay Films, Pathé and nearly 70 other companies operated in the area. They soon moved west, but in their wake came a bohemian-progressive scene of exceptional vigor and influence. Woody Guthrie lived in Edendale; so did printmaker Paul Landacre, legendary bookseller Jake Zeitlin, writer Carey McWilliams, composer John Cage and thousands of other artists and activists. The result, Hurewitz notes, was “a movement wherein a new ideology of identity was constructed and elaborated around organized and mobilized constituencies.”

Hurewitz is coming to Los Angeles. His blog outlines his upcoming LA appearances:

Well, we’re flying to LA tomorrow for a bunch of book events: the schedule looks pretty exciting. And, encouraged by my old friend Sol, I want to spell it out for you…

Thursday, February 1, 7:30 pm. Reading & Signing at A Different Light Books in West Hollywood. It’s one of the last great gay bookstores around & a place where I gave a reading years ago, so I’m delighted to return there. Their address is 8853 Santa Monica Blvd and here’s a map.

Friday, February 2, 2 pm. Interview with Patt Morrison on KPCC, one of the Southland’s outstanding NPR stations — 89.3 on your FM dial. Patt Morrison has been writing and thinking about L.A. for several years & is one of the city’s leading commentators on things Angeleno. I’m really looking forward to talking with her about the book.

Saturday, February 3, 10 am. I’ll be recording an interview with a gay radio program called IMRU that runs on KPFK, 90.7 FM, the more lefty public radio station in town. It seems like a great show & I’m excited to get to discuss the book from a gay perspective! We’re going to record the interview that morning, but it will likely run on Monday evening, 7 – 8 pm.

Saturday, February 3, 5 pm. Reading & Reception at Skylight Books in Los Feliz. Skylight is a terrific place. They are the central bookstore in this part of the city that was once called Edendale — a name I love — and they are the kind of bookstore we all wish existed every where. Independently owned, staffed by thoughtful readers who offer good suggestions & opinions, and devoted to their local community. It’s going to be a wonderful evening there & I hope you’ll all try to make it. They’re located at 1818 N. Vermont Ave., just north of Hollywood Blvd: here’s a Google map to get you there.

Sunday, February 4, 2 pm. Conversation with the Echo Park Historical Society. This will be a more intimate gathering at somebody’s home. But these are the folks who already know so much about the area that I’ve been writing about. It will be a great chance to swap insights and comments about the area.

And then Monday, back to NYC. What do you think? Not bad for one week, right? I’m really excited!

The River Reigns.

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To people who see the LA River for the first time, when it is dry, which is mostly, it seems an innocuous and silly piece of engineering: A river entombed by concrete.

But this flood control system, built by the US Army Corps of Engineers, after the disastrous 1938 rains, is awesome when it is full of H20.

As a boy growing up in Chicago, I had a phobia about the Chicago Sanitary Canal. As it snaked its way north along McCormick Blvd., the canal was a bleak and greenish river of sewage. At the corner of Howard and McCormick there was a dark, penitentiary like brick water treatment building, with a vaguely odorous and ominous look. A correctional facility for Windy City shit….

For many years, an enormous pea green natural gas tank stood at the corner of Kedzie and Pratt, looming over the canal like a prison tower. Natural gas and sewer gas and all the terror of these civilized utilities….. The thought that every single toilet flushed in Chicagoland wormed its way to the sewer canal gave me (and still gives me) the chills. The imagined explosion of the natural gas tank. I conjured up all sorts of terror in my juvenile mind. But that was then….

Today, in Studio City, all the garbage from the manholes was floating downstream. I could see a blue plastic football speeding by at 40 MPH.

Standing on a bridge overlooking the flowing waters, I was like a boy again today in the Land of Lincoln. Yet it was in the LA way: its reality could only be captured digitally.

In Chicago, the water is cleaned and returned to Lake Michigan. In LA, some of it is purified, but most of it evaporates and disappears like so much else out here.

Newest Murder Story.

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From CBS-TV:

1 Killed, 2 Wounded Outside Van Nuys Restaurant

(CBS) VAN NUYS, Calif. A 24-year-old man was killed and another two were wounded in a shooting outside a Van Nuys Mexican restaurant, police said.

The shooting at La Sirenita at 14032 Oxnard Street, occurred about 12:45 a.m., according to Los Angeles police Sgt. Teresa Wilson of the Van Nuys station.

Rodolfo Mendoza Cruz of Panorama City was killed, said Stacy Ball of the Van Nuys Police Department.

Luis Ibarra, 24, of Van Nuys was in serious condition, Ball said.

A third victim, 35-year-old Arturo Martinez of Panorama City, was in stable condition, Ball said.

No arrests have been made, she said.