Dragging more stories around Main Street

Buried Stories: The online party game of writing "5 things you don't know about me" was passed on to me by eecue, who beat out Sha in LA to link me my first meme. Meanwhile, eecue and Eric took a tour of the belly of Triforium with 9th District Councilwoman Jan Perry. 

What Complications?: Jan Perry had a medical appointment last week that went on longer than expected. Next thing you know a blogger was saying she was in emergency. She's fine, says Perry herself, as we exchanged holiday greetings at Petes Cafe Tuesday evening.

All Gone: I went to pick up an extra copy of Chicano Arts Magazine at Crewest on Winston off Main and they were sold out. A good sign. Publisher Laura Molina reported to me today that the next lead story is my coverage of Xhican@ Demiurge that was held at Pharamaka Art.
 
Take Stock: Garment and Citizen reports on American Apparel being sold to Endeavor Acquisition Corp and adds how the love will be shared. Garment and Citizen has highlights of their own this year by being Voted "Best Downtown News" by L.A. Weekly and a mention by New America Media for Best Commentary.

What's Hot? LA Downtown News recalls the "hot stories of 2006". One story of choice was how Arts District residents resisted the "Arts District B.I.D." from the same management team who run the Toy District's and Central City East B.I.D. protesting it was overpriced for the planned services and possibly showing favoritism to developers.
In  the same issue it's announced that there are plans to begin construction on a $30 million project at Fourth and Alameda in the Arts District.

LAtinoTIMES: LA Weekly's Hernandez reports how the LA Times is missing the Brown Tide by alienating the goals of it's Latino Initiative.  Meanwhile, via LAO, former LAT editor Frank Sotomayor recalls the short burst of coverage of Latino issues adding, "But Latino reporters, photographers and editors are a critical resource in that mission. As Hernandez points out, the number of Times staff members of Latino origin is declining--down to 6%". Also, take a look at the Hernandez blog that was just started. He will be blowing some of us bloggers out of the water.

End of Duel Citizenship: After being homeless,  the Arts District Citizen is back on the street today now as Citizen L.A. My last print version of View From a Loft appears in the current issue.  I'm starting a new column in Garment and Citizen beginning January, 2007––increasing their Latino editorial and photographer staff by 30% with one part- time hire. See you then.

   

In the spirit of "community" I'll do this once. Here's 5 things you may not know about me:

1: I had classes with both Groundlings Improvisational Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company before I was 23.

2: I can do an impression of Darth Vadar singing Barry White.

3: Writing beyond a headline is new to me. Although I once had a byline in Daily Variety. It was generous since the story was rewritten.

4: I taught Catechism while in High School.

5: It's been very hard for me not to post real good ideas or graphics here.

Other than Don who has no secerts, it may be hard for me to find link 5 friends who have blogs. Kevin may go for it. Man One,  Memo or the Nerd.

Pictured: Citizen LA's new issue being delivered, Friday, December 22.

Comments

[blackie]

wow. i've been wanting to see the guts of the triforium.

looks like rodents were living in the teletype chassis.

i think i read somewhere that it never actually funtioned fully?

[e@v]

The music and lights worked, just not very well nor in sync after some years of neglect. The lasers and lights responding to pedestrian movement didn't get off the ground from the original concept.

[Tim Quinn]

Gee, I do wish they would redevelop the rundown places before they re-do already re-done buildings. Totally understandable from a budgetary perspective though.

Re: Triforium. True interaction from computers is still very difficult to acheive with any reliability. They are great as long as it is happening on a screen with a mouse or keyboard. Introduce sensing apparatus and everything goes to hell. I am not sure why this should still be true, but my experience says it is so.

The guys who did the Metlofts thing, whom I know, are the exception, but they are very careful not to overextend the idea. They also spent a couple of years perfecting the sensing mechanism to be absolutely bulletproof. Most interaction in media art is faked up or uses layers of obfuscation to distract you from the low quality. Good intentions meets up with hinky technology and suddenly the deadline is past and you're stuck showing a 'proto-type.'

[Tim Quinn]

Oh my . . . that recap from DTN gets something critically wrong. Astani was careful to say he is putting off some projects because of skyrocketing construction costs which cause the projects to become unprofitable. He unequivocally stated it was NOT because the market is flattening out. He went on to say they are not having any trouble selling units in existing projects.

Sad to see the DTN piling on the bubble busting bandwagon. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy we don't need right now.

[LA City Nerd]

Here you go, my five:
http://lacitynerd.blogspot.com/2006/12/5-things-you-dont-know-about-me.html#links

[e@v]

Tim: It would be interesting to see what the Metrolofts response is with Triforium. He would be the most qualified person to be critical with this form of interactive light art.

Budget is always a consideration, but you're right. Taking a look at the city infrastructure for long term growth is bypassed way too much.

Bubble Bursting: It can be seen that sales has flattened, but not flat-lined.

To Nerd: Thanks for the responses - I'm sure most would have hit you for it. Merry Christmas to ya both.

[Kevin Allman]

I don't do memes, but...hm. I also studied (and performed a bit) with the Groundlings before I was 23. (it convinced me that I had no interest in performing, and no particular aptitude for it). Does that suffice?

[e@v]

We can share at least 4 more, in private emails only.

(Kevin Allman is an author residing in Portland but whose heart is still living in New Orleans. Allman once resided in Los Angeles when it was punk and Santa Monica when it was still "the people's republic of SM". His claim of performing "a bit" is slightly modest since he was in the first round of Groundling's Sunday Supplement. And he was a good performer.)