Los Angeles Thread #11: Let's Save Vincente Minnelli's House

The ugliness and arrogance of what’s on that tape is wild even by the usual low standards of L.A. politics.

That’s gonna quietly shift into a permanent leave of absence soon enough I gotta imagine.

looking back on it, wouldn't you love to have resigned from your job before the president of the united states and head of your political party weighed in

— Scott Frazier (@safrazie) October 11, 2022

looking back on it, wouldn't you love to have resigned from your job before the president of the united states and head of your political party weighed in

— Scott Frazier (@safrazie) October 11, 2022

The ugliness and arrogance of what’s on that tape is wild even by the usual low standards of L.A. politics.

By coincidence, I was re-re-re-re-reading City Of Quartz over the weekend and when the story broke I literally outbursted "fuck, AGAIN?!"

i've seen speculation it's LAPD

LASD, maybe?

LASD is county. i'm sure they have opinions about council but they don't necessarily have routine access.

seems more and more like it was someone inside the union though.

A source tells me that LA Fed staffers signed an NDA months ago that prevents them from publicly speaking about leadership, and that they are not to go out and protest right now, or it would be grounds for termination. Additionally, their computers are being surveilled.

— Jon peltz (@JonnyPeltz) October 11, 2022

wtf

CADOJ will investigate Los Angeles' redistricting process.

The leaked audio has cast doubt on a cornerstone of our political processes.

We will endeavor to bring the truth to light to help restore confidence in the process for the people of our state. pic.twitter.com/HpvjWf8wAp

— Rob Bonta (@AGRobBonta) October 12, 2022

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rick Caruso declares he's not white because he's Italian

https://news.yahoo.com/los-angeles-mayoral-candidate-rick-184822598.html

I remember LA councilman John Ferraro (also Italian-American) saying he was an "original Latino."

Wow

Statement just in from @CD6Nury: "It is with a broken heart that I resign my seat for Council District 6, the community I grew up in and my home."

— Brittny Mejia (@brittny_mejia) October 12, 2022

You’ll always have a home on nextdoor

My NextDoor group is less racist than them.

glad to see council back up running

Capt Castillo on mic announces he’s declaring an unlawful assembly and directing everyone to leave or be arrested or subjected to other police action, including “less lethal” ammunition. pic.twitter.com/CljSeiR0Xl

— Kate Cagle (@KateCagle) October 26, 2022

Iliad Bookstore hit with arson:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CkjIhD8P2j-/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=

no one was hurt and damage was apparently minimal but still, incredibly shitty

Bookshop*

They left their flier at the scene?

Karen Bass slightly ahead now. Villanueva is OUT

this fuckin guy

rest easy, P-22

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-12-17/p22-obituary-celebrity-mountain-lion-cougar-puma-griffith-park-california

BrokenBookSellers on IG names Vroman's/Booksoup as #1 of the 10 worst bookstores of 2022.

Congrats to Dolores Bauer for all her hard work making Vroman's our other #1. Dolores, you win nothing.

We received more stories from Vroman's former and current employees than from any other store, some we could not publish for fear of retaliation. Almost all whistleblowers told us some of the worst bookstore stories in this page's history, many inventive in their cruelty and heartlessness. Bauer hunts her employees like sport. TW: A few of these stories in the panels to come discuss sexual harassment.

Where do we start? Where do we end? We spent half the day sorting through the stories to make these graphics and it broke our hearts all over again to read.

Well, damn. Everybody on the Pasadena fb group I'm in loves Vroman's.

I stopped going to Vroman's when they put the wine bar in, devoted more square footage to selling things that aren't books, and then whined loudly about how they were about to go out of business because it was everyone's fault for shopping elsewhere.

Book Alley just down Colorado Blvd. is where it's at anyway.

I still haven't stopped in at Book Alley's "new" location, but used to love the old one. Also RIP Cliff's Books.

every time I’ve gone to Vroman’s it’s packed like any Barnes and Noble. Didn’t know about its rep, I’d dealt with them previously on a couple different things though likely dealt with folks who could very well be sources for the stories. My preferred book spot is Iliad, which is not the type of spot that exudes any bad vibes. I’m conversely not surprised to see them talk about The Last Bookstore.

RIP Cliff's Books

Yup. While we're at it - pour one out for Either/Or Books and Acres Of Books too.

Alias Books in Atwater is worth stopping in if you haven't yet. Iliad, Arcana, and the CLUI are my faves right now.

sorry to keep adding grim notes about bookstores to this thread but Alex Maslansky, the co-owner of Stories in Echo Park passed away suddenly this week. don’t think i ever encountered him there beyond maybe a standard book-buying transaction but he was clearly hugely respected and loved, very sad news

https://www.instagram.com/p/CnxTuXcy_tf/?igshid=ZDFmNTE4Nzc=

RIP Mission Tiki Drive-In in Montclair

Big Bridget Riley exhibition just opened up at the Hammer. Everyone here should go (also it's free!)

https://hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/2023/bridget-riley-drawings-artists-studio
http://lacmaonfire.blogspot.com/2023/02/bridget-riley-drawings-at-hammer.html

very keen to see that one!

on that note, this show of lithographs by women artists at the norton simon closes this weekend and is really good:

https://www.nortonsimon.org/exhibitions/2020-2029/ink-paper-stone-six-women-artists-and-the-language-of-lithography/

also enjoyed the henry taylor and simone forti shows at moca grand, the latter has live performances happening for the duration of the exhibition

Some assholes stole https://www.pasadenanow.com/main/octavias-bookstore-burglarized00 from Octavia's bookstore.

https://www.pasadenanow.com/main/octavias-bookstore-burglarized

Had an event at Redcat on Saturday so I officially tried out one of the new metro stations: Grand Avenue/Bunker Hill. The station is just *right there* across Hope St. The new alignment for the Gold A Line makes it a one-line shot. It's eerie when big public infrastructure just works.

FWIW, there weren't any spontaneous games of Thunderdome on the A line. I haven't ridden frequently enough to notice trends, but things seem ... less intense? My home station is still weird at night though.

haven’t gotten the chance to explore all the new stops yet, except for the new little tokyo station which looks great.

the weekend the regional connector opened i took the former gold line train, which stops near my place in highland park, all the way down to long beach without having to transfer trains - on the way down it took less than 75 minutes, no interruptions. could not say the same about the way back, unfortunately - there was an electrical issue at one of the north LB stops which added almost an extra hour (!) to the trip.

also i take the former gold line to the former red line to get to work and i much prefer transferring at 7th over union station for my commute - just having to go up/down one flight of stairs to transfer at the former beats that 5-minute schlep between trains at the latter.

haven’t ridden the blue train enough to comment but the red line has been pretty grim post-2020. more than once have had to switch train cars because of meth smokers, and the train cars in general are pretty filthy in a way that used to not be the case.

Went from unseasonably cold to hit pretty fast. I hope it's not a miserable summer, it was a fun ride from the fall til a couple weeks back. The hills are so lush. I also hope we're not in for an active fire season. Still not quite used to now living in what is the hottest *and* coldest part of L.A. -- frost on the windshield thru March, and I assume I'll be boiling my eggs on the surface of the patio starting next week.

Heads up...

https://www.cinema.ucla.edu/events/2023/07/30/crossroads-exploding-digital-inevitable

Crossroads / The Exploding Digital Inevitable
July 30, 2023 - 7:00 pm
Billy Wilder Theater

Admission is free. No advance reservations. Your seat will be assigned to you when you pick up your ticket at the box office. Seats are assigned on a first come, first served basis. The box office opens one hour before the event.

In 1976, groundbreaking collagist, sculptor and filmmaker Bruce Conner released his magnum opus, a 36-minute assemblage of U.S. government footage of the iconic Bikini Atoll atomic bomb test. If Conner invented the modern found footage film with A Movie in 1958, he re-invented it with Crossroads. His editing of the film's brilliant "dual" score — by seminal minimalist composer Terry Riley and synthesizer pioneer Patrick Gleeson — evokes a surreal beauty latent in the devastating images that comprises one of the most profound meditations on the nuclear era extant.

The Exploding Digital Inevitable is a live documentary essay by Ross Lipman, who oversaw the restoration of Crossroads in 2012. Integrating an array of movie and audio clips, still photographs and rare archival documents, Lipman tells the story of Crossroads' unique production, as well as the massive cultural spectacle of the original Bikini Atoll tests themselves. It also chronicles the extraordinary collaboration of Conner with Riley and Gleeson, including original interviews with both composers. As part of this program, The Exploding Digital Inevitable will be presented jointly with Crossroads for a total run time of 90 minutes.

(Crossroads is considered to be a a big obvious influence on Episode 8 of Twin Peaks - The Return. never seen it before!)

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/tropical-storm-hilary-expected-deluge-southern-california-heavy-rains-rcna100302

The first tropical threat to the U.S. this season isn’t on the East Coast or in the Gulf of Mexico — it’s in Southern California.

Tropical Storm Hilary formed Wednesday morning along Mexico’s western coast and is forecast to bring intense rain to Southern California early next week. If it makes landfall, it would become only the fourth storm of at least tropical storm strength to hit the area.

i have read some articles speculating this system would bring 2-3 years worth of precipitation to some areas. i take that kind of speculation with a big grain of salt, but after the shockingly intense deluges we had earlier this year, i'm also not necessarily dismissing it out of hand.

will the rain potentially help with low water levels?
(I know nothing about LA but remember the recent drought being in the news)

The lakes will benefit, but so much precipitation just runs off into the ocean.

The reservoirs are largely full now, so no help on that front. Tulare Lake may get even bigger, which is good for the aquifers but bad for farmers.

apparently the rotation means east of the mountains is going to get it much worse.

Regardless of intensity, the most dangerous aspect of #Hilary will be the rainfall, and that will be most severe in the deserts east of the Peninsular Ranges. Many areas there will see 4-8 inches of rain, with local amounts of a foot or more. That's 2-3 years worth of rain! #CAwx pic.twitter.com/DuuG4MWxb1

— Craig Ceecee, Ph.D. (@CC_StormWatch) August 18, 2023

Model average + NWS forecast has 4" of rain in Imperial, CA over the next 3-4 days.

That'd be more rain than Imperial's seen in the last 4 years combined (3.59"). #CAwx #Hilary pic.twitter.com/Q6Kb5kVKG8

— Chris Bianchi (@BianchiWeather) August 18, 2023

Some good analysis as of right now: https://weatherwest.com/archives/29462

Basically, anywhere along route 86 along the west side of the Salton Sea seems like a very bad place to be. There's cool places in Imperial County, though I grimly think of that water tank in El Centro that has "Sea Level" like 80 feet over your head. Fingers crossed for the folks out in Slab City.

I keep thinking of that chapter in Kim Stanley Robinson's The Ministry Of The Future, where a megastorm washes all of Sierra Madre over the 210 and into the LA basin. OTOH, we got 7" of rain here in the heaviest of the January storms. Our prep = charging everything up, putting whatever cardboard boxes we have on the garage floor either on a table or stacked in a plastic bin to keep the moisture out, and getting an extra bag of charcoal for the grill.

I was in Baja California (~750 miles south of San Diego) for Hurricane Odile and that sucked. Similar energy as this one. 4-6" of rain and 100+mph winds.

5 deaths, total damage amounted to MXN$16.6 billion (US$1.25 billion)

The house we were staying at (and evacuated from) was heavily damaged, as was the airport which made getting home a bit of a challenge. The Red Cross helped us with evacuations as roads were flooded/washed out, <3 to those folks.

In typical modern myopia, it was less than 9 years ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Odile

It's been raining steadily here in the canyons since before 8:00 am. Not particularly heavy, but steady.

5.0 near Ojai...