The tallest building in Los Angeles was illuminated to usher in the dawn of a new year, as revelers joined in celebration at places like the Palladium, the Ambassador, Broadway, Main, and Sunset.

The year was 1954.

Photo from the USC Digital Archives

It caught my eye a display of health aides.  The front entrance of Costco is always merchandised to fit a seasonal theme. Last nights big change was to help you with your resolutions for the NewYear. 

Many of my morning bike commutes bring me south on La Brea from 4th Street to Redondo Boulevard and past this sign for Sense of Style Salon Supply near 8th Street, whose sign always induces a quizzical chuckle. Never minding that SOS is the international distress signal that can be applied to disasters of style and fashion, what I really want to know is what they were going for when they designed the logo. Whatever it was, they didn’t quite nail it because the three letters can be too easily misinterpreted (at least by me) to look like they were handformed from poop.

Sense of Style? Sense of Shit. Time for a makeover.

If you’re not in Times Square to watch that big ball drop on New Year’s Eve, then you are a loser.

That’s what Verizon seems to think.

Whether you’re one of the half a million people in Times Square or sitting on your couch in Los Angeles, you will have the chance to send text messages, pictures, best wishes, or a “will you marry me?” request to Spotlight Live’s 75-foot Jumbotron in Times Square. Messages can be sent from any text-capable phone, from any wireless carrier to 81878 or a pix message to NYC@pix.vzw.com.

Even if you are sitting on your couch this NYE, I do not think you are a loser. I think you’re probably pretty comfortable, and that you have easy access to a clean bathroom. I think you probably have no cab fare to pay, no last train to catch, and no vomit on your shoes – unless it’s your own.

Have fun couch-texting your East Coast peeps this NYE.

Dear Top 10 List Maker,

Stop. Please, just stop.

You are fanning the flames of lunacy with the notion that more than just you and your cube-mates read your little blog. Save your precious internet time for more fruitful projects, like updating your Facebook.

Should you choose to write a top 10 list to recap 2007, here is a list of things to avoid. Think of it as The Top 10 Most Annoying Things About Top 10 Lists:
Read the rest of this entry →

When was the last time you donated blood? Was it after Katrina? After 9/11? Every three seconds, someone needs blood, not just during major emergencies. Make it a point to schedule blood donation throughout the year if you can. You can sign up for email reminders to schedule your next donations. On the Westside, the UCLA Blood and Platelet Center in Westwood is open six days a week to receive your blood or platelets and if you like Diddy Reese cookies, you are in luck — they are your post donation treat, along with grape, apple and orange juice. And check out their current contests and promotions you could win a trip to Fiji just for donating! Talk about good instant karma.

Check out where to donate throughout Los Angeles with the American Red Cross site. It will help you locate blood drives and blood donation centers near you.

If you are afraid of needles or have some other reason why you can’t donate blood or platelets, please, at the very least, make sure you are an organ and tissue donor. There are so many people waiting for organs who desperately need them. If you are concerned about your legacy and how you might be remembered after you are gone, organ donation is the most brilliant and beautiful legacy of all. Please sign up to be an organ donor right now.

In 4 short days the entire world not glued to their TV’s will show up and pack in Pasadena and the SGV for the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl. Traffic isn’t pretty on a good day, the period starting NYE until after the Bowl game is our hell to endure for about 24 hours.

There is some relief from the traffic AND some DUI avoidance as well. The Pasadena Star News ran the announcement of free METRO rides NYE as well as some great tips on parking and getting to things via shuttles. Their article Metro will offer free Gold Line rides to Pasadena ran this morning. Now take the train damnit so I can get out of my house too!

Pic by me of “double delight”, get’s a bigger with a quick left click.

Old Town Pasadena. A destination for shopping, dining, and gunfire.

You know society is devolving when one man shoots another in a crowded shopping area at Christmastime. Witnesses say the 20-something-year-old suspect may have pulled the trigger over a racial slur. Of course, that is ugly, and shouldn’t still be happening in 2007. It’s also stupid to shoot someone over it, especially in the middle of a crowd.

A man does not shoot another man in the back. You settle your grievances as a man. With knives and a well-choreographed fight.

Pakistan is on high alert after Benazir Bhutto was shot and killed a few hours ago while attending a political rally. The former prime minister had recently returned to the country after ten years in exile, and was planning to run again for the prime minister position in elections scheduled for January 8th.

After Bhutto was shot, a blast from a suicide bomber killed over 20 people.

The resulting chaos is impacting residents in cities covered by our sister sites in Pakistan. From Metroblogging Karachi:

Karachi appears to be in a grip of unprecedented panic right now. There is obvious panic and everyone is shocked. As the offices get closed down, people are rushing to their homes in anticipation of protests.

Metroblogging Lahore urges residents to stay at home:

Or just stay wherever you are. The situation may get worse outside with people burning anything they come up with.

Metroblogging Islamabad is also covering the tragedy and its aftermath.

…photo from Wikipedia, used under Creative Commons…

Our own Jason Burns wrote about the passing of young Nataline Sarkisian HERE and HERE.

For me it was particularly heart wrenching as it forced me to look back and remember the passing of my then 17 year old nephew Craig. It started with an auto accident on 5/22/01, 2 days later all us flew to St Louis when the last ditch effort to save him was to put him into an artificial coma in hopes he would survive. The next 10 days were the most tear ridden days filled with helplessness that we have ever endured. In the end we lost him. I can fully understand the loss Nataline’s parents are facing as they prepare to bury their child.

As this played out in the media it raised a lot of questions and concerns. I was bothered that what we were getting was stirred by California Nurses and had their bias. Having lived through a similar loss I kept wondering why the parents didn’t do what was needed right now rather than wait for an insurance decision? I know that my sister and brother-in-law did what ever was needed right then to try and save him, worries about insurance came after. We are not a family of means but the cost was not the issue, doing what was needed right now was.

I got an interesting email from a very close friend who happens to work CIGNA on the 21st. More, including his email after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry →

Los Angeles loses yet another legendary sportscaster. Stu Nahan, who had been battling lymphoma, died on 12/26/2007 at age 81.

Stu came to Los Angeles in 1968 as a sportscaster on KABC-TV Channel 7, where he remained until 1977. He also broadcasted from KNBC-TV Channel 4, KTLA-TV Channel 5, KABC-AM (790) and on Dodgers-related programming on KFWB-AM (980).

Outside of Los Angeles, Nahan was known for being the boxing commentator in all of the Rocky films.

He shall be missed.

Coverage from KNBC and KTLA.

::Article from the Sacramento Bee covering Stu’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in May 2007::

Photo from KNBC

Long Beach Airport. It’s adorable in a charming, Art Deco way, right down to the airline desk signs. It’s so cute that, as you fly in, it almost looks like something made out of Duplo blocks, a building-block airport. What is NOT cute is that Long Beach doesn’t open quite early enough. Not even for holidays. We couldn’t figure out if the shuttle from the offsite parking was running when we arrived at 4:30 (in THEORY it was, but it was nowhere to be seen).
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Sunday December 23rd. Flying from LAX to DFW as the sun was setting and the moon was rising. Click for a better view.

I love LA and currently miss it as I’m still away.

In the LAT Opinion section, a cross-section of local writers wax poetic about how to make LA better. From exhortations to support “feral” arts orgs like the Velaslavasay Panorama and Machine Project, to getting people to quit gabbing loudly on their cellphones, to bitching [har har] about yoga instructors bringing their dogs to Starbucks, there’s some good ideas in here (and a few that seem hopelessly ingenuous). But Josh Richman hits the nail on the head, summing up in a few terse words what I’ve always tried to communicate about this city that I love like a sister:

Learn to love the authentic

If you’re from here, don’t forget to spend some time falling in love again with the humble gems that haven’t succumbed to cultural cannibalism. We need them to fill the eyes, ears, mouths and minds of those new arrivals who may not know how to thrive like an Angeleno yet.”

Apparently Josh Richman is co-founder of nightlife company The Alliance, promoting parties at the Roosevelt and other hip nightspots. Seriously, dude, if a brain like yours throws a party, it can’t suck.

Photo by Benjamin Simpson, one of my fave portraitists of LA.

The Pasadena Star News has the full story “2nd deaf student wins lawsuit” HERE. Short version is that twins Victor Solorzano and Samantha Solorzano deaf since birth, had to sue Glendora USD here in far east LA Metro to get real time captioning to help them keep up with the fast pace of high school instruction. Samantha won her suit in May only to have GUSD appeal the decision in Federal Court. The article is unclear why in October GUSD dropped their appeal. Could it be that they saw the direction Victor’s suit was going and decided their appeals was more money after bad? The article indicates that GUSD is contemplating an appeal on Victor’s suit.

I just wonder if the cost of all the litigation exceeds the $60K cost to ensure these kids have an even chance in the classroom compared to nonimpaired students.