What can local TV stations learn from Stationgate? Should they be held more accountable when it comes to informing the public about its city burning to the ground? Yes. Were viewers, bloggers, journalists, and tweeters overreacting for calling out the networks on their non-coverage of the impending doom? No.

TV and radio are old media. But, they’re still the first place that people turn when something happens. Hurricanes. Earthquakes. 9/11. There is a responsibility for stations to serve the citizens when they need it most. This includes weekends when your back porch is engulfed in a ring of fire. It is more important than any car chase, funeral procession, or award show after party interview about a $20,000 dress.

Local network executives, who today defended their “coverage” of the “brush fires” should be embarrassed. They should be ashamed. They should probably be fired. Next time, at the very least, throw up an on-screen ticker with evacuation information. That way you can still show your precious Hanna Montana.

As for defending your coverage in light of viewer outrage… How dare you. We are the reason you exist. We are the customer. And we are always, ALWAYS right.

The Untidy Germaphobe

Today in LA fashion I bring you the “Untidy Germaphobe,” as spotted on the Metro Red Line to Union Station. Yeah, yeah, I know. Criticizing fashion on the Metro is too easy, but I go with what I know.

When I first saw the “Untidy Germaphobe” sitting across from me on the train, I only noticed his surgical mask.

“He must be wearing that because of the poor air quality due to the Station Fire,” I thought to myself, smirking arrogantly at my own reflection in my iPod.

Then my eyes moved down to his hands, which were tautly sheathed in blue latex gloves, perfectly color coordinated to match his jaunty mask.

“Hmm. Germaphobe,” I nodded, feeling quite satisfied that I had him all figured out.

Glancing over one more time, I took in the rest of his ensemble, which continued to vex me for at least three more minutes, or however long it takes to get from Hollywood & Highland to Sunset & Vermont.  The gloves and the mask seemed to match a Mysophobic personality disorder sure, but what the hell was going on with the rest of his scene? First of all, his clothes and boots were visibly filthy. Not approved Germaphobe attire. Second, he smelled like he had not showered in quite some time. Definitely the type of violation that could get you kicked out of Germaphobe Camp.

Taking all of the above into consideration, I finally narrowed this guy down to one of three stereotypes, placing the most weight of course on his peculiar outfit (who wears a snow hat in LA during a heat wave?):

1. Recently discharged Vietnam War veteran

2. Construction worker from the 1950′s

3. Anti-government militia soldier

I can’t decide which one, so I’m leaving it up to you fine readers to decide. What’s this dude’s deal? Feel free to offer your own guess.

The picture at left is a view of the Station Fire, taken from Marina del Rey yesterday.  According to news reports, the fire is still threatening the communications facilities and the observatory atop Mount Wilson.  It has already burned its way through and past the fabulously scenic Angeles Crest Highway.  Just three months after a major stretch of the Highway was opened after having been closed for over four years, the Highway is closed once again.

I am reminded, however, of the great day I spent on top of Mount Wilson and driving the Angeles Crest Highway last Thanksgiving weekend.  It was the last weekend before a portion of the Highway was to be closed for the winter.  We took a gorgeous drive up the Highway, and took the side trip to the Mount Wilson Observatory for a picnic lunch with dizzying views.
Tour the Highway and Mt. Wilson, after the jump

Certainly the timelapse video footage screencap’d on the left that I caught of the Station Fire late Sunday afternoon from the roof of my Silver Lake house is neither as compelling nor as dramatic as others made much closer to the devastation being wrought.

But it immediately reminded me of the timelapse video screencap’d on the right that I made a couple days shy of two years ago from the exact same location of the exact same landscape, only this time the billowing clouds were strictly meteorological in nature, not pyrological.

Both videos are available after the jump, and it’s interesting to see them play out together from a then-and-now perspective.

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As of right this moment the Mount Wilson Observatory is still standing though flames are very close and people are extremely worried. This webcam shows the Observatory and surrounding areas (though the cam is going down frequently due to overloaded servers) which as you can see are fairly flame covered. As you probably know the MWO is over 100 years old and extremely important in the history of Astronomy including much of the observations and discussion that formulated the Big Bang theory. On Twitter, Xeni Jardin has been posting constant updates on this specific structure and the fires nearby. Keeping my fingers crossed.

You may have heard that the Station Fire doubled in size last night and continued getting worse today, but until you look at this map it’s hard to understand just how big it’s gotten. The smoke plume was easily visible today all the way in Venice. This one is getting scary, stay safe everyone.

In our many years of blogging about this city we’ve had plenty of public gatherings where we’ve forced writers and readers to occupy the same physical space and have very little blood loss to blame on it. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that actually some of these events have been “fun.” The one thing they have all had in common though, is they have been central or east side and definitely nothing further west than the 405. Well that all changes this weekend when we have the first ever westside LA metblogs get together, and we want to see you there!

The details are this: Sunday, September 6th – 4pm at Intelligentsia Venice (1331 Abbot Kinney Blvd, Venice, CA). This is exciting for another reason because the folks at Intelligentsia have offered to fire up the legendary 1972 La Marzocco machine just for us. If that means nothing to you, don’t worry the rough translation is there will be especially awesome coffee available to those of us who want it. Depending on how many people show up we may just take over the entire place, or maybe just the the back seats. Guess we’ll see. If you think you can make it please say so in the comments so we can get a rough idea how many people to expect. Expect the event to be highly blogged, photo’d and tweeted of course. All readers, writers and other bloggers are invited so pass it on!

How to honor Meryl Streep? No actor has been credited with as many career peaks. Each  time it happens, she surpasses herself before a few years go by, trailing awards in her wake.

Taking note of her accomplishment with a gender switch is Streep Tease, An Evening of Meryl Streep Monologues, performed by a cast of male actors (not in drag) at Bang Studio on Fairfax, this Saturday, September 5th.

Streep’s work will be presented from Sophie’s Choice, Silkwood, The Devil Wears Prada, Out of Africa, River Wild, Death Becomes Her, Postcards from the Edge and The Bridges of Madison County.

Alas, no one will be wailing, “The dingos got my baby!” (from A Cry in the Dark.) But maybe leaving out dozens of her other roles, like from The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Adaptation, Kramer vs. Kramer and Doubt, to name a few, means a Streep Tease 2 is in the cards.

Streep Tease, Saturday Sept. 5th at 8:00 PM; Bang Studio, 457 Fairfax (at Rosewood Ave.) Los Angeles 90048. Tickets $10 here or at the door.

My encounter with Meryl Streep after the jump. Read the rest of this entry →

EDIT: Also: -New evacuation orders have been issued for between Haines Canyon and Alpine Village in the area bounded on the south by Apperson Street, on the west by Sevenhills Dr. and on the east by Glory Dr. Both sides of Glory Dr.

Advisory, Station Fire-Evacuations, URGENT CNS Network Advisory

The Los Angeles Fire Department has announced mandatory evacuations for residents of the following streets in Sunland-Tujunga:

Click for full map

Seven Hills Drive;

Hillhaven Avenue;

Lonzo Street;

Dos Rios Drive;

Deliban Avenue;

Curland Avenue;

Terecita Road;

Terecita Place;

Samoa Avenue;

Samoa Place;

Parsons Trail;

Grenoble Street;

Hillrose Street;

Pinyon Avenue;

Fairgrove Avenue;

Glory Avenue;

Bellclaire Street.

The evacuations involve between 200 and 300 homes.

Thanks to Sean‘s twitter feed, I learned yesterday that the Pasadena Humane Society, who has taken in 200+ evacuated pets affected by the Station Fire, desperately needs donations of blankets, food, money, etc. I had a case of premium food that my picky dogs won’t touch that I took over to them. I always feel so helpless when a natural disaster is going on and was happy to make a helpful gesture, no matter how small it is in the grand scheme of things.

The Pasadena Humane Society is located at 361 S. Raymond Ave. The facility is closed to all adoptions at this time and are keeping the doors locked. However, you can knock on the door and they will graciously receive your items. While they are typically closed on Mondays, I confirmed that they are accepting donations today. If you have any questions, you can call 626-792-7151.

Sitting in what is now something like my 5th day of smoke and ash the lack of TV news has been a bit frustrating.  Local blogs however do a nice job of reporting things from where they sit in the area of the fires.  From a list of Pasadena centric blogs I offer up the following:

• Crime Scene blog keeps posting updated Fire and Evacuation Maps.
• Pasadena Daily photo’s zen Monday includes day/night view of the fire from her porch.
• West Coast Grrlie Blather offers up some photos around JPL and Pasadena.
• Altadena Blog is keeping a running update of the fire expansion and local notes. He even offers up a nifty satellite image of the smoke plume.
• 20/20 Hindsight adds its updates along with some video.
• East of Allen has some nifty pics of the DC10 Super Tanker as it flew by.
• Pasadena Adjacent has a lot of  video clips and explanations of fire fighting.

From Museum of Jurassic Technology

Mount Wilson Road closed today at 6 a.m. after U.S. Forest Service authorities determined that the roaring fires could reach the mountain’s peak. Several radio towers for local broadcast outlets, as well as the historic Mt. Wilson Observatory, sit atop the 5,710-foot peak. The fate of the over-a-century-old facility is uncertain, but the importance of the observatory is undeniable. Designed by turn of the 19th century astronomer George Hale, who coined the term “astrophysics,” the Observatory realigned the way people viewed mankind as it related to the universe. Like the heliocentric model of Copernicus, which obliterated the concept of an Earth-centered universe, Hale’s experiments opened up the aperture on a more complex existence, where humans were perhaps as insignificant as tiny stars adrift in night sky. For some, astronomy struck at the heart of religion, while for others, gazing starward offered an ultimate advance in the search for God. The Museum of Jurassic Technology displays the epistemological questions, theories of God’s location, and Martian dreams sent on hotel stationery, postcards, and sloppily typed letters to Hale and the astronomers of the Observatory in the exhibit, No One May Ever Have The Same Knowledge Again: Letters to Mount Wilson Observatory.

Read the rest of this entry →

Whoops, I almost missed this one! We’ve got tix to see Brit rockers The Duke Spirit. I love these guys for how they blend a heavy, brooding Western sound with 60s girl-group soul using thick sludgy instrumentation in lots of rich, dense layers. What does that mean? It means they’re rad. And lead singer Liela Moss has a sultry, powerful sound that has prolly already earned her legions of devoted man-slaves.

Wanna go see the show? In keeping with the spirit of “the Duke,” tell me your favorite John Wayne movie. Don’t have one? Then tell me your favorite Western flick. Don’t have one? Too fricken’ bad, Skippy.

Info on the show is here.

Astute readers and people with eyes alike will notice that things look a little different around here. It’s true, we’ve given ourselves a facelift! Yes it’s very exciting, but try to contain yourself. Your family and coworkers will thank you for it. That said it is rather exciting and there are a few big changes we’d like to bring to your attention. This will only take a moment, I promise.

COMMENTS: Comments no longer require registration. Anyone can write anything at any point. This should make some things interesting and maybe a bit more dangerous like the old days. Really interested to hear what you think about this one btw.

ADS: Less of the site is being dedicated to ads now and we finally have a feature many people have been asking for for years- flat rate / self serve! Check out those little square ads to the right, clicking on them will give you an option to buy that spot for a week at a time. Those spots are only for Los Angeles and we tried to make those spots very reasonable price wise as well to allow for local businesses to get in on the fun without having to go through our big scary national ad reps.

RIGHT COLUMN: Is now filled with much more content such as recent comments, our all city twitter stream, a local blog roll (post a comment if we need to add you to that btw) and more photos. We felt that space was kind of being wasted before, so this should put it to better use.

For an overly wordy explanation of why we made some of these changes, check out this post on my own blog but really you know the important stuff now, so enjoy!

Eric Spiegelman stitched together this video from a collection of stills showing the progress of the atomic bomb like smoke plume resulting from the Station Fire. It’s pretty insane. *cough*