Last November, I wrote about the war between millionaire residents and yuppie fitness maniacs over Santa Monica’s Fourth Street stairs and nearby median, located at the picturesque intersection of Fourth Street and Adelaide Drive. This war of attrition seemed to have gone in the residents’ (who happen to include Councilman Bobby Shriver) favor, as they convinced the police to enforce restrictions on noise and athletic activities in front of their homes. Indeed, as The Argonaut reports in a recent article, “[t]he Santa Monica City Council voted unanimously Tuesday, April 7th, to request staff to review several recommendations intended to address resident complaints regarding usage of the median at Fourth Street and Adelaide Drive and nearby street stairs.”

However, the Santa Monica Yuppie Fitness Maniacs (“SMYFMs”) have struck back with some ideas of their own. Incredibly, one idea discussed at the Council meeting involved “the proposed construction of alternative recreational stairs leading from Palisades Park down to the beach.” One resident at the meeting, no doubt a SMYFM, “encouraged the council to consider the opportunity to create ‘world class exercise stairs’ from Palisades Park down toward the beach.”

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Shepard Fairey has designed a series of screen prints that will  be sold to raise money for materials for May Day marches and immigration reform organizations.

Collaborating  with Ernesto Yerena, an Obey associate, and with the support of Zack De La Rocha of Producciones Cimarron, an East LA-based independent multimedia organization dedicated to helping immigrants form a supportive community and lobby for humane and sensible legislative solutions, Fairey made two images based on Yerena’s photographs of the historic May Day march in 2006.

Editions of 450 screen prints measuring 18″x24″ will go on sale for $45 each on Thursday, April 30th at noon at Cimarrones.org.

Both Obey.com and Cimarrones.org have free downloadable versions of each poster available “to spread the word and post the images in windows, on street poles, offices, and wherever you think the message will reach people.”

You've come up our stairs for the last time, Crazy Lady.

For this edition of LA Law, I’m going to focus on renters’ rights via an open letter to one of my neighbors.  Thanks for bearing with me.

Dear Crazy Lady:

You yelled at me yesterday for making too much noise.  When I started laughing, making you even angrier, I realized that you totally failed to see the irony of all this.  Let me explain.

My girlfriend and I, as the tenants right above your unit, are easy targets for you.  For example, you drunkenly jaunt up the stairs at midnight to pound on our windows and doors while you rant about something that happened three months ago.  If we ask you to leave, you yell and scream about how awful we are, and, more importantly, will not leave.  You corner us, at all hours, with random questions.  For once and for all:

• No, we will not help you look for your cell phone.  I do not know where it is.
• Yes, I know you love animals.  Yes, your cat really does have fleas.
• No, we do not think you are beautiful.  No, the reason we are having problems with you has nothing to do with how jealous we are, or are not, of your beauty.
• Corollary to above: Please do not leave your apartment wearing only your teddy.  Ever.

The Notice to Evict posted on your door, and where you can get free legal help, after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry →

In case you hadn’t heard, the State of California is upping the sales tax by one whole point starting April 1st – Wednesday.

Other counties have approved even bigger increases, but for now LA is holding at “just” the increase to 9.25% – whoopee.

Oh and that’s not all: Don’t forget that April 1st is also the day the infamous car tax will double to 1.15 percent.

Since pretty much everyone pays sales tax and (I Wish) car registration, I predict people will officially start leaving California in droves – Way to go, Legislature!

Shepard Fairey has just written an extensive piece about the AP lawsuit and the Obama image. If you’ve been following this story at all his post is worth reading to get his perspective right from the source:

I’m very saddened to see many people try to demean my Obama poster as being “stolen” or that because I used a photo I “cheated”. As far as the idea of the image being “stolen”, I would love to have the clout to command portrait sittings from world leaders, but for me and most artists out there, that is not an option. For lots of artists, even licensing an image is out of the question financially. Should artistic commentary featuring world leaders be stifled because of copyright of the reference images even when the final artistic product has new intent and meaning? Reference is critical to communication, and in my opinion, reference as a part of social commentary should not be stifled.

He gives an extremely sound argument about the usage of reference photos in the history of art and points out many contemporary artists who use reference photos all the time. Referencing photos for illustrations is taught in art schools and has been practiced since photography was invented. However I don’t think that is the most important point. At the end of the piece he notes that “If the AP wins their case, every Obama art (or any other politician) that was based on a photo reference that was not licensed would be rendered illegal… I think art that is critical of leaders that neither the subject or the photographer approve of need to be a legal form of expression.” Political art, for or against a candidate, almost always features an image as the quickest way to convey the idea (think of all the Bush images you’ve seen the last 8 years) – if the AP wins this case those would all be made illegal and free speech will suffer a very painful blow.

Remember back in January when when the City Council suspended the bike license program after LAPD Chief Bratton recommended discontinuing the program all together? You might recall that since the program was suspended and no more licenses are being issued, the Chief issued a moratorium on the law until and can be officially removed. Well, turns out some officers don’t seem to care about that.

This photo shows LA cyclist Alex Thompson being handcuffed Saturday night for, get ready for this, walking in a cross walk while there is a red hand showing. He was in cuffs for 20 minutes, but he wasn’t trying to cross when they grabbed him. He was trying to take a photo of another cyclist who was being cited by Officer Schube for not having a bike license. More details on West Side Bike Side -as you can imagine this one will be going to court. On the list of the worst people in the city to give a bike license citation to, the people who were actively involved with getting the law suspended 3 months prior are probably towards the top of the list. This one is going to be interesting…

[Photo of Alex Thompson in cuffs by Gary Se7en, used with permission]

There is something that has gone wrong in the last 40 years of the gay-rights movement, albeit for generally well-meaning reasons.  The justifiable outrage over the passage of Proposition 8 has accentuated this fact in my mind, as did seeing Milk a couple months ago (not because of anything in particular about the quite good movie itself, but just because of the times it chronicles).

By way of background, I have something a familial boast: my mother wrote the first gay rights ordinance in the USA, when I was in my first years of elementary school. This ordinance, like most of those that followed in the few years after it, led to a recall of much of the city council, … Read the rest of this entry →

Photo by Mike Hudson

I’m in Hollywood regularly and revel in having “good parking karma.” That is, I usually have good luck in usually finding street spots within a few blocks of my destination and avoid the lots. While I’d read about city-wide changes in parking rates, hours, and meters, it didn’t really affect me until this past weekend.

Running a little late for a show at the Pantages Theatre, where we parked would possibly make or break us seeing the beginning of the performance. With that in mind, we resolved to just find a lot and I had the cash ready to hand over. But, we saw a spot on Hollywood Boulevard very close to the theater. Based on our prior knowledge, we knew at 7:55 pm, we’d be fine parking there.

Wrong. Not only are all of the meters chopped off of the poles in favor of pay stations, there are new rates and hours. And they are outrageously ridiculous. Not only is it $2 an hour to park in that area*, it is 1 hour parking only until MIDNIGHT on Fridays and Saturdays! This is in the middle of a dense collection of restaurants, clubs, and theaters. What could someone do that will only take one hour? I’m guessing the parking lot fees will go up even higher.

Since the musical we were attending was not going to be wrapped up in 50 minutes, we ended up in a lot. At least we still made it to our seats on time.

*I don’t know the exact geography of these hours. I was on Hollywood Blvd. between Vine and Cahuenga.

Edison's bright idea. Think he got pro bono help on patenting this?

I know what you’re thinking.  I was thinking it too, when someone asked me to have a post on this topic.  “Who in their right mind wants to start a business now?  Who has the money to start a business now?  With the credit crisis, who can even get a loan to start a business?” Well, there are some people (i.e., here and here) who say that the recession is ripe for starting a business, especially if you just got laid off, have some time to rethink whether or not you actually really did like stressing out about meeting an 8 hour minimum billable day (no, I’m not projecting) (yes, I am), and have some usable savings squirreled away.  If you’ve got balls to take that leap, then this guide is for you.  It’s also for you if you had the balls, leapt, and need some guidance as to where to land.

Similar to the organizations available to assist the newly unemployed (see my previous guide here), there are a handful of legal clinics that can help you and your business.  Getting advice early to get things right the first time will save you loads of money down the road — I’ve only been lawyering for a year and a half now, but I’ve already worked on too many businesses that fell apart because their incorporating documents were poorly and ambiguously written, and now must spend hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to fix their mistakes.  Operating small businesses that can’t afford their own counsel also can benefit from these orgs if they need counsel with a thing or two.  The list, after the jump. Read the rest of this entry →

Lesley Herring - missing

In all my life this is the closest I’ve been (thankfully) to knowing a “missing person.”

I got the email about Lesley and Lyle Herring from a friend and wanted to post it here in case anyone may have seen either of them.

Here‘s the link to the blogger page with more photos and info – please contact the Hollywood police station (213-972-2971) if you’ve seeing either Lesley or Lyle. Their families are worried out of their minds.

Remember when the threat of the pink slip was strictly a lower-to-middle class concern?  Ah, those were the days.  Now that everyone from the factory worker to the law firm associate is ducking the corporate knife, we all can collectively and finally acknowledge that yes, we are in a recession and yes, capitalism means no one’s job is safe.  So, what do you do when you or someone you know is laid off?  First, don’t burn your bridges too badly on the way out.  Second, know your rights.

There are a number of legal aid organizations in Los Angeles that offer free to low-cost legal services to qualified individuals with a variety of unemployment and employment issues. If you meet their income requirements (i.e., you didn’t make so much money that everyone is wondering why you don’t get your own lawyer), attorneys at these organizations can offer you assistance with your EDD paperwork and provide legal counsel for your employment problems. Even if your income or asset level is too high to qualify for direct legal services, many are happy to direct you to other resources or can answer your basic questions.

From walk-in clinics to self-help centers, here is a handy little resource guide that you hopefully will not need anytime soon.

Los Angeles artist Shepard Fairey was arrested Friday night in Boston on two outstanding warrants for tagging property with graffiti. Fairey was in town for the opening of his first solo museum exhibition, “Supply and Demand,” at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art.

According to today’s LA Times:

Two warrants were issued for Fairey on Jan. 24 after police determined he’d tagged property in two locations with graffiti based on the Andre the Giant street art campaign from his early career, police Officer James Kenneally said Saturday.

Fairey willl be arraigned on misdeameanor charges on Monday in Brighton District court.

Thanks to commenter dziga on this post for bringing this to our attention. It seems that Mannie Garcia, the photographer who took the photo that Shepard Fairey based his illustration on was not working for the AP when he took the photo in question, says that the AP has no rights to it, and doesn’t want to fight with Shepard over the usage. Photo District News spoke with Garcia and says:

Garcia also questions whether the AP even owns the copyright to the photo. He says that he was not on the AP staff at the time the photo was taken, and never signed the AP’s freelancer agreement. He said he has had several conversations with AP managers in recent days about ownership of the image, adding, “I never wanted to fight the AP.”

Garcia says he worked for the Associated Press as a temporary Washington photographer for six weeks in 2006. He says he was not considered a staff member, and that he has never signed an AP freelancer agreement because he doesn’t approve of the terms in the contract. Asked if this punches a hole in the AP’s copyright claim, Garcia said yes.

Make up artist Robert Greene says he was asked by Bidoun, an art and culture magazine from the Middle East, to paint someone’s face to look like Shepard Fairey’s Obama Hope poster. No word on whether AP lawyers have been sniffing around this one.

A flurry of high profile copyright infringement cases– why now?

One of the big stories being passed around now in Blogland is happening here in Los Angeles, where Associated Press is going after Shepard Fairey for appropriating one of their photos for his Obama Hope poster. In fact, as I type this, there is a story about it airing on NPR.

But Los Angeles could soon be the setting for another high profile copyright infringement battle. And two  more are playing out in NYC– one in the theater world, the other in the art world.

In LA, next week the focus may shift to Coldplay and guitarist Joe Satriani’s plagiarism charges against the group, claiming they lifted the tune for their hit “Viva La Vida” from his song “If I Could Fly.”

The band issued a denial on their website but, not having been in LA lately, they have avoided being served court papers by Satriani or his reps. But Coldplay will be in Los Angeles for next week’s Grammy Awards ceremony at the Staples Center. And here’s the fun part: Satriani’s lawyers say they will be stalking the group with a camera crew (!) seeking to serve them with court papers.

If I were Staples (the office supply megastore chain that paid big $$ for the naming rights to the venue,) I would wire Satriani with a microphone, send him dancing onto the stage during Coldplay’s scheduled performance on the live Grammy telecast to serve the band with court papers, and then have him turn to the camera and scream, “THAT WAS EASY!” Read the rest of this entry →