I’m guilty of more than a few.  You?  I particularly like the dig about moving to the West Side…a place I barely know as there is simply no easy way to get there from where I live and there is never any parking.  There, I said it.

I just learned that on the ninth day into the fourth month of his thirty-ninth year as a pressman at the Los Angeles Times, Ed Padgett was fired. Fired as a result of some sort of clandestine investigation conducted by human resources for reasons he’s not at liberty to divulge at this point. Fired over the fucking phone.

I was unsuccessful in an attempt to leave a comment of support or of use on his blog. I was swinging too severely between outrage and sadness. Still am. So I came here. To tell you a little something about Ed — which isn’t much, but it’s better than me cursing or crying.

Probably about five or six or so years ago we first met online here at Blogging.la. In January 2007  I posted an open invite for any and all fellow lunatics to join me in making good on a long-time resolution to walk the entire 24-mile length of Sunset Boulevard from Union Station to the sea. Ed commented that he was interested but had other plans. When the fateful day came in February I was joined by another B.la reader Don Hosek and USC grad student Lisl Walsh and off we went.

After the jump, Ed magically appears around Mile No. 23.

Read the rest of this entry →

Cadillac ELR formerly known as the Converj coming to us soon.

Wednesday I got to meet up with GM exec Jim Federico, Executive Director of Engineering, Electric Vehicles at the L.A. Auto Show. I got to ask some of my own questions as well as those you readers posed as part of the ticket contest I was able to run. It was an interesting visit, certainly a lot of information with some answers as well. Where to start with the questions and answers is my big dilemma.

Al Pavangkanan posed the question regarding new battery technology. Jim couldn’t give specifics of what they have in store but did say that they are working with the battery suppliers to develop new technologies that will give us more power for the size compared to what we have now. The problem all the manufacturers have run into is that there isn’t a rush to develop batteries as there isn’t really a market demand for them yet in quantities to offset their costs. Those costs affect what we pay for an EV now, but as demand increases, production increases there will be more incentive to develop new battery technology and help lower costs.  Read the rest of this entry →

Did ya know that  near Union Station was the village of Yangna back in the days of the Tongva Nation?  That name means “Place of the Poison Oak” and fortunately the settlers of the area saw fit to rename us to Los Angeles.  Need more history this month?  You just need to simply meander over to the Militant Angeleno blog where he is celebrating 230 years of Los Angeles city-hood with a giant history lesson on the native peoples who first inhabited the area.

He has several posts, the one I found most fascinating was the map of Tongva Villages overlaid onto a map of the L.A. area.  Militant Angeleno went as far as to take that map and list the villages by name and the modern city built over them.  I just wish I lived in one of those cities that had a Tongva name, I’d go as far as using it as my official city of residence instead of the current name…mail would still get to me using the zip code but how fun would that be to pay homage the natives that were here first and confusing stalkers at the same time.

Coming back from the Hollywood Home Depot yesterday afternoon, my wife Susan and I opted for surface streets back to Silver Lake instead of the backed-up southbound 101, and boy am I glad we did. Heading east on Fountain I looked south as we passed Kingsley Drive to find none other than renowned and prolific muralist Kent Twitchell doing some touch-up refreshment work to his 1971 Strother Martin Monument mural. With Susan understanding my OMG as we went around the block to pull up across the street from him, I got out and went pretty much total fanboy, interrupting him apologetically to gush about what an honor it was for me to see him in action, and get a picture of him:

I asked him if there was any hope of restoring the Ed Ruscha mural that had been despicably painted out in 2006 (and for which he ultimately settled a lawsuit in 2008 for a reported $1.1 million). He said he hoped for its return but that it would be put up in a different location.

The one mural of his also unceremoniously destroyed whose return I’ve long hoped for is his two-story cool-as-ice-blue Steve McQueen Monument, painted the same year as the one above.

Read the rest of this entry →

I’m just a bit melancholy this morning. My youngest is finishing up middle school where it seems like I’ve spent an eternity already. Both of my boys were in Drama as their elective. Their fall and spring plays were always punctuated with some corny jokes by their teacher Randy Medina during the intermission.  Last night was my final “Spring Performance” by the Clifton Middle School Drama class and am going to miss those corny, punny jokes of his.

Meet Evan Cook, the Monrovia Association of Fine Art’s Student Artist of the Year.  I have to admit the funnest part of being in MAFA is to find young talent and help recognize them and foster their interest in creating art.  Watching Evan grow into his art the last few years has been fun and certainly he has grown tremendously under the mentoring of his teacher at MHS, Sal Perez, and his employer Lisa Barrios of the Paint n Play Art Studio and Gallery.  At Paint n Play Evan both shows his work and gives lessons on the potters wheel and ceramics.

More about him in the Fine Art Trekkin’ Monrovia blog post by Ginger Van Hook.  (She also made this interview video with Evan). Read the rest of this entry →

This particular bear is “Samson the Tourist Bear” and is done by local Artist Rick Kess. Rick is an artist that works at Disney making the floats for the parade. His bear took nearly 2 weeks to complete. Like all of the artists Rick started with a basic fiberglass bear which he embellished, a lot, before applying paint. The complete embellishment process can be found in my flickr set. All these images get bigger with a click.

Happy Good Friday/Earth Day. For all of you Jaded City Dwellers, here’s to let you know there’s still some simple human kindness amid the concrete.

So, in the midst of my running around today, I opted to stop at Trader Joe’s. I swung into the one on 3rd and LaBrea on my way back across town.

On a Side Note – Had I not needed a few items, I’d have avoided the area entirely, and I’d advise you do the same; there is crazy construction going on near there that will tie up traffic for the next month or so. Through May 23rd, I believe.

Anyway, I circle my way through the store, gather my few things, drink a dixie cup of coffee, try out a Latka with applesauce, and I come across that rare and beautiful thing: an open checker with no line. Awesome. (It always makes me a little suspicious, like ample free parking – I always think there must be some mistake.)

The checker and I are having a nice banter, trading ideas on making quick dinners out of the things in my basket, and he rings me up for a total of about 18 bucks. I reach for my wallet and … I don’t have my debit card on me. Oh, Crap. I have all of about two bucks in cash.

“OK, I’m sorry, but we have a problem,” I say, “I’m embarrassed, really. I don’t have my card on me for some reason. I so sorry, man. I must have taken it out at home, or something.” The clerk’s totally cool about it, I check my other pockets, kinda shrug sheepishly, apologize again, and make to leave, when I hear a voice.

“You don’t have any dough?” I hadn’t even seen the guy get in line behind me. “Don’t worry about it, I’ll cover you.”

What?

The thought went through my mind in the kind of stunned silence before I found the wherewithal to speak. “What? No. That’s ridiculous, thank you, but I just forgot my card, I can come back. That’s very nice, but … Thank You, I’m okay…”

He would not be dissuaded, “No, it’s fine, it’ll come back around to me, it’s Good Friday, it’s no problem, I insist. Pay it back down the road, it’s all good…”

He walked over to grab some paper products, past the clerk, told him to add it to his stuff and then started giving him his things to ring up. I protested again, but he would not relent.

The clerk and I were stunned. Should I have protested a bit more and ultimately refused? Possibly. Frankly, and I mean this, it really kind of dazed me. So, still stunned, I thanked him profusely, shook both their hands and walked out the door. Outside was a woman collecting for a Homeless Charity, I stuffed that last two bucks of mine into the collection box and asked her to have a nice weekend. I drove home slack jawed, and started writing this post.

So, Hey Man, where ever you are, Thank You. I hope to not only pay your kindness forward, at some point, or whatever the phrase is, but I hope in so doing I can truly brighten and astound someone’s day in the way you did mine. I’m not even sure entirely what Good Friday is, or is meant to be about, but you’ve certainly made an impression on me about it. Lord knows my history with it is slightly checkered.

Here’s to keeping that Spirit of Kindness alive no matter the date, time or reason. (or denomination.)

Thanks Again, Man.

Permit me, with a photo my wife Susan took of him a couple months before he passed,  to recall one of Silver Lake’s beloved cast of street characters — El Circo Loco (né Antonio Ruiz) — whose death was five years ago today.

What I wrote on the one-year anniversary still covers how I feel:

Every time I’ve since passed the corners of Golden Gate and Sunset Boulevard where I most often saw him living his life out loud and leading his one-man parades, I still look for him and I still can’t believe he and his colorful extravagance now live only in the hearts and memories of those who miss him so, like me.

Viva El Circo Loco! Viva Antonio Ruiz!

Epoxy and fiberglass time for Rick's Art Bear.

My little corner of LA had “Samson the Hot Tub Bear” visiting us for a few years back in the mid-90′s.  Even the national news picked up on this bear.  Most saw him as an endearing critter and rather than kill him for being a pest he was captured and set off to a zoo to live off his remaining years.

To celebrate the legacy of Samson and the coming 125th Birthday of Monrovia (which some of us affectionately refer to as the Art City) there will be Art Bears.  There will be about a dozen of these bears in various styles produced by Monrovia artists.  These bears are sponsored by the locals as well.  These bears will be placed about Old Town Monrovia after the big birthday celebration parade in May.

This particular bear is being done by local artist Rick Kess who also happens to work for Disney in their visual arts department.  This bear so far is just getting some additional decoration on him prior to painting.  The next step is to sand him and down and prep for painting over next weekend. Read the rest of this entry →

It starts with a call from Ford if you’re Matt Farah from Redondo Beach who runs the Los Angeles based “The Smoking Tire”. For others like Donna Ruko in the Focus Rally America it was answering a post in a trade paper promising a reality show based on a cross country road trip.  For those that answered the call and got chosen its been an adventure unlike anything they’ve ever done before.

Four Los Angelenos have been on that adventure for 3 weeks now, due to end sometime in the next couple of weeks (my personal guess is somewhere here in LA). They are Matt Farah (Redondo Beach) and Brittany Boddington (Northridge) making up Team Red. Team Yellow also representing LA is Donna Ruko (Los Angeles) and Bryn Dresher (West Hollywood).

All of them are dialed into the social networking scene to a degree. The most notable is Matt Farah of the red team who owns The Smoking Tire the blog and on twitter as @thesmokingtire. His rally partner Brittany Boddington set up a tumblr blog just before this race and is on twitter as @britboddington. Donna Ruko has her own site and can be followed on twitter at @donnaruko. The only one without a significant web presence is Bryn. Complete bios are at their Rally America pages for Team Red and Team Yellow.

As racers in the Rally America part of their challenges involves their followers. Team Red currently has nearly double the amount of followers of its nearest competitors (8049) and Team Yellow is mid pack (3790). Why is this important? Well as a team follower you can interact with them while they are driving and help them solve challenges. As an example, today the followers had to find objects starting with specific letters and upload them to a facebook page, with check in at the checkpoint based on your completion time. Sort of an interactive Amazing Race.

Their days are planned out by the production team, but they have no idea what is in store for them when they wake up every day. Their days are so busy with challenges, checkpoint and jump start that they have no time to do touristy stuff, and if they do have some down time they all have to agree on what they do and do it together. For Donna she says she has seen so much of this country this trip that she is looking to going back to many of the places and being a tourist and just check out what she missed.

When I talked with them this morning they had plenty of good things to say about this adventure, but they all missed LA to a degree. For Matt, Brittany and Bryn its the homey things like their own bed, their cats and friends here in the city. For Donna its hikes up behind the Hollywood sign that she misses the most. Regardless, their adventures will be over soon and they’ll be back to life in LA and its adventures.

When we travel we all miss something from home, these guys have been on the road 25 days already and told me what they missed about LA. What do you miss most about LA when you travel? Just curious.

Screen grab with the permission of Focus Rally America

Most of you probably saw, or at least heard about this happening last night on our local CBS 2 News:

……..yeah. Funny right? Maybe not. Turns out she was taken to the hospital to rule out the possibility of a stroke. Inability to speak can often be the first sign. I REALLY hope this isn’t the case. I went to school with her and I seem to remember her being very nice. Hopefully it was just a quick flub. Cause if she’s OK, then we can laugh.

My best friend lives in Vancouver BC, but he grew up in San Pedro. Expatriate though he may be, he’s still lived the bulk of his life in California, thus far. And while he’s now, as a Canadian Citizen, largely removed from the noise of California politics, it can still pique his interest when he comes to visit.

Back in July, he was here for Comic Con (something rarely missed) and, of course, Meg Whitman’s ads were running constantly on every available media outlet, short of Big Gulp cups and Happy Meals.

“Who’s this ‘Meg Whitman?’” he asks me.

“Used to run eBay. Dumping a crap ton of her own money into the race. Record amount, in fact.”

“Who’s running against her?”

“Jerry Brown.”

The look of disbelief that crossed his face will haunt my soul.

“Does anyone really need anymore proof that the Democrats are in collusion with the Republicans?”

Mike’s a cynical bastard.

Look, you can take any politician, ANY, and create a laundry list of their lies and deceit; they’re politicians. They are liars. All of them. Your favorite candidate, in whatever race that was? Yep, them. Big, fat liars. Pants ablaze. The Great Statesmen and Orators of History? Fibbers, every last one. So, I will not even to attempt to recount a play by play of campaign inaccuracies and skullduggery here. Putting a politician on the “Naughty” list for lying or running a rough campaign is like blaming a spider for having too many legs. It may creep you out, but that’s just the way the damn thing is built.

So, why bother? Well, I’ll tell yeh, and frankly, I kinda find it funny:

Bitch tried to buy us off.

Seriously. Slice it up any way you wish, it was a blatant attempt to run an unstoppable money-fueled juggernaut of a campaign, which collapsed under its own hubris.

I’m not even going to take up the tract of, “She should have just poured all that money into our failing education system,” or whatever. Would that have been great? Oh, hell yeah! I would love to see a politician actually do that, or similar, on that scale. I ain’t gonna ride her for not deciding to do something so grand.

No, what gets you the coal in your stocking this year, Meg, as far as I’m concerned, is the hubris. The unmitigated gall. You thought you had us, that you could just buy us. That that’s all it would take. We heard it in your voice. Well, take your lump and heat your stove, let that keep you warm, we’re gonna let Jerry do his thing. At least he didn’t try to buy us out.

The part that tickles me, really, is that it did happen here. Like it or not, the stereotype of a typical “Californian” tends to be either the dimwitted surfer or the shallow “Movie Star.” This tends to piss me off, but that’s really how much of the country sees us. And yet, the State known to be all flash and no substance passed on Meg’s Millions. Whatever else Jerry Brown may or may not be, “Flashy” he’s not.

I suppose those who insist upon State drawn stereotypes will shrug us off as “Hippies” now. Funny how such a bunch of Hippies have elected so many Republicans in the past. Whatever, I’ll take Granola over Vapid any day.

I can’t wait to find out what my friend in The Great White North thinks about all of this when I go to visit him over Christmas. Should be interesting.

First on my “nice list” has to be Joan Whitenack of the Foothill Unity Center. The center serves the poorest of the poor with many services here in the foothills of the San Gabriel Valley. It is no small feat, but director Joan Whitenack gets it done with the help of volunteers, grants, schools and other non-profits in the area. To quote Bill Beebe, president of the Monrovia Association of Fine Arts that awarded her their Renaissance Award, “She’s got a nice smile, but there’s no saying no to Joan.”

Not saying “no” to Joan has worked wonders. What started out as a small effort by a local Church in 1980 has grown to a large incorporated non-profit with two service centers through the efforts of Ms Whitenack. The service centers are located in Pasadena and Monrovia. There they serve families and individuals in crisis to give them immediate aid then help them get on a path to recovery.   They even run a “pet food bank” to help them out with taking care of the pets as noted on a recent episode of the Ellen DeGeneres Show!

Aside from helping hundreds of families with their basic needs they have several special events through out the year. Among them are the
Back to School event where more than a thousand children receive hair cuts, dental exams, back-to-school supplies, clothing and even a keepsake art project.

Their mission statement says it all.

Foothill Unity Center, Inc. envisions a community where. . .

• All have their basic needs met, including the need to give
• All get the necessary support to become self-sufficient
• All are treated with love and dignity … all the time

We provide critical support, in the form of food, clothing, motel vouchers, and referrals/advocacy to our neighbors in crisis. As the need for food brings people to us, we listen to their problems and help them find solutions. We work with other agencies to provide long-term shelter, counseling, medical, educational, employment and spiritual assistance depending on the person’s needs.In this way, Foothill Unity Center helps people return self-sufficiency. All services are provided with love and dignity, regardless of race, color, sex, age, religion, national origin, citizenship, sexual orientation, physical or emotional disabilities or veteran’s status.

All this happened through the energy and vision of Ms Whitenack to be able to help those in need in the foothill communities in the San Gabriel Valley.

Monrovia Center: 415 W. Chestnut Ave., Monrovia 91016 Phone: (626) 358-3486 / Fax: (626) 358-8224 Hours: 9:00am – 5:00pm Monday through Friday
Pasadena Center: 191 N. Oak Ave., Pasadena 91107 Phone: (626) 584-7420 / Fax: (626) 584-7422 Hours: 9:00am – 5:00pm Monday through Friday
More information on how to Volunteer, donate or help however you can at the Foothill Unity Center Web site.