Since leaving my outgoing mail by our house’s mailbox isn’t really an option, I’ve been in the old-school habit going on the seven years I’ve lived here in Silver Lake of walking down to the mailbox at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Parkman.

I did just that this morning. Only this time I did a WTF having found not the familiar blue USPS receptacle, but instead just the air and space that the mailbox now no longer occupies, as pictured at right.

It was a small consolation that I timed my trip just right so as to be able to hand off my mail to the postman making his delivers there, and he said this wasn’t the only box in the area to get the hook. With a smile and a shrug he said the closest box still standing (for now) was nine blocks east at Alvarado.

Sigh.

Any boxes missing in your neck of the hoods?

For starters, do a little research.  Check out the websites of the candidates for their stated positions and their records.  See who endorses and opposes them.  Enlighten us here through your comments.  Check out your Voter Guides if you have been sent them.  Then read the fine print on some of those special interest group pieces.  Often, the groups with the loftiest-sounding names (Citizens For a Fair Economy, Moms For Health Care Justice, Girl Scouts for Puppies) are primarily backed by big corporations which may not have your interests in mind.

Some very important issues are at stake this June 8, including not only who will represent you, but also various propositions involving competition in providing electricity, discounts on your auto insurance, and other things that have a direct impact on our lives in the Los Angeles area.

So do some research.  Get a little bit informed.  Vote on June 8.  And whether you do or don’t, then, later on, if things don’t turn out the way you like, you can ask yourself what you did to try and change them.

Dual Pendant Style

While looking for images of Los Angeles to use for a different post, I ran across The George A. Eslinger Street Lighting Photo Gallery on the City of LA website. Have you ever looked up to see what kind of art was lighting your evening commute? You might now.

On the site you can see images of some of the first street lights used in LA and combo pics of original poles and lights and their updated, more modern replacements. There other street lighting department images, things like crews replacing poles from the early 1900′s and today, fleets of repair trucks then and now, light poles used on bridges and historic night views of LA.

From the main gallery page:

This gallery is a tribute  to George A. Eslinger, former Director of the Bureau of Street Lighting.  Through his dedication, leadership and vision he was responsible for spearheading the implementation of  information technology solutions to make significant operational improvements in the City of Los Angeles Bureau of Street Lighting.

The George A. Eslinger Street Lighting Photo Gallery

Click on through to see more images from the site.

Early city lighting “Approximately 30, 150-foot tall poles with carbon-arc lamps were installed in Downtown Los Angeles between 1882 and about 1885.  These were reported to provide illumination equal to the level of a full moon.”

Can you imagine how cool that must have been?

In Westwood:

On the left is the Westwood Special, used mostly in the earlier part of last century. There were blue and gold tiles around the base for UCLA. On the right are slightly less stylish (IMHO) which replaced the Westwood Specials “when Westwood Village determined to become the brightest lighted commercial area in the world using 1,000-watt mercury vapor lamps.”

Check these out! 1908 view of Downtown LA from Mt. Wilson:

Compared to 1988:

This is the Macy Bridge light pole, built when the bridges were constructed between 1900 – 1925.

The pole was dual use: to hold the lights themselves and also to support trolley cables for the Red Car.

Today’s example resides at Alexandria Avenue just north of the intersection with Hollywood Boulevard. And you can tell, because there’s a little map on one side letting you know exactly where you are. It’s like the directory at the mall, only at the outdoor border of East Hollywood and Greater Griffith Park, with nary an Orange Julius or Hot Topic in sight.

The little person is the "you are here" stamp. I think I saw that dude's cousin on a men's room door.

These are painted by the dedicated community artists at LA Commons, by the way, which I failed to mention last time. More pics after the jump.

I can't tell whether this is an indictment or a celebration of America. I can tell that it's really awesome.

This is the side that faces Hollywood Boulevard, so it's a nice respite from the trash-strewn gutters and shuttered storefronts which litter Hollywood between New Hampshire and Western.

Can anyone tell what this is a representation of? It might be the Armenian church just down Alexandria, or the Korean one around the corner on New Hampshire. Or it might be some kind of mission.

UPDATE (2:46PM) Make that six. In less than a week.

But, don’t worry. The City Council plans to “more closely monitor upgrades to the city’s aging, leaky water system.”

Oh. Thanks.

In the meantime, may I recommend some afternoon shopping?

Photo from KTLA

If you would like to volunteer to be in the beta test group, please call 1.866.365.7358 to set up an appointment.

Oh really?  Asleep on a Saturday night at midnight?  I can (and did) assure my building complex’s manager that the majority of us certainly will not be asleep.  Rather, many of us will be engaged in a variety of activities (use your imagination) for which we will want to use our stereos, televisions, lights, or other electrical appliances.  Many others will still be out, heading out, or soon to be on our way home, and will be entering and exiting the building during those hours, wanting to use the elevators (especially if the residents live on the  upper floors of our high rise building). The notice mentioned nothing about the elevators, so those residents can’t assume that they will be working.

My manager’s response read, in part, “[a]s you can imagine, a utility company of SCE’s size has hundreds of thousands of customers and coordinates its outages based on very knowledgeable research and past experience.”  If there isn’t a special category of logical fallacy known as “Assuming that People in Positions of Authority Know Exactly What They are Doing,” perhaps one can be created for that whopper.  Or maybe my manager didn’t live in the United States during George W. Bush’s presidency.

Perhaps SCE has no choice as to when to perform this maintenance, or perhaps it does have data demonstrating (against common sense, it would seem) that doing so late on a Saturday night, as opposed to a week night, is somehow less disruptive to residents.  But to place patently false “happy talk” in a notice to residents that says we won’t be inconvenienced because we’ll be asleep at midnight on Saturday night is, at best, clueless and insulting.

Photo by gaelenh used under Creative Commons.

I’ve said it before, and it continues to be true: One of the best parts of living in L.A. is that every night of the week there is something to do that will be fun, interesting, and perhaps more than a little unusual. Case in point, last night’s performance of “Cartoon Dump!” at the Steve Allen Theater in Hollywood.

Cartoon Dump! is a parody of a children’s television variety show which centers around some of the worst cartoons ever aired. The show was created by Frank Conniff (formerly of Mystery Science Theater 3000) and animation historian Jerry Beck. In addition to the really bad cartoons, there are songs, comedy, puppets, and (at least last night) a juggler.

Follow me past the jump for more about Cartoon Dump!

Cartoon Dump! is hosted by the extraordinarily cheery Compost Brite (Erica Doering) and Moodsy the Clinically Depressed Owl (Conniff.) Compost Brite opens the show with the Cartoon Dump! theme song, and is then joined by Moodsy to introduce the cartoons, welcome the guests, and perform other songs throughout the show.

Also in the cast was Officer Pete, the Paint Sniffing Patrolman with Sleep Apnea (Joe Keyes.) Officer Pete huffed continually from a bag, so I got the paint sniffing part; not sure how the apnea figured in, though. A puppet by the name of Dumpster Diver Dan (voiced by J. Elvis Weinstein) appeared in a dumpster on the stage. The cast was rounded out by the lovely (albeit silent) Cue Card Goddess (Kristin Arrigio.)

The guests for last night’s show were Michael Rayner, a somewhat quirky but very entertaining comedian/juggler, and Matt Weinhold, another comedian, whose delivery could be improved; there were a few funny lines, but he couldn’t quite get the audience to go along with him on all of the jokes.

In the final analysis, I’d say the show had it’s moments, but on a scale of 1 to 10, I’d give it a 5. Compost Brite and Moodsy were terrific hosts, but they couldn’t quite compensate for the uneven comedy through the rest of the show. You know how sometimes a thing will be so bad that it’s good again? Because I’m not really an animation geek, the really bad cartoons were just…well, bad.

If you’d like to check it out for yourself (it could be hilarious and I’m just a horrible theater patron,) you can see a video episode on the Cartoon Dump! website. The live stage production happens on the fourth Tuesday of every month at the Steve Allen Theater in Hollywood.

The City Council voted 9-2 today to approve a tiered water rate

system in response to the state-wide drought that’s now into its third

year. The plan, which requires heavy-water-users to pay more than

water-misers, takes effect on June 1.

Los Angeles residents who use more than the allotted base amount of water will be charged 44% more for the amount they use over that level. Two months ago, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called for drought-year pricing that decreases by 15% the amount of water that ratepayers can buy monthly at the lowest price tier.

So in effect, the less you use the less you pay.

This all comes on the heals of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California reducing water deliveries by 10% to the region.

Even so, it was pretty cool to open the front door and find a little green giftbag sitting there.

The “LADWP giftbag” included:

• the reusable green bag (hello, new lunchbag)
• two CFL lightbulbs
• a magnet
• information on “saving water” and “bright ideas” (ways to conserve; see related post: reduce your water usage by June 1st or pay higher rates to LADWP)

Did you get one?