LUIS LOPEZ has posted 45 new photos from this Sept. 9, 2010, accident. A Saturn sedan hit a curb and sped into the driveway of his automotive shop at 2751 Fletcher Drive, crashing into the building. Luckily no one was working in that section and no one was injured.
NOT QUITE. Here's how the photographer explains this photograph of I-5 in Atwater Village: "This is a fun little trick. With my neutral density filter I can take long exposure shots that make moving objects vanish. I will probably never seen the I-5 freeway empty like this. Actually, there are a few ghostlike trails if you look closely."
IN THE CHAOS of yesterday's Los Angeles Police Department raid on Sunnynook Drive yesterday, I managed to snap a few photos:
Car Wash Guy: I just don't want your business, that's all.
Me: How come?
CWG: It's a free world and it's a free business.
Me: You don't want my business because of the credit card policy?
CWG: No sir, I just don't want your business. It's because I don't like your attitude.
Me: You don't like my attitude, you said?
CWG: Yes sir. I'm an entrepreneur. I've got that right.Indeed he does have a right to refuse service. But it gets more personal. About me. And about my camera phone:
CWG: Get that thing off my head before I knock it off.
Me: Did you just threaten to damage some property of mine?
CWG: All right, so let me get your money back, sir. Go check your head.
Me: What do you mean, like with a psychiatrist or something?
CWG: I don't know, I'm not in psychiatry business. I'm in car wash business.Debatable. He refunds me $6 on the $5.99 car wash. Then, personal gets weird:
Me: Thanks for the extra penny.
CWG: I know you need it. I can tell.
Me: You can tell?
CWG: Yes sir. Have your car out of here or I'll have it towed.
Me: Are you the owner?
CWG: No. I'm an illegal alien.
Me: Oh, you are?
CWG: Yes. Go report that to immigration.
On it goes, 3 or 4 minutes. CWG calls me a "f***ing son of a bitch." Without seeming to enter a phone number, he reports to his cell that there's a "disturbance" by someone with a "junky" car.
| THE FUNERAL PROCESSION for Michael Jackson passed through Atwater Village this morning, southbound on I-5 from Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills to Staples Center for the public service. Starting with the ramp from Los Feliz Blvd., police closed this section of the freeway entirely in advance of the procession. |
| Los Angeles Police Department officers led the Jackson funeral procession on motorcycle. |
| The hearse, presumably carrying Jackson's body, was the second vehicle in the procession. (A van, unassociated with the Jackson proceeding, had pulled to the right shoulder just as the freeway was closed by LAPD. Seemed like a sly paparazzi move, but was probably a legit breakdown.) |
| The procession continued south on I-5, passing under the Glendale-Hyperion bridge between Atwater Village and Silver Lake. |
| At least a dozen fans and photographers gathered on the pedestrian bridge between Griffith Park and the Los Angeles River bike trail. See all the pictures in my Jackson Procession gallery. |
| NEW PHOTO and an email update from a drought-tolerant reader, as of 11:15am Sunday, May 24, 2009: "Thanks for covering this story. We are approaching 120 hours of continuous sprinkler use on city property. This is a village spectacle. These sprinklers have to be spewing at least a gallon a minute. 4 calls to 311." See it in person: 3522 Garden Ave. |
 FROM A READER: "For kicks, check out the city sprinklers that have been running non-stop for the last 75 hours in Atwater. I've called the city 311 two times and they are still running. The sprinklers are running at the entrance to the city parking lot #711. It is located directly east of 3522 Garden Ave, 90039. Go droughtbusters." Another angle shows the sprinklers aim at a single, leaning branch within a 10-foot bed of dirt and rocks. |
| WORK SEEMED to stop a few weeks ago on the 5-way intersection where Valleybrink, Dover and Glenfeliz meet in central Atwater Village. New concrete and curbs have been in place (in an apparently futile attempt to prevent street donuts) but landscaping seems to have stopped at orange and brown. Are there some nice bushes and trees and flowers and stuff on the way? We hope so. |
 AN EXCELLENT photographer and blogger named Jessica shows us the inside of a fellow Atwater Villager's home.And, in my own Flickr photo gallery, who wants some bundt cake? |
| AS SEEN FROM Red Car property, toward Atwater Village and Glendale. Photo credit: Antonio Futterer, Holyland Exhibition. |
| THIS SUNDAY we made our first visit to Angel Stadium in Anaheim. The Angels had just lost rookie Nick Adenhart to a hit-and-run accident, prompting overflowing fan memorials and, perhaps, contributing to tensions behind a bench-clearing near-brawl in the first inning. The Angels ended up squeaking by the Boston Red Sox, 5-4, and opened the field after the game for an Easter Sunday kids run around the bases. Is Angel Stadium worth winging the 30-mile journey from Atwater Village? Pros: Easier parking, clean facilities, even a train station in the parking lot. Cons: weird suburban stadium construction, train schedules not exactly well coordinated with game times. Chances we'll return: High as halos, especially since the Angels live much closer than the Dodgers do to a lot of the other places (and people!) we like to see in Southern California. |
THIS PHOTO I shot last year during our helicopter tour of Los Angeles is suddenly a bit more popular, up from its usual 30 daily views to more than 2,000 so far today. (Update: More than 30,000 additional views since this story broke.)DON'T WORRY, it was a shoot. Not a shooting. See a few behind-the-scenes photos from a short-film production (mullet? sledgehammer?) on location yesterday along the Los Angeles River in Atwater Village:
|
| WORD ON THE STREET is that the City of Los Angeles is considering a site in North Atwater Village for a facility that will convert garbage to usable energy. The former site of Levitz Furniture, 5375 West San Fernando Road, near the 5 and 134 freeways, is a likely candidate for a plant that would be part of the City's Solid Waste Integrated Resources Plan. It could process as much as 20 percent of LA's trash. Comments and questions at the next Department of Public Works workshop for North Central LA: Tuesday March 24, 6:00 p.m., El Centro Del Pueblo, 1157 Lemoyne Street. |
