Entire Freeway Gets Towed for Red Flag Day

NEVER DID I SUSPECT that the many talents of the Los Angeles Fire Department (rescuing river dwellers, saving the Hollywood sign) included moving major traffic arteries. Nor that the LAFD could reposition a California freeway with the speed and efficiency (but luckily not the apocalyptic recklessness) of Magneto moving the Golden Gate Bridge. This morning I find (via Metroblogging) that the LAFD Red Flag warning map for council district 13 - the map that shows where your car will be towed on days with "wind speeds 25 mph or more and humidity 15% or less" - has towed the 110 freeway. Yesterday I-110 connected downtown LA and Pasadena. Today it runs north, past Atwater Village and into Burbank, where previously only I-5 feared to tread. What does this mean for Angelenos? Probably nothing. We employ a double redundancy system for naming LA freeways. Each stretch earns a numerical designation (the 110, the 5, the 10) and a provincial destination (Pasadena, Golden State, Rosa Parks). So instead of driving from Chinatown to Chatsworth via the 110 to the 5 to the 118, take the Pasadena Freeway to the Golden State Freeway to the Ronald Reagan Freeway. You know, like always.

From the Research Department: Freebies for Peter Bart

SOMEONE PLEASE SHOW THE EDITOR of Variety how to use Google. I like watching Peter Bart on his TV show. And I appreciate curmudgeonly exaggeration in the interest of making a point. But seriously, who fact-checks Bart's columns? From April 13: "Why did absolutely no filmgoer in the U.S. pay to see 'Perfume'? Here was a non-odoriferous movie that grossed $130 million overseas but couldn't get arrested here." Absolutely no filmgoer? I wouldn't say $2,223,293 equals no one. Given average ticket prices, that's about 340,000 filmgoers in the US. Not huge, but more than the number who saw the Mutant Ninja Turtles movie this weekend. "Since festival directors supposedly get to see every good (and bad) movie made anywhere in the world, how come every festival last year turned thumbs down on 'The Lives of Others'?" Every festival turned it down? Including one (AFI FEST) that screened it four miles from Variety headquarters? And another (Toronto) that gave it a standing ovation? And Telluride? "Does an old pro like John Wells really believe his heralded new 'writers company' is workable when the idea has failed several times in the past?" Right. And "who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" (H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.) Previously: Sunday Morning Shootout Drinking Game

LA's East Side Gets a Glossy

WHO SAYS PRINT IS DEAD? Welcome to the year of glossy magazine launches in Los Angeles. First up: Real Talk LA. The self-described "gutsy, smart, sophisticated, sharp mag" is coming in May to give LA's "neglected" majority - "upscale apsirational multiculturals" - something else to read in the bathroom. Then: New Angeles Magazine. The first 30,000 print editions of this magazine, commissioned to "celebrate the intellectual and cultural renaissance of LA's Eastside," hits streets (well, mailboxes, mostly) in late May. Of course one cannot mention "LA's Eastside" - never mind printing 30,000 magazines about it - without saying where one thinks this mythical "Eastside" might be. The mag's media kit offers a handy ZIP code map and a list of where 17,500 copies will be mailed to "influential households directly affected by the cultural renaissance" (with an average income of at least $100,000): Hancock Park (90004 & 90020) Hollywood Hills (90068) Los Feliz (90027) Koreatown (90005) Wilshire Blvd. Corridor (90010 & 90036) Atwater Village (90039) Echo Park (90026) Silver Lake (90026) New Angeles Magazine will distribute remaining copies to "influential Downtown residents" (90012, 90015, 90017 & 90021) in condos and lofts, plus select retailers and venues. Real Talk LA Alpha Site [realtalkla.com] New Angeles Magazine Media Kit [newangelesmonthly.com] New Angeles Magazine Call for Events [MySpace]

What I Do Not Understand About You People

WHY ARE NEARLY HALF the Internet searchers who land at Atwater Village Newbie looking for Jamie White? Exactly two (now three) of my 486 posts have been about the hacksaw radio host. But nine of the last 20 search-engine referrals include her name. Please tell me you're just trying to make sure she's not back on the air. in the meantime, may I suggest another resource? Jamie White [Wikpedia]

Atwater Chatter - Getting Things Done Edition

EVENTS AND DOINGS in and around this northwest corner of Northeast Los Angeles. (If that makes sense geographically.) Artwater Music & Art Festival - Saturday April 21, 2:00 to 10:00pm along Glendale and Los Feliz, with shuttles between. Concert, retail offers, restaurant tastings included in $20 admission after 6:00pm. (Hmm, Sunset Junction fair was only $15.) Download snazzy flier here. Check photo exhibit submissions here. Mine here. Crime Watch 1 - No rapes, robberies and homicides reported in Atwater Village in March 2007. Stats here. Crime Watch 2 - On the other hand, not all neighborhood regulars avoided trouble as the Black Eyed Peas' most famous member is accused of being too drunk to fly from LAX, and the band's least famous member is stopped for being too wasted to drive in LA County. The Midwest Strikes Back - Lawrence, Kansas, 2-bed 1-bath: $133/sq ft. Atwater Village 2-bed 1-bath: $661/sq ft. Full comparison here. New Entry in Blog-LA-Sphere - East of the 5 New Newbie in Atwater Village - Ronckytonk Rent Check - $700, $1,350, $1,795, $2,200, $2,950

Nice To Be Back Where 'Things Get Done'

DESCENDING INTO LOS ANGELES last night from an Easter weekend trip, I couldn't help but recall the words of filmmaker Werner Herzog: "Los Angeles is the city with the most substance in the United States... Things get done in Los Angeles." Not that I personally got much done today, my first day back, but I still appreciate LA for the opportunity. And for that nighttime view from row 40 of a 767.

East Coast Finds LA's East Side

THE NEW YORK TIMES continues to discover the Los Angeles we live in east of Hollywood. Last month the paper profiled our fellow neighborhoods in Northeast Los Angeles, or NELA. New Yorkers, it seems, are learning that some California homes are priced under $600,000 and have views of Mount Washington - "which could be mistaken for Tuscany." This Sunday our neighbors in Los Feliz Village, "below the sylvan hills" of Griffith Park Observatory, are fit to print with an overview of their pedestrian friendliness. The lesson here? New Yorkers aren't the only ones who walk a block for calamata olives! Just in the nick of time, too, as more Los Feliz residents look to further restrict neighborhood parking. Surfacing: Los Feliz, Los Angeles [New York Times] Northeast Los Angeles: Set for a Close-Up [New York Times]

Wings Down

Wings Down, originally uploaded by Atwater Village Newbie.

THE LOS ANGELES RIVER can be a wet dream, pun intended, for photographers. Urban, architectural, animal, vegetable and mineral, it's all there for the snapping. I headed out yesterday to see if any carp would spawn for me. No luck. But I did get close to some of the winged residents of Atwater Village. And evidence of other flighty individuals.

Not So Much Tacos at Tacos Villa Corona

WORD IN THE VILLAGE is that local fave-in-the-wall Tacos Villa Corona (3185 Glendale Blvd.) discontinued its $1.25 meat tacos. With a choice of chicken or beef, they were a screamin' deal. Apparently too good to last. Bean and potato tacos are still on the five-quarter menu. (A bit carb-y, no?) But if you want chicken or beef, you gotta getta tostada. Or a burrito.

Spawning in the LA River

AS REPORTED BY THE FOUNDER of the late/not-late Arthur Magazine, Jay Babcock, via LA Observed: Subject: Large carp are mating/spawning now in the Atwater area A friend first saw them Friday, March 30 around 11 am, in the hundreds, flopping in groups, splashing and mating in the shallows of the River about a hundred yards south of the Hyperion bridge. He called me, I called Lewis MacAdams from FoLAR, and we all went down there to see what Lewis said was the first-ever reported sighting of this activity in the LARiver. Absolutely amazing sights. They were going at it again Saturday and again today. Not that I'd know how to find spawning carp, but this might be a good subject for the next photo safari. Has anyone else spotted them?

Hulky

Hulky, originally uploaded by Atwater Village Newbie.