Call Off That Search for LA's Best Pizza

BILL MAHER HAS BETTER dinner plans. From last weekend's Real Time on HBO, a comedic commentary that falls somewhere into the sliver of zeitgeist between Eater LA and Curbed LA: "New rule: Ex-New Yorkers have to stop bitching about how there's no good pizza in LA. "You're a junior agent at William Morris. Not Joe Pesci. "People in LA don't care about pizza. Because unlike New Yorkers, after we pay rent we have money left over to buy real food." The bit starts at the 0:30 mark on this YouTube clip. Maher adds, parenthetically, "I just bought another three years of bad press in New York." No word on how much bad press he bought with people paying overpriced rent in LA.

Does Los Angeles Still Have Seven-Digit Dialing?

IT'S A DUMB QUESTION, but I don't know the answer. I have a cell phone. No land line. I have to enter all ten digits. I see storefronts posting signs - new signs, even - that don't list the area code. Seems silly to make people guess. Unless the area code is obvious to everyone but me.

Causing a Row

CommunityWalk Map - Artwater Village

THE NEIGHBORHOOD MAY BE in serious danger of getting one of those Gallery Rows everyone talks about. Newbie friend Swirl Syndicate emailed me the scoop on the newest art scene in Atwater Village. Taking over the Heart To Heart Candies space at 3195 Glendale Blvd. is LittleBird Gallery. Artist opening and reception is planned for Saturday March 31, 7:00pm. So that's five galleries on that side of Glendale Blvd. If only they could schedule their openings on the same nights...

Downtown Alley Loiterers Getting More Particular About Bar Critiques

LAST WEEK MRS. NEWBIE and I ventured out to The Edison, the new-ish conventioneer/loft-dweller bar in downtown Los Angeles. When it turned out we were more hungry than we were fascinated with people falling on their asses before 8:00pm, we climbed out of the converted power plant and into this conversation with a sun-worn rumpled guy trolling Harlem Place Alley. Rumpled Guy: What's it like in there? Me: Loud. Rumpled Guy: Dodger Stadium is loud. That doesn't help me one bit. Oh, I'm sorry. Were you paying me by the word? We ignored his editorial feedback and sauntered around the corner for a middling white pizza and a better-than-expected steak salad at Pitfire Pizza. There. Can you work with that, Rumpled Guy?

Connecting Atwater to Points Beyond

MY FASCINATION WITH DEFUNCT Los Angeles transportation systems continues, with this gem of a map from the Metro Transportation Library and Archive Collection. Click the top or bottom half of this Burbank-Glendale Line map to see amazing detail of Pacific Electric Railroad conveniences gone by. In fact look along the top border of the bottom half for a handwritten note, "high bridge," referring to the long-gone Fletcher Drive trestle. And hey, there's the lost city of Tropico again! Red Car Project [Flickr]

Fancy a Train Ride to the Beach?

Fletcher Drive Trestle, originally uploaded by Atwater Village Newbie.

BACK IN THE DAY, a Pacific Electric Red Car floats along a steel bridge over Fletcher Drive in Atwater Village. From transportation photographer and prolific publisher Donald Duke, courtesy Metro Transportation Library and Archive Collection. UPDATE: More coming! The Metro Library has been quite accommodating with my Atwater Village train history research. I'll try to post 2-3 more photos and one amazing rail map before the weekend.

Zaio Values House at 17 Cents

ACROSS THE JOB TRANSOM this morning comes this opening for Photographers - Real Estate Exteriors: "Zaio Corporation is seeking 10 very hard working exterior real estate photographers to walk the streets throughout LA COUNTY (and 10 more needed in Orange County) to gather one photo of every residential property to create a real estate database... Essentially, the job is to walk the streets taking one photo of each residential property you see on both sides of the street, gathering hundreds of photos each day, then matching photos to addresses in software and uploading over high speed Internet daily. The company's Web site gives a few more details: Pay is 17 cents per photo plus weekly bonus Zone takes 4 to 6 weeks to complete Photographers are trained how to respond to inquisitive homeowners (5 to 15 met daily) The end result sounds like a more painstakingly detailed version of the defunct A9 Maps, where you could walk the streets, as Zaio puts it, without leaving your desk. And without getting punched by inquisitive homeowners.

Have a Little Faith in the Neighborhood

ATWATER VILLAGE MAY BE the quintessential Los Angeles neighborhood. We have it all. Taco trucks, river dwellers, sex offenders and, now, Christian filmmakers. The LA Daily News exposes them: "One of those filmmakers - a graduate of Act One, a Hollywood-based organization that trains Christian scriptwriters - is Atwater Village resident Amanda Llewellyn. "Llewellyn and her husband, Wes, have made two short films for the project and have a full-length feature film coming out Tuesday. That film - The Moment After 2: The Awakening - is a post-Rapture story that follows the lives of two former FBI agents. "'You are starting to have more people like me ... who are starting to make inroads into management and executive positions in Hollywood,' Llewellyn said. 'It's not a secret coup or a takeover. What it is is just allowing us a place at the table. I think Mel Gibson was able to kick down some doors for us in that area because of his financial success.'" Besides, who doesn't love a good post-Rapture movie. The Lllewellyns also have a film screening as part of the 168-Hour Film Project. Hey, that's seven days. Shouldn't they be resting? Faith in Hollywood [LA Daily News]

Late Night, Get Home, Dive Into This

I MUST AGREE WITH that thorough blog Goodgoings about the taco stand at Fletcher and Larga in Atwater Village. Excellent price ($1 each). Jolly service. Off the hook. Taco Stand - Fletcher & Larga [Goodgoings] Taco Truck Basics [Goodgoings]

The Great Glendale Takeover of 2007

FROM WHAT HAS BEEN hailed as the best restaurant mapping thingy ever, comes this breaking news. Urbanspoon maps show that former northeast Los Angeles neighborhood Atwater Village has been claimed in a hostile takeover by the adjacent city of Glendale. More than 80 years after the failed Tropico-LA-Glendale Mega-Merger, this new foodie invasion is leaving a suburban aftertaste in the mouths of Atwater Village residents. Asia Los Feliz, previously named for a neighborhood on the other side of Atwater Village, could be redubbed Asia Glendale, immediately losing cred with anyone under age 50 Tam O'Shanter Inn, formerly the 3rd most popular restaurant in Atwater Village, is now the 4th most popular restaurant in Glendale Canele, to maintain its media darling status, must now attempt to impress those hard-asses at the Glendale News Press I guess despite how the mayor of Los Angeles corrected him on the air, FOX11 reporter Rick Lozano was right all along.

A Neighborhood with 'Potential'

EVEN TV PEOPLE LIKE Atwater Village. Or at least its "potential." From a March 4 LA Times story about how they just don't flip houses like they used to: "Michael Corbett, a veteran home flipper, author of 'Find It, Fix It and Flip It!' and host of the 'Mansions & Millionaires' segment on TV's 'Extra,' recommends looking for property in historically low-priced areas that may be on the upswing. "In the Los Angeles area, he named Echo Park, Atwater Village, Culver City and Watts as neighborhoods with potential. "'I look at older homes in transitional areas.'"