The Engaged Observer: January 2009

Friday, January 30, 2009

Public art piece thrown out by Culver City Sanitation

Apparently a local resident called Culver City sanitation to complain of construction debris in their neighborhood. Turned out the debris was a sculpture by Los Angeles artist Jedediah Caesar. Oops!

2009 Coachella Lineup Announced!

I have to say, this year's Coachella looks to be pretty, pretty good. Perhaps multi-day a bike ride to Coachella 2009?

Thursday, January 29, 2009

L.A. Times is actually reporting on Solar Fraud! Amazing!

LA Times has a great editorial about Measure B, aka Solar Fraud

The City Council was unfazed in November when no one from the Department of Water and Power or other City Hall offices could answer some of the most basic questions about a proposed solar power measure the council was about to put on the ballot. How much will it cost ratepayers? Is it financially feasible? How much money will it take to recruit and train new workers?

The Yes-on-B campaign is in high gear, asking voters to adopt the measure. Voting begins Monday with mail balloting. Yet we're not supposed to ask questions until the Huron report is out? Meanwhile, where is the language of the measure we're voting on? Have voters seen it? Is it available? Is it on the city's website? No -- the city clerk's office is shooting for posting the language sometime toward the end of next week. (If you don't want to wait, you can find the ballot language on our website, at latimes.com/opinion.)

There is a point at which process gets so bad that it outweighs substance, no matter how good that substance may be. We're rapidly approaching that point.

Let billboard companies in L.A. know how you feel

The Coalition to Ban Billboard Blight has a great post today about billboard companies hiding behind the fig leaf of economic stimulation to justify raping the visual landscape of Los Angeles with their ads. Why not let them know how you feel about the billboards clogging your vision at every turn. Here's their email addresses!

Layne Lawson laynelawson@clearchannel.com
Ryan Brooks ryan.brooks@cbsoutdoor.com
Theresa Doran tdoran@lamar.com

Monday, January 26, 2009

L.A. Times wakes up, realizes it has a voice.

The LA Times has finally spoken truth to the inept and bungling mismanagement of billboards in Los Angeles. Thank You LA Times. Mayor Villaraigosa, your move. Free this city from the raping of our commons!

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Cabbage Soup!

Heather cooked up an amazing cabbage soup we heard about on KCRW yesterday. Jeana, you like?

Cabbage Soup
by Campanile chef Mark Peel
from Good Food Website

1 head of Savoy cabbage
Sautes bacon slices and 1/2 head of thinly sliced cabbage in olive oil.
Add 1 can of chicken broth (16 oz.) and enough water to make 2 quarts. (30-40 Fl. Oz.) Simmer for a while with a few sliced carrots and the heart of the celery with the leaves.
Simmer for 30 minutes and add salt and pepper.
The soup looks a bit like a minestrone.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Pruning Roses in the Rain

Winter is the time to prune back those roses and other plants. I hope I didn't go too far. Tomorrow, Heather and I hope to start a vegetable garden in the style of the Square Foot Gardener

Friday, January 23, 2009

No Crosswalk, No Problem!

Streetsblog has an amazing article describing how Los Angeles DOT officials seek to improve pedestrian safety by removing crosswalks. Hmm.... Seems like a reasonable conclusion to me.

An Apology

Dear World:

We, the United States of America, your top quality supplier of the ideals of liberty and democracy, would like to apologize for our 2001-2008 interruption in service. The technical fault that led to this eight-year service outage has been located, and the software responsible was replaced on November 4 2008.

Early tests of the newly installed program indicate that we are now operating correctly, and we expect it to be fully functional on January 20 2009.

We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the outage. We look forward to resuming full service and hope to improve in years to come.

We thank you for your patience and understanding,

Sincerely,

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A Bicycle for Non-cyclists

Bicycle Design, a blog dedicated to exploring, you guessed it, the design of bicycles, recently held a design competition for a commuter bicycle that would appeal to non-cyclists. The winner is an elegant roofed recumbent by Torkel Dohmer. Dohmer's “ThisWay” concept looks like a comfortable ride, though I wonder how heavy it would be. I imagine it would be fine for commuting a few miles, but probably not over hills like Laurel Canyon, at least without electric assist. It's clear the design takes into consideration weather, safety/visibility, comfort and efficiency. Would you trade the gridlock & stress of L.A. traffic for a smooth riding bike like this? There's a great analysis of the design and the problem it attempts to address at the link above.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Solar Fraud not tenable position for L.A. City Council Members

Now that the public has had a chance to examine the false, misleading and wasteful Measure B passed on to voters unanimously by Los Angeles City Council, some council members are feeling the heat of that decision and are reconsidering their vote for the multibillion dollar giveaway to the DWP. Councilman Greig Smith, you're first! Let's see if "on the fence" Bill Rosendahl is next!

Thanks to Ron Kaye for keeping us all informed on this important measure coming up for vote on March 3rd!

Pop Quiz: How many times have L.A. City Council members changed their minds on the votes they have cast? Elephants, Billboards, Solar Fraud just to name a few...

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Dawn of a New Day

We woke up before sunrise to hike up Runyon and greet this great day right.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Get Well Steve

And all you haters selling Apple stock, you're fools.

Chris Barnard

One of my favorite L.A. artists, Chris Barnard is in a group show at Jail Gallery.

Attention turns to Billboards

Lately, it seems like more and more people are paying attention to the proliferation of digital billboards and the public outcry against them:

NY Times
LA Times
Curbed LA
LAist
LA Weekly

Will the Los Angeles City Council listen to the public and choose to enforce the law against billboard companies? History says no. Mike Feuer wasn't willing to chance it and introduced legislation that would ban digital billboards as a safety concern. I wonder what the council thinks about all this attention to their decision to allow digital billboards to go up in our city. Eric Garcetti, what's your take?

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Barrett Johnson Performs at Ryan Callis Opening

Monday, January 12, 2009

SMS from Gaza

Subject: [euromed-youth] The Horror
Date: Monday, January 12, 2009, 12:03 PM

SOS/SMS from Gaza

hello, received this via email:

Yesterday, the 3th of January the Norwegian physician Dr. Mads Gilbert of
Norwac, a Norwegian Triage medical team, who is one of the few doctors
admitted into the Gaza strip sent out an SMS (text message from his cell
phone) to friends and acquaintences home in Norway with a plea for the
message to be spread by its recipients. Because no journalists are allowed
into Gaza the doctors have an unusual but vital double role as reporters as
well as physicians.

This is not a political message, not pro-Palestinian or anti-Israeli
message. It is a plea that needless and excessive use of military force must
stop, that aid-workers, medicine and food must be allowed into the
territory. It is a humanitarian message.

Here is a translation of the message from Mads Gilbert.

"They bombed the central vegetable market in Gaza City two hours ago. 80
wounded, 20 killed, all came here to Shifa Hades [hospital]! We are wading
in death, blood, and amputees. Many children. A pregnant woman. I have never
experienced anything so terrible. Now we hear tanks. Pass it on, send it
around, shout it out. Anything. DO SOMETHING! DO MORE! We are living in a
history book now, all of us. Mads G. 3.1.09 1:50PM, Gaza"

So, I am doing as he says and passing it on. Please do the same. Far and
wide.
Peace in the New Year!
DC
David

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Winter Harvest

Our trees are full of oranges, tangerines and grapefruit, though all a bit tart. They made for an excellent breakfast juice.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Esther Pearl Watson

One of my favorite pieces I own is a small painting by Esther Pearl Watson. It's of a shotgun shack in the boonies that looks haunted. I just saw she's having a show this weekend at Billy Shirt Fine Arts. If I had the cash, I would snatch up this pink UFO!

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Ask the mayor why he supports solar fraud!

Here's your chance to ask Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa why he supports Prop B when all it does is give a monopoly to the DWP/IBEW over the installation, maintenance and ownership of solar installations in our city, and sends billions of dollars to China.

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/feature?section=news/eyewitness_newsmakers&id=5840219

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

9th Circuit: Billboards Lose, LA City Wins, but will it matter?

With the 9th Circuit deciding in it's favor, will Los Angeles finally put an end to billboard blight? Or will powerful lobbyists continue to pull the strings behind the curtains in dimly lit corridors of never seen wings of phantasmogoric realms of......