L.A.observation: advertising overkill

How come everytime the MTA gets an advertising contract, they execute it with such uncreative overkill?

L.Á.resource: New video clips from The Smoking Gun

The Smoking Gun's collection of video clips has expanded. This clip showcases the new 1952 swimsuits designs from Cole in Hollywood.

L.Á.propaganda: freeways

Is it totally horrifying that L.A.'s night time traffic can be made to look so peaceful and alluring...? I won't let this pro-car/freeway fetish propaganda piece transform me into one of those in the want of a car, or one who justifies the car for that matter.

I'm not one who shares in the belief that there is a collective unity that freeways somehow bind us Angelinos to. That's a romanticized view of the simpleton's limited perspective that overlooks how freeways and the car have consistently destroyed this city. (Hence why my being mesmerized by this video shall make me go home kneebound and self flogging).

L.Á.moment: Morrissey at the Hollywood Palladium

Morrissey gave us the chance to see the Hollywood Palladium one last time before it undergoes its overdue overhaul. I hope it doesn't lose its 1940's charm, much of which you have to look hard to actually see. Although the photos don't show it, Morrissey's lighting design was beautiful and his performance was truly memorable in that he represents the true songwriter's singer/songwriter, perhaps one of the last of his kind...

Opening, Kristeen Young could belt it out long and hard and I wish I could sing like her...

After Kristeen Young, there was a great collection of vintage films shown between sets. All were in the vintage mid-century international vein that the Smiths and Morrissey have played with graphically over the years. The true Morrissey believers, our friends from the Latino suburbs of L.A., even in all these films' air of cheekiness, were more mesmerized by the emotion of anticipation...

You can barely see Morrissey, in fact, you can't make him out at all, but can you see the child in front of me? She's sleeping on the shoulder of an audience member (and assumedly her Father)?!!! O.k., I have training in the care and feeding of cats, but doesn't it seem remotely cruel to bring a child to a concert?!!

(All photos taken via mobile phone)...

L.Á.fotos: making up for lost time Part Eww, No

What the world might look like if all the billboards were erased...

[Boyle Heights]

This MacCarthur Park/Koreatown adjacent development "Circa" has already been gang-graffiti'd...well at least, the "a" of "Circa" has.

[Koreatown/MacCarthur Park]

Once a temple to Art Deco era consumerism, this Bullocks Wilshire is now the Southwestern Law Library

[Koreatown]

The Men's Room at the Gay and Lesbian Center has a baby changing table that has been gang graffit'd...can the 21st Century get any more complicated?

[Hollywood]


(All photos taken via mobile phone)...

L.Á.fotos: making up for lost time...¿por qúe?

Ugh, I've been job hunting non-stop the passed few weeks and finally after almost 6 months I've gotten myself back in the contributing member of society club...it may not be exactly where I want to be, but for now it's a great job and a great opportunity. So, following are a number of photos I've taken but not have had the time to upload and share...please enjoy responsibly...

Jean-Luc Turbo

L.Á.fotos: making up for lost time Part Dose

It took me 18 months to get over my inner Orange County-ness so that I could finally partake in this fly by night taqueria that shows up most nights on Cesar E. Chavez and Gallardo. Powered by their own generator, it's tacos only at only a dollar a taco. People driving by and from nearby La Zona Rosa, a local dance place, come to this taco stand mirage. Even parking meter attendants working late night and this last time, a white bedecked guild of mariachis consumed enthusiastically as these are by far Boyle Heights' best tacos...and I don't normally speak in black and white absolutes...(Photos taken via mobile phone)...

L.Á.fotos: making up for lost time Part Trace

The Library Tower, now crowned the US Bank Building, (and not the "Liberty Tower" as our dear President referred to it when mentioning an Al Qaida plot to crash a plane into it/blow it up/create a controlled implosion of it)...in all its "green" glory.

...and, speaking of "green", I now believe my camera phone is taking these crazy colorized photos due to the camera phone's white balance being tweaked, of which, as of this moment, I have been unable to de-tweak...not that I'm itching to, come to think of it. The colors remind me of that process of developing slide film as picture photos...where colors become surrealized and saturated...Could anyone share how I could fix this color issue, if, if ever I decided to have a more established reality in photo color depictions? (Photos taken via mobile phone)...

L.Á.inthenews: L.A.-based American Apparel in The Onion

14 American Apparel Models Freed In Daring Midnight Raid

LOS ANGELES—"There were girls everywhere," FBI agent Curtis Froman said. "Draped over furniture, sprawled spread-eagled in the corner, and huddled close like animals."

L.A.moment: Allen Ave. Goldline Station, Pasadena

Another beautiful view of the mountains...(Photo taken and sent via mobile phone)...

L.Á.television: MV3

New Wave alternative to MTV, Richard Blade of the original KROQ brought videos and live performances from local L.Á. new wave bands as well as ones that were in town. Lo-budget yet compelling to this at the time junior high school kid...

L.A.moment: Drinx at Banquette

Casual drinks at this small cafe downtown...oh how great life is in the big city...(Photo taken and sent via mobile phone)...

L.Á.resource: The CSUN Oviatt Library's San Fernando Valley History Digital Library

Covering the region's Natural Resources, Social Life and Customs, Transportation, Industries, Politics and Labor...perhaps the Valley is different from the rest of us. What a diff'rence a chain of mountains makes...

For the main page of Cal State University, at Northridge's Oviatt Library San Fernando Valley History Digital Library (whew...), CLICK HERE

L.A.architecture: Wells Fargo Tower downtown

Bunker Hill's Wells Fargo Tower at the Wells Fargo Center (330 S. Grand Avenue) faces Grand Avenue with all the stereotypes one would apply to a symbolic L.A. building: anorexic, thin on substance, seemingly artificial facade... It stands tall on Grand but appears paper thin as if there were no offices behind its tall exterior...

L.Á.event: 'When The Saints' screening at Fais Do Do

2 years to the day when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Robert Greenwald's documentary was screened to a non-typically FRIENDLY L.A. crowd--but then we were at Fais Do Do and not The Viper Room.

L.A.moment: Singing on the Red Line