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.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 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.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.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

L.A.moment: Dead Elmo in Boyle Heights

An after midnight roadside taco stand stop leads to the grisly vacant lot discovery of a dead Elmo. (Photo taken and sent via mobile phone)...

L.A.location: Charlie O's

Remodeling is not gonna' stop Charlie O's from servin' liquor or stop DJ Mirko from spinnin' at this up and coming Alexandria Hotel hotspot (photo taken and sent via mobile phone).

L.A.history: The Flag of the City of Los Ángeles

Almost rastafarian in appearance, L.A.'s flag (a.k.a. the "Fiesta Flag"), was designed for the city's 1931 Sesqui-Centenial (150th Anniversary). Designed by Roy E. Silent and E.S. Jones, the red represents the city's vineyards of the time, the yellow representing the orange groves (again, of the time) and the green represents the olive trees (unbeknownst to this rider that there were olive trees)...allegedly these colors are also purposefully meant to resemble the flag colors of both Spain and Mexíco.

L.A.event: V's Treintañera at the Alexandria Hotel's Ballroom

"She missed her Quinceañera and her prom..."; so what better way to resurrect the past than to complete this trinity of celebration with a 30th Birthday at the Alexandria Hotel's Ballroom. V (of Bar 107 fame) lived any closeted princesses' dream fantasy: her big frilly dress that seemed potentially hazardous for dancing, accompaniment by 6 gents in white tuxes, all of whom adored and showcased her and her feminine prowess in a choregraphed dance. ¡Felíz Cumplaños V! (Photo taken and sent via mobile phone)...

L.A.event: V's Treintañera

(photo taken and sent via mobile phone)...

L.A.roadtrip: Wilshire Blvd.: 10 steps a photo, downtown to Santa Monica

I love obsessive approaches to simple ideas: "tobiaswac" walked all the way from Wilshire Blvd.'s beginning in downtown Los Angeles to its end at the Pacifc Ocean, a mere 16 miles away...and took a photo every 10 steps...

L.A.resource: Spruce Goose flight video @ TheSmokingGun.com

The Smoking Gun's new collection of news reels and non-fiction videos even features Howard Hughes' one-time Long Beach Harbor flight of the Spruce Goose...

L.A.resource: What's the walkability score of your neighborhood?

Out of a 100 points, my section of Boyle Heights scored a 64. Which isn't so great in my opinion.

In my neighborhood, there aren't a lot of businesses like stores or restaurants but REGARDLESS, see how your neighborhood scores at Walkscore.com calculates the walkability of an address by locating nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks, etc.

L.A.culture: ¡Ask A Chola!

¡Lookit! "Ask A Chola" has all the answers you not thought you needed...check it:



¡y oye! Hay mas respuestas aquí, buey...

L.A.moment: The Moon over Los Ángeles...

Did anyone catch the crescent moon last night?