The conclusion to my better-late-than-never-but-still-a-loser ticket buying adventure for the Radiohead concert last night at the Hollywood Bowl.

Make that winner. The Radiohead concert last night at the Bowl, the second of a two-night stand in Los Angeles, was a riveting spectacle, musically as well as visually, and worth any amount one could afford.

And by purchasing the tickets I may have become an inadvertent donor to Hillary Clinton’s campaign fund.
The $39 tickets that I bought online via Turbo Tickets cost me $115 each and arrived via Fed Ex with a PO box return address for DSP Productions in Rio Rancho, New Mexico.

The original purchaser’s name, Douglas Preistap, was printed on the tickets. A search on his name produced a Hillary Clinton presidential campaign donor list with his name (and address, also in Rio Rancho NM) listed as a contributor of $500, given on March 19, 2008. He is listed as the owner of DSP Productions, although no information on what it produced was available.

Priestap was thoughtful enough to obscure the $39 price he paid with a black marker.

Following in Frazgo’s footsteps on documenting unexpected cars alive and (seemingly) well on the streets of LA, I found this gem on my morning constitutional today.  The Triumph TR7.

This British import lasted from about 1975 to 1981 and had the dubious distinction of being on Time Magazine’s list of the 50 Worst Cars Of All Time. The TR7 joins the ranks with such classics as the ‘71 Ford Pinto, the ‘76 Chevy Chevette (”It will drive you happy!”) the ‘78 Pacer, the ‘85 Yugo and the ‘86 Adobe.  (Oh wait, that was a Saturday Night Live sketch).

But the real reason it caught my eye was because years ago it caught my heart.  Click onto the way back button to learn more about the tv habits of my youth…

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Volkswagen Thing LA Bound on the 210

I had to do a quick double take to make sure it was the real deal VW “Thing”.  It was indeed.  This trusty rear engine, air-cooled VW military vehicle for civilian use went on sale in the US in 1972 and lasted through the 1974 model year.  What killed it here was increased auto emission standards and safety standards.  A whopping total 90,883 were built for civilian and military use during its model run from 1968 - 1983.

Pic with my trusty phone cam by the trusty spouse (well I do have to watch where I am going,don’t I?)

Monrovia Women’s Build $28K short to break ground on their “Habitat Sherman Homes” project.

A group of Monrovia Women in business saw the need for more affordable housing in our little corner of LA.  They got together a while back and formed the Monrovia Women’s Build.  .  They worked with the SGV Habitat for Humanity to get things going.

They got the city to donate some land on Sherman Avenue for two homes.  They have their first family in line for a home. They started raising funds.  So far they have raised nearly 322K.  To raise that money thay have had projects as simple as the kids at Mayflower Elementary give them “spare change” from their piggy banks to corporate donations.  Month by month they have increased their kitty.  They are now 28K from breaking ground on the first of two homes.

To get themselves closer to that goal this weekend they are having a car wash in Pasadena.  The suggested donation is $10.   If you don’t have a car you can bring your bike or skate board.  They will even accept checks at the car wash!

They’ll even accept a straight donation if you don’t have a grungy car in need of washing. 

DETAILS: Saturday 8/23 9AM-4PM Pasadena Covenant Church, 539 N Lake Ave (corner of Lake & Santa Barbara), Pasadena

The biggest mistake Los Angeles can make in the Bringing Back Broadway initiative is the use of a modern streetcar in lieu of a historic trolley.

In recent months, meetings have been held to talk about where a new streetcar line would go in Downtown L.A., how it would integrate into the current transit system, and what it may look like. Eric Richardson of Blogdowntown has been covering the project, including a recent field trip to Portland, and now, to San Diego to study the success of similar projects in other cities. BDT even ran an in-depth look at the advantages of using a modern streetcar design for Bringing Back Broadway.

While the very notion of a new streetcar line in Downtown Los Angeles should excite all of us, L.A. would be missing a monumental opportunity by installing a modern streetcar line that pays no homage to our fair city’s past.

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Late evening arrest at an arrest in NW Pasadena.

Tuesday night I got to ride with the Pasadena PD. I sought this chance to spend time with them for many reasons. Some were personal in an effort to better understand policing in general, some specifically to understand why Pasadena has had downward trending violent and property crime compared to other areas in the city. Some was to find out what they did differently to impact those results. I even wanted some answers to questions and debates that come up here and other blogs regarding traffic and related safety issues.
My night in a nutshell: I rode up and down Lincoln Avenue from the more affluent SW side of town to the more troubled NW side of town. Our first call was a suspected dead body in a dumpster (rotting fried chicken), possible breaking and entering, vandalism (I knew the victim from my son’s elementary school), then a call regarding a lost license plate then the arrest of a suspected child molester. After that a run to the aquatic center on a call about an abandoned leaf blower which on arrival didn’t exist but a young man found someone tried to steal his ‘slade. Sadly the final call was to respond to a shooting that became the second murder of the year. The latter sadly slowed my ability to ask all my questions.
I still learned a lot on the ride along, you need to make the jump for the rest of the story. (more…)

It’s always amazing to me how much I miss LA when I leave.  Not that I get homesick or anything, it’s just the little things that you’re used to living in this phenomenal city.  I went to Las Vegas for the New Media Expo.  It was the 4th year of the event and I learned that the previous 3 years it was held in Ontario, CA.

One of the things that cracks me up about Vegas is how little LA landmarks have been integrated into some of the hotels.  For example the awful replica of Farmers Market in the MGM.  I don’t know or care who thought this was a great idea, but seeing the Farmers Market’s graphic in Vegas has been so off-putting to me over the years, that I won’t even walk by the place.  It’s jarring to see national chains behind the white and green signs that aren’t even within a mile of the actual Farmers Market.

I was only gone for 4 days and being so busy with work the past few weeks, I haven’t really been able to get out and about.  Yet, being in Las Vegas gave me the urge to make the time to get out and play tourist to LA.

I got an interesting email the other day from a long time friend whose son Jack is turning 13 at the end of the week.  His Mom is Sarbal who comments here from time to time.  She wants to put together a “Calimitzvah” book for him on life lessons as part of his birthday celebration.

Pretty cool idea.  I’m partly stumped on what to put together for him.   I’ve known Jack since almost the time he entered this world.  He’s a smart kid, certainly smarter than he realizes.  Like a lot of kids he’d prefer to do what is needed to pass, his parents hold him accountable for reaching his potential.   There isn’t much he wants for, but little has been handed to him.  His parents are many ways like my family, its more about giving them life experiences than crap that will just sit in a corner.  Jack’s Dad has taken him to Coachella a couple of times already on top of the travel. He wants for little when it comes to life experiences with his Mom or Dad.  What else can I add for him? (more…)

Check out this bit from the LA Times:

“The Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved an ordinance Wednesday requiring certain home improvement stores to develop plans for dealing with day laborers who congregate nearby in search of jobs.”

Awesome! It’s about time someone did something about these solicitors. I hate going to the store to buy a can of paint or a drill bit and getting chased and hounded by 30 different dudes asking if I need help. Finally I can shop in peace! Now if they can do something about the people asking for signatures and donations outside of grocery stores… oh, um… wait…

“The ordinance mandates that proposed big-box stores obtain conditional-use permits, which could then require them to build day-labor centers with shelter, drinking water, bathrooms and trash cans.”

Oh. That’s not what I thought at all. Wait a second why is this Home Depots problem? If the city thinks this is a problem, how about they help someone to open a business where if a customer wants help they can go there and employ the services of workers rather than saying “sure, harassing customers of this other business is perfectly OK, in fact it’s encouraged!”

Seriously though, it’s awesome that the city is looking out for these folks who don’t have steady reliable jobs and sticking it to big businesses like Home Depot to make them help these dudes out. I look forward to follow up legislation requiring movie studios and record companies to build similar shelters for out of work actors and musicians so they can hang around outside the offices and pitch themselves to everyone walking in and out in comfort. Maybe we can take this a step further and actually start force the companies to pay the unemployed folks a salary.

Spotted on billboards all over Los Angeles: equal parts cultural sensitivity, never overestimating the intelligence (in-tel-ee-jens) of the public and pandering to the masses of Princesses, Chiquitas and their human companions in LA.