Grim news in yesterday’s NY Times about the US death toll in the war in Afghanistan surpassing the 500 mark brought to mind the fact that California has the highest casualty count of any state in the country for the Iraq War.

According to icasualties.org, the Golden State currently has 443 deaths and 3201 wounded in the Iraq War. Los Angeles County accounted for 125 deaths in Iraq.

California being the most populous state in the country would account for it being the state leading in the number of casulaties. It generally follows that the most populous states have the highest casualty rates: California, Texas, New York, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois.

Confirmed deaths in the Iraq War for the nation currently stand at 4,134. Numbers for the wounded exceed 29,000.

Icasualties.org puts the current number of US deaths in Afghanistan at 569, but no breakdown by state was available on the site.

Icasualties.org is a donor supported independent site that compiles information on casualties based upon reports from the US Dept. of Defense, the US Central Command, the Multi-National Force in Iraq and the British Ministry of Defense.

My fatalities count for Los Angeles County is based upon icasualties.org’s city breakdown for California cross referenced with naco.org’s cities and places list for LA County.

I just came across a press release and was reminded that as of Aug. 2nd, 21 live crape myrtles are now in the courtyard at One Colorado–just so you can make a wish. Regardless of what you think about Yoko’s tumultuous relationship with That Band, it’s important to acknowledge her significance as a great figure in the contemporary conceptual art world. Shes a pioneering feminist artist. She’s a force of nature. She makes good stuff happen. If she had a motto, it would be Git ‘Er Done, I’m sure of it.

So check out the flowering trees installed amongst the cafe tables in the courtyard of One Colorado. Visitors are invited to write their wishes on pieces of paper and hang them on the tree branches, a traditional Japanese way of making a wish (and especially fun for kids). Wishes from Wish Tree Pasadena will be joined with others from around the world and placed into Ono’s”Imagine Peace” Tower on Videy Island, off the coast of Reykjavik, Iceland. The artwork is dedicated to the memory of John Lennon. The trees are up until November 9, at which point they’ll prolly be so full of wishes the trees will appear to be constructed out of paper. More info is here.

Yes, it’s true: I am attempting to get back on the bus I left idling a few months back. The bus of Random Valley Front Yards.

The point of the RVFY is to find a yard that’s aesthetically interesting (does not have to be appealing, just interesting) and analyze it like a work of art. I got a very-fun-and-totally-impractical degree in Art History and only use it maybe twice a year, and probably to win Jeopardy from the comfort of my couch while yelling at the tv screen. But with these RVFYs, I can break down & dissect the aesthetics of the average* Angeleno front yard. It’s fun for me, and I’ve gotten a lot of complaints that I stopped doing it, so I’m firin’ it back up.

Here is our RVFY for today. Click thru for a bigger image and the breakdown.

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Just a few hundred yards away from the pandemonium that is Venice Beach on a sunny summer Sunday, the Venice Canals are a sea of tranquility.  Aside from the obvious stunning visuals, what strikes me is the sound.  It’s quiet.  Instead of city traffic noise, you hear gurgling water, wind chimes, birds, some animals, a few muffled human voices.  You rarely encounter more than a dozen people even if you wind your way through the entire canal system.

Tour the Venice Canals, after the jump

[check out the DUST MASK BANDIT!]

Okay here’s the coolest thing ever, and no it’s not a prank -

LA Bankrobbers have their own website!

Well it’s not actually THEIRS, it’s a law enforcement site

devoted to the identification and apprehension of bank robbers (a.k.a. bank bandits) in the Southern California territory, which specifically covers the following seven counties: 1) Los Angeles 2) Orange 3) Riverside 4) San Bernardino 5) San Luis Obispo 6) Santa Barbara and 7) Ventura. The region we cover is typically referred to as the “Bank Robbery Capital of the World” - a title we would love to lose.

Photos, background info, and yes, REWARDS -

Go be a good citizen. Help the FBI and maybe make a little dough yourself - WITHOUT having to rob a bank!

Talk about a trainwreck.

Last night as I was running out the door, I caught a snippet of the MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour on PBS. It was a point-counterpoint discussion between Steve Wasserman, the former editor of the now-axed LAT Book Review, and Kassia Krozser, the founder & editor of booksquare.com, a book review site & publishing industry hub that, FWIW, I’d never heard of.*

The segment was intended to discuss the elimination of the LAT Book Review from the Sunday paper. Tribune loose cannon Sam Zell deep-sixed the little insert, which was one of the few sections of the paper I read anymore (and for which I had the privelege of penning two book reviews). Wasserman called the elimination of the review a “philistine blunder,” while Krozser seemed to have been brought in to defend the Internet, which to my mind is a separate issue from whether the paper Review should have been cut or not.

Throughout the segment, I found myself whipsawed over which interviewee I detested more… (more…)

When I was doing shows at ACME in Hollywood, I drove past those cool televisions at the intersection of Riverside Drive and Fletcher at least twice a week. I always wanted to stop there sometime and take a bunch of pictures, and though I never managed to do that myself, I saw that a guy called Rob, who posts pictures at MarilynCarolin.com had done just that. In addition to the nifty pictures, there’s also this interesting history lesson:

These recycled RCAs are sitting atop the ruins of Los Angeles’ first attempt at mass transit dating back to the turn of the century. The cement forms underneath the televisions were the footings for a railroad trestle that ran across Fletcher Ave. in Silverlake for the Pacific Electric Red Car line. Even though GM took apart the Red Cars in the ’50s to sell us all on buses, what is left here of the old run from downtown to Glendale has recently been declared a historical monument.

While you’re there, be sure to check out his pictures of the old Los Angeles Zoo, yet another one of those cool LA landmarks I’ve always wanted to visit, but never have.

Robert Berning, Trader Joe’s visionary wine buyer starting in the 1970s, has died at the age of 73. His renegade approach, at the time, to bringing bargain priced wine to the masses was key to the way we think about buying wine today.

Through selling various wines under Trader Joe’s own label, he was able to skirt fair trade laws that dictated how wine could be priced and sold in California. Competitors tried to quash TJ’s efforts but in 1978 fair trade was abandoned, ushering in a whole new era in wine production and marketing.

So whether you’re swinging by TJ’s to pick up a few bottles of Two Buck Chuck or any of their other fine offerings, or browsing with the knowledgeable staff at Silver Lake Wines for the perfect wine for a special (or ordinary) occasion, pause and reflect on the man who made it all possible. And raise a glass to him while you’re at it.

Obituary in today’s LA Times by Dennis McLellan.

Someone call Lovecraft Biofuels* & tell ‘em to start hackin’ down all the kudzu in the hills behind ‘em: according to some experts, kudzu–”The Plant that Ate the South (and Parts of Echo Park and Silver Lake)” has a high yield of carbohydrates that can be converted into ethanol. In fact, the yield per acre would be comparable to that of corn.

According to The Discovery Channel, “The team estimated that about one-third of kudzu plants would be harvestable. If so, they calculate that kudzu could offer about 8 percent of the 2006 U.S. bioethanol supply.” Dr. Rowan Sage, a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto, says “[The refinement process] will probably be simple, but it has not been worked out,” Sage said. “Kudzu roots are like large sweet potatoes. Simply wash, grind it up, and treat with enyzmes to break down the starch and sugars to glucose, and ferment with yeast or bacteria and then distill. The kudzu stems could be burned for distillation.” Harvesting could be difficult, though, as roots sometimes hide beneath as many as six feet of soil. More info is here, here & here.

*Now, this would make ethanol, not biodiesel, but it’s still of interest as an alternative fuel.

The L.A. Times newsroom has taken on a ship-of-the-damned air lately, my old colleagues are telling me.

With corporate vandal Sam Zell threatening to lay off even more reporters and sell Times Mirror Square in a bid to save tiny cash in all the wrong places, the smart money says to jump before you’re pushed.

Luckily, the InkStained Retch makes it all easy to say goodbye by offering the Hackinator - a handy wizard for Times employees who want to write Zell the perfect f@ck-you resignation letter …

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