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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 Last night was one of my favorite baseball games of the season.  The Freeway Series where the Dodgers and Angels play it hard and the fans face off in the stands.  I could give you a blow by blow description of the game but why bother when the LA Times can do it better.  What mattered to me is it was a good game, final score of 6-0 made me think for a second and try to remember when I last saw the Angels get completely shut down like that.

I have a couple of more pics and observations from the stands after the jump. (more…)

The Los Angeles premiere of the documentary The Wrecking Crew will be this Saturday night (June 28) at 8pm downtown. The screening is part of the Grand Performances series called Movies That Matter and will be “a free, outdoor festival style screening under the stars.”

You might be wondering who this Wrecking Crew is. They were an unsung group of studio musicians who became a crucial part of pop music history. You’ve actually heard their work on everything from Frank Sinatra to the Monkees and most songs (and tv show themes) in between. Check out the Wrecking Crew website and watch the trailer here.

Wrecking Crew LA Premiere
June 28th, 2008, 8:00PM
350 S. Grand Ave
Los Angeles CA 90071

After the screening of the movie, there will be a live performance by a few members of the (THE!) Wrecking Crew.

If you can’t make Saturday night’s show, you can catch the movie on Thursday July 3rd at The Silent Movie Theater. (Click here for tickets to that evening’s show.)

For more info on Saturday’s screening event and reviews on the film itself, please click on through.

(Full disclosure: the filmmakers are good friends of mine.)

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It’s been said that there are more people alive now than that have ever lived throughout history. It’s not true, at least with respect to the whole planet, but it’s an intriguing thought, anyway. I wonder, though, whether it’s true for Los Angeles? I’m not about to pull out a calculator and figure it out (I can’t come up with the math on my own, and anyway, I wouldn’t know what button to push) but it’s the sort of thing I love to ponder. And where do you think I chose to do my pondering? Check it out, after the jump.

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At the Greater Los Angeles Auto Show held in the Convention Center late last year, pretty young spokesmodels in long dresses stood on revolving platforms and recited scripted accolades about the cars next to them. But the models weren’t really selling cars.  They were selling sex to a predominately male audience, which, the marketing experts believe, in turn sells cars.  This past weekend at the Convention Center, where the Erotica Los Angeles expo was held, was just like the Auto Show, minus the cars and the dresses.

Scenes from Erotica LA, after the jump

The LABJ posted an article today entitled Sushi to Kimchi: Koreans Replace Japanese in Little Tokyo regarding a key real estate transaction in which Korean-Americans will own the shopping center in Little Tokyo where Mitsuwa is currently operating.

In a transaction that marks a turning point for the area, the Little Tokyo Shopping Center last week was purchased by a group of Korean-American investors. While non-Japanese landlords of Little Tokyo properties have become common, this sale of the large shopping mall on Alameda Street will lead to a cultural change: Korean businesses, including a grocery, spa and electronics store, will replace the current Japanese tenants, said Ryan Oh of Coldwell Banker, who brokered the deal for the new owners.

Little Tokyo and nearby downtown have seen an influx of Korean-Americans as well as non-Asians, he explained. Meanwhile, much of the ethnic Japanese population has slowly decamped for Torrance and other areas.

The article goes on to describe that some members of the Little Tokyo community have expressed unhappiness about this. It also says that the shopping center, though Korean owned, will not be targeted just to the Korean community, but will cater to the new downtown residential neighborhood with English-language ads.

Another point of interest: Little Tokyo falls under the protection of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, which offers assistance to help maintain its “cultural roots.” Design guidelines require buildings to reflect Japanese themes, and signs can only be posted in Japanese and English. Will this change in demographic mean a shift in those policies?

h/t: Moye at 8Asians: LA Japantown to become KoreaJapantown?

Photo by -Lori- used under Creative Commons License

Downtown Los Angeles is going to be the crown jewel of L.A. within the next 5 years. She’s walkable, lively, historic and modern all at once. She’s going to make early investors very, very rich.

And she almost broke my heart.

See, the real estate market crapped out, and the train almost came off the tracks. Almost. A year and a half ago, I was looking into the Chapman Flats at 8th & Broadway in the heart of the Historic Core. It’s in the Broadway Theatre District, it has a swanky marble lobby with brass elevator doors, and it’s stumbling distance from Broadway Bar and the 7th Street/Metro Station.

Today, CurbedLA reported the Chapman was going rental. It’s a temporary setback for a community who time has finally arrived. I’m just curious if you or someone you know almost bought in, too. Or did. Or still will. I would have been happy to sign the papers, because I think something amazing is taking place down there. Downtown will still have the last laugh.

Thoughts?

No one I know likes Rush. Not a soul. My circle is so hell-bent against the Canadian power trio, I decided to ask them all if they wanted to catch Rush at the Nokia Theater downtown with me on Tuesday, just to see how many Rush Rejections I could get. I got a lot.

When I asked Maryann, she made this little exclamation of surprise and then laughed at my wildly funny joke. I sent Sara a text invite. She texted back, “Sounds lyk my idea of hel.” Chaz merely texted, “Ugh.” I’m alone among my friends. But when it comes to Greater Los Angeles, things are a bit different. I parked downtown at 7:30, headed for the venue and soon found myself in a crowd–a big, black-clad, slightly grizzled throng. And we were all here for one thing.

Rush, dude.

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I tend to run with the artsy fartsy crowd, so when I heard two weeks ago that Lucent Dossier was performing Wednesday the 23rd (or was it the 16th? it all blurs) of April down at The Edison, I was bummed to miss it. Having a real-life day job has put a serious crimp on my nights out. Yes, I have money now, but I never spend it anymore because I never leave the house after 8pm.

Luckily the Lucent + Edison pairing seems to be an ongoing thing. I went to take in the show last Wednesday. Apparently I was there along with LAist Editor Zach Behrens, LAist News Editor Andy Sternberg, and Caroline on Crack, but as I am a blogger who primarily communicates via screen, I haven’t the faintest what they look like. Checking Caroline’s pics from that night, I think I remember seeing them. But everyone was dressed very alike, very glam-roaring 20s-clubby, so I could be completely wrong.

Click through for Miss Lucinda’s Wild Ride. :P Pics by Caroline on Crack for LAist.

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I just walked down the street to a shop on the corner of 4th and Main and was in line behind an LAPD officer who was advising another customer to avoid Downtown if at all possible. As you might be aware tomorrow is the scheduled May Day Protest and the offer suggested that all of downtown will basically be gridlocked from 10am to 6pm at least. The other customer noted that she had an appointment downtown around 10am and asked if the other people trying to get there would be more than an hour late and the officer corrected her noting “hours” were more like it. So, that said, if you are planning to pass through Downtown tomorrow you might want to push that off to another day if you can. And if you work Downtown, I’d say forget the car and look for other ways to get in and out.