August 2008 Archives
Anti-billboard activists are breathing a sigh of relief. Yesterday, Clear Channel decided to withdraw its application to install a hyper-bright electronic billboard on Ventura Boulevard in Encino.
Clear Channel's attorney sent a letter to city planners withdrawing its application for a 14 foot by 48 foot Clear Channel digital billboard at 15826 W. Ventura Blvd. No reason was given in the letter.
Last year, Clear Channel applied for a permit to change the static billboard into a digital display. Planning Director Gail Goldberg approved the digital conversion. However, the planning department required that the digital images change no faster than once an hour.
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A downtown Los Angeles jury found 22-year-old Carla Mendez guilty of second-degree murder yesterday. Mendez was accused of killing a local snow-cone vendor who allegedly put an evil spell on her female lover Maria Gomez. Gomez was found guilty of first-degree murder in August of 2007.
Los Angeles Police Department Northeast Detectives found 43-year-old Norberto Castro’s battered body next to a Jetta on Allesandro Street in Silver Lake on July 13, 2005. Castro, a happy go lucky snow-cone vendor who pushed a cart around his Melrose Avenue neighborhood, was rushed to the hospital but died of his injuries soon afterwards.
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Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama undoubtedly thrilled, and probably somewhat shocked, gays and lesbians last night when he spoke this line during his nomination speech in Denver:
“I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination,” he told a nationally televised audience.
The line shouldn't have been surprising.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in Denver, Colorado.
(photo courtesy of the DNC)
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A semen-stained comforter, a tampon and a camera. These were some of the items listed on a Beverly Hills P.D. search warrant when officers raided fashion designer Anand Jon's pad in March, 2007. Later that year Jon was charged with a list of offenses more often associated with spring break at Lake Havasu than evenings on staid North Palm Drive: forcible rape, lewd acts upon a child, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, sexual battery by restraint and attempted forcible oral copulation.
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Former “private eye to the stars” Anthony Pellicano and high-powered entertainment/corporate lawyer Terry Christensen were found guilty by a jury this morning of all four counts of the conspiracy and wiretapping that the men faced. For Pellicano this must seem now routine, having been convicted last May of 76 counts of racketeering and wiretapping involving a range of victims and cases. For first-time felon Christensen, though, it means the loss of his right to practice law in California, regardless of how much of his sentence’s potential 10 years in prison he actually serves.
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According to the Daily News, LA Unified Superintendent David Brewer gave one of his rousing speeches at the Los Angeles Convention Center yesterday, as he welcomed administrators back to school. The event didn't get too much press coverage, unfortunately, and maybe that's why the former Navy admiral gets away with saying certain stuff.
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By now you've seen Obama's speech and heard it sliced and diced ad nauseum. Or, maybe not. The news cycle seems to have shrunk from an already truncated 24-hours to about twelve as the morning talk shows focus on McCain's bizarre choice of Sarah Palin for running mate. Good judgment, John. It does raise an interesting question, though -- how the hell is Joe Biden supposed to fight such a lesser foe without looking like a bully?
Anyway, back to Obama's big night. I was privileged to be there. And I don't say privileged because I drank the cool aid of the cult of Obama. I say privileged because it was a truly significant moment and one I almost lost perspective on as the week wore on and all the chatter and over-analysis and phony instigation and extreme point missing (how do some of these people stay working) by the pundits combined with the political gamesmanship between the parties and within the Dems themselves threatened to smash the big picture into a million little pieces.
So, by the end of the week, exhausted from running through the streets for days and being fried in the high altitude, and done in by the ability of all of us to sometimes -- to paraphrase Obama -- make big things small, I was ready to raise the white flag. Not to mention I hate big crowds and football stadiums (especially if football is being played) and giant rock-show spectacles.
And much has has been made of the supposed rock-star trapping of the setting at outdoor Invesco Stadium and the supposed revivalist fervor/meets rock star aesthetic of Obama's campaign (I don't think Shepard Fairey's Maoist Obama iconography is helping) and I admit I almost fell for the cynical trap. Movements unsettle me. I'm not a joiner. Naked displays of hope and faith repel me. I'm a bleeding heart in a cynic's shell.
But all that went away when Obama took the stage before those 80,000 hopeful folks and I was immediately glad to be there. Sure, the crowd went crazy, and I had that sinking feeling I was going be put through an hour-long love in. But Obama himself was having none of it. After accepting a thunderous greeting, he immediately set about making it all right to be there.
He made it all right because beyond the politics and presentation of his speech, which he mastered deftly despite the huge scale to which they'd been raised, and beyond the symbolism of the moment, which was as historically momentous as can be, the thing Obama did best was bring it all back down to a human level. No one was overcome with the spirit. No one started speaking in tongues. Nobody rushed the stage to touch the messiah. Bill may "love it" and can even whip up a little hysteria, but Obama wasn't having it. As he said in so many words last night, shit's too serious for that nonsense.
Despite how huge the setting and how fevered the pitch, the first thing Obama did right last night was not walk on water. He didn't even try. Instead, he showed himself to be like you and me, a man. Just a man. A solid, smart, charismatic, compassionate man from modest origins who -- like I and I'd imagine you, too -- has had enough of this crap.
Neither godhead or even a figurehead, Obama was more like a guy you'd value as a friend or a colleague or teammate, who might inspire you to do better on all counts. Not to mention in a week that seemed to grow evermore infantile in its analytical babble and hype as it wore on, he also showed himself on that stage to be one of the few adults around. Worthy of trust. Even hope. And certainly leadership.
As far as the history of the moment, what's truly amazing about it (and boy did Chris Matthews miss this in his post-speech interview) and what makes it even more historic, is that the fact that Obama is African American seems beside the point. I mean it's fantastic and wonderful and overdue and everything else, but yet that's not the change that this election is about. It's weirdly becoming a footnote, a glorious one, but a footnote nonetheless. There are way bigger fish to fry -- and I suppose that in itself is a strange barometer of some kind of progress -- and the guy to fry them just happens to be black (And, really, really white, too. Did you see those shots of his maternal family? Yikes.)
Obama's great gift, and it may be the one that brings this thing home for him, is that while everything around him gets bigger and bigger, he stays himself.
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Who Needs Plays?
On Wednesday's posting on this blog, the mention that Pasadena Playhouse's production of Vanities, the Musical (opening tonight to the press) was Broadway bound came with the publicist's announcement that the New York performances would start February 2 “at a Shubert Theater to be announced.”
Just found the following post by Abigail Katz on The Playgoer http://playgoer.blogspot.com from New York, which casts some doubt on the certainty of many incoming shows landing a venue on the Great White Way.
“It appears the planets are out of alignment in the theatre universe. Each day seems to bring another story of a cancelled show, an actor replacement, a change of venue, and gloomy days ahead. At the same time there are several Broadway shows setting preview dates "at a theatre to be announced." On the Great White Way alone, we have dueling Mamets, the producers' battle for Hair, no available theatres, and no money.”
Of course nothing is certain in the theater, or in most other endeavors, but as Katz points out, “With this kind of drama, who needs plays?”
Lodestone Fundraiser
Lodestone Theatre Ensemble is throwing a poker and karaoke party-fundraiser on September 7 at Oiwake Restaurant, 122 Japanese Village Plaza in Little Tokyo. Doors open at 6 p.m., poker starts at 7 p.m., buffet closes at 9 p.m. $12 admission at the door includes a dinner buffet, entertainment and karaoke; A $50 deduction from your wallet gets you admission, the dinner buffet and a poker buy-in – with a $5 discount of payment is received by September 5. (To save the 5-spot, make checks out to Lodestone Theatre Ensemble and mail to: Lodestone Poker Fundraiser, PO Box 1072, Studio City, CA 91614
Incoming . . .
Check here on Monday afternoon for this coming weekend's New Theater Reviews, which will include reviews of the Troubadour Theater Company's As U2 Like It at the Falcon, Bouncers at the Lost Studio, Boyle Heights at Casa 0101, Educating Rita at the Colony Theatre, Fucking Hollywood at Ark Theatre Company, Hands-on Therapy at the Secret Rose Theatre, Long Stay Cut Short (two Tennessee Williams one-acts) at Actors Art Theatre, Spider Bites at Theatre of NOTE, and Vanities, the Musical at the Pasadena Playhouse.
Kristolyn Lloyd and Ledisi in the Reprise Theatre Company production of Once On This Island, which opens on Tuesday at UCLA's Ralph Freud Playhouse, through September 14. Photo by Johnganun.com
For this weekend's comprehensive theater listings, press the READ ON tab directly below.
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There was never any doubt that Los Angeles Police Chief Bill Bratton and City Council Member Bernard Parks were not the best of buds. Parks was ousted as Police Chief and Bratton was brought in, after all. However, who knew that the feuding between the two chiefs was more than a few digs during press conferences?
The Weekly recently snagged a couple of prime examples of their political divide. In a series of letters sent by Parks to the police commission in 2007, the city councilman asked the commission for help dealing with Bratton’s seeming refusal to keep Parks up to date on “critical public safety incidents” in his district.
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Whenever the accepted norms of society are changed, something unexpected always seems to pop up. With gay marriage in California, this truism of sorts is already starting to play out. According to a report in the Sacramento-based Capitol Weekly, the California Department of Corrections has now given the green light for gay prisoners to wed their same sex partners. The new policy is undoubtedly the kind of thing that few gays and lesbians foresaw when they were celebrating the legalization of same sex marriage back in May.
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As Bill Clinton took the stage at the Pepsi Center in Denver to douse the final flames of conflict between the Clinton and Obama camps, another tense showdown was reaching a climax in a fenced off area at the intersection of Speer Boulevard and Market Street, just beyond the scope of the eyes and TV cameras focused on the political theater inside the Democratic National Convention. There, in a bottlenecked and barricaded stretch of street, 50 members of Iraq Veterans Against the War, dressed in full uniform, many displaying an impressive array of service medals, stared down an overwhelming deployment of police on foot, horseback and perched atop the raised platforms of massive SWAT vehicles. With guns, truncheons and tear gas pointed at them, one of the veterans took a microphone and told the police, "We don't want to hurt you and you don't want to hurt us."
Whether that would hold true seemed very much in doubt as the police reinforcements filled in and the veterans, backed by a huge crowd of demonstrators, refused to give ground or cave in to their demands that one of their leaders be allowed to read a letter addressed to Barack Obama and the convention from the podium. The letter demanded an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, full benefits to veterans regardless of the terms of their discharge, and war reparations to the people of Iraq.
As the tension mounted, a young man named Joseph Wise, who was not part of the demonstration and who appeared more likely to be swilling beer at frat party than participating in civil disobedience, was overcome by the spectacle of hundreds of riot-clad police lining up against peacefully demonstrating war vets.
"This is despicable. This is absolutely ridiculous, over the top, storm troopers here," said Wise, who revealed that he is in fact an accountant and not an anarchist.
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Anti-clutter, anti-billboard activists are gearing up for a fight tomorrow when a hearing will be held on a proposed, hyper-bright electronic billboard on Ventura Boulevard in Encino.
The Coalition to Ban Billboard Blight has been fighting to stop the bright billboard on Ventura Boulevard since last year. Digital billboards have been quietly approved all over the city since City Hall settled its disastrous lawsuit with Clear Channel Outdoor, CBS Outdoor and Regency Outdoor. Although the city supposedly won its legal arguments, for unknown reasons they buckled to the billboard giants.
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The government’s case against former private eye Anthony Pellicano and high-powered attorney Terry Christensen finally landed in the jury’s lap this morning. For a while it seemed doubtful the trial would ever get beyond closing arguments, which dragged on long enough to draw uncomfortable resemblances to Sartre’s claustrophobic play, No Exit.
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With six sheriff’s deputies standing guard, a jury late this afternoon recommended that former Atwater Village gang leader Timothy McGhee be sentenced to death for the murders of three people. McGhee, 35, had been convicted of the murders last November, but the original jury deadlocked on whether he should be put to death or receive life in prison without parole. The ex-Toonerville street gang chief is a charismatic, goateed figure who could pass for a motivational speaker. Last month, as he stood trial for leading a 2005 prison riot in the cell block he commanded, McGhee attended trial attired in a variety of well-pressed suits, his shaved head revealing a scalp tattoo of the eagle and snake found on the Mexican flag. Today, in a nearly empty courtroom, he wore a dark chalk-striped suit as he listened to the 12 jurors individually confirm their decisions to send him to death row. All court officers stood up as the 12-member panel left Department 104 – only McGhee remained seated. Judge Robert J. Perry will sentence McGhee later in the fall.
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For this week's New Theater Reviews, visit http://www.laweekly.com/2008-08-28/stage/put-heading-here/
(Note: The Website continues to experience technical difficulties; only six of nine new reviews are posted online. To see all New Theater Reviews, embedded in this week's listings, press the READ ON tab at the bottom of this section.)
For this week's Theater Feature, visit http://www.laweekly.com/2008-08-28/stage/the-u-s-marine-corps-discovers-the-greeks/
It helps to be bi-coastal. Hannah Logan's new play, Trailerville (her first, in which she also performed) , received mixed to excoriating reviews when it opened at Moving Arts late June. http://www.laweekly.com/2008-06-26/calendar/trailerville/ http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jul/04/entertainment/et-stage4 http://www.backstage.com/bso/news_reviews/la/review_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003831911 http://www.curtainup.com/trailervillela.html
None of the florid and vituperative criticism has deterred Logan, or prevented her play from making its planned New York debut at the Kraine Theatre, 85 East 4th Street, on September 25. This is because the producing entity, From the Ground Up Theatre, is bicoastal, with administrative bases in Los Angeles and New York. This offers relief from some of the fiscal and organizational challenges facing a visiting company to the nation's theater capital. FGUT's young artistic director, Jennifer Cetrone, plays the lead, which might also have something to do with the play's transfer.
In 1896, Russian audiences and critics condemned Chekhov's The Seagull when it premiered in St. Petersburg. They were so brutal, the actress playing Nina lost her voice and Chekhov vowed to abandon playwriting. With a few changes, however, the next production, in Moscow, established the play as a world classic. So you never really know. Just thought I'd mention it.
Vanities' Stiles, Kennedy and van der Pol. Photo by Craig Schwartz
Pasadena Playhouse is taking its production of Vanities, a New Musical to Broadway next year. Jack Heifner and David Kirshenbaum musical adaptation of Heifner's off-Broadway hit Vanities debuted in 2006 in a production by TheatreWorks in Palo Alto. The Pasadena Playhouse version is currently in previews and opens to the press on Friday. It studies three best friends from the '60s through the '80s, and stars Lauren Kennedy, Sarah Stiles and Anneliese van der Pol.
The show will be produced on Broadway by Junkyard Dog Productions and Bartner/Jenkins Entertainment, in association with Demos Bizar Entertainment. It's slated to open February 2, 2009 at a Shubert theater yet to be determined.
New Theater Reviews of shows reviewed the prior week are regularly posted on this blog by Monday afternoon, and on the website by Thursday morning at http://laweekly.com/theater
For this week's comprehensive theater listings, press the READ ON tab directly below.
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Previously
Election '08: Not Quite Recreating '68 Aug 26, 2008
Election '08: Hillary Hits A Home Run Aug 26, 2008
LAPD Detective Testifies in Witchcraft Murder Trial Aug 26, 2008
The Unfolding Mess at SEIU Local 6434 Aug 26, 2008
Election '08: All Dressed Up With No Riot To Go To Aug 25, 2008
Rapper Dr. Dre's Son Dead at 20 Aug 25, 2008
Election '08: Penetrating the Matrix Aug 25, 2008
Stage Raw: Cooperation and Dissent Aug 25, 2008
Election '08: Antonio Makes It to Denver With K-9 Unit Aug 25, 2008
Visions of Obamaland Aug 25, 2008
A Lesson in Philanthropy for Villaraigosa Aug 25, 2008
Queer Town: The Catholic Power Play to Ban Gay Marriage Aug 22, 2008
Key Witness Testifies in Witchcraft Murder Trial Aug 22, 2008
Villaraigosa's Early Bird Endorsement Sweepstakes Aug 21, 2008
Stage Raw: Ajax and Zappa Aug 21, 2008
Witchcraft Murder Trial Begins Aug 21, 2008
The Billionaire Wore Loafers: Kirk Kerkorian Testifies Aug 20, 2008
The $64,000 Answer Aug 19, 2008
FBI Agents Investigate Los Angeles City Attorney Aug 19, 2008
Stage Raw Aug 19, 2008
FBI Criminal Probe Targets Los Angeles City Attorney Aug 19, 2008
Queer Town: The Cold Winds of Gay Marriage Aug 19, 2008
Billboard Coalition Elects New President Aug 19, 2008
Goldfinger Arraigned Aug 18, 2008
No Face Time in Denver for Villaraigosa Aug 18, 2008
Donald Trump, Ed McMahon and Toxic Mold Aug 15, 2008
Queer Town: Gay Republicans and the Persuadables Aug 15, 2008
Delgadillo's Lawsuit Slams City Controller Laura Chick Aug 14, 2008
Donald T. Sterling's Cattle Call Aug 14, 2008
Stage Raw Aug 14, 2008
Last Prison Hearing of Manson Follower Susan Atkins Aug 14, 2008
Juicy City Hall War: Delgadillo vs. Chick Aug 12, 2008
Villaraigosa abandoned by Ace Smith? Aug 11, 2008
LA Times Takes on the Violent Menace...A Year Too Late Aug 11, 2008
Hundreds Attend Funeral for Slain Sheriff's Deputy Aug 8, 2008
Aids Conference Take 3: Lost in Translation Aug 7, 2008
Miguel Was My Dog, Jorge Was My Partner Aug 7, 2008
Palisades Rathouse: Rats even ate the furniture Aug 7, 2008
New Foe Against Digital Billboards? Aug 7, 2008
AIDS Conference Take 2: Introduction to Hijra Aug 6, 2008
Prayer Vigil held for Fallen Deputy Aug 5, 2008
AIDS Conference Take 1: Rejecting Bill Clinton Aug 4, 2008
Shooting of Deputy Still Remains a Mystery Aug 4, 2008
More Video and Comments from the Rathouse Aug 4, 2008
Local Theater News: The Taper, Galatea and Paul Brennan Aug 1, 2008
Los Angeles Fire Department Still Can’t Recruit Women Aug 1, 2008
Slideshows
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Point Break Live! Beyond the Stage at the Dragonfly
L.A. Weekly went backstage with the cast of Point Break Live! at the Dragonfly to... More>> -
Cobrasnake: Where the Wild Things Are... Animal Spirits and Jungle Books
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