Homelessness rises in downtown L.A.
By Cara Mia DiMassa and Richard Winton
April 4, 2007
Two weeks ago, downtown boosters and the LAPD were celebrating a milestone: The population of homeless people sleeping on downtown's streets had dropped to just 700 — compared to more than 1,800 just six months earlier... The census showed the first major increase in months in homeless people camping, to 921.
And...
"It is because winter shelters closed March 15. They are some 2,000 fewer beds. Now, this isn't rocket science," said Carol Sobel, an attorney for homeless plaintiffs. "The people aren't just evaporating. They just go somewhere else and then come back."
And...
Ramona Ripston, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California, said she was "very surprised to hear the population is up in skid row overnight."
OK - 2,000 cold weather beds are no longer open for the homeless at night - and now there are... 221 more homeless sleeping on the streets of Skid Row. And homeless 'expert' Ramona Ripston is... shocked... shocked... to discover this increase of the homeless sleeping on Skid Row
Friday, April 06, 2007
Downtown's Main Street Goes From Heroin Row to Retail Row!
All the work the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council and other groups and individuals have put into turning Main Street from the drug center of Los Angeles to the true Main Street for all residents of Downtown is finally paying off:
Main Street Makeover
Crime Crackdown and New Businesses Are Changing One of Downtown's Roughest Strips
by Kathleen Nye Flynn
Take a walk on Main Street between Fourth and Seventh and the most remarkable thing is what's no longer there: Mostly gone are the loitering crowds, the drug dealers and the addicts looking to buy.
Gilad Lumer plans to open three retail spaces on the ground level of a Main Street parking structure. A recent clean-up between Fourth and Seventh streets has led to a flurry of construction. Photo by Gary Leonard.
Instead, last Monday morning, the street was lively with area workers and dotted with construction crews. While it's no Beverly Hills, or even Bunker Hill, a cleaned-up Main Street has been an increasingly common sight in recent months, following an LAPD and City Attorney crackdown on crime in the area.
Now, there are even signs of financial investment in what has historically been one of Downtown's roughest strips.
The trend is helping connect two emerging residential hubs: the Old Bank District at Fourth and Main streets, and the buildings on either side of Sixth Street.
For decades, the area teemed with drug dealers, gangs and crime. Even as other neighborhoods in Downtown Los Angeles grew safer and pedestrian-friendly, the Main Street strip - at the western edge of Skid Row - was known as a place to buy heroin.
Recently, the LAPD brought down the Fifth and Hill gang, which had used Main Street as a drug bazaar for nearly 30 years. Since then, crime has remained low in the area, according to Central Division officials.
And...
Building on the Old Bank
The Fourth and Main hub began in 2000, when developer Tom Gilmore opened his first apartment complex, the San Fernando Lofts. Two other apartment buildings and Pete's Café followed.
In ensuing years, a collection of art galleries sprung up around Fifth and Main streets. Additionally, a group of retailers and restaurants opened south of Gilmore's apartment complexes: Old Bank DVD, the Stella Dottir clothing boutique, Vietnamese restaurant Blossom and Metropolis Books joined Banquette cafe and the Old Bank District Market. Blossom and the market are currently expanding.
However, the momentum stopped at Fifth and Main. The corner was home to a food market called Alina's Place and an adult bookstore. Drug dealers held court in front of the buildings and people loitered on the sidewalk.
Last July, the Central Division's narcotics unit raided Alina's and found drugs and stolen merchandise. Now the space is being transformed. A construction worker at the former Alina's last week said a new restaurant, with an outdoor patio, is almost complete. The property owner, who also owned the market and adult bookstore, could not be reached for comment.
The City Attorney's office has also targeted Main Street businesses where the owners allegedly turned a blind eye to drug dealing and prostitution. In February, the office filed charges against Craby Joe's bar and Mr. Fish restaurant, located at Seventh and Main streets.
Mixed Neighborhood
The makeup of Main has long been diversified by the block between Fifth and Sixth streets, which bustles with social service organizations such as Chrysalis and the Weingart Center, as well as several single room occupancy hotels.
Here, too, entrepreneurs are eyeing business opportunities. Monica May, owner of Banquette, has tentative plans to transform a taco stand at 524 S. Main St. into a diner in the vein of Swingers. She said she hopes to debut in four to six months, seat 50 people and stay open late into the night.
On the west side of the street, the owner of a parking garage is also creating retail. On the ground floor of the parking structure, a 3,500-square-foot building will hold up to three commercial businesses, said Gilad Lumer, Los Angeles regional manager of Five Star parking. Although the lot was always outfitted for ground-floor retail, Lumer said that the company waited for the right time to utilize the space.
"When we started this whole project we had at any given hour a handful or dozens of homeless people gathered in front of the lot, which doesn't help in getting tenants. Now that has disappeared," he said.
Lumer has hired a broker to fill the spaces, which will be complete in about a month, and said he is looking at both national retailers as well as independent start-ups. In addition to the retail, Lumer said he plans to paint the parking garage; the garish turquoise will give way to a modern mix of gray and burgundy. He said he is looking for public funds to replace a faded mural on the side of the garage.
The area clean up could create a walkable path between the Old Bank District and Sixth and Main streets, where two major housing complexes are also building new retail and restaurant outlets.
The Santa Fe Lofts, a market-rate condominium building on the northwest corner, is currently awaiting permits for a restaurant, bar, gallery, cafe and a barbershop. The restaurant will face Main Street.
On the southwest corner, the ground-floor retail of the 314-apartment Pacific Electric Lofts will open within six months, said Elizabeth Peterson, CEO of EPG Entertainment Services. That development will include a fine-dining restaurant and a gourmet grocer, she said.
Also on the ground floor, facing either Sixth or Los Angeles Street, will be two cafes, service stores and The Association, a jazz club run by the team responsible for The Room in Hollywood and Little Temple in Silver Lake. The building's original bar, Coles, will reopen, operated by 213 Ventures.
"The area between Sixth and Fourth and Spring and Main streets is going to be the most densely populated place in Downtown so far," said Alex Moradi, managing partner at ICO Development, which developed the Pacific Electric Lofts. "Ultimately, it's going to be Main Street USA with an artsy twist to it."
Alternative to L.A. Live
The law enforcement crackdown coincides with a recent city grant that allocated $100,000 for street lighting. Another $250,000 will add trees and planters to Main Street within six months.
All told, the street is changing quickly. Business owners who once battled it out in an underserved area now are seeing a new clientele.
"We moved in here two and a half years ago, and were chasing people from smoking crack in front of our door," said May of Banquette. "Yesterday, I stood outside and watched a guy walk by with two dogs and a baby stroller. This neighborhood is completely changed."
However, some are wary that the fix could be temporary. They say that if the police ever stop their heightened patrols, the dense homeless population will return to the area for the available services, and the drug dealers would soon follow.
"There are now fewer people on the streets and I barely ever see drug deals any more," said Adlai Wertman, CEO of Chrysalis, an agency that helps the formerly homeless re-enter the work force. "The question is, when will they return? I have every reason to believe they are going to come back."
Brady Westwater, vice president of DLANC, said that Main Street's mixture of homeless services and several permanent supportive housing facilities, along with low-income units at the Rosslyn Hotel at Fifth and Main streets, will keep the neighborhood diverse.
He added that the economic variety will make Main Street an alternative to Downtown mega-projects like L.A. Live and the Grand Avenue development that will bring expensive eateries and high-end stores.
"Main Street is going to become Main Street by having a little of everything on it," Westwater said. "There will be residential service stores that appeal to everybody of all price ranges. It's always going to have the mix of businesses on it, and it is a healthy, organic mix."
Contact Kathleen Nye Flynn at kathleen@downtownnews.com.
Main Street Makeover
Crime Crackdown and New Businesses Are Changing One of Downtown's Roughest Strips
by Kathleen Nye Flynn
Take a walk on Main Street between Fourth and Seventh and the most remarkable thing is what's no longer there: Mostly gone are the loitering crowds, the drug dealers and the addicts looking to buy.
Gilad Lumer plans to open three retail spaces on the ground level of a Main Street parking structure. A recent clean-up between Fourth and Seventh streets has led to a flurry of construction. Photo by Gary Leonard.
Instead, last Monday morning, the street was lively with area workers and dotted with construction crews. While it's no Beverly Hills, or even Bunker Hill, a cleaned-up Main Street has been an increasingly common sight in recent months, following an LAPD and City Attorney crackdown on crime in the area.
Now, there are even signs of financial investment in what has historically been one of Downtown's roughest strips.
The trend is helping connect two emerging residential hubs: the Old Bank District at Fourth and Main streets, and the buildings on either side of Sixth Street.
For decades, the area teemed with drug dealers, gangs and crime. Even as other neighborhoods in Downtown Los Angeles grew safer and pedestrian-friendly, the Main Street strip - at the western edge of Skid Row - was known as a place to buy heroin.
Recently, the LAPD brought down the Fifth and Hill gang, which had used Main Street as a drug bazaar for nearly 30 years. Since then, crime has remained low in the area, according to Central Division officials.
And...
Building on the Old Bank
The Fourth and Main hub began in 2000, when developer Tom Gilmore opened his first apartment complex, the San Fernando Lofts. Two other apartment buildings and Pete's Café followed.
In ensuing years, a collection of art galleries sprung up around Fifth and Main streets. Additionally, a group of retailers and restaurants opened south of Gilmore's apartment complexes: Old Bank DVD, the Stella Dottir clothing boutique, Vietnamese restaurant Blossom and Metropolis Books joined Banquette cafe and the Old Bank District Market. Blossom and the market are currently expanding.
However, the momentum stopped at Fifth and Main. The corner was home to a food market called Alina's Place and an adult bookstore. Drug dealers held court in front of the buildings and people loitered on the sidewalk.
Last July, the Central Division's narcotics unit raided Alina's and found drugs and stolen merchandise. Now the space is being transformed. A construction worker at the former Alina's last week said a new restaurant, with an outdoor patio, is almost complete. The property owner, who also owned the market and adult bookstore, could not be reached for comment.
The City Attorney's office has also targeted Main Street businesses where the owners allegedly turned a blind eye to drug dealing and prostitution. In February, the office filed charges against Craby Joe's bar and Mr. Fish restaurant, located at Seventh and Main streets.
Mixed Neighborhood
The makeup of Main has long been diversified by the block between Fifth and Sixth streets, which bustles with social service organizations such as Chrysalis and the Weingart Center, as well as several single room occupancy hotels.
Here, too, entrepreneurs are eyeing business opportunities. Monica May, owner of Banquette, has tentative plans to transform a taco stand at 524 S. Main St. into a diner in the vein of Swingers. She said she hopes to debut in four to six months, seat 50 people and stay open late into the night.
On the west side of the street, the owner of a parking garage is also creating retail. On the ground floor of the parking structure, a 3,500-square-foot building will hold up to three commercial businesses, said Gilad Lumer, Los Angeles regional manager of Five Star parking. Although the lot was always outfitted for ground-floor retail, Lumer said that the company waited for the right time to utilize the space.
"When we started this whole project we had at any given hour a handful or dozens of homeless people gathered in front of the lot, which doesn't help in getting tenants. Now that has disappeared," he said.
Lumer has hired a broker to fill the spaces, which will be complete in about a month, and said he is looking at both national retailers as well as independent start-ups. In addition to the retail, Lumer said he plans to paint the parking garage; the garish turquoise will give way to a modern mix of gray and burgundy. He said he is looking for public funds to replace a faded mural on the side of the garage.
The area clean up could create a walkable path between the Old Bank District and Sixth and Main streets, where two major housing complexes are also building new retail and restaurant outlets.
The Santa Fe Lofts, a market-rate condominium building on the northwest corner, is currently awaiting permits for a restaurant, bar, gallery, cafe and a barbershop. The restaurant will face Main Street.
On the southwest corner, the ground-floor retail of the 314-apartment Pacific Electric Lofts will open within six months, said Elizabeth Peterson, CEO of EPG Entertainment Services. That development will include a fine-dining restaurant and a gourmet grocer, she said.
Also on the ground floor, facing either Sixth or Los Angeles Street, will be two cafes, service stores and The Association, a jazz club run by the team responsible for The Room in Hollywood and Little Temple in Silver Lake. The building's original bar, Coles, will reopen, operated by 213 Ventures.
"The area between Sixth and Fourth and Spring and Main streets is going to be the most densely populated place in Downtown so far," said Alex Moradi, managing partner at ICO Development, which developed the Pacific Electric Lofts. "Ultimately, it's going to be Main Street USA with an artsy twist to it."
Alternative to L.A. Live
The law enforcement crackdown coincides with a recent city grant that allocated $100,000 for street lighting. Another $250,000 will add trees and planters to Main Street within six months.
All told, the street is changing quickly. Business owners who once battled it out in an underserved area now are seeing a new clientele.
"We moved in here two and a half years ago, and were chasing people from smoking crack in front of our door," said May of Banquette. "Yesterday, I stood outside and watched a guy walk by with two dogs and a baby stroller. This neighborhood is completely changed."
However, some are wary that the fix could be temporary. They say that if the police ever stop their heightened patrols, the dense homeless population will return to the area for the available services, and the drug dealers would soon follow.
"There are now fewer people on the streets and I barely ever see drug deals any more," said Adlai Wertman, CEO of Chrysalis, an agency that helps the formerly homeless re-enter the work force. "The question is, when will they return? I have every reason to believe they are going to come back."
Brady Westwater, vice president of DLANC, said that Main Street's mixture of homeless services and several permanent supportive housing facilities, along with low-income units at the Rosslyn Hotel at Fifth and Main streets, will keep the neighborhood diverse.
He added that the economic variety will make Main Street an alternative to Downtown mega-projects like L.A. Live and the Grand Avenue development that will bring expensive eateries and high-end stores.
"Main Street is going to become Main Street by having a little of everything on it," Westwater said. "There will be residential service stores that appeal to everybody of all price ranges. It's always going to have the mix of businesses on it, and it is a healthy, organic mix."
Contact Kathleen Nye Flynn at kathleen@downtownnews.com.
Thursday, April 05, 2007
It's Sumo Saturday!
Since I first helped bring the annual California Sumo Open Downtown - it has exploded in popularity. After filling a hotel ballroom to turn away crowds two years ago and packing the Convention Center last year - it is now in the Sports Arena in Exposition Park where an even larger crowd is expected
The reason is that Sumo is the first marital art and there is a reason why it has lasted. It is one of the fasted paced of all sports and in just one minute, you can learn all you need to know to enjoy the matches. Few sports provide as much entertainment value to a first time spectator:
http://www.calendarlive.com/nightlife/cl-wk-altbright5apr05,0,3563135.story?coll=cl-nightlife-features
NIGHT LIFE
It’s a lot more than just belly-bouncing
U.S. Sumo Open is authentic look at Japanese sport
April 5, 2007
Think of sumo wrestling, and you might envision two men bouncing their bellies off each other. But nothing could be further from the truth, says California Sumo Assn. director Andrew Freund. To prove his point, the association is holding its seventh annual U.S. Sumo Open this Saturday at the Los Angeles Sports Arena for those wanting a more authentic look at the ancient Japanese sport.
"What they'll see are guys slamming their heads into each other like two bulls," says Freund, who will be announcing the event. "They'll see agility, they'll see speed, and they'll see guys literally flying out of the ring." But no belly-bouncing — despite what you may have seen in TV commercials featuring obese actors.
Attendees will also see some of the world's best amateur sumo wrestlers. Among the 50 scheduled competitors (including eight women) are heavyweights Byambajav Ulambayar (Mongolia), the reigning World Championship gold medalist; Hans Borg (Norway), a two-time World Championship medalist; and Wayne Vierra (Hawaii), a 2006 U.S. Sumo Open silver medalist.
The tournament has close to 100 matches in four divisions (light-, middle-, heavyweight and open), and though last year's spectacular lightweight final lasted nearly three minutes, other matches can be over in as little as two seconds. If you happen to blink, big screens will be available to replay all the important action.
And for fans who wish to sample Japan's other cultural offerings, get to the Sports Arena early. According to Freund, the sushi, Sapporo beer and Hakutsuru sake sold out in less than an hour at last year's event.
— Alex Chun
U.S. Sumo Open, Los Angeles Sports Arena, 3939 S. Figueroa St., L.A. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, main event begins at 12:30 p.m. $25, adults; $15, 2 to 18. (310) 288-3641, www.usasumo.comv.+
And in the Downtown News:
# U.S. Sumo Open at the Los Angeles Sports Arena: While talk of Los Angeles as the home of the 2016 Olympic Games is filling headlines, the U.S. Sumo Open is filling seats, literally. On April 7, Downtown will once again host some of the largest athletes in the world when the seventh annual competition arrives at the Los Angeles Sports Arena in Exposition Park. Last year, an attorney, an LAPD officer and a 500-pound opera singer were among the more than 40 sumo wrestlers who threw down. This year, the competition will once again feature wrestlers from all over the world, including a healthy contingent from Japan. Also on hand will be current world sumo champion Byambajav Ulambayar, who will return to defend his title.
The U.S. Sumo Open is April 7 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, 3939 S. Figueroa St., (213) 480-3232 or usasumo.com.
The reason is that Sumo is the first marital art and there is a reason why it has lasted. It is one of the fasted paced of all sports and in just one minute, you can learn all you need to know to enjoy the matches. Few sports provide as much entertainment value to a first time spectator:
http://www.calendarlive.com/nightlife/cl-wk-altbright5apr05,0,3563135.story?coll=cl-nightlife-features
NIGHT LIFE
It’s a lot more than just belly-bouncing
U.S. Sumo Open is authentic look at Japanese sport
April 5, 2007
Think of sumo wrestling, and you might envision two men bouncing their bellies off each other. But nothing could be further from the truth, says California Sumo Assn. director Andrew Freund. To prove his point, the association is holding its seventh annual U.S. Sumo Open this Saturday at the Los Angeles Sports Arena for those wanting a more authentic look at the ancient Japanese sport.
"What they'll see are guys slamming their heads into each other like two bulls," says Freund, who will be announcing the event. "They'll see agility, they'll see speed, and they'll see guys literally flying out of the ring." But no belly-bouncing — despite what you may have seen in TV commercials featuring obese actors.
Attendees will also see some of the world's best amateur sumo wrestlers. Among the 50 scheduled competitors (including eight women) are heavyweights Byambajav Ulambayar (Mongolia), the reigning World Championship gold medalist; Hans Borg (Norway), a two-time World Championship medalist; and Wayne Vierra (Hawaii), a 2006 U.S. Sumo Open silver medalist.
The tournament has close to 100 matches in four divisions (light-, middle-, heavyweight and open), and though last year's spectacular lightweight final lasted nearly three minutes, other matches can be over in as little as two seconds. If you happen to blink, big screens will be available to replay all the important action.
And for fans who wish to sample Japan's other cultural offerings, get to the Sports Arena early. According to Freund, the sushi, Sapporo beer and Hakutsuru sake sold out in less than an hour at last year's event.
— Alex Chun
U.S. Sumo Open, Los Angeles Sports Arena, 3939 S. Figueroa St., L.A. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, main event begins at 12:30 p.m. $25, adults; $15, 2 to 18. (310) 288-3641, www.usasumo.comv.+
And in the Downtown News:
# U.S. Sumo Open at the Los Angeles Sports Arena: While talk of Los Angeles as the home of the 2016 Olympic Games is filling headlines, the U.S. Sumo Open is filling seats, literally. On April 7, Downtown will once again host some of the largest athletes in the world when the seventh annual competition arrives at the Los Angeles Sports Arena in Exposition Park. Last year, an attorney, an LAPD officer and a 500-pound opera singer were among the more than 40 sumo wrestlers who threw down. This year, the competition will once again feature wrestlers from all over the world, including a healthy contingent from Japan. Also on hand will be current world sumo champion Byambajav Ulambayar, who will return to defend his title.
The U.S. Sumo Open is April 7 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, 3939 S. Figueroa St., (213) 480-3232 or usasumo.com.
Broadway's Historic Tower Theater Sells to....
.... Michael Delijani, who now owns four historic Broadway theaters. The Los Angeles Theatre, the Palace Theater, the State Theater and now the Tower Theater. This happened after nightlife promoter Cedd Moses was rumored to have been in - and out - of escrow not once, but twice on the Tower Theater which at one point was alleged to have as many as ten bidders interested. And with the Orpheum being consistently booked and the Million Dollar soon to re-open as a theater again, the long awaited rebirth of Broadway may finally be coming.
The Tower will also provide another potential venue for BoxEight's greatly expanded Fashion Week this October that will complement the rumored moving of IMG's Fashion Week from Culver City's Smash Box to Downtown's Convention Center.
The Tower will also provide another potential venue for BoxEight's greatly expanded Fashion Week this October that will complement the rumored moving of IMG's Fashion Week from Culver City's Smash Box to Downtown's Convention Center.
Monday, April 02, 2007
LA Times Deal Far From Done!
As the below Chicago Tribune story says - the break-up cost of the deal are a... puny.... twenty-five million for a multi-billion dollar deal and it's not due to close until towards the end of the year. What they do NOT further emphasize is, apparently Zell only had to match the Broad/Burkle deal and Broad in particular has said he was willing to make less money with the paper than other people would and Sam Zell figures he can make a ton of money at this price.
Hmmmm...
Zell wins Tribune auction; Cubs to be sold
By Michael Oneal
Tribune staff reporter
April 2, 2007, 8:23 AM CDT
After an epic corporate drama, Chicago's Tribune Co. sold itself in a deal that puts the 159-year-old media conglomerate in the hands of the city's most iconoclastic entrepreneur, setting up a high-stakes bet that a pillar of the nation's old-media establishment can tug itself into the digital future without toppling over.
Early Monday, following a weekend of heated negotiations, the company's board accepted a revised $34-dollar-a-share proposal from Chicago real estate magnate Sam Zell to take the company private in a complex, $8.2 billion deal structured around an employee stock ownership plan.
And...
Tribune had been leaning toward the Zell offer anyway because it was a firm merger agreement that could be closed in a shorter amount of time. But the board wouldn't accept it until the 65-year-old Highland Park native, who spent the weekend at his house in Malibu, Calif., agreed to raise a previous bid of $33 a share to meet Broad and Burkle's $34-a-share offer.
The deal carries a relatively low, $25 million break-up penalty, however, and a person close to Broad and Burkle said the duo may consider coming back with a fresh offer.
Hmmmm...
Zell wins Tribune auction; Cubs to be sold
By Michael Oneal
Tribune staff reporter
April 2, 2007, 8:23 AM CDT
After an epic corporate drama, Chicago's Tribune Co. sold itself in a deal that puts the 159-year-old media conglomerate in the hands of the city's most iconoclastic entrepreneur, setting up a high-stakes bet that a pillar of the nation's old-media establishment can tug itself into the digital future without toppling over.
Early Monday, following a weekend of heated negotiations, the company's board accepted a revised $34-dollar-a-share proposal from Chicago real estate magnate Sam Zell to take the company private in a complex, $8.2 billion deal structured around an employee stock ownership plan.
And...
Tribune had been leaning toward the Zell offer anyway because it was a firm merger agreement that could be closed in a shorter amount of time. But the board wouldn't accept it until the 65-year-old Highland Park native, who spent the weekend at his house in Malibu, Calif., agreed to raise a previous bid of $33 a share to meet Broad and Burkle's $34-a-share offer.
The deal carries a relatively low, $25 million break-up penalty, however, and a person close to Broad and Burkle said the duo may consider coming back with a fresh offer.
Sam Zell Semi-Local - Has Home In The 'Bu!
Over at LAO Business, they give more details about Sam Zell's Malibu connection:
Mark Lacter
Sam Zell was apparently far, far away from the tension-filled Tribune board room, where the future of the Chicago-based media giant was being hashed out over the weekend. The Chicago Tribune notes that Zell was calling the shots from his Malibu beach home, where he spends lots of time. The 12,000 square-foot property has four family bedrooms, a guest house and a staff wing with kitchen and dining areas. The home, on 1.2 acres, also has a gym, wine cellar and pool. Zell likes it out here, though he's not exactly a conspicuous presence in L.A. or even Malibu.
And...
Joseph Alibrandi, a friend and neighbor in Malibu, says Zell often turns up on the beach with Helen, and, like everyone else, he sits and stares at the ocean. But as he told the Tribune, Zell has a different idea of relaxing than everyone else.
"He'll look at a freighter that passes. He'll think, `That's not the best way. There's a better way to conduct shipping.' Then he'll get off his chair and get someone to look into it. That's what makes the difference." He doubts Zell ever will sit on a beach and just relax. "He'll be doing this till the day the life is out of him," he says. "He'll continue to run and run."
Mark Lacter
Sam Zell was apparently far, far away from the tension-filled Tribune board room, where the future of the Chicago-based media giant was being hashed out over the weekend. The Chicago Tribune notes that Zell was calling the shots from his Malibu beach home, where he spends lots of time. The 12,000 square-foot property has four family bedrooms, a guest house and a staff wing with kitchen and dining areas. The home, on 1.2 acres, also has a gym, wine cellar and pool. Zell likes it out here, though he's not exactly a conspicuous presence in L.A. or even Malibu.
And...
Joseph Alibrandi, a friend and neighbor in Malibu, says Zell often turns up on the beach with Helen, and, like everyone else, he sits and stares at the ocean. But as he told the Tribune, Zell has a different idea of relaxing than everyone else.
"He'll look at a freighter that passes. He'll think, `That's not the best way. There's a better way to conduct shipping.' Then he'll get off his chair and get someone to look into it. That's what makes the difference." He doubts Zell ever will sit on a beach and just relax. "He'll be doing this till the day the life is out of him," he says. "He'll continue to run and run."
New York Times Doesn't Quite Get LA Times History Correct!
In a somewhat trickily worded phrase... the New York Times seems to imply that the LA Tmes was founded in 1884 by General Otis:
It also ends the financial stake in Tribune of two great American newspaper dynasties: the McCormicks, whose patriarch, Colonel Robert R. McCormick, founded Tribune in 1847; and the Chandlers, whose patriarch, General Harrison Gray Otis, founded Times Mirror in 1884 and who became the biggest shareholder in Tribune when Tribune bought Times Mirror in 2000.
The Times itself was actually founded on December 4, 1881 by Thomas Gardiner and Nathan Cole, Jr. and was printed by the Mirror Printing Office and Book Binder. Within weeks, though, they found expenses far exceeded revenues so the three owners of the printing company (which also had published the Los Angeles Mirror since 1873) took over the operation in early 1882. That summer Harrison Gray Otis agreed to become editor and he was given the option to buy 25% of the paper.
Otis later exercised his option and then in 1884 formed a new holding company for the Times, the Mirror and the printing company - the Times Mirror Company - and brought in Colonel H. H. Boyce as his financial partner to buy out the partners who then owned the other 75% of the paper. Then in 1886 Chandler bought out Boyce to become the sole owner.
So the paper was founded in 1881, Otis became part owner in 1882, he became 50% owner of a re-organized company in 1884 (which is what the NYT correctly refers to) and the sole owner in 1886.
It also ends the financial stake in Tribune of two great American newspaper dynasties: the McCormicks, whose patriarch, Colonel Robert R. McCormick, founded Tribune in 1847; and the Chandlers, whose patriarch, General Harrison Gray Otis, founded Times Mirror in 1884 and who became the biggest shareholder in Tribune when Tribune bought Times Mirror in 2000.
The Times itself was actually founded on December 4, 1881 by Thomas Gardiner and Nathan Cole, Jr. and was printed by the Mirror Printing Office and Book Binder. Within weeks, though, they found expenses far exceeded revenues so the three owners of the printing company (which also had published the Los Angeles Mirror since 1873) took over the operation in early 1882. That summer Harrison Gray Otis agreed to become editor and he was given the option to buy 25% of the paper.
Otis later exercised his option and then in 1884 formed a new holding company for the Times, the Mirror and the printing company - the Times Mirror Company - and brought in Colonel H. H. Boyce as his financial partner to buy out the partners who then owned the other 75% of the paper. Then in 1886 Chandler bought out Boyce to become the sole owner.
So the paper was founded in 1881, Otis became part owner in 1882, he became 50% owner of a re-organized company in 1884 (which is what the NYT correctly refers to) and the sole owner in 1886.
The Grave Digger Sings! Zell New Owner of Tribune - And Los ANgeles Times!
It's official. The Tribune Company and the Los Angeles Times have a new owner. Sam Zell, of Chicago:
Real estate magnate wins bidding for Tribune
By Thomas S. Mulligan and James Rainey
Times Staff Writers
6:29 AM PDT, April 2, 2007
Billionaire real estate mogul Sam Zell has reached an agreement to buy Tribune Co. in a two-stage deal valued at $8.2 billion, or $34 a share, the company said this morning.
Tribune also announced that it would sell the Chicago Cubs baseball team after the 2007 baseball season and the company's 25% interest in its regional cable sports network.
The deal, worth about $13 billion including Tribune's nearly $5 billion in existing debt, would put a 65-year-old entrepreneur famed for turning around troubled properties at the helm of the nation's third-largest newspaper chain and one of its largest conglomerations of television stations.
Zell's offer was sweetened over the weekend to top an eleventh-hour proposal from Los Angeles billionaires Eli Broad and Ron Burkle.
Tribune's board deliberated late into the night Sunday to arrive at a decision that would bring the six-month auction to a close, one day after the company's self-imposed March 31 deadline.
Pending regulatory and shareholder approvals that could take months, Zell would take control of the company in partnership with a newly formed employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP. The new Tribune would be privately held and run by Zell in conjunction with the ESOP, which would be represented by an independent trustee.
The deal represents the second potential sale in a little more than a year of one of the nation's top newspaper operators. McClatchy Co. of Sacramento bought Knight Ridder Inc., previously the second-largest chain by circulation, in March 2006. But McClatchy's subsequent swoon on the stock market – and Tribune's trouble finding a buyer, despite its roster of marquee assets – became emblematic of the decline plaguing old media companies trying to compete with the Internet.
The transaction would mark a watershed for both Chicago and Los Angeles. It would turn the 160-year-old Tribune and its flagship Chicago Tribune, a major economic and political powerhouse in the Midwest, over to a quirky businessman whose previous investments have not had nearly such a high public profile.
And the deal would effectively liberate the Chandler family of California – owners of the Los Angeles Times for more than a century – from a newspaper business with which they have become disillusioned. For the second time in seven years, the Chandlers helped push The Times into the hands of new, Chicago-based owners.
In 2000, the pioneering Los Angeles family sold its control of Times Mirror Co. to Tribune. And the Chandlers' remaining 20% stake in Tribune still gave them enough leverage to demand the strategic review that that would end with this sale. The auction did not turn into anything like a bidding contest until Broad and Burkle submitted their revised offer, which they valued at $34 a share, or $8.1 billion, late last week.
Zell, a maverick who fancies Ducati motorcyles, leather jackets and rousing games of paintball, had himself not entered the bidding until early February, after Tribune's deadline for offers.
Zell made his move at a time when he was still negotiating the second-biggest leveraged buyout in history – the sale of his Equity Office Properties Trust commercial real estate empire for $23 billion to Blackstone Group, a New York private equity firm.
Several private equity firms and newspaper industry giant Gannett Co. had taken a look at Tribune but backed away from bidding on the whole company. The fragmentation of audiences and advertising leakage to the Internet scared off many potential investors.
But Zell said he saw reason to be hopeful about the company's prospects and he has told executives in the company that he has particularly high hopes for Tribune's Internet holdings, which include 42.5% of the largest online job search site, CareerBuilder.com.
He said in an interview with the Associated Press last month that he was more bullish on the company's core businesses than most. "I just think that newspapers are a part of our life and they're a part of our culture and a part of our society," Zell said, "and there will always be a place for them."
Although Zell had indicated earlier that he was not looking at the company from "a breakup perspective," wealthy individuals and groups in several cities have expressed an interest in buying some of Tribune's papers and might press the new owners to sell to them.
Burkle and Broad have said they were principally interested in Tribune to obtain the Los Angeles Times and maintain it as a first-rate newspaper. Billionaire entertainment mogul David Geffen offered the company $2 billion for The Times alone and has given no indication he has lost interest in acquiring the paper.
Such local buyers have come to be seen as one of the last groups still interested in newspapers. Tribune's operating profit has dipped from its 2003 high of $1.36 billion to $1.09 billion in 2006. The falloff in newspaper advertising continued, or even accelerated, in the first months of 2007.
Those declines have been reflected in the price of Tribune shares, which reached nearly $52 a share in spring 2004 but languished below $28 last year before a stock buyback and attendant protests by the Chandler family kicked off the auction.
Tribune became a publicly traded company in 1983, thriving on 20%-plus profit margins of its flagship Chicago Tribune and, in particular, its Orlando Sentinel and South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
The company's biggest expansion, in 2000, would become its most problematic. It bought out the Chandler family's Times Mirror Co. for $8 billion – acquiring not only The Times but the Baltimore Sun and Newsday of Long Island.
Although those papers had fine journalistic reputations, they did not produce the stellar profit margins that had been the norm for most Tribune publications. The combined company hoped to attract an audience and advertisers because of its ownership of newspapers and television stations in the three largest markets – New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
But the new Tribune was immediately hit by a national recession, and the hoped-for synergies paled in comparison to expectations. The company might have considered a sale of its assets but had held most for so long that the potential capital gains taxes would have been devastating.
The seven independent directors who oversaw the deal (minus three Chandler family representatives and Chief Executive Dennis FitzSimons) focused instead on the sale of all of Tribune. They received offers in January from the Burkle-Broad partnership and from the Chandlers but found that both amounted to reorganizations that did not offer a premium and that the company could accomplish on its own.
Real estate magnate wins bidding for Tribune
By Thomas S. Mulligan and James Rainey
Times Staff Writers
6:29 AM PDT, April 2, 2007
Billionaire real estate mogul Sam Zell has reached an agreement to buy Tribune Co. in a two-stage deal valued at $8.2 billion, or $34 a share, the company said this morning.
Tribune also announced that it would sell the Chicago Cubs baseball team after the 2007 baseball season and the company's 25% interest in its regional cable sports network.
The deal, worth about $13 billion including Tribune's nearly $5 billion in existing debt, would put a 65-year-old entrepreneur famed for turning around troubled properties at the helm of the nation's third-largest newspaper chain and one of its largest conglomerations of television stations.
Zell's offer was sweetened over the weekend to top an eleventh-hour proposal from Los Angeles billionaires Eli Broad and Ron Burkle.
Tribune's board deliberated late into the night Sunday to arrive at a decision that would bring the six-month auction to a close, one day after the company's self-imposed March 31 deadline.
Pending regulatory and shareholder approvals that could take months, Zell would take control of the company in partnership with a newly formed employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP. The new Tribune would be privately held and run by Zell in conjunction with the ESOP, which would be represented by an independent trustee.
The deal represents the second potential sale in a little more than a year of one of the nation's top newspaper operators. McClatchy Co. of Sacramento bought Knight Ridder Inc., previously the second-largest chain by circulation, in March 2006. But McClatchy's subsequent swoon on the stock market – and Tribune's trouble finding a buyer, despite its roster of marquee assets – became emblematic of the decline plaguing old media companies trying to compete with the Internet.
The transaction would mark a watershed for both Chicago and Los Angeles. It would turn the 160-year-old Tribune and its flagship Chicago Tribune, a major economic and political powerhouse in the Midwest, over to a quirky businessman whose previous investments have not had nearly such a high public profile.
And the deal would effectively liberate the Chandler family of California – owners of the Los Angeles Times for more than a century – from a newspaper business with which they have become disillusioned. For the second time in seven years, the Chandlers helped push The Times into the hands of new, Chicago-based owners.
In 2000, the pioneering Los Angeles family sold its control of Times Mirror Co. to Tribune. And the Chandlers' remaining 20% stake in Tribune still gave them enough leverage to demand the strategic review that that would end with this sale. The auction did not turn into anything like a bidding contest until Broad and Burkle submitted their revised offer, which they valued at $34 a share, or $8.1 billion, late last week.
Zell, a maverick who fancies Ducati motorcyles, leather jackets and rousing games of paintball, had himself not entered the bidding until early February, after Tribune's deadline for offers.
Zell made his move at a time when he was still negotiating the second-biggest leveraged buyout in history – the sale of his Equity Office Properties Trust commercial real estate empire for $23 billion to Blackstone Group, a New York private equity firm.
Several private equity firms and newspaper industry giant Gannett Co. had taken a look at Tribune but backed away from bidding on the whole company. The fragmentation of audiences and advertising leakage to the Internet scared off many potential investors.
But Zell said he saw reason to be hopeful about the company's prospects and he has told executives in the company that he has particularly high hopes for Tribune's Internet holdings, which include 42.5% of the largest online job search site, CareerBuilder.com.
He said in an interview with the Associated Press last month that he was more bullish on the company's core businesses than most. "I just think that newspapers are a part of our life and they're a part of our culture and a part of our society," Zell said, "and there will always be a place for them."
Although Zell had indicated earlier that he was not looking at the company from "a breakup perspective," wealthy individuals and groups in several cities have expressed an interest in buying some of Tribune's papers and might press the new owners to sell to them.
Burkle and Broad have said they were principally interested in Tribune to obtain the Los Angeles Times and maintain it as a first-rate newspaper. Billionaire entertainment mogul David Geffen offered the company $2 billion for The Times alone and has given no indication he has lost interest in acquiring the paper.
Such local buyers have come to be seen as one of the last groups still interested in newspapers. Tribune's operating profit has dipped from its 2003 high of $1.36 billion to $1.09 billion in 2006. The falloff in newspaper advertising continued, or even accelerated, in the first months of 2007.
Those declines have been reflected in the price of Tribune shares, which reached nearly $52 a share in spring 2004 but languished below $28 last year before a stock buyback and attendant protests by the Chandler family kicked off the auction.
Tribune became a publicly traded company in 1983, thriving on 20%-plus profit margins of its flagship Chicago Tribune and, in particular, its Orlando Sentinel and South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
The company's biggest expansion, in 2000, would become its most problematic. It bought out the Chandler family's Times Mirror Co. for $8 billion – acquiring not only The Times but the Baltimore Sun and Newsday of Long Island.
Although those papers had fine journalistic reputations, they did not produce the stellar profit margins that had been the norm for most Tribune publications. The combined company hoped to attract an audience and advertisers because of its ownership of newspapers and television stations in the three largest markets – New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
But the new Tribune was immediately hit by a national recession, and the hoped-for synergies paled in comparison to expectations. The company might have considered a sale of its assets but had held most for so long that the potential capital gains taxes would have been devastating.
The seven independent directors who oversaw the deal (minus three Chandler family representatives and Chief Executive Dennis FitzSimons) focused instead on the sale of all of Tribune. They received offers in January from the Burkle-Broad partnership and from the Chandlers but found that both amounted to reorganizations that did not offer a premium and that the company could accomplish on its own.
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Interesting Take On Zell In His HomeTown Paper - The Chicago Tribune!
A somewhat... more favorable... view of Mr. Zell in his local paper. It's long, but worth reading every word:
Tribune board weighs Zell's new offer
By Michael Oneal and David Greising
Tribune staff reporters
April 2, 2007, 1:26 AM CDT
Tribune Co.'s board of directors negotiated late into Sunday night on a deal aimed at handing control of the 159-year-old Chicago Tribune and other major media properties to maverick Chicago billionaire Sam Zell for $13 billion.
If Tribune's board can work out the last-minute details on a revised bid that raised Zell's price to $34 a share, one of the most buttoned-down corporations in America would be controlled by Zell, who has relished a life and career as an outsider from his contrarian investment philosophy to his full-throttle lifestyle.
Zell's bid seemed positioned to trump an 11th-hour offer from rival billionaires Ron Burkle and Eli Broad of Los Angeles. Though Zell's initial $33-a-share bid fell short of the Burkle and Broad offer of $34 a share, Zell matched them late Sunday and Tribune's board seemed to be leaning his way.
The situation was still fluid, and sources cautioned that a deal might not be completed. Tribune directors were hoping to finalize a pact before markets open Monday morning.
Zell, who did not even submit a bid before the company's initial deadline, seemed to jump into the driver's seat in mid-February by suggesting his offer could be financed with the help of a tax-efficient employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP. Broad and Burkle countered with their own ESOP late last week as the Tribune's self-imposed March 31 deadline loomed.
The deal, which would return Tribune to private ownership, would make the company one of the most heavily-indebted enterprises in the media industry at a time of falling readership and declining advertising revenues. But Zell likes to say a true entrepreneur has unending self-confidence--that he doesn't see risk; he sees only solutions.
That might explain why the flamboyant Chicago real estate magnate believes he can transform Tribune Co. even while the industry is an unprecedented state of siege from the Internet...
Tribune board weighs Zell's new offer
By Michael Oneal and David Greising
Tribune staff reporters
April 2, 2007, 1:26 AM CDT
Tribune Co.'s board of directors negotiated late into Sunday night on a deal aimed at handing control of the 159-year-old Chicago Tribune and other major media properties to maverick Chicago billionaire Sam Zell for $13 billion.
If Tribune's board can work out the last-minute details on a revised bid that raised Zell's price to $34 a share, one of the most buttoned-down corporations in America would be controlled by Zell, who has relished a life and career as an outsider from his contrarian investment philosophy to his full-throttle lifestyle.
Zell's bid seemed positioned to trump an 11th-hour offer from rival billionaires Ron Burkle and Eli Broad of Los Angeles. Though Zell's initial $33-a-share bid fell short of the Burkle and Broad offer of $34 a share, Zell matched them late Sunday and Tribune's board seemed to be leaning his way.
The situation was still fluid, and sources cautioned that a deal might not be completed. Tribune directors were hoping to finalize a pact before markets open Monday morning.
Zell, who did not even submit a bid before the company's initial deadline, seemed to jump into the driver's seat in mid-February by suggesting his offer could be financed with the help of a tax-efficient employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP. Broad and Burkle countered with their own ESOP late last week as the Tribune's self-imposed March 31 deadline loomed.
The deal, which would return Tribune to private ownership, would make the company one of the most heavily-indebted enterprises in the media industry at a time of falling readership and declining advertising revenues. But Zell likes to say a true entrepreneur has unending self-confidence--that he doesn't see risk; he sees only solutions.
That might explain why the flamboyant Chicago real estate magnate believes he can transform Tribune Co. even while the industry is an unprecedented state of siege from the Internet...
LA Times Does Expose On.... Sam Zell!
Instead of whistling past the graveyard while Grave Dancer - Sam Zell - may be doing the final dance on the grave of the LA Times, the Times decided to greet their potential new owner with both guns blazing....
A Zell-led company battles with tenants
A mobile-home park operator run by the billionaire aims to extract value by challenging local rent-control laws.
By Thomas S. Mulligan
Times Staff Writer
April 2, 2007
Billionaire Sam Zell has said a number of times that his interest in acquiring Tribune Co. is purely economic — not egotism, not passion for the company-owned Chicago Cubs, not a soft spot for newspapers.
The 65-year-old Chicagoan has nicknamed himself the Grave Dancer because of his ability to see profit opportunities where others see miles of bad road.
Zell's dogged pursuit of Tribune has left many people wondering how this dealer in distressed properties would run one of the nation's largest media companies, whose holdings include the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, KTLA-TV Channel 5 and cable channel WGN.
But don't look for sympathy from the paintball fanatic who Forbes says is worth $4.5 billion, say people who have had dealings with a lesser-known enterprise led by Zell. They say that since becoming the largest mobile-home landlord, the company has battled cities across the country, enlisting teams of lawyers to challenge local rent-control laws and raise rents.
"He very proudly calls himself a vulture investor," said Beverly Berry, a mobile-home tenant. "Certainly that's the way he's acted with us."
A Zell-led company battles with tenants
A mobile-home park operator run by the billionaire aims to extract value by challenging local rent-control laws.
By Thomas S. Mulligan
Times Staff Writer
April 2, 2007
Billionaire Sam Zell has said a number of times that his interest in acquiring Tribune Co. is purely economic — not egotism, not passion for the company-owned Chicago Cubs, not a soft spot for newspapers.
The 65-year-old Chicagoan has nicknamed himself the Grave Dancer because of his ability to see profit opportunities where others see miles of bad road.
Zell's dogged pursuit of Tribune has left many people wondering how this dealer in distressed properties would run one of the nation's largest media companies, whose holdings include the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, KTLA-TV Channel 5 and cable channel WGN.
But don't look for sympathy from the paintball fanatic who Forbes says is worth $4.5 billion, say people who have had dealings with a lesser-known enterprise led by Zell. They say that since becoming the largest mobile-home landlord, the company has battled cities across the country, enlisting teams of lawyers to challenge local rent-control laws and raise rents.
"He very proudly calls himself a vulture investor," said Beverly Berry, a mobile-home tenant. "Certainly that's the way he's acted with us."
Update! Zell Returned With New Bid For Tribune/Times Tonight!
New York Times
April 2, 2007
Real Estate Tycoon Increases Bid for Tribune
By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
Sam Zell, the Chicago real estate tycoon, took another step toward winning the auction for the Tribune Company late last night when he agreed to raise his bid at the urging of the company's board, according to people close to the talks.
The board had indicated that if Mr. Zell were to make a high enough offer, it would be prepared to sell its 160-year-old media empire to him.
April 2, 2007
Real Estate Tycoon Increases Bid for Tribune
By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
Sam Zell, the Chicago real estate tycoon, took another step toward winning the auction for the Tribune Company late last night when he agreed to raise his bid at the urging of the company's board, according to people close to the talks.
The board had indicated that if Mr. Zell were to make a high enough offer, it would be prepared to sell its 160-year-old media empire to him.
Going... Going... Gone?? Is Tonight The Night The Times - And The Tribune - Sells?
It could be...
New York Times
April 2, 2007
Tribune Presses Real Estate Magnate to Increase His Bid
By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
In last-minute negotiations tonight, executives for the Tribune Company were pushing Sam Zell, the Chicago real estate tycoon, to increase his bid for the company. If Mr. Zell were to make a higher offer, the company seemed prepared to announce him as the winner of the bidding, according to people close to the process.
If Mr. Zell were to walk away, it was not clear whether the Tribune board members would accept a rival bid from Ronald W. Burkle and Eli Broad, two Los Angeles billionaires, or whether they would decide to restructure the company themselves.
Last week, Mr. Zell’s bid of $33 a share, which he already increased once, had been $1 below the Burkle-Broad bid.
On Friday afternoon, Tribune executives told Mr. Zell that he would have to offer them more money if he wanted to buy the company, the people said; Mr. Zell came back with a new bid of close to $34 a share.
The Tribune board met on Sunday morning and rejected Mr. Zell’s latest offer, telling him he would have to increase it yet again and giving him 12 hours to do so. People close to the situation, who sought anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the news media, said the board planned to meet late Sunday night, but it was not clear what Mr. Zell would do or whether he would return with an offer at all.
The Tribune board has favored Mr. Zell over Mr. Burkle and Mr. Broad, in part because Mr. Zell’s offer is further along and could be finished more quickly, these people said. In addition, the board would prefer to sell the company stay in the hands of a Chicagoan like Mr. Zell, rather than to people with ties to Los Angeles.
Mr. Zell, who has said his sole interest in buying Tribune is economic, not editorial, has made billions in real estate and has been known to walk away from deals that he thought were too expensive.
Tribune, which owns The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, nine other papers and 23 broadcast outlets, has been on the auction block since September. There was little interest in it, although Mr. Broad and Mr. Burkle combined in January to offer $27 a share. The board dismissed that and began concentrating on a plan to have management restructure the company itself, including spinning off the television properties.
But Mr. Zell entered the picture in February and has been negotiating back and forth over the last several weeks. The board has seesawed on his bid, perceiving it as still too low and also concerned that he would be putting in only $300 million of his own money and taking on too much debt. He centered his proposal on an employee stock ownership plan.
Then last week, Mr. Broad and Mr. Burkle complained that in order for Mr. Zell to offer a stock ownership plan, he must have received financial information that they had not received earlier. They revived their plan, offering $34 a share and $500 million of their own money and also basing it on a stock ownership plan.
New York Times
April 2, 2007
Tribune Presses Real Estate Magnate to Increase His Bid
By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
In last-minute negotiations tonight, executives for the Tribune Company were pushing Sam Zell, the Chicago real estate tycoon, to increase his bid for the company. If Mr. Zell were to make a higher offer, the company seemed prepared to announce him as the winner of the bidding, according to people close to the process.
If Mr. Zell were to walk away, it was not clear whether the Tribune board members would accept a rival bid from Ronald W. Burkle and Eli Broad, two Los Angeles billionaires, or whether they would decide to restructure the company themselves.
Last week, Mr. Zell’s bid of $33 a share, which he already increased once, had been $1 below the Burkle-Broad bid.
On Friday afternoon, Tribune executives told Mr. Zell that he would have to offer them more money if he wanted to buy the company, the people said; Mr. Zell came back with a new bid of close to $34 a share.
The Tribune board met on Sunday morning and rejected Mr. Zell’s latest offer, telling him he would have to increase it yet again and giving him 12 hours to do so. People close to the situation, who sought anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the news media, said the board planned to meet late Sunday night, but it was not clear what Mr. Zell would do or whether he would return with an offer at all.
The Tribune board has favored Mr. Zell over Mr. Burkle and Mr. Broad, in part because Mr. Zell’s offer is further along and could be finished more quickly, these people said. In addition, the board would prefer to sell the company stay in the hands of a Chicagoan like Mr. Zell, rather than to people with ties to Los Angeles.
Mr. Zell, who has said his sole interest in buying Tribune is economic, not editorial, has made billions in real estate and has been known to walk away from deals that he thought were too expensive.
Tribune, which owns The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, nine other papers and 23 broadcast outlets, has been on the auction block since September. There was little interest in it, although Mr. Broad and Mr. Burkle combined in January to offer $27 a share. The board dismissed that and began concentrating on a plan to have management restructure the company itself, including spinning off the television properties.
But Mr. Zell entered the picture in February and has been negotiating back and forth over the last several weeks. The board has seesawed on his bid, perceiving it as still too low and also concerned that he would be putting in only $300 million of his own money and taking on too much debt. He centered his proposal on an employee stock ownership plan.
Then last week, Mr. Broad and Mr. Burkle complained that in order for Mr. Zell to offer a stock ownership plan, he must have received financial information that they had not received earlier. They revived their plan, offering $34 a share and $500 million of their own money and also basing it on a stock ownership plan.
Friday, March 30, 2007
Architecture and Design Museum (A+ D Museum) Opens Final Show Before Being Evicted!
Well, evicted is a bit strong. Their current Miracle Mile landlords generously gave them the space for free for more than a year but now the building's owners have leased the space so when this show closes, so does the space. So the A + D Museum needs to find a new home, once again.
And hopefully, they can return downtown to a place not far from the Bradbury Building where they started as I will be showing them a potential space shortly right in the heart of Gallery Row.
As for the show, Enlightened Development, it is a wide ranging look at many better quality developments throughout the greater Los Angeles area. And it will be up for over two months - so hit the above link and go see the show!
Addressing the audience were one of A + D's founders, architect Stephen Kanner, long time museum supporter/developer Dan Rosenfeld and Councilman Bernard Parks.
Among those in attendance I also chatted with about various civic projects we are either already working on - or hopefully will be working on together - were the essential Merrie Norris, critic Sam Hall Kaplan, urban planner Doug Suisan, Councilman Jose Huizar aide Amy Yeager, LA Conservancy stalwart John English and architects Bob Hale & Richard Corsini.
And hopefully, they can return downtown to a place not far from the Bradbury Building where they started as I will be showing them a potential space shortly right in the heart of Gallery Row.
As for the show, Enlightened Development, it is a wide ranging look at many better quality developments throughout the greater Los Angeles area. And it will be up for over two months - so hit the above link and go see the show!
Addressing the audience were one of A + D's founders, architect Stephen Kanner, long time museum supporter/developer Dan Rosenfeld and Councilman Bernard Parks.
Among those in attendance I also chatted with about various civic projects we are either already working on - or hopefully will be working on together - were the essential Merrie Norris, critic Sam Hall Kaplan, urban planner Doug Suisan, Councilman Jose Huizar aide Amy Yeager, LA Conservancy stalwart John English and architects Bob Hale & Richard Corsini.
Retail Rises In Downtown!
Today's Times has an article surveying the growing retail market in Downtown Los Angeles which is a switch from articles last year that bemoaned how new retail was still the missing element in the Downtown retail.
Well, no longer.
I've done over thirty leases in the Historic Core (all pro bono) and the first to come were the art galleries and creative businesses and organizations that didn't need a street level presence. Next were the restaurants, bakeries and bars. Now... finally... clothing, furniture and other retail. Today I am working with over a dozen potential tenants.
As a harbinger of the future, the Planning Committee of the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council (which I sit on) is seeing increasing numbers of applications for restaurants, bars... and now retail. In fact, just one project we endorsed at the committee level last Wednesday had over 250,000 square feet of retail and restaurants with numerous major national retailers being mentioned as potential tenants. And two more supermarkets were also proposed at that meeting besides the soon to open Ralphs and the already planned market on Grand Avenue.
Ironically, the proposed Italian restaurant/gourmet market is being built very near where a proposed Italian Cultural center might be invited to build.
Well, no longer.
I've done over thirty leases in the Historic Core (all pro bono) and the first to come were the art galleries and creative businesses and organizations that didn't need a street level presence. Next were the restaurants, bakeries and bars. Now... finally... clothing, furniture and other retail. Today I am working with over a dozen potential tenants.
As a harbinger of the future, the Planning Committee of the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council (which I sit on) is seeing increasing numbers of applications for restaurants, bars... and now retail. In fact, just one project we endorsed at the committee level last Wednesday had over 250,000 square feet of retail and restaurants with numerous major national retailers being mentioned as potential tenants. And two more supermarkets were also proposed at that meeting besides the soon to open Ralphs and the already planned market on Grand Avenue.
Ironically, the proposed Italian restaurant/gourmet market is being built very near where a proposed Italian Cultural center might be invited to build.
Has downtown L.A. finally arrived?
The district's revival appears to be picking up steam as national chains seek store sites to serve the growing residential population.
By Cara Mia DiMassa
Times Staff Writer
March 30, 2007
The construction cranes that are roosting all over downtown these days are one thing. But the real hints that the neighborhood is changing come in more subtle forms — such as the tours Derrick Moore has been giving around downtown recently.
Moore, a senior associate in CB Richard Ellis' Urban Development Group, has been helping representatives from national chain stores such as Walgreen's and the Outback Steakhouse group — who have long shied away from downtown — search for properties in the area. He has wined and dined potential retailers at local hotspots — and found their reaction a distinct shift from even a few months ago, when most took a wait-and-see attitude toward the neighborhood.
What has changed, downtown backers say, is how the burgeoning neighborhood is being perceived. After years of being not quite there, retailers seem to think that the area has reached — or is near reaching — a tipping point.
Residents have moved in, with the population now at 30,000. Some of downtown's long-anticipated, large-scale projects — including a supermarket and a movie theater — are only months from opening.
It's this trend that is behind much of the debate over the city's proposal to sell the air rights above the Los Angeles Convention Center, allowing developers to build larger and denser residential buildings downtown.
Because the Convention Center was originally zoned for towers, the city wants to sell the unused airspace as a way of boosting development elsewhere in downtown beyond what current zoning laws allow.
Backers argue that selling air rights would boost downtown's residential population even more. The more residents downtown can lure, the thinking goes, the larger the market for upscale retail. Until now, retail development has lagged behind residential development, with some merchants waiting to see whether the downtown boom is for real.
Questions about downtown's future have heightened with the recent cooling of Southern California's real estate market. But downtown so far doesn't appear to be suffering much, and there are growing signs that retail is actually strengthening.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
LA Times Website Guru To Address Neighborhood Councils This Saturday!
Los Angeles Neighborhood Councils Congress
Senate Agenda
Saturday March 31, 2007
(12:30 p.m.)
DIFFERENT LOCATION THAN NORMAL!!!
LOS ANGELES CITY COLLEGE
855 N. Vermont
http://www.lacitycollege.edu/public/cmap/map.html
Room 105 Holmes Hall - just west of Alliance’s meeting place
One-half block from Vermont/Santa Monica Blvd. Red Line Station
Parking is across Vermont from LACC. Coming north or south on the 101 (Hollywood) Freeway, exit onto VERMONT. Turn NORTH to MARATHON ST. Turn EAST onto MARATHON, then NORTH into the lot. http://www.allncs.org/meetings.htm & Holmes Hall is due left of the faculty lounge as shown on the map.
1. Call to order and roll call.
2. Approval of the minutes
3. Public Comment (2 minutes per speaker on non-agenda items)
4. Reports from board members/Neighborhood Councils including: Tarzana asks that Neighborhood Councils be granted the right of appeal on planning and zoning matters and San Pedro requests that a citywide transportation plan to be developed in consultation with the NC’s.
5. Discussion/vote on date of board officer elections now scheduled for May. Open nominations.
6. Report on SAVING LA CONFERENCE & other committee reports.
7. Rob Barrett, head of interactive media and the website of the Los Angeles Times, will discuss how the Times will cover local neighborhoods and how the NC's can be a part of that coverage.
7. Report on DONE Congress & LANCC participation.
8. Other committee reports.
9. Formation of any new committees.
10. Public Comment
11. Future Agenda Items
12. Adjournment.
NEXT LANCC Senate Meeting: Saturday May 5th 10 AM
Senate Agenda
Saturday March 31, 2007
(12:30 p.m.)
DIFFERENT LOCATION THAN NORMAL!!!
LOS ANGELES CITY COLLEGE
855 N. Vermont
http://www.lacitycollege.edu/public/cmap/map.html
Room 105 Holmes Hall - just west of Alliance’s meeting place
One-half block from Vermont/Santa Monica Blvd. Red Line Station
Parking is across Vermont from LACC. Coming north or south on the 101 (Hollywood) Freeway, exit onto VERMONT. Turn NORTH to MARATHON ST. Turn EAST onto MARATHON, then NORTH into the lot. http://www.allncs.org/meetings.htm & Holmes Hall is due left of the faculty lounge as shown on the map.
1. Call to order and roll call.
2. Approval of the minutes
3. Public Comment (2 minutes per speaker on non-agenda items)
4. Reports from board members/Neighborhood Councils including: Tarzana asks that Neighborhood Councils be granted the right of appeal on planning and zoning matters and San Pedro requests that a citywide transportation plan to be developed in consultation with the NC’s.
5. Discussion/vote on date of board officer elections now scheduled for May. Open nominations.
6. Report on SAVING LA CONFERENCE & other committee reports.
7. Rob Barrett, head of interactive media and the website of the Los Angeles Times, will discuss how the Times will cover local neighborhoods and how the NC's can be a part of that coverage.
7. Report on DONE Congress & LANCC participation.
8. Other committee reports.
9. Formation of any new committees.
10. Public Comment
11. Future Agenda Items
12. Adjournment.
NEXT LANCC Senate Meeting: Saturday May 5th 10 AM
Right After Al Gore Invented The... Internet... USC Invented - The Neighborhood Councils!
At a press conference about a long overdue focus on entrepreneurship and the commercialization of ideas generated at local universities - which has has been done at Stanford and MIT for years, USC announced it is about to get into the act. Much more on this later tonight.
But first... an interesting - if totally spurious - claim that USC developed the concept of neighborhood councils.
Traditionally, schools tend to focus on inventions and ideas connected to science and technology and ignore others, but officials said all disciplines must be included for maximum benefit to the public's quality of life. Innovative ideas could also include nonprofit organizations that aid a community. For example, many years ago, a USC professor from the School of Policy, Planning and Development developed the concept of the neighborhood council, according to the institute's director.
Well, the neighborhood council movement has been around in other cities long before the idea was ever broached here - and that history is too well known to need to go into detail. But even if NC's had been invented in LA - everyone knows that they would have been invented at UCLA.
But first... an interesting - if totally spurious - claim that USC developed the concept of neighborhood councils.
Traditionally, schools tend to focus on inventions and ideas connected to science and technology and ignore others, but officials said all disciplines must be included for maximum benefit to the public's quality of life. Innovative ideas could also include nonprofit organizations that aid a community. For example, many years ago, a USC professor from the School of Policy, Planning and Development developed the concept of the neighborhood council, according to the institute's director.
Well, the neighborhood council movement has been around in other cities long before the idea was ever broached here - and that history is too well known to need to go into detail. But even if NC's had been invented in LA - everyone knows that they would have been invented at UCLA.
With All The Sturm Und Drang At The Los Angeles Times - Has Anyone Else Noticed - The End Product Is Getting Better And Better?
Ignoring the insanity of the past week (more later) - and the impending Anschluss by the Grave Dancer - the quality of the writing at the LA Times by the up coming writers (and the best of the veteran reporters) and the increasing quantity of the local coverage continues to impress.
Today's example is the Column One piece by 2004 Pulizer prize co-winner Hector Becerra on... weathermen; a wonderfully crafted essay of the type the New Yorker used to publish back when the New Yorker was still the New Yorker.
Below is the opening:
COLUMN ONE
Perhaps the best weatherman in town
By Hector Becerra
Times Staff Writer
March 29, 2007
THE celebrity TV weatherman was pretty much invented in Los Angeles. They have names like Dallas Raines and Johnny Mountain, and before them, the avuncular man in the bow tie known to millions simply as Dr. George.
Steve Martin mocked this culture in his movie "L.A. Story," in which he plays a weatherman who tapes his forecasts in advance because, well, L.A. has no weather.
But although the TV news provides the overnight lows and five-day forecasts, the job of understanding the weather and making the long-term predictions falls to the meteorologists and climatologists who toil behind the scenes.
Many work for the federal government and universities. They are generally a conservative bunch, quick with the caveat and the nuance — knowing their forecasts can have huge and costly implications, including how farmers plant their crops and how government agencies calibrate water supplies.
Then there is Bill Patzert...
Another great piece of his is about the passing of his sister... and many other things:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cemetery16jan16,1,176004.story?coll=la-headlines-california
COLUMN ONE
A vigil for the living
By Hector Becerra
Times Staff Writer
January 16, 2007
I PARKED my car on the salt-and-pepper asphalt and crossed the grassy expanse, weaving around headstones.
Clutching flowers and lyrics from a U2 song, I looked for the grave of my sister, Michelle Melissa Becerra.
She was a 22-year-old art history major at UCLA, just months from graduation. She was 10 years younger than I, the baby among my five brothers and sisters.
Michelle and I rarely interacted and I never really understood why. And yet the last time I saw her, Michelle asked whether we were going to take that summer trip to our parents' hometown in central Mexico. I told her to just let me know when. I was looking forward to the trip because I was sure we would bond.
Days later, she lay dead just blocks from home, killed when a car flipped onto the sidewalk where she was walking.
After her burial, I was filled with grief, and regret that I had never had a heart-to-heart talk with my little sister. Certain words should have come from my mouth, even if they made Michelle blush or fidget.
And now she was gone. It was as if she had just disappeared. And so, as lame as it felt to act so belatedly, I had to "talk" to Michelle, even if I had to do so over her drab headstone.
After about 15 minutes of searching, I found the black marker.
And there they were. The two old men.
They were no more than 10 feet away, sitting in lawn chairs and chatting about who knows what. They looked as perfectly at ease as I suddenly felt self-conscious.
With the men in the corner of my eye, words failed me. I didn't want to cry in front of them. I had never found the right words for Michelle when she was alive, and now she was dead, and these men weren't making it any easier. I wanted to tell Michelle that I loved her, but the words would not come out.
I stood quietly by her grave for a few minutes before leaving.
I came back a few months later with more flowers and yet another page of U2 lyrics. And sure enough, the pair were there, this time joined by a few other older men.
I tensed with annoyance, resentful that I didn't have any privacy.
My older brother Javier described a similar scene. Every time he visited the Resurrection Cemetery in Montebello, he said, it seemed they were talking about "mundane stuff," how their cars don't work, what they saw on TV, good lunch spots.
The scene repeated itself over a year and a half until one morning, about two months ago, I showed up just after the grass had been trimmed and watered. There was a soup of mud spread all over my sister's headstone. I bent down and began to wipe it away with my hand.
One of the men, mustached and wearing sunglasses, quietly walked over and handed me a rag. He retreated to his chair as I cleaned Michelle's headstone.
For the first time, I made out parts of their conversation. The man talked about how when he was young, all the kids used to chase after the water truck to take a bath.
Almost against my will, I smiled....
Today's example is the Column One piece by 2004 Pulizer prize co-winner Hector Becerra on... weathermen; a wonderfully crafted essay of the type the New Yorker used to publish back when the New Yorker was still the New Yorker.
Below is the opening:
COLUMN ONE
Perhaps the best weatherman in town
By Hector Becerra
Times Staff Writer
March 29, 2007
THE celebrity TV weatherman was pretty much invented in Los Angeles. They have names like Dallas Raines and Johnny Mountain, and before them, the avuncular man in the bow tie known to millions simply as Dr. George.
Steve Martin mocked this culture in his movie "L.A. Story," in which he plays a weatherman who tapes his forecasts in advance because, well, L.A. has no weather.
But although the TV news provides the overnight lows and five-day forecasts, the job of understanding the weather and making the long-term predictions falls to the meteorologists and climatologists who toil behind the scenes.
Many work for the federal government and universities. They are generally a conservative bunch, quick with the caveat and the nuance — knowing their forecasts can have huge and costly implications, including how farmers plant their crops and how government agencies calibrate water supplies.
Then there is Bill Patzert...
Another great piece of his is about the passing of his sister... and many other things:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cemetery16jan16,1,176004.story?coll=la-headlines-california
COLUMN ONE
A vigil for the living
By Hector Becerra
Times Staff Writer
January 16, 2007
I PARKED my car on the salt-and-pepper asphalt and crossed the grassy expanse, weaving around headstones.
Clutching flowers and lyrics from a U2 song, I looked for the grave of my sister, Michelle Melissa Becerra.
She was a 22-year-old art history major at UCLA, just months from graduation. She was 10 years younger than I, the baby among my five brothers and sisters.
Michelle and I rarely interacted and I never really understood why. And yet the last time I saw her, Michelle asked whether we were going to take that summer trip to our parents' hometown in central Mexico. I told her to just let me know when. I was looking forward to the trip because I was sure we would bond.
Days later, she lay dead just blocks from home, killed when a car flipped onto the sidewalk where she was walking.
After her burial, I was filled with grief, and regret that I had never had a heart-to-heart talk with my little sister. Certain words should have come from my mouth, even if they made Michelle blush or fidget.
And now she was gone. It was as if she had just disappeared. And so, as lame as it felt to act so belatedly, I had to "talk" to Michelle, even if I had to do so over her drab headstone.
After about 15 minutes of searching, I found the black marker.
And there they were. The two old men.
They were no more than 10 feet away, sitting in lawn chairs and chatting about who knows what. They looked as perfectly at ease as I suddenly felt self-conscious.
With the men in the corner of my eye, words failed me. I didn't want to cry in front of them. I had never found the right words for Michelle when she was alive, and now she was dead, and these men weren't making it any easier. I wanted to tell Michelle that I loved her, but the words would not come out.
I stood quietly by her grave for a few minutes before leaving.
I came back a few months later with more flowers and yet another page of U2 lyrics. And sure enough, the pair were there, this time joined by a few other older men.
I tensed with annoyance, resentful that I didn't have any privacy.
My older brother Javier described a similar scene. Every time he visited the Resurrection Cemetery in Montebello, he said, it seemed they were talking about "mundane stuff," how their cars don't work, what they saw on TV, good lunch spots.
The scene repeated itself over a year and a half until one morning, about two months ago, I showed up just after the grass had been trimmed and watered. There was a soup of mud spread all over my sister's headstone. I bent down and began to wipe it away with my hand.
One of the men, mustached and wearing sunglasses, quietly walked over and handed me a rag. He retreated to his chair as I cleaned Michelle's headstone.
For the first time, I made out parts of their conversation. The man talked about how when he was young, all the kids used to chase after the water truck to take a bath.
Almost against my will, I smiled....
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Kevin Roderick's Father, Robert Roderick, Passes At Age 89
Sadly, not long after I posted the good news of my father reaching age 84, I returned to my office to see that Kevin Roderick just lost his father at age 89.
Point of personal privilege
The News & Chatter side of LA Observed plans to stand down for a day or so to mark the passing of my father. Robert Roderick lived to 89 and will be missed by many, among them the ethnic restaurateurs he helped keep in business around the San Fernando Valley. Those selected bloggers, columnists and political aides who would find his unsolicited email tips in their in-boxes are on their own now.
My condolences to Kevin and all his family.
Point of personal privilege
The News & Chatter side of LA Observed plans to stand down for a day or so to mark the passing of my father. Robert Roderick lived to 89 and will be missed by many, among them the ethnic restaurateurs he helped keep in business around the San Fernando Valley. Those selected bloggers, columnists and political aides who would find his unsolicited email tips in their in-boxes are on their own now.
My condolences to Kevin and all his family.
Happy Birthday Dad!
Yesterday was my father's eighty-fourth birthday and he spent it like he spends most weekdays - working. He appeared in court for a client down in Orange County - and next week he will drive to Yolo County in Northern California to represent another client.
While a bad hip slowed him down for a bit, after a successful operation, he is back working five days a week. Hit the link and scroll down to see what I had to say on Father's Day.
While a bad hip slowed him down for a bit, after a successful operation, he is back working five days a week. Hit the link and scroll down to see what I had to say on Father's Day.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
We've Got The Damn Culture - So Where're The Damn Cultural Tourists? Sounds Like A Job For... The Neighborhood Councils!
In Sunday's New York Times - there's a superb look at the dramatic disconnect between the amount of art being created and housed in Los Angeles - and the pathetic amount of cultural tourism that art generates.
But first, my minor quibbles about the story. The writer mentions how 5th and Spring is filled with people on Friday and Saturday nights when all the art galleries have their openings.
Well, close - but no cigar, not even a cigar that.... isn't a cigar.
The actual intersection is one-half block away at 5th and Main Street which has six store front galleries (and two more coming) as opposed to the solitary one at 6th and Spring located in a restaurant. Plus the big night for gallery goers is the second Thursday of the month Gallery Walk when all of the galleries are open, though many of them do have individual openings on Friday or Saturday nights.
And the area was hardly deserted at night before the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council midwifed the Gallery Row organization and the DLANC Economic Development Committee I headed leased many of these galleries their spaces; before DLANC took on this project, 5th and Main was filled every night - wall to wall - but with drug dealers, virtually all of whom are now gone.
Second, the article correctly mentions people complain that Eli Broad either does too much or that he doesn't do enough to support the arts in Los Angeles. Well, Eli is the ONLY person in LA who looks at the city as a whole and then works to try and make all the parts of the city work. Right now, our civic leadership is Eli Broad and the seven dwarfs. But, of course, everyone criticizes Eli but never any of the seven dwarfs.
OK - now for the good stuff - which is everything else, starting with the concise definition of the core problem:
While New York, London and Paris each attract 10 million to 15 million such visitors per year, Los Angeles draws only about 2.5 million...
And...
Whereas 40 percent of visitors to New York and London take part in some sort of cultural activity — a museum visit, a theatrical performance or the like — and 85 percent of visitors to Paris do so, only about 1 in 10 tourists to Los Angeles visit a cultural site.
So what is wrong? A number of things.
First, while we have almost as many plays put on every year as New York - we have very little commercial theater in either the full Broadway mode - or even using the commercial off-Broadway model.
So how to fix that? Well, a group of us at DLANC are working on turning the Broadway theaters into... actual Broadway theaters. That is because a major commercial theater district Downtown - along with theaters in North Hollywood and Hollywood and elsewhere - would bring millions of cultural tourists to our city each year since commercial theater is single largest generator of tourists of all kind to New York - and one of the largest generator of tourists to London.
Another problem we have is the lack of major cultural events to bring well heeled tourists to LA. An example of how to fix this is when four DLANC (Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council) board members in just six weeks brought Fashion Week back to Downtown.
This was after all the usual suspects had passed on doing anything this season, for a fourth year in a row.
Plus the four of us are already well into planning a far larger event for the October Fashion Week - and we are also planning numerous events for the general public besides the cat walk shows for the buyers, the press and the VIP's. Our goal is to make our March and October Fashion Weeks major tourist draws besides the events that will be exclusively for the fashionistas. And other organizations and individuals Downtown will be working with us this time.
More about this in the coming months.
In line with that, our same core group is working to bring a major international art fair to Los Angeles and working to start other culturally inclined fairs and weeks in Los Angeles, again using the networking among neighborhood councils to accomplish this.
And can anyone explain to me why during Oscar week - the one time of the year when every eye is turned on Los Angeles - there isn't a full week of activities to bring film buffs to Los Angeles?
I mean... duh!
Next there is our museum problem. We have dozens a major collections that have no homes, and little prospect of that changing, unless someone can develop a business model to fund their buildings. And that is something the NC's are working on.
In addition, even our existing museums have major gaps in what they can exhibit. MOCA in its two buildings has no room to show its growing permanent collection - and the Getty has no space to show its rapidly expanding photo collection since the Trust is prohibited from building any additional square footage up on the hill.
Luckily, there is a single, elegant solution (and business plan) that might solve both problems that is being examined right now and which will be presented to both institutions. And after one hundred years of complaints that the City of Los Angeles is the only city - or even town - without a museum devoted to its own history, the neighborhood councils have once more grabbed the bull by the horns and are creating a Los Angeles Museum that will have not just a main building, but - eventually - branches in every community in Los Angeles.
And that is only the beginning of what the NC's are doing on this issue.
Now as for the funding problem the article addresses:
Two years ago Mr. Broad tried to raise $10 million in public financing to promote the arts here. While the city promised $2 million, officials at the county, state and federal levels balked, arguing in part that more private money should be raised for that purpose. For now the effort has stalled, although Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa said in an interview that he would like to create a public-private partnership to accomplish what Mr. Broad proposed.
What no one seems to understand is that our problem is NOT in promoting the arts in LA - it is in making the arts as accessible in LA as they are in other cities.
Increased promotion is putting the cart before the horse. What we need are better museums, more world class galleries, a commercial theater district, a major second younger opera company - such as the one several DLANC board members are supporting, a ballet company, a classical theater company (to name just a few of our needs) and dozens of fairs and public events that would both benefit locals - and attract tourists.
Every art form needs to have a concentrated week of activities once or twice a year to make LA a must see destination for anyone interested in that art form.
We have the artists and the art, but our presentation of the arts far lags behind New York, London and Paris. And that is the core problem we have to fix.
The irony is that the proposed ten million to promote the arts - if used as seed money to create the attractions we need - would greatly reduce the need to spend the money to promote LA as a cultural destination.
And as far as spreading cultural tourism across the city - and then promoting our attractions to the world, the NC's are working on a plan to do just that (think social networking) - and we can do it for a fraction of the ten million being proposed.
Stay tuned!
March 25, 2007
The Art’s Here. Where’s the Crowd?
By EDWARD WYATT
LOS ANGELES
JOHN BALDESSARI, the conceptual artist who has long made his home here, for years gave his college art students one piece of advice when they graduated: Go to New York, the capital of the art world.
Now, however, Mr. Baldessari has a different view. “I don’t think it matters,” he said recently. “More and more young artists leave school and stay here. The opportunities are better, and the cost of living is cheaper. People involved in art regularly come to L.A. It really doesn’t matter if they live in New York or L.A.”
Two decades after Los Angeles emerged as the nation’s second art capital, the city is reaping the benefits of a migration of artists, galleries, dealers and curators. In recent years more than two artists have moved to this city for every one that moved away, a net rate of gain that is higher than in any metropolitan area in the country, according to an analysis of Census Bureau statistics by Ann Markusen, a professor at the University of Minnesota.
In the process new centers of gravity have emerged for contemporary art and artists in a city that has suffered for years because of its lack of a central arts district. Now there is not one such geographic center but several: downtown, where a thriving gallery district operates in what used to be a nighttime ghost town, as well as in former industrial areas in Culver City and Santa Monica. And a new generation of curators have been lured to the major museums here. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Hammer Museum have each attracted energizing new talent in recent years.
Of course the city has long since emerged as an important center for the performing arts as well. The Los Angeles Philharmonic, regarded as one of the country’s most dynamic orchestras, gained added allure with its move to Frank Gehry’s 2003 Disney Hall on Grand Avenue, and the Los Angeles Opera is preparing for its first-ever “Ring” cycle next door at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
In architecture Los Angeles has been an incubator not just for Mr. Gehry but for the rising star Thom Mayne, and high-profile commissions by Renzo Piano at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Steven Holl at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County are proceeding apace. And the boom in television and film production in Hollywood has created new opportunities for visual artists and dancers, many of whom also work for companies that perform in or have close ties to Pacific Rim countries.
Yet the city is still struggling to attract cultural tourists. While New York, London and Paris each attract 10 million to 15 million such visitors per year, Los Angeles draws only about 2.5 million, according to a 2004 study by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation.
“Why is that?” asked the philanthropist Eli Broad, the city’s most visible and generous champion of the arts. “Perception. We have not promoted cultural travel. That’s going to start happening, and that’s going to get the city more and more attention.”
Whereas 40 percent of visitors to New York and London take part in some sort of cultural activity — a museum visit, a theatrical performance or the like — and 85 percent of visitors to Paris do so, only about 1 in 10 tourists to Los Angeles visit a cultural site.
To remedy that Mr. Broad and other civic leaders are bargaining on their investment in the commercial and cultural districts that are taking shape downtown, like the Grand Avenue Project and L.A. Live, efforts that include hotels, restaurants, shops and entertainment centers.
“It will mean a big boost to the economy, and a big boost to how our city is viewed internationally,” Mr. Broad said. “It’s not simply sunshine, beaches and Hollywood here.”
But that effort hasn’t been easy. Two years ago Mr. Broad tried to raise $10 million in public financing to promote the arts here. While the city promised $2 million, officials at the county, state and federal levels balked, arguing in part that more private money should be raised for that purpose. For now the effort has stalled, although Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa said in an interview that he would like to create a public-private partnership to accomplish what Mr. Broad proposed.
The mayor’s initiative, however, awaits his appointment of a new general manager for the city’s cultural affairs department, a job that has gone unfilled since the previous department manager resigned nine months ago.
The department manager will be charged with fashioning a new cultural master plan for the city, a blueprint for encouraging both local investment in the arts and reaching out to areas of the city that are underserved by museums, theaters and the like. The master plan was last revised in 1991.
“I think there are a lot of people who want to get involved in the arts, and would if there was a conduit for it,” Mr. Villaraigosa said in an interview.
But that financial conduit is conspicuously absent, especially at a time when corporations are cutting their arts budgets or using them more for marketing than for philanthropy. That problem is aggravated by the relative shortage of major corporations here: Los Angeles has fewer Fortune 500 companies than Richmond, Va., or Charlotte, N.C.
Historically, said Kevin F. McCarthy, a senior social scientist at the Rand Corporation who is working on a study of support systems for the arts in cities around the country, Los Angeles has had three sets of business leaders: the first drawn from the downtown corporations, the second from the high-technology and aerospace industries on the west side, and the third from Hollywood.
“You could never get the entertainment industry to work with the other two guys, even though there were some people who had connections in both communities,” Mr. McCarthy said. The problem with Hollywood leaders, he said, is that “they’re so used to publicity and understanding the importance of marketing that they want to be the center of attention on all of this stuff.”
“I think they also have a very short-sighted focus, like much of the corporate sector, on profits,” he added. “And they tend to see this as a zero- sum game.”
Some Hollywood moguls are already big donors of course. David Geffen gave $5 million in 1996 to the Museum of Contemporary Art; it now maintains the Geffen Contemporary galleries as a separate part of its three-campus institution. Mr. Geffen also gave money for the renovation of a theater near the University of California at Los Angeles campus in Westwood that is now called the Geffen Playhouse. And Disney Hall was built with $120 million from corporations and private donors, along with an initial $50 million from Walt Disney’s widow, Lillian, and more than $100 million from Los Angeles County.
Mr. Broad says he is confident that Hollywood’s commitment will increase, in part through the goading of newly arrived museum directors, including Michael Govan. Mr. Govan arrived one year ago from the Dia Art Foundation in New York to take over as director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and has forged new connections with Hollywood. Among his additions to the museum’s board are Barbra Streisand; Michael Crichton; Terry Semel, the chief executive of Yahoo and former co-chief executive of Warner Brothers; and Willow Bay, the television reporter who is married to Robert Iger, chief executive of Disney.
Now, however, Mayor Villaraigosa may be in the best position to mobilize money into the arts, galvanize business leaders in Hollywood and beyond, and raise the visibility of the city’s cultural scene. “He’s got the kind of sex appeal that Hollywood wants,” Mr. McCarthy said. “He could bring these guys together,” in a way that the previous mayor, James K. Hahn, could not.
In 2004 Mr. Hahn floated the idea of doing away with the city’s cultural affairs department altogether. That effort was fought by Mr. Villaraigosa, then a councilman, earning him the support of many grass-roots arts organizations, which helped his 2005 election campaign.
“I think we can get Hollywood to be more active in the arts,” Mr. Villaraigosa said. “One of the reasons why we’re focused on finding a visionary leader in the area of the arts is because it’s going to take someone who’s got the wherewithal, the respect, the ethos if you will, in the arts community and can rally that community in support of new initiatives,” like cultural programs in the schools and greater citywide spending on the arts.
If anyone knows how hard it can be to attract that support, it is Mr. Broad, who seems to have a hand in almost everything that goes on in the arts.
He was the founding chairman of the Museum of Contemporary Art, and its present location on Grand Avenue downtown, near Disney Hall, is a direct result of his efforts. Mr. Broad is also a trustee of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which is currently building the Broad Contemporary Art Museum on its campus on Wilshire Boulevard, thanks to a $60 million gift from Mr. Broad and his wife, Edythe.
The Broads have also made a big impact on the art schools in the Los Angeles area. Last fall U.C.L.A. opened the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Center, a collection of studios, classrooms, offices and gallery space designed by the architects Richard Meier and Michael Palladino. Outside sits a Richard Serra sculpture commissioned by Mr. Broad for that purpose. And the Broads have donated money for buildings at the two other major art schools in the region, the California Institute of the Arts, known as CalArts, in Valencia, and Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif.
His efforts extend beyond the visual arts. He recently provided a gift to pay for the Los Angeles Opera’s staging of Wagner’s “Ring,” the first time the complete cycle will be produced here.
“Eli Broad really does seem to be the most strategic thinker right now about L.A. and the arts,” said Elizabeth Ondaatje, a Rand Corporation researcher who is directing the institution’s studies of the arts with Mr. McCarthy. “Every other month you read another investment they’ve decided to make.”
Mr. Broad (whose name rhymes with road) has generated a fair amount of resentment in some corners here for his outsized presence on the art scene. His devotion to the downtown projects have been criticized as ignoring pockets of the city that have less access to the arts, like the largely Hispanic sections of East Los Angeles and the areas south of downtown that have large African-American populations. And some of the resistance he faced in his most recent fund-raising effort came from people who wondered why a billionaire was asking for money from taxpayers to promote museums on whose boards he sits.
Ever an optimist, Mr. Broad dismisses those criticisms, saying he prefers to discuss why, despite the relative lack of major corporations here, he still believes that new money can flow to the art world. As evidence, he cited a $25 million donation announced this month by BP, the energy company, to the Los Angeles County Museum to finance a new entrance pavilion.
If it has been hard to attract investment and government support for cultural activities, the city’s vibrant visual arts scene might be seen as its own best advertisement.
“The rest of the world is promoting the city as well or better than L.A. does,” said Gary Garrels, the chief curator at the Hammer Museum, who moved here two years ago from the Museum of Modern Art in New York. “All of the curators and galleries that are dynamic are coming to Los Angeles and looking at what’s going on here.”
Downtown, which not too long ago was little more than a ghost town after 5 p.m. on weekdays, now bustles with activity around Fifth and Spring streets on Friday and Saturday nights, when art galleries typically schedule their openings of new shows. Similar scenes unfold around more established galleries on Wilshire Boulevard and among emerging contemporary galleries in Santa Monica and Culver City, the incorporated area south of Interstate 10.
Last year Los Angeles and its artists were the focus of a major show at the Pompidou Center in Paris, “Los Angeles 1955-1985: The Birth of an Art Capital.” This month the Hammer Museum here will feature 15 contemporary Los Angeles artists in a show exploring what it means to create here, playfully titled “Eden’s Edge.”
As a career art seems more realistic to graduate art students than ever before, said Patrick Painter, who owns a gallery in Santa Monica. “Students graduate here with a feeling they can live in L.A. and make a living in LA.,” he said. “L.A. will never be more important than New York, but it will be equal.”
And naturally some artists adopt Los Angeles precisely because it is not New York. Max Jansons, a Los Angeles painter who is a New York native, graduated from U.C.L.A., then returned to Columbia University for a master’s degree. He now lives in Santa Monica.
“I like having time to be in my studio without being surrounded by tons of different voices and seeing all these different shows and being part of that activity,” Mr. Jansons said. “There’s something very focused about your time here in the studio that I never really had in New York when I was there.”
Whereas New York presents more opportunities for the chance meetings with other artists that stimulate discussion, he added, it is easier to isolate oneself and get work done in Los Angeles. “Here you really have to make an effort to be part of something,” he said.
In large part that is because of the sprawl that so defines Los Angeles, said Michael Brand, who came here in 2005 as director of the Getty Museum. “The thing the city lacks is public transport and ease of access,” he said. “That, I think, is a major problem, unlike London, unlike New York, where you can just quickly go to other sorts of cultural organizations. It means people like myself and my colleagues in the end find it harder to maintain a face-to-face dialogue. You’ve got to plan ahead, and at a minimum it’s an afternoon.”
What Angelenos get in the trade of course is physical space. Sherin Guirguis, an artist who was born in Egypt and received her master’s degree from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, said she chose Los Angeles by necessity.
“I couldn’t afford to live in New York no matter what, not even in Brooklyn,” she said. “I’m able to have space here. I make very large work, and it’s very expensive to make.”
Meanwhile the path forged by Mr. Baldessari and others has brought a legitimacy to artists here, one that many people believe will be followed by increasing levels of financial aid.
“L.A. has been the model for another American city having a spot in the art world,” said Fredric Snitzer, the owner of a gallery in Miami who brought works by several of his artists to the “Art LA” show here in late January.
“In the old days California artists were like they were on another planet,” he said. “In the last 20 years that has changed. There are fabulous artists here who have to be reckoned with.”
But first, my minor quibbles about the story. The writer mentions how 5th and Spring is filled with people on Friday and Saturday nights when all the art galleries have their openings.
Well, close - but no cigar, not even a cigar that.... isn't a cigar.
The actual intersection is one-half block away at 5th and Main Street which has six store front galleries (and two more coming) as opposed to the solitary one at 6th and Spring located in a restaurant. Plus the big night for gallery goers is the second Thursday of the month Gallery Walk when all of the galleries are open, though many of them do have individual openings on Friday or Saturday nights.
And the area was hardly deserted at night before the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council midwifed the Gallery Row organization and the DLANC Economic Development Committee I headed leased many of these galleries their spaces; before DLANC took on this project, 5th and Main was filled every night - wall to wall - but with drug dealers, virtually all of whom are now gone.
Second, the article correctly mentions people complain that Eli Broad either does too much or that he doesn't do enough to support the arts in Los Angeles. Well, Eli is the ONLY person in LA who looks at the city as a whole and then works to try and make all the parts of the city work. Right now, our civic leadership is Eli Broad and the seven dwarfs. But, of course, everyone criticizes Eli but never any of the seven dwarfs.
OK - now for the good stuff - which is everything else, starting with the concise definition of the core problem:
While New York, London and Paris each attract 10 million to 15 million such visitors per year, Los Angeles draws only about 2.5 million...
And...
Whereas 40 percent of visitors to New York and London take part in some sort of cultural activity — a museum visit, a theatrical performance or the like — and 85 percent of visitors to Paris do so, only about 1 in 10 tourists to Los Angeles visit a cultural site.
So what is wrong? A number of things.
First, while we have almost as many plays put on every year as New York - we have very little commercial theater in either the full Broadway mode - or even using the commercial off-Broadway model.
So how to fix that? Well, a group of us at DLANC are working on turning the Broadway theaters into... actual Broadway theaters. That is because a major commercial theater district Downtown - along with theaters in North Hollywood and Hollywood and elsewhere - would bring millions of cultural tourists to our city each year since commercial theater is single largest generator of tourists of all kind to New York - and one of the largest generator of tourists to London.
Another problem we have is the lack of major cultural events to bring well heeled tourists to LA. An example of how to fix this is when four DLANC (Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council) board members in just six weeks brought Fashion Week back to Downtown.
This was after all the usual suspects had passed on doing anything this season, for a fourth year in a row.
Plus the four of us are already well into planning a far larger event for the October Fashion Week - and we are also planning numerous events for the general public besides the cat walk shows for the buyers, the press and the VIP's. Our goal is to make our March and October Fashion Weeks major tourist draws besides the events that will be exclusively for the fashionistas. And other organizations and individuals Downtown will be working with us this time.
More about this in the coming months.
In line with that, our same core group is working to bring a major international art fair to Los Angeles and working to start other culturally inclined fairs and weeks in Los Angeles, again using the networking among neighborhood councils to accomplish this.
And can anyone explain to me why during Oscar week - the one time of the year when every eye is turned on Los Angeles - there isn't a full week of activities to bring film buffs to Los Angeles?
I mean... duh!
Next there is our museum problem. We have dozens a major collections that have no homes, and little prospect of that changing, unless someone can develop a business model to fund their buildings. And that is something the NC's are working on.
In addition, even our existing museums have major gaps in what they can exhibit. MOCA in its two buildings has no room to show its growing permanent collection - and the Getty has no space to show its rapidly expanding photo collection since the Trust is prohibited from building any additional square footage up on the hill.
Luckily, there is a single, elegant solution (and business plan) that might solve both problems that is being examined right now and which will be presented to both institutions. And after one hundred years of complaints that the City of Los Angeles is the only city - or even town - without a museum devoted to its own history, the neighborhood councils have once more grabbed the bull by the horns and are creating a Los Angeles Museum that will have not just a main building, but - eventually - branches in every community in Los Angeles.
And that is only the beginning of what the NC's are doing on this issue.
Now as for the funding problem the article addresses:
Two years ago Mr. Broad tried to raise $10 million in public financing to promote the arts here. While the city promised $2 million, officials at the county, state and federal levels balked, arguing in part that more private money should be raised for that purpose. For now the effort has stalled, although Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa said in an interview that he would like to create a public-private partnership to accomplish what Mr. Broad proposed.
What no one seems to understand is that our problem is NOT in promoting the arts in LA - it is in making the arts as accessible in LA as they are in other cities.
Increased promotion is putting the cart before the horse. What we need are better museums, more world class galleries, a commercial theater district, a major second younger opera company - such as the one several DLANC board members are supporting, a ballet company, a classical theater company (to name just a few of our needs) and dozens of fairs and public events that would both benefit locals - and attract tourists.
Every art form needs to have a concentrated week of activities once or twice a year to make LA a must see destination for anyone interested in that art form.
We have the artists and the art, but our presentation of the arts far lags behind New York, London and Paris. And that is the core problem we have to fix.
The irony is that the proposed ten million to promote the arts - if used as seed money to create the attractions we need - would greatly reduce the need to spend the money to promote LA as a cultural destination.
And as far as spreading cultural tourism across the city - and then promoting our attractions to the world, the NC's are working on a plan to do just that (think social networking) - and we can do it for a fraction of the ten million being proposed.
Stay tuned!
March 25, 2007
The Art’s Here. Where’s the Crowd?
By EDWARD WYATT
LOS ANGELES
JOHN BALDESSARI, the conceptual artist who has long made his home here, for years gave his college art students one piece of advice when they graduated: Go to New York, the capital of the art world.
Now, however, Mr. Baldessari has a different view. “I don’t think it matters,” he said recently. “More and more young artists leave school and stay here. The opportunities are better, and the cost of living is cheaper. People involved in art regularly come to L.A. It really doesn’t matter if they live in New York or L.A.”
Two decades after Los Angeles emerged as the nation’s second art capital, the city is reaping the benefits of a migration of artists, galleries, dealers and curators. In recent years more than two artists have moved to this city for every one that moved away, a net rate of gain that is higher than in any metropolitan area in the country, according to an analysis of Census Bureau statistics by Ann Markusen, a professor at the University of Minnesota.
In the process new centers of gravity have emerged for contemporary art and artists in a city that has suffered for years because of its lack of a central arts district. Now there is not one such geographic center but several: downtown, where a thriving gallery district operates in what used to be a nighttime ghost town, as well as in former industrial areas in Culver City and Santa Monica. And a new generation of curators have been lured to the major museums here. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Hammer Museum have each attracted energizing new talent in recent years.
Of course the city has long since emerged as an important center for the performing arts as well. The Los Angeles Philharmonic, regarded as one of the country’s most dynamic orchestras, gained added allure with its move to Frank Gehry’s 2003 Disney Hall on Grand Avenue, and the Los Angeles Opera is preparing for its first-ever “Ring” cycle next door at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
In architecture Los Angeles has been an incubator not just for Mr. Gehry but for the rising star Thom Mayne, and high-profile commissions by Renzo Piano at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Steven Holl at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County are proceeding apace. And the boom in television and film production in Hollywood has created new opportunities for visual artists and dancers, many of whom also work for companies that perform in or have close ties to Pacific Rim countries.
Yet the city is still struggling to attract cultural tourists. While New York, London and Paris each attract 10 million to 15 million such visitors per year, Los Angeles draws only about 2.5 million, according to a 2004 study by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation.
“Why is that?” asked the philanthropist Eli Broad, the city’s most visible and generous champion of the arts. “Perception. We have not promoted cultural travel. That’s going to start happening, and that’s going to get the city more and more attention.”
Whereas 40 percent of visitors to New York and London take part in some sort of cultural activity — a museum visit, a theatrical performance or the like — and 85 percent of visitors to Paris do so, only about 1 in 10 tourists to Los Angeles visit a cultural site.
To remedy that Mr. Broad and other civic leaders are bargaining on their investment in the commercial and cultural districts that are taking shape downtown, like the Grand Avenue Project and L.A. Live, efforts that include hotels, restaurants, shops and entertainment centers.
“It will mean a big boost to the economy, and a big boost to how our city is viewed internationally,” Mr. Broad said. “It’s not simply sunshine, beaches and Hollywood here.”
But that effort hasn’t been easy. Two years ago Mr. Broad tried to raise $10 million in public financing to promote the arts here. While the city promised $2 million, officials at the county, state and federal levels balked, arguing in part that more private money should be raised for that purpose. For now the effort has stalled, although Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa said in an interview that he would like to create a public-private partnership to accomplish what Mr. Broad proposed.
The mayor’s initiative, however, awaits his appointment of a new general manager for the city’s cultural affairs department, a job that has gone unfilled since the previous department manager resigned nine months ago.
The department manager will be charged with fashioning a new cultural master plan for the city, a blueprint for encouraging both local investment in the arts and reaching out to areas of the city that are underserved by museums, theaters and the like. The master plan was last revised in 1991.
“I think there are a lot of people who want to get involved in the arts, and would if there was a conduit for it,” Mr. Villaraigosa said in an interview.
But that financial conduit is conspicuously absent, especially at a time when corporations are cutting their arts budgets or using them more for marketing than for philanthropy. That problem is aggravated by the relative shortage of major corporations here: Los Angeles has fewer Fortune 500 companies than Richmond, Va., or Charlotte, N.C.
Historically, said Kevin F. McCarthy, a senior social scientist at the Rand Corporation who is working on a study of support systems for the arts in cities around the country, Los Angeles has had three sets of business leaders: the first drawn from the downtown corporations, the second from the high-technology and aerospace industries on the west side, and the third from Hollywood.
“You could never get the entertainment industry to work with the other two guys, even though there were some people who had connections in both communities,” Mr. McCarthy said. The problem with Hollywood leaders, he said, is that “they’re so used to publicity and understanding the importance of marketing that they want to be the center of attention on all of this stuff.”
“I think they also have a very short-sighted focus, like much of the corporate sector, on profits,” he added. “And they tend to see this as a zero- sum game.”
Some Hollywood moguls are already big donors of course. David Geffen gave $5 million in 1996 to the Museum of Contemporary Art; it now maintains the Geffen Contemporary galleries as a separate part of its three-campus institution. Mr. Geffen also gave money for the renovation of a theater near the University of California at Los Angeles campus in Westwood that is now called the Geffen Playhouse. And Disney Hall was built with $120 million from corporations and private donors, along with an initial $50 million from Walt Disney’s widow, Lillian, and more than $100 million from Los Angeles County.
Mr. Broad says he is confident that Hollywood’s commitment will increase, in part through the goading of newly arrived museum directors, including Michael Govan. Mr. Govan arrived one year ago from the Dia Art Foundation in New York to take over as director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and has forged new connections with Hollywood. Among his additions to the museum’s board are Barbra Streisand; Michael Crichton; Terry Semel, the chief executive of Yahoo and former co-chief executive of Warner Brothers; and Willow Bay, the television reporter who is married to Robert Iger, chief executive of Disney.
Now, however, Mayor Villaraigosa may be in the best position to mobilize money into the arts, galvanize business leaders in Hollywood and beyond, and raise the visibility of the city’s cultural scene. “He’s got the kind of sex appeal that Hollywood wants,” Mr. McCarthy said. “He could bring these guys together,” in a way that the previous mayor, James K. Hahn, could not.
In 2004 Mr. Hahn floated the idea of doing away with the city’s cultural affairs department altogether. That effort was fought by Mr. Villaraigosa, then a councilman, earning him the support of many grass-roots arts organizations, which helped his 2005 election campaign.
“I think we can get Hollywood to be more active in the arts,” Mr. Villaraigosa said. “One of the reasons why we’re focused on finding a visionary leader in the area of the arts is because it’s going to take someone who’s got the wherewithal, the respect, the ethos if you will, in the arts community and can rally that community in support of new initiatives,” like cultural programs in the schools and greater citywide spending on the arts.
If anyone knows how hard it can be to attract that support, it is Mr. Broad, who seems to have a hand in almost everything that goes on in the arts.
He was the founding chairman of the Museum of Contemporary Art, and its present location on Grand Avenue downtown, near Disney Hall, is a direct result of his efforts. Mr. Broad is also a trustee of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which is currently building the Broad Contemporary Art Museum on its campus on Wilshire Boulevard, thanks to a $60 million gift from Mr. Broad and his wife, Edythe.
The Broads have also made a big impact on the art schools in the Los Angeles area. Last fall U.C.L.A. opened the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Center, a collection of studios, classrooms, offices and gallery space designed by the architects Richard Meier and Michael Palladino. Outside sits a Richard Serra sculpture commissioned by Mr. Broad for that purpose. And the Broads have donated money for buildings at the two other major art schools in the region, the California Institute of the Arts, known as CalArts, in Valencia, and Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif.
His efforts extend beyond the visual arts. He recently provided a gift to pay for the Los Angeles Opera’s staging of Wagner’s “Ring,” the first time the complete cycle will be produced here.
“Eli Broad really does seem to be the most strategic thinker right now about L.A. and the arts,” said Elizabeth Ondaatje, a Rand Corporation researcher who is directing the institution’s studies of the arts with Mr. McCarthy. “Every other month you read another investment they’ve decided to make.”
Mr. Broad (whose name rhymes with road) has generated a fair amount of resentment in some corners here for his outsized presence on the art scene. His devotion to the downtown projects have been criticized as ignoring pockets of the city that have less access to the arts, like the largely Hispanic sections of East Los Angeles and the areas south of downtown that have large African-American populations. And some of the resistance he faced in his most recent fund-raising effort came from people who wondered why a billionaire was asking for money from taxpayers to promote museums on whose boards he sits.
Ever an optimist, Mr. Broad dismisses those criticisms, saying he prefers to discuss why, despite the relative lack of major corporations here, he still believes that new money can flow to the art world. As evidence, he cited a $25 million donation announced this month by BP, the energy company, to the Los Angeles County Museum to finance a new entrance pavilion.
If it has been hard to attract investment and government support for cultural activities, the city’s vibrant visual arts scene might be seen as its own best advertisement.
“The rest of the world is promoting the city as well or better than L.A. does,” said Gary Garrels, the chief curator at the Hammer Museum, who moved here two years ago from the Museum of Modern Art in New York. “All of the curators and galleries that are dynamic are coming to Los Angeles and looking at what’s going on here.”
Downtown, which not too long ago was little more than a ghost town after 5 p.m. on weekdays, now bustles with activity around Fifth and Spring streets on Friday and Saturday nights, when art galleries typically schedule their openings of new shows. Similar scenes unfold around more established galleries on Wilshire Boulevard and among emerging contemporary galleries in Santa Monica and Culver City, the incorporated area south of Interstate 10.
Last year Los Angeles and its artists were the focus of a major show at the Pompidou Center in Paris, “Los Angeles 1955-1985: The Birth of an Art Capital.” This month the Hammer Museum here will feature 15 contemporary Los Angeles artists in a show exploring what it means to create here, playfully titled “Eden’s Edge.”
As a career art seems more realistic to graduate art students than ever before, said Patrick Painter, who owns a gallery in Santa Monica. “Students graduate here with a feeling they can live in L.A. and make a living in LA.,” he said. “L.A. will never be more important than New York, but it will be equal.”
And naturally some artists adopt Los Angeles precisely because it is not New York. Max Jansons, a Los Angeles painter who is a New York native, graduated from U.C.L.A., then returned to Columbia University for a master’s degree. He now lives in Santa Monica.
“I like having time to be in my studio without being surrounded by tons of different voices and seeing all these different shows and being part of that activity,” Mr. Jansons said. “There’s something very focused about your time here in the studio that I never really had in New York when I was there.”
Whereas New York presents more opportunities for the chance meetings with other artists that stimulate discussion, he added, it is easier to isolate oneself and get work done in Los Angeles. “Here you really have to make an effort to be part of something,” he said.
In large part that is because of the sprawl that so defines Los Angeles, said Michael Brand, who came here in 2005 as director of the Getty Museum. “The thing the city lacks is public transport and ease of access,” he said. “That, I think, is a major problem, unlike London, unlike New York, where you can just quickly go to other sorts of cultural organizations. It means people like myself and my colleagues in the end find it harder to maintain a face-to-face dialogue. You’ve got to plan ahead, and at a minimum it’s an afternoon.”
What Angelenos get in the trade of course is physical space. Sherin Guirguis, an artist who was born in Egypt and received her master’s degree from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, said she chose Los Angeles by necessity.
“I couldn’t afford to live in New York no matter what, not even in Brooklyn,” she said. “I’m able to have space here. I make very large work, and it’s very expensive to make.”
Meanwhile the path forged by Mr. Baldessari and others has brought a legitimacy to artists here, one that many people believe will be followed by increasing levels of financial aid.
“L.A. has been the model for another American city having a spot in the art world,” said Fredric Snitzer, the owner of a gallery in Miami who brought works by several of his artists to the “Art LA” show here in late January.
“In the old days California artists were like they were on another planet,” he said. “In the last 20 years that has changed. There are fabulous artists here who have to be reckoned with.”
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Did Mary Shelley NOT write Frankenstein?
Sounds like a pretty convincing case to me...
From The Sunday Times
March 25, 2007
A monstrous lie: Mary Shelley’s claim to Frankenstein disputed
THE conventional account of how Mary Shelley, a teenager, came to invent Dr Frankenstein and his monster is of a “waking dream” brought on by a drinking session with some of Britain’s most notorious Romantic poets.
However, a forthcoming book, The Man Who Wrote Frankenstein, claims that Shelley, an icon of modern feminism, was a fraud who did not dream up the gothic monster in response to a challenge by Lord Byron by Lake Geneva. It claims the credit for the world’s first science fiction novel should go to Percy Bysshe Shelley, her future husband.
John Lauritsen’s book, due out in May, builds on debates that have surrounded Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus since it was published anonymously in 1818. Even the older Mary seemed amazed by it. Nearly a decade after her husband died in a boating accident she wondered “how I, then a young girl, came to think of, and to dilate upon, so very hideous an idea”.
Loyalists are rallying to defend Mary while iconoclastic scholars such as Camille Paglia praise Lauritsen for his “fresh and convincing outsider’s challenge to the orthodoxies of today’s lazy and overpaid academics”.
Lauritsen, a Harvard-educated “independent scholar” who has spent seven years comparing the texts of Shelley’s great works such as Ozymandias with his wife’s subsequent books, says that Frankenstein was too profound to have been created by an “ill-educated 19-year-old whose later writings were just ordinary”.
He says some of the language, with lines such as “I will glut the maw of death”, were pure Shelley.
Lauritsen said Shelley had many reasons to disguise his authorship, including hints of “free love” that had driven him out of England and an undertone of “Romantic, but I would not say gay, male love”. Another factor may have been the critics, who hated it.
The Quarterly Review of 1818 said the story of Frankenstein, the Swiss scientist who creates a monster from body parts, only to see it run amok, was a “tissue of horrible and disgusting absurdity”.
Yet after Shelley drowned off Tuscany in 1822, Frankenstein defied the critics to return to life and become a massive hit, first on the stage and then in many sexually censored editions overseen by Mary. She was unable to recreate such a blockbuster.
Paglia said: “There are serious questions here that feminists who have turned Mary Shelley into a saint need to address. This is very exciting stuff that will infuriate scholars who cannot accept that Mary was a second-rate writer.”
Hilary Bailey, author of the forthcoming novel Frankenstein’s Bride, said: “The style of Frankenstein is, to be brutal, clotted and pedestrian. Shelley didn’t write it and, if he did, it would be kinder not to say so.”
From The Sunday Times
March 25, 2007
A monstrous lie: Mary Shelley’s claim to Frankenstein disputed
THE conventional account of how Mary Shelley, a teenager, came to invent Dr Frankenstein and his monster is of a “waking dream” brought on by a drinking session with some of Britain’s most notorious Romantic poets.
However, a forthcoming book, The Man Who Wrote Frankenstein, claims that Shelley, an icon of modern feminism, was a fraud who did not dream up the gothic monster in response to a challenge by Lord Byron by Lake Geneva. It claims the credit for the world’s first science fiction novel should go to Percy Bysshe Shelley, her future husband.
John Lauritsen’s book, due out in May, builds on debates that have surrounded Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus since it was published anonymously in 1818. Even the older Mary seemed amazed by it. Nearly a decade after her husband died in a boating accident she wondered “how I, then a young girl, came to think of, and to dilate upon, so very hideous an idea”.
Loyalists are rallying to defend Mary while iconoclastic scholars such as Camille Paglia praise Lauritsen for his “fresh and convincing outsider’s challenge to the orthodoxies of today’s lazy and overpaid academics”.
Lauritsen, a Harvard-educated “independent scholar” who has spent seven years comparing the texts of Shelley’s great works such as Ozymandias with his wife’s subsequent books, says that Frankenstein was too profound to have been created by an “ill-educated 19-year-old whose later writings were just ordinary”.
He says some of the language, with lines such as “I will glut the maw of death”, were pure Shelley.
Lauritsen said Shelley had many reasons to disguise his authorship, including hints of “free love” that had driven him out of England and an undertone of “Romantic, but I would not say gay, male love”. Another factor may have been the critics, who hated it.
The Quarterly Review of 1818 said the story of Frankenstein, the Swiss scientist who creates a monster from body parts, only to see it run amok, was a “tissue of horrible and disgusting absurdity”.
Yet after Shelley drowned off Tuscany in 1822, Frankenstein defied the critics to return to life and become a massive hit, first on the stage and then in many sexually censored editions overseen by Mary. She was unable to recreate such a blockbuster.
Paglia said: “There are serious questions here that feminists who have turned Mary Shelley into a saint need to address. This is very exciting stuff that will infuriate scholars who cannot accept that Mary was a second-rate writer.”
Hilary Bailey, author of the forthcoming novel Frankenstein’s Bride, said: “The style of Frankenstein is, to be brutal, clotted and pedestrian. Shelley didn’t write it and, if he did, it would be kinder not to say so.”
Downtown News Wrap-Up On Downtown Fashion Week!
Another article on one of the five Downtown Fashion Week events of last week:
Downtown Flaunts A Fashion of Its Own
Culver City Has Smashbox, but the Los Angeles Theatre Knows How to Party
by Kathleen Nye Flynn
I'm no fashion expert, but in the last few years I've snuck into my fair share of catwalk events. I've wiggled into Culver City's biannual Fashion Week at Smashbox Studios a few times, either through the front door or the back.
Jared Gold's fashion show at the Los Angeles Theatre, with an aisle carved out of the venue's grand ballroom, was far friendlier than similar events on the Westside.
So I had an inkling of what I was getting into when I showed up (through the front door) at Downtown's first Fashion Week event in years, which began March 16. The two nights of shows at Broadway's Los Angeles Theatre, I knew, had the potential to be memorable.
I arrived at the Friday night show just in time for Jared Gold's collection. The theater's ornate ceiling swooped above a crowd glammed out in avant-garde dresses, handmade hats and vintage styles.
The lustrous, colonnaded walls and wide, tumbling staircases, combined with the artsy folks on the guest list and DJs spinning tunes, provided the groundwork for one enticing evening - especially for an event that began as a random notion over drinks.
A motley crew of neighborhood advocates slapped the show together in just seven weeks. The group included Brady Westwater, the Downtown Neighborhood Council's vice president with a penchant for cowboy hats and wrestling team shirts, along with artist Peter Gurnz, Gary Warfel, a local CEO, and Michael Delijani, the theater's owner. They're not exactly a fashion forward group, but they obviously knew something about attracting a scene - each night drew more than 800 people.
After working my way through the crowd, I squeezed into a space on a tightly filled bench. Instead of the usual raised catwalk, bleachers lined an aisle carved out of the theater's grand ballroom. The layout created an intimate, parlor room effect, which made the vibe more friendly than self conscious, rare for a fashion show.
I sat near Westwater, who was wearing a dapper red button down, sans cowboy hat but still hiding a wrestling shirt underneath the formal front. He stole glances at the woman on the other side of him, L.A. artist Dame Darcy, who donned a feather hat, a long white lace dress and carried a doll in her likeness. Surely, this was no City Council meeting.
The crowd was boisterous, cheering on each model. Unlike Smashbox events, there was an air of congeniality - probably because we were able to bring our drinks and get sloshed while watching.
Gold's collection was in line with its edgy audience. The pieces - a post-apocalyptic mixture of Edwardian collars, 1970s-style skirts and one dress apparently made from a bed sheet - matched the rebelliousness of the models, who threw off shoes and succumbed to silly dance moves.
Even though the show was intended to supplement Smashbox's events rather than compete with them, as I sat amid the raucous audience, I couldn't help but draw some comparisons.
Smashbox is in Culver City, far from any sort of party scene. The building is pristine, austere and streamlined - much like the catwalks that the models strut down, much like the models themselves.
The Los Angeles Theater proved measurably more interesting. It boasts dark, mysterious corners and historical beauty, its glamorous architectural arches like the curls in Marilyn Monroe's hair.
The show was not without hiccups: Up until the last minute, organizers were scrambling to get city approvals for street closures and other permits. Later, the after-party only captured a smallish audience.
I came back the next night with a few friends and high expectations. But, sadly, I learned that much of a fashion event's scene is directly affected by the designers who are showcasing. On Saturday night, Eduardo Lucero, an established designer with a store on the Westside, showed off his stunning collection of refined, high-waisted skirts, open-backed cocktail dresses and a pair of perfectly nipped alabaster gowns.
Lucero did much of his own promoting, and with him came a decidedly different scene, more mainstream, more, well, Smashbox. The crowd seemed out of place in the unique, if primitive, surroundings. Some critics may call the second night the more professional of the two, but to me it lacked the energy that made night one so memorable.
The two nights made me think not just about fashion, but about Los Angeles and its role in the industry. There's no reason why our fashion shows shouldn't represent the city's playful, anything-goes lifestyle. With the east side of Los Angeles home to so much creative energy (mostly because of the cheaper real estate), it makes sense that an old Broadway theater would be an appropriate venue to saddle that originality.
Overall, Fashion Week - whether in Culver City or elsewhere - would do well to keep playing up its differences, its youthful, creative qualities, its edginess and serendipity.
This fledgling, quickly planned event went a long way in proving that L.A. fashion, along with Downtown, can truly foster a niche of its own.
Contact Kathleen Nye Flynn at kathleen@downtownnews.com.
Downtown Flaunts A Fashion of Its Own
Culver City Has Smashbox, but the Los Angeles Theatre Knows How to Party
by Kathleen Nye Flynn
I'm no fashion expert, but in the last few years I've snuck into my fair share of catwalk events. I've wiggled into Culver City's biannual Fashion Week at Smashbox Studios a few times, either through the front door or the back.
Jared Gold's fashion show at the Los Angeles Theatre, with an aisle carved out of the venue's grand ballroom, was far friendlier than similar events on the Westside.
So I had an inkling of what I was getting into when I showed up (through the front door) at Downtown's first Fashion Week event in years, which began March 16. The two nights of shows at Broadway's Los Angeles Theatre, I knew, had the potential to be memorable.
I arrived at the Friday night show just in time for Jared Gold's collection. The theater's ornate ceiling swooped above a crowd glammed out in avant-garde dresses, handmade hats and vintage styles.
The lustrous, colonnaded walls and wide, tumbling staircases, combined with the artsy folks on the guest list and DJs spinning tunes, provided the groundwork for one enticing evening - especially for an event that began as a random notion over drinks.
A motley crew of neighborhood advocates slapped the show together in just seven weeks. The group included Brady Westwater, the Downtown Neighborhood Council's vice president with a penchant for cowboy hats and wrestling team shirts, along with artist Peter Gurnz, Gary Warfel, a local CEO, and Michael Delijani, the theater's owner. They're not exactly a fashion forward group, but they obviously knew something about attracting a scene - each night drew more than 800 people.
After working my way through the crowd, I squeezed into a space on a tightly filled bench. Instead of the usual raised catwalk, bleachers lined an aisle carved out of the theater's grand ballroom. The layout created an intimate, parlor room effect, which made the vibe more friendly than self conscious, rare for a fashion show.
I sat near Westwater, who was wearing a dapper red button down, sans cowboy hat but still hiding a wrestling shirt underneath the formal front. He stole glances at the woman on the other side of him, L.A. artist Dame Darcy, who donned a feather hat, a long white lace dress and carried a doll in her likeness. Surely, this was no City Council meeting.
The crowd was boisterous, cheering on each model. Unlike Smashbox events, there was an air of congeniality - probably because we were able to bring our drinks and get sloshed while watching.
Gold's collection was in line with its edgy audience. The pieces - a post-apocalyptic mixture of Edwardian collars, 1970s-style skirts and one dress apparently made from a bed sheet - matched the rebelliousness of the models, who threw off shoes and succumbed to silly dance moves.
Even though the show was intended to supplement Smashbox's events rather than compete with them, as I sat amid the raucous audience, I couldn't help but draw some comparisons.
Smashbox is in Culver City, far from any sort of party scene. The building is pristine, austere and streamlined - much like the catwalks that the models strut down, much like the models themselves.
The Los Angeles Theater proved measurably more interesting. It boasts dark, mysterious corners and historical beauty, its glamorous architectural arches like the curls in Marilyn Monroe's hair.
The show was not without hiccups: Up until the last minute, organizers were scrambling to get city approvals for street closures and other permits. Later, the after-party only captured a smallish audience.
I came back the next night with a few friends and high expectations. But, sadly, I learned that much of a fashion event's scene is directly affected by the designers who are showcasing. On Saturday night, Eduardo Lucero, an established designer with a store on the Westside, showed off his stunning collection of refined, high-waisted skirts, open-backed cocktail dresses and a pair of perfectly nipped alabaster gowns.
Lucero did much of his own promoting, and with him came a decidedly different scene, more mainstream, more, well, Smashbox. The crowd seemed out of place in the unique, if primitive, surroundings. Some critics may call the second night the more professional of the two, but to me it lacked the energy that made night one so memorable.
The two nights made me think not just about fashion, but about Los Angeles and its role in the industry. There's no reason why our fashion shows shouldn't represent the city's playful, anything-goes lifestyle. With the east side of Los Angeles home to so much creative energy (mostly because of the cheaper real estate), it makes sense that an old Broadway theater would be an appropriate venue to saddle that originality.
Overall, Fashion Week - whether in Culver City or elsewhere - would do well to keep playing up its differences, its youthful, creative qualities, its edginess and serendipity.
This fledgling, quickly planned event went a long way in proving that L.A. fashion, along with Downtown, can truly foster a niche of its own.
Contact Kathleen Nye Flynn at kathleen@downtownnews.com.
Friday, March 23, 2007
LA Weekly On Downtown Fashion Week's Party Scene!
First, an update on the latest Art Bar incarnation of the Grand Avenue Club:
Ain’t it Grand (Ave.)?
It’s still too sketchy for us to live in, but downtown definitely beats Hollywood for going out: less traffic, less moolah, less velvet-rope burn. It’s no wonder D-town’s boomin’. Let’s hope it doesn’t go too far, though: Many of the new living spaces go for seven figures, and we even heard rumors that Posh & Bex were looking at some swanky pads east of the Civic Center. (Shall we call them Pex for short? —ed.)
Based at Broadway and Ninth, the arty collective BOXEight get props for putting the focus back on the beauty and character of L.A.’s old, under-used architectural treasures. Not only did they choose the palatial Los Angeles Theatre as a venue for two nights of music and clothing-designer action (an alternative to Smashbox’s Fashion Week shows), but they’re bringing new life to the previously neglected Grand Ave. Nightclub with a monthly gathering called Art Bar.
The Grand old building’s usual crowd includes salsersos and Top 40 fans, but owner Gary Warfer told us he’s looking to attract a more rockin’ scene and has some biggie band bookings in the works. With a groovy new paint job and seating/eating area, it sure looks nicer than it did back when it was a rave fave, and we know it works as a rock venue: Tiger Mask had its first (and last) L.A. Shakedown garage-a-thon there a few years ago, and though there were problems with that event, the space wasn’t one of them. We’ll keep ya posted on the plans for Grand’s return to grandeur in the coming months.
Then the party events at the LA Theatre shows:
Hot & Hammy Media Whores
The Los Angeles Theatre provided a charming, ornate backdrop for BOXEight’s three highly entertaining fashion shows and after-parties. Friday, a group show featuring the local lines Kit Pistol, Rock N Roll Beauty and Goddollars was zesty fun, but it only warmed up the runway for the main event: the flamboyant, uniform-inspired frocks of Salt Lake City provocateur Jared Gold (see A Considerable Town for full review). Gold’s show attracted a Technicolor brew of tatted art tarts, spiffed-up rockers (Eric Erlandson, Miss Derringer’s Elizabeth McGrath and Morgan Slade), hot & hammy media whores (celebutante author James St. James, Anna Nicole Smith “pal” Bobby Trendy in a puffy shirt and stripper boots), and industry playas & pets, including Amy Heckerling (Fast Times, Clueless), Heather Tom (Young & the Restless), Jennifer Carpenter (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) and porn queen Jenna Jameson (sporting a bob haircut). Catwalk prancers were plucked from America’s Next Top Model, Janice Dickensen’s Modeling Agency and outer space — uh, we mean cyberspace. (Pink princess Jeffree Star, currently No. 1 on iTunes’ dance-music chart with his EP Plastic Surgery Slumber Party, worked it like Wonder Woman.) Overheard at the show’s close: “Well, that was the hippest crowd and show in L.A. Fashion Week. We might as well take the rest of the week off!”
Of course, we didn’t. We returned for Eduardo Lucero’s show the following night, where a more sophisticated, mostly Latin crowd gathered to eyeball Lucero’s Studio 54–ish getups. We were banished to bad seats in the back, but even from that distance, we thought the collection was hit-and-miss. We actually preferred the edgy ensembles we saw on latecomers after the show — including members of Orgy and The Living Things who funneled into the theater for Stephen Hauptfeur’s post-fashion show happening. The androgynous NYC electro-poppers Dangerous Muse and Suicide Club (led by Morphine Generation designer Erik Hart) provided the sounds but, alas, Nightranger had other (drunken) fish to fry. It was St. Paddy’s Day, after all.
Ain’t it Grand (Ave.)?
It’s still too sketchy for us to live in, but downtown definitely beats Hollywood for going out: less traffic, less moolah, less velvet-rope burn. It’s no wonder D-town’s boomin’. Let’s hope it doesn’t go too far, though: Many of the new living spaces go for seven figures, and we even heard rumors that Posh & Bex were looking at some swanky pads east of the Civic Center. (Shall we call them Pex for short? —ed.)
Based at Broadway and Ninth, the arty collective BOXEight get props for putting the focus back on the beauty and character of L.A.’s old, under-used architectural treasures. Not only did they choose the palatial Los Angeles Theatre as a venue for two nights of music and clothing-designer action (an alternative to Smashbox’s Fashion Week shows), but they’re bringing new life to the previously neglected Grand Ave. Nightclub with a monthly gathering called Art Bar.
The Grand old building’s usual crowd includes salsersos and Top 40 fans, but owner Gary Warfer told us he’s looking to attract a more rockin’ scene and has some biggie band bookings in the works. With a groovy new paint job and seating/eating area, it sure looks nicer than it did back when it was a rave fave, and we know it works as a rock venue: Tiger Mask had its first (and last) L.A. Shakedown garage-a-thon there a few years ago, and though there were problems with that event, the space wasn’t one of them. We’ll keep ya posted on the plans for Grand’s return to grandeur in the coming months.
Then the party events at the LA Theatre shows:
Hot & Hammy Media Whores
The Los Angeles Theatre provided a charming, ornate backdrop for BOXEight’s three highly entertaining fashion shows and after-parties. Friday, a group show featuring the local lines Kit Pistol, Rock N Roll Beauty and Goddollars was zesty fun, but it only warmed up the runway for the main event: the flamboyant, uniform-inspired frocks of Salt Lake City provocateur Jared Gold (see A Considerable Town for full review). Gold’s show attracted a Technicolor brew of tatted art tarts, spiffed-up rockers (Eric Erlandson, Miss Derringer’s Elizabeth McGrath and Morgan Slade), hot & hammy media whores (celebutante author James St. James, Anna Nicole Smith “pal” Bobby Trendy in a puffy shirt and stripper boots), and industry playas & pets, including Amy Heckerling (Fast Times, Clueless), Heather Tom (Young & the Restless), Jennifer Carpenter (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) and porn queen Jenna Jameson (sporting a bob haircut). Catwalk prancers were plucked from America’s Next Top Model, Janice Dickensen’s Modeling Agency and outer space — uh, we mean cyberspace. (Pink princess Jeffree Star, currently No. 1 on iTunes’ dance-music chart with his EP Plastic Surgery Slumber Party, worked it like Wonder Woman.) Overheard at the show’s close: “Well, that was the hippest crowd and show in L.A. Fashion Week. We might as well take the rest of the week off!”
Of course, we didn’t. We returned for Eduardo Lucero’s show the following night, where a more sophisticated, mostly Latin crowd gathered to eyeball Lucero’s Studio 54–ish getups. We were banished to bad seats in the back, but even from that distance, we thought the collection was hit-and-miss. We actually preferred the edgy ensembles we saw on latecomers after the show — including members of Orgy and The Living Things who funneled into the theater for Stephen Hauptfeur’s post-fashion show happening. The androgynous NYC electro-poppers Dangerous Muse and Suicide Club (led by Morphine Generation designer Erik Hart) provided the sounds but, alas, Nightranger had other (drunken) fish to fry. It was St. Paddy’s Day, after all.
Weekly On Downtown Fashion Week's Jared Gold Show/Party!
This was definitely not your grandmother's fashion show - or fashions. Unless your Grandmother was Divine, of course.
L.A. Fashion Week Smackdown
Jared Gold’s runway spectacle competes with Smashbox shows
By LINDA IMMEDIATO
Wednesday, March 21, 2007 - 10:00 am
It was billed as “the wildest front row in all of Fashion Week.” You sometimes get a tranny or two in the audience at Smashbox Studios, site of L.A.’s official Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, but never in the numbers or caliber of the sparkling array of gorgeous cross-dressers in falsies and heels that turned up Friday night at Jared Gold’s Quiet Army show. Equally as shiny were the stylish men who sashayed this way and that in the lobby, including the event’s producer, the now-lithe Clint Catalyst, writer and contributing editor at Swindle, who was wearing a Jared Gold jacket adorned with multicolored horseback-riding ribbons.
“I’m a size queen,” he said as he handed us our tickets. “Believe me I’ve rode some horses.”
It’s hard to say what was more opulent — the crowd or the Los Angeles Theater, with its cathedral-coffered ceilings, gold molding and dripping crystal chandeliers. But the men weren’t the only ones who put extra effort into their outfits. Women in gloves, tiny veiled hats and home-crafted dresses populated the old movie house. Dame Darcy turned up in a wide-brimmed hat holding a parasol and one of her own, kind-of-creepy handmade china dolls.
This was a palace of underground royalty, with the kind of artsy throng made up of so many creative individuals that we felt like Sears-suited paint-by-numbers accountants in comparison. It was no Culver City fashion show.
And it was all brought to you by BOXeight, basically three men with no luxury-car sponsorship who plan to take over the world. Or at least to bring the heart of L.A. Fashion Week back to its birthplace downtown — to promote shows that demonstrate true artistry in clothing instead of the corporate-machine runway scenes that they say have taken over the other end of town.
The three of them look a bit like the Village People: Peter Gurnz, a hipster artist with a shaggy haircut is the driving force behind BOXeight; downtown advocate and neighborhood council president Brady Westwater, a.k.a. “L.A. Cowboy,” who comes complete with prerequisite hat, is well known to metro news types; and Gary Warfel, in a suit and tie, actually looks a little like a paint-by-numbers accountant, but is really a big downtown developer.
They dreamed up the idea of competing with Smashbox over drinks just a little more than six weeks before Fashion Week was set to begin. The idea was to produce their own L.A. fashion weekend of sorts, with shows at the Standard and the Los Angeles Theater. And so far the crowd and the location is already much more appealing than the Smashbox scene.
What about celebrities? Jared Gold’s show was filled with reality-TV stars, you know — those celebrities created by the people. Clint Catalyst got beauties like Top Model’s Lisa D’Amato and Joanie Dodds as well as J.P. Calderon of Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency, actress Mageina Tovah, and the now fucshia-haired Jeffree Star of MySpace (whose EP Plastic Surgery Slumber Party is, according to a fan, currently No. 1 on the iTunes dance chart right above Justin Timberlake).
Old-school reality-TV veteran Bobby Trendy, who made a small name on the small screen as Anna Nicole Smith’s interior decorator, watched the spectacle from the front row in an oversize blouse worthy of Patti LaBelle, and a pink-and-rhinestone choker. I asked if he wanted to share any thoughts about Anna.
“It’s very sad,” he said, the light flickering in his lip-gloss. “But her legacy lives on. She touched a lot of people. And I just want to say that I never accepted any money for interviews. The only reason some people are talking now is because they want money, but I haven’t asked for one dollar. Ugh, that Howard. The truth will be revealed.”
How X-Files. The front row also contained the likes of Jenna Jameson, Eric from Hole (remember him? He actually lived through this), directors Daniel Stein (Color Me Olsen) and Amy Heckerling (Fast Times at Ridgemont High), White Oleander author Janet Fitch, and many other “fancy folks” as they’re known in certain circles.
But this crowd didn’t really care. Here, the lovely sculptress Elizabeth McGrath and other artist-utantes rule, and designer Jared Gold is the king du jour. Gold has shown to the underground for many years, cultivating a cult following with such ephemeral themes as light and shadows and aural vacuums.
Finally it was showtime, and with a Palace of Versailles–worthy hallway of dark wood paneling and candle sconces as runway backdrop, his clothes took center stage.
The theme? Mormon chic.
Yes, Mormon.
Despite the devil’s water being poured at the bar upstairs, on the runway it was all high-ruffled collars, modest hemlines, golden honeycombs and bees. Gold has just moved his company’s Black Chandelier headquarters to Salt Lake City, Utah, and his new home has clearly inspired him. But there were also touches of Girl Scout green and military emblems.
A fashion militia?
Gold smiled and said, “I’m building a small army.”
L.A. Fashion Week Smackdown
Jared Gold’s runway spectacle competes with Smashbox shows
By LINDA IMMEDIATO
Wednesday, March 21, 2007 - 10:00 am
It was billed as “the wildest front row in all of Fashion Week.” You sometimes get a tranny or two in the audience at Smashbox Studios, site of L.A.’s official Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, but never in the numbers or caliber of the sparkling array of gorgeous cross-dressers in falsies and heels that turned up Friday night at Jared Gold’s Quiet Army show. Equally as shiny were the stylish men who sashayed this way and that in the lobby, including the event’s producer, the now-lithe Clint Catalyst, writer and contributing editor at Swindle, who was wearing a Jared Gold jacket adorned with multicolored horseback-riding ribbons.
“I’m a size queen,” he said as he handed us our tickets. “Believe me I’ve rode some horses.”
It’s hard to say what was more opulent — the crowd or the Los Angeles Theater, with its cathedral-coffered ceilings, gold molding and dripping crystal chandeliers. But the men weren’t the only ones who put extra effort into their outfits. Women in gloves, tiny veiled hats and home-crafted dresses populated the old movie house. Dame Darcy turned up in a wide-brimmed hat holding a parasol and one of her own, kind-of-creepy handmade china dolls.
This was a palace of underground royalty, with the kind of artsy throng made up of so many creative individuals that we felt like Sears-suited paint-by-numbers accountants in comparison. It was no Culver City fashion show.
And it was all brought to you by BOXeight, basically three men with no luxury-car sponsorship who plan to take over the world. Or at least to bring the heart of L.A. Fashion Week back to its birthplace downtown — to promote shows that demonstrate true artistry in clothing instead of the corporate-machine runway scenes that they say have taken over the other end of town.
The three of them look a bit like the Village People: Peter Gurnz, a hipster artist with a shaggy haircut is the driving force behind BOXeight; downtown advocate and neighborhood council president Brady Westwater, a.k.a. “L.A. Cowboy,” who comes complete with prerequisite hat, is well known to metro news types; and Gary Warfel, in a suit and tie, actually looks a little like a paint-by-numbers accountant, but is really a big downtown developer.
They dreamed up the idea of competing with Smashbox over drinks just a little more than six weeks before Fashion Week was set to begin. The idea was to produce their own L.A. fashion weekend of sorts, with shows at the Standard and the Los Angeles Theater. And so far the crowd and the location is already much more appealing than the Smashbox scene.
What about celebrities? Jared Gold’s show was filled with reality-TV stars, you know — those celebrities created by the people. Clint Catalyst got beauties like Top Model’s Lisa D’Amato and Joanie Dodds as well as J.P. Calderon of Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency, actress Mageina Tovah, and the now fucshia-haired Jeffree Star of MySpace (whose EP Plastic Surgery Slumber Party is, according to a fan, currently No. 1 on the iTunes dance chart right above Justin Timberlake).
Old-school reality-TV veteran Bobby Trendy, who made a small name on the small screen as Anna Nicole Smith’s interior decorator, watched the spectacle from the front row in an oversize blouse worthy of Patti LaBelle, and a pink-and-rhinestone choker. I asked if he wanted to share any thoughts about Anna.
“It’s very sad,” he said, the light flickering in his lip-gloss. “But her legacy lives on. She touched a lot of people. And I just want to say that I never accepted any money for interviews. The only reason some people are talking now is because they want money, but I haven’t asked for one dollar. Ugh, that Howard. The truth will be revealed.”
How X-Files. The front row also contained the likes of Jenna Jameson, Eric from Hole (remember him? He actually lived through this), directors Daniel Stein (Color Me Olsen) and Amy Heckerling (Fast Times at Ridgemont High), White Oleander author Janet Fitch, and many other “fancy folks” as they’re known in certain circles.
But this crowd didn’t really care. Here, the lovely sculptress Elizabeth McGrath and other artist-utantes rule, and designer Jared Gold is the king du jour. Gold has shown to the underground for many years, cultivating a cult following with such ephemeral themes as light and shadows and aural vacuums.
Finally it was showtime, and with a Palace of Versailles–worthy hallway of dark wood paneling and candle sconces as runway backdrop, his clothes took center stage.
The theme? Mormon chic.
Yes, Mormon.
Despite the devil’s water being poured at the bar upstairs, on the runway it was all high-ruffled collars, modest hemlines, golden honeycombs and bees. Gold has just moved his company’s Black Chandelier headquarters to Salt Lake City, Utah, and his new home has clearly inspired him. But there were also touches of Girl Scout green and military emblems.
A fashion militia?
Gold smiled and said, “I’m building a small army.”
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
LA Times On DLANC's Downtown LA Fashion Week vs. Mercedes-Benz's Culver City Smashbox Fashion Week!
When I challenged fellow Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Board members Gary Warfel, Michael Delinjani and Peter Gurnz to think out of the box... so to speak... and to join up to move Fashion Week back to Downtown Los Angeles, little did I know that within six weeks we would change the future of Fashion Week in Los Angeles.
L.A. FASHION WEEK
It's a clear case of diminishing returns
Fledgling rivals steal buzz while some notable designers bypass Smashbox.
By Adam Tschorn
Times Staff Writer
March 21, 2007
Alber Elbaz, Zac Posen and Phillip Lim in town. Glittering designer dinners in Hollywood and trunk shows in Beverly Hills. There has never been so much fashion in Los Angeles as there is this week. And yet, the event that anchors it all, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Smashbox Studios, has never been more diminished.
With only 23 shows on the roster, this is its thinnest designer lineup in years. A pared-down seating chart — an effort to curb the party scene at the event — also means that there are fewer people attending the shows. Two rival "fashion weeks" have sprung up in downtown L.A. — fledgling though they might be, they were enough to have the fashion world buzzing about the threat to the main event. Before the first heel hit the catwalk, insiders were speculating that this might be the make-or-break season for the partnership behind the event — Smashbox Studios and the event production firm IMG.
Davis Factor, co-owner of Smashbox, said he didn't consider the season currently under way more or less crucial than any other. "Every single season we say the same thing: 'Is this going to be a make-or-break year?' But personally I don't look at each season, I look at the big picture. Would I be happy if there were another 10 great designers showing? I would be happier but I'm happy with what we have this season." To that end, he plans to hire someone full time to help network with the Los Angeles fashion community year-round.
Likewise, Fern Mallis, vice president of IMG Fashion, said her group was here to stay. "I think they are doing some terrific things downtown," Mallis said. "And I think what it shows is that Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week L.A. is clearly the anchor and the focus of what's happening in L.A."
Nevertheless, the schedule for Fashion Week, an event that includes The Times among 15 corporate sponsors, is filled with empty slots and some lesser-known designers, including the men's underwear line 2(x)ist, eveningwear designer Joseph Domingo and Tart, maker of jersey separates.
While some of the best in L.A. continue to show here, they are increasingly choosing to do so far from Smashbox. Rozae Nichols, who was named 2006 Designer of the Year at the L.A. Fashion Awards, presented her collection at her home in the Hollywood Hills on Sunday night. Corey Lynn Calter drew an A-list crowd including Christina Ricci to her Thursday-night presentation downtown.
And...
The most visible competition this season, though, is the pair of upstart fashion weeks held downtown in the days before the official event. Kitten Fashion Week, sponsored by Kitten magazine, showcased a dozen designers at the Standard Hotel over three days, and BOXeight, produced by an art collective, held two shows at the Los Angeles Theatre, including one by Eduardo Lucero, a veteran of the L.A. fashion scene.
"I've shown at Smashbox quite a few times," Lucero said, "and this time it was just more convenient for me to show at the theater — it really fit in with the clothes I was showing." BOXeight's sponsorship of his show also meant he didn't need to shell out money for a venue. (Renting a runway at Smashbox ranges from $1,500 to $7,500 this season — still a bargain compared with New York.)
"It wasn't like I was choosing one over the other," Lucero said. "It's all part of Fashion Week in L.A. When you go to New York and show in a different venue apart from Bryant Park it does not mean you aren't showing during Fashion Week."
And....more on the decline of the Smashbox Fashion Week:
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week's 23 shows are fewer than either Smashbox or IMG had on their own, separate calendars before they joined forces. A review of previous seasons' schedules shows that the number of designers showing in Culver City has decreased steadily each season since the spring 2005 collections in October 2004, the partnership's second season.
Mallis blames L.A.: "Nobody wants to come in the morning. In New York the shows start 9 o'clock in the morning, but it's different here, so we've made a concerted effort to bring them in a little later and out a little earlier."
But there are plenty of open slots during the afternoon too.
In addition to fewer shows, there are also fewer seats — one venue was downsized by 90 seats and another by 150. Factor said that was part of the effort to limit the numbers of hangers-on and create a more intimate space.
Both Mallis and Factor say focusing purely on the numbers doesn't tell the whole story, that it's a matter of "quality over quantity." Still, a show featuring men's underpants, entertaining as it was, is hard to take seriously.
Publicist Henri Meyers, owner of EM Productions, has worked on several L.A. Fashion Week shows in the past. He said that while he appreciated organizers' efforts to curtail the party scene, it may be too late to recover credibility. "It should have been done last season," he said.
Calter said she opted out of Smashbox because of her collection, not the venue. At Smashbox, "there's a lack of intimacy," she said. "This season my girl is little bit darker…. I wanted something more intimate and more special. It was more of an aesthetic decision."
Factor acknowledged the demand for alternative venues. "In the future I'd like to have a traditional runway venue as well as one or two venues that can change to reflect what the designer wants to do." He's considering the Convention Center in downtown L.A. or the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood.
"Either of those would make sense," he said. "Downtown would certainly make sense…. This season doesn't even matter on its own. As long as we give them fashion, the media will come whether we do 10 shows or 50 shows."
And this fall we will be showing in far more Downtown venues during this October's Fashion Week and, after what we accomplished in six weeks, imagine what we'll do this October with over six months to prepare.
L.A. FASHION WEEK
It's a clear case of diminishing returns
Fledgling rivals steal buzz while some notable designers bypass Smashbox.
By Adam Tschorn
Times Staff Writer
March 21, 2007
Alber Elbaz, Zac Posen and Phillip Lim in town. Glittering designer dinners in Hollywood and trunk shows in Beverly Hills. There has never been so much fashion in Los Angeles as there is this week. And yet, the event that anchors it all, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Smashbox Studios, has never been more diminished.
With only 23 shows on the roster, this is its thinnest designer lineup in years. A pared-down seating chart — an effort to curb the party scene at the event — also means that there are fewer people attending the shows. Two rival "fashion weeks" have sprung up in downtown L.A. — fledgling though they might be, they were enough to have the fashion world buzzing about the threat to the main event. Before the first heel hit the catwalk, insiders were speculating that this might be the make-or-break season for the partnership behind the event — Smashbox Studios and the event production firm IMG.
Davis Factor, co-owner of Smashbox, said he didn't consider the season currently under way more or less crucial than any other. "Every single season we say the same thing: 'Is this going to be a make-or-break year?' But personally I don't look at each season, I look at the big picture. Would I be happy if there were another 10 great designers showing? I would be happier but I'm happy with what we have this season." To that end, he plans to hire someone full time to help network with the Los Angeles fashion community year-round.
Likewise, Fern Mallis, vice president of IMG Fashion, said her group was here to stay. "I think they are doing some terrific things downtown," Mallis said. "And I think what it shows is that Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week L.A. is clearly the anchor and the focus of what's happening in L.A."
Nevertheless, the schedule for Fashion Week, an event that includes The Times among 15 corporate sponsors, is filled with empty slots and some lesser-known designers, including the men's underwear line 2(x)ist, eveningwear designer Joseph Domingo and Tart, maker of jersey separates.
While some of the best in L.A. continue to show here, they are increasingly choosing to do so far from Smashbox. Rozae Nichols, who was named 2006 Designer of the Year at the L.A. Fashion Awards, presented her collection at her home in the Hollywood Hills on Sunday night. Corey Lynn Calter drew an A-list crowd including Christina Ricci to her Thursday-night presentation downtown.
And...
The most visible competition this season, though, is the pair of upstart fashion weeks held downtown in the days before the official event. Kitten Fashion Week, sponsored by Kitten magazine, showcased a dozen designers at the Standard Hotel over three days, and BOXeight, produced by an art collective, held two shows at the Los Angeles Theatre, including one by Eduardo Lucero, a veteran of the L.A. fashion scene.
"I've shown at Smashbox quite a few times," Lucero said, "and this time it was just more convenient for me to show at the theater — it really fit in with the clothes I was showing." BOXeight's sponsorship of his show also meant he didn't need to shell out money for a venue. (Renting a runway at Smashbox ranges from $1,500 to $7,500 this season — still a bargain compared with New York.)
"It wasn't like I was choosing one over the other," Lucero said. "It's all part of Fashion Week in L.A. When you go to New York and show in a different venue apart from Bryant Park it does not mean you aren't showing during Fashion Week."
And....more on the decline of the Smashbox Fashion Week:
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week's 23 shows are fewer than either Smashbox or IMG had on their own, separate calendars before they joined forces. A review of previous seasons' schedules shows that the number of designers showing in Culver City has decreased steadily each season since the spring 2005 collections in October 2004, the partnership's second season.
Mallis blames L.A.: "Nobody wants to come in the morning. In New York the shows start 9 o'clock in the morning, but it's different here, so we've made a concerted effort to bring them in a little later and out a little earlier."
But there are plenty of open slots during the afternoon too.
In addition to fewer shows, there are also fewer seats — one venue was downsized by 90 seats and another by 150. Factor said that was part of the effort to limit the numbers of hangers-on and create a more intimate space.
Both Mallis and Factor say focusing purely on the numbers doesn't tell the whole story, that it's a matter of "quality over quantity." Still, a show featuring men's underpants, entertaining as it was, is hard to take seriously.
Publicist Henri Meyers, owner of EM Productions, has worked on several L.A. Fashion Week shows in the past. He said that while he appreciated organizers' efforts to curtail the party scene, it may be too late to recover credibility. "It should have been done last season," he said.
Calter said she opted out of Smashbox because of her collection, not the venue. At Smashbox, "there's a lack of intimacy," she said. "This season my girl is little bit darker…. I wanted something more intimate and more special. It was more of an aesthetic decision."
Factor acknowledged the demand for alternative venues. "In the future I'd like to have a traditional runway venue as well as one or two venues that can change to reflect what the designer wants to do." He's considering the Convention Center in downtown L.A. or the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood.
"Either of those would make sense," he said. "Downtown would certainly make sense…. This season doesn't even matter on its own. As long as we give them fashion, the media will come whether we do 10 shows or 50 shows."
And this fall we will be showing in far more Downtown venues during this October's Fashion Week and, after what we accomplished in six weeks, imagine what we'll do this October with over six months to prepare.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Is London Now The Capital City Of The 21st Century?
That's what New York Magazine supposedly said according to London's Evening Standard:
London is the world capital of the 21st century... says New York
By Tom Teodorczuk, Evening Standard, in New York 20.03.
An influential American magazine has named London the global capital of the 21st century.
The new issue of New York magazine is a homage to London, claiming the financial, cultural and culinary benefits now tower over those of its home city.
In the most glowing American media coverage of Britain since Vanity Fair's 1996 Cool Britannia issue, the article declares: "If Paris was the capital of the 19th century and New York of the 20th, London is shaping up to be the capital of the 21st century.
"It is not Britain and the US that have a special relationship, it is London and New York ... increasingly it seems as though London has the upper hand."
American writers Eugenia Bell and Matt Weiland add: "To Londoners now, there's a sense that the future belongs to them. It can sometimes seem as if there's nobody over 30 in the streets and that a great experiment in mass immigration and assimilation is under way."
The architectural skyline, including Norman Foster's Gherkin and the Shard of Glass, and thriving arts scene, particularly West End theatre and the Frieze Art Fair, all receive special praise. A report commissioned by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned Wall Street that the Square Mile was ahead when it came to job creation. He visited Britain last month and concluded: "London is gaining on us in area after area."
The magazine says: "In short, New York is cardiganed Woody Allen and London is party-dressed Lily Allen."
London is the world capital of the 21st century... says New York
By Tom Teodorczuk, Evening Standard, in New York 20.03.
An influential American magazine has named London the global capital of the 21st century.
The new issue of New York magazine is a homage to London, claiming the financial, cultural and culinary benefits now tower over those of its home city.
In the most glowing American media coverage of Britain since Vanity Fair's 1996 Cool Britannia issue, the article declares: "If Paris was the capital of the 19th century and New York of the 20th, London is shaping up to be the capital of the 21st century.
"It is not Britain and the US that have a special relationship, it is London and New York ... increasingly it seems as though London has the upper hand."
American writers Eugenia Bell and Matt Weiland add: "To Londoners now, there's a sense that the future belongs to them. It can sometimes seem as if there's nobody over 30 in the streets and that a great experiment in mass immigration and assimilation is under way."
The architectural skyline, including Norman Foster's Gherkin and the Shard of Glass, and thriving arts scene, particularly West End theatre and the Frieze Art Fair, all receive special praise. A report commissioned by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned Wall Street that the Square Mile was ahead when it came to job creation. He visited Britain last month and concluded: "London is gaining on us in area after area."
The magazine says: "In short, New York is cardiganed Woody Allen and London is party-dressed Lily Allen."
Monday, March 19, 2007
Wyatt Earp Born Today! Happy 159th Birthday!
Now that seems like a long time ago - but my father - whose birthday is in exactly one week - is alive and well and was alive and well when they both lived in Los Angeles during the 1920's. I also grew up knowing people who knew Wyatt Earp both in Tombstone and in Los Angeles.
New York Times Claims Los Angeles Fashion Week Doesn't Exist!
While looking for the New York Times reviews of the fashion shows presented in Los Angeles during the past... four days.... (five of which were either jump started by or fully run by four of us on the Downtown Los Angles Neighborhood Council)I was surprised to find no mention of them. And then I found the article that explained why.
They never happened.
Nor will this weeks shows happen since - according to the New York Times - once the last model walked down the last runway in New York - that was the end of the fall runway season.
March 15, 2007
A Wrap-Up of Fall: Reasons to Rejoice
By CATHY HORYN
WHEN the fall runway season ended, a week ago Sunday, there seemed more to consider than to sweep aside. Rare was the first-tier show that clanged like an empty pot — and you wouldn't have said that six months ago, when designers conjured up a cross between a Star Trek groupie and an Elvis impersonator. (See Steven Meisel's spread in February Italian Vogue for details.)
They never happened.
Nor will this weeks shows happen since - according to the New York Times - once the last model walked down the last runway in New York - that was the end of the fall runway season.
March 15, 2007
A Wrap-Up of Fall: Reasons to Rejoice
By CATHY HORYN
WHEN the fall runway season ended, a week ago Sunday, there seemed more to consider than to sweep aside. Rare was the first-tier show that clanged like an empty pot — and you wouldn't have said that six months ago, when designers conjured up a cross between a Star Trek groupie and an Elvis impersonator. (See Steven Meisel's spread in February Italian Vogue for details.)
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