paperhaus June 26th, 2008
Ray Bradbury spoke at Long Beach’s doomed Acres of Books last night. He said nice, touching things about the bookstore and his fondness for it. Right on.
Then he said: “Right now there are no bookstores in downtown L.A. That’s terrible. That’s stupid, isn’t it?” Yeah, sure is. Except Metropolis Books IS in downtown LA, near 4th and main, and has a fantastic selection of literary fiction. It’s a new, wonderful independent bookstore and could use your support, Mr. Bradbury.
Then he said: “There’s no bookstore in Venice, California right now.” Bzzzz! Wrong again. There are TWO independent bookstores in Venice, California. Right now. Small World Books is easy to find — on the boardwalk — and has a well-known bookstore cat. In the retail district on Abbot Kinney, Equator Books features art books, specialty books (from skateboarding to bullfighting) and collectibles. Probably even some vintage Bradbury.
Mr. Bradbury, so many people listen to you, and you’re good at making stuff up. But when it comes to dissing neighborhood bookstores, please make sure you know what you’re talking about.
paperhaus December 1st, 2007
Tony Pierce, the enthusiastic, wild, obsessive, peerless* editor of LAist is moving on to manage the blogs of the Los Angeles Times.
Congratulations, Tony!
Photo: That’s Tony in the center, mid-Skooby’s hot dog, telling Rob Takata and Cecil Castellucci what’s what.
* not predecessor-less, though: his predecessor was me.
paperhaus August 27th, 2007
In other words, more Americans read a book last year than did five years ago. 3 out of 4 Americans read a book last year; in 2002, that figure was 56%.
Make sure to read Jessica’s post on why the literary sky is NOT falling.
With that, I’m off to this year’s first day of class.
paperhaus January 8th, 2007
Dick Cheney will be hunting near Pittsburgh today at the Rolling Rock Club. He’s supposed to be shooting at pheasants and whatnot — but in the eyes of the VP, we’re all game.
paperhaus December 29th, 2006
Donald Rumsfeld greets Saddam Hussein in Baghdad, December 20, 1983.
Of the two, Rummy had a better 2006: all he did was lose his job.
Saddam was executed today.
Tawdry sums it up.
paperhaus December 26th, 2006
Woodstock Festival, 1999. James Brown kicks off the festivities with backup singers dressed likes mermaids, a bit of crazytalk and a whole lotta exacting showmanship. He sang “Sex Machine,” “I Feel Good,” and covered “Foxy Lady” in a nod to Jimi Hendrix. I was there for Woodstock.com, and it was my birthday. Sweet.
The Godfather of Soul was a brilliant artist who changed the course of American music. He was also a madman who was doing PCP at 54 and who knows what else for how long, all the while performing like a master. He died yesterday; now we’ll never have a funky president.
paperhaus November 17th, 2006
Salon piggybacks jumps on follows in the footsteps of People Magazine for its own Hot Dude of the year pronouncement. I like their geekchic. Steven Colbert takes #1. And who’s to argue with the runners’ up court?
Philip Seymour Hoffman (my birthday twin), Richard Dawkins, Bruce Springsteen. In some unkind twist, Jon Stewart is left in last place. I just can’t face it. Instead, I turn, for solace, to the People Magazine Sexiest Man Alive issue. Right now, that is.
People Magazine is no pillar of the intelligensia, is not a resource for smart people, will never be a source for excellent writing. But geez, they can pick a hot guy when they have to, can’t they?
paperhaus November 7th, 2006
The Tribune company continues its hellbent destruction of the L.A. Times, driving out respected editor Dean Baquet. More departures and cuts are sure to follow.
In much better dumping news, Britney finally kicks K-Fed to the curb, divorce papers and all.
Welcome to Pennsylvania, Max. We’re now Santorum-free.
A long-lost Silverblatt brother surfaces at the Bat Segundo show with guest Scott Smith.
At Largehearted Boy, LBC nominee Sidney Thompson provides a soundtrack for his book Sideshow.
James Ellroy pulls his Alpha Author Act for the NY Times: “I am a master of fiction. I am also the greatest crime writer who ever lived.” Tell ya, I’ve gotta love it. But when did he get skinny?
Speaking of crime: actress Adrienne Shelly’s supicious death wasn’t suicide; it was murder.
Is it possible that Virginia voters will send macaca-man to the Senate? Currently he is ahead by fewer than 5,000 votes. 24,000 voted for the Green candidate. Will we liberals never learn?
paperhaus October 26th, 2006
Today the LA Weekly reports that beloved, above-reproach labor leader Miguel Contreras, who dropped dead unexpectedly at the age of 52 last year, happened to do so at a South LA massage parlor-cum-house-of-ill-repute.
And why didn’t anybody hear about this sooner? Because Los Angeles’ political leaders — including both mayoral candidates, mid-campaign — showed up at the emergency room and did major spin control. There was no autopsy, which can’t quite be explained, and which isn’t quite typical. Chances are there will be, at the very least, further investigation.
Adding kerfluffle to intrigue, today happened to be the last day of Harold Meyerson’s longtime tenure at the paper. Meyerson is an unabashed liberal (hear, hear!) but his predictable, knee-jerk leftism helped make the paper’s political coverage stale and unreadable. Like, for years. So on his last day, he sends a memo to the paper saying that they’ve sunk to a new low. And the new LA Weekly editor shoots back. LA Observed has the whole back and forth. Fascinating.
Despite the fact that Meyerson comes down against tabloidism, I can almost see Danny Devito playing him in LA Confidential: 2010.
paperhaus September 1st, 2006
For 5 years after the September 11th attacks, the Federal Education Department shared student aid application information with the FBI.
Under the program, called Project Strikeback, the Education Department
received names from the F.B.I. and checked them against its student aid
database, forwarding information. Each year, the Education Department
collects information from 14 million applications for federal student
aid.
Ostensibly the aid dollars might have been used to fund terrorist activities. Now I don’t know what a decent missile launcher goes for these days on the black market, but I wager it’s more than the sad, scrappy funding grad students receive. Anything would reap a better financial reward.
There are 2 good things about this story: First, it’s no longer happening; it happened to be cancelled 10 days after an investigator’s in-person interview with a Department of Education official. Second: that investigator? A grad student at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism — who, I hope, did her research with funding from the Department of Education.