The Great Los Angeles Walk In The News

Thanks to NBC LA and Alysia Gray Painter for writing another great piece on this year's Great Los Angeles Walk. Check it out here. An excerpt:

It's free -- of course -- and you can join anywhere along the route -- of course -- and the Great Los Angeles Walk "is not a race" -- nope. It is, however, about camaraderie, fresh air, close-up experiences (vs. things seen through the blur of your windshield), and a deeper connection to an oft-driven slice of our city.

And exercise, too. The walk does happen five days ahead of the afternoon we're all likely to consume a little too much stuffing and gravy.

You can RSVP, because that's nice, to Mr. Schneider, who is nice, just so he can keep a count, which is helpful, but not RSVPing doesn't mean you can't wake up on Nov. 23 and decide to join.

So here's another thing you tell someone considering a permanent move to LA: Clear the Saturday before Thanksgiving for a mega walk to the ocean. There's no better way than to get acquainted with a particular street and a whole bunch of adventuring Angelenos.

Meanwhile, County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky's blog and writer David Colgan also put together a great piece on the Walk. Read it here. An excerpt:

When it comes to challenging our car culture, massive events like CicLAvia, with its 100,000-plus cyclists, send a loud message about the growing momentum and demand for alternative transportation. But before there was CicLAvia, there was the more modest—but equally committed—Great Los Angeles Walk, which has been putting one foot after the next on L.A.’s most famous streets for the past 8 years.

Michael Schneider has organized the walks since 2006, when about 30 to 40 brave souls met to tackle all 16 miles of Wilshire Boulevard. Walkers now number around 300 each year.

“It always sounds daunting to people who haven’t done it before,” Schneider said. “But it’s not a race. It’s about taking your time and exploring. I come back with hundreds of photos of things that you normally miss.”

Meanwhile, catch me Friday at noon on KCAL/9 News talking about the Walk!

New Variety Launches Today: What I Would Have Done

Pic via AJ Marechal's Twitter feed.

UPDATE: Just thumbed through the first edition of New Variety. NICE. Stellar design, chock full of interesting stuff and THICK. I can see why it would be tough to do this twice a week (although the content could obviously be spread across two thinner issues, perhaps). Below, my post from this morning on what I would do with the pub.



Farewell, Daily Variety (that's the final issue, above). Hello again, Variety. Having spent 12 years of my professional life at the venerable trade, I am eagerly rooting for it to succeed and still find myself angered by some of the cheap shots that even cheaper competitors throw its way. I was sad to see the Daily go -- but heartened to see a beefed-up Weekly Variety (where we always did some of our best, deeper reads) come on the scene, starting today. For years my colleagues and I dreamed of blowing up the website and completely turning it into something more reader-friendly, while turning the Weekly into a heftier publication. It looks like they're finally doing both. I can't wait to get my hands on today's premiere copy.

Not that anyone asked, but if you're reading this Jay Penske, here's my take on what the new owners of Variety ought to do with the print publication -- starting with the idea of squeezing out at least two issues a week. Given all the congratulatory and For Your Consideration ads out there, I still think a twice-a-week format would better distinguish Variety from its glossy, well-funded competitor, The Hollywood Reporter.

I would have also eliminated Daily Variety, and here's the twist: I would publish what's now known as weekly Variety twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays. (Giving Variety a slight edge over The Hollywood Reporter's once-a-week schedule.)

The Monday edition would take full advantage of the weekend box office and the Sunday night awards shows -- the one place where people can buy full-page ads touting their box office domination or congratulating Oscar/Globes/SAG/Emmy/Grammy/etc. winners. The issue would be built around something called THE WEEK -- a detailed list of winners and losers from the past week (emphasizing the big moves at the agencies, studios and networks) as well as a detailed calendar of the week ahead; big stories looking back at last week's big stories and looking ahead to what will be important this week.

Thursday's issue would include detail-heavy TV ratings grids, domestic and international box office charts and full dissections of each -- indispensable info that is harder to translate online. (Also: A look ahead at the upcoming weekend's box office and award shows). Plus that issue would be built around something called THE LIST -- a weekly feature that would change from week to week -- power lists, overall deal rosters, pilot charts, salary surveys -- ultimately, 52 U.S. News & World Report-style must-read lists that everyone will be clamoring to see. This would be a variation of the specials sections that have driven revenue for years at the trades -- so yes, these lists could be touted to advertisers for congratulations ads.

Big newsy stories, industry think pieces, editorials, and Variety's patented, hefty movie, stage and TV reviews would make up the bulk of the two weekly issues. Variety is all about news and attitude.

I'm not a business guy, so perhaps the bean counters decided that even this idea was not financially feasible. But I also still gotta believe, as a print guy, that there's still a portion of Hollywood that wants to see its stories -- and its ads -- on the page.

L.A. Times Eliminates TV Listings in Print Edition

It's another sign of the shrinking Times. In a note to readers in today's Calendar section, the Los Angeles Times announced that the last remnants of the Calendar section's TV listings grid will soon be history. Starting next Tuesday, Feb. 26, the grids will be no more -- only available online. (Only a TV highlights column will remain).

Writes the paper: "A searchable and printable TV listings grid, which is updated daily, may be accessed at latimes.com/tvtimes and provides readers with TV listings sorted by home ZIP code. TV highlights will continue to appear in Calendar's print editions. LATimes.com members may sign up for TV Weekly, which is delivered in the Sunday Times."

Well, there's a bit of a catch to that: According to the LA Times representative I just spoke to, the "TV Weekly" insert will be offered free to subscribers for six months -- but after that, there will be a fee for it to continue. No thanks -- I trust TV Guide Magazine much more.

I assume this means an even smaller Calendar section moving forward. Over time, the L.A. Times' TV listings have shrunk to focus just on primetime, just as the comics pages have declined. (It wasn't too long ago that the paper also still ran radio listings.)

The Los Angeles Times Checks in on Los Angeles Magazine, and Approves

As Los Angeles magazine celebrates its 50th anniversary (read about their party here), L.A. Times media columnist James Rainey notes that the magazine has managed to keep its mojo - and even win some big magazine prizes -- despite a downsized staff:

The magazine today has taken on the glow of a survivor, with a recovering bottom line and a couple of big journalism prizes having just arrived in the editor's office. It has shed its fixation with the city's Westside, gotten friendlier to time-strapped readers (features tend to be shorter) and shucked the skeptical remove that reigned in the 1990s, when a couple of editors from the East Coast ascended.

The resulting magazine doesn't exactly demand to be read but when it is read can provide a tasty repast.

Rainey gives props to Franklin Avenue pal Mary Melton, the Los Angeles mag editor "who has embraced the mission of doing less with more and unashamedly attempts to present her city in its full splendor and incoherence." Rainey notes that if anyone still thinks Los Angeles magazine sports a Westside bias, Mary lives in Eagle Rock.

The only thing that I'm surprised Rainey didn't mention is Los Angeles magazine's ability to still provoke. Its "Failure" cover, featuring a dour Antonio Villaraigosa, scored high marks in design circles and was most definitely the talk of the town when it came out.

Los Angeles TV and Print Reporters Head to Japan

The Japan disaster story has also become a local one here in Southern California, given the number of Japanese expats and persons of Japanese ancestry in the region. What's more, the slight possibility of a tsunami -- and now, radiation -- coming to our shores (again, highly unlikely) has forced us all to pay attention. (As if the stunning images coming out of the country weren't reason enough.)

That's probably why several local TV stations have sent crews to the country in recent days. It hasn't been an easy trip -- KTLA's Frank Buckley wrote that it took 27 hours to get into the country from Los Angeles.

Here's a partial list (likely to be updated) of local TV and L.A. Times staffers now reporting within Japan:

KNBC 4: Reporter Conan Nolan, photographer Bobbie Eng, photojournalist Jorge Diaz

KTLA 5: Reporter Frank Buckley, producer Toni Molle, photographer Michael McGregor (UPDATE: They've returned. See below)

KABC 7: Reporter David Ono

(KTTV 11 currently doesn't have a crew in Japan. We're still waiting to hear back from the KCBS 2/KCAL 9 duopoly.)

And here are the Los Angeles Times staffers currently in Japan:

Barbara Demick – Beijing Bureau Chief
Mark Magnier – New Delhi Bureau Chief
Laura King – Baghdad Bureau Chief
Carolyn Cole – Photographer, based in NYC
Brian Vander Brug – Photographer, based in LA

There’s also a stringer, Kenji Hall, covering the situation in Japan.

The newspaper's Japan coverage is being aggregated here.

Here's what Buckley wrote on his blog on Sunday:

As some of you know, my mother is Japanese and I lived here for a number of years as a boy. I speak Japanese well enough to get us from here to there. I feel close to Japan and the Japanese people so this story has meaning to me. In fact, I have family here and friends. Fortunately, they're all OK. That's obviously not the case for thousands of others and we'll do our best to tell their stories.

UPDATE: With the radiation scare on the rise in Japan, Buckley has returned home. LA Observed pointed to Buckley's tweet:

Reluctantly leaving Japan after Morning News Wed.Too many questions about radiation. Don't think there's a huge risk but I'm not an expert.

L.A. Observed Meets and Greets the L.A. Journo Crowd

LA Observed's Kevin Roderick gathered a mix of local journalists, media types and bloggers Thursday night to celebrate the conclusion of the site's script project.

The event, held on the roof balcony of West Hollywood's famed Formosa Cafe, also marked L.A. Observed's fifth anniversary.

I was only able to stay about an hour -- wanted to get home in time to tuck in Blogger Preschooler -- but still had a chance to make some rounds and catch up with several local bloggers and others.



Among those I had a chance to chat with: Carolyn Kellogg, who moved back to L.A. this summer and has been blogging at the L.A. Times' "Jacket Copy" site; Darleene Powells; Eric Lynxwiler; Bob Timmermann; my former Variety colleague (now at W) Gabriel Snyder; Pat Saperstein; David Markland; and many others.

Were you there? Wish I could have met more folks -- but Roderick is hinting at more events like this in the future, so perhaps I'll see you there!

Ted's Most Unexcellent Minnesota Adventure

I'm still stunned and angered at what happened to my Variety colleague Ted Johnson yesterday in Minnesota. Despite being a credentialed member of the media, reporting on a demonstration outside the Republican National Convention, police didn't make that distinction -- and hauled him (and other journalists) in with the protesters. He was charged with "presence at an unlawful assembly."

Unbelievable. My hat's off to Ted for covering the protest and apparently risking a police record in the process. Considering everything that happened, his post on the arrest was pretty calm and cool.

But after he had a chance to sleep on it, Ted woke up Friday morning a bit more steamed. As he should be. Ted writes:

I've had a chance to reflect a bit on the insanity of journalists being arrested for just doing their job, which was to cover a genuine story at the Republican National Convention.

Our charge was "presence at an unlawful assembly," which is described in part by Minnesota state statute as refusal to leave the scene when ordered to do so. As I stated in my earlier post, I never heard such an order given, nor did any of the journalists I was with. We were trying to get away from the line of fire of smoke bombs and flash grenades, and eventually fled to the Marion Street bridge, which looked like the only option out. It was there that we were informed that everyone was under arrest.

There's still no answer to the question of why journalists, fully identified by their credentials, were detained, booked and processed, their means of reporting taken away. It was a story that the news media had a right to cover whether or not the protest permit ended at 5 p.m., or whether police gave an order sometime after that. We were covering the story, we were not the story. It gives me a new, hardened and more cynical perspective on the security state that we are in, and how it is being used to justify what are ultimately restrictions on press freedom.

Freedom of the press, 2008.

Quote of the Day: Police Chief Bratton Outs Lindsay Lohan

KNBC caught up with LAPD Chief Bill Bratton, who explained why he thinks a city ordinance controlling the movement of paparazzi is unnecessary:

"If you notice, since Britney started wearing clothes and behaving; Paris is out of town not bothering anybody, thank god; and, evidently, Lindsay Lohan has gone gay, we don't seem to have much of an issue."

Bratton interrupted his workout -- he was still sweaty on camera -- because, he told the station, an earlier KNBC report with Councilman Dennis Zine (who's pushing the new rules) pissed him off.

Your Summer Reality TV Report Card

Sorry, G4's "Attack of the Show." I'm cheating on you.

Thanks to my colleague Joe, who couldn't make it to the taping, I filled in on this past weekend's "reality roundtable" discussion on Fox Reality Channel's "Reality Remix" show.

Hosted by Kennedy, the show takes a look at all things unscripted. For our panel, we hit on the new food-centric shows (lovin' Bravo's "Top Chef 3"); we ask why-oh-why was a "Real World Las Vegas" reunion necessary... and other topics.

Click here (or on the pic of me above) to see the video! (Go to "Reality Remix Roundtable talks summer reality (06.26.07)" if the video doesn't automatically start.)

Watching Stars Under the Stars

July's issue of Los Angeles magazine neatly compiles a list of the most popular summertime outdoor movie screenings.

The list, of course, includes the most popular of them all: The Cinespia movies Saturday nights at the Hollywood Forever cemetery. ($10 donation)

Other picks:

Sunset Cinema, at the Santa Monica Pier, Wednesdays through Sundays from July 6 to September 9. ($7 to $10)

One Colorado Film Festival, at Old Town Pasadena, Friday and Saturday nights in July. (Free)

Santa Monica Drive-In at the Pier, Tuesdays in September at Santa Monica Pier. (Free, but tickets required.)

Outdoor Movie Nights, held on Saturdays throughout July and August in South Pasadena. (Free)

Summer Nights at Burbank Town Center, featuring kid-friendly movies at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesdays starting July 11. (Free)

Big Free Outdoor Movie Night at CityWalk on Thursday nights through August 30. Family-friendly fare. (Free)

We attended Cinespa and had a great time. But a word to the wise: Get there early or find aanother means of transporation. Otherwise, you'll be stuck in a long line of cars to enter. Ahh, and don't forget to pack that picnic.

Interview with a Radio Pirate

Following up on Friday's post about two recent Los Angeles pirate radio stations, I contacted the people behind 95.1 Renegade Underground Radio to get more details.

The guy behind the pirate station, DJ Buddy Love, emailed back and filled me in on a few things: First and foremost, the station has changed its name and is still finalizing plans to get on the air. It's now called Red Zone Radio -- check out their MySpace page here.

More from my interview with DJ Buddy Love:

What kind of music do you guys program?

To tell you the truth we haven't run any programming under "Renegade Underground Radio" yet..we are still finalizing things.. and if anyone has noticed we really haven't done much info on the web. Because yet again before we proceed we have had another change. We will broadcast under Red-Zone Radio 95.1fm.

How did you get involved with pirate radio? Were you inspired by other legendary pirate stations, like KBLT?

We used to broadcast under the name Radio Underground Los Angeles in the mid 90's at the same time (funny you
mentioned it) KBLT was on the air. Our focus was on the Los Angeles club, rave & the urban underground dance scene. We focused on the drugs, laws, music and the DJs of the scene -- with local and international DJs doing live shows and sets. In all and all it was just about the music and the DJs. We never got into politics too much.

We were radied by the FCC on April 22,1999 and told to shut down opperations, which we did not put up a fight. Luckily they didn't take any of our equipment, which included our transmitter (100 watt L.D. Brewer special). So we went dormant. I took it upon myself to relaunch our broadcast again, now with better capabilities we didn't have before (like) live interaction with our audience, thanks to Stickam. That's something we could never afford back then.

When will you broadcast?

We will probably be running our programming 7 days a week, not 24 hrs though, reaching the masses with a newer version of our old broadcast. Still focusing on the dance community -- music, DJs, drugs, politics.

Aren't you afraid of getting caught by the Feds?

No, never worried about the Feds. I have learned a lot from the last experience, so I've learned a lot of new tatics of not getting caught, or at least if I do I know how to get around it.

As for legendary radio stations that inspired me..well, I can't say I knew of any before i started. I knew what they were but never heard one. I was just a DJ never getting noticed or a chance to play at any parties or clubs until one day I decided to learn more about pirate radio. I wanted to start my own (mostly to get noticed and get chicks) and did a hell of a lot of web
investigation -- till I got ahold of Brewer and got my start! (And yes I got noticed, and chicks -- PLUS FEDS HAHA!)

DJ Buddy Love tells us that Susan Carpenter of KBLT fame dropped by his original pirate station soon after KBLT was finally cut for good by the FCC. Will Buddy make it to air before the FCC finds the antenna he has posted on his old MySpace page? Stay tuned.

Here Comes the L.A. Examiner

MediaLife mag is reporting (h/t to LA Observed) that billionaire Philip Anschutz is finally ready to expand his free daily newspaper Examiner brand to Los Angeles.

Anschutz began dramatically expanding the brand after buying the once-major San Francisco Examiner paper, which had evolved into a free daily. He launched free Examiner papers in D.C. and Baltimore. Media Life writes;

It's looking like Los Angeles, and as early as the end of the year, according to a newspaper industry source familiar with the growth plans of parent Clarity Media Group, owned by Colorado billionaire Philip Anschutz.

The Los Angeles Examiner would directly challenge the foundering Los Angeles Times, owned by Tribune Co.

Clarity has trademarked the Examiner name in 69 markets, and it's said it plans several additional launches in the near future, but chain executives decline to confirm or deny that it is working to launch in Los Angeles by year's end.

Media buyers in Los Angeles say they would welcome the Examiner as competition to the beleaguered Los Angeles Times.

“It could be a good time for the Examiner to break through and fill the gap the LA Times is leaving,” Adam Block, a print media buyer at Initiative Media North America in Los Angeles, tells Media Life

The core Examiner model is known: a free daily with lots of local stories aimed largely at busy women as the key household decision-makers and offering advertisers rates a third or half of those charged by the existing newspaper.

Of course, there was a Los Angeles Examiner early last century; it eventually became the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, which folded in 1989.

More recently, ex-Mayor Dick Riordan attempted to launch an alt weekly called LA Examiner, featuring the work of Ken Layne and Matt Welch. But that paper never got past a prototype.



LA Examiner was also the name of Layne's and Welch's LA-centric blog, which originally inspired me to launch Franklin Avenue. They let it die in late 2003, but kept the link to laexaminer.com alive, for posterity sake (as well as examinerla.com, which was the address for the Riordan paper). But checking both web addresses yesterday, I discovered that they've both finally been yanked -- with a simple domain placeholder instead. (You can still access the old sites by the Internet Archive, of course.)

Between that and the disappearance of LABlogs.com, the remnants of LA's original blog-la-sphere is fading away.

The Law of Paris

Wait, so when did the Paris Hilton story move from being "entertainment" to becoming a legit news story? ABCNews.com, for example, has placed its latest Paris coverage under the "Law & Justice" subhead rather than "entertainment." I guess I shouldn't be surprised anymore by things like this. Yet I still am...

KCET Goes Ultra-Local

Hoping to boost its viewership among Southern Californians, KCET is about to embark on an ambitious, hyper local 10 p.m. strategy. L.A.-based shows about life in L.A. (something the low-budget LTN tried to do, to disasterous effect) is in the cards, once funding can be found.

The legendary programmer with the golden gut, Fred Silverman, is even behind the initiative. Joe and I had lunch with Silverman a few weeks ago, and he gave us the lowdown. Joe writes about the KCET programming block in today's Variety:

Los Angeles pubcaster is hoping to remake its primetime sked so that it airs at least one hour of original, locally focused programming at 10 p.m. every weeknight for a total of 200 hours. Station recruited broadcasting vet Fred Silverman to help design the programming, which will air under the banner "Celebrate Southern California."

Sked is a decidedly eclectic mix of fare, ranging from a newsmaker interview skein hosted by former KABC anchor Lisa McRee to a sort of "American Idol" for SoCal high school students. Nights will be themed to focus on different aspects of the community: people, performance, city politics, entertainment.

A Saturday night movie showcase, hosted by Martin Sheen, launched last weekend and is the first part of the initiative. Other potential programs include:

:: A "College Bowl"-style game show featuring local university students competing over 10 weeks.
:: An hour focusing on hometown heroes
:: A user-generated show in which audiences submit videos of their family life.
:: KCET-commissioned documentaries, a voice of the people show and a series of town hall meetings
:: "If You Ran the City," which would team mayors from around the L.A. area with ordinary citizens to brainstorm solutions to city problems.
:: "Curtain Call," which will offer TV adaptations of L.A.-area theater productions, including college and community theater.
:: An hourlong entertainment guide.
:: A SoCal edition of "Check, Please!," a restaurant review show based on a format that originated at Chicago PBS outlet WTTW.

Retro Thursday: "The Team to Watch"

KCBS-TV moved out of Hollywood last weekend and into new digs at the CBS Studio Center in Studio City. The station throws an official ribbon-cutting on Friday, with Mayor Villaraigosa and CBS head Leslie Moonves.

Here's a promo from 25 years ago -- 1982, when Channel 2 was still known as KNXT-TV. Spot highlights then-Channel 2 stars Ralph Story, Marcia Brandwynne, Connie Chung, Jess Marlowe... and Jim Hill (wow, he's still there.) The station touts its ratings gains as "The Team to Watch." (Although I believe it was already in third place at this point.)

Meanwhile, here's one more for ya. KCBS anchor Paul Magers... a bit younger, in 1986, when he was still an anchor in Minneapolis-St. Paul:

Friday Odds-n-Ends

:: Just days after fooling the U.K. tab The Sun (which printed one of its satirical stories as fact), another foreign news source has fallen for a Dateline Hollywood piece.

The Finnish newspaper Iltalehti somehow believed -- and picked up the Dateline Hollywood goof that Larry Birkhead and Howard K. Stern planned to star in a remake of NBC's 1980s sitcom "My Two Dads."

Here's Dateline Hollywood: The show, which will air on NBC this fall, will feature Birkhead and Stern attempting to raise a daughter in the modern world while they work through their own differences and numerous pending lawsuits while living together.

And here's Iltalehti: Ihan tavallisesta kämppäkaveruudesta ei kuitenkaan ole kyse - miehet aikovat kasvattaa Dannielynnin yhdessä tv-kameroiden seuratessa heidän elämäänsä. NBC-televisiokanava kaavailee näyttävänsä syksyllä My Two Dads -nimisen sarjan, jonka päätähtinä miehet seikkailevat.

:: Fishbowl L.A. does the math and notes that the Virginia Tech tragedy has (temporarily, for sure) quieted down the gossip websites. TMZ is down 33% in posts this week, Mayrav notes.

:: Sorry to disappoint, but turns out there isn't really a man trying to buy babies from nannies in Encino. The nanny who first reported it to police made it all up, the L.A. Times says. In other news, that Nigerian prince who e-mailed you yesterday to share his millions in stashed-away cash doesn't really exist either. Sorry.

Dateline Hollywood Does It Again: U.K.'s The Sun Falls For Fake Tori Spelling Story

Congrats to Dateline Hollywood, the satirical site run in part by my Variety colleague Ben Fritz. They did it again: A mainstream news outlet -- the U.K.'s The Sun -- picked up a joke article and reported it as fact.

Given their dry sense of humor over there, I'm doubly surprised that they didn't figure out that this was pure satire. The Dateline Hollywood story proclaims that Tori Spelling's newborn son has been cast to play her on-screen kid in the new TV show "InnSanity."

Not only did they not see the joke in this quote, the Sun printed it as fact:

According to casting director Anna McGarrah: "Liam was the first actor to audition for the role of Trip and he nailed the role so perfectly that there was no point in considering other actors."

"The other producers and I were shocked to find out he was Tori’s son, as he auditioned under a fake name."

Har! Here's the original Dateline story:



And here's The Sun's interpretation:




Back in December, Baltimore TV station WJZ picked up a Dateline Hollywood story reporting that Michael Richards attended a celebrity roast for Whoopi Goldberg in blackface. (The station later retracted its story.)

And all over the Internet, people still believe (because it was so believable) that Pat Robertson blamed Hurricane Katrina on the Emmys' decision to hire Ellen DeGeneres as host -- thanks to a Dateline Hollywood piece!

As always, nice work, guys.

Coming Soon to a Newsstand Near You: Los Angeles' Life Force

You've probably seen the billboards all over town advertising something called "RealTalkLA."

The new local magazine hits stands May 1 -- the same day its companion website (www.realtalkla.com) goes live.

But I've been baffled by the tiny print in the magazine's logo, which reads, "Los Angeles Lifeforce."

What does that mean? And why is it in the logo, in such tiny print? Is it a part of the magazine's name? And does "Lifeforce" have to do with some sort of spiritual movement?

I called RealTalkLA's Peter Nichols, whose name is listed on the magazine's original press release.

Nichols told me my questions would be answered once I had the magazine in my hands. But no, it's not a part of any larger movement, he said, it's just a tag line.

"We want to be the driving life force for Los Angeles," said Nichols, who said the magazine wants to be the source for "good, helpful, healthy information."

"It's us and our website building a community," he said.

I dunno, if that's the case, the whole line "Los Angeles Lifeforce" may be a little too distracting. Your average reader might be confused as to whether that's the real name of the magazine.

As a magazine junkie, I'm definitely curious. And I always believe the more local media, the better. Here are more details, from the initial RealTalkLA press release:

“RealTALK LA and Realtalkla.com are re-inventing the concept of a city magazine and creating the next evolution of local online community,” said CEO and Creative Director Levin. “We’re out to capture the new spirit, culture and energy of a very changed 21st Century Los Angeles. That of course includes the multicultural diversity of the region. We’re creating inclusive media that gives a voice and a visible presence to all the people of LA. And for everyone we’re going to reveal far more of the exceptional range of mindsets, activities, felt lives and sectors that engage people here. Essentially we’re unmasking an unknown LA.”

The first issue of RealTALK LA, a full color, glossy, high quality monthly magazine, will reach more than 250,000 readers through free distribution at premium locations throughout the city and by home delivery to select households beginning in May 2007.

The companion Web site, RealTALKla.com, which is intended to create a new Los Angeles online community, will feature unique digital media technology, including up-to-the-minute news, Wiki, blogs, Web casts, social networking and a downloadable calendar of local events. The site will premiere online in late April and is expected to reach more than 800,000 unique viewers per month.

More info can be found at the RealTalkLA MySpace page.

RealTalkLA isn't the only new local mag hitting stands in the coming weeks. As LAObserved notes, the recently renamed New Angeles Monthly -- targeting the "east side" (er, how about "Los Angeles east of La Cienega")-- debuts this June.

Separated at Birth?

New Tribune owner Sam Zell... and a leprechaun?

Did Eddie Griffin Really Crash That Enzo? Is a YouTube Award Show Really Necessary? And Why Did the NYT Ban the "Anti-Christ"?

I have the answers, just click above to watch my latest appearance on G4's "Attack of the Show."

Actually, I don't have the answers, as much as a snarky comment on each. But check it out anyway! If you're superstitious about clicking my face above, you can also view it by clicking here.