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!

Retro Friday: L.A.'s Depeche Mode Debacle

In 1990, Depeche Mode had just released their "Violator" CD... and decided to make an in-store appearance at The Wherehouse music store in the Beverly Connection. About 15,000 people showed up -- some camping outside the La Cienega store for days.

By the time the band showed up, chaos erupted. Check out these news reports from the time... and how strangely out of touch these anchors sound. Odd that everyone keeps referring to the "hot new band from London," when Depeche Mode had been selling records in America for a decade by that point (and had even already performed its famous Rose Bowl show two years earlier).

The crowd got so out of control that the riot police was called and the band had to leave early. The story wound up leading newscasts. The next day, then-city councilman Zev Yaroslavsky blames The Wherehouse and KROQ for the melee (about 3:30 into this video); Richard Blade then responds:



Of course, these days Depeche Mode wouldn't attract that kind of crazy crowd... but the band still has a loyal following here in Southern California. Depeche Mode's most extensive tour in years, "Tour of the Universe," comes to L.A. on Sunday, Aug. 16 and Monday, Aug. 17 at the Hollywood Bowl. They're also playing the Honda Center in Anaheim on Aug. 19.