Here's someone who has clearly converted their diesel Mercedes to run on biofuel. After pouring that vegetable oil in your tank, your exhaust supposedly smells like french fries -- not a bad reason to convert your car, environmental reasons aside. Hence the "Fry-o-Diesel" license plate.
I took this photo of a City of Los Angeles manhole cover during the Great Los Angeles Walk, amused by the "Made in Mexico" notation. If you know anything about Los Angeles history, you know that's true -- even if, in this case, they're literally talking about the manhole cover.
Tu Ciudad editor Oscar Garza was amused, and asked to use it in the mag. Hence, my first photo credit in a major magazine (outside of the two I've worked for, Variety and Electronic Media, where photos of mine have appeared as well).
The photo, which was published in Tu Ciudad's March issue, is paired with a short essay by Daniel Hernandez:
It's not often you get a cultural lesson from a piece of municipal property, but this actual manhole cover plainly conveys the essence of Los Angeles, day after day, politics and media games aside. The message, etched in steel, is not a call by Chicano nationalists for a reconquest of the American Southwest. It is simply a statement of fact.
How? History tells us that L.A.'s roots and soul were indeed made in Mexico, but so does the present. We're reminded in the way the city is laid out, along the former boundaries of old Californio ranchos. We're reminded in the flavors and sounds of the cultural landscape -- la comida, la vibra. In the faces of the people, who come in every shade of brown mismatched with black and white and yellow and red and everything in between.
Today, Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs, Jim Gilchrist, and hordes of faceless lieutenants in the relentless hate-talk war against "illegals" too often cloud our historical perspective. In Los Angeles -- the undisputed capital of modern-day Alta California -- even our manhole covers are smarter than that.
It's not often that the Franklin Avenue crew makes it to the Inland Empire -- er, the 909. But our pals Denise and Geoff were finally making things legal, so it was off to San Bernardino county on Saturday.
The couple -- who met at Variety, by the way (it's a Hollywood trade paper romance!) -- got hitched at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church (across the street from Boys Republic) in Chino Hills, then held the reception at Riverside's famous Mission Inn.
We've always wanted to check out the Mission Inn, particularly during the holidays, but never had the urge to drive all the way to Riverside. Turns out it's not that bad a haul, as long as you take the 210 east. And Riverside's downtown is a pleasant surprise, although we didn't get much of an opportunity to explore it (we'll be back). It's nice to see the historic Fox Theatre being restored, and quite a selection of shops and restaurants surrounding Mission Inn.
But clearly, Mission Inn is the heart of Riverside's downtown. And rightfully so. It's such a fascinating oddity, with nooks and crannies on the inside and outside that command exploration.
According to Wikipedia (which is always right, right?!), Mission Inn began as the two-story, 12-room adobe boarding house "Glenwood Cottage" in 1876, pre-Riverside. Christopher Columbis Miller began the project; his son Frank continued building onto it until he died in 1935.
Says Wikipedia:
Miller built in reinforced concrete and developed an accomplished, expressive vernacular style drawn from random historical styles. Accumulating one section over another, addition upon addition, the result is an enormously complicated and intricate built environment, comparable to.. a self-contained medieval European city.
Funny, that's exactly what Maria remarked when we bumped into the St. Francis chapel, as seen below.
St. Francis chapel, on the second floor.
More from Wikipedia:
The Mission contains narrow passageways like a Tuscan village, exterior arcades, a prominent medieval-style clock overlooking the Spanish patio, a deep but sun-drenched five-story rotunda, innumerable patios and windows, towers, minarets, a Cloister Wing (with Catacombs), a high pedestrian bridge, and a five-story spiral staircase, among many other features. The 1914 Spanish Wing in itself contains a castle courtyard, open arcades, Mexican tiled roofs, flying buttresses and Mediterranean domes.
Some pics from our Saturday visit:
Inside the Mission Inn lobby
Mission Inn's courtyard
Random flourishes are everywhere.
Outside archways
Image of the Mission Inn, painted on an enlarged apple orange.
Riverside!
Meanwhile, 2008 is shaping up to be our year of the Daytrip. Check out our other recent excursions here.
It's still the worst-named shopping center out there (well, other than Westfield's insistence in calling all of its malls "Westfield"): The Americana at Brand.
But what the hell... we're hoping the arrival not only injects a little more excitement and status to Glendale, but perhaps juices property values as well.
The L.A. Times checks in on how things are going. For starters, Glendale residents are concerned about the coming traffic -- but that's balanced by their interest in seeing this thing finally open:
Some critics are quick to point out that traffic from the Galleria and other shops can already bring Brand Boulevard to a crawl. But backers argue that the residential portion of Americana might prompt those residents to walk to shops in the area rather than drive.
Glendale is looking longingly to the Grove, an earlier Caruso development near 3rd Street and Fairfax Avenue in L.A. that is one of the more admired outdoor shopping plazas in the region.
Caruso, in an interview Monday, said the Americana could have an even bigger effect on Glendale, because the 15.5-acre project is much larger and includes housing.
"As great as the Grove is," he said, "this is a pretty remarkable project."
Where the Grove is meant to evoke 1940s Charleston, S.C., the Americana is meant to remind consumers of an even earlier time: "A massive elevator shaft, with exposed steel beams, is supposed to hearken back to the industrial era, said Executive Vice President Dave Williams of Caruso Affiliated. A trolley that loops around the project and onto Brand is from 'a little bit earlier era' than the Grove's trolley, which travels back and forth along a linear track."
Caruso also added a few touches that came out of his experience with the Grove: The central courtyard, for example, is much larger. And stores have more of a unique identity, as opposed to looking too mall-like.
Glendale officials are optimistic that Americana shoppers will spill out onto Brand, and help revitalize that street as well. I'm not as optimistic; people have a way of not exploring environs outside of their intended destination. We'll see. The Americana at Brand opens at the end of April.
You've probably heard by now about the big layoffs at CBS TV stations across the country, including L.A.'s KCBS and KCAL (or, as the company affectionately calls it, "the duopoly").
The top news: Big time L.A. anchors Harold Greene and Ann Martin, whose contracts were up at the end of May, are suddenly out of a job.
That means quite a few top L.A. anchors are nowhere to be found on the airwaves; count John Beard among them as well.
Greene and Martin are probably still better known for their long-running stints on rival KABC/Channel 7. Both were brought to KCBS in attempts to push the longtime also-ran back into the race, but both were eventually pushed off the key 11 p.m. newscast.
Martin, who joined in 1994, was replaced by Gretchen Carr in 2000; Greene, who left KABC in 2000 and joined KCBS in 2001, was moved (alongside Martin) to the 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. newscasts in 2003, when Paul Magers joined the station. (That 4 p.m. newscast later migrated to KCAL.)
Of course, after Magers joined, KCBS' ratings jumped.
KCBS/KCAL hasn't yet announced Greene's and Martin's replacements; today, Sylvia Lopez and Glen Walker anchored the 4 p.m. KCAL newscast.
Check out this 1990 "Eyewitness News" piece from Dr. George Fishbeck, featuring interviews with Ann and Harold. Also, prepare your eyes for Paul Moyer's button-down look. Yipes.
And of course, don't forget the infamous Paul Moyer/Ann Martin flare-up; listen to it here.
Meanwhile, also out at KCBS/KCAL are reporters Jennifer Sabih and Jennifer Davis. Meanwhile, in Chicago, the story was similar: Two top anchors on CBS-owned WBBM, Diann Burns and Mary Ann Childers, were also let go. Like Martin and Greene in L.A., Burns and Childers once anchored at Chicago's top-rated ABC station, WLS, before being lured away. Guess that was the CBS O&O M.O. for a while.
