August 2006 Archives

You can't help but be moved by the story of LAPD officer Kristina Ripatti, also a wife and mother, who was paralyzed from the chest down by a robber's bullet while she was on patrol. Now she's fighting with all she's got to gain as much mobility as she can with intense physical therapy.

It all made for a powerful Sunday package with story by Brent Hopkins and photos by Hans Gutknecht. Brent has been writing these longer features for awhile, and he's really doing some good work. Kudos to him and Hans -- and to the Daily News brass who are encouraging staffers to turn out these in-depth stories.

I especially like the way Brent continuously shifts the story back and forward in time, here and there in place.

And as for Officer Ripatti and her husband -- also an LAPD officer and her onetime partner (they got together in a romantic sense after theire on-the-job partnership ended -- it's all in the story) -- you see the kind of outstanding human beings who dedicate their lives to protecting our city.

Besides Zach Behrens' In the Oaks, take a look at From Sherman Oaks and Stuck in the Valley -- all well worth keeping up with on a regular basis. Gotta get them in my blogroll. They're there now.

All three are on Blogger, if that means anything to you. On that subject, Blogger -- which is owned by Google -- is busy converting all of its blogs to a new system that will eliminate the wait whenever you "publish" a blog entry and will instead build blogs "on the fly" whenever a reader goes to the blog's Web address. And you'll have to open a Google account to do it (to post a blog, not read one).

Now I've already got a Google account (which I use for Google Groups), so it's no skin, you know, but I'm wondering why they're messing with a good thing. Well, maybe they're making it a better thing. All I know is waiting for my blogs to publish isn't on the top of my "Blogger people, do this" list. At the top are Safari support and being able to change blog designs without killing out the existing blogroll (maybe that last one they are fixing, but who can remember?) They do promise better blog designs in general, and if blog design and blogroll modification become independent entities, I'll be pig-in-shit happy. The other big thing, to them at least, is that the new Blogger will make it easy to have "private" blogs with "access control," so you can have a family- or business-based blog to which only certain people will be admitted. Probably of use to some people, since the mechanics of blogging are probably one of the better ways for organizing and disseminating information on the Internet.

But I digress too much, so good night all.

Look at this sweet site.

Right on the home page are all the relevant dates. Nice design, PDF newsletters, invitations to community members to get involved. The webmaster is Craig Buck, and neighborhood council president is Jill Banks Barad -- hats off to them.

Diana Lipari writes at Valleynews.com that all is not well with the Greater Valley Glen Neighborhood Council.

She sees, among other problems, an open field for ethical lapses, a lack of community participation (and a lack of engagement by the Neighborhood Council), and a system that encourages these very problems:

Neighborhood Council elections are not governed by the LA Municipal Election Code, council members do not have to disclose financial interests by filling out Form 700 (as elected officials do) and the grievance process for stakeholders is very narrow and limited in its effectiveness. Essentially, councils police themselves, ethically speaking, and if you have a situation of questionable ethical behavior (as we currently have in the GVGC area), a council can simply choose to ignore the problem (majorities are a wonderful thing, however they get there). It's not like reporters are sitting in on every council meeting reporting its activities to stakeholders. If it weren't for that pesky Brown Act requiring minimal postings of meeting agendas, most councils would have no one present at all in the audience. In essence, the City of LA has given the mantle of authority and $50,000 a year to each council without requiring them to do anything significant to earn or maintain that authority.

She sees good reason in the city's reluctance to give the neighborhood councils any role in affecting the City Council agenda:

... there are very few checks and balances in the NC system. Councilmen Weiss and Smith have valid concerns about Neighborhood Councils' "policy making," however "advisory." Until we find a way to make Neighborhood Councils truly what they were meant to be, we shouldn't give them any more power than they already have.

I'm sure there's a lot going on here, but Ms. Lipari's entire editorial is well worth reading. I'd love to click over to ValleyNews.com -- or anywhere else, for that matter, and see somebody who's involved in one of the neighborhood councils reveal just what it is they're doing, and how they're helping the community they're charged with serving.

UPDATE: I've done a bit more searching for information on what the Van Nuys Neighborhood Council is or has done. I'm still in the dark. Here's what I've learned:

• Go here for all your Neighborhood Council information. (There's not much there).

• In the "Neighborhood Councils Accomplishments PDF, the Van Nuys Neighborhood Council is not mentioned.

• Here is info on how the Neighborhood Councils can spend their money. The amount is indeed $50,000. It can even be transferred to a Bank of America "prepaid card."

• In the 2005 election for Van Nuys Neighborhood Council, 235 votes were cast; 78,210 people live in the district. If you count each and every person who lives in the area, that's a 0.3 percent turnout.

Here's how this entry began:

This Web page tells you who's on the Van Nuys Neighborhood Council and gives many of their e-mail addresses.

Oh, by the way, there's an election on Aug. 30. This is one of those elections, if I'm correct, that isn't announced anywhere, that takes place on a single day at times unknown, place unknown, where none of the "constituents" are informed by mail or otherwise of its existence. They've got $50,000 in mad money. What the f*&^ are they doing with it, exactly? They could pave my street, or give out $5 bills to all comers. Maybe they're doing something better with it. Who knows? First, they should be contacting each and every constituent by mail to ANNOUNCE THEIR VERY EXISTENCE. Sheesh.

I guess I'm being hard on a bunch of people I don't know. Yeah, there's probably no pay and even less glory. But they get an F for effort. Are any of the other Neighborhood Councils doing any better? Probably not.

The Van Nuys Neighborhood Council meets at 7:30 p.m. on the second Wednesday of the month. The next meeting will be on Sept. 13, by that calculation, at the Marvin Braude Constituent Center, 6262 Van Nuys Blvd., Van Nuys, CA 91401-2760.

Are you in this "neighborhood"? Here are the boundaries:

North: Metrolink railroad tracks. South: Magnolia Boulevard. East: Hazeltine Avenue. West: 405 Freeway.

So if you're in Sherman Oaks, but north of Magnolia and east of Hazeltine, this is your neighborhood council. You get a Sherman Oaks address but not a Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council. Don't tell the next person who buys your house -- they just might offer you less for it.

Here is the map of all the Neighborhood Council districts. Type in your address here to figure out which district you're in.

If the Van Nuys Neighborhood Council has an official Web page containing actual information (meeting agenda ... meeting minutes ... what they've done/want to do ... favorite "Starsky & Hutch" character) -- it sure is hard to find. I get nothing at the official City of Los Angeles page. No mention of the Sept. 13 meeting or Aug. 30 "election" in the calendar. What kind of ship are they running? I know the city has moved to deny any kind of power to these neighborhood councils, but really, must their very existence be denied as well? (Update: The calendar is blank at www.lacityneighborhoods.com, and there is no further information on the Van Nuys Neighborhood Council.

Speechless? You bet I am.

If somebody out there wants to rip me a new one over this, please do. Convince me that all is right in this netherworld of play democracy and that I'm hallucinating and don't see the signs and sounds of Neighborhood Council business going down in Van Nuys. E-mail me here.

... electrical contractor James Cordado, president and senior estimator of All Phase Electrical Systems, 7738 Densmore Ave., Van Nuys, 91406-2918. (818) 787-2737, jcordaro@apes.com. He also lives in Van Nuys and is a past president of the Rotary Club of Van Nuys.

He ran for the real City Council in 2001, when Wendy Gruel won the seat held at the time by Joel Wachs. Here's what the Jewish Journal had to say about Cordaro in the article:

Van Nuys businessman James Cordaro is also running, but lacks the extensive resources and political connections of his opponents.

And the 2003 election for the Van Nuys Neighborhood Council wasn't without controversy. A community activist named Enrique Aragon allegedly pushed what he called a "diversity slate," and received several potentially suspicious calls from the city official, Herman Barahona, who oversaw the election.

Cordaro wasn't part of that slate, according to the Daily News article, which was published July 23, 2003.

Well maybe it was only a secret to me ... but we were in the Sherman Oaks Galleria yesterday, and there's one of those DSW shoe stores. The thing is freaking enormous. There are acres of shoes for both women and men.

The prices could be better. If I'm buying something at what's billed as a discount outlet, it's should to be half off, and prices here are more like 20 percent to 30 percent off retail (they provide the retail price to show how much you're saving).

But if you can forgive/forget that it's all about marketing, DSW has a whole lot of shoes, fairly well-organized, not overpriced, and you can see right there if they've got your size, then try the shoes on without some salesman bugging the crap out of you. The place has great lighting -- I can't believe the sheer square-footage of the thing. In that respect, it's a retail wonder to behold.

The other big retail space is occupied by Tower Records, which is currently swirling down the bowl. My prediction: A giant Barnes & Noble or Borders will take over the space within six months.

Memo to Tower employees: You are not that cool. And that thing you're piercing is gonna look pretty scary when you're 50.

Zach Behrens of In the Oaks and Laist proves that you just might be able to teach an old dog owner new tricks. (Click the first link for another amusing picture.)

Seriously folks, can we all just get along AND pick up our dogs' poop? Civil society is depending on you.

There are a few Van Nuys dog owners who could use a lifetime supply of bags and a conscience. You know who you are.

Back to Zach: In the Oaks has some noteworthy entries of late:

Pizza Rustica all about the crust

There's a shake-up at the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council, and Zach adds that he's running for a seat.

Zach -- if you're reading this, or if anybody else knows, is there an actual vote for these seats? When/where/how is it done? I've never seen or heard about such a vote taking place in Van Nuys, and we do have a neighborhood council. Something's either fishy or done in an incredibly ass-backward way -- and I'm hoping for ass-backward.

In any event, reading Zach at both his own blog and Laist tells me that he's the epitome of "boots on the ground" for Sherman Oaks, and the neighborhood council (or even the City Council, for that matter) would be lucky to have him.

*Update: Zach elaborates on his intentions -- and he invites your questions.

When I used to work at Electronic Media (now TV Week), we always wondered if and when high-definition television would get off the ground. Not that I knew what I was talking about then, or now, but I do know one thing: Get a television set with HDTV tuner included, price the thing under $500 and watch the revolution begin (or at least view with never-before-seen clarity.

Well, we're almost there. The Magnavox 20MF605T/17 20" Flat Panel LCD TV with NTSC Tuner (again, who names these TVs, and what are they smoking?) goes for a cool $542 at Amazon.com (a full $7.99 off "retail" price, it's still the least expensive tuner-equipped HDTV out there). Shipping, according to my calculations, is $29.35.

(UPDATE: I read the Amazon customer comments for this TV, and EVERYBODY HATES IT. Nobody has reviewed it since February, so maybe they've gotten the bugs out.)

The $500 HDTV is on the horizon (and it's probably already out there, made by the same Chinese companies that make all the rest of everything, just not carrying a well-known brand name).

The key, besides the $500 price point, is getting the HDTV tuner in the same box as the TV. Forget this "HD ready" stuff where you have to buy an add-on tuner and somehow plug it into the back. No sir, TV is supposed to be plug (in the power cord and antenna/cable) and play, play, play.

If you can live without an LCD screen, there are HDTV sets under $500:

From Best Buy, the Insignia™ - 27" Flat-Tube HDTV is a cool $399, but if you're buying a new TV these days, you want LCD, no? Yes, you do.

Not counting all the other blogs to which I contribute, I am currently splitting up my Van Nuys and general-interest content among three separate blogs: the Daily News' Come on Feel the Nuys, the new ValleyNews.com's Van Nuys With the Fringe on Top and my Blogger site 2,000 Days in the Valley.

If you haven't been to the new ValleyNews.com site, I encourage you to take a look at what other people in your community are writing. Semantically, it's divided between stories, blogs and events, and if you're trying to publicize just about anything, you can do it here for free. If you have other aspirations, such as writing about the news in your neighborhood, or even your own home, this is a great place to do it.

The ValleyNews.com software is pretty slick. The only thing I had to do was download the "active X" program when prompted, and I am now able to upload photos (no other software needed -- the site takes care of sizing the photos). And in Rich Text mode, you can make links and do bold and italic formatting without needing to code the HTML.

One thing the site should be offering, as it ramps up for an official Aug. 21 launch, is a whole lot of eyeballs to read whatever it is you want to write. It's like the hometown newspapers in small communities that we in Los Angeles have pretty much never known. (Hey, when I was a kid in the '70s and '80s, you had to have a through-and-through gunshot wound to make it into the L.A. Times Metro section if you lived in the Valley... but I digress.)

And then there's ValleyNews.com's "secret weapon," which editor Annie Hundley reveals in her ValleyNews.com blog:

... starting on Oct. 5, we'll start publishing the best of what you post in seven print editions - the four San Fernando Valley editions will continue (SE, SW, NE, NW) and we'll add a Burbank and Glendale edition, a Santa Clarita Valley edition and an Antelope Valley edition.

How many other sites can do that?

Douglas E. Welch is as into gardening as he is well-versed in the technologies of the Internet, and it makes for a very informative and readable blog, A Gardener's Notebook.

The best part, for me anyway, is that he's in Van Nuys, about five blocks away from us, so anything he does over on his spread will probably work on ours. And from a purely Web-tech standpoint, he's doing all kinds of great things -- video, audio podcasts, Google ads, Flickr photo sets --- all the stuff I'd do if a) I had the time, and b) knew what the hell I was doing. That's what Josh Kleinbaum is for here at the Daily News -- he understands all this stuff. I can barely work iTunes, which Ilene is kind enough to help me with as I moan, "How do you look up a song?" "How do you delete stuff," etc.

Anyway, back to A Gardener's Notebook and Douglas Welch. I don't know him, but I see all he's doing here on his various blogs and such, and in the yard, and I'm in awe. All I can manage half the time is throwing down water so everything doesn't die. Never mind my back-lawn-installation project that was stalled because of summer's oppressive heat. All I do nowadays is pick tomatoes before the possums get to 'em. He's got posts going way back to blogging's infancy. Check out this gem: Refurbishing an Older Garden, and his weeding video. Dip into the archives, which go back to 2003, and there are probably three full gardening books' worth of tips -- I wonder if Doug has considered turning them into an actual book.

Doug also has this blog: Career Opportunities: Helping to Build the Career You Deserve. Sheesh, does the guy have enough going on?

And while I consider the many, many auto dealers on Van Nuys Boulevard pretty good neighbors (would you believe that a three-story Keyes parking garage actually improved our neighborhood?), his house is directly behind Keyes Toyota, and he's had to endure quite a bit with the construction going on at the dealership -- I think they tore down his back wall to install giant lights or something. (I couldn't find the blog post where he talks about this. He must mave deleted it, or my search skills are on the feeble side.)

But as I learned from L.A. Observed, she does have a new Web site.

Ms. Loh is practically Ms. Van Nuys, however dubious that distinction might be. Among her books: "A Year in Van Nuys," and "Depth Takes a Holiday: Essays From Lesser Los Angeles."

And then there was the, shall we say "debacle," over her use of a certain word during one of her KCRW-FM commentaries -- a word which was supposed to be bleeped out for effect, but which wasn't and went over the air, causing station uber-woman Ruth Seymour to immediately fire her, lest the multimillion-dollar Westside radio enclave be fined by the FCC. Somehow I don't think a stray f-word is in the same league as a Super Bowl boobie, but what the f***? Hey, if you can fire Joe Frank AND Sandra Tsing Loh, what good are you?

Luckily, Loh has returned to the air -- and better than ever -- with "The Loh Life" and "The Loh Down on Science" (she's an essayist, performance artist AND Caltech physics graduate) on KPCC-FM. I even overcame my iTunes ignorance to subscribe to her podcasts of said shows. Or go to the links above and listen on your computer (if you have RealPlayer, which I though faded into obscurity what, five years ago?).

Also of interest, especially to me, is Sandra's obsession with the Los Angeles Unified School District, propelled no doubt by the fact that she a) has kids and b) doesn't have a money-printing press. She's in territory that no one else has bothered with. Guess they all have a spare $20K per year lying around and don't have the qualms about pricey private schools and all that goes with them. (Yes, Los Angeles Times staffers, I AM talking about you.)

On her site: "Sandra Tsing Loh's Scandalously Informal Guide to Los Angeles Schools", also in PDF format.

Update: Cathy Seipp writes about it.

That's what you'd get if you rode a bike to work.

Here's are tips from a guy who has done it:

The quadruple advantages of bicycle commuting and solutions to all your problems and excuses.

Figure here how much you're spending on driving and owning a car. With all costs taken into account, I'm spending $304 per month.

I always have wanted to do a story on what really goes on in the international market for blood and blood products. Specifically, because blood is donated by people, then sold by the American Red Cross to hospitals for what must be a profit, then sold again to patients for an additional profit. Should't the donor who "gave" the aforementioned blood be cut in on the deal?

Well, after a bit of rooting around, the consensus is that paying for blood results in a lower-quality product from people who ... shall we say ... want to turn blood into money, while donated blood comes from a more altruistic and healthier sort of individual. Bottom line: Paying for blood doesn't work.

Hmmmm. I'm not on board with that one just yet.

One thing you can do for consistent income (if tax-free municipal bonds are out of the question) is sell your blood plasma. That's something you can do for money. I quickly found some tips on how to do it. This info comes from a great site called eHow (whose slogan is "Clear Instructions on How to Do (Just About) Everything"), where you can also get tips on how to buy and sell sperm and how to pawn stuff.

Well, I still haven't pierced the international conspiracy in blood trafficking (my apologies to the American Red Cross, who've got enough PR problems of their own), and I can't tell you exactly where to sell your plasma, but we've all had a little fun, haven't we?

L.A. Observed led me to this: "How to Live Well Without Owning a Car."

To get a sense of how this works on the streets of Los Angeles, listen to author Chris Balish's interview on NPR.

And check out the table of contents and read the first two chapters of the book in PDF.

Here's the blurb:

Save money, breathe easier, and get more mileage out of life!

Despite what $20 billion of automobile advertising every year would have us all believe, buying or leasing a car, truck, or SUV is the worst financial move most people make in their lifetime. And they make this mistake again and again, at a cost of literally hundreds of thousands of dollars. High gas prices, car payments, insurance, depreciation, parking, repairs, maintenance, and nearly one hundred other expenses add up so quickly and silently that most car owners don't even notice -- they just see how little money they have left at the end of the month and wonder why. As you will read in Chapters 1 and 2, cars devour cash, increase debt, reduce savings, and make financial freedom difficult to achieve.

Here's more:

How To Live Well Without Owning A Car is a new nonfiction book by award-winning journalist and author Chris Balish. The book suggests taking a different path -- a car-free path. The program in this book will show you how to live a full, active life without owning a car. And without a car to pay for, practically anyone can get out of debt, save money, and even achieve financial freedom. The truth is that tens of millions of working Americans do not need to own a car.

There's no doubt that cars, trucks, and SUVs are useful tools. They provide instant, on-demand transportation at a moment's notice. They can haul heavy loads and help you run errands. And they can whisk you out of town for a weekend away. That's why this book does not suggest that you never use a car or never ride in one. This book simply argues that millions of Americans can get along just fine and save a fortune by not owning a car. When you do need one you can rent or use car sharing.

Living car-free in America is not difficult, but it does require some mild lifestyle changes. This book will walk you through the process step by step. The strategies in this book will help put you on the car-free path to financial freedom; or, if you do not wish to get rid of your car entirely, they'll help you save money by using your car less. So even if living "car-free" isn't your style, this book can show you how to live happily "car-lite."

Considering the trouble many of us have had just taking the Orange Line to work, I wonder what Chris Balish's secret is.

One of his tricks, as he said in the NPR interview: He takes his bike on the bus. If only I thought I could flip that rack down and get my bike secured without it taking a half-hour, I just might try it.

The latest Daily News Web venture, Valleynews.com lets you, and I do mean YOU, write your own news stories, promote events and start a blog. Now there are many places to blog for free, but none that I know of that offer the chance for your story to become part of an actual print publication (that's what the Valleynews.com people say will happen to the best online content: It'll go in the Valley News print edition).

Now forgetting the "write your own news story" aspects and thinking only about the blogging feature, there are several places to create your own blog, including Blogger, where I've got four running, but the one thing that Valleynews.com can offer in terms of sheer blogging accessibility and presence is that it's a locally oriented site and at this point, prior to its official launch, there's pretty much open territory. Write a few posts and you're the big dog, and people who are looking for Valley content will come to the site and find ... the stuff you write.

So far I've written one "story" (which was pretty much a blog entry, but I'll leave the semantics out of it) and one blog entry. The interface is pretty straightforward. You can't do all the stuff that Blogger can do, but it's all about audience -- you can and will reach a different sort of person on Valleynews.com. Now I'm not sure, as yet, what sort of person (or people) it will be, but it's worth a look-see.

One thing I didn't like: You write a news "story," and hit the send button, and that's the end of your involvement. My "story" on Starbucks had a few words running together, but I couldn't get back into it to fix them. Thankfully, the blog posts can be edited at will.

Now Valleynews.com is still in its gestational phase, and plenty of bugs should be fixed by the time it launches.

But the gist of what I'm saying is that this is, shall we say, virgin territory -- so stake your claim today.

While the television sets in the newsroom at the Daily News are tuned to, at last glance, CNN, KNBC and ESPN (the only things that turns heads here are car chases and playoff games), that's not the case in the lunch room.

The whole damn building has no windows (with the possible exception of a few executive suites near the front), and the equally windowless lunch room TV is tuned to one channel -- and one channel only.

Fox News.

And there's no way to change it. The volume and channel buttons are purposfully covered over with an impenetrable putty, the remote control closely held by a certain Daily News employee who loves Fox News and all it stands for.

There have been rumblings in the past: "Why do we have to watch Fox News? Why not (fill in the blank)? I guess if "All My Children" was on, it might sap productivity. As it is, the couches in front of the TV are usually filled with people who are napping. (Who sleeps during a work day? These people do.) But as far as channel choice goes, I think we've all been beaten into submission at this point.

Never mind that "fair and balanced" is the furthest thing from the minds of those who produce, anchor and report for Fox News, it is very instructive to see what FNC is actually doing -- how it goes about reporting, commentating on and presenting the news of the nation, Washington and the world. Whether you're a Democrat, Republican or other, you need to know firsthand what they're doing because of FNC's huge influence on public discourse and debate.

Forget Bill O'Reilly (though how could I NOT use the picture above?), the reporters and anchors do seem, at least, overly fair and reverential when it comes to Republicans, somewhat less so to Democrats (I see a new slogan in the making). They don't assume (as many liberals do) that President Bush is, at best, woefully out of touch and out of his element, at worst, a borderline idiot. They do assume that America is a Republican nation -- and how can you argue when they've got both houses of Congress, the executive and judicial branches, AND the most-popular cable news outlet in their pocket?

You can't dispute the passion of Shepard Smith (the same can be said for CNN's Anderson Cooper -- maybe they're fraternal twins, separated at birth, who must bring together their competing political leanings and other various and sundry superpowers to fight evil ... as soon as they agree on what constitutes evil, evildoing and "evildoers").

Some of the other anchors aren't so suave about it.

Now I'm only watching for the 3 minutes it takes to nuke water for my tea, or to nuke noodles for mac 'n' cheese, but if I saw some criticism of their own when warranted, I'd feel better. I don't know whether this is happening or not, but I haven't seen it. When a guy like Shepard Smith feels the outrage in New Orleans and wonders where the federal government is and why the hell it's not doing more, that's a sign of the real "fair and balanced," but as I said, I've got nothing else to go on.

One of the things I have seen on FNC that tips it toward "balance" is the presence of NPR's Mara Liaason and Juan Williams on some of the panels. Yep, I listen to NPR, which I think is really fair and balanced, but that's just me. But I give kudos to FNC for having these extremely intelligent AND well-spoken journalists on their air, and additional kudos to Liaason and Williams for appearing on the channel so regularly (yes, they are adding legitimacy to FNC -- that's just the way it is). Just to be clear, I don't see Liasson and Williams as "liberals," just not conservatives, though I do think that latter ideological label fits such FNC anchors as Brit Hume, John Gibson and Neil Cavuto pretty darn well.

And even though I'm loath to admit it, Fox's Sunday morning political show on the Fox broadcast network is pretty good. Chris Wallace holds it a lot closer to the vest than most of the FNC anchors, and they do get the best GOP-friendly guests -- you don't see Cheney darkening Tim Russert's door as often, that's for sure. And the show's pacing is probably the best among the Sunday talk shows -- something Fox excels at (it's not all right-wing blather -- at least part of their success is the WAY they present it).

Going back to Clinton and Lewinsky, most "mainstream media" anchors, with the very notable exception of Dan Rather (yes, call him biased, I'll allow it) called the president out on it. Did Fox call out President Bush on the faulty WMD intelligence in Iraq? After 2,500 dead American soldiers, untold numbers of Iraqis and others, a country in chaos, a new breeding ground for terrorists, sectarian blood feuds run rampant, how can anybody say that they'd do it all over again -- you'd be crazy. That's a hard line to hold.

I'm not sure how Fox is handling the immigration debate, which is tearing the Republican Party apart at a very inopportune time. Do you go hard right, away from Bush, or stick with him and tell the immigrants' stories? Like I said, 3 minutes at a time while the microwave's running just ain't enough time for cable-free me to answer this question. But I do get a taste, and I can see how FNC's paean to the "heartland" is appreciated by conservatives, and how the channel's affinity for the "flyover" states works like gangbusters when it comes to ratings.

Well, Republicans have immigration and crooked-lobbyist scandals to tear them apart, and Democrats have the Iraq War, so it looks to be a slugfest internally in both parties -- and between them, as per usual -- for Congress, the Senate and the presidency between now and 2008.

And since I'm in my car 40 to 50 minutes a day, and in the lunch room 10 or less, it'll be NPR that tells me about it, with a little mandatory flavor (not flava) from FNC.

I live near the Fashion Square mall, now known as Westfield Fashion Square, which has been as upscaled and high-ended as a mall can be -- a guy can't even get a pack of underwear there -- and I knew the Wesfields had the same in store for Westfield Shoppingtown Topanga. Never mind the question of where the rest of us are expected to shop, but new Daily News business reporter Julia Scott relates some of the ritziness in "High-end stores in mix for mall":

Other stores include Chick's, Elizabeth, Forth & Tone, Janie and Jack, Nine West, Planet Funk, Puma, Pumpkin Patch, Rip Curl, Sigrid Olsen, Chico's, soma, Una and Zara.

I guess that's pretty high end, but Chick's is the sporting goods store currently moored in Westfield Shoppingtown Promenade (so close, and yet so close -- talk about cornering the market and sending any notion of "competition" swirling down the bowl). The manager there gave our then-2-year-old daughter a free hat (they do have nice baseball hats there), and she makes everyone who comes into the house wear it at least once.

But here's the money shot:

Westfield Topanga's food court will also be replaced with a more upscale "cafe style" eating area with china, flatware and busing service.

What? I'm going to get my burrito served on a real plate? That's upscale, all right. The silver lining in this haute cloud is that with china and flatware, there won't be a mountain of plastic plates, spoons, forks and whatnot that COULD be recycled but instead ends up in the garbage. So it'll be chi-chi and environmentally correct, too. ... Maybe these Westfield people know what they're doing. If it has the Disney Store, Hello Kitty and those 50-cent kiddie rides, our little girl is all in.

And while all that upscale trade is going on in the main mall ... I'll be at the new Target stocking up on Fruit of the Looms.

Heard at the all-powerful BoingBoing, the Woodland Hills home where Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band recorded "Trout Mask Replica" is up for sale.

Yes, Woodland Hills is a rock 'n' roll mecca.

It'll cost you $849,900 for this baby, according to the post that started at The Captain Beefheart Radar Station, then made its way to Positive Ape Index, then BoingBoing and finally right here.

From the Beefheart site:

Why is it so important?

This is the house where a poverty stricken Magic Band were kept under virtual house arrest while honing the impossibly intricate album Trout Mask Replica, and subjected to virtual brain washing sessions to "help" coax the unique music out of them.

The music was written here; painstakingly transcribed by John French, taught to the band and many tracks on Trout Mask were even recorded here - Dust Blows Forward, Hair Pie Bake 1, China Pig, Well and Orange Claw Hammer along with much of the dialogue snippets ("No, it's Hair Pie" etc).

All of the Trout Mask Sessions section of Grow Fins was recorded here.

This was Don and Jan's first home together, where they lived before and after their wedding.

The "enchanted garden" photos from the cover of Trout Mask Replica and Grow Fins were taken here - the bridge under which John French was hiding was out the back of the property, bits of which still remain according to French.

The eucalyptus trees which Don was so concerned about hurting with his music lived here (no longer, sadly) resulting in him billing Frank Zappa for a tree surgeon to tend to them.

The lovely property, built in 1925 at 4295 Ensenada Drive in the 91364 ZIP code, according to the agent's listing, is a 2-bedroom, 1 bath (with one partial bath) "Coca Cola House Original Girard Cabin" (I have no idea what that means) with a palatial 1,150 square feet. It's on three lots and has a "mostly finished studio" on one of them. So give Realtor Robert Eisenberg of Pinnacle Estate Properties a call at (818) 707-3337 if you want a piece of the Beefheart.

That Josh Kleinbaum, he who heads up the Daily News' online onslaught, is a harsh taskmaster. Here's what he's cooked up for us: If you write a Daily News blog, and you're one of the last five people to post a blog entry, your blog and entry will appear near the top of the Dailynews.com home page, beckoning thousands of Web surfers to your own little corner of blogginess.

But once five more Daily News bloggers do their thing, you're off the list. It's a perfect way to get us to post, and post often. We need our fix of Dailynews.com fame -- and the only way to do it is to keep on posting. We can't dip below 50 MPH, or like in "Speed," the bus will blow up (or more likely, a Toyota Camry will run into it). It's like the sourdough starter in Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential," which must be continuously replenished with (sugar?) to stay alive, prompting the absent baker to call the restaurant and yell loudly through the phone, "Feed the Bitch. Feed the Bitch, or she'll die!"
Consider her fed.

Now I will revel in my hour or so of reflected glory, high atop the blogroll on dailynews.com, and wait for Greg Hernandez, Scott Wolf and David Kronke to write me out.