November 2011 Archives

For 62 years a new Warren Miller ski movie has heralded the advent of the winter sports season and his latest effort has arrived, "Like There's No Tomorrow," which will play for one night only at 8 p.m. Friday at Torrance's James Armstrong Theatre at the Civic Center.

Here's more on the film from Warren Miller & Co:

Narrated by California native and Olympic Gold Medalist Jonny Moseley, Like There's No Tomorrow follows more than a dozen professional skiers and snowboarders to exotic locations on five continents. Watch as world-class athletes hit the slopes of some of the world's most inspiring snowy landscapes; from the striking Himalayas in Gulmarg, India to the southern hemisphere's highest peak in Portillo, Chile to the legendary powder of Squaw Valley, Calif.

Tickets are $20.50 apiece. After the film, moviegoers can use their ticket stub toward a buy one, get one lift ticket offer at participating mountain resorts and discounts at Sport Chalet. For tickets, call (1-800) 523-7117

Torrance is one of 240 cities nationwide where the film will be screened.

Check out the trailer:

President Barack Obama called Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena, currently with the Carson-based Major League Soccer club in Indonesia, to congratulate him on winning MLS Cup earlier this month.

The President said, as a soccer fan, he wanted to let Coach Arena know that the team inspired a lot of young soccer players, including his kids. The President congratulated Coach Arena on all that the team has done for the game of soccer and asked him to pass along his congratulations to Landon Donovan, David Beckham and the rest of the team.

The White House visit is expected to occur sometime next year.

Incidentally, the Galaxy won the first game of its Asian tour in the wee hours of this morning Pacific time.

And if you're a soccer fan who can't wait for next season to start in the spring, here's an appetizer in an ad featuring Galaxy players at what will be the new home of MLS:

Due to a technical error the 100 Percent Soccer blog is "down" and readers may not post comments nor can it be updated until the blog is restored (which could be a cumbersome and time-consuming process).

Moreover, there is a factual error in the most recent post that can't be corrected at this time.

For the record, Chivas USA midfielder Paulo Nagamura was traded today to Sporting Kansas City and not the MLS club indicated in the post.

Thank you for your understanding.

Progressive/metal band Heart of Cygnus, a two-man outfit led by Torrance resident Jeff Lane, have just released their new single "The Isles of Ice" from their forthcoming album, "The Voyage of Jonas," which is set for release early next year.

Watch:

"The Isles of Ice" may also be downloaded from iTunes and Amazon.

"The Voyage of Jonas" is the third album by Heart of Cygnus, which also includes drummer Jim Nahikian in addition to vocalist and lead guitarist Lane.

Although relatively unknown in their own country, Heart of Cygnus are well known in Germany, where there is huge metal/progressive rock scene.

Crenshaw Boulevard in Torrance will be closed in both directions Tuesday for 30 minutes beginning at 10 a.m., police said.

The closure will allow the ExxonMobil refinery to test their barriers on Crenshaw Boulevard between Del Amo Boulevard and 190th Street.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa issued this statement late Sunday night about the landslide that occurred earlier in the day at Paseo del Mar in San Pedro: 

MAYOR VILLARAIGOSA ISSUES STATEMENT ON PASEO DEL MAR LANDSLIDE

Daily Breeze photographer Steve McCrank and I were out at the Paseo del Mar landslide site today just after several public officials were there for a tour and update.

(Daily Breeze photo by Steve McCrank) - Check out this huge fissure that's opened up at the White Point Nature Preserve that runs on the north side of Paseo del Mar (which is seen buckled in the background). It was estimated to be at least 15 feet deep and is why that portion of the nature preserve has been fenced off to walkers.

According to the county's latest update, ground movement has intensified with a portion of the access road leading from Paseo del Mar to the beach collapsing and sliding into the ocean -- along with 5 sections of an abandoned 60-inch storm drain pipe.

I talked with Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe -- one of the officials who toured the site -- this afternoon. He told me the changes to the cliff from 10 days ago were "dramatic."

The road had dropped 18 inches during his earlier visit, he said. Now, it's dropped 5 feet.

"We're dealing with an immediate and life-threatening hazard there," he said. "The big issue is everybody's curious, they want to walk by and check it out."

Additional signs are going up warning people to stay way. Work on an 8-foot tall chain link fence appeared to be wrapping up quickly when I was there this morning.

Joining Knabe today was Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich and City Council candidate Joe Buscaino.

No one really knows if the bluff will collapse in a single motion -- or just drop away slowly.

But the road continues to lean toward the ocean, moving quickly, according to officials and locals.

"It seems like the whole landscape is leaning down," said Jeff Herrera, 49, of Torrance. He grew up frequenting the ocean cliffs with his buddies. "This was our backyard," he said.

We'll have an update posted late Thursday that also will appear in Friday's Daily Breeze. There will be more pretty amazing photos taken by my colleague running with the story, so stay tuned.

The slide area is on Paseo del Mar between Weymouth Avenue on the east and Western Avenue on the west. The nature preserve remains open although a southeast portion of the park has been fenced off to the public.

The certified results of last week's special election to fill the 15th District seat on the LA City Council were released today.

Turnout was a bit higher than usual, at 18.2 percent (there are 100,030 voters in Council District 15 which takes in San Pedro, Wilmington, Harbor City, Harbor Gateway and Watts).

The results:

• Joe Buscaino -- 28.6 percent (5,175 votes)
• Warren Furutani -- 22.7 percent (4,098 votes)

(Buscaino and Furutani will compete in a Jan. 17 runoff)

• Jayme Wilson -- 12.1 percent (2,190 votes)
• Pat McOsker -- 9.8 percent (1,779 votes)
• Rudy Svorinich Jr. -- 9 percent (1,627 votes)
• Gordon Teuber -- 6.6 percent (1,186 votes)
• Justin I. Brimmer -- 4.1 percent (748 votes)
• Rebecca Chambliss -- 2.2 percent (388 votes)
• John M. Delgado Jr. -- 1.8 percent (326 votes)
• Frank Pereyda -- 1.6 percent (293 votes)
• M. "Candice" Graham -- 1.5 percent (269 votes)

Photos courtesy of the Association of Surfing Professionals

No modern athlete, by any resonable measure, has dominated their sport like Kelly Slater has dominated pro surfing.

Not Jordan or Montana. Not Favre or Lebron or, dare it be said, Kobe Bryant. Not even the historic sporting successes of Woods, Federer and Nadal can really compare to Slater's stunning run of athletic supremacy.

So when the Florida native took home his unprecedented 11th world title this week in San Francisco, he was heralded as a conquering hero by the surfing world.

Slater's feats have lit up Twitter and Facebook, been highlighted in magazine spreads and newspaper articles, fueled massive corporate marketing campaigns and been featured among mainstream sports highlights on ESPN. He was even profiled a few weeks back on that one show my parents always TiVo, CBS Sunday Morning.

"This is pretty fabulous," Slater told reporters after being crowned the tour's 2011 champion. "It's very fulfilling and there's personal satisfaction. It feels real nice. I've dedicated my life to surfing and competing and to go a whole year and win a world title and have it pay off, it's really fulfilling. To win on American soil is nice."

He has already posted three tour wins this year and reached the finals in five of nine events.

Slater's most recent achievement was highlighted this week by the New York Times, which lauded his ability to remain above the competition despite a constant influx of talented young surfers.

The article appeared just after the completion of the latest Association of Surfing Professionals tour stop up north, which - in true Ocean Beach fashion - featured chilly water, offshore winds, a powerful swell and the reported sighting of a massive shark.

The ASP calculates winners and losers through a complex point system, and Slater clinched the title of the 11-stop tour by reaching the fourth round in San Francisco. But it was Gabriel Medina, a 17-year-old Brazilian, who topped Slater in their heat and eventually went on to win the event by beating Australian Joel Parkinson.

Medina may be the gifted young phenom of tomorrow, but today belongs to the Champ.

Need more evidence of Slater's unrivaled superiority? Just take a look at the numbers: 11, the number of world titles he has won; 20, Slater's age in 1992 when he won his first ASP world title; $3 million, the amount of prize money he has earned over a career spanning two decades; 48 tour wins, two X Game medals, countless fans and immeasurable commercial appeal.

Slater holds the distinction of being the youngest and oldest world champion in the history of professional surfing.

Max Klinger of the The New York Times looks at Slater's longevity and deep influence in nearly every aspect of surfing, where younger pros have dramatically progressed the sport by taking to the sky - literally. While Slater has developed his technique to incorporate aerial surfing, he has remained true to his iconic power-surfing style. And Slater's successes this week at San Francisco's legendary Ocean Beach proved to be a powerful testament to his staying power in an ever-evolving sport.

From the NY Times article:

Slater, who is considered a master of every facet of the sport -- barrel riding, aerials, power surfing -- has seemed to age in reverse.

"When I need to, I'm surfing better than I ever have in my life," he said. "The thing about getting older in anything is keeping your mind open to trying new things and taking new approaches. I honestly don't feel like age is a restriction."

Part of that has to do with the low-impact physical nature of surfing, but part also has to do with Slater's unusual ability to balance the motivation required to surf in contests -- which are often held in less-than ideal conditions and whose format can limit risk taking -- with the desire to advance the larger progression of the sport.

---------------------

On Sunday, after the final horn of his title-clinching heat had blown, he paddled for a wedging barrel and disappeared behind the thick green lip for several seconds before emerging from what could have easily been the best wave of the event.

It did not count, but it did not matter much to Slater, whose title was already in the books. As the crowd burst into a frenzy, it was clear that the tour's champ was also the people's champ.

Slater's appeal is broad for many reasons, one of them being that he just genuinely seems like a decent guy. And that's refreshing in today's culture of celebrity worship. He doesn't drink or smoke or do drugs. He gives his money and time to charity, visiting with wounded solders and teaching disabled veterans how to surf. He often does this under the media's radar. There are no cheating scandals or salacious sex headlines or failed 72-day marriages, no ridiculous political campaigns or head-scratching run ins with the law. Heck, the guy even updates his own twitter feed. Talk about "the people's champion."

Next up in Slater's 11^th world title tour will be the Pipeline Masters held in December on the North Shore of Oahu. Us mortals hope retirement doesn't soon follow.

Photos courtesy David Moyle, www.davidmoyle.com

Mayor Frank Scotto said about 3,000 people participated on a cool fall Sunday evening in the flashlight-wielding event at Wilson Park.

The Goodyear blimp was grounded for the night, incidentally.

More on forthcoming centennial events can be found here.

The road reopened Tuesday afternoon after closing for a month.

The 11 candidates competing in Tuesday's primary has made for a very crowded field, filling up mail boxes and clogging local streets and lawns with campaign signs.

But it's not the first time so many candidates have run for an open Harbor-to-Watts seat on the Los Angeles City Council.

Remember 1981?

OK, so neither do I particularly. But there were 12 candidates who lined up for that seat when John S. Gibson retired. This was before the era of term limits, remember, so it was the first time the seat had been vacant in decades.

That race resulted in a close runoff between Joan Milke Flores, a Gibson aide who eventually won, and then Los Angeles School Board member John Greenwood. In the end, there were only some 400 votes that separated the two in the runoff.

The results from the April 1981 primary race:

• Joan Milke Flores, 37.3 percent
• John Greenwood, 22.2 percent
• Tom King, 7.4 percent
• Art Almeida, 6.1 percent
• Fred Boettcher, 5.7 percent
• Jim Hawkins, 4.4 percent
• Hal Huffer, 4.2 percent
• Mark Capalia, 1.3 percent
• Vincent Lopez, 0.9 percent
• Stuart Susswain, 0.4 percent

All this to remind voters in the district that Tuesday is election day. And check the Daily Breeze for the results that night as they begin to roll in.Not sure where your polling place is or what's on your ballot? Go to LAVote.

And for you local history buffs, here's a clip from the April 15, 1981, edition of the News-Pilot in San Pedro:



 

Government pensions are a hot topic these days, with Gov. Jerry Brown last week proposing his own set of reforms and two more conservative plans submitted this week as potential ballot initiatives. The latter may spur passage of the former, some believe.

The 11-candidate race for the open Harbor-to-Watts seat on the Los Angeles City Council has been remarkably polite. The candidates -- many of whom know each other personally -- have gone so far as to compliment one another at forums.

But with election day less than a week away, the temperatures in voters' mailboxes seem to be rising in the last couple days.

Pat McOsker's campaign has sent out successive mailers, arriving in mailboxes earlier this week, questioning Joe Buscaino's transparency with regard to his voter registration (he recently switched his registration from Republican to Democrat).

He also says Buscaino violated city ethics rules in sending out an early mailer that appears to have avoided reporting requirements -- although the McOsker campaign points out that state ethics laws may come into play here if voter files were used to distribute the mailer.



No mention of a city campaign is made on the early Buscaino mailer ("Congratulations, from one public servant to another!"). While it arrived right after Hahn's congressional win in July -- and was probably widely perceived by those anticipating the upcoming council race as an initial piece of outreach to the district by a prospective candidate -- nothing on the piece referred to the City Council campaign.

 

"Joe Buscaino wanted to run for City Council in a district with lots of Democrats. So, he decided the best way to win was to become a Democrat and he changed his voter registration. To prove his new found Democratic loyalty, Buscaino mailed out a congratulations letter to Janice Hahn for her great victory over the Republican," says the double-sided, color mailer that says it was paid for by Pat McOsker for City Council 2011.

I called City Ethics and they had no comment on the specific mailer. They did indicate that the Buscaino "congratulatory" piece might not qualify as campaign literature if no mention of a campaign was made. Thus the city's financial reporting rules would not apply.

The state ethics rules on voter list use, however, could still be an issue, according to the McOsker campaign. We'll try to follow up more on the story Friday.

Buscaino's spokesman said it was simply not campaign literature. City Ethics lists Buscaino's first campaign mailer (dated 8/2/11) as a letter to voters titled "I have some exciting news!". The piece, which came out after the other flier in question, announced that he'd filed the paperwork to form a campaign to run for Hahn's vacant City Council seat.

Buscaino's spokesman said Thursday they are keeping the campaign "positive." But they have set up a Fact Check page on the campaign website.

Meanwhile, on a lighter note, candidate Rebecca Chambliss decided to have a little fun with her latest mailer, taking other candidates to task for promising too much. Shovel-ready jobs? Her dog, Buddy -- a 150-pound Tibetan mastiff -- has that market cornered.

Chambliss, long active in dog rescue work, also tells us that she was recently endorsed by popular author/radio host and animal behavioralist Warren Eckstein.

The final pre-election financial reports are due in to the city on Friday. The special election is Tuesday.