Results tagged “blogs”

       

On Saturday, over 5,000 groups from around the world gathered for the International Day of Climate Action in an effort to bring attention to the Copenhagen Climate Talks ,scheduled for December when the Kyoto Treaty will be replaced (big question, will the U.S. sign it?).

It's very common for reporters to cross the line and become communicators for agencies they once reported on and investigated. Today comes the news that Metro is launching their blog (finally!) with two notable names behind it. From the LA Times is Steve Hymon, the paper's former transit reporter. And from the blogLAsphere is Fred Camino, the downtown resident who created the blog MetroRiderLA. It's called The Source and Metro says it "is your window into what's happening at" the agency. "We'll be writing about agency news, funding and policy issues, and how to get the most out of transit and Los Angeles."

If you follow any "foodies" on Twitter you may have woken up to a stream of 140 character obit-like wails echoing the death rattle that's just been shook at print publication mega-player Conde Nast. They've just announced that they're going to close up shop at Gourmet magazine, a 68-year-old monthly whose colorful photos and thoughtful words have inspired cooks and eaters here in Los Angeles and around the world for decades.

Jesus Sanchez, the blogger behind The Eastsider LA, found that street artist Shepard Fairey put an anti-graffiti coating on the brick walls of his art gallery and ad agency in Echo Park. Fairey explained that "when graff seeped into the raw brick it was very difficult to clean. The building is historic and I love and want to protect the brick." The new anti-graffiti coating will make abatement easier, but will not stop graffiti.

Since mid June, Seth Menachem has been walking around his Fairfax District neighborhood, getting to know his elderly neighbors, interviewing them on camera for advice and posting the captivating short clips on his blog, Life Advice from Old People. "Maybe it's because my dad died, maybe it's because I was so close to my grandparents, and maybe it's a combination of both," he explained over e-mail. "But, I love speaking to the elderly and I love getting advice from them on the things they've learned in their lives. It forces me to reevaluate my life constantly - not a bad thing.

Kat Odell just started her new gig as Editor of Eater LA a couple weeks ago, a nice change of pace for readers since Lesley Balla left the position in December. Then yesterday, she got some high exposure along with a downtown restaurant that became the focus of a post based on an anonymous tip. The Must Bar was using generic foods and charging high prices, the tipster asserted, adding possible health code violations. The LA Times' Daily Dish blog quickly jumped on to the story, interviewing the owners and finding that their thinking about legal action. But Ben Sheffner at Copyrights & Campaigns notes that the law is on Odell's side for the most part. For us, really, all this does is make us want to go support and check out The Must at least once to decide for ourselves. Time for a drink?

Will Kogi BBQ start getting more notoriety because of these awesome rants instead of their food? The last time, it was an e-mail from Kogi's PR person to a food blogger where she explained she did not like being treated like a "vending machine" for press inquiries. Now, their resident blogger going after the so called "hypestar" in a long post. Here's an excerpt where the term is defined: "What is a hypester? (Not to be confused with a hipster - which is a very strangeLy fancifuL and occasionaLLy deLightfuL creature!) A hypester is a snarky littLe Negative Ned/Nancy who uses aLL avenues of the internet — be it a comment board, bLog, Twitter, Facebook, etc.- to try and start sh*t cuz it’s entertaining. These emotionaL/psychic vampires utiLize or create hype to provoke a reaction out of an internet personaLity, start a fLame war or some weird littLe feud over a triviaL opinion, an emaiL taken out of context or a quirk that they’ve re-cropped w/ their literary, gossip-driven Photoshop to be a personaL offense. The KEY CLUE IS HYPE. For they aLmost never use soLid evidence or reaLity as a means to sway one’s opinion."

LA has a diverse cast of characters. Whether it's the characters with stirring stories or interesting occupations or the people who are just simply characters, this town has them all. In an effort to get to know some of those characters a little better, we've created "Seven Questions with..."

Say goodbye to Hollywood, baby. Defamer, the loved--but not loved enough--celebrity gossip blog has been folded into its parent blog, Gawker.

LA Observed broke the news late last night that the LA Times will be cutting the state and local news section of the paper, the California section. "The publisher decided to fold local news inside the front section," Kevin Roderick wrote.

For the first time, the Orange County Fire Authority is blogging. Just like the Los Angeles Fire Department and the Transportation Security Administration, OCFA wants people to comment and engage by asking questions and offer ideas to make things better in future wildfire fights.

With much excitement, the six-week late-night Metro Red Line subway service begins tomorrow. Every Friday and Saturday night until the end of the year, you'll be able to ride the train until 3 a.m.

There's a relatively new local blog on the scene called Blazing Shark. Albeit a bit, ohhhh, NSFW (in words, not photos), it's all about the red headed Westsider's sexually adventurous life (she even flirts on Twitter). Her most recent post reminisces on some successful celebrity stalking earlier this year.

Today, LA Times blogger Veronique de Turenne found out she was one of the 75 staffers laid off. At the beginning of this year, Turenne took the helm of LA Now, the "this just in" blog that covered metro news. "When I started this blog last February, we were ranked 8-millionth in the vast Wild West that is the blogosphere. Today, we're in the top 5,000," she reminisced this morning. "We get tens of thousands of hits a day, scores of comments, and get to share what we know about Southern California with the rest of the world. It was hard work and great fun and I loved every minute of it." Jesus Sanchez, who also wrote for LA Now was axed earlier this year and now blogs at his own The Eastsider LA. Turenne continues to write on her blog, Here in Malibu. According to the Times, LA Now will continue with a new look in the near future.

The bloggers who helped bring the taco truck ban in unincorporated areas of Los Angeles to national headlines have done some sleuthing with a particular commenter's IP address (it's like a digital fingerprint) who left comments bashing the cause to save the savory street food. When they compared the address left on their website to the address listed on Wikipedia page edits about the County, it was the same.

Speaking to poor planning and development, an opinion piece from last week in the St. Petersburg Times talks of bloggers moving from idea maker to action taker. "Many of us are angry about the impoverished environment we've inherited... Because of this brutal lack of place and community in our real world, those who Richard Florida calls 'the creative class' have been agitating for positive change by using the Internet to exchange ideas... it's just a question of time before some of these folks enter the local political scene."

Local music blogger, Kevin Cogill, 27, at Antiquiet streamed nine unreleased Guns N' Roses songs from the album Chinese Democracy back in June. It was a pretty big deal: fans have been waiting for this album for about 14 years now. That excitement led to so much traffic, his site crashed.

TMZ caught Orange County Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez on video in Denver at the DNC yesterday. She's certainly hopped on something (life, baby!), probably just general excitement of the atmosphere over there. However, it's just more fun to call her stoned and "four lattes past hyper," as TMZ proclaimed. Or maybe it's the water in Orange County.

      

DCist and the -ist network is participating in a first of its kind credential program at this year's Democratic National Convention. We're serving as the selected blogger representing the District of Columbia in the DNC State Blogger Corps (California's rep is Calitics). Here's how The New York Times described the desirability of our credential:

For bloggers attending the Democratic convention at the Pepsi Center in Denver, two types of credentials are offered. The first is a national credential, which offers the same access granted to members of traditional news media organizations.

Continue reading "What the DNC State Blogger Corps Really Gets You"

Ever wonder who puts up those signs along freeways advocating for some cause or the other? One person is the Freeway Blogger who has hung over 4,000 signs against the war on freeways across the California and the western U.S. The above photo is from late July, but at least five went up yesterday afternoon, according to the blogger in an e-mail.

Reviews of Jay Babcock's review of Los Angeles didn't go so well in the comments section yesterday. Babcock, the man behind Arthur Magazine, left Los Angeles for Brooklyn earlier this month. Soundboard on LA Times caught up with him and quizzed him about his move and Babcock went off on Los Angeles.

Cable network Current TV has recently launched this pod that features the LA Times' Homicide Report, which happens to be the only blog of its kind in the country. Although the Times is struggling these days, the Homicide Report is one of the best things about our city's biggest newspaper. The documentary focuses on reporter Ruben Vives, who believes the victims are people who deserve to have their stories told.

Girl Scouts got a rude awakening in March when Claremont Mayor Ellen Taylor told them to scram after they'd setup shop on the street corner outside her office. While Taylor claims she was merely worried about their safety, the Girl Scout troop leader, Maia West, was furious that Taylor had taken what is usually such a positive, empowering, entreprenurial skill-building experience and turned it into a negative one.

Today on Kevin Roderick's weekly LA Observed spot on KCRW, he talks up the latest lay offs at the LA Times. In addition to "the paper also began saying goodbye to 150 editors, reporters, designers, photographers and other journalists." The publisher was also fired.

After hearing about music blogger Kevin Bronson leaving the paper amid the many staff cuts, we find out another great blogger is slated to leave. Jesus Sanchez was one of the paper's online reporting staff and has been writing at LA Now this past year. "I'm not sure what it means when the breaking-news blogger is laid off at a time when Blogging Will Be The Paper's One And Only Salvation. Hrmph," snapped one commenter. Another reader wrote: "For a newspaper that is not known for its local coverage, laying off a native has got to be one of the dumbest decisions they could make." Sanchez will be missed by many.

Sad news today for the local rock music reporting scene. Early last night, Kevin Bronson from the LA Times sent out an e-mail titled "Yeah, it's true." The body of the e-mail broke the news. "I'm history. My last day at the Times is Friday." He then linked to Kevin Roderick's post about the massive amounts of layoffs at the paper. Bronson was a huge asset to the Times and had a wonderful blog called Buzz Bands until it was folded into Soundboard. He wrote that the Airborne Toxic Event, The Deadly Syndrome, and Castledoor were three bands to watch in 2008. And he was right.

      

If you're part of some drama and TMZ is around, it doesn't matter if you're a celebrity or not. You're going to be online and in-house publicists are going to e-mail every blog in town about it. Last night outside of STK, the swanky La Cienega Blvd. restaurant, a girl was hit by an SUV that sped off after. The victim's boyfriend chased down the SUV and confronted the girl until police and paramedics arrived.

In another round of job cuts for the LA Times, the paper announced today the planned sacking of 250 jobs across the company which includes 150 editorial ones. The paper will also reduce the number pages it prints by 15%. This is due to a declining revenue, some which is blamed on the internet (which is also a blessing, depending on how you look at it). "You all know the paradox we find ourselves in," Times Editor Russ Stanton said in a memo to the staff. "Thanks to the Internet, we have more readers for our great journalism than at any time in our history. But also thanks to the Internet, our advertisers have more choices, and we have less money."

LA Observed's Kevin Roderick gave blogging some major props in his weekly KCRW report, citing three big names in the local blogosphere who are part of the changing face of mainstream media: the Times' Patrick Goldstein, Patterico’s Pontifications' Patrick Frey, and Witness LA.com's Alan Mittelstaedt. He ends with this thought that hits right at home here: "Blogs, the better ones, are changing the media scene in Los Angeles -- like everywhere. Even with the occasional dishonest actors that go with that, I think we’re all better off."