Our Town

The LA Weekly notes that the city's contract with Google to provide email services will cost $1.5 million more than the old system, and questions the wisdom of the extra cost during a massive budget deficit. A valid point, to be sure - but it's worth considering what you get for that extra cabbage. From DailyFinance.com:

Randi Levin, general manager of the city's Information Technology Agency .... said that unlike the city's current GroupWise system, the Google platform won't require 16 city employees running 60 servers. She also criticized GroupWise for being "slow, limited in memory and prone to crashing."

It's difficult to measure the cost of wasted time and effort by city employees who have to struggle with an inefficient system, but it is undoubtedly considerable. You want people to do a good job, you've got to give them the right tools.

Previously on FBLA:
Google Wins Email Contract With City Of Los Angeles

City employees have had it with their rickety old email system, and are going Google. From the LA Times:

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously today to outsource its e-mail system to Google Inc., making it the largest city in the nation to make the move and handing the Web search giant a major victory in its quest to become a software provider to the world's cities and businesses.

After more than two hours of debate, council members voted 12-0 to approve the $7.25-million contract that would move all 30,000 city employees to Google's so-called cloud over the coming year.

Director of Crash Paul Haggis penned a break up letter with Scientology and their current national spokesperson Tommy Davis. The Village Voice published it. What will get all the ink is that Haggis is upset at the San Diego chapter endorsing Prop. 8. But Haggis is also miffed, after 35 years, of the policy of "disconnection," which is the Scientology version of ex-communication. Davis denied the policy exists on CNN and this is suddenly outrageous to the Oscar winner.

Haggis writes:

This was my state of mind when I was online doing research and chanced upon an interview clip with you on CNN. The interview lasted maybe ten minutes - it was just you and the newscaster. And in it I saw you deny the church's policy of disconnection. You said straight-out there was no such policy, that it did not exist.

I was shocked. We all know this policy exists. I didn't have to search for verification - I didn't have to look any further than my own home.

Yeah, after a couple of months figuring out the church lies, we get it. After 35 years?

This reminds us of the scene in Casablanca where Captain Renault declares, "I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!"

Your winnings, Sir.

Photo Credit: Alexandra Gibson

Hello Kitty is marking her 35th with three weeks of art, events, and weird food at cafe and gallery Royal/T. Thursday night was the invite-only opening party, and attendees included Dave Navarro, Kimora Lee Simmons, Paris Hilton, Tim Biskup and other celebrities not stuck in a line stretching down the block. "Everyone is on the list!" an exasperated publicist explained when we inquired about the miserable wait.

We gave up on the event, but it wasn't a total waste - the girls waiting in line were as cute as any of the art inside.

continued...

Yes this is universally thought to be creepy and not unlike we've imagined PSA's on Orwell's telescreens to be like.

But our reaction is why did this take so long? Hello! September 11th 2001 was like eight years ago. It's taken the LAPD this long to ask Angelenos to be on the look out for anything suspicious in regards to terrorism?! What did they get stuck in traffic for the better part of a decade? We've been put on HOLD after dialing 911 to report a fire. Is gang violence considered terrorism? Or do they have to be Muslim? Because maybe you want to stick with cleaning up the gang problem before tackling what law enforcement considers "terrorism."

We'll report something suspicious, we'll start with reporting iWatch.

After spending some time at the LAPD Art Theft Detail's website, Greg Allen has created a "small, curated showcase of some of LA's greatest stolen art." The full showcase can be viewed at Greg.org

An event we're sorry we missed - Zócalo Public Square hosted a talk this past Monday with author James Ellroy at the Hammer Museum. The Zócalo website offers a rundown:

Atypical fans sat for an atypical interview between Ellroy - most recently the author of Blood's A Rover - and writer [Erika] Schickel, who confided that she is Ellroy's girlfriend.

"I offer this tidbit up not because it's any of your fucking business," Schickel said, "but because all along I've been very frustrated. He has been asked the same questions over and over and over again, and I feel that people are missing the point."

And so they began, discussing Ellroy's reputation as a genre writer, as the Demon Dog of American literature, and the transformation of his writing, particularly his writing about women.

Fortunately for those of us not in attendance, a video of the interview can be viewed here.

Fellow music journalist, aficionado, and punk rock alumni Greg Burk has penned a remembrance of his friend Brendan Mullen for the current issue of the LA Weekly. Mullen's unexpected death this past Monday has broken a lot of hearts - and inspired some lovely words. Burk's words are entitled "MULLEN: SOME FOREIGN BASTARD" and begin:

Dreams don't come true by themselves.

We had bands, and Brendan Mullen let people hear them. We hacked out a culture, and Brendan put it in books and museums; now it's History. We owned records by Sun Ra and Cecil Taylor and Clifton Chenier and Alex Chilton and Screamin' Jay Hawkins, and Brendan brought their physical, radical sweat to drip on us.

Read the rest of the piece at the LA Weekly website.

Frank McCourt and his soon-to-be ex-wife Jaime McCourt own the Dodgers and they recently acquired the LA Marathon.

They have announced they will be divorcing.

So is it too soon to make half marathon jokes?

(Photo credit LAT)

Previously on FBLA: LA Will Finally Have an Awesome Marathon

Or so says Christian Louboutin. The designer recently created three Louboutin Barbies for Mattel, and reportedly gave our favorite 11.5 inch SoCal native a leg makeover. A Louboutin spokeswoman, quoted in Women's Wear Daily, explained the need to alter Barbie's proportions: "He found her ankles were too fat."

Mind you, this is the same socially sensitive Louboutin that, during a worldwide recession, introduced a $6,295 shoe named after Marie Antoinette, that timeless icon of royal excess in the midst of starving masses.

Here's hoping Louboutin's over-hyped luxury brand goes bankrupt in the recession and gets purchased by Wal-Mart. Red soles on aisle five. Fingers crossed.