Posts Tagged ‘Jens Erik Gould’

In his TIME magazine piece about a recent LA River kayaking excursion, writer Jens Erik Gould points out that the hazards of a recently and temporarily opened-to-boaters section of the concrete waterway are largely man-made:

Kayaking down a ledge, my boat became stuck on a rusted shopping cart lurking in the water, and it took me a while to get free. I saw dozens more during the three-hour trip. My kayak sailed through clusters of trash including empty Styrofoam noodle containers, spray-paint cans and vitamin-bottle caps…

The water was undoubtedly full of pesticides from storm drains that empty into the waterway. As Ignacio Garcia, one of our guides from the Los Angeles Conservation Corps, put it: “It would be beautiful if there were no trash.”

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The Los Angeles blogosphere was not particularly thrilled with a recent Time magazine story about Downtown Los Angeles’ revitalization–or “Manhattanization” if you’re Time‘s Jens Erik Gould.

The Informer on the story’s insistence that LA Live is at the heart of Downtown’s revival: Given reporter Jens Erik Gould’s sourcing, we understand where he may have gotten the (really quite hysterical) idea that AEG is making downtown a destination for anyone besides Beliebers and Lakers assholes. Guess who he talked to? AEG, AEG’s monster developer friends and L.A. City Councilmember (and notorious overdevelopment nut) Jan Perry, who calls the tacky stretch of Figueroa “an area that can be considered alive 24/7 and be a major center for arts, entertainment and culture.”

Sure, if by culture you mean “American Idol.”

More on the AEG press release from LA Observed: Who on earth assigned this poor reporter the ancient “NY vs. L.A.” story – and then somehow managed to get it so wrong? The piece in question is about the revitalization of downtown, which if you’re relying on Time, is largely the result of L.A. Live. Jan Perry should give this guy a commission.

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He looks a bit like Conan O’Brien, plays the acoustic guitar just like Coco, and is right around the same age as the TBS late night host (47). But in the case of this pale faced, red-headed entertainer, the audience is the much smaller, localized East LA constituency of Mariachi music consumers.

TIME writer Jens Erik Gould is the latest reporter to share the unlikely strumming success of one Matthew Stoneman (pictured), and really, it’s a story that never gets old. New Hampshire native Stoneman goes by the stage name of Mateo and is currently being filmed for an upcoming documentary about his life. His singing career tracks back to a most unlikely mid-1980s starting point:

State prison helped make Stoneman the
man he is today. A pianist, he had come to Los Angeles in 1983 and soon aimed for fame with music he composed in the style of Elton John. When that didn’t work out, he bought a studio that produced rap. He got behind on his payments, so he hooked up with a group of criminals from Sinaloa, Mexico to rob a music store…

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