Posts Tagged ‘LA Weekly’

Just in time for the weekend, LA Weekly foodie Jonathan Gold released his list of “99 Essential Restaurants” for 2011.

The question on Gold’s mind this go-round was “what is an essential Los Angeles restaurant?”:

I was thinking about that over lunch at Providence a couple of months ago, contemplating a dish of Santa Barbara sea urchin cosseted with gently scrambled egg, wondering whether the uni might go better with an Alsatian pinot blanc or a Central Coast viognier.

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Regular freelance contributor Doug Harvey learned last week that the LA Weekly would no longer be a home for his writing. During his 13 years as an art critic for the paper, Harvey made significant contributions to the city’s arts coverage – and hopefully he will continue to do so elsewhere.

We’re not clear why the LA Weekly said farewell to Mr. Harvey, but it’s likely related to last month’s firing of Senior Features Editor Tom Christie, who edited the Arts section. As for whether the LA Weekly will be cutting down on arts coverage, or if they simply expect Christie’s replacement to bring in all new people, it’s a wait-and-see.

Photo swiped from Doug Harvey’s personal blog.

An article in Friday’s LA Times about the gentrification of Echo Park struck some of us as a wee bit tone deaf. It struck LA Weekly music editor (and Los Feliz resident) Gustavo Turner as “an epically LULZy article that seems to come from a different dimension where aliens from an unknown galaxy (Sherman Oaks?) have landed in Echo Park with a guidebook from 1978 warning them about cholo-on-cholo crime, but are chuffed that the neighborhood is really a haven for whites who enjoy mixologists and other Stuff White People Like.”

We recommend reading Turner’s gentle, mocking critique in its entirety, but have included highlights below:

LA Times: Changes to the area have reached a tipping point in the last two years as a new wave of upscale destinations opened their doors to the area’s ever-increasing population of artists, musicians and loafers.

Turner: “New wave”? “Hip party people”? What, “pepped-up hepsters looking for a happening that would freak them out” was taken? Did the Times hire Z-Man Bartell as a line editor when we weren’t looking? Also, “loafers”? “LOAFERS”?

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It’s a sad day for Los Angeles–especially for the arts. The last true stalwart of the old LA Weekly editorial guard is moving on. Senior features editor Tom Christie spent his last day at the Weekly yesterday–ending a 15-year tenure.

“I had a great run,” he tells FBLA, “but I’m very much looking forward to moving on.”

Christie says he has no idea how is departure will affect the LA Weekly‘s arts coverage–which he’d been in charge of for years. He says the newfound time will allow him to finish up a documentary he’s been working on about sculptor Richard Serra as well as a screenplay adaptation of AW Hill‘s novel “Nowhere-Land.”

Christie is one of the best editors in Los Angeles, who learned his craft under the great Harold Hayes. We wish him the best of luck out there.

New job, same Christine Pelisek. The former LA Weekly writer, who now writes for The Daily Beast, discovered the existence of the “Grim Sleeper” serial killer on the loose in Los Angeles two years ago. Now she’s written about a new serial killer roaming the Southland.

From Pelisek’s story in the Daily Beast:

The first body was found in a patch of weeds in L.A.’s industrial wastelands. The victim, a woman, was naked; her feet and wrists had been bound.

The second body was discovered in a vacant field near a school sixty miles east of the city. The woman, also naked, lay facedown, in a semi-fetal position.

The third body was found, partially clothed, in a dirt gulley of a desolate area miles away in the county of Riverside. She, like the others, had been strangled.

The murders were 20 years apart yet police believe they were committed by the same person—a serial killer still on the loose.

It should go without saying, but we’ll say it anyway. Creepy.

Previously on FBLA: Christine Pelisek Leaves LA Weekly for the Daily Beast

When local blogger Alissa Walker of GelatoBaby.com discovered a portion of an obituary she had written for John Chase had been plagiarized by AOL-owned website West Hollywood Patch, she contacted the site’s editor. The Informer at LA Weekly has published the email response Walker received from Patch editor Nancy C. Rodriguez:

My calendar editor wrote the obit for me. I’ll have him update the obit … Would you mind sending me some information about John Chase…his significant role to West Hollywood, his character and any contributions to the city? It would be helpful information for our calendar editor.

Wow. The editor actually asked a writer her employee had just stolen from to do more of their work for them. No apology. No promise to correct or remove the stolen material. And apparently, no shame.

The obit was eventually taken down and the author fired. West Hollywood Patch appropriately issued an apology. But in light of new charges of plagiarism over at New Rochelle Patch, it makes us wonder if AOL made good on their promise to hire journalism professionals.

Related: Patch, the WalMart of News? by LA Weekly‘s Tibby Rothman

KNBC-TV apparently isn’t aware that the U.S. just elected its first black president.

The local NBC affiliate decided today it was no longer providing coverage for the Martin Luther King Day Parade today, KNBC confirmed to LA Weekly.

A weak-willed excuse was soon provided: “NBC4 has been proud to present live broadcast coverage of the Kingdom Day Parade since 2001. This year, the station plans to cover this important community celebration honoring Dr. King within our newscasts, on our website and on ‘News Raw,’ our news service airing on NBC4′s Digital Channel 4.2 (Time Warner Channel 225 – Cox Channel 804 – Charter Cable 304).”

Way to get off to a good start with the national administration in this brave new world.

Los Angeles Magazine has a few suggestions for “fixing” the LAT — one of them being that the paper of record lure Nikki Finke away from her post at LA Weekly. A excerpt per Hollywood Wiretap:

She isn’t always accurate (but)…she is almost alone in conveying a palpable excitement about what the Industry is doing. She is all but alone in not treating it like it’s the aircraft industry or the car business. She makes you think movies matter and brings an appropriate — or at least wildly entertaining — moral indignation.

Finke takes the publication to task, telling us via e-mail:

“While I have not seen RJ.’s article, based on what you’re telling me, I suppose I’m flattered. But I’ve already been a staff writer for the LA Times, so my response is: been there, done that. Besides, I’m way too provocative for that place, and it gets you drop-kicked on your head by editors there. And I’d have to stop referring to the moguls as morons and assholes, so that’s no fun. But I do take strong issue with Smith’s ridiculous assertion that “she isn’t always accurate”. (C’mon, RJ, give me even one example. What’s that? You can’t?) It’s just not true, and he knows it.”

In a follow-up e-mail, she writes:

“I’ve been kinda nasty about los angeles magazine in recent months, so good for them for being able to look past that and pay me a compliment. but i won’t let up on them, either.”