That's When We Fall in Line...

The Go-Go's are touring. My wife and I tried to get tickets for their Pechanga show (August 20th), but it sold out fast. The band played on the Dancing With the Stars finale, although this is an earlier clip:

California Coastal Commission Rejects U2 Guitarist's Plan for Five-House Compound Near Malibu

Apparently not a "Beautiful Day" for U2's The Edge.

At Los Angeles Times, "Coastal Commission rejects U2 guitarist's Malibu development plan":

The California Coastal Commission on Thursday rejected a controversial proposal by U2 guitarist the Edge to build five mansions on a rugged ridgeline above Malibu that is home to mountain lions and native chaparral.

The 8-4 vote was the culmination of what has become a closely watched property rights battle between the musician, whose real name is David Evans, and the agency that regulates development along the California coastline.

"In 38 years of this commission's existence, this is one of the three worst projects that I've seen in terms of environmental devastation," Peter Douglas, the agency's executive director, said in an interview after the vote. "It's a contradiction in terms — you can't be serious about being an environmentalist and pick this location" given the effects on habitat, land formation, scenic views and water quality.

Douglas said he expected the matter to end up in court.

More at that link above.

And from Steve Lopez, "The Edge is a bully, not an environmentalist."

McCourts Reach Settlement in Divorce Case

At Los Angeles Times, "Frank and Jamie McCourt announce settlement in Dodgers divorce case."

Attendance has dropped dramatically at Dodger Stadium. Hopefully things start working out and the community can once again rally around a world class organization.

50 Best L.A. Bands

Following-up on my reports on Skylar Grey and Dave Alvin, the Los Angeles Times Magazine also featured the 50 best band out of Los Angeles. They're listed in no particular order, so folks can quibble with the organization at the link.

I'll post more songs later, but been diggin' some Crosby, Stills and Nash of late, so here you go, a classic:

'State of Emergency' Rally, Los Angeles, May 13, 2011

I couldn't make it. I covered Noam Chomsky the weekend before, and then David Horowitz a couple of days after --- and we were at finals week, and I was finishing up all of my grading. But I would have loved to have made it. The place was swarming with communists. For weeks before my union leadership was flooding the campus e-mail system with announcements on bus transportation to Pershing Square. State administrative regulations were violated in this, but no one on my campus seems to care, as long as it's far left-wing agitation that's being promoted.

Anyway, Ringo was there, with an awesome photo-essay: "L.A. Teachers Unions "State of Emergency" Rally - Los Angeles, CA 5/13/2011."

And Reason.tv always features killer reports:

Malibu Organizes Shore Leave for Crew Members of USS John Paul Jones

I've mentioned numerous times my visit to the USS Abraham Lincoln in 1999. The aircraft carrier parked about a mile offshore from Santa Barbara harbor. It was anchored for four days. I saw a lot of guys dressed in their white uniforms cruising up and down State Street downtown. Local charter operators were hired to ferry tourists out to the ship. There were some sailors showing visitors around the lower deck, where aircraft are housed and maintained when not in use. But after that, I was allowed to cruise around on the flight deck. The carrier was facing west, into the sunset and I sat out on the edge of ship, just a few feet from the safety nets. It was a trip. A whole world unto itself, it seemed. And as I've noted, this was at the end of the 1990s, shortly after the U.S. airwar over Kosovo. American power was at a pinnacle and no one was talking about American decline.

Anyway, I'm reminded of that with this story at Los Angeles Times. The USS John Paul Jones is in Malibu and the organizers put together a "Navy Days" festival for sailors to spend time ashore. See, "Navy crew welcomed to Malibu for shore leave":

Surfers in Malibu are used to sharing the waves with paddleboards, sailboats and the occasional Russian billionaire's 390-foot yacht. On Friday they were startled to see a 505-foot Navy destroyer anchored off Surfrider Beach near the Malibu Pier.

The destroyer John Paul Jones was making the Navy's first-ever port call in Malibu and giving its 270-member crew shore leave there for the weekend.

The community-organized Navy Days is offering sailors free shuttle rides up and down the 26-mile-long city, beach volleyball and kayak excursions, and discounts at shops and restaurants Saturday and Sunday.

The crew and their families have been invited to a barbecue at Sharon Gee's family-owned Malibu ranch. Athletic facilities and an art museum at Pepperdine University will be open to crewmembers, and 10 university shuttle vans will offer sailors transportation to Sunday morning church services.

"Some crewmembers have signed up for museum tours at the Getty Villa," said City Councilman Jefferson "Zuma Jay" Wagner, who operates a Malibu surf shop. "This is not your same old Navy."

Locals planned the event for a year, and some said they don't expect another opportunity like this in their lifetimes. RTWT at the link.

Also, check this page for information on the USS John Paul Jones.

Dave Alvin at L.A. Times Magazine

See "Troubadour of Troubled Times":

Over the course of roughly three decades, Alvin has compiled one of the great, if underappreciated, California songbooks, cataloging the people and places most overlook or choose to ignore.

His is not the confectionary California of endless summers and Hollywood glitter or the kooky capital of New Age seekers and sunbaked hedonists. Alvin sings of life on the margins and between the cracks, of farm workers and illegal immigrants, of meth heads and lost souls and places like Bellflower, Fontana, the High Sierra and the 605 Freeway.

He sings in a throaty rumble of love and loss and ghosts of things past. California natives, Alvin believes, suffer an odd kind of nostalgia that comes when talk of old times refers not to generations ago but a period only a few years back. “By the time you’re 20, you’re 40 in the sense of waking up in the morning and thinking, Let’s go see the orange groves. But they’re not there anymore,” he says. “They’re just gone.”

lvin, a fourth-generation Californian, born and raised in Downey, wrote one of his best songs, “Dry River,” about the cement channel running through his hometown. He recalls the time he bicycled to an orange grove near his home, only to find a field of stumps. The trees had been chopped down overnight to make way for apartments and commercial development.

Alvin, 55, has never been an overtly political singer, in the sense of writing protest songs or lending his name to a cause. But he is an acute observer of politics—especially California politics—and with the Golden State in seemingly perpetual crisis, with high unemployment, meat-cleaver budget cuts and a government paralyzed by partisanship, he suggests the state, as we know it, may be headed the way of those orange groves. Listen closely, and you might hear it in a song.

RTWT.

I grew up in the City of Orange, and walked to school through orange groves. You miss them when they're gone. There's still a few left, actually, but few and far between. This is Orange County, for crying out loud.

BONUS: Check Dave Alvin's website.

Skylar Grey at L.A. Times Magazine

"Hooked":

Her name doesn’t ring a bell when mentioned, though you certainly know the voice. There was Skylar Grey, front and center amid the smoke and shadows at February’s 53rd annual Grammy Awards, singing the hooks she wrote for Eminem, Dr. Dre and Rihanna during a haunting performance of “Love the Way You Lie” and “I Need a Doctor.”

Now the 25-year-old is making her move on the spotlight. Previously known as the girl who pens the lyrics or adds the inimitable vocal track (think Diddy-Dirty Money’s “Coming Home,” Lupe Fiasco’s “Words I Never Said” and T.I.’s “Castle Walls” featuring Christina Aguilera), she wants to be more than hip-hop’s go-to girl.

RTWT.

And check the photos at the Skylar Grey News fansite.

Los Angeles 'Gold Card Desk'

Old media's dying, but some venerable old media institutions are still doing excellent journalism, so CWCD. The Los Angeles Times had the story the other day on the L.A. city government's "Gold Card Desk," where local officials got expedited treatment to make parking violations go away: "'Gold Card Desk' dismissed some L.A. parking tickets without justification, audit finds." And here comes the story on the front-page of this morning's paper: "L.A. Drops its Parking Gold Cards."

A plastic parking bureau Gold Card was apparently distributed to city offices and included a special phone number for a holder who had an "urgent need to resolve any parking citation matter which requires special attention." The card promised that "you will be immediately connected to our Gold Card Specialist."

Tense Atmosphere at David Horowitz Lecture at UCLA

There were rumors that communists and Muslims were planning protests against David Howoritz's talk at UCLA on Wednesday night. The disruptions never materialized, but one couldn't miss how much security David Horowitz requires. He had his personal security guards, of course, and then UCLA police were on hand as well. There were a couple of tense moments when I saw what looked like some leftist students moving quickly up and down the aisles in the lecture hall, but nothing happened. I keep looking over at the event organizers, the Bruin Republicans, as well. They looked apprehensive.

In any case, David Swindle has a report on this, "At UCLA the Campus Left and MSA Skip David Horowitz’s Speech."

Southern California Home Sales Down 9.2 Percent in April

I might have to update my "Atlas is Shrugging" post from last month.

See Los Angeles Times, "April home sales in Southern California hit three-year low for the month":

It is shaping up to be a silent spring for the housing industry.

Warmer days and the need for many families to make a move during the summer school recess have long made spring the peak season for buying homes. But lingering economic uncertainties and the expiration of federal tax incentives — which juiced up sales last year — have turned the market soft.

April home sales in Southern California were down 9.2% from a year earlier. The figure, the lowest for April in three years, was 25.4% below the month's average since record-keeping began in 1988, DataQuick of San Diego reported Thursday.

The median price paid for a home in the region fell 1.8% from a year earlier to $280,000.

"The market is just kind of putzing along," said David Emerson, a Lakewood agent with Prudential California Realty. "This should be the hottest time of the year in terms of deals going into escrow, but — especially once you consider where interest rates are — it is still a struggling market."

More at that link above, and some graphics at "Housing Chill."

Elizabeth Hurley

The English Actress Elizabeth Hurley

Full name: Elizabeth Jane Hurley

Born: 10 June 1965 (Present age 45)

Place: Basingstoke, Hampshire, England

Professions: Actress/Model

Years of active: 1987 present (Actress)

Spouse: Arun Nayar (2007–2010) Separated

Website: http://www.elizabethhurley.com/

Biography

The one of the famous celebrities Elizabeth Jane Hurley is an English model and film actress who became branded as a girlfriend of Hugh Grant in the 1990s. During 1994, as Grant became the focus of worldwide media concentration owing to the global box office achievement of his film Four Weddings and a Funeral, Hurley accompanied him to the film's Los Angeles premiere in a plummeting black Versace dress held commonly with gold safety pins, which gained her immediate media awareness.

Award and Nominations

Blockbuster Entertainment Awards (won: 0, Year: - & Nominations: 1, Year: 1998 )
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
1998	Nominated	Blockbuster	Entertainment Award Favorite Actress - Comedy Award For Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997).
MTV Movie Awards (won: 0, Year: - & Nominations: 1, Year: 2001 )
2001	Nominated	MTV Movie Award	Best Dressed Award For Bedazzled (2000).
Teen Choice Awards (won: 0, Year: - & Nominations: 1, Year: 1999 )
1999	Nominated	Teen Choice Award	Film - Sexiest Love Scene Award For Edtv (1999). Shared with: Matthew McConaughey

For More Awards


For More News About: Elizabeth Hurley

Elizabeth Hurley

The English Actress Elizabeth Hurley

Full name: Elizabeth Jane Hurley

Born: 10 June 1965 (Present age 45)

Place: Basingstoke, Hampshire, England

Professions: Actress/Model

Years of active: 1987 present (Actress)

Spouse: Arun Nayar (2007–2010) Separated

Website: http://www.elizabethhurley.com/

Biography

The one of the famous celebrities Elizabeth Jane Hurley is an English model and film actress who became branded as a girlfriend of Hugh Grant in the 1990s. During 1994, as Grant became the focus of worldwide media concentration owing to the global box office achievement of his film Four Weddings and a Funeral, Hurley accompanied him to the film's Los Angeles premiere in a plummeting black Versace dress held commonly with gold safety pins, which gained her immediate media awareness.

Award and Nominations

Blockbuster Entertainment Awards (won: 0, Year: - & Nominations: 1, Year: 1998 )
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
1998	Nominated	Blockbuster	Entertainment Award Favorite Actress - Comedy Award For Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997).
MTV Movie Awards (won: 0, Year: - & Nominations: 1, Year: 2001 )
2001	Nominated	MTV Movie Award	Best Dressed Award For Bedazzled (2000).
Teen Choice Awards (won: 0, Year: - & Nominations: 1, Year: 1999 )
1999	Nominated	Teen Choice Award	Film - Sexiest Love Scene Award For Edtv (1999). Shared with: Matthew McConaughey

For More Awards


For More News About: Elizabeth Hurley