Here yesterday, gone yesterday

These folks spent their Sunday afternoon working on this (northeast corner of 3rd & Main) only to have it painted over. I wanted to tell them that history wasn't on their side, but they seemed to be having so much fun.

Flatiron Los Angeles

Sure, Manhattan has the Flatiron Building everyone's familiar with, and other cities claim their own flatiron-shaped buildings, like the one built in 1897 in Atlanta and Columbus Tower in San Francisco.

Keeping a lower profile are a couple flatiron buildings in Los Angeles...

This one is the Raphael Junction Block Building on Spring Street in Chinatown..

And here's a flatty on the corner of Main and 3rd...

More Ethos

Ethos

Claudio Ethos from Brazil working on something big on Main Street in Downtown Los Angeles. Joe's Parking finally let him use the lot so he wouldn't have to streeeeetch from the street. From what I hear, it's a gift to Tom Gilmore, who owns the parking garage getting the treatment...

Riot suppression

Governor Jerry Brown still can't strike a budget deal with the Republicans in the state legislature. That's California politics for you.

Without the tide turning against the public sector unions in the middle of the budget negotiations, there's a huge pro-union march and rally happening in Downtown Los Angeles today...Ozomatli is going to play a set at Pershing Square.

Looks like the city's gearing up for a showdown in the streets...they're sending in the elite Burger Brigade...

Represented by the lights

There's a new window display at the Bert Green gallery. Not sure who the artist is, but the art has my eyeballs.

I know he had his reasons for going from a stroll-in-when-you-like storefront to an appointment-only business, but to me it feels like the neighborhood's lost something.

Hey, try to get your hands on the California Gold episode from several years back when Huell Howser paid Bert Green a visit. The fans hanging around the sidewalk and sharing stories were hella funny!

Clean slate

Atlas, the prolific "Kitty Cat Tagger," was sentenced Wednesday to 90 days in County, fined $8,675.38, and ordered to put in 300 hours painting over graffiti around town.

Here's some of his stuff...

This one's from last December...

And it was just recently painted over...by Atlas himself???

This is a test

I'm old enough to remember the Cold War. Although I'm too young to have lived through drop-and-cover nuclear attack drills at school...we only practiced for earthquakes...I do remember the occasional test blare of civil defense sirens.

Those things could wail. If anyone reading this is familiar with San Jose, I went to Sylvandale Jr. High, and the nearest siren tower was near the corner of Capitol and Senter...about a half-mile away. No ducking or covering followed...only teachers pointing out the obvious. "There they go again!"

I'm certain most cities have yanked out their sirens, but they're still hanging on in Los Angeles. In fact, one still lingers in front of City Hall. Why haven't they been removed? Indifference? Cheaper to just keep them rusting? Saving them for the next menace?

Walliver's Army

New year, new graffiti on the oddly shaped building at 3rd and Main in Downtown LA. This replaces the expressive bubbleheads by Midzt that had been up since 2006. I'm the guy who calls the graffiti removal squads when tagging pops up...but I definitely have a soft spot for more creative street art.

Here's a photo from April 2006...

Seasick sea serpent

How common is it for a student to skip a grade? Does every school have a skipper, or are they extraordinary kids of legend? They're certainly less common than students who have to repeat a grade...I actually know someone who flunked kindergarten.

I remember this girl...Cecil was her name, pronounced like Sa-seal, not See-sal. She was with the same batch of school kids that came up with me at Hellyer Elementary in San Jose, but come 7th grade at Sylvandale Junior High, she leapfrogged into 8th grade. And that was that...8th graders universally don't hang out with 7th graders.

So Cecil pops in my head when I see the Hotel Cecil on Main Street in Downtown Los Angeles. Normally. But now the blade sign is stuck as "Ho Cecil," and Sylvandale Cecil was the last girl you would associate with "ho."

Hehehe...even funnier considering that last week the sign was illuminated as "Ho Cec." In other words, the property management took care of the burned out "il," but thought "Ho Cecil" was worth keeping.