Al Gore's Inconvenient Conversation

A new blog post in the Native Intelligence section of LA Observed:

It was cute, at first, when the hostess introduced him as "Harry Gore."

It was Tuesday evening, May 22, and Al Gore was in Beverly Hills at an event described by its host organization, Writers Bloc, as "Al Gore in conversation with Harry Shearer." However, as I soon discovered, this was actually the first stop on a tour to promote Gore's new book, "The Assault on Reason," which was released Tuesday, May 22 (as of Thursday the hardcover was priced at $15.57 on Amazon.com) ... [MORE]

Read the rest at Native Intelligence.

— TJ Sullivan in LA

Indy Pub Book Awards Announced

The 2007 Independent Publisher Book Awards have been announced, and my friend Sal Glynn is among them with a Gold award for his book "The Dog Walked Down the Street: An Outspoken Guide for Writers Who Want to Publish." Glynn topped the Writing/Publishing category.

Also on the list of Gold winners was Dave Eggers, of San Francisco, who topped the General Fiction category with his book What Is the What, a fictionalized memoir. Eggers' first book was "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius." He is also the founder of McSweeney's, a publishing house that publishes everything from debut fiction (yes, they're seeking submissions) to the work of established authors, including Michael Chabon, Stephen King, and Joyce Carol Oates.


— TJ Sullivan in LA

'Gimme my food or I'm gonna ...'

A new blog post at Native Intelligence:

It's entirely possible he wanted the $5 and was foolish enough to think that this complicated scheme was the only way to get it. But I decided it wasn't about money, or food... [MORE].

— TJ Sullivan in LA

Some Things Never Change

© UC Regents, UCLA Library.

The photo at right is from the UCLA Department of Special Collections new Web site, which Kevin Roderick at LA Observed says has "about three million news photos from the original Los Angeles Daily News and the L.A. Times, covering more than seventy years."

The photo at right appeared in the Los Angeles Times on May 21, 1945.

The cutline:

DETERMINEDLY WAIT -- Line of applicants for F.H.A. permits to build houses extends around corner of Main and Ninth Sts up to door of agency, 112th W. Ninth, in long vigil due to end today.

— TJ Sullivan in LA

Shaking a Stick at LA's Housing Crisis

From today's Los Angeles Times:

The Los Angeles Housing Department has paid thousands of dollars to a Zen Buddhist priest from Hawaii for management training that includes teaching breathing with sphincter control, learning "how to stand" and playing with wooden sticks.

Norma Wong, a former Hawaii state legislator and leadership consultant, has been paid $18,819 since 2005 to conduct at least four training sessions for executives and other staff. The most recent one was last week.

Mercedes Marquez, the general manager of the department, said the training was designed to help "center" Housing Department managers and teach them to react nimbly to problems such as the city's housing shortage. Up to 30 people attended each session.

"She asks when you center yourself to hold yourself in," Marquez said of the instructor.

The breathing exercises and stick play, she said, were a small part of two-day sessions, which also included discussions of team building and improving department procedures.

— TJ Sullivan in LA

Not Dead Yet

Cancel one "wrecking ball." Looks like Westwood isn't going to lose one of its big-screen theaters after all.

Read the new post in the Native Intelligence section of LA Observed.

— TJ Sullivan in LA

What? No Julep Cup?

CLICK TO VIEW LARGER IMAGE

A new post in the Native Intelligence section of LA Observed:

Many gems have already come out this afternoon about the Paris Hilton sentencing, but my personal favorite was an extremely descriptive paragraph buried deep in the LATimes.com story, which said...

Read the new post at LA Observed.


— TJ Sullivan in LA