Black is back

"Daily Show" rantist Lewis Black does his angry thing at the Wiltern Theatre this Friday night. He sold out in Irvine last year, so to prepare for his arrival Jewish Journal senior writer Marc Ballon Q-and-A's him:

JJ: You’re coming to L.A. Are you excited about that?

Black: No, I’m never excited about coming to L.A. I like L.A., but I don’t know how you people can live there. Mudslides all the time. Houses on stilts. You live on a fault line. Good move. What I really like is when I come in and they say that we’re going to go down to Irvine. ’Cuz, you know, when you’re going to travel two and a half hours to get there — five hours round-trip from L.A. — you should be somewhere else. Maybe in a different state. To sit in that traffic, you’ve got to wonder what people are thinking. What, do they like the illusion of walking? That’s what I like to do, sit in my car and feel like I’m walking. On the other hand, maybe they can listen to tapes and learn five, six or 10 foreign languages a year.

JJ: What in your opinion of Gov. Schwarzenegger?

LB: You’ve elected a guy who shouldn’t have been elected anything by any standard at any time in the history of the country. And he’s your governor. What’s his qualification for leadership other than “Terminator 3?” What? When he was elected, that’s when I decided democracy doesn’t work.

Also in the email queue:

Sports journalism: The L.A. Press Club is hosting a panel discussion about covering sports on Wednesday, Feb. 2 (details). Panelists will be J.A. Adande of the Times, Alan Massengale of KCAL-9, Steve Mason of ESPN, Jon Weisman of Dodger Thoughts, John Olguin of the Dodgers PR staff and Matt Welch of Reason magazine.

Buy the chief a drink: LAPD Chief William Bratton will schmooze with the scribes at the next Society of Professional Journalists mixer. It's Feb. 8 at the Figueroa Hotel (details [link fixed] ).

Andrés Martinez: The editor of the LAT editorial page (pictured) is the next guest in the Zócalo lecture series. He will be interviewed by city councilman Eric Garcetti on Feb. 15 at the Central Library. (details).