Wednesday Buzz, 7.5.06

“This case, which has sparked tremendous controversy in statewide historic preservation organizations, appears to have been unusually handled by the [planning] department in a way that requires investigation and policy oversight by the mayor and the council,” attorney Daniel Wright, president of the Mount Washington Homeowners Alliance and a drafter of the planning provisions of the city charter, wrote the mayor and City Council last month.

from downtown's Little Tokyo, home to many izakaya hole-in-the-walls, to West Los Angeles, where a new-wave izakaya serves duck breast marinated in sake along with Basque sheep's milk cheese, Los Angeles may have the most inventive permutations of izakaya-style restaurants in the United States. The city's large Japanese population — more than 40,000 people — its proclivity for light eating and the cultural currency that Japanese food knowledge gives to people who make their livings impressing others, have combined to make it so.

"When you go into an izakaya here, you are looking for a predominantly Japanese crowd, and at least one big, hairy music industry type," said Jonathan Gold, the restaurant critic for LA Weekly. "It is the perfect kind of food for people with short attention spans."

We are becoming a lot more like a traditional media company. You launch a site, you have great hopes for it and it does not grow as much as you wanted. You have to have the discipline to recognize what isn't working and put your money and efforts into those sites that are.

Why?

First, advertising is a fickle thing. Particularly the entertainment advertising upon which so many websites depend. A change in the advertising industry's conventional wisdom, cutbacks by the studios: it wouldn't take much to prick the current exuberance. Better to sober up now, before the end of the party.

Second, operational costs are increasing. For editorial talent, we now pay within the range of mainstream media. Technology expenses are growing even faster. The open-source publishing systems, upon which most weblogs depend, cannot handle larger and more sophisticated sites...Finally, even successful sites such as Gawker and Gizmodo can settle into comfortable habits. Over time, on the same beat, all journalists get into a routine, or too close to sources, or go native.

The material has included a report that the Russians removed Saddam's WMDs before the U.S. could locate them, a photo caption suggesting that Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa attended a "Marxist" law college, and my personal favorite — a story reporting that there's mathematical proof of God's existence.

Columnist Ann Coulter pops up regularly in the mailings, as do inspirational stories of spiritual healing.

Some men show up these days without ties or wearing soft-soled shoes. One time I interviewed a guy who showed up in a T-shirt. It was a short interview. Occasionally a woman will wear a cocktail dress or will desperately need to, ahem, button up. The inappropriately dressed tend to be ones who swear the most, it seems to me. And remember, we’re talking about job interviews here – the moment when people are supposed to strive to make their best impression.

The first thing one job seeker asked was where he could throw away his gum. I’m grateful he had the decency not to smack his way through the interview.

In my business, one’s past articles are of paramount importance. We call them “clips,” and reporters used to meticulously display them on heavy paper and artfully arrange them to show depth of reporting, clarity of writing and progression of coverage. Nowadays, I’m lucky to see wrinkled photocopies, even if there’s no real thought to how they’re arranged or presented. Sometimes they’re pulled out of pockets or purses.

Increasingly lately, when I ask for clips, reporter candidates often look at me as if I’m some neo-Luddite and say, “You know, you could just Google my name.” Well, sure dude, I could.