Morning Buzz

Morning Buzz: Wednesday 10.11.06

Two more superintendent finalists named
The Times adds ex-LAUSD official Maria Ott and retired Navy admiral David L. Brewer III to the list of known candidates to replace Roy Romer.
Renovation at LAX
Freshening up and expansion of the Bradley International Terminal was authorized to the tune of $576 million. Daily News
AFTER THE JUMP: Hunting for neighborhood councils, Allan Mayer's new deal, Ann Powers on Tower Records and much more.
Politics
Hunting for his neighborhood council
Daily News copy editor Steven Rosenberg has been blogging at Come On, Feel the Nuys about his quest to get information about tonight's meeting of the Van Nuys Neighborhood Council. He's going, but It hasn't been easy. He even broadened his search, but to no avail:
It's been 20 days since I signed up with the city's Early Notification System for neighborhood council agendas, and so far, the total number I've received is zero. I signed up for every Valley neighborhood council -- about 20 -- and nothing has come over. Initially, I worried that my e-mail would be inundated with detailed agendas of committee meetings and the like. I hadn't anticipated receiving absolutely nothing.
Calling from China
Times reporter and Asia trip blogger Duke Helfand is scheduled to call in to "Larry Mantle's Airtalk" on KPCC about 10:20 this morning.
They're back
The revived Southern California Regional Airport Authority will convene for the first time on Thursday afternoon at the MTA.
He's for habeas corpus
Daily News television blogger David Kronke disguises a blast at the Military Commissions Act as a item about TV shows.
League of Women Advocates
The Daily News looks at the League of Women Voters' political activities in the wake of the group joining the lawsuit over AB 1381.
Media
Allan Mayer's deal
Variety reports that Mayer, managing director of Sitrick and Company, will join Leslee Dart as a partner in the newly renamed 42 West, formerly the Dart Group. Mayer will run the Los Angeles office. As was reported earlier, Kelly Mullens will depart Sitrick with him. Dart worked for Hollywood PR powerhouse Pat Kingsley until a less-than-amicable 2004 split. She opened the Dart Group a month later.
New LA news website
BrooWaha calls itself a collaborative newspaper that "gives ordinary readers a chance to participate and share their knowledge" by letting anyone post news. Stories rated popular by readers get the most prominent display. Ariel Vardi is the founder.
Edward Headington helps out the Press Club
The head of the Burbank-based Headington Media Group will become the club's publicist. He also works with Coro Southern California's Health Leadership Program.
Crossover effect
In this week's column about Tom Lasorda's commercials for postseason baseball Fox, Times sports columnist Bill Dwyre alludes to the rancor between his paper and the Tribune Company, which owns the LAT and the Chicago Cubs.
The third, a personal favorite, has Lasorda trying to coax a Chicago Cubs fan out of a tree. The man's face seems to reflect inordinate pain and frustration, almost as if he wants the owners to sell and set him free. (Maybe we are internalizing too much here.)
Personal takes
Ann Powers on Tower Records
The Times' music critic, a former Tower clerk, offers an appreciation:
Tower Records was different. It was a chain, yes, its vaguely Stalinist red-and-yellow signage instantly identifiable, its blockbuster hits stacked high on the end racks; but something made it a shelter for would-be individualists wandering the malls of America, for whom pop music was not just a diversion but the key to fulfillment.

The something was "deep catalog," an extremely broad selection of product that attracted musical obsessives and helped novices evolve from casual fans to connoisseurs. Deep catalog was the commitment Tower made to the regular shopper: the jazzbo looking for that weird fusion project on the American Clavé label, the dreadlocked hippie browsing the Jamaican imports, the hard-core punk looking for anything with speedy guitars and a shouted chorus. By allowing its product buyers — a motley crew of aspiring musicians, bohemian lifers and undergrads willing to accept retail wages just to be near all that music — to stock the shelves with virtually every pop derivative imaginable, Tower created a physical space where the music's variety came alive, where the snobbish geek and the casual listener were equally served.

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Our contributors
Mark Lacter of LA Biz Observed will participate in a panel on business reporting for the Society of Professional Journalists on Oct. 24 in Van Nuys. Frank Mottek of KNX 1070 will also be on the panel. Info.

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Morning Buzz: Wednesday 4.16.14


 

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