Weekend reads

"The sudden appearance of these designs, even in provisional form, in the middle of a deep recession prompts a couple of questions. Why now? And why -- when the last thing downtown needs, from an urban-planning point of view, is another stand-alone super-block high-rise, standing aloof from the street and its neighbors -- might we be getting two more?" Architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne, in the L.A. Times

"Cohen's Friday night appearance at L.A.'s Nokia Theater was a riveting three-hour music marathon, complete with wit, charm, and snippets of poetry that mesmerized the crowd...The aging roué, dapper and occasionally almost frail in his gray suit and hat, is growing into his years like a character from a silent movie. At times he was almost Chaplinesque, at others like a refugee from a John Le Carré novel or a fifties-era Organization Man taking the commuter train from Greenwich. And sometimes the elegant Mr. Cohen looked like the CEO he is, the graying but increasingly-powerful head of an international music combine." RJ Eskow, Huffington Post

"Thursday was one of the hardest days of my life. Awakening early after a night game is never easy, but when the phone starts ringing at that time of the morning, it is rarely good news....Nick was in my row, and his locker is my responsibility. It will remain that way for the rest of the season....I gathered my pile for row three, as usual, and began subdividing it into individual piles for each player. I saved my #34 pile for last." Shane Demmitt, Angels clubhouse attendant from Nick Adenhart's hometown, at Baseball Prospectus.

Also:

Former Angels Troy Glaus and Scott Schoeneweis and ex-Dodger Ismael Valdez are at the center of a front-page New York Times investigation into steroid allegations against Orange County doctor Ramon Scruggs.

L.A. Times reporter Alan Zarembo finds that he didn't really know the assistant he employed in his Mexico City home, or his friend the photojournalist who is accused of murdering her.

Caltech geophysicist Susan Hough reminds that, despite a scientist's supposed prediction of the Italy earthquake, "we can’t do that. We might never be able to do that. What people and government can do is work to make sure our houses, schools and hospitals don’t fall down when the next big one strikes, and that we’re all prepared for the difficult aftermaths." NYT Op-Ed