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A sign of the new Grand Central Market downtown. LA Observed photo.
Our occasional roundup on media, politics and place from various sources and the LA Observed in-box. Previous notes.
At the top
Clinton cancels today's California trip: Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton abruptly dropped a fundraising trip to California that was due to start Monday in San Francisco, after her campaign announced that she was being treated for pneumonia. Her Monday event was to be a concert fundraiser with k.d. lang, followed by two fund-raising events in Los Angeles on Tuesday: lunch with singer Lionel Richie at the home of Seth McFarlane, and a dinner at the Beverly Hills home of Diane von Furstenberg and Barry Diller. Still unclear is whether Clinton will make a scheduled Wednesday TV date with Ellen DeGeneres. Politico, LA Times
Inside the new Grand Central Market: For a fresh vantage point to examine and write about the ongoing gentrification of Grand Central Market, Jesse Katz signed on to work a week at the Wexler's deli stand. It's the deepest look yet at the changes roiling the market, in the current Los Angeles Magazine. While the upscaling market is busier now than it has been in awhile, it's safe to say most Angelenos have never partaken, and even many downtown residents don't frequent the space. But the market has a long, colorful history, and what's happening there is a tale of our times.
The market is not a sterile facsimile; it has not been airbrushed like San Francisco’s Ferry Building or mallified like Boston’s Faneuil Hall. But its rediscovery speaks to the collision of commerce and community throughout central L.A.—cultural tug-of-wars that have jostled neighborhoods from Silver Lake to Highland Park to Boyle Heights—which is why Grand Central’s transformation continues to be both cheered and scrutinized, mimicked and lamented, and in a courthouse just blocks away, litigated.
“Los Angeles is very much experiencing a moment right now of OK, what’s the city that we really want to be?” says my boss for a week, Micah Wexler, the deli’s cofounder and namesake. “Like, what are our public spaces, our gatherings and our events, our arts and culture, our restaurants and our food—what do we want that all to be? Right? Who do we want to be collectively?”
Facebook removes Nick Ut's most famous photo: Out of nowhere, Facebook suddenly started to censor postings of Nick Ut's Pulitzer Prize-winning Vietnam Wat photograph of a naked child running from a napalm attack — including on Ut's personal page, where it has been displayed for years. The world, of course, knows that child as grown-up Kim Phuc, and she and Ut have been honored pretty much everywhere from the LA Press Club this year to Vietnam itself. "While we recognize that this photo is iconic, it’s difficult to create a distinction between allowing a photograph of a nude child in one instance and not others,” Facebook said. The outcry involved Norway Prime Minister Erna Solberg and only needed hours of fury to force a surrender by Facebook. Time
“An image of a naked child would normally be presumed to violate our Community Standards, and in some countries might even qualify as child pornography. In this case, we recognize the history and global importance of this image in documenting a particular moment in time,” Facebook said in a statement provided to TIME. “Because of its status as an iconic image of historical importance, the value of permitting sharing outweighs the value of protecting the community by removal, so we have decided to reinstate the image on Facebook where we are aware it has been removed.”
Hacking OK Cupid: This weekend's Moth Radio Hour featured four Los Angeles stories, including the hilarious telling by former UCLA mathematician Chris McKinlay of the time he reverse-engineered the OK Cupid matching algorithm to go on dozens of first dates — and a few seconds. His story has been told before, but it's more fun in front of a live audience.
Speaking of dating...: Valley communications consultant Julie Buckner tells a good, cringe-worthy dating story in the LA Times' weekend first-person L.A. Affairs column. Excerpt: "I’d developed what I believed to be a highly discerning online dating strategy. I seldom swipe right and rarely match, but when I do I’m certain I’ve stung him." Now you know: Buckner has a yoga studio in the former Dutton's bookshop on Laurel Canyon.
Highest point in Los Angeles: Hey, how about that Gary Leonard photo from the top of the Wilshire Grand tower on the cover of the Downtown News?
On the calendar today: Robert Ballard, the oceanographer who discovered the Titanic, arrives at the Port of Los Angeles with his ship, the E/V Nautilus, which will make its winter home at AltaSea in San Pedro. The craft will be met by a parade of tall ships, the Port of LA’s fire boat and other local vessels. Media call is for 8 a.m... The Los Angeles Rams begin their first NFL season back in LA in a nationally televised game against the 49ers tonight in San Francisco.
Unrandom notes
Univision removed six posts from the former Gawker sites it now owns that are the subject of litigation against the company. Executive editor John Cook argued to keep the posts online... Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera apologized via Facebook post to Gretchen Carlson and Gabriel Sherman for his early support of Roger Ailes when allegations of sexual harassment surfaced... An arrest warrant has been issued in North Dakota for "Democracy Now!" host and executive producer Amy Goodman, who was charged with criminal trespassing, a misdemeanor, after covering last week's Native American-led protests against the Dakota Access pipeline... A conspiracy-free, facts-only guide to the health of Clinton and Trump from the science-health journalists at Stat.... KJLH 102.3 FM is dropping the daily broadcast of news and public affairs show "Front Page" after 27 years. Host Dominique DiPrima says the show will air Saturday mornings from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. and be online... NPR's All Things Considered featured sixteen-year-old Natalie Hampton, a Sherman Oaks 11th grader who created an app to help kids find someone to sit with in the school cafeteria.
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People are talking about...
The Curious Case of Susan Estrich, who has gone from feminist legal scholar, first female president of The Harvard Law Review and leader of the 1988 Michael Dukakis presidential campaign to "the chief defender of the former Fox News chairman Roger Ailes." By Alessandra Stanley in the New York Times... Anne Thompson interviews Oliver Stone about "Snowden" for Indiewire: "Stone will tell you: You can’t trust the United States government. You can’t trust the NSA, CIA, or FBI. You can’t trust the Hollywood studios, because those are corporations run by lawyers. And you certainly can’t trust the media"... That New York Times Magazine feature of Santa Monica High School photos was actually the cover story of the Sunday magazine, which had an education theme... Sign of the times? The American Society of News Editors has abandoned its ongoing effort to count job losses in American newsrooms... "Sully" led the weekend movie debuts, and it wasn't close... The print headline on an LA Times op-ed about the growing centrism of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals used a weird comparison: that making liberal rulings is similar to being a "flower child." The writer uses the lame phrase, but the dumb hed did not survive on the online version.
Obituary: Alexis Arquette, 47, the transgender activist and actress and sibling of actors Patricia, Rosanna, Richmond and David Arquette.
Media people doing stuff
The Dodgers are publishing a 96-page Vin Scully Special Commemorative Edition magazine on September 25. "It won’t surprise you to learn that for everyone here, putting this issue together was a personal labor of love," editor Jon Weisman writes... Noted: Dick Enberg is retiring too... Joshua Baldwin travels to Las Vegas for The Second and Final Implosion of the Riviera Hotel and Casino, in the LA Review of Books... Former LA Times Washington reporter Alan Miller's News Literacy Project gets some love from Margaret Sullivan in the Washington Post... Science writer Daniel Engber on why people drink so much tomato juice on airplanes.
In the Troncosphere
Tronc is "in active discussions over Gannett Inc.’s takeover bid of about $673 million," Bloomberg reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. Tronc "may be willing to drop its fierce resistance to a merger of the two newspaper publishers."... Tronc dropped its licensing arrangement with Chicago-based media writer Robert Feder. "I’ve been troncked," he reported last week....From an ex-editor and closer observer than I of the LA Times print edition: "Unless I'm mistaken, both the Krekorian and Arclight theater chains have pulled their regular theater listings from the LAT's Calendar section. If the trend continues to spread, it's a genuinely existential threat to what little remains of the paper's display advertising base."... Former LA Times editor in chief Michael Parks and the unraveling of apartheid, by his longtime colleague Scott Kraft.
Politics and place
Councilman Felipe Fuentes called in sick and missed the tribute for him on his last day before resigning from public office... Politico hung out with the Trumpettes of Bel-Air, who don't see the candidate as appealing to racist impulses and some of whom think Obama is a Muslim... It’s Millionaire Versus Billionaire in Beverly Hills Tower Spat, reports James Nash of Bloomberg... Mini-profiles of Bill Carrick and Sean Clegg, two behind-the-scenes players of LA political campaigns, on opposite sides of the U.S. Senate race (Loretta Sanchez and Kamala Harris, respectively)... How the size of the typical LA home has grown over the years, but not as much as in other places... The Satanic Temple of Los Angeles doesn't worship Satan but does fight for the First Amendment in Lancaster... The City Council named Meg Barclay as the city’s homelessness coordinator... One of the idled Angels Flight cars was tagged with graffiti... The cheesy tourist entertainers on Hollywood Boulevard are scuffling again — this time Spiderman and Deadpool... 7 Ideas for Boosting L.A.’s Sagging Bus Ridership from Los Angeles Magazine.
Planning ahead: The Grammy Museum downtown is having Paul Simon in for a conversation on Sept. 30. Tix are $100 to benefit the museum... Also on Sept. 30, the Gamble House in Pasadena celebrates 50 years as a museum with $1 tours... The Third Biennial Sculpture in the Garden continues until Oct. 29 at the Sam and Alfreda Maloof Foundation for Arts and Crafts in Alta Loma.
Selected tweets
I do enjoy the old male journalists who look like they subsist on mayonnaise and gelatin diagnosing Clinton with illnesses.
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) September 11, 2016
I plan to keep running a Gizmodo that calls BS, and sometimes pisses people off. I truly hope Univision does too. https://t.co/QpnfwU3Meg
— Katie Drummond (@katiedrumm) September 10, 2016
There are very few movies that wouldn't be improved by setting their finales at climatic NTSB hearings.
— Richard Rushfield (@richardrushfield) September 12, 2016
A new generation discovers the wonder of playing 45 RPM singles at the 33 1⁄3 RPM album speed https://t.co/hr1Qz2WNiQ
— Boing Boing (@BoingBoing) September 12, 2016
Sorry Slate I won't click on the story about millennial whoops no matter how many times you re-circulate it.
— Carolina A. Miranda (@cmonstah) September 12, 2016
Padaung Long Necked Ladies Visit London. 1935 https://t.co/JLERIgotpv pic.twitter.com/ta9aNjR3DF
— Old Pics Archive (@oldpicsarchive) September 9, 2016
