On a recent morning in a bright, pristine studio near Downtown, dancers with the City Ballet of Los Angeles rehearse an upcoming piece. Their studio is in a Salvation Army community center in the Pico-Union district, not far from Staples Center and L.A. Live. Company founder and artistic director Robyn Gardenhire, 45, is a picture of urban chic in jeans and motorcycle boots as she presides. She is rigorous with her dancers, but the mood is friendly and collaborative.

Gardenhire grew up in the Lynwood area and began dancing when she was four years old. At 15 she moved to New York to audition and got into the Joffrey Ballet's second company, then moved to the Cleveland Ballet. After touring with Mikhail Baryshnikov's White Oak Dance Project, she came home and started the City Ballet of Los Angeles. The non-profit's school provides children in Pico-Union with a low-cost place to learn ballet. In 2003 she added a company of professional dancers that has performed at the Ford Amphitheatre and in the Orpheum Theatre on Broadway.

Upcoming is the "Concerto Project," named in honor of CBLA board member and architect Doug Hanson's new residential building at 9th and Figueroa. Gardenhire calls the program a chance for CBLA's dancers and choreographers to "step outside the box" of their usual repertoire. "Concerto Project came about last year and focuses on the architectural aspects of dance," says Gardenhire. "In working with these different dancers, they always have brilliant ideas and I just found that they also want to choreograph. I can't offer them the pay they deserve but I can give them a beautiful stage to create on."

The performances will fulfill Gardenhire's desire to "put dance in places people wouldn't normally experience it." After a workshop preview at CBLA's studios in the Salvation Army center on West 11th Street, the Concerto Project will move into a public space Downtown. Three performances will be staged in the lobby of the City National Plaza, just outside Chaya Downtown and Drago Centro. "We're joining forces with these two restaurants," Gardenhire said. "They'll be hosting a pre-cocktail hour and then a post-performance supper." A percentage of the proceeds will go to the CBLA School scholarship fund.

Diners will be able to see CBLA dancers perform a range of new works, including Gary Franco's tribute to Michael Jackson, Cindy Ricalde's interpretation of the famine in Ireland, and Gardenhire's modern take on "Giselle" called "Death and the Maiden."

"I want to build a company for this city," Gardenhire said. "Being Downtown, I think is just a stroke of luck. I always wanted the studio to be somewhere kids could walk to...When I started the company the re-vitalization of downtown was just happening. More people are living down here, there's life down here and I just want to be a part of it."

LA Observed video: Gardenhire working on "Death and the Maiden" with dancers Mary Tarpley, Raquel Cordova, Jessica Taylor, Perris McCracken, Susan Vishmid and Tein Tan.

Concerto Project: June 5 at the CBLA Studios; July 8, 15 and 22 at City National Plaza. Ticket information

Video and photos: Judy Graeme / LA Observed

I'm posting some excerpts of an interview I did with Dennis Hopper in 1989 because re-reading it today, on the occasion of his passing, I am still struck by the immediacy of his answers, his sense of humor, and his willingness to play along.

The man gave great interview . . . and much more.

RIP Dennis ...

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Hopper had just returned from directing Don Johnson and Virginia Madsen in "Hot Spot." He was separating his just-unpacked clothes into a plastic laundry basket. Later, he helped some workmen hang three new art pieces in his downstairs gallery/screening room. When we talked at his dining room table, Hopper spoke softly, evenly, often lapsing into a thoughtful whisper. When he laughed, the joke was never private, but shared. His pale blue eyes never blinked. He breathed normally.

RENSIN: Your character Frank Booth in "Blue Velvet": Would counseling have helped? If he'd been rehabilitated, what kind of straight job might he have held?
HOPPER: Counseling? Maybe summer camp as a kid! [smiles] I see Frank Booth very differently than other people. To me, "Blue Velvet" is a love story, and Frank will go to any lengths to keep his lady. That's all. Cuts off the old man's ear. Kidnaps the kid. Just a love story. Most people find that strange. But they didn't play Frank Booth. You gotta have Frank's point of view. [pauses] It's hard to figure what a straight Frank would have done. Probably run a clothing store. Sell leathers.

Q: Got any good advice for actors?
HOPPER: What you get on the screen is the only thing that's important. If you let other things get in the way of your work then you're not doing your work, and I don't care how good you are. (Many actors) carry a lot of baggage, because of their insecurities, that has nothing to do with the work. Some people (in the media) find this very interesting; see it as mystique. I find it distracting and you have to work through those things to get to the stuff on the screen. You've got to strip it away. I was never like that. I was only interested in the work, no matter how stoned or how drunk I was. The work was all that I was living for.

Q: You usually play someone close to the edge, characters whose problems are internal, not external. Would it be a challenge to portray a normal person?
HOPPER: I would love to play a "normal" person. But I'm just not offered those parts. I haven't played a normal person since Johnny in "Giant." I'd like to do a professional guy, a lawyer or an architect. But it seems like Newman, Redford -- there's a list of guys to go through before you get to me. On the other hand, you never see the big emotions from those guys. The Gary Cooper kind never went for that. The story carried him. Oddly enough, when Stanislavsky came to this country he shocked all the actors by saying that Gary Cooper was what he'd been trying to teach everybody in the Moscow Art Theater. And that he was doing simple reality and that was really what it was all about.

Q: What popular myth about actors would you like to correct?
HOPPER: If an actor is at all successful early on, then people expect them to always be financially well off. But job security is limited. It's such a fickle business. I don't know what the percentages are now, but when I was starting out, 98 percent of your stars became stars for three years and were dropped. Edmund Perdum, Tab Hunter, Richard Beymer -- the kid that starred in "West Side Story" with Natalie Wood. Every part that came along for three years, Beymer got. And this happened to guy after guy after guy. It was like Hollywood just read them like the morning newspaper and threw them away. It's a tragedy. And yet for years after their three year period, everybody assumes that they have money, assumes that they're working, you know? They still get the best table in the restaurant, but do they have the money to pay the check? It's pathetic. I've had my own ups and downs and have lived on the illusion. I've had friends want to borrow money and even they don't understand when I say, "Hey, but I'm broke. I don't have any money." They say, "Are you kidding me? You gotta have money."

Q: What happened to your autobiography* for which you were reportedly offered a $600,000 advance? (*read Richard Stayton's great piece about this, also linked on LAO front page.)
HOPPER: It was more. [smiles] I talked myself into a deal and then turned it down. I thought it would take too much of my time, and I would rather direct movies and act. Even with a ghostwriter I couldn't do it in three months or six months. And I'd have to be very hands-on about it. Also, to do a real book I'd have to tell an awful lot of stuff that I don't know if I really want to get into. My life is more complicated than it seems. [pauses] I've never really talked (openly) about anything. It's more than just talking about sex or drugs; it's about governments and situations that are very political. A lot of stuff that happened in my life that was very, very bizarre, on the edges.

Q: As someone who's teetered on the edge, tell us: Does America really love a man who earns a second chance?
HOPPER: It's too weird. This has happened to me so many times that I don't know what it really means. I remember being 19 years old and going to the premiere of "Giant" in New York City. I'd just starred, the night before, with Natalie Wood, in a "Kaiser Aluminum Live from New York City" show on tv. And the studio, because Natalie and I are both under contract to Warner Brothers, wants me to take Natalie to the premiere of "Giant." I don't want to do it. I want to take this young woman by the name of Joanne Woodward. So they won't interview me (at the premiere) because they don't know who Joanne Woodward is. They say, "Are you a secretary, sweetheart?" And the next year she wins the Academy Award for best actress for "Three Faces of Eve." At that moment, I didn't have to go any farther to understand what it was really all about. And then Dean died and I was blacklisted. I studied with Strassberg, got married, was looked on as a maniac and an idiot and a fool and a drunkard. And suddenly I make a film called "Easy Rider," man, and the whole world opens up to me. And then I make "The Last Movie," win the Venice Film Festival, come back and am told the film won't be distributed. Finally, I go into recovery, come out and I'm straight. And it just happens to fit into everybody's time schedule that it's the time to sober up now. That's just luck. I just keep bumping into luck. But you can only talk about being sober so long. You're sober. So your life goes on and things change, and that's it. Hopefully you change with the times and are not just a sobered up drunk.

Q: Should public figures go public with their alcohol and substance abuse recoveries?
HOPPER: I don't think it's a great idea for these people to be telling everybody that they're now sober, they had a drug problem, blah blah blah, but they don't have it anymore because they've got three months sober. The idea of being in an anonymous twelve-step program is to stay anonymous. You're supposed to not talk about it in the press and the radio because it's not good for the other people -- if you slip. And a lot of these people are slipping. They're in and out of the Betty Ford Center like it's some kind of checkout stand at the supermarket. I don't go around talking about the organizations I belong to because it's against the format. I also have friends that are major people in the industry that have never stopped anything. I see them go on and on. I find that very interesting, that I get sober and suddenly it's such a major thing. It gets all out of balance. The work is the work after all. That's what people pay you for.

Q: If Billy and Captain America took off across the country today, what would they find? Did that generation, as it's been suggested, blow their birthright? Did the revolution fail?
HOPPER: I guess they'd probably drink V8 juice in a yuppie cemetery. What would they find out there, man? Has it changed very much? The hippies are gone. The communes are gone. They could find the Jack Nicholson character still in jail somewhere, drunk. I'm sure the rednecks haven't really changed too much. If things have changed it's just that they've dressed up in different clothes and different guises.

I don't think we blew our birthright. All changes are good. Things have gone pretty well considering that we're still all around and we're still united in some fashion, that we're still giving the world the finger and saying we're gonna be free. Those things would be hard to take away. Jefferson said every twenty years there should be a revolution if you want to keep a republic. But that doesn't mean an armed revolution. It's healthy that one generation questions another generation and changes are made. People going back to being conservative was a healthy move in its own way. And the liberals will come back and change it again. Balance is healthy, and that's really what democracy in a republic is all about.

Q: What goes best with a Harley?
HOPPER: What do you think? [heavy laugh] Pussy, man! Pussy.

Q: In 1970, you made "The Last Movie," a controversial piece of business that won the Venice Film Festival, was hardly distributed in the United States, and has since endured tireless analysis. Perhaps, with the passage of time, we're better prepared to understand it. Care to give it a shot?
HOPPER: I wanted to use film like the abstract expressionists were using paint. They were cultivating the illusion of painting a tree, a landscape, a house -- but they were using paint as paint, using paint itself as a form. So, in "The Last Movie," I keep cutting to things like ripped film, a scene missing, clapperboard going BONK. Just when the story starts sucking you in and you start believing, suddenly I rip you back out and stick my tongue out at you, say "Go fuck yourself" and say, "Look, hey. You're just watching a movie! Ha, ha ha!" -- which does not amuse a lot of audiences. I wanted to make audiences thing about something: What is illusion and what is the responsibility of illusion? In the film, I have a real church and the movie set church; there's real violence and then there's the facade of violence or make-believe violence. I wrote "The Last Movie" with Stuart Stern, who wrote "Rebel Without a Cause" and "The Ugly American," before I did "Easy Rider." I wanted to do it as my first film and I didn't. So I went right into it afterwards because I'd gone around the universities with "Easy Rider" and everybody said, "We want to see new kinds of film, new kinds of film, new kinds of film." So I said, "Oh boy, have I got one for you." But they didn't really want to see new kinds of film. They wanted to go back to the heavy opiate, romantic energy of the Forties -- the kind of movies which Spielberg does brilliantly. They wanted an old kind of film. What's ironic is that if you now look at "The Last Movie," considering MTV and current video editing techniques, it's no longer far out and hard to understand. It's not your everyday film, sure, but a lot of the things that I did in "The Last Movie" are now used in other films.

Q: When you were in Peru making "The Last Movie," and you were sober -- did you ever see anything unusual like, well, UFOs?
HOPPER: [hearty laugh] I saw a lot of things that were unusual. I'll tell you one experience. A young woman and a male friend of mine, Victor, and I were in this pickup truck that I drove in the movie. We were going down a mountain, coming back to our base at Cuzco, which was at about 11,000 feet, from location at Chinchero, which was at about 15,000 feet. It was dusk and there was a heavy cloud layer maybe 12 feet above our heads. Victor said "Can we stop and take a piss?" So, he went out in front of the truck, down the road, and I got out my side. I was standing there, pissing, and suddenly this whirling sound came out of the clouds. I mean, a major sound, like -- (makes a whirring sound) -- like this. And sparks started shooting out of the clouds. I mean, literally shooting out and hitting my feet and my jacket. And the girl in the car started screaming and looked down at the seat. I said, "Look at this! Look at this!" because I wanted verification. "Somebody look at this! Can you see this?" Victor was speechless and didn't say anything for a long time. Anyway, we both saw it, we all saw it. Unexplainable. Went on for maybe fifteen or twenty minutes. We just were frozen. Then it stopped, but the clouds were still there. We went quietly on to Cuzco.

There is no question in my mind that it was an unidentified flying object -- though I never saw anything but the sparks -- I mean rains of sparks. Victor has a theory, which I don't buy. He decided years later that it was a bunch of bats and electricity from the bats caused the shower of the sparks. I don't go for that one. But then maybe he knows something I don't know.

Q: Years ago, you lost thousands of poems in the great Bel Air fire. Care to share a departed gem?
HOPPER: I only remember one. It's a very strange poem. It's bizarre. "I go outside in my garden to pee/Green leaves side me that sweat and rain/My piss runs to weed beside a dust vacant lot that grows baseball players."

Q: Is there anything that any of your three former wives -- Brooke Hayward, Michelle Phillips or Daria Halperin -- got in a divorce settlement that you regret not having, and it still pisses you off?
HOPPER: Well, I can't say it pisses me off, but it would have been nice if I would have gotten at least half the paintings that Brooke Hayward left with, since she didn't have any paintings when we got married. Over the eight year period that we were married, I'd spent something like thirty-eight thousand dollars and accumulated a collection that would probably be worth ten to twelve million today, things I would never be able to afford to buy now, no matter how much money I made in the movie business. I'll go and see something I had once in the Pompidou, or in the Museum of Modern Art, or the Metropolitan Museum, or in Houston. I had major Warhols. I had Warhol's first soup can painting, I had the first paintings by Roy Lichtenstein and Klaus Oldenberg and Jasper Johns and Rauchenberg and Frank Stella and Ed Ruschia.I had Ruschia's huge Standard station painting which is fifteen feet long. I had Kienholz's. I had major, major stuff. She sold them all right after. All I asked for in the divorce was not the house, not the cars, I just wanted half of the paintings. And I couldn't get any of them.

Q: What's the Russian Suicide Chair, what's it like to sit in, and why the hell did you do it?
HOPPER: You sit inside a circle of 20 sticks of dynamite. The explosion creates a vacuum, like the eye of a hurricane, inside. Dynamite won't blow in on itself. But if three in a row don't go off, you'll be sucked out and killed. Also, you can't raise your head above a certain level or it will be blown off. I asked a stunt daredevil named Ollie Anderson to set up my experience. I got into the middle and hoped like hell it worked. I had to hold my ears. I felt a little disoriented afterwards, but besides that I felt fine. I was alive.

I did it because I was at the end of a "run." I was doing a Happening at Rice University, a show of my photographs and paintings. I set up a whole video situation so the audience couldn't actually see me. After the presentation I told them if that if they wanted to see me in person, they had to be bussed to the Big H Drive-In Speedway outside of town where, in the Russian suicide chair, I was going to blow myself up after the auto race. I was also really mad. I thought there were people trying to make a hit on me because of various things that I'd been involved in; that this would be the perfect time for them to do it; that they could stop chasing me around and actually get rid of me. It would take care of everything very nicely. But ... if I got through it, then obviously they were going to let me go.

Once, I'd wanted to start out "Easy Rider" with the suicide chair. Captain America would get in a tissue paper coffin designed like the American Flag. Billy would push the plunger and the explosion would suck off the American flag tissue paper. Then Peter would stand up and wave to the audience. The whole effect would establish us as trick riders in a carnival. Then we'd made the coke deal in Mexico and go to Mardi Gras. Later, I decided Hey, fuck it, I'm going to do it myself. So I did. I thought it was a good idea. I still think it is. Art on the edge. Put your life on the line.

Q: Is it better to burn out or fade away?
HOPPER: I like the direct cut.

* thanks to Playboy Magazine where a longer and slightly different version of this interview appeared.

Do SoCal freeways have viable personalities?

LA artist Alex Israel thinks so. He's designed a line of sunglasses named after the city's key freeways, claiming his accessories merge two symbols synonymous with the Southern California landscape. His Freeway Eyewear is a widely coveted collection of styles with familiar monikers. There's the 1-Pacific Coast Highway, 10-Santa Monica Freeway, Interstate 15, 101-King's Highway (or El Camino Real), 110-Harbor Freeway, and 405-San Diego Freeway. The collection includes a sixth style called L.A. RAYS, echoing the name of a sunglasses label that flourished in Laguna Beach in the early and mid-1990s.

Appropriate for beauties bound for Bel-Air, the 405s are the most glamorous with round frames; the straight forward rays named for Interstate 15 seem the most utilitarian while the 10s sit on the face with more attitude. The 110s are the preppiest, which makes sense as their namesake roadway started life in Pasadena, and the style named for one of our oldest thoroughfares, the PCH, is the most retro.

Who knows what routes will show up in next year's collection, but industrial strength goggles with a detachable gas mask should inspire the silhouette for any style named after Interstate 5.

Morgan Ensberg, a Redondo Union High and USC grad who played Major League Baseball for eight years, mostly for the Houston Astros, and is now an analyst for ESPNU, has been taking on another new role: media critic.

Ensberg, through his blog Morgan Ensberg's Baseball IQ, gives his view on both the game of baseball and the media's way of covering it. In his blog, Ensberg has tackled the issues of the "unwritten rules of baseball" and other on-field matters.

Lately though, Ensberg has roved more into the territory of criticizing the way the game of baseball is covered by the print and online media. Ensberg is not one to use the "they never played the game" card either, but rather looks for biases or unsupported theories passed off as news.

In one of Ensberg's recent posts, Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times, found himself under scrutiny from Ensberg. The post was in response to Shaikin's article about whether the Dodgers would be making offers to acquire either Houston pitcher Roy Oswalt or Seattle pitcher Cliff Lee in a trade.

After a fairly detailed examination of the article, Ensberg gets to the crux of the matter:

Shaikin Doesn't Backup a Single Statement

Shaikin's title says the Dodgers inquired about Lee and Oswalt and there was ZERO proof.

Shaikin says that the Mariners and Astros responded by saying they aren't going to trade just yet, but they'll get back to you if they do. There is ZERO proof to that as well.

Shaikin says that Joe Torre hopes to acquire a top veteran pitcher and there is ZERO proof of that.

So here is what the article looks like based on facts.

"The Dodgers GM, Ned Colletti, will not comment on trades. But he did say that he believes that owner, Frank McCourt, would consider adding salary on a case-by-case basis.

"

Here is what the reader is lead to believe

The Dodgers have called the Mariners and Astros to inquire about Lee and Oswalt. But the Mariners and Astros said that they are not going to make any move right now. Then the reader hears that Torre would like to have a veteran pitcher.

In the Twitter world, Ensberg ended up in a debate with writers and bloggers, who mostly either rose to the defense of Shaikin or tried to put the story into a different perspective. Trade speculation stories are the stock in trade of baseball writers. Ensberg seems to enjoy the feedback from readers, and is willing to engage them in thoughtful debates, something that the average pro athlete is usually not equipped for.

If you consider a paper like the Los Angeles Times with its incredibly early deadlines now, people getting an actual print copy of the paper are fortunate to even find any game story for a game being played in the Pacific Time Zone. There is not much to drive eyeballs to newspapers (either in print or online) unless they have information that they cannot get from just watching the game on TV. And that tends to be news about possible trades or free agent signings. One of the best examples of what baseball reporting now has become is the popularity of a website devoted solely to rumors of trades, MLBtraderumors.com.

Ensberg's blog is worth a read even if you don't agree with his media criticism. His post about finding out he was out of a job in baseball showed the range of emotions that players go through when they find out that their boyhood dream of getting paid to play a game is over. Another post explaining how one small mistake by Ensberg, started a series of events that resulted in an Astros loss to the Cardinals in Game 5 of the 2005 NLCS.

If you get ESPNU on your cable system, look for him on college baseball broadcasts, which there will be a lot of as the college baseball regular season is winding down and the lengthy postseason (it may not end until June 30) will be getting underway.

Ensberg has an East Coast parallel in Doug Glanville, a Penn grad who played in the majors for nine years, who wrote for the New York Times and is now moving over to ESPN.com. Although Ensberg and Glanville have vastly different writing styles, both men are providing a unique insight into baseball, a sport where money has created an enormous disconnect players and fans.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

• BEST Friends organized a fundraiser for the Los Angeles Public Library's Business and Economics, and Science, Technology and Patents Departments, including lunch and discussion by Irene Tresun, former LA County civil servant and L.A. history buff, at noon at the Los Angeles Public Library.


• Constitutional Rights Foundation holds its 48th Annual Spring Dinner Hyatt Regency Century Plaza. 6:00 PM.


• Colleen Atwood and Nick Verreos host the "Alice in Wonderland" Design Exhibition Opening Gala at downtown L.A. campus of Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. 6:00 PM.


• Joan Jett and the Blackhearts performs at the "A Sunny Thing Happened On The Way To Cure Parkinson's" fundraiser for Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research tonight in Beverly Hills. 6:30 PM.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

• Tattoo artist, author and researcher Tricia Allen kicks off Santa Monica College's 11th Annual Asian /Pacific Islander Celebration with a lecture on her latest book The Polynesian Tattoo Today at 7 PM. Business Building Room 111, Humanities and Social Sciences Lecture Hall 165 on SMC's Main Campus, 1900 Pico Blvd, Santa Monica.


• Los Angeles Philharmonic hosts its Spring Celebration and Luncheon.


• Anna Getty honored at The Children's Nature Institute 25th Anniversary Gala Dinner at the Skirball Cultural Center. 6:00 PM.

Friday, May 28, 2010

• Kirk Franklin discusses and signs The Blueprint: A Plan for Overcoming Life's Obstacles at Eso Won Books. 7 PM.


• Fran Yariv and Barbara Pokras present and sign Feeding Mrs. Moskowitz and The Caregiver at Book Soup at 7 PM.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

• Bilingual Foundation of The Arts presents "Ole 2010: A Mexican Centennial Celebration" in San Marino.

Sunday, May 30, 2010


• Charles Fleming, author of Secret Stairs: A Walking Guide to the Historic Staircases of Los Angeles, signs books at Skylight Books. 5:00 PM

Monday, May 31, 2010
Tiz Memorial Day so attend a parade or picnic or something.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

• Jerry Beck screens top films from his latest book, 100 Greatest Looney Tunes!, at The Cinefamily -- 611 N. Fairfax Avenue. 8 PM.


• Stacy Kaiser, author of How to Be a Grown Up: The Ten Secret Skills Everyone Needs to Know, shares her wisdom at Book Soup. 7 PM.


• Hollywood Black Film Festival opens in Beverly Hills (continues thru June 6th)


• Wall Street Journal hosts its D: All Things Digital conference, featuring the likes of James Cameron, John Donahoe, Carly Fiorina, Paul Jacobs, Jeffrey Katzenberg. 12:00 PM (continues through June 3). Terranea Resort. Rancho Palos Verdes.


• Women In Film presents its 2010 Crystal + Lucy Awards to Lisa Cholodenko, Courteney Cox, Universal's Donna Langley, Cynthia Pusheck, Zoe Saldana at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza. 6:00 PM.


• Margaret Jacob & Lynn Hunt, authors of The Book That Changed Europe, break it down for you at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena. 7:00 PM


• Natalie Cole honored by the Society of Singers at its19th ELLA Awards ceremony at the.Beverly Hilton Hotel. 6:30 PM.


• Aimee Bender at Skylight Books 7:30 PM

Once upon a time, you could walk into a building and buy stuff. Those buildings were called stores. Some of those stores sold round discs of one sort or another that held musical content. These were known as "record stores" and were more than just outlets for what "Music Industry" people ickily called "Product," they were gathering places for musicians, music-lovers, or, like me, lovers of musicians.

One of the best of these record stores was called Rhino Records and was located for many years on Westwood Boulevard. Rhino Records was a haven for black-clad kids who would gather to hear in-store concerts, prowl used vinyl bins and peruse other adjunct product (posters, books, pop-culture gimcrackery). They would spend hours pondering and coveting records, sampling tracks at listening stations, running into other kids with whom they often played music. They would then take their purchases up to the cashier (typically a guy or gal with a bad case of bedhead), and painstakingly separate their cash from their pocket lint. This cash was usually earned in small amounts by playing gigs in clubs that no longer exist (Raji's, anyone? Al's Bar?). Divested of their meager monetary resources, the kids would grab a couple of free alternative weekly newspapers (also now mostly gone) on their way out the door, go home to their rent-controlled apartments and place these discs on contraptions housed in units built from milk crates and wood planks. These contraptions would then translate the plastic discs into sheer euphoria.

This happy ritual went on for years until music downloading killed it, and now, like everything else, Rhino Records is no longer a place, but a web address. Richard Foos, Rhino's founder, had tons of product left over, and now has to get rid of it. So he has opened a Rhino Records Pop-Up Store for two weeks, just a few doors down from his original shop. All profits are going to support Chrysalis Enterprises, a non-profit that helps LA's homeless.

I went in there the other night to hear the fantabulous Syd Straw do an "in-store" and it was like time-travelling back to Los Angeles circa 1990. All the kids were there, only now the bedhead has given way to bald spots and the guy who worked the cash register works for iTunes. But there is something inimitable about the confluence of amplified guitars and affordably-priced product that is electric, communal and downright essential. There's a lot of great stuff for sale -- from Jackie Wilson boxed CD sets to Bozo the Clown inflatable punching bags. I bought Soul Train: 1972 and a full sheet of uncut vintage Wacky Packages. Forty bucks, y'all.

The store opened May 17th and will close May 30th. I'm sorry I didn't hip you to this sooner, but it's not too late to catch LA-in-the-day-phenom Peter Case on Friday night (well, rumor has it he is playing) as well as a few other groovy events. The original Rhino Records employees are crewing the store Friday, including KCRW DJ Gary Calamar, who has a new book out, Record Store Days, which will fill in the many gaps I have left blank here. You can buy a signed copy from Gary on Friday (that's when the actual author handwrites his name in ink on a paper edition of the book) and then you can take it, and the discs you will buy for practically nothing home and put them on your sleek, Ikea bookcase. If you miss it, you'll have to buy the book online, which doesn't exactly re-Kindle the romance of reading, download the tunes and listen to them through your crappy Macintosh speakers, which if you are being honest with yourself, totally sucks. And you will completely miss the Wacky Packs, not to mention the euphoria that comes from encountering real music in the company of real human beings.

With the Dodgers playing better, local media members are now making their annual pronouncement that the team needs to "make a move." The Dodgers could use an upgrade in their starting rotation -- as could every team in MLB -- and this year's top midseason prize is pitcher Roy Oswalt, who just requested a trade out of Houston.

Bill Shaikin of the LA Times basically says Oswalt would make the Dodgers a World Series team. Shaikin challenges the Dodgers, saying that a trade would be "proof positive" that the divorce isn't affecting the team financially.

There's no question that simply inserting Roy Oswalt into the rotation make the Dodgers a better team. But the real question is if acquiring Oswalt would be worth the cost. I say trading for Oswalt is risky and hardly guarantees a deep October run.

Oswalt is owed $15 million this year, $16 million next year, and has a $16 million club option for 2012 with a $2 million buyout. It's possible that Oswalt could request the option be picked up in order for him to dealt, since he has a no-trade clause that he's agreed to waive. If Oswalt gets traded midseason, he's still guaranteed $23 million, but could potentially put his new team on the hook for $39 million.

Divorce aside, the Dodgers have actually been pretty consistent with payroll obligations under Frank McCourt. They've gotten a lot of press for only having an $85 million payroll, but they're really spending $102 million in player salaries this year when deferred money and Juan Pierre's contract are factored in. They spent about the same last year. With their current roster, they're projected to be committed to just over $90 million next season, depending how the arbitration process shakes out.

The most the Dodgers have ever spent under McCourt is $118 million in 2008, a season that saw them add Manny Ramirez and Casey Blake mid-year and not actually pay their salaries. It's pretty clear to me that Dodger revenues currently compel McCourt to spend between $100 and $110 annually in player salaries. The only way for them to go higher is for them to increase revenues or find an owner who is willing to take a bigger financial risk. I won't address the second point, since we know McCourt will own the team for this season and we don't know what will happen in divorce court

As for the first part, I don't see any evidence that Dodger revenue has increased this season. While their attendance remains strong, it's slightly down from last year, and anyone going to games or watching on TV can tell that the no-show rate is fairly high. That could be due to the economy, the team's early struggles, or the hit the team's brand has taken with the divorce. Either way, they're not making more money at the gate. I also don't notice a dramatic difference in sponsorship this year, but it's very hard to know sponsorship revenue figures. My guess is that it's roughly the same as last year.

Now, a postseason run can be financially lucrative for any team. Being able to host Games 6 and 7 of an NLCS could fetch $3 million a game. (Teams and players share gate receipts in the first four games, but the home team takes most of the revenue from "if necessary" games). World Series games can potentially bring in double an LCS. But even the best teams are completely unpredictable in the postseason, and doing any kind of financial "planning" with playoff games is foolish. (I have plenty of thoughts about how the Dodgers could increase revenue, but that's a discussion for a different day.)

All of this brings us back to Oswalt. Acquiring him would basically max out the Dodgers this year and next year, unless the Astros pick up part of his contract. The Dodgers would have little room to maneuver if they felt another move was necessary before the deadline, and they would have trouble acquiring more help and/or depth in the offseason.

If the Dodgers knew that Roy Oswalt would guarantee them a World Series trip, then they might pull the trigger on a trade. But anyone who is paid to observe Major League Baseball games should probably have noticed that acquisitions for big name pitchers fail about as often as they succeed. Furthermore, the team with the best rotation entering the postseason doesn't always win.

In 2001, the Arizona Diamondbacks won the World Series with Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling, and ever since then media types have been clamoring for their teams to get an ace pitcher to recreate that desert magic. But none of those media types talk about the 2002 Diamondbacks, which won more games than the 2001 team, and was favored to repeat. Those D'Backs started the playoffs with Johnson and Schilling again, and got swept by the St. Louis Cardinals in the first round. The Anaheim Angels won the World Series that year with Jarrod Washburn, Kevin Appier, Ramon Ortiz, and a rookie named John Lackey making postseason starts.

For years, the Atlanta Braves had the best and deepest rotation in the majors with Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz. They occasionally had another big gun like a Denny Neagle or Steve Avery (in his prime). Yet despite having the best starting pitchers, the Braves only managed one World Series win during 14 consecutive postseason appearances.

Last year, entering the playoffs, all I kept hearing was how the dominant Cardinals rotation of Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright, and Joel Pineiro would out-pitch the soft-tossing Dodgers. The Dodgers swept them. The year before, the smart money was on a Cubs team with a rotation of Carlos Zambrano, Ryan Dempster, and Rich Harden. The Dodgers swept them too.

Anyone could take a look at playoff rotations since the Wild Card era began and find that plenty of teams with mediocre starting pitchers win series over teams with great starting pitchers. That's not to say teams don't need great pitchers. It obviously is a tremendous advantage. But it's pretty clear that starting pitching is just one of a multitude of factors that go into winning postseason games. Individual matchups and key plays get magnified in the postseason, and it's just too hard to predict what will happen in October.

With all that in mind, it might still make sense for the Dodgers to trade for Roy Oswalt if he were truly a dominating starting pitcher. But I'm not so sure if he is. At 32 years of age, Oswalt is coming off his worst season as a professional, going 8-6 with a 4.12 ERA in 2009. He's had some trouble in recent years with his lower back and hip, and it's easy to be cynical and wonder if he isn't going to have a more significant injury at some point in his career.

It's true that Oswalt has been effective and durable for most of his career, and he's off to a great start with a 2.66 ERA. But it would be a real surprise if his ERA stayed that low throughout the season. As I noted earlier, we've seen too many big name pitchers fall apart quickly for me to think that a $23 million commitment to one is a smart investment. We're living in a time when Carlos Zambrano is in the bullpen, Jake Peavy has an ERA near 6, Brandon Webb can't get off the DL, and Jason Schmidt is retired. Not long ago those were the best pitchers in the National League.

Still, simply inserting Oswalt into the Dodgers rotation tomorrow would make them a better team, so part of this comes down to a question of cost. Even though Oswalt has requested a trade, the Astros are under no obligation to trade him. There are only two reasons for them to oblige: 1) To save money 2) To acquire prospects to help them in future.

The fact is there are few teams in this economy that want to take on a minimum $23 million commitment for Roy Oswalt. Even the Yankees and Red Sox probably don't want to. It's possible the Astros will have to pick up some of Oswalt's salary in order to get a top prospect out of the deal. The Blue Jays actually needed to pay $6 million of Roy Halladay's salary in order to get some quality prospects from the Phillies. If the Astros are willing to do that, then Oswalt could get dealt to the team with the best package of prospects.

The Dodgers could probably only afford Oswalt if the Astros pay part of his salary, but they don't have much in the way of prospects to offer. I'd personally hate to see them mortgage what little future they have by sending a Dee Gordon or a Josh Lindblom to Houston. John Ely has proven this year how valuable a good young pitcher can be to a team. With Ely, Clayton Kershaw, Hiroki Kuroda, and Chad Billinglsey (who is looking good again), the Dodgers don't have a rotation to panic about in October.

Perhaps there is a package of prospects out there that makes sense for both teams. There may be some players who Dodgers scouts have soured on, and could wind up being the next Joel Guzman or Jonathan Meloan. But without that right prospect and without a significant financial commitment from the Astros, it doesn't seem like a Roy Oswalt deal is realistic or practical.

What a difference a week makes. Last week, I was heavily critical of the Dodgers on this site. Since then, they've won 6 of 7, including 4 in a row, and they just swept the Diamondbacks in Arizona to get back to .500. In the meantime, the Angels are now the local team in the worst shape, as the Halos have fallen to 15-21.

While the Dodgers are 5 games out of first place and the Angels are 5.5 back, the Dodgers are in a much better position. I really don't believe San Diego has enough offensive talent to stay atop the division whereas Texas has a legitimately strong team.

Let's start with the Dodgers first though. I've been extremely critical of the media for doing a lousy job of reporting on the Dodgers the past few years. Given that, I should acknowledge some of my own mistakes in my article last week.

First off, it has been widely reported that Frank McCourt's two oldest sons are on the team payroll at a combined $600,000. I repeated that report, but it turns out to be untrue. The sons are actually employees of McCourt Group, which is Frank's real estate company, and they have done work for the company.

Secondly, I wrote that the Dodgers traded Carlos Santana to the Indians in 2008 in exchange for not picking up the $2 million left on Casey Blake's contract. I've now learned that might not actually be the case, and Jon Weisman noted that in an ESPN Los Angeles post back in February. I've learned it's possible that the Dodgers included Jon Meloan in the deal instead of paying $2 million and the Indians always insisted on including Santana in the trade. Meloan was once a touted prospect, but his career fizzled quickly. He's bounced around several different organizations and is now rehabbing from Tommy John Surgery with the A's.

Third, while the Dodgers have spent less in the draft than all MLB teams in recent years, the Phillies have actually spent the second-least. I was fairly harsh on the Dodgers draft spending, but it's true that draft signing bonuses don't have a ton of correlation with farm system ranking. The Phillies had a great system over the past few years and they used their prospects to help themselves considerably at the Major League level through trades.

The fact is, when the Dodgers draft in the 20s every year and refuse to pay over-slot money, they naturally won't spend as much in the draft. That being said, I'd love to see the Dodgers pay over-slot money a bit more. I completely understand and respect their decision not to. It's easy to blame it on Frank McCourt being cheap, but having worked for a team, I'll just say there's a compelling reason to abide by the guidelines set forth from the commissioner's office. But we're seeing more teams ignore those guidelines (notably the Yankees and Red Sox), and we might be getting to a point where going over-slot is necessary to stay competitive. In reality, baseball needs some serious draft reform, and I hope that will be addressed in the next collective bargaining agreement. Nonetheless, the Dodgers did actually go over-slot in the draft last year in giving high school pitcher Garrett Gould $900,000 out of the second round, so they might be joining the trend.

I should also note that I learned recently that the Dodgers did not cut their player development or scouting budgets. I wrote last week that I was unsure about their spending in this area.

None of this makes up for the poor drafts the Dodgers had in about a 3-year stretch. Nor does it make up for the lack of player development success since DeJon Watson took over as player development director. But it's only fair to point out, since the team does have perfectly respectable draft and sign philosophy.

In the meantime the Dodgers have benefitted recently from two quality pitching performances from John Ely. Having come over in the Juan Pierre trade, Ely is exactly the type of player who can prove extremely valuable to the Dodgers -- young and inexpensive with upside. With the Dodgers looking at trading for a pitcher that might have a high price tag, Ely's low price tag will be important to their roster management if he keeps pitching well. (Although, you could argue that since the Dodgers are still paying some of Pierre's salary, that Ely does come at a high price)

So what's wrong with the Angels? Well, like the Dodgers, the problem is defense. The Angels currently rank last in the AL in Ultimate Zone Rating and have struggled at several positions. It's often been said that a team's defense can best be measured by their strength up the middle. At second base, the Angels have Howie Kendrick, who has the lowest UZR among AL players at his position. Erick Aybar is second from the bottom in UZR among MLB shortstops. Torii Hunter is not nearly the centerfielder he once was, and he's only in the middle of the pack.

In the offseason, the Angels re-signed Bob Abreu and then added Hideki Matsui as their DH. I thought that was a puzzling move at the time, considering Abreu's and Hunter's declining defensive skills. They would have been better off going for a speedy centerfielder, moving Hunter to one of the corner outfield spots, and then using Abreu as the DH. Now, Abreu is second-lowest rated RF in the AL, and the aging Matsui is only hitting .226 as the DH.

The Angels also have serious problems in the bullpen. Their closer Brian Fuentes has an ERA over 7, as do Scot Shields and Brian Stokes. Outside of Fernando Rodney and possibly Kevin Jepsen, everyone in the Angels bullpen has been a borderline disaster.

The rotation isn't a whole lot better this year. Losing John Lackey hurt, but the Angels should still have enough talent in their rotation to compete. Unfortunately for them, Ervin Santana, Joel Pineiro, and Joe Saunders have all been inconsistent, and I warned Angels fans about Scott Kazmir's problems last year. Jered Weaver has been the rotation's only saving grace.

While the Dodgers have the talent to win their division, I think this lousy start will do the Angels in. Their streak of AL West dominance may very well have come to an end, now that Texas has a deeper and more balanced team. The Dodgers will also have a shot at the Wild Card if they're short in the NL West, whereas the AL Wild Card winner will likely finish with a better record than the AL West winner.

Tonight ESPN aired the Ice Cube-directed documentary "Straight Outta LA" about the Los Angeles Raiders connection to the local gang culture in the 1980s and 90s. The documentary was part of ESPN's 30-for-30 series, which has 30 documentaries covering different sports topics in ESPN's 30 year history.

The documentary certainly brought back memories as I vividly remember being a Raiders fan in that time period. My father took me to several Raiders games in the early-1990s, and I remember pathetic crowds of barely 50,000 at the Coliseum. Most parents at my school didn't feel safe taking their kids to games because of the rowdy fans and the perception that the area was dangerous. Raider fans were famous for being violent in the stands and the Raiders had become synonymous with gangs. It was a much different time in LA, with Daryl Gates' LAPD and the '92 riots all affecting the area around the Coliseum.

Ice Cube's documentary chronicles the Raiders 13-year stay in LA, and in slightly self-serving fashion, discusses how his group NWA identified with the Raiders. NWA regularly wore Raiders gear and team merchandise soon became a major part of the wardrobe for all local gangs.

One of the most stunning parts of the documentary is watching Al Davis interviewed at length. Once regarded as one of the best owners in the game, Davis looks nearly decrepit today. While he tells some great stories about the good old days, and you have to admire his ability to consistently to beat the NFL in court, you can't help but wonder what a lousy businessman he's been for most of the last 20 years.

Davis originally moved to LA because he claims the Coliseum Commission promised him luxury suites and club seating. That never happened, and I think it's entirely possible that they lied to him. I almost forgot about it, but the documentary reminded me of Davis' flirtation with the city of Irwindale, which even paid him $10 million basically to consider a stadium that never got built.

But we also hear from Davis about why the Raiders never moved to Hollywood Park. To this day, I'll never understand why Davis never took that deal. From what I understand, the deal was completely finished, and a press conference was literally scheduled to announce it. Davis backed out though for reasons only he understands. Back then, I read one report claiming that Davis didn't want to wait four years for it to be built. Another report I read in 1994 said that Davis had a conversation with John Madden who convinced him that the "real" Raider fans were in Oakland. In the documentary, Davis claims it's because the NFL wanted him to share the Hollywood Park stadium with another team, and Davis wanted it exclusively for the Raiders.

Today that decision looks beyond idiotic. Davis may not have wanted to share a stadium with another team, but it's hard to believe that another team would have moved to LA, considering we haven't gotten one in over 15 years. Even if they had been enticed by a new stadium in Hollywood Park, I'm not sure if too many owners would want to share a facility with Al Davis. And regardless, sharing the LA market sounds a lot better than sharing the smaller San Francisco Bay Area market, which the Raiders are doing now.

The irony is that over 15 years later, Davis is still waiting for a brand new stadium, and the best plan on the books might involve the Raiders sharing a facility in Santa Clara with the 49ers. Back in LA, we have the Lakers and Clippers sharing Staples Center, and both seem perfectly fine with the arrangement.

Davis comes across as bizarre when talking about his reasons for leaving, but out of the blue, he says: "As LA knows, if they can get a new stadium, they can knock on the door."

It's almost funny to see Davis still playing California cities off one another, all these years later. That being said, with a City of Industry stadium having earned all the necessary political and legal approvals, I'm sure someone has already come knocking on his door.

Overall, it was a fun documentary to watch, and I think it's important viewing for anyone who is interested in football in Los Angeles. I only had two minor quibbles with it though. First, I don't think there was a single mention of Bo Jackson, who was the most popular LA Raider for a period of time. And second, the documentary makes it seem as though the Raiders struggled from about 1986 through the rest of their time in LA.

In reality, the Raiders were a playoff team three times from 1990-1994. I'll never forget people honking their horns on the streets and freeways celebrating a playoff win over the Cincinnati Bengals that catapulted the Silver and Black to the AFC Championship Game in 1991. The 1994 Raiders were a popular Super Bowl pick before Napolean McCallum suffered one of the most gruesome knee injuries in NFL history in the Monday Night Football opener. Without a decent running game, the Raiders wound up going 9-7 and missing the playoffs, and they would soon depart for Oakland.

Reports surfaced on Friday that the Pac-10 and Big 12 are considering an alliance that could include a combined television network and scheduling partnerships. While the two conferences would maintain distinct separate identities, this agreement could have them negotiating television contracts together.

This news adds another interesting wrinkle to what could be a dramatic overhaul of the college sports landscape. The Big Ten is currently front-and-center in the expansion race, looking eastward at schools like Syracuse, Rutgers, and UConn, while considering existing Big 12 schools like Missouri and Nebraska. Notre Dame is also in the mix. The purpose is to get the new Big Ten Network on more cable providers to generate added revenue for its member institutions.

The SEC would rather not expand, but if the Big Ten becomes a 16-team super-conference, they might also poach from the Big 12 and try to add Texas, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma, and possibly look to Miami or Florida State from the ACC.

In the meantime, the Pac-10 has also been considering its own network, and the smart money had them adding Colorado (from the Big 12) and Utah (from the Mountain West Conference), giving the conference a foothold in the Denver and Salt Lake City markets. Add those markets to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, and Phoenix, and the Pac-10 is in a pretty good spot.

With the Big 12 on the defensive, an alliance with the Pac-10 might represent their best hope for survival. If they lose Colorado, Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Nebraksa, then the conference would basically morph into a slightly improved Mountain West or WAC. But an alliance could also be beneficial to the Pac-10 too, as a combined network would include several markets in Texas, as well as Kansas City, St. Louis, and Denver. It would also include programs with national followings like Kansas basketball and Nebraska football.

If there is an alliance, it could decrease the odds of Colorado switching conferences, even as the school's Chancellor is making happy noises about the Pac-10. It might also mean that the Pac-10 would add Utah and BYU, allowing there to be a football championship game and keeping the conference's perfect symmetry in place whereby each school has a clear in-state rival. Back in February, I looked at all of the potential options for Pac-10 expansion. Based on comments from Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott, it seems as though he'd like to add two schools and start a conference championship game.

So what will happen? It sounds cliche, but it all comes down to money. I think Colorado would leave for the Pac-10 if invited. So then the question becomes... would a Pac-10 with Colorado, Utah, and its own TV network bring more money to its schools than a combined network a combined TV deal with the Big 12? I don't have enough information to answer these questions, but it sure makes for a fun conversation.

Regardless, I think the Pac-10 is in a pretty good spot, since none of its member institutions seem interested in leaving, but several schools would like to join them.

After two straight losses to Milwaukee, the Dodgers are now 11-16 and only the Astros have a worse record in the National League. People have blamed the team's poor start on everything from the pitching staff to Frank and Jamie McCourt's divorce. But you have to look deeper to find the real problems affecting the Dodgers.

While it's true that both the starting rotation and bullpen have struggled, the Dodgers' defense in the field has been atrocious. The Dodgers rank dead last in MLB in UZR and UZR/150, two of the more advanced metrics used for analyzing fielding. Conversely the surprising Padres and the Giants (the two teams atop the NL West) rank 1-2 respectively in those categories in the National League. It doesn't help that the Dodgers are 2nd in the NL in errors committed and first in unearned runs allowed. An improvement in defense would surely help lower the team's 5.05 ERA.

How did the Dodgers defense get so bad? While new fielding metrics have made teams place a greater emphasis on defense, the Dodgers appear to have fallen behind the curve. Blake DeWitt is out of position at second base, and is a downgrade defensively from Orlando Hudson, who won a Gold Glove last year yet was not offered arbitration. DeWitt's natural position is third base, which is currently occupied by 36-year old Casey Blake, whose range continues to decline.

Rafael Furcal is one of the better defensive shortstops in baseball, but we all know about his health issues. While he's been on the DL, 36-year old Jamey Carroll has been at shortstop, a position he has no business playing. Signing him to be a backup for injury-prone Furcal was one Colletti's worst offseason decisions, especially when a guy like Felipe Lopez went for less money. Even using Chin-lung Hu would be better right now.

We all know about Manny Ramirez's fielding issues, but few realize that Andre Ethier's defensive skills have been rapidly declining. As good as Ethier is with his bat, he's actually one of the lowest-rated defensive right fielders in the game. Moving forward, the Dodgers are going to need to find a way to work around Ethier's problems, and that could mean a position change to left field (when Ramirez leaves next year) or even first base.

That being said, James Loney is a pretty good defensive first baseman, and Matt Kemp is coming off of a Gold Glove year.

Another major problem facing the Dodgers is depth. Teams can't be successful with just a few good players. They can't even be successful a strong 25-man roster or even a good 40-man roster. Organizational depth is absolutely critical in baseball, and the Dodgers just don't have it. Even the Yankees have no-name minor leaguers starting games for them occasionally, and the Dodgers have scarcely anyone of quality that they can call up in a pinch.

The lack of organizational depth isn't because of payroll, but rather the Dodgers don't appear to be making the investments in their scouting and player development that they should. Four years ago, the Dodgers had the No. 1 rated farm system in MLB according to Baseball America. Today, they've fallen to 24th. The team has spent less in draft bonuses than any other in MLB, and despite boasting a powerful global brand, they're viewed as a non-factor in international scouting.

Dodgers Assistant GM in charge of scouting, Logan White, talked about the challenges of working on a limited budget in an interview with Bill Shaikin of the LA Times last Sunday. White strongly refuted the idea that lack of spending in the draft and internationally has hampered the team. He's right that there are significant inefficiencies in the system when it comes to signing amateur players. But White shouldn't have to be put in a position to defend the current practices.

Spending lavishly in scouting can actually lead to significant savings in MLB payroll. Teams control players for six years once they reach the majors, and can pay players practically whatever they want in their first three years. Extra expenditures on star youth players are far lower than spending millions on veterans to cover up weakness in the batting order.

But scouting isn't just about paying a lot of money to drafted players or international discoveries. Organizations also need to invest in hiring the best scouts, in using the best computer and analytical tools to find the best talent, and in giving their scouting operations the best available resources. I don't know what the Dodgers are spending in scouting overall, but in a well-publicized Bill Plaschke story, it was revealed that 87-year old scout George Genovese had his salary cut from $18,000 a year to $8,000. And he had his expense account slashed from $5,000 to $2,000, making it difficult for him to even pay for gas while scouting kids on the road.

Now, it's well-known here that I'm not a fan of Plaschke, and there could be a crucial piece of information missing in that article. But cutting scouting salaries and scouting budgets is not a good way to win over people in the industry, and it's not going to lead to better results.

The Dodgers have a significant branding problem, because these across-the-board spending cuts are coming at a time when every juicy detail of the McCourt family's personal lives is being revealed in divorce court. At a time when Frank McCourt is crying poor, he's spending $30,000 a month to live in the Montage Beverly Hills. At a time when an 87-year scout has his salary cut 56%, Jamie McCourt is demanding that the team pay for her hair and makeup (which they were apparently doing before she got fired by her husband.) While the team has spent frugally in the draft, two McCourt sons have been kept on the organization's payroll at a combined $600,000, despite the fact that neither actually works for the Dodgers anymore (one works for Goldman Sachs and the other is at Stanford Business School).

It's fairly sick how the McCourts have used the team as their personal ATM over the years, and even more disappointing that they've done so at the expense of improving their organization. I've worked in sports, and I know how several teams operate financially, but I've never heard of another ownership group behaving like the McCourts.

But going back to baseball, the Dodgers organizational depth problems aren't attributable to scouting alone. Since DeJon Watson took over from Terry Collins as Director of Player Development, the Dodgers haven't developed very many major leaguers. Most fans don't realize how important the farm director is to a MLB front office, but it's crucial. It's one thing for Logan White to draft great young players, but it's even more vital to develop them properly in the minor leagues. That includes creating a strong support system, having a consistent coaching philosophy, promoting and demoting kids at the right time, and also having the right systems in place (computer or otherwise) to properly analyze a swing or a throwing motion.

Most of the Dodgers good young major leaguers arrived in Los Angeles while Terry Collins was the farm director. After he left to manage in Japan, Clayton Kershaw has been the only real standout player to develop under Watson's watch. It's also under Watson that the Dodgers have seen their farm system ranking plummet.

Now, I don't know if Watson isn't being given the resources to do his job effectively. But I do know that the Dodgers farm system has struggled since he took over, so minor league operations are an area the organization needs to review. On the bright side, the Dodgers did open a Venezuelan academy last year, and those types of ventures are crucial. Dodger fans can only hope the team is investing in player development to the level they should.

The importance of developing quality prospects goes beyond their potential on-field performance. Organizational depth is also necessary for contending teams that need trade chips to supplement their roster. In 2008, the Dodgers gave Carlos Santana to the Cleveland Indians instead of just paying Casey Blake the $2 million he was owed for the rest of the year. They subsequently decided to give the aging Blake a 3-year $17 million extension, adding to their payroll, and blocking the development of Blake DeWitt at his natural position.

A year later, the Dodgers failed to acquire pitcher Cliff Lee from the Indians because the Phillies could offer a better package of prospects. Ironically, the Dodgers could potentially have traded for Lee if they still had Santana. (The Phillies wound up using an even better package of prospects to upgrade and get Roy Halladay.) It's these types of short-sighted financial decisions which are hurting the Dodgers in the long-term.

The Dodgers publicly claim that the economy has had a greater impact on the team's finances than the McCourt divorce. But I'm not so sure if that's the case. The Dodgers led the majors in attendance last year, they have a good TV deal, and being in the nation's No. 2 media market should provide them better access to sponsorship revenue, than say, the Phillies. I worked for an organization that reached the World Series with a $44 million payroll, so I'd be one of the first to say that payroll does not equal wins. But the Dodgers don't appear to be making the investments across the organization -- from player development to scouting to overall salaries -- that can give them the best opportunity to be successful on the field. And that should be incredibly frustrating to any Dodger fan who also reads in the paper that Jamie McCourt is using a $20 million house in Malibu for laundry.

In the meantime, Dodgers GM Ned Colletti is already playing the blame game. Last week he called out Matt Kemp, bashing the centerfielder for a defensive and baserunner blunder. Then he insinuated that Kemp's 2-year $10.95 million extension could have been cause for those mistakes. The irony is that Matt Kemp is probably the Dodgers best player. He's the first true five-tool player the Dodgers have developed since Raul Mondesi, but in reality he might be the best homegrown outfielder in over 30 years. Not only does Matt Kemp have 30-30 capability, but he's already won both a Gold Glove and a Silver Slugger Award.

Instead of criticizing Kemp, the Dodgers should be promoting him. LA is a superstar town, and Kemp has the ability to make more people care about the Dodgers. Not only does he have the talent, but he plays the game with an upbeat personality that makes him fun to watch. Now he's dating Rihanna, and recently got a spread in GQ. Yet, curiously I don't see the Dodgers promoting Kemp as much as they promoted, say, Eric Karros back in the 1990s.

It almost seems like the Dodgers have been doing everything they can to put Kemp down. I think there must have been something about his happy-go-lucky attitude that rubbed people in the organization the wrong way, because they whispered their complaints repeatedly to Bill Plaschke, even as the kid kept on hitting. They wound up acquiring Juan Pierre and Andruw Jones to give Kemp less playing time, but that didn't work. Even as recently as last year, they were batting Kemp 8th in some games. Every player makes mistakes, but no player's errors make more news than Kemp's, and I still don't quite understand why.

Now, Kemp has a 2-year contract extension, but if the Dodgers were smart, they would have tried to extend him for much longer. Since Kemp will probably be making superstar dollars after his arbitration clock expires in 3 years, the Dodgers could actually save money by signing him to an extension past 2013, potentially adding in team options as well. Such a move would be particularly helpful to an organization that has obviously been concerned about payroll, as it would provide greater cost certainty in the long-term. I'm not sure if the Dodgers tried to do that, but given their recent trend of thinking short-term, it seems unlikely.

Regardless, Kemp and his agent Dave Stewart were so incensed by Colletti's comments, that Stewart noted his client could explore free agency in three years. Stewart also represents Chad Billingsley, who has struggled, but remains an important part of the team's future.

Stewart also said that Colletti should "look in the mirror," and he's right. I'm convinced that the Dodgers success over the past few seasons has come, in part, because of the team's payroll constraints. Colletti has shown a love affair with over-the-hill veterans throughout his tenure, but keeping the team's payroll in check actually forced the GM to rely on their good young players. The few veterans he has acquired have proven to be expensive wastes, guys like Jason Schmidt, Andruw Jones, and Juan Pierre.

Another wasteful signing was Rafael Furcal last year to a 3-year $30 million extension that could wind up going for more. Ironically, Colletti convinced Furcal to sign a short-term contract before 2006, knowing full well that the shortstop would then get another expensive over-valued deal when he was a free agent again. Well, Furcal proved he was injury prone, yet Colletti signed him to that expensive deal anyways. For a team that acts as payroll conscious as the Dodgers, making those types of mistakes can be crushing. Another problem is that Furcal's deal includes deferred money, so the Dodgers will be paying him for several years into the future. People complain about the Dodgers $85 million payroll, but that doesn't include the deferred money they're currently giving to Juan Pierre, Andruw Jones, Jason Schmidt, Orlando Hudson, and Nomar Garciaparra (yes, they're still paying Nomar $1.25 million).

Adding more to Dodgers fans frustrations was their inexplicable decision not to offer Randy Wolf arbitration. Had Wolf declined arbitration (which most think he would have), then the Dodgers would have received draft picks. While those picks would have cost money, they would have helped replenish some of the organizational depth. Had Wolf accepted, he might have earned in the neighborhood of $10 million, but he's pitched well early this season for the Brewers, and he certainly would fill a need for the team now.

I've actually been a Frank McCourt defender over the years, and I still believe that the current group of Dodgers has the talent to turn their season around and even win the division. I also think that having Joe Torre as manager really helps the club as they go through the ups and downs of the season. But if the Dodgers want to sustain a winning organization, then they need to fundamentally change the way they're doing business now. And that means they must move past this divorce and make the appropriate investments in scouting and player development. They need to start thinking about a long-term approach to running their baseball operations and recognize the ultimate cost advantages associated with that. And they need to start getting players who can field.

Social events are all about family this week. Mother's Day falls on Sunday, May 9th. The Los Angeles Zoo celebrates in style with a "From Here to Maternity" fundraising reception followed by a special presentation from interpretive naturalist and L.A. Zoo Docent Joleen Lutz and guided tours highlighting the Zoo's favorite animal moms and their offspring. Mike Bender signs his new book of ridiculous family portraits, Awkward Family Photos,at Barnes and Noble in the Grove on Thursday at 7 PM. Twitter sensation Justin Halpern rolls into Pasadena to read Sh#t My Dad Says at Vromans at noon on Tuesday, May 11th.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

• Laura Chick is the featured speaker at the Economic Forecast Conference hosted by the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce at Los Angeles Airport Marriott. Panels started at 7:30 AM.


• Saint John's Health Center hosts its "Think Pink" luncheon at the Bel Air Bay Club, Pacific Palisades.


• Trendspotter Yvan Rodic signs copies of his book, Face Hunter, at Leadapron, 8454 Melrose Place, from 6PM to 8PM


• Brian Grazer and Ron Howard are honorees of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's National Tribute Dinner at the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons Hotel. 6:00 PM. Jay Leno is the emcee...


• Leigh Rubin discusses his book The Wild and Twisted World of Rubes: A Rubes Cartoon Collection at the Orange County Register,625 N. Grand Ave. in Santa Ana at 6:30 PM


• Kevin Leonard gives a history lecture on "Mad Dogs and Angry People:Race and Rabies in Cold War Los Angeles" at the Huntington Library at noon. Seaver Classroom #3, Munger Research Center, Huntington Library, San Marino.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

• Fran Drescher's Cancer Schmancer charity hosts a luncheon, featuring "Kitty Kelley & Kathy Griffin in Conversation about Oprah" at the Regency Club. Noon.


• Golda Meir Club Luncheon hosted by State of Israel Bonds/Development Corp. of Israel at the Four Seasons Hotel.


• RETHINKING THE CITY lecture series of discussions on mobility, transportation, and urban planning starts today with a presentation by Jennifer Siegal at the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles. 7:00 PM. RSVP 323 525 3388


• Mike Bender signs his new book Awkward Family Photos at Barnes & Noble, 189 Grove Drive, Los Angeles, CA, 90036. 7:00 PM


• George Lopez hosts the Orange Ball to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Lupus LA at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. Former Eagle Glenn Fey and his wife are amongst the honorees. 6:30 PM.

Friday, May 7, 2010

• Journalist Meghan Daum reads her latest book, Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived in That House, at Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), 250 South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, California, United States 90012 7:30 PM


• Western Publishing Association holds the 2010 Maggie Awards at the Sheraton Gateway LAX.


• La Cienega Design Quarter launches its Legends of Hollywood celebration with a 2-day event honoring design on the silver screen, television, and the creative talents that have made Hollywood the capital of the entertainment industry.


• Nicole LaPorte, "The Daily Beast" staffer and a former "Variety" scribe, discusses her book, The Men Who Would Be King: An Almost Epic Tale of Moguls, Movies And A Company Called Dreamworks at Book Soup in West Hollywood. 8 PM (wonder if she'll make the Simon Wiesenthal Center's National Tribute Dinner on Wednesday...since Katenzenberg will be a chair of the event)


• Nancy Davis Foundation for Multiple Sclerosis holds its 17th Annual Race to Erase MS at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza, featuring Tommy Hilfiger fashion show and live performances by Avril Lavigne and Heart . 6:30 PM.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

• The Greater LA Zoo Association hosts the "From Here to Maternity" reception, saluting motherhood in the animal kingdom starts at 10:30 AM at the Los Angeles Zoo.


• Fiesta Of The Spanish Horse Charity Spectacular, benefiting local cancer charities, at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center 3:00 PM.


• Donna L. Emerson reads her book, Body Rhymes, at the Ruskin Art Club, 800 S. Plymouth Street, Los Angeles, CA, 90005. 7:00 PM


• Friends of Cabrillo Marine Aquarium Grand Grunion Gala at the Carbillo Marine Aquarium. 6:00 PM.


• Todd Harra, author of Mortuary Confidential: Undertakers Spill the Dirt, reads at Barnes & Noble Booksellers - Carson, 7651 Carson Blvd., Long Beach, CA 90822, at 2:00 PM


• Evgenia Citkowitz, author of Ether: Seven Stories and a Novella, reads at Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA, 90069. 5:00 PM


• Film editor Barbara Pokras discusses Feeding Mrs. Moskowitz and The Caregiver: Two Stories at Village Books, 1049 Swarthmore Avenue, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272 at 4:00 PM


• The Pasadena Art Alliance hosts its 15th Biennial Art Auction, Raving Art Women, at Edison Electric Building at the Brewery Art Colony. 7 PM. Contact pasartalliance@sbcglobal.net for tickets.


• Genlux Magazine and BritWeek present the 2010 Genlux BritWeek Designer of the Year Award and Fashion Show, honoring British designer Matthew Williamson, at Smashbox Studios from 7 PM to 10 PM.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

• Manny Pacheco reads Forgotten Hollywood at Borders, Long Beach


• Candace Bushnell reads and signs The Carrie Diaries at Barnes & Noble in the Grove, 189 Grove Drive, Los Angeles, CA, 90036. 4:00 PM


• Monday, May 10, 2010


• Midnight Mission honors Anthony Hopkins at its 2010 Golden Heart Awards. 6:00 PM at Beverly Hilton Hotel. Dinner, silent auction and performance by Larry Miller. MC, Ed Begley, Jr.


• "EthnoLA: Re-Visioning Community and Culture," featuring six short films by alums of UCLA's Center for EthnoCommunications, screens with a reception at the Billy Wilder Theater of the Hammer Museum. 7 PM.


• Isabel Allende discusses her latest book at Los Angeles Times at noon.


• Ana Maria Spagna, author of Test Ride on the Sunnyland Bus: A Daughter's Civil Rights Journey, reads at Eso Won Books,4331 Degnan Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, 90008. 7:00 PM


• Charlaine Harris will be at Barnes & Noble at The Grove, 189 Grove Drive, 7:00 PM

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

• Laura Bush discusses her book, Spoken from the Heart, Vroman's Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91109 at 1:00 PM


• Brady Udall reads his book, The Lonely Polygamist: A Novel, at Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA, 90069 at 7:00 PM


• Paul Provenza & Dan Dion, authors of Satiristas: Comedians, Contrarians, Raconteurs & Vulgarians, make an appearance at Diesel, A Bookstore, Brentwood at 7:00 PM


• Ben Wildavsky discusses his book, The Great Brain Race: How Global Universities Are Reshaping the World, at Zocalo @ NPR West Studios. 7 :30 PM.


• Josh Kun and President of MySpace Music Courtney Holt present Jews on Vinyl, a one-of-a-kind slideshow of LP covers, plus rare musical clips accompanying the Skirball exhibit of cover art for kitschy Jewish records at the Skirball Cultural Center. 6:00-8:00 PM.


• Justin Halpern discusses his book Sh*t My Dad Says at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena at noon.

Sometime in April 1971, my brothers took me into the Cork 'N' Bib Liquor Store in Granada Hills. I had a dime to spend. I used it to buy my first back of baseball cards. There were ten cards in the pack, the only I remember being a card of Phillies pitcher Fred Wenz.

I would enjoy collecting baseball cards, although my brother Tom was the custodian of a fairly large collection. They were a fun part of my childhood.

But, for author Josh Wilker, who collected most of his cards in the mid to late 1970s, baseball cards are more than just pictures of long retired players, they are his way to relate to us the story of his life, growing up, as so many of us do, with an artist mother living with a guy in Vermont who aspires to be a blacksmith while his sociologist father stays behind in New York City. And after spending the past few years on a blog (including for a time along with me at Baseball Toaster), there is now Cardboards Gods, the book, from Seven Footer Press. You can read an excerpt at ESPN.com.

The dust jacket has blurbs from the likes of Rob Neyer, Will Leitch, Bill Lee, and David Cross.

Josh sat down with me for an interview by e-mail. Well, I assume he was sitting. If not, he did a lot of typing while standing up.

Q. I have a hard time describing to people just what your book is
about? I say it's about a kid in Vermont and his baseball cards and
his journey through life. But that seems to be too simple? How do you
describe what Cardboard Gods is about?

It is a tough one, and I guess I have different answers at different times. I always have trouble saying what any books are about, actually, I think because it's more about how I lean on them than what they're about. Like On the Road was a book I leaned on when I was 17 and freshly expelled from high school to expand my narrowing horizons and to get some breath in my lungs and to be hopeful about the life I still had to lead, and that such a life might contain some adventures and joy, and that I might be able to write about that life and get some of the joy down onto the page, as Kerouac had. It's the same with this book that I wrote--it's easier for me to comment on how I leaned on it in my life than to say what it's about. Pretty deep into my life here on the planet, I was able to lean on my childhood baseball cards to not only impose some kind of a narrative shape on my previously unshapeable life but also to draw some kind of a feeling of persisting
childlike joy from the cards and thread it through my life. Also, I wanted to hold on to that brief span of years that was my childhood, and the cards helped me do that. So I guess maybe that's a long-winded way of saying the book is about a guy holding on to his baseball cards throughout his life.

Q. When you started the blog did you have any order set out for the way you picked out the cards or the stories around them? The book has a much more linear progression of your life? Was it easier or harder to organize that?

I didn't have any order set out when I started the blog. I just wanted to play around. I kept with this basic approach as I began to generate on the blog a lot of the material that would later develop into parts of the book. (And I still use that approach on the blog as the practice of writing about all my cards continues.) I wanted to retain in the book some sense of a ranging, digressive feel in the blog, which actually more closely resembles the shapeless, associative meanderings of memory, but I also wanted to have the book work as a whole unbroken start-to-finish story. It was hard work, but good work, to take the raw materials I'd produced in notebooks and in the blog and in other earlier story-writing attempts and shape them into a start-to-finish story.

Q. How does your family feel about the stories about their lives being described first in your blog and then later in print?

I think it definitely helped to ease everyone into it in the sense that the book was not the first time they ever saw writing of mine about family history. Even before the blog, I'd shared a lot of work with them that got into some pretty intimate family situations. They all are very supportive of me, and there's a long, strong tradition in my family of putting a lot of value on books and art, so I have always gotten a lot of encouragement to "follow my muse." My family also understands that this is all just my version, and not the "truth" about anything that happened to any of us. I really wanted to champion my family in the book. The cards are the gods, but the members of my family are the heroes. I hope that comes through. I think my family gets that I was trying to do that.

Q. Is there a particular year of baseball cards that you like from either an aesthetic of personal level? I bought my first set of cards in 1971 and I didn't like them at the time, but I think they look good now. I'm really fond of the 1972 set because it was so big and weird features like the "in action" cards and "boyhood photos of the stars." Nothing makes a kid happier than to see a picture of Jim Fregosi playing the accordion. I think you missed the era when the cards came out in series and only certain players were available during the year.

Yes, I really wish that I could have been old enough to collect the 1972 cards--they are my favorite of the cards that I just missed. As for my favorite of the sets that I did collect from 1975 through 1980--with a little bit of spillover on either end to 1974 and 1981: I'm honestly not sure if I identified a favorite at the time. While I was collecting, my favorite year was whatever the current year was, because that was the year that was newest and most exciting and that could bring new versions of superstars into your hands. As I've been reliving the years, I feel the same difficulty about picking a favorite year, but for different reasons. Now it's more like a parent trying to pick a favorite child. But in my gut I know that the 1975 set wins out. It was my first full year of collecting, so no set could ever have more of that feeling of newness, and the cards themselves had those brightly-colored borders. Also, they were often off-center, which made them somehow more familiar and friendlier. They weren't all slick and unapproachable, those 1975 cards. Also, they had trivia questions with upside-down cartoon answers on the back.

Q. You are a Red Sox fan now living in Chicago. Do you have any empathy for Cubs fans and their even longer wait for a World Series victory?

Yeah, I sure do. Not only have they had the longest wait, they've also had to suffer the indignity of watching the Red Sox and the White Sox jump the line on the Cubs and end their own long championship droughts. A few years ago, I envisioned the Cubs, White Sox, and Red Sox clumped together with their thick glasses and acne and aura of desperation at the reject table in the high school cafeteria. The Cubs are now at the table all alone. I'm pretty neutral when it comes to the teams of the city I now live in, but I love going to games at both places and feel especially lucky whenever I can spend a few hours at Wrigley. It's a great place, although one Cub fan I sometimes see on the bus to work tells me that it's going to crumble to the ground one day in the not too distant future. I hope they win one before that happens.

Q. The dust jacket has a blurb from Bill Lee on it. He is one of the "gods" in the book? Have you ever had any contact with any other player who is in the book, other than Don Stanhouse? Or is it better for your gods just to remain gods?

I guess I'll get a chance to meet Bill Lee when I go back to the northeast to do some book tour stuff. I'm really looking forward to it, both because it's a childhood dream come true and maybe more importantly because he seems like someone I might be able to relate to. I don't know how much I could relate to other players from the old days. And I think that I'm no longer yearning to bridge the distance between me and the gods. When I was a kid I dreamed of meeting Yaz (Carl Yastrzemski is an integral figure in the book), but now I understand that the version of Yaz I created in my head is every bit as important to me as the "real" Yaz could ever be, and if I was to meet Yaz, maybe that imaginary version would disappear.

Q. I got a pack of baseball cards at Dodger Stadium. It had a Jimmy Rollins card in it. It said one of his biggest thrills was getting the game-winning hit in Game 4 of the 2009 NLCS. Is there a way I can create an alternative life for him like you did for Bucky Dent?

First, get rid of that card! It's never good when attempting to erase events from your mind to have evidence of those events lying around. After that, you're just going to have to let your imagination take over, kind of like letting thick, unruly weeds take over a garden. In other words, you need to kind of go a little crazy, a little glassy eyed, a little mumbly, and voila, eventually Jimmy Rollins will have shifted his role in the annals of the game to, say, that of a little-known rookie who was the second player in MLB history to ever be run over by a tarp machine, after Vince Coleman, and the first to (depending on your level of anger) A) have his career seriously hampered by it, B) have his career ended by it, or C) have his life ended by it.

Josh Wilker will read from Cardboard Gods at the South Pasadena Public Library on June 10 at 7 pm as part of a Baseball Reliquary program.

The Jimmy Rollins card has been disposed of appropriately.

For anyone who bemoans "there is nothing to do in Los Angeles," this past weekend proved them wrong once again. There was the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, the City of Lights City of Angels Film Festival, and several other film series, all with a price range of free to ten dollars. Then there was the first-ever Turner Classic Movies Film Festival in Hollywood, with over forty films including Sunset Boulevard, A Star is Born, The Good the Bad and the Ugly and the premiere of the newly restored Metropolis.

When local friends started talking about the TCM fest, they all wondered who would pay a minimum of 500 dollars for a 4-day pass for films you can, for the most part, see around town regularly or on DVD. I didn't have an answer for them, but after the fact, I have to admit I feel terribly parochial. The folks from Turner knew better. The festival was an incredible success and for reasons those of us who live in Los Angeles wouldn't necessarily think of.

First of all, the TCM festival was a stark reminder of how lucky we are. Between LACMA, UCLA, the Cinematheque at the Aero and the Egyptian, the Silent Movie Theater and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the public has amazing access to foreign and old films (a misnomer because if you haven't seen it before, it is new). And then if you are in the business or have friends who are, there is the DGA, the Writer's Guild, and the studios to see the latest films. In other words, we are spoiled rotten.

And we are spoiled not only in terms of what is screening around town, but in the quality of our theaters and audiences. It turns out that over 80 percent of the several thousand people who attended the TCM fest were from out of town, giving it the feel of a convention. When I asked a dozen of them of them, in a totally unscientific survey, what the best part was, they all mentioned the joy of being in theaters where cellphones don't go off, people stay seated and don't talk through the entire film. My samplings were people from Iowa, Texas, Pennsylvania and Missouri and, totally unprompted, they spoke of a sense of community that permeated the theaters.

While we keep hearing that going out to the movies is a thing of the past because of Netflix and high def, the lure of the theater experience drew people from all over the country. Most of them said they couldn't wait until next year; TCM announced it would be an annual event. We in Los Angeles (who could buy tickets to single screenings) can only hope that they chose a weekend that doesn't overlap the Festival of Books.