Carmeggdon Week-end? Car-free Summer?

When I returned phone call this week to staffer of my state representative he sounded agitated, edgy, tired.

"We can't have a full conversation, I don't have time because of what's going on."
Why, I said, what's going on?
"Carmeggdon" he said incredulously, as though I must be half brain-dead not to know.
Oh sheesh, WHAT is the big deal, I said.
"If you lived on the west side -couldn't use the freeway, you'd be upset --or like if you couldn't get on the #110."
NO I wouldn't, I'd find a work-around or stay IN. The media and the politicians are acting near-hysterical, but people will just Deal with it.

I'm Sure he thought: I was poorly informed, or nuts.

Duh, not a nut. I was Here --saw how grown people handled the stunner when Ma Nature shook the earth January 1994 --a hole put in the #10, sadly discovered when a few headed downtown to work at dawn went off the edge of the most important/critical east-west Los Angeles freeway. No way --for 67 days and Los Angelenos managed --superbly.

But The Freaking going on weeks/days before The Week-end #405 Closure: Ridiculous. Canyon dwellers freaking, expecting to be "the gridlock" Prisoners of drivers trying to 'escape.' Oh Paleese.

As I said later, talking to a publicist for Bastille Day event Sunday (today), the only ones who deserve any sympathy: those who picked this week-end a year ago to have a wedding. She agreed. She couldn't get numerous public officials to help or even to talk to her. lol They're ALL freaking.

Meanwhile:
Friday night freeway --empty
--drivers took themselves elsewhere, long before midnight closure
Saturday:
except for the fool who apparently believed he was The One who could booze it up AND drive well --right up until his head-on collision with another car; another fool who went on --and backed off the freeway; one with a sense a humor who couldn't take the obviously tantalizing utterly Irresistible 'blank canvas' and skateboarded the freeee way; everybody else: Stayed Put.
By Sunday morning (as of this writing 7:20 am):
a few: walked to freeway edge, the Mullhulland over-bridge to watch --the destruction.
Some took advantage: METRO --free on nearly every area & cross-town train -bus -DASH or $10 anywhere Day Pass.
The Determined to show the world: the Power of the Pedal. --Riders played beat the flier to Long Beach, including a race with a Jet Blue $4 traveler --who had to use up valuable time before and after :20 flight on "Check In/Park/Out."
Bicycler :54 --flier couldn't do better than 1:51 over LA

EVERYone else: nesting --with family -roomies -chores -pets, pensive... mowers, ironers, walkers, book (remember those?) readers, painters, cooks --for those who didn't pack the place with pre-made junk.

Local Media
Eric Estrada --left town to 'escape the trouble' sheesh, jerk. LA 1984 Olympics reduex. So for the hommies Who could resist: turning on the tellie to see the pictures of how The Freeway --side streets --canyons --relative freeways looked... What was everyone Else doing? Exactly what they were doing: staying Out of Car, At Home, Enjoying sights, sounds, smells in the 'hood, happy to be far from the Madding Crowd.

So since Angelenos, and all the newbies, have stayed so well out of the way: the wrecking crew Finished wrecking --early, so early da Mayor & Co to have Press conference around 11:00 am to announce

Freeway not gonna open 5:00 am Monday --but Today Sunday
--This afternoon
(insiders say: Before 3:00 PM)!

Whodda thunk it? Moi.
People have tweeted -messaged -sent pics of What they're doing instead -how they're enjoying the No Freeway Week-end Not From Hell, but from heaven: so I'm thinking...
Why Not Do this all Summer.

Start say Summer Solstice June 21, by which schools are (stupidly) closed, through say Labor Day week-end: stay off freeways Every week-end of Summer. Get on bicycle --METRO --train --those things below ankles... week-end workers won't abide, no doubt, but week-enders at loose ends: Stay In/Put, not a "law" --"rule" but Everyone just Agree to go Green, Clean... think of all the pollution we wouldn't have... the Pleasure, the fun we would....

We would be the only large metropolitan city in the world... not traveling/whizzing freeways in summer....

How about it, Mayor -Angelenos? Wouldn't it be daVine....

Post Note: Local "news"
--did anyone else catch KTLA "news"? Sheesh, bobble-heads & dumb corny junk, they're like old-time pictures of 1950s. Between the giggling, stupid banter, hours of some stupid car-chase, dumb banter, really stale dumb contest, blather about the Freeway, Gosh they are just Lousy. KNBC: did rather good job, without hyperventilating. (But somebody should tell them: drop those Dumb self-promoting ads, sheesh.)


UPDATE 11:15 am - Mayor Press Conference
They are saying: contractors did superb job, same ones who built the overpass (in 1959). Knock-down -Road checked for dings, Done and broom-clean.

#405 Freeway: to OPEN at 11:30 am Today, Sunday! wow

Order:
-Mainline #405 east-west transition Open
-then on-ramps
-then connector freeways
-ramps near Getty Center last, by 3:00 pm

Freeway: Entirely open by: 3:00 PM! Fourteen hours before deadline. wow Well Done. Congrats to All of us.

Angelenos did so well Staying home/Off streets -no police grief, etc., City: saved $405,000 bucks. Yippee. Let's hear it for those: who chose THAT contractor!

Now for Part Deux
next year: other side of #405. WHY don't they complete the job: Labor Day Week-end, when they will have THREE days to do it all, most people will be away/have plans. That: also would be daVine....

* * * *
tag: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, north-south #405 freeway west Los Angeles westside Westwood Getty Center beach Laurel Canyon


CALENDAR - Events, Holidays: SEE page/bottom
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Listen Up: Sly Fox Has Cried Wolf for Last Time

CNN -ABC -CBS -NBC -CNBC -MSNBC: EACH of you fell for trash thrown up by cancerous Ruppert Murdock's trash 'news' show & tell AGAIN.

WHAT does it take for you to Wise up?
You all went panting after their trash --replaying snippets of EDITED video on an Ag employee: but Nobody Did the Homework. --Fools just raced for the 'get' to get on the air --WITHOUT facts --interview --checking a thing --except brains at the door --AGAIN.

Remember Journalism --standards, ethics?

HOW Many trash stories do they throw up Before you catch on?
EVERYONE except the Dumbest among us: KNOWS sly Fox has an agenda --SAME agenda as Glenn sky-always-falling Becky, Rush send-money Lardbutt, Shamity and right-wing fringe nuts and it Ain't to Report NEWS.

You haven't noticed --the bare arms on boobs, faces tweaked into plastic, but Nada between the ears??? sheesh, THEY slant --THEY omit --THEY make up stuff --all day, all night.

WHY are Any of you paying Any attention to what they do???
We, viewers, have HAD ENOUGH. All of you: STOP IMITATING sly fox --STOP repeating what those boobs say --"report" --run.

Quality Media: needs to create Black-out around sly Fox.
No More repeating A Thing they say, do. You --anchors, reporters, staff --networks WANT to be taken seriously --WANT credibility, LAST WARNING: Stop watching -'reporting' -repeating what the Boobs 'report.'

Do it Again: we --the ever-dwindling of us who watch you, will put YOU in same category as sly cancer Fox --on "Ignore."

Money Madness, Tuesday 2-17-09 PM

How did we --non-banker, non-Wall Street whiz/wize-guys, get down here, in the weeds? CNBC attempted, Friday February 13, to explain how the greed disease of people who worked in banking, mortgage, finance --institutions we counted on, inflicted --infected first Americans, then the world; ripped off all of us.

"House of Cards" was okay, if you hadn't followed it as it happened at the time. I have: the piece was incomplete. --It left out half the story. It didn't interview or explain: the people at the top who ran the Ponzi scheme that stripped Americans, then the world of wealth -security -pavement we were supposed to be able to stand on. Those who KNEW what they were doing --to everyone else, remain in their 'ivory towers' unrepentant, un-interviewed, un-indicted. It left out: 'rulers' --"experts" --regulators who were supposed to be the lions at the gate. It also left out: any sketch of What To Do Now --How To --repair --restore --remain sane, without a home...pension...job.

Perhaps "FRONTLINE" will do a better job:
Tuesday, February 17 - 9 pm PT- KCET "Inside the Meltdown"
How the economy went so bad so fast, what Bernanke and Paulson didn't stop, couldn't fix

So far: I haven't heard any talking head 'experts,' clever bobble-heads say one thing that is on-point to Correct this mess. The media: was far too busy shoveling celebrities on OUR air time; couldn't be bothered with looking at --examining what was going on, at the time. Now: the bobble-heads and the "experts" don't shut up. Neither do they say anything that Helps, they're all too busy Reacting.

The obvious has been obviously wrong
Things ain't too good, not even in Silver Lake daVine. FRONTLINE has earned superb reputation, maybe they will do a good job of examining the money mess/those who got us here. If not: let us hope we see prosecutors do it better --soon.
Top Books

While the holidays were still going on: every local "news" program decided what would Best inform us: displaying products --pushing products --"How To" buy products --sale price of products --parking space to get products --places to get products wrapped, shipped --gadgets, tech junk, which would make others "happy" --all desperately "needed" --as you drown in debt --during "news" programs --instead of the stuff, like, ya know, NEW --Mattered --Relevant stuff.

HOW is a shot, or dozens, of people in a MALL --useful, relevant --"news"? Better informed --for that stuff? Didn't think so....


Didn't see any pictures: of daVine Silver Lake --quiet Sunset Triangle...missing traffic -shoppers --no mention of Silver Lake residents, business owners --affected by the writers' strike.


The news director of the usually better-focused KNBC said in November: his 18-year old kid has a mother who is a reporter, a father who has spent his career in TV journalism, but he doesn't watch, couldn't care less about TV news. Duh, wonder why.


EVERY week: each local TV station receives a press release --from Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, from Los Angeles City Council --listing the subjects, issues on the agenda for each meeting. What do the "news" directors do with the releases? --Spiral file, shred --doesn't matter which, they Don't use them to send reporters to attend, report those sessions. --The purpose of media --to be our 'eyes' --ears, watching government? Duh....


Giant congloms: own, control local TV stations --and promised they could --would give Locals coverage of local issues, If they were allowed --by FCC --by Congress, to purchase them.


Mendacity...Instead: We get coverage of local government, politics, issues --only when there is controversy -screw-up -improper activity --sound-bite version, but NOT regular coverage. So much for promises, as they use viewers --as cash-cows. --Have the nerve to beg for us to take pictures --of "breaking" junk, too cheap to send cameras --to cover relevant news.


WHAT were "news" directors Thinking? Did you REALLY want to know --traffic conditions --weather...who got shot, what burned down --in Colorado, Ohio, Florida...any state, with any thing moving? If you said "yes" --Think about all that junk --they "reported" --last year. Smarter --better "informed" --even remember?


They fail to inform --investigate --Actually watch the Fraud Squad -City Hall -how those people "represent" us, spend our money.


WHY are they allowed to use OUR airwaves?


Will a Democrat in the White House --next year --appoint a new head of the FCC, who gives a damn about fulfilling rules, regulations on local coverage?


Or will Foxy Rupert --continue to spread his money, like manure, as he already has to Hillary, so we get more --of the same old, same old?

A pox on all of them.

Rotten Hot in Silver Lake...

Labor Day week-end...Premiere of this blog...Friday it was 106F...Saturday 109F... Sunday 112F --112??? Sheesh. Who do I have to see to get the heat turned down? This native Californian can remember: a September day, in Los Angeles, first day of school, 9th Grade, 103F...another September day, in San Francisco, 100F at 10 am in art school...but 112F??? --that's insane.

Yet, it must be that hot --in Greece, still, with the forest fires and in Baghdad it's even hotter, and American military are wearing fatigues and equipment. So not to whine and to keep what's left of my brains: I keep trying to catch nature stories about snow, on PBS, and remembering: end of November and a week in December,
last year, when temp dropped to 32F in Silver Lake. Remember? So cold Gov. Armpit showered Millions on growers for damaged citrus and avacado groves.

But it Doesn't help. It's rotten mean hot, gonna stay hot until Summer in Southern California ends, early November. --You do know: that's how to tell if the person on the local news rag-tv pointing at weather maps, is an import --from somewhere else. When they drone on and on about 'what a surprise it's hot in September --October --November' --you know they don't know any thing about our seasons.

Flooding in Texas, and five other states --even in the east, drought --hurricanes --tornadoes and rotten mean heat here. Can you imagine, how much worse it would be, IF global pollution Was changing the weather? Well, according to Oval Office Occupant --it's not. Whew! Glad that's settled. All those pesky scientist types --will just have to find somebody else to talk to.

Ah well, change the channel, look at pictures of glaciers --while it's still possible, spray some cold water on the back of your neck, pray for rain. --Keep the kitten and puppy members of your family indoors, out of the sun.