V is for Vacuous, Part Deux.

Well, the new series premiered. They did do a lot more in the first ten minutes introducing the Visitors (which you saw in the previews); cramming into one hour a mention of "universal healthcare" and a reveal of the whole plot that the original took three hours to get to. But the original stuffed the story full with extraneous backstory. Like character development.

But they have done some interesting twists; the spray-painted "V" is now a mark of the Visitors rather than the resistance. The latex is thicker and we've had one major character come out as a lizard. I'll be there to see what happens next time..

V is for Vacuous..

The remakes continue: ABC is premiering the new version of V, the 80's SciFi allegory of fascism in the form of Aliens who pretend to be benevolent humanoids on a mission of peace who turn out to be big lizards with bigger shoulder-pads whose favorite snack is.. us. The original is being shown on SyFy right now in all it's 80's glory and I am loving it: Jane Badler as baddie alien Diana gives a performance Joan Crawford would have high-fived and Marc Singer loses his shirt with regularity. I do remember the posters for the original series in the NYC subways: somewhat retro prints of the smiling aliens greeting children and the elderly with bland sayings like "The Visitors are our Friends" defaced by a spray-painted red "V". Nobody knew what the heck the ads were about; it's a concept that's been done enough to be cliché now, then it was an attention grabber.

One of the things that will not be in the remake is the Los Angeles lair of the resistance fighters: the site at Glendale and Beverly where the old Red Cars exited the tunnel starting at the Downtown Subway Terminal Building on their way to Glendale and Hollywood. That site, which you can read about here and more fascinatingly here is now the site of an inexplicably expensive new apartment building called Belmont Station. Inexplicable because it's located in a neighborhood that is still fairly gritty on a very busy street that is traversed by both Glendale Blvd at street level and the Beverly Blvd Viaduct, meaning motorists can see into your more-expensive-than-Westwood 5th floor bedroom. I'm still not quite sure how this parcel went from being a proposed park, to affordable housing to overpriced rentals for hipsters willing to pay top-dollar for apartments in a neighborhood they'd better think twice about walking at night...

Photo: ABC

Grabby? Good..

A friend I met in college in my small hometown in New England was once asked how she felt about the large Lesbian population in the area, if she'd ever been propositioned and how she reacted. I'll always remember her response: "Yes, I have and I politely refused" When pressed about not being annoyed, freaked out or angry at being importuned upon she calmly answered "I take it as a compliment; one day, far sooner than I would like the propositions are going to stop. So I intend to enjoy the fact I'm getting them, no matter how personally inappropriate they might be"

Wise woman..

Image: Collectiblechildrensbooks.com

Art in the City, and we're up in arms..

Roxy Paine's 2007 piece Erratic has landed in Beverly Hills' Beverly Gardens Park and there has been some predictable reactions: letters to the editor of The Courier excoriating the purchase (some 300k) and the general appearance of the piece.

I can understand. On the one hand, I love it. There's something so otherworldly about the simulacrum of a stone made out of hammered and welded stainless steel. Plunked down into the verdant strip of grass in Beverly Hills makes it more confrontational than it is in the more urban one of New York City's Madison Square Park. I can also see where some would look at it and be appalled. It's disturbingly organic yet machined. In this town, the home of Michael Bey movies it could be construed as a by-product: a Transformer Turd in our park.

As I said, I like it, and I like the artist. I'd have loved to see some of her other pieces chosen for the city, like Conjoined or Inversion, but perhaps there were reasons these ultra-pointy lawsuits-waiting-to-happen weren't in the running. But it's getting people talking about the city, the art here and perhaps getting people to go out and enjoy a nice walk in our beautiful park. In my mind that's priceless.

Photo: James Cohan Gallery

Hooray for Hollywood

NCIS LA premiered this evening, and it's enjoyable: LL Cool J and Chris Connelly have a nice spiky repartee going on, and anything that gives us more and better Linda Hunt is a good thing.

One of the things I noticed is that the "secret" headquarters of the NCIS looks to be one of the Arthur and Nina Zwebell buildings in Los Angeles. I wrote previously about one of them; this one looks like the Andalusia. I love that the filmmakers have a love of classic LA architecture (Buffy did too) but it kind of comes across as silly to have them open up to soundstage sized sets with touch-screen jumbotrons and software that can identify the DNA of the Mongolian Fruit Fly. Oh well, I'll just look at the scenery and hope LL takes his shirt off.

Photo: elcabrillohollywood

Traveling with friends

This past weekend my BFF Bitsy was in town on business and decided that she needed a long weekend away from her high-powered and high-stressed job. Fortunately for her, her job is also relatively high-paid, so she could afford to take herself to a room at the Ojai Valley Inn, and nice enough to invite me for the ride. I am lucky to have a couple of friends who are perfect traveling companions: Bitsy and I are like 16-year olds together: we called our Garmin "Sally Lou" and delighted in her harrumphing electronic exclamation "Recalclulating" whenever I thwarted her plan to get us onto a traffic clogged artery I knew to avoid. At the resort we sat by the pool and drank Daiquiris and read trashy novels, quoting them to each other and laughing at the abuse of adverbs.

Ojai is a beautiful place with a great bookstore and a lovely downtown. Try not to miss the "Pink Moment", just before sunset when the hills to the East are bathed in the pink light of the sunset. Just the thing to have a Daiquiri to with your BFF..

image: Association of Water Agencies Ventura County

The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling!!

This is a still from the History Channel's gleefully Debbie-Downer series "Life After People". If you'd ever wondered what would happen if one day everyone on earth just vanished, this series is for you. Starting from 5 minutes after we're gone to 50,000 or so, it follows the collapse of our buildings, demolition of our cities and eventual erasure by the forces of nature and time.

I find it strangely entertaining to have it explained exactly the mechanism of our cities demise. As a matter of fact, this show and "Modern Marvels" have made the History Channel my default viewing station of choice..

Photo: History.com

RIP Julius Shulman

1910-2009

Julius Shulman was arguably the father of architectural photography and certainly a peerless chronicler of the architecture of Southern California. In this video from The Los Angeles Times he talks about taking one of the most famous pictures of architecture ever taken: Case Study House #22, with the LA basin in the background.

Video: LATimes.com

I'm enjoying Lifetimes "Drop Dead Diva"

It's a kind of mash-up of "Pushing Daisies", "Desperate Housewives" and a little soupçon of "Life and Loves of a She-Devil" (the book, not the movie).

My only problem is that were supposed to think that Brooke Elliot is just soooo fat. Ms. Elliot is a beautiful, talented woman who might be a size 12. She looks like Catherine Zeta-Jones younger, slightly plumper sister. Even with unflattering photography you can see that most men would be kissing their elbows for the chance to date her. I mean, if this is the image that women are supposed to take as a hopeless loser, what have they have to look forward to?

The show however is a ball, I can't wait to see what they do with it and Brooke Elliot is a lady to watch.

Photo: Lifetime