It's a fragrance

WHAT'S IN A NAME: Perfumer Roger & Gallet produced a limited run in '02 of White Reseda, and then discontinued it (2nd to last entry on bottom). The perfume gained a fan (4th item):

Well, just bought "White Reseda" by Roger & Gallet. A lovely white floral + orange blossoms. Perhaps will stock up on another bottle, coz I hv a feeling this is just a ltd run which will be dis/c after a year or so.

Speaking of that, this: It's a shoe.
It's am ink.
It's a pollen speck.

Cat got your tongue?

HEALTH: There are children who are selectively mute -- who have an inability to speak in social settings. There is a city-wide support group for people who love them. The group is starting Sunday and they'll meet in Reseda every 1st and 3rd Sunday. More on selective mutism (pdf file) and research.

A river runs through it

REARVIEW: A picture postcard from '35 (when it meant a photograph itself on a postcard with the place name caption hand written in the corner) shows the LA River and what appears to be a Canada goose -- that and the amount of water possibly makes this a late fall picture from the West Valley Museum via the stupendous CSUN Oviatt Digital Library.
Postcards, people collect them. Be a friend. Though it's hardly an intact habitat, Reseda Park and the LA River running through it are still home to waterfowl. There's probably few naturally occuring species among them now.

"I can see for miles and miles and miles and miles and"

FROM THE STACKS: Michelle Shocked lived in LA for a time and knows from a long LA drive. She describes one in "Come A Long Way," comparing a Mullholland drive to the James Dean crash, and then she makes her way to Wilshire where she passes Rodeo Drive and the Tar Pits and ends up at the LACMA cafe. It's the lament of the chorus that puts this in context to the previous post:

I've come a long way
I've come a long way
I've gone 500 miles today
I've come a long way
I've come along way
And never even left L.A.

Infernal combustion

DRIVE TIME: This week it was a delight to find gas at $2.31, but who among us can't see the road ahead? Lisa Mascaro of the Daily News finds, for many, $3 is the point that tips the scale to force them to hunt for alternatives. So says Resedan Efren Escarcega. Crisscrossing the southland in the house-cleaning business, he drives his supply-stocked minivan 700 miles a week.

"I need the car," said Escarcega. "I have all this stuff."

He can't imagine another option -- like carrying his gear on the bus -- and says gas would have to rise above $3 a gallon before he'd have to figure out an alternative plan.

"I pay. The car, the rent, a lot of things. It's very difficult for me."

Why there's no need for English-only laws

SUIT: From last July by John Scheibe and Michelle L. Klampe in the Ventura County Star, a comprehensive and well-detailed report on a lawsuit as it stood then against the privately-owned California Alternative High School. The Resedan who was among the first to file suit in California went from buying into the scheme and then mistrusting it.

Bessy Echeverria, a 28-year-old El Salvadoran immigrant from Reseda, first heard about the school at her Encino church, Iglesia de Dios Camino.

"I believed in his claims more because I heard them at my church. I thought they had to be true," she said.

Echeverria, her sister-in-law Saira Echeverria and their friend Maria A. Quiones signed up for Gossai's program. Bessy Echeverria said she had suspicions about the legitimacy of the school because the classes were all taught in Spanish.

In a previous post: Suit was settled last week, but the owners' countersuit for defamation remains.

36 years ago, this week

REARVIEW: Miss Teen Reseda, Terry Scott, 15, stands in the back row, at the photographer's left, among the entrants in the "Miss Teen Western United States" competition whose finals were Apr 2,'69, with the winner becoming eligible for the Miss Teen U.S.A. competition the next day. Events were in conjunction with a teen expo event at the Hollywood Palladium. Venue touts it's "the longest operating venue in Los Angeles. It was opened in September 23, 1940 with Frank Sinatra and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra."
:::::Ed.note-- Having been to dozens of concerts there from punk to goth to disco, it's fair to guess if the ventilation system hasn't been upgraded.:::::
Photo via the stupendous CSUN Digital Library.

Whose wife is it anyway?

FROM THE STACKS: From Saul/Paul of Tarsus in his first letter to the congregation at Corinth, chaper 7, verse 4:

The wife's body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband's body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife.

Temperatures have risen

TERRI SCHIAVO: The LA Times sent three writers to interview Easter day church-goers. At the Church of Rocky Peak in Chatsworth (:::::Ed.note-- Set at one of the most beautiful spots in the Valley.:::::) was a Resedan sure that the years of litigation was too fast and testimony by witnesses was hearsay.

"The whole thing just smells fishy to me," said John Wiens, a contractor from Reseda who was celebrating Easter at the Chatsworth church. The people who want to prevent Schiavo's feeding tube from being reinserted, he added, are "trying to push this thing through so fast they aren't looking at all the facts," among them the opinion voiced by some experts and doctors that there's still hope for the Florida woman, he said.

Wiens said it would be wrong to speculate on Schiavo's wishes, because she can't speak for herself and had not written them down before she fell ill.

"Without written consent, you have to err on the side of life," said Wiens, 39. "You can't assume what she wanted based on hearsay."

Whew

TECHNOLOGY: Crashed. Complete meltdown, dead except for the screen text telling me it was dead, back now though.
:::::Ed.note-- Now: Firefox browser, Kaspersky anti-virus software, My Favorite Tech medic.:::::

They're coming!

BUTTERFLIES: The annual flyby by butterflies of the painted lady variety is underway. The Daily News makes an important distinction clear: "Visually similar but smaller than the more familiar monarch butterfly, the painted lady -- vanessa cardui -- is the world's most widely seen butterfly." But the story also has either a poorly constructed notion or a poorly constructed sentence:

Painted ladies were first seen in the Valley on March 8 by Bob Wienhuis, a Sepulveda Veterans Administration Hospital employee who has been tracking the insects for a University of Iowa researcher.

Perhaps that is meant to suggest that Wienhuis had seen his first one Mar 8 while he was looking, rather than saying because he was looking, that day, he saw the very first one.

BUTTERFLY FESTIVAL: A segue here to mention the street fair coming May 21 & 22 in Reseda Park --- so named for reasons like the story above. And a segue from there to the METAMORPHOSIS ARTS FAIR, adjunct to the Butterfly Festival, so named for reasons like the different implied expectations of artwork submitted to jury in a contest for a $1,000 prize.

Taken by Travel

VOX POPULI: The LA Times has a fan of their Travel section:

Your articles are so vivid and intriguing that "Postcards from anywhere" would be a delight. Keep up the good work, I look forward to being transported to another world.
Jane Florentinus
Reseda

Waste basket

WASTE: Those dead MP3 player batteries and old computer hardware don't belong in landfills, and the Los Angeles Dept. Sanitation will take them and most all other hazardous waste our digital-age lifestyles generate.

On Apr 16 & 17, there'll be a drop-off site at CSUN.

The Valley's regular site is in Sun Valley and is open Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays. They make appointments for the 4th Wednesday every month to recieve business waste.

Prime time

SPORTS: The Daily News highlights the accomplishments of two Cleveland High baseball players, Andrew Lambo for hitting 3 for 5, and 3 RBIs; and Mickey Brodsky for pitching 6 innings with 11 strikeouts -- taking their school to the top in the RBI Tournament at Venice High.

Resedan's action makes things fine

SUIT: When Reseda resident Bessie Echeverria went to the privately-owned California Alternative High School for a high school diploma, she was in classes that taught "the United States has 53 states and four branches of government. They were also told that Congress has two houses -- one for Republicans and one for Democrats," the Daily News says.

Upon finding her diploma was worthless, the 28-year-old sued in small claims court for her $475 tution, one of the first Californians to take action. Last week Attorney General Bill Lockyer announced a settlement where the school's owners will pay $400,000 in restitution, $50,000 in civil penalties and $50,000 in legal fees.

Still pending is a $2 million defamation lawsuit filed by school owner Daniel Gossai against Echeverria and two of her relatives. Reporter Jennifer Radcliffe writes what's on the horizon for the Resedan:

Echeverria said the experienced has encouraged her to pursue a legal career so that she might protect other immigrants.

She said she's still angry that she wasted her time and money at California Alternative High School -- and at Gossai, who advertised and held classes at churches.

"He uses God like God means nothing. For me, God is a lot. We should not use his name to steal someone's money. That's what makes me so mad," she said.

On wry bread

IT'S A SIGN: Columnist Steve Harvey of the LA Times writes Only in L.A. and welcomes contributions from readers to share observations of the LA experience. The items that end the column are under an umbrella of MiscelLAny. An example:

Judy Goldstein of Reseda saw a lunch truck that advertised a pastrami sandwich with "muster."

"Wasn't sure if I should salute or not," she added.

Having last item be a brightener for readers and called Miscellany has its precedence in the old Life Magazine. Harvey probably knows that.

:::::Ed.note-- Typos are a regular topic for Harvey, here too and too, and I did willfully not mention the misspelling of La Tortilla Loca here, because I can throw know stones. The copy editor brain just kicks in among many; it's in the blood. Must be Type-O.:::::

Previously: Harvey on Reseda and this blog -- here, here, here and here.

It's a shoe

WHAT'S IN A NAME: Reseda is a model of shoe made by Bruno Magli, a brand made famous by the OJ Simpson trial, but:

The manufacturer no longer makes the "Lorenzo" model that the killer is supposed to have worn that fateful night in Brentwood.

The Reseda shoe lists at just under $400, proving Reseda is top drawer indeed.
Previously:
It's a color.
It's a flower.

Power to the traffic signals

RAIN: Tuesday night's outage in Reseda and Winnetka, seemingly irrelevent to media, 18 hours later was still affecting traffic signals up Vanowen, here at Winnetka Ave. and also at Mason.

Riders make a storm

TRANSIT: After vociferous opposition from the public, the MTA has slightly bailed on their plan to wholly bail on the expansion plans for bus service to tie-in with the bus-only route called the Orange Line, which will run from Warner Center to North Hollywood. The vote was 8-0 says Lisa Mascaro of the Daily News. But the ax fell on some plans, including a Reseda-specific project:

The MTA had proposed eliminating two east-west commuter bus routes and trimming back underused routes in order to add more north-south service to connect to the busway.

Also proposed were a new route from Reseda to Westwood and a new Pierce College shuttle, both of which have been withdrawn.

The MTA touts the cool new buses --- but seemingly can't show them.

Next week, the Pierce College Art Gallery will begin its exhibit of art planned for the stations. The "Art that will move you" exhibit has its opening reception Saturday, Apr. 2, 1-4 pm.

They may or they may not know who ...

VOX POPULI: Looking for some public input into her role in an upcoming mayoral candidate debate, columnist Mariel Garza of the Daily News set off to find some informed voters and found one, in Reseda.

Leaving the newsroom on Oxnard by Canoga, that her path went exactly this way is only a guess: Exit DN parking lot, right turn and right turn to go north on Canoga to Starbucks at Victory. Caffeinated, it's a right out of the parking lot she heads east; hitting the various landmarks ("stopping at places where "regular" people were doing regular things") until she did a U-turn, or left onto Etiwanda, at the One Generation Center, by Reseda Park.

Then back west to the 7-Eleven at the corner (:::::Ed.note-- 30' behind where this was shot.:::::)where a teacher from a high school in Reseda satisfies her quest but not in a fulfilling way. The final part of her column picks up with:

Most people couldn't name the mayor or wouldn't talk to me, making me suspect they didn't know either.

"I'm not selling the Daily News," I told one older man who gave me the same stink-eye that I frequently use on door-to-door solicitors. "I write."

Then I spied a party of senior citizens crowding around concrete tables in front of a community center on Victory Boulevard, playing cards and backgammon. Perfect. Retirees tend to know more about local politics than everyone else.

"Can I talk to you gentlemen for a moment?" I asked of one foursome playing cards at one table. "Sorry, sorry. No English." Apparently, I had picked a gathering of Arabic-only speakers. Only in L.A. :::::Ed.note-- There is an Islamic Center directly across the street.:::::

The only bright spot came during a stop for gum at a 7-Eleven on Reseda Boulevard. I asked the tall gentleman behind the counter if he knew who the mayor of L.A. is. He shook his head.

"You don't know who the mayor is?" a customer asked me, pityingly. This teacher from Cleveland High School was the first -- and only -- person on this random quest to want or be able to talk intelligently about the mayoral race. Then he delivered the blow, "but I don't vote here."

Or maybe I'm wrong.

Garza once mentioned this blog in a story on blogs and because it's the Daily News, it was a story on secession blogs. Remember secession?

Butterfly Festival

STREET FAIR: The poster for the May 21 & 22 event is online. Design is by Reseda High student Betty Rubio.

You mean the State has to actually prove it?

BLAKE TRIAL: Citing her experience in a jury pool, Resedan Rhoda Blecker wrote the Times to say that the standard for evidence set by TV crime dramas is not unreasonable:

...the standard for evidence has to be rigorous or the system fails. If the state has problems with that, it might consider orienting potential jurors in a less emphatic fashion. It seems to me that holding the prosecution to the highest possible standard of evidence is what we were being asked to do.

:::::Ed. note-- Bingo.:::::

Previously on Blake.

Observation for a darkened night

POEM: In honor of spring and the power outage last night, a reach back into the 18th Century to Yosu Buson,

Lighting one candle
With another candle --
Spring evening

Haiku translation by Robert Hass in "The Essential Haiku."

Power outage

RAIN: From West of Winnetka Av to Tampa and Roscoe to Vanowen, only a few tiny pockets could be seen with power. The Daily News said Canoga Park lost power, and didn't mention the possibly-related Reseda outage, but the 2,500 number seems low. Maybe Reseda missed dealine.

In the San Fernando Valley, a utility pole caught fire, cutting power to 400 customers in Canoga Park, while an additional 750 Canoga Park customers lost power when wires went down, the Department of Water and Power said.

Pacoima customers lost power, as did more than 2,500 customers elsewhere in Los Angeles, the DWP said.

2 photos: One is business up and running and doing a good business. The second is traffic control keeping cars from the DWP working 1/4 mile further.

Lights out

POWER OUTAGE: Western Reseda and seemingly most of Winnetka are without power as of this writing.

From crappy to snappy

SPORTS: The Cleveland High football team went from winning two games a season to a team that wins seven and makes the playoffs. After four years, Craig Cieslik the gridiron coach is turning over the team to someone else, says the Daily News.

Cieslik received a proclamation in '99 from LA County Supervisor Mike Antonovich’s office for his efforts as athletic director at Vasquez High School.

It's a color

WHAT'S IN A NAME: Vert Reseda is a color of drawing ink from J. Herbin, a company whose ink cartridges they call cartouches and whose Verte Reseda ink grows an "e" in one.
See photo

Artists' helpings

MUSIC: The previously mentioned roundtable by the Artists Helping Artists networking group was also a potluck :::::Ed. note-- to which I forgot to contribute:::: and as with all AHA Roundtable events, performing artists are able to perform. More pix of the rock band Tessatura are on the PhotoBlog, do a search for Tessatura, and in the folder hosted at Flickr.com

Young band plays beyond their years and has a Reseda connection, playing Weber's Place, called "probably the best sports bar" in the Valley and made #5 on their citywide list.

Bones to pick

LITERARY BREAK: Carole Simmons Oles' collection of poems "The Deed," offers text for the season -- "Four Bones for Late March" -- via Plowshares.com

Lot of troubles & a kick to the grass

MEETING: The Reseda Neighborhood Council's General Meeting (unlinkable and uncopyable text, lead item on left as of this writing) is a pairing with the Community Redevelopment Agency to host a town hall-type meeting for a discussion about the privately owned parking lots south of Sherman Way, between Lindley and Etiwanda Avenues. They'll give you food with a buffet hosted by La Tortilla Loca, located next door to this special meeting set for tonight at 7 p.m. at Canoas, 18134 Sherman Way.

Community Advisory Committee for the CRA for Reseda meets the 3rd Thur, 6 p.m. at 19040 Vanowen (they spell it Van Owen on this pdf, circa '02). Info: 757-2163.

What's has the CRA done for us lately? :::::Ed. note-- Bless them.

Also, the second item on the RNC homepage reports on the quashing of a move to put soccer fields in Wilbur Park (police station and library adjacent), where in the previous decade trees and rocks were put into open spaces, inhibiting but not detering the regular pickup soccer games there. Despite those obstacles and any still to come, people will want to use the park for soccer, as this foto shows of a dad practicing soccer fundamentals with his 2 boys among the bigger trees there.

Back before Prop. 13, public schools had ball fields and courts available for the citizenry to put public assets to use when they'd otherwise be sitting idle.

If people didn't need soccer fields they wouldn't be using Wilbur Park.:::::

Previously about La Tortila Loca

Home fires burning, February

ECONOMY: Monthly home sales stats, divided by zip code. House and condo prices in 91335 trend up, and the number of sales is down from Jan.
Sales of Single Family Homes...48, down from 55 in Jan.
Median Price: Single Family Homes...$450,000, up from Jan.'s $438,000
Price % Chg from Feb. '04...25%, down from last month's 26.2 increase of '04%
Sales Count of Condos...18, down from 25 in Jan.
Median Price: Condos...$345,000 is higher than Jan.'s $335,000
Price % Chg from Jan 04...32.1%, ticking up from the previous month's 31.4% increase from '04
Median Home Price per Sq. Ft...$345, an increase over Jan.'s rate of $337

Did the Times link expire? Data Quick real estate news will replicate it, and regional prices have still climbed, plus:

The typical monthly mortgage payment that Southland buyers committed themselves to paying was $1,905 last month, up from $1,822 for the previous month, and up from $1,542 for February a year ago. Last June it was $1,928, although the typical payment when adjusted for inflation is still about 10 percent below what it was in spring 1989.

Home to 'America's Most Dysfunctional Family'

SPOTLIGHT: When Tim Ballou and Linda Higgins wanted to get a locale for the country's singlemost dysfunctional family, Reseda must have seemed just the place. It's called "The O'Dooles of Reseda: A Year in the Life of America's Most Dysfunctional Family." There are (as of this writing) 11 or some of the '95 novel out there for sale right now.

THE O'DOOLES is a one-of-a kind humor book which chronicles the bizarre lives of a fictional family in southern California through their outrageous (but real) correspondence which was actually sent to, and answered by, well-known individuals and entities such as George and Barbara Bush, Alan Dershowitz, Katie Couric and the American Dental Association.

Ballou his ownself describes the book that way to an email group for fans of The Who, because apparently Pete Townsend replied to a letter from a fictional O'Doole.

Book lands in a list of Dysfunctional Family Books from 1995-1999, listed between: "Drug abuse prevention through family interventions" Ashery, R. S., E. B. Robertson, et al., U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services National Institutes of Health National Institute on Drug Abuse Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research; and "Families in pain : working through the hurts" by Balswick, J. K. and J. O. Balswick.

It's a long list.

Google says -- & if it's what can be deciphered from an "access denied" link -- the Cleveland (the city in Ohio, not the high school in Reseda) Public Library says it's in Marion, Ohio branch records under epistolary (letter written) fiction. That's completely pointless info until it's noted that Marian (with an 'a') was the former name of Reseda.

Unlocking heads and hearts

KUDOS: Julie Marie Pashko, 12, Heart of the Valley Christian School in Reseda was recognized last year by the LA Times.

She recruited friends to donate 700 inches of hair – including 15 inches of her own – to "Locks of Love," a non-profit organization providing hairpieces to underserved children suffering from medical hair loss.

IDs her as a Santa Ana resident. Seems far. Also says "Award finalists, ages 7-13, were nominated by parents, teachers and community leaders who submitted 200-word essays describing their nominee's contributions." Winners got names in a congratulatory advertisement to appear in the LATimes, a statue, four annual passes to a local amusement park and a t-shirt.

Crazy for the ceviche

FOOD: La Tortilla Loca made one of the best meals of '04 for the Daily News' Larry Lipson.

Dish of the year: Aguachile (spicy lime juice-soaked shrimp with onion, cucumber and avocado) is a sort of shrimp ceviche recipe that is especially refreshing on a hot summer day.

And they'll make it without cilantro.

More on Lipson in this pre-re-launch post and more on Reseda as a food mecca [RIP Dish Factory].

It's a flower

BOTANICA: Reseda is a genus of plant; lutea is a species of it. Here's a magnification of a piece of pollen. -- via Uppsala University, Sweden

Coneheads

BOTANICA: Look what they done to our street trees, though I think recent years show better behavior toward most:

Joan Citron, editor of "Selected Plants for Southern California Gardens," relishes teaching the city through its tree choices. Leading a tour of Reseda and Van Nuys, she points out small Valley streets planted with what have become such immense trees that on one side, city pruners have cut trees in half to free up power lines. "Chop-offs," she calls them, matter-of-factly.

That from this story praising conifers of all sorts, Emily Green of the LA Times makes the connection between California's great trees and the reason they're poorly used:

Redwoods, sequoias and bristlecones. California has the tallest, the biggest and the oldest conifers in the world. To excess, add extravagance. We also have the greatest variety. The whispering forests of the Sierra and Pacific ranges are thick with pine, juniper, larch and hemlock. We have drugs made from yew, homes from Douglas fir, fences from redwood.

Yet when it comes to landscaping our cities, we elected cedars from the Himalayas, pines from the South Pacific, cypresses from Iran. For our Victorian forebears, greatness simply wasn't gracious enough. The conifers of California weren't prize plants — "specimen trees" — selected to preside over a stately sweep of lawn; they were a renewable resource. Exotic plants served so much more clearly to demark town from country, civilization from the wild.

:::::::Ed. note-- Catch that? It was a writer named Green citing a source named Citron in a story about plants.:::::::
And it's a pity this info isn't available to everyone around living Christmas tree time:

Buyer beware: Of the leading types sold around Los Angeles, the wrong California native can be the most problematic. Jerry Turney, plant pathologist for the Los Angeles County Department of Agriculture, has three words about the Monterey pine: "Avoid it completely." They are from a wet maritime climate. They need too much water and, when drought-stressed, become prone to infestation with bark beetle.

Redwoods are simply too big, he adds, and also too thirsty.

Suffering suffrage

ELECTION: Following the coverage of the 27% turnout in the recent municipal primary elections, Daily News readers weighed in. Two Resedans made the letters column Sun Mar 13, one saying "why bother?" the other saying "so shut up then" ... or words to that effect.

While it's true that many of us are lazy for not voting, it is also true that many of us are increasingly fed up with the political/legal system in our society. Why vote when one judge can change an election? Why vote when elected officials cater to billion-dollar corporations? Why vote when Wall Street scamsters make bigger and bigger fortunes while honest hardworking people get nothing?

Our lawmakers destroy our institutions, bulldoze our cherished buildings and sell us out for a cushy pension. Why vote? --Frank Dookun, Reseda

And in counterpoint:

I was one of the 27 percent who voted. Frankly, I feel that anybody who did not vote should not express their opinions in this paper or anywhere else. They have no right to express their views unless they do it at the polls. Have some wine with that whine and crime. --Susan Metzger, Reseda

Blake: 'Songs of Innocence'

CRIME: The citation is William's not Robert's.
"Can I see a falling tear,
And not feel my sorrow's share?"

Not guilty; it's been said before that the LA DA's office works well except in the light.

::::::Ed. note-- Late breaking photo, by(?) Josh Stein via Flickr, a photo host site.:::::

2 tangents: The chicken piccata at Vitello's is awesome (maybe not forever though).

The AP pool photog is Nick Ut. He shot one of the most famous photographs ever. "Rashomon" it isn't, but revisited versions of the event vary, from this to this.

Fixing facts

WATER: When I called the city's 311 line Sun Mar 6 to report the leak coming from the city's side of my water meter, the operator who took the data said "They should be out some time next week."

I said, "Let me sure I got this right. I've just reported a leak and you say it'll be a week?" :::::Ed.note: Yes, she said it'd be next week, and I said she said it'd be a week::::: She proceeded to tell me about how their service call priority is toward major breakages, blah, blah, yeah I got it. By morning, there was a DWP orange cone at the leak, indicating the leak was assessed and duly prioritized. By the evening of Tue Mar 15 the leak had been staved, if not repaired.

That was within hours of the earlier posting and a day after posting this photo. By no stretch of imagination do I think those events are related. The cone remains, so some work is likely still coming.

:::::Ed. note: Cone is gone, hole filled, as of this evening:::::

Since the NHL cancelled, fans need action

SPORTS: Reseda-based Goossen Tutor Promotions promotes fighters, Riddick Bowe and James Toney among them. Toney signed for a title bout. Daily News' Robert Morales writes that after a news conference Toney stood with the troubled ex-champ -- a title re-contender himself:

While he and Bowe posed for pictures, Toney did not take kindly to Bowe's remark that he was "just a fat middleweight.'

The two had to be separated. Toney screamed at Bowe, "I'm going to knock you out.'

The Bowe is set to fight in a few weeks , but... (from the top in that story):

Riddick Bowe, former two-time heavyweight champion, is scheduled to face Billy Zumbrun on April 7 in his second fight since coming back from an eight-year retirement.

Bowe, 37, first must pass a series of neurological tests from the California State Athletic Commission before facing Zumbrun (18-5-1, 10 KOs). Before retiring in 1996, Bowe was involved in several vicious fights that left his speech impaired. He has been granted licenses in three states since coming back last year.

"I'll tell you what, I'll take any medical test you want me to take and then some,' said Bowe, who recently did 17 months in federal prison for kidnapping his family in 1998. "I passed all my medicals in three states, so to me, that is not a problem.'

Bowe spoke clearly during an interview session at Sisly Italian Kitchen in Sherman Oaks.

Do "medicals" include psychologicals? or not?

Promoters also handle a Gold Medal winner from the National Jr. Olympics

WITH BAITED BREATH

RESEDA PARK: The Sierra Pacific Flyfishers class meets at Reseda High School and the pond at Reseda Park for 3 Saturdays before heading to Piru Creek, says the LA Times.

JANUARY HOME SALES

ECONOMY: Data Quick Real Estate News republishes the Sunday LA Times monthly home sales zip code chart. For Reseda:
Sales of Singe Family Homes...55
Median Price: Single Family Homes...$438,000
Price % Chg from Jan 04...26.2%
Sales Count of Condos...25
Median Price: Condos...$335,000
Price % Chg from Jan 04...31.4%
Median Home Price per Sq. Ft...$337

LA Voice weighs in on such things.

KILLING BY INTRUDER

CRIME: Daily News reported "An 84-year-old woman was fatally stabbed in the bedroom of her daughter's house early Wednesday by an assailant who entered through an unlocked window but took nothing from the house, police said."
Police don't think it's a random murder: "Investigators did not have an immediate motive for the attack and said it was not a burglary attempt."

BORDERING ON THE PICAYUNE

BOUNDARIES: City Beat's Valley Boy column peeks at the nightspot Paladino's, at Oxnard Blvd., and their booking policy of catering to fans of tribute bands -- those who mimic popular bands who'd never play a venue like this, a phenomenon that became a phenomenon with Beatlemania. Trouble is, Paladino's is in Tarzana. Since the Coffee Machine closed, sadly, there is no live music venue in Reseda.

Great L.A. media round-up blog L.A.Observed repeats the mistake.

Though the Reseda borders have varied over time, but since codified in the recent past, the borders are at the well-designated boundaries of Victory Blvd. at the south, Roscoe Blvd. at the north, Corbin Ave. to the west, and White Oak Ave. to the east.

WATER TORTURE

WATER: This leak, a few gallons an hour, was reported to the DWP on the city's 311 line (pdf file) -- which worked great. Water eventually (1200 yards away?) passes here and reaches the under-active drain at Amigo & Sherman Way shown here. Fortunately irony doesn't rust.

UPSIDE TO DEVELOPMENT

UPSIDE TO DEVELOPMENT

REPORT from Multi-Housing News calling it the "Deal of the Day:" Upside Investments Inc. boasts a quick turnaround on the 58-unit apartment building they put on Valerio St. at Reseda Blvd., behind the newish CVS pharmacy.

"We are extremely pleased to complete the full investment cycle--from design and build and lease-up to sale in 18 months, while netting a sizable return on invested equity," said Sean Baker, president of Upside Investments.

-- via Toppix.net

Firm is same that recent sold the former Getty Oil HQ for $40mil above their 2003 purchase price, says the LA TIMES:

The developer paid close to $60 million for the 22-story tower at the southwest corner of Wilshire and Western Avenue, which was completed in 1963 by oil tycoon J. Paul Getty.

The seller, Upside Investments Inc. of Calabasas, paid more than $20 million for the property in 2003 and announced plans to convert the offices to luxury apartments.

Project is part of a plan detailed by WILSHIRE CENTER

THOUGH THERE'LL BE MORE FINETUNING ...

THOUGH THERE'LL BE MORE FINETUNING ...

Let's call this a relaunch. The previous handful posts may fill some gaps in the narrative that is this Reseda Blog, and there'll be more, but we will now resume our regular program, which we join while already in progress.

WEBLEY SITE

WEBLEY SITE

September of '04 a friend, Jason Webley, came back to town. He had played at the Knitting Factory. Missed that show. He'd apparently run long (for the KF) and took his crowd to the street and when he was done he'd asked the crowd if anyone knew of a place to play in town on such-and-such a night. A venue of any sort, ...
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He seemed a sport about it enough to make a bit of a show that ended with the 15 or so people there spinning like dervishes and singing:
"When the glass is full,
Drink up! Drink up!
This maybe the last time
We see this cup.
If God wanted us sober,
He'd knock the glass over,
So while it is full we drink up!"

The performance began with him telling a story of how Chris & I had met him the previous year.
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Someone, upon hearing "ecclectic folk singer/accordian player with a lot of vegetable imagery in his songs and on his records and he's touring with a puppeteer" thought it'd be good for the kids to see. Nevermind that one of the puppet pieces was rabbits acting out the story of a Johnny Cash song where one of the rabbits is hanged at the end. Parents were aghast. The kids loved it, Jason said, telling the handful of us in that apartment it was that show which was maybe the weirdest venue he'd played, until this one.

"This one" was a smidge of a collegiate hollow with improvised art on the walls, including an LP cover of an Allen Sherman masterpiece.
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We arrived at Watts Towers on the day of a drum festival featuring Leon Ndugu Chancler, art & craft show, food fair -- cool sounds, some fine fine art and great smells. I raved about Bottle Village (similarly envisioned as to be constructed from consumer cast-offs, similarly movitated by an anti-alcohol streak, but constructed vastly differently since Simon Rodia was very much a preternatural engineer and Grandma Prisbrey was very much not) and how next time Jason should see that.
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Some more of the story, with more to come. Some pix, with more to come.

.ORG, .COM, WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?

.ORG, .COM, WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?

.Org might be about plants in Italy. Or not.

WELL, YEAH, THERE'S THIS

WELL, YEAH, THERE'S THIS

Wife & mother-in-law bought Renee's Art Studio. Been there a lot. Now, here too.

AMONG OTHER HIATUS ACTIVITIES

AMONG OTHER HIATUS ACTIVITIES

Been involved with these people: AHA! (Artist's Helping Artists) who stage networking roundtables for artists of every discipline, the next being Sunday, Mar 13, at Don Larson's Das Bauhaus, referenced here in a essay pegged on film festival screenings there:

Don Larson looks more like a member of ZZ Top than an artistic figurehead. As owner of the lime-green apartment building at 8819 Etiwanda in Northridge California, he is just that. What was once a run of the mill Southern California apartment building is now a full-fledged artist colony as well as community center. After the '94 Northridge earthquake Don renamed his building Das Bauhaus.

HIATUSING WITH ANOTHER BLOG

HIATUSING WITH ANOTHER BLOG

Outside the Box was a blog written for Variety.com (to see it, first-time readers must bypass a subscription info page by hitting the BACK button on their browser) that attracted a bit of attention during it's life, in the blogosphere (last item), and by the Los Angeles Press Club in the 2004 Greater LA Journalism Awards (Online Column/Commentary/Criticism category). That blog is now on hiatus, seemingly for the rest of time.

Some samples.

OTHER DAYS, OTHER HIATUSINGS

OTHER DAYS, OTHER HIATUSINGS

More distractions, via the RNC, by way of a ongoing seminar by Coro.

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER HIATUSING

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER HIATUSING

Been working on the arts component to the coming street festival called The Butterfly Festival in Reseda Park. There's a $1,000 Grand Prize (that's why we're calling it a "grand" prize). And an exhibit during the May 21 & 22 event.