the caltrans building on foot
August 19, 2004 by Eric Richardson
I took a walk today at lunch. From my apartment I went up Spring to 1st, and then from there headed a block east to take some pictures of the new Caltrans Building. My opinion of this building is altered a little bit each time I see it, but I think in general I'd say it gets refined more than changed. Check out my pictures starting here to see an admittedly low-quality view of what I'm talking about.
I think the building looks a lot less ominous when you're farther away. You get a sense of perspective that you can't get when you're right down under it. The Main St. fronting courtyard should be nice. It's still fenced off while under construction, but it looks like it'll be some open space that the building really needs to not flat out overpower you.
I've mentioned before that this building really made me sit there thinking I just didn't get it -- I just didn't understand. Today was a great example of this. It wasn't until I was standing across 1st, looking at a side-view of the building, that I first understood some of the crazy angles in the bottom of that black metal mesh covering. If you look at my third picture you can see a little of how the mesh is supposed to bunch up, looking a bit wrenched from its flat shape. From the front you can't see that. It just looks like weird angles.
The rear of the building, the side facing Los Angeles St, has a much poorer street presence than does the front. Here you do get those nice blank concrete walls directly across from the New Otani. Again, it's a question of how the structure interacts with the space it's given. All the lines on this building are horizontal, and pretty much all ornamentation is above the high-side ground level. As the gentle downhill runs its course, the building stays unchanged, its lines just moving farther above the street level. Yeah, it's a parking garage down there, but at least give the wall something. I mean you sheathed everything else in metal, why not that?
As always, it's still to early to judge what everything will look like once the finishing touches are in place and the construction fences come down. And as with all architecture, it'll end up being a matter of personal preference. My preference, though, is that I like the classic old downtown buildings. What happened to stately or sleek? When did those go out of style and give way to abrupt and jarring?
no, i'm not mayor yet
August 19, 2004 by Eric Richardson
So, a funny thing happened last night: I became an elected official.
I think my title is "Area-Wide Resident Artist", a position on the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council. Yeah, "Resident Artist"... Me... What does that say about art?
Here's how it went down:
Around noon I got an email from Brady Westwater asking if I was going to be at the election [last night]. I called him back and said something to the effect of "What election?" He explained , sort of, and said the Higgins building was behind a candidate and I could just show up to vote. That's cool, I'm curious about this whole hyper-local government via neighborhood council thing, so I figure I'll show up.
6:30pm I show up where the voting's going to be. I then find out that the actual votings not until 7pm. No problem... I hung out and got to know the few people who were there already.
It gets to be 7pm. The Higgins group hasn't showed. Brady's calling people. Somebody's stuck in traffic. That person says they'll call the candidate. No one else shows.
Several of the 6 or 8 people there to vote are getting impatient. There's no one to vote for. To pass the time I ask more about what the position is. I don't get a very clear answer, other than the title and that the person attends the board meetings and is expected to be on a couple of DLANC's committees.
A minute or two more pass, and they're telling me that web design counts as an art these days. All of a sudden I have a candidate form in front of me and I'm filling out my name.
Paperwork done I get nominated, give a very short speech telling a little about me, how I love living downtown, and how I'm interested in pursuing ways to enable localized community via the Internet, and the voting ensues. I'm running unopposed, and everyone votes for me.
As of 7:20 or so I'm an elected official, with a position I didn't even know existed until seven hours earlier.
This is the kind of random stuff that happens to me in LA. Cool stuff, but so random...
oh so tempted
August 18, 2004 by Eric Richardson
I'm really tempted to get a Tivo. Best Buy has the Toshiba SD-H400 for $199, and then you can get a $100 rebate for signing up for the Tivo Plus service (for $13/mon). So basically you get an 80gig Tivo + DVD player for $99, which is the price of the regular Tivo 40-gig models.
I understand that I need a Tivo. I've played with them before. I love them.
I'm a little sketchy on integrating the Tivo with a cable box, using the whole IR repeater thing. I wish I lived somewhere where I could get DirecTV and get a DirecTivo. Those are very cool.
I have to run the numbers and see if, for instance, I could buy this and still be able to eat for the rest of the month. If I can, though, this may well be something I need to get.
i might not be the right person to ask
August 18, 2004 by Eric Richardson
A friend IM'ed me the other day. He said his company had asked him to start a blog, and he was looking for advice on how to go about that. Obviously, he hadn't read my paper, "Can Blogs and Corporations Co-exist?" I told him to read that first, and then we'd talk.
Today we followed up a bit, and I asked him a few more questions. Turned out the company wasn't satisfied with their placement in google, so they were looking for something to expand their web presence. My friend's boss told him "blogging would be a good way of doing it."
Right. See, if I were using examples for how not to go about starting a corporate blog, this would be a bullseye. No direction, no vision, just the vague idea that this new-fangled "blogging" trend might bring in more eyeballs. Sorry, but it doesn't quite work that way.
Blogs need to have a voice. They need to have a vision. A personal blog is focused on the interests of that individual. A blog like google does might be focused on exposing details of a company that a whole lot of people are interested in. But it can't be something written by "the company." My friend's company does business consulting: business plans, venture capital advice, stuff like that. "The company" can't write about that kind of stuff and make it interesting. I don't trust "the company." I think it's going to sell me things. My friend can't write a blog about that; he just doesn't know enough about the subject to write authoritatively. Why do I want to go read something written by some college kid trying to bring people to the company website?
this man never quits
August 18, 2004 by Eric Richardson
Like I do most mornings, I'm sitting here right now listening to Morning Becomes Eclectic. As the current song began I recognized a familiar voice. The song is RL Burnside's "Someday Baby" featuring Lyrics Born, off the album A Bothered Mind. The last (and only) RL album I've owned was 1998's Come On In.
I love this from the album description for Come On In:
I finally done did it. The world can finally hear my sound. I've been hollerin' and screaming to let them let me get my hands on the mixing knobs. I'm getting too old to waste my time with stuff that isn't on the cutting edge. I'm too old to be staying up all night writing songs; I got to spend my time on remixes. I always was a behind-the-scenes kind of man anyway.
You tell em, RL. The new album definitely sounds worth checking out.