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I love that ad- I'm glad that nobody at the ad agency played the entire song for the GM brass...

I thought they were called "Skegs" as well....

They have one for my neighborhood too: This is pretty much crap, and the real story is better. Supposedly it is haunted. The original owner was the scion of the hugely wealthy Doheny family, and his dad built him this huge estate as a wedding gift. Mr. Doheny was shot to death by his male secretary (who then shot himself) in what was reported as a fight over money. But there were rumors that the secretary and Doheny were having an affair, and that Daddy found out and shot them both. Mrs. Doheny lived there for about another 30 years or so, selling off the huge acreage in the backyard to a developer in the 50's to build the Trousdale Estates subdivision. When her children had moved on, she sold the estate and the reamining 18 acres to a Chicago businessman, who never moved in. In 60's the city of BH bought the site and put a reservoir on the upper part, keeping the grounds as a park. The house was used by the American Film Institute as a headquarters and is featured in tons of movies. A creepy note- the police used the wrong type of tape when they taped the body: when the tape was removed, the finish on the floor came up, leaving the outline permanently visible. The floor was never refinished and the outline remains to this day.

There is an article in the New York Times about the automotive artwork of the 50's and 60's mentioning a show at the Detroit Library that's focused on this subject. It closes at the end of the month. I hope it comes to the Petersen

The funky new office building across the street from me: The complex I used to work in before I got a job downtown: On the west side of town, the house where Bugsy Siegel got his head blown off: Beverly Gardens Park, which bisects the city, separating the rich part from the rest of us: The house I'd love to own, a Lloyd Wright (FLlW's son) on Crescent Drive (not a great photot)

Cadillac: Sedan de Ville= French for "Town Car" Coupe de Ville= French for "Town Coupe" Calais= French town overlooking the straights of Dover, traditional entry point into France from the channel by boat. Eldorado= mythical city of gold, searched for for centuries. Originally spelled "el Dorado" Biarritz= Resort town on the Basque area of France, known for it's surfing and night-life Seville= Port city in southern Spain, the setting for "Don Juan" Allante= means nothing, I read a story that this was decided upon when it was found that the original name meant something filthy in some foreign language, but that may be apocryphal Catera= means nothing Cimmaron= Town in the historic west, or Edna Ferber novel, you be the judge.

Dana Reeve had lung cancer, and the other D's were pretty old (odd how they were all "D", eh?). Only Puckett's stroke was completely out of the blue. Still sad though.

Blu might want to read the LATimes take on it in part: "In the privacy of the voting booth, as many political candidates who've led in polls only to lose elections have found out, people are free to act out the unspoken fears and unconscious prejudices that they would never breathe to another soul, or, likely, acknowledge to themselves. And at least this year, that acting out doomed 'Brokeback Mountain.'" He adds that Academy voters picked "Crash" because, perversely, "it is, in some ways, a feel-good film about racism, a film you could see and feel like a better person, a film that could make you believe that you had done your moral duty and examined your soul when in fact you were just getting your buttons pushed and your preconceptions reconfirmed."

Personally, I hated Crash. It's such an over-exaggeration of the problems in this city. Racism is bad, and we all deal with it. We get it. But I've live in LA for nearly 20 years, and this is not a portrait of the city I live in, it's a cartoon.

I thought the commercial was great- why is it not up on the website?

That's great. But I hope we see it soon on the show curcuit, and soon after in the showrooms. They can't be having this stuff coming out in 2012..

They are in the west valley too? I only ever knew them as being in Pasadena. But I pretty much stick to a few miles around Beverly Hills/ Santa Monica and Pasadena. I guess Rusnak Chrysler is still there but I guess it's called Pasadena Chrysler now.

what they have to realise is that they need good ads. Yes. people have Tivo to skip over the ads. This is no different from the 80's when people first got remote controls and flipped the channel to skip ads, or in the 70's when people would use the ads as an opportunity to grab a cold one from the icebox. People can and will ignore ads if they aren't interesting enough to hold their attention or the product sucks. That's all there is. You can blame it on Tivo if you want: all the viral media and podcasts won't help; you can strap the viewer down and tape his eyes open like that scene in "Clockwork Orange" and the viewer will still tune out that DyTech ad. Get over it. It's about good ads and interesting product. Cadillac had one of the best with "Moments". Do more like that. And what the hell are you going to podcast about? This seems like an marketing Department filled with desperate MBA's trying to sound relevent..

is thst Rusnak Chrysler? That's where my leBaron was from..

It just gets weirder....

It was a way for manufacturers to cheap out on not having airbags. The government gave manufacturers a couple of years where they could have some sort of passive safety system, and this was one of the ones that were acceptable until the year they had to have airbags. The other was the ones where both lap and seat belt were anchored to the door. Convertibles were exempt.

I've seen Ford, GM and Chryslers here in LA. I think they're testing the effects of an Ice-Blended on drivers response times.

I get that from my PC friends. I remember when I bought my present computer (a key lime iBook SE) five years ago that I was paying too much, that I'd bever use a 20 gig hard drive, etc. Well, my PC friends have gone through at least two computers since I got this one, and the only reason I would need a new computer is that I am starting to be left behind as far as upgrades: but i can lst another three years before I'm totally left behind, and I am sure that the computer will last that long. Hell, my experience at work, with three computers in six years is more than enough to reinforce the idea that Mac is the way to go: I've had IBM, HP and Dell and they were all awful.

The rule I use is "if it can't be corrected immediately, then don't mention it". Since he can zip his fly, mention it. He can't have the big thing on his back taken off by wiping it, so don't mention it.

I don't and I wouldn't, but I don't see anything terribly wrong with it. It's not like the cow that my burger came from committed suicide......

I was having a birthday dinner for a friend at <B>very</b> expensive restaurant in downtown LA (which I won't name, but it's, oh what the hell, it was Patina). The food would have been great if it wasn't served piping cold. Not one of the dishes were served above luke-warm. I didn't say anything at the time because it was a birthday dinner, and I wasn't paying for it. But I know it was more than $300 bucks- without tip (because I left the tip). I did quietly send in an email mentioning it, and didn't hear anything for two months. I sent a second email, and got a message back saying "so sorry, let us make it up, blah, blah, blah". Well, the dude didn't say that he was going to comp another meal for us, so I didn't bother. I don't need to be given a free round of drinks and another $300 dollar meal that ain't going to be better than what I can make at home.

I don't think the Camaro is nearly as retro as the Challenger, and the Mustang is about halfway between the two. The Camaro has the stance of a modern car, the Challenger looks like a car from the 70's that Chip Foose got his hands on. Not that I don't like it, I just don't think it's as good as the Camaro.

Funny you write that: up until just a couple of years ago the most that most people who live in LA saw of downtown was either a TV commercial or the view from the East escalators of the Beverly Center unless you worked there. Except for a few buildings on Bunker Hill, there were a lot of people there during the day, but it was a ghost town after 5 and on weekends (and in a lot of area still is). It's just in the past few years that people have really started to move back downtown, despite the fact that you have to drive to South Pasadena to get to the supermarket.

As does the Museum of Tolerance in LA

I was just thinking the same thing. A Burberry edition Escalade would sell. Just as long as it doesn't have a padded vinyl roof: