i'm a picketer's pal

Wired News' Jenna Wortham wrote a story about Dave Bullock's Downtown Locations Filming Map and how it's being used during the WGA strike to picket downtown location shoots. It mentions me briefly, and how Dave's traffic has spiked since the strike started. Check it out here.

bits and pieces

I'm back, I'm jetlagged, and I lost my cell phone somewhere in Germany. I think the reason I lost it is because it had a Hello Kitty charm attached and I tend to leave at least one Hello Kitty item behind whenever I travel. Yeah, I suck.

I'll try to get my pics up quickly but I still have a lot of work to do. I finished my rewrite while I was in Germany (yay me!), but I want to print it out and give it another once-over before I send it in to the producer. Then I'm going to light my big fat Cuban cigar and try not to think about rewriting any more until I get the notes back from my writers group and the producer.

Lots happened while we were gone and lots more about to happen, so let me just run down a few:

* I read that 'gina had a big grand opening in Little Tokyo while I was gone. Does anybody want to come with and taste some 'gina on Wednesday night with me, Jim, Shannon, Neonboy and the Gentrifier? That's Wednesday night, 7-ish, and let's call it "A Taste of 'Gina".

* My ex-loftmate and grill master extraordinaire, Tim Swiss, was nominated for an Ovation Award. Yay Tim!

* The Fashion District is launching its own Fashion District Farmer's Market at Santee Village (7th & Los Angeles Streets). Every Wednesday from 4-7pm, you can stuff your 100% hemp or canvas tote bag with organic produce and whatever else they're slinging. There will be a DJ at this week's grand opening, and you can also get a free Fashion District tote bag. Woo hoo, if it's free, it's for me!

* Next weekend is the Brewery 2007 Fall Artwalk and i-5 Gallery Show. The twice-annual Brewery Artwalk is designed to showcase Los Angeles Fine Artists selling gallery-quality fine art at studio prices and the i-5 Gallery showcases works by Brewery tenants.

* Two weeks away from our puppy, Wonton, and he's all grown up. He's got balls now.

* And finally, a draft version of the Downtown Los Angeles Filming Special Conditions is online and available for public comment.

I will have my Oktoberfest 2007 photo essay up as soon as I can stop laughing at Jim's pics of drunken me ordering more beer, and also some really nice pictures and stories about Heidelberg, my new favorite German city.

caltrans building's new filming policy

Photo courtesy of Jim

Here's a message from the California Film Commission, courtesy of Ben:

September 6, 2007

Production Alert: New California Film Commission Policy for filming at the Caltrans District 7 Headquarters in Los Angeles.

Due to the overwhelming popularity of the Caltrans Building at 1st & Main in downtown Los Angeles, this facility will no longer be able to accommodate any interior filming or interior set dressing. Exterior filming only is still permitted between the hours of 5:00 pm and 5:00 am on weekdays, and is available all day on weekends. In addition, the building can only accommodate one production per week (regardless of the number of days.)

In order to reserve a space on the calendar for this location, you must submit a permit application on-line to the California Film Commission at www.film.ca.gov.

There will be no exceptions to these new guidelines.

A detailed fact sheet with guidelines, contacts, and requirements for filming at this location is attached.

Thank you in advance for adhering to these new guidelines. The CFC works closely with all of our state partners to ensure that these unique properties remain available for filming for years to come.

Please call if you have any questions (323-860-2960).

California Film Commission
7080 Hollywood Blvd., Suite 900
Hollywood, CA 90028
323-860-2960
www.film.ca.gov

I wonder if this has anything to do with whatever was filming at the CalTrans Building last night. After midnight, these bright lights were suddenly shining directly at my building late last night. It was incredibly bright. I turned off all my lights and it lit my living room well enough for me to read - all from five blocks away. I'm sure the folks on the north side of the San Fernando Building loved that.

downtown filming, downtown blogs

I read Ed and Eric's posts re new rules for downtown filming available on the FilmLA website. I love that I can get my essential info on downtown living from downtown blogs rather than the Downtown News or any other traditional media source. But there is still a lot of helpful information that I don't see covered and I know I'm guilty of not posting the most useful stuff or the most hilarious gossip anymore. I promise, more good stuff to come and less of my Hello Kitty obsession. Jeez, I did it again. Where was I? Oh yeah, back to filming downtown. Damn, that simulated gunfire from the film crew down the street is loud.

Eric states on blogdowntown (and I heartily agree), "Aside from the PDF making it sound like Film LA is making these changes of their own free will, the rules are a good start toward making filming a better neighbor. "

It is a very good start and I'm so appreciative of DLANC's Residential Committee for all they've done to make this happen and for their continued efforts. Special thanks to Benjamin Pezzillo, Bert Green and Ginny Marie Case.

But I have to laugh at Ed's theory, "I think it has something to do with Downtown being the '3rd "bloggiest' neighborhood." Hey, weren't we just talking about that after that residential meeting? Ed suggested that we have a picnic or barbecue for all downtown bloggers. I think we should have a meet-up at Lost Souls for all downtown bloggers and the people who read them. Anybody interested in going to that?

Here's an interesting viewpoint- I read this blog post re the ACLU, the cleaning up of Skid Row and downtown development. This woman's take on things is titled, " How the Supreme Court killed downtown Los Angeles". Why can't the Downtown News run articles like this instead of the same old rah-rah real estate stories?

slow-moving traffic

Last night Jim and I attended another DLANC Residents' Issues Meeting. As we left the Little Tokyo Library, we stopped to chat with Dave and Ed from View From A Loft. We were talking about downtown filming, blogging, and organizing a downtown bloggers barbecue or picnic when a funny thing happened. A motorcycle cop with his lights flashing escorted a crane as it slowly trawled down Los Angeles Street on its way to some film crew's base camp. We all scrambled for our cameras, but I had pulled mine out of my purse before leaving the loft. Damn.

Ed managed to snap a picture, I hope he posts it soon. I'm guessing it was for the MONK shoot scheduled for today on Spring Street. They're using the parking lot behind us and another lot at 6th and Main, but we received plenty of notification and they've been pretty cool so far. Let's see what happens at 10pm tonight when they're supposed to be gone, but I have a feeling it'll be a non-issue.

I thought it was cute that instead of "MONK" on the cast/crew directional signs, it read "O.C.D."

more downtown filming

Yet another shoot downtown. We didn't get any notifications that this would be shooting in the parking lot next door or that their lights would be bleeding into our loft.



Those lights are really bright.

We didn't get any notifications about this shoot either.





This was a production titled THEM and many of my neighbors had problems with this shoot for the past week. They started moving their trucks after 10pm and started blasting air horns around 1am. Nice. I don't think anyone puts up with this, or is expected to, in any other neighborhood.