MISSING LA - I DON'T LIVE IN LA #4

This time in Spanish and English

2010. El número me suena a ciencia ficción. Pero ha llegado. Happy New Year!!! Voy a inaugurar el año bloguero con uno de los videos de la serie I don´t live in LA @Getty#09. Tengo mucho material filmado y lo quiero ir sacando poco a poco. Además, para qué engañarnos, echo de menos esa extraña ciudad sin ciudad, donde sólo algunos barrios parecen tener vida humana, donde la gente sueña constantemente con reinventarse, donde los cielos no caben en los ojos y donde el cambio horario crea la ficción imposible de que todo ocurrió ayer. Eso sí, pasear por las calles de Madrid, atiborradas de gente en pleno ataque de consumismo navideño se ha convertido en un inesperado placer. Después de dos meses teniendo que subirme a un coche para poder rodearme de gente que pasea sin más, tener a miles de madrileños ruidosos alrededor resulta extrañamente reconfortante. No obstante, este video muestra una de las caras amables de Los Angeles, Venice Beach. Allí hay sobredosis de vida.

I grew up thinking about 2010 as a sci-fiction year, but it's totally real now. Happy New Year from Madrid!! I am opening the new blog season with a video from the series I don't live in LA @Getty#09. I can't lie, I miss that weird city without a city, where only a few neighborhoods seem to be inhabited by people; where the sky doesn't fit inside the eyes; where people dream about reinventing themselves, and where the clock travels so far behind the rest of the world that everything seems to have happened yesterday. I have to confess though, to see Madrid' streets packed with madrileños doing frantic Christmas shopping or just walking because walking it's fun it has been a surprising pleasure. After two months of feeling at times the last human being on the planet in the streets of LA and having to drive just to go to share some public space with people, I am enjoying being surrounded by thousands of noisy Spaniards. In this video, though, there are people. Lots of them. It shows one of the mildest sides of LA, Venice Beach.

GETTING TO KNOW LOS ANGELES #1

Yes, believe it or not I am still in LA. I've been 'missing in action', I am sorry, but I had to organize many things in order to stay here in December so my blog suffered of lack of attention, but I am back!

It wasn't difficult to avoid returning to New York: the winter is killer there and December presented itself in LA under the warm light of my beloved Cadiz, (who knew it???) and with different kind of temptations, like a very cheap apartment to stay in or a kick-ass bike to be a rebel and bike instead of driving in LA so, how could I say no? Plus, I am a journalist working for a newspaper in crisis that shrinks everyday and in consequence my amount of work is shrinking too so I figured I wouldn't miss much...




The USC/Getty fellowship provided me with the best possible Cicerones in town, but after those three heavenly weeks, reality hit back. I don't want to be one of those reporters that land in a place and start judging it right away, without really knowing or understanding what life is like in that place. That's a sin that we journalists commit too often and I'd like to avoid it. That was one of the reasons for me to stay in LA longer: let's try to have an Angelino life and see if it is possible to understand why this city is evenly loved and hated.

I am going to try to do my best at describing very simple experiences that are also related with important discussions that are going on around the country and the world, like health care, public transportation, public spaces, culture, immigration or food. I' ll do it over a series of posts.



THE ILLUSION OF BIKING IN LA
Yes, I've tried and it's possible. If you don't have a car, a bike makes your life easier, but it's not a solution if you want to go to the other side of the city... unless you have loooots of time!! -I' ll talk about driving in LA in the next few days and also about the project CicLAvia-. My biking trip from Downtown to Hancock Park wasn't too difficult, 45 minutes biking. But the thought of going back in the dark of the night, through blocks and blocks of empty sidewalks it wasn't an appealing idea. It feels very good to be alone in the middle of the countryside looking at the landscape. The emptiness of a city sidewalk and the deafening sound of silence when you are surrounded by inhabited houses it's very foreign and creepy to me... as a Swedish friend asked over and over for a year after she moved to LA, 'where is the city'?????

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION
Well, it seems that in LA the city is always indoors. It feels weird because the climate would make it the perfect outdoors city but if people don't use public transportation, chances are that not many people will flock to the streets to going to places. They just flock into their cars. In fact, LA must be one of the very few cities in the world whose subway looks like this at rush hour:


This picture, taken at 8,30 am on the red line
must look like a dream to new yorkers....

The subway is not too bad, it's quite ugly but at least it's clean, and the city is trying to improve it opening new lines and promising a big expansion,. For buses is quite another story. Some of them look like they belong to a seventies horror movie: they feel old and quite abandoned inside -sorry to say that the GPS screens don't make up reality- and the amount of mentally ill people that board them it doesn't make it better. Public transportation in LA reflects class and economy without mercy : an overwhelming amount of users are Latinos, blacks, elderly people or homeless. I tried buses a few times, and I guess it also depends on the neighborhood but I never had such a depressing experience in a bus before. From a very old sick woman with her very cheap wig on to the super fat guy that hadn't shower in at least a month and walked into the bus drinking and screaming provoking zero reactions around, all I could think of is to leave the bus asap. I couldn't, I had to go somewhere. So were many workers that just happen to don't make enough money to have a car. The depressing view they have to endure inside buses every day probably just make them dream of killing somebody. I would end up in a gang if I had to take the bus everyday... It should be mandatory for every Angelino to hop the bus at least once a week, so people with voice and power -the poor never count- would start asking for improvements. Cities need to boost their public transportation system's asap. Did anybody hear about climate change and Copenhagen in LA????

If the city were smart enough, they would make life inside public transportation a less depressing experience, improving the quality of the buses, the amount of them and taking care of their homeless, that choose buses -and public libraries I am told- to spend their time. It seems that now they are less than they used to be, 'only' 48,000, but I am living downtown and I see them all the time, and it's heartbreaking. Governments are there, among other things, to take care of the weakest parts of society, that's what I learnt in Spain. In the USA 'weakness' equals 'looser', that horrible word that reflects better than any other the cultural values in which Americans are educated. That's why people seem to be afraid of the 'public option' in the health care debate. Being taking care of it sounds like a sin to millions of people. But they should realize that paying for health care doesn't guarantee real or better care...

I don't live in LA (day 3)

This time in Spanish and English

Hoy he descubierto que un inmigrante italiano llamado Simon Rodia emuló a Gaudí sin saberlo al construir las Watts Towers, una escultura con aire a La Sagrada Familia en el corazón del barrio de Watts, en Los Angeles. Se pasó más de tres décadas dedicado a su obra, reciclando materiales para construirla poco a poco y sin ningún tipo de ayuda entre 1920 y 1954. Las Watts Towers estuvieron a punto de ser demolidas en los años cincuenta pero sobrevivieron a la amenaza de las inmobiliarias y hoy permanecen erguidas como supervivientes ejemplares de la historia de este duro suburbio de Los Angeles, habitado principalmente por afroamericanos e infaustamente conocido por los 'Watts riots' de 1965. Según cuenta la leyenda, mientras Rodia construía sus torres alguien le mostró una foto de La Sagrada Familia. "Se parece a mis torres" exclamó con cierto desdén. Tras contemplar la foto un rato exclamó "!Pero a él le ayudaron a construir su iglesia, yo lo hice solo!".
La banda sonora es un jarocho, música tradicional de Veracruz grabada en directo durante una cena musical en casa de Sasha Anawalt. Uno de los intérpretes es Cesar Castro, un mexicano que hoy vive en Los Angeles y que tiene un brillante futuro como músico. Por alguna razón su jarocho me recordó al viaje al desierto de Mojave que también hemos hecho durante la usc annenberg fellowship. El video no es periodístico, es otro experimento sin apenas edición con la digital harinezumi.



Today I discovered that an immigrant named Simon Rodia built a sculpture -the Watts Towers- that resembles Gaudi's Sagrada Familia. He shaped it in the heart of Watts, one of the toughest and resilient neighborhoods of Los Angeles. We had a very unique guide who told us how the story went: "One day somebody showed Rodia a picture of Gaudi's church. He looked at it and said with some disdain 'it looks like my towers!'. Then, after a pause, he added: 'He definitely had some help, I did it alone!". Rodia spent more than 30 years building his towers all by himself between the '20s and the 50's.
The musical score is by Cesar Castro, who played jarochos live during a musical night at Sasha Anawalt's home. California used to belong to Mexico, I guess that's why I made the unconscious connection between jarochos (traditional music from Veracruz) and the Mojave desert in this video piece. It's not a reporting piece, it's another experiment with almost no editing with the digital harinezumi.

I don't live in LA (day 2)

An experimental audio visit to the Getty Villa with my fellow fellows and a surprising amount of kids.

I don't live in LA (day 1)

It's official, I don't live in LA but maybe I should!
This is my first video-experiment with my new little toy camera during my Getty fellowship.

BLOG A MEDIO GAS

No sé si tendré tiempo de escribir en las próximas semanas. Hoy empiezo la USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Fellowship en Los Angeles y aún no sé si tendré tiempo de bloguear. Sé que voy a pasar tres semanas extraordinarias conociendo gente a la que siempre he admirado, entre otros a Bill Viola y a Manohla Dargis. El plan de vida que me han organizado suena más que bien pero no sé si tendré tiempo de hablar de esta magnífica agenda californiana que me regalan a través de esta fellowship.

Disculpadme si no me prodigo mucho por mi propio blog pero es parte del trato: entre otras cosas me piden que no trabaje! Lo nunca visto, que te paguen por no trabajar y te exijan disfrutar al máximo de la gente a la que han decidido que tengo que conocer. Qué gusto da esto de ser una fellow!!!! En cualquier caso algún video caerá por aquí seguro. Please, keep coming back!

GREAT NEWS!!

(In Spanish and English)

La idea de este blog nació el día en que Barack Obama ganó las elecciones. Me hubiera encantado cubrir su campaña electoral pero por razones que no vienen al caso no pudo ser. Desde entonces he utilizado este blog para ofrecer mi visión de EEUU y sobre todo, de Nueva York, de una forma más personal de lo que puede hacerse en el diario para el que habitualmente escribo. Sin prisas, al ritmo que marca la vida y no al que que imponen las teorías sobre la velocidad bloguera. Y así he llegado a mi post número 80. Ya sé que no es un número redondo pero no importa. Mi amiga Gloria Vilches, una de las artistas más especiales que conozco, me ha regalado uno de sus excelentes collages. Es un irónico montaje con el que celebrar una gran noticia, que quiero compartir aquí porque al parecer este blog también es 'culpable', en parte, de que hoy pueda contaros lo que leeréis un poco más abajo. Se me cae la baba de felicidad!

The idea of writing this blog was born the same day that Barack Obama won the presidency. I would have loved to cover the campaign but for different reasons it didn't happen. Only then I realized the web was there for me to write and share my experiences and thoughts. Since last November I've used this blog to look at New York and this country in a very personal way, close to journalism but not necessary attached to what's supposed to be news. I've also pushed myself to write in English. After almost 10 years living in this country I had to try. That's how I made it to post #80. The number it's not a round one but it doesn't matter. My Spanish friend, the artist Gloria Vilches, has done one of her very special collages for me. It's an ironic piece to celebrate very good news that I would like to share because in a way, this blog has helped me to get (I still can't believe it!!!!) here:

USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Fellowships awarded to leading arts journalists
August 11, 2009

Six distinguished mid-career arts journalists have been selected as Fellows for the USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Program.

Under the direction of Sasha Anawalt, director of arts journalism programs at USC Annenberg, this year's Fellowship will focus on the visual arts and architecture of Los Angeles, with attention paid to the challenges confronting journalists working in the digital-media era. How does today’s arts journalist, especially during a worldwide economic downturn, become the focus for conversation and persuasion? The 2009 Fellowship will be about enabling arts journalists to take a bold lead and tell stories that meaningfully connect audiences and artists.

With support from the Getty Foundation, the program, now in its eighth year, seeks to establish a new standard of excellence in arts and culture coverage. The Fellowship’s philosophy is guided by a core belief in the importance of first-hand encounters with both artists and journalism colleagues. The three-week program begins November 1, 2009.

The Fellows for 2009 are:

Joshua Samuel Brown, writer and photo-journalist. Based primarily in Asia for the past 15 years, Brown has contributed visual and performing arts stories to the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong Standard, Sculptural Pursuit and many other publications. He has co-authored four recent Lonely Planet titles including Taiwan, Singapore and Belize, and is the author of “Vignettes of Taiwan,” published by San Francisco-based Things Asian Press.

Barbara Celis, reporter, blogger and filmmaker. For the last five years New York-based Celis has regularly covered American arts, culture and politics for Spain’s El Pais. She is a frequent contributor to ARS, Ioncinema, La Repubblica, the Spanish editions of Vogue, Rolling Stone and Cinemania. She has a bilingual blog, www.cronicasbarbaras.com and is finishing her first documentary, "Surviving Amina."

Kelly Klaasmeyer, editor and critic. Editor of Glasstire, an online magazine devoted to the visual arts of Texas, Klaasmeyer also writes about art for Houston Press. In 2004, she was awarded the Lone Star Award for first place in Arts and Entertainment Criticism. A working artist, she holds an MFA in Painting and a BFA in Painting and Drawing.

Neda Ulaby, writer and editor, radio and print. National Public Radio arts reporter Ulaby specializes in film, books, intellectual property issues, and cultural trends. She also hosts NPR’s weekly arts podcast. As former managing editor of Chicago’s Windy City Times, a gay and lesbian weekly newspaper, she oversaw staff and freelancers as well as contributed news, features and film reviews.

Randall Roberts, editor and critic. At the LA Weekly, music editor Roberts oversees the multimedia music content of laweekly.com and the music blog West Coast Sound. Roberts has also written for the Village Voice, Salon, Stylus.com, Seattle Weekly and other publications. His work has been honored by the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, the National Association of Black Journalists and Association of Food Journalists.

Matthew Westwood, writer and editor. As arts editor of the national daily newspaper The Australian, Westwood is responsible for coverage of the nation’s fine, popular, and indigenous arts. He writes mainly about classical music and opera, and the performing arts generally. He is a former editor of 24 Hours, a classical music magazine, and features editor on the startup team of London’s Metro in 1999.

"These Fellows are more interested in what the art they are covering makes us think than they are in telling us what they think about the art," Anawalt said. "Their knowledge, imaginations, and the high level at which they practice journalism -- half of them internationally -- help them foster direct and sometimes intimate conversations between their subjects and those who depend on the media for arts information. They will challenge the program further to push toward the edges where text, image and voice meet on the Web."

The 2009 USC Annenberg/Getty Fellows were selected from an international pool of over 90 applicants from 24 American states and 16 foreign countries by a committee of arts journalists and journalism school directors.