For those of you still checking in on Under the Alexandria, we have a new blog: DTLA Families. We're sharing the tools, tips and resources you need to raise a kid in downtown LA. Things like where do I buy wipies at 5 pm on a Sunday when I don’t want to get in my car? What restaurants can I bring my kid to without getting the stink-eye from skinny hipsters? Will we ever have a park with a playground in the Historic Core? And what the hell do I do about getting my kid into a decent school? See you at the new blog!

Eye of Sauron Coffee.

The Eye of Sauron in a coffee bean. Now available at Big Lots for something like $3.50 Too bad it's not very good.

This stuff is also at Big Lots, for not as cheap as the Evil stuff above. It claims to be "Made in Germany", and I imagine thousand-hectare coffee plantations along the Rhine. This coffee is entirely inoffensive. You will find no nuttiness, no hints of black current and leather. It is quite yummy. It's a Kraft product, so you can feel bad about supporting an engulf-and-devour multinational corporation while you enjoy the yumminess.
It is also, although the package gives no hint of this, an Espresso grind. So break out the Moka Pot!

Why is this shit still here?

meh.

Waaaay back on November 17, 2010, I spotted this bit of graffiti painted in the crosswalk at 6th and Spring.

What is it? Who are the Destroyers, a new gang of stencil artists? Or just low-rent taggers, bound for juvenile hall?

A raging band of Nike advertising execs, it seems.

Hmm, I see there was one on Fifth and spring, too.

So Nike spray painted "LA DESTROYERS" on our beloved streets, and then photographed it for an ad campaign. How edgy. It's delightful when multinational corporations earn the "Street creds".

So here it is, four months later, and this crap is still on the street. Faded, sure, but not due to any efforts of Nike Corp.

So, let me get this straight.

Our Mayor Villaraigosa,  Councilmember Huizar, City Attorney Trutanich, LAPD et. al. have announced  a graffiti tracking program aimed at eliminating graffiti and apprehending vandals. Graffiti artists are routinely arrested and prosecuted. Guys like "Buket" get three years in prison, "Trigz" gets six years. And four months after pooping on the streets of downtown,  Nike reports strong fiscal 2011 third-quarter earnings of $1.08 per share, up 7% from the year-ago earnings of $1.01 per share. See kids? Break the law and suffer the consequences!

Because I like banging my head on hard objects, I'm going to ask Nike about this. I'll let you know what they say.

UPDATE: Not a damn thing is what Nike had to say. No answer to my inquiry.

Oh never a dull moment. (liveblogging the crime)

 So, I guess somebody shot someone? In the Jewelry Center building at 610 S. Broadway?

I overheard the radio of the undercover dude standing next to me say that the guard at the Hayward said the guy may have run in there...

Then some guy who looked like Gary Oldman yelled "Bring me EVERYBODY!", and more cops showed up and expanded the perimeter another block out.

The swat team was lining up to run into the Hayward, but I needed to get the milk in the fridge, so I went upstairs at that point.

   -- MB

Drugs for sale inside!

Really? At Spring For Coffee? I had no idea 'til now.

A holiday tradition of incompetence.

A year ago I wrote this: Beep beep BEEP, the upshot being that one year ago during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, loud and obnoxious fire alarms went off at the Mercantile Arcade building and stayed on 'til after midnight, presumably due to the alarm contractor having gone home for the Holidays and no one at the management company knowing how to operate the alarms.

A year has gone by, and a lot has changed. There are large banners proclaiming "Now LEASING!", and presumably construction is done, systems have been approved by the City, and people are actually living in the building.  I feel sorry for those people, as sometime mid-yesterday, the fire alarms went off, and as of this writing, 6:00 AM the next day, they are still running. The noisemaker part of the alarm did stop but the strobes are still going, bright enough to illuminate my loft right through the curtains.

It's my understanding that the City requires alarms to have a timer that automatically shuts them down within half an hour. Although the noise alarm did shut off, the strobes are obviously still out of compliance a year later. Made me wonder, as I watched the weird shadows the strobes made on my ceiling last night, how stupid could the folks at Fifth Street Funding be? Hell, I've known for over a year that Thanksgiving would be celebrated again in 2010.  They had a whole year to plan to have someone available during the holiday weekend trained to push a goddamned button. Question is, was that task too difficult for their little minds, or do they just not care? Don't look at me, I don't know. Like Glenn Beck, I'm not saying that Fifth Street Funding are all a lot of incompetent douchebags, I'm just raising the question.

Overheard at 6th and Lindley Place...

Overheard at 6th and Lindley Place...

"Back, back, Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" *CLUNK*

At least he parked the truck before it got all wet.

As Kidlo said, "¡Agua!"

LAFD, always their efficient selves. By the time I had returned from the Market, they had the hydrant bolted back into place, with nothing other than a brand new cap to show that anything had happened to it.

A pleasant noontime diversion for all...

Or almost all. "Dude, why you don't listen to me when I say 'Whoa?'"

-- MB