Small annoyances

The upstairs neighbors are screaming 80s tunes into a karaoke machine. It wouldn't be so bad except they're drunk, tone deaf and slaughtering classics like Little Red Corvette. *sigh*

ETA: Ah shit, they just started in with Men at Work.

ETAA: MB pointed out that karaoke is, by definition, supposed to be sung by drunken tone-deaf people. Fine. /curmudgeon

ETAAA: Now they're doing Blitzkrieg Bop. This one I approve of.

Quote from my mother

"There are a lot of people in this neighborhood who walk around talking to themselves."

I'll just leave this here...

Yah, the Pizza box doesn't fit down the garbage chute. But if you just leave it tucked behind the garbage chute door, you run the risk of being mocked on your neighbors blog.

No Recycling For Us

We got a flyer about a month ago announcing that our building was starting a recycling program. I was very pleased since one of the reasons I like living downtown is that it's less wasteful in almost every way to the traditional single-family-house, driving-everywhere lifestyle. But yesterday I found out that my building isn't recycling anymore. Apparently people in the building were dumping trash instead of recyclables into the bins and the landlord decided he didn't want to deal with it.

So, a few questions for anyone who's reading: Is this legal? Can the landlord just decide not to recycle? And do I have any other recycling options? I'm willing to walk a few blocks to avoid polluting landfills with more crap.

Newsflash: Silverlake still sucks

From Curbed LA:

Highlighting (once again) the deep divisions among the Silver Lake community, two fliers have been going around in response to tonight's vote on whether to extend Silver Lake Neighborhood Council term limits and push back voting from this year till 2010. Michael Ray Menjivar, co-chair of the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council tells Curbed the council voted (it wasn't an unanimous vote) to try and extend limits because some council members were voted in as early as last December. (There are about 21 members total, he says.) Groups like the Committee To Save Silver Lake Reservoirs, (CSSLR) want the 2008 elections to go forward; they are circulating one flier. On the other side: Silver Lake residents like Laurie Pepper who want term limits extended; she is circulating a flier accusing the CSSLR of "attempting to overtake" the Neighborhood Council.

Call this reason number 6.

Okay, now this is getting ridiculous

This notice was taped to the door of every apartment in our building.

Front View

Back View

My favorite rules:

1. "IF ENTERTAINING IN YOUR HOME, DO NOT ALLOW YOUR GUESTS TO ROAM HALLWAYS OR ANY OF THE COMMON AREAS.


2. DO NOT ALLOW YOUR PETS TO DEFECATE INSIDE/IN FRONT OF THE BUILDING. ALWAYS CARRY WASTE BAGS! CURB YOUR PETS!"
   


3. "DO NOT THROW ANY ITEMS OUTSIDE OF YOUR WINDOWS, ESPECIALLY CIGARETTE BUTTS. IT IS DISRESPECTFUL FOR THE BUILDING AND FELLOW NEIGHBORS WITH BALCONIES!!


4. "DO NOT THROW ANY ITEMS OVER ROOF OF BUILDING."
   

I feel sorry for the building managers. They're actually very cool, very nice people and any time we have a service request it gets taken care of right away. But their job sucks right now.

I suspect the owner was lax about screening tenants because the real estate slump is making it hard to fill apartments. But damn. Do you really need to be told not to let your dog shit in the building? To quote my mother, "Was you raised in a barn?"

Pool ewwwwww....

Late breaking newz... The pool? Word is that a resident held a bbq, and someone decided to thaw the meat. In the pool.

Eew.

I have been assured by the Powers That Be that this will not happen again, and I believe them.

More signs of the times

Random Stuff

Met Bert Green at a friend's daughter's birthday party. He rode his bicycle to the party in Griffith Park. On Saturday. When it was 100 degrees. That's way more hardcore than I'll ever be. Bert is bursting with energy and in about ten minutes we got the complete scoop on downtown. It's very cool knowing someone who's been in the nabe since the beginning of the revitalization.

Bert told MB and I that there are periodic blogger get-togethers downtown, so hopefully I'll meet the people on our blogroll sometime soon.

...

Heard from the building manager this morning that our roof pool will now be shutting down at 9 pm. Apparently there are people bringing 100 of their closest friends to the roof and partying until the wee hours. They're also bringing glass to the pool area, which is not a good idea given that broken glass in water becomes invisible. At least we're not the only building with pool problems. Pool misbehavior is apparently common downtown.

Meanwhile, after a month and a half, the building is almost completely rented. This includes two apartments in the basement where the only light comes from skylights (as MB puts it, a "dim blue glow from the ceiling"). I'm not sure who would want to live down there, though I suppose if you're a studio photographer, not having much natural light could be a good thing.

Pot, meet kettle

Dear Neighbor,

I can certainly understand why you'd be upset that our neighbor's Lakers party lasted until 4 a.m. However, it was not the party that woke me last night. It was you shrieking, Stop making so much motherfucking noise! I'm trying to sleep you stupid motherfuckers! Next time, try some earplugs and a shot of bourbon instead.

Smooches,
Li