July 2009 Archives

Truth be told, I'm not much of a KTTV Channel 11 news viewer, so I didn't really know John Beard was gone, but gone he is. He has a Web site at which viewers can catch up with him (the photo above, of Beard in Yosemite, comes from there). I saw his name as a follower of the Daily News Twitter feed and clicked through his own Twitter feed (he's got 627 followers, which in case you're wondering, is a lot).

I did watch Channel 11 news enough in L.A. — and saw him for years before that on KNBC (Channel 4) — to know that Beard is one of the best. His is one of the defining anchor voices in Los Angeles, and it's a proverbial and all-to-common shame not to have him on the air here.

On the Web site, he gets straight to the reason for his departure from KTTV — "My contract wasn't renewed."

Now Beard is writing a murder mystery and splitting his time between California and his native North Carolina.

Not so coincidentally, he hints at possibly returning to the air ... in North Carolina.

If you want to contact John Beard, there's a way to do it through the Web site, and you could also be ultra-modern about it and reach him via Twitter (his account is @jb111).

Bargain Babe Julia Scott is giving away the store (actually it looks like more than a few stores' worth) at her Frugal Festival from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday at Woodley Park in Van Nuys.

The first 50 people to arrive will get one of these very T-shirts (seen at left) free.

And there'll be more swag, plus (and more importantly) the opportunity to hear from and interact with what will hopefully be many, many like-minded people.

For those of us who aspire to some kind of "frugal," "simple" or "sustainable" living, we're all on a different part of the path and have different goals. But in this day and age, even with the economy in the tank, and in this city, which is no salt-of-the-earth hunk of ground, it's not so easy to find someone who doesn't think you're an alien for bucking the consumption trend even a little.

All I'm saying is that if you can stand the heat (and I know you can), get yourself to Woodley Park on Sunday for a heaping helping of frugality.

Click the picture above for my photo gallery of July 8, 2009's night of cruising on Van Nuys Boulevard.

Above: Bargain Babe Julia Scott is interviewed by KNBC-TV on the ways of frugality. See more video at Bargain Babe TV

My good friend Julia Scott has been Busy with an extremely capital "B" since she left the wonderful world of the Los Angeles Daily News to start her own blog/business/empire, Bargain Babe.

In the past couple of weeks, she's even started two new blogs, a reader-fed local-deal site called Bargain Babe L.A. and a special blog promoting an event she has created called the Frugal Fe$tival, which is set for 1-4 p.m. Sunday, July 26, at Woodley Park, 6335 Woodley Ave. in good ol' Van Nuys.

For more detail, visit the Web site. If you're in any way interested in voluntary simplicity, frugal living (are both of these the same thing? discuss ...), or just saving a buck, don't pass up the chance to meet other like-minded people at this local event.

It's official — that square of Van Nuys targeted by the Part of Sherman Oaks (big P, big S, big 0) movement for inclusion within the community boundaries of Sherman Oaks is now just that: part of Sherman Oaks (small p, big S, big O).

Read about it at Dailynews.com, and don't miss the report by Zach Behrens of LAist (and not-un-conflictedly of the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council) for the play-by-play.

Most importantly, do I rename this blog? Do I archive it and start anew?

I welcome your suggestions.

Van Nuys Boulevard — and the recently shuttered Rydell Chevrolet lot at the corner of Van Nuys and Burbank boulevards as well as the kitty-corner lot between Ralphs and Four 'n' 20 Pies — was blanketed by vintage cars of all kinds last night during what wasn't the first (and hopefully isn't the last) Cruising Van Nuys Boulevard night.

We stumbled upon it (Ilene has the full shiz) and got to see what looked like a few hundred sweet rides, everything from '20s coupes to '80s lowriders, parked for all to see and then cruising a street that hasn't seen such unbridled but exhaust-filled excitement in many a decade.

More pictures tomorrow.