Global Los Angeles

[Westsidelife]

This thread will feature news highlighting Los Angeles and its rising status as a global capital of the 21st century.


We shall begin this thread with an 11-piece special report from the Financial Times...

Diverse City Looks Beyond Challenges

By Matthew Garrahan
October 27, 2008

The architect Frank Lloyd Wright once said that if the world were tipped on its side “everything loose will land in Los Angeles”.

All life can indeed be found in the city, whether it is the 140 nationalities that live there, the aspiring actors that flock to its film studios in search of stardom, or the entrepreneurs, businesses and immigrant workers that drive its economy.

Los Angeles is the creative capital of America, the centre of the film and television industries and the outsize egos that go with them. It gave the world the work of Walt Disney and Raymond Chandler, MySpace, and Barbie dolls. Satellite technology was born in Los Angeles, and great aviators such as Howard Hughes built companies there.

It has a vibrant and diverse economy, home to Mattel, the world’s biggest toymaker, and the biggest companies in the video games industry. Yet it is also an industrial powerhouse. Despite the 1990s retrenchment of the aerospace industry, it continues to be the biggest manufacturing centre in the US, with more than 450,000 people employed making electronic goods and clothing. More people work in manufacturing in Los Angeles County than in Michigan, for example.

The city has the biggest port complex in the western hemisphere on its doorstep. Los Angeles and nearby Long Beach are responsible for 45 per cent of seaborne goods that enter the US. It is also the global centre of space technology and research. And, nearly 100 years after the fledgling film industry moved to Hollywood, Los Angeles has become a magnet for new digital media companies.

It has long been an aerospace hub, but when that industry shrank at the end of the cold war, the local economy was hit hard, primarily because it was so reliant on manufacturing.

“Now, the economy is much more diversified,” says Jerry Nickelsburg, an economist with the UCLA Anderson School of Management, pointing to strengths in business services, accounting and entertainment.

The city’s business mix has evolved over the decades. “Going back 20 or 30 years, it used to be a banking centre,” says Eduardo Martinez, an economist with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation. Consolidation in the 1980s saw its banking sector decline, as familiar local names, such as Security Pacific, were snapped up by larger rivals. The recent housing and construction boom brought financial services back to Los Angeles.

“In the past three or four years, there was an increase in financial jobs here,” says Mr Martinez, adding that much of that growth was housing-related. But the collapse of the subprime lending market and the steep fall in property prices during the past 18 months brought that growth to an end. IndyMac, a large local lender, was recently taken over by federal regulators, and Countrywide Financial, one of the biggest mortgage lenders, was acquired by Bank of America to avert collapse.

Still, other sectors continue to grow. Platinum Equity, a Beverly Hills private equity firm, recently closed a $2.75bn fund at the height of the credit crunch. Fashion and textiles are also booming. American Apparel, the clothing manufacturer known for its racy adverts, plans to expand. It is based in Los Angeles, where it employs more than 4,000 people.

The city has a significant Latino workforce that plays a vital role in supporting economic growth, particularly in service industries, landscaping and building. Latino workers make a vital contribution but many are in the US illegally; the Milken Institute, a research firm, estimates that there are about 625,000 undocumented workers in Los Angeles.

A common complaint from visitors is that the city lacks a centre, which is partly true. Efforts are under way to revive the main commercial district in downtown Los Angeles by turning part of it into an entertainment district. Yet the soul of Los Angeles can be found in any of the cities that make up Los Angeles County, one of the largest counties in the US and bigger than the states of Delaware and Rhode Island combined.

Malibu, Pasadena, Inglewood and Manhattan Beach are among the dozens of cities squeezed into Los Angeles County, each with their own unique character and appeal. More than 10.3m people live there, aware that they could face disruption and chaos at any time if the earthquake California has long been expecting – “the big one” – rattles across the San Andreas Fault.

Wildfires are another regular threat to local communities when the fierce Santa Ana winds and dusty autumn temperatures create tinderbox conditions.

The climate and relaxed lifestyle make up for the pitfalls that come with living in Los Angeles. But residents have to grapple with other frustrations.

It is one of the richest cities in the world, home to billionaires, such as Rupert Murdoch, David Geffen and Eli Broad. Yet the freeway system and public infrastructure are falling apart, the result of years of chronic under investment. It has numerous bus routes and a limited light rail network that connects the downtown area with the San Fernando Valley, Pasadena and Long Beach.

But it lacks a comprehensive subway or mass transit system to connect Santa Monica and the Westside with the rest of the city. With no alternative to traveling by car, gridlock is common.

Gang crime continues to be a problem, despite the best efforts of Bill Bratton, the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department. The city has world-class higher education establishments, but its state school system is grappling with falling graduation rates and a cash-crunch. With California desperately looking for ways to trim spending amid an economic slowdown, schools are continually threatened with cuts in funding.

There are other drawbacks. Los Angeles is a vast, sprawling city yet it can at times be an insular goldfish bowl, with some residents seemingly unwilling to consider the world beyond the Santa Monica Mountains. There are plenty of internationally minded residents, but a common grumble is that Los Angeles lacks the cultural and intellectual clout of New York.

But there is no denying the growing international status of America’s second largest city. It has forged important relationships with the Asian countries that send consumer goods to the US through its ports and an ambitious plan to “green” the port complex is being copied by other international port operators and heavy polluters.

It is taking the lead in other areas too. The Hollywood studios that control the entertainment industry are forging new distribution systems for their content, which is consumed the world over.

The city is also ready to step out of New York’s artistic shadow. The arts scene is booming in Los Angeles, thanks to a string of recent gallery openings, a world-class symphony orchestra and Frank Gehry’s stirring Walt Disney Concert Hall, perhaps the most beautiful building in the city, which has transformed impressions of the downtown district.

Los Angeles has plenty of challenges to overcome. But it is an optimistic, ambitious place, a diverse and exciting world city that is constantly looking forward.

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

pretty fair article. So does a different article get published for 11 days in a row?

[Westsidelife]

Originally Posted by LosAngelesSportsFan

pretty fair article. So does a different article get published for 11 days in a row?

No. The other 10 articles are already out, though not all of them need to be posted here. I will continue posting tomorrow, as I don't want to flood this thread with articles all at once.

[Westsidelife]

Art: City Carves out Position as Centre for Culture

By Rachel Grant
October 27 2008

Not even the oppressive late-summer heat inside the airless marquee could stifle the enthusiasm of Los Angeles civic leaders, art lovers and patrons at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Lacma) last month.

They had gathered to see plans for a new exhibition pavilion, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano. Funded by a $45m donation from local philanthropists Lynda and Stewart Resnick, the new building will be Mr Piano’s latest contribution to an ongoing expansion of Lacma, which is transforming the largest art museum in Los Angeles into a genuine player on the global stage.

For decades the cultural life of Los Angeles has laboured in the shadow of New York. Artists were happy to live in the city but had to go elsewhere to exhibit their work and make their name.

But over the last decade, Los Angeles has enjoyed a creative boom. Together with Lacma, a host of prominent cultural institutions has opened or undergone renovation in the last few years, including the Getty Center and Getty Villa, as well as the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall and Colburn Conservatory of Music.

“This is a golden age for the arts in Los Angeles County,” says Zev Yaroslavsky, member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, the powerful governing body of the largest county in the US.

Los Angeles has also benefited from the arrival of a number of prestigious museum directors. Ann Philbin has been credited with transforming the Hammer Museum in the city’s Westwood area since arriving from the Drawing Center in Manhattan in 1999. Michael Govan, the former director of the Dia Art Foundation in New York, has similarly given Lacma a “shot of adrenaline” since being appointed chief executive two years ago, according to Lynda Resnick.

Private galleries have opened throughout Los Angeles’ urban sprawl, from Chinatown to Culver City, and a young, sophisticated generation of collectors has sprung up to sustain the market.

“Los Angeles has always been the place where artists emerged to be discovered by other cities such as New York and London,” says Samuel Hoi, director of Otis College of Art and Design, one of the city’s leading art colleges. “It has now become a marketing centre [for artists] in its own right.”

Eli Broad, a billionaire philanthropist based in Los Angeles, has been a long-time champion of its cultural scene. He says it “is one of the major cultural centres of the world, along with New York, London and Paris”. As well as its strengths in the visual arts, he says no other city has a symphony hall or orchestra to rival the Walt Disney Concert Hall and Los Angeles Philharmonic. The local theatre scene is booming too, he adds. “There are more theatrical productions [in Los Angeles] than in New York or London.”

Mr Broad and his wife Edythe established the Broad Art Foundation in 1984 to increase public exposure to contemporary art by acting as a lending library to public institutions.

“We have more than 2,100 works of art and we want to get them to the broadest audience possible,” he says. While the foundation has lent artworks to more than 450 public institutions, it favours those based in Los Angeles.

A significant proportion of the foundation’s artworks are on view at the Broad Contemporary Art Museum which opened at Lacma in February this year following a $60m donation from the Broads. It features works from, among others, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons and Jasper Johns.

The city’s teaching tradition has also helped its arts scene prosper, with artists such as John Baldessari continuing to teach in Los Angeles long after establishing themselves with their work. Unlike New York, which is “a fiercely competitive market ... there is a real sense of collaboration in the artistic community here”, says Mr Hoi.

Over the years, Los Angeles has lagged behind other art markets, such as New York. Freed from commercial pressure, many artistic voices have emerged that are influenced by the city’s rich multicultural heritage. But as the Los Angeles market matures, the city risks losing what makes it special, says Mr Hoi. “Its sensibility may become more homogenised, with artists pressured by galleries to make work that is more saleable.”

There are other challenges. A recent report from Rand, the non-profit think tank, said better co-ordination was needed between arts and civic leaders to promote the city’s cultural attractions. Without a common strategy, there are concerns that the city’s recent creative momentum may be lost. The lack of a mass transit system is another problem.

But despite these hurdles, there is a widespread optimism that the Los Angeles arts scene will continue to flourish.

“This is the future,” says Mr Broad. “This is really the arts city of the 21st century.”

[dweebo2220]

Originally Posted by Westsidelife

The local theatre scene is booming too, he adds. “There are more theatrical productions [in Los Angeles] than in New York or London.”

what's the deal with this... ? Sometimes I hear this statistic (mostly from 'ol Broad) but then other times I hear that LA is behind New York and Denver in the US. The number of productions we have in LA is quoted sometimes at +1500/ year. A figure I've seen for Toronto was over 10,000 a year. What's going on here? Why can't we get our facts straight?

[Westsidelife]

Originally Posted by dweebo2220

what's the deal with this... ? Sometimes I hear this statistic (mostly from 'ol Broad) but then other times I hear that LA is behind New York and Denver in the US. The number of productions we have in LA is quoted sometimes at +1500/ year. A figure I've seen for Toronto was over 10,000 a year. What's going on here? Why can't we get our facts straight?

There are over 10,000 performances, not productions.

[dweebo2220]

Originally Posted by Westsidelife

There are over 10,000 performances, not productions.

Thanks for clearing that up..

From http://www.homeandabroad.com/c/57/57...to_travel.html

"The city is alive with some of the best theatres, museums and galleries anywhere. With over 500 theatre productions every year, the city on Lake Ontario is the second largest stage centre in North America, and the third largest centre of English-speaking theatre productions in the world (next to London and New York), with more than 200 professional theatre companies and 10,000 performances a year."

LA has, supposedly, 1,500 productions and I can't remember how many companies, but it's definitely equal to or greater than 200 for just the city of Los Angeles alone. (I frustratingly can't find the figures online, even though I've read this numerous times!).

Why then, can't Toronto (or London or New York, for that matter) get it right then? Is this really just yet another case of LA's rodney dangerfield-ness, or is something screwy here?

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

honestly, this needs to stop. im tired of deleting posts in every thread. Milquetoast, you need to stop instigating, and NYGirl, please dont respond anymore.

[Westsidelife]

Originally Posted by dweebo2220

Thanks for clearing that up..

From http://www.homeandabroad.com/c/57/57...to_travel.html

"The city is alive with some of the best theatres, museums and galleries anywhere. With over 500 theatre productions every year, the city on Lake Ontario is the second largest stage centre in North America, and the third largest centre of English-speaking theatre productions in the world (next to London and New York), with more than 200 professional theatre companies and 10,000 performances a year."

LA has, supposedly, 1,500 productions and I can't remember how many companies, but it's definitely equal to or greater than 200 for just the city of Los Angeles alone. (I frustratingly can't find the figures online, even though I've read this numerous times!).

Why then, can't Toronto (or London or New York, for that matter) get it right then? Is this really just yet another case of LA's rodney dangerfield-ness, or is something screwy here?

So, technically LA is the largest theater center in the world because of the number of productions? But in terms of revenue generated, I would imagine both NYC and London are far ahead.

Given how LA is saturated with actors and actresses, I always wonder why our theater scene consists more of smaller productions than the big Broadway plays and musicals.

[Westsidelife]

LA may not be a major financial center (maybe in 10 years), but it is a major business center thanks in part to its mega-port complex...

Trade: Ports Give Economic Edge to California

By Matthew Garrahan
October 27 2008

They may not generate as many headlines as the city’s entertainment industry, but the San Pedro Bay ports of Los Angeles and nearby Long Beach are the unsung heroes of the Californian economy.

With more than 40 per cent of all US imports coming through their docks, the ports are of huge importance to the regional and national economy.

They have boomed over the past 30 years, thanks to aggressive expansion and the rise of China as the world’s pre-eminent manufacturing exporter. The San Pedro ports are ideally placed geographically for Asian manufacturers looking to export goods to the US. Rather than ship goods through the Panama Canal to reach the eastern US, it can be more efficient for Asian exporters to use Los Angeles and Long Beach. Once there, containers carried by ship can be transferred to rail or road and quickly moved to other cities.

“We are close to Asia and have a relatively deep port that was actually dredged to new levels to handle the larger ships that were coming on line,” says Michael Keenan, harbour planning and economic analyst with the Port of Los Angeles. “We are a significant economic engine for the nation.”

The Los Angeles and Long Beach ports are quasi-public entities, owned by the two cities but requiring no public money. Their importance to the region cannot be overstated: the Los Angeles port alone generates $39.1bn in annual wages and tax revenues, employing 919,000 people directly and indirectly, according to city officials.

The two ports combined are the biggest in the western hemisphere and the fifth largest in the world.

They rose to prominence in the 1960s with the introduction of container shipping. But it was not until Asian economies began their domination of global manufacturing in the 1980s that the volume of imports into Los Angeles and Long Beach began to take off.

The industry measures container shipping in 20ft-equivalent units (TEUs), with large ships capable of carrying more than 8,000 TEUs – roughly 4,500 containers. In 1980, 600,000 TEUs were shipped into Los Angeles. By 1995, the number had risen to 2.5m.

The volume of imports jumped again after 2001 when China joined the World Trade Organisation, says Jerry Nickelsburg, an economist with the UCLA Anderson School of Management. By 2007, 8.4m TEUs were shipped in and out of Los Angeles with another 8m or so arriving in Long Beach. The two ports are “the closest major port and distribution system to the Asian countries that have become so dominant in the manufacturing of consumer goods”, he says. “It’s China, but it’s also Malaysia, India and Indonesia.”

However, the ailing global economy is likely to hinder growth. Imports and exports in Los Angeles in 2007 were slightly down on 2006, while global trade will almost certainly be hit by the financial crisis. “Last month we were up 6 per cent although overall we’re down on last year,” says Geraldine Knatz, executive director of the Los Angeles port. “But we will ride this out like everyone else.”

Growth has also been threatened by potential industrial action by dockworkers. The ports were last hit by a strike in 2002 although a walk-out by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union was averted this summer with a pay deal.

The notoriously congested Los Angeles traffic system is another obstacle to growth but the impact of gridlocked freeways has been minimised by the opening of the Alameda Corridor, a $2.4bn rail cargo line linking the two ports to the transcontinental rail network near downtown Los Angeles. It had an immediate impact when it opened in 2002, cutting congestion and increasing the speed of distribution.

The corridor has had other positive effects. “The area east of Los Angeles has become a major logistics centre,” says Mr Nickelsburg. Distribution businesses have sprung up to unload and move goods that have arrived at the ports, creating more jobs in the Inland Empire region east of Los Angeles.

The San Pedro ports face increased competition in the north, with the rival Prince Rupert development in British Columbia, and in the south, with the prospect of a new port at Punta Colonet in Mexico.

But rival west coast ports cannot compete with the size of the southern California market. There are 18m people living close to the San Pedro ports, says Mr Keenan. “You save time if you can offload goods in Los Angeles.”

With east coast ports seeking federal money for expansion, the port authorities at Los Angeles and Long Beach are not standing still. For example, the Los Angeles port plans to construct more on-dock rail yards, which allow goods to be put on to trains as soon as they are brought ashore.

“The challenge the ports face is being able to provide cost-effective shipping into the US,” says Mr Nickelsburg. “There’s a lot of work being done on infrastructure and that’s important because it means the ports can continue to stay competitive.”

[milquetoast]

Rail out of the Los Angeles metropolitan is the deal here. If you've ever driven out through the El Cajon Pass you'll see the trains below you chugging uphill.

Getting the products out to the rest of the nation is more important for the survival of the port complex.

[Westsidelife]

USC Again No. 1 in International Students

By Larry Gordon
November 17, 2008

For the seventh year in a row, USC has enrolled more students from outside the United States than any other American college or university, according to a report being released today.

USC hosted 7,189 international students last year, followed in the top five by New York University, Columbia, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Purdue, according to the annual Open Doors study by the Institute of International Education. UCLA ranked seventh, with 5,557 foreign students.

Overall, the number of international students at U.S. colleges and universities rose 7% to a record 623,805, the study said. The largest group of students came from India, followed by those from China, South Korea, Japan and Canada. Their most popular majors were business and engineering.

[klamedia]

Originally Posted by Westsidelife

It is one of the richest cities in the world, home to billionaires, such as Rupert Murdoch, David Geffen and Eli Broad. Yet the freeway system and public infrastructure are falling apart, the result of years of chronic under investment. It has numerous bus routes and a limited light rail network that connects the downtown area with the San Fernando Valley, Pasadena and Long Beach.

But it lacks a comprehensive subway or mass transit system to connect Santa Monica and the Westside with the rest of the city. With no alternative to traveling by car, gridlock is common.

.

First off Light Rail does not connect downtown with SFV. A limited light rail network that connects downtown to Pasadena, Long Beach, Redondo Beach, Norwalk(coming) Culver City and East LA, yeah right reeeaall limited. Limited would imply that it either was very short in length or didn't go very many places in the county. The Blue Line alone is 22 miles long has 22 stations and connects those (in)famous haunts of Long Beach, Compton and Artesia. The entire Light Rail system alone has 71 station stops, really really limited. That's more station stops than the entire Heavy Rail BART system, would this writer view BART as limited and therefore not an added plus to SF?Also the writer implies that only if the subway would connect with the Westside would we then have a comprehensive transit system. I don't believe that this will be the case once the Purple Line is extended, I firmly believe that this writer while riding the extended Purple Line would be commenting on its limitedness because it doesn't take you up the PCH for the scenic views.

[dweebo2220]

I don't think the author of that article was making a judgment but rather presenting common complaints. I doubt the author gave any real thought to assessing the system himself.

[klamedia]

So he shouldn't comment on the system and he showed himself to be a stupid fuck. If I said that the A train had a stop on Staten Island would that be acceptable? The amount of shit people take from outsiders concerning LA is simply amazing. There really isn't any reason to be an apologist when it comes to LA and its transit system. Like any other place its growing and we are making enormous efforts compared to other US cities in growing the system, that is a sense of pride. No other city has built more rail than LA in the past 20 years and it looks like no other city will build such a mix of heavy, light and BRT in the next 20 years in the US than LA as well.

I guess it's just me. I remember when NYC used to be shitted on despite its greatness by the rest of the country and was made the butt of jokes on an endless loop. From the muggings in Central Park jokes to the near bankruptcy and rampant crime and general dirtiness in the late '70s. This was at the tail end of a 40 year population decline that saw NYC lose close to 2 million people as they moved out to California or the suburbs because they thought that NYC was a piece of shit. But it was still considered a global city and an economic powerhouse very much the way LA is today. Still featured on TMZ nightly, still considered one of the greatest economic powerhouses of the world mostly by means of production but shitted upon on a regular basis by outsiders and in towners alike. Cities ebb and flow, they have lulls and peaks. They are true organisms. They get sick, they get diseased, they heal, they recover sometimes they die or never reach their true potential again. They have DNA and what they truly are is never really lost. LA is the bastard child of California, it's not beautiful narcissistic SF nor quaint seaside easygoing San Diego and never ever will be, thank god! It's entire shtick is making lemonade when given lemons. It's super ambitious and terribly tragic always on the brink of something extraordinary and fatal. That's its story and it most likely always wil be. Love it or leave it, I guess. LA will never get it completely right, it can't and I think it may believe deep down that it's just more fun not to.

[mongozx]

[ZtBoy]

Originally Posted by klamedia

So he shouldn't comment on the system and he showed himself to be a stupid fuck. If I said that the A train had a stop on Staten Island would that be acceptable? The amount of shit people take from outsiders concerning LA is simply amazing. There really isn't any reason to be an apologist when it comes to LA and its transit system. Like any other place its growing and we are making enormous efforts compared to other US cities in growing the system, that is a sense of pride. No other city has built more rail than LA in the past 20 years and it looks like no other city will build such a mix of heavy, light and BRT in the next 20 years in the US than LA as well.

I guess it's just me. I remember when NYC used to be shitted on despite its greatness by the rest of the country and was made the butt of jokes on an endless loop. From the muggings in Central Park jokes to the near bankruptcy and rampant crime and general dirtiness in the late '70s. This was at the tail end of a 40 year population decline that saw NYC lose close to 2 million people as they moved out to California or the suburbs because they thought that NYC was a piece of shit. But it was still considered a global city and an economic powerhouse very much the way LA is today. Still featured on TMZ nightly, still considered one of the greatest economic powerhouses of the world mostly by means of production but shitted upon on a regular basis by outsiders and in towners alike. Cities ebb and flow, they have lulls and peaks. They are true organisms. They get sick, they get diseased, they heal, they recover sometimes they die or never reach their true potential again. They have DNA and what they truly are is never really lost. LA is the bastard child of California, it's not beautiful narcissistic SF nor quaint seaside easygoing San Diego and never ever will be, thank god! It's entire shtick is making lemonade when given lemons. It's super ambitious and terribly tragic always on the brink of something extraordinary and fatal. That's its story and it most likely always wil be. Love it or leave it, I guess. LA will never get it completely right, it can't and I think it may believe deep down that it's just more fun not to.

This is perhaps the "deepest" comment I've seen on these boards! What you said about NY is completely accurate. Many people made fun of it during the 80s and even into the 90s but it rose and who's laughing now? Unfortunately, the image outsiders have of L.A. is greatly due to the movie industry's portrayal of the city (I've seen movies were the main character move from LA to NY to get his act together, is LA not good enough for that?). A real shame since L.A. has a lot to offer.

[dweebo2220]

Klamedia,

I totally agree with your general feelings about this. I just think that we can't really expect people to suddenly change their opinions about LA which have been developed over what, 100 years? It's amazing to me that people are even giving LA any thoughtful attention.

I think the best thing to do is just quietly work toward our goals. I've found that getting all up in arms about stuff just makes me look like a wacko. People will come around and respect this city soon enough.

[saiholmes]

Murakami animation studio coming to L.A.
5:00 AM, November 25, 2008

Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, whose giant Buddha, bug-eyed monsters and magical mushrooms packed in huge crowds last year at the Museum of Contemporary Art, is putting down roots in Los Angeles. A multifaceted artist who embraces painting and sculpture, film and mass-produced goods as part of a single enterprise, he is planning to open an animation studio here next summer.

Often called Japan's Andy Warhol and headquartered in Tokyo, Murakami already has a studio in New York. But he has decided that Hollywood is the place to expand his filmmaking capabilities. The new studio will operate under the umbrella of Kaikai Kiki, his production and artist-management company.

Murakami3_5 "Animation and film have always been among my greatest influences, ever since I first saw 'Star Wars' and Hayao Miyazaki's films," Murakami said in a statement. "This studio represents a great step in the evolution of Kaikai Kiki and gives me a closer proximity to the community of artists with whom I hope to collaborate as I continue my explorations of animated and live-action film."

The company has leased a building on North Highland Avenue, to be adapted to the studio's needs. With 6,220 square feet of space on the first floor and 2,760 square feet on the second level, the facility is expected to accommodate about 30 employees, said Daniel Rappaport of Management 360, Kaikai Kiki's talent management firm in Los Angeles.

The studio's first project will be a feature-length animated film based on "Planting the Seeds," the shorts that premiered at Murakami's mid-career retrospective at MOCA, Rappaport said. It also created the Kanye West video for "Good Morning." The shorts also appeared last spring at the Brooklyn Museum's version of the exhibition and, more recently, at the 2008 CineVegas Film Festival in Las Vegas. The digitally animated works feature Kaikai and Kiki, the company's cartoon-character namesakes, traveling the world in a spaceship and learning to grow watermelons with the help of fertilizer, or "poop" as they gleefully call it.

-- Suzanne Muchnic

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/cult...mi-studio.html

Takashi Murakami at MOCA
http://www.dezeen.com/2007/11/13/tak...akami-at-moca/

[milquetoast]

Originally Posted by klamedia

LA will never get it completely right, it can't and I think it may believe deep down that it's just more fun not to.

Cheese and Rice! What are you drinking lately, Klams? This from a guy who I guess is a recent transfer and thinks the way I do but doesn't experience the city the way I do. He's here (5 years in?) and I have nothing but memories from my young adulthood to thrive on. Seeing smog just does it for me.

I think the line above can accomodate the generalities of 'life' itself but cities are the next big deal. They have so much personality and power within the world community now that they displace whole countries.

Originally Posted by crxmen

Many people made fun of it during the 80s and even into the 90s but it rose and who's laughing now?

Cities do ebb and flow..., rise and fall.

Now is not the time to feel too good about the driving force of new york commerce, especially on the heels of a twenty billion dollar infusion to a banking system (Citigroup) that wasn't hurting particularly. They will pay 400 million over 10 years just for the naming rights to the Mets new stadium.

That's now YOUR money!

This is nothing new here where new york is concerned and I'm wayyy beyond laughing... I'll just leave it at that.