Bloom's Day

Jason Calacanis vents a bit about why he’s leaving the Google/YouTube ambit for his video programming ventures (and not incidentally launching, um, Launch). Some interesting critiques, though the comments by some of the readers suggest that it’s a complicated picture.

Nonetheless, lots of grist for conversation about how creators of all sorts take advantage of the online video revolution in pushing their brand out in the world. 

What do you think? Is Jason on target, or missing it high and wide?

My slightly tongue-in-cheek piece about the charms of North Hollywood, written for our soon-to-be-former mayor as part of a writing contest by Zocalo. 

I hadn’t realized I was competing against other writers to tell the tale of their respective parts of town (or that there would be prizes!), but it was still kinda cool to be one of the finalists for something I did as a lark.

Many thanks to the fine folks at Zocalo, who put on such great programming year-round, both online and in the physical world. Let me know if you’d like a tour of the wonders of North Hollywood. 

A fine review of an interesting artist, by a David Bloom who isn’t me. Yes, I was amused. Most fascinating. Looking forward to  picking up the album too.

In case you missed it, Mary Meeker’s “State of the Internet” presentation is contained in this blog post from SlideShare.

Plus, two pertinent other presentations for those who need to care about what’s happening to technology, mobile, the internet and related sorts of connecting thingies. 

A college dropout with two startups under his belt decides to go back to school. Here, he explains why it makes sense to him. Makes sense to me too. 

St. Vincent (nee Annie Clark, who seems to have performed with about half of the last decade’s alternative music acts at one point or another) and former Talking Head man David Byrne have released a free EP. 

You’ll have to trade your email address for the download link, but seems fair, given the price otherwise. These two musical chameleons will be most interesting to watch together, I suspect. 

Terrific Mother Jones story about Jeffrey Katzenberg’s vital role as fundraiser/kingmaker for the Democratic Party in the 2012 election, especially in kick-starting the Priorities USA Action super-PAC. 

The LA Times had a good post-mortem on how Eric Garcetti  built a winning coalition across the heart of the city and with key conservative pockets of the Valley to become Los Angeles’ next mayor, even winning Wendy Greuel’s home precinct in the Hollywood Hills. 

I’d say the article is a bit harsh in its assessment of Wendy’s campaign (The “worst ever?” Really?) and I wouldn’t write a headline that calls an 8-point win a “romp.”

But those are quibbles with what was a smart campaign by Eric that found an effective way to differentiate (the DWP union stuff) between two candidates whom I’ve known for more than a decade and who politically aren’t very different at all. 

Among the subtexts of the article is the declining political influence of the city’s remaining black voters, who went heavily for Wendy (though I noticed Councilman Bernard Parks among the numerous blacks at Eric’s election-night party).

The black community still has influence, of course. Just this week, politicians gave it a big win, approving an $80 million underground station for the light-rail Expo Line at Leimert Park, African-American cultural ground zero for decades now.

The station is expensive, but will improve access to Leimert Park and its events and shops, while minimizing some of light rail’s negative impacts (herds of pedestrians crossing busy streets, property condemnations, etc.).

Separately, It’s amusing to see reporters call Eric a Jewish mayor. He is half Jewish, but truly, he’s post-ethnic, a fourth-generation Angeleno mutt who is 3/8ths Mexican and has a paternal great-grandfather who was Italian (thus, Garcetti).

In his mix of ethnic roots, Eric is much closer to what LA is these days, as more people are born here and stay here, and intermarry across religious, ethnic and color lines at a rate far higher than the nation as a whole.

Just as importantly politically, he has a foot in each of the two ethnic groups that have dominated LA politics the past 15 to 20 years as the black community has become less concentrated and a smaller proportion of the city’s residents.

It’s safe to say the Tom Bradley coalition of the 1970s has been effectively superseded in this race with something new. Now, perhaps we can get past some of the ethnic identity politics to a more solutions-oriented approach to solving the city’s many challenges.