Santa Monica

LA Times: But Southern California’s six-day cold snap took a surreal turn Wednesday as a rare snowstorm brought snowplows to the canyons above Malibu, left parts of the San Fernando Valley with a white dusting and shut down Interstate 5. The snow levels plunged well below 1,000 feet in some areas, blanketing the Santa Monica Mountains with snow and leaving streets and lawns in Venice, Westwood and elsewhere on the Westside covered with ice from pea-sized hail.

25 years ago today I was born at Santa Monica Hospital. During my quarter-century on this Earth I’m fortunate to have had many opportunities to grow up in a loving family, to have been educated both here and abroad, to have learned to play musical instruments, and to have been trained as a journalist. I’m not really sure what the next 25 years will bring, nor where my exact place in the world will be, but I’m hoping to land…

I’m in Santa Monica for Thanksgiving until Sunday. If you’re around and want to hang out with me, drop me an email.

Well folks, you knew it was coming sooner or later — the first legal shots have been fired against Sacha Baron Cohen by those drunken frat guys in that RV ”to protect themselves from any additional and unnecessary embarrassment.” The Associated Press: The lawsuit claims that in October 2005, a production crew took the students to a bar to drink and ”loosen up” before participating in what they were told would be a documentary to be shown outside of the…

I spent a good portion of last night listening to Game 7 of the NLCS on the radio last night. For those of you that missed it, the highlight of the game was Mets centerfielder Endy Chávez’ amazing grab in the sixth inning, saving the Mets from what should have been a two-run homer. Josh Levin, my editor over at Slate, has a great piece stacking up this play to the most famous baseball catch in history, Willie Mays’ The…

I’ve been in LA since Thursday evening, visiting my parents and friends down here. On Friday, I lunched with Jason Calacanis (my new boss‘ boss‘ boss) at the Daily Grill, where we ran into Danah Boyd as we were leaving. Later that night, after dinner with my family at Javan Restaurant, I re-met a very old childhood friend, whom I haven’t seen in over 20 years, Arianna Haut. She recently moved back to LA — naturally we headed straight for…

Los Angeles Times; August 27, 2006: But experts say the biggest culprit in rush-hour traffic snags is a boom in Westside commercial development that has lured and created jobs. Job growth has transformed the area into the region’s premiere commercial hub, second only to downtown Los Angeles in the number of jobs. Each day, workers pour into office buildings lining busy corridors such as Wilshire Boulevard, the burgeoning towers of Century City and the rows of Santa Monica office parks…

So, I’m listed under the Wikipedia category of People from Santa Monica, California. This is a category I share with Tiger Woods. But when I went to read his entry, I discovered that while he’s not actually from Santa Monica, (born in Cypress, CA), he apparently went to my alma mater, and was classmates and golf teammates with Carson Daly. Whoa.

MuniWireless: Santa Monica, California has issued a request for proposals (RFP) seeking a vendor to deploy, operate and maintain a ubiquitous wireless mesh broadband network in the city. Santa Monica covers an area of 8.3 square miles and has 87,000 residents; it lies on the coast within greater Los Angeles. Responses to the RFP are due back to the city by 5:00 PM, Friday, June 30, 2006 (see the RFP for details). . . . The vendor will deliver Internet…

Gadling reports that one of my favorite small businesses from my hometown is closing its doors at the end of May. Everything is 20 percent off until then. Although I only went in there a few times, they always had what I wanted and were helpful and friendly. I bought my Melbourne Lonely Planet there in 2002. I’ll be sure to stop in when I’m home next month. You might want to consider health insurance for travelers if you’re going…