BART Cop Murder Trial to Move to Downtown L.A., Lawyer Predicts More L.A. Riots
Jason Segel Sings His Phone Number at the Swell Season Last Night
Video of the Day: Your East Side Moment of Zen
-thumb-110x110-459458.jpg)
Bouchon Amuses Our Bouches
Sobriety Checkpoint in Sherman Oaks Tonight
The man behind Arthur Magazine, Jay Babcock, recently took the indie rag's operation to Brooklyn where he decided to resettle. Soundboard, the LA Times music blog, got a hold of him for a short interview. His answer to the first question, "what prompted the move to Brooklyn?", is quite a read:
New York is just a more hospitable environment than L.A. ever has been or will be. L.A. is devolving quickly, and I think I got out in the nick of time. The L.A. Times is imploding, our public radio is terrible, the [L.A.] Weekly’s been devolving for years. Local media’s being run into the ground and I don’t think anybody cares. The public’s dumbed down and poorly educated. L.A. is a psychic death hole to me, and I don’t want a part of that. There are so many impending crises — the political structure, the traffic, the educational system. L.A. is failing worse than ever, and I felt that if I can get out, I should. I found a way out. For a long time now I’ve been going back and forth between L.A. and New York, and every time I got off the plane in L.A. I felt dumber.
And that's not all on his feelings about our city. He goes on about it throughout the interview.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Yeah, I read this in the Times yesterday, what a douche.
In other words, "I got dumped and kicked out of the apartment we were sharing."
Looks like New York thinks he's a douche too!
http://gawker.com/5028824/la-give-brooklyn-your-tired-your-poor-your-weary
Jay Babcock wants to finish what biggie and 2pac started apparently.
Aurthur Mag is a great publication. They have some great contributors who provide some real, valuable insight. If Jay had trouble monetizing that then maybe he should look to new leadership, rather than a new home. Sending a vague email in the dead of night on the so called Eve of Arthur Mag's death asking for $20,000 epitomizes Jay's lack of leadership. As soon as he got the cash he booked for NY without telling anyone (he thinks we are just supposed to know this? he's not that important) Instead of running it into the ground in LA, he will most likely do this in NY (but hey, instead of car insurance he only has to pay the subway fee!)
try putting on a full scale guerrilla concert outdoors in brooklyn without permits, i think you'll be faced with the same problems jay. NY has parks!? i wish LA did....
These problems of infrastructure and education are not just relegated to los angeles, they permeate the entire country. his interview highlights his defeatist attitude, one where negative complaining is the prime reason for change.
Go ahead and whine because your magazine helped to assemble a social circle whose collective intelligence is on par with that of a gumby doll, I will still love los angeles.
Uhhhh...I cant say I comepletely disagree with what he is saying about L.A. In fact I think he is right on the fucking money. ESPECIALLY about how diffucult the city makes it to maintain any semblance of a culture that isnt stucco or zoned and permit granted bullshit for the masses.
mw-
born and raised in fucking L.A.
Who knew Babcock could be such an ass. Ah well, the Gawker comments are pretty funny. Nice to read this from a New Yorker:
"We're not really smarter or more cultured here, though—we just think we are!"
Sounds like he's trying to fit in with New York. Problem is, from my experience living there, you can't be from LA to hate on LA. That smells like bullshit, especially to New Yorkers who know all Californian's that moved there love it back home.
Besides, hating LA is so..... San Francisco.
yeah, nothing can be accomplished in L.A. Give me a break. Besides shit like Sunset Junction, which is coming up again, he put on the damn Arthur Fest. Which I thought was great. What's up his ass?
And the LA Times interview was stupid. It was a bunch of lame email interview questions with no follow ups to his trashing us up the wazoo.
it feels like "Rocket Science," when the girl screws over the guy and changes schools. So... 'Oh yeah, well we'll show him!'
To be fair, he is really talking from his experience as a young, cultured, educated man, typically living on the west side of Los Angeles right? The same type of demographic as the people that hit this site?
My observations:
If you are not from UCLA or USC and you live in Los Angeles, YOU SUCK BALLS! Even if you graduated from UCLA, you suck MONSTER BALLS.
If you are a hot girl and a rich guy, you love LA!
If you are not hispanic or don't speak spanish, you don't experience the true "Los Angeles".
Police, DA and jurors are just fucking pawns here. 41,000+ "known" gang members, less than 10,000 cops on LAPD? Can't wait for the big one to hit and see these fools making there way into the west side. NYPD has 37,000 cops.
Some people love "LA". It takes a certain person that relishes in their ability to get by here. This dude just figured out he wasn't one (Come on, admit it, you love telling your friends outside LA that "I live in LA".)
I am not a native Angeleno, and having lived here 6 years, what the fuck do I know.
bummer to read. i used to think that guy was cool, his magazine certainly is. public radio is fine in LA. maybe he has never heard KCRW and KXLU. the "impending crises" of traffic and educational have been coming forever...never happening.
doesn't he get it?
everything and everyone you could want is in LA- you just have to find it- and ignore the bullshit.
he must of been watching to much TMZ or something...
so he is going to feel smarter getting off the plane in NY? good luck with that...
fuck this guy,
and fuck everybody who thinks LA has no "culture". you're a dick, fo sho.
Also, anybody who "hates" on a city because they have some inflated notion of what a city should be is just...a narrow-minded unfortunate sad soul.
There is no city, no country, and no people in this entire world that is not worthy of examination, attention, love, and respect.
Anybody who dismisses an entire population like this douche-nugget obviously has serious personal issues to which he must attend.
Who is this guy again and why should the Militant care what he has to say?
Srsly, people blame their own issues on their environs, when the real problem lies within.
^exactly. I went to a private high school in the valley and i remember a certain classmate would go to europe and fall in love with it and come back and say how much LA has no culture and how lame it is, although all he did was work at wood ranch and smoke and go watcha movie. yep. not that LA has the most independent artists living anywhere in the US (besides Santa Fe), the most exciting/cutting edge in contemporary classical music (green umbrella series, hollywood film music, colburn/cal arts/usc), great weather, with the greatest concentration of the greatest female chefs in any area, and i can go on and on....the lack of density/public transportation is the one thing that makes things difficult for people to find these things. but in LA people are so laid back/not uptight that they hardly bother to look.
that can be good or bad depending on your general outlook on life. but i love it. although i'll be in new york for amonth. if i run into him ill sock him in the face for you.
It's who you choose to associate with. I've had people go one about Hollywood sucking - then I discovered they hung out and shot heroin the whole time they were here. Sure LA has its problems, but those particular issues are not exclusive to LA.
Not to gush, but LAist has made me feel like a part of this city for the first time. All of my life I just lived here. But studying up on it, exploring the neighborhoods and really following the events and myriad subcultures has really made me love this city. So fuck everybody - we can be blindly stupidly in love with our city just like anyone from NY or Seattle.
People who leave town that suddenly are running. Maybe bad business deals, love affair gone bad, maybe from themselves. As the saying goes, "Wherever you go, there you are."
If Babcock comes back, tail between his legs let's collectively bag on him endlessly. I'll agree not to let him merge in traffic or go first at the stop sign if you will too.
Even the horrid and obnoxious Star 98.7 is playing better music today than it was last year. Then you have indie 103.1 which despite it's poseur (Clear Channel) beginnings, which any angeleno can see through, is almost revolutionary in the type of music that a clear channel station would play. Kroq is worse than ever, but KCRW is always on top of it's game. Having visited New york lately, I am fairly certain we have better radio than on the east coast.
But he's indicative of what this city seems to do to people. Love and hate of the city is directly related to professional success and failure.
The only good radio in NYC is when Radio New York simulcasts KEXP (which is in Seattle)
Judas.
i always tell people that the reason they think new york-europe is better is b-c the culture is right there in front of them. they dont have to look for it. so its all very shallow...
Carrie, your post hit the nail on the head!
Indie 103.1 has been owned by Entravision, since it's beginning.
Walter O'Malley goes in the Baseball Hall of Fame today. Guess that's one thing LA has that Brooklyn doesn't.
I'm tired of this NY vs. LA bullshit. I think residents of both cities should realize they are nowhere near the best cities to live in America. But I'm not about to start grandstanding and giving my recommendations cause I'm pretty sure nobody cares.
For one, I would submit that radio in both cities suck.
Moreover, I'm fairly certain we'll be hearing this Babcock fellow bitching about NYC in the not too distant future. Just wait until winter.