Box Office Review: American Teens Are Morons
Will This Go to Trial and Move to L.A., too? BART Cop Smashes Drunk Guy's Head through Window
Books for L.A. Nerds: Saints of California
Map of the Day: Outdoor Skating Rinks in Los Angeles
Shag's New Show 'Autumn's Come Undone' at the Corey Helford Gallery
Swept up in the good time-y vibes surely prevalent during last night's heavily-touted U2 concert at the Rose Bowl, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa took a couple of opportunities to share his exuberance over the occasion via Twitter. Villaraigosa and his girlfriend, KTLA reporter Lu Parker, were among the approximately 96,000 fans who packed the Pasadena stadium to see one of the last engagements in the rock band's "360 Tour" with support from the Black Eyed Peas.
Lately Villaraigosa has been less cagey about his relationship with Parker, particularly after the duo have been making enough public appearances to warrant many a watchful Angeleno wonder if an engagement is eminent. Whereas earlier this year he did not publicly acknowledge he'd taken at least one of his costly trips with Parker as his companion, last night he shared with the world that he was enjoying the concert with Lu (and, bonus: a smiley-face emoticon!).
Aside from his love life, his oft-repeated "I love L.A." sentiment kept eyebrows raised. For anyone with even a scant knowledge of local geography, if Villaraigosa were to be loving any L.A. last night while at the Rose Bowl he'd be loving L.A. County, not the City of which he is the head. Mike of Franklin Avenue agrees:
But c'mon. Fine, attend the U2 concert (along with them "Black Eye Peas") -- but the Rose Bowl is in Pasadena. I'm pretty sure the mayor knows that. So tossing in a "I love L.A." while not really enjoying an event in L.A. seems kinda wrong -- at least for the mayor of Los Angeles.(We'll let his band-name spelling error slide; after all, a person can get twitterpated whilst Twittering via TwitterBerry.)
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
No offense intended, but this really seems like grasping at straws and people looking for any excuse to criticize the man. Was he adopted by the Clintons?
I don't personally care for this dude, but also couldn't care less with whom he is/isn't sleeping or going out. Good for him. I am more amused by how a man my wife describes as "not cute AT ALL" can convince these women to be with him.
Lastly, the point about L.A....that's just too much. Seriously, how many of us haven't used "L.A." in place for some other city name. It is a common cultural phenomena of the area and everyone knows that. I remember the L.A. Galaxy once played in Pasadena and now they play in Carson. I don't remember anyone ever saying "those fans are morons, clearly they should be the Pasadena/Carson Galaxy" or better yet, the "Inglewood Lakers."
Seems silly.
I think anytime you are a public figure you invite scrutiny, whether it's about your love life, or in the case of a politician, your handling of your duties and the manner in which you represent your constituency.
I'm glad that that the Mayor is happy in his relationship with Lu Parker and that they had a blast at the U2 concert. It is, however, undeniable that in recent days he has been more forthcoming about their relationship. Bear in mind she is a member of the media, and this is his second relationship with a broadcast journalist working in Los Angeles. That is absolutely noteworthy.
In regards to the point about L.A.--I don't think he's a moron or literally confused about where he was. But this is a casual and careless error that will serve as a misrepresentation that reaches a broad spectrum of people. If he needed more words to describe his feelings about LA in the sense that where he was was a more symbolic extension of the metro area that he represents then he shouldn't have used a platform in which he's limited to 140 characters.
Your point about team names is very timely, considering the ongoing debate about the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. What's in a name, right?
True, he is open to scrutiny, however, people far too often focus on the trivial. Sometimes using it as a means to add to the already existing criticism on other issues, as though they were related, when often time they are not and more so they have no bearing on public policy either.
It is not even an issue of hypocrisy. It is not like he is part of the "family values" crowd and suddenly got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
As for the point about it being a media person again, perhaps that's his fetish. Who knows? I certainly don't, nor do I care to know. Unless there is some proof that he is somehow leveraging those relationships to obtain some political goal, I don't see why it is an issue.
This whole "issue" just seems very petty.
Ridiculous. Ever heard of "Greater Los Angeles"? How do you know he didn't mean L.A. County? The Angels are a bad example because last time I checked Anaheim was in Orange County, hence severing any LA connection. Or would you think it is fair if we gave you a pass on this with the reason that "you don't really know about LA since you're from the Valley anyway." (regardless of North Hollywood being City of LA)
But seriously, how long have you been posting stories on here and the quality is still ridiculously low? How about another "OMG someone posted a TOS-violating review on Yelp!" story?
"how long have you been posting stories on here and the quality is still ridiculously low?"
Four and a half years.
"How about another "OMG someone posted a TOS-violating review on Yelp!" story?"
Find me one and I'll post about it. I live to please you. (also: that post did very well. it earned its own thread on yelp, did you know? i called my mom.)
"The Angels are a bad example because last time I checked Anaheim was in Orange County, hence severing any LA connection"
Actually, the Angels began in Los Angeles, so the fact that they play in Anaheim and have had a long-running debate about the name is quite valid. (Here's where I discuss this on LAist, in another one of my lousy articles: http://laist.com/2008/06/21/laistory_baseba.php)
"How do you know he didn't mean L.A. County?"
I suppose I don't. Should we always assume people in the media "mean" something similar to what they actually say? Wouldn't you give us a hard time for doing that?
"Or would you think it is fair if we gave you a pass on this with the reason that "you don't really know about LA since you're from the Valley anyway." (regardless of North Hollywood being City of LA)"
I'm not asking for a pass. I know my geography and my history quite well.
I agree with your rebuttal on the Angels point (I actually still prefer 'California Angels'), but lets not make this a personal thing. The main point has been made.
ha ha. people (ahem paul ahem) like to make this about me. can't figure out why. where i live or what i write about or of what caliber my writing is seems to be a favorite point of discussion, which i find endlessly amusing.
thanks for your thoughts, angel!
I think he's planting the seed, a major annexation is on the way! Northeast L.A. is going to get larger. Anyway...
I'm sure, like you and Mike, he was well aware and was just generalizing. However, with local geography being such a sticky and sometimes-difficult subject to get through people's heads, this does not help. This will also add to the major confusion of tourists.
I don't see what the problem is. This area is such a jumble of communities that, depending on who I'm talking to, I might refer to everything from San Fernando to Mission Viejo as L.A. If I'm talking to someone from Irvine, it's Mission Viejo, someone from Nevada, it's Orange County, someone from Germany, it's L.A.
With all due respect to the good people of Pasadena, if I was at the Rose Bowl with 96,000 people from the greater Los Angeles area, I would most definitely not say "I love Pasadena!"
Exactly. I'm sure U2 didn't fly all the way from Ireland to perform for only Pasadena and no other cities! (But if I'm wrong and they end up putting on a different show in each of SoCal's 75+ cities, I'd be all for it!)
Precisely. I know I do that all the time too.
Furthermore, if one looks at the "L.A." reference in that context, as well as within the frame of mind that Twitter is a global tool accessible to anyone with Internet access, one could easily argue a favorable point for Villaraigosa: he doesn't believe the world ends at the L.A. city borders.
I agree you're kinda pickin' on the guy now... If we want to scrounge for criticism fodder, maybe we should write the University of California, Los Angeles, and tell them they MUST change their name to reflect where their football team plays, while still maintaining the bi-city citizenship indicated by their campus location...
UCLAP?
The shit that you guys choose to care about...
As the Mayor of Los Angeles, shouldn't it be a given that you "love" it?
Why the f*ck would he even bother to post such drivel? Maybe he was on E or something...
Of course he loves LA. Who else, besides Boston, would elect such an incompetent person who has accomplished nothing and is constantly absent from the city to a second term?
I don't really like Antonio but that's a fantastically stupid criticism. The real issue is... was he in the crowd enjoying the show with fans? Or was he in the VIP tent with Paris Hilton and David Beckham? I think we all know the answer to that one.
(I was in the crowd and U2 kicked ass per usual)
This is the worst article on the site. It's completely stupid and pointless, and the author should be ashamed to have made this post.