The voice that announces stops on the bus

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A few weeks ago I noticed something odd about the voice that announces the stops on the bus, it was happy. For those of you who haven’t been on the public limo, there is a voice that announces upcoming stops to passengers in a cold and robotic tone of voice, kinda like a Mr. Spell and Speak. I was in Hollywood with a friend and during our ride I noticed that voice was ecstatic when announcing the Hollywood stops. It’s something that stands out right away to any regular bus rider because the voice goes from its boring,deep, low tone to a energetic,happy high tone right away. I pointed it out to my friend and she noticed the difference as well. Well once I got home later that day I sent Metro an email on July 2 asking a few questions about the voice recording and how it works. On July 21 I received the following reply, (Note: I removed my real named and replaced it with my blog name)

Dear El Random Hero,

The stop announcements are manually recorded, but they are triggered automatically when the vehicle comes to a stop. When a stop is established, the stop is geo-coded (lat/long location) that defines the stop. The lat/long location is used to create a trigger box (typically 100-250′ from the lat/long point). Whenever the bus enters the trigger box, the vehicle will make the announcement (assuming the operator is running a schedule that uses that particular stop). Some trigger boxes are longer than others to account for a stop which may be a very heavy transit stop and shared by many lines (transit centers, airports, USG, etc.). We appreciate your inquiry and this opportunity to respond.

Metro Customer Relations

In my questions I neglected to ask about the voice recordings accent and tone of voice because I didn’t think it would be an appropriate question to ask. If I did I would basically have to ask “Why does the voice sound sad and depressed when announcing ethnic streets in more urban areas and sound high class in fancier areas ?” My hypothesis is that it’s because it’s the Hollywood line. I imagine the city wants to keep some sort of quality control to keep tourist coming back and to not scare them away. But honestly, you would think that someone involved in the recording process must have corrected the person recording on how to properly pronounce a simple street name, that’s what dictionaries are for right ? Either way I still get a kick out of that voice botching up names like Cesar E. Chavez, Rampart and of course Hollywood !!!   

 

Glow

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I was supa excited to get to the Glow event last Saturday. How could I not, it was at the pier, all night long, tripped out art and great music mixed by the likes of Garth Trinidad and Raul Campos.

You’ve probably read how horrible it was gett to SaMo. I got off on Cloverfield and headed south to my homie’s in Venice. We hopped on bikes and rode up.

It was nuts. Some people do well in this situation, others don’t.

I had a great time. The highlight was Raul’s set. He literally gave me chills when he dropped Aly Us’ “Follow Me.” It was so hippy, so we are the world. Everyone on the pier felt the spirit. I think.

After a while I stepped behind the DJ booth to see the action from back there. At one point the crowd started chanting Raul’s name: “RA UL, RA UL, RA UL.” He couldn’t have smiled any bigger.

Raul later dropped Carl Craig’s “Throw” and I knew it was going to get the crowd even more into a frenzy. His next mix killed it. He dropped one of the biggest records in the world, Bob Sinclair’s “World Hold On.” For the chorus he cut the volume and let the people sing it, then slammed back into the beats. Needless to say the energy was so high it scared SaMo PD and they shut Raul’s set down 1/2 an hour early. Seems a Chicano can’t do his job well and be appreciated for it. He might start getting cocky and start asking for his land back. Cops claimed there were too many people on the pier.

After that I hung out and ran into old friends and saw some old ones. Rode back to Venice and called it a night.

Don’t Flip THIS House!

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Piedmont Investment Office/Mia Sushi Bar in Eagle Rock

Rudy Martinez a character on A&E’s Flip This House, along with his associate, Paul Pagnone comprise the Piedmont Investment Company, the development firm that recently purchased the historic Self Help Graphics & Art Building in East Los Angeles.

The Self Help Graphics & Art building, a visual art piece of tile work by international artist Eduardo Oropeza, has been a sanctuary for over 30 years to hundreds of marginalized artists. Through Self Help Graphics’ print ateliers, use of studio spaces, premiere instruction, use of gallery walls and mutual interchange—major Los Angeles artistic voices were born. It is not by chance that an overwhelming number of artists whose work is now exhibited in the Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement and the Cheech Marin collection at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) have a deep allegiance to Self Help Graphics.

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Barbie vs. Bratz

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Mattel prevails in Bratz copyright trial

Jury rules toy maker owns original drawings for doll’s design

LOS ANGELES – Barbie and Bratz dolls are sisters, a jury has decided in a major victory to Mattel Inc., the world’s largest toymaker, in its copyright infringement lawsuit against rival MGA Entertainment Inc.

The federal jury decided Thursday that the designer of MGA’s Bratz characters conceived the idea for the dolls while working for Mattel — a ruling that could mean millions of dollars for the Barbie maker when the jury considers possible damages during a separate proceeding.

Mattel filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Riverside against MGA, which began marketing the hugely popular Bratz line of sassy urban dolls in 2001. Mattel has claimed it owned the rights to the Bratz line because its creator, Carter Bryant, came up with the concept while working for El Segundo-based Mattel.(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25727928/) Continue reading →

Scratch to Lose!

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The photo above was taken from a moving bicycle and with an awkwardly held camera, thus the blurriness. It’s a woman crossing her fingers, scratching for hope, and wishing for a small financial windfall, so long as the symbols match up into an appropriate pattern. I wish I could say this was something due to “La Crisis” but this is a pretty regular scene in communities of the working poor. Yes, the lottery is a waste of money and a tax on the poor, but it still represents one of the few imaginary options out of poverty. And when you don’t have many real options, those few threads that offer a lifeline to a better standard of living take on an importance they should not deserve. When you only make minimum wage, why not risk a small part of it in the hope of escaping that interminable prison? There’s a pretty messed up logic to this lottery business. I suggest you read the article by Kim Phillips titled “Lotteryville, USA” which was in The Baffler #7, now available via this google books link.

Far East LA and other sh*t I don’t like.

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I found a new phrase.

Hipster Racism, I found it at Racialicious, the ladies over there are so smart.

“I define hipster racism (I’m borrowing the phrase from Carmen Van Kerckhove) as ideas, speech, and action meant to denigrate another’s person race or ethnicity under the guise of being urbane, witty (meaning “ironic” nowadays), educated, liberal, and/or trendy.”
AJ Plaid, Racialicious

I used to just call it the “tattooed, pseudo progressive, over-educated, asshole” problem, but this is much better.

Back in the day (the 90s) an ethnic minority in Los Angeles only had to stay away from Republican areas and never visit the Southern part of the United States (or the South Bay, oh let’s throw in Covina and Tujunga too) and they would be shielded from being openly mocked owing to what they were ethnically (not from being harassed by the cops, they will always be a problem), but those days are over.

We can now enjoy being mocked by Obama supporting, vegetarian diet, Ivy League graduate liberals, with “multi-colored” sex partners. Well thank god. We’ve come so far.
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Botanitas: July 18, 2008

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Vexing: Female Voices from East LA Punk, Claremont Museum through Aug 31.

Botanitas is an ongoing feature bringing you stories and news from various sources, upcoming events and other bits of ephemera that might be of interest to LA Eastside readers. Suggestions welcome!

Bridging the grade divide in Lincoln Heights

Residential Food Scrap Pilot Program

Old Los Angeles

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Water Quality?

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I got my yearly “water quality” report from the DWP a few days ago, which is now in newspaper size print. Okay, seems a bit excessive for this lil’ gripping page turner, but what do I know. But did they really need to use a picture of Echo Park and the missing lotus flowers, considering that “poor water quality” is one of the possible reasons for their disappearance? I would have gone with a different image, one that doesn’t make me look at my glass of water suspiciously. But what do I know.

“La Crisis”

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fruit cart

After I deposited some long over due client checks at the ATM outside of Lucy’s Laundry Mart, I went over to the fruit cart to get my custom bag of fruit with lime, salt and chile. I hadn’t been in a minute. I was excited.

As a solopreneur, I have for sure felt the blow of this f-ed up economy. I figured its summer timers and the fruit cart biz must be a booming, right? WRONG!

I started up convo with the fruit cart man and asked him what time he’s usually done for the day. He said that sometimes he’s there until 6pm. I was like really?! I told him I thought with it being Summer timers he’d be done by mid-afternoon. He said that most summers its like that but not now with “la crisis”, making people pinch every penny.

Damn.

Churros

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Walking down Cesar Chavez yesterday to go see my friend at work I was thinking, “Man I could sure go for a churro right about now. That sweet,greasy stick always hits the spot anytime, anywhere.” Just as I think my hunger for churros will go unfulfilled, I see a man and his cart standing in front of the Big Buy full of churros. Four for a dollar he yelled and like Batman to the bat-signal, I grab a dollar from my pocket and with a smile on my face I asked him to help me fulfill my sugary craving. The vendor was an older looking man, late ’40s early ’50s, he had a light beer smell to him, possibly budweiser and looked as if he just crawled from under a pickup truck. Despite his rugged appearance I didn’t hesitate as I took a bite of my churro, still warm and soft as it was recently made. The man told me that his suegra had rushed him out the door to go and sell after she finished making them. He asked her if he could have one more beer before he left the house, but no dice. Across the street from him other people were selling other various foods and random items. On Fridays, Saturdays and Sunday it gets packed on that side walk with people buying food and just enjoying themselves. However I digress from my point, which is that no matter what your craving there will be someone in a cart or stand selling what ever your craving for a reasonable price and extremely delicious. I <3 Boyle Heights.  

The LA Times cuts Jesus Sanchez

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“And_then_there_were_none With so many good people leaving the paper, it seems unfair to single anyone out. But readers of this blog have come to know Jesus Sanchez, to seek him out for his sly and dry wit, his knowledge of the city where he was born, and his uncanny ability to find and tell the quietly great story. It would be wrong to have his photo vanish from this page without letting you know Jesus has been laid off. “  Veronique de Turenne, LA Now, LA Times, Thank you Jesus.  July 15

It to me is amazing in regards to who is staying and who is going, this is a sad time for LA print media.

Browne

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