Pan-Asian Metropolis — Japanese Los Angeles

Los Angeles was at one time home to the largest population of Japanese outside of Japan and the contributions of Japanese-Angelenos to history and culture are many. It was in Los Angeles that Hollywood created the first Asian-American film star. It was also in Los Angeles that a legal challenge in the Supreme Court re-shaped … Continue reading Pan-Asian Metropolis — Japanese Los Angeles

Nobody Drives in LA — So Why Are Our Train Stations So Crap?

There've recently been a couple of articles in the Los Angeles Times about the various state of local mass transit that have got me thinking. Mehmet Baker's "Metro is hemorrhaging riders. It needs to stop studying obvious fixes and start acting" appeared on Sunday, was good but many of the complaints voiced were the sort … Continue reading Nobody Drives in LA — So Why Are Our Train Stations So Crap?

After the Go-Betweens — the Solo Albums of Grant McClennan and Robert Forster

On 25 March, music critic Ken Tucker reviewed the new solo album by Robert Forster on the NPR program, Fresh Air. In the review, Tucker said, "Along with his fellow songwriter Grant McLellan, Forster led the Go-Betweens starting in the 1990s." In one sentence, the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic managed to get a couple of things completely … Continue reading After the Go-Betweens — the Solo Albums of Grant McClennan and Robert Forster