Kevin Roderick http://www.kevinroderick.com/ Website of Kevin Roderick, the author, journalist and blogger en Copyright 2008 Sat, 12 Apr 2008 11:48:59 -0800 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=3.2 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss April 26, 2008: Los Angeles Times Festival of Books Kevin will sign "Wilshire Boulevard: Grand Concourse of Los Angeles" and "The San Fernando Valley: America's Suburb" from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Angel City Press booth on the main concourse. ACP.

Kevin will also moderate a panel called "California: The Great Experiment," with authors D.J. Waldie, William Deverell and Matthew Jaffe. It's scheduled for 3 p.m. in the Lenart Auditorium at UCLA's Fowler Museum. Book Festival info.

]]> http://www.kevinroderick.com/april_26_2008_los_angeles_time.html http://www.kevinroderick.com/april_26_2008_los_angeles_time.html Sat, 12 Apr 2008 11:48:59 -0800 Kevin on KCRW Hear Kevin's weekly commentary on KCRW-FM (89.9 in Los Angeles) at 4:40 p.m. every Friday afternoon. Audio and text archives are also posted online, and the series is available as a free podcast on iTunes.

]]> http://www.kevinroderick.com/kevin_on_kcrw.html http://www.kevinroderick.com/kevin_on_kcrw.html Sat, 12 Apr 2008 11:40:51 -0800 LA Observed Kevin's respected, award-winning blog is always fresh at LAObserved.com.

]]> http://www.kevinroderick.com/la_observed.html http://www.kevinroderick.com/la_observed.html Sat, 12 Apr 2008 11:20:40 -0800 New radio commentaries KCRW, the National Public Radio powerhouse based in Santa Monica, invited me to join its lineup of weekly commentators. "LA Observed" airs at 4:44 pm on Fridays during NPR's news program "All Things Considered." In four minutes 'll try to illuminate something going on in the media culture or politics of Los Angeles, sometimes taken from the week's news at LA Observed.com.

My debut commentary today involves the departure of more than fifty reporters, editors and photographers from the Los Angeles Times newsroom — and what that means for the city, the paper and the departing journalists.

I call the KCRW relationship an experiment because it's a first regular weekly spot for me and the first tie-in of that sort for LA Observed. The website will continue to report on KCRW as we always have, and I've been assured by general manager Ruth Seymour that she has no intention of influencing what we report on the blogs. She also promises a hands off approach to the weekly radio spots — so long as I don't drop an f-bomb on the tape, of course.

The first one was fun, so we'll see how it goes. Tune in to KCRW at 89.9 FM on Fridays, listen to the audio at kcrw.com or subscribe to the LA Observed spots on iTunes — and let me know what you think.

]]> http://www.kevinroderick.com/new_radio_commentaries.html http://www.kevinroderick.com/new_radio_commentaries.html Fri, 01 Jun 2007 18:11:04 -0800 At the book festival If you are attending the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at UCLA this weekend, stop by and say hello. Here's my schedule:

Saturday, April 29

♦ 10:00am-11:00am — Borders booth, signing Wilshire Boulevard: Grand Concourse of Los Angeles.

♦ 12:00pm-2:00pm — Angel City Press booth, signing Wilshire Boulevard and San Fernando Valley: America's Suburb.

♦ 2:30pm — "Defining California" panel, moderator. Panelists are D.J. Waldie, Peter Schrag and Rick Wartzman. Korn Convocation Hall, free tickets required.

Sunday, April 30

♦ 11:00am-12:30pm — Angel City Press booth, signing books.

♦ 1:00pm — Dean Baquet in conversation with Kevin Roderick. Schoenberg Hall, free tickets required.

]]> http://www.kevinroderick.com/at_the_book_festival.html http://www.kevinroderick.com/at_the_book_festival.html Fri, 28 Apr 2006 17:19:49 -0800 Panel on blogs In my role as editor of LA Observed, I'll be participating on a panel about websites that watch the media at the Los Angeles Press Club on Thursday, April 13 at 6:30 pm. The panel is scheduled to include Ron Fineman of the television site Ron Fineman.com and Don Barrett of LA Radio.com. Matt Welch of the Los Angeles Times editorial board will moderate. The event is free and located at the Press Club's headquarters, 4773 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.

]]> http://www.kevinroderick.com/panel_on_blogs.html http://www.kevinroderick.com/panel_on_blogs.html Thu, 06 Apr 2006 23:39:38 -0800 Sixth week on the list Wilshire Boulevard: Grand Concourse of Los Angeles moved up to number six on the Los Angeles Times nonfiction bestseller list. It's the sixth week we have been on the list, which is based on sales at an anonymous selection of Southern California booksellers. The second printing has left the publisher so you should have no trouble finding the book, should you be interested.

In the same issue of the Los Angeles Times Book Review, I also review Sacramento Bee columnist Peter Schrag's book California: America's High-Stakes Experiment.

]]> http://www.kevinroderick.com/sixth_week_on_the_list.html http://www.kevinroderick.com/sixth_week_on_the_list.html Tue, 04 Apr 2006 23:31:47 -0800 Festival of Books coming Each April the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is the biggest literary event in town, and it's always completely free except for parking on the UCLA campus if you drive. It's a great time for me because I get to meet and chat with fans of the books. This year I'm also handling a couple of panels. Here's an early look at the schedule for this April.

Saturday, April 29:

10 am - 11 am: Eric Lynxwiler and I sign Wilshire Boulevard: Grand Concourse of Los Angeles in the Borders tent.

12 noon - 2 pm: We sign Wilshire Boulevard (and I sign copies of San Fernando Valley: America's Suburb) and talk with readers at the Angel City Press booth on the main midway of the festival.

2:30 pm: I moderate a panel called "Defining California" in Korn Convocation Hall. Scheduled panelists are D.J. Waldie, Rick Wartzman and Peter Schrag.

Sunday, April 30:

11 am - noon: Eric and I will be back at the Angel City Press booth to meet with readers and sign more books.

1 pm: I interview Los Angeles Times Editor Dean Baquet on the state of the paper in Schoenberg Hall.

Here are the full lists of panels and participating authors for the festival.


]]> http://www.kevinroderick.com/festival_of_books_coming.html http://www.kevinroderick.com/festival_of_books_coming.html Fri, 31 Mar 2006 01:06:19 -0800 Couple of L.A. events I'm booked on two panels about blogging in the Los Angeles area this week. Both are free so make your reservations and come on down.

Wednesday, March 22 — "Have Blogs Replaced Newspapers and Should We Care?" Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities, in the Doheny Library at USC. I am a panelist with former Wonkette Ana Marie Cox and Kevin Drum, who writes the Political Animal blog for The Washington Monthly. 4 pm. Info here.

Saturday, March 25 — "Blogging and Journalism: Where Do Their Paths Cross?" American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Museum of Television and Radio mentor program for students of broadcast journalism in Southern California. My co-panelists are Molly Paige of KPFK-FM and Rafat Ali, the founder of Paidcontent.org. 9:30 am at the museum in Beverly Hills.

]]> http://www.kevinroderick.com/couple_of_la_events.html http://www.kevinroderick.com/couple_of_la_events.html Tue, 21 Mar 2006 22:26:52 -0800 Behind the mike KCRW, the National Public Radio station at 89.9 FM in Santa Monica, asked me to host this week's installment of the respected show Politics of Culture. The guest was John Nielsen, an NPR environment reporter who has writen a book on the scientific and political effort to save the California condor from extinction. Nielsen grew up in Piru, the small Ventura County town a little north of Six Flags Magic Mountain and west of Castaic, Calif. His father was in charge of developing the nearby suburbs of Valencia.

Nielsen's book is Condor: To the Brink and Back — the Story of One Giant Bird. Website

Listen to the interview

]]> http://www.kevinroderick.com/behind_the_mike.html http://www.kevinroderick.com/behind_the_mike.html Sat, 18 Mar 2006 12:57:51 -0800 Fourth week Sunday's Los Angeles Times Book Review includes Wilshire Boulevard: Grand Concourse of Los Angeles on the Southern California bestseller list for the fourth week. Ours is the only Los Angeles-oriented book on the nonfiction list.

I've been lucky enough to meet some great fans of the book at recent signings. Here's some of what is on the calendar coming up:

February 28: Interview with Victoria Looseleaf, "The Looseleaf Report."

March 3: Online Journalism Review Conference 2006 at USC.

March 19: Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, speaker at Fellows Dinner.

March 22: Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities, panel on blogs and newspapers.

April 13: Los Angeles Press Club, panel on L.A. media.

April 29-30: Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.

May 4: Friends of the Mar Vista Library.

May 11: Vroman's bookstore in Pasadena.

]]> http://www.kevinroderick.com/fourth_week.html http://www.kevinroderick.com/fourth_week.html Sun, 26 Feb 2006 10:29:33 -0800 Dutton's event I'll be speaking and signing books with Eric Lynxwiler this Wednesday evening at Dutton's Books in Beverly Hills. The event starts at 7 pm at 447 N. Canon Drive.

Wilshire Boulevard: Grand Concourse of Los Angeles remains on the bestseller list in the Times Book Review.

]]> http://www.kevinroderick.com/duttons_event.html http://www.kevinroderick.com/duttons_event.html Sun, 19 Feb 2006 18:55:33 -0800 Jonathan Club Eric and I spoke and showed photographs from Wilshire Boulevard the other evening at the Jonathan Club in downtown Los Angeles. We were thrilled to take in the building, a 1920s landmark on Figueroa Street. We received a gracious welcome from a large and knowledgeable audience in the club's elegant library, then enjoyed dinner with the Library Committee and their guests. Several members told personal stories of their families' connection to the boulevard, and two women described working as live mannequins at Bullock's Wilshire during the department store's heyday.

It was a new experience to be telling tales on boulevard founder Gaylord Wilshire from the podium while making eye contact with one of his descendants. She is the grand niece of Gaylord, and I think took his personal foilbles in the historical sense they were intended. The biggest laugh came after I described Gaylord as an unlikely figure to have his name plastered across Los Angeles. He was a bit of a dilettante, as well as an infamous medical quack and a socialist, which for this audience was the right set-up for the punch line: Wilshire also was a founder of the Jonathan Club's friendly downtown rival, the California Club.

]]> http://www.kevinroderick.com/jonathan_club.html http://www.kevinroderick.com/jonathan_club.html Sun, 19 Feb 2006 17:22:12 -0800 Back on the list Wilshire Boulevard: Grand Concourse of Los Angeles returned to the Los Angeles Times bestseller list, at number nine. I've also been invited to participate on a panel at the 2006 Times Festival of Books to be held at UCLA the weekend of April 29-30. More details when I know them.

]]> http://www.kevinroderick.com/back_on_the_list.html http://www.kevinroderick.com/back_on_the_list.html Sun, 12 Feb 2006 14:10:48 -0800 Toasting the Ambassador Hotel The first institution to introduce glamour to Wilshire Boulevard was the Ambassador Hotel. It opened in 1921 as an instant landmark and became known around the world. Even though the hotel has been closed for fifteen years, its demolition has been sad to watch for me and for many people who I know. Reporter John Rabe of KPCC News ran a three-minute radio piece yesterday with my thoughts (audio) on the hotel's demise. We were sitting in the HMS Bounty, a dark, red-banquette bar and grill on the ground floor of the Gaylord Apartments, directly across Wilshire Boulevard from the hotel grounds. A few hours after we spoke, the Bounty and the Gaylord were filled by more than 250 guests at an Ambassador "wake" arranged by the Los Angeles Conservancy.

]]> http://www.kevinroderick.com/toasting_the_ambassador_hotel.html http://www.kevinroderick.com/toasting_the_ambassador_hotel.html Fri, 03 Feb 2006 22:38:24 -0800