California + Advertising + Afro = Awesome

Spotted this banner outside a hair salon on Abbot Kinney near my office in Venice. Change and cheap haircuts are both good things.

First Photos from Rothbury Festival!

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Originally uploaded by JeffersonB

My first set of hundreds of Rothbury Festival photos are now up and uploading on Flickr and are all publicly available. Check it out - cool backstage and behind-the-scenes photos through the afternoon of Saturday, July 5.

Tonight Dave Mathews Band. More photos soon so check back often.

Go! Go! Raleigh

My friend Dana is again publishing an amazing blog at gogoraleigh.com. He was out of the scene for a while, but is back this year with what I think should be recognized as one of the best, most comprehensive civic blogs I've ever read. Would someone give this guy a Webby?

Everything from the highest level city development plans, to sports (he's an admitted Carolina and general ACC basketball addict) to where the next chain restaurant is opening down to local music events, if there is anything you want to know about what's happening in Raleigh, it's here. Speaking of Raleigh, and the fantastic time we spent there with Caro's friends and our families, if you want to see change happen fast, look at that place. If you think they're only building high-rise luxury towers with downtown loft living in places like Manhattan, Atlanta and Los Angeles, well then think again. With an air of objectivity, the site feeds you some insight into the impact that development is having on economy, civic pride and local activism. Growth (and the sprawl that goes with it) isn't all it's cracked up to be, and this site will give you some perspective to follow the impact of development on a mid-sized city. My aunt, who also lives in Raleigh, tells me developer greed is taking over there at the expense of sustainable and environmentally sound growth. It's in these mid-size cities where you can really see how fast change and growth can happen. Interesting stuff.

The Grove's Trolley of Terror!

Do not get on this contraption. Above everything else in LA, nothing reminds me more that people have a false sense of security about terror attacks than the trolley at The Grove. If Department of Homeland Security officials want creative thinking in helping to uncover potential terror targets, then might I suggest the corner of Fairfax and Third Streets? As a friend of mine pointed out, the biggest target in Iraq seems to be marketplaces, and in Israel it's buses and bus stops, and in London it was double decker buses, so why the hell would anyone get on this crowded double decker trolley in a shopping center? On the weekends they're crammed in there like sardines. Anyone can get on, there are crowds of people everywhere you could melt into, the place is practically open to the street, and you could pretty much have a shopping bag of any size and no one would probably even notice it on the trolley.

And one of the most blogged articles on the New York Times is an editorial discussing the need for policy to counter the fact that Al Qaeda is undergoing a resurgence, and warns of a potential for more targets in the West.