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ERIC PREVEN’S NOTEBOOK - As I watched the 2024 Olympic Games unfold, a wave of nostalgia hit me, taking me back to my youth when I brought the magic of Santa Barbara to the City of Lights.
Paris is charged for me. It’s hard not to adore. Our show, Santa Barbara, was a sensation in France, thanks to Jim Macnamara and Yves Witner, the French TV agent, who sold the daytime drama that aired on NBC here, to the French. The French aired the show on TF1 during prime time access, around 6:50 pm, cleverly splitting the hour-long episodes in half to fit their time slot. When the show became a massive hit, they had twice the number of episodes to sell. Ah, the good old days.
All that success quickly led to a power struggle between New World Television the owners and the Dobsons, the Creators of the show. I was a good soldier in a war I didn’t quite understand, but I knew who was signing my checks. It was a glorious meteoric rise for a kid who attended Mamaroneck High.
During that period, we took the show to film in Paris. As the Associate Producer, I handled all the location sequences for the show, which was mostly assembled in Studio 11 on the NBC Burbank lot. Going out to see the world was a very good gig.
The storyline took Cruz and Eden, our big stars played by A Martinez and Marcy Walker, to Paris, and a few other lucky actors tagged along.
The Olympics made me reminisce about how much planning goes into creating special moments.
The "A" team was a group of French artists, skilled in moving motor vehicles off small streets the old-fashioned way. They would lift them and shimmy around the corner.
We hired a local production firm owned by Yannick Bernard, who had worked in French advertising to assist. When we unfurled the scope of what we wanted to shoot—a series of walks, talks, and chases through the most iconic parts of Paris—Mr, Bernard brought in a production manager who had worked on James Bond films. Serge Toboul, put together a local French crew that was diverse and super cool.
We partied hard at Les Bains Douches and had a wrap party on a bateau mouche in the Bois de Boulogne, dancing into the night. One last supper, a final dinner at a restaurant with a special camembert cave and a giant cascading platter of huitres (oysters).
In the midst of it all, the big bosses from New World Television were in Paris, performing a fake out involving Giancarlo Peretti and Pathé Entertainment. All the big chiefs were in town at the Polo Club. I attended with the cast in a Mercedes limousine, like the one Lady Diana died in.
What scenes for a young gadfly. I was the funny, slightly bossy but very communicative American kid in a nice shirt. I had visited the Latin Quarter, with vibrant gyros, creepy bars, and a veneer of low-level crime previously.
But as the producer of Santa Barbara we were treated like royalty. During the survey, Yves Witners smoked in an elevator the size of a phone booth at the Plaza Athénée, where we actually ran into Governor Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver in the bar.
This was when my colleague asked Yves, "where can I get a cream puff like I get at the Paris Pastry shop in Brentwood?" Yves, thought for a moment, and then said drily, "Why don't you ask the concierge: where you can find some...bad American pastry?!" lol
We downgraded after the survey and all the arduous planning and brought the cast to an ugly but efficient, Concorde Lafayette Hotel, noted for it's finest feature: if you were staying there, you could not see the hotel!
A few years later, I met Thierry Ardisson, the french TV talkshow genius, and host, who was dressed entirely in black, and experimenting with new programming and the boundaries of cannabis use in Europe. He came to NATPE to meet our leader and was detained in Cincinnati when a dog jumped on him revealing an old hash cigarette in his pocket. Unlucky!
The show he made "Free One" was brilliant and ahead of its time. The project in Paris led to a job in Sweden.
The Olympics, with its grandeur and meticulous planning, echoes the effort and passion we poured into our work. Paris remains a city of dreams, forever intertwined with my journey from a young producer to the man I am today.
Anita Kuntz "The Faces Of Justice"
Win Win Win:
Leon Marchand didn't break the world record in the individual medley but the Park fire is now one of California's largest wildfires on record, burning an area nearly half the size of Rhode Island.
That is the state where the major loon Timothy Mellon the reclusive heir to a banking fortune lives. He's the guy who has given 75 million dollars to Trump so far. He and Paul Krekorian share a deep interest in Amelia Earhart who Krekorian selflessly honored recently. FYI.
Paris 2024 and World Triathlon announced that they were "confident" triathlon medal events would be held this week despite canceling training sessions. Rivers can be tricky... and the people are hoping the effluence can be abated, but shit happens.
The LA River might be swimmable in time for 2028 in Los Angeles. We can ask Edgar Khalatian of Mayer Brown and Harvard Westlake to mitigate a little amendment to install some state-of-the-art fully sustainable bleacher seats along the riverway in Studio City. This might allow for spectators in a way that would please Mark Pestrella of the county's public works who plans to lease Harvard-Westlake sacred Indigenous land where they've already cut down some trees. Bad. Very bad.
The HW River Plan Olympics Schedule:
Counting each separate discipline and stage (e.g., preliminaries, finals) as an event, there are 24 distinct sporting events scheduled for August 2, 2024, at the Paris Olympics.
Where is supervisor Horvath?
Smart Speaker: The supervisor has a full plate. She is busy expanding the board to nine! In Paris! Next week...
As for the bleachers along the Riverway in Studio City, certainly, anything is possible with the support of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association. Well, except the installation of restrooms.
Smart Speaker: What is the motivation for having the Olympics in Los Angeles, other than delusional stadium-centric event programming?
For the affordable housing, silly.
But there is no affordable housing - that's Paris. Remember, all the money will go to UCLA and USC to serve as temporary Olympic village fortresses obviating the need to build. So, the rich get a little richer and the rank-and-file Angelenos get traffic and if we want to complain, there will be First Amendment zones.
Berry Berry Bon Voyage:
During the longest out-of-town trip ever taken by an active council member in the history of the city council, Paul Krekorian will undoubtedly learn whatever he can from the Parisians. And he will take a page from the great Tom Labonge and return to educate the world about how spectacularly great Los Angeles is but also how messy democracy can be. And how good pumpkin bread can be.
How messy? Very messy.
Unfortunately, the quicker kicker outer - or cleaner-upper -- Paul Krekorian will still be in France conducting a petty pink-faced conference on the invocation of rules 7 and 12 in the interest of petty pink-faced convenience and necessity.
Krekorian will be lecturing on rule 7 and rule 12 which when taken together comprise one of the most efficient disruptor removal systems ever conceived by a petty pink-faced dictator. [See Below]
Rail Deaths Mounting:
As for the ongoing Metro investigation about the death on Sunday, July 28, that can be handled by Nithya Raman (CD4). Authorities and Raman will piece together why a man apparently died in a Metro Red Line tunnel between Universal City and North Hollywood.
The victim trespassed, making his way onto a platform and then into a Red Line (B Line) train tunnel, where he was discovered, possibly having been electrocuted, LAPD said.
He was trespassing but no world if he was seeking to relieve himself - there are no "thrones" installed yet.
They will be in place for the World Cup, Super Bowl, and LA 2028.
Lindsey P. Horvath, the county supervisor from the third sweeping district told the New York Times about Gavin Newsom's order to enforce anti-camping laws "I don't think threatening (State) funding at a time where we're trying to get more people served and more people housed is a place that anybody wants to be in."
Exactly.
This is why the youngest supervisor, a renter and the current chair will be flying over to Paris on August 6 and coming back on August 12. Exciting!
The French have apparently set up classrooms where visiting dignitaries can obtain refreshments, and receipts, take classes, and justify their boondoggles to the Olympics. Metro is certainly looking for any good ideas, including ways to avoid death on the tracks.
The New York Times noted that cost overruns had stymied Paris's goal of a thrifty Olympics.
How did Paris pull it off? And by "pull it off" I mean double the estimated costs for French taxpayers while enriching Wasserman.
It was nice to see, incidentally, that the Agency Wasserman represents 150 athletes who have sponsorship deals for 2024.
Casey Wasserman, our leader, is projected to make major bank on all of this. More than Jim Harbaugh who... will only earn $16 million to coach the Chargers for five years. That can't be right, there has to be more.
The math remains fuzzy as Paris does not release updated numbers (a lesson for Krekorian to bring home), but the overages are expected to be as spectacular as the fascinating opening ceremony.
Krekorian and Horvath will study the fuzzy math together in France, while the hotly contested "cost-neutral" board of supervisor expansion proposal slips by without proper vetting. We need the numbers
Tuesday's 07/30/2024 Board of Supervisor's Policy Presentations Meeting
Agenda: LA BOS
9:30 a.m.
To Address the Board
Call: (877) 226-8163 Participant Code: 1336503
Set Matter 1.
Reports on the County’s Implementation of the People Experiencing Homelessness Missions
2. Developing a Countywide Strategy for Addressing Encampments After Grants Pass
3. Report on the Ongoing Conditions in Men’s Central Jail
4. Reports on Addressing Illegal Street Takeovers, Side Shows, and Street Races
5. Report on Initiatives to Protect Los Angeles County Residents from Extreme Heat
6. Resolution Calling and Giving Notice of a Special Election
7. County Code, Charter Amendment
Public Comment
The Top Bottom:
We often say, that leadership starts at the top, but sometimes the incumbent class follows the lead of the young nincompoops, sorry, big thinkers.
Like for instance the Federal government has taken a page from the local government playbook. President Biden, who hosted Supervisor Horvath under the tree during a Christmas past, announced during his daily walk before the Earlybird that he was going to reform the Supreme Court. It's been long enough.
The US Congress, the president claims has the power to do it and he's going to urge the badly corrupted Supreme Court to at least create an Ethics Commission to police themselves.
Chief Justice Roberts will be so annoyed, he may have to be removed by some cross-jurisdictional application of Rules 7 and 12.
Critics might argue, that this is an example of a sore loser - we Democrats facing an unfriendly court - deciding to change the rules. But what then of supervisor Lindsey P. Horvath's proposal to add supervisors?
One could argue that the county democrats already have a hammerlock on power so the need to expand is about capitalizing by running a hurry-up huddle when sleepy but compliant voters are voting. Mainly against Trump but also for whatever else the sneaky supervisors can get.
The presumption of regularity here is the measure to amend the board will win. But the presumption has been ruptured before. Get Well Soon, Judge Beckloff. Don't agree!
Eventually, the county board is going to have to share the real costs to expand the board. Before the ballot is printed, that may kill the plan.
But thanks to Chair Horvath, everyone is setting up their own independent Ethics Commissions. Myself included.
Forever
By Noah Kahan
(excerpt)
I won't be alone for the rest of my life
I'll build a boat for when the river gets high
And I'll meet a girl in the heat of July
And I'll tell her so she knows
That I'm broke, but I'm real rich in my head
That I broke a bone that never healed in my hand
So, when I hold her close, I might loosen my grip
But I won't ever let her go
I won't ever let her go
"The idea that a place can remain the exact same physically but becomes totally different as our lives and our experiences change. The word ‘forever’ used to terrify me. I hate finality, there is too much uncertainty and boredom affiliated with ‘the rest of time.’ Now though, I’ve found forever to mean there is limitless possibility." Noah Kahan
Competition is not bad:
Jim Harbaugh is a real winner and he suited up with the Chargers the other day in retro black cleats and a palpable exuberance not uncommon with a 16 million-dollar contract. That's all?
That's less than the final estimate for the unwanted renovation of the Studio City Recreation Center, made possible by unspeakably sneaky long-game funneling of taxpayer funds to something the people don't want or need, while neglecting ... a lot.
A giant net-zero building in the open space... to house a high school regulation basketball court.
Smart Speaker: There is already an outdoor basketball court.
Get him out of here. A lot of Parisians leave Paris, and Mr. Preven should go to the Hamptons in August 2028!
Smart Speaker: And since Harvard-Westlake pushed through the acquisition/heist of Weddington Golf and Tennis to put up a private athletic complex, there will be four high school regulation basketball courts around the corner inside that mutha... how many do we need? And why would we allow our open space --
[That mutha will be on the site where Nithya Raman's father used to play tennis briefly when he visited her. FYI]
Regardless, as a Wolverine, and graduate from the University of Michigan (not Harvard-Westlake) I certainly am looking forward to a win-at-all-costs approach from all. Go Blue!
Harvard-Westlake School agreed to a clause about not hosting the Olympics ...but nobody said the local recreational facility, a mile away can't get involved... did they?
And why not put up some bleachers along the LA River if we are planning to float the athletes down the river... like they did in Paris. On the bow of the vessel... Eric Garcetti (Ambassador to India) and Casey Wasserman!
And in the bleachers by the river, since we do need to find a place, why not shower off the appropriate number of the 45,000 unhoused Angelenos and bus 'em in (and very important, out!) after the River swimming events? Great idea!
Smart Speaker: There can be no swimming in the LA River.
Get Him Out:
Under the leadership of Council President Paul Krekorian, disruptions are met with swift and often harsh responses, including the deployment of riot police to remove and intimidate speakers. This excessive enforcement raises serious questions about the balance between maintaining order and allowing public participation in democratic processes.
Council Rule 12 explicitly prohibits conduct that disrupts the orderly conduct of meetings, a rule Krekorian cites frequently, signaling a shift towards stricter enforcement.
Furthermore, the 2018 amendment to council rules outlines a series of escalating exclusions for individuals who disrupt meetings, culminating in bans that can extend to six business days for repeat offenders.
While maintaining order is essential, the draconian application of these rules appears more focused on silencing dissent than fostering a productive dialogue.
Krekorian's approach to public input seems akin to Captain Ahab's obsessive quest to slay Moby Dick, treating articulate critics as existential threats to be eradicated.
This priggish stance not only irritates but emboldens Krekorian's critics, who see the council president's actions as confirmation of the corruption they decry.
Instead of engaging with the public and addressing their concerns, Krekorian's heavy-handed tactics alienate constituents and undermine the very principles of transparency and accountability that are fundamental to democratic governance.
The contrast with the inclusive Paris Olympics is palpable. There, the enthusiasm and engagement of the public were embraced not crushed.
Krekorian's seminar on the draconian use of rules 7 and 12 could easily be titled "How to Cleanse Council Chambers of Articulate Critics," reflecting a chilling disregard for free speech and the democratic process.
If Krekorian and his ilk continue down this path, they risk turning the council into a sterile echo chamber, void of the vibrant public discourse that is essential for genuine progress and reform.
Paul Krekorian to Teach Seminar on Rules 7 and 12 and Its Use to Cleanse Council Chambers of Articulate Critics: The Most Dangerous Kind to Incumbent Thieves Like the Council President
During the opening ceremony of the Olympics, vocal supporters cheered on Team USA and many other teams with fervor, their passionate outbursts welcomed rather than silenced. The crowd along the Seine River in Paris, charged with energy and excitement, stood in stark contrast to the rigid enforcement we expect when the Games come to Los Angeles in 2028.
Just look at Los Angeles City Council meetings for a preview of how our leadership feels about crowds.
Life is short, and so is how long it takes for the current Council President Paul Krekorian to wield rules
7 and 12 of the council rules. Once he starts, he can't stop and frequently invokes them to suppress even the slightest peep from the public. He's transformed the city council chambers into an oppressive environment hellbent on stifling free expression.
Even a cough can result in defenestration link
(Eric Preven is a longtime community activist and is a contributor to CityWatch.)
