Friday Hipstamatics

Ikonik Cafe Latte

Wishire Blvd at Ocean Blvd, Santa Monica

MDR Sailing

Sailboats enter the Marina in Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Circular View

Venice Beach just north of the main channel at Marina Del Rey on a windy day
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Earth Day

Happy Earth Day! I hit the beach early at low tide. Today was a good day!

"Not" Another Day at The Office

That's me in the light shirt, second from the right, face down. 

Bloomberg news crew mistaken for robbery suspects. (Brittany Joe via Twitter / April 21, 2011)

Today started as another day of work, and as I sit here at home writing this down I realize how it could have easily been my last day. The assignment was to go out with a TV crew to do a story on paparazzi  and we were riding along with a seasoned pap who agreed to let us ride along with him for the day. All five of us pile in to his SUV.  Somewhere at a mini mall up in the hills of Bel-Air we get Rod Stewart at a Starbucks, a “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” woman shooting a segment in a boutique, and then some interviews with a few other paps there. Then, it's off to find more celebs. We were driving east on Sunset Blvd and we see cops and an lapd chopper circling around near Sunset and San Vicente. I tried to find out what was going on and opened my police scanner app on the iPhone. Soon, we had passed the action foused on  looking for celebrities. The photographer thought he spotted a celebutante dri and he pulled a U-turn and commented as we saw Dr Dre parked on the side of the road, “Don’t worry Dr Dre, we’re not after you” we pulled up to the car he thought was the celebutante but it turned out to be a false alarm.. He then pulled into a know celeb hangout and we were going to park in a lot at Sunset Plaza, that’s when the absolutely crazy, surreal episode started to play out.

I heard a police siren behind us in the parking lot, Giles says “are they pulling me over” and I said, no way. That’s when he said they had guns pulled and pointed at us., I’m thinking he’s joking and I turned around and I see about ten LAPD cops with guns and rifles pointed right at me as I looked out the window at them. For a brief second I consider picking up my camera for a phot, followed immediately by my realization of the severity of a situation, that this was a life threatening situtaion, I had never had guns pointed at me before like this ever, holy shit! No way am I pointing a camera at them, I knew they would open fire. I yell out to them, “we’re are journalists working on a story”  “SHUT UP AND FACE FORWARD” I’m not sure if this is really happening, it really felt like a surreal dream. I definitely do not want to die. “Both arms out the window and face forward” booms out of a loudspeaker. Unbelievable, what the hell , surely they will figure out this a big misunderstanding I’m thinking. This can’t be happening my brain tries to tell me. My life is on the line here. I really felt like they would shoot at any second with any false move, and I’m REALLY hoping they don’t make a mistake and start shooting.   “Driver slowly exit the vehicle” I keep thinking “ ok this is about to be resolved, this is nuts!!” I started to laugh to myself, finding it all absurd. I hear them ordering him to get on the ground face down, spread out you legs. WTF, this is really happening…. “Front Passenger, slowly exit the vehicle arms up in the air” I watch as the cameraman tries to get out of the SUV with a large TV video camera that he was holding on his lap, I’m think holy shit, what if they think it’s a weapon and blast us all, followed by thinking they will see the camera and realize they have royally screwed up here. My mind is racing but somehow, I’m not really freaking out too much. They order him over to the ground etc, then I hear rear right side passenger, step out of the vehicle, I’m like rear right?, ok rear right, yes, thats me I realize. I have my iPhone in my hand, I wanted to try to take a picture if at all possible but I knew that would probably mean certain death, so I instinctively put the phone in my pants pocket that immediately led to some serious shouting about “HANDS IN THE AIR”!!!!!!! A bystander told me after they all lunged forward when I did this lifiting there weapons in a an even more serious manner, It was an instinctive move, I knew I was innocent and this was all a misunderstanding, but that could have been lights out for me right there. “Walk backwards with hands in the air, move to the left, ok stop put one knee on the gorund, I became angry and said “you are making a bug mistake here”.. stop talking, other knee on the ground”  Again I’m thinking , is this a dream?? I lie down on the hot pavement face to the ground / “Spread your legs and Hands out!!”  I look over to the cameraman next to me,”Turn your head to the left!”  Helicopter circling overhead, more barking out of orders to the next “Perp” the sound man. He’s explaining he has audio gear plugged in, has equipment strapped to his waist. I think oh god, please don’t shoot him. Then, Nora ,m a TV Producer is next and last to exit the vehicle. I can’t believe this is still happening, what the hell. I’m getting angry. At least 10 minutes have passed. Finally ok, stand up, by this time I’m frazzled and pissed off.  A cop walks me order to a police car, things are calming down now, no more loudspeaker. I said something about “Keystone Cops” and a few other comments, Giles is pissed too saying something but I can’t remember what he said. I realize it’s safe now, because I’m expressing anger and nobody says anything at all. and now the lead officer comes over, you can relax he says, that’s when I finally noticed I was shaking.  I ask if I can get my camera, he thinks for a second and says in a minute. Damn! This sucks, I’m powerless and I didn’t do anything wrong. Then the apologies start, weapons down, guns now back in the holsters. We are sorry he says,, there was a robbery somewhere on Santa Monica Blvd , apparently I matched the description of one of the armed robbers and the LAPD airship saw me through the window. The officer tells me I looked like one of the armed robber descriptions “a Hispanic male with a black hat” and and they were “driving a dark SUV” ……. Ok, I can tell he’s sorry, but damn man, you guys almost killed me I‘m thinking…

I’m calming down now, intellectually I understand his explanation, he mentions something about “we all have families to go home to”. OK, yeah, I understand all that, I’m a reasonable man, but my experience of having a whole slew of lethal weapons pointed at me, all for a case of mistaken identity?? I didn’t sign up for that.

The lead officer suggests we (the news crew) get a beer to calm down. I’m going to pass on that, not what I want to do. I’m snapping photos now as he shakes all of our hands, but I never was allowed to make one photograph until all the commotion had died down, but it’s not really important because at least we are all ok.

Dodgers Finally Liberated From The McCourt Soap Opera

On Wednesday, Major League Baseball, under direction from Bud Selig, took control of the Los Angeles Dodgers from embattled owner Frank McCourt. This was the scene at Dodger Stadium as the Dodger beat the Atlanta Braves 6-1.

Andre Eithier launches career #100 HR

Tommy Lasorda sits where Frank McCourt would usually be found

Rookie Jerry Sands

Nice Birthday for Manager Don Mattingly

420 Police Raid Medical Marijuana Dispensaries in Venice

Authorities from the Los Angeles Sheriff Department, California Dept. of Corrections, and the LAPD served search warrants and raided at least two medical marijuana dispensaries on Ocean Front Walk in Venice Beach this morning on "420" day. hi res photos available here

Peaceful Sunday Morning in Venice

 After last night's shooting, today a shoot of the more peaceful kind, iPhone 4 Hipstamatic, baby!

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Venice Beach Gang Shooting

A reported gang fight at 17th and Ocean Front Walk leading to one male shot in chest

Venice Pier, Dawg!

A perfect beach day winds down early Friday evening on the Venice Fishing Pier. 

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So-called Supreme Commander Busted

Authorities say Yupeng Deng's U.S. Army/Military Special Forces Reserve unit was a sham.

read the story

Palms and Lillies

 Palm trees in Beverly Hills and Lillies in Venice Beach both photographed this morning.

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Charlie Sheen Star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame

The troubled actor's star on the Walk of Fame today in Hollywood

Full Bloom of Wildflowers on Lincoln Blvd

Wildflowers blooming along Lincoln Blvd just south of Marina Del Rey

Venice Blue House

Home to many cool people over the years!

Sunday Morning in Dogtown

All photos taken within 5 minutes while getting a coffee at North Venice and Pacific

California Sea Lion Rescue in Santa Monica

Peter Wallerstein rescues an ill and pregnant California Sea lion poisoned by domoic acid contained in natural blooming algae on the beach in Santa Monica on Sunday, April 10, 2011.  Peter Wallerstein, director of Marine Animal Rescue, made seven rescues on Saturday, due to an earlier than usual bloom this year of the algae containing elevated levels of domoic acid, which stricken the brain of marine animals when ingested. The sea lion was rescued by Wallerstein and will be taken to a marine mammal care center for treatment of the often fatal poisoning.  Marine Animal Rescue website

LA County Life Guard Kevin Curtis, Peter Wallerstein, Marine Animal Recue, and LA County Lifeguard Jaro Snopek team up to lift an ill and pregnant California Sea lion poisoned by domoic acid