Independent Musician Stays Ahead Of Digital Curve
On Jan. 15, 2008, a 22-year-old man with curly hair, a musical gift and a barista gig at Starbucks, quit his job and never looked back. More than four and a half years later, Ari Herstand continues to support himself as a full-time independent musician in Los Angeles.
The musician, who is best known for his innovative live looping technique (the technique live records, loops and layers multiple instruments on the spot), has built and maintained a wide and prominent online presence. Herstand has his own website, Youtube and Tumblr pages, a Facebook profile and fan page, an online store and that’s just scratching the surface. Of course, he’s on Twitter with his music available on iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster, Band Camp and Amazon.
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USC Unveils The $70-Million, 110,000-Square-Foot John McKay Center
The University of Southern California’s brand new $70-million, 110,000-square-foot athletic facility was unveiled to the media Sunday afternoon, and the John McKay Center certainly did not disappoint as associate senior athletic director Mark Jackson led the extensive tour.
Located directly west of Heritage Hall, the new building is a secured facility strictly designed for the use of student-athletes and USC athletics personnel. Each student-athlete has been finger- and thumb-printed, so that the front computer will recognize his/her hand and grant access to the facility.
Upon entry, one is immediately greeted by beautiful pictures of USC’s student-athletes posing together on Malibu’s picturesque El Matador Beach. Star quarterback Matt Barkley is shown, but so are 20 other USC student-athletes, each representing a different USC team. Although football undoubtedly reigns supreme at USC, Jackson emphasized that the facility was designed for all of the teams to enjoy and is most certainly “not a football building.” Read more >>
LAUSD’s Academic Growth Over Time
When one searches “Aloria Magee” on Google, the second result is an LA Times page showing Magee’s “Los Angeles Teacher Ratings.”
The page says nothing about Magee’s teaching style, nor her intense passion for the profession. But two large graphs appear, showing Magee’s “Math effectiveness” and “English effectiveness.”
Magee’s Math and English scores are both listed as below average, but a funny thing happens when the reader clicks on “See how this teacher would change under different statistical formulas.” Suddenly, Magee’s English score jumps to well above average when Model 1 is employed (one of four models shown on the graph).
Virtually no one except the LA Times wanted these scores released, including the superintendent, teachers, the teacher’s union and countless other stakeholders in education. Not only would it be a potential embarrassment to teachers and the district, but there was no guarantee that the scores would be reliable.
The Los Angeles Unified School District is now using a different, but similar type of model. AGT is a type of value-added model that aims to measure a teachers’ effectiveness, while controlling for various factors, such as socio-economic factors and starting student ability, factors that could otherwise compromise the results.
Although the initiative is still in its pilot phase, slightly more than half of the district’s teachers currently receive their scores every year, according to LAUSD’s Director of Performance Management, Noah Bookman.
The district is working with the University of Wisconsin, to develop their measures for AGT. The school received a $2 million grant to help the district craft a formula for teacher effectiveness.
“Academic Growth Over Time is a measure of how a teacher or a school contributes to student outcomes,” explained Bookman. “Different how from how we usually measure student outcomes, which is we measure how kids do against a specific standard like the percent of students who are proficient, Academic Growth Over Time allows us to compare teachers or schools to another in terms of how they do in taking students from Point A to Point B.” Read more >>
Water Conservation w/ Wyland
On March 30 in the city of Glendale, children were painting murals in the name of water conservation. I had to be there.
West Hollywood Republicans Speak
Upon first glance, the term “West Hollywood Republican” may appear to be an enigma or even an oxymoron, but although they are significantly outnumbered, Republicans do live in the city and not all of them are hiding that fact.
Brad Torgan, an environmental lawyer and Republican resident of West Hollywood estimated the city’s Republican registration to be about 12 percent. “It can get pretty lonely sometimes,” said Torgan.
Scott Schmidt, a 10-year resident of West Hollywood, also knows the feeling.
“I believe in conservative values like limited government, fundamental freedoms, personal responsibility and on the large majority of issues, that leads me to agree with the Republican Party,” said Schmidt. “That makes it a little difficult in a town like West Hollywood, because we’re about 11 percent of the voters here, so there aren’t too many people like us in the city.”
In the 28 years since the city was incorporated, a Republican has never won a seat on the West Hollywood City Council although a former Republican has been elected.
Both Torgan and Schmidt are gay Republicans. Like Torgan and Schmidt, Dan Blatt, a blogger for GayPatriot.net, is a gay Republican who resides in West Hollywood. Read more >>
NBA Lockout Cripples Local Businesses
Every year, in early October, local businesses in Downtown Los Angeles expect the Clippers and Lakers to begin attracting large crowds to the area, but this year a protracted NBA Lockout kept customers away.
Bryan Lytle, general manager of the Palm Restaurant, which is located a block away from the Staples Center on South Flower Street, was one of many restaurant managers and employees who dispelled the myth that the NBA lockout merely hurt the players, team owners and fans.
“The financial aspect of it runs far deeper than just the players and the owners,” said Lytle. “(There is) the impact on the overall cities and you know we have two NBA teams, so you can say double the impact.”
Abe Kim, assistant manager at the Downtown LA Hooters, agreed.
“I know Downtown LA is more of a business-oriented city, so whatever is going on in the city affects businesses all over,” said Kim.
“With the lockout, I know a few restaurants I used to go to in Downtown LA are hurting, because they bank on those revenues coming from the fans and the people going to these games to generate those revenues in sales.”
By late October, various restaurants located in the LA Live entertainment complex that is adjacent to the Staples Center were already feeling the effects of significantly less foot traffic. Read more >>
Inside Look: Albert Pujols’ Plate Appearances
When the time comes, first baseman Albert Pujols will undoubtedly be enshrined into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. The 31-year-old Dominican native won his second World Series title on Oct. 28, 2011 after his St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Texas Rangers in seven thrilling games. Although the series MVP was awarded to Pujols’ teammate, David Freese, Pujols also contributed to the team, most notably blasting three home runs in Game 3 of the Fall Classic. With Pujols set to become a free agent this offseason, many teams have to decide whether or not they want to try to sign Pujols, a player who will surely be demanding a great deal of money. Let’s look at the pie chart below that depicts the likelihood of possible scenarios when the slugger steps to the plate. Here’s the graph, followed by a more detailed explanation below:
The entire pie (all 100 percent) represents the 7,433 plate appearances Albert Pujols has had throughout his career. The slices of the pie depict the distributions of various scenarios when he bats.
Non-baseball fans may wonder how Albert Pujols could be a definite Hall of Famer, given that he gets out 58 percent (23.5+25+9.5 or fly outs+ground outs+strike outs) of the time he comes to the plate. For one, hitting a baseball that is thrown up to 100 miles per hour (sometimes faster) can be extremely difficult. In addition, pitchers strive to confuse opposing batters with slower pitchers that move rapidly, such as curveballs and sliders. For those reasons, hitters that can reach base 35 percent of the time are lauded for their abilities; Pujols boasts an impressive career on-base percentage of .420 (100 minus the 58 percent of the time he gets out). Pujols’ .420 on-base percentage places him tied with Mickey Mantle for 18th all-time in that category.
Interestingly enough, Pujols hits a home run six percent of the time he comes to the plate. Again, that may not seem like a robust number, but Pujols is widely regarded as one of the best home run hitters in the MLB. Throughout his career, the first baseman has been one of the most efficient home run hitters to ever play the game. In fact, Pujols’ 14.18 at bats per home run clip ranks seventh all-time behind such celebrated home run hitters as Mark McGwire, Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, among others.
