• High Anxiety -- Cover feature on the tense
last days of the Internet boom in Los Angeles. I was
assigned the story during the height of the dot-com gold
rush, only to witness most of my sources go bankrupt.
The resulting story, the anchor of a package called
"LA-Dot-Com," won a 1999 award from the L.A. Press Club
for best feature story.
• Cool Millions -- Feature about entrepreneurs
who capitalized on the hip reputation of Los Angeles'
Eastside. As the headline said: “Getting rich in an area
that prides itself on being the anti-Westside can get
complicated. How do you hang on to your street cred when
the natives blame you for selling their little piece of
boho rhapsody down the river?"
• Bowled Over -- Front-of-the-book feature
about a movement to save an unlikely architectual
monument: the Holiday Bowl. This Crenshaw-district
bowling alley is one of dozens of fast-disapearing
diners, drive-ins and other Googie monuments. Sad, sad,
sad.
• But is it Garbage? -- Another story of an
endangered pop landmark, this one a crumbling roadside
attraction in Simi Valley called Bottle Village. I first
wrote about the place as a beat news reporter for the
Daily news in the Valley but returned with friends a few
times afterward – it truly is a a magical, spooky and
affecting place. So far, neither the taxman nor the
neighbors have managed to bulldoze it, thanks entirely
to a group of artsy out-of-towners, God bless
‘em.
