Bloggers file Class Action Lawsuit against Huffington Post

Mediabistro reports that Jonathan Tasini has filed a class action lawsuit against The Huffington Post on behalf of their bloggers.  GOOD.  I was hoping this would happen.  We're rooting for you Jonathan and all you bloggers who were used and paid nothing while Huffpo sold the site and made what?  300 Million?  And Huffpo couldn't bother to pay the people who created the content for the site, without which a sale would have never existed?

Bloggers Against Blogger Lawsuit Against HuffPo  http://ow.ly/4zImS

Additional reading:  http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/13/readers-bloggers-sound-off-on-huff-post-sale/

Image by Pearson Scott Foresman [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Literary Stuff To Do in LA

New American Writing: Caryl Phillips

wed sep 29, 7:00PM | HAMMER readings

Caryl Phillips was born in St. Kitts, West Indies, and raised in England. His novel Dancing in the Dark won the 2006 PEN/ Beyond Margins Award, and an earlier novel, A Distant Shore, won the 2004 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. His other awards include the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. His most recent book is In the Falling Snow. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and currently lives in New York.

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Stanley F. Chyet Poetry Reading

PETER COLE—THE DREAM OF THE POEM: HEBREW POETRY FROM MUSLIM AND CHRISTIAN SPAIN

Sunday, October 17, 2:00 p.m.

$5 General; Free to Skirball Members

Advance reservations recommended: Available on site at the Skirball, online at www.skirball.org, or by phone at (877) SCC-4TIX or (877) 722-4849

Hear prize-winning translator and poet Peter Cole as he reads from and discusses his acclaimed anthology, The Dream of the Poem, which won the National Jewish Book Award and the American Publisher Association’s award for the Book of the Year for 2007. Rich with humor and grace, Cole’s work recreates the world of medieval Spain, where Jewish artistic and intellectual communities flourished under Islamic rule. A book signing follows the program.

“[This] astonishing achievement is fully revealed for the first time in English.... [Peter Cole’s] versions are masterly.” —Eric Ormsby, The New York Times Book Review

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slake magazine

WED OCT 27, 7:00PM | HAMMER READINGS

SLAKE LOS ANGELES MAGAZINE

Moments of surprise, whimsy and unconventional truth burst from the pages of Slake: Los Angeles… the worldviews reach outside traditional journalism. —Los Angeles Times

Slake: Los Angeles is a new LA-centric quarterly that examines all things curious, fictional, poetic, political, and philosophical. Edited by former LA Weekly editors Laurie Ochoa and Joe Donnelly, Slake features work by local writers, artists, and photographers. The evening will celebrate Slake’s second issue with readings by House of Leaves authorMark Z. Danielewski, writer/comedian/actress Lauren Weedman (Date Night, Hung, The Daily Show), Ochoa,Donnelly, and other contributors to the publication. Organized by Benjamin Weissman.

ALL HAMMER PUBLIC PROGRAMS ARE FREE. Seating is on a first come, first served basis. Hammer members receive priority seating, subject to availability. Reservations not accepted, RSVPs not required.

Parking is available under the museum for $3 after 6:00pm.

L.A. Literati

We hear a lot about New York writers and the history of places they wrote in and about so thought we'd begin a semi-regular series on the rich literary history of Los Angeles.

First of all, you can't write about Los Angeles writers without a big nod to Raymond Chandler.  He lived in L.A. from 1912 - 1946 and all but one of his novels was made into a movie. 

If you want to take a peek at his abode, you'd have to drive by 12216 Shetland Lane, Brentwood, CA.  His character, Philip Marlowe, lived elsewhere - in the cliffs above High Tower Drive in the Hollywood Heights.  You can go by and check out the high elevator tower that was described in the novels. (It's been used in countless movies - including 'Dead Again' in which Kenneth Branagh attempts an American accent while playing a modern detective).

Chandler renamed Los Angeles geography in his novels - e.g. Santa Monica Pier became The Bay City Pier; Malibu becomes Montemar Vista, and Silverlake becomes Gray Lake.  They are renamed but if you're familiar with the layout, the references are obvious.

Chandler had a love-hate relationship with Los Angeles - the physical descriptions were lovely and haunting, while the detective struggled to stay honest in a corrupt town.

I read a great non-fiction book recently called A Bright and Guilty Place by Richard Rayner that is a record of not only the criminal activity that built our city, but also a love letter to the writers who made her immortal.

Los Angeles is, and has been, home to great writers and tomorrow we'll begin to explore LAwritersgroup.com's 10 Favorite Place to Write (In No Particular Order)...