It’s summertime in Los Angeles (and everywhere else in the northern hemisphere for that matter). Time to hit the beach and The Bowl and spend quality outdoor time with great friends across L.A. County’s 4,000 square miles, from Lancaster to Long Beach. I’ve covered lots of ground already as 2012 is already well on its way to being, yet again, the best summer ever.

But this is the first summer of Adler Integrated. Yes, myself and a dream team consisting of some of my best friends came together and started a company in January. More on that in my next post (or, uh, we do have a blog). I’m basically doing the same type of work I’ve been doing for some years now, only bigger, better and with more support and collaboration. It’s awesome.

I promised to share monthly playlists of what’s playing on our office Sonos speaker system and to date I’ve been way more consistent than I have with keeping up on blogging. Below, find my July 2012 playlist, a mix of old and new summertime jams to kick up to 11 (find the other playlists here).

Someone’s pool, barnsdall park and downtown los angeles from griffith park, June 24, 2012.

Hundreds of people marched from Pershing Square to City Hall on Saturday, some with masks, some with bandanas, and many with signs bearing slogans admonishing the government, corporations and the current financial climate.

“We are the 99%”
“It’s not a crisis it’s a scam”
“Audit the Fed”
“Rights for the people not for corporations”
“200k in grad school debt where is my bailout?”

The protesters have been camped out on the City Hall lawn since Saturday, in solidarity with the 3-week strong Occupy Wall Street movement in New York. If America is a democracy, why does 1 percent of the population control 40 percent of the wealth, and take 25 percent of the income, economist and Nobel Laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz asked in the May 2011 issue of Vanity Fair.

By mid-September, a few dozen representatives of the 99 percent mobilized and began an occupation of Liberty Park near Wall Street. The protests doubled and tripled in size, topping the news last Saturday night with some 700 arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge.

Saturday, October 1 was also Day 1 for Occupy LA and in dozens of other cities including Boston and Chicago, the peaceful, anti-establishment protests spread in a manner inspired by the popular uprisings of the Arab Spring. With City Hall Park filled with people of all ages and ethnicities in circles of political conversation, megaphone-led chanting, drums and hacky sacks anyone napping under the numbered trees might have thought they woke up in the ’70s.

The L.A. contingency is relatively well organized, having met with City Hall officials and communicated with LAPD in advance of the Saturday march, training dozens of volunteer security to keep protesters on the sidewalk, hosting workshops on how to engage with civic leaders on City Hall’s north lawn, and coordinating with unions and progressive leaders. A nightly general assembly (GA) can go as long as three hours as established protesers and newcomers alike consider and vote on policies and tactics by consensus. The few dozen tents on City Hall’s south lawn shifted back to the north lawn when requested and the entire operation moves to the sidewalks from 10:30 p.m. to 6 a.m. per LAPD orders.

On Monday, when a hundred or so marched around the financial district, making stops to protest outside Mellon and Chase Banks, two squad cars followed in tow, protecting the protesters from rush hour traffic. The officers had a begrudged look on their faces but they were doing the jobs.

“It’s been a very peaceful demonstration,” Los Angeles Police Department Sgt. Mitzi Fierro told the LA Times Sunday. “They’re out there exercising their First Amendment right, so we’re going to allow them to continue as long it doesn’t become an unlawful assembly.”

“The Police are Part of the 99%” read another sign at the rally Saturday. Even Warren Buffet agrees that the rich don’t pay enough in taxes and with the economy still reeling after the taxpayer-funded $400 billion bailout of the financial industry and automakers, perhaps something’s got to give.

So far, there have been no arrests related to Occupy LA, however, the “love” expressed for LAPD in the chat room on the Occupy Los Angeles livestream is often tempered with caution. In New York, JPMorgan Chase recently donated a record $4.6 million to NYPD, leading many Occupy Wall Street protesters to cry that the police are owned by the banksters. And if that’s how the system works well the protests have only just begun.

Early cries of a corporate media blackout of Occupy Wall Street were all-but corroborated by NPR, whose Executive editor for news Dick Meyer was quoted in a September 26 blog post from ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos as saying, “The recent protests on Wall Street did not involve large numbers of people, prominent people, a great disruption or an especially clear objective.”

In hindsight, Meyer clearly missed the point. “What impresses me about media coverage of #occupywallstreet is how inattentive it is to a sleeping factor: the social media ignition moment,” NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen tweeted on September 27, referring to the exponential swelling of movements made possible by sharing across online networks.

Lack of media coverage hasn’t been an issue in Los Angeles, and certainly not since the 700 arrests in New York. The movement has issued a lengthy declaration and list of demands. But it seems as though there isn’t a clear endgame. Occupy Wall Street leverages the networked culture of the internet era, as Rosen alluded to, in hopes of expanding the conversation beyond right/left talking points and media quick hits. “It is difficult to comprehend a 21st century movement from the perspective of the 20th century politics, media, and economics in which we are still steeped,” wrote Douglas Rushkoff on Wednesday.

All is peaceful at City Hall. But today is just Day 5 of Occupy LA and a hundred or so protesters are expected to campout on the sidewalk again. As the Occupy Wall Street movement goes global how big will it grow? How much will the city and the police tolerate?

Photos via Andy Sternberg’s flickr set.

Los Angeles joined in protesting Wall Street and corruption at the crux of politics and corporate welfare on Saturday October 1 with a well-organized march and rally. As many as 1,500 took part in a march from Pershing Square to City Hall where #OccupyLA took to the Spring Street stairs leading up to the entryway before moving to the north lawn. Occupy Los Angeles unofficially began about a week prior, and roughly 15 people consistently showed up to nightly general assemblies (GAs) at Pershing Square to coordinate and plan for the best way to show solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street protest.

I livestreamed — 3 videos are below in chronological order — apologies in advance for Ustream’s super-annoying pre-roll ads

Marching from Pershing Square to City Hall:

Occupy Wall Street entered its 3rd week of protests in New York City this weekend but were met with some 700 arrests after thousands attempted to cross the Brooklyn Bridge. The arrests were a climactic result of testier behavior on the part of both protesters and police. In Los Angeles there was literally no LAPD presence, aside from assisting with patrolling both foot and auto traffic during the six block march to City Hall.

At LA City Hall North Lawn:

Careful advance planning by OccupyLA organizers with LAPD and city officials led to a peaceful day-in-the-park atmosphere. Organizers consistently called out through megaphones to not deface any property (although City Hall walls did get hit with chalk — see photos above) and had volunteer security kept people on the sidewalks during the parade. About half a dozen lawyers in neon green hats were present to negotiate and communicate between authorities and organizers. The mantra of the protest: “We are the 99 percent” was consistent and it seemed to be a message that both protestors and authorities could agree on.

It didn’t end there as many stayed overnight in City Hall Park to the south of the building with day 2 of the rally starting up early Sunday. Follow @OccupyLA on Twitter and hashtag #OccupyLA for more. Livestream below and at http://occupylosangeles.org.

[See image gallery at andysternberg.com]
Click photos to embiggen / view as slideshow or click here to view all the photos on a single page.

Rayani on stage with Explosions in the Sky at FYF Fest 2011 (photo by Andy Sternberg)

I caught up with Explosions in the Sky guitarist Munaf Rayani before the band took the stage at FYF Fest last weekend and got the lowdown on surviving the deadly storm at Pukkelpop Music Fest in Belgium, how an art installation at Hollywood Forever Cemetery to debut the band’s latest album, “Take Care, Take Care, Take Care,” came to pass last April, and why they love Umami Burger.

AS: What did you guys think of the art installation at the cemetery? How did that come about?

Munaf Rayani: We only saw it through pictures and video but we heard it was a smash hit…. It was kind of a collective idea between us and some people that we’d worked with. We got in cahoots with the cemetery and they were cool with running it the week prior. A few creative minds, a few phone calls and it went through! What’d you think of it?

AS: I thought it was a great concept to have this walking tour of unique physical installations as a way to present the album as a first listen.

MR: That’s why I was most pleased that it was a true individual interpretation of these artists and the way we found them — a few we knew their names, others we looked at their work and were curious as to what they’d make of the six pieces. So it was exciting for us to see what these artists see in the songs. And if we picked six different artists it would have been completely different too and that’s the beauty of music and the visual interpretations thereof — to each his own. And it was exciting for us to experience what others “see” or “think” when they hear our songs.

AS: How’s summer tour been? Any notable stories?

MR: We just did a string of festivals in Europe and… a more troubling story — we were at Pukkelpop [music festival in Belgium, where five people died after a stage collapsed] and the storm came through and just kind of blew the whole festival away and shut it down. That was really strange and surreal because we had just finished our set and the storm came through about ten minutes later. When we went on stage, the sun was shining, we played a 45-50 minute set and it darkened up. We loaded pretty quickly into the trailer, locked the doors, and the rain started. We went underneath a tent and boy, it just blew everything away. The timing for us was crazy — how did we just miss that? But the collective experience of what other people went through was devastating, just disastrous. So, that happened.

But on the flipside we played the David Letterman show and that was very exciting. We felt very lucky that whoever was choosing the music there and whoever was pushing us made it work out. because there’s only two talk shows that we really wanted to ever be on and Letterman was #1 and Conan was #2. On our last record we got to play Conan when he was in New York.

AS: Did you have any directive to keep it under four-and-a-half minutes or anything?

MR: That was exactly it we had to edit a song to three-and-a-half minutes but to tell you the truth, Biff, the stage manager who’s in a lot of the bits and all the crew guys said that in the 20-30 years that they’d been working for CBS of this program they had never seen an instrumental rock band on the show. So it felt really good that, man, we made some sort of impression on someone to allow us that venue.

AS: You guys are based in Austin. Do you have any crazy LA stories?

MR: We just discovered the Umami Burger a couple trips ago and that’s really tasty so we try to make our way there. LA’s a cool place for us to come visit. Growing up in Texas, anything outside of Texas was almost make believe so even when we went to New York for the first time it felt really good. We’ve celebrity sighted a few people — saw Tim Allen get some coffee one morning that was pretty funny. The crowds in L.A. have been so good to us that it’s one of those checkpoints on the tour that we have a good feeling the shows going to go really well. The cemetery, Palladium, and even starting at the Knitting Factory and working our way up.

AS: How would you feel about doing the Hollywood Bowl with the Philharmonic?

MR: We used to want to play it but not anymore. We’ve heard enough about it that we kinda lost our interest. But I know it’s a beautiful place but if the opportunity came up it’s something we’d consider.

AS: Have you considered collaborating with an orchestra?

MR: We’ve batted around the idea of making an orchestral composition of the album — without us. Just a symphony playing it. It’s something we’ve talked about for a while but the execution is tough to pull off. We’re talking to a great orchestral transcriber right now out of San Francisco and if we all stay on course than it might be something that could happen in a few months or a year.

Metallica did it already where the band played with the symphony… this band we love — Mono, out of Japan, played with a symphony a couple times. If we could do it we’d like to do it a little bit differently. We’ll see what happens.

The state of the economy may be a big question mark but one thing’s for sure: L.A. tech is hot. Westwood-based Elevator Labs received $20 million in funding this week in another example of investors putting money into innovative Los Angeles-based startups (just last week Santa Monica-based BetterWorks received an $8 million investment).

Elevator Labs plans to use the investment to launch new businesses its currently incubating in addition to its existing portfolio: Hello Music, Wilshire Media Group, and Fat Cloud. Managing partner Zack Zalon discussed how his years as president of Virgin Digital influenced his approach, why Elevator Labs is an “invention company” and why he’s excited about the growth and innovation in L.A.’s tech community.

“It’s about time that people stand up and start taking notice because this is the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders here in Los Angeles that are ready to emerge,” said Zalon.

Originally posted at LAist.

UPDATE: Watch video of the panel below.

For both businesses and consumers, geolocation apps and services are a dime a dozen these days. But many of these apps and tools serve to benefit both when used consistently and correctly. Much like social media itself, geolocation is a two-way entity.

“Geolocation makes it easier for consumers to get the services they want nearby and for local businesses to reach the consumers in their area,” Eli Portnoy, CEO of Culver City-based mobile marketing startup Thinknear told me matter-of-factly.

As consumers become increasingly engaged with smartphones and other mobile devices, geolocation will have a growing influence on commerce. For most businesses and services, location — and circumstance — means everything. More than one-third of U.S. adults (35 percent) are smartphone users according to a July 2011 Pew Internet report. Consumers are always on the hunt for quality goods and services at reasonable prices. As consumers grow accustomed to the “smart” aspect of always-connected, GPS-enabled mobile devices, the bargains appear at their fingertips and it only becomes a matter of convenience. As consumers discover the power of smartphones beyond texts, emails and phone calls, shopping habits change.

In the same Pew survey, 25 percent of smartphone owners indicated a preference for using the internet on their phone rather than their computer. This is likely not just a matter of convenience, it’s based on better circumstantial results. The top search results for “yogurt” on a home or office computer likely yield the Wikipedia entry, and links to the Dannon and Yoplait websites. But the same search from a smartphone directs the user to the nearest fro-yo shop. Geolocation is a win-win: consumers can find what they want and need at their fingertips while businesses can acquire new regulars by dangling their goods and services right in front of the smartphone user around the corner.

Geoloco & Business:

Do you see a map and a location listing for your business when you search Google? If not, you can list all physical locations on Google for free: www.google.com/placesforbusiness.

Gowalla, Foursquare, YP, Yelp…. Help!?! Forget about your business for a minute and try out each of these services via their mobile apps as a consumer. There are many tools, including these, which make it easier for consumers to get what they want. Search for your business on these applications? Is it there? Is the listing accurate? Not everything in the world is automated (yet) and so it’s never a surprise when new stores replace old ones but the old listing remains.

Your business (if it relies on a physical location) may only have one physical location but by making sure it’s populated and using any and all geolocation services at its disposal, you are doing the best you can to bring your offering to potential consumers on their terms. Foursquare may have more users than Gowalla but your next customer might discover you through Gowalla. Either way, these serendipitous, location-based discoveries often lead users to return and more importantly to share their experience with others via social media and word of mouth.

I was honored to be a panelist at this month’s Social Media Club Los Angeles event on geolocation, a topic I’ve been obsessed with for quite some time (it’s the subject of my Master’s Thesis). I wrote this post in advance of the July 26 SMCLA event.

I caught up with Bettina Korek, founder of ForYourArt this week to discuss the current state of the L.A. scene and what we have to look forward to this fall.

“The art world isn’t just about collecting often-expensive objects,” said Korek, “it’s also about learning and engaging and it can be a gateway to all different discplines.”

It’s great when both MOCA and LACMA have showcases like Art in the Streets and the Tim Burton exhibit but it’s equally important to experience and engage with the museum space as a whole.

“I hope that ForYourArt can be a resource for people to not only know what’s going on in L.A. but also to find that inspiring context that they can delve deeper into,” she said.

2011 has already been a strong year for art in L.A. but just wait for the fall: Pacific Standard Time, a collaboration between over 60 arts organizations with exhibits from San Diego to Santa Barbara. The first project of its kind in L.A., Pacific Standard Time, opening in October, is the result of nearly a decade of research by the Getty Institute and comprises a veritable history of the rise of art culture in Los Angeles over the years 1945-1980.

Pro Publica has published a database that makes it easy for you to compare your access to quality education and at what cost in an effort to provide insight into the opportunity gap demonstrated by economic difference in the classroom.

The data for L.A.-area school districts indicates that the higher the percentage of students who get free or reduced-price lunches the lower the percentage of students who take at least one AP course. For example, 76 percent of LAUSD students receive free or discounted lunches and 16 percent take at least one AP course. The data flips, however, for Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified: 1 percent get free/reduced priced lunch, and 41 percent take at least one AP course.

Los Angeles Unified School District:

via ProPublica.

To access schools information near you visit projects.propublica.org/schools and enter your address, ZIP code, or school name.

The database, which contains information on about three-quarters of all students in the country (from all public schools in districts with greater than 3,000 students) is sourced from the U.S. Department of Education Office Civil Rights.

How do your schools compare?

Here’s the story and video from ABC7. WSJ, NYT, Reuters, and Fast Company are already on it. Video and press assets can be found here. Some other goodies:
* Carmageddon promo
* Carmageddon Resistance

Let me know if you have any questions or if you’d like to get in touch with anyone at Waze!

Waze’s Citizen Traffic Connects Broadcast Media with Drivers on the Road

KABC-TV begins using real-time crowdsourced traffic data as content direct from its audience on the road 

(LOS ANGELES & PALO ALTO, Calif.) July 5, 2011 — Waze, the mobile social traffic and navigation app, is announcing today a partnership with KABC-TV in Los Angeles, Southern California’s most watched-television station. Waze is empowering the station to connect with its community of local drivers on the road for instant access to real-time traffic information and breaking news where it otherwise may not have reporters on the scene. Using Waze’s live map of users on the road, the station will be able to provide Los Angeles citizens up-to-the-minute road reports during the July 15^th weekend closure of the 405 freeway based on live feedback, incidents, and updates from Waze’s community of Los Angeles drivers. The closing 10 mile stretch is used by roughly 500,000 Los Angeles drivers on any given weekend. The “carmageddon”, as locals have dubbed it, is part of a $1bn highway improvement campaign that isn’t expected to be finished until 2013.

“There’s no question the upcoming closure of the 405 Freeway is going to seriously impact drivers in Southern California,” said Cheryl Fair, vice president and news director for KABC-TV.  “We have a responsibility to our viewers to provide real-time information, and Waze plays a big part in helping us do that. Not only can the Waze app help drivers find alternate routes, but what’s really exciting to us is how it enables our viewers to play an active part in easing the traffic congestion. While viewers use the app to get where they need to go, they’re simultaneously providing information to help their fellow drivers.”

Broadcast Media Warpath

Waze’s citizen traffic is being adopted by broadcast media around the globe, most notably in use by Channel 2, Israel’s largest news network where drivers volunteer to be called in by the station to report on live-traffic information from the ground. Stateside, Waze has also working with WBHH-TV in Southwest Florida, which has supplemented its traditional traffic feed with Waze’s citizen traffic from commuters on the road. However, this most recent partnership with KABC-TV marks the company’s first large scale media distribution in the U.S.

Milestones

The partnership coincides with Waze’s recent milestone of 4.5 million drivers in its community. The company’s growth rate is accelerating rapidly, more than doubling its active user base since its last announcement of 2 million drivers and $25MM in B-round funding last December. Waze also officially launched its service in Spain and the U.K last month, increasing its global reach and support to drivers in Western Europe.

“The use of crowdsourced traffic by major media is a huge validation of our community-based infrastructure,” said Noam Bardin, CEO of Waze. “Consumers embrace sharing information where it’s relevant and where they see real value in return. We’re happy to see that real-time traffic information is an offer they can’t refuse.”

Founded in 2009, Waze has since grown to become the world’s largest and fastest-growing community of connected drivers, reaching more than 4.5 million users in over 45 countries, worldwide. Waze is available on the Apple AppStore, the Android Market Place, the Nokia Ovi Store, RIM’s App World and Windows Market or download from m.Waze.com. To learn more about Waze online, visit www.Waze.com or follow us on Twitter at @Waze.

About Waze

Waze is a free community-based traffic and navigation app that uses real-time road reports from drivers nearby to save commuting time and improve everyday driving. Way more than just another free navigation app, Waze’s social layer is what sets it apart – giving drivers the power to work together to report and receive the most relevant traffic information available at any given moment. Plus, it actually makes commuting a whole lotta fun!

About KABC-TV

KABC-TV is the #1 rated television station in the Los Angeles area and the home of ABC7 Eyewitness News, the most watched local news coverage in LA with over 45 hours of live local news each week.  KABC-TV is also the west coast flagship of the ABC television network.

Specific Media will acquire the fledgling social network turned social entertainment site for $35 million according to All Things D.

“Today, we are announcing that Myspace will be acquired by Specific Media, one of the world’s leading online media and advertising platforms,” Jones wrote in the email addressed to Myspacers. “Over the next few days you will be hearing from the team at Specific, including their CEO, Tim Vanderhook, regarding their exciting plans for Myspace and how it fits in with the overall vision of their company.”

Jones indicated in the email that a significant reduction in staff was imminent, adding that he would be stepping down as CEO of Myspace after assisting with the transition to Specific Media over the next two months.

$35 million seems like quite a bargain for Myspace, which was founded in 2003 and acquired two years later by Fox Interactive Media (part of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.) for $580 million. If nothing else, Specific media comes away with 8 years of data encompassing the demographics and behavior of millions of users.

Since 2009 Myspace has laid off approximately 1,500 employees. The dilution of up to half of the remaining 400 employees, most based at Myspace’s Beverly Hills HQ, began Wednesday.

Several close friends of mine worked at Myspace in its final iteration, some of whom are featured in the Blogroll at right (Sean Percival, Mike Macadaan, Tony Adam). Percival, VP Online Marketing, tweeted earlier today: “Today is my last day with Myspace. It was a unique moment in time and an impossible problem to solve. Was proud to be a part of it.” He later blogged of his imminent return to startup world, where no doubt he’ll continue to have great success and growth. SEO-meister Tony Adam blogged that he’ll be carrying on with his startup Visible Factors. Congrats all and best of luck on whatever’s next!

Personally, I’ve had a Myspace profile seemingly forever, having joined at some point in 2004, having sensed early tremors of the first tectonic shift in social networking — the great exodus from Friendster to MySpace. I never used it much socially, especially after the great fake pornorific inbox spammings of 2006… I had already begun using Facebook at the time, gaining early-ish entry while a grad student.

Companies across the tech landscape immediately began reaching out with job offers to Myspace engineers and developers about to enter the tech talent pool.

Myspace was the primary social network of choice for more than 100 million users and became a successful vehicle for the promotion and discovery of music artists. But in 2007 Facebook opened up to users outside of universities and soon eclipsed Myspace in popularity. By 2008 Myspace’s user base had stagnated while Facebook is now approaching 700 million users worldwide.

Irvine-based Specific Media is one of the largest entities on the internet and specializes in online advertising. According to the WSJ, the Myspace acquisition helps transition Specific “into a media company with its own ad space to sell instead of simply an online ad technology firm that brokers ad space on behalf of other websites.”

From the press release announcing the acquisition:

“Myspace is a recognized leader that has pioneered the social media space. The company has transformed the ways in which audiences discover, consume and engage with content online,” said Tim Vanderhook, Specific Media CEO. “There are many synergies between our companies as we are both focused on enhancing digital media experiences by fueling connections with relevance and interest. We look forward to combining our platforms to drive the next generation of digital innovation.”

Both Activision CEO Bobby Kotick and Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson, two Myspace cofounders, were rumored to be interested in acquiring the company in recent days.

Parts of this post originally published at LAist.
Previous posts about Myspace:

• Show Me the $$$ – 3/28/2006
• Pew: 50 Million Create Own Web Content – 5/30/2006
• The Facebook Lesson – 9/7/2006
• Universal Threatens to Sue YouTube, MySpace – 9/15/2006
• Is MySpace the Teenage Parking Lot of Today? – 1/11/2007
• Facebook Profiles Go Public – 9/5/2007
• Socializing the Music Industry: Online Tools – 9/10/2008
• Privacy Concerns and Social Networks – 5/18/2010