Calexico’s seventh long-player, Algiers, had recently dropped, marking the band’s first opportunity to play live for its new label, Anti. But after a short acoustic song, Burns bid the remaining crowd good night with a promise to return in January. And tonight, Calexico makes good on its promise at the El Rey.

This interview originally posted at LAist.

We caught up with Joey Burns, Calexico’s principal member, to talk about his L.A. upbringing, life in Tucson and more.

LAist: Everybody talks about Calexico being a Tucson band, but you actually started out here in Southern California?

Joey Burns: Yes. In high school I was in bands that played Gazzarri’s on the Sunset Strip, among other places like Madame Wong’s East and West, and my favorite band from back then was a band from San Pedro called The Minutemen. Great punk rock band, Mike Watt’s still touring and playing — really fun to watch.

Any favorite spots you like hitting when you return to L.A.?

I like to go to the water nowadays because I live in the desert. That’s the first destination. I like to go to places that I haven’t really been before, so I’ve been enjoying checking out East L.A., just checking out parts of town that I didn’t really hang out much in, and so that’s always been kind of fun. There’s a Levi’s Showroom on the Sunset Strip that I might check out — pretty excited about that. I hear they have some rare vintage shirts. All the used clothing stores — I used to go to Aardvark’s a lot. Record stores: Amoeba’s always a good one; Aaron’s was a good one, too.

I used to work at a record store in San Pedro, but I don’t think it’s around anymore. It was called Soundsations. There was a store, I think it was in Inglewood for a while, and then one opened up in San Pedro for a short while.

You grew up in San Pedro?

Well, I grew up in South Bay — various places in South Bay. I went to high school in Palos Verdes, so that’s even further remote. I went to college in Irvine — that’s pretty far away, I wouldn’t call that Los Angeles at all. But I used to drive up the Harbor Freeway a lot to get up to Hollywood.

We’re really excited to come back. L.A. is where John and I first met in 1990. I was working at SST Records after college, and we became friends through a studio. ’89 was the end of a lot of the big stuff at SST, a lot of them went to Geffen. A lot of people went to major labels. Firehose went to Columbia for a while; everyone had to kinda jump ship. It was kind of the end. It was Cruz Records that was being pushed at the time.

We met up through a mutual connection at Radio Tokyo, which was a recording studio in Venice Beach. We met up there in L.A., started playing together and now we’re going back!

What brought you out to Tucson originally?

We were playing in Giant Sand for a while and wanted to have more of our own time. I think in L.A. having to work several jobs… you can get away with working less out here and just focus more on music. So the overhead was lower, and there’s a lot more characters out here. We enjoyed the change of pace, and Tucson is a much more down to earth place. And downtown has always been an interesting part to Tucson: a lot of artists, a lot of warehouse spaces and interesting venues that have come down throughout the years. Places like Rialto Theatre and Hotel Congress, which has a club in it, have always been the mainstays for both national and local touring acts.

In some ways, coming to Tucson definitely nurtured that one foot in tradition, one foot in experimentation approach. Taking some of the ideas we were kicking around and developing them.

What kind of music were you playing prior to Calexico?

I played in a garage rock band, an experimental jazz group, some orchestral stuff in college, jazz band in high school — so a lot of variety for me growing up in music groups that I played in.

Mostly guitar?

No! Mostly bass. Upright bass and electric bass. And I think that’s what kind of connected John and I because he liked a wide variety of stuff. He loves listening to jazz and classical music, and I think it shows in his playing. He’s definitely one of those kinds of drummers that has a different sort of approach, much like Jim White of The Dirty Three who has also played with Cat Power.

Both John and I, when we moved to Tucson — I think he moved in ’92 and I moved in ’93 — we wound up to looking for old and unusual looking instruments. Things that people back then didn’t want. Accordions, mandolins, marimba, vibraphoone… nobody wanted those things. And there were a lot of musicians who had retired here who were interested in getting rid of stuff. It was readily available. Along with a lot of Western shirts, y’know, things people really just weren’t wearing back in those days. So it was an interesting time coming out here and tapping into something I think that is part nostalgic and part reinventing something, taking these pieces, whether they’re instruments or influences, and making your own statement. Giving these things its own voice by way of your own story and where we came from.

Algiers was recorded in New Orleans. Is it the first album you’ve recorded outside of Tucson?

We recorded in Nashville a little bit, the Convict Pool with the cover of Love’s “Alone Again Or.” But with there being a lot of family and kids around, it made sense to get out of town. We couldn’t think of a more eclectic place: philosophy, themes and music. And Craig Schumacher of Wavelab Studio had just gotten over cancer, and part of that recovery was going to New Orleans and surrounding him with all the things that he loves and bringing business to a city like New Orleans.

Is location and travel a big part of what inspires a Calexico record?

Yes. With our previous record, Carried From Dust, there are definitely influences from our travels to South America, which happened in 2007. Songs like “Victor Jara’s Hands” or “House of Valparaiso,” those songs were definitely influenced by going down there.

Travel has always been a big influence on our music. We’ve got band members from Europe and around the States — Paul Niehaus from Nashville, Tennessee; Martin Wenk from Berlin, Germany. Last couple years we had somebody from Spain joining us, who also sits in on the new record as well as the last album. So there’s always been this sort of multilingual, multicultural influence.

How does being such a cultural melting pot affect life on the road for the band?

We all hang out. I often get asked, “How do you guys rehearse?” and, well, we’re going to be rehearsing Sunday and Monday before we hit the road, and, of course, we toured a bunch, so we already have a very deep working relationship, and it doesn’t take very long before we fall back into a rhythm. But it makes it nice, especially when the Europeans come over and they see what’s happening with politics and just the general direction where things are going. Sometimes they’re really surprised. For example, the idea of a wall between U.S. and Mexico: You mention that to somebody from Berlin, and they can’t help but to do a double take. It’s like: “What? What are you talking about?”

Themes of immigration — there’s a different approach to things like that overseas. But it’s all really good. Even within the band the European crisis, you’ve got a Spaniard and you’ve got a German in the band and their viewpoints are quite different. For me it’s interesting to see how they interpret what’s going on both in their own countries and in Europe as a whole. And that’s really been the first time there’s been something that severe going on. Most of the time it’s focusing on the wars that have been happening in the past, going for years and years now.

Do you have an expanded touring band again on this tour?

Yes, seven musicians. Paul Niehaus is playing, Martin Wenk on trumpet and multi-instrumental stuff, Jacob Valenzuela on trumpet and doing a lot of different things. Sergio Mendoza on piano, who was born and raised in Nogales, Arizona, and lived in Sonora, northern Mexico for a while. And Ryan Alfred is playing bass. He and Sergio are the newer members. So seven musicians on a stage, and it’s incredible getting to see how things have evolved both on a personal level and in regards to audience and industry. The music industry has changed a lot. Of course, the European Union has formed.

It had been a while since we had been back to Europe, so when we went in the fall, I was excited to see where things are at for the band and if there’d be people coming to the shows. And of course there were a lot of people coming to the shows. There were a fair amount of sold out shows, which is really cool, and people were excited to see the band. Some even saying they were some of the best shows that they’ve seen to date, people who had seen us eight, nine, 10 times. So that meant a lot to me. And getting to reunite with people and venues we’ve played in the past — the Muffathalle in Munich, or the Forum in London, the Paradiso in Amsterdam, or in Belgium we played one of the first sold out shows at Ancienne Belgique.

For me it feels good to connect with Europe because we’ve drawn so much influence from the European aesthetic. I think it’s influenced the sensibility and the tone — it’s hard to put it into words without generalizing… but the attitude — it’s kind of a combination of North American and European. I noticed it when I first met John, the drummer. He’s really quite a unique person. He loves the things that are made with the intention of being around for a long time. He loves vintage drums, old cars… things that are built to last. And I really learned to appreciate that. I didn’t really think about these things before I met John, whether it was houses or architecture or homes or clothing, which comes full circle to the Levi’s showroom. He was the one who asked, hey is it possible to check out this “House of Strauss” because Paul [Niehaus] was on tour with Justin Townes Earle, who is connected to these clothing circles and was able to get in and have an appointment with the showroom.

I’d say that aesthetic extends to the music, too. That sort of timelessness. Algiers sounds immediately familiar, even though it’s more expansive and complex than previous Calexico records. Is it a challenge to keep writing new songs. Do you ever hit walls?

You’ve gotta keep it going. We love it. You need the songs in order to go on the road. And similarly you need the road in order to inspire experiences and songs and writing. Over the past couple years just about everyone in the band has settled down and had families. Both Jacob and Paul have kids. Jairo has three kids. John has three kids. I’ve got two kids. So the familial quality that happens at this point in most people’s lives really makes us appreciate having our jobs. It makes it special for us all to get together. We love hanging out, and it shows on stage. I kept on getting that comment in Europe last fall. People could really tell that we were enjoying each others company and that booking agents and promoters were having a great time backstage with us as well.

We love this job and we’re looking forward to coming to L.A. Man, it’s been a while.

It’s been a while since you’ve played with the lights on. Any other collaborations you’re looking forward to?

Our office hours are always open. We love doing collaborations. We recently did some recording with Neko Case for her upcoming record. Variety keeps it fun and interesting.

Is there any artist that you’d like to get a phone call from?

I’ve been hearing some new Bob Dylan on the radio here in Tucson and you know, that’s one of those things that, well, if you mention it, you’ll curse it. But getting the opportunity to work on soundtracks and especially the film I’m Not There was a great example of just that. We got the opportunity to collaborate with a whole slew of artists, some we even suggested, like “Hey, Charlotte Gainsbourg is in the movie, can we send her some tracks and see if she’d like to sing on them?” And the answer that we got back was yes, so that was one of those lessons where nowadays you can just about send tracks to everyone and hope for the best. I think certain artists are really open to trying new things. We got to work with Roger McGuinn in a similar way. Getting to meet Jim James [of My Morning Jacket] was a lot of fun, and Willie Nelson, and of course we knew Iron & Wine. It was great to get to do a lot of different collaborations all under the umbrella of one movie and one project. That was really thanks to Randall Poster, the music supervisor who connected us with soundtrack work previously.

I thought “Goin to Acapulco” was one of the most poignant moments in the movie, with Jim James singing and Calexico performing and actually appearing on set.

Being on set was a lot of fun. No one had really heard that song and there was a lot going on in that movie and in that scene in general. There were a lot of things happening. You’re on location. It was shot outside of Montreal, Canada. Everyone’s in character, and it’s pretty amazing.

When we got there they were working with Richard Gere; he was on horseback. Before we had gotten to the set, the horse had acted up, and they nearly had an accident. So people were a little bit on edge. And then this huge mess of a rainstorm came in, and everybody took a break for lunch. We came back and everyone is pretty relaxed and chill and we begin working on the scene that we’re in.

And they pump the music through the PA system, and it’s resonating through the area, basically out in the middle of nowhere. It really took people by surprise but got people in the mood so we could get in character and into the scene. There was a real person pretending to be a corpse right in front of you. It’s pretty creepy and wonderful at the same time.

I’m sure we will have some more acting opportunities. These things just kind of happen all by themselves. Hollywood’s a bizarre place I love it. You never what might happen from whatever project or collaboration you do. The music has continued to have a bridge to soundtracks and movies. Seems like every day I get an email or a request to watch something. Tonight I’m supposed to watch a documentary on Wild Horses in North America, so that would be the next collaboration, seeing what music would work with that. We also get a lot of requests for songs to be used in documentaries regarding immigration, and I’m really proud of that. In the future I’d love to get some calls from directors like Wes Anderson or Jim Jarmusch. Something that’s outside of the Southwest, something a little different. Who knows, I don’t know if I’ll be able to go to Sundance this month since we’ll be on tour, but someday I’d love to check out more film festivals, whether it’s Berlin or L.A. or Toronto or New York, meet people and get involved. Who knows, maybe I’ll just write a screenplay and a soundtrack and see if I can get someone to make the movie.

You mentioned documentaries on immigration. How is Calexico getting involved with these issues?

I would like to play more benefits for sure. Humane Borders is one of the groups that we’ve helped out consistently over the years. The only time we ever played Calexico, California, was a benefit for another border group called Border Angels. And interestingly enough, in Europe, immigration is becoming more of an issue, just like in the States. Hopefully we can come up with a better exchange program or better legislation for workers — people who are here and have been paying taxes. I guess for most people it’s just not simple enough to file the proper paperwork to come here and work. It should be simpler.

I was born in Montreal, so I had to become a citizen at some point. I’m sure there was a lot of paperwork back then. I know my dad was trying to make sure my brothers and I wouldn’t act out and say something silly and stupid when we went for the interview. It’s given me the perspective of not taking things for granted over here and also being sympathetic to those who don’t have a lot and are coming here because they need to. It’s survival, especially from Mexico. How do we as a country make sure that our neighbors are doing alright? You want to make sure everyone in the hemisphere — and world — is doing alright, not just in your own backyard. But that’s a much bigger topic.

And SB 1070…

Yeah. Now Sheriff Joe Arpaio from Maricopa County — the same guy who was doing raids on businesses suspected of having immigrants working there — is in the news saying he wants to have armed citizens patrolling around schools. Not professional police offers, citizens, y’know, 500 of his gang to go patrol around schools, and that’s going to be intimidating and send the wrong message. It’s just kind of confrontational. And of course it’s the same guy causing the negativity with SB1070. It’s one of the things that on one hand, I don’t like about Arizona, that there are a lot of conservative people throughout the state, whereas little islands like Bisbee, or Flagstaff or Tucson are more balanced.

I’m also really happy to be here because I feel like I can do something. Our involvement with immigration or I’m helping out with raising awareness around the shooting that involved our Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. We got involved with the Fund for Civility Respect and Community. It meant a lot to me because I felt I was doing something directly for my community. And it’s hard to feel that important in a bigger city or bigger state. And I’m hoping that our music can be an influence at least on a very small level. We do a benefit for our local community-sponsored radio station. We can raise money for a cool radio station, KXCI, and they play a lot of local music. It’s pretty cool. It’s nice because I like being in some of those smaller towns because you really get a sense of who people really are and what the spirit is of a place, but when you’re in a big city you can be anywhere. That’s my little rant about being in Tucson.

Calexico plays tonight, January 16, at The El Rey Theatre. Bahamas opens. Tickets ($20 + fees) are available at Ticketmaster.

While local TV news was the main source for staples such as weather, traffic and breaking news, the internet was the preferred resource for finding more specific information, according to the survey conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism and Internet & American Life Project.

Local news and information is filtered best via community, perhaps even more so in the digital age. People continue to show faith in community, whether learning news via word-of-mouth at the supermarket or via local sources and neighbors on Facebook and Twitter. Fifty-five percent said they get their local news via word of mouth at least once a week compared to 74 percent for television, 51 percent for radio, 50 percent for the local newspaper, 47 percent for the Internet, and 9 percent for a printed community newsletter.

Read the rest of my post and check out the full survey at KCET’s The Public Note blog.

Her new book, Kill the Messenger examines the recent history of the media’s role and influence on cultural and political conflicts from the Holocaust, to the Rwandan genocide to WikiLeaks and the Arab Spring. It’s a five-part book illustrating the influence of media on society and the human condition under varying cultural and political climates. Media can make a big difference, the book resolves, from fomenting mass rage and genocide upon a wave of propaganda in Rwanda to creating and enabling a bridge to conflict resolution with the help of international NGOs in neighboring Burundi.

AS: Is there a primary theme in Kill the Messenger that alludes to a particular pattern that drives media toward influencing the public for better or worse?

MA: The overarching theme is that media can be used for good and bad… in the cases where you have this awful combination of extremists controlling the media and ethical journalism being silenced or diminished, you can have some really dire consequences.

In the worst case scenarios, when ethical responsible journalism is largely silenced and you end up with this hegemonic message that is of an ideological, specifically extremist nature, you can end up with genocide — Rwanda, the Holocaust, and what we saw in Bosnia. Of course it’s not just the media you have to have all these other circumstances into play… but if you look across history what you find is a lot of these conflicts start when extremists take the microphone.

On the other side, we saw some transformations in the Middle East that happened really fast this year. It looked like they happened fast but they’d been brewing for years. I argue that mass media and journalism have been bringing about political transformation for decades. We saw South Africa go from being an Apartheid state to a multiracial democracy. That wouldn’t have happened if we didn’t have diligent, relentless journalism and journalists looking deeply at these issues and uncovering the abuses and showing the inequities that were occurring in South Africa.

Taiwan and Mexico happened at the same time — two single-party authoritarian rules fell [Mexico’s PRI and Taiwan’s KMT in 2000]. And it took decades. And a lot of trouble by a handful of small journalists — it wasn’t the mainstream establishment — that showed people how the system was inadequate and not just or fair.

The ways people silence journalism range from killing them and torturing them to limiting access to not employing journalists with something important to say. There are also financial constraints, with the internet and the way some information is freely dissemminated — in some cases inaccurately.

Read my complete Q&A with Maria Armoudian at KCET’s The Public Note.

A massive hurricane is swirling toward the eastern seaboard of the U.S. leaving 29 million people under a Hurricane warning on Friday night. Currently a category 2 storm, Hurricane Irene is forecast to straddle the coast before making landfall near New York City. Here in Southern California we don’t have many hurricane threats but then again it had been a while since the East Coast experienced a strong earthquake before this week. But in 1939 the only tropical storm to make landfall in California killed dozens at sea before coming ashore in Long Beach. 45 deaths were reported as a result of the flooding. And in 1858 a hurricane is said to have nearly made landfall off the San Diego coast, causing the 2011 equivalent of hundreds of millions of dollars before turning back out to sea.

But in the 19th and even the 20th centuries we did not have the advanced warning and communications systems that we have today. Without even grazing land, Hurricane Irene is making history — New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that today was the first time in the city’s history that mandatory evacuations had been ordered. About a quarter-million residents, primarily on the low-lying edges of Manhattan were urged to abandon their homes. New York’s subway system will be shut down Saturday at noon due to the threat of flooding.

It’s uncertain what kind of damage might result from up 20 hours of sustained tropical storm force winds (40-60 mph forecast), a storm surge up to six feet and a deluge of rain (anywhere from 6 to 15 inches) to top off a wet summer.

But one thing is for sure: Hurricane Irene is headed directly toward NYC. Unless it veers to the west. Or takes a more easterly track. In the post-Katrina era both the government and the public hope to avoid any catastrophic surprises.

NYC Evacuation Map

Google is hosting a central interface where anyone can view and mashup meteorological and government mapping data at crisislanding.appspot.com. FEMA announced a new text messaging service and an Android app today and is regularly publishing updates on local government emergency information sources available on Twitter and is recommending its Ready.gov preparedness guide. Mayor Bloomberg’s office is continuously tweeting updates as well. Maps of the evacuation zones and shelters have proliferated across the web even as the NYC.gov site buckled under heavy demand earlier today.

Power outages will be widespread and cellular voice services may be shaky as they were following Tuesday’s almost entirely unexpected East Coast earthquake. SMS and mobile data services, however, are more likely to tough out the storm and it will be Twitter messages and photos and YouTube videos that will keep people updated in near-real time on their internet-enabled smartphones even after the power goes out (until, inevitably the battery dies on the phone).

Originally posted on KCET’s The Public Note blog.

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.

I am now writing a weekly blog post on media in the digital age for KCET’s The Public Note and will also be contributing posts on local policy at 1st and Spring in addition to occasional posts for LAist.

The ongoing “phone hacking” scandal in the UK may seem like a distant and isolated issue considering how limited the reporting has been in the U.S. press but it’s possible that the media is shying away because it hits too close to home.

What’s come to light in the past month in Britain may be indicative of unethical — if not unlawful — behavior that’s become pervasive across all Western media in the digital age.

At the center of attention is News Corporation, owned by Rupert Murdoch. News Corp. executives will meet with board members in Los Angeles this week for the first time since the scandal, which had been brewing for years, finally broke.

Please click here to continue reading the full article at KCET.org. The following is a brief excerpt.

The fact that News Corp. (and its subsidiaries News Limited in Australia and News International in the UK) has extensive holdings across multiple media platforms suggests that its next moves represent an accountability moment.

In today’s information age it’s not so easy to fabricate stories without getting caught. But the media business is still dominated by the need to have a growing audience to sustain interest from advertisers. The picture emerging from the scandal in the UK is that media outlets will go to great lengths to break stories and attain new information — even illegally — and pay whatever price necessary to keep authorities, whistleblowers, and employees quiet.

Leveraging influence with authorities through payment or blackmail is verboten but it’s an issue that crosses seamlessly over to News Corp’s U.S. holdings, which include Fox News. Through his stable of newspapers, magazines, and broadcast holdings, Murdoch has “strenuously endorsed political candidates and causes and, at times, secured government favors that serve their business interests,” writes Frank Rich in New York which recently published a list of politicians on News Corp.’s payroll.

It’s possible that de-consolidation of the News Corp. empire could be good for both Murdoch and the future of private media and the public interest, as Nicholas Lemann recently suggested on the Council on Foreign Relations website.

But it may be best for independent journalists to carry on watching, reporting and holding all public figures and corporate media accountable for such transgressions.

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.

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?

Strong sales of new releases from the top ladies in song and multiple reissues of classic albums made the first half of 2011 the best 6 months for album sales since 2004, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The one percent increase in sales is little more than a tiny bright spot for an industry which has gone into a tailspin over the past decade. The major labels failed to capitalize on emerging digital distribution models early on and do not look to be in a position to recover any time soon.

155.5 million albums were sold over the first six months of 2011 compared to 153.9 million for the same period last year. Digital track sales are growing at a faster pace, up 10 percent to 660 million, according to CNET. Digital album sales are up 20 percent, according to the L.A. Times. Vinyl sales are up over 40 percent.

One thing is clear so far in 2011: female solo artists are owning the charts, with London’s Adele leading the way (her latest, “21” has sold more than 2.5 million units). The year’s 20 top-selling albums so far according to Billboard include the latest releases from Adele, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Pink (Greatest Hits), and Nicki Minaj (2010 release). And Beyoncé’s latest, “4,” debuted at No. 1 this week.

via Billboard.com.

Originally posted at LAist.

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