Look who’s in first place in the National League East….

Once in a while, I like to check out some non-political blogs. If The Proc likes them a lot, he’ll put them down in the links way below all these posts in the “Some Other Blogs I Like” category. Phillies Nation, for example, is one I heavily enjoy.

Recently, I stumbled upon a blog called “When Are We Going To California?” It’s an honest, hilarious, and quit poignant look at what it’s like to adapt to newly living in LA after spending most of your life in another big city, in this case, Chicago. I really enjoyed their post the other day about the difference in the price of groceries. That was definitely a shocker when I first moved here. Check it out when you have a chance.

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Anyone seen the PSN as of late? Not sure about this morning - but for the past few days, there has been a little box on the bottom fold of the front page written by Frank Pine, the Senior Editor over there. He tells us how the PSN is making these Earth-shattering changes like actually putting local news on the front page. He also lets us know that we can write to him to give our feedback. So, I gave Frank some feedback on yesterday’s front page:

Dear Frank,

Wow. I can’t believe the Pasadena Star-News is putting local news on the front page. What is next? Reporting about sports in the sports section?

That story about the water districts uniting for funding in El Monte had me at the edge of my seat the entire way. My heart was in my throat.

And I didn’t know that it was so historic and unique for Barack Obama to seal the Democratic nomination until Councilman Chris Holden weighed in with his thoughts. I’m so glad that Chris Holden could clear that up for all of us, I mean, we wouldn’t have known that Obama was even a black guy until he pointed it out.

It’s also great to turn from page 1 - from hard local news - to see a bunch of people standing in Rome or Fiji or the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, holding a copy of the PSN. I’m also glad you have snippets from the blogs in there. I just put down my newspaper, go to the blogosphere, read all of the blogs you guys have and then forget to read the rest of the newspaper.

I know that PSN is trying their best - but you’re going to have to do a lot more to get me to dish out 50 cents for it every morning.

Sincerely,

Aaron Proctor
Pasadena Icon, Dignitary, and Local Treasure
http://www.proctorformayor.com

Don’t fret, Frank. I’m just doing my typical gimmick of “picking on the weak and disenfranchised” - ya know, like millionaire City Council members and major, highly circulated newspapers.

To give credit where credit is due, Frank Girardot (like - the only news reporter over at that paper worth reading after Fred Ortega leaves) had an excellent piece in the paper the other day about graffiti. Graffiti, to me, is pretty fucking lame - and I’m glad police are actually watching YouTube and catching these losers with nothing else better to do. I guess these taggers with names that you need a calculator to spell (like “T3ch N9ne D00D!”) never heard of “Color Me Mine“.

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Has anyone noticed what a douchebag Hillary Clinton is?  I mean, lately, she’s been more of a douche than ever.  She reminds me of some of politicians around here.  She can’t even concede an election properly.  She won’t even use the word concede!  She says she’s “suspending” her campaign but “endorsing” Barack Obama.  Where I come from, we call that losing.  She can’t even say things like “lose”, “wrong”, “mistake”, “waste of people’s time”, and “most of the 18 million people who voted for me are going to vote for John McCain unless I’m tapped for Veep.”

She reminds me of when I used to play Tecmo NBA Basketball on the NES with my brother, Adam.  He used to like to play with the Chicago Bulls - `cause that’s when Michael Jordan was in his heyday.  He’d totally kick my ass - but once in a blue moon, I’d beat him with the Indiana Pacers or something.  Of course, he’d never say he lost - he would just say “Well, Jordan fouled out” or “You hurt Scottie Pippen in the 1st quarter!” It’s almost like he would “suspend” playing the game and officially “endorse” me as the winner without saying that he lost.
Now that I think about it - I’d be kinda scared to pick Hillary Clinton as my running mate.  I’d be worried that I might end up shot in the mouth in Fort Mercy Park.

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Finally, today, I continue my look at the Ten People Ruining Pasadena.

#10 was the Bolshevik herself, Virginia Hoge.

#9 was rollin’ down the street, smokin’ endo, sippin on Joe Hopkins.

#8 took my two dollars and bought a King Cobra and a loose cigarette: The Homeless.

#7 is…

Yep, that’s Larry Wilson.  And without one homosexual epithet, I’ll tell you why he’s ruining Pasadena.

L-Dub is the Public Editor of the Pasadena Star-News.  For years, he’s been writing bourgeoisie and boring drivel called “editorials”.  He constantly name-drops people nobody has ever heard of, is a general dick toward anyone who disagrees with him, and thinks that because you don’t mention the existence of someone else, that nobody will ever hear about that person.

He’s constantly portraying the image of the Pasadena that his masters in groups like the PEF and on City Council want him to portray:  no problems at all.  Whether he’s going on and on about lame-ass hippie art shows or talking about scooping up doodoo at dog shows, you’d think Pasadena to be quite the classy place with no trace of gang violence, political corruption, or some of the most fucked up delusions of grandeur this side of schizophrenia.

Larry Wilson (right), the insatiable Miss Havisham (left)

An older male incarnation of the Singing Poem Lady at City Council Public Comment, rarely does Larry even weigh in on local political issues - which makes guys like Kevin Uhrich at the Pasadena Weekly blow his weak, lillywhite editorials out of the water.  Hey, Larry, there’s only so many “Anti-War” articles you can do.  That’s the #1 complaint about him - he rarely touches on local stuff because he doesn’t want to piss of any of his friends - the ones who pat him on the rear end and give him awards (see below).
There’s nothing wrong with writing or saying what you feel.  A lot of people enjoy the things I have to say and I’m sure a lot of people don’t enjoy the things I have to say. However, I’m not writing a weekly editorial in a newspaper with a daily circulation of like 30,000 or something.  I’m not the “face” of any organization or entity.  When I write something, it represents Aaron Proctor (whether that’s good or bad, take your pick).  When Larry writes something, it represents the Pasadena Star-News as a whole (no, Larry, that wasn’t a homosexual epithet) - one of the many reasons why I just check the PSN online and haven’t actually paid for one in Lord knows how long.

Larry’s also a part of a handful of Pasadenans who like to pull the “Martin Truitt card” with me.  That is, he gave me the whole “Martin Truitt is brainwashing you” speech.  I always find those comments hilarious considering I never see the guy and we maybe speak via e-mail once a month - if that.  I guess the good ol’ boys club guys like Larry Wilson can’t compute in their brains how the  hell I came out of nowhere, gained immense popularity, and don’t automatically stand up and give a nice Sieg Heil to the way things are done around here.  It’s also fun to pick on him after I heard a story that he once got drunk and bitched and bitched about how I call him “boring” and that I’m a “one trick pony”.  So, yeah, he’s kind of thin-skinned, too..which means fun in my book.
In short, Larry Wilson is the Pasadena Way personified.  That makes me literally sick to my stomach as I type that.  He’s so out-of-touch with the general goings on in this City yet he’s still deemed as some kind of local treasure.

I’m not exaggerating:  The Pasadena Museum of History just named him a “History Maker”:

Larry Wilson is the public editor of the Pasadena Star-News, the city and surrounding area’s 122-year-old daily newspaper, with a circulation of 30,000. He is also a board member of the Armory Center for the Arts and the First Tee of Pasadena, chairs the board of the Daily Californian Educational Foundation at UC Berkeley, and serves on the organizing committees for the Pasadena Library’s One City , One Story program and Claremont Graduate University ’s Kingsley Tufts Poetry Prize. 

How the fuck does that get him an award from a museum?  If that’s their logic, they should have a week-long exhibit about me and my failed attempt at Mayor and all that followed.  Now that’s not a bad idea.

Whatever the case - Larry, you come in at #7 on my list.  Maybe you, Hopkins, and Virginia Hoge can go out and have lunch with a homeless guy and it’ll be fodder for your next boring column.

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Be seeing you,

- AP