Veteran KTLA Anchor Larry McCormick Dies

Larry McCormick, a longtime television journalist and one of the first African American newsmen in Los Angeles, died Friday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after a lengthy illness. Throughout his 43-year broadcasting career, McCormick hosted musical programs, radio and television talk shows, TV game shows, and did football play-by-play. He wrote, narrated and produced television and radio documentaries. He was 71.

Larry McCormick Obituary (Video)
Southland Pays Tribute to McCormick (Video)
LA Times story
Photos
More Video
Message Board for your comments
Larry Receives his Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Earlier this evening, within minutes of me reading that Fran was going with Keith to the Curiosa Festival tonight, a friend of mine, J, IMed and asked me if I was a fan of The Cure and if I wanted to go to the concert tonight.

I practically jumped up and down in front of my keyboard and ran to ask Yoshi if we could spend our date night at The Cure concert. Since it was last minute, we had to go meet up with someone to pick up the tickets and brave Friday evening traffic to get down to the Home Depot Center in Carson, but we did... even stopping off in Gardena at a Hawaiian fast food place to pick up dinner.

Anyway, we missed all the other bands, but got there just in time to watch the main event. I honestly don't know The Cure's new stuff very well, but there was enough old school stuff to make me happy. Play me some Lovesong, and I'm good.

Incidentally, I never even knew the Home Depot Center existed. Going down there was an experience in itself.

So I put up a few pictures and now I have to go to sleep so my ears will stop bleeding.

Here's a photo of myself during the concert. I took it in the dark, with only the light from the stage on my face. This is photographic proof that I simply wasn't goth enough to be there, but I went anyway.

One of my former co-workers at the network sent me a link to this story. It seems that local talk jock Tom Leykis has been assaulted by a listener he pissed off in Seattle. (So far I haven't seen any Seattle metbloggers pick up on this.)

I'm not saying Leykis deserved to be kicked in the head, but I do think it was just a matter of time before something like this happened. Most of Leykis' listener events involve large amounts of alcohol and gratutious female nakedity (thanks to Teebubble for the great word). He had to know that one day things were going to get out of hand... beyond getting sued (which has already happened), that is.

Shock jock Tom Leykis says he was attacked in Seattle Tom Leykis said his injury required 17 stitches. Seattle police are looking for radio listeners who allegedly assaulted syndicated shock jock Tom Leykis outside a Seattle bar early Monday.

Leykis said yesterday that the attack left him with 17 stitches above his right eye. His call-in show originates in Los Angeles and airs afternoons on Seattle's KQBZ-FM (100.7). Reached by phone in Los Angeles, Leykis said the attack occurred during one of his regular trips to broadcast from Seattle, where for several years he's maintained a large fan base.

Leykis said he had stepped outside of the Five Point Cafe, 415 Cedar St., near Fisher Plaza, about 3:45 a.m. when a man began talking to him and another kicked him in the head. "I was minding my own business. It was a person who knew who I was from the radio." [full story]

What I'm surprised about is that it happened in Seattle. Who'd have thunk it?

This story reminds me that Leykis signed the above headshot for me once upon a time (he doesn't look like that anymore) & I've had it sitting in storage. Maybe this is a good time to sell it on eBay?

If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

I had had no idea how busy my day was going to be when it started yesterday. Originally, I thought I was going to be in the office all day and then possibly meet up with Peter (to pick up the replacement car remote he kindly ordered on my behalf). But then we figured it was too many logistics to manage because I was also supposed to go pick up my Mom at LAX, so we postponed to another day. Instead, I decided at the last minute to drive down to Long Beach to see Skits & Fran (oh, and Emma, too!), and meet my personality twin Meeta & friends. I didn't get to stay long, but it was nice to get some face time with everyone.

I had to leave before going out to dinner because Mom's flight from Taiwan was supposed to arrive at 8:15pm. If I had known that my mom's flight was delayed over an hour and a half from arriving, I'd have joined everyone for dinner.

Not a good breakfast food. But oh so yummy.

Pineapple upside-down cake is, however, a good after lunch dessert.

Still yummy. Even at the second slice.

I am very honored to have had the pleasure of working with veteran KTLA newsman Larry McCormick, so I am very upset to learn that Larry had been hospitalized last week and that he currently is in "grave condition," not expected to survive.

Larry has been ill for a while and had been taking time off of his KTLA duties to recover. But this isn't the first time that he's been hospitalized and although there have been scares in the past, Larry has surprised us more than once by fighting his way back.

Not more than a month ago, my former co-worker K said she ran into him at the grocery store and that his spirits seemed up. The last time I spoke with him was approximately 2 weeks ago, after I had sent him a quick note to give him an update on my life. Since I met him, he's always been thoughtful and kind to me, calling to say "thank you" for the little things. Larry always has an optimistic outlook on things, and said he was anxious to be well enough to return to work soon.

Since I'm not able to call him at home, all I can do is write about it and use as much of my mental energy as possible to send him my most sincere best wishes and love.

Back to what I was saying yesterday... it turns out he doesn't even want to share his "precious."

From the AP:
Stressed Hamm says he deserves lone gold

“Truly in my heart, I believe that I am the Olympic champion. I don’t feel as if I should be giving the medal back or another one should be awarded,” Hamm said Tuesday before heading back to the United States.

There's nothing greedy about that, is there?

(Thanks to Mikey2 for the LOTR reference. Smeagol/Gollum illustrates it perfectly for me.)

Do you believe it?

I threw away TWO pens. They were out of ink and were the cool Pilot retractable gel pens (in 0.5 black and 0.7 blue) and I've had them forever.

But I actually threw them away.

(Don't ask why I keep unusuable pens. I don't know why, either. It's just something I do.)

I'm also tired of limiting posts to my own inane experiences.

Even though it's kind of funny to put "THIS IS NOT GOSSIP" at the end of certain posts, it sucks that I ever have to do so.

Worst of all, all of this has made blogging less fun and exciting for me.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, you can contact me privately for a few more details... but I can't really talk about it.

And that sucks, too.

[No comments allowed on this post.]

So I've been catching bits and pieces of the Summer Olympics in fast-foward (thanks TiVo), as well as reading coverage online.

Yoshi and I had a discussion about Paul Hamm's unusual situation & what he should & shouldn't do with the Gold medal. Initially, I was thrilled for him for his success in achieving what seemed to be impossible: climbing back and earning the Gold Medal after falling on his ass and slipping to 12th place & becoming the first American man to win the Men's Gymnastics Individual All-Around Gold.

But now that it has become patently obvious that Paul Hamm received the Gold in error, I am appalled at his self-proclaimed "anger" and insistance that he is the only one deserving of the Gold.

I guess I'm not the only one. Here's an interesting editorial by MSNBC sportswriter Mike Celizic: Hamm should give up the gold.

I don't completely agree that Hamm should give up the Gold, but instead of sounding like a selfish brat, he should think about the spirit of sportsmanship and the Olympic games & remember the the Golden Rule when it comes to that hunk of Gold hanging around his neck.

Sharing the Gold wouldn't make it any less gold.

This is a short recount of all the parts of town I've been today (in order):

From home to West Hollywood to Beverly Hills to the Hollywood area. Then to LAX to Orange County. And then back to L.A.

Aside from all the traveling on surface streets, I drove on the following freeways: 10, 405, 5, 101, 105, 91, and because I accidentally missed the interchange from the 105 to the 605, alongside the 605.

If I really wanted to, I could have easily also been on the 710, 110, 57, and the 22. But for some strange reason, I wasn't compelled to take the "scenic route" and traverse every possible freeway I could in one day. Imagine that.

UPDATE: In the light of day, I remembered that I also could've taken the 90, but took surface streets instead.

We had breakfast at Newsroom this morning and I filled my tummy with their egg special (goat cheese & apple omelette) accompanied with a Parrot (freshly squeezed carrot, papaya, apple juice). I had forgotten how much I love fresh vegetable/fruit juice.

Now I want to get a juicer to replace the one I broke about 6 years ago.

On a side note, it occurred to me that there is a whole wave of celebs that are simply not on my radar. Someone at our table recognized "someone" sitting a few tables down, and I looked at her and said, "Who is that?" When I heard that it was "Charisma Carpenter," I realized that I knew the name, but didn't know her face.

Thanks to the concert we attended last night at the Hollywood Bowl, I have that famous Mary Poppins song embedded in my head today.

One of my favorite things about living in L.A. is being able to enjoy summer nights at the Bowl. A few months ago, I won a pair of tickets in an office lottery and I elected to go to Friday night's concert featuring the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, The Great American Concert with Fireworks - Walt Disney: 75 Years of Music. It was a good mix of Disney musical repertoire, sometimes accompanied with interesting Disney animation, but the highlight of the show was the incredible roster of guest artists. They included a special appearance of Dick Van Dyke singing selections from Mary Poppins, Mary Costa (the original voice of Sleeping Beauty, who narrated a special arrangement of "Bambi"), Jodi Benson (voice of Ariel), Judy Kuhn (voice of Pocahontas), Paige O’Hara (voice of Belle), and Alan Menken (composer who performed a medley of his music for Disney). But that Dick Van Dyke... what a living treasure. And the fireworks were fun, too. The audience seemed to want more even after three encores.

John Mauceri gave his annual State of the Union Address from the point of view of the Mauceri Family, tying in amusing anecdotes about his family's visits to the Magic Kingdom. My favorite line was when he described the best road sign he'd seen all year from his home state of New York. It was a sign at a highway offramp which said: "This exit is closed. Please use previous exit." (That is almost as good as the roadsign Teebubble saw in Montreal.)

Even *I* am willing to put up with the annoying audiences (people who can't carry a tune... or know the words... who insist on trying to sing along), the not-so-perfect performances, and of course, the lines at a sold-out event such as this one... just to enjoy a fun evening at the Bowl.

This was also the first time that I've been to the Bowl since the recent completion of the Hollywood Bowl Shell Project. I must admit the orchestra looks less crowded on stage, but I miss the spheres that used to hang inside the shell... and the "sonotubes" will take a bit of getting used to... but I can't wait to go back again soon.

... the hiccups went away.

(Only to be replaced with a horrible coughing fit.)

I think my allergies are getting the best of me. I Benadrylled myself up and I'm doing better now.

Yay.

Again with the hiccups?

Grrrrrr-HIC!

Thanks to the following folks for thinking of me and Yoshi while on vacation this summer:

Don, who sent me a postcard from the Dominican Republic
Shelli, who sent me a postcard from San Juan Capistrano
ProfessorEric, who sent me a text message when he was in Seattle
and of course, Spork Girl, who has been sending me postcards from all over the country. :)

If I forgot anyone, sorry, my desk is a complete disaster area and may have temporarily lost a few items along the way.

I'm sorry you had to come to our house to "fix" a perfectly fine receiver/TiVo unit.

I swear to god it was broken yesterday and the day before (when I made the service call).

I know it's quite amazing that it began working perfectly fine when you arrived.

Funny, ain't it?

-Me