Filming ‘Time’

On the set of a James Blunt music video in Downtown L.A.

Walking in Downtown L.A. on Super Bowl Sunday was somewhat appropo this week, after the announcement of the Farmers Field NFL football stadium proposal made headlines this week. But I was here to go to an informal Super Bowl party thrown by my friends Ginny and Alex Brideau at their place in the Pegasus Apartments in the Financial District. On my way there, I passed by a film shoot on Wilshire between Hope and Flower streets. Was this for CSI? Was this for a commercial? Was this for some big-budget movie?

Actually, it was a shoot for a music video – UK singer/songwriter James Blunt‘s upcoming single, “If Time Is All I Have.”  It looked pretty involved, since when I left for home, the filming was still going on. I even think I passed by the singer on the sidewalk, though I didn’t even know what the shoot was for at the time. If any of you see the video, you saw it here first.

After I left the Brideau’s place, I went up to the roof to sneak a peek at the view and saw this:

View from the roof of the Pegasus Apartments in Downtown L.A.

Up there there’s a gym, a garden an atrium and even a swimming pool(!). Sorry, didn’t get to have pics of those. Pretty cool for a building that was once the General Petroleum offices. The funniest thing was that the Standard Hotel was right across the street and you can see (and hear) the clubgoers there.

On Sunday night, I did get to talk on the phone to Trisha Gossett, who organized the Arroyo Seco Branch Library cleanup and native gardening event yesterday. She said that the event was a success and ha garnered about 60 volunteers. She also said that she even read part of my email to her to inspire the volunteers there! She told me the origins of the event and how it was borne out of frustration with dealing with some of their library branch staff and their regional branch manager. She did hee dmy suggestion to sustain the effort with a smaller group, and said that in the near future she plans to organize a picnic in their adjoining park with some of the gardening volunteers, so that they get to know each other, and also get some gardening maintenance done in the process. Sounds like community building to me!