826LA Good Times

The latest issue of the 826LA Good Times is now out and available at the Echo Park Time Travel Mart!

The Good Times journalists have been hard at work on this latest issue, covering the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, the draining of Echo Park Lake and much, much more. It’s also our biggest issue yet.

And you can view a Web-friendly version right now, available at Issuu.com/826lagoodtimes.

BY MIGUEL
On April 24, 826LA students went to the UCLA Book Fair to read the writing that they created.
Several students from the 826LA Good Times were on the UCLA Etc. stage to read the articles that they created in 826LA.
Alex, an 826LA writer, said that his parents liked to go to UCLA to see him read his article. Alex guesses 45 to 60 persons were watching him read his article.
Another writer from 826LA, Lena, said, “The announcer was way too happy.” She had fun with her friends who were there.
In conclusion, every writer from 826LA saw Dave Eggers, and they were happy because he was the producer of “Where the Wild Things Are.”

BY BIANCA
Cassandra, the director of the Echo Park Lake Center, went to the meeting about the Echo Park Lake.
The city plans to drain the lake and fix everything in the park. The park could be closed for two years, but this could be extended to four years.
“When I heard that [the city is] going to clean the lake, I said, ‘Finally, they’re going to clean the lake,” Cassandra said. “The lake looks like fungus; it is so green. I am guessing they are going to drain the water and there will be a bunch of stuff in the lake, like a shopping cart or a car or some people.”
The city plans to fix the lights, the lake water, the playground—basically everything that’s at the park. Echo Park hopes to reopen the park before the spring festival.

All About the Echo Park Lake Clean Up
* Construction work is scheduled to start in April 2011 and last at least 24 to 26 months if the entire lake is drained.
* The entire park will be fenced off during the project.
* Four acres of the lake’s surface will be covered with plants to create artificial wetlands to help filter and clean the water.
* 51 trees will be removed and more than 70 new trees will be planted.
* Most of the trucks that will carry out tons of contaminated dirt and muck will enter and exit the park off Echo Park Ave. south of Laguna Ave.
Source: www.theeastsiderla.com

BY LENA
Iinterviewed Liz Garo about her bookstore, Stories. I wanted to find out more about Stories because it is located right next to 826LA.
Q: How long has the bookstore been open?
A: Since November 2008.
Q: How long did it take you to come up with a name?
A: It took almost a year for Claudia and I to pick a name.
Q: Why did you open this bookstore?
A: Because I had always wanted to.
Q: Why did you open a bookstore with a cafe in it?
A: Because it brings in more people. We also have events. Like on Wednesdays at 4:30 p.m., we have Storytime Funland for kids 1 to 6.
Q: Do people read different books than they used to?
A: No, people like a good story. We sell new books and books that came out 40 years ago.
Q: What is the best-selling book at your bookstore?
A: There is not really a best-selling book, but we sell a lot of fiction. And we also sell used books.
Q: What is your favorite book?
A: “Wise Blood” by Flannery O’Connor.
Stories sells books such as “Charlie Brown” and “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” series as well as books about music, traveling, and food.
The store also has gifts such as magnets and cards for birthdays and much more.
Stories is open every day. On Mondays to Thursdays, it is open from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. On Fridays, it is open until 10 p.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Stories is located at 1716 Sunset Blvd., right next to 826LA.

Behind the scenes of Lady Gaga’s video
BY ALEX
Ilike the music video “Telephone.” It shows Lady Gaga in jail. I talked to Susan Porsche over email about the music video. She was the production coordinator.
Susan Porsche said, “It took two days to shoot ‘Telephone.’ The first day we worked for 18 hours, and the second day we worked for 20 hours. So they were very long days with not a lot of sleep in between. This is very common with music videos because you have to work around the artist’s schedule, which is often very busy—so if you only have them for two days, then you have to squeeze a lot into those two days! There was also about a week of prep time and a couple days to wrap the whole job up, so in the end, it took about two weeks from start to finish.”
Another thing I wondered about was the story, and who came up with the story idea. Susan explained, “The story was a collaboration between Lady Gaga and the director, Jonas Akerlund. Lady Gaga and her record label had a general idea for the video, and Jonas elaborated on it by coming up with the look and feel of the video, i.e. the style of the video, the wardrobe, how the dancing should look, and how Beyonce and Gaga would act. Jonas and Gaga also approved all of the final wardrobe, choreography, props, hair and makeup, and locations.”
As for the hardest part of making the video, Susan said, “The hardest part was getting all the people (crew) and equipment in order for the shoot. A crew can have between 50 to 100 people, and it is a lot of work making sure they all know where they are going for the shoot and that they have ordered the right equipment.”
I also wondered why Lady Gaga wore caution tape around her body in the music video.
“The director, Jonas Akerlund, wanted the video to have very strong fashion statements with bright colors and funky details. Since Lady Gaga is known for having very unique fashion choices, the caution tape played into that theme well,” said Susan.
Regarding the Beyonce collaboration, Susan explained, “Lady Gaga first collaborated with Beyonce for the ‘Videophone’ music video, so Beyonce returned the favor by doing a cameo in ‘Telephone.’ They are both big stars, so it was great to have them in each other’s videos.”
Finally, I wondered why Lady Gaga has become so popular lately.
Susan said, “I believe it is because she is young and fresh. People like to dance to her music, and she is very visual and wears great clothes that people like to talk about.”

Q&A with Henry Gayden, “Spider-Man 3” writer’s assistant
BY JAYCOB
Q: How does Spider-Man sling webs?
A: In the movie, Peter Parker gets bitten by a radioactive spider. That gives a lot of the powers of normal spiders, including the power to sling webs. All he needs to do is bend his wrist, and a web shoots out. In the comic books, Peter has to build a device, like a bracelet, that goes around his wrists to shoot webs.
Q: How can Spider-Man turn into Venom?
A: Spider-Man never becomes Venom. Eddie Brock does. This can be confusing because Venom looks a lot like Spider-Man. Here’s what happened: In the movie, a comet filled with black goo crash-lands on Earth, and the goo grabs onto Peter Parker, turning his red Spidey outfit totally black. This makes him black-suited Spidey and gives him extra powers. Unfortunately, those powers seem kind of evil, and Peter has to tear the black suit off of his body. The goo then dribbles down onto Eddie Brock, a bad guy, and turns Eddie into Venom.
In the comic books, Spider-Man becomes black-suited Spidey several different times for several different reasons. In one comic, he even travels to an alien planet and a weird space machine makes the suit for him!
Q: How does Harry see his dad in the mirror?
A: He imagines his dad in the mirror. His dad’s voice haunts him from beyond the grave, pushing Harry to seek revenge. Harry slowly goes crazy and starts seeing his dad in the mirror.
Q: How does the spider bite Peter Parker?
A: Peter was bitten by a radioactive spider on a school field trip. It bit him the same way most spiders bite—with its poisonous fangs, which in science is called the Cheliceral Fang.
Q: How does Spider-Man lose his powers?
A: Spider-Man loses his powers because he stops believing in himself and his responsibilities. Part of him doesn’t want to be a superhero anymore, and that causes him to lose some of his powers.

A release party was recently held for the new issue of McSweeney’s. Good Times journalists Lena and Alex interviewed two guests at the party about why they were there and why they like McSweeney’s.
Lena went out and interviewed a guy who was at the party for the new issue of McSweeney’s. It was held outside of 826LA. His name was Ken Bauman.
Q: Why are you here?
Ken: I am here to see the writer Nick McDonnell read from the part of his book that’s in the new McSweeney’s. McSweeney’s is a book published about four times a year. The founder also founded 826LA.
Q: Why do you like McSweeney’s?
Ken: They are very beautifully made books. People put a lot of effort into each one. They are unique. Like one was published in a wooden box, and you had to open it to read the book.
Alex interviewed Juliet Litman. She works at McSweeney’s, and she put out a new book. She also told me that Dave Eggers started McSweeney’s. It’s Nick McDonnell’s book; he wrote it in April 2009, and he was very excited. I asked him who he interviewed, and he said that he interviewed American soldiers who are fighting in Iraq. One of the soldiers he talked to was Zach Holmberg. He’s an SPC specialist. Nick talked to the soldier in Mosul, Iraq. He talked to many soldiers, and the book is a true story.

BY OSCAR
Last week I interviewed Mark, Kevin’s best friend. Kevin is a tutor in journalism at 826LA, and Mark came by to visit him.
Mark’s favorite sport is hockey and his favorite team is the L.A. Kings. His mom used to work for Children’s Hospital. He works as an author and software writer.
When I asked Mark what his favorite food is, he said, “Brussels sprouts, chopped in half, sauteed in soy sauce.”
“I live in Portland, Oregon,” said Mark. He is married and has three kids. “My son Felix is 12, my daughter Hanna is 11, and my daughter Saskia is 7.”
He also has a brother named John, whom Mark described as, “A reasonable man and suburban farmer.”
Mark has a small house. He has a tree house in the backyard, but is having some trouble with it, something to do with the wood. He has five chickens: Fudge, Daisy, and he has not named the other ones.
His favorite kind of car is the “Chevy Nova, 1963, steel blue.” His favorite athlete is Kip Kenyo, who ran marathons barefoot. His favorite TV show is “Emergency!” and his favorite movie is “The Misfits.”His favorite hobby is stamp collecting. He can also talk fast, and he wears earrings, but he lost one.
He wears brown and also blue glasses, and blue is his favorite color.
Mark has a taste for fashion, and his favorite holiday is Arbor Day. He said his favorite season is, “Any season, like, whatever.” His favorite place to be? “826LA.”
Mark likes the dark and sleeps poorly. On the day he came to visit, April 19, he woke up at 4:30 a.m.
Mark likes coffee and his favorite chocolate is 72 percent. It is made in southern Oregon. He despises mushrooms. Mark is very cool and so is his family.
That’s the info about Mark.

Q&A with Tom Overton of Gems and Gemology Magazine and Wendy Van Norden of National Earth Sciences Teacher Assn.
BY JOSEPHINE
Earth is the only planet that has life, because it is in the perfect spot. Any closer to the sun, and it would be too hot and things would die. Any farther away from the sun, and the oceans would freeze. Tom and Wendy answered my questions about planets and the atmospheres of different planets.
Q: Can you tell how old a planet is?
Tom: It’s not possible to determine exactly how old something like a planet is. However, scientists can get a good estimate by measuring the age of the planet’s rocks and applying that to what they know about how planets form. One the most useful methods is a technique called radiometric dating or radioisotope dating. A radioisotope is an element that, over time, can turn into another element. Because scientists have extensively studied all the elements in nature, they know how long it takes for one radioisotope to turn into something else. So, if a geologist finds a rock that is composed of a mixture of one radioisotope and the element that it turns into, by measuring the amounts of each, they can determine how long it has been since the radioisotope was pure. Some radioisotopes turn into other elements very quickly; others take many, many years. When working with very old rocks, geologists look for an element called uranium, which slowly turns into lead over billions of years. By measuring the uranium and lead in these rocks, geologists know that the oldest rocks on earth are about 4.4 billion years old.
Wendy: We assume that all of the planets formed at the same time that the solar system formed. (Pluto is a possible exception.) We base the age of the earth on the age of meteors and the moon that formed at the same time as the solar system and upon our oldest rocks on earth. We can date the rocks and meteorites by radiometric dating. Some of the minerals in the rocks contain radioactive elements, and over time, those radioactive elements decompose into different elements. By seeing how much has decomposed and knowing the rate of decomposition, we can figure out that the moon rocks and meteorites are 4.55 billion years old. The oldest rock that we found on earth is 4.4 billion years old. So we assume that all the planets of our solar system are 4.55 billion years old. However, now we know that there are planets around other suns, and we have no way of knowing their age (yet)!
Q: Are we the only planet with gravity? If we are, why?
Tom: All objects have gravity—even you. Gravity is a force of attraction exerted between two objects. If you have only one object, there would be no detectable gravity. However, any two objects that are close enough together will exert a gravitational force on each other. The strength of the force depends on how big the two objects are and how close together they are. However, gravity is a fairly weak force compared to other forces scientists are aware of, so it takes a very large object like a moon, planet, or star to generate a gravitational force strong enough for you to feel. It is gravity that keeps the moon in orbit around the earth, and the earth in orbit around the sun.
Wendy: Every planet has gravity. In fact, everything with mass has gravity, even you! The more mass a planet has (like Jupiter), the more gravity it has.
Q: How hot is lava on earth?
Tom: Lava is melted rock, and rock has to get very hot in order to melt. However, there are different types of lava, each of which can exist at different temperatures. Bright red liquid lava that you might see spurting out of a volcano is the hottest, over 1,200 degrees Celsius. Other types of lava are darker and thicker, and might be around 700 to 900 degrees. The behavior and melting temperature of lava is determined by its chemical composition. Hot, runny lava is high in iron and magnesium, while thicker, chunkier lava is high in silica and aluminum.
Wendy: The temperature of lava can depend on the kind of lava. The lava of Hawaii that creates the black rock called basalt, can be over 1,000 degrees Celsius, while the kind of magma that creates granite, an important rock of the earth’s crust can be about 800 degrees Celsius. You don’t get to see that kind of magma very often, because instead of just flowing down the side of a volcano, it tends to erupt violently, like at Yellowstone.
Q: Is the moon really just a part of the earth, or is it separate?
Tom: The moon is not physically part of the earth. However, some scientists think it might once have been. There are several theories about how the moon formed. Some scientists think it was a very small planet that was captured by the earth’s gravity long ago. Others think it formed at the same time as the earth, from the same cloud of gas and dust. However, the most popular theory today is that the early earth was struck by another planet soon after it formed, and from that, a large mass of rock was thrown into orbit around the earth. That mass of rock eventually formed into the moon. So in a way, the moon may be a part of the earth that got knocked loose.
Wendy: The most accepted theory about the formation of the moon states that early earth was hit by a planet the size of Mars. This ripped a big chunk of the earth, which formed the moon.

Q&A with USC Professor Werner Dappen about dwarf planet Pluto
BY RUBY
Q: How cold is Pluto?
A: The average surface temperature on Pluto is 44 Kelvin (-229 Celsius or -380 Fahrenheit). For more, see www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/pluto/temperature-of-pluto
Q: Is Pluto dusty?
A: No, we do not think so. Rather, we imagine the surface consists of frozen methane (which is a gas down here!), and so instead of ‘dusty,’ ‘icy’ is the better comparison, even if it is not water ice.
Q: Can people live on Pluto? If not, why?
A: Well, try to live at -380F … (of course, if you bring a full space habitat, with heating and air and water, sure, but I would not call it ‘live.’ Similarly, can I ‘live’ on the Moon? Normal speaking here implies a ‘no,’ even if we can build lunar bases, etc.
Q: How long would it take me to get to Pluto?
A: With current rocket technology, the trip can be done in four to 10 years, depending on if you are willing to burn more fuel to get less payload there or not. A NASA spacecraft—New Horizons—is actually on the way. Departed 2006 and arriving 2015.
Q: What is the surface like?
A: As said above, icy (but with frozen methane, not water).
Q: How many asteroids a year land on Pluto?
A: I would not speak of ‘landing.’ Next time an asteroid hits the earth and kills half of the human population (can happen every 100 million years or so), I would speak of an impact, not landing. But to your question, I have no clue (and depends on how small the asteroids are—dust grains? In that case, of course, many impacts. But if bigger chunks are meant (city size or larger), I do not know about the asteroid population there, and nobody knows, because out there, they are too small to be seen from here.
Q: Is Pluto a planet? If not, what is it?
A: On Aug. 24, 2006, the International Astronomical Union decided on a new definition of “planet,” which does not include Pluto. Pluto is now classified as a “dwarf planet” (or “Kuiper Belt object”). This renaming makes sense, because we believe there are many Pluto-class objects out there, and to be consistent, that would hike up the number of planets; demoting Pluto has prevented this. But we love its name, its history. For more, visit nineplanets.org/pluto.html