• Michael AushenkerPatch Staff Verified Patch Staff Badge

  • Pacific Palisades, CA

<b>Profile photo by Bruce Hulse.</b>

<b>Basics:</b>

Michael.Aushenker&#64;Patch.com

310-699-7608

Follow the PaliPatch on Facebook and on Twitter at &#64;palipatch

<b>Hometown</b>: Canarsie, Brooklyn; West Hollywood.

<b>Birthday: </b>April 3

<b>Bio:</b> 

Michael Aushenker grew up in Canarsie, Brooklyn, at 650 E. 81<sup>st</sup> Street. At age 9, he moved with his family to West Hollywood, where he graduated from Fairfax High School (enrolled in the Fine Arts magnet) alongside Rami Jaffee, keyboardist of The Wallflowers and Foo Fighters, Infectious Grooves guitarist Adam Siegel, actor David Arquette, and Richard Carradine, key contributing writer to Pacific Palisades Patch and a writer for Westwood/Century City Patch.

While attending Fax City, Aushenker painted a cartoony cafeteria mural featuring four famous alumns––Mickey Rooney, Ricardo Montalban, Herb Alpert and David Janssen––among a <i>trompe l&#39;oeil</i> student food fight. The mural remains up at Fairfax High&#39;s cafeteria to this day.

After four glorious years studying painting and creative writing at Cornell University in gorgeous Ithaca, New York, Aushenker moved back home upon graduation and, in 1997, joined the staff of the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, largest ethnic community paper west of the Mississippi, run by founding editor-in-chief Gene Lichtenstein. In essence, the Jewish Journal became Aushenker&#39;s print journalism university.

His first major article was on children&#39;s book writer and gag cartoonist Syd Hoff (&#34;Danny and the Dinosaur&#34;). He became a staff writer (1997-2003) and covered the community and entertainment beats––interviewing such subjects as Sam Raimi, Bryan Singer,  Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft, Carl Reiner, Sarah Silverman, Jackie Mason and Don Rickles–– and created the paper&#39;s Circuit (high-society) column. He won a Rockower Award for outstanding feature writing during that time.

Aushenker wrote for the entertainment industry between 2003 and 2007. He and Carradine wrote unproduced urban comedies for Urban Entertainment and for Al Gough and Miles Millar, creators of <i>Smallville</i> and screenwriters of the <i>Spider-Man</i> and <i>Shanghai Noon</i> franchises and <i>I Am Number Four. </i>Aushenker also worked with The Exorcist star Linda Blair on her memoir project, and he contributed story ideas to the animated series <i>SpongeBob SquarePants</i> in 2004.

Aushenker returned to journalism in January 2008, as a staff writer for the <i>Palisadian-Post</i>, running its Lifestyle section and contributing and laying out its feature articles while supplying extensive articles and reportage for the Pacific Palisades paper&#39;s news, real estate, and business sections, and its monthly supplements.

Aushenker left the <i>Palisadian-Post</i> in July 2010. Without missing a beat, he was writing for <i>The Malibu Times</i> the following Thursday and he worked there as a contributing writer through December 2010. He also wrote for the online news site<i> Santa Monica Lookout News </i>during this period.

Parallel to his community journalism career, Aushenker has worked steadily as a humor cartoonist. He has contributed to <i>Heavy Metal</i> magazine and Fantagraphics&#39; <i>Duplex Planet</i>. The first of his Gumby&#39;s Gang series (Gumby Comics), <i>Gumby&#39;s Gang Starring Pokey</i> (featuring Art Clokey&#39;s classic animation character), was released in Nov. 2010, and he has also written scripts for <i>Bart Simpson</i> (Bongo).

His own humor comics include <i>Chipmunks &amp; Squirrels</i>, <i>Those Unstoppable Rogues</i>, <i>Greenblatt the Great!, </i>and the <i>El Gato, Crime Mangler</i> series. They can be found at CartoonFlophouse.com.

Since January 2007, with issue #20, Aushenker has also worked as a contributing writer to <i>Back Issue! </i>magazine, as well as an occasional contributor to<i> The Kirby Collector and Alter Ego </i>(all for TwoMorrows Publishing). He has also contributed to Top Shelf&#39;s <i>Comic Book Artist. </i>

When not helming the PaliPatch, Aushenker enjoys spending time with his girlfriend Laura and with his Calicos, Pippi and Fifi. He also loves cinema and music, reads comics and graphic novels, enjoys good ethnic restaurants and coffeehouses, and he even tries to get some exercise once in a while. He loves living in Pacific Palisades, where you can hike in Temescal Gateway Park and walk to downtown Santa Monica or ride by bike across Will Rogers State Beach.

<b>My Personal Journalistic Philosophy:</b>

Professional journalism requires that writers remain objective. Anyone with values and principles understands that this is not entirely humanly possible, but as journalists, we can present both sides to a subject.

That said, I do not believe that every article warrants the arbitrary negative factor to counter-balance the positive, as I find such tit-for-tat reporting just as artificial as writing up a puff piece. It&#39;s a case-by-case scenario, a judgment call...and here at Pacific Palisades Patch, I will try to bring balance to our articles while also recognizing that sometimes, a profile is just a profile and there is no need to manufacture controversy or sensationalize just to heighten drama that is not there.

Over the years, the most irksome comment I have heard from my peer writers is how bored they are working on a topic. During my <i>Jewish Journal</i> days, I coined a quote that I&#39;ve always lived by professionally: &#34;There are no boring stories, only boring writers.&#34;

Life is really what you make of it. You can choose to be jaded or you can find the wonder in something. If  you can&#39;t recognize the beauty and the small wonders in this world or you choose to view every single thing with cynicism, you should not be a writer.

That song gets old quick and it&#39;s an elixir for failure in the sphere of community reporting. My goal at PacificPalisades.Patch.com is to make sure that we feature no boring writers.

<b>My Political Beliefs</b>

While I work well in groups, I am never been 100 % comfortable in them. I am ultimately an outsider (&#34;I&#39;m a loner, Dotty. A rebel…&#34;), which has served me well in journalism. Conservative on some issues, liberal on others, and perhaps ultimately a centrist, I do not consider myself a member of any political party.

Moderation and balance is the key to life, in my opinion, and our politics are merely expressions of our personalities and reflections of our lifestyles. I am, by nature, turned off by arguments and screeds from the Left or from the Right that are absolute or extreme in one direction or the other because black and white POVs do not account for the shades of gray that too often shade an issue in reality. Just when you think you&#39;ve figured something out, life makes hypocrites of all of us.

<b>My Religion</b>

I &#39;m a proud cultural Jew who grew up in a Reform Jewish home. While I am not very religious, I enjoy the Jewish traditions and holidays, and I am proud of the disproportionate-to-our-numbers societal, academic, and cultural contributions of my people.

I never attended private school, and going to public schools while growing up became the foundation of how I&#39;ve lived my life. My closest friends have always been a diverse mix. My best and oldest friends hail from every background: Anglo/Italian, German/Irish, Jewish, Taiwanese, Mexican-American, Dominican Republic, African-American, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Guatemalan/Spanish, you name it. A true cross-section of America.

Intrinsic to Judaism are the acts of questioning, reflecting and analyzing, and of thinking beyond one&#39;s self to help others and to repair the world (<i>tikkun olam</i>). In essence, such values can be found in all religions, and they are crucial components to good community journalism, including the interactive mission and framework designed by Patch.com. And so, PacificPalisades.Patch.com will reflect all of this.

<b>Our Local Hot Button Issues</b>

As a community, our issues, of course, reflect much of what affects broader Los Angeles and America at large. Thankfully, gang warfare, homicides, and crime are remarkably low on our list of problems…at least directly. The effects of L.A.&#39;s societal ills touches our community in different ways, via our schools, the quality of our education, and the drug trade.

Graffiti and vandalism continues to be a nagging bête noire in the Palisades. Even when we do not experience them, the major problems must remain important to Palisadians, for L.A.&#39;s challenges will ultimately become our own if we don&#39;t stamp it out.

Directly, our biggest problems in recent years include the economy, as our businesses and storefronts struggle to stay afloat in this Great Recession; teens done in by speeding or driving while distracted by gadgets, and senseless accidents on PCH and on the margins of town; and a turnover of educators at PaliHi.

However, in Pacific Palisades, the positives outweigh the negatives and this community is resilient and steeped in tradition. Historically, when problems arise, Palisadians will rise to the occasion. And PacificPalisades.Patch.com will be there to cover it all.

Posting Activity

Pacific Palisades|News|

No One Here But Us Princesses!

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Not Quite L.A.'s Riviera...

The next &#34;Culture in the Canyon&#34; at Temescal Gateway Park on Feb. 15 will focus on the infamous Los Angeles River.

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House Fire on 700 Block of Kingman Ave. Thursday Morning

Firefighters battled flames in wooded residential section, south from Sunset Boulevard, that dead-ends into Riviera Country Club, site of next week&#39;s PGA tour.

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Mixin' It Up at American Legion Post #283!

An army of gals serving taquitos and meatballs, a crazy raffle goes down, and a nexus of lively veterans, local commerce and West L.A. businesspeople spices up the February Chamber of Commerce mixer.

Mixin' It Up at American Legion Post #283!
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It's Oscar Night at Malibu Stage Co.

&#34;A Night at the Oscars&#34; is a comedy telling the story of aging actors who are husband and wife and differ in their abilities to find work.

It's Oscar Night at Malibu Stage Co.
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The Art of Window Shopping

Making lemonade out of lemons, local school children have turned dormant storefronts on Swarthmore Avenue into ad-hoc art galleries.

The Art of Window Shopping
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Scene Around Town

Some shots I recently took around Pacific Palisades...

Scene Around Town
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Rains No Match for Freeway Overhaul

Recent stormy weather isn&#39;t hindering the 405 project, which aims to ease congestion on the heavily trafficked freeway.

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To Catch a Thief?

Palisadian makes plea, offers $200 reward for the safe return of her missing black leather planner, which was taken during a Jan. 21 visit to Cafe Vida.

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Just Shoot Me!

Crew films T-Mobile commercial outside of Scarlett's Cupcakes on Via de la Paz.

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