http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/26/us/california-today-snap-spectacles.html 2016-09-26 14:45:43 California Today: The Cool Spectacle of Snap’s Spectacles Monday: L.A. cool versus Silicon Valley geek, a sweet send-off for Vin Scully at Dodger Stadium, and a lemon festival that was light on lemons. === Good morning. Welcome to California Today, a Tell us about the Want to receive California Today by email? Let Over the weekend, Snap ( If the Spectacles unveiling was pure L.A. cool, it contrasted starkly with the Standing onstage at a conference in San Francisco, the Google founder Sergey Brin wore Glass, a camera-enabled metal band that covered one eye and looked like a “Star Trek” prop, while boasting about its life-changing potential. Where Glass wanted to be important, Spectacle claims it just wants to have fun. That gulf tells you a lot about why Snap’s founder Evan Spiegel has kept his company in Venice Beach, near the ocean and studio lots that have shaped popular culture for decades. The brand’s laid-back Southern California approach was first apparent in its messaging and media app Snapchat, where the messages quickly disappear. The videos are short and sweet and have become a hit with young people who are wary of how serious Facebook and Instagram have become with their permanent records of social media. Just as Snap outwardly eschews the more earnest Silicon Valley ethos — technology should change the world — it has also sidestepped the biggest mistakes made by Google Glass. Glass, which was shut down as a consumer product last year, didn’t show people when it was recording. Some techies didn’t care, but many found it a violation of privacy. Glass was priced at $1,500, making it a vanity gadget for elites. At $130, a pair of Spectacles is a With a $19 billion valuation, Snap is one of the world’s most highly valued tech start-ups. It is • The Dodgers • • • Apple and digital giants have developed potentially lifesaving technology to block • • Ten years after the governor signed a notable • A groundwater arms race has broken out in the San Joaquin Valley, where farmers are • The police arrested three people, including a 17-year-old girl, in connection with a • In a fraught election year, • Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation that requires sites like IMDb to • On Tuesday, Elon Musk, founder of the Hawthorne-based SpaceX, will • The fall film festival season revs up this week. Four are opening in Southern California: one • Oktoberfest is upon us. Among the places hosting festivals are • The three-day On Friday, readers weighed in on Proposition 67, which asks The lemon festival was a lemon. Please understand: We love Podunk. We were Maybe it was a light crop? There was lemon pie ($3 a slice), a stand where you could buy lemon-flavored beer, and, yes, lemonade. But that was about it, at least as far as lemony food and drink. Out of the 40-some tented booths dedicated to crafts and local businesses, only about five or six had anything to do with lemons (T-shirts, mostly). There were a couple of fun bands. “ A bowl, please. And ice tea — with lemon. — California Today goes live at 6 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: The California Today columnist, Mike McPhate, is a third-generation Californian — born outside Sacramento and raised in San Juan Capistrano. He lives in Davis. California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and attended U.C. Berkeley.