A new kind of nightcrawler

Good morning. It’s Monday. Expect blue skies, and a perfect June day with a high of 78.

The closest thing Los Angeles has to Batman is a 26-year-old content creator who goes by the name Alex Choi. He spends his nights speeding through the dark in a luxury car to the scene of countless major accidents — sometimes arriving even before police or paramedics.

But Choi is a very Los Angeles version of the Caped Crusader. He doesn’t actually catch criminals or fight villains: Instead, he livestreams the chaos he finds on the streets. He’s racked up more than 2 million followers on his Instagram account in the process.

And – perhaps the biggest difference of all — Choi is not so much donating his services to the streets as harvesting their carnage for profit. Some industry experts estimate that Choi could be making millions of dollars every month off his Youtube and Instagram content.

“He’s a social media genius. I mean, he just absolutely nails every single video,” said Howard Raishbrook, a longtime news videographer and producer. “ He's a pure businessman. He knows exactly what he's doing. Very successful at it.” In 2014, Raishbrook served as a consultant on Nightcrawler, the Jake Gyllenhaal-led crime thriller about freelance news producers and videographers who make a living selling crime scene and traffic accident footage to local television news.

L.A. Material contributor Jennifer Swann hit darkened streets and the darkest corners of YouTube to explore the phenomenon of a nightcrawler for Gen Z.

MONDAY: Today is the last day before Election Day (or, really, the end of election season, for the primary at least). All 646 vote centers across L.A. County will be open. 

TUESDAY: Tuesday is Election Day, or the final day of voting. Expect the first tranche of L.A. County results to roll in between 8:30 p.m. and 8:45 p.m. 

L.A. Material members can join us at 9 p.m. for an election night Zoom hosted by Julia Turner, Julia Wick and Matt Hamilton. We’ll be taking you through the early election night returns, explaining the contours of local races and answering your questions.

Also Tuesday: For those looking for some strong election night counter-programming, American Cinematheque will host a screening of The Godfather Part II, with an Al Pacino Q&A.  

FRIDAY: West Hollywood Pride weekend officially kicks off Friday with the OUTLOUD music festival.

SATURDAY: It’s a big day for festivals. Expect crowds and great lumpia at the Philippine Independence Day Foundation celebration in Carson. For costumes, crafts and rides, head down to Lakeview Terrace for the two-day California Watermelon Festival. The Autry Museum also hosts its annual American Indian Arts Marketplace on Saturday and Sunday with more than 100 Native contemporary and traditional artists and artisans. 

SUNDAY: The WeHo Pride Parade will cruise down Santa Monica Boulevard.

HAVEN’T VOTED YET? If you’re still making up your mind about any of the races on the ballot, the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at Cal State LA has a useful guide to voters’ guides, with links to election information from news outlets and advocacy groups alike. 

LION’S DEN: Wildlife officials mobilized Friday to tranquilize and capture a mountain lion spotted in an unlikely Santa Monica backyard just blocks from a busy shopping thoroughfare. (The creature will be assessed with the intent of releasing it into the nearby mountains.) The L.A. Times spoke with a 12-year-old resident of the home where the animal was first found: “It’s so unlikely for a mountain lion to be, like, near Montana, so it was really, really cool.”

AI COURT CLERKS: CalMatters reports that two California courts are “testing an AI tool that can draft orders and produce research memos.” The tool is from a company called Learned Hand, which was founded by a Palantir vet. It’s being used for civil cases so far.

MEGAHITS THAT START ONLINE: The WSJ’s Ben Fritz explains why the knockout ($81M!) box office numbers for “Backrooms,” a horror film from A24 that was directed by a now-20-year-old and based on an online meme, is “melting brains in the offices of studio executives.”

NEW HIRE: CBS news chief Bari Weiss has named tech journalist Nick Bilton the new executive producer of “60 Minutes.” Bilton, who has been living in Los Angeles, will move to New York for the job. Media commentator Rusty Foster offered a tart take on Bilton’s career thus far, both in journalism and in Hollywood.

For today’s peek inside our subscriber-only Discord server, an Eagle Rock restaurant discovery.

AND FINALLY… A poem to pair with your morning coffee: “Militia” by Derek Walcott.

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