We’ve got our game face on and our gloves laced and up for the Winter edition of the LA Forum Newsletter as we defend the indefensible: AstroTurf, ugly buildings, and the drought. Dramatizing the indefensible, the gaudy, the reckless, the petulant and perverse, we promote a heuristic process of pot-stirring those allergic, irresolvable tensions—all their choreographies and contretemps. Artist and filmmaker James Benning finds illuminating inspiration in the expressivity and blaring sincerity of Theodore Kaczynski’s (aka The Unabomber) architectural design and writings. Rob Berry raises eyebrows in an arid landscape. Steven Chodoriwsky relays a clumsily unfolding bad idea. Guest editor Wendy Gilmartin builds a case for L.A.’s ugliness. Ian Besler is persuasive about fake nature. Barbara Stauffacher Solomon reminds us of the offenses of Good Design.