It’s almost like people don’t even try any more or like Hollywood, figured all the good ideas have been taken so let’s get on with the rehash.

Custom Hotel.

I’d love to go upside the head speak to the genius who came up with this name. I snapped the photo on Lincoln Blvd. because it amused me. I did a quick internet search to find that this is real. Yeah…I admit to being such an Angeleno that I am sure a good chunk of the stuff that makes me laugh are props for movies. And I’m still not 100% convinced that it’s not a prop. Why? I have several reasons:
Read more

2

Yesterday, Culver Boulevard in downtown Culver City was lined with hundreds of cars, none of them moving.  A typical traffic-filled Saturday?  Not quite.  The fifth annual Antique Car Show, ”Cruisin’ Back to the 50s,” took over downtown.  As advertised, retro ruled the day, with over 400 classic and custom cars of many varieties, live music, food, and car-related items for sale.

More writeup and photos after the jump

1

Its no secret that I got whacked earlier this week.  While my car is in the shop my rental car coverage kicks in and I get a vehicle while my beast is being repaired.  Sounds good? 

Not really, Enterprise Rent A Car is the default rental that my insurance arranges and takes direct bills from.  The only one so I become a captive customer.  Still not so bad, I guess.  The problem is they don’t rent any 6 passenger cars and at least once a day I need a CAR with that much room. Enterprise rents almost anything but a car.  Need any size or shape of a minivan, trucklet, suv, crossover-truck-station-wagon-thingy and they got you covered.

By the end of the first day I was fairly disenchanted with the ‘07 Dodge Durango.  Every pitch, roll and yaw was amplified with the height of the blasted thing.  Add in nearly a half tank of gas….7.2 gallons for 82 miles.  To say it sucked is putting it mildly. At 11.34MPG I put a nice down payment on an oil dictators summer home in the Alps.  A few observations after 3 days with one of those beasts…

• You don’t drive them, you aim and hope for the best.
• Elevated seating contrary to popular justification for owning one does not mean you see further down the road.  You see the black out tinted window of the SUV in front of you, not its bumper.
• The thing has blind spots bigger than a football field.  Short of sticking your head out the window you never know what is there.  Kinda like driving my Dad’s Class A RV. 
• Small car drivers are assholes, or are they cutting in front of SUV’s on purpose and slowing down to see what happens?  Really even a mid-size SUV like this weighs 2 1/2 tons and takes some effort to slow down. 
• super strong quads and a healthy back are needed for climbing into the beast, I can’t imagine what a lift kit would be like for ingress/egress with any sort of dignity.

At least Enterprise listened to my concerns and got me into one of those crossover-truck-station-wagon-thingies, (Mazda CX9) Friday night.  Ride is still rougher than I prefer but at least it should get better mpg.  They have promised me a car on Monday.  I hope they come through. 

5

In more LA cycling news, last night was the Midnight Ridazz ‘Jedi Mind Trick’ ride, here’s a few pics:

Read more

0

Last month a group of cyclists calling themselves The Crimanimalz took to the freeways in a daring demonstration showing exactly how inefficient driving a car in Los Angeles can be sometimes. They rode their bikes on the freeway. I said then that this move was equal parts stupid and awesome, and stick by that. Yesterday, they did it again…

And there’s also now an entry on the ibikeyou wiki documenting this, what now seems to be reoccurring, display of fed-up-ness. Also as can be seen in this thread on Midnight Ridazz, it seems regular bikes were joined by roller bladers a one incredibly tall bike. Possibly with some kind of head mounted camera (that footage does not seem to have been released yet).

A few unconfirmed rumors, speculation, and bold faced lies:

• While the first ride had around 12 people, this ride may have more than doubled and been closer to 30.
• This ride may have been attended by Superman and Han Solo.
• People in cars on the freeway may have been seen cheering the riders on and taking phone cam phictures.
• A darring run from the police might have been involved.
• It’s been suggested that there were over 7 cameras filming video of this ride, footage from which may or may not be edited together and released.

Shocking events for sure, what will happen next time?

Pic by alexbcthompson full set here. UPDATE! A few more pics and a brand new video after the jump. Read more

11

My Mother’s Days suck. This is because we have to drive down to OC to see my mother-in-law. Believe me when I say that’s the last thing I want to do on a day that supposed to be honoring me. Last year, I stayed home and sat in my pool all day long and drank beer. Now that was a Mother’s Day…one I hope to duplicate tomorrow. But the main reason Mother’s Day, in general, tend to suck is the mind-numbing boringness of it all: You get mom some jewelry or some putrid smelling body wash gift basket, grab a card and some flowers then go for a visit. Then everyone goes out to dinner and has a wonderfully tense time. After your escape, you go out to drinks with your friends and everyone bitches about their Mother’s Day adventures like it was different from everyone else’s.

Why not make it different? Here’s a few different things you can do:

The Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden is opening the Queen Anne Cottage to the public for Mother’s Day.
301 North Baldwin Avenue, Arcadia, CA, 91007.
9:00 am - 5:00 pm; admission closes at 4:30 pm.
Arboretum members are admitted free. Admission is $7 for adults, $5 for seniors (62 and over), $5 for students with ID,and $2.50 for children 5- 12. Children under 5 are admitted free.
Parking is free.

Hornblower Yacht Cruises offer Mother’s Day Brunch and Dinner cruises out Marina del Rey. You can book online or over the phone.

Mariachi Vargas De Tecalitlán is playing at the Million Dollar Theatre.  If you haven’t seen them, I highly suggest you get over there to check it out.  They are simply awesome.

MARIACHI VARGAS DE TECALITLÁN is a Mariachi group that was founded in Tecalitlán, Jalisco (Mexico) by Gaspar Vargas in 1898. In 1928, his son Silvestre Vargas took over control of the group. Over time, the group has recorded albums, starred in over 200 movies, and performed all over the world.

Isamu Nakashio is playing a special concert at the Nixon Library.  I know that that could be Orange County, but Nakashio is a brilliant classical guitarist and well worth the drive.  2 p.m. Sunday, doors open at 1:30 p.m., 18001 Yorba Linda Blvd., Yorba Linda, free, 714-993-5075.

3

 ”Wheat Field and Cypress” a Van Gogh masterpiece is the first in a series of murals to be painted in Monrovia.  The project is being tentatively funded by the Monrovia Endowment for the Arts with talent provided by the Monrovia Association of Fine Arts (MAFA).   This particular mural is located on the side of the Kids Art Studio and was championed by owner Betsy Thurmond and painted by local artists. 

The mural is located at 128 E Lemon Avenue in Monrovia (1/2 block east of Myrtle) in the heart of Old Town Monrovia.  The grand unveiling and ribbon cutting will take place later this month in conjunction with MAFA’s Art Walk celebrating art produced by the local school children.

The mural assembly was done in just one day, with only fine detail work left.  According to Besty “I honestly thought this would take a week or longer and the first day to just get it sketched out.  I was amazed once we got going it just flowed and it was done before the end of the day”.  The reaction has been positive and many Old Town Merchants like Andrea Robles owner  Scoops  just two doors down from the mural, have said “This is what we need to generate excitement in town.”  According to Besty several merchants visited her during the painting and asked how can they get their own mural.

To get to bigger pictures of “Wheat Fields and Cypress” and a bit more history on the project you need to make the jump. Read more

1

USC’s Interactive Media division sounds fascinating, and I’m sure that this weekend’s exhibit of graduate thesis projects will be as well. As the school describes it, “these eleven unique projects are an eclectic mix of new explorations in interactive media featuring a very wide range of play scenarios and themes. These projects promise to move you, entertain you and make you think.” There are a few that sound especially interesting to me, like Mike Brazil’s “RagnaRøkk:”

RagnaRøkk is an experiment in trying multiple ways of combining music and traditional gameplay. The player uses a Guitar Hero controller to navigate through the gamespace, fight enemies, cast spells, and solve puzzles. Throughout the game, the actions of the player have musical repercussions, serving to pull the player deeper into the experience.

And my friend Marc Tuters’s “S(t)imulation:”

S(t)imulation is the practice component of a thesis that explores philosophies of consciousness within the electronic arts. A site specific installation, the piece centers around a 12-foot mural painted in a surrealist/cubist style. Based on the realtime input of the viewers contemplation, a scale image of the mural is processed and projected back onto the painting’s surface, augmenting it with light to reveal its multiple dimensions.

The exhibition also features projects from Paul Bellezza, Jorge Mora Fernandez, Scott Gillies, Matt Korba, Anthony Ko, Victoria Moran, Garrett Rodrigue, Mike Stein and Jesse Vigil.

MFA Thesis Exhibition
May 10-15, 2008 | 12-8 PM (Opening Reception, Saturday, May 10, 2008 | 5-9 PM)
555 W 23rd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90007

1

I try to refrain from being too baldly self-promotional up in this joint, but I’ve organized a huge group designer’s garage sale that I think is going to be so much fun I’m driven to break my own rule. My friends at Top Design have made the switch to being a “virtual studio,” meaning they’ve got an entire design studio’s worth of goods to unload. In the interest of turning everything into a party, I’ve hooked them up with a bunch of friends and associates for a huge group sale that’s going down tomorrow. Goodies up for grabs include cool furniture, book cases, design books, CD’s, printers, kitchen supplies and desks. Also on hand will be fine folks from The Quiet Life, Beautiful/Decay, Foundation Projects, T/E/X/T and more selling clothing samples, zines, books and prints. If you’ve been looking for a gently used ruler or some kind of fancy vase, you’re probably never going to find a better place to look.

Saturday, May 10, 2008
11:00 AM - 3:00 PM

Top Design
11108 Riverside Drive
North Hollywood, California 91602

0

Remember way back on May 8th when I said that Metro should use Twitter to tell us what’s going on with stuff, like train delays and freeway accidents? They - or someone posing as they - just tweeted this morning at metrolosangeles!

Complain about gas prices and traffic to Metro Board Chair Pam O’Connor at her next live internet chat at noon May 21 at metro.net/chat.

That’s one small tweet for man, one giant tweet for Metro!

1

“Shooting on a 300 Foot construction crane at the corner of Hollywood & Vine.” -Dave Malkoff, used under Creative Commons

• Ed Padgett reports that a Baldwin Park man attacked an opossum and lost.
• A proposed preferential parking district around Bronson Canyon threatens the quality of life for apartment rents and customer traffic for local businesses. CurbedLA blames greedy homeowners - the greedy homeowners blame Brad Pitt and Angeline Jolie - I blame the paparazzi.
• Malingering went to the Dodgers game and, yes, she was laughing at your hair.
• The Slack Mistress has launched Antisocial Networking, “a little bit of Nerdvana: a place to ask questions and wax poetic about the politics of dating and relating in a social networking world.”
• Blog Downtown asks why a temporary transformer has been blocking traffic for weeks, and warns you to be careful not to drive into oncoming traffic along Santa Fe.

4

While I make it a rule to avoid movies with the word “wacky” in their tagline, tomorrow I am compelled to make an exception. I am too much of a geek to resist the idea of a movie accompanied by a scavenger hunt on Hollywood Boulevard organized by the Egyptian Theatre. That’s right, the Egyptian is screening purported “cult classic”  Midnight Madness, a film I confess I have never actually heard of, but hey, I hardly have my finger on the pop culture pulse. (MM is, apparently, Michael J. Fox’s first feature film, not that that’s much of a draw for some of us.)  The movie centers around a scavenger hunt, and the Egyptian and The Go Game have combined forces to organize an afternoon scavenger hunt along the boulevard. Teams of eight solve clues, take pictures, and have a generally wacky time. After a dinner break, winners are determined by an applause-o-meter and then the film screens. I’ve got my ticket. You can get yours through Fandango. Leave a comment if you think you might show up. Perhaps we can join forces.

1

They were mothers of men and women who gave their lives for their country. Sons. Daughters. Children.

They knew they would never have another Mother’s Day phone call, so that you would always have the freedom to make yours.

They marched with pride in the Armistice Day Parade in Downtown Los Angeles. The year was 1945.

Photo from the Los Angeles Public Library

4

Our team of coding lolcats has been hard at work this week and after taunting them with many cheeseburgers we have two fancy new features to show off. Check out the bar just up top there - previously you’ve only been able to see the most recent post followed by the second most recently followed by the third and so on. Now you can see them that way, or by clicking one of the other tabs you can also see them sorted by what has the most active discussions going on in the comments right now, as well as what our fancy internal magic has determined to be the most popular. I can’t tell you exactly how we figure it out, but I also can’t tell you that it’s not 100% based on us throwing darts at our laptop screens or a triple blind survey of kids hanging out at Starbucks on Melrose. Enjoy!

0

Over at Losanjealous, Ryan informs us that there are still tickets available for the Hall and Oates shows at The Troubadour on the 22nd and 23rd of this month. You’re probably saying to yourself: “The most popular pop rock duo of all time is playing the Troubadour for the first time in 35 years and tickets are still available? Has the world gone mad?”

Fear not, the world is no crazier than it was before you read that last paragraph, in fact the world may be saner than you think and the availability of Hall and Oates tickets may be proof that we haven’t all gone mad. You see, the reason the show hasn’t sold out has everything to do with common sense: A tickets will cost you $200! You read that correctly… two hundred American dollars. That’s a lot of dollars for a band whose last number one hit was in 1984 (that hit was, appropriately enough, Out of Touch).

We should all feel very proud of this show of fiscal common sense.

*Please feel free to use the comments to suggest the appropriate Hall and Oates lyric to use as the title of this post. The best suggestion will win the prize of my respect and admiration.  Also, this post should not be taken as a knock on Hall and Oates, who I like a lot and believe deserve a better critical reputation than they have. I just think that $200 bucks is way too much to see them at The Troubadour; obviously most people agree.

14