I missed the first edition of this show… did anyone watch it? I guess it must not have been so horrible if there is a second edition… and what exactly is SOAPnet?

Open casting calls are being held in New York and Los Angeles for the second edition of Soapnet’s reality series “I Wanna Be a Soap Star,” hosted by Cameron Mathison. The show seeks 12 contestants to live on an actual Soap set while competing for a contract role on ABC’s “All My Children.”

Los Angeles open casting is Saturday, March 5th 2005

New York open casting is Saturday, March 12th 2005

Applicants MUST pre-register at: http://www.iwannabeasoapstar.com/

I know this news is going to be horrible for a hell of a lot of people who live in North Hollywood and work south of the hills, but Laurel Canyon between Mullholland and Hollywood Blvd has been closed because of some sliding hillsides. Actually, that’s pretty bad news for a lot of people who live in Hollywood hills too. I’m not surprised at all, over here in Silver Lake it’s hard to drive down a street without a lane being blocked off with orange cones and half of a hillside spilling out over the sidewalk. There’s slippage on Glendale Blvd north and south of Silver Lake Blvd, and on the Silver Lake Blvd to 101 on ramp - but these are two lane roads becoming one - Laurel Canyon is a whole other story. That’s a major artery for a lot of people and this is going to cause some crazy traffic and delays until things are back in order. Ouch.

UPDATE: Good News - One lane has been reopened! Bad News - Mud slide threat could last for months!

I got an e-mail today from our friendly neighborhood public radio station, KCRW, informing me that starting March 1, many KCRW broadcasts will be available as podcasts. This is good news for me, since I don’t commute anymore, which leads to me almost exclusively listening to MP3s instead of radio. And since I fly to some other city almost every week, I miss a lot of interesting local programming. Now I can just download broadcasts from KCRW and listen to them whenever I want. Neat. Next week, I’ll be listening to Left, Right, and Center somewhere over the Oklahoma panhandle.

Update: Would readers be interested in having podcasts available for download from blogging.la? We all have a bunch of stuff to say that may or may not be better suited for audio than text. Interested? Let us know in the comments!

Tonight. El Ten Eleven. Viper Room. It’s Indie-rific, and a Check One…Two joint.

(Thx to Music for Robots for the reminder.)

Need another reason not to vote for Major Hahn? I saw this sign on my way to the dog park this afternoon. The website for Hahn Sucks is put together by Stop the Killing and addresses the various concerns regarding our local humane society and the need to implement knowledge about common practices and ways to prevent unnecessary killing.

Why are we picking on Mayor Hahn? What’s he have to do with Los Angeles Animal (dis)Services?

Well, he’s an important player in our current campaign first and foremost
because he’s the only one who can appoint a general manager and an    
LAAS board with the vision, competence and skills needed to stop the
killing. He appointed the former GM, Jerry Greenwalt, as a political favor. Then he appointed a midlevel bureaucrat to replace Greenwalt
who knows nothing about implementing commonsense policies that will
stop the killing. Now he needs to do the smart and moral thing and
appoint a humane, progressive, and visionary manager; someone who
         can take the "cesspool" that is our current city shelter system and bring it into the 21st Century and make it something Angelinos can be proud of instead of stigmatized, humiliated and embarrassed
by…

….The promise by Mayor Hahn (at a media press conference after ADL-LA began our campaign) to make LA "no kill" by 2008, turned out to be a lie perpetrated on the residents of LA in order for Hahn to be re-elected and
Greenwalt to keep his 128 thousand dollar a year job. Their scam has now been coined the "no one will know kill"
  policy. This inhumane temperament testing scam would cost residents of LA over one million dollars per year and would not reduce
one bit the horrific killing going on each and every day inside
our city shelters. All the cats and dogs, puppies and kittens
             they would kill would be deemed "unadoptable" so that they would never be counted, and therefore the numbers of those
killed would appear to go down.

Solutions for a better system are on this site and really include some no-brainers. It makes you wonder why these ideas aren’t being realized and how detached people are from the reality of over-breeding. After becoming a dog owner, I’ve become more aware of the responsibility we have to take care of discarded dogs at the hands of irresponsible breeders and owners. I have been shocked at the number of people who have been put-off by the fact that my boys are neutered. I always thought that’s what everyone did but apparently not. All of this just breaks my heart because, if I could, I’d take in every unwanted animal out there. It really sounds silly but these little guys don’t have voices and, because of that, we need to speak for them; especially when alternatives are at the ready.

I went to the ATM at work today (which is run by the credit union on the lot) and requested $100 for my walking around money for the month. As it spit out the cash, I noticed that I got only $40. I peered into the little cash dispenser slot and pulled out a few bills that seemed to be jammed in there and ended up with a total of $160!

Yee!

Of course I glanced around, looked over the machine to see if I missed an “out of order” sign and found nothing. Being the dutiful person that I am, I put my $100 into my wallet, took the extra bills over to the credit union and turned them in.

This wouldn’t happen, of course, if I wasn’t an avid reader of The Ethicist! Though, let’s face it, $60 is not much of an ethical dilemma if you’ve already got $100 in your pocket. Or maybe I’ve just got too vivid an imagination thinking that $60 belongs to some kid who just moved to LA and is crashing on someone’s livingroom floor and saving up for a place of his own so he can make it in Hollywood someday and this is every penny he’s got until his next payday.

Has anyone else ever found something valuable and turned it in? Good results or bad?

Any excuse to promote something that Mike Watt is involved with…

Monday February 28th:
First go see the FREE Los Angeles premiere of…
“High School Record”
a film directed by Ben Wolfinsohn (”Friends Forever: the Movie”)

…starring many of your favorite Smell kids…including members of Mika Miko, Wives, The Ride, My Little Red Toe, Lavender Diamond, Hello Astronaut Goodby Television, Wasabi and the Prostitutes, and Bellow & Howl…and featuring appearances by Mike Watt and J. Mitchell Simon

at L.A. Center Studios
450 South Bixel Street
(at 5th Street)Downtown L.A.

starting at 8:00 p.m.

…then join us after the film at 10:00 p.m. over at The Smell for a FREE after party featuring music from…

Dos (Mike Watt and Kira Roessler)
Becky Stark and Lavender Diamond
My Little Red To

and DJ Sam Velde

Official site is here.

It’s not a good day for some recently unemployed tv folk in Los Angeles today. According to E-Online, that ever-so-annoying morning show Good Day Live has been cancelled.

GOOD DAY TO YOU: Good Day Live canceled after three years, putting hosts Debbie Matenopoulos and Arthel Neville out of a job.

More as this story breaks, I’m sure.

Now that those pesky Oscars are over, you might want a cinematic change of pace. Lucky for you RES is having their monthly screening tonight featuring innovative music videos, short films, and motion graphics. You can also watch one of Michel Gondry’s award-winning pieces as an homage to his Oscar for that ultra “clever” movie he directed.

RES SCREENING SERIES
MONDAY FEB 28TH 8:00PM
Egyptian Theatre
6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood

The first 100 people through the door will receive a redeemable coupon for a free pair of Converse. (Doors open at 7:45pm)

This month our program will feature the works of RESFEST 2004 Audience Award winners Peter Cornwell (Ward 13), Michel Gondry (Walkie Talkie Man) and RESFEST International Favorites.

Plus new works from Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite), Olivier Gondry and
Airside.

New music videos including Shynola’s latest for Beck, Death Cab for Cutie,Lemon Jelly, The Postal Service and more…

AFTERWARDS: Meet the filmmakers in attendance at a special reception with swanky guest DJs

Tickets: $10

Purchase online while tickets last - INFO: Event

Anything fall off your bookshelves last night? Not here either, but just in case you were wondering, here’s the details of last night’s quake:

Magnitude: 2.9 - local magnitude (ML)

Time:
Saturday, February 26, 2005 at 9:08:03 PM (PST)
Sunday, February 27, 2005 at 5:08:03 (UTC)

Distance from:
Encino, CA - 1 km (1 miles) SE (136 degrees)
Sherman Oaks, CA - 4 km (2 miles) W (273 degrees)
Tarzana, CA - 4 km (3 miles) WSW (244 degrees)
Burbank, CA - 17 km (11 miles) W (259 degrees)
Los Angeles Civic Center, CA - 25 km (15 miles) WNW (296 degrees)

Coordinates: 34 deg. 9.1 min. N (34.152N), 118 deg. 29.4 min. W (118.490W)
Depth: 10.6 km (6.6 miles)