The NYTimes featured a story about web project called Graffiti Archeology. Notably the project shows the evolution of the graffiti buildup on the Belmont Tunnel. I was thinking about that when I passed by this mural on the 110 between the 10 and 101. When I moved to Los Angeles almost 13 years ago it was a vibrantly colored mural. Today, it’s all but obscured. So some websearching has revealed part of its past.

Here’s last week:

Here’s an undated one from laphotos.com:

Now I’m interested in amassing photos of all the earlier versions of the mural and graffiti. Anyone have any photos they’d like to point me to? Or do you have documentation of other murals or walls and their layers of grafitti? If you want to contribute to the official Graffiti Archeology project, there’s a flickr group.

The granny porn audio clips that’ve recently been played on The Howard Stern Show reminded me that a friend of mine, who moonlights as a stripper in the Los Angeles area, told me that she recently met a male customer who was unbelievably good-looking.

He was definitely the male model type, dressed to the proverbial nines, looking like he came straight out of the pages of GQ Magazine.

But he was absolutely miserable.

You see, he worked as a male escort. And his clients? Seniors!

Sounds like a movie just waiting to be made!

(BTW, he offered his services to my friend, free of charge, but she declined.)

Am I seeing this right? Is there an AD on this SBC Bill? What the crap? Not only do they want me to send them money, but they are getting paid to tell me to send them money? What service are these bills providing me that I should tolerate an ad there? Am I getting a cut on my bill for looking at it? WTF??

Next Saturday (July 9) I will be speaking on my first panel discussion not dealing with the new face of art criticism but rather about something I very much do - operating a gallery in Los Angeles…continue reading

The Animal Rights Conference takes place this July 7-11 at the Westin LAX. Usually, though I’ve been a vegan for nearly eight years, I shy away from this “hey, look at us, we’re for animal rights” type deals. I’m much more of an under the radar type gal. However, this conference seems pretty informative with presenters, workshops, and exhibitor’s booths including the wonderful Playfood. I won’t pretend - this is very much geared towards people already in the animal rights movement however it looks like a good way to continue improving on your animal friendly lifestyle (whatever that may mean to you) or it may help you in trying to change some things.

The four-day program features nearly 90 presenters from more than 50 organizations representing every faction of our movement. They appear in eight Plenary Sessions, 50 Workshops, 30 Campaign Reports, and 7 Rap Sessions. Other elements include Exhibits, Videos, Newcomer Orientation, Group Workouts, Strategy Meetings, Welcome and Networking Receptions, Awards Banquet, and entertainment by AR performers.

The program for the Animal Rights Conference will begin on Thursday, July 7, at 4pm with the Welcome Reception, followed by the Opening Plenary at 7:30pm. It will close on Sunday, July 10, with the Awards Banquet and Closing Reception ending at 10pm. For more information about the program and the presenters visit their website.

After I saw the photo Sean posted with his councilman, Eric Garcetti, I started to get a little curious about my own city council representative. I live in Palms, which means that Jack Weiss is my councilman.

I’m ashamed to admit that I don’t know too much about what he’s doing, especially considering my interest in government and policy issues (but that’s more on a state level and related to education). I perused his site and found some great old photos of District 5.

The photo to the right was not dated, but I assume it’s about the same time as some of the other Westwood photos (late ’30s and early ’40s). I’ve been in Westwood daily for the last 7 years or so and have never seen a “free parking” sign. In fact, starting July 1, daily parking at UCLA will be $8. Damn. When I started in ‘98 parking was $5. I’m sure most college students are more concerned with the rapid increase in tuition and housing costs than parking.

I’d take advantage of the Big Blue Bus but I’m much too spoiled by having my own car to seriously consider relying on public transportation like some people.

Today’s the last day of the 2004-05 rain season, and according to the front page story in today’s Times, barring any unexpected deluge before midnight, L.A. is set to come up 0.93 inches short of breaking the 38.18-inch precipitation record that’s stood since the 1883-84 season.

People are apparently bummed by this. Eric Malnic’s article even quotes a Jet Propulsion Lab meteorologist as saying “Second place is for losers, and nobody wants to be a loser.”

I’m thinking that weatherman’s actually pissed because the killing he thought he was going to make with all those “I Predicted the Wettest L.A. Rainy Seaons Ever And All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt” shirts he was set to sell on Cafepress just went down the drain.

Oh well, tomorrow another season begins.

I know this is as last minute as it gets, but according to ArcLight’s website there are still some tickets left for the 8:00 PM special presentation of David Lynch’s Blue Velvet. I’m sure that news is a really big deal to some people. Enjoy!

Waaaaaay back in January I was talking about plans for public wi-fi in West Hollywood and how cool that was but I haven’t heard much about it since and other parts of the city have beaten them to the punch. Well the LA Independent is reporting that a $45,000 contract for the gig has finally been awarded a Chatsworth company called PCC Network Solutions (shortened from Pacific Cost Cabling because “cable” is so 90’s) and should be completed sometime this fall.

“This is a win-win idea and continues the West Hollywood vision of having technology bring us together,” said West Hollywood Mayor Abbe Land. “We encourage feedback so we can quickly assess the pilot project and adapt it for the whole City.”

For you wireless nerds you should be happy to know they are using MetroMesh routers from Tropos Networks and the whole system should be pretty seamless and scaleable should other parts of the city feel the need to share the wi-fi love. Wouldn’t that be awesome?

I’ve been remiss in my self-appointed duties as a proud and shameless bullhorn for the inimitable Bicycle Kitchen and some of their BikeSummer 2005 events, so when this invite to roll ‘n rock bounced into my inbox this afternoon I just had to pick up the slack and sound off:

Title: Ride to the Ditty Bops Concert
Date: Thursday, June 30, 2005
Time: 9 p.m.
Location: Ride starts at The Bicycle Kitchen located at 706 Heliotrope @ Melrose (2 blks west of Vermont).90029, Los Angeles and ends at Spaceland at 1717 Silver Lake Blvd in Silver Lake.
Summary: Bike ride from Bicycle Kitchen to Ditty Bops Concert at Spaceland. 50% of Ditty Bops proceeds benefit the Bicycle Kitchen non profit.
Details: Join The Ditty Bops for a bike ride to their Spaceland gig on Thursday June 30. Meet at at 9 p.m. at The Bicycle Kitchen. We depart from there at 9:30 pm sharp to ride to Spaceland for their show at Spaceland. Tix: $12; and 50% of proceeds will benefit The Bicycle Kitchen. This should be a relatively easy street ride. Bring your helmets and night lights if you have and why not dress snazzy.