The Echo’s monthly Sunday early evening series, Grand Old Echo, continues tonight with alt-country rockers Dead Rock West headlining, preceded by Chris Shiflett (Foo Fighters,) and Rich McCulley. Hosted by Indie 103’s Chris Morris of Watusi Rodeo fame, start time is 5:30 PM.

Aside from the music, one nice thing about GOE is how bright daylight streams into the dark Echo Park club whenever someone opens the door to enter, creating a when-worlds-collide effect. Granted, the shortening autumn days will curb this sensory sideshow but I’m enjoying it while I can.

Grand Old Echo at The Echo, 5:30 PM today; 1822 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles 90026; FREE!

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Our friend Darleene at AAJA is helping to get the first ever team of bloggers to compete in the Annual AAJA Trivia Bowl… Team LA.Metblogs.com!

Hey, that’s us!

Trivia Bowl is an ultra-competitive, team quiz-style event that draws hundreds of people including journalists, lawyers, and other members of the Asian American community to go through 5 rounds of 20 trivia questions. Most of the questions, but not all, have some element of “current events” or “news” to it.

The five categories are:
1. Current Events
2. History & Geography
3. Arts & Entertainment
4. Science & Literature
5. Sports & “California Living”

Now normally, the competitors are journalists and lawyers (and also a high school decathlon team, too), but now the bloggers are getting in the fray.

We already have a team of 8 and are looking for 4 more people to round out our team!

Do you want to join our team and test your trivia chops with the best of them???

Start Time: Friday, October 17 at 6:00pm
End Time: Friday, October 17 at 10:00pm
Where: ABC7 Broadcast Center (Glendale)

Free food catered by Wahoo’s Fish Taco!

You must be: a reader of LA.Metblogs.com and be able to commit to arriving on time at the event.

To see more details: http://www.facebook.com/n/?event.php&eid=30105322035

If you’d like to be part of this historic team, please leave a comment or email me at jozjozjoz (aaaat) gmail (doot) com by Monday, October 13.

Photo courtesy: Darleeneisms

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One of the measures on the November ballot, Proposition 1A, calls for almost ten billion dollars in bonds to help fund a high speed train between LA and San Francisco. The total cost is estimated to be $40 billion. But according to a study by Philip Romero, the dean of economics at Cal State Los Angeles, the net effect of the project would be positive. How positive? The Daily News reports that Romero’s study found the rail project would reduce unemployment appreciably (by 1 to 2 percent) and increase the average yearly income for a family of four by $800. Is it too early in our depression economic downturn to think about a California Works Progress Administration? I don’t think so. But then, I’ve always been a little pink.

(Kevin Dooley’s picture of his O gauge model train used through a Creative Commons license.)

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Check out the bigotry ad currently running on LA Metblogs. Do we need the money that badly? Also, there’s a small Google ad for “Protect Marriage.”

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Travel brochure from the Mad Men scrapbook.

Don Draper and Peter Campbell are flying out from Madison Ave., New York on Sunday, representing the Sterling Cooper advertising agency at an aerospace convention. Ever since President Kennedy made that crazy promise to put a man on the moon before 1970, everyone has wanted a piece of the action.

Between wining and dining congressman on their abilities to help secure contracts, I’m sure those boys will fit in some fun time away from the wives.

Since the pair are sharp enough to have recently taken up Twittering, I don’t think its too presumptuous to think they’ll be looking here for suggestions on watering holes or restaurants they should patronize… of course, these places will need to exist in 1962, and they should probably be serving Canadian Club.

Of course, there’s Musso & Frank’s and the Formosa… any other joints this pair should visit?

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Pop quiz! Which is the more apt metaphor for our country’s tumultuous week?

A) A carnival of nightmares rolls into Anytown, USA and seduces the locals with devilish trickery.

B) A self-destructive captain drags his crew on a mission to hunt down a white whale, even if it means tracking the beast “round perdition’s flames.”

C) A nuclear test in the arctic awakens a terrifying beast from a prehistoric slumber and sends him on a rampage to Manhattan.

D) Metaphor, schmetaphor. Get to the point!

Alright, already. Tonight and tomorrow night at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, the American Cinematheque is presenting three films with screenplays written by L.A.’s beloved author Ray Bradbury. Tonight at 7:30 p.m. is Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) starring Jonathan Pryce and Jason Robards. Tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m. is a double bill of the John Huston-directed Moby Dick (1958) starring Gregory Peck, and The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953), featuring a stop-motion “rhedosaurus” by visual effects wizard Ray Harryhausen. Ray Bradbury himself will be on hand to introduce the films.

And if you need brushing up on the plot of Herman Melville’s masterpiece before seeing the movie, my favorite synopsis ever of Moby Dick can be found after the jump.

Photo: Film still from Moby Dick. Courtesy of the American Cinematheque.

Read more

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They gathered at the Trocadero to talk baseball. Not about the World Series between the New York Yankees and the Cincinnati Reds. But, about a charity game at Wrigley Field, between Hollywood’s Comedians and Leading Men.

They were high society. The year was 1939.

Photo from the Los Angeles Public Library

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Check it out - Featured Artist: FRANK ZGONC!

You may not know it, but that’s our very own Frazgo - too shy to toot his own horn, but me? I’m all about shameless promotion, so here’s the dirt on the 45th Annual MOFO MAFA “Celebrate the Arts” festival, hosted by the Monrovia Association of Fine Arts.

Wanna know more?
Read more

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Propaganda definition from Wikipedia:

Propaganda is a concerted set of messages aimed at influencing the opinions or behaviors of large numbers of people. As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense presents information in order to influence its audience. Propaganda often presents facts selectively (thus lying by omission) to encourage a particular synthesis, or gives loaded messages in order to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of the cognitive narrative of the subject in the target audience to further a political agenda.

As a recent graduate of Pepperdine’s business school, I still get email and other correspondence from the university and its alumni program. So when I received an email from Pepperdine’s PR department on October 2 with the subject line: Clarification re: Proposition 8 Ad, I was curious. The email said it was getting calls about a Pepperdine professor who was featured in an Proposition 8 TV ad.

What did Pepperdine have to do with a Prop 8 ad and was it for or against Prop 8?

If the ad was for Prop 8 (ban gay marriage), then undoubtedly alumni were calling to complain (Pepperdine could lose its tax-exempt status for taking sides in politics like this). OR had a Pepperdine professor advocated against Prop 8 (keep gay marriage), and now the conservative supporters of this Christian university called to voice their objections? I figured the former was more likely, but the latter might have been possible, as well.

(More after the jump)
Read more

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The New York Times just had a piece explaining that the word “maverick” originated from one Samuel Augustus Maverick, who did not brand his cattle. Sam’s name came to stand for anyone who refuses to be branded, metaphorically speaking.

In that vein, today I had to call the Voter Records Correspondence Unit to ask them about reregistering at my new address because I wasn’t sure what party affiliation I had given when I registered here originally and I needed that information to fill out the form. That conversation after the break. Read more

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I have to admit I am totally loving the trend of public buildings turning their blank walls into gallery’s.  It brings life to otherwise drab bureaucratic edifices.  It gives artists a chance to share their view of the world with others.  

LA County’s Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration is turning a portion of its 3rd floor into a gallery.  The first installation takes place on 10/10 and will be open to the public for viewing at 9AM.  The idea came about when Stephen Coleman asked the county if he could start up a gallery there.  The answer was yes, and from there many people in the LA County offices put things in motion to make it happen.

The first exhibit will include images from Stephen’s portfolio of LA Metro and County landscapes and neighborhoods.  The flier he sent me is included here and does get bigger with a click to give you an even better idea as to the variety of images of LA he has to share.

DETAILS: 9AM October 10. 2008.

 Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, 3rd floor, 500 W Temple Street, Los Angeles 90012.  

Google map HERE.

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Equality California and Love Honor Cherish are having a fund-raiser this Sunday October 12th aimed at defeating the anti-gay Proposition 8, a ballot measure this November that, if it were to pass, would deny same sex couples the right to marry in California by actually writing discrimination and bigotry into the California constitution.

The event will happen at the Mondrian Hotel’s Skybar in West Hollywood on Sunday from 6 PM to 9 PM. Tickets can be had for $100 and 100% of the ticket price goes to defeating Prop 8 on November 4th.

Money is urgently needed NOW. “Religious” conservative-backed Prop 8 supporters have far surpassed Equality California and other opponents of Prop 8 in fund-raising, pouring it into TV ads filled with outright lies and distortions aimed at appealing to ignorance and bigotry. ( Take a look at one of the ads.)

You can buy tickets here. And you can download a PDF of the invite here and see the long list of Angelenos, celebrated (you know, celebrities) and otherwise, who will be there.

If it’s at all within your means, it is a very worthwhile cause. I’m not saying everyone can afford it; but if you can afford $200 jeans and a $300 iPhone, then you can afford a donation to fight bigotry in California.

If a C-note is outside your budget, please give whatever you can at Equality California’s site or at No On Prop 8. We can’t allow victory to embolden backward zealots.

But whatever you do, VOTE NO on Prop 8 on November 4th.

Proposition 8 was placed on the ballot by the anti-gay “Protect Marriage” group, an affiliation of so called “religious” conservatives which claims to be seeking to “restore marriage” and “protect children,” according to the scant information on their web site explaining who they are. (There is no “about” link. Pretty telling, no?)

Their real intent is to deny basic rights to gay people. Marriage and children have nothing to do with the goal of these bigots.

Equality California is a civil rights organization that advocates for the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people in California.

Love, Honor and Cherish is an independent, grassroots organization whose purpose is to defeat Proposition 8.

Standing up to bigots isn’t always cheap or easy (like me.) I’ll be there with the boyfriend in tow. Look for us and say “hello.” (He’s the cute redhead; I’m the silver-haired Slavic fox.)

Vote NO on Prop 8 Gala; Sunday, October 12, 2008, 6 to 10 p.m.; Skybar, Mondrian Hotel, 8440 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. Tickets $100.

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There is growing opposition to the NBC West Coast Headquarters project planned for the lot above Metro’s Universal Station. Some say it will be too big and create a traffic nightmare. That is why NBC needs to push for expanding rail transit in the Valley. Rail that goes in more directions, to more places.

That is why NBC needs to push for a Ventura Boulevard subway.

Just last year, both Tom LaBonge and Zev Yaroslavsky started to complain that this project was too big for Universal/Studio City/North Hollywood or whatever city your post office calls the area. They claim that this quaint little neighborhood of amusement parks, freeway interchanges and car dealerships cannot withstand such a massive development. It will be traffic hell. Read more

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#8: With gay marriages will come gay divorces. Does our country need more divorces? Didn’t think so.

#7: Brad Pitt said he wouldn’t get married until marriage is available to everyone, meaning gays. Do gay men or straight woman want Pitt off the market? Didn’t think so.

#6: If being gay becomes more mainstream, there will be less need of closets. Do you really want closet manufacturers to be laid off? Didn’t think so.

#5: Gay marriage would apply pressure on more men to “commit.” Really, fellow men, do you want to encorage this sort of behavior? Didn’t think so.

#4: Married same sex couples will stop referring to themselves as cryptic “partners” and instead as “spouses.” Do you hate mysteries? Didn’t think so.

#3: The further mainstreaming of gay marriage will result in more movies like, “I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry.” Do you hate America? Didn’t think so.

#2: Under Governor Mitt Romney, Massachusetts made gay marriage legal. Do you liberals want to be like Mitt Romney? Didn’t think so.

#1: More weddings, gay or otherwise = more wedding showers and wedding gifts. Do you really want to spend more time browsing wedding registeries at Pottery Barn for anything affordable besides something called a soup tureen? Didn’t think so.

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A lot of LA’s bike culture happens at night, and a few people have gotten really good at documenting that. This weekend a new photo exhibition called “We Ride By Night - Four Artists View Bike Culture in Los Angeles” will open at SiteLA (2522 Sunset in Silver Lake) and will feature new works by Stephen Roullier, Ashira Siegel, Leslie Caldera and Wendy Peng. The opening is Saturday, October 11th from 6-9pm and the show runs through Nov 1st in case you can’t make it this weekend. If you are new to LA’s bike culture, ride your bike to this open. Trust me, it’ll be worth it!

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