Suzuki X90 found on road alive in Arcadia

At first this little beast caught my attention simply because of the BMW badge over the trusty Mac Apple on its bloated little butt.  What sort was beast was this?  When I went to the front I remembered.  Its a Suzuki X90, about as rare a car from the 1990’s you will find.  Under 8,000 were imported and sold here from 1996 until 1999 when Suzuki pulled the plug and quit importing it.

Front grill badging...at least that wasn't pimped

Pic by me with the trusty cell phone-cam.

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Okay, so if you’re a Tricky fan…. and who isn’t, (I’ve loved him since Massive Attack days) now’s your chance!  He’s playing this Friday night, September 12th at the Fonda in Hollywood.  Show starts at 8.  If you want to go for free, just write in the comments why you love Tricky’s sound.  Our esteemed panel of experts will pick three lucky entries for 2 free tickets each!  What could be easier?  If you participate, make sure and use an email address where we can contact you to get in touch.

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click to see full image

Get this: Full sets from the Mars Volta and Gogol Bordello, plus festival sets from Shiny Toy Guns, Datarock, The Submarines, The Mae Shi, Japanese Motors, We Are Wolves, Guns ‘n’ Bombs, Matt Costa, Cut Copy, Black Lips, Hercules & Love Affair, Grand Ole Party, Bitter:Sweet, Adam Freeland, Bloody Beetroots, Surkin, Para One, Peanut Butter Wolf, Nico Vega, Afternoons, Noah and the Whale, Mugison, donMoy, DJ Kid Lightning, Paparazzi and AC Means. All downtown, at 1st St. & Main, in the shadow of City Hall, on October 4. We’ve got some free tix & grand prizes to give away. Grand prize winner gets a 3-d poster (above left) and a Gogol CD.

How to win?

Post a link to your favorite image of Los Angeles in the comments below, or if you can manage it post the image itself (with a hat tip to whoever took or made the photo or image, of course). Explain a little about it if you want. We’ll randomly select a few winners in a day or two. Thanks!

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(CC) Brooklyn Hillary

Here’s a twist on the ‘ol “Cat stuck in tree, news at 11!” gag, via LAFD Alerts:

Reported Landscaper stuck in a tree, unable to self rescue. @11:19 AM

The LA Times, via Associated Press follows up:

Los Angeles Fire Department spokeswoman Melissa Kelley says the 25-year-old man was trimming a tall palm in the North Hollywood area shortly after 11 a.m. today when a number of fronds crashed down on him at once. The fronds became entangled in his harness, trapping him in the tree.

The Fire Department was able to rescue the man, who was then taken to a local hospital in good condition. The LAFD is now free to rescue any cats, dogs, bears, or chinchillas that may get stuck in a tree.

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With a little patience I can go into our Silver Lake backyard and be shown amazing things.  Today I was trying (in vain) to get pixels of the swallowtails who’ve teased me all summer with their fluttery fly-bys. But instead a chattering near the cactus gave me this little cactus flower sipper (click thumbs to magnificate).

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The Los Angeles Triathlon will take place tomorrow morning and running into the afternoon. This means road closures across town beginning at 6:50am until approximately 1pm.  The course starts in the ocean near Venice for the swim, then the competitors jump on their bikes and head inland along Venice Blvd., to Fairfax, make a jog up to 6th then to Alvarado then toward Sunset and then into downtown for the run and finish.

Please click here for a very detailed map that includes route crossing locations and more specific road closure times through out the day.  For general information on the whole event, click here.

Good luck athletes!

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$22 beers

Yesterday was Opening Day at the LA County Fair.  After picking up the little girl from school, we braved Friday afternoon traffic to make it there before 5pm, so we could take advantage of the $1 entrance fee.  Once in, the our focus was food.  But first for drinks where 2 large (20 oz.) beers ran for $11 each.  We learned later that the going price throughout the rest of the campus was $10.  At any rate, we quickly made a beeline to the best BBQ in the whole place, the kiosk across from the grandstand.

Since it’s the fair, it’s practically a law that deep-fried things be available for the public.  There were some things that seemed to have gone missing, like deep-friend Coke, but then there were others that just left you scratching your head.  Deep-fried corn-on-the-cob, deep-fried White Castle burgers and Pop-Tarts, to name a few.

We got to see a parade of classic cars, local high school bands and businesses. Bonus of going Opening Day, no one is tired of doing the same thing over and over.  There’s a huge pirate set up with a band, the Vagabond Pirates, in the short time we were near them, we heard them sing the theme to Spongebob Squarepants 4 times. I can’t imagine what they’ll think of the song two weeks from now. Naturally, we also went to view the baby animals which is always a good way to calm the kids down.  MTV has this ginormous RockBand set up (video), where you can play in front of hundreds of fair attendees.

Since we went without friends this year (best idea ever!) we weren’t forced to look at every single shopping hall.  We did go into one, luckily the one with the “Going Green” booths, so at least my interest was held for a few minutes before I got distracted by the idea of fair pickles.

For more info, you can reference my earlier post or visit the fair’s website.  You can also see more of my pics on flickr.

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It is back to school time.  It is time to be aware of speed in particular areas around the schools and the major intersections leading to them.  Every year a child or crossing guard are lost when a driver not used to the pedestrian traffic doesn’t realize pedestrian traffic is up and forgets to reduce their speed around schools.

Pasadena PIO puts out the notice that Monday 9/8 from 7AM to 3Pm to watch your speed.  You can read her own post “Do You Feel The Need For Speed” for all of the details.

Neighboring Arcadia PD is concerned with safety and the Police Officers Association has some good information to keep in mind now that the schools are all back in session.

Tom over at the Arcadia Police Officers Blog has a couple of other bits to help remind you about safety around our schools in his posts “School Bus Red Lights” and “School is Back in Session“.

Be safe, keep our kids safe and avoid an EXPENSIVE ticket by just being aware and not in a hurry.

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I was lucky enough to catch a private screening of Jessica Yu’s Ping Pong Playa a few weeks ago and I absolutely loved it.

The film follows the antics of Christopher C-Dub Wang, who thinks he could have been an NBA star if genetics hadn’t conspired against him. Instead, he’s got to defend his family’s ping pong legacy and see if he can rise to the challenge of being the ping pong star he never wanted to be.

It’s been reviewed a lot of different places already, including on 8Asians by Lily, so I’m not going to repeat anything that’s already been said.

But I wanted to give you a heads up that Ping Pong Playa is opening tonight in L.A. (see the Ping Pong Playa website, click Screenings for details) and that there is an afterparty you can attend for free with your ticket stub!

Los Angeles: Friday, September 5. 10pm
Central Hollywood
1710 Las Palmas Ave, Los Angeles
Free with movie ticket stubs before 11pm ($10 cover after)

Even if you don’t catch the party this weekend, I highly recommend check out Ping Pong Playa while you can on the big screen… it’s a fun, funny movie.

For those of you who understand Mandarin, I think they did a great job of inserting Mandarin conversations into the film. And I especially enjoyed Roger Fan’s “chinglish” conversations with his parents… sounds a lot like me when insert English into my conversations when I can’t think of the Chinese words.

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Belt: Gypsy knife buckle and belt, available on Etsy from Hurtcouture, a Downtown Los Angeles-based design company. With “plans to expand the line of weaponized items,” the buckle knives are so real the company reports two wearers recently had them confiscated by airport security. How long before we see Angelina Jolie kicking ass with one of these on the big screen?

Re-read: Please Kill Me, The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain, Grove Press. I scored a fresh copy (my first copy didn’t make the cut for my move west) at the new Skylight Books 1814, recently opened next door to the original store, doubling the size of the shop

A deluge of eyewitness accounts of the ticking cultural time bomb and explosive emergence of punk on to the world stage and my current nightstand reading. Read more

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Not on the 101, Gosh! What could have given you that crazy idea? I mean lessons! In previous posts here about biking around Los Angeles some folks have said they’d ride more often if they knew where to ride or routes that they were comfortable with. Well, now is your chance, check out this craigslist posting:

I am an experienced rider in Los Angeles and I would love to get you started on your way to a car free commute! I cover all of Los Angeles from Burbank to Inglewood from Santa Monica to North East Los Angeles. I will meet you at your desired starting point and ride w/ you to a final destination. I will equip you with the confidence you need to be a daily bike commuter! We will discuss a combination of bicycle and public transit, to work towards a car free lifestyle! Save money on gas! Get some exercise! Start your day w/ F.U.N! I will also provide you a printed or emailed copy of the route and (1) alt. route for when you’re ready to mix things up! Please e-mail for rates and to make an appointment!

Sounds like a perfect introduction to me. If you are interested drop a line to L.A.bikealicious@gmail.com

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Look! They can fly too!

Founded by ex-Gogol Bordello member Ori Kaplan and Tamir Muskat of Firewater, Balkan Beat Box is one of those irresistible can’t-stop-dancing bands that brings together disparate types of music from across the globe to create a polyglot sound that activates every dormant aural-receptor in your brain. Plus they bring hot bellydancing chicks to their shows! Woo! They play with Deleon at the El Rey on the 9th.

And we’ve got tix! Just tell me your favorite “world” or “fusion” artist in the comments, along with your email address so I can reach you when you win. See? Easy peasy.

Or if you’re just not clever enough to comment, you can buy tix here.

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Yesterday evening, my Congresswoman, Democrat Jane Harman of California’s 36th District, showed up in  Santa Monica for an event at the new West L.A. Democratic Club headquarters on Wilshire Boulevard. I’m pretty sure this is the first time that I have ever met my Congressional representative face to face. Harman, whose district extends from Venice down through the South Bay communities to the Port of Los Angeles, officially came to kick off her 2008 re-election campaign.  Her most important message, however, was that area Democrats need to gird themselves for a very close, very tough national election, and they need to do everything they can to elect Barack Obama President, with a larger Democratic majority in both houses of Congress.

Jane Harman, firebrand, after the jump

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Got some free time this Saturday night?  Like robots and/or donuts?  Ever read The Sneeze?

If you answered yes to any of these questions then you need to head over to The Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City this Saturday night between 7 and 10 because Eric Joyner is having a brand new gallery show that is doubling as a book release party.  Eric Joyner creates fantastic paintings of tin robots, frequently involving donuts that are about the greatest things I’ve ever seen.  He’ll be signing his new book, the appropriately named “Robots and Donuts“, which features some of his best work.

If you can’t make the show I recommend checking out the book because it has not one, but TWO forewords written by my favorite LA blogger, Steve from The Sneeze.   The Sneeze also has written about the show here.

The Corey Helford Gallery is located at 8522 Washington Blvd in Culver City.

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I’m one of the “lucky ones” with tickets to Friday’s Dodger game vs the Diamondbacks.  Check your tickets, quite a few of them have the wrong game time printed.  My set says 7:40pm which is wrong.  The correct time, and verifiable on the Dodger’s Web, is 7:05PM.

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