Classic Eats #9 is scheduled for Saturday, February 27. Where shall it be?

Our three options:

Hot Hollywood Night: Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles and Boardner’s

Burbank Bonanza: The Smokehouse

Westside Alka-Seltzer Fest: Tito’s Tacos and Johnnie’s Pastrami

As ever, we’ll start around 5pm so you can stop in then move on to the rest of your Saturday evening events. Or stay all night!

Click here to vote!

Looking forward to seeing you all soon!

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The only sentence I love more than “Half-Priced Penis Puppetry” is “Vintage Fashion Expo this weekend,” so can you imagine my absolute delight having the rare opportunity to utter both of these magical sentences in the same week?

If you are like me, then you have a swanky Mad Men themed party to attend in a couple of weeks, and if you know me, then you know with utmost certainty that I have been searching for the perfect outfit every day for the past two weeks, scanning etsy, modcloth and every vintage clothing shop within walking distance of my apartment. Sadly, nothing has caught my attention yet, but I am hoping that is all about to change when the Vintage Fashion Expo hits Santa Monica this weekend.

Taking temporary residence at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium February 6 and 7, the Vintage Fashion Expo will present more than 85 vintage dealers offering the best in vintage clothing and accessories for men and women. The expo will feature women’s hats, gloves, purses, dresses, shoes, costume and estate jewelry, men’s vintage shoes, ties, hats and suits and more. You will also find great vintage eyewear for men and women.

Early admission is $20 and begins Saturday from 9:00 – 10:30 am. Regular admission is $10 and begins (more…)

Mink's feral cat photo used through Creative Commons

This weekend, Saturday and Sunday, the Stray Cat Alliance is having a giant indoor “yard” sale at 2201 Westwood (the site of the former Hollywood Video store on the corner of Olympic). The sale runs Saturday (Caturday as some would have it) 30 January from 8am to 3pm and Sunday 31 January from 9am to noon. The Stray Cat Alliance are those folks who care for strays, trying to match them with people, neuter and spay where needed and generally do what they can to work toward a “no kill nation.” So yeah, come buy things and help save the wild kittehs

To donate items, please email: info@StrayCatAlliance.org or call (310) 281-6973

To volunteer the week before or during the sale, email: SCAVolunteers@gmail.com

Last August, the L.A. 3-D Club participated in the Downtown Film Festival and presented an international program of 3-D shorts. Since then, the organization has worked on forming a partnership with the Downtown Independent Theater to provide a venue to show independent 3-D movies. Thanks to a generous silver screen donation from USC and the club’s recent acquisition of a pair of large venue projectors, the theater is fully outfitted for 3-D.

Tonight, the L.A. 3-D Club’s Movie Division is holding an “Open Screen 3-D Movie Night.” Anyone is invited to bring their stereoscopic video content to add to the mix. The club will continue to curate monthly public screenings at the Downtown Independent. By the way, if you haven’t checked out this theater yet, you are missing out. It’s gorgeous and has a fun vibe.

LA3D Movie Division “Open Screen 3-D Movie Night” is TONIGHT!
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010, 8-11pm
Downtown Independent Theater
251 S. Main St., Los Angeles, CA 90012

Admission to the event is $10 at the theater box-office, free with USC Student ID. Paid parking is available at many lots in the area. The theater is about a 10 minute walk from the Pershing Square Red Line station.

See the event page on Facebook for details such as file formats if you’d like to submit material to screen.

If you’ve been to as many weddings as I have, then you’ve also received your fair share of “Save the Date” notices. Though I’ve seen some really creative ones cross my desk, I’ve never seen a “Save the Date” as EPIC as Jeff & Erin’s!

Jeff Wong & Erin Martin met while they were in college in SoCal in 2000, but their love has landed them down-under– Sydney, Australia. Ten years after they first met, they are tying the knot in the Los Angeles area, and they’ve created a wedding website, a “teaser poster” and a “wedding trailer” to lead up to the wedding date. Since Jeff did some video production in college, they “started with a simple idea that was going to be a weekend project.” But then, in their own words, they “just got a little carried away.”

With all the attention that they are getting on this trailer– they’ve been written up in HuffPo & Boing Boing– I am guessing there are going to be high expectations for their wedding. (No pressure, guys!)

I’m also guessing that they’re going to have to lockdown parts of their website which was originally started just for their friends and family. The site is already being innundated by visits from strangers who are congratulating them — and wanting to know where this wedding is going to be so they can crash it– who is with me on this one!?!? (Kidding!)

Anyway, congrats to Jeff and Erin and best wishes on their big day!

Stop by Home Ec. in Silver Lake this Sunday, January 24 for a bake sale to benefit Doctors Without Borders and their efforts to help the scores of devastated earthquake victims in Haiti. The bake sale will run from from 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM, or until they sell out.

I contacted the ultra sweet and talented owner of Home Ec., Jenny Ryan about Sunday’s event and she said,  “Prices will probably vary from $1.00 to $5.00, depending on the treat, and we’ll have beverages on hand too.”

There will also be vegan friendly baked goods available from Vegan Bake Sale.

100% of the proceeds from the sale will be donated to Doctors Without Borders. For more details on the bake sale, go here or click on the pretty pink flyer to your right.

Speaking of baked things, if you want to ensure that your craving for cupcakes is operating at peak performance, may I suggest Mr. Greens medical marijuana collective just around the corner from Home Ec.?

In 1995, one of the most shocking cases of modern day slavery unfolded in Los Angeles’ backyard. 72 garment workers were discovered in an El Monte compound living in captivity and under squalid conditions, producing clothing for such major labels as Anchor Blue, Clio, and B.U.M. A majority of these garment workers were of Thai descent.

Modern day slavery and trafficking fuels an underground economy that goes unnoticed to many. Victims generally labor in the garment, toy manufacturing, agricultural, and sex industries as well as serve in households cleaning homes or providing childcare to the families of their slaveholders. Every year, at least 17,000 people are trafficked in the U.S., with the majority of victims consisting of women and children. Los Angeles serves as one of three main points of entry.

As part of an effort to utilize the arts to raise awareness about this seldom discussed issue in the Asian Pacific Islander American community, East West Players (EWP) and the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST) are presenting a special event this Thursday evening that is free and open to the public:

Excerpts from: THE GIRLS FROM AFAR by Libby Emmons, a staged reading directed by Jeff Liu

Featuring:
Dante Basco (Hook, Take the Lead)
Fran de Leon (Dogeaters at the Kirk Douglas Theatre)
James Kyson Lee (NBC’s Heroes)
Camille Mana (UPN’s One on One)
Tamlyn Tomita (The Karate Kid II, The Joy Luck Club).

Thursday, January 21, 2010
7:30 PM – show
Panel Discussion & Reception to follow
Tateuchi Democracy Forum in the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy
(Across the parking lot at East West Players next to the Japanese American National Museum)
111 N. Central Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012
RSVP to (213) 625-7000 or on Facebook

This is just one of several events for CAST’s monthlong “From Slavery to Freedom” campaign.

Natural Mind's Vertical Garden in Silver Lake

An update on Natural Mind, the new salon that is moving into the former Video Market space at 3607 Sunset Blvd in Silver Lake. As you can see in the photos here, a vertical garden has begun to sprout all over the walls of the building. This project has been in the works for months and months and months. Living nearly on top of this building, my neighbors and I have been watching and waiting patiently for this perpetual mess to transform into the oasis that owner, Arnaud Ozharun claims it will be. Now that the garden is beginning to take shape, I am hopeful.

Slated to open in September last year, the salon finally appears to be coming together. When I walked by yesterday, I could see product on the shelves and furniture in place. However, the salon still looks to be at least a few weeks from opening. I for one am very much looking forward to living next to a lush, vertical garden rather than the piles of construction waste and dust filled air that we’ve had to tolerate for so many months.

I’ll be sure to keep you posted as the project progresses. More pictures after the jump. (more…)

Below is a copy of the storm alert that was distributed by U.S. Geological Survey/Pacific Science Center. You gotta love a guy who closes a lengthy memo like this with, “In short,” (thanks to Karineh for the attachment):

“Currently, the strong El Nino is reaching its peak in the Eastern Pacific, and now finally appears to be exerting an influence on our weather.

The strong jet has been apparent for quite some time out over the open water, but the persistent block had prevented it from reaching the coast.  Now that the block has dissolved completely, a 200+ kt jet is barreling towards us.

Multiple large and powerful storm systems are expected to slam into CA from the west and northwest over the coming two weeks, all riding this extremely powerful jet stream directly into the state.

The jet will itself provide tremendous dynamic lift, in addition to directing numerous disturbances right at the state and supplying them with an ample oceanic moisture source. The jet will be at quite a low latitude over much of the Pacific, so these storms will be quite cold, at least initially. (more…)

Alongside the headlines of the horrific devastation of the Haitian earthquake are the headlines about how “digital fundraising” is providing a rapid flow of dollars, showing the importance of technology in providing new avenues for relief efforts.

For anyone who is technologically-minded, and even those who are not, if you want to lend your hand to a good cause, you should check out CrisisCamp Haiti in LA tomorrow at USC. CrisisCamps are hosted in a barcamp style where great minds come together to share their knowledge and expertise for social good.

This Saturday, the USC Annenberg School will be hosting CrisisCampHaiti Los Angeles to bring together volunteers to collaborate on technology projects which aim to assist in Haiti’s relief efforts by providing data, information, maps and technical assistance to NGOs, relief agencies and the public. Chad Catacchio will be leading up a team.

Project Proposals for CrisisCamp Haiti
1. Base layer map for Port Au Prince: This project would create a new collection of imagery and a new base map for NGOs and relief agencies. Post available imagery to share with the public for open source applications.
2. Family locator systems: Uniting efforts of interested technologists, developers and communications experts to provide technical assistance.
3. Tech Volunteer Skill Matrix/Volunteers: Create a role of volunteer as well as
4. Managing News Aggregator: Provide content channel management to coordinate data feeds
5. Defining the Collective: Create what we are and why we are doing this. Coordinate and post historical timeline/archive for the CrisisCamp efforts.

This will also been happening in London, Washington D.C., Denver, and Northern California.

h/t: Browyn on the BarCampLA list