Yesterday I posted a photo of the awesome Cache mural that had been painted over on Heliotrope. Lots of people were asking WTF and Ben from Pure Luck just chimed in in the comments with the story. Since so many people were asking I thought it was worth bringing a little more attention to. Basically it was done out of spite…

“Fast forward to this Monday, when furniture guy decides that this is his last week in business.  He tells Boris, and tells that if he wants to do something, he should do it now.

…and Boris did that.  Ugly tagging started the same night.

Furniture dude apologized to me about it before I even saw it.  Head shop guys across the street are livid.  Boris hasn’t been seen since they chased him out of their shop after he explained that he had no intention of actually putting a new mural up, he just wanted to paint over what was there.”

See the full comment on this post.

Yes, it’s true: I am attempting to get back on the bus I left idling a few months back. The bus of Random Valley Front Yards.

The point of the RVFY is to find a yard that’s aesthetically interesting (does not have to be appealing, just interesting) and analyze it like a work of art. I got a very-fun-and-totally-impractical degree in Art History and only use it maybe twice a year, and probably to win Jeopardy from the comfort of my couch while yelling at the tv screen. But with these RVFYs, I can break down & dissect the aesthetics of the average* Angeleno front yard. It’s fun for me, and I’ve gotten a lot of complaints that I stopped doing it, so I’m firin’ it back up.

Here is our RVFY for today. Click thru for a bigger image and the breakdown.

(more…)

Just a few hundred yards away from the pandemonium that is Venice Beach on a sunny summer Sunday, the Venice Canals are a sea of tranquility.  Aside from the obvious stunning visuals, what strikes me is the sound.  It’s quiet.  Instead of city traffic noise, you hear gurgling water, wind chimes, birds, some animals, a few muffled human voices.  You rarely encounter more than a dozen people even if you wind your way through the entire canal system.

Tour the Venice Canals, after the jump

I slipped into 5-hours-old Skylight Books 1814 in Los Feliz yesterday as I was biking back from Griffith Park, so already I’m in a good mood, but the new store ramps it up considerably.

A clean, well lit space, it seduces with its array of art and nonfiction books. (All fiction is still in the original store next door.) I swoon in the music section– I want five books within about fifteen seconds but I winnow it down to a fresh copy of Please Kill Me, Legs McNeil’s incendiary oral rehash of the messy birth of punk in 1970s New York. My first copy didn’t make the cut for the move west so it feels good to correct the mistake.

Kerry Slattery, Skylight’s general manager and co-owner, is all smiles as she tells me about the previous night’s move into the new space. It sounds like performance art, a military exercise and solemn ritual all at once. (more…)

[check out the DUST MASK BANDIT!]

Okay here’s the coolest thing ever, and no it’s not a prank -

LA Bankrobbers have their own website!

Well it’s not actually THEIRS, it’s a law enforcement site

devoted to the identification and apprehension of bank robbers (a.k.a. bank bandits) in the Southern California territory, which specifically covers the following seven counties: 1) Los Angeles 2) Orange 3) Riverside 4) San Bernardino 5) San Luis Obispo 6) Santa Barbara and 7) Ventura. The region we cover is typically referred to as the “Bank Robbery Capital of the World” - a title we would love to lose.

Photos, background info, and yes, REWARDS -

Go be a good citizen. Help the FBI and maybe make a little dough yourself - WITHOUT having to rob a bank!

A Venice institution branches out

Venice-based fitness center YAS (which stands for yoga and spinning) will be setting up shop in early September at 1932 Hyperion Avenue in Silver Lake.

The signature routine developed by YAS founder Kimberly Fowler is a combination of an intense 30-minute cardio workout on a stationary bike followed by 30 minutes of yoga.

She also developed Yoga for Athletes, a fitness routine that has pro athletes attending her classes and crediting her for their best seasons ever. And a five-senses guy like myself can’t resist Fowler’s approach: “No chanting, no granola, no sanskrit.” (more…)

August 5th is National Night Out 2008. Across America (except TX where they’ll wait until Oct. 17th) is an evening dedicated to community building and generating support for local crime-fighting endeavors. Sponsored by National Night Out Town Watch, the annual event includes over 10,000 communities nationwide. Here in Los Angeles, the LAPD will be hosting several events. My local LAPD division, the Hollenbeck Division will be hosting several events in El Sereno, Boyle Heights, and Lincoln Heights.

Like many communities, the Hollywood Community Police Station has made NNO into something of a community fair. The event, which runs from 5pm to 8pm offers:

Booths:

• PALS
• Explorers
• Hollywood Community Relations Office
• Hollywood Neighborhood City Attorney’s Office
• Council Districts 4, 5, and 13
• Target (Official Sponsor of National Night Out)
• Boys & Girls Club of Hollywood

Entertainment:

• Dora the Explorer from Universal Studios will meet and greet children and take photos
• Rock Nation will be performing.
• Sergeant Deborah Gourman (National Anthem)

Kids Entertainment:

• Jumpers
• Face Painting
• Balloonist

Food:

• We will be Barbecuing Hot Dogs. We will also have chips, popcorn, snow cones and cookies.

You can find out about National Night Out events in your neighborhood by contacting your local LAPD Community Relations office or Senior Lead office. To locate your local LAPD division, visit lapdonline.org. Though the matrix has not been updated to reflect the most current events, you can also check National Night Out Events - Los Angeles (PDF) for events in your area.

Get your bikes or hiking shoes ready to enjoy the free flowing river this weekend.

On Monday on my bi-weekly run to Costco I noticed the powers that be have turned the San Gabriel River on again.  It is flowing hard and fast, probably the best it has been in well over a year.  Lord knows 2 weeks ago it was bone dry through there.

Tuesday was too nice a day to not go down to the river and check it out.  Camera in tow I spent the better part of the morning hiking along the San Gabriel River Bike Path ducking down the various trails to the river itself.  I shot alot, mostly I just enjoyed seeing the river flow again.

 Already ducks are back in the river swimming about.  Some small fish, snail darters or some variation of pupfish were visible in the slower moving sections.  Hundreds of lizards were all over the place.  There were even a few bunnies at waters edge in spot taking a drink.  Who’da thought you’d see so much wildlife so fast just by turning on the river.

I’d highly recommend you take the time and visit the river while it is running so hard and clear.   My favorite access point is from Duarte’s Encanto Park and use the old Rail Road bridge to cross over when I walk. 

The other point, and the one most used by bicyclists is from the otherside of the river at Lario Park.  The entrance to that park is 1/3 mile west of the junction of Foothill and Irwindale Avenues.  It has ample parking and restrooms available.

Now for the real reason hikers need to pay a visit this week you need to make the jump. (more…)

Bodega Wine Bar in the Paseo Colorado is a great little spot.  Certainly not what one would expect to find in a destination village that is pretty well sanitized and mainstream.  It is all warm modern decor with high dark wood tables inside and outside.  There is even a big comfy sofa and table outside.  A perfect place for a bunch of friends to enjoy each others company while sampling some good wines.

Saturday night was a celebration night with our neighbors.  We were there to meet up with some of their friends prior to the movie and arrived to find the place pretty well packed.   We were greeted by Jena when we walked in and the best service that I have had in a while started right then.  For the details make the jump. (more…)

If Metblogs is a city, hub.metblogs is the playground. We kept hearing from people that one of their favorite parts of Metblogs was meeting and interacting with readers and writers from other parts of the world, as well as getting requests for more ways that readers could be involved besides just posting comments. We thought about this for a while and decided that with a network like this, a giant community area where folks from all over the world could hang out, post photos and videos, talk with each other, form groups, play games, send messages, and do about a million other things was probably a pretty fun idea. The Hub is that.

If you have any tech ideas or suggestions join this group and speak up. See you on hub.metblogs!