I am a firm believer in random acts of silliness to brighten an otherwise dreary moment.  I’ve done a few myself just to be different in a crowd.   Hat tip to friend and metblog commenter West Coast Grrly Blather for posting this on Facebook earlier today.  GuerilLA Improv has been at this for a while and you can see more silliness committed in LA on their Youtube channel.  Enjoy the smile on your Monday.

Venice Beach

Ok, Metbloggers and Metblogs readers, get off your bikes and get ready for the Great Los Angeles Walk 2009 this Saturday, November 21.  This annual walk to celebrate Los Angeles has been taking place since 2006.  Here’s Will Campbell’s preview of last year’s walk. This year, over 300 feet are expected to join in.

Who
Great Los Angeles Walk is the brainchild of Mike and Maria, purveyors of the Franklin Avenue blog, and no doubt passionate readers of Los Angeles Metblogs.

What

A 13.5 mile walk from the Shrine Auditorium to Venice Beach, taking in the sights along Figueroa, Adams, Washington, the Mid-City, and Culver City on the way.

The Mid City Neighborhood Council is sponsoring a “Water & Supply Station” outside the Atomic Cafe, located at 5001 W. Washington Blvd. (one block west of La Brea).   It will have free bottled water, snacks, sunscreen/band-aids, and also a limited number of token items “to show our appreciation for this year’s walk participants. ” Additionally, the Atomic Cafe will be offering a lunch special to GLAW participants.

Plans for an after party at a Venice Beach venue right near the finish are also in the works.

When
Saturday, November 21, 2009.

Where
Meet at the side of the Shrine Auditorium (665 West Jefferson Blvd.), across from USC Parking Lot D at “around” 8:30 a.m. (walk begins at “about” 9:30).  You can also join the walk along the way (this baby is un-structured!)

Why
(this is my favorite part) “Why not? There’s no special reason, no charity, no protest, no issue we’re promoting — other than a passion for Los Angeles.”

Whim
RSVP to franklin_avenue@yahoo.com — or just show up!

See the first link above for full details.

I’ve written about it before, but basically, Trutanich, our new city attorney is on a rampage and has vowed to close them all down.  He seems to have backed off a bit (maybe someone in the city pointed out to him that medical marijuana is NOT against the law and is a smart thing to tax and bring sorely needed revenue to our city…)  Here’s how you can help:

Even though the majority of citizens support patients safe access to cannabis, the ordinance that is being proposed right now would pretty much end any access by patients, unless they worked in a non-profit collective, which is very difficult if you are fighting cancer or another difficult illness that cannabis eases.

This coming Monday, November 16th, there’s a hearing downtown with PLUM (Planning and Land Use Committee) and members of the city council to discuss and get input from the general public.  I urge you to attend if you care about this.

Even a simple phone call can make a big difference! Just call the committee members and say, “I am a medical cannabis supporter calling to ask the Councilmember to reject the draft medical cannabis ordinance prepared by City Attorney Carmen Trutanich.”  Here’s a list of the council people who will be drafting this:

Ed Reyes-Chair (213)-473-7001
councilmember.reyes@lacity.org

Dennis Zine (213)-473-7003
councilmember.zine@lacity.org

Jose Huizar (213)-473-7014
councilmember.huizar@lacity.org

Tony Cardenas (213) -473-7006
councilmember.cardenas@lacity.org

Jan Perry (213)-473-7009
Jan.Perry@lacity.org

Greig Smith (213)-473-7012
councilmember.smith@lacity.org

If you really want to support it, show up Monday, November 16, to ask committee members in person to reject the ordinance, and adopt one that protects patients’ privacy and ensures that collectives can stay open. This is an important point in the process, because the draft ordinance may go to the full City Council for approval after this committee hearing.

What:  Joint PLUM and Public Safety Committee meeting

When:  9:30 AM * Monday, November 16

Where:  Room 350, City Hall, 200 N. Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012

Public Transit Info:  http://www.mta.net/riding_metro/default.htm

Arrive early to complete a public speaker’s card if you want to talk with the joint committee on Monday. You may have as little as one minute to speak. Keep your comments brief and on topic!

You can download a copy of the City Attorney’s draft ordinance:
http://safeaccessnow.org/downloads/four … LA_ord.pdf

If you miss the walk, the exhibit is open until November 20 and has fairly generous hours.  There are other LAvender Los Angeles events at the space, including a walking tour of prominent gay locales on Saturday.  The full schedule can be found here.

The LAvender Los Angeles exhibit is located at The Exchange, 114 W. 5th Street (between Spring and Main), and will be open today from 12pm-9:30pm. Other galleries on the Artwalk have their own operating hours, and, judging from past experience, the streets really crawl after 7ish.

Pretty nifty A R T photo taken by Sean_Yoda_Rouse via the Metblogs Flickr pool.

Well, that’s the plan, at least (info). Here’s the man in his own words: “November, Friday the 13th, I will attempt to beat the world record of ‘most tattoos done in 24 hours.’  I have learned that the actual number to beat is 801 tattoos set on Nov. 17, 2008 by Hollis Cantrell.  That is an incredible amount of tattoos to do in 24 hours. I began to wonder if I should still do this…This is twice the amount of tattooing I had anticipated.”

But he’s got a lot in his favor: he’s a great artist, as you can see by the photos, and he’s offering four designs to keep the process streamlined: one, a cute little bat; two, the classic “LA”; third, a heart with wings; and fourth, lucky number 13–since it’ll be Friday the 13th when he does this. And you can’t argue with the price: $20 for the first, $10 for each additional one. You can check out Jeremy’s blog here.

Stop by even if you’re an indecisive wuss like me and not gonna get ink done: they’re gonna have live music, tasty food, booze, t-shirts with a custom design you can see in this photoset I just made, and a raffle for cool stuff.

What’s the difference between a story and a tale?  Head to the Festival and find out!

It’s not over.

Class sizes are limited, so you must RSVP immediately.

Virgina Masen's custom customization.

One of the most awkward things about being part of a minority is that you are at once the local spokesperson for the Minority, and the first person the Majority goes to for comfort.  For example, the day after Prop. 8 passed, I was sitting in my office, my little fit of depression tempered by a little relief that the American electorate actually went out of its way to make sure Mr. Obama won.  Someone walked into my office, and the first thing she said to me was: “No one should sit on the back of the bus!  No one.  Can we talk about this at lunch?  I’m really upset” and walked out.  I felt like I had been hit by a bus. And this is the response I had over a course of several days, from all sorts of people.  Well, better late than never.

The gay rights movement, like many minority groups, learned that in order to get things done, you really have to swallow your pride (that’s pride with a little p) and enlist the help of the majority group who sits in the positions of power and finally – finally – is sympathetic to your cause, is willing to gamble its political currency, and take the credit for it all once the goal is realized.  Enter FAIR (Freedom Action Inclusion Rights), an organization quickly organized after the passage of Prop. 8.  At FAIR’s request, Shepard Fairey created a poster intended to galvanize the movement as well as his Hope poster did for the MoveOn set.  The result is slightly more affecting than American Apparel’s retro, almost whimsically passive “Legalize Gay” tshirts:  his is a gnarled fist with the words “Defend Equality/Love Unites” above and below [insert snarky comment about his source material for the fist here].  You can buy shirts and the poster on FAIR’s website here (the politics of inclusion necessitates the politics of fundraising), but if you want to show all your gay friends that you really care, come out to Andaz in West Hollywood on November 12th.

There, FAIR, in conjunction with HOMOtracker and Mr. Fairey, will debut the Love Unites Shepard Fairey Equality Project and launch an online auction of select posters signed and/or “customized” by certain celebrities (from the looks of it, Virginia Madsen really took the time to hone her scrapbooking skills with hers).  Advanced tickets are here; it’s $100 for a VIP ticket, which includes appetizers, swag, and pool access, and $30 for general admission (which, fyi, also gives you access to the open bar).  Tickets are tax deductible, and all proceeds will go towards the fight for marriage equality (which is our stand-in for – say it with me – the fight against homophobia).  As if you need more reason, Mr. Fairey will be there himself to spin a few discs in a special DJ set.  And, because parking in WeHo is such a pain, try taking the bus.  I’ll sit in the front.

A little art never hurt anyone, not even Tom Bradley.

The LA Times just highlighted this study by a group called Priority Pass that lists LAX as the third worst airport – in the world, behind Heathrow in London and Charles de Gaulle in Paris.  I’m a bit skeptical – after all, this group is comprised of frequent business travelers who probably expect foot massages when they land.  Personally, I think there are other domestic airports that are worse (Houston’s comes to mind, and not because it’s in Texas).  Nonetheless, we all know that our home port could use a little (a lot) of improvement.  The airport has received over a billion recession dollars to improve and upgrade its facilities, and the LA Times has some ideas on how to use this money (some are blatantly silly, others are more serious).  My top gripes are after the jump.

1. Free wifi. Some airports like Louis Armstrong International (in New Orleans), Portland International, and Singapore International have it, others like LAX charge for it.  I get that in an industry that’s losing money, charging an obscene amount for wifi access is almost a capitalist given, but c’mon.

2. More outlets.  On a recent flight back from Seattle, I deplaned and walked past Southwest’s Business class waiting area.  There, I noticed that the nice leather-ish seats were adjacent to even nicer power outlets.  If all the outlets at LAX could be just as accessible, it would be so much better – and safer – than looping my cords between rows of seats.

3. Easier access to the rail. I know there is a shuttle that goes between LAX and the Green Line station, and I know that this two-step approach to airport public transportation isn’t so uncommon (for example, I had to take two buses to get to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to catch my flight back to LAX, and I had to take BART and a shuttle to get from my dorm room in Berkeley to Oakland Airport).  That said, wouldn’t it be nice if we could pull a SFO and have the rail go directly to the airport?

4.  Let buses enter the Loop. Before I found a ride back from LAX, I looked over my bus options from the airport to my apartment in Santa Monica.  I was surprised to find that I had to take a (free) shuttle from the airport to the Green Line station to get to my bus.  WTF?  Why can’t I wait for a bus on the dreaded Loop the same way I wait for a shuttle or a taxi?  To make things even easier, I would even designate one of the lanes a bus-only lane.  The FlyAway bus seems to be the only public transit-oriented bus that is permitted to make the Loop, but its use is premised on the assumption that you can get home after being dropped off in Westood, Union Station, or Van Nuys.

4(a).  More FlyAways.  That said, the FlyAway is an awesome, direct, and easy option for those of us who just need an option to get to Westwood, Union Station, or Van Nuys.  Expanding the fleet to serve other areas of the city (Mid-City and the South Bay, for example) would be welcome.

5. Improve the Loop. The Loop around the terminals is like driving in a racetrack with no ground rules.  Designate car- and shuttle-only lanes, make it easier to get into the terminal pick up areas, clearly post which lanes go to which freeways well in advance of the point of no return … anything so that little hatchback Yaris doesn’t get creamed by enormous hotel shuttle buses every single time she enters the Loop.

6.  More art, less fugly. Since we have a billion to spare, can we spend some on some art?  Even some of our rail stations look prettier and more welcoming than the static, sterile environment of the LAX terminals.

What’s on your list?