I could compile a whole “what to do on Dia de los Muertos” thing, but LA Eastside has done such a good job I figured I’d just give them props for a list well compiled. Mosey on over there for an exhaustive list of stuff to do when you’re really hung over from partying all night dressed as Lady Gaga or Balloon Boy. They’ve listed everything from the Calavera Fashion Show at Tropico de Nopal to an electro-en-español-noche at The Little Cave to art shows, an Esotouric tour involving a gigantic house-sized tamal, toy drives and celebrations held at community gardens.

Hope. Pepper Haz It.

This week’s Friday Bullets are inspired by Sean Bonner, who said, “I’ve never had a good response to the question ‘what do you do?’ and have always felt that whatever I said would be either too modest and not actually explain anything, or too boastful and I’d feel like a douche.” His post is a great read for those of us who live lives and do things that aren’t easily categorized in little boxes.

That said, I went around to some L.A. bloggers to see what they say about what it is they do:

• Aziz Ansari: On his approach to his character on “Parks & Recreation” “I watch the movie ‘There Will Be Blood’ with Daniel Day-Lewis’ commentary on and listen to what he did, and that’s the same technique I apply to my acting.” (He’s kidding)

• Mar Vista Mom Sarah Auerswald on what she’s NOT doing anymore: “I had an epiphany about my life: it was truly being wasted doing volunteer work for that bunch of commie parents (the PTA) with their hidden agenda of corrupting our children’s minds, or for the freeloading students at our school. So I quit. Right then and there. And went out to get my toenails done.”

• Celia of 5th and Spring writes that she’s been writing: “I was named a Film Independent Project:Involve Screenwriting Fellow, Class of 2010. You probably already know Film Independent (FIND) as the fine folks who bring you the Independent Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival, this is one of their talent development programs.”

• And in the case of Kevin (half of Juvin.com), what he does when what he does is furloughed — he goes to Disneyland with his family: “I’ve missed being a Disney fan boy who goes multiple times per year. Looking forward to spending lots of Furlough Fridays (aka “F-days”) at the park this year.”

Photo courtesy of SnarkyDork.

Sometimes frequent commenters distinguish themselves often enough with witty prose, clever insights, cool tips, spirited defense (when we’re assailed by trolls), and just-plain-neat-ness that we here at Metblogs take our relationship to the next level. You saw it with Burns!, now an author, who started out as a passionate & well-spoken (well-written?) commenter. Now I have to introduce you to Mr. Hooks, who, while he demurely passed on my invite to become an author (he’s a busy man, after all), has come to almost all our Classic Eats events and meetups and has become–dare I say it!–a Friend.

The friendly Mr. Hooks is becoming Chef Hooks tomorrow night, and you all will get a chance to meet him as he becomes the latest Friend to cook in the “Friends Cook at Canelé” series–occasional Tuesday nights when the bistro/tapas/wine bar opens up its kitchen to select lucky bastards (I think you have to call them & ask, plan a menu within their price point, and just be downright righteous) to curate & cook their own recipes in a dinner service.

Chef Hooks’ own recipes, featured tomorrow, include sweet corn soup with avocado crème frâiche, cilantro oil & bacon lardon and pan-fried skate wing in brown butter lemon sauce with apples, young leeks, and a cauliflower purée. Dessert is a riff on the summery fave of strawberry soup. Your very reasonable cost for this three-course price-fixe is about thirty smackers.

Our compliments to the chef!

With the recent return of our Blogroll (check the right column, toward the bottom!), I thought it would be a great time to reinstate our Friday Bullets where we give some linky love to other L.A. blogs and bloggers.

Our Blogroll displays a few random links every time you refresh the page and I thought I was going to be able to do a “Bullets” segment by just refreshing the page once or twice. But it turns out our Blogroll is filled with abandoned blogs and links to people who aren’t even in L.A. anymore.

So do a girl a favor, check out the bullets below and then leave a comment if you think there’s a blog that should be added to our Blogroll. (We’re working on clearing out the bad links, yo!)

• Se7en (Social Sins) — JSto

• Pilipinos lub bessball — Darleeneisms

• “LA Sketchbook: Couple of guys” — LA Observed

• Moving is a pain but a good opportunity — Mofomon

• “Affable Man-About-Town” Seeks Los Angeles Street, For Long Walk — Franklin Avenue

Should your blog be on our Blogroll? Let us know!

Who says writing at Metblogs won’t get you fame and fortune, or at least another gig to be heard?  Our own Ruth666 snarked a few weeks back about Senator Feinstein’s attempt to interfere with medical marijuana and got the attention of  ”The Filter”. “The Filter” is Fred Roggin’s YouTube show that interviews and debates local news and pop culture issues.  She was invited to be one of the weekly debaters.  This weeks episode was so big it actually had to be broken into two episodes.  To catch part two of this weeks installment you need to make the jump. (more…)

That would be Venice, CA (to my hidden disappointment)…but I’m not disappointed we’ll all be meeting up over demitasse cups at Intelligentsia Coffee Bar in that boho little seaside town. Because Intelligentsia has the best espresso I’ve enjoyed since I was…well, since I was in Venice, Italy.

Come on out & say hi at 4pm this afternoon! Bonner has hooked us up with the intelligentsia of Intelligentsia, who will be firing up the legendary 1972 La Marzocco machine just for us.

Intelligentsia Coffee Bar of Venice, CA, aka Intellivenice: website | map

Sitting in what is now something like my 5th day of smoke and ash the lack of TV news has been a bit frustrating.  Local blogs however do a nice job of reporting things from where they sit in the area of the fires.  From a list of Pasadena centric blogs I offer up the following:

• Crime Scene blog keeps posting updated Fire and Evacuation Maps.
• Pasadena Daily photo’s zen Monday includes day/night view of the fire from her porch.
• West Coast Grrlie Blather offers up some photos around JPL and Pasadena.
• Altadena Blog is keeping a running update of the fire expansion and local notes. He even offers up a nifty satellite image of the smoke plume.
• 20/20 Hindsight adds its updates along with some video.
• East of Allen has some nifty pics of the DC10 Super Tanker as it flew by.
• Pasadena Adjacent has a lot of  video clips and explanations of fire fighting.

I have to laugh at what LA Blogger “The 99 Cent Chef” does, some harder than others.  This longish vid starts in the Hollywood Farmers Market and ends with what is actually a very good lesson on how to make crepes.  Just seeing Billy in bad drag was enough to lighten what has been a bad morning around here.

Just so you remember its not always completely quiet here out in the SGV, just a quick check in on the SGV blogs yielded these bits:

• APOA’s Tuesday Tips reminds how much is too much info on social networking sites.
• Pasadena PIO continues its weekly Mystery History photo.
• Stef’s Sketches visits Samo/Venice.
• M-M-M-My Pomona celebrates the opening of an LGBT center in town.
• Crime Scene gives all the details regarding Sean’s’ money free-for-all on the freeway.
• Sierra Madre Tattler rails against the Metro Gold Line 210 Trolley and SCAG.

Well, thanks to Metblogs and all you lovely people (ok, two people in particular) the kittens I posted about have a lovely new home!

I want to thank Metblogs readers Edith & Dan, of Alhambra, for adopting the kittens now known as Moxie and Marvin!

Moxie & new kitteh-mama Edith hanging out.

A few more images of them in their new home behind the jump. (more…)