Picture it, a beautiful day to be up at the Griffith Park Observatory, parking is getting really tight and people have to start parking down the hill.   You see old folks strugging to get up the hill with the walkers, mom types with the same struggle with strollers.

You round the corner and spot this ‘tard with his/her obese-mobile SUV parking conveniently in 2, count them TWO, compact car parking spaces.  Charming. 

Rather than wish a pox upon it with running out of gas in the Cahuenga Pass, I’d rather see a swarm of preschoolers with keys and rakes visit the side as far as they can reach.  Total Tardship like that deserves an appropriate reward.  (That’s sarcasm folks, not that I would ever advocate actually physically damaging someones property no matter how big an assholian they are).

Pic by me.

What does your license plate mean? 

Not a rant, more of a silly request.  Lots of people use the plate frame to decipher what the plate means and I wish more did.  Does this plate mean “Heart of Shoes” as in a fan of Imelda Marcos? 

We received an e-mail from an anonymous reader asking about a hit and run in Tujunga Village over the weekend. The reader came upon the scene just after it happened and wrote us to see if we could confirm or deny any of the info they heard from other onlookers. A casual skim of the papers turns up nothing, anyone have any info? This is what we’ve got:

 ”Tonight, Sunday night at around 8:30pm-8:45pm there was a hit and run on Tujunga right in front of Vitello’s restaurant. A mother, her daughter and their two dogs were crossing the street at a well marked crosswalk (that people wiz through all the time anyway!) and they were struck by a car. The crowd was telling me that the mother, daughter and one of the dogs died on the scene and the smaller dog ran off and is on the loose. That’s all I know and it is hearsay, I didn’t verify any of this information with the police but everyone was so shook up I believe it to be true. “

Anyone in the area know any more details on this?

UPDATE: See the comments for more information as to where this happened, and see this new post for security camera images which caught the people on film seconds before the accident.

We spotted this knock down gorgeous Jaguar E-type at the Brand Library in Glendale Saturday evening.  A stunning car, the kind that stops you in your tracks.  Quite a feat for any car some 40 years after it first hit the road.  What started as a Grand Tourer equipped with a 4.2L straight six fed by 3 carbs eventually had a V12 stuffed under the bonnet that turned it into a very fast sports car. 

The pure sex appeal is what kept that basic design in production from 1961-1974.  The basic lines were mimiced in future XJ-S and XK series even as those cars grew considerably in size while moving up market.  Neither in my not so humble opinion managed to have the raw sex appeal of the E-type as seen here.

Even today there are fan clubs and webs designed to keep the old beauty on the road the way the men in Conventry UK intended.

There are a few more pics after the jump. (more…)

An art exhibit to present lust on wheels

Antebellum Gallery, the fetish art emporium in Hollywood owned and curated by filmmaker and photographer Rick Castro, has an exhibit going up this weekend that is perfect for Los Angeles and two of it’s best known, uh, attributes — cars and sex.

Automolove, Car Culture with a kink, opens this Saturday, August 2nd. The reception goes from 6 to 9 PM and has a $10 cover. (It’s worth it.)

Castro’s openings are always a good time, with music, performance art, rituals, general lunacy… and an open bar, of course. (One time, he even had a selection of mezcals.)

This time, he promises an “Eroticar Lot,” with vehicles on display that will make you forget gas prices.

Skin, metal and location after the jump. (more…)

The West Hollywood intersection where an allegedly intoxicated Shia Lebouf crashed and flipped his Ford pickup truck early Sunday is also the same spot where a pickup truck smashed into the corner of Edible Arrangements in December, 2007, right next door to Kat Von D’s High Voltage Tattoo.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said LaBeouf made a left turn and collided with an oncoming car about 2:30 a.m. at the intersection of La Brea and Fountain avenues. The actor’s Ford F-150 pickup truck rolled over in the crash. [LA Times]

I personally have been witness to two seperate accidents at that intersection, one involving a left turn. After last December’s crash, Metblogs reader “G” commented, “This is not the first time this has happend to that structure.” And another reader noted that the switch from yellow to red at the intersection is abnormally short, perhaps to maximize the number of tickets that the “red light camera” there can issue.

This incident reinforces the need for dedicated left turn signals at the intersection, and perhaps more time for the yellow light.

Hopefully the injury an A-list actor, however intoxicated, will make the City of West Hollywood consider removing their $600 per ticket camera system and instead focus on public safety instead of profits.

There is FAIL. And then there’s DEAD.

Snapped by my girlfriend near Melrose and Mansfield.

Stunning, Traffic Stopping, Whiplash Double Takes…”WHATIZZAT”? 

For folks of all ages the new Camaro had the same effect where it was parked on 3rd Avenue in Santa Monica Monday evening.  It drew more onlookers than the Bentley Continental GT Convertible parked behind it at one point in the evening.  That is a car with stopping power.  That is the result of stunning design.

I got invited to attend the Chevrolet Camaro “Reveal Night” and grabbed the chance to see the car many believe will unseat the Mustang.   What I got to sit in was the Camaro RS which is the entry level model that will account for 2/3 the models production.  For an entry level model it certainly is going to raise the bar considerably for its competition – Ford’s Mustang and the soon to be released Challenger from Dodge. 

Mustang, this is your fair warning, on its on-sale date next spring you are a gelding.  A teaser…the entry car is the Camaro RS with a V6 rated at 300 Bhp standard vs Mustang’s base V6 of 210.  To get the same power in the Mustang you have to uprate to the GT’s V8.  Opening price for the base Camaro will be around the same 20,000ish as a Mustang.  The embarrassment to Ford continues in that the Camaro has a fully independent rear suspension vs the ancient live rear axle of the Ford.  Enough of the gear head stuff. (more…)

Remember that law that you couldn’t talk and drive unless you had a hands-free device? Went into effect way back in 2008? I just learned today that it was never adopted by the cities of the San Fernando Valley.

Here, you can talk and drive and talk and text and talk and turn and drive all you want. Especially if you’re pulling a converted U-Haul trailer full of landscaping equipment. Or if you’re a just bad driver that isn’t quite sure where the hell she’s going anyway. Turn left here? No, wait.. I think I turn right up there.. Or, maybe I’ll just continue weaving between two lanes until my destination finds me.

I consider myself blessed to have witnessed both of the aforementioned examples of the non-existent cell phone law within the span of one hour. It’s further proof that laws that apply to Los Angeles do not quite make it over the hill. Just like you Westsiders.

Photo From the L.A. Times of What Appears to Be a Valley Girl, Doing Valley Girl Things

As it thrummmmmmmmed past, I was barely able to unholster my cam and trigger the shutter at this unique and fancy motorized bicycle with training wheels on front. Ooooooo. I Can Haz!? Trike rhymes with Like (click to triplify):