Auto enthusiasts will be interetested to know that The Blessing of the Cars is going down this weekend at Hansen Damn Park.

Ten years ago, Stephanie and Gabriel Baltierra of Los Feliz decided they loved their cars so much they wanted to get them blessed.
“Gabriel’s family is Catholic, and they like to bless everything,” says Stephanie, 34, who drives a 1964 Comet Caliente and is a member of an all-female car club called the Minxes. The event she and Gabriel started, the Blessing of the Cars, has grown from a gathering of a few hundred friends and family and their vehicles to more than 10,000.
The all-day and into-the-night annual affair, held at Hansen Dam (this year’s on July 31, 2004), begins with a mass morning blessing by a Catholic priest, who then goes car to car, blessing each individually. Some people also ask him put holy water in their radiators.
“It has been said that the event attracts … more tattoos than the Navy,” she says, “but I think, in the end, people come because they are passionate about their cars, just like they become passionate about anything else.”

It’s a bit heavy on the Rockabilly vibe, but friendly nonetheless. Lots of insane customs. Aside from the cars, there are also vendors, raffles, bands and art displays. If you haven’t been before, and you have even a passing interest in Pre-1968 Detroit steel, then I highly recommend a visit.

Thanks to flavorpill for the heads up.

Glancing over today’s “Behind The Wheel” column in the L.A. Times (link; registration required) I dismissed the moanings of staff writer Steve Hymon who related how the 50 minutes (horrors!) it took him on the Gold Line to get from home in Pasadena to work on Spring Street downtown was so tedious as to finally drive him back into his car. Seems that whenever an MTA product is in that column’s sights, more often than not the ink there is used to bitchslap and bag on doing anything besides commuting by car.

Now, I’m not some delusioned bus hugger whose unconditional lust blinds me from seeing the vast improvements that could be made to L.A.’s public transit system ó there’s plenty to do. But I have spent a fair share of my time utilizing those components and good, bad or ugly, I’m always going to be one of the few not to apologize… to encourage, not dis.

In fact, right here and now, I’m going to put my public-transpo love where my piehole is and decree August as my own personal Car-Free Commute Month.
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This week marks my twelfth anniversary of living in Los Angeles.

And what better way to celebrate that than doing something new!

This morning I visited LA County/USC Medical Center to pick up a friend being released, and these are the wonderful things I learned that you might find useful:

1.) Be prepared to be searched and go through a metal detector. Be prepared to do this several times – I kept going in and out the wrong doors and had to be cleared many times.

2.) It’s confusing. They have so many colored lines on the floor and so many places you have to check in before visiting someone, I wasn’t sure which one I was following. I never left the first floor and I never did figure out where I was.

3.) For some bizzare reason “Psych Ward” and “Jail Ward” are the only words visible to a patient being wheeled in and out of the trauma ward for x-rays and other tests. Keep that in mind if the patient you’re visiting is acting particularly sheepish.
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Anyone looking for a one-bedroom/one bath apartment in Silver Lake? My girlfriend and I are leaving our apartment of 2 years, and are hoping to find someone who might take over our place quickly. I thought I’m posting this on blogging.la and my LiveJournal first before it hits Craigslist and Westside Rentals. Its a beautiful apartment, with lush landscaping, art deco architectural details, and an unusual step up kitchen area with vintage stove and large counter space. There’s also a small balcony, onsite laundry, and is in walking distance down to Sunset Junction and nearby Bellevue Park. An amazing view from the living room and bedoom of the Hollywood sign, Griffith Observatory, downtown Hollywood and Century City. Even a citrus tree outside the bedroom window! Cats okay with possibility of garage space (on street parking is abundant). $1450/month.

Photos of the apartment here and more information from the management here (the photos here are of the downstair units which are not as scenic as our upstairs penthouse unit). I’m supposed to start showing the place ASAP, so hopefully one of you amongst the LJ community gets first dibs!

I went to see the much anticipated Directors Cut of Donnie Darko at the Arclight yesterday and thought it was wonderful. I think the additions to the film were justified and made the film better. So today when I read the review of the movie in the “Pick of the Week” section of the LA Weekly I was quite confuzzled. The review by Ella Taylor basically bashed the original as well as the new version and equated Donnie to a Columbine shooter. She also said that the new version took it from a piece about, and I quote, “suburban-angst drama to sci-fi fever dream”. Well Ella it’s obvious that you didn’t understand it the first time around and the addition of flash cards didn’t help much. It’s ALWAYS BEEN SCIENCE FICTION YOU FUCKING IDIOT! It’s a piece about self sacrifice as well and we all know that’s what the shooters at Columbine were all about. What editorial moron at the LA Weekly staffed out their “Pick of the Week” to an ill informed writer who didn’t even GET the original?

I went to BlogOn in Berkeley this weekend and Ross Mayfield suggested we try Tribe.net as a message board for this site so I thought I’d give it a shot. Join up at bloggingla.tribe.net and you’ll be able to post listings, discussions, and more. There’s even an RSS feed for the group. Additionally, if people like it, we should be able to put direct links from this site to recent topics. Take a look, and let me know what you think.

I first saw this poster early last month on the signal box where West Silver Lake T-bones into Rowena. The location and timing is significant for two reasons. First, it coincided with my reading of “Helter Skelter,” Vincent Bugliosi’s epic account of the Manson murders and trials. Second, from reading that book I recognized that someone had the bad taste to paste that poster up just a few blocks from the Waverly home of Leno and Rosemary La Bianca where they were savagely murdered by Manson followers August 10, 1969.

Why “bad taste?” Well, because a little more than two weeks before the La Biancas were killed, Charles Manson’s good friend Bobby Beausoleil (who’s pictured in said poster that’s promoting the CD release of his soundtrack to Kenneth Anger’s 1972 short film “Lucifer Rising”) killed his buddy Gary Hinman by stabbing him twice in the heart out at Hinman’s Toganga Canyon house.

To say the least it was an eerie coincidence to be reading all about such a horrible time in L.A.’s history and then find one of those responsible for it pushing a new disc (and with such a chilling title) so near one of the nightmares. The day after seeing the poster I returned to get a picture of it only to find it removed. Whether it was taken down by city workers or by an area resident as offended as I was, the thing was gone, but not forgotten. Walking through Sunset Junction this morning on the way home from breakfast at Millie’s, they were back.

So buyer beware or just be aware that the devil’s in the details. At face value it may look like nothing more than the reissue of 32-year-old psychedelia, but underneath it’s the music of a first-degree killer who has stated that his offing Hinman was the flashpoint that set off the 35-year-old terror of the Tate/La Bianca murders.

Hey, while I totally agree with Caryn that Modest Mouse isn’t, er…inspiring, here’s something that’s even worse.

Nickelback.

That’s not even the surprising bit, though. Seriously. You need to see and hear this!

Fogarty and I walked across the street this evening to see one damn snazzy show. Hollywood and Highland hosted String Theory tonight. It’s a band that has the coolest damn harp I’ve ever seen. The ran the strings from the stage to the third level balcony to create the instrument. They put on a damn fine show and if you get a chance to see them playing around town then definitely go. Very fun! I took a bunch of pictures but don’t have the time to post at the moment. Will try and post some more when I get the time. I’ve been posting more photos over at a photo a day if you’re interested in seeing more of my stuff.

Ooga Booga is an arty new store in Chinatown that looks pretty sweet. And when I say new, I mean new. Their grand opening is tonight:

OOGA BOOGA GRAND OPENING
FRIDAY JULY 23 6-9PM
943 N. BROADWAY #203 LOS ANGELES
213/617/1105

I’ll probably be there, noshing on free snacks and sucking down free drinks. Come say hi. And to head off what is bound to be your first question: yes, I cut off my hair.

I can’t believe that Koga hasn’t beat me to the punch on this one, but I wanted to remind fans of comics and bad WB television shows that Comic-Con started yesterday in San Diego. It runs through Sunday. For all you old-school goths, Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean will be signing today from 2:00-3:00 in the Dark Horse booth. If you leave now, you just might make it.

I was working on the CBS lot in Studio City around sunset today. I had a digital camera with a few minutes and megabytes to kill, so I took some quickie snapshots of abandoned TV sets. Everything you see here is life-sized, but fake (not unlike my city). The trees are painted on drywall, the houses are 3 feet deep, even the ivy is two-dimensional. Vacant studio lots emit a strange kind of sorrow and character that’s not there when they’re full of bodies. Like flat sketches that pop off the page when liberated from their daily human cargo. After actors depart and crews go home, the lots wake up to live moody, secret little dream lives we don’t know about. LA is full of promises and lies. Here, even the studio sets lie to you about being inanimate.
Link

So, you’re looking at your calendar, looking at another sad, mindless Saturday night at the corner bar debating the merits of Kools vs. Kool Ultra Lights with Flo the waitress. You’re looking for a new place to go, but Flo can’t tell you where the good stuff is going down. Never fear, my friend. I’ve got a solution for you!

The Review – this Saturday night at Barbara’s at the Brewery. Two of my favorite DJs in the whole wide world, plus Gekko! From 9 p.m. – 2 a.m. Free admission. Hot chicks. Hot guys. $2 PBR on tap. And it’s at the Brewery , so you know you’re gonna see some freaky artsy types.

First 3 pretty girls get to ride in Gekko’s Benz.

Dude. The hype machine known as X Games X is descending upon SoCal beginning August 5th. Previous years have shown you’re probably better off watching it on TV as the venues are set up for that, but who can resist the verter-than-thou hoopla? Anybody going to catch an event or two in person?

Brace yourselves for the Best News Ever (or prepare to humor me, whichever you prefer): Love with Arthur Lee is performing “Forever Changes” in its entirety on August 24th (the following night, they’ll play “Da Capo”)…at Spaceland. That’s right, the ’60s legend responsible for penning the breathtaking album sometimes dubbed “L.A.’s own ‘Sergeant Pepper’” will be performing said breathtaking album in a club with a capacity of 260.

Let me put this into further perspective for you: Love’s last big gig was at the Glastonbury Festival, which was attended by about 150,000 people.

And, as if that weren’t enough, tickets are on sale via Ticketweb, so you don’t have to bend over and take it from The Other Place. I got mine today.