Miles offered this update in the comments for last week’s entry about the new iMacs and iPod Videos:

Not sure if anyone is still reading this entry, but just to update anyone who is, the apple stores in L.A. now have the new Ipod’s in stock in a limited supply. Despite the message on the phone system, when I spoke with Northridge they had the 30GB in white and Glendale had the 30GB in black and the 60GB in white. It stands to reason that more prominent stores (Santa Monica, Century City, The Grove) would also have them

Anyway, I am now the proud ownwer of a 30GB in black and it is stunning! It makes my old (3 weeks old!) 20GB look like a brick! Now I just have to return my 20GB to Best Buy before the returns period ends!

Congrats, Miles, and thanks for commenting!

Today my friend Meredith and I went mallwalking at the Fashion Square Mall in Sherman Oaks. When she first suggested it, I made fun of her for being from New Jersey, but then I agreed to try it out, since there are way too many puddles in our ‘hood to go for a real walk.

I guess you don’t need to be an old lady to enjoy a brisk indoor stroll and some window shopping, but damn, I wish I had a grandchild (or even a dog) to dress in that octopus costume!

Another lovely bit of Halloween attire is after the jump.
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Internet famous man about town Joi Ito just blogged that he will be speaking at USC tomorrow.

Time: Wednesday, October 19, 6-8pm
Location: USC’s Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC), Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)
3131 South Figueroa Blvd./2nd Floor

The question of course, is how much of the talk will be about World of Warcraft and how can he break away from it for a whole 2 hour talk?

To everyone who complains that it’s “just rain” when somebody posts about the weather (because talking about the weather is crazy! Nobody ever makes conversation about the weather!) I would like to draw your attention to this article from MSNBC, and especially it’s headline and sub: “California Thunderstorms an Absolute ëDelugeí: Walnut-sized Hail Triggers Mudslides, Power Outages, and Halts Traffic.” Sounds like some other people, like, oh, The National Weather Service, thought it merited some attention as well.

I’m not sure what percentage of the readers here are in to Drum’n'Bass, but if you’ve never heard of it you should give it a chance. Personally I’ve been in to dnb for over 10 years now and I’ve been actively supporting the scene here in LA for almost 7 years with a website called Jungle Scene. Los Angeles currently has one of the best dnb scenes in the world and probably the best in the country, and this week is a good example of how good we have it.

Starting tonight down in OC (yes I know that is not LA proper) you can catch U.K. producer Dylan at a weekly called Adrenaline.

Then on Thursday you can catch Norwegian Subtitles/Metalheadz artist Teebee at LA’s longest running dnb weekly Respect, show up early for this one because the Larchmont will be packed for this event.

On Friday you can catch the second installment of the monthly club Purgatory with some of LA’s best DJs including R.A.W., Deacon, CRS? and APX1 which is brought to you by Wreckignition [I should note that I have been throwing parties with wreck longer than I have been running JS so I may be a bit biased].

On Saturday from 10pm to 2pm (yes PM the next day) Bring Your Own will be a free party in Downtown Pomona (also not in LA proper) where you can catch Deacon play again if you missed him on Friday night.

And finally rounding out the week on Sunday is a free club called Samurai located next to the Beauty Bar on Caheunga in Hollywood come for the sushi and sake and stay for the bass.

So I just read this article about the “Rebel Billionaire” Richard Branson wussing out on his rappelling stunt that he had scheduled for the Virgin Megastore opening just because of a little rain. I personally have rappelled in heavy rain and I can tell you that rappel racks and other descenders work just fine on a wet rope, although you may have to add another wrap around the hyper-bar to control your descent.

So I was wondering what the heck was going on last night on the roof of the Alexandria Hotel which was illuminated for about 30 minutes with the NightSun from a circling LAPD bird. I tried to see what the action was all about through my trusty binoculars but I couldn’t quite see what was going on and I didn’t feel like getting out my scanner so I went to bed without knowing what was happening. This morning in a random LA RSS feed I saw this article about some wacko throwing bricks off the roof of the Alex. Thankfully nobody was injured but the suspect is still at large.

[Update] On my way back from the gym I walked past the Alexandria and in the gutter was half a freshly smashed brick, which I grabbed… I’ll take a pic later if anyone is interested.

[Update, now with photos] Here is a link to the photos of the brick.

Just heard this one and wanted to pass it on to anyone needing a grin (or a chance to tell me that this joke’s so old its age spots have age spots):

Duhbya’s in the Oval Office when there’s a discreet knock on the door. “C’mon in!” Duhbya yells congenially and in walks a very solemn staffer. “Whut’s goin’ on?” Duhbya asks seated behind the desk with his boots up on it.

“I’m sorry to inform you sir that three Brazilian soldiers were killed today in Iraq.”

In a split second Duhbya’s on his feet and pacing, exclaiming “Why that’s horrible, horrible news!”

“Yes sir,” agrees the staffer.

“Just horrible,” Duhbya repeats before stopping suddenly and facing the staffer. “Tell me again how many zeros are there in a brazilian?”

/rimshot

Screamfest Los Angeles is officially underway and I’m the proud ticket holder of this Thursday’s back-to-back zombie films: Land of the Dead extended director’s cut and Severed. Color me rotting! So, since the big Halloween day is only two weeks away, I wanted to feature some of the horror films I enjoy on a weekly basis to get you in a frightful mood. I’m mentioning a few this week and the rest next week. Too much at once might stop your heart!

ïRosemary’s Baby (1968) – I seriously much watch this movie twice a month. As if being a first-time mother isn’t enough to deal with, you have to find out that you’ve birthed Satan’s child! Poor little Andy or Jenny.

ïDawn of the Dead (the 2004 re-make) – I know I’ll probably get a virus from this but I think this movie is the tops. Best chaotic opening sequence to a movie ever. It doesn’t have the Romero touch but it’s just as intense and entertaining.

ïThe Legend of Hell House (1973) – why don’t people believe when someone tells them a house is haunted? I mean, for real.

ïBurnt Offerings (1976) – another “haunted” house movie or, in this case, it’s more like the house is alive. I’m in an obsessive Karen Black film phase right now and this one hits the spot. Burgess Meredith is even in it!

More coming next week along with my Screamfest recap. In the meantime, check out my recommendations from last year on blogging.la. Those films are still my favorite!

On Friday night, I attended (along with abLA writers Valerie and 5000) the pre-opening party for the Installation Scion Art Tour 2005 Final Show in their new space in Culver City…continue reading

My friend just invited me over to watch Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf on her roommate’s big screen TV. It’s airing on Encore at 8 p.m. Could there possibly be a better way to spend a potentially rainy night than watching a movie with this description?

A werewolf expert goes to Transylvania with the brother and the colleague of a werewolf newswoman. Adult Situations; Language; Nudity; Graphic Violence.

Nudity, violence and a werewolf newswoman’s colleague!! I’m leaving right now so I won’t miss the beginning.

Update: The movie was a lot more entertaining than I expected, and to my surprise, it even had some L.A. relevance. The main characters lived here before they took off for Transylvania.

The roommate and I will be interviewing potential new roommates this week. The process is weird for us because most likely the roommate will be a stranger. I’ve never been through this process since the women I’ve lived with in the past were either assigned to me or were good friends who decided we should move to an apartment together. I’ve never had major roommate issues and would definitely like to avoid them.

Do any b.la readers have advice on things we should ask or look for in potential roommates that might not go in the “common sense” category?

I’d just like to tell all of you that I’m totally digging the thunder and lightening over here in West Hollywood. I missed the thunderstorm earlier this year when I was out of town.

Thunder electrifies me. It excites me. There’s nothing better than sleeping in a cozy bed with the sound of the rain on the roof. Or spending quality time with the liquid display and the sound of the rain on the patio. Good thing I already hit the farmer’s market.

I hope the rest of you Angelinos are enjoying this as much as I am.

AFAIK, the eastern part of Hollywood into downtown has been lacking a good comic shop for a long time. Not so anymore, as Secret Headquarters apparently opened a few months ago on Sunset. While the vibe is a little bit ominous (think Sam Jackson in Unbreakable), it’s a classy place with a decent stock of cool books. From the looks of things, they lean toward the literary and/or arty and they have a selection of original art hanging as well. Definitely not a place to dig through long boxes to fill out your back issue collection, but then again I don’t think that’s the kind of comics consumer they’re catering to. If you’re looking for a more local place to get your weekly fix filled or somewhere you can discover a new writer or artist, Secret Headquarters is probably the place.

We just lost power for a second or two… all the power flickered on and off.

Had to wait for all my equipment (computer, printer, etc) to reboot. Not a big deal, but if I had been in the middle of my 800 page print-out I was about to start, I would have been livid.

I wonder if we’re going to have intermittent power problems today… it looked like power went down at least a couple of times over the weekend.

UPDATE: I just got a call from the receptionist so I could let everyone on my floor know that all the elevators in the building are out. Greeeaaaat…

UPDATE AGAIN: It’s all good. The elevator outage was very temporary. Although if the power goes out again, they’ll probably go out again. Guess who’s taking the stairs today?