Since Thanksgiving weekend is here and I’m flying across the country for Aqua Art Miami, I won’t be posting much until I get into Miami on Monday afternoon. But I wanted to post some events happening in Los Angeles next week that I probably wouldn’t get a chance to blog if I didn’t do it right now…continue reading

As Pharaoh wonders what all the kitchen hubbub is about, here’s wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving if you celebrate it, and a Happy Day if you don’t. ;)

I bought the wrong kind of sugar last night for the cheesecake my wife is making from scratch today. Got powdered, not granulated. And I got cans of whole cranberries rather than the jellied kind, which is the only kind for me.

So I hop upon The Phoenix and with the sunrising behind me over Sunset do I ride with the Vons at Virgil as my destination. With the thoroughfare almost thoroughly to myself I pass an elderly gent standing on the Silver Lake overpass across from Pho and Rhambutan bemusedly rubbing a sheet of lottery scratchers. Winner? Not at that particular moment.

Further on up there are two chihuahuas, a black and a tan, sniffing around the corner of the Cliff’s Edge restaurant, lost or loose? Neither thankfully, their guardian whistles for them from nearer to the 99 where business is brisk.

At a red across from the Circus of Books, a tired voice comes from inside a tired minivan next to me and I turn to find a tired man ironically asking if I might have a buck for gas because he’s almost empty. “I only have my ATM card,” I tell him. His crest falls a bit, but he tells me it’s cool thanks and moves on with the green.
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Did my eyes deceive me tonight driving back from the madness that was Vons the day before Thanksgiving (where apparently there is no such thing as a four-pound ham at this late date), or did I see a Giant Robot store currently under construction next to the Tsunami coffeehouse on Sunset Boulevard?

UPDATE: I gotta start using my peripheral vision more. The GR store manager answered my inquiry by letting me know their newest branch has been open for business since July, albeit just on weekends until last month when they bumped it to six days per week.

It’s not bad enough all the stupid drivers on the road narrowly missing you every day — there’s also folks *trying* to hit you.

Twenty-three people have been arrested for allegedly participating in an insurance fraud ring that staged more than 60 auto collisions on Southern California freeways and bilked about $3 million from insurers, officials said Wednesday.

A seven-month investigation led to the arrest of Huntington Park lawyer Bernard Laufer, 52, as the alleged ringleader, said state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi. Laufer, taken into custody Tuesday, faces charges of insurance fraud, grand theft and conspiracy.

The investigation continues and more arrests likely will be made, Garamendi said. The probe is looking into doctors and chiropractors who may have been involved in the scam.

Jean Prouv√©’s Tropical House has been extended through the holidays until January 2006 at the Hammer Museum…continue reading

I had no idea the shortage of nurses was so high in California until I read today’s LA Times article on the tactics hospitals and other nursing agencies are using to recruit nurses.

Scrambling to comply with California’s first-of-its-kind law mandating 1 nurse for every 5 patients in most wards starting this year, hospitals are in a hiring frenzy reminiscent of Silicon Valley’s lust for engineers in 1999. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this month dropped his fight to suspend the law, leaving hospitals to cope with a labor shortage that is expected to grow for decades.

I don’t know if it will be getting any better soon, but at least there are steps to increase the number of nurses. UCLA just announced that it would reinstate the undergraduate nursing program in response to a shortage of nurses. The School of Nursing offered and undergraduate program from 1949 when it opened, but the program was dropped in the mid-1990s due to budget cuts. Students interested to enter the program for fall 2006 must apply before November 30.

I know you’ve barely had time to read through everything up in Vancouver but just in case, we’re launching another city for you to check out. As of this morning Islamabad is the 35th Metroblogging city. W00t!

Queens of the Stone Age are one of my favorite current rock bands. I’m sorry but there isn’t a single actor or actress in this band. They do however, put on a killer live show, complete with some of the best stage banter around. If you haven’t seen this band yet (or even if you have) you should catch one of these two last shows in LA at The Wiltern (they’re also gonna do one in Toronto or somewhere I think but don’t quote me on that) before they go on a little break from being a band. Click here to buy tickets for either 12/19/05 or 12/20/05. Don’t blow it and miss these shows, cuz not only do these guys have bomb songs (check out the riffage man) but these dudes go off harder than David Lee Roth! Well maybe not that hard, they haven’t started to wear spandex yet. Either way, here are a few photos I took a while ago. Also, subcribe to the Queens Of The Stone Age video podcast by clicking here. It’s got clips from their renegade shows… yeah dude, dope show.
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As I left the gallery late tonight I was reminded that a lot of other LA galleries are also preparing for whatever fair their doing in Miami next week. So, for those of you looking for a little LA in Miami, or for those of you just keeping track, I’ve made you a list…continue reading

I missed the release party for the newest art book on Los Angeles (“LA Artland” published by Black Dog Publishing) this past Sunday at the dark Mountain Bar in Chinatown – I think I was watching Susperia or something…continue reading

I’m fascinated with evolution. I know that because of the everyday use computers, we now think differently. We have evolved our consciousness….and are now even more connected to each other than ever before, just from using computers. The same goes for wrinkles….I think LA may be on the forefront of the evolution (revolution?) in wrinkle eradication.

Out of all jobs I’ve had in the illustrious world of entertainment, the silliest was working for Playboy TV. Creating and producing shows for that network, I got a real close-up view of the good, the bad and the uglies of plastic surgery. One perk was that I DID find out which plastic surgeon does the best breasts, who can fix a bad nose job and who has the lightest touch with botox. So, years later, when a reality show I was doing had a woman who wanted a boob job….I went to the best for the show… Dr. Frank Ryan. It was a real education to be in the operating room and see what getting a perky rack entails. Yikes!

The upshot of all this is that all my girlfriends now come to me for advice on who to go to for botox and so on…so I send them to straight to Dr. Ryan. Today I accompanied my best friend to a visit with him….she seriously dreads needles, doctors and such, but hates her wrinkles even more, so decided to brave it and check out the results. I read in the paper the other day that as a result of poaching, elephants now seem to be evolving more and more without tusks as a survival mechanism. It occurred to me as I was watching her get shot up with botox and restyaline that as with everything, our skin must be evolving too. I wonder if one day as a defense mechanism against needles, we won’t start getting wrinkles until we hit sixty-five?

The metblogs family just got a little bigger with the launch of Metroblogging Vancouver. Much like with their Canadian blog brethren in Montreal and Toronto I look forward to reading about snow and ice and jackets while I kick back and enjoy the lovely weather here in SoCal. If you are keeping count, like we are, that is city number 34. Check it out!

Obviously not strictly L.A. related and If I’m stating the obvious, I apologize. I’ve been a bit removed from the news of late. But I just glanced at the calender and it dawned on me that John F. Kennedy was assassinated on this date 42 years ago. No big whoop in the media perhaps because there’s not a zero or a five in the second digit’s place, but worth noting nonetheless.

Well, it seems as if the all the fan complaints, not to mention the legal wrangling with the city of Anaheim, have finally talked some sense into Arte Moreno about the whole Los Angeles Angels name thing. He’ll be changing it back to the normal name very soon…

…if by ‘talked some sense into’ you mean ’caused more insane stupidity to arise’ and by ‘changing it back to the normal name’ you mean ‘threatening to pack up the team and relocate to another city.’

LA Times story.

Los Angeles Angels of Las Vegas anybody?