Just in case you’re wondering what all the helicopter commotion over Silverlake is, here’s the channel 4 news blurb (via Koga).

Today at 2 PM, the Dodgers are holding a news conference to announce the signing of Nomar Garciaparra — five-time all star, former Red Sox and Cubs shortstop. And while he’s been injury plagued the past couple of years, the signing of a big-name player (and hometown boy) by the Dodgers is just the latest in a series of recent moves that have done nothing less than reinvent the team.

Speaking of injury-plagued, the Dodgers last season suffered from a crazy series of problems that had us fielding what amounted to a AAA team most of the year. Will it happen again this year? You’ll excuse us Dodgers fans if we’re a little freaked out and gunshy.

Only one thing’s for sure — with the purging of the managerial and coaching staff, all the new signings, not to mention the trading of Milton Bradley, this is a brand-new team. And from all indications, we aren’t done. Reports are we’re signing CF Kenny Lofton today as well. Assuming that’s true, here’s our (likely) starting lineup…
Read the rest of this entry →

Two of my friends took Anne and me to see Bob’s Holiday Office Party at the Third Stage theatre last night. This show is in its tenth year, and it’s easy to see why it has been able to endure for so long. The show takes place in a small midwestern town, at Bob’s Holiday party. Bob is an insurance salesman, but he really wants to be an inventor. While he considers a move to the Big City (Des Moines), all his friends, who happen to be his clients, drop in for drinking, dancing, and various forms of holiday cheer.

There’s a story, about preserving and escaping small-town America, but it’s not that central to the enjoyment of the show. The real joy in Bob’s Holiday Party are the brilliant characters written by Rob Elk and Joe Keys, brought to life by an immensely talented cast, who never fall into the caricature trap. The show gets a bit chaotic at times, just like a real holiday party, but the actors are so fantastic, the chaos is more entertaning than overwhelming.

Last night was the show’s official closing night, but they’ve extended for four more shows, on Saturday nights in January.

This is not a show for uptight jerks or kids, but for everyone else, I highly recommend it.

Update: If you’d rather not take my word for it, read blogging.la’s own Colleen’s take on the show, which I carelessly forgot about before I wrote this post earlier today. I blame the War on Christmas.

Not that Paris, this one! Our 38th Metroblogging city launched today and chock full of photos, videos, and even a few posts in English for your reading pleasure. Of course, if you read French there’s even more for you to soak in but either way there’s a bunch of cool stuff on the site already. If you get a spare moment, swing by and check it out.

Following up on my recent posts about the lack of LA Times RSS feeds, I’d like to point out that the Times has now added a whole spate of ‘em. Good on ya, and thanks! Of course, you will probably need to be registered and logged in to get to the actual articles from the summaries, but one thing at a time, eh? ;)

And not to be left out, the Times has also begun podcasting to go along with their blogs. Next thing you know, the Times is going to start dating other newspapers. They grow up so fast, don’t they? ;D

In case you were wondering what a crowd of 200 santas were doing in Hollywood (and at various other locations) yesterday, it was Santacon. The santas that survived the strenuous day ended up at Cheetas, as Sean already noted.

In the mood to do some unusual holiday shopping? Why not stop off at a special Natural History Auction by the IM Chait Gallery/Auctioneers in Beverly Hills?

For the ultimate Hitchcock fan you could be the owner of Alfred Hitchcock’s skull, Lot # 235, well, a skull he owned; not the one on his head, seen in the photo below:

Some unusual paleontological items:
* Dinosaur Egg with an embryonic dinosaur skeleton preserved inside
* Virtually complete Ceratopsian dinosaur skeleton
* Unique ìFlying Dinosaurî skeleton, Pterosaur, from the Jurassic Period
* Skull of an extinct Sabre-Toothed Cat

View the catalog

Don’t want to get dressed and walk out the door to attend? Watch/bid online via eBayLiveAuctions.

(I’ll be there… I’m the one sitting behind the computer monitor and screaming out bids from internet bidders.)

Last night, I attended the annual holiday concert of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles (GMCLA)… program entitled “A Touch of Brass.”

As usual, the men gave a wonderfully musical and entertaining show. The highlight? The return of Phil Hettema’s “Foamettes” (large-sized puppets that come to life with the help of blacklight and an army of puppeteers) who “perform” T’was the Night Before Christmas in a way you’ve never seen in before.

Today is your last chance to catch this awesome performance at the Alex Theatre in Glendale at a 3pm matinee.

On Sunday, December 18 at 3:00pm, the Golden State Pops Orchestra will hold its second of two Holiday Pops Spectaculars at the Warner Grand Theater in San Pedro.

The show features traditional Christmas music as well as newer classics like selections from How The Grinch Stole Christmas. If you’re an Art Deco enthusiast and you’ve never been to the Warner Grand, you’ve been missing out on one of the best architectural secrets in our fair city. The Warner Grand played host to movie premieres during the studio’s heyday and has survived many attempts to tear it down or “renovate” it beyond all recognition. It is the last of 3 theaters designed by Marcus Priteca for San Pedro, Beverly Hills, and Huntington Park. He went on to design the famous Pantages Theater. It celebrates its 75th Birthday this January.

The Golden State Pops was formed in January of 2002 and is currently the only year-round pops orchestra in the Los Angeles area. Later this year, they will offer Looney Tunes, Sci-Fi, and Superhero themed performances.

I enjoyed tonight’s show and recommend it to anyone looking for a nice way to pass a Sunday afternoon. Check out the GSPO website for ticket information.

Photo from the volunteer-maintained Warner Grand website. To support preservation efforts, please visit the Grand Vision Foundation website to find out what you can do to help protect this local treasure.

Okay, Red Car, but close.

Atwater Village may have a Red Car Mural, but here in San Pedro we have an authentic Red Car (along with 2 replicas) running along our waterfront. One commenter referred to them as running “from nowhere to nowhere,” but that depends on how you look at it (it also depends on how favorably you view the proposed waterfront redevelopment).

After driving past it a thousand times, we finally made a point of going down and taking a ride. The line starts at 22nd Street (where “nowhere” is actually a fantastic seafood restaurant called 22nd Street Landing located about half a block from the Red Car stop). Along the way to the Cruise Ship Terminal (where “nowhere” is a recently redeveloped promenade that features local art, comfortable teak deck chairs, and at night, lovely lighting), the Red Car passes the Los Angeles Maritime Museum, formerly the Municipal Ferry Terminal and a rare, original Art Deco classic for you architecture fans out there.

The $1 fare will get you up and down Harbor Blvd (though days around the holiday are frequently free) as many times as you want and the line runs every 20 minutes from 10:00am to 6:00pm, Friday through Monday. There was a time when the Pacific Electric Railway was the largest interurban rail system in America. Believe it or not, you could get from San Pedro to Downtown L.A. without waiting for an uncomfortably MTA bus that probably isn’t going to show up anyway. Cars 500 and 501, the replicas, and Car 1058, the vintage car, are all representative of the early 1900s “Pacific Electric 500-class design.” They’re surprisingly comfortable – must less confined than most of the fleet of restored cars operating on San Francisco’s F-line.

And while you’re at it, hop off and check out the Maritime Museum. It’s well constructed, crammed with local artifacts representing the harbor area’s commercial fishing, general maritime, and naval history. The gift store has plenty of salty-flavored local books, art, and gifts for your last minute holiday needs. Check out their website for more information.

It’s fun. It’s history. And kids dig this kind of stuff. Enjoy the ride!

That horribly blurry photo that I just snapped out of the back window as we drove past, is a whole gang of Santa’s (male and female) outside of Cheetah’s Night Club on Hollywood just east of Vermont. Of course by “Night Club” they mean “Strip Club” but you already knew that I’m sure. I can only hope it’s somehow related to this story from New Zealand. And to make the whole thing that might weirder, two people in Easter Bunny suits complete with baskets were walking up Vermont just south of Hollywood. I have no idea what the hell is going on, but I know I like it!

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say there’s probably something going on on the 10 westbound near Farfax/Washington/Venice exits. I’m jumping to this conclusion since there’s about 5 traffic helichopters hovering over the gallery all facing the 10 and I can see eastbound which looks ok. Can anyone confirm or deny any of this?

UPDATE: We can now see smoke as well. Pillers of smoke.

UPDATE 2: The just hear that the Washington / Fairfax offramp is onfire. I’m guessing it’s not from the heat.

UPDATE 3: I don’t know WTF is going on to be honest. I walked over to the Washington / Fairfax exit with my camera and there’s nothing there to take a photo of. I can still count 3 trafficcopters in the air and here’s the sig alert report.

Hot on the heels of the news of Aron’s Records demise, there’s a post on LAist today reporting that UponShop is closing. UponShop is putting the blame on a number of factors, including both downloading and the Amoeba-hemoth. Maybe we should start a dead pool for local record stores?

If youíre following Beverly Hills suggestion and shopping fashionably late, then we at blogging.la want to help you find interesting and unique gifts for friends, family and lucky receivers. Tammara finds Divinity in Hollywood, EECUE has a challenge for the DIY hacker, Colleen finds exclusive design in Silverlake and Cindy covers Holiday Bazaars to help us be conscious consumers. And watch out, if you get a red envelope from me this year. ;)

All this after the jump…
Read the rest of this entry →

Do casting directors really cast people to play dead bodies, or do they just grab a random extra from the mud pit behind craft services and throw them on a gurney? This guy is hoping it’s the former, and while I would challenge his definition of “average” in his list of reasons to cast him (#3: I am average size “6’0″…..220lbs.”), he seems as good as anybody to play a side of man beef. And you’ve got to love that photo gallery.