Last Sunday L.A. Times culture vulture Joel Loquat-Hater Stein pissed all over “twits” that buy DVDs, and begrudingly I admit that:

1) I am one of those twits, and
2) He has a point.

But that was before learning that The Big Lebowski Achiever’s Edition is coming out on DVD October 18. Armed with that new knowledge pardon me while I paraphrase Walter Sobchak: “Shut the fuck up, Joely.”

Let the comments now overflow with favorite quotes from one of the Best Movies Ever, too long overdue from taking its rightful place on a DVD shelf that Stein would no doubt despise.

One of the shows opening this weekend is Xefirotarch- Improbabilities: Riding the SUR at SCIARC that opens on Friday…continue reading

Yesterday MoMA announced that it had hired Connie Butler (curator at MOCA who co-organized the Smithson show)…continue reading

Out of curiosity, and still in the grip of Steve Jobs’ Reality Distortion Field from his new product announcements, I went to a local Apple Store last night to see when the new hardware would arrive.

New iMacs? Within two days.
New iPods? No clue. Could be as soon as today.

UPDATE: Macintouch posted an update on Saturday:

[Robert Mohns] Apple Northshore has updated their outgoing phone message. The new iPod and iMac will be available on Tuesday, October 25th. Stock is expected to be limited.

[chas B] The store lists shipping in 5-7 day for the video iPod, but my order from yesterday has an estimated ship date of 10/27/05. This is nearly 2 weeks. What is up with their estimates?

UPDATE: Be sure to check Miles’ comments below for an update on the availability of the new iPods.

I am so totally ready to move. We’ve been talking to the mortgage broker, shopping around for agents, all the good stuff you have to do to sell a house, and we’ve been really seriously discussing moving into downtown. But boy-oh-boy is that a can of worms. As with most downtown renovations, all those “live/work artist’s lofts” are more like “live/lounge yuppie lofts.” Contrary to marketing tradition, a lack of walls doesn’t automatically make a space a workable artist’s loft and we’re having a really hard time finding anything that’s not really just a lux condo in disguise. I mean, places like the Eastern Columbia are beautiful, but they not even close to being a working space. And I’m not interested in paying HOA dues out the ass for a bunch of services (valet parking?) that I don’t want. The Molino Street Lofts sounded pretty cool, but they’re all sold out now. So, does anybody have any special insight into the labyrinthine world of downtown L.A. development? Are there any cool projects or areas that I don’t know about that I should? Gimme some hot tips, downtown dwellers!

What’s up with openings on Thursdays? Is Thursday the new Saturday?…continue reading

According to this post by Gloria Mattioni, California may host several executions next year. This kind of thing makes me sick because there are many shades to the “truth” and they get twisted into the most contorted shapes in a trial. She writes,

“So here we are again, ready to show once more the evolutionary face of civilized America. We put people to death, as in the most primitive and barbarian societies Worse, we do that despite evidence uncovered several times that there have been mistakes in sentencing people. Mistakes with the “penalty” of innocents losing their life.

The execution in itself is the most pornographic show I happened to witness. Relatives of the victim and tv cameras are admitted behind a glass to watch the inmate arriving in chains, being strapped to a hospital bed and killed in a surgical and aseptic way. The “cruelty free” method of choice is the three-way lethal injections, like an animal in a cage. Horrific is the only adjective that comes to my mind.

Roman gladiators combats were not as porn as this “civilized” show.”

She goes on to share the letter from the state and how you can share your views on this to the state.

As much as I hate the American League, and its wussy little DH, I couldn’t tear myself away from the ALCS tonight. It was, without a doubt, one of the best games I have ever watched in my life.

. . . right up until the fucking umpires completely blew the call in the bottom of the ninth, which set up the Sox to win. Bull. Shit. Worst. Call. Ever.

I am not a fan of the Seventeenth Street Adjacent Angels of Anaheim, but they deserved much better than this fucking bullshit failure of the umpiring crew to make the right call. Both teams played well enough to win, especially the Sox, who are clearly the best team in baseball this year (as a Cubs fan it kills me to say it, but it’s true) but they didn’t need to win this way.

The word is out! The theme for the Bicycle Kitchen’s monthly Midnight Ridazz bike tour this Friday’s eve is Dead Theatre Ryde and you’re urged to join in this spooktacular spin as either your favorite deceased thespian or otherwise creepy character.

The nightbiking masses will commence huddling at 9:30 p.m. at the corner of Sunset and Echo Park boulevards for a 10 p.m. departure on an 18-miler that is reported to feature “one BIG hill into Angelino Heights” and “two BIG descents” and I’d expect will include pedaling pilgrimages to some of downtown’s once-storied theatrical venues.

Should be dramatic. I’m clueless as to a costume yet hopeful I can find a Buster Keaton mask… or maybe I’ll just wear Lycra (yikes!). But whether disguised or I’m not gonna let that stop me from rolling in my first Ridazz. Anyone else in?

Seen today on the marquee at the Century City multiplex:

“40 Year Old Corpse Bride”

Mmmmm…stinky…

I was riding in my daily carpool this morning and heading northbound on Topanga Canyon at Victory towards the 101 Freeway, when we saw a large silver Metro-branded bus liner to our right.

It looks like it was headed towards the Orange line for more test runs?

Flipping through a magazine last week I came upon an ad for Logitech’s new wireless headphones for iPods and having long salivated at the thought of being able to cut the cords between my trusty MP3 player and its earbuds while I walk, hike or mountainbike, I begrudgingly shrugged at the pricey $149 tag and ordered me up a pair, which I’ve put through some paces since their arrival.

By no means an audiophile, I can’t give you much detail regarding their output range other than to say the music they’re pushing into my ears sounds good, crisp and clean and nicely balanced between the treble and bass.

The headphones themselves are equipped with integrated controls on the right side that allow you to control the volume, select, play and pause tracks by communicating via Bluetooth with an adapter that plugs into your iPod’s jack. The distance I’ve experienced before the connection starts to break-up is an as-advertised 30 feet, give or take obstacles, corners and such. An included jack extension wire allows you to plug the adapter into older iPods as well as a variety of componentry (CD players, TVs, DVD players) that’s equipped with a 3.5mm plug.
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Apple just released the video iPod. Let the Los Angeles area vlogcasting begin.

While I’ve been accused of liking art, and liking coffee, I’ve never been a big fan of art & coffee which means I’m not known to recommend art shows in coffee shops. Until now. The fine folks at Fangoria have pointed out a photo exhibition being held at Wilshire’s Cafe Latte called Behind the Curtain With John Carpenter with rare behind-the-scenes pics by Kim Gottlieb-Walker. Behind the scenes on movies like HALLOWEEN (pictured) and HALLOWEEN II, THE FOG, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK and other Carpenter classics of course. Cafe Latte is at 6254 Wilshire Boulevard, is open 7:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. It’s a coffee shop, so I’m pretty sure it’s safe to say admission is free.

Near the LA River, 5 and the 110.