Following up on Heathervescent’s post a couple days ago showcasing an awesomely illuminated palm tree and calling for shout-outs about standout Christmas decorations we’ve observed, here’s the hands-down and lights-up winner in my neck of the woods (click image to biggify).

There’s just too much to try to do it justice with a single snapshot: snowmen stand guard and polar bears patrol the shrubs and reindeer are hoofing it up on the rooftop; donkeys recline outside the obligatory baby jesus manger scene and there are enough lights on everything else that whenever the owner flips the switch the DWP probably sings “Oh Holy Shite!” while watching the neighborhood’s power levels flatline for a moment. Sure my jadedness says its corny and wasteful, but dang if when my wife and I found it blazing last Sunday night I didn’t just give it up and appreciate the hard work to bring a little joyful illumination into the evening.

Should you want to check it out live, the house is located on Lafayette Park Place in Silver Lake, nearest the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Benton Way. Here’s the Google Map.

This is the sort of thing that makes me want to move to the woods with nothing more than a fishing pole and a copy of Walden. (Click for larger picture.)

Note the “freedom, style, sex, power and motion” slogan emblazoned near the top. How do I get those things by buying this product? Maybe it has something to do with what’s in the Von Dutch Energy Drink. What’s in it, you ask? No fucking idea, but it’s a “high octane blend of vitamins and natural stimulants”. Oh, and one of its selling points is that the “unique, innovative” 16-ounce can is “twice as big as your average energy drink to give you a turbo-boost of energy, stamina, and mental-alertness.” Whoo.

The press release offers the real story:

With rapid worldwide growth and the continual expansion of its consumer base, consisting of young, hip trendsetters, whose ages range from late teens to mid-thirties, Von Dutch Originals is poised to make an impact on the energy beverage category. The 16oz can, along with bold artwork and a proven moniker, will undoubtedly help the Von Dutch Energy Drink to stand out on retail shelves.

And by “trendsetters” we mean “crazy people with more money than sense who will buy freakin’ anything with our logo, thus proclaiming their individuality just like everybody else.” In other words, the Uggs of the energy drink market.

Check out this slam from Halley’s Comment:

Cold In LA?!?

Okay, you Los Angelenos, don’t get me started on it being ‘COLD’ there. I keep hearing from LA people today complaining about THEIR weather.

It was minus 3 F degrees here in Boston last night. Broke a record, yes, THREE BELOW ZERO.

Three shmee, it’s been in the fifties here! Damn I need some gloves.

Last night was my re-certification test to be a Whale-Watch Naturalist with the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium again next year. Here are a few things I’ve learned from my classes that I thought I’d share with you:

1. Whale milk is 53% butterfat. Human milk is 2-3% fat and cow’s milk is 3.3%.
2. Nursing baby Gray Whales gain between 25 and 75 lbs a day (see #1)
3. Pinnipeds (seals and sea lions) have a baculum, also known as a penis bone. Yes, they have an actual bone in their penis. Some of you may be aware that many mammals have penis bones, but this was news to me. Here’s a place where you can order them for stirring your coffee.
4. Pinnipeds are part of the order Carnivora and are related to cats, dogs and bears.
5. Cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) are part of the superorder Ungulates (hoofed animals) which includes grazing animals like horses, cows, elephants and hippos. Unlike all other unglulates, cetaceans are the only predators in this group.
6. One of the most endangered cetaceans is the Vaquita (“little cow”) which lives in the Gulf of California. A teensy little porpoise, there may be only about a hundred of them left. They’re about 4-5 long and live at the gulf of the Colorado river and the upper Gulf of California. They are most often killed as by-catch by fishermen.

I don’t get the results of my test until next week, but I think I passed. See you on the water next month!

Just got the announcement that the 4th issue of The Journal of Aesthetics and Protest (an LA-based publicaation, natch) has just been released…continue reading

I didn’t know that Stanley “Tookie” Williams wasn’t, in fact, the founder of the Crips. According to this very interesing LA Weekly story, it’s pretty widely known that the Crips were founded by a man named Raymond Washington. You learn something new every day!

Tony Palermo, a friend and neighbor of mine who does SFX and other radio stuff, emailed me about a special invited dress rehearsal of the ‘radio’ on-stage adaptation of It’s A Wonderful Life that’s currently running at Pasadena Playhouse.

It features a base cast of 7 actors, and a rotating celebrity cast who play the lead characters. This week is Joe Mantegna, Sharon Lawrence, Jamie Farr and the king god almighty of comic actors himself, Mr. Fred Willard. It’s set up like an old-time radio studio, and there’s someone on organ and Tony playing various FX. The Playhouse gives good production, so this might be the one to see.

Get there early to see the “pre-show”: organ music and Tony “testing” the SFX: say, 7:40. No guest list, plenty o’ seats (it’s a 680 seat theater!) and FREE!!!

It’s a Wonderful Life
Pasadena Playhouse
39 S. Molina (just so. of Colorado)
Pasadena, 91101

UPDATE: Sorry, everyone. The show is TONIGHT, Thursday, the 15th. Der…

The Producers fucking rocked. I am not normally a huge fan of musicals, but when the musical in question was written by Mel Brooks I can’t say no. If you think about it, every Mel Brooks movie has musical-esque scenes, my favorite probably being “The Inquisition” scene from History of the World Part I.

The Producers is one of those unique movies that started out as a movie in the late 60s, then went on to be a very successful Broadway musical and has now been brought back to the big screen. One of the interesting things about the movie is that nearly the entire original cast from the Broadway show made the transition to the movie. The only two actors who were not part of the musical cast are Will Ferrel and Uma Thurman.

Will Ferrel was absolute fucking hilarity in his part as Franz Liebkind, the Nazi playwright who penned the play that the movie centers on. The real star of the show, though was Gary Beach, who played the flamboyantly gay director-cum-hitler Roger De Bris who, with his sassy common law cohort Carmen Ghia (Roger Bart), had the audience in tears along with their merry production team.

After the free show (thanks Variety and The Arclight) Susan Stroman, the director of both the movie and the broadway show talked with a moderator (who’s name escapes me at the moment) and then answered questions from the audience:

• Yes there are real pigeons in the movie, but the ones that dance and zig-heil are Jim Henson created puppets (you will notice they look familiar) which were operated by 6 puppeteers and a choreographer
• The voices of the pigeons (they laugh) and the cat (it cries while being swung around) are Mel Brooks, who also makes a cameo after the final credits, which is worth sticking around for.
• All the songs from the music made it into the movie except for the first number, which was filmed, and will end up on the DVD
• Almost all of the dance numbers take advantage of head-to-toe shots which is really not very common when you have actors dancing. They really captured the action nicely
• Uma Thurman and Wil Ferrel spent 7 weeks in voice and dance training for the movie, Uma did especially well and Stroman attributed her aptitude for learning to her training for the Kill Bill movies where she learned martial arts and sword fighting

If and when you go to see this movie, make sure to pay attention to the Musical posters in Max Bialystock’s office, I especially enjoyed the King Leer poster.

Btw in the previous posts about the Variety screening, folks had commented that the shows were only open to Guild members, which is total nonsense. I have absolutely no Hollywood connections and had no trouble getting in, although for some reason they didn’t let me bring in my HD video camera.

Franklin Avenue brings news that Dunkin’ Donuts is poised to try LA again.

I love their krullers (I haven’t had a kruller in three years!), but does LA really need another donut shop, let alone a chain? When I make the four mile walk to work I encounter 11 donut shops (and no Starbucks) … but none of them are Mom’s Donuts & Chinese Food.

GAH!

Asian actress looking to be Asian actress looking to be “girlfriend” for gay VIP – w4m – 27

Reply to: pers-117548342@craigslist.org

Date: 2005-12-12, 3:03AM PST

I am slim, petite, Asian, and in my 20s….

I am an actress/model, really looking for a paid job as girlfriend for an in-the-closet famous/VIP gay guy… You know, like Tom Crui…. I mean, like some other people. I ONLY WANT TO HEAR FROM GAY GUYS WHO ARE SERIOUS ABOUT THIS OR THEIR REPS/FRIENDS. So please please don’t write to me if you are straight and want to date. I am serious about this! I would sign contract, absolutely discreet. I actually am dating somebody who would also remain discreet, as he is VIP too, but straight.

Serious only will get replies.

* this is in or around 310
* no — it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

Thanks to J-X for the link.

This palm tree in my neighborhood makes me happy. Anyone else have Holiday light favorites? Addresses and locations please!

Last night I caught Good Night, and Good Luck at the Arclight. It was a Variety Screening with a panel Q&A with George Clooney, David Strathairn, Grant Heslov, Frank Langella & Ray Wise. Seeing the guys walk out, sit in their chairs, answer questions, goof it up, banter back and forth with each other, you see they’re just normal people. Sometimes that’s hard to remember, living in Los Angeles with focus on hype, buzz and ego stroke treatment. But when you get down to it, we’re all human, we’ll all die, we each have our moments of success and despair. And we each have a choice to be humble or revel in the limelight – and either choice is no better or worse, but a personal predilection.

Recently, I gave my brother a black t-shirt emblazoned with a white stencil of la Virgen de Guadalupe. She wasn’t the same Virgen my mom has placed throughout our home. This Virgen’s demure face was covered with a handkerchief and rather than hold her hands in prayer, she held a rifle. A ribbon below her feet showed the well-known mantra of the 1910 Mexican Revolution and 1994 Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, “Tierra y libertad!”

I warned my brother about wearing the shirt in front of our mother and grandmother. They probably wouldn’t approve, and I wonder what they would think of the dozens of artistic renditions, depiction in films and other creative interpretations. These renditions on a 474-year old image by Chicanas/os have gone on to encompass all that is Mexican, not just the religious aspect.

Yet despite her indigenous and European religious roots, she is not limited to an alcove in a church or a small altar in a home. La Virgen de Guadalupe is the subject of numerous works by scholars, writers, artists, actors and musicians. Scholars see her as symbol of the syncretization of indigenous and Catholic religious beliefs. Activists for immigrants rights, improved conditions for farmworkers, the Zapatista movement in Chiapas, and pro-life groups have used her image on banners and billboards. Franklin Avenue reported that just last month she was advocating a SÌ vote on Prop 73. No surprise there, most Catholics are pro-life and la Virgen is revered by all Mexican Catholics.
Read the rest of this entry →

ìSince the first time I saw her eyelash trapping the fly on MTV as a teenager I was transfixed. She carried a gun. She killed men. (She killed women.) She wore barely anything. She worked for no one. She had control. She was out of control. She died. And she returned. She had the most fabulous hair I had ever seen. (Princess Leah couldn’t even think about competing with Aeon.) I wanted to be her then. 15 years ago as a teenage girl. I dreamt. I would be the ass kicking, gun wielding, whip snapping, tongue probing, exotic, erotic, hard core, soft worn forever changing, never tied down. Constantly dying, always living.î -source

Anyone who has spent time on my site, knows me or has randomly run into me on Halloween, knows that I am a huge Aeon Flux fan. Her character is an inspiration by which I live.

Last year, I got wind that there was going to be an Aeon Flux movie. I was excited and jaded at the same time. Live action Aeon? Who would play her? Do I want to see a live action movie version of Aeon when I had fallen in love with her anime personality? I had mixed feelings. Months of anticipation went by and then I started to see street signs and billboards of Theronís gun clad back ìThe future is fluxî tagged all over Hollywood. Iíd sit in my car at the corner of Franklin and La Brea and chuckle silently to myself: ìWell, I live in the future. Iíve been Aeon Flux in the future (and past har har)Öî But it hit too close to home to someone who doesnít like to admit sheís somewhat obsessed over a character.

So with doubts (the Elektra Assassin fiasco echoing in my brain), but always the optimist, I headed to the Egyptian Theatre last Sunday to watch Hollywoodís interpretation of my favorite anarchist heroine ñ and I didnít leave puking.

The costumes and landscape were futuristic. A clean, solid, sterile future, manicured bougainvillea terraces and biomechanical gun pods (that to my delight echoed Cronenberg). I was initially disappointed that Trevor was no longer a blonde; and instead a pudgy melon-faced soft heart. The Trevor character is solid gold cold and thatís his sexy appeal. But in keeping with Aeon Flux story lines that contradict themselves like a sexy DNA combat scene, I approved of his new formed character. I also approve of the Jungian selective-consciousness telepathy and bio-communication device suspended in fluid. Sign me up, future flux!

My disappointment (and secret desire come true) showed with Aeonís skinless full body couture corset. The boning and threading and stitching were really something to desire and the design is delightful and flattering. Granted, the Aeon I know and love is a character drawn by the imagination and weíre talking real-life actress. Still, a big part of Aeon is her angular skin sex appeal, that and the guns.

Which leads into the action and plot. The story is solid with good character development; twists, turns and surprising outcomes. So much plot in fact, not much room for gratuitous action. What action there is, is excellent. The Sithandra / Flux flip-twist acrobatics through no-manís land and the later face to face battle are executed seamlessly and give props to the original animated sequence while not merely imitating it.

All in all, I give Karen Kusamaís Aeon Flux a 10, because redefining eternal change twisting back on itself and keeping the essence of the change is not an easy accomplishment. If Aeon Flux is anything, sheís all that.

I blogged about this last year, but it’s so fun & cheap that I want to remind everyone about it. Friday night I rounded up my main squeeze and a couple of grumpy family membersfor the annual trek downtown to get a christmas tree at the auction. We ended up with an 8 footer for twenty eight bucks. Can’t beat that! It’s also a great place to score lots of pine greens to decorate the house with because they cut the branches off the trees and pile them up, free for the taking. I also got mistletoe for lots of kissing this year. By the time we left, all the grinches were smiling and we actually got into a little festive holiday mood!
The auction starts around five pm and goes til around 9:30ish. If you’re patient, you can get a great tree for the right price. It’s at Alameda and College, just past the train station and Chinatown area.