Can you imagine what Los Angeles will be like in 100 years? I sometimes imagine how it looked and felt like to live here in 1906… and realize there is no way in hell I could have foreseen this immense city and the culture that has evolved into being LA. Much less come up with a design that would hold it’s crazy growth. But there are people who actually have that vision and you can check out their ideas next week.

If you want to see some interesting architectural projections of what our fair city may turn into, stop by Tuesday, December 12th at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art around noon. LACMA is hosting The History Channel’s competition event called “The City of the Future: A Design and Engineering Challenge in Los Angeles”. Top architects and engineers design their future vision of LA. It’s a contest, and the winner will get a check from The History Channel for ten thousand big ones. Some top firms, including Predock Frane, Office of Mobile Design and Xefirotarch (to name just a few) will be displaying models so it might be pretty cool if you like architecture.

I suppose this is a question for the good folks at Curbed L.A. or the L.A. City Nerd (and I welcome both to answer if they’re reading this), but can anyone tell me about this building on the 3200 block of West Cahuenga Blvd.?

Built to look like a riverboat, a closer inspection indicates that this may have been a restaurant at one time. I’ve passed it a number of times over the years, always meaning to check it out. When I recently stopped by for a closer look, it appears that some of the outside walls have been recently removed, possibly an indication of a start for further renovation. I can’t recall if there used to be sidewheel facades on either side of the building, but those are definitely riverboat style smokestacks on top (contrary to some observations that the building isn’t trying to be a steamboat, but instead some style of Middle Eastern architecture).

My guess is that at some point this was a New Orleans themed restaurant, but my Google searches have yielded no answers.

Any other ideas?

There are times when parking in this city can drive me into an endless whirl of irritation. I know, I know… that’s exactly the time to practice a Zen approach to parking (imagine the open spot and it will appear… breathe!) but there are days when circling the block seems endless. And hopeless.
Then, when I do find a spot, I know I have to be hyper-vigilent about minding the time, because the parking meter attendents are merciless. They are circle like hawks, waiting to swoop down the second the arrow turns red… and I swear I’ve seen them patiently waiting for the ticker to turn so they can write the ticket. I have countless stories of coming out with a minute to spare and there they were, starting the ticket. No amount of cajoling, sweet-talking or bitter threats seems to sway them a bit. They are trained well, almost like robots, because they rarely flinch and just keep on keepin’ on. The nerve!

Well, it looks like I have to stop calling them parking Nazi’s and cut them a little slack. They really are human. Today, as I walked out to my car from lunch, I sensed that I had better get my ass to the meter pronto and sigh(!) there he was, whipping out his little computer and looking at my license plate. My heart sank. I ran over waving my arms and begged. He looked at me and smiled and said, “Okay, as long as you’re leaving now, I’ll just put this away.” I almost kissed him, I was so grateful! That’s a first! NEVER have I been able to slip past a ticket when they were there getting ready to write one. It really is almost Christmas in Hollywood!

To do this weekend and beyond:

Petra Haden (That Dog, Afoostic Fighters, solo), Lisa Papineau (Air, Big Sur, solo), and Francoise Blound Blound appear with Crooked Cowboy & the Freshwater Indians Monday for free at Mr. T’s Bowl; Spindrift gets drifty with space rockers Tsk Tsk and Seattle boot-gazers Dead Meadow on Saturday; and Sugarbutterbex going beyond pimping your bike into the ever-popular DIY crafter holiday faire field. More info after le jump.
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The leaves on the trees in my backyard are falling. There are a few trees that don’t lose their leaves, but must curiously is my Orchid Tree which has some errant blooms. This morning I was suprised to find this spider inside one of the flowers.

(If you’re not fond of spiders, don’t click, it only gets worse at 800 pixels across.)
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The first of two Bullet entries for today… pic at right (by me) from Tuesday night’s benefit premiere of “Home of the Brave” for New Directions, Inc.  You can’t see it, but Sam Jackson’s right hand is reaching for his lightsaber (the one the says “bad motherf@cker” on it).

Win tickets to see Crispin Glover’s “What Is It?” by telling us about your own Crispin sighting – leave a comment by tomorrow morning with Heathervescent here.

Clueless and Slightly Slack advocates returning the term “dame” to the common vernacular.

Mack at LA Voice herds in the reindeer Santa Clauses.

Spike Lee’s next film will be about the L.A. riots: “”This isn’t about some cavalcade of stars, but rather a truthful and realistic examination of what happened, what the ramifications were and where we are now, in hopes that something like this doesn’t happen again,” Lee said. (from Daily Variety)

Independent Sources grumbles that his mayor in Pasadena Pacific Palisades is Captain Stubing.

LAist’s Tony Pierce accuses gossip blogger Perez Hilton of ripping off artwork in order to supplement his supposed $9k – $16k/week income.

Monty Heights is giddy about the groundbreaking for a new skate park in Highland Park.

CurbedLA warns us of a looming battle for federal money between the currently MTA Red Line expansion westward and the MTA Gold Line’s new interest in going as far as Ontario Airport.

Los Angeles based Autolux are currently getting ready to record their second record in January 2007. In the meantime before they make their follow up to “Future Perfect” they have decided to “clean out their closets” so-to-speak and sell the framed amber lights that they used on stage throughout 2005-2006 opening for such diverse bands as The White Stripes, Clinic, Broadcast, Shellac, Beck, Queens Of The Stone Age, Megadeath & Nine Inch Nails… Yeah, these kids get all the good shows, it just ain’t fair man. I was joking about them opening for Megadeath. The lights are a bit pricey, $250 each, but they were only 20 made so it’s kind of understandable. Plus if you’ve got that kinda cash laying around, what are you crying about? If you are interested in buying one of these pieces of art or have any questions about the lights, write to autolux@earthlink.net and put Amber Lights as the subject. Check out Autolux’s myspace page @ http://myspace.com/autolux for the latest news on them. And take a look at these two clips of them playing live on the Jimmy Kimmel Show by clicking here for part 1 and here for part2. DO IT!

The photo shown below depicts an Echo Park landmark as it was in those golden days of yesteryear. This is how the Echo nightclub in Echo Park looked way back when:

The original building is still there, but modifications have been made to create the place that we know and love today. Thanks Echo29!

For all of you Crispin Glover fans out there–and I know you’re out there–I just heard that Mr. Glover will be guesting on the Adam Carolla show (97.1 FM on your radio dial) tomorrow morning. Sorry, don’t know where in the lineup. But I do know I will likely forgo Nic tomorrow to find out.

Woodwork squeaks and out come the freaks…

Over on LA Voice Mack made a post titled “Crime’s Down, but Don’t Get Too Comfy” which scratches the surface of something I’ve been thinking a lot about recently. Mack writes:

“If anyone had doubts about Chief William Bratton’s ability to make LAPD more effective than Bernard Parks ever did, here’s the proof: Part 1 (violent) crimes are down again for the fourth year in a row.”

“But unless he gets more money for more officers, Bratton warns, he can’t hold the downward trend to an 8% drop every year.”

Let’s look at that number for a second, according to the public COMPstat numbers, violent crime is not down 8%, property crimes are down 8%. Violent crime is only down 2% as whole, but some categories, like robberies are actually up 6% from last year. Additionally prior to 2005 Child/Spousal Simple Assaults were included in aggravated assaults which skews things a bit as well. So it’s not all flowers and sunshine. Of course this isn’t a Los Angeles specific issue. According to the Attorney General’s office violent crime is actually rising in the states largest cities. Those would be cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego – the cities that actively make it hard for law abiding citizens to defend themselves (more on that in a moment). So here we have Chief Bratton saying that unless he gets more funding to hire more officers he can’t keep crime down. San Diego is facing similar problems and at a recent protest of law enforcement funding cuts officers were holding signs saying “Don’t visit San Diego. It’s not safe” and “When seconds count, we are minutes away.” Mack ends his post asking:

“Does your neighborhood feel safer than it did in 2002? Do you think more officers on patrol will make a difference?”

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Somewhere in Buenos Aires, Argentinean women are being lured to LA with sepia-toned photographs of the Hollywood Sign and promises of “going shopping, surfing, and seeing the latest.” LA is fun for las chicas.

Come on, if LA really wants to lure Latin American tourists, I’m sure the tourism board can do better than Barbie.

Photo of a display at the International Tourism Fair in Buenos Aires by Morrissey.

I totally love the small-and-affordable-works shows that pop up everywhere come December. Outpost for Contemporary Art’s Post-Postcard 2006 event is just such a creature…continue reading.

I thought I might start up a new series of reports on what’s going on just out to sea a bit from Los Angeles. We’re so lucky to have the great Pacific Ocean so near. I’m planning to report what news I gather from my weekly whale watch docent training classes, which feature reports not only from other whale watchers but also staff from the American Cetacean Society (who conduct the annual Gray Whale census off Pt. Vicente).

Orcas Spotted off Rocky Point – last night eight Orcas (Killer Whales) were spotted feeding off Rocky Point (also visible from Torrance Beach). No identifications were made to determine whether they mark the return of the Los Angeles Pod (see full entry) or if they’re just the transients that sometimes pass by during Gray Whale season. There was at least one large male with them (with a 5-6′ dorsal fin).

Gray Whales Migrating – the official census started on Friday and three Pacific Gray Whales have already been spotted moving south. (And one strange, probably juvenile, going north.)

Blue Whale and Fin Whale Spotting – there are large runs of anchovies which are bringing Blue and Fin whales close to shore where several have been spotted feeding in the Channel.

Common Dolphins & Bottlnose Dolphins Off Santa Monica Pier – there was also an exciting report of a mega-pod of common dolphins feeding right off Santa Monica Pier with Bottlenose dolphins coming close to the pier (within 50 feet). The show went on for hours much to the delight of the pier-goers. No word what they were feeding on, but the anchovies reported above or squid are a good bet.
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Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_MxxcJDLoM

Yesterday, since it was officially Day of the Ninja and to cap off the other ninja events, everyones favorite stealthy killers from Ask A Ninja held a DVD release party at Cinespace in Hollywood. As you can see above Neu Tickles, creators of the catchy as hell Ask A Ninja theme song played in front of a big screen ninja. After they played the ninja himself cam up and played a few songs (a few more images after the jump) including a site specific version of “One Love” that, if I recall correctly went something like this…

“One Ninja, One Mack,
One Gmail account, with which to ask,
One Question, One week,
One website, for all of you geeks.

Actually that last line might have been “all of you ARE geeks” but it was hard to tell because of the ninja mask and that around the neck harmonica Bob Dylan thing. Really bad camphone pics after the jump.
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