Speaking of how times have or haven’t changed in thirty years, I found a news clip from 1977 wherein ABC 7 newscaster Donna Moriel says, “I think my age is showing – I’m still waiting for the Beatles to get back together.”

She’s referring to a horde of fans screaming for the arrival of the band Kiss outside a radio station for an interview with “The Real Don Steele”.

The greatest band in the history of time, The Pogues, are playing in LA again this year. I just bought tickets for the Wednesday, October 31st show and if you have any taste in music at all you’ll do the same right away. I saw them last year at the Wiltern (where they are playing again this year) and it was one of the greatest live shows I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen Shane tons of times.

What is Sweatin’ Bullets? An occasional round up of posts from or about L.A. blogs and bloggers, concentrating on original content, citizen journalism, and blogger achievements (even if non-blog related). If you know of a blog post or blogger that deserves mention, please send me an email at unsomnambulist@gmail.com.
photo by 5000! used without any permission whatsoever

Turns out Ed Padgett wasn’t the only one to have items stolen from his locker, and he fears the problem may only get worse as the LA Times HQ outsources its security personnel.

The Militant Angeleno observes Hyperion Ave. from his bicycle. And bitches.

Finally, something Kevin Roderick won’t write about: now director of the UCLA Newsroom website, he writes he needs to recuse himself from covering anything Bruin related. Also keeping him busy are gigs as “author, freelance journalist, radio commentator and occasional pundit (and historic resources consultant.)”

Los Angeles to San Fran by bus for a buck? Zach at LAist has the fine print and more budget travel options.

DigLounge ranks the alternatives to drunk driving, so as to avoid being “sent to the Paris Hilton”, if you catch my drift.

Green LA Girl debunks the theory that a mostly black computer screen is ecologically sound.

Just got a phone call from Golf Remodeling in the 818 (not linking, for obvious reasons). My caller ID said “Golf Remodeling” and while not answering telemarketers is easiest, I do like to answer so I can ask to be taken off their call lists. (Unless the assclown hangs up on me first.)

So I answer and the nice man says “May I speak to Kurt please?” And I say, “He’s not here right now.” And before I can make my take-me-off-your-list request, the nice man says, “Do you know when he’ll be home or can I talk to his wife, if necessary?”

I had to hold back my laughter as I said “‘If necessary?’ Did you just say ‘If necessary??’”

He backpedaled so fast he could have won a stage in the Tour de France.

And he promised me he would take me off their list, he would do that especially for me.

Can someone tell me what year this is?

Unless this is your first time reading the site you know we writing about film crews around LA a lot, and how they effect (positively and negatively) life in Los Angeles. We generally refer to these folks as “film crews” because that’s about the extent we know, but this note which just showed up in our “submit a story” box suggests there may be some inter-film-crew rivalry going on. Check this:

“When you write about film crews, you need to diferentiate between Construction crews, and Production crews. Construction is there first and Usually set the tone for Production . Production then comes in ,and manages to piss an inordinat number of nieghbors off, then leaves. Construction comes in to clean up their mess and attempt to smooth ruffeled feathers. Location peoples only concern is the production cerw. They don’t give a crap about the fall out after production has left.”

Unfortunately there’s no way for us to differentiate between which crews are which because when we cover this stuff we aren’t working on the sets, we’re bystanders, so we don’t know from which crew the person(s) are taking orders or getting paid, we just know they are either making a crap ton of noise, swiping parking spots, or generally messing with our schedule. It would be awesome though if we weren’t in a situation where one group felt the need to blame pissed off neighbors on another group, because there were no pissed off neighbors to begin with.

Cover-ups by motion picture studios are frequently rumored, often debunked, and on occasion confirmed. Such is the case of Patricia Douglas, a dancer who was raped by an MGM suit and refused to remain silent. After filing a lawsuit, the studio commenced a damage control campaign that drove her into hiding for over sixty years.

Girl 27 is a documentary by screenwriter/film historian David Stenn that tells Douglas’ story, and according to the synopsis, attempts to find the ninety year old woman to see if she would go public again.

Showing now at the Laemmle Music Hall Theatre, tonite’s 7:40pm performance is also a “FilmRadar Field Trip”. If you’re not familiar with FilmRadar, its simply the most indispensible newsletter for Los Angeles area movie lovers. Once a month or so, founder Karie Bible picks a unique film to designate a Field Trip for other like minded film geeks to meet up at and have dinner with after.

What makes this Field Trip particularly enticing is that David Stenn, Girl 27′s director, will also attend the post film dinner to discuss the film.

Movie tickets are $10 and can be found here. If you’d like to be join in on the field trip RSVP Karie via email: karie@filmradar.com. Post discussion/dinner location is TBD.

Someone got themselves a brand-spanking-new van (oooooh) and wanted to make sure no one dinged it while they stopped to celebrate with a subway sandwich. Funny thing is, when you park like this, sir, I mean, douche, it makes me WANT to ding your car.

…photo of Frederic von Anhalt taken at the scene of alleged crime…

In the comments of last week’s post about Zsa Zsa Gabor’s husband claiming to have been mugged and left naked in his car, a couple commenters asked about the supposed handcuffs they’d heard Frederic von Anhalt had said he was locked up with, but the police never found.

While I’d read similar reports, this photo backs up von Anhalt’s own claims that I’d heard him make on the news: his hands were actually tied to the steering wheel with his own belt.

I snagged this pic from A Socialite’s Life, who’re asking readers for a clever caption.

But here’s what I’d like to figure out:

a. If von Anhalt is telling the truth – that a car full of “beautiful” women recognized him and asked him to pull over for a photo, then mugged him of everything except his car, belt, and hat, leaving him naked in the middle of Bel Air.

b. Or if von Anhalt was indeed mugged, but in the course of some consensual hanky panky with another individual.

c. Or if von Anhalt staged the whole thing, either by himself or with another individual, either for the attention or an insurance claim.

Any other theories?

Sometimes this city surprises me. Okay, actually, this city surprises me all the time. Like last week when I couldn’t go ANYWHERE because the 5 freeway was a parking lot. Or maybe it was today when I read that the City of Los Angeles is going to be launching a new program where they set up local bands to play while you’re on hold with them! Yeah, they’re gona pull 10-12 unsigned local acts every year, pay them $500 for a song and then play their jams as hold music for a year before doing the whole thing again.

Whose idea was this? Seriously. It’s one of the coolest programs I’ve ever heard from in a city where local music can languish under the radar of most people who live here. I’m not sure who is picking the songs, but let’s hope once they post bios and pics at CultureLA.org we’re going there to find out who is singing that awesome song while we were waiting on hold FOREVER.

via The Daily Swarm

1. Both films in the double feature of The Goonies and Back to the Future have characters prominently wearing Nikes – even Doc Brown. The major exception is Biff, who at the end of “B2TF” is sporting an Adidas jumpsuit while detailing the McFly’s BMW.
2. A large soda at the New Beverly is $2.50, but if you save the cup a refill (during intermission or whenever) is $1.25, or 1/2 price for the other sizes.
3. Sherman prophetically programmed The Virgin Spring and Wild Strawberries for August 1st and 2nd – Ingmar Bergman, who directed both films, passed away on Sunday. (Sherman, the proprietor of the New Bev, died July 18th.)
4. The New Beverly concession stand has “refrigerated” Snickers and Milky Way bars for $1 each. Not as cool as frozen (pun noticed, not intended), but better than handling melted chocolate in the middle of the movie.
5. Marty McFly goes back 30 years to 1955. If Back to the Future were remade today, he’d be time traveling to 1977. Besides the advent of personal computers and the internet, has much really changed since then?

This little dude flew into my window the other day.

I call him Bonky.

He was sort of stunned and shaking a bit when I went out to investigate the noise; remembering my parakeet I’d had as a little girl, I placed a finger down against his little legs, and he stepped right into my hand.

Poor little Bonky.

He told me a secret, though, which is what you can see him doing in this picture: yelling at me in his little birdie voice. Debs Park–the Audubon Center–will be showing movies all summer, each preceded by a little birding walk. If you’ve never been on a birdwatching walk, you should totally go. It requires you to focus attention on the natural world around you, in an exploratory, wonder-filled sort of way–gets you out of your head, into the physicality of the hike, and actively engaging you with the environment. Good for city folks. It’s also really cool to explore Debs Park, which is this bizarre outcropping of nature right smack in the middle of the city. I must confess I was a “birder” for a long time. Totally into it when I was little and should have been into Barbie or whatever. Instead, I had my Field Guide to North American Birds.

Don’t know why the other kids thought I was such an…odd bird. Har har har.

Anyhoo, the first film is this Friday, and is…”Hoot.” (har har har); I also want to check out “Winged Migration” on the 7th of September.

Full schedule behind the jump.

Oh, and Bonky flew away after catching his breath a little…good on him, the wee yellow chap. Stiff upper beak and all.
Read the rest of this entry →

Spotted these the Arclight gift shop. I know a million people that will say “That’s so L.A.!” Probably doubly so given where they’re selling them, but, personally, it think this mindset is pretty universal. In fact, most of the shallowest, materialistic and celebrity-obsessed people I know live in the smallest Midwestern towns you’ll ever see. Still, that’s the L.A. stereotype and I suppose this is the kind of thing that reinforces it.

In celebration of their 500th MIX member, the folks over at JETSET will be video blogging LIVE tonight from JETSET’s Sekrit LA HQ. I’ll be there. So will the LA Weekly and apparently a ton of other folks as well. It’ll be vlogaliscious! You can watch it live between 6pm-7pm on live.jetsetshow.com.

A: They all have a cameo appearance in this week’s “Social Studies” on KCRW. The brainchild of funny woman Iris Bahr, “Social Studies” airs Monday afternoons at 4:44 and never fails to make me laugh out loud even if I’m battling rush hour traffic. The star of the show is Svetlana Maksimovolskahyah (pictured at right), Bahr’s high-end Russian prostitute alter-ego, whose four minute quasi-stream-of-consciousness covers sex with the stars, current events, and life in LA, all in a fabulous Russian accent.

Svetlana’s take on Daniel Radcliffe (aka Harry Potter) after the break:
Read the rest of this entry →

I though I was driving towards a major fire as smoke poured over Magnolia Blvd. in Burbank yesterday afternoon. As my hand fumbled for my camera, I came closer and saw the smokescreen was actually coming from a number of grills set up outside of Handy Market. I squealed on the brakes as soon as the scent of ribs and bbq sauce hit my nostrils.

The Handy Market itself is a cramped local grocery store that, frankly, I felt a little too claustrophobic to enter. Besides the blinding smoke from the grills set up in the driveway, I’m surprised that this place is able to pass firecode… until I remind myself firemen LOVE barbeque.

On the outdoor menu: chicken, ribs, tri-tip, and turkey drums. Not cheap, the half rack of babybacks I ordered ended up setting me back $13… I think they deliberately smother it with bbq sauce to make it heavier. But I’ve never had meatier, more succulent bones in L.A. (the half rack was also substantial enough to break in two, and had the leftovers as a late dinner. tip: keep foiled, toss in the oven for 20 minutes at 350 degrees).

The best deal on hand is the $3.99 turkey drum, which I swear weighed as much as an average sized turkey. I bought one for my girlfriend, a tryptophan addict, and she was unable to keep from multiple return trips to the fridge for “a nibble”.

I’m unsure how frequently they do the outdoor ribs, so it wouldn’t hurt to give them a call at 818-848-2500 before you rush over.

Handy Market
2514 W. Magnolia Blvd.
Burbank