Isn’t there always one person on your gift list that is IMPOSSIBLE to buy for? Here’s an idea: indoor skydiving. Universal City Walk is now home to iFly, a giant wind filled tube where you get to defy gravity. Beginners, pros, kids, grandparents–all can fly.

Check out their Grand Opening and Holiday Specials and cross that hard to shop for person off your list.

iFLY Hollywood
Universal Studios City Walk
(818) 985-4359
For hours click here.
iFly website

(Image from the iFly website.)

You have the Trojans. But the BCS has made a mockery of college football.

You have the Bruins. But UCLA has made a mockery of college football.

You had the Raiders. But, Al Davis has made a mockery of himself.

In a year where teams like Missouri, Kansas and South Florida cracked the Top 5, and the New England Patriots find new ways to make you hate them, it’s tough to be true to the game. You need something new.

You need the United Football League, brought to you by Mark Cuban. Professional football comes to Los Angeles in the Fall of 2008. Friday Night Lights. A team to call your own.

Athletes who are too old for college, and almost good enough to play in the pros.

We don’t know what our team will be called. Or where they’ll play. Or who they’ll play. The new league is leaving it up to the fans to vote on which cities will get a team.

The UFL is targeting major U.S. markets currently underserved in professional football: Austin, Birmingham, Columbus, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Louisville, Memphis, New York, Oklahoma City, Orlando, Raleigh, Sacramento and San Antonio. In addition, the UFL is looking at international cities Mexico City and London.

Is this the next XFL? USFL? A few UFL “fan sites” are speculating that the league will let fans decide what to call their teams. Do you have any suggestions?

By the way… where are those 2 NFL teams Arnold promised us?

There is news from Metro! More trains, more often! Whodathunk? Merry Christmas, rail patrons! Don’t forget to pay your fare!

Metro Gold Line. Weekday express service will be cancelled and converted to local service; all trains will now run every 7 to 8 minutes during peak periods; weekday and weekend mid-day and afternoon service will be changed from every 15 minutes to every 12 minutes.

Oh, to dream of the day when trains run every 5 minutes, 24 hours a day. And they actually go somewhere.

In other news… the Houston Chronicle reports on the most walkable cities in America. Los Angeles just misses the top 10.
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To the person (you know who you are) who was at my PGA screening of The Golden Compass this past Saturday night. Did you happen to notice that everyone seated around you was gasping for air? The giggles you heard escaping from hand-covered faces were not giggles of joy. They were giggles of disbelief, the kind of laughter that can be defined as “nervous” and “disgusted.” Please know that I wasn’t laughing–I was suffocating. I had to press my boyfriend’s well-cologned wrist against my nose for the majority of the film, just so I could stay conscious.

Here are a few tips:
1. Public farting is NOT okay, anywhere, anytime. If you need to pass gas, excuse yourself to a private place (in this particular case, the BATHROOM in the theater lobby would have been IDEAL). I am not King Arthur, so please don’t fart in my general direction.
2. Whatever you ate for dinner before the film didn’t agree with you. Think about it.
3. Gas-X is the trusted leader in gas relief.

I think I’ve mentioned before just how great I think California Market is. I can walk there, and they have a terrific selection of both Asian and western foods for low prices.

I prefer to buy my produce from local farmers. I think it is healthier to eat in-season fruits and veggies that have not been treated with pesticides, and I think it is better for the environment that the food travels less than 100 miles to get to me. Blah, blah, blah. Sometimes I forget an ingredient and buy it at California Market. Yesterday I was making a coconut milk-based curry sauce and I needed ginger and limes. I was also out of onions, though I didn’t need them for the curry.

Four limes, two white onions, and a piece of ginger the size of my palm? $1.89. For serious.

As you know, all of us Angelites are uber-liberal green do-gooders. Except me. I’m getting there, but am not very green yet. Pale sage maybe. I still drive a gasoline powered vehicle (though I work at home), I fly a lot for work and life (flying is like a big carpool, right?) and there is no compost heap in the backyard (leaves that need raking don’t count). But, I have been using my own bags at the grocery and other stores. And now we are repainting some rooms in our house and we decided on eco-friendly paint.

Culver City has an excellent store for many things green and it is called Livingreen, funnily enough. We went to find eco-friendly paint (and we needed it to actually be green) and they had many brands and tons of colors to choose from and all non-VOC. (From their site: VOCs or Volatile Organic Compounds are unhealthy or toxic airborne particles off-gassed by many conventional materials, including paints and sealing finishes. The lower the VOC content, the healthier the product.) And let me tell you, painting without that strong smell makes a huge difference.

Livinggreen has many products, not just paint. Furniture, bedding, books, cleaning products, flooring and tile options (did you know linoleum is a green product?). And the staff are smart and nice and bend over backwards to help. We have many more rooms to paint, so we’ll be going back. I get a little greener every day.

Livinggreen
10000 Culver Boulevard
Culver City
Tel: (310) 838-8442

Seriously, 82 tomorrow in LA? Did Los Angeles get moved to Australia? The memo must have gotten stuck in my spam filter. Seriously, WTF. It’s December 3.

I blame Al Gore and his Global Warming.

“There are people on the Internet who have asked me, ‘Why bother showing movies in a theatre that you can just watch on DVD?’ To that, I say, ‘Fuck you.’”

Right on, Edgar.

And with that, the Wright Stuff Film Festival opened with a bang at the New Beverly Cinema Sunday night. It was an amazing evening. The line for tickets wrapped around the block. People came from out of state to see these flicks. Fans mingled with movie stars. Look! There’s Mike White!

Inside, the air was thick with the smell of fresh popcorn and a strange electricity that seemed almost too intense for the cramped lobby. I can’t continue without saying that festival coordinator Julia Marchese looked terrific!

As my girlfriend and I found our seats our ears were treated to a Paul Williams musical montage, and we started singing right along with “Moving Right Along” from The Muppet Movie. I started to feel all giddy inside.

More about the films and special guests after the jump! Also, keep an eye out for audio downloads of the chats between Edgar and the guests!
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I’m not one to shill for The Man, but I’ve got a soft spot for Chipotle since, before they were partially purchased by and eventually parted from McDonald’s, they were a locally owned small chain in my hometown of Denver. That, and the fact that their barbacoa makes my taste buds dress in costume and do a choreographed dance the likes of which even Busby Berekely couldn’t conceive. So, rather than thinking of this as me pimping for a national burrito chain, think of it as me sharing the wealth ’cause I’m here to tell you that Chipotle is giving away some free motherfunking burritos, hombre. Unfortunately for all of us but Frazgo, they’re doing it in Glendora, but what’s a little distance when you’re talking free burritos with which to stuff your empty burrito hole? Just stop by the new location at “Gladstone & Lone Hill (in Marketplace),” this Thursday (12/6) between 11:00am and 8:00pm and the burrito gods will look upon you favorably. The “waiting in line” gods, probably not so much.

As reported earlier, many food banks in Los Angeles are running dangerously low on food stores, and depleted budgets are making it next to impossible to provide needed items for hungry families in our community.

One such food bank is SOVA, in Van Nuys. I asked SOVA’s director, Leslie Friedman, how we could help.

Our greatest need is for financial support to help purchase the food we are not able to get from other sources. Every gift matters and every gift is welcome and also tax deductible.

We accept Mastercard and Visa and also checks made out to SOVA. Donations can be made by mail, to the address below; via email to SOVA@jfsla.org; or by phone 818-988-7682.

If people prefer to donate food, our greatest need is for foods high in protein: tuna, peanut butter, canned chili, beef stew and powdered milk. Food donors can call our office to arrange for drop-off or, if large quantities, for pick up.

Thanks VERY much for your help. We need it and welcome it.

Leslie Friedman, Director
SOVA Community Food & Resource Program
Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles

It’s funny, sometimes one of the biggest cities in the world doesn’t seem so big after all. No matter how far we’re separated by distance, we’re still neighbors.

If anyone wants to have a snowball fight, there’s plenty of that white stuff up on Ventura Blvd. at Colfax (I believe). I asked someone in the lot what it was for, and they answered for a party held last night, but didn’t seem to want to say any more. Maybe a super secret private party for Santa?

The Cox Across America tour starts tonight.

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, starring John C. Reilly, hits theaters on December 21st., but Cox and the Hard Walkers will kick off a seven-city run tonight at the Roxy on the Sunset Strip. A second L.A. show is set for the Guitar Center on Sunset, on December 12th.

Dewey Cox & The Hard Walkers — “Cox Across America Tour” — Itinerary

Wednesday, 12/5 – Cleveland, OH – Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
Thursday, 12/6 – Chicago, IL – The Cubby Bear
Friday, 12/7 – Austin, TX – Stubb’s
Saturday, 12/8 – Nashville, TN – Mercy Lounge
Monday, 12/10 – San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall
Thursday, 12/13 – Los Angeles, CA – Guitar Center on Sunset Blvd
Wednesday, 12/19 – New York, NY – The Knitting Factory

I can’t wait to hear all of his hit.

For the last month or so, the Luckman Gallery at CalStateLA has been hosting The Graphic Imperative: International Posters for Peace, Social Justice & The Environment, 1965-2005, a traveling exhibition which surveys “forty years of international sociopolitical posters that focus on the issues of our turbulent times…continue reading.

Los Angeles Food Banks are running low. Here’s that volunteering opportunity you’ve been looking for.

A food bank that helps 4,500 San Fernando Valley residents has been without powdered milk, peanut butter and tuna for months.

Supplies at the SOVA food bank in Van Nuys have dwindled since August.

SOVA’s director Leslie Friedman says the agency, which is run by Jewish Family Service, has been “blindsided by the tremendous need this year.”

It could be six months before more milk comes in, unless donations arrive during the holiday season.

Officials say access to free food from the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank has fallen up to 70 percent compared to last year.

For more on the SOVA Community Food & Resource Program, go to the Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles website here.

There are 22 shopping days left until Christmas.

I’m a guy. So, naturally, I haven’t purchased a damned thing. Not one. No present, no stocking-stuffer, no tree. I don’t even have any lights up yet, except for the string of red still hanging in the living room from Christmas 2006.

Maybe you’re like me. Maybe you’ll wait until the last minute to buy all of your gifts, too. The question is, where will you go?

Los Angeles is full of places to shop. But if you had to pick one spot in town to hit everyone on your list, what would it be?

You have to buy presents for:

1. Your Moms
2. Your Pops
3. Your Brutha
4. Your Grams
5. Your Shorty
6. Your Crew