Independent Sources has upskirt pics and video of some USC Cheerleaders from Monday’s Rose Bowl. Please divert your eyes.

During the Imperial March at Monday’s Rose Parade (LAist has an awesome photo essay from  the event, BTW), I saw signs reading “Impeach” behind all the Stormtroopers. I thought it was calling for Darth Vader’s removal. Boy was I wrong.

Years after being shafted by a waitress and vowing never to return, Caroline On Crack gives Fred 62s another chance with lukewarm results.

I was wondering why Peggy Archer’s posts weren’t appearing on my RSS feed anymore – she’s moved away from Blogger and is now on WordPress.

Adam at Recentering El Pueblo takes issue with his neighbors using temporary tenting in their frontyards as semi-permanent additions.

Ever wonder what hockey players talk about while they’re beating the crap out of each other? YouTube video of mic’d players from a fight game between L.A. and Arizona. (h/t thatsmyalbo at Digg)

Mayor Sam’s Citizen of the Year Award and our own Grinch of the Year Award were mere fillers for what we’ve all been really waiting for: the announcement of nominees for the inaugural LA City Nerd Awards!

Metroblogging Los Angeles is up for two awards – for City Blog and for City Project (our 25 Fictional Angelenos series was nominated… I don’t think it even compares to the March 25th Gran Marcha/Day Without An Immigrant, but I appreciate the entry!)

Many of the award categories are specific to city officials, and there are two categories specific for blogs and bloggers. However, one non-blog specific category was dominated by bloggers. Zuma Dogg, Seil aka Green LA Girl, Mike at Franklin Avenue, the LAFD’s Brian Humphrey, the LA Weekly’s David Zahniser, and City Councilman Eric Garcetti are all nominated for Citizen of the Year… the only non-blogger in that category is Playa Del Rey’s Julie Inouye.

I’m happy the City Nerd won’t rely merely on the easily manipulated technology of online voting utilities, and points out that they “are only a portion of the selection process for the 2006 City Nerd Awards. Additional subject matter experts will assist in selecting the final winner in each category.” Nerd also asks that voters don’t just kneejerk click on any selection, but give careful thought, do a little research, and take the following criteria into consideration for each nominee:

-passion for Los Angeles
-knowledge of Los Angeles
-promotion of Los Angeles
-actual positive contributions to Los Angeles

Of course, the truth is that the real citizen and LA blogger of the year award should go to the City Nerd himself, who, unfortunately, disqualified himself from the entries.

It’s a somewhat pieced-together, long awaited article but the LA Weekly finally features abLA favorite and Los Angeles’ best kept secret that shouldn’t be a secret, Mark Allen and his fantastic space Machine Project in The Collector of Experiences…continue reading

Why I never! Some super secret nameless blogger thinks this site (but really just me specifically) is getting even more insipid and points to this post as evidence. I’d like to submit this post as evidence that I’ve been insipid for quite some time. I demand an apology!

My local Starbucks (the one at Whitley Heights) has no bathroom. This is a problem for a place that offers wireless internet at $40/month (via TMobile) and serves caffeinated beverages. Even worse, there are no bathrooms within walking distance… the Whitley Heights Market next door serves pizza, there a Subway also in the same strip mall, and neither have a public restroom. The only public restroom nearby is at the sushi restraurant (who’s name changes so often I refuse to reference it), but its for customers only.

While complaining about this with friends, I learned this isn’t the only Starbucks in the city that lacks a bathroom. However, this is the one that frustrated me enough to look up if there were any local laws that might require public businesses to provide restroom facilities…

And what I learned may blow your toilet lid off: while city laws only require access to restrooms for the handicapped, State code DOES require local businesses of ALL types to provide restroom facilities for their customers. The problem is that its up to local authorities to enforce these codes, which it appears they have failed to do.

Details backing up this expose after the jump.
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I couldn’t say goodbye to 2006 without acknowledging that the House of Davids, located on the southeast corner of W 3rd St. and S Muirfield Rd. and just west of S Rossmore Ave. in Hancock Park, has once again been adorned with Christmas and New Year’s decorations.

And while Losanjealous reported that “…last year’s Santa and Mrs. Claus appear to be absent in the foreground,” when I visited the house yesterday, Mr. and Mrs. Claus were sitting at their now usual spot, perhaps due to popular demand?

I noted with amusement that during the time I was there, cars passed by the house every few minutes, passing by very slowly, or pulling over for a closer look, or even stopping entirely so families could get their photos taken in front of the house. And not just families, as there were college students and young couples as well. I could totally imagine people of all ages and demographics dropping by every year.

Speaking of which, I don’t know how long this annual decorative tradition has lasted, but I have to admit I’m already curious what next Christmas has in store for Youngwood Court.

UPDATE: Drove past the house this morning (01/03/07) and the decorations have disappeared, presumably until December. Also, according to Losanjealous, the house and its occupants will be extensively featured in E!‘s upcoming reality series High Maintenance 90210.

Five photos after the jump.
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2007 is here…can you believe it?

I’m excited about what this year will bring in terms of the blog, the gallery, and the Los Angeles art scene as a whole. After a brief break that everyone in the art world seemed to share the past two weeks I feel somewhat refreshed and ready to tackle the start of yet another year. Here are just some things to look forward to…continue reading

If you accidentally threw out a dead, naked, teenage girl’s body in South Los Angeles near West 94th Street and South Hobart Boulevard this afternoon, you can relax now, it’s been found.

I just saw a story on the LAFD Blog about a fire today in Chatsworth:

Upon arrival, Firefighters discovered a two-story single-family home, from which, thick heavy smoke was billowing. As the structure was self-destructing, Firefighters took an aggressive stand in an effort to extinguish the fire, search the home for potential victims, and protect nearby homes from any damage. It took 110 Firefighters one-half hour to gain control of the fire and ensure that no residents were trapped within the house.

But the more interesting part:

While the home was definitely “Under-Furnished”, it was by no means empty. The entire home was filled with Marijuana plants, in various stages of growth and production. The street value of the cultivated plants which were damaged, destroyed, and confiscated will be determined by local Law Enforcement Authorities.

Anyone want to give me a headline for this story? The story on the LAFD Blog was Indoor Pot Farm Goes Up in Smoke. There are soooo many possibilities here!

What would yours be?

Flickr user Kid Deuce has put together a photoset called The Golden Age of Gang Graffiti filled with tons of photos of Latino Gang graffiti (including a lot around Los Angeles) from the early 70′s. About this photo he writes:

Block letters with drop shading but still within genre of Chicano graffiti. It has been said that “Wilmas” is Wilmington in Spanish. While this is not true, “Wilmas” was the name adopted at least 50 years ago by gang members from the Los Angeles Harbor area community of Wilmington.

“W S” stands for “West Side”, as opposed to their cross town rivals on the “East Side”. This is an important distinction to Wilmingtonians, who have a long and violent history of feuding over these respective territories.

While the photos of the graffiti itself is interesting, I’m completely in awe of this Graffiti Field Guild that he’s included scans of as well. Apparently this little booklet was given out the Los Angeles police officers and included translations and decoding tips for the markings that were just starting to show up on neighborhood walls. I wonder if I can find a copy of this on ebay?

Hope you weren’t relying on any checks to come in on Tuesday to make your rent payment this month. All U.S. post offices will be closed and mail delivery suspended tomorrow “to observe the national day of mourning for President Gerald R. Ford.”

No indication if local banks or schools will also be closed.

Dear Low Flying Planes:

Thank you so much for buzzing my ‘hood at 8:00 this morning. Not like anybody was up late or anything. My 9-11 paranoia and my hangover thank you as well.

Please get yourselves back to your Van Halen video as soon as possible.

Love,
Jay

Pictured (top): Sy Smith & her band Deeznuts

Saturday night, soulful songstress Sy Smith (MySpace) and her band Deeznuts performed a day-early New Year’s Eve show at Temple Bar in Santa Monica.

Eight photos after the jump.
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Happy New Year to everyone who reads and contributes to blogging.la!

2006 was a tough year for me and thanks to my blogging.la family who was there to support me when I needed it.

Here’s to a peaceful 2007 from jozjozjoz!