Wheels, Balls, Rubber and any combination thereof pretty much will jump start any guy. An Auto Show accomplishes 2 outta three in that combo. Add in the pheromones released by a new car and its more rush than most guys can handle. This current installment is closer to being an important show for the manufacturers than years past. It has never made sense since LA is one of the most important markets on the planet its auto show should be as big. The show’s link HERE.

The first display you see when walking into the show is for the Smart Car which I have written about HERE. I love that car. Seeing it up close and personal only makes me want one. If you believe their packet already 30,000 people have put down their $99 deposit for delivery’s starting after the first of the year. I think they may have a bigger hit than planned on their hands.

For the rest of Day one for the media make the jump
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Yeah, I looked at Angelyne’s MySpace profile . And added her as a friend.

And then looking at her friends, I was suckered in by “Jenny Two Face’s” message: “i found kanye west moms profile,” and clicked the given link. I’m morbid like that.

Although I was already logged in, I ALMOST fell for the request to log in again. Me, a dude who thinks most people who get suckered by online scams must be a little dim (at least to the ways of the internets).

Alas, I would have been duped, if it weren’t for the warning message that appeared, courtesy the genius coders at Firefox. Too bad I can’t say the same for Jenny Two Face.

The lesson? Be extra careful clicking on links you find on MySpace, even if from a friend.

If anyone is wondering how Alicia Keys and other professional MySpace pages could have been hacked, this may lead to an answer.

[click to embiggenate]

Nothing heralds in the holiday season like shopping, and there’s no better place to start than FELT CLUB.

For the uninitiated, Felt Club is a huge craft bazaar featuring over 75 vendors, yummy treats from Auntie Em’s Kitchen, and craft demos, including a KNITTING and CROCHETING demo by none other than local fave The Little Knittery!

Swag Bags and door prizes! Unique, handmade gifts for you and yours! The New Maker Square!

Tickets at the door are $5 but HALF-PRICE advance tickets are available at SEVEN LOCATIONS including The Little Knittery. I recommend this, not just to save money, but because the last FC was so popular I wouldn’t want you to get there and not get in.

Felt Club is happening at LACC from 11a.m. to 6p.m.
855 N. Vermont Ave., LA CA 90029
Swag bags (details here) for the first 250 people!
Knitting and Crocheting demos start at 4 p.m. in the crafting tent.

One of the fun parts about writing here is the people you get to meet. In this case commenter Roky Manson and I got to chatting after he made a couple of funny comments on a post I did recently. In the course of the chatting we got to the topic of the WGA strike and how he liked what we were doing to support the WGA. To that end he had a project that fit and deserves some publicity and asked for some help.

His idea is simple and asked I help support. “This coming Tuesday, Nov. 20th, we are hosting The Writers Guild Of America Strike Support Show. All proceeds from the door will go to the WGA Writers Support Fund”. Consider yourself supported. Details after the jump.
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So last week we gave away tickets to the Hold Steady / Art Brut show (click here for images from the excellent photog Timothy Norris), and reader Ari snagged a pair for himself. Here’s his take on the show, below. I have to say the performance was really fantastic–”You Can Make Him Like You” rendered live is even more savage and heartbreaking, “Boys and Girls In America” even more epic, and “Almost Killed Me” rounded out the show with a vast expanse of rolling sound and emotion. Thanks dudes.

Ari’s words: “…The band played a wide variety of old, older and new stuff all of which sounded better then any recording of their’s I had ever heard. Craig Finn, the singer, was jumping around like a five year old. Not just a normal five year old but one that I would describe as a Spaz but now most likely would lose that title to the ADD acronym and pilled up good. He was sincere, enthusiastic, and genuinely excited to be sing-talking in Los Angeles…They played a solid set of about an hour with a half hour encore. The biggest highlight for me was when they opened the encore with “positive jam.” When the band kicked in I almost pooped my pants with awe.”

His full review review is behind the jump. Thank you, Ari!
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But I don’t not support it, either.

I am getting pretty sick of hearing about the strike, though; About how everyone thinks the writers are millionaires, the studios are evil, and the ulterior motives lying just beneath the surface on either side.

If I have your attention now, there’s more to be read after the jump…
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As mentioned at the end of my earlier post: here they are.

In case you might be interested here’s a head-ups pointing you to two stories in the news the last couple days — one in the L.A. Times yesterday and one on KABC’s Eyewitness News today — both of which nicely capsulate a couple of the reasons why I like to bike and walk around town so much. The first is the Times’ profile on author Will Self who’s presently visiting L.A. to talk about his new book. In the feature by Dean Kuipers, Self gets off his Alaska Airlines flight at LAX and immediately goes for a long walk across Los Angeles:

In fact, he wanted to walk all the way to his hotel in downtown Los Angeles, a distance of more than 17 miles, where he was staying a few days to talk about his new book, “Psychogeography.”

[snip]

His walks, he said, “are about reclaiming cities, both at a personal and a political level. They’re about assaulting people’s idea that there are places that are not worth being in, or traveling through.”

Bingo. Checkmate. And while we’re talkin’ about walkin’ allow me to mention again Franklin Avenue’s 2nd Annual Great L.A. Walk, which will be starting this Saturday at 9 a.m. in front of the Coca-Cola building at Pico and Central and continuing westward the full 15 miles until Pico ends in Santa Monica.

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Victory Records Tour, Nov. 16th, Music Box at the Fonda. Tickets.

The Victory Records Tour hits the Music Box/Henry Fonda on Friday night, headlined by Bayside, the Sleeping, June, A Day to Remember, and Driver Side Impact. Tickets are only $13, but if you want an even better bargain, ie FREE tickets, read on.

To win a pair of tickets: leave a comment below, and the important thing here is to tell me about who your guest will be if you end up going to the show. Just a line or two will suffice. Keep it interesting, and by interesting I mean embarrassing. You don’t need to name names or anything, we just like to know what kind of company or readers keep.

I’ll randomy select four winners Thursday night at 9pm, and a fifth winner will be handpicked by me for having the best reply. This commenter will also receive a prize pack of five CDs – one from each band on the bill!

Dog-lovers take heed: Starting this Friday, November 16, and continuing every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday through December 2, The Amanda Foundation, a no-kill shelter in Beverly Hills, will be setting up camp along Two Rodeo. In an effort to place ALL of their current dogs, volunteers will be posted outside of every boutique along the cobblestone promenade from 2:00- 6:00 PM. Each volunteer will have one Amanda Foundation dog with them, ready for adoption. That’s 20 volunteers, with 20 dogs, every day for four weekends straight.

And guess what? They need volunteers. If you have four hours to spare on any of those weekends, please sign up. I’ll be there for sure this coming Friday, and most likely a few of the other days. It’s a really easy, relaxing way to help a great organization and find a dog a home. (I wrote about my experience volunteering with Amanda here back in August). Even if you don’t volunteer, drop by for the silent auctions at boutiques like Tiffany & Co., all of which will benefit Amanda Foundation.

Click for full press release with all contact info, and let me know if you’re going to be there so I can say hi.
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This is my favorite time of year. Gorgeous blue sky and warm. Does it get much better in November? We’ll chalk this up as reason #94 why I love it in LA.

I’ve always loved the weird Jetson’s vibe at Encounter, the restaurant that sits in the middle of LAX. Last year, a friend came in form Columbia and had only a couple of hours lay-over, so all his friends gathered there to eat, drink and be merry. It was great fun, so I was sad when the place closed earlier this year cuz chunks of plaster were falling from the arches.

Well, it’s open again, for lunch every day and dinner on Friday and Saturday’s. Fun place to catch a drink or dinner when time is short at the airport. And the staff uniforms rock, very space agey.

The 51st installment of FRESH YARN, the Online Salon for Personal Essays, is online and ready to read -

FRESH YARN is in full support of the WGA Strike, so why not check out another great collection of kick-ass true stories on their 51st installment, featuring personal essays by these WGA members:
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Actually, please don’t. I like Disneyland well enough, but an annual visit is plenty for me. I have no need to spend all of eternity in the ballroom of the Haunted Mansion, or in bed with the skeleton of a pirate of the Caribbean. Actually, I was just there this past Saturday (at Disneyland, not in bed with the skeleton of a pirate of the Caribbean). It was a surprisingly pleasant experience–lines were relatively short and moved quickly, it was crowded but not suffocating, and I found that since my last visit, they’ve significantly increased their healthy and vegetarian food options.

What I didn’t know but wish I had, was that just the day before, some woman had scattered a loved one’s remains all through the Pirates ride. What I also didn’t know is that she joins a long line Disneyland ash-scatterers. Boing Boing pointed out yesterday that there’s an “epidemic of covert (human) ash-scattering” happening in the park, which led me to MiceAge and their more detailed explanation of the practice.
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Disneyland is closing “It’s A Small World” in January for 10 months to deepen the flume and to replace the old fiberglass boats with new, more buoyant boats. Why? Because people have gotten so much larger in the last 40 years that the boats get stuck on the bottom. Usually around the Canadian Mounties and Scandinavian geese. Disney says it has nothing to do with the weight of the people on the ride, just time for a “face lift.”

I actually heard about this on Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! but you can read more about it in the Los Angeles Times and at Wired.com.

I haven’t been to Disneyland in about 15 years and I must confess, I L O A T H E that ride. When I used to go with my sister and her kids in the late 80′s, I loved all the rides and seeing Tigger, etc. But when they wanted to go on IASW, I stayed far away and waited. That song. A friend works at Disney and if I called and he had to put me on hold, (They play Disney music on hold) I would hang up instantly if that song came on. The horror.

So maybe while the ride is closed, I could go back again.