Mark your calenders Saturday 12/20 6Pm – 10PM. .  Paint n Play2 Art Studio and Gallery in Monrovia is hosting an Artists Reception and Holiday Party.  Great Art, a chance to talk with the artists, FREE wine, munchies and of course some rockin’ and jazzin’ Holiday tunes.

Also concurrent to this event the Monrovia Association of Fine Arts (MAFA) will be holding its Holiday Party.  You’ll be able to meet its wide board members (of which I am one) and its many member artists.

Several of the artists will be donating pieces for a silent auction to benefit MAFA.  This year has been tough for all the non-profits and the artists tonight decided early on to help MAFA with one more shot at fund raising to enable them to continue bring art to the communities and schools in the area.  

As a bit of disclosure.  Yes, this is pretty much a self-serving post.  Pretty much as in I’d really appreciate it if you’d bid on the silent auction piece I donated.  I’ll settle for good conversation with you with or without the bidding.  (If you want to see what I could have written, check what my friend Robert CJ Parry over at The Foothill Cities Blog had to say about me and the event).

Event Deets: Satudray 12/20/08 6PM – 10PM.  Paint n Play 2 Art Studio and Gallery, 418 Myrtle Ave, Monrovia CA 91016.  MAP LINK

The event flyer does get bigger with a click.

There’s a huge feature in the new Los Angeles Magazine about Los Angeles bike culture. If you some how missed this, it’s huge. Having been to many US cities and seen for myself I’d speculate that LA has one of the most active and most passionate bike communities around. This mega feature includes a full length story about where it came from and the different aspects involved. There’s also sections showing where to get your bike fixed, what rides to check out, and where to read more online. It’s a very in depth story though I do wish it had more photos. Ride on!

Venice native and skateboard legend Stacy Peralta is well known for documentaries examining topics that are close to his heart, like the rise of skateboarding and big wave surfing, but next on his docket is a topic that most Angelenos will be less thrilled about: gangs. FUEL.TV has posted an interesting interview with Peralta about his latest film, Crips and Bloods: Made in America, which on schedule to play at Laemmle’s Sunset 5 February 6th-12th. The film looks to be a little more insightful than your typical episode of Gangland. Peralta also talks a bit about the realities of documentary filmmaking and his disappointment over that atrocious Burger King advertisement that’s been making the rounds.

It’s that time of the year again! Time to drag out the classics. From the Echo Park Film Center, whose last date of operation before it closes for the holidays is this Satruday (they won’t re-open until January):

What a wacky and wonderful year it’s been! Join us for EPFC’s last event of 2009… our annual screening of that ol’ holiday classic, It’s A Wonderful Life. Sentimental sobbing encouraged.

Also on the bill, a very rare and special treat: incredible Super 8 footage of the 1967 Echo Park Christmas Parade shot by the one and only Mr. Al Kasselman! Neighborhood history at its finest!

And for those who have been both naughty and nice, a very special presentation of Doug Harvey’s Moldy Slide Show.

The event is free, with eggnog, cookies & reindeer treats in attendance, as well as your lovely visage.

Ronald Reagan had four films in theaters. He was President of the Screen Actors Guild. He was still a Democrat.

He channeled The Gipper to help Los Angeles postmaster Michael Fanning sort Christmas packages. The year was 1949.

Photo from UCLA Library Digital Collections

The NY Times’ The Moment blog posted this morning about a few new shops in Venice. NYT continues to ramp up their LA coverage for the SoCal print edition, so it’s nice to see that happening on their website too.

Businesses mentioned are Big Red Sun, Venice Beach Wines, C.A.V.E. and Parker Pettit.

Chase, the Belgian artist and designer, has reworked his mural on Orange just off Melrose. In October, I noticed the summer sun had noticeably taken its toll, causing it to fade and peel. The new version is worth a look. (The previous version is here.) If you’re in the neighborhood buzzing from the strong coffee at Stir Crazy, stroll around the corner and have a look. His website has been refreshed too. Check out the line up of feel-good trancy tunes.

This appeared on the front steps to my building two days ago like some sort of muppet voodoo blessing/curse.

This story caught my eye first because I was impressed by Ryan’s indisputable bad-assedness, but then I noticed something else on the “About” page of his website. First, the gist: 22-year-old Oxy grad & HIghland Park resident Ryan Bowen left LA on Dec. 2 with the goal of touching down in DC by January 20. It’s ambitious, crazy, cool and not without its dangers, but a recent LA Times story catches up with him at the Continental Divide on Dec 18, where he was in good spirits, carb-loading at a roadside cafe.

Here‘s the story.

So why, then, would anyone launch “brazen personal attacks aimed at denouncing Ryan’s character and integrity”…? That quote is from the About page on Ryan’s website (read it in full here), written by the webmaster in defense of Ryan and his ride. Can anyone tell me why someone would have a problem with what Ryan is doing? Am I missing something?

Just after Thanksgiving 2007 I posted here something of a status report on the wee bit o’ an afghan pine seedling I received when recycling our Christmas tree at the beginning of January of that year. She wasn’t more than a few inches tall at the time.

But I immediately I transplanted her in the pot (as seen on the right, click to enlarge) and put her in the backyard and have since tended to her successful and progressive upward mobility. A year ago she’d reached two feet in height and in my aforementioned post I wax optimistic/futurific as to the possibility of decorating her for this season:

“…if all continues to go and grow well we’ll be transplanting this living gift to a larger pot in 2008 and it could be we’ll haul it into the foyer to decorate for the 2008 holidays and those to come until it’s too big to bring inside and then we’ll install it in the backyard where the sky’s the limit.”

Well since then she’s added about another foot and a half while also branching out a bit, and while she’s still an adolescent and thus rather gangly and spindly and not ready to handle ornaments, we decided to forego the usual frivolity of paying much bucks for a dead fir and instead went frugal bringing her inside and dressing her up carefully with some lights and stuff (clickably thumbnailed at left).

Biased though I be (call it pride of nurtureship), I think she’s the best tree ever — and FTW: the money saved can go to buying that much more egg nog on our run to Broguiere’s dairy in Montebello this weekend.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

CurbedSF links to a story in the San Francisco Examiner about the latest rankings in Eventful’s 2nd annual Most Eventful Cities. Los Angeles comes in second behind New York among U.S. cities “according to the number and diversity of local events for residents and visitors.”

The 2008 ‘Most Eventful Cities’ rankings are based on the total number of events listed on Eventful that took place in each U.S. city between December 1, 2007 and November 18, 2008.

While we may have dropped from 1st to 4th in the rankings for Music Lovers, and while that Performing Arts ranking is suspect, L.A. has made some notable accomplishments in 2008:

• We have taken over the #1 spot from San Diego for Pet Lovers

• We bumped New York out of the top spot for Night Crawlers

• We climbed from 4th to 3rd for Singles

• We’re hanging on at #10 for Sports without the NFL

• And we’ve retained our #1 ranking for Bookworms. Apparently, we have the mostest events for people who read good.

To sum up, we rule. Keep it up. Complete Eventful rankings after the jump.

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I love when local small businesses take on big charitable projects such as this. It takes one or two dedicated folks who come in to the office every day and chat over the water cooler to take the initiative and decide, “Hey, let’s do something special with the office this year!” Our latest good citizen:

For the next few days, the office of Bob Taylor Properties will serve as a drop off point for Operation Santa Paws.
Operation Santa Paws seeks donated pet toys for shelters and rescues to improve the health and demeanor of those pets while reducing their stress to increase the animals’ chances of being adopted. The simplest toys can make the animals much more comfortable. Cats enjoy rolling toys, such as small plastic balls or other “batting” toys that can be hung from cage doors, while dogs tend to prefer items like the heavy-duty Kong rubber chew toy.

NOTE Because of safety and/or housekeeping concerns, stuffed toys, tennis balls, rawhide items and pig ears can not be accepted.

Drop off through December 19th – Bob Taylor Properties, Inc, 5526 North Figueroa Street, LA 90042.

More info www.santapaws.info

Santa Paws’ Wish List is behind the jump.

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Lately, with all of the Prop 8-related developments wearing me down, it’s nice to be lifted by OC Metblogs, our next door sistah site, calling a different strain of attention to the largest donor segment of the Yes on Prop 8 contingent, the Church of Latter Day Saints… and the hot men that are some of its most fervent, er, practioners.

OCMB’s Jon, in his Shirtless Mormon Hunks from Irvine! post, stalked has tracked down the hottie who is the 2009 Men on a Mission calendar cover guy (and also Mr. April.)

It being the new year, you’re going to need a new calendar. I usually spring for a farm animal or tractor theme calendar from the 99 Cents Only Store, but this one looks to be worth the premium price in oddity-value alone.

Also, OCMB captain Gina seems a lot less apoplectic than me over Saddleback Church’s Rick Warren being chosen to deliver the prayer at Obama’s inauguration. After reading her spin on it, (that drawing those that oppose you into a dialogue is  the first step to seducing them — I mean, persuading them to take your side,) I took a deep breath and thought, “Okay. We’ll see.”

KPCC just announced (via the AP) that Hilda Solis, East L.A.’s recently re-elected Representative, is the President Elect’s pick for Secretary of Labor. Solis is the third Angeleno to be offered a spot in the Obama cabinet following the nomination of Los Angeles deputy mayor Nancy Sutley as chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality (and his first, if not the first, openly gay White House staffer) and Rep. Xavier Becerra’s invitation to the post of U.S. trade rep, which Becerra turned down.

This Saturday one of my favorite bands, one of LA’s most iconic bands, and one of the most important bands in music history play downtown at the disturbingly-sparkly LA Live complex at the newly opened Club Nokia. I was down there for the Oasis show the other week and they’d just lit all the holiday lights and while it was very pretty and a raver wonderland with all the blinky “icicles” on the trees, it was also strangely devoid of public seating like benches and such. Hmm.

But I digress. I’ve loved Cracker since I first heard them in my sophomore year of high school. X really captures so much of the spirit of this city, and I found them around the same time. It was actually significantly longer before I heard of the New York Dolls (my music education began in earnest around my junior year, and I didn’t discover classic proto-punk until college…very sad).

So, this show should kick ass. If you can weave a little yarn, tell me a good story in the comments below–about your discovery of either of the bands, when it was, and how it made you feel (think of me as your music therapist)–well, we’ll pick a few winners to go to the show, where you can stand around a lot outside and watch the blinky lights before you go in.