photo credit: VK Red Duvivier

Yep, we’ve got tickets and you haven’t seen Mercury Rev in FOREVER, have you? Nope. To win tickets, tell me your favorite song by the band and why you love it so much, whether it’s because you kissed your now-spouse to the bridge of “Nite and Fog” or you love the strings section in a particular track; we’ll randomly pick a few winners to go to the show. Also, I’ve had trouble with winners actually getting back to me in time to get their names on the list, so if you enter please leave your real email addy in the comment form and check your inbox regularly to see if I’ve gotten back to you.

Wanna buy tix? You can here.

Remember that fake Christmas tree thing at LA Live? The one that was touted as a multimedia visual display designed to stimulate your brain, the economy, and the epicenter of Los Angeles holiday cheer?

The big metal thing with lights on it?

The New York Times remembers.

This is Los Angeles, where the city’s “official” 50-foot tree was lighted last week by Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa with little need for crowd control, and the debut of a more extravagant, multimedia one at a new entertainment complex got scant coverage in the mainstream news media and poor notices on blogs.

“So next year, we better have something that can compete with New York City, or Mayor Villaraigosa can stop calling this a world-class city,” huffed a blogger on LAist.com, a Web site about the city.

Congratulations to the gang at LAist for getting some love from one of the last remaining newspapers on Earth. Still, Behrens & Co. have to be slightly amused by the irony of a major newpaper using a blog as a source for their story.

Utilizing the entirely scientific method involving an initially bone dry backyard waterbowl and an archaic instrument from my days as a jernoleest back before the internest and when Pagemaker rooled the day, I am more excited than necessary to report that my Silver Lake backyard has received just a hair shy of 7.5 picas (roughly 1.125 inches) of percepitation in the period beginning at 9:34 p.m. last night when the first drops commenced their descent to 7 a.m. this morning, which is redundant.

Next scheduled report: 7 p.m. this evening, which is again redundant.

The second annual Eco Gift Festival, held at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium over the past three days, demonstrated how the “green” products industry has matured.  Last year’s inaugural Festival drew a good-sized crowd, and many of the mom-and-pop vendors reported brisk sales.  However, this year’s Festival was marked by the addition of some of the heavy hitters in the eco-friendly products field.  Linda Loudermilk brought her “Luxury Eco” line of couture clothing made from seaweed, bamboo, and other sustainable materials.  Former actor turned television director Melanie Mayron was on hand with her Mayron’s Good Baby line of baby products.  And green granddaddy Pangea, makers of eco-friendly personal care products for the past decade or so, was selling out its inventory.  

Go eco-shopping, after the jump

Today I got some very sad news in my email box from heathervescent. Machine Project was supposed to get a $35k grant this month – but it’s been canceled. For an organization of their size this is a great loss, as they were planning to use the funds for rent and for their their one full time operations manager (who kicks major ass!).

They reached out to their LACMA show volunteers (that’s how Heathervescent found out) to help raise the needed money by donating $50 today. So I am personally asking you – fellow lovers of technology and fans of awesome art–to donate at least $50-100 to Machine Project. They are in my mind, one of the most innovative, unique, awesome, interesting and cool wellsprings of creativity this city has ever seen.

Machine Project hosted the geek dinner last year. They’ve created amazing workshops and hosted wonderful, magical art and creative endeavors. They’re a home for music, robotics, and fractal knitting. They host dorkbot. And they recently took over LACMA doing to the museum what I have always wanted to seen done to a museum.

Please help Machine raise the $35k they need to continue. It’s easy and they have an ASCII Unicorn.

==> Donate now: http://machineproject.com/lacmafriend/
==> Become a Member (ascii unicorn and a lot more):
http://machineproject.com/membership/
==> Give a class gift certificate: http://machineproject.com/store/

In case you’re not aware – the FRY-B-Q is today from 8-11pm, and now features pie! Machine will also be screening videos from the LACMA show all night, next door at the Echo Park Film Center.

Please give what you can. Spend the $50+ you would usually spend on coffee and drinks in LA for January and give it to Machine. I promise you’ll achieve enlightenment and all your dreams will come true if you help. I just donated $50. If you can’t afford that much, donate what you can, and help spread the word.

In which a PG-13 family Christmas movie becomes transformed into something wearing platform vinyl go-go boots.

I’m on a mailing list for NorthEastLA (NELA) community issues and this came across my desk: the City of Los Angeles Budget Survey. I just completed the survey myself. I think it’s a good exercise and brings up a lot of interesting questions. Why no survey questions about subway funding or routes? And why do they even have to ask about what they call “needs based budgeting,” which would divert funding to areas that appear to need them the most? Is the city actually NOT “Repaving streets based on condition of the streets and the usage of the particular street?” or NOT “Focusing gang reduction services in communities where gang crime occurs most”…? Why do they even have to ask me if this is a good idea?! It made me think of a recent report I heard on local newsradio, where a representative from the Westside was bitching about higher-crime communities diverting his crime-prevention forces. “I know we don’t have as much crime as those areas,” he admitted, then went on to whine about the whole thing.

Well, ’nuff said. Go voice your own opinion here. The letter that came with the link is behind the jump.

Info on the current budget & process is here; the fiscal year 2008/09 budget itself is here. Read the rest of this entry →

Can anyone confirm or deny this? I know Ryan is a westsider, but there’s no sign of snow here in Silver Lake (in fact it’s bright and sunny). That doesn’t mean anything about west side weather though. Anyone??

This caught my eye at Surfas in Culver City (best little cookery supply store in my not so humble opinion located at National and Washington).  The area above the cash registers was full of “spoonflakes” made from the slotted spoons back in the kitchen supply area.  I’m noticing a lot of homemade decorations this year and its just fine with me.

Pic taken with the trusty phone cam…on the sly and you can see the reason why after the jump. Read the rest of this entry →

I’m not going to waste your time or mine trying to explain how important Glen E. Friedman and his photos are to all things cool and amazing, because if you have any taste at all you already know this. His iconic images of the beginnings of the skateboarding, punk rock, and hip hop scenes have been burned in my head since the first second I saw them. And now is your chance to see them all together in the same room. Tomorrow night, his retrospective exhibition Idealist Propaganda will open at Shepard Fairey’s Subliminal Projects gallery. The gallery is located at 1331 W Sunset Blvd and the opening is at 8PM. It’s going to packed so I suggest getting there earlier rather than later if you can. I was there last night and got a sneak preview (as well as to help film and upcoming episode of BoingBoingTV about the show) and it’s breath taking. Trust me, you don’t want to miss seeing all these photos in person.

Full on disclosure: Both Glen and Shepard are long time friends of mine, and they both exhibited previously at sixspace, a gallery of which I was co-owner.

In 1995, following the 1992 Los Angeles riots, veteran actor Soon-Tek Oh created the Society of Heritage Performers (SHP), a Korean American theatre ensemble. SHP evolved into Lodestone Theatre Ensemble in 1999, organized by original founders: actors Alexandra Bokyun Chun, Tim Lounibos and Chil Kong, and writer Philip W. Chung. Their new focus was embracing a broader Asian Pacific American identity. Chung and Kong remain as present co-artistic directors.

As they enter into their tenth (and final) season, they are presenting “Lodestone After Dark: The Beginning of the End,” a cabaret-style show which will feature comedy sketches and musical numbers this weekend. This show will celebrate Lodestone’s ten years and launch the company’s final season of shows before it closes its doors at the end of 2009.

These performances actually kicked off last night, Dec 11, with GEDDE WATANABE (Sixteen Candles’ Long Duk Dong) & ERIN QUILL (Avenue Q) hosting. But you can still catch the performances with ALEC MAPA (Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives) hosting tonight (Dec 12) through Sunday (Dec 14).

Lodestone also promises special celebrity guests who will be making appearances throughout the run of the show including:
*JOHN CHO (Harold and Kumar, Star Trek)
*JAMES KYSON LEE (Heroes)
*KELLY HU (X-Men 2)
*DAVID ONO (Anchor, KABC TV Eyewitness News)
*SANDRA OH (Grey’s Anatomy)
*GEORGE TAKEI (Star Trek)
*SUNG KANG (Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift)
*ROGER FAN (Better Luck Tomorrow)
*KABA MODERN’S YURI TAG & FYSH N’ CHICKS’ TAEKO COLLINS (America’s Top Dance Crew)
*Along with members of the Asian American comedy groups the 18 MIGHTY MOUNTAIN WARRIORS, OPM, COLD TOFU & many other surprises.

I’m planning to be there tonight; I can’t wait!

(More details after the jump)

Read the rest of this entry →

Okay, in at least 15 years.  Tonight is the night that the moon will appear it’s biggest and fullest to those of us lucky enough to witness it without cloud cover.

According to NASA’s website:

It’s no illusion. Some full Moons are genuinely larger than others and this Friday’s is a whopper. Why? The Moon’s orbit is an ellipse with one side 50,000 km closer to Earth than the other: diagram. In the language of astronomy, the two extremes are called “apogee” (far away) and “perigee” (nearby). On Dec. 12th, the Moon becomes full a scant 4 hours after reaching perigee, making it 14% bigger and 30% brighter than lesser full Moons we’ve seen earlier in 2008.

I’ll translate that:  Oooh. Pretty. WOW.

Also of note, the Geminids will be at their brightest this weekend, but the overly full moon just may overpower all by the brightest of these.

A great weekend for skywatchers, it seems. I have the perfect perch to watch the moon from my backyard or my front porch.  Where are your favorite places in LA to watch the skies?

According to the Times, the fuckbag that purposefully caused a July 4th accident that seriously injured two cyclists in order to “teach them a lesson” will be tried for the incident as well as an earlier March confrontation:

Thompson complained that cyclists frequently traveled down the residential street in Brentwood and that he was “tired of them,” Los Angeles Police Officer Robert Rodriguez said.

After testimony from Rodriguez and two cyclists who were alleged to have been involved in separate confrontations with the doctor, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Amy. D. Hogue ordered that Thompson stand trial. He faces one felony count of reckless driving causing injury and two felony counts of battery with serious injury in the July 4 incident. He also faces one count of misdemeanor reckless driving causing injury in an incident with another cyclist on the same road in March

I’d be more happy if I believed that the good doctor were facing a real threat of actual jail time rather than some kind of fine and suspended sentence, but it’s still a relief to see that it’s not being swept under the rug. What I’d really like to know is if there’s such a thing as disbarment for physicians? Purposefully injuring somebody has to be out of line with the Hippocratic Oath.

Black Maria Gallery in Atwater Village has Skip the Mall on view, their fourth annual holiday exhibit that seeks to woo  shoppers away from the usual consumer stomping grounds by offering affordable original art by young and emerging artists.

As always, the exhibition will have a bazaar theme with some of the accoutrements of the shopping experience: paintings suspended on clothing hangers, displayed in shoe boxes and on display stands holding a variety of artworks.

Owner Zara Zeitousian conceived the show as a reaction to the rampant consumerism typical during the Christmas holidays.

I live across the street from the Glendale Galleria. It’s crazy all the time but during the holidays it’s depressing– such madness. To observe it everyday made me realize Black Maria could offer an alternative to mass-produced products.

Art makes a wonderful gift. We have pieces by several artists that are under $100. Some of them are right out of art school and the young energy in their work is great to see.

Zeitousian may be poking fun, or maybe in the current economy she’s poking a stick in the eye of the shopping experience, but she is serious about the spiritual rewards of appreciating and owning great art.

A painting can be as satisfying as wearing a sexy dress or owning a feature-laden barbecue, except there is an actual, sometimes life-changing meaning waiting to be derived from a work of art.

Skip the Mall at Black Maria Gallery, 3137 Glendale Blvd. LA 90039; through January 3rd.

Jon Measures “Ben”  2008, acrylic on canvas, 4″ x 4″ $45

Are you gift shopping and are looking for a way to avoid the mall, help the local economy, support local artists AND find unique gifts?  This weekend, the California Market Center will be host to Uniqe Los Angeles, a large sale with over 200 vendors representing some of the best of LAs designers & merchants.  Items on sale include jewelry, stationery, books, art and housewares.

The vendor list is impressive, featuring a Who’s Who of local artists & shops such as Earthlust, Tracy Tanner and MissKK. You can read more on the Unique LA blog.

December 13th & 14th, 11 am – 7 pm
California Market Center (Penthouse), Downtown Los Angeles (Map It)
110 East 9th Street, Los Angeles, CA

$5 per ticket
(children 10 and under are free)
50% of ticket sales benefiting CREATE NOW, a local arts-based charity for high-risk youth

SPECIAL RATE!! $6 ALL DAY Underground Parking(with Unique LA Validation)