Lissa Renn, The Hive co-owner, answered the phone. I blurted, “I live a 10-minute walk from you and I need a haircut now.” She said, “If you can get here right away, I can take you. My next appointment is at 7:15.” It was 6:48. (This is my standard procedure whenever I get a haircut.)

The Hive recently opened on Micheltorena St., steps off Sunset in Silver Lake. The space’s previous incarnation was also as a hair place that I had gone to for quick cuts due to its proximity to where I live. But when it transformed into The Hive, it looked noticeably different– more open, warm and inviting with better lighting. (Stuff like that is important to me.) The last place had lime green walls; the Hive’s are a soothing cream white.

The same layout has been kept; the only real changes, aside from the welcome repainting, are from taking away — walls removed and exposing a beamed ceiling– and adding different lighting. The music playing was mostly 1970s glitter rock. “Pandora,” said Lissa. “We got tired of our iPods after the first week. This is our T. Rex station.” Read the rest of this entry →

HI.

HI!

HI!!

I’m yet another newbie in this influx of new writers.  You very likely don’t know me from that annoying 2009 Hummer with license plate MRY XMAS hogging the road next to you (or me, this morning, as Yaris and I barely escaped being eaten by that silver monstrosity of a car) but I run a foodie blog over on What You See is What You Eat.  I know, another one of those. Oh well. Other random things: I have a dog that everyone thinks is a fox, but really, is just a shiba inu. I say this at least 5 times a day, so if you’re in Santa Monica and there’s a girl explaining that No I did not steal this “fox” from Runyon Canyon, and, anyway, who would steal a fox and domesticate it? That makes no sense., that is me. My day-and-often-night-time job is to be a lawyer; having to write pleadings that are variations on a you-owe-me-money theme, I am eternally grateful to Lucinda and the rest of the LA Metblogs team for entrusting me with the space to write in English a few times a week.

So, this is my hi post.  The substantive post will be forthcoming.

Got yet another call from the Weatherbot this morning: Red Flag conditions are still holding. So don’t park on the streets unless you want to get towed–

Simply put, the major forces behind the No on 8 campaign ignored all of the grassroots organizations that could have truly helped marriage equality become a reality.

Yesterday’s action fair was organized by quite a few grassroots organizations and heavily promoted through JoinTheImpact’s activist network. All of this was also advertised under a national protest against DOMA: the federal Defense of Marriage Act. Signed into law in 1996 by then-President Bill Clinton, it prohibits same-sex marriages from EVER being recognized by the federal government, effectively delegating the decision to individual states. President-elect Barack Obama promised during his campaign to repeal the law and the event was organized to remind Obama (and his supporters) of the promises made.

Display of LGBT activist pins at the LGBT Action Fair

Read the rest of this entry →

A little reminder of our Olympic history.

Back in the day when cars had their radiators out front instead of behind a grill they used radiator badges to decorate their car.  I found this one at a cruise the other day from the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics on an old roadster so worn and used that the only other badge remaining was “Deluxe” which could have been either a Ford or Chevy.

The image is by me.  Reworked in the “Orton” effect style with the help of photoshop.

Would you like to honor our next president and pack on the pounds at the same time? Then go to any area Ben & Jerry’s and have a scoop of Yes, Pecan!, formerly boring old butter pecan. Proceeds go to Common Cause Education Fund.

Hmm, if George W. Bush inspired a cleverly named ice cream flavor, what would it be?

Yesterday, I was trying to pull out of a small shopping center parking lot on Lincoln Blvd. in Marina del Rey, next to the big Harley Davidson dealership.  Lots of cars were coming towards me on Lincoln, and our entire side of the road was lined with parked cars, which blocked my view of oncoming traffic.  So I had to inch out, crane my neck to see, stop when I invariably saw a car coming, wait, and then inch out some more.

All of a sudden, I feel a sharp rap! from behind.  I look in my rear-view mirror, and see that a young woman in a new convertible has just struck my car.  I get out of the car and look at her with my best David St. Hubbins-mouth-agape-the-tiny-Stonehenge-setpiece-is-descending look. She gets out, and we have the following conversation:

What the ‘tard said, after the jump

Happy 2009!

We are going to kick the new year off right with another Classic Eats Event. The first event (last Novmeber) was a great success. We ate an early dinner at Clifton’s Cafeteria (The decor, the jello salads!) then moseyed over to the Bonaventure Hotel for cocktails high above Los Angeles (The view, the 80′s vibe!). 

Classic Eats #2 is scheduled for Saturday January 24. The voting results will determine a gathering time/place. Voting? Yes! This time YOU get to decide where we will go. Please take a moment and vote below. The poll will remain open until Tuesday January 20. (Don’t worry if your choice doesn’t win this time, all options will remain for future Classic Eats.)

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For info and links on all the choices, skip past the jump.

Read the rest of this entry →

2 hours of parking = $648 at the Sunset 5. And it isn

If you go to see a movie at the Sunset 5 theatre, you’ll find that they validate parking, free, for up to three hours, which is typically sufficient. However, if you’re planning to see parts 1 and 2 of Stephen Soderbergh’s 4+  hours “Che,” the box office urges you to repark your car during the intermission.

While I was doing just that, along with dozens of other attendees Saturday night, another movie patron ahead of me stuck his ticket into one of those self pay machines – I presume to double check they’d validated his ticket – and was confronted with a fee that could make Che return from the grave to start another revolution: $648.

I think he was expecting sympathy after he told me that he’d only been there for a little over 2 hours… instead I joyfully snapped some low grade cel phone cam shots and told him how awesome this would be for the blog. Unfortunately, I don’t have proper closure to this tale, nor explanations as to the exorbiant fee. Hacker? Software glitch? Inflation? We may never know. Read the rest of this entry →

Few things will get the fraz to haul his tired sleeping butt out of bed on a Saturday morning.   All the reasons pretty much involve old cars and car shows.   I went to the Donut Derelicts cruise in Huntington Beach, full story over at the OC Metblogs.  (yup…posting there too, always nice to expand the group I can annoy one key stroke at a time).

“Are you Married but Looking? Ashley Madison is the place for Married Dating.”

-ashleymadison.com

Bless the LA Times columnist Meghan Daum for bringing Ashley Madison, the online dating service for married people looking for a simple affair, to my attention. But I’m waiting for the Yes on Prop 8 crowd to weigh in as vehemently against it as they did the prospect of same-sex marriage.

On the other hand, there is the distinct possibility the pro-prop 8 will think it’s a great idea for preserving traditional opposite-sex marriage– for which screwing around on the side is a tried and true tradition. They might have a problem with the male-seeking-male and female-seeking-female part of it, but if it’s ultimately saving a marriage, they might be able to swallow the idea.

Daum interviewed Ashely Madison-owner Noel Biderman, a self-confessed happily married man, who argues that his website, who’s “many members are in sexless marriages but don’t actually want to leave their spouses,” is saving more marriages than it is breaking up.

And for a city that often suffers from an inferiority complex when comparing itself to other big cities, Biderman kindly points out that Los Angeles is the company’s largest market.

With its website claiming mentions on the likes of Howard Stern, Dr. Phil and Larry King, and TV commercials depicting couples, married and otherwise, with pithy slogans like, “This couple is married … but not to each other;” and “Most of us can recover from a one-night stand with the wrong woman, but not when it’s every night for the rest of our lives,”  if Ashley Madison takes off (and maybe it already has; it claims 3.2 million members at $249 a pop) it’s going to be increasingly difficult for Europeans to laughingly look down at us for our puritanical ways, if not our gullibility for scams like this.

Viva l’affaire!

It seems a lot of people have been taking to the streets lately.  This past week it was Israelis and Palestinians, gathering on Wilsire Blvd. to protest the situation in Gaza.  Continuing since before November’s election both sides of Prop 8 have demonstrated to express their point of view.  What do these and other demonstrations have in common?  Anger, strife, and feelings of injustice, to name a few.  Wouldn’t it be nice to join a large group of people on the streets of L.A. all on the same side of an issue, not decrying an injustice, but engaging in pure joy, sharing that joy with everyone around them?  The day for that demonstration has come, and it is Saturday, January 10.

Tomorrow is Global No Pants Day 2009.  Created in New York City eight years ago by Improv Everywhere’s Charlie Todd, No Pants Day has spread to 25 cities in nine countries around the world.  Los Angeles will join in the fun beginning at 2:00pm on Metro’s Red Line (okay, not the “streets” of L.A., but close.)  More complete details can be found on the Los Angeles No Pants 2k9 Facebook event page, but the basic idea should be pretty self-evident.

So, come out and join me for a pantsless subway ride. If you do, please remember this important point from the Facebook page: “…this obviously means no pants, but DEFINITELY (wear) underpants!”

(I know it’s late and this is short notice.  Hey, it’s my first day.  More notice for upcoming events, I promise.)

This should be a fantastic crowd to be in on the night of January 20: as if performances by SF’s DJ Motion Potion and Mutaytor (for a reprise of the big New Years’ show they played with Thievery Corporation & Bassnectar) weren’t enough, celeb DJs & internationally-awesome electronic act The Crystal Method has just been added to the lineup to follow up the inaugural speech by Barack Obama, which will be televised on big screens throughout the gorgeous Mayan Theatre downtown.

Wow, that was a long sentence. And an awkward one. But all the facts therein are correct.

I’m going to go back to screwing around on the internet now. I’m spent after that sentence.

Oh, you want info? Right. I suppose you do. [sigh] Fine, here you go.

In addition to the fine slate of Oscar nominees gracing screens around town, LA is hosting a mini-French invasion it seems. A Louis Malle double feature screens tonight at the New Bev–The Fire Within and Murmur of the Heart. Truffaut’s The Wild Child is one of the Nuart’s movies this week and the Aero is having an all-Truffaut-all-the-time weekend with a half dozen films running the 16th through the 18th, capping off with Confidentially Yours on the 21st. And then my favorite bit of news: Godard’s Made in USA, which, ironically enough, was never officially released in the US, will be at the Nuart for a week beginning the 16th. Magnifique!

(Eiffel Tower picture courtesy martinos79)

I live in L.A. city proper on a street that is permit parking.  For the most part, I don’t mind this, because it means that I usually have no problems parking on my street overnight since you need to have a resident’s (or visitors permit) to park on my street.

Because we have friends visiting pretty often, we pay for the two extra visitor parking permits so that our friends never have to worry about finding a place to park when they come over.

When we moved here in 2004, the cost for a single 4 month visitor permit was $10.  That meant for two permits ($20) x 3 times a year = $60/year for our visitor parking permits year-round.  Not much to pay for the convenience of having parking for our visitors.

The rate stayed the same until early 2007 (the permit fees went up in November 2006).  Now it was $15 per permit every four months.  So then it became: two permits ($30) x 3 times a year = $90/year for our two visitor parking permits. A 50% increase! Yikes… but ok, prices do go up, and who knows how long the visitor permits were at $10.

Well, surprise, surprise!  Via City of Los Angeles Ordinance No. 180059, new permit rates are in effect as of August 30, 2008. Of course, I didn’t know this until I received my renewal letter saying that a single visitor permit is now $22.50. Two permits ($45) x 3 times a year = $135/year for our two visitor parking permits. This is ANOTHER 50% increase!

So in less than 5 years since I’ve been here, the annual cost of these things have more than doubled! (FYI, The cost of annual (non-visitor) preferential parking permits are less than this, but they have also followed the same pattern of increase.)

Is it the norm for the cost of these things to go up 50% every two years?

If so, then by my calculations, this is what I can project the cost of a SINGLE visitor’s permit for FOUR MONTHS to be:
In 2010: $33.75
In 2012: $50.63
In 2014: $75.94
In 2016: $113.91

Dude. If this is the case, I’m never having anyone visit me again.