I’m a big fan of performance art… and especially when it combines  fire, dance, multi-media and theater.  So when I got wind of this cool looking event, “Mystic” I thought…okay, that goes on the calendar!

“Mystic” is described as a ‘visceral theatrical experience exploring the mystery of human origin, the evolution of consciousness, and galactic destiny through provocative video art, cutting-edge modern dance, and live music featuring The Earth Harp in complete narrative form’.

Whew.  That sounds heavy.  But fun.  And I loved the last performance of The Earth Harp I attended, which took place outside in a canyon deep in Malibu overlooking the ocean.  So this must be kind of rad too.Tickets run $30 (pre-sale tickets are required) and include entrance to The Hive’s Mystic Art Gallery reception beforehand and the Green Sector after party at the same venue.

Electric Lodge is located at 1416 Electric Avenue, Venice, CA 90291.   To purchase tickets online check out www.mysticlive.org.  Tickets can also be purchased by calling 800-838-3006.

Hey guys! The super-awesome Raveonettes appear this Saturday at the Fonda with The Soft Pack (formerly known as The Muslims) and former Metblogs author DJ Travis Keller. Now we know you’re all planning on coming to the Classic Eats dinner that night, but may we suggest this as after-dinner entertainment? I think we may.

Wanna go? Leave a clever play-on-words band name (real or made-up) in the comments and we’ll pick a few lucky winners. Here’s info on the show if you wanna buy tix.

(12:46 P.M.)

3.1 located 2 miles W/NW of Reseda.

Have a nice day.

Hollywood & Highland has just announced a new promotion offering diners free movie tickets to the Mann’s Theatre with any purchase of a meal at participating restaurants.  Just show same day receipts totaling $30 or more at the Visitor’s Information Center on Level I and you’ll get a pair of tickets!  (There is a one pair per person, per receipt, per day limit.)

The promotion runs through February 15th while supplies last.  For more information as well as a list of restaurants involved visit their website here.

Growing up in L.A. in the late-70s was a glorious time for a young sports fan.  The Dodgers won back-to-back NL pennants (’77 & ’78,) we still had an NFL team (the Rams played at the Coliseum until ’79,) the Aztecs played soccer at the Rosebowl, and every Saturday morning channel 9 broadcast Roller Super Stars featuring the Los Angeles Thunderbirds.  Although I (still) loved the Dodgers, I was a nerdy kid and could (still) not care less about the NFL, and only went to one Aztec game. It may have been a glorious time for a young sports fan, but that wasn’t me. One thing I looked forward to every week, though, was roller derby.

Of course, that was 30 years ago.  L.A. hasn’t seen a pennant in 20 years, the NFL has long since departed, and seriously, soccer? Did anyone else remember the Aztecs? The bright spot in this story is that the L.A. Derby Dolls have revitalized roller derby over the last five years, and the first bout of 2009 is this Saturday night at the Doll Factory between the Fight Crew and Tough Cookies.

Follow me past the jump for details on the most fun you’ll have Saturday night with your pants on**.

Read the rest of this entry →

The San Fernando Valley’s billion dollar porn industry received a stimulus package of sorts today from the Supreme Court in Washington. The court turned down without comment the appeal of Mukasey vs. ACLU. At its heart was a law, never enacted, which, for the past 13 years, had claimed to have been striving to protect children from viewing  sexually explicit websites, “unless the sponsor used some means, such as requiring a credit card, to keep out minors,” according to an article in today’s LA Times.

Judges, as well as the Supreme Court in 2004, had repeatedly blocked the law from taking effect, siting First Amendment concerns. By refusing to consider the appeal, the article said, “the outcome preserves the Web as a wide-open forum for free expression.”

T-shirt: Print Liberation

Your votes were tabulated and winning by a landslide rockslide was Downtown Delights: Union Station/Traxx restaurant and Phillipe’s!  

Here is the plan for this Saturday, January 24:
4:00 – 5:00 Unofficial get together to look around (and for me personally) photograph Union Station. (Sun sets at approx. 5:15pm)

5:00 Meet at Traxx (the bar section) for a cocktail and meet and greet of Metblog Authors and Readers.

6:30 or 7:00 We’ll mosey over to Phillipe’s (it’s about 1 1/2 blocks away) and have some Classic Eats.

Again, as we are an all volunteer authorship, we can’t host this event so it’s Dutch Treat. However, I will buy a drink for the person who tells the group the best factoid or story about Union Station. Winner to be determined by round of applause.

Don’t forget, we’ll be having Classic Eats #3 in February, so if the places you voted for didn’t win, don’t worry, we’ll get there.

For maps and parking and details, please make tracks past the jump.

Read the rest of this entry →

On February 12th, Los Angeles will be joining over 100 cities in Twestival, an international event to benefit charity:water, a nonprofit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations. I met the local coordinator at last night’s L.A. Geek Dinner and became very interested about this opportunity for our community to come together and help affect far-reaching social change. The L.A. Twestival organizers are working feverishly to put together a spectacular happening, but they can still use dedicated volunteers to finalize plans, as well as publicize, and attend the event.

The idea for Twestival was launched by a London collective of twitter users who gathered to raise money for a local charity. The overall intention of the worldwide fundraiser is to tap into the power of twitter to spread the word and gather participants ready to help improve the lives of those in need.

Click for more event and contact info

More info after the jump, pic gets bigger with a click

Read the rest of this entry →

The 3rd annual Battle of the Badges kicked off today, pitting Los Angeles area law enforcement agencies against one another to see who can recruit the most blood donors. Competing agencies include the LAPD, Los Angeles Fire, LA County Sheriff, Probation officers, and even the FBI. While Metblogs doesn’t endorse one agency over another (LAFD rocks!), we do encourage our readers to participate in the name of community.

To represent, check out this list of participating blood drives at your agency office of choice (click submit on the page, or enter the code BADGE).

As for incentive: 2 tickets to a Clippers game, a Battle of the Badges t-shirt, and a coupon for a free appetizer from Mimi’s Cafe.

More info about the competition here, including this useful tidbit:

If you are not available to donate during your agency’s blood drive, or if your agency is not hosting a blood drive, you can still participate. Present to give blood at an American Red Cross donor center in Southern California between January 20 & February 2 and complete a Battle of the Badges Agency Ballot Card. Your donation will count toward the campaign and your participant gifts will be mailed to you within a few weeks.

The competition runs through February 2nd. For a running score card of how the assorted offices are doing, click here.

Yesterday, I played hookey from public service and instead met a colleague for lunch at The City Bakery, located at the Brentwood Country Mart on 26th Street near the corner of San Vicente Blvd.  We were not alone.  The place was packed with kids and adults.  That’s fitting, since the Brentwood Country Mart is one of the quaintest places I have seen in the Los Angeles area.

The Mart’s red and white barnlike structures, which always seem to be freshly painted, date back to 1948, and house a number of shops and eateries.  Diners can choose between the upscale City Bakery and its more pedestrian neighbors, which include the popular Reddi Chik, as well as a taqueria and a burger joint.  Two courtyards flanking the Bakery provide picnic table seating.  In one of the courtyards are well-used mechanical horses.  Around the courtyards and along the narrow walkways are numerous shops, ranging from the old timey Edelweiss Chocolates and Country Mart Shoe Repair to the more mod Selima et Benjamin Optique and Turpan design shop.

Tour the Brentwood Country Mart

We’ve got tix to see Brit indie darlings Metronomy play with local indie darlings The Mae Shi tomorrow night at the El Rey. Wanna go? I don’t have a whole lot of time to compose some fantastic contest today because they’re firing 9% (to be exact) of the people who work at my office today and we’re all ducking & covering. So howabout you just leave a comment telling me how much you deserve to win, and when I get a moment to check my non-work email, I’ll hit a couple winners back.

Here’s the show info, kiddies.

While LA Metblogs’ Sean Bonner is in DC blogging about the inauguration, I’m feeling a bit stranded here in Los Angeles as the pomp, ceremony and parties unfold, so I’ve been taking solace in my friend Kristin’s Facebook journal about her adventures in the nations capitol, as well as exchanging a slew of emails with her about what I’m missing.

Kristin is Kristin Bedford, the woman behind Kristin’s List, the LA cultural listing site. An Angeleno who worked  on the Obama campaign at the Pasadena Democratic field office, she returned to Washington to spend the year end holidays with her family (she’s a DC native.)

When Obama won in November, she decided to stick around for the inauguration. And so, for the past few weeks, she has been tearing through the nation’s capitol in preparation.

As the LA Times had an article on Sunday about what certain notable Angelenos would be wearing to the inauguration, as well as the balls and parties to follow, I asked Kristin the same questions and how she would be getting around town.

She was concerned about staying warm in the early part of the day. Read the rest of this entry →

In a rare collision of adjectives, the LA Times has an interesting, sad, and funny story about the cubicle man’s war against supergraphics, i.e., those giant vinyl billboards that drape giant buildings and somehow stay flat despite the wind.  Our building had a supergraphic of something at one point; it obscured Partner on the Left’s view of the ocean, Partner on the Right’s view of the skyline, and my view of a giant mound of dirt that was once supposed to be the nascent signs of a luxury loft tower that thankfully did not get built. They were angry, I was indifferent about not seeing the mound. In any case, it was a temporary anger, as the sign was removed by the end of the day.
Read the rest of this entry →

Classic Eats Event #2 is this Saturday, January 24. It’s up to you decide where! Please click right here to go to the poll, read more info and get links to all the options. “Downtown Delights” is in the lead but please remember that Metblogs will be having a Classic Eats event every month, so if you don’t get your choice this time, it will come up in the future. 

The poll closes at 6pm today and when all the chads are inspected, we’ll put out the specific times and meet up places.

Happy Inauguration Day!