During a quick trip to the corner store this evening on a quest for flour, I was assailed by Obama Mania.  A shelf overflowing with bottled water and souvenir mugs summed it up quite nicely for me and I was compelled to take an exhausted (thus blurry) but amused snapshot with my cellphone which I sent to a few friends.

I have a feeling tomorrow is going to look a lot like this – Obama coffee cups, pins, toast, shirts, napkins, eggs, champagne (as seen in a MySpace ad), pizza, toothpaste and, yes, Obama water.

I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it.  I’m just as excited as anyone who voted for Barack Obama but a part of me is horrified by the profuse use of his image to sell items from collector’s pieces to mundane frivolities such as water.

So if you’re looking for a great band to rock out to after watching the inauguration, may I humbly suggest the fantastic Walkmen? I’ve loved these guys for years since their atmospheric, moody “Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone,” and they’ve continued to grow and develop as a band ever since. Tell me your favorite Walkmen lyric/lyrics in the comments below and if we pick you, voila! You’ve got something to do tomorrow night other than sit around in your PJs and watch the post-inaugural mutual wank-off with Beyonce and U2 while eating Ben & Jerry’s “Yes, Pecan!” Obama-rama ice cream.

Here’s all the info on the show.

This is probably inappropriate for the fuzzy warm feeling going along with the three day weekend, Inauguration vibe, but here goes… a clip from Vince Offer’s “The Underground Comedy Movie.”

previously on Metblogs: Shamwow! Surprising details about pitchman Vince

Harpers Weekly rendering of Abraham Lincoln's second inauguration.

Dozens of events celebrating the Inauguration of President Barack Obama are taking place in the Los Angeles area alone, some beginning in time to watch the swearing in ceremony at 9am, PST, and leading into into the late hours with post Inaugural Ball bashes.

Following is a sampling of local events – a more complete list for your area can be found by entering your zipcode at the Presidential Inauguration Committee website and MoveOn.org.  

Please let us know at the comments how and where you’ll be celebrating (or not celebrating) Inauguration Day!

Inauguration Viewings:

• Grab a breakfast burrito at Lucy’s El Adobe in Hollywood to celebrate, opening at 8am.
• The Casa Weston in Valley Village invites other “Obama Mamas” to watch the inauguration and share in some mimosas. 8am.
• The Barnsdale Gallery Theatre at the Barnsdale Art Park will be open at 8:30am for a free viewing party – bring your own food!
• For $25, enjoy a champagne toast to the new Commander and Chief at Hollywood Park – includes full brunch. 8am.
• All Saints Church in Pasadena will open at 7am for a community screening.
• The largest public Los Angeles viewing will be at LA Live, downtown, with a live stream running from 7am to 11:30am.
• Over 400 low income children attending the Para Los Niños Family Learning Complex will be watching on a 13′x9′ screen, and will receive a copy of the official inauguration invite and small American flag as a keepsake of the day.
• MSNBC’s live stream at the Bridge theatre appears to be sold out.

I live on Wilshire, just a block west of MacArthur Park and I’ll be damned if I didn’t just hear a massive explosion or a long string of intense gunfire.

I can count 8 firetrucks and 4 LAPD cars over on Coronado and Wilshire. There are more coming.

Anyone else in the area hear it? Know what it was?

I spotted this gem at the Home “Cr”epot in Monrovia with the trusty phone cam. It does get bigger with a click.

I have no way of reconciling or rationalizing. A child is dead. And because of that I am at the site of the shooting and there is a preacher at the mic behind me praising Jesus and urging everyone within the sound of his amplified voice to accept Christ as our lord and savior. I just wish he’d shut the hell up. Because right at that moment when I’m being yelled at not to deny myself ever-lasting salvation, the only thing undeniable is that I live in a world where 4-year-olds lose their lives to gang violence. They get shot in the chest walking with their sister and they die.

Where Bixel deadends into Court Street with Temple Street to the north and Vista Hermosa Park to the south, I stand front and center before an assemblage of candles and plush toys and flowers and bags of Cheetos and photos as others come, look, and go. I don’t come here to grieve. I don’t come here to represent. I come here to bear witness. And so I stare at the flickering flames until my eyes burn and I turn from them to find an LAPD patrol car cruising by, the officer driving solemnly waves at no one in particular. On a wall across the street is a whimsical mural representing the community and above that in whimsical lettering it reads “We will always remember you on our street.”

It’s a sentiment so painfully pertinent in light of the dark facts that I wonder if it was put up for the fallen child. It seems too elaborate to have gone up in the days since the killing.

A different preacher takes over at the mic talking about how everything’s going to be OK because God has a plan and I want to scream all sorts of disagreements with that damn platitude, but instead I turn back and I look behind the makeshift shrine to a brightly painted building, the letters ACLA adorn the porch. Below that reads “Art Community Land Activism.”

Below that are holes in the colorfully painted stucco that may very well be from bullets. Old? New? It doesn’t matter. There will be more where those came from.

Opening this weekend at Company Of Angels, the oldest non-profit theater company in Los Angeles, is the world premiere of Dias Y Flores – an original play by Oliver Mayer.

Dias y Flores is a meditation on love – straight, gay and filial. Testing which love is strongest, the play seeks the musical magic of love. Its story is loosely based on “A Thousand and One Nights” and the music of Cuban Silvio Rodriguez and Beethoven, played live. It also looks at the changing face of Latinos – Caribbean to Mexican. What does it mean to be Latino and in love? What happens when your sexual feelings cross boundaries? A new play with live music, set in the jungles and gardens of New York’s Lower East Side: Sherezad’s got an ache so deep in her soul it’s driving her mad. Can Silvio Flores, with his guitar and lilting melodies, be Sherezad’s Arabian Knight?

The production runs Friday, Saturday (8 pm) and Sunday (7 pm) through February 8^th at The Alexandria in Downtown L.A. (501 S. Spring St. 3^rd Floor). Tickets are $20 and can be purchased in advance via Brown Paper Tickets.

For more information visit the Company Of Angels website.

Legendary fetish photographer Eric Kroll is moving out of LA, and is lightening his load before he goes.

from his email to me:

when Man Ray left LA after 10 years he had a yard sale of paintings and other pieces he had made. I am doing the same to raise much needed cash. there are prints by me and by others including Bill Ward and John Willie. I live in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles east of Sunset Junction off Sunset off Micheltornea. These items will be sold at recession prices. It goes on through the 20th of January but the best selection is NOW.

UPDATE:

Email me kroll [at] well [dot] com for info if you’re interested.

I’ve seen his stuff and it’s pretty mindblowing. Not just fetish stuff, not just his own photos.

Oh and do I need to say it? NO KIDS!

Everything is shaking apart around me.

Read the rest of this entry →

Local artist turned ZOMG! political art superstar for his Obama HOPE poster, Shepard Fairey, was on The Colbert Report last night. A few people have mentioned to me that they missed it so I thought I’d just post the clip here for the enjoyment of all:

(full disclosure: Shepard is a long time friend who I’ve worked on many projects with and I generally think he rocks.)

I experienced a Spinal Tap moment today at the Coffee Bean on Wilshire and 9th Street in Santa Monica. The guy behind me on line looked exactly like Spinal Tap guitarist Nigel Tufnel. He was fortyish, with Nigel’s exact haircut (nicked from Jeff Beck), yellow ostrich boots, black jeans, dark blazer, and Celtic pendant.  He also looked to be wearing make-up.  It was an only-in-L.A. aging rock musician look left over from the 80′s. But the funny part wasn’t that he looked like Nigel Tufnel, because, y’know, respect for that.  The funny part was that he acted like Nigel Tufnel. 

He shuffled over to the barista with Ozzie Osborne’s steadiness.  His obvious neurological damage could have been naturally caused, but it seemed to me that he had spent his 80′s partaking in a bit too much partay-ing on the Sunset Strip, maybe as a musician at The Whisky.  Then he gave his order:

What Nigel did, after the jump

We’ve already pointed out that Metro is using Twitter to update in both English and Spanish on the same account, and how much fun it is for people to repeat themselves when you heard them the first time.

But, here’s an interesting development: Metro does not know how to link in Spanish.

Wouldn’t that still be a cut & paste?

There are shopping carts all over L.A. Blocks, even miles from the nearest store of origin. How did they get there? How long are they staying? What is their final destination? It’s an epidemic. One that Los Angeles believes warrants some immediate action. Some shock and awe.

The L.A. City Council’s Planning and Land Use Committee (PLUM) wants an ordinance that would require stores to implement a shopping cart containment system.

According to VICA Weekly, The Valley Industry & Commerce Association doesn’t like it, because it will cost businesses money.

This is likely to force stores to invest in expensive wheel-locking systems that can cost hundreds of dollars per cart. VICA is concerned that the ordinance will create unnecessary burdens for businesses.

We definitely don’t want businesses to be burdened.

But, what about the Carts? Shouldn’t they be free to choose when and where they live? Shouldn’t they be allowed to marry other Carts if they so choose?

Discuss.

California announced today that there will be a 30-day delay on tax refunds because the state is broke.

From the AP:

Controller John Chiang said Friday he must delay $3.7 billion in payments next month because lawmakers have failed to address California’s growing deficit.

Let me get this straight…

1. A tax refund is money that you owe us because we overpaid you on taxes.
2. You failed to do the job that we, the taxpayers, elected you to do.
3. You now want to keep our money a little longer.

Anyone else find this outrageous? Anyone else find this to be a complete failure? Anyone else ready to march from Los Angeles to Sacramento and fire everyone?