Monday night was the third time that I have heard a sneaky plug for In-N-Out Burger in only about six episodes that I have watched of the new L.A. area-based “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.” When I heard this burger blurt come up in conversation for the first time a couple of weeks ago, with a guest (Tom Hanks, I think) advising Conan on where to find great burgers in L.A., it sounded genuine. When, a few days later, I heard it for the second time in the exact same context with a different guest, I began to have suspicions. Then, on Monday night, my suspicions seem to have been confirmed.

Conan’s carnivorical commercialism, after the jump

At the Echoplex this Sunday, indie bands are playing for a great cause. Cat-ch (har har har) this huge show with dozens of bands, art, and giveaways–and you can help save cute little (or big) kitties, doggies, even bunnies.

The event, called “Rock ‘n Roll ‘n Rescue,” is to benefit the Sante D’or Foundation, an animal rescue and healing hospice in Los Feliz. The show will kick ass, with Gliss (listen), Death to Anders, Rainbow Arabia (listen), Army Navy, The Polyamorous Affair (listen) Exitmusic and more. There’ll be a main stage & an outside stage so you can show up early & check out a slew of great bands. Plus, it’s for the kittens!

Info on the show is here!

The central library of John Carter's Mars?

Update: It appears that Mrs. Lulu has snuck into the blog again.  The following contains her observations of a delightful lecture at L.A.’s magnificent Central Library.

Last night, Lulu and I attended one of the LA Central Library’s free lectures in their wonderful ALOUD series:  George Lakoff, “The Public Mind:  A Cognitive Scientist’s Guide to Your Brain and Its Politics, In Conversation with Ian Masters”

We were both particularly excited about this talk since we had studied Lakoff in graduate school.  For those of you who don’t know him, he’s a cognitive scientist and linguist  at UC Berkely, whose interdisciplinary work focuses on investigating the ways in which linguistic and cognitive structures (e.g., metaphors, prototypes, frames) shape perception and social life.

A central theme of last night’s discussion was the way in which the framing mechanisms of public discourse have been controlled by the Republicans [...] Read the rest of this entry →

An occasional round-up of who’s not liberal in Tinsel Town.

I confess, I am the type of person who takes great joy in watching Republicans who call themselves “defenders of traditional marriage” getting SO BUSTED and copping to having extramarital affairs. Last week it was Nevada’s Republican  Senator John Ensign.

Today it was South Carolina’s Republican Governor Mark Sanford explaining that he wasn’t hiking on the Appalachian Trail when he went missing last week, as his staff told the media. Instead he was skipping down the Treasure Trail in Argentina attending to a year long extramarital affair.

Pam’s House Blend noticed that within an hour of Sanford’s press conference about spilling his beans, the Values Voters Summit, a conservative organization, had already removed his photo from its web site.

So now when you look at it, Sanford is gone, but not people like Sarah Palin, Bill O’Reilly, Carrie Prejean and– GARY SINISE?!

And last week I watched Craig T. Nelson commiserating with Sean Hannity on Fox News.

Hollywood Liberals, take note!

Some of you may be familiar with the band From. They are LA locals and rock steady beats. Unfortunately, they don’t have a bassist. And they want one. The need one. Desperately. So much so that they are going above and beyond to hold a contest to try and find that perfect addition to the band. If you are a bassist and interested in such things, check out what they are looking for. If you are not a bassist, this is actually much more entertaining. Get a load of the loot they are offering as prizes to anyone who helps them find the winning musician. Yes, that is a real pack of fake mustaches. How can you pass this up? It’s impossible really.

Holy roving gourmet trucks, Batman! In conjunction with their Movie Night on the 27th, Dwell On Design‘s hosting a mass meet-up of some of LA’s hottest mobile food vendors. Kogi is rumored to show although not confirmed; but I’m most smitten by the Sprinkles truck, which, if I ever see it en-route, I will follow across the city like a crazy stalker.

There’s also Locali’s Icicyle, Barbie’s Q BBQ, Let’s Be Frank, CoolHaus ice cream, Tacos Ariza and the Green Truck. Here’s all the info on the mobile restaurant row; to check out the movie night (which for better or worse will prolly be overshadowed, at least among the twitterati & the blogospheroids, by the food trucks) go here. Dwell on Design is a design conference & exhibition, incorporating home tours, restaurant design spotlights, film screenings and seminars. And also, apparently, cupcakes.

Hat tip to Jeff & his peeps over at Thrillist for beating me to the punch on this one.

Photo by Michael Zampelli/Rinkrat gets bigger with a light massage with your mouse.

The Los Angeles Derby Dolls are about to go on summer hiatus. They won’t be back until the end of August, so this is your last chance to see them…for a while.

The good news is they’re packing twice the roller derby action into the Doll Factory on Saturday, June 27, and LA MetBlogs has a pair of tickets and more for one lucky reader.

I’ve previously gone on (at length) about how awesome the Derby Dolls are. I won’t do that again; you already know this could be the most fun you’ve ever had. Instead, I’ll give you the details on the special Double-Header on Saturday, and how you can get your tickets.

Make with the clicky to follow me past the cut.

Read the rest of this entry →

From the Herald-Examiner collection, LAPL, June 17, 1939

Those of you who live in the Valley or who have ventured out to the Sherman Oaks Arclight on a summer night probably already know that the Sherman Oaks Galleria features live music Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Maybe you passed by last Saturday on your way to go see Up or Away We Go and you suffered through the 80s cover band belting out Pat Benetar and you’re wondering why on earth I would be posting about the musical travesties that are perpetrated at the mall. Swing dancing, that’s why. Monday is swing night at the Galleria, and yesterday Gary Allegretto rocked the house. Don’t know how to swing? Fear not–I don’t either and I had fun. They teach a few basic steps during the band’s break, around 7:20 or 7:30, and if they didn’t laugh at me, chances are they won’t laugh at you. If that just whets your appetite, know that the same woman who gives mini-lessons at the Galleria Monday nights will be teaching a class at the Encino Community Center on Thursdays. According to the LA Lindy Hop page you can pretty much swing any day of the week, so get out there and cut a rug.

A group saying they represent “oppressed Christians” entered the Southern California TV market over the weekend with their anti-gay infomercial Speechless: Silencing the Christians.

Last February the organization, The American Family Association, bought air time for the 60-minute program in Michigan, Ohio and North Carolina.

It resurfaced in California on Sunday. According to GLAAD, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, “One person saw it in West Hollywood, California on Independent Cable Channel, KDOC on Sunday, June 21, where it aired from 7 to 8 p.m.”

KDOC is based in Santa Ana but also serves Los Angeles cable markets.

KDOC’s general manager John Manzi told me, “Our plan is not to run it again.” He also mentioned that the station has nothing to do with content of infomercials nor do they endorse or agree with any of the views presented.

Speechless is hosted by über-conservative talk radio queen Janet Parshall, who lays out the Evil Gay Blueprint at the beginning of the program:

The way Americans think about homosexuality has changed over the last two decades. And if you think that’s an accident, think again.

Two homosexual activists wrote the book in 1989, After the Ball – How America Will Conquer It’s Fear and Hatred of Gays in the ’90s. In that book, Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen laid out powerful and sophisticated propaganda techniques to manipulate people into accepting the homosexual lifestyle.

She’s right; it’s an incendiary book. But her conspiracy theory that it’s behind the growing acceptance of LGBT people is laughable. If anything, both After the Ball and reactive attacks like Speechless speak to the determination (and successes) of gay leaders and their struggle for equality in a society with an ever-evolving awareness.

Even Parshall admits in the infomercial that advances in gay rights in the last 20 years have been “breathtaking.”

If you can bear to watch it, click here.

The scarcity of late night dining options has been a sore spot for me since I moved to Los Angeles in 2003 from Atlanta, “where parties don’t stop ’til 8:00 in the morning.” So, naturally I am enthusiastic when I find a restaurant that serves food late, like Silver Lake’s newest taquería, Tarascos.

Silver Lake's Newest Taquería

Tarascos is a very pleasing, minimalist taquería. No obnoxious sombreros hanging from the ceiling or mariachi crooners hovering over your guacamole. You walk into a small foyer and order at the counter. The menu is handwritten on chalkboards on the walls – and the prices are minimalist too! $1.50 for tacos, $5.50 for burritos and quesadillas – your choice of charbroiled steak, charbroiled chicken, cochinita pibil, or carnitas. For a smaller taquería, they have an unusually generous vegetarian selection and salads too. They also have some rather delicious flautas, which are not on the online menu right now, but very tasty and not too greasy. Read the rest of this entry →

Take danceable darkwave, industrial, and a dash of Peter Murphy’s soaring goth epics, and you get VNV Nation: now on their 7th album, they still own the dancefloor at gloomy clubs nationwide. Ronan, the lead singer, is totally against type though: no brooding, rail-thin ghoul in black, he’s a slightly-rotund bouncing ball of wild energy, jumping around the stage, yelling at the top of his lungs, exhorting rooms of sullen goth kids to “put down your fucking phones and dance!”

Which I love.

Wanna go? Tell me your favorite VNV Nation lyric in the comments–or, if you prefer, tell me your favorite silly goth dance.

Info on the show is here.

Most of my formative years were sans pere – no dad to call my own, no sleepy pop to wake up on Father’s Day with an ugly tie clumsily picked out from Macy’s sale section.  Essentially, I became my own de facto father: I taught myself how to tie my own tie, throw a ball, fix the toilet, and walk with the arrogant swagger that only men are allowed to have (this was the most difficult lesson – de-genderification is a bitch).  I think I’ve grown up ok.  So, on Sunday, I took myself out to brunch to thank myself for doing a decent job.  Happy Fatherless Day, iDad!

I wasn’t really sure where I was going when I left my house.  Somehow I ended up on La Brea, briefly idling in front of Campanile.  Outside, well-to-do sons in Sunday golf shirts were waiting with their proud dads.   I haven’t done that great of job with myself (I still can’t kill spiders with nothing more than three squares of toilet paper and calm resolve) (my girly technique involves bunched up paper towels and frantic, breathless indecisiveness).  I continued past Pink’s, site of our infamous Hot Dog Death March.  It was early, but a few families already were congregating.  Um, no.  I didn’t do a great job with myself, but I didn’t do a bad one, either.  So up I went.  Ultimately, I ended up at The Farmer’s Kitchen in Hollywood, nestled quietly near Selma and Vine, right in front of the Hollywood’s Farmer’s Market.

Read the rest of this entry →

At first, I thought I was looking at a sale flyer for Pavillions.

Not being a smoker, I usually find second-hand smoke annoying in outdoor dining areas at restaurants, on beaches and at other public spaces. But do I need a cutesy ad campaign with precious graphics and copy to announce that smoking is a big fat no-no?

How about a simple, official-looking “No smoking allowed under penalty of law” sign instead of this silly poster campaign that the city of Santa Monica is spending $150,000 to execute? (There are four other versions.)

Instead of stating forthrightly that smoking in an area is illegal, why make it seem like it’s an option if you’re really not in the mood for yucky asparagus?

In 2007, Santa Monica banned smoking in most popular public spaces, like the Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica Pier and Pacific Park. The ban also applies to outdoor common areas such as bus stops, ATM lines, local beaches and 20 feet from the entrances of any public building.

In 2008, the law was extended to include restaurants’ outdoor dining and waiting areas.

In today’s NY Times, Adam Radinsky, Santa Monica’s deputy city attorney, says he thinks the cuteness  factor is “playful, a fun type of campaign, not too much the government telling you what to do, not too Big Brother-ish.”

I like to think I’m as liberal as the next Whole Foods shopper, but is a touchy-feely, Sesame Street approach to enforcing laws supposed to inspire confidence in government?

There are a few things in life that always.. no matter what, deliver.  A summer performance at the Hollywood Bowl is definitely on that list.

This past Friday night was the season opener at the Bowl and my fab man Dan surprised me with box tickets he scored at the last minute.  We grabbed some champagne, some amazing picnic supplies at Locali (yummy organic 7/11 type convenience store that rocks on Franklin in Hollywood) and we were off.

The evening was sublime.  Almost perfection.  The air was sweet, the crowd happy and expectant…  and the performers… every one of them…. delivered.  It was a super mixed bill:  Trisha Yearwood, Roger Daltry and the amazing performance of Kiri Te Kanawa and Josh Groban.  The LA Phil played with all of them and it was simply delightful. The cherry on the sundae was a duet with Kiri and Josh… which made me a fan of both of them.  I never even remotely appreciated Josh Groban, he just wasn’t on my radar, but I was impressed.

But even more than that, the experience of just being at the Bowl, drinking in the happiness of 18,000 people enjoying the music, was sublime.  We have a true treasure there and I am reminded of it no matter who I go to see at this venue.  I’ve been going to the Hollywood Bowl for around 15 years, have shot concerts there and it still thrills me.

There is something magic about it, nestled in the hills, exploding with fireworks…. and just like summer, she always delivers.

My love for Kim Cooper‘s projects & collaborations is no secret, but this latest endeavor thrills me even more. Chronicling the glittering and ghastly history of LA’s Historic Core, centered around the footprint of the Downtown Artwalk/Gallery Row, the blog “In SRO Land” is only a week old but already is a treasure trove of info that’s left me utterly absorbed.

Every year Kim’s original blog, 1947project, undergoes a re-casting and covers a different year in Los Angeles history. But this year it becomes “In SRO Land,” named alternatively after the Single Room Occupancy hotels that are so prevalent in the area, and “Standing Room Only”–the common refrain of Broadway, whose golden era was a cavalcade of dancers and entertainers, criminals and movie stars, freaks and fans.

I am so stoked to have this new blog up and running, and I’ll be sure to check it every day. Welcome to the party, In SRO Land.

Also, a great big Congrats to Kim Cooper’s husband & Esotouric curator Richard Schave, the newly-minted Director of the Downtown LA Art Walk.

Photo by In SRO Land contributor Rob Clampett.