I don’t know what it is about June and the city’s Bureau of Street Services. Maybe this is the month its designated spellchecker goes on vacation, but it was this time last year when I found this awesome typo painted large and in charge on 4th Street just west of Highland.

And yesterday biking home from work past a HiFiTown block cordoned off for some slurry coating of its street, I encountered this transposed chuckler:

You already know it’s tomorrow at 3pm starting at Pink’s, then Oki-Dog, then Skooby’s. You also know to go to the official website: Hot Dog Death March. Aside from that you must know:

1) We are serious about the Hot Dog Haiku contest. Write one! Do it!  It’s easy to remember: 3 lines, 5 syllables on the first line, 7 on the second, 5 on the third. Like this:

Oh steaming wiener,
Dressed with chili and mustard
How you haunt my dreams!

Is that so hard? (And I know you can do better than that!)

2) If you can spare a few extra dollars on top of the costs of your franks, we are collecting money to build toilets in rural India as a way to give back after the Hot Dog gluttony. We’ll have info printed out for you to read, but you can go to the Poop Report site as well.

3) Bring cash and lots of change. I highly recommend having cash to pay for all your meals at the various venues as it will just be faster and easier. Also bring plenty of change for parking meters. There are many people who will love to buddy up and carpool between venues. Some have threatened to actually march. More power to you! 

Oh and did I mention the Hot Dog documentary film crew from Vancouver?  Yeah, they will be there too.

Again, there will be trivia games, a scavenger hunt, give-aways and prizes. Click past the jump to see a full list of prizes!

ROCK THE DOG!

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The NoHo Arts District has a swanky new web site. OK, sure.

I actually learned something in my boredom-induced clickery when I stumbled upon an article by Michael Higby about the new Universal City development:

Lankershim is diagonal in North Hollywood, because the road was based on the way the cows wandered.

Feel free to use this while breaking the ice tonight in your favorite Valley watering hole.

Hollywood MobMov @ The Steve Allen by Jodi

This is it folks. Your last chance to have loads of fun at the drive-in in Hollywood, at least for now. The joint Hollywood MobMov and Steve Allen Theater Masters of Horror series concludes tonight with an awesome double feature. Suspiria is a well-loved 1977 Italian film by Dario Argento, considered a classic in the horror genre. We’ll also be showing Brian De Palma’s Phantom of the Paradise, a delightful 1974 “horror-thriller-comedy musical” starring Paul Williams. Actress Jessica Harper stars in both films and will be making a live appearance for a Q&A during the intermission at the event tonight. Sounds like a blast to me!

Remember, this is an actual drive-in. You line up your cars in the lot, tune your radio into a specified station for sound, kick back and enjoy watching the picture on a big white wall. Don’t even think about letting the June Gloom clouds scare you away. First of all, they aren’t slated to produce anything  and the films are always simultaneously shown inside the warm, dry theater (just in case!).

The Steve Allen Theater is located at 4773 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90027. The theater is two blocks west of Vermont Ave. at the Center For Inquiry-West. Parking lot entrance is located on N. Berendo.

The show will start at 8:30pm, or when it’s dark enough to project. Tickets are $8 per person or $30 to reserve a prime parking spot for the drive-in with as many passengers as your car holds.

Sign up on the Hollywood MobMov mailing list for notifications of future screenings. There is definitely more to come in the near future! Check out some of our recent press.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am closely involved with Hollywood MobMov and assist with the events.

Under the same Santa Monica Freeway overpass where last year I discovered this Peace Puzzle, today I biked up on a motorized mammoth from a bygone era, with an ungainly and previously unknown manufacturer’s name to match: Gerstenslager — which sounds much more like a beer than a truck that could carry and deliver vast quantities of the sudsy stuff (the picture at right does the ratzafratzin’ June Gloom much more justice than the truck’s size, but click for a larger image):

Turns out the monster’s maker has a bit of a unique history in that The Gerstenslager Company has been around since 1860 and in the 1920s stopped producing buggies and wagons in favor of specialized truck bodies. According to its Wikipedia page, “In the 1950s the company was best known for making large custom vehicles such as Bookmobiles, canteens and mobile television units.”

Even more relevant in light of tomorrow’s Hot Dog Death “March,” Gerstenslager is perhaps most famous for the five Wienermobiles it designed and built in 1952 for Oscar Mayer — one of which is on display at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich.

A few more pix after the jump:

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In the last (AA) of the non-digital age, we find producer Jeff Ruhe in the ABC control center in Hollywood, surrounded by a world-record 77 TV sets. All of them analog. All of them obsolete.

The year was 1984. 1984. 1984.

Photo from UCLA Library Digital Collections

In today’s LA Times Calendar section.

It is impossible to discuss American musical theater or ballet without the name Jerome Robbins.  He’s the man who put the “American” into a dance form previously dominated by Europe as well as gave the world some of the most enduring musical theater experiences ever to grace the stage.  He took the frivolous musical theater genre and made it a forum  for discussing greater topics like racism and cultural identity.  His gift for movement was breathtaking.  His commitment to character changed the face of dance.  And his perfectionism was the stuff of tawdry dressing room gossip – most of which was true.

One cannot tell the tale of Jerome Robbins without mentioning Balanchine – the name of the shadow he would forever live beneath without ever once realizing his worth or contributions to American theater and ballet.  If Balanchine was the technical master to which American ballet would aspire, Jerome was the deep soul with an unflinching commitment to the truth no matter how it came out.  To the very day that he died in 1998,  Jerome Robbins never quite felt like he fit in, always questioned his skills and drove himself to unleash laboriously polished gems to the public.

American Masters – Jerome Robbins: Something To Dance About is a daring and adoring feat of documentation created by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Judy Kinberg and Robbins biographer Amanda Vaill with narration by Ron Rifkin.  It will be presented to the public in a rare screening at Dance Camera West Saturday June 13th at 7 pm just in time for the 90th birthday of the legendary choreographer.  The documentary is an exquisite and honest look at a controversial, tortured, brilliant man who battled with himself as well as the artists who worked with him to create visual odes to the human condition that have endured through the years.  To this day, the very same steps executed by the original cast of West Side Story are still being danced on Broadway and across the world, not to mention countless numbers of ballets.  The documentary not only offers up a comprehensive tale of his life and work but incredible archival performances by the man himself along with some of the greatest dancers ever to live.

Admission is free.  No reservations are necessary.  Seating is first come first serve.   The Hammer Museum’s Billy Wilder Theater is located at 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90024. For more information on this venue please call 310-443-7000 or visit www.hammer.ucla.edu. For more information on Dance Camera West (DCW) and to see its June 2009 schedule please visit www.dancecamerawest.org.

No doubt about it! Lakers Rocked! The Rolled! They Rule!  I am sooooo proud to live in Los Angeles and feel the love for the Lakers!

Yep. Tonight’s game was perhaps the finest, most nail biting event I’ve experienced in ages. And it all came down to overtime where the Lakers kicked magic ass!

Despite being a cheerleader in high school, (yikes! I can’t believe I’m publicly admitting that!) I’ve never been much of a sports fan. Until this year, when MFM (my fabulous man), Dan, introduced me to the best team on the planet. The Lakers of course.

And tonight they really outdid themselves. Kobe, doing his Black Mamba moves, Lamar hangin’ in there, and finally FISH! YEAH! Knocking it down not one, but two, three pointers to win the game. What a team. What a game. Thank you Phil Jackson.  And yes, they deserve the championship!

I have no words.

This week’s Metblogs rescue dog is brought to you by Karma Rescue. Maddie and her tiny litter mates were dropped off at the shelter shivering in their little fur coats. When you say “Maaaadddddie,” this sweet puppy pokes her little head up like a meerkat at full attention. Maddie currently lives with two other foster dogs and they are all getting along just great. She is also doing very well with her crate training and house manners. She can even sit and lay down on command!

The whole idea of a VIP list for “Club Fire” leaves me scratching my head. This bus bench caught my eye because I thought it was an ad for a horror movie, and then I saw that was actually for salvation disco and I thought well in a way I wasn’t so far off.

When the rapture comes, this bus will be unmanned.

I spotted that on a wall near my house in Venice this morning and thought I’d post a little bit explaining exactly what is going on. Or what I can read into it anyway. This is gang tagging, which is very different that the colorful graffiti many talented artists have adorned walls in LA with. This is a message and if you know what you are looking at you can read it. I’m not 100% versed in every single LA gang so there is some of this I can’t decipher but some of it is pretty clear so this is what I got.

There are three gangs represented here, the first to write on the wall used a thin line black ink pen, that was followed up by the thicker black ink, and finally followed up by the orange ink. The first one to write on the wall using the thin black ink I think is a clique of the Culver City Boyz, though I don’t know exactly which one. They made the initial mark which included “Venice City VCCBG” The CB of which I believe is Culver Boys though I could be mistaken. They also included SLC and VX3 and crossed them out, those refer to the Shore Line Crips and Venice 13 gangs and since they are crossed out they are showing that they are none too fond of them. Since those three gangs have a history of not playing nice that would make sense. Additionally all of the “C”s in the initial tag are crossed out which is a dis against any Crips gangs which would further my suspicion that the Culver Boys were behind it. The small “k” in the “C” in “City” also means “killers” in a “crip killers” kind of way. Anyway, this is just a territory grab tag, it’s saying “we were here” for the most part, but in a rather aggressive way.

After that the thick black marker writer showed up and this is the one I know least about, I think VGD refers to the Varrio Grande Decoto but I didn’t know they were in LA as I’ve known of this as an SF gang, specifically located around the Mission District. So VGD could mean something else. Anyway, someone called “Mack” from that gang showed up and crossed out the VCCBG part but left the rest which would indicate he is also reping Venice City but doesn’t like any of the gangs already mentioned. The enemy of my enemy is my friend doesn’t really apply here.

Finally the much talked about Crips show up themselves and happened to have an orange marker with them. VSLGC stands for Venice Shoreline Gangster Crips I think. They crossed out the first tag and then actually listed a roll of who was probably there at the time, that’s the orange list on the upper right. Each of those is the name of an individual member. You can also notice that the “B”s are crossed on in their own text, which of course points out that, being Crips they don’t like Bloods.

So the take away from all that is really that all these folks are occupying the same space and not happy that they have to share it with anyone else. Should make for a fun summer.

It was bound the happen.  The abomination of all abominations in footwear, crocs is now being knocked off.  Found these gems at the Shoe Stop here in Monrovia today.  Quite the deal I suppose at $8.99 pair.

Details:  Shoe Stop, 310 W Huntington Drive, Monrovia CA 91016  626-303-4070

With two wise-ass, caustic New Yorkers hosting competing late night network talk shows, one of them Conan O’Brien, now in Los Angeles and the new replacement for the middle-of-the-road schtick of Jay Leno, is anyone surprised that viewers are taking a second look at Letterman, if not out of blanching at O’Brien’s bizarre humor (and looks,) then maybe out of familiarity with Dave?

From LA Weekly’s Nikki Finke, who may regard herself an avenging angel of the right if her flailing rants against NBCU’s Jeff Zucker that dovetail neatly with Bill O’Reilly’s are any indication, to LA Observed’s blunt disgorging of the LA Times‘ and Variety’s lengthier analyses of a mere seven days worth of ratings for Conan and Dave, you would think something truly important is happening here with the former’s nosediving as the latter’s ascend.

But this is a town that follows Nielsen ratings like a hedge fund manager follows the commodities markets. Everyday brings drama and rash assessments, if not the financial equivalent of blood sport.

Conan’s ballyhooed move to Los Angeles is still a hot ticket here in his new city, at least according to my NBCU sources who still haven’t been able to get me passes  to  one of his tapings. By contrast, Leno tickets were always a breeze to secure and landed me in the air-conditioned “special guests” holding room, not waiting out on the Burbank sidewalk with the hoi polloi. (This always garnered big points for me with out-of-town visitors.)

While a fan of both Conan and Dave for the doses of NYC sensibility that they provide to an ex-New Yorker now living in LA, I also like Cash Cab on the Discovery Channel for the same reason. It’s a game show that takes place in a taxi cab cruising the streets of Manhattan.

I can’t imagine it being entertaining, let alone interesting for anyone who hasn’t lived there, but one thing I’m sure of: Wouldn’t work here; although I’ve considered pitching an idea I have for a new reality show based in Los Angeles. It’s called, “Help! I’m a Paparazzi-in-training!”

But even if it came to be, I’d still stick with Conan and Dave. And Cash Cab.