The tomato crop has been crushed to a large extent this year nationwide, thanks to a fungus that started in nurseries in the US South where the plants were sprouted, before spreading via being shipped and sold at nurseries across the country. Maybe you’ve noticed the price increase of tomatoes at groceries this summer due to growers being forced to destroy so many plants. (And maybe you see a political allegory in my recounting.)

If my experience is any indication, the West seems to be less impacted due to drier growing conditions; but in the Northeast, where a soggy summer is playing out, it’s been disastrous.

Here in Los Angeles, I got two plants at an independent nursery in Hollywood and a third at the Home Depot on Figueroa.

Late blight, at first characterized by small brown spots on the leaves, spread and turned them yellow and then brown. But it didn’t seem to slow down the explosion of blossoms and tomatoes that formed on my plants.

Then, I woke up one morning Read the rest of this entry →

Crafters and craft enthusiasts, this is your moment!

This weekend is the Los Angeles premiere of Handmade Nation, presented to you by the good folks at Cinefamily.

In addition to screening the film, they’re having a mini-craft fair at the premiere and a Q+A with the director, plus  live silkscreening demos.

Saturday, August 15th
12:00 premiere $25 (includes swag bag)
7:00 $12

Sunday, August 16th, all screenings $12
3:00, 5:00, 7:00 & 9:00

Read the rest of this entry →

The Voting is going great guns for Classic Eats #7: Hot Summer Nights Edition. Currently The Reel Inn has 50% of the votes!

Update: sorry! Forgot to mention that Classic Eats #7 is Saturday, August 29!

Click Here to vote.

Click on past the jump for more info on the three locations listed.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Read the rest of this entry →

No the NEW one:

Just checking.

You never know when you need an ice cold Coca-Cola from the fountain. That’s why the Arrow Drug Company was open all night, at Second & Spring.

The year was 1939.

Photo from the USC Digital Library

Remote Area Medical, the organization that organized and coordinated a superhuman effort to provide free health care services to the uninsured and underinsured to LA-area residents since Tuesday at the Forum, has officially reached capacity for the duration of their one-week stay.  Starting at 5:30 a.m. every day since Tuesday, RAM has provided services from primary care to cataract surgery to thousands of people, most of whom waited in line for hours upon hours, and some of whom were ultimately turned away as the organization’s daily capacity too quickly hit its max.  On Wednesday, RAM took a page from old skool Ticketmaster and began distributing wristbands to those in line.  Those who received the wristband were told to return for services sometime between today and Tuesday.  As of the end of Wednesday evening, all wristbands and numbers have been distributed, and RAM will not see any band-less patients.  As they warn on their Twitter feed: “If u dnt hav a wrstband, pls do not drive or walk to The Forum.”

A sadly overwhelming success.  Let’s get on with this health care reform thing, shall we?

Magnolia Bakery in Manhattan’s West Village is opening a shop in Los Angeles, and the Blackburn and Sweetzer blog is speculating their new digs will be on 3rd St. and Orlando.

Today, the NYC bakery’s PR confirms that Magnolia is in fact expanding to Los Angeles, however, is not at this time confirming the location. So, keep your eyes peeled on 3rd and Orlando for scrumptious clues. I know I will.

(Thanks to my cupcake-loving friend Cheryl for the tip. She said, “i can’t wait…to wait in line for a magnolia cupcake again!”)

The state is broke. Unemployment is high. So, why are we still outsourcing production of our rail cars to other countries?

Curbed reports that delegates from 12 Korean companies are on their way to bid on a $45-billion contract for our state’s high speed rail network. I’m sure they’re all fine companies. So are the ones from Germany and Italy. But, what if Los Angeles got into rail manufacturing? The city claims that it wants to be the “clean tech” leader.

Los Angeles is home to the largest port complex in the nation, the world’s fifth busiest airport, the country’s largest municipal utillity, world-class research universities, an unparalleled workforce, and the largest manufacturing center in the nation. From pipe-fitters and electricians to engineering PhDs and Nobel Laureates, the business and labor communities are teaming up to make Los Angeles the most productive place in the nation for cleantech. The City is building on these assets with billions of dollars of investment and attractive incentives to make Los Angeles the destination for the cleantech industry.

Would a clean tech high speed rail network fit the bill?

If Los Angeles, and the state of California want to get back on track, we should start building trains. Here. In our town. California needs them. So does Florida, the Midwest, and the rest of the nation. An American high-speed rail network – made for Americans, by Americans.

We’ve done this before. Why not do it again?

Well, thanks to Metblogs and all you lovely people (ok, two people in particular) the kittens I posted about have a lovely new home!

I want to thank Metblogs readers Edith & Dan, of Alhambra, for adopting the kittens now known as Moxie and Marvin!

Moxie & new kitteh-mama Edith hanging out.

A few more images of them in their new home behind the jump. Read the rest of this entry →

Witness the new website for the LA Times: it looks like a blog  – a longer scroll to the bottom, a new font, and a little more blog-like.

Before (an October 2008 screen grab of the LAT’s old website):

After (this morning’s revamped page):

What do we think?

Westsiders rejoice! The Bikerowave has reopened in it’s new location and is ready for you to haul your bike related project in for servicing. Similar to the east sides Kitchen and Oven, the Bikerowave is a not-for-profit cooperative, all-volunteer run, community bike repair shop that until now has suffered from being incredibly hard to find. Really, I ride bikes in LA and the only time I ever made it by their old location was by accident and when I got lost. I looked for it twice on purpose and had no luck. That is all in the past now since they have fully moved into their super huge new space at 12255 Venice [map]. They are open now M/W/Th 6:30 pm – 10 pm, Sat 1 pm – 7 pm and Sun 1 pm – 5 pm. If you live west of the 405 and have any kind of repair or upgraded needed on your bike, trust me, this is your solution. More photos (all by Alex Thompson) after the jump. Read the rest of this entry →

OMG. The Pee Wee Herman Show is coming LIVE to LA, to the Fonda Theatre, for most of November. Buy your tix now or miss out!

All the info you’ll need is here.

After much handwringing and consideration, Equality California, the gay rights organization, has decided to hold off until 2012 to push for a ballot initiative to repeal Prop 8, which banned same-sex marriage in the state. An impassioned debate over whether to place an initiative on either the 2010 or 2012 ballot had been playing out over the past several months.

I initially wrote about it here last month, when three gay rights organizations successfully got the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in DC on board  to wait until 2012, which at the time I suspected was the writing on the big gay wall.

In a related matter, some gay leaders are at odds over a hastily planned march for marriage equality in Washington DC this fall, on October 11th.

If you’ve been looking for an excuse to go downtown (do you need one?) or just get out of the house, the second annual Downtown Film Festival-Los Angeles (DFFLA) opens tomorrow night, Wednesday, August 12th, 2009. This 11-day event is offering up a great variety of activities in several downtown venues.

There seems to be a little something for everyone on the DFFLA menu from the typical indie fare to a series of music films to nightly parties. In addition, there are several FREE happenings such as a Paul Newman tribute, an all-day environmental event, short films, and a showcase of art videos.

The DFFLA opens Wednesday, August 12th with the 2009 Spike Lee documentary “Passing Strange” at the AT&T Center Theater and will close on Saturday, August 22nd with the never-before-seen “Jackson 5 in Africa” at the Los Angeles Theater. Find up to date festival info by visiting their website. More info on a particular screening yours truly highly recommends coming soon!

I love stars!  One of the best nights I’ve ever had was in Joshua Tree last year when my love Dan and I hiked out into the desert, laid down and watched all the stars and planets flying around.  It was a real Star Party…

Tonight, we’ve got a treat because from around midnight til 5am, there’s a blast of meteors, some theorize there will be one every minute or so.  Of course, we live in a dense, overlit city, so it may be hard to catch a lot of them… and there’s a pretty bright moon tonight.

Nevertheless, I for one, will be laying out under the stars to catch some summer starlight showers.  I may even cruise over to Malibu… or out into the wilds of Tujunga to try and get away from the city light.  And if you are reading this and know of someplace to get to that’s not to far that might be shielded from our bright LA light… lay it on us!