I have fond memories of the boxy Volvo’s I used to own.  And probably less fond ones of seeing the Playboy sticker outlines on truck mudflaps.  Somehow I wouldn’t have thought to combine the two.

I guess it’s the neighborhood.  I am not sure whether the driver ahead of me on La Cienega was heading to the vegan Real Food Daily restaurant, or perhaps to the Live Nude Girls Girls Girls strip club, since they are right across the street from each other.

TMZ, I love you.  I never thought I’d say that.  But that was my reaction after being pointed by the Los Angeles Times Local section online to these photos at TMZ.com purportedly catching First Lady Maria Shriver Schwarzenegger in the act.  No, not an adulterous sex romp, but rather, two cell phone-in-hand chatting sessions while driving, at least one of which reportedly takes place in Los Angeles.  Yeah, it was her husband Arnold who signed  the law that Maria clearly appears to be breaking.

I can’t wait for Maria’s top five excuses:

5.  I was stopped at a red light.
4.  I was stopped in traffic.
3.  The pics are Photoshop phonies.
2.  It wasn’t me, it was Mariel Hemingway (top photo).
1.  It wasn’t me, it was Amy Irving (bottom photo).

This once, I hope a TMZ celebrity story makes front page news and stays there.  Maybe it will save some lives.

Yes, I know it’s raining and that means a stay-at-home night for some number of residents who harbor an overwhelming fear of precipitation. For those of you among the more adventurous, however, this is a great literary night. Michael Chabon, author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and more recently of Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son,  is giving a talk at the Central Library, and noir genius James Ellroy is presenting and signing his new novel, Blood’s a Rover, at Skylight. If that just whets your literary appetite, there’s more wordy goodness on Thursday when Wallace Shawn, who cowrote My Dinner with Andre and has just authored Essays, a book which promises to be more exciting than its title, talks with Bruce Wagner at Hammer and Jane Smiley signs her latest, her first novel for young readers, The Georges and the Jewels, at Borders Northridge. I admit I’m a first line fetishist, and Smiley’s novel satisfies. It begins like this, “Sometimes when you fall off your horse, you just don’t want to get right back on.” Amen, Jane.

With the threat of a heavy rains putting STROMWARTCH ’09 back in full effect and  the U.S. Geological Survey coming out with an interactive neighborhood mudslide risk map for the communities that reside along the base of the San Gabriels so thoroughly denuded by the Station Fire last month, I reckon it might not be a bad time to go back to a post I made in April as part of LA Metblogs “Songs About Los Angeles” compendium, focusing on Woody Guthrie’s ballad “The New Year’s Flood,” which chronicled the disasterous deluge of January 1, 1934 (also preceded and aided by a wildfire) that sent debris flows through the communities of Tujunga, La Crescenta, Montrose, Glendale, Burbank and more destroying an estimated 600 homes and killing anywhere from 25 to 100 people (or more), depending on the source.

Here’s hoping hard that history doesn’t repeat itself.

As I’ve mentioned previously, 826LA is my favorite non-profit organization. There may not be any profit, but it still takes a lot of money to do all the great work they do. Thus, there are occasional fund-raisers and benefits. 826 benefits are always win-win situations, though, because while they get the money, you get top-notch entertainment for a relative bargain price.

There are a couple of great 826LA benefits happening this week, starting with a very special show tonight at the EchoPlex featuring the spectacularly funny Eddie Izzard! This show was just announced, and as of this writing some tickets are still available for only $20 (plus a reasonable, non-TicketBastard service charge.) Race to get them at TicketWeb HERE. Izzard’s L.A. shows have historically sold out very quickly (with higher ticket prices,) so don’t wait.

On Friday night, M Bar Supper Club in Hollywood is the place to be for “Behind the Smoggy Veil: Tinseltown Tales.” This evening of comedy features (among others) Taylor Negron, and is hosted by my old friend, the very funny Sarah Taylor. Given the title, I’m going to guess it will be an evening of funny stories about life in Hollywood. This promises to be a great show as well, so call the number at the link above and make a table reservation now.

One week. Two benefits for 826LA. Two evenings full of laughter. You’re welcome.

I love these cheeky little trucks tossing barbs at the competition.  But I think Fresh and Easy would get more mileage (no pun) on the fact that their little trucks run on an eco-friendly bio-diesel if that was more prominent than the barbs.  Pic by me with the trusty cell phone cam, it does get bigger with a click.

When Smoking Was Cool, an art exhibit opening at Black Maria Gallery on Saturday, takes on “the American propensity for legislating social behavior,” in this case, using ever-rising tobacco taxes as a jumping-off point.

While the exhibit will take note of the movement to define certain social behaviors as taboo, whether it’s smoking, drinking alcohol or easygoing attitudes about sex, its aim will be to examine the hidden motives and powerful interests behind the politics of social legislation.

Sam Saghatelian, curator of the exhibition and a participating artist, says in the press release, “The point is that government and corporate interests often single out targets for the legislation of social behavior because it’s politically and financially expedient to do so, and not necessarily for the wellbeing of the public as they claim.”

Featured artists include Paul Chatem, The Pizz, Shark Toof, Anthony Ausgang, Sarah Stephens, Stacy Lande, Christine Karas-Gough, Shannon Keller, Brett Manning and Harry Sudman

When Smoking Was Cool opens Saturday, Oct. 17th, artists reception from 7 to 10 PM; exhibit runs through Nov. 14th. Black Maria Gallery, 3137 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90039.

It was a year ago tomorrow that I learned his name: John McGraham. A homeless man who was a fixture in the neighborhood radiating out from 3rd Street and Berendo where he could often be found, McGraham, 55, was attacked and murdered there October 9th, 2008, reportedly doused with a flammable liquid and set on fire with a flare.

I biked by there this morning to find the above poster McGraham’s family mounted to the long-empty dentistry office outside of which he had lived and so brutally died.

Such unfathomable violence galvanized the community and after more than three months of intense investigations detectives from LAPD Robbery/Homicide Division arrested 30-year-old Benjamin Matthew Martin in Ranch Mirage, Riverside County on January 22. Though unemployed at the time of his arrest, Martin had reportedly worked as a barber in and around the area where McGraham was killed.

Read the rest of this entry →

The longest running theater show in Los Angeles celebrated its two year anniversary on Saturday at the Dragonfly in Hollywood. Point Break LIVE! has been extremely successful, and with good reason. It is one of the most entertaining theater pieces in my memory; even better than Cats. (Okay, granted: most shows are better than Cats. Point Break LIVE! is exceptionally good, though.)

Point Break LIVE! is an absurdist stage adaptation of the classic 1991 movie starring Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves. The twist to this show is that at every performance the role of “Keanu” is performed by a member of the audience (hence, the cue cards.) Because the show has been running for two years, I’m certain there are dozens of reviews more eloquent than mine just on the other side of a Google search. This is not so much a review as an unabashed endorsement.

Buy tickets. See this show. Now! I’m already planning to see it again with other friends.

Point Break LIVE! is a spectacular interactive theater show with comedy, stunts, special-ish effects, hot half-naked surfer dudes…everything you could want in a big budget action movie, but on a seriously diminished budget. There are so many delightful surprises in this show, I don’t want to say too much for fear of spoiling any of the fun. I will include this, though, from the Point Break LIVE! ticketing site:

“This show is not for the squeamish, uptight, faint of heart, or the easily offended. Theater snobs probably won’t get it. If you are looking for a traditional theater experience – STAY THE F**K AWAY FROM THIS SHOW.”

MetBlogs readers don’t fit any of those categories, so you should all enjoy it immensely. Point Break LIVE! runs Saturday evenings at the Dragonfly in Hollywood. Get tickets here.

PRO TIP: When you collect your tickets at the box office, you’ll be offered a “survival kit” for a buck. Take it. It may be the best dollar you’ll ever spend. Seriously.

Spotted in Culver City last night. I really want one of these for some reason…

Last weekend, we went to see the new exhibit, Race: Are We So Different? at the California Science Center. On FriendFeed, I posted some quick thoughts on what I saw, but wanted to let the exhibit soak in before I wrote on it. I do not know how much of what I saw was colored by being black or that I was raised around people from all over the world or just by the fact that I’ve lived most of my life in Los Angeles.

On my first quick walk-through of the exhibit I was overwhelmed. There is a lot of information; lots to read, several videos and interactive media to play around with. The exhibit is very American-centric and seems to be geared toward black/white or white/Asian experiences.  The information on the Science Center’s website doesn’t quite prepare you for what you will actually see.

RACE explores the science, history and personal experiences of race, helping us understand what race is and what it is not. The exhibit provides guests the opportunity to think and talk about one of our nation’s most challenging issues and encourages us to rethink our assumptions of race and human variation. Through multimedia, interactive exhibits and imagery, RACE gives guests of all ages the opportunity to think and talk about a topic that touches our lives daily.

I don’t know that the exhibit itself, is actually useful or educational. As I mentioned in my FriendFeed post, my husband (he is Eastern European) said “This exhibit should be titled ‘White People are Bad’.” I didn’t understand what he was saying and I still don’t get it. From an historical context, I guess that could be construed. I teased him saying he was getting defensive. He said, “I’m not from here, I don’t have these hang-ups.” But just from our conversation, I decided to watch the handful of white (looking) people at the exhibit. Read the rest of this entry →

One of my favorite Europeans is giving a talk tonight at one of my favorite art/tech/supercenters right here in LA. Johannes Grenzfurthner, of monochrom fame, will be talking at Machine Project about, well… about failing. Here’s an academic description of the talk but really the description isn’t going to sell you – you are either the kind of person who knows that any talk Johannes gives is endlessly entertaining and worth driving hours to see, or you aren’t. So, see you there?

I spotted this in Monrovia’s Library Park this afternoon.  Pic my me and will get bigger with a click.

Somewhere in Culver City lies this storage unit.  And in this storage unit lies all my stuff.  My stuff fits into the smallest storage unit I could find (4′ x 4′ x 3.5′), which is pretty impressive considering that my home has only one closet.  This is a result of me getting rid of lots of stuff when I moved to Southern California after a lifelong stint on the East Coast.

See, I did what I think a lot of other people do: move out here with the least possible baggage, literally and figuratively, to start a new life.  Many of us come here with the idea that (1) it’s something we need to try once in our life; and (2) we’re going to try it for a year or so, to see if we can “make it,” whether professionally, socially, in the arts, as a complete reinvention of self, or whatever that term may mean to us.

Inside my storage unit, aside from things like luggage that I use, are boxes filled with books and other items that I can’t seem to let go of.  One such item is a framed painting that my mom painted decades ago as a student.  That painting got as far as the open trunk of my car at the Goodwill in Gaithersburg, Maryland, my hands grasping each side of the frame, before I decided that, one day, it may be the only thing I have of hers that she actually made.

My “year or so” California trial is about to reach its three year anniversary.  And I’m still traveling light.

Today would have been John Lennon’s 69th birthday. His time spent in Los Angeles in the early 1970s is well-documented:

In June 1973 in New York, his wife, Yoko Ono, pushed for a separation and said he should take May Pang, their personal assistant, as his boy-toy while they reassessed their marriage.

In quick order, Lennon moved to LA with Pang and flung himself into what has become known as his “Lost Weekend,” an eighteen-month period during which he caroused, recorded some middling material, caroused, reconnected with Paul and Ringo, caroused– you get the picture.

From a rented home in the Hollywood Hills, Lennon lived out loud and large in public places in Los Angeles, making a drunken, coke-fueled spectacle of himself with stars and players of the day. When confronted by the press with criticism, he said, “So it was a mistake, but Hell, I’m human.”

Shortly thereafter, Lennon cleaned up his act.  He and Yoko reunited (in NYC, backstage after Lennon’s cameo during an Elton John concert) into renewed matrimonial bliss, had a son together, Sean, and lived a happy family life in relative seclusion at the Dakota until that fateful, sad night in December 1980 when Lennon’s fame tragically caught up with him.

From where we are with sexual politics in the early 21st century, maybe some wisdom can be gleaned from the way the Lennons openly navigated their relationship in the 1970s and the way it was received. Little public pillorying of John, no tearful media statements from Yoko, no desperate extortion attempts from lurking opportunists due to needlessly keeping secrets about the bumps in a relationship’s road, no knee-jerk accusations about employer/employee dalliances from self-appointed know-it-all scolds.

Just honesty about how a particular marriage of interest was going; forthrightness about monogamy and the lack thereof occasionally as a reality check; and not a speck of shame, contrived or otherwise, from anyone involved.

Imagine.