My work took me past Jeremy Swan’s Broken Art Tattoo shop on Hyperion today, to shoot some photos for our website. When I realized what a nice, cool guy he is, I decided I had to help however I could. You see, Friday is the day–that’s 24 hours, there–that Jeremy tattoos over 801 people.

Well, that’s the plan, at least (info). Here’s the man in his own words: “November, Friday the 13th, I will attempt to beat the world record of ‘most tattoos done in 24 hours.’  I have learned that the actual number to beat is 801 tattoos set on Nov. 17, 2008 by Hollis Cantrell.  That is an incredible amount of tattoos to do in 24 hours. I began to wonder if I should still do this…This is twice the amount of tattooing I had anticipated.”

But he’s got a lot in his favor: he’s a great artist, as you can see by the photos, and he’s offering four designs to keep the process streamlined: one, a cute little bat; two, the classic “LA”; third, a heart with wings; and fourth, lucky number 13–since it’ll be Friday the 13th when he does this. And you can’t argue with the price: $20 for the first, $10 for each additional one. You can check out Jeremy’s blog here.

Stop by even if you’re an indecisive wuss like me and not gonna get ink done: they’re gonna have live music, tasty food, booze, t-shirts with a custom design you can see in this photoset I just made, and a raffle for cool stuff.

The Downtown Palace

Ooooooo, spooky! Former frontman of the Strokes, Julian Casablancas, has a residency at the Palace Theatre this month, and damn is this show hot! It’s the first time in quite a while that anyone has played a rock show there, in this gem of a classic Broadway movie house–so you can listen to a guy from New York sing songs about New York while in a venue that is actually as old as the ones in New York–a rarity out here, I know.

His new album is really pretty good–we’ve all been listening to it around at work–and I know you’ll enjoy the show. So we’ve got tickets for you! To win, tell me your favorite garage rock band. “Garage rock” is an elastic term, so you can tell me everything from Weezer to the Ramones to Death (the Detroit punk band). Hey, ho! Let’s go!

For Angelenos needing to shop at IKEA, the Carson and Burbank locations are the usual choices.  I go to the Carson location, not just because it is closer to my home, but because, at the other end of the shopping center sits Five Guys Burgers.  Five Guys is not new to these pages,  having been (mixed) reviewed by Faboomama and commented on by others.  But it’s all subjective, and, subjectively, I love the place (disclosure/confession: I used to go to their original DC-area locations).

So now, I rarely (ok, never) go to IKEA without hitting Five Guys.  One triggers the other, just like a ciggy in a bar.  Plus, I figure I deserve it after getting that thousand yard IKEA Stare after an hour or so inside the Swedish happy torture factory.  As to whether the trip to IKEA was really necessary in the first place, or just an excuse for a Five Guys burger & fries, I’ll never te-ell….

Learn how to make Tamales at Tarascos on Nov. 17

For those of you who like to know how to make stuff, my favorite Mexican joint in Silver Lake, Tarascos is hosting a Tamale Class on Tuesday, November 17 at 10:00 am and 7:00 pm. The class is only $15.00, which includes all of the  materials you will need to make a small batch of your very own tamales from scratch.

Students will have the option to take their tamales home to bake on their own or Tarascos will bake the tamales for you and let you pick them up later (tamales take about 4 hours to bake).  Students will learn how to make chicken, cheese and vegetarian tamales.

To sign up, call Tarascos at 323.669.3300. Click here to follow Tarascos on twitter for their daily specials.

While the Upright Citizens Brigade, aka the UCB, is pretty well known, I still consider it one of L.A.’s best kept secrets. Shows sell out fast, but for only $5 you’ll often be treated to standup, improv, or sketch comedy by the funniest talent out there… and let me clarify this: not necessarily the most famous, but the funniest people out there.

Certainly, it’s pretty common to go see Tuesday night’s Comedy Death Ray and have surprise appearances by the likes of Sarah Silverman or Louis C.K., but even the lesser knowns are comedians who you can bet will soon enough be appearing on Comedy Central or SNL (before they binge out on coke, OD, and live on forever through “underground” YouTube videos).

On Wednesday night, again, for only $5, Lindy Gomez will be performing her new one woman piece, “Will That Be All?” mocking race and minimum wage jobs. Or so the synopsis leads me to believe:

Have you slapped your cell phone shut after a heated one-on-one with a East Indian customer service operator and thought, maybe I’ll order Indian tonight? Or accepted a towel from a spicy Mexican bathroom attendant and thought, maybe later I should download some Manu Chao? Or better yet, gotten a basket of spicy fries from a desperate L.A. waitress and thought, thank god I have my SAG card. These are the invisible people who keep your passable existence moving from day-to-day. And they demand you attention…for a solid 28 minutes until you troll next door for a dirty martini.

While you may not recognize her, it doesn’t matter – she’s hot. Just look at the picture!

However, you’ll recognize the the director of the show as the aloof and smarmy lady from the 1-800-DENTIST commercials. Suzi Barret was also recently featured on Los Angeles blogs with her video, “I Hate L.A.” Also hot.

Also on the evening’s bill: The Apple Sisters in “Thanks for Stuffing.” Again, all for $5! Show begins at 8pm.

Reservations and info.
Upright Citizens Brigade, 5919 Franklin Ave., Los Angeles

MOCA is celebrating their collection of Post War art in Collection: Thirty Years of MOCA by offering free Museum admission November 15th through the 20th.

The installation will showcase art work from over 200 artists with the years 1940 – 1980 displayed at MOCA Grand Avenue and 1980 to the present at The Geffen Contemporary gallery.

On November 19th, you can hear Two Artists Perspectives of Los Angeles in the 70s.

Join William Leavitt and Allen Ruppersberg, both of whom are featured in Collection: MOCA’s First Thirty Years, for a conversation with independent curator Carole Ann Klonarides about the experience of making and presenting work in the 1970s. This event is hosted by X-TRA, Los Angeles’s longest running contemporary art journal.

The talk is free to attend.

I couldn’t turn these down. Thanks to Dani at Goldenvoice for hooking a girl up with tix to HUEY LEWIS AND THE m-f’in NEWS (show info: Thursday @ Club Nokia) to give out to a select few of you lucky, lucky people!

I admit it. After my first cassette tape–Stacey Q –I then acquired two from Huey Lewis and the News.

I listened, somewhat nonplussed by the deep and complex narratives and unable to appreciate the profound artistic flourishes, because I was only maybe eleven years old. If I had only known. If I had only known.

Wanna go to the show? I just bet you do. It’s the POWER OF LOVE.

Ok, I’ll stop. Comment & tell me the first piece of music you bought. LP, EP, cassette, CD, maybe you’re 12 and it was a mp3. Whatever. Let me know, & be sure to check your email regularly in case you win!

I know more than a couple people who will be stoked to see these classics of the post-hardcore genre. Add in the RX Bandits, who’ve been around now for over 10 years (whoa) and this is a helluva show. Also, the Mayan is a super-sweet venue.

Wanna go rawk out? We’ve got your hook-up. Tell me your favorite underground classic–you know, one of those bands where, if you see someone wearing their obscure t-shirt, you lock eyes knowingly, understanding that they are one of the chosen few. One of those bands. For me it’s Jawbreaker (so many “jaws” out there!), even though they’re dangerously bordering on being too well-known. Sue me.

Info on the show is here. May the most obscure reference win!

On November 14, 15 and 16, locals will have the opportunity to check out Nissan’s first ever zero-emissions electric car, the LEAF. This will be the first public unveiling of the LEAF in North America. You can check it out this weekend at the following locations:

Nissan's New Electric Car Debuts in LA this Weekend

November 14, 2009 10am – 9pm
Third Street Promenade
1351 3rd Street Promenade
Santa Monica, CA

November 15, 2009 11am – 8pm
Americana at Brand
233 S. Brand Blvd.
Glendale, CA

November 16, 2009 9am – 5pm
University Southern California
3501 Trousdale Parkway
Los Angeles, CA

According to Nissan, the LEAF handles and accelerates like a V6 and has a top speed of up to 90mph. It will have an average range of 100 miles per charge and the battery will charge in 4-8 hours on a 220V home charging unit. At quick-charge stations, it will charge to 80% in about 26 minutes. Although Nissan has not released exact information on pricing, they say that they are “targeting a price in the range of other typical family sedans.” The LEAF will be on the road in some states in 2010, with mass-production beginning in 2012.

To attend one of the unveiling events this weekend, register on their website here.

For those with imaginations that run dark in their romantic tendencies, the brain child of L.A. underground artist Nui Cobalt will be your dirty cup of tea.  Nemesis promises to be an end of the world descent into debauchery and exquisite poignance.

Dance to the sweet strains (Darkwave, New Romantic, Tribal Goth) of your final hours with music spun by DJ Xian and MP3J SARK while partaking of exotic libations. (I hear the coconut martinis are mindblowing.)  Also, fans of Gentleman Junkie can expect a chance to own a limited edition CD that can only be procured on this one occasion.

Nemesis debuts on 11/11 and will slither back to life quarterly. Doors open to the Electric Lotus (4656 Franklin Ave) at 10:30 pm.  Cover is $5 until 11 pm, after which it becomes $10. Valet parking is available.

I finally got over to the Hello Kitty celebration, Three Apples, that I told you about a few weeks ago. I really had a great time and recommend it for any fans. Even those of you who don’t care so much about the little cartoon cat, may want to check out the art exhibit featuring very creative, and in some cases downright disturbing, homages to Miss Kitty by over 80 artists. Fantastic stuff. I also got a kick out of seeing the variety of products available in Japan, from toys to elaborate tea sets emblazaned with her image.  Other showcases include everything from kitchen appliances to school supplies to an entire Hello Kitty bathroom. The vintage items featured are sure to stir some childhood memories.

I met up with a group of friends and we waited in line for about an hour for brunch in the café. It gave us time to look at some of the surrounding displays. While you could order from the regular menu, there was also a special Hello Kitty menu, of course, featuring a high tea and character shaped pancakes and waffles. Guess what we chose to order. There was no way we could pass up a combo of yummy and cute!

This is the last week of the event and I predict that it will be quite crowded this coming weekend as folks realize it’s their last chance. I’ve heard that it’s not so bad during the week, so that may be the way to go if your schedule allows. I plan to go back just for the store as the line to get in yesterday was incredibly long.

Three Apples runs through Sunday, November 15th at Royal/T in Culver City, 10am-10pm. There is no admission fee, but you might have to wait to get into the shop or be seated in the café.

Buttermilk Truck's Red Velvet Cupcakes

With the explosion of specialty food trucks on the LA food scene over the past year or so, fueled in part by the immense popularity of Kogi BBQ, the undisputed monarch of motorized food purveyors, announcements of new food trucks were becoming somewhat noisy and commonplace. Sipping a cocktail at a bar one night, I overheard a couple gush about The Grilled Cheese Truck. Getting a pedicure, I witnessed the entire staff at the nail salon go nuts over the Nom Nom Truck. Just as I my inner cynic began to roll her eyes and slap a jumped shark sticker on the bumper of the food truck craze, someone said two magical words that snapped me right out of it, like a plunge into an ice cold bath.

“Buttermilk Truck.” I could almost smell the warm vanilla in the air when I heard those words.

Buttermilk Truck, scheduled to launch this Wednesday, November 11 at The Brig in Venice, is a “breakfast diner on wheels,” boasting chicken and cinnamon waffles, red velvet cupcakes, Hawaiian bread breakfast sliders and more. They make their pastries from scratch and even offer a late night menu – because we all know the best time to have breakfast is before the sun rises.

Hawaiian Bread Breakfast Sliders

Like many of LA’s nouveau gourmet food trucks, you can follow Buttermilk Truck on twitter to keep up with where they are going to park their truck next. Also, LAist has compiled a rather comprehensive twitter list of just about every food truck in town. <——– Just click there to access the list.

I may not be able to make it to Buttermilk Truck’s launch this Wednesday, but you can guarantee that I will be the first in line when they drop by Silver Lake.

For more information on Buttermilk Truck and to check out their complete menu, visit them at http://buttermilktruck.com/.

I can’t believe I missed the opening of WK Interact’s new exhibition How To Blow Yourself Up. I had it on my calendar and then I simply forgot to look and missed it. I was really looking forward to this because while I’ve seen his works previously at earlier Subliminal Projects exhibitions I was tipped off that this one takes a whole new direction and blows the older works out of the water. Since I really like the older works, that sounds exciting.

Luckily the show runs all month (until Dec 5th) so I’m going to make sure to see it. If anyone else made it to the opening or saw it this weekend I’d love to hear what you thought!

Those marvelous, magical purveyors of joy at Lucent Dossier will finally returned to a regular presence in their hometown beginning this upcoming Wednesday November 11th.  The new residency will be housed in the post apocolyptic meets vintage hot spot H.Wood in the heart of Hollywood through the end of the year.

If you’ve never experienced Lucent Dossier…. GO!  If you know why so many of us love these people to bits, now is your chance to play again and bring all your friends.

What can you expect from this latest incarnation?

Let the night take you away and if you please, indulge in a rose water foot bath, Post Portal Post Office, uplifting aura readings, Sweet Teddy Bear Tea Party and herbal elixirs to cleanse your soul.  What Lucent does best is create wonderlands for our guests to lose themselves in, so let us be your guide into a fantastical realm where brilliance and insanity fuse together in an exotic kind of ecstatic bliss.

H.Wood is located at 1738 N. Orange, Los Angeles, CA 90028.  Parking can be found in the Hollywood Highland Complex (rates are $2 for 4 hours with validation!)  Dinner is available.  Doors open at 8pm.  The show begins at 9 p.m. and lasts through to midnight.  Stay afterward until 2 a.m. to dance.  General admission is  $15 adv/door (Or join the Lucent Dossier mailing list for discount ticket “secret password.”)  VIP Table reservations are available by contacting H.Wood.

The photographer “Discarted” has gone done it again and threatened national security by violating the laws of the MTA and taking photos of the Los Angeles subway system that he could very likely end up selling to Al Qaeda. Seems perfectly reasonable that he be detained by LA Sheriffs, right?

Except that there is no rule prohibiting public photography in Los Angeles subway systems. And any detainment would require a reasonable suspicion of the subject having committed a crime… which may have occurred, but the only unusual activity the Sheriff ever cites is Discarted’s act of taking photos.

After handcuffing Discarted, the sheriff doing most of the talking, Officer Richard Gylfie, is heard threating threatening to put him the FBI’s “hit list” and will be flagged and detained before boarding planes, trains, or other forms of transportation where an ID is checked. And why? Apparently for not shivering in fear to Gylfie’s demands to tell him why he’s taking photos… or maybe I’m missing something.

As if it needs repeating, photography is allowed in public spaces, including the subway system. Its a shame that the same people who we pay to enforce our laws are blatantly ignorant of this, and instead abuse the power that we bestow upon them to harass and intimidate.

Feel free to leave your thoughts here, or at Discarted’s blog.