It’s good to know California’s high school athletes are being properly prepared for college. At least, they’ll be prepared for college football’s broken, convoluted system of determining a league champion, the Bowl Championship Series (more commonly known as the BCS).

Crenshaw’s Hayes Pullard avoids Narbonne coverage in the Los Angeles City Sectional Championship game, Dec. 12, 2009. Photo by Robert Helfman

Many of our state’s most promising young athletes will converge on the Home Depot Center in Carson this Friday and Saturday for the California State Football Championship games (proudly representing Los Angeles will be undefeated Crenshaw – Go Cougars!).

But for 80 years, California didn’t even crown a state champion in high school football. It wasn’t until 2006 that the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), the state’s high school sports governing body, created a small “bowl” system in which some of the best teams play each other for championships in four divisions (determined by school enrollment). And this year is the second the top two teams from all divisions will play each other in an “Open Division” bowl to determine who’s the greatest in the Golden State.

However, with such a limited numbers of bowls, not even all Section champions get to play in these big games. Unlike other large states like Texas or Florida, or, well, any other state in the union besides New Jersey, there is no state playoff in California. And, just like in big-time college football, not everybody’s too happy with that.

Did I mention that the bowls only match up a team from the Northern half of the state with one from the South? Even if the two best teams were both from SoCal, they couldn’t play each other for the title. This just adds to the controversy, as Ben Bolch pointed out in the LA Times Tuesday:

Yet, none of those teams will play one another under the format that matches section champions from Southern California and Northern California. A proposal to add a regional playoff round was shot down last year by the California Interscholastic Federation’s state federated council.

“Because of the way we’re structured, the size of our state, you can’t have a true champion unless you legitimately start playing everybody off, and we’re just too large to do that,” Marie Ishida, CIF executive director, said Monday at the Home Depot Center in Carson. “This is our next-best thing, and so far it’s worked for us.”

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Jesus Juice from Ralphs

Christmas can be a difficult time for those of us who are not Christians and who do not celebrate it. As a result, each year, something invariably causes me to have a Christmas Gripe. Yesterday evening, I found my CG for this year, at my local Ralphs supermarket.

There are two types of Christmas music that Ralphs could have chosen to play. They could have chosen the non-denominational type, which includes Santa, Jingle Bells, sleighs, and the like. Or they could have chosen the heavy-handed religious type, including lyrics along the lines of “Jesus is our Lord and our King.” Unfortunately, Ralphs has chosen the latter. It’s no fun to be pounded with these specific religious messages while strolling Ralphs’ aisles. And given the large number of Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, atheists, agnostics, and other non-Christians in our area, I doubt I’m the only one who feels this way.
what in God’s name should I do about this, after the jump

[Edit: 4:02pm 12/16/09: This story has been confirmed by Nicole Possert, a representative of Friends Of the Southwest Museum. See the comments for her info on the subject. -LM]

After a hellacious history of back-and-forth between these two institutions–the struggling, in-need-of-repairs building by Angeleno pioneer Charles Fletcher Lummis that is the Southwest Museum Of the American Indian, and the larger, better-funded Autry National Center, adjacent to the LA Zoo–it looks like what many feared has come to pass. The Autry, which acquired the Southwest Museum & its collections several years ago, had made promises to the community to preserve & repair both the collection and the Southwest Museum itself. However, this just came across my desk:

“To Whom It May Concern,

I have been both a member and a volunteer/docent with the Southwest Museum since 1985. Last Saturday, 12/12/2009, the docents had their annual holiday gathering at the museum. John Gray made a surprise appearance, and announced to our group that the Southwest Museum site at Mt. Washington would be closing to the general public. The reason he gave was that they needed space for artifact restoration and conservation. He said that after 12/31/2009, the bookstore area will be closed and used to do work on the bead-work portion of the collection. Any public events now taking place at the museum will cease. Museum access will be given only to museum members… Read the rest of this entry →

We have tix to your choice of two, count ‘em TWO, nights this weekend when local heroes Ozomatli take the stage at Club Nokia (show info here).

I’ve seen these guys play in scads of formats: as a secret surprise guest on a benefit bill for a pirate radio station, on the veranda of a swanky 27th-floor penthouse overlooking the Staples Center, and from the floor of a couple local venues, but that variety can’t beat with a stick the diversity of places Ozomatli has been over the last year: they traveled extensively through Africa,  Nepal and the Middle East as official cultural ambassadors of the United States. Neat!

Every freakin’ show they play is dynamite. You will dance your ass off. To win tickets to go, tell me which night you’re available (they play both Fri & Sat) and place a link in the comments to your favorite dance on youtube. It can be classic Argentinean tango, “The Evolution Of Dance,” 70s Jazzercise or something even more desperate and horrifying*. But just let go & DANCE! Oh, and please use an email I can actually reach you at, and that you actually check.

*Excerpts from Dancing With The Stars will result in immediate disqualification

After 10 years of being one of LA’s edgiest Asian American theatre groups, the Lodestone Theatre Ensemble is about present its final show, before shutting its doors for good. Don’t worry– this was a conscious decision made years ago by the artistic directors, not a victim of the global recession.

In 1995, following the 1992 Los Angeles riots, veteran actor Soon-Tek Oh created the Society of Heritage Performers (SHP), a Korean American theatre ensemble. SHP evolved into Lodestone Theatre Ensemble in 1999, organized by original founders: actors Alexandra Bokyun Chun, Tim Lounibos and Chil Kong, and writer Philip W. Chung. Their new focus was embracing a broader Asian Pacific American identity. Chung and Kong have remained to the end as co-artistic directors.

You can still catch the final weekend of their final production, Grace Kim & The Spiders from Mars, which is a play that was specifically written as a farewell to Lodestone. Inspired by classic screwball comedies, Grace Kim & The Spiders from Mars tells the story of Grace, a young Korean American woman, who has withdrawn from the world after the death of her mother ten years ago. But Grace’s life is thrown upside down when she meets her sister’s fiancé and falls in love with him. The play will be permanently retired after this run. (Meet Grace Kim in the video below…)

Tickets have been lowered to the same price as the first show in 1999: $12 for general admission and $10 each for reserved groups of 10 or more.

Only four more shows before GRACE KIM and Lodestone are gone forever! Performances are Thursday through Saturday (12/17) at 8 p.m. (2-for-1 Thursday tickets with password “Ziggy Stardust”) and closing on Sunday, 12/20 at 2 p.m. RSVP now: (323) 993-7245

GRACE KIM & THE SPIDERS FROM MARS
GTC BURBANK
1111-B W. Olive St.
Burbank, CA 91506
(inside George Izay Park, just west of S. Victory Blvd.)

FREE PARKING: Park near the jet plane in front of George Izay Park at 1111 W. Olive St. Walk into the park, past Olive Recreation Center. GTC Burbank is behind the Rec. Center, facing the softball fields.

Pop quiz, hotshot: Where do you think Los Angeles tap water ranks on a list compared to, say, 99 other cities in the United States? Let’s designate #1 as “good quality,” and #100 as “more of an industrial-strength varnish removal agent than a potable source of human hydration.” Go on, guess. Number 12, maybe? Number 18 at the worst? Come on, we’re a major metropolitan area with access to the latest advances in technology, right? No way we’re anywhere lower than the top 20!

Try 83.

That’s right: In a survey of the most common pollutants present in municipal drinking water, Los Angeles ranked 83rd in the nation. That means the Department of Water and Power, an organization that routinely cashes the checks I write them, has allowed to seep into our drinking water 25 separate chemicals, including — seriously — chloroform. No wonder I’m so sleepy all the time.

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"Tara" in Monrovia

In the midst of cookie cutter apartments and 50′s bungalows lies “Tara.”  Or so we call it, as this is such a huge house.  Gotta love the yard, so full of stuff you just know that no HOA would allow all that decoration.  You go, home-owner–whomever you are–this yard lightens up my day every morning when I drive by to drop one of the kids off at MHS.  The big enormous flag is a new addition and I love it.

You have to make the jump to see what Monrovia is noted for that this yard included in its decor. Read the rest of this entry →

Kittens from the neighborhood that I can't afford to spay or neuter. Shall we kill them?

You know the great clinic I told you about (click for pics of cute kittens) some months ago that will spay & neuter your kitties for free? Fix Nation? They’ve now been suspended from providing those free services.

Here’s what happened:

“Wild bird groups sued the City of Los Angeles in 2008 to stop its support of Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR), the humane, community based method to control feral cat overpopulation. They claimed that under the California Environmental Quality Act, the City of LA could not provide discount spay neuter coupons to feral cat caregivers or promote TNR without an Environmental Study and Impact Report, based upon the utterly false premise that if TNR is promoted by the City, fewer cats will be killed in shelters, meaning more cats left in the environment to kill birds.

Last week, after a summary trial of this action, Judge Thomas McKnew, of the LA Superior Court, bought into this spurious argument and issued an injunction preventing any City support of TNR.”

-from this article

Way to go, dude!

I encourage you to sign the petition here to return the city’s support of TNR programs. With these programs no longer free, people like me will not be able to afford to trap, neuter & release the wild cats in our neighborhoods–meaning unchecked breeding and even MORE birds killed. And, of course, more cats killed or living fearful & malnourished lives on the street.

Scent Bar in West Hollywood

One of my favorite places to spend a leisurely afternoon in LA is surprisingly not in my precious Silver Lake, but across town in West Hollywood. When I have an afternoon to kill and need some time to myself, the Scent Bar on Beverly is like a little slice of heaven floating on a pastel tuft of cotton candy.

The Scent Bar is more than just a retail store hawking the usual perfumes. Here they encourage you to hang out as long as you like, sampling some of the most rare and exotic fragrances that you won’t likely find at the beauty counter in Nordstrom’s.  My favorites include: 10 Corso Como, L’Artisan Parfumeur, Comme des Garcons, and Costume National, but their selection is truly endless.

For the commitment phobic, you can buy sample sizes of most of their perfumes too, check them out online at luckyscent.com.

Hello! I’m new around these parts and I’m super excited to be here. I hope I can bring you an interesting and (ideally) fabulous perspective on what’s happening in this fair city of ours, and I’m excited to learn more about Los Angeles in the process.

So, about me: I’m Canadian, from North of Toronto, but I will try my damndest to always use American spellings. I shipped my life across the continent about two and a half years ago to go to grad school at UCLA, where I research and teach about popular music. It’s a pretty sweet gig – yesterday I spent an hour watching Lady Gaga videos under the auspices of “working.” I’ve been blogging for a few years now, mostly about music, terrible B movies from the 50s and 60s, and vintage dresses, my three primary obsessions. And for the past year or so, I’ve been on an unofficial quest to find the best donut and/or example of donut-themed architechture in the greater LA area – any hot tips would be much appreciated.

Thanks for having me on board! I’m really happy to be a part of LA Metblogs and I promise to deliver awesomness.

Hi there! This is the part where I introduce myself as the rookie, the freshman, the n00b, whatever you want to call LA Metblogs’ newest contributor. I look forward to inundating your RSS reader, your Inbox, your Twitter, your Facebook, or any other sort of internet-y things with a variety of random thoughts, insights, observations, opinions, and every now and then some useful information. And plenty of overuse and abuse of the exclamation point!

My adventures in blogging began many, many years ago, when I first sat down in front of Netscape Navigator and didn’t have a clue where to start. So I went to Disney.com and played some 101 Dalmatians games, and thus my love affair with the internet was born. Somewhere in the middle there I made a website with a dizzying checked purple background that consisted mostly of silly quotes and pictures of Smurfs (It remained online for a really long time until Geocities kicked the bucket. Yes, I saved it all.). Nowadays I am constantly on Facebook and I blog for free.

A few other good things to know: I hail from a part of the American Midwest so far north I am almost Canadian. I’ve lived in Los Angeles about 6.5 years. I spend all my money on shoes, football tickets, and traveling to other cities, mostly just to try out their public transit. I am not a vegetarian, but I do not eat meat on pizza.

Thanks for having me! And thanks in advance for your unwavering support in my 12-step program to overcome my debilitating addiction to the Oxford Comma.

The one's from Crumbs.

For those whose love of cupcakes goes beyond the death of the trend years ago, TODAY is National Cupcake Day!  In honor of this national day of cupcakery, Susie Cakes is offering a free cupcake in exchange for an unwrapped toy.

Now, today’s holiday is not to be confused with October 9′s National Cupcakes for Life Day, in which you were encouraged to have a candlelit cupcake vigil for all the aborted babies in the world (the thought of all the cupcakes eaten in honor of non-baby babies just warms the heart, doesn’t it?).  No, this is a more All-Encompassing Cupcake Day, so go ahead and have a cupcake in honor of all people who made a life-wrenching choice to do what was right for them.  Or, if you’re not one of those awful people who must turn the personal into the political every time you eat, sleep, work, or socialize, buy a cupcake for cupcake’s sake.

If you’re planning ahead for the next industry-sponsored holiday day, FYI:  tomorrow is National Chocolate-Covered Anything Day.  Better start watching your temper now.

I couldn’t help but be in shock that THE California license plate “LA” was attached to a Soccer Mom car. Clearly the owner has had the plate for awhile as this style was issued between 1982 and 1987. I’ll just pretend that it used to be on a black lamborghini or red ferrari before being stuck on the family cruiser.

So let’s just get one thing clear right off the bat: I freakin’ love Los Angeles. I love my neighborhood, love California, love the west coast, love the whole majestic and mountainous western half of these United States.

But there are things I miss about my homeland. Like good cheesesteaks.

Out here they’re called “Philly cheesesteaks,” which, frankly, I find a little odd (as though there’s some other city that has cheesesteaks), but don’t feel bad. They call them that everywhere west of about Harrisburg. For the most part real cheesesteaks are absolutely impossible to find, partly because the requisite ingredients aren’t easily obtained outside of any zip code that doesn’t begin with 19, but partly because even the most well-meaning and well-trained sandwich artisans just don’t get it. Enter the South Philly Experience.

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Who is this dashing RobNoxious fellow?

Time to let go of ’09 and get ready for a New Start.

2009 is almost finished, and while there have been some great things that have happened, been plenty to remember fondly and celebrate, there’s also been a good lot that I’m sure none of us will miss. Some things that we should just put behind us. Some stuff that makes us just want to put paid to ’09  and get on with the New Year. Bring on some 2010.

Like the fact that RobNoxious hasn’t posted on Metblogs at all this year!

I Know! A Whole Year! Longer, really. Horrible, isn’t it? Tragic, one might say.

Well, well, welly well, my Little Droogs, not to worry. And we need not wait until the calendar flips its page into the next Three Sixty Five for my return:
The Noxious One is back, Friends.

All of my old posts can be found here:
(http://la.metblogs.com/author/robnoxious/)

But to narrow things down a bit, I think you should know that:
I like it The Punk Rock,
I like Comic Books and Sci Fi,
I don’t like surruptitious throttling of my internet, tapping of my phone or threats to Net Neutality,
I like Amusement Parks,
I don’t like douche bags,
I love exploring our fine city,
and even enjoy the occasional bit of poetry.

Really, though, I’m just another Artist making his way in L.A., paying the bills at his work-a-day job. But y’know, sometimes the job can really be HELL. (for someone, anyway. heh.)

In any case, it’s really good to be back, and I look forward to venturing into the New Year with everyone.

Thanks guys,
Rob