I honestly never thought that in a city as large as Los Angeles finding a doctor who is familiar with a vegan diet would be a problem. Turns out it is. (Part of the problem is that in the US there is a frightful lack of nutrition training in medical curriculum, and often Doctors just defer to the USDA which is funded in part by the meat and dairy industries. I’m not going to spend much time on that here, but the point is there is not a lot of info out there in the “professional” world about this, and there are tons of books and documentaries that have been released recently digging into this.) Trying to find a pediatrician is proving to be an even bigger problem.

That might seem like a crazy idea to some people, but it really shouldn’t. Dr. Benjamin Spock who many people know as the author of Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care, one of the most influential books on pediatrics and child care was himself a vegan and starting with the 7th edition of the book stopped recommending dairy and meat to children instead advising vegan diets. That alone would make me think more pediatricians would be familiar with the diet but so far I haven’t had much luck. I did track down Dr. Jay Gordon in Santa Monica who, from his site seems very supportive of the idea. Unfortunately after speaking with his office I found that he doesn’t accept any insurance and charges his clients a flat “subscription” fee every month on top of office visits. If money is no issue to you that is probably fine, but for people like Tara and me who are on a budget and already paying a lot for insurance there is no way we can work with something like that.

The truth is we don’t need some crusading super-vegan doctor, we just need someone who is familiar with and open to alternative diets, and perhaps has an interest in nutrition themselves. A doctor who understands dairy, egg, nut, wheat, or other kinds of allergies should do the trick but even that question has been getting lots of “um… uh… well…” replies from the people answering the phones in the offices I’ve called. There are shockingly few vocally vegan Doctors in the LA area, Heather Shenkman is one but I have to say I’m really surprised how hard this search has become.

andydr's photo used through Creative Commons license

One of the joys of living in L.A. as opposed to, say, Arkansas, where I wound up spending Christmas 2001, is there are lots of non-Christians here. In 2001, I had to drive the entire state of Arkansas to find a single, sad Chinese restaurant within which to have Jewmas dinner along with a handful of pagan Arkansans, including a table of adorable goth youth trying really hard to be rebellious. I truly believe that the Jade Pavillion restaurant in Fort Smith and the Waffle House in West Memphis were the only two establishments heathen enough to remain open in Arkansas on the birthday of our lord.

But here, in Los Angeles, with a disproportionate number of hellbound, there are a wealth of options for Christmas dining. Might I suggest the bacon-wrapped matzoh balls at The Gorbals? (Honestly, I have no idea if they are open on Christmas but the idea of dining on Manischewitz-braised pork belly does appeal.) Me, I am leaning toward the traditional movie and Chinese food in an as-yet-undetermined location. I tried Hop Li one year and the crowd out front alone was like a Bar Mitzvah on steroids. Any recommendations for the Jewmas dinner are welcome.

Here’s my favorite personal Christmas story: One year when I was very young, I got a package of cheap off-brand glow-in-the-dark action figures. They had no faces and chintzy vinyl capes. For reasons I still can’t explain, I loved these guys — I played with them until their capes frayed and their joints (I think there was a grand total of, like, four on each figure) loosened.

Years later, when I was out of college, my single mom mentioned to me that her hardest Christmas was the one where she had just lost her job and was forced to go on welfare. She hadn’t been able to afford Christmas presents for me, so as soon as she got her first welfare check she went directly to the toy store and made the entire thing stretch as far as she could. That was the year she got me the glow-in-the-dark action figures. I don’t think she ever knew that I loved them so much.

So why am I telling you this? Because there are still plenty of kids out there whose parents can’t even afford the cheapest plastic aliens, and that’s where we come in. There are tons of toy drives and holiday charity events going on all around LA; here are the two I’ve heard about in the past week or so.

Spark of Love. Run by the LAFD, the Spark of Love toy drive collects new, unwrapped toys or sports equipment at every fire station in Los Angeles. Click here to find your local firehouse.

Season of Giving. This is a series of events, all of which take place at LA Live. Each night spotlights a different local charity.

What other toy drives are going on in town? Share yours in the comments.

The Daniel, Courtenay, VerdElf® & Cris at SantaCon (photo courtesy of Daniel Hengeveld)

When I first heard that the forecast called for heavy rain two Saturdays ago, I had serious doubts about participating in this year’s SantaCon. However, despite the imminent threat, I once again donned my VerdElf® suit and joined the red tide.  This was my third SantaCon in LA and by far my favorite, perhaps because more of my friends joined this year than in previous years, but I had so much fun that I was actually a bit sad when it was all over. Below are a few excerpts from my SantaCon journal. For a consolidated look at this year’s event, visit the official site here.

11:30 AM: Met Greg (a.k.a Thomas Refferson) at a bus stop in Silver Lake. We took the #4 bus to the Santa Monica/Vermont Red Line station, hopped the train to Union Station, then transferred to the Gold Line. Until we reached Union Station, we were the only two SantaCon revelers in sight. However, despite a few strange looks, we made it to the meeting point without ridicule or incident.

11:50 AM: As we made our way to the next boarding platform, we discovered our first small contingent of SantaCon attendees at Union Station. Immediately relieved to see our own kind, we all exchanged a few obligatory ho ho hos, dispensed with introductions, which goes something like, “Hi Santa, nice to meet you. This is Santa. Hi Santa,” then promptly headed off to our next stop, the Chinatown Metro Station.

12:00 PM: About 10 of us arrived at the Chinatown Metro Station, the official SantaCon meeting point. From high atop the train platform we could see only a few red and white suited people scattered about. I began to worry that the rain had drastically affected the turn out. However, a few moments later we spotted a thick procession of Santas heading our way. Cheer commences.

All Aboard! (photo courtesy of Cris Dobbins)

12:20 PM: Scores of Santas line up to buy Metro day passes and we are told by a shadowy figure to board the Gold Line train east to Mariachi Square.

12:50 PM: Santa somewhat aimlessly mills about Mariachi Square. There are ponies and a brief ceremony where awards for “Best Santa” are randomly doled out. The clouds part and the sun shines on us, if only for a moment. A female Santa vomits in a nearby trash can.

1:30 PM: The red tide returns to the Metro station, continuing east to Indiana and El Mercadito. Santa begins to get restless and thirsty.

1:45 PM: A sea of Santas descend on El Tarasco for dueling mariachi bands, food and much drink. A conga line ensues.

3:00 PM: A shadowy figure alerts Santa to pay his tab. As the red tide spills onto the street, we are assaulted by protesting clowns and bursts of poisonous silly string.

3:30 PM: The staff at Trax Bar in Union Station, while unprepared, handle the onslaught of thirsty Santas with ease. The clowns have followed us here. No one can be trusted. Read the rest of this entry →

ESPN’s new online hub for local sports, ESPNLosAngeles.com, officially launched today, providing a new source for LA Sports news, as well as a new home for several LA Sports writers, including the LA Times’ (former) Lakers bloggers.

Meant as a hub for local online sports coverage one could set as their homepage, the site features SoCal-specific “SportsCenter” segments, local breaking news, and direct links to pages for all the major pro teams, including the Galaxy, Chivas USA, the LA Sparks, as well as the Angels and Ducks. There’s also a “Headlines” tab you can click to view nationwide sports headlines, in case you care about what happens outside of our little bubble. ESPN launched similar local sites for Dallas, Boston and Chicago earlier this year, and the sports network opened a new broadcast studio (along with an ESPN Zone sports bar) Downtown at LA Live this past spring.

But the best part of the site is the local team blogs and columnists, providing quick-access to news and columns about your favorite teams that is also easy to subscribe to by e-mail or RSS feed to keep up on everything. The other ESPN city sites have Twitter accounts you can follow as well, but as of this writing, @ESPNLosAngeles exists but hasn’t tweeted a thing. The @ESPNLosAngeles Twitter account is also up and running, providing links to stories on the site. So far there’s a USC blog (but no UCLA blog yet), a Clippers blog (sort of – it links to the outside ClipperBlog.com, part of an ESPN affiliate network), and of course, that Lakers Blog, which is basically a direct transplant from the LA Times’ Lakers Blog. Brian and Andy Kamenetzky, who just yesterday afternoon announced their departure from LATimes.com, pick up at ESPN right where they left off, except now the blog is called “Land O’ Lakers”. The Lakers Blog was regularly one of the most-visited on the site, sometimes getting over a million page views per month. No announcement has been made yet as to who or what will replace the brothers at LATimes.com. It seems that, at least for now, a few different staff writers are taking turns contributing posts to the Lakers Blog to keep it going.

Read the rest of this entry →

Winter Silence

Tomorrow night is the Longest Night of the Year to snuggle up to someone warm.

The Solstice is exact for us here in Los Angeles at exactly 9:47 AM this Morning. It’ll be the shortest day, and the longest night of the year. And that’s pretty much the story for the whole hemisphere.

But in L.A. it’s at exactly 9:47 AM.

See, my Pagan sensibilities come with a certain amount of anal-retentiveness. My Astrological curiosity comes with a little exactitude, ya dig?

I mean, y’ever wonder exactly when sunrise and sunset happen on a particular day? Maybe exactly when a New or Full Moon is? Ever find yourself trying to do the math from Greenwich Mean Time, and wondering whether you needed to subtract an hour or not?

Okay, probably not. But for all you amateur astrologers out there who aren’t ready to invest in their own telescope, or all you fledgling vampires out there who want to avoid bursting into flames or looking conspicuously sparkly, a few links for current Los Angeles data:

Seasons, Equinoxes and Solstices
Sunrise and Sunset
Moonrises and moonsets (That’s Right.)
Moon Phases
Interestingly enough, (at least, if you read this far, I assume it is) the Griffith Park Observatory has a list of Moon Phases, as well. They differ slightly, by about a minute, on a few of the times. To be fair, the “Time and Date” website claims an accuracy of “within one minute,” so there yeh go. You can make you’re own decision about who has the final word. Personally, the Griffith folks are local, I been there, I’ma go by what the local kids say, but you do as you like.

So, there it is. All the Loony info you need. Now if I’d just tell you something useful, like when it’s okay to park in a green zone. (Never, that’s my space on Sunday!) But that kind of thing only happens once in a Blue Moon.

Which, incidently, occurs this year on New Year’s Eve. (At exactly 11:13 AM)

For those that caught this post before I took it down, you might be wondering what the heck is going on. Well, I was strongly encouraged to take it down it because I could be construed as a “crusader” and trying to bring change to Venice could stir up the wrong pots. At the time my husband was out of town and being pregnant I didn’t want to take any undue risks. Since then I attended the Candlelight Memorial Service for Eun Y. Kang where many community members strongly advocated for forming Neighborhood Watches, and so I decided to post this again. I’m no crusader, I just want to ensure that the neighborhood I live in is safe for myself, my family and my neighbors. Both Assistant Commanding Office Andrew Smith of the LAPD South Bureau and Councilman Bill Rosendahl said that Neighborhood Watches should be your first line of defense in conjunction with the police. That answered my first question in the first paragraph of my original post.

Let’s try this again, shall we….

Is it time to consider the LAPD our backup plan as opposed to our first option for protection? With the budget cuts and considerably reduced force in neighborhoods like Venice, neighbors need to become more neighborly and look after each other. I’m not saying that citizens of Venice should work against the police, I’m saying that we need to strongly consider coming up with a new first line of defense in order to keep ourselves and our families safe.

Last night I came home to find a homeless man and his dog in my carport. It was dark and raining very hard, and I was alone. I called out of my car to the man bundled in his blanket to “please leave now.” He merely grunted. I thought about just parking my car and walking past him to my door because he was probably harmless and trying to keep dry. But then I thought about my unborn baby and thought about the horrific death of Eun Y. Kang just a few days before and I decided it wasn’t worth the risk. My landlord, husband and friends all advised me to call the police so I did. The dispatcher said the patrol car was on it’s way. I waited half an hour and called back and explained I was pregnant and scared to enter my home. The dispatcher said the patrol car was on it’s way. I called back after an hour and the dispatcher said the policemen had a higher priority call and didn’t know how long they would be but he was willing to stay on the phone with me while I went into my house. I hung up. I was tired and just wanted to go to bed, so I turned my high beams on the man and yelled again “please leave!” He finally did. Thankfully the incident ended friendly, but I am also very glad that I didn’t take any chances. Since I have told my story to some people, I have heard about cases that weren’t nearly as friendly. One woman told me about a time a homeless man in her carport was asked to leave and responded by “…smashing my garage door, threatening to burn down my house and torch it, swearing…”

I’m not targeting the homeless population in particular because there are also problems with drug trafficking, gangs, “hot prowls” and the list goes on. Just read the forums on Yo Venice! or the alerts on Voice of the Canals. I have a friend that literally packed up and left Venice for Santa Monica where they have their own police department because her and her family couldn’t take the drugs and violence that were happening outside her door.

I no longer go outside at night without an escort because I’ve heard of the increase in crime in Venice. Many women and families in Venice share this fear. I know many people say that’s just how Venice is. But does it need to be? Do we merely sit back and accept things how they are? I say NO!

When I was in San Francisco, I lived on Shotwell Street, known for prostitutes and drug trafficking. I joined the Shotwell Street Neighborhood Watch and we met regularly with the Mission Police Captain. Just before I left San Francisco the neighbors were creating committees to brainstorm different ways to prevent everything from bicycle theft to drug and alcohol abatement. Captain Tacchini himself said, “the squeaky wheel gets the grease” and was referring to citizens who get together and engage in regular conversation with the police and work to solve problems together.

The woman that had the unfortunate encounter with the homeless man said that her neighbors in Venice banded together and hired a security services company to patrol and offer armed response for a very minimal monthly payment per person. These armed responders come out to move homeless people sleeping on your property and other incidents that make you feel unsafe. The Venice Canals has this type of armed response too.

I would like to join a Neighborhood Watch program on my street in Venice and work with the LAPD to improve the safety in the area I live in. Is there an organization that helps you to create neighborhood watches? Do I need to start one? I looked on the Venice Neighborhood Council website and didn’t see anything on this topic. Maybe I didn’t look hard enough. If you have some insight, please share in the comments. Since I originally posted this, I have done some research and found out that the LAPD has information on starting a Neighborhood Watch. You get some neighbors together and then talk to the LAPD to make it official and get them involved. Some great tips on preventing crime in your home and information on Neighborhood Watches can be found on the LAPD website.

My next step is to start recruiting my neighbors to start a Neighborhood Watch and go from there. Whether you live in Venice or not, I encourage you to join or start your own Neighborhood Watch.

The car is the caddy XLR…basically a badged engineered ‘vette, but that is beside the point.  Mr. Courtesy here parked in a handicapped space at the Pavilions in Monrovia without a handicapped plate nor a handicapped placard on the mirror.   His license plate reads “turtlex” my first thought is it should read “M-A-Turd” for the assholian stunt of taking a handicapped space when there were ample regular spaces in the vicinity.  What plate would you give him?

Pic by me with the trusty phone cam…does get bigger with a click.

Well, here we are heading through the third turn of this miniseries during this most wonderful time of the year when otherwise mild-mannered home dwellers decorate their domiciles with varying degrees of meticulous or reckless abandon. I love ‘em all; be it a simple string of lights that look like someone’s just tossed them up on a wall, or meter-whirring displays that look as if a structural engineer was involved. It’s been a blast pedaling the neighborhoods I bike commute through and pointing my cam at some (while trying to hold it steady in the looooow light). This time ’round, you’ll find more homes from neighborhoods seen in the first two weeks (Week One and Week Two), such as Crestview, Faircrest Heights, and Larchmont Village accompanied by some supersized holiday-ized habitats I found rolling through Hancock Park. And speaking of Hancock Park, for the final Friday Night Lights submission next week, I will be sure to include Hancock Park’s most infamous example of decoration abomination: Youngwood Court (aka the House of Davids). Until then, click to biggify and happy holidays!

With just two days of shopping left, the Christmas rush was on at Seventh and Broadway.

The year was 1951.

Photo from the USC Digital Library

Is that what Michelle Mowery, LA DOT’s Bicycle Coordinator, is suggesting? At last Wednesday’s City Council Transportation Committee meeting Councilman Bill Rosendahl asked her why, even though Los Angeles hired the exact same consulting group that Portland did, the results we got in Los Angeles were considerably worse. Her answer (Emphasis is mine, and was picked up initially by the folks at West Side Bike Side):

“With all due respect the City of Portland is 450,000 people. It’s a homogeneous community that is very white, and very progressive with respect to transportation. They have a trolley system that works very well, as well as their transit overall. We are a very diverse, disjointed city of 4 million people. They are 30 years ahead of us in the development of their, well, they’re not quite 30, they’re more like 20 years ahead of us in the development of their bikeway. So we’re a step behind Portland in what we’re trying to do. Granted, several of us would like to see a lot of changes in the city happen very quickly, but again we have a very diverse city with a lot of needs.”

Holy crap, will someone please fire her already so we can get someone who actually cares and can work on making a difference in that position rather than someone who just spouts off a bunch of useless shit all the time?

In a stroke of serendipitousnessiosity this morning on my way to work, I happened to look down into the shallow channelized waters of Ballona Creek, which I was biking across via the Inglewood Boulevard bridge, and what to my wondering eyes should appear but a couple you-don’t-see-that-everyday surprises that I managed to capture on my digicam the better to share with you.

Nah, it wasn’t another gull rescue, but nonetheless unique. The first was what I’d guess was a nice-sized school of baby great white sharks guppies swimming downstream in somewhat synchronized sweeps through the sunlit water, only to shortly thereafter be confronted by the second phenomena in the form of a tidal surge that had crept upstream several miles from the creek’s mouth and kept on going inland. Surf’s up!

Are you looking for an excuse to break out your holiday best this weekend? Then you might want to head over to the El Rey on Saturday night for the third annual Christmas Sweater Festival. Local bands The Deadly Syndrome, Eskimohunter, Castledoor, The Pity Party, Signals, and 400 Blows will be delivering festive cheer for a good cause: Teen Impact, a local support network for teenagers with cancer.  Good music, good cause, amazingly awful sweaters, how could you go wrong?

And we have TWO pairs of tickets to give away to you, dear faithful Metblogs readers! If you wanna go, all I ask is that you leave a comment below telling me about the most horribly hideous, awful Christmas gift you’ve ever received. For bonus points, I want to know what you did with that gift: did you relegate Great Aunt Mabel’s horrific handmade sweater to the back of the closet to languish and collect dust forevermore? Did you toss those Rudolph slippers that Grandpa so lovingly picked out just for you into the fire with the yule log? Or (horror of horrors) did you regift you mom’s fruitcake and pass it on to some unsuspecting soul? (If you did, there might be a special level of hell reserved just for you. )

Anyhow, want tix? Comment below! And make sure to use a real email address that you actually check and stuff so that I can get ahold of you.

Old Mustangs are a dime a dozen in LA and the car is certainly not without fans who can point you to better examples.  This one caught my eye as it was the more luxurious version of the trusty ‘Stang that was introduced in 1969.  The Grande’ was identified with a little subtle badging on the rear pillar and some extra baubles and bits inside.  This one has the period correct houndstooth patterned vinyl top that makes it an especially rare find.

Pic grabbed with the cell cam and does get bigger with a click.

We have ONE lonely little pair of tickets to give to one lucky-ass winner for the show with the Aquabats, Buck o’Nine & Supernova this Friday. These guys may wear spandex but they’re the real deal. You would be too if you’d been wearing blue spandex superhero suits for the last ten-twelve years. I imagine that after the first five years or so, you make peace with the fact that you are silly, and you’re ok with that, and you decide to dedicate your life to the Silly. Which is admirable.

Wanna go? Well of course you do, little camper. To win this pair of tix, just tell me why you deserve to go and why you really, truly, totally MUST see the show this Friday!

Show info is here.