How do you get to Restaurant Row on La Cienega? The bus, of course.

It was the new Line 99. The year was 1958.

Photo from the USC Digital Library

Hey folks! Just a reminder that we are all getting together Sunday afternoon at Intelligentsia in Venice for our first ever westside Metblogs meetup. You are all invited to join us! Here’s the details of the event, hope to see you there!

After a long hot day, what a refreshing evening of cool breezes, salty air and fresh fish we had at The Reel Inn last Saturday night! Thanks to all who came out to partake of the fun and fish and festive company. There was surfing trivia and Primo beer, and I personally was stoked.

Mohans, a Metblog author from Dublin staying in Cali for a few months, made it up from Irvine for the event, yay for him! We also had some other first timers to Classic Eats – welcome Shannon, hopefully the regulars didn’t scare you off the next one.  Burns! and Mr. Hooks — you were both missed.

Thanks again for a fun, low key, hot summer night!

Look for Classic Eats #8 coming in a few short weeks…more on that in another post.

More pix after the jump.

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My usual shortcut around Highland traffic was impeded by this limo, whose front fender had gotten stuck on a curb. His attempts to back out of the trap only caused the back tires to spin and burn rubber. (map)

All the while, the passengers would poke their heads out occasionally, express frustration at the driver, then hide whenever they saw someone taking a photo – which included almost everyone, like me, who had to make a u-turn and reroute.

(Which of course is typical Hollywood: while dozens of people heading to or from work were inconvenienced, most saw the humor in it. The pampered passengers inside the airconditioned limo, however, did nothing but complain.)

It may be a bit late in the outdoor concert/picnic season to mention this, but I re-stumbled upon Bandit wine, sold in resealable Tetra Pak cartons, at Silver Lake Wine this week, although they’ve had it for at least a year. Most times I go in there, it’s for wine for a dinner party, either my own or for a friend’s, so I’ve always ruled it out.

So yesterday, after a trip to Rockaway Records on Glendale where I scored a CD of the 2nd Talking Heads album, “More Songs About Buildings and Food,” for $6,  I thought I would pop into SLW, in the same building, to celebrate my purchase with a bottle of wine. (Here’s to 1978!)

And there it was. A lime-green carton with a jumble of fonts, clunky rounded off corners, a price sticker that read $7.75.

I asked the wine guy, “How is it?” Read the rest of this entry →

I stumbled across the work of ARMOgedon 2057 while skimming new stuff on Wooster Collective. I was blown away and it’s been a while since I’ve seen something that grabbed me as quickly as this did. I was excited to learn he is a Los Angeles based artist and even better than he has a new show opening in LA later this month. Being a typography nerd, seeing some of those elements pulled into paintings of this nature was really exciting and I can’t wait to see more.

Nine Inch Nails' final show? Photo by Burns!

BREAKING: Nine Inch Nails cancels tonight’s show at the Music Box at the Fonda Theater.

Were you one of the lucky ones that saw Nine Inch Nails’ show at the Palladum last night? Are you, like me, one of the incredibly disappointed fans holding tickets for tonight’s (canceled) show at the Fonda?

By most accounts, last night’s show at the Palladium was a spectacular beginning to what were to be the final four shows (ever) for Nine Inch Nails. Among other highlights, the band played “The Downward Spiral” album its entirety and electronic music pioneer Gary Numan joined the band to play his hit, “Cars.”

Front-man Trent Reznor complained during the show of having a cold, though, and immediately following the show the band’s official website, nin.com, released this statement:

“We’re very sorry to announce that Trent is ill, and on his doctor’s orders we will not be able to perform tonight’s show at the Henry Fonda Theater. This is the only information we have at this time, we’re posting this early announcement as a convenience for those of you who had plans to attend. Reimbursement details will be posted as soon as we figure them out; likely within the next 24 hours. We wish this wasn’t necessary and we’re very sorry for the inconvenience. Thank you for your understanding.”

“…sorry for the inconvenience?” More like colossal disappointment.

As the statement says, no further information at this time. The announcement made no mention of the status of Saturday and Sunday’s shows at the Wiltern and EchoPlex. An eternal optimist, I’ll hope for a rescheduled Fonda show on Monday, but that doesn’t sound too likely.

Update: An update as of 5:00pm Thursday. Follow me past the jump for news.

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Click for my full photoset.

When Chatsworth isn’t on fire, it’s actually kind of neat. And so far since this northwest corner of the Valley has escaped fire season (crosses fingers, knocks on wood, kisses rabbit’s foot), you should venture on out this Saturday & check out their adorable farmers’ market in the parking lot at the sylvan St. Stephen Presbyterian Church, where willowy eucalyptus bends over the farm stands and the vendors’ kids run around & play on the grass.

It’s small, but there are enough fruit & veggie vendors to create a diverse selection of produce, from cactus fruit (“fruta di nopales,” said the lady, attempting to communicate with me despite my limited Spanish) to brilliantly colored white and yellow peaches, nectarines, pluots and strawberries.

My favorite booth has to be the one from Shabazz Bakery, though, staffed by what I’m guessing were the only African-American people in all of Chatsworth that day, serving up carrot pie, navy bean pie and pecan pie from 60-year-old recipes. My mom & I, who were spending a lazy Saturday afternoon together, were blown back by the samples they gave us and we bought two pies each to take home.

Chatsworth / Porter Ranch Certified Farmers’ Market: 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., St. Stephen Presbyterian Church Parking Lot, 20121 Devonshire St. (cross street is Winnetka Ave.)

With an About the Author bio that says, “If you don’t like what you just read here you can just get out of my country. Now how about that smart-alack. Follow me on twitters,” Christwire is such dry parody it almost passes for the real thing– a right-wing,  Bible-quoting site seeking to save America from The Gays and other “weirdos.”

And they are loving the fires here in California:

The lands were soaked with the combustible sins of perversions and marinated in the flammable juices of homosexuality! God is angry and his great power cannot be contained! …Fire falls upon California and great pillars of smoke shoots from his nostrils!

The holy pillars of smoke from his nostrils are filling up the lands of California! They are the harbingers of doom for the homosexual gay fornicators of Satan!

If you doubt this is satire (which is easy to do because Christwire has real ads for things like Ann Coulter books and a dating service called Christian Mingle,) a recent post called If You’re a Fantastic Pro-Family Republican, Does One or Two Same-Sex Encounters Really Make You Gay? asks, “If you have a great record fighting against the gays, doesn’t it cross out a few moments humping a younger man against the wall of some hotel room?”

A few short hours ago it looked like my gut reaction that the Angeles National Forest fire had been caused by a fiendish rapscallion (I’m no longer using the word “terrorist”) wasn’t far off the mark.

But wait, what’s this? A new report on KNX 1070 says that the U.S. Forest Service has retracted its earlier “human caused” statement about the fire.

What does this mean? It means my two-year-old daughter’s assertion that dragons are behind the blaze may still be a valid theory.

You can run, Puff, but you can’t hide.

Image: A Michael Martchenko illustration from Robert Munsch’s The Paper Bag Princess.

Showtime’s answer to Bravo’s Real Housewives series will be The Real L Word: Los Angeles, a reality show that will follow six real, live LA lesbians “as they go about their lives,” according to Variety. Or at least as they go about their lives with a camera crew trailing them. (And producers liquoring them up and pissing them off by telling them what their showmates are saying about them behind their backs. Ah, reality is always so much better when you plan it out.)

The show is from Ilene Chaikan, the creator of The L Word, Showtime’s scripted drama about LA lesbians that completed a six-season run this past spring.

Lightning has been ruled out as a possible cause of the Station Fire, according to officials from the U.S. Forest Service. That leaves humanity as the cause.

Investigators have yet to determine if it was accidental or intentional.

You are now a suspect. Have a nice day.

… as captured by NASA’s Pasadena-based Jet Propulsion Laboratory mid-morning August 30th.  The area covered by the below capture is 152 miles wide.

The beauty we get to witness created from destruction. There’s been so much smoke in the sky, that I’ve stopped looking up. Thanks to Shayera for giving me the nudge.

Moon on September 1, 2009

You can see a couple of other photos here.

Photo by Anika Malone

Several days ago, while driving around Montecito Heights looking for vantage points to take photos of the Station fire, I came across this whimsical sign at a curve in the road. It’s cute, to be sure, but now I’m curious about how it came to be.  And I kind of want one.