The only Valentine on Wayne’s mind was his mother. There was no girl to worry about. No wife to make happy. Just candy for mom. Of course, none of it concerned Yogi. He was just happy to be with Wayne, wherever Wayne went, in a town called Los Angeles.

The year was 1958.

Photo from the USC Digital Library

Photo

One of my east coast tells is the fact that I only really learned to drive in my 30s. I didn’t drive at all before I moved to L.A. (My native friends, I know, regard this disclosure as only slightly more bizarre than a statement like ”I used to breathe through gills before moving here” or “My parasitic twin did not survive the surgery.”) I’m still not crazy about driving (I will always accept a ride from a friend when I can), and I take surface streets pretty much everywhere. (Cut me a break. I blew a tire on the 405 and crashed my car and collapsed my lung–I’m not just paranoid; I have empirical evidence freeways are a bad idea). Even so, I’ve learned a lot about life while behind the wheel in L.A. I was thinking about it this morning when I was lodged in a clump of folks determined to traverse Victory Boulevard just slightly below the speed limit. I started to let the fact that THESE MORONS DON’T KNOW HOW TO F***ING DRIVE ruin my whole morning, but then I caught myself. Why? Really, why give a group of random, clueless strangers so much power over my mood?

So here is my everything I need to know I learned in kindergarden my Scion list:

• Stress is usually a choice. Most of the time, I really can decide to just mellow the f*** out.
• That said, fortune favors the aggressive. Timidity is simply confusing and annoying.
• Most people ignore the few simple communication devices available to them (e.g., turn signals).
• Much of the time, other people’s crappy behavior has absolutely nothing to do with me.
• Bad behavior is contagious.
• Similarly–random bad shit happens no matter how good or careful you are.
• It’s good to have a contingency plan.
• Punk rock makes almost everything more tolerable.

What about you? What have you learned from L.A. traffic?

It’s a crappy obstructed low-res view of the Hollywood sign on a crappy weather day from a window of the second floor of our Silver Lake house through the palms atop the Micheltorena ridgeline, but I pointed and zoomed my webcam at the landmark in hopes of ultimately timelapsing the progress of its cover-up announced earlier this week to be done to promote the Trust for Public Land’s planned acquisition of the private parcel near it that’s been for sale for awhile.

Anyway, I checked in on the latest image and it’s looking like work has commenced. Maybe.

The latest available image (updated once a minute) can be seen here.

UPDATE: Yep. She’s a-changing. And there’s a much better gopher’s eye-view of the action available here: http://hollywoodsign.org/247.html

One of the article’s I read about the slaying of Ronald Barron, the former gangmember turned interventionist, stated that the shooting Sunday night after the Super Bowl took place outside a bar with a red door on the 5000 block of Pico Boulevard. So when I detoured to that block this morning — just a couple side streets away from my normal morning bike commute route — I went looking for that red door.

But I didn’t need it to find the crime scene’s location, because what drew my eye first was the large curbside shrine placed there by friends in memory of and mourning for the man senselessly murdered by a tagger he confronted after leaving that bar with the red door.

Among the assemblage of cards, plush toys, empty glasses, bottles and candles, most moving to me was a vase of white roses that had fallen over. Wrapped around the slender container were a red and a blue bandana. Separate they are the colors of rivalry and hatred, but these two were tightly entwined, representative of a unity born of sorrow. Born of enough.

I stood that vase back up.

A few other photos of the shrine are here.

Picasso At The Lapin Agile at the Complex Theater - East.

A fantastic production of Picasso At The Lapin Agile has come to its final performances at the Complex Theater – East. Class up your weekend with a little culture.

Picasso At The Lapin Agile (written by Steve Martin) is the tale of a chance meeting between Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein at a Paris pub in 1904, on the eve of Einstein publishing his Special Theory of Relativity and Picasso painting his masterpiece. There is even an appearance by another historical figure, but I’ll let that be a surprise.

I’m no Ben Brantley, but once in a while I do like an evening at the theatah. I can tell you that this cast is packed with stand-out performances, and with a script written by Steve Martin you know there will be quite a few laughs.

What: Picasso At The Lapin Agile
Where: The Complex Theater – East, 6468 Santa Monica Blvd.
When: Final performances this weekend.
Tickets: (323) 960-7714 or www.plays411.net/picasso

Want to really impress your Valentine? Forget about dinner at the Olive Garden and a screening of Valentine’s Day (seriously, Ashton Kutcher? That’s a bad idea.) Take your true love (or BFF, friend from work, or that tattooed cutie you met at Intelligentsia) to see some terrific live theater. You’ll be glad you did.

Amazing mixed media Artist Dave McKean is doing a signing this Friday, followed by a display of new work, opening Saturday.

He’s responsible for all of the covers of the comic book Sandman, as well as The Vertigo Tarot. A long time collaborator with author Neil Gaimen, and the director of Mirrormask.

He’s seriously one of my all time favorite artists, and, the couple of times I’ve been honored enough to meet him, one of the nicest guys ever. According to his Twitter he’ll sign whatever you bring to the signing Friday night at Wacko. (I mean “La Luz de Jesus.” Which is the Gallery in the back of Wacko. Whatever. Details below.)

Signing on Friday, February 12, 6 pm – 9 pm,
LA LUZ DE JESUS GALLERY,
4633 Hollywood Blvd. LA. 90027

“New Works Inspired by Early Cinema”
Exhibition: February 13, 2010 – March 6, 2010
BILLY SHIRE FINE ARTS GALLERY
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 13th, 7-10 pm
5790 Washington Boulevard
Culver City, CA 90232

“I don’t think there’s anything Dave McKean cannot do as an artist..” – Neil Gaiman

Tonight, the Egyptian is doing a double feature of Muscle Beach Party and Beach Blanket Bingo, and you really should go, really, really, you should.  Some people (ie: my roommate) claim that the Frankie and Annette beach party movies are terrible and unwatchable but I vehemently maintain that this is not the case.  No, beach party movies are glimmering, delicious nuggets of 1960s camp and I LOVE THEM.  In beach party movies, Southern California is a magical place where everyone wears high-waisted bathing suits all the time, and hangs out on the beach doing the watusi with Don Rickles.  Clearly, they are amazing and wonderful.

Watusi aside, however, what I really love about these films are the soundtracks and the musical numbers.  They were scored by Les Baxter, king of exotica , and usually have all kinds of great musical guests:  Muscle Beach Party happens to include the film debut of a (very, very young!) Little Stevie Wonder, as well as Dick Dale and the Del-Tones, and Frankie and Annette’s songs were co-written by Brian Wilson; while Beach Blanket Bingo has an appearance from surf rockers The Hondells.  Donna Loren, who appears as a vocal soloist in both movies (and later did a few episodes of Batman!) will be at the Egyptian to do a live set between films.

Anyhow, I am so excited about this and I will probably be hanging out in the first row of the balcony tonight, wearing my best go-go dress.  The show starts at 7:30.

Wouldn't you want something better than McDonald's after something like this?

Last year, LAX landed on a list of world’s worst airports.  Now, I’m not worldly, monied, or George Clooney enough to have sampled all of the airports this world has to offer, but I will throw this out: out of the airports I have had the displeasure (looking at you, Beauvais-Tille aeroport in France, which takes the “air” out of “port” and suffixes it with “-a-potty” to reflect how it feels) to pass through, LAX has one of the worst food offerings. You can go stretches at a time without seeing any food and, when you do, it’s bound to be one of the four McDonald’s scattered throughout the complex.  Welcome to Los Angeles.

Photo courtesy Lucyrk in LA via the Metblogs Flickr pool.

Hi! I’m Little Sister. My mom has had success finding homes for kitties before, via Metblogs. If you’ve been reading for a few years, you’ll know about her cat saga.  Now, she’s trying to find a home for me!

I am gorgeous, if I do say so myself–with long Himalayan-style fur that’s a mix of tabby stripes & calico and marmalade colors. Every time Mom comes home I run to greet her at the gate, and I love being petted. I’m less a fan of being picked up, but can you blame me? I grew up as a feral cat, and being picked up scares me.

Mom says I have to find a new indoor home because coyotes have found our yard where we all live and are killing us one by one. I’m pretty creeped out by that. I hope you can adopt me, because then I’ll be safe! I like being outdoors, but I know my life span will be longer and I’ll be healthier if I become an indoor cat. Mom would let me live in her house but I give her the sneezles.

If you adopt me, I will probably hide under your bed or in your closet for a week before I start to venture out and explore. Pet me and you’ll find I’m a purring machine! I’m mellow and easygoing, and over time as I become used to being an indoor cat I’ll become the perfectest cat in the world! I’ve been spayed and mom says she’ll get me all new shots, which sounds not so fun.

If you’d like me to be YOUR best friend, email mom at lucindamichele (at) metblogs (dawt) com. Meow.

Whether you vehemently detest Valentine’s Day or you are looking for something unique to impress your baby cakes this weekend, Captured Aural Phantasy Theater has just what you need to quench that burning desire way down in your special place.

This weekend, the Vaudeville-style throwback troupe will be performing a very special Valentine’s Day Love Spectacular for you love birds and singles alike. Experience an incredibly intimate and sensual feast of esoterically erotic vintage comic book stories that explore love and all of its many splendored things.

Special guest performance by The Blankenship Ballet Company of Venice.

Captured Aural Phantasy Theater is a live, radio hour like show where the performers act out dramatic readings from vintage comic books. Set underneath the stained glass ceiling of the infamous Palm Court Ballroom in the historical Alexandria Hotel, the show often features live music numbers, audience interaction, period costumes and snark galore. Read the rest of this entry →

The play's the thing: Cornerstone rehearses on the streets.

Ah, artists starve for their art, but what happens when a community is starved of art?  The Pasadena Playhouse is set to close its doors; the city council vetoed a motion to cut public funding for the city’s art programs, but only after a very, very loud scream from local artists and supporters; and a recent article in the New York Times profiled Eli Broad and the fickle and insular nature of arts philanthropy in the city.  Now, then, seems to be the time to support troupes like Cornerstone Theater Company, whose mission is to collaborate with the community and produce works that relate to local issues.  “Touch the Water,” for example, dealt with the complicated – and unending – politicking related to the river that runs through us, the LA River.  The current production is On Caring for the Beast, the fifth play in Cornerstone’s “Justice Cycle” that explores how politics and laws fracture and affect the people they’re supposedly legislated to protect.  The best part here is that while tickets are normally $20, on Wednesdays you can pay anywhere between $5 and $20 – whatever you can afford, no questions asked or moral judgments passed.  Perhaps more exciting is the company’s 10th Annual Bridge Awards on March 16th, in which Jane Lynch (that’s Christy Cummings for those of us who knew talent when we saw it; Sue Sylvester for the more recent fans; and, for me, an unabashed object of desire) will present an honorary award to Paris Barclay.  Tickets to the play are available on Brown Paper Tickets; to donate or buy a ticket to the Bridge Awards here, go here.  Support the arts, feed the community, and see Jane Lynch to boot.  Dreams come true, they really do.

Photo credit: Ed Fuentes / blogdowntown

Trader Joe's in Silver Lake. Photo courtesy of Yelp.com

I have been shopping at the same Trader Joe’s in Silver Lake for years and somehow never knew about their weekly drawing for a $25 gift card.

All you have to do is bring your own bag, or basically not use their paper or disposable bags when you check out, and the cashier will give you a raffle ticket that enters you into their weekly drawing. I’m not sure if every Trader Joe’s offers this or just my local Silver Lake store, but now that I know, I’m going to be sure to bring my own bag from now on.

Do you know of any other stores offering a similar incentive? Drop a comment here and let us know.

Unfortunately my iphone couldn’t capture the second tier of this amazing, glowing rainbow in the sky…
And earlier there was hail! Magical Los Angeles Weather!!!

The one nice thing about the rain: Rarely do we get skies like this in Los Angeles. I stepped outside after checking my mail and this is the view I was treated to. Miles to the west, the sky was clear. Behind me to the east, the sky seemed imported directly from Mordor.

I’m no meteorologist, but I suspect these may be mammatus clouds, which are “pouches” of cloud that hang below the kinds of cumulonimbus clouds that produce strong storms. They are so called because they take their name from the Latin mamma, which means “udder” or “breast” — essentially, mammatus clouds are called mammatus clouds because they look like big atmospheric boobs. This should tell you everything you need to know about meteorologists.

Unless of course they’re not mammatus clouds at all, in which case this blog post tells you everything you need to know about me.

Sorry for the giant image (which you can clickify to embiggen) but I think you’ll agree it’s worth it. BoingBoing just posted a link to a scan of a 1934 Los Angeles Times article about the lizard people who live under the city which was found on Vokoban’s flickr stream. We’ve covered the lizard people before, but this new (old) map should make them much easier to find yourself.