Coming back from the Hollywood Home Depot yesterday afternoon, my wife Susan and I opted for surface streets back to Silver Lake instead of the backed-up southbound 101, and boy am I glad we did. Heading east on Fountain I looked south as we passed Kingsley Drive to find none other than renowned and prolific muralist Kent Twitchell doing some touch-up refreshment work to his 1971 Strother Martin Monument mural. With Susan understanding my OMG as we went around the block to pull up across the street from him, I got out and went pretty much total fanboy, interrupting him apologetically to gush about what an honor it was for me to see him in action, and get a picture of him:

I asked him if there was any hope of restoring the Ed Ruscha mural that had been despicably painted out in 2006 (and for which he ultimately settled a lawsuit in 2008 for a reported $1.1 million). He said he hoped for its return but that it would be put up in a different location.

The one mural of his also unceremoniously destroyed whose return I’ve long hoped for is his two-story cool-as-ice-blue Steve McQueen Monument, painted the same year as the one above.

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Kirtan Music is sweeping the nation, if you are into Yoga, you’ve probably already been to a Kirtan. If not, get on board!
Kirtan, or chanting, is a way of being involved in music, rather than just listening/watching to a performance. By participating in the calls and sacred sanskrit words, you fall into a beautiful meditation.
Krishna Das took chanting up to a new level years ago, using instrumentation, other singers and led the way to it’s popularity, turning audiences on to Kirtan since the 70′s. He’s on a tour of with his “Samsara by Bus” tour, which is coming to LA on Monday, June 13th, at the Wilshire Ebell. You can buy tickets here… or you can win a pair from us.
To get your chant on for free, tell us what Samsara means to you! Our esteemed panel of judges (um, me) will pick a lucky winner and you will be chanting away on Monday night!

I don’t own a Kindle. Or a Nook, or any of those other digital book-reader things. Maybe they’re more awesome than I think – I’ve actually never really even tried one – but nothing beats the feeling of walking out of a bookstore with a book in your hands.

That’s why I’m glad The Last Bookstore in LA had its grand re-opening last week, after vacating its former (and much tinier) spot at 4th and Main. Los Angeles may not be Seattle, but we’ve got our fair share of great little bookshops.

Me, I’m a fan of Skylight and Wacko, mostly because both are walking distance from my apartment. I also love two Glendale shops right across the street from each other, the Brand Bookshop and Mystery & Imagination (whose sign outside actually reads “BookFellows”). And I know at least one of my fellow bloggers (as well as many of you, I’m sure) is a fan of Book Soup (and with good reason; that place rocks). And I know Travis is a fan of the Taschen shops; I like the one in the Farmers Market because I pass it on my way home from work every day.

But I’m sure there are a bunch I don’t know about. What’s your favorite bookshop in LA?

Found this fly-by video by YouTube user Importon posted this morning on LA Observed and had to share it here. Using a remote-controlled helicopter rigged up with a camera, it provides an awesome perspective on a decidedly unhectic slice of Venice Beach around its skatepark that’s just a laid-back and lovely way to get going into the weekend. Enjoy:

This weekend: the gays.  Many gays.  We are coming to get you, in other words.

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I’ve really been looking forward to the matt & kim concert for a while, but alas have been sidetracked by an impromptu trip to Japan (they’re running crazy travel deals to re-boost their tourism in case you’re wondering), so if you’re the lucky winner, you better dance your heart out for me as well!

Thanks to our friends at Goldenvoice, they’ve sent over a pair of tickets for one lucky Blogging.LA reader to the upcoming Matt & Kim Concert at the Music Box on Friday June 17th. Being terribly sad about not being able to go, I want you guys to leave a comment below with your favorite Japanese food and/or (since we’re promoting the awesome M&K duo) your favorite memory associated w/ a M&K song.

I’ll pick a reader at random to get a pair of tickets for Friday night’s show! The contest ends Tuesday June 14th at noon PST.

You can also buy tickets HERE at Goldenvoice!

Heads up – I’m also going to announce a Kid Cudi giveaway soon, so be on the look-out!

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This is done by one of the former bloggers here, Dave Bullock.  Dave is one of my fave L.A. Photographers. He does a wide variety of work well.  I particularly like his High Dynamic Range (HDR) work.  In brief HDR images are the combination of several frames shot at different exposures that are then combined into a single image that captures a fuller range of grays and deeper saturation than a single frame can capture.  This time lapse is all HDR so I can appreciate the effort that he put into make the short film.  If you have the bandwidth opt for the High Definition frames.  More of Dave’s work can be found on his web sites Dave Bullock and eecue.

People often complain that Los Angeles is an ugly city with no character, which is not really true, unless you’ve had the grave misfortune at seeing the city from the monstrosity that is the Hollywood and Highland structure.  To see LA, you really have to dig in and look.  And that’s exactly what Kevin McCollister, aka East of West LA, does, one photo at a time.

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View from Mt. Wilson just off Angeles Crest Highway

Last Friday, Caltrans announced that the portion of California State Route 2 known as the Angeles Crest Highway is now open over its full 66-mile length from La Canada Flintridge to Wrightwood (see June 3 press release on this page). This has been a long time coming for Los Angeles area sports car and sport bike enthusiasts, as well as hikers and others who have discovered this nearby escape route over the years. Unfortunately, the Highway has had more destructive disasters than the castle in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”.
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I love going to a movie at a drive-in theatre:  it’s one of my top ten summertime things to do.  This is partly due to a bit of a nostalgia factor – my mom would occasionally bundle my sisters and I up in the car when we were kids and take us to see movie at the drive-in, and we were allowed to wear our pyjamas, which was awesome.  But it’s also because I am both incredibly snarky and unfailingly polite, which is something that can cause a great deal of inner turmoil at a conventional movie theatre:  my inner snark demands that I point out, with glee, all of the ridiculousness and inaccuracies in every summer blockbuster that I see.  However, my inner Miss Manners demands that I hold myself back lest I ruin the movie-going experience of my fellow cinephiles.  The drive-in, therefore, is the perfect place to go see a ridiculous, inaccurate (but still fun, don’t get me wrong!) summer blockbuster:  I can be as snarky as I want, in the comfort of my own car, and only the (equally snarky) friends who are with me need to hear it.  Thank you, drive in movie theatres, for being the solution to very trivial problems!

If you’ve never been to a drive-in theatre (and I’m always surprised at how many people haven’t!) you should go.  There are a few good drive-ins around LA to choose from.  Last week, I caught Pirates 4 at the Mission Tiki Drive-In near Pomona, which has a fabulously decked-out retro tiki snack bar.  There’s also the Vineland Drive-In in City of Industry.  Devil’s Night Drive In takes place once a month in Downtown LA, on the 2^nd floor roof parking lot at 240 W. 4^th Street, and they have carhops to serve you food!

Sadly, most of the other drive-ins in LA county are shuttered (the LA county page on Roadsidepeek.com is almost like a tragic graveyard of abandoned drive in sites) but there are a few left somewhat further afield – Riverside has both the Rubidoux and the Van Buren.  And the Southern California Drive-In Movie Society is doing what they can to keep people interested and drive-ins open.

Photo by Kenneth Adam.

As you might recall, I was pretty excited about the prospect of breaking my ass-bone for four long hours back in May to experience the epic splendor that was Love Exposure. The Silent Movie theater is not a venue for the faint of heart, and even less so when it involves a four-hour long movie. But having seen it, and suffered the possibly permanent ill-effects on my ass and lower back as a result, I’m here to say that those of you who missed your shot during the week-long engagement in May were – ahem – fucking up.

But alas, we live in a very provident universe, and you have another opportunity to pay $10 for the opportunity to wage war on your gluteal muscles. Next Saturday, the 11th of June at 2:30pm Pacific Standard Time, Love Exposure will play once more at the Silent Movie theater courtesy of the fine folks over at Cinefamily. And get this – writer-director-madman Sion Sono will be there in person.

It couldn’t possibly get any better than that, now could it?? Ha – you’re wrong there, too. Not only will Sion Sono be there for the encore screening of Love Exposure, he will be there for screenings of not one, not two, but three other insane films full of homicidal Japanese schoolgirls, psychopaths, and magical demon hair. Read the rest of this entry →

I Have One Pair of Tickets for a Lucky Someone to see John Prine and Loudon Wainwright III

Friday, June 10th
At the
Orpheum Theater
842 S Broadway
Los Angeles, California 90014

Let me know in the comments why this pair of tickets belong to you!

I MUST have all entries in By WEDNESDAY!

Good Luck!

June 8th is World Oceans Day, a day to “celebrate and honor the body of water which links us all, for what it provides humans and what it represents.” As a nod to World Oceans Day, the LA 3-D Club, in conjunction with San Diego-based PassmoreLab, is presenting the Los Angeles premiere of Ocean Voyagers 3D tomorrow night at the Downtown Independent. The 72-minute documentary features rare footage gathered by filmmakers with unprecedented access.

Narrated by Oscar, Golden Globe and Emmy Award winning actress Meryl Streep, and filmed over a 5-year span in the waters of French Polynesia, Hawaii, Alaska and beyond, the film follows a mother humpback whale and her newborn calf in a “coming of age” journey for the neonate giant.

Blogging.la is giving a pair of tickets to the screening to one commenter. Leave us a note and one lucky winner will be selected around Noon tomorrow.  See below for more details about the event:

Ocean Voyagers 3D Screening + Q&A
Sunday, June 5, 2011 at 8pm

Downtown Independent Theater is located at 251 S. Main St., Los Angeles, 90012

$5 for current LA3DClub members; $10 for non-members (admission is waived with USC Student ID)
FREE if your comment is selected at random!

Missing Persons was wrong. The problem isn’t that nobody walks in LA.

No, actually, the opposite is true: On warm days like the ones we’ve been having lately, nearly everyone gets out and does a little perambulating. No, the problem is that when people in Los Angeles choose to use the sidewalk, they do so while forgetting or being wholly ignorant of the rules of sidewalk travel.

Seriously: My resolution for the second half of 2011 is to try to be a little more cognizant of my fellow pedestrians, which means staying alert and making sure to share the concrete with everyone. And, frankly, I think some of my neighbors could use a little refresher on sidewalk etiquette as well; the sidewalks here tend to be narrower than in other metropolitan areas, and it’s a bit more of a challenge to maintain proper respect for the people around you. As such, hereare some answers to a few of the more frequently asked questions about sidewalk etiquette:

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Want some really great Vietnamese food?

It’s cheap, yummy, and for the love of god It Has Parking!

(maybe I should save this as a draft until I eat there a few more times)

Compromise: I just won’t post the address – D’oh!