This third edition of Los Angeles’ CicLAvia events was a much, much quieter one. While originally planned to be as full-on as the original CicLAvia in October 2010 and the second one last April, organizers decided in May to throttle back and take the one planned for July 10 off the calendar so that efforts could be better focused on the extended one set for this October.

But that didn’t stop them from putting out the call to come ride the open roads with them on a nine-mile route beginning and ending at Boyle Heights’ Hollenbeck Park, and I met up with friends Stephen, Alice and Ann in Echo Park to pedal out to the Eastside and join in the festive, leisurely paced trek with a couple hundred other CicLAvians.

After crossing the 6th Street Viaduct and coming down Central Avenue to pay a visit to the African-American Firefighter Museum, we headed into downtown, where on our approach to Chinatown, the four of us broke off from the ride and continued up to the LA River’s West Bank bikeway. Saying our goodbyes at Atwater I headed back through Silver Lake home. Wonderful day. Wonderful ride.

Total distance covered: 21.98  miles
Route link: http://tinyurl.com/6g4785r

Bobby McFerrin

Give or take a couple hundredths of a percent, about 97.7526% of the world’s ears were introduced for better or worse to Bobby McFerrin by way of his unlikely 1988 No. 1 poptart Don’t Worry, Be Happy. But thankfully my pair met the a capella fella two years earlier when I went to see the 1986 film ‘Round Midnight, albeit unknowingly. I say unknowingly because Herbie Hancock’s version of the movie’s title track featured what my wondrous ears thought was an awesome trumpeter named Bobby McFerrin, and subsequent plays of the cut on LA’s then-jazz station KKGO made me go out and by the album. It was only when surveying its liner notes, which listed McFerrin as a vocalist, that it dawned on me that Bobby played himself and not a piece of brass. Blown away, I immediately went out and bought his 1984 album The Voice, an amaaaaaazing solo jazz vocal recorded with no accompaniment or overdubbing. To date I have listened to it 867 times.

But back around its 91st spin on my turntable in the summer of 1987 I luckily stumbled on the information that McFerrin was to be part of an upcoming night of jazz at the Hollywood Bowl, along with Sarah Vaughn and Modern Jazz Quartet, and I scraped the money together for cheap seats for me and my then-fiancee to be present.

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DMV Special Notice about sending registration renewal notices at the last minute

I checked mine randomly the other day, and saw that it was about to expire. I hadn’t received a notice from the DMV. I called them and they said (very nice and helpful on the phone, by the way) that they had just mailed me a renewal notice. I received it two days before the expiration date. Then I had to scramble to get the renewal done, and when I tried to do so online, the DMV servers weren’t working for quite a few hours.

On top of that, the renewal form and enclosed separate “Special Notice” (see above) seem to disagree about the consequences of late registration. Read the rest of this entry →

This weekend: a (free!) Best Coast show, Outfest 2011, and a CicLAvia community ride.  Also: the Royals are in town and, even though they are kind enough to grace us and our freeways with their presence on a weekend unlike some people, you best watch out for all that traffic.  Think of this as a practice run for Carmageddon.

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We Angelenos are certainly no strangers to the old saw about everyone in LA having a screenplay they are working on or trying to sell, but here at Blogging.LA we know that’s not true. The city’s waitstaff don’t have screenplays, because they’re waiting for their big acting break.

But LA is not a city where everyone is simply waiting for something big to happen; some folks are out there really doing it. To wit: the Egyptian is showcasing some local talent next Wednesday night with a screening of short films by LA filmmakers. According to the theater’s website, there will be nine short films screened, followed by a discussion with the filmmakers.

What: Locals Only! Showcase of Short Films
Where: Egyptian Theater, Hollywood
When: Wednesday, July 13th, 7:30pm

Goldstar has tickets here.

The City of Burbank is celebrating its 100th Anniversary today! Tonight, from 5pm to 10pm, you can join in the Centennial Celebration at the city’s “Party of the Century.” The free event is happening in Beautiful Downtown Burbank and will include appearances by local dignitaries and celebrities, an air parade, a mascot parade, a variety of live stage shows and special deals at many local restaurants. The night will be capped off with fireworks.

Burbank will always be a special place for me since it is where I first lived when I moved to L.A. nearly seventeen years ago. Besides, I only moved a few blocks outside of it, so it’s still a big part of my life. You can read a brief history here of the area that started as a sheep farm and is now one of the world’s preeminent media capitals.

Burbank’s Party of the Century is TONIGHT from 5pm to 10pm and is FREE!

The Little Subway That Could

8 days and counting until the traffic apocalypse. The 405 freeway is closing, and millions of people will be cut off from each other. Doomed to stay in their own neighborhood. Forced to eat, shop, and play local. Sure, this bus is free, and so is that other one, and that subway over there.

I used Metro’s trip planner to figure out how to get from the Valley to the Westside by 6:30AM that Saturday. I would have to leave today.

I once read somewhere that the reason the Gold Line is on a runaway course to Texas is because it is easier to get funding for an existing line. OK, fine. Let’s play that game.

Once the Purple Line reaches Westwood, let’s turn North. AND South. A subway connecting the Green Line extension at LAX, Expo Line, the Orange Line busway, and Van Nuys Metrolink & Amtrak.

The Transit Coalition gets it. Are you Carmageddon it?

Some of you have been around long enough (and are lucky enough) to have attended SUPERBALL – the crazy, eclectic, celeb-studded (but in a good way) event where damn near anything could and did happen.

Like all gigantic, out of control events, SUPERBALL kind of reached its peak and when the dudes behind it got busy with life, it went away for a while.

But nature abhors a vacuum, and out of the ashes of SUPERBALL came … TwentyWonder! A Carnival of the Mind, and a great cause too.

Plus, TwentyWonder just got featured on GoldStar. Discounted tickets are now $20 for a limited time. Jump on it, and then alert your friends!

Tickets: http://www.goldstar.com/today/los-angeles/2011/7/4

This Saturday! July 9th! From 6pm to Midnight!

21 and older with ID

VIP Tix include a souvenir medallion – very cool!

(hope this image cures the JumboTron effect – was posting from the phone)

So this past Monday I boldly went somewhere by bike that I’d never gone before. And so, for the lack of a substantive and/or interesting post on any number of prevalent topics, I do hereby give you: The Los Angeles Riverbed Ride. In which I navigated downstream from the south end of Elysian Valley down to the Seventh Street Viaduct and then back. For your viewing pleasure, these are the 12 spans I pedaled under, beginning with the 110 Freeway and ending at Seventh Street.

A slideshow of the above Flickr set of images is viewable here.

After the jump is the SFW video-still of the naked guy I encountered under the First Street Viaduct who was bathing in the water (given its quality I use “bathing” in its least optimistic sense), along with the obligatory timelapse video of the entire ride. Enjoy.

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If you’re not already familiar with Where The Hell Is Matt?, then the next four and a half minutes is my gift to you:

If you are already familiar, you probably didn’t mind watching again.

So, here’s the deal. Matt is making another video, and he’s going to be shooting in L.A. tomorrow! This is your chance to dance with Matt.

Matt will be at Watts Towers at 7:00pm tomorrow. From his email:

“PLACE: In the semi-circle next to Watts Towers
DATE: Tuesday, July 5th
TIME: 7pm

Here’s a Google map of the location:
http://tinyurl.com/6axeovs

The photo at the bottom of this email shows exactly where to meet. You
can also view the image here:
http://tinypic.com/r/b5joz5/7

When you get to the spot, look for the guy who looks like the guy in
the dancing video. Just come on over, say hello, and ask if I am Matt.
If I’m not Matt, I will let you know.

Before we dance, I will need to get your legal permission to appear in
the video. I’ll shout some legal-sounding stuff on camera and you can
just nod and give me a thumbs up if you’re okay with it. Kids under
18, please bring a parent or guardian, or at least bring a photo of
one of their thumbs to hold up (just kidding, don’t do that).

Wearing distinctive clothing will make it easier to spot yourself in
the video, but please do not dress as a licensed character (Mario,
Spider-Man, Sarah Palin) or I will have to blur you and that will make
everyone think you showed up naked or something. Also, please do not
show up naked.”

There you have it. It’s going to be a ton of fun, so come out and dance with Matt (and me.)

Having been sufficiently worn down by Jack McFarland and Christian Siriano, America has developed quite a taste in recent years for a good sassy gay friend. You know, so long as they can’t get married. On the subject of being gay, sassy, and single in LA, I direct your attention to “I Naired My Balls For This.”

I must admit, upon hearing a friend describe this blog to me, I think perhaps I may have gotten my hopes up a little too high. As in, I was expecting that it might be a blog that has been updated in this calendar year. Not every Blogging (in) LA blog can be a winner, so perhaps this one can offer some lessons on how not to do it.

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Blogging.LA’s second Donut Summit is quickly approaching!  27 more sleeps, if my math is correct! If you haven’t already done so, mark your calendars for July 31st, at 2pm, and join us in Elysian Park for the Donutocalypse.  Admission is one dozen donuts from your favorite local donut shop, which will then be added to the massive donut pool so that everyone can taste donuts from all over town.  This year’s Donut Summit will be even awesomer than last year – we are so excited to have Intelligentsia as our coffee sponsor, and later this week, we’ll be announcing our line-up of celebrity judges!

The Donut Summit was inspired by the huge number of tiny, hole-in-the-wall donut purveying establishments all over the city, and the seeming impossibility of sampling donuts from every one.  Unlike the parts of the country dominated by big donut chains like Dunkin’ Donuts and Krispy Kreme, Southern California seems to have escaped the reaches of the corporate donut chains.  (Sure, we’ve got Winchells and Yum-Yum Donuts, but neither of those seems to have enough of a market share to choke out the little guys.)  So the Donut Summit is a chance to celebrate LA’s unique (and, yes, sometimes a little sketchy, depending on the strip mall) donut culture and small businesses, and to discover some hidden gems!

I’ve blogged about D.K.’s Donuts before – they were by far the most awesome discovery from last year’s Donut Summit for me, so I will warn you in advance that I will be seriously pulling for them to take home the Donut King crown this year.  D.K.’s, which is in Santa Monica at Santa Monica and 16th,  is probably as hole-in-the-wall-y and unassuming-looking as you can get from the outside, and the interior has also seen better days.  But, seriously, you will not taste better donuts.  Someone in the kitchen there is a donut artiste par excellence, and has created all kinds of varieties of fresh whipped cream-filled donuts, amazing blueberry fritters, maple bacon donuts, and the charmingly odd cream pup that I blogged about here last summer.  Glendora’s Donut Man may have taken home the crown last year with their divine fresh strawberry donuts, but this year I am putting my money on D.K.’s turning into the Little Donut Shop that Could, and taking home that crown.

So, that’s where I’d put my money, but I want to know who else might be a contender!  Comment below and let us know who your pick is for Donut King!

Donut photo courtesy of Sidereal on Flickr.

I’m a bit of a collector of vintage cookbooks, mostly from the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, and I recently picked up a copy of the Ford Treasury of Favorite Recipes from Famous Eating Places, initially published by the Ford in the late 1940s.  It’s a fascinating little book – each page has a recipe from a different restaurant somewhere in the U.S.  The book is organized by region, and was, apparently, designed to fit in the glove compartment of your car, so in addition to being a recipe book, it’s a travel guide.  The book is also beautifully illustrated, with a picture of each restaurant by a different artist, so it’s also a neat little anthology of mid-century design.

Los Angeles restaurants are extremely well-represented – below are some of the images and recipes from the book of L.A. restaurants of the past. Most of these are now long gone, but we can now re-create them in the comfort of our own kitchens, thanks to the magic of used bookstores and the internet!

“Blade Runner” is, for Angelenos, part of our cinematic DNA. It envisions a dystopic future Los Angeles that borrows from the past but, to some, it disturbingly resembles the present. However, I suspect that more than a few Angelenos are jaded by the repeated “Blade Runner” viewings and the comical number of versions that have been released, especially the “Blade Runner For Dummies” narration of the original U.S. theatrical release. As one such Angeleno, I was mesmerized upon discovering the above video showing the real-life “Blade Runner” filming locations matched shot-for-shot with their depictions in the movie.
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