Spotted this on 3rd Street in Santa Monica today near the Starbucks. Googling around seems to suggest these are popping up in other cities as well… hmmm… Looks like this is someone’s very cool street art project. UPDATE: The work is by the artist Olek who currently has a show at Christopher Henry (in NYC). Thanks for figuring that out Siel.

ALL GONE ALREADY. THANKS!

Did you know that Gogol Bordello is playing in LA next week? That’s right, it’s at Club Nokia downtown and thanks to the exceptional generosity of the folks at Goldenvoice I’ve got some tickets to give away. Maybe to you. Do you think you have what it takes to win them? Well, you have to be a master of Gogol Bordello trivia to get these bad boys. Well, maybe not a master, but very well versed. OK maybe not even very well versed, just semi-familiar. The question is this: What color will you wear when you get old and go crazy?

It’s pretty obvious for anyone who has any knowledge of Gogol Bordello tunage. What isn’t so obvious is how to submit your answer. You *could* post it in the comments, but I might not see it and everyone else will see it, and also, dude, I probably won’t be able to get in touch with you because you probably used a fake name and a fake contact for your commenting account thingy. So instead, e-mail me your answer. ALL GONE ALREADY. THANKS!

The R&R Gallery is having a Bill Murray tribute show. It opens Friday, Sept 17th. You know you need to be there. (929 East 2nd Street Suite 106 Los Angeles CA 90012)

Some assclown chucked a body into a recycling bin somwhere in the city and it wasn’t found until it made it’s way all the way downtown to the processing center. I don’t know if it was mixed in with the paper or plastics or glass but I do know that a body doesn’t fit into any one of those categories. Also, in addition to that being a less than respectable way to treat a previously living person, it’s also totally messing things up at the recycling plant and the whole place just turned into a crime scene. Nice move, dick.

This is a pretty cool “Self Portrait” video about one of my favorite LA photographers Estevan Oriol. He talks about what got him where he is, and where he’s looking to go next. Good stuff!

Just a quick post pointing you to BikeSide LA because they have much better and ongoing coverage, but it seems that an 81 year old woman made a left hand turn at Mulholland and Las Virgenes and hit three cyclists, two of whom where airlifted out and are still in critical condition. The cyclists had the right of way and no stop sign. Hoping for the best for the cyclists involved, their family and friends.

This just got sent to me but it as apparently what happened at the Hollywood XXI store (6801 Hollywood Blvd, #1C-134 Los Angeles, CA 90028) earlier this week. There are some comments on YouTube with more information, but it sounds like two deaf shoppers were in XXI when security suspected them of shoplifting and grabbed them as they left the store, one guy didn’t comply with their verbal instructions (he’s deaf) so they tackled him and choked him on the street in front of the store, which is what you can see in this video. According to the comments, the 2nd guy (with the white shirt freaking out that his friend is being attacked) was able to produce receipts for everything. If anyone knows more about this let me know and I’ll post an update.

Two super awesome Los Angeles establishments, CoCo’s Variety Store and Machine Project are teaming up to bring you an afternoon of bicycle repair science dropping. On Tuesday, August 10th, swing by Coco’s Variety (2427 Riverside Drive, LA 90039) with your bike that needs some fixing and the friendly folks there will be on hand to help you get things back into shape. They will have some basic parts (like chains and tubes) if you need them, a pile of junk bikes that parts can be harvested from as well as some fixer-upper bikes you can buy if you want to start from scratch. All class fees will go to Machine Project. This is an awesome way to wrap your head around the mechanics of bikedom. Go, you won’t regret it!

“On Tuesday, July 27th, and Friday, July 30th, cyclists gathered at the Beverly Hills Courthouse to protest the tepid sentence handed down by Judge Elden S. Fox for Celine Mahdavi. Mahdavi hit cyclist Louis Deliz and left him to die in the street on December 1st, 2009; Deliz was hospitalized for 49 days.

Mahdavi pleaded “no contest” to felony hit and run charges and threw herself on the mercy of the court, instead of accepting the plea deal offered by the DA. Judge Fox gave her 90 days of community service, and 3 years of probation. Mahdavi will spend less time in community service – 720 hours – than Deliz spent in the hospital – 1176 hours.”

It’s kind of disgusting that the penalty for hitting someone and fleeing the scene of the crime is lighter than the punishment for hitting them in the first place. Filmmaker Rick Darge was on hand earlier this week and filmed the protest. He made this short film to document what went down.

As you should know the mayor broke his elbow in a biking accident earlier this month. There was much wellwishing and many calls for him not to give up his newly public love of cycling, enough that he noticed and made the below thank you video responding to all the comments. He seems positive, and suggests positive things about the future of bikes and their relation to LA. I’m keeping my fingers crossed…

What does someone have to do to get handcuffed and detained by the LAPD? Regardless of how you might have answered those questions, the real answers seem to be that the LAPD feels spending a half an hour detaining and handcuffing a cyclist for riding a bike without a headlight (or with a headlight that was turned off by the officers in question, depending on who you believe) and then giving them a $10 fix it ticket is all it takes. Or handcuffing and detaining someone who simply approached the first scene and asked what was happening. That’s exactly what is happening.

Is handcuffing someone who isn’t resisting, isn’t a threat, and who is only getting a $10 ticket really the best use of the LAPDs time? Have we gotten rid of all the other crime in the city that this is what they have to worry about now?

I’m visiting New York City this week and stumbled across these new bike lanes that they are beginning to install all over the city. These are amazing and akin to the lanes you see all over much of bike friendly European cities. It’s a subtle change, but makes a world of difference. In case you are missing what you are looking at, let me explain:

In the photo above the order of things, from left to right, is: Sidewalk, Bike Lane, Car Parking, Moving Car Traffic
In Los Angeles, the order of things, from left to right, is: Sidewalk, Car Parking, Bike Lane, Moving Car Traffic

Swapping parking and the bike lane might seem small but it makes a world of difference. It reduces the chances of getting “doored” when a driver opens a parked car door without looking at the bike lane, it reduces the chance that people will block the bike lane with their trash cans forcing bikes into lanes of traffic which annoys the drivers, it reduces the chance of a driver suddenly pulling into a bike lane and double parking, the list goes on and on… Dear Los Angeles, can we have these please? Please??

In a confusing turn of events, HARD LA which was scheduled for July 17th has been cancelled. Initial reports were that is was being cancelled for “security concerns” which is generally vague code for “we didn’t sell enough tickets and need to cut our losses” but has now been changed to “postponement and magnification.” Basically the released statement is that the event is getting moved back to August when it will be bigger and better (yet no word if the bands booked for the July 17th version will still be on board) and at the same venue. Anyone who purchased tickets for the July 17th event will automatically get into the August version, and not to leave people totally stranded, DIE ANTWOORD will be playing on July 17th at the El Rey with a few of the other previously-booked-for-Hard-LA-acts, but tickets for that are being sold independently. Does this make sense to you yet? All I know is that I still won’t be in LA on the 17th which means I’m still going to miss Die Antwoord which means I’m still bummed.

This Wednesday, June 30th, Mark Frauenfelder will be speaking at Crash Space. In case you are unaware, there are semi-regular speakers on Wednesday nights at the hackerspace in Culver City. Mark, of BoingBoing fame among other things, will be speaking about his new book and the MAKEr culture as a whole. If you like doing things yourself, you won’t want to miss this.

Crash Space is located at 10526 Venice Blvd, Culver City CA 90232
Event starts at 8pm and is free for members, suggested donation of $10 for non-members.

I don’t know anything about this video other than what you can see by watching it, but judging by the LBCC shirt the guy is wearing and the LBMC sign on the wall behind him I’m guessing it’s in Long Beach. Watch it and see for yourself, but what appears to happen is a guy walks back to his bike to find another guy hovering over it having just cut the lock, he confronts the guy and is threatened meanwhile there are other people and security guards standing around who refuse to help in anyway and the lock cutter just walks away. When the guy asks the security guards why they refused to help at all they simply say he should have locked his bike up somewhere else. Unbelieveable.