Photo courtesy Chris Yarzab via the Blogging LA Flickr pool.

This weekend: Baja Night 3.0; paranormal activity; and it’s, already, been ten years.

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When shaved-headed synthesized symphonist Moby released a book of photographs to accompany his album “destroyed“ last May, a number of the photos were sent on a worldwide yet very limited tour of art galleries. Moby’s photo tour hits Culver City’s Kopeikin Gallery this Saturday, September 10, through October 22.

Sayeth Moby’s website:

Destroyed introduces us to a side of touring that is often unexposed; secluded time spent in artificial spaces like hotel rooms and backstage waiting areas. The combined album and photo book provides an intimate look at Moby’s world and his creative process as an artist, both the music and photos were created in the same period and draw inspiration from the strange and sublime world of touring.

So … Linda McCartney meets Lost In Translation? Could be very interesting.

I love businesses that support the art. I even like them better when they give up space to showcase new and emerging artists.  That is exactly what South Bay Lexus in Torrance has done.  They have donated space on their lot for a bunch of pods to be set up as pop up gallery spaces.  There are over 50 pods, over 400 artists, curators, museums, galleries and fun, one-stop shopping for art.

More information on the art and artists can be found on Fine Art Trekkin’ Torrance and Fine Art Trekkin’ South Bay.

Deets: 9/3 & 9/4/11Saturday and Sunday Sept 3, 4 noon-6pm. South Bay Lexus.24777 Crenshaw Blvd. Torrance, California 90505

This is a trivia teaser for the LA County Fair tickets that I have to give away.  You don’t expect to get a 4 pack of general admission tickets and parking by just being the first to answer do you?  The first person to get me the correct answer to the trivia question will win the pack of tickets and the parking pass.  When answering your trivia question please make sure you have a real email addy that I can use to contact you to have the tickets sent to you.  Now for the question:

How many animatronic dinosaurs are on display in Jurassic Planet?

If you don’t wanna take a guess at the trivia answer you can always just purchase your tickets HERE.

Courtesy East of West LA via the Blogging LA Flickr pool.

GTD this weekend: a protest maybe?  Or, fine, food festivals for those who can, a quiz about LA’s progressive history for those who have forgotten, and beer and BBQ for those who are traditional.

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Photo courtesy of KCRW

If you draw a Venn diagram between donut lovers and pie lovers among blogging.la readers, I suspect that the overlap would be considerable. That’s why I’m excited that KCRW’s 3rd Annual Good Food Pie Contest will be held at LACMA on Sunday, September 18.

The Pie Contest will take place from 2-4 p.m. on the lawns behind the museum, and will be judged by notable Los Angeles area chefs and food writers, including LA Weekly‘s Jonathan Gold and Zoe Nathan, chef/owner of Huckleberry Cafe.  KCRW’s “Good Food” program host Evan Kleiman will emcee, which is appropriate since Kleiman’s blog about baking a pie a day was the inspiration for the contest. Additionally, LACMA’s Family Days in September will be dedicated to the theme of pie.

KCRW is also holding an essay contest in connection with the event: “Tell us the story of the pie that changed your life, in 500 words or less”. The winner gets to be a judge in the pie contest. But hurry, just two more days to submit your essay.

To enter a pie in the contest, click on the second link above. The entry cost is $10. For non-contestants, admission is free, including a taste once the judging is complete. And this year,  to tie in with LACMA’s Tim Burton exhibition, the contest will include a category for “Tim Burton-inspired pie”. Now that’s something a Donut Summiteer could love.

Deep Fried Kool-Aid

If something deep fried that shouldn’t be isn’t a big enough hint its time for the LA County Fair I don’t know what is. This years outrageous deep fried thingy is Kool-aid, and it isn’t as bad as you think it might be. Maybe it was coming off of this years Donut Summit that made it all the more palatable but those Kool-aid flavored donut holes are something to behold. Imagine if you will a cherry flavored donut hole that is dusted with a blend of powdered sugar and cherry Kool-aid and you get the flavor profile of this deep fried treat invented by Chicken Charlie.

Last night was the LA County fair hosted local media types to come and get a tasting of the fare offerings this year. We got to graze through a sampling grazing of the biggies at the fair starting with Bubba’s and Chicken Charlies and into food trucks such as Piaggio’s and Crepes Bonapartes. You have to make the jump to get the deets on what I grazed upon as well as on the fair itself.  Read the rest of this entry →

Courtesy incognito85 via the Blogging LA Flickr pool.

GTD this weekend: the music festival’s called off, but you still can catch the bands around town.  Also: Dolly Parton and pancakes, not necessarily at the same time.

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Arthur Adams at Sunset Junction '08. Courtesy our own Burns!

In the end, even Live Nation couldn’t use its deep pockets to bail a lil’ ol’ community-oriented street festival out: an apparent $100,000 loan from the conglomerate notwithstanding and a ridiculous attempt to raise more money from the community – on top of the $25 it already charges for entry – it looks like Sunset Junction is cancelled.  The organizers apparently failed to solidify their permitting situation before selling tickets to the public, renting space out to the vendors, and booking the bands:  according to the city, some $141,000 in fees were past due, and have been for the past year.  Like that time your parents forgot one too many times to pay the electricity bill, the Board of Public Works finally just turned off the festival’s lights this morning.

But, as this is the Festival That Just Won’t Die Gracefully, the organizer’s attorney told LA Weekly soon after the Board’s decision: “Were gonna go back and review our options.”  That said, the organizers have indicated that there will be refunds (a recent tweet: “Lets not lose our faith, web site is down & Tickets $ will be re inverse to all of fans who supported, please do not panic (vendors,fans etc)”), but still are decrying the injustice of it all on their Facebook page and in a press release.

In spite of the cancellation, there may be a few performances this weekend yet.  LA Weekly also reports that El Cid’s stage will remain open “because they never received – and thus never signed – official contracts from the festival.  They’re also opening another free stage for displaced bands at nearby sister club Los Globos.”

As two of the lucky few to score tickets to participate in the historic and quickly sold-out Paddle The LA River pilot program which is testing boating feasibility along a San Fernando Valley section of the waterway, my wife Susan and I showed up at Balboa Park in the Sepulveda Basin this past Sunday morning ready, willing and able to fulfill what for me has been a long-time dream — and to document the roughly two-mile journey from our launch point from beneath Balboa Boulevard to its end along the river’s banks between Burbank Boulevard and the Sepulveda Dam (GPS’d route is viewable here).

I won’t waste space waxing all word-heavy about what a wonderful time we had other than to say it was an absolutely unique and phenomenal opportunity and a program professionally presented and staffed that I hope will graduate from pilot status to one that becomes an annual and permanent recreation option.

If you’ve seen some of my past posts sharing my biking adventures along/in the river (or certain communal donut consumption events), you know I’m a bit of a timelapsing nut, and of course my plans were to chest mount my cam and similarly capture the length of Sunday’s paddle. Unfortunately, my principal camera’s battery all-too-quietly went kaput literally two-minutes after I started recording, so the only condensed clip I have to show for it is the following as Susan and me and the rest of our group are getting acclimated to our various flotation devices and the amazement of being in so serene and compelling a place so few have been before.

The good news is I didn’t come kayaking without also bearing my point-and-shoot, which I used to grab some stills and real-time video along the way, a few of which are available after the jump (or all together in this Flickr photoset) to give you a more well-rounded sense of what an awesome experience it was.

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"Bridge." Another fantastic photo by East of West LA, courtesy the Blogging LA Flickr pool.

This weekend: Grand performances by Phranc, gyoza chomping eating competitors, and Mr. Hedwig himself.

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View of Culver City & environs from the infamous steps of the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook

If, like me, you desire a small-town feel from our giant metro area every now and then, Culver City‘s Fiesta La Ballona, which takes place August 26-28, may be just the ticket. The Fiesta, which occupies Veteran’s Park at the intersection of Culver Blvd. and Overland Ave., is part cultural heritage festival and part small-town carnival.
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This is the last week to catch the Marco Brambilla exhibit at the Santa Monica Museum of Art. Friends raved about the show, so I finally went to see it for myself this past weekend.

The Dark Lining is a collection of seven video installations created by the artist and filmmaker between 1999 and the present. The highlight of the exhibit is the final room of the gallery where two very large video collages are projected on opposite walls and in 3D.  Evolution (Megaplex) is a new work depicting the history of mankind and the 2008 Civilization (Megaplex) takes you on a trip through the afterlife. Both use images from hundreds of film clips and are a feast for the eyes. You might find yourself analyzing the symbolism, thinking about the history of the universe and discussing all things religious and apocalyptic. Whatever the case, I bet you’ll end up playing the same game my friends and I did, which is trying to name every last movie that provided the featured images.

The Dark Lining by Marco Brambilla runs through August 20, 2011 at the Santa Monica Museum of Art, which is located in Bergamot Station at 2525 Michigan Avenue in Santa Monica. The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, 11am to 6pm. Suggested donation is $5, parking is free.

Courtesy Lord Jim via the Blogging LA Flickr pool.

It’s yet another beer-y weekend, with not one, but two, craft beer-focused events.  Also: grunions.

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The 99 Cent Chef, one of our celebrity judges, videoed the whole thing and crunched down a few hours into a nice documentary of the day.  Fun crowd, fun times.

More picks of the day in my flickr set.  If you have images of the day you want folks to see sound off in the comments with a link to them.