LA artist Tim Biskup‘s clothing line GAMA-GO is holding its annual holiday sale tomorrow at Bigfoot Lodge in Atwater Village:

From 12-5, enjoy your favorite libation while grabbing tees, hoodies, bags, wallets and other assorted GAMA-GO goodies at prices up to 75% off. There will be items for men and women plus some extremely rare non-production samples. All ages are welcome.

This year we’re increasing the number of personnel on-site to help you speed through checkout. We’ll also be slightly staggering the admission to the event to help control the crowds and keep your shopping experience fun and stress-free.

This is guaranteed to be crowded, so go early. And while last year’s event inside the windowless Bigfoot Lodge was a bit dark (to say the least), they promise that this year they’re “bringing brighter light bulbs with us! The Bigfoot will be well-illuminated.”

GAMA-GO Holiday Sale
Saturday November 15th
12-5 pm
The Bigfoot Lodge
3172 Los Feliz Blvd.

Get Felt!

FELT CLUB: HOLIDAY 2008
Sunday, NOVEMBER 16, 11am-7pm
@ Shrine Auditorium Expo Center
700 W. 32nd St., LA CA 90007
www.feltclub.com

No longer a monthly or even quarterly indulgence, we’ve got to get it all in in one day – which is kind of cooler because the annual FC is the cream of the craft crop.

What’s in store, you ask?

• Nearly 150 amazing vendors, offering the best in indie craft and design
• DIY Workshops with the Urban Craft Center & Quarry Books
• Embroidery 101 with Sublime Stitching‘s Jenny Hart
• Jewelry Workshop with French General‘s Kaari Meng
• Handmade Nation documentary sneak preview screenings
• Recycled Giftwrap Booth with ReForm School
• Special Musical Performance by Leslie Hall
• A snack bar offering sandwiches and salads, pastries and coffee, and a full bar!
• Music Provided by DJ Lance Rock (Yo Gabba Gabba), Dirty Robot & Mr. Cocoon
• Hosted by three-time Martha Stewart guest, L.A. “histotainer” Charles Phoenix!!!

PLUS: Swag bags for the first 250 visitors, door prizes, book signings & more!

Admission is free for kids 13 and under, for everyone else they’re asking a $5 donation at the door. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Handmade Nation , the forthcoming documentary film chronicling the rise of art, craft, and design.

The balcony will also be hosting a second, separate event, Swap-O-Rama-Rama , a recycled clothing extravaganza!

Some fellow West Siders and I invaded Long Beach last night for a really fun Halloween party at a friend’s house.  At most Halloween parties I have ever been to, usually, a few people are dressed as someone or something that is topical at the time in the popular culture.  This can include the political culture, especially in an election year.  Therefore, I cannot believe that no one showed up to the party last night dressed as Sarah Palin.

More tricks and treats, after the jump

The leftover goodies that went unclaimed at my house.

Is it just me or were the Trick or Treaters way down this year?  My street has always been a hit or miss so it is hard to tell by our traffic.  I took my youngest out for his last year of trick or treating and we ventured off the street as legend has it one of the streets above us does “only big candy bars”.  Even off the street for the most part it was lighter traffic than usual.

It was scary seeing the other neighborhoods around me.  Barely 1 in 4 homes were handing anything out.  Even fewer homes were decorated for the day with mazes, haunted houses or just great yard art.  Both a big departure from years past.

While I was pondering what happened I noticed on my facebook feed that a metblog writer in New Orleans, Daneeta Loretta had run a post with a similar observation there titled “Silent Night, Hallow Night”.  I guess the economy freak out is much bigger than I thought, certainly much deeper than the signs I see around my little corner of LA.

I heard from my friend Jeff  who turns his house into a “haunted house” and he had over 600 kids visit this year.  My daughter spent hours in line in Old Pas for a Haunted House there.  Old Town Monrovia was packed with kids for their afterschool party that included trick-or-treating.  Did everyone shift from door-to-door in favor of those activities?

How was your  Trick or Treater traffic?  What was your take on the shift in traffic?

(The pic is by me, trusty phone cam, and this year we gave pretzels and I am so glad as I wouldn’t want it to be that much candy left in the house to tempt me).

Oh, I just realized my headline looks like “hallow weenie.”  None of the people mentioned have hollow weenies. (I don’t think.)

Anyway, a short set of bullets, all from blogs written by people I’ve actually met in person…

• From Adam Chester, who I met years ago at a J Keith van Straaten show. From his blog “Please Don’t Eat Sushi! Love, Mom!”, Adam’s Mom warns him of the dangers of not checking to see if the trick-or-treaters at your door are actually children: Children at the Door

• From cyn3matic, a wonderful lady I met last week whose kid is going out for Halloween as Yoda: Everything I Needed to Know About This Election I Learned From My Kid and Star Wars

• From the17thman, who I met this past weekend at BarCampLA6,  predicts a potentially popular Halloween costume to be seen on the streets of WeHo this year: Got Speedo, Then You Have Your Halloween Costume

• From the lovely Siel (greenlagirl), who I met at a Nintendo DS party for girls, with her last minute tips for a less-orangey holiday: The Procrastinator’s guide to a green Halloween

• From the wonderful noirbettie, who I met through blogging.la (that’s what it was called back then, dammit!). Her sister asks for suggestions for a costume: Conversation with my sister

Photo from I don’t know where, but dang!!!

The New York Observer caught wind of an e-mail from David Westin, President of ABC News, that informed staffers of several cost-cutting measures to be implemented.

• Executives are asked to fly one grade below what they’re entitled to.
• Executives are asked to stay in “B” level hotels.
• Any meals (or drinks) with ABC or Disney employees will not be reimbursed.
• All newspaper and magazine subscriptions for executives and production employees will be canceled and moved to on-line.
• Any convention or conference attendance will be kept to an absolute minimum.
• All holiday parties will be cancelled this year. This includes company parties in LA.

I can understand ABC News tightening the belt during a global financial crisis. I would also be surprised if anyone was actually distraught at the idea that they won’t be forced to attend yet another awkward mixer with their co-workers. But, I think Westin missed a golden opportunity here. What if the e-mail read as follows: Read the rest of this entry →

If you’re a fan of splatter films, then Rick Castro has something grisly for you see; an entire art exhibit inspired by the horror film genre that sprays blood, guts and other body parts across the screen like some sort of corporeal fireworks.

Castro’s Hollywood fetish art gallery, Antebellum, continues it’s assault on the mundane with SPLATTER, the first art show, claims Castro, to explore the passions for and obsessions with images of chaos, blood lust and, well, more blood. Opening night is next Thursday, the night before Halloween, and the public is invited to attend in costume, for those of you who want to work your look two nights in a row.

The Antebellum owner and curator thinks the subject of murder is a constant in society. “Throughout history, the most famous people have been presidents, performers and murderers,” says Castro. “Sexuality and death are also historically linked and romanticized. People still go to horror films in droves and they go year round, not just around Halloween.”

For SPLATTER, Castro has invited artists to make works that deal directly with murder and he even has pieces in the exhibit about serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and artwork created by John Wayne Gacy, the “Killer Clown.”

I asked him how he got the painting by Gacy. “I wrote to him and asked him if I could buy one of his paintings when he was in prison. He sent it to me.”

Antebellum will also screen a splatter film festival on November 8th and 22nd, as well as present an ongoing program of related events throughout the run of the exhibit.  Details are on the gallery’s web site.

Splatter, Antebellum Gallery 1643 N. Las Palmas Ave. Hollywood 90028. Opening night gala, Thur. Oct 30th, 7 – 10 PM. $10 admission, $5 if in costume. Exhibit runs through Nov. 30th.

So this weekend’s chock-full of great things to do, but I’m most excited about the Derby Dolls’ Halloween-themed bout, which will feature their up-and-coming new crop of Dolls (including local blogger Mickipedia). Plus, at halftime, the 9-to-17-year-old girls who went thru the Dolls’ summer camp will show off their moves. There’ll be the usual bands, booze and insanity, plus badass broads. And, possibly, blood & bruises. Such are the perils of kicking ass and taking names.

Should be a great event and I can say with certainty that quite a few local bloggers will be in the stands cheering on our faves. Maybe we’ll see you there too!

For info, tix, time, direx and all that fun stuff, go here.

This past weekend, I had to go buy a new tennis racquet for Sunday.  We packed the family in the car and headed over to Westfield Shoppingtown Mall (not a generic name at all) to shop at Sports Chalet.  Now, I’m not a fan of shopping in general and malls, specifically, but it was such a nice day, the last thing I expected was to spend 15 minutes driving around looking for parking.  We eventually found a space close to Baldwin Ave. and hiked over to & through the mall to get my racquet.

After spending 20 minutes there, I had to get out.  The lightbulb went off.  The Arboretum is just down the street from the mall.  Imagine my chagrin when I pulled into the parking lot and immediately found parking.  While there were many people there, we kept seeing the same 20 or so people and the other people were there for a wedding.  Read the rest of this entry →

Only women are featured on a new Christmas CD.

Fiona Apple singing “Frosty the Snowman?!” That’s about as believable as Cindy McCain sharing her brownie recipe. But Apple is indeed one of the females-only singer songwriters on the Hotel Cafe’s new holiday album, Winter Songs, released this week. It distinguishes itself with a mix of standards and original holiday songs from a slew of artists who have performed at the intimate Hollywood venue.

Since its opening in 2000, Hotel Cafe has grown in size and stature, doubling in size from the original narrow coffee shop footprint it originally occupied on Cahuenga, as well as distinguishing itself as  one of the premier singer songwriter venues in the country.

Apple’s “Frosty,” aside from being frosty,  is more Maria McKee than Doris Day, no real surprise. While Sara Bareilles’ and Ingrid Michaelson’s opening “Winter Song” is exquisite and sad, Lenka  delivers  her Feist-like “All My Bells Are Ringing” as if it’s xmas year round, and I mean that in a not-scary way. Katy Perry (yes, she of “I Kissed a Girl”) sings a boozy “White Christmas” like it’s the end of the night in the loneliest bar in LA and Meika’s “Maybe Next Year” could fit into year round chill playlists– something attested to by her inclusion in two recent Grey’s Anatomy episodes.

The original songs’ moods and styles balance the old stand-bys, all of which have hand-tailored arrangements– a good thing if you’re like me and equate most versions of Christmas carols with fingernails scraping on a blackboard.

And might I add, there are only 70 shopping days until…

Swamped with work today but wanted to share this latest from the folks at Esotouric:

Face it, all this talk of financial panic has harshed your mellow, chafed your hide and other pithy phrases expressing general malaise. Let your pals at Esotouric drop a little spark of hope into the darkness with this, our weekly email, in which we are giving away ten (!!) seats on the RAYMOND CHANDLER’S BAY CITY tour, announcing the launch of a fabulous new blog from our secret weapon JOAN “RED” RENNER and reminding you that tomorrow night our free floating salon THE HIPPODROME rolls around the Downtown LA Art Walk with some incredible performers. So buck up, bucko, and read on for all the
delights of the day.

Read on for the list – including something extra special on MY BIRTHDAY (Oct 25th) —
Read the rest of this entry →

If there’s one lesson I’ve learned too many times while exploring this town, when you find something that strikes your fancy, you best not figure on tomorrow being another day to immortalize it because shit is nothing if not fleeting in this place, and tomorrow it could be long gone… tagged up, torn apart, scrubbed off or painted out.

So on my bike ride in to work yesterday morning when i found this entirely awesome, seasonally appropriate poster pasted up on the signal control box where 8th Street deadends into Fairfax, I got myself out of traffic and my camera in hand and captured the hell out of it there to celebrate it here.

I could just be seeing things but it kinda looks like that might be some sort of lettering inside the gaping mouth… DOOF maybe? Might that be a clue as to the artist or does anyone far better versed in streetartology straight-away know the creator of this mysterypiece?

Click for maximum sinisterization.

UPDATED (12:35 p.m.): Commenter foodeater solved the mystery; it’s not DOOF, it’s TOOF as in Shark Toof (myspace).

The first of the haunting decorations went up yesterday in my 'hood!

Its started.  The great push towards the All Hallows Eve party on 10/31.  30 days away and people are beginning to start their decorating to celebrate the big event.  I *think* this year I’m taking a few of my oldest kids and a few friends to weho to enjoy the parade – I still think they have the most jubilant celebration of the day in LA.  Agree?

I’m working on a few more of the ” LA boo-stories” that I started last year.  Am researching the Brand Library and Clifton Middle School to name a few.  If there are others in your corner of LA that need attention let me know.

Of course if you want up the minute, almost daily haunting stuff in LA visit our own David Markland’s Creepy LA.

Pic by me grabbed on my morning rounds getting the kidlets to school.

Pirates:

• i be a pensive pirate, me hearties — Wil Wheaton

• AskANinja.com Takes On Pirates Live on International Talk Like A Pirate Day — Kent Nichols

• Talk Like a Plank or Walk the Pirate! — Wendell Wittler (ok, so he doesn’t live in L.A. anymore… but he used to…)

Other Stuff:

• Elmer Dills Changed My Life — Will Campbell

• LAFD Releases 9-1-1 Audio for Metrolink Collision — LAFD Blog

• Millions of Milkshakes: My God, It’s Full of Toppings — Caroline on Crack

• Somewhere, Lionel Richie Sings “Hello” — J Keith van Straaten

• Brad Pitt puts up $100k for gay marriage fight — LA Observed

• Today Show: Kissed Off! — CandyBlog.net (Cybele on the Today Show talking about chocolate!)