A great and moving post from Will. One that strikes a deep chord in all of us.

So Yes, I’m suggesting you step away from the BBQ or the beach or the movie house for just a moment and visit America Supports You.

I’ve posted about them before but this weekend in particular it would be nice to take a moment and make contact with people whose asses are on the line so you CAN have your time at the beach and your lovely BBQ.

The site has links to help you donate, get info, and even send messages to the troops. You can also read others’ messages of support.

[get crafty and click!]

Looking for a fun gift to make for (or with) your mom? Are you panicking because Mother’s Day is Sunday and you’ve still got nothing?

Head on over to the Whole Foods at 3rd and Fairfax this Saturday, where Felt Club crafters Jenny Ryan and Jessica Wilson will be helping families get their craft on, using fun materials from around the store! Potato-print Mother’s Day cards, macaroni ‘n’ bead necklaces and coffee filter floral brooches are just a few of the retro-crafty, kid-friendly activities you can expect. They’ll be crafting their wittel hearts out from 12 noon ’til 3pm (or whenever they run out of glitter glue).

Click here for store info and directions.

I know this is a pretty major holiday, but I was nonetheless surprised to discover that many major chain store were closed (Toys R Us, Target). So it was without much hope that I rang up our favorite pizza place around 5:00 this evening. To my joy, they were open and delivering!

So if you’re home and in need of good pizza, see if there’s a zPizza near you. Try the wheat crust.

Anyone else got tips for who’s open on Easter?

Last year’s 75th Hollywood Christmas Parade was its last, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce has announced, citing rising costs and shrinking revenues.

Hollywood cheerleader/City Councilman Tom LaBonge told the LA Times he was heartbroken. “I saw it as a child and as a teenager. I went as a young father and now as an official I’ve ridden in that parade.”

Both he and Council President Eric Garcetti hope another special event could be developed to replace the parade.

My suggestion? Set aside one month of the year for a moratorium on special events that could close off Hollywood Blvd. That would be special. That would be an event.

But I’m open to ideas. Anyone?

…source: Bob Pool at the LA Times…photo by actor_photog from the Metroblogging Los Angeles Flickr pool…

I’ve been watching this Christmas decoration on a Lincoln Heights home for some time, wondering how long it would stay up. I took this pic about a week or two ago but today I noticed that the big festive NOEL sign is finally gone. The big cross is still there though, maybe for the Easter season right around the corner? This is why I love LH, some people aren’t afraid to do what they want and they could care less what you think of their decor!

Behold!

Last year I saw white Peeps for the first time and was smitten with their virginal, holy whiteitude. This year, I see green Peeps (I hadn’t seen these before–are they new?), cocoa bunny Peeps, and HFS SUGAR-FREE PEEPS!!! For study purposes, I ate one sugar-free Peep. It was good, almost indistinguishable from the originals. I had a second. This one became icky very fast, a sour aftertaste expanding through my palate. Did I stop eating it? No.

Peep sample three was a cocoa bunny. This was a decided success. Yum. Note the photo below, in which said bunny has been bisected in order to see the cocoa shade of its interior mallow flesh.

Green Peeps have not yet been ingested. They may possibly be stapled to my bulletin board and left there for a year, which is a fun thing to do.

[click if you want a Big Hug]

Or a publicity stunt – I did notice another girl with a backpack and video camera a few feet away.

But the point here is that Beverly Hills is about LOVE, especially on Valentine’s Day when I snapped this out the car window.

Did you forget to get your girlfriend a Valentine’s Day present? Because if you did, and she likes teddy bears, I highly suggest driving down 3rd – or 6th – or any of the streets between Western and downtown where there are street vendors. I saw a few on my way to work, on 3rd at Normandie, all selling gift baskets featuring illegally copied Disney stuffed animals. I totally bet the vendors on Venice Boulevard – the ones by Sepulveda/Sawtelle – have them too. Much more romantic than the usual bag of oranges.

However, luckily for my boyfriend, I don’t believe in Valentine’s Day. Hallmark is not going to dictate when I feel romantic, dammit. So he was let off the hook. But seeing Markland post this morning kind of made me wish I’d told the boyfriend to give the cost of flowers to a food bank, instead. I think that’s actually a really nice idea. And I do expect him to take me over to the Black Heart Masque tonight, because I can’t let actually having a boyfriend on Valentine’s Day happen without doing something.

Anyways, the point is: if you do have a lady in your life who would be quieted by a knockoff Winnie the Pooh gift basket, go a little out of your way tonight and support the local street vendor economy. If you have the sort of girlfriend who will NOT be placated by a neon-yellow stuffed animal, then I suggest the Jewelry District. But I strongly encourage everyone to buy as local as possible. Show some love for everyone while you’re at it.

As much as I hate seeing christmas trees just laying on the side of the street all January, the fact that someone decided to let this one keep standing is kind of amusing. Is it bad that I want to go decorate it?

After all the hand-wringing on what to do for New Year’s Eve, at the last minute MFM (my fabulous man) (okay, I know that term is a recipe for gagging…. but there’s no good name for my partner. He’s more than just a boyfriend, more than just a lover and better than a husband…. Hmmm.,…maybe that’s a another post about urban definitions. But I digress!) Anyway, we jumped in the car and made our way to Desert Hot Springs. After soaking for a day and night in the hot springs that come straight from the aquafier at Living Water’s Spa Hotel, we were ready for some action. We drove 30 minutes to Joshua Tree and hiked around on the rocks. If you’re really still and quiet and just sit there, the desert comes alive. I sat for about 20 minutes, thinking I would meditate, but there was just too much going on!
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We just finished the last week of the year but that didn’t slow any conversations down here, lots of back and forth as usual. Don’t you people have families or something that you should have been hanging out with rather than posting comments all the time? Here are the most active threads from last week:

• Dead Man’s Party – Will Campbell pointed out some smiles in photos of Police Officers standing over a newly created corpse and all hell broke lose. Comments have lots of back and forth and talk of criminals deserving to die in the streets. Definitely one of the more interesting threads I’ve read in a while.
• Best New Restaurant On The Eastside…? – Lucinda Michele whips up a review and sparks the old eastside vs. really eastside argument. Holy crap we’ve been bickering over that one forever.
• New blog: LA Can’t Drive – Wowza! Talk about hot topics this week. Annika Barranti points out a new blog about driving skills, or lack there of and war is declared in the comments.
• Flags At Half-Mast – eecue posts a photo and everyone has an opinion about staffs and masts.
• Is The MTA All That And A Bag Of Chips? (Part 1) – Jillian phones one in from Vancouver. Does anyone have strong opinions about public transportation in Los Angeles? Turns out, yes they do.

Also, as a bonus – two posts of interest from around the network:

Happy New Year, World! - Auckland, New Zealand became the first Metroblogging city to post in 2007. We’ve still got a few hours of 2006 left here, but feel free to wish them a good one.

Bombs Over Bangkok – While people usually expect explosions of some kind on a day like today, I don’t think what’s going on in Bangkok is part of any celebration. Bombs are blowing up all over the city, more news here as it comes in.

The Man and I had our traditional holiday a few days early in Pittsburgh and arrived back home to balmy SoCal last night and wondered what we’d do on Christmas Day. We decided to go to Griffith Park for a little walk. What we didn’t expect was that we could get up to Griffith Observatory.

Of course it’s not open, and if it were we’d need reservations. But we figured we’d just go to the park and take a hike up the hill or something. Lo and behold we came through the tunnel and parked right there and walked up to the Observatory. Of course it was not just closed, but the whole grounds were fenced off (it didn’t used to be that way).
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The car was bouncy and I was slow on the draw, so no pics (unless someone else has some), but this morning about 1030 I saw probably 30-40 people dressed in red with Santa hats, milling about in Griffith Park.

Most were in a bunch but some were still at cars and such.

No way of knowing if they were coming or going -

Was it Santa Con 2006?

[click to biggify]

Yeah, I know this isn’t Blogging.riverside, but it’s become a tradition (or at least now in its second year) that my mom takes my wife and I out for dinner Christmas Eve. Last year it was Pacific Dining Car, but this year we opted to make the 50-mile trek out to Riverside’s historic Mission Inn, a place we’d never been. Such a hop might seem a long way to go for a meal, but with the landmark’s rich history, its two-million-bulbs-strong Festival Of Lights and a fine dinner in its marvelous courtyard it was a wonderful way to get into the spirit of the season (more photos here on Flickr).

Merry Christmas everyone.