Even though I lean pretty left, I don’t like posting political stuff here as that can found on my blog.  However, in the spirit of community and fitness, I was inspired to post about Barackcycle 3 happening this weekend.

Meeting location: Vermont/Sunset Metro Station in East Hollywood (near Children’s Hospital Los Angeles)

This 17.6-mile ride will take us “round the mountain” from East Hollywood to Los Feliz, Griffith Park, Burbank, Toluca Lake (lunch break at Bob’s Big Boy on Riverside), Studio City, Universal City, Cahuenga Pass and Hollywood. There will be a few hills but they will be mostly gradual and not very steep (uphill). (see map)

Sounds like a great way to meet other Angelenos and see the city.  For more information you can email Elson Trinidad at elson@elsongs.com.

Handcarved bone (not ivory!) and utterly beautiful

I’ve seen this stuff in person and it’s worth the drive. Stuff in every price range. Book shelves galore, antique furniture (some of it authentic prized Tibetan treasures), lamps, mirrors, collectibles, ceremonial masks from around the world – heck you’d better check it out yourself.

Craigslist ads here and here with more info and great pictures.

Today only, 830am – 6pm
(NO EARLY BIRDS!)
3350 Wood Terrace @ Griffith Park Blvd.
More info: (323) 660-8622

Just a reminder, the annual Coastal Clean Up Day is on September 20th.  The international event is entering it’s 23rd year and isn’t just about beach cleaning.  There are opportunites to help clean up inland at local creeks and opportunities for those with boats.

To register, please visit Heal the Bay’s website (see sidebar).  For more information on other locations visit the California Coastal Commission’s website.

Western Avenue

Fellow Metblogger WILL•I•AM and I are going for a walk, a very long walk, and we’d love it you joined us. Inspired by previous long walks he and others have taken across our fair city (I missed the one along Sunset Blvd a few years back) we have decided to walk Western Avenue from beginning to end, from stem to stern, from A to Z, from top to bot–okay you get the picture. 

When are we doing this?  Saturday October 18, 2008. 

Why are we doing this?  Because it is there and what better way to see your city than on foot.

Why Western?  Will picked it because it is the longest and straightest street that runs north/south in LA.  (Second only to Sepulveda in length, but Sepulveda isn’t nearly so arrow-like.) 

How long will it take?  Average speed is about 3 mph and with rest stops and refueling breaks, we estimate between 9 and 10 hours. The actual number of miles is approximately 28 if you go all they way to the ocean. We will probably end around mile 26 in either Friendship Park or Bogdanovich Park.  

We will post more info as we get nearer to the date, but if you want to join us, please comment and let us know. Even if you wanted to join us for just part of the walk, that would be great too.  

Get your shoes broken in, buy some serious sport socks and start training!

Just got this email about the neat art deco gas station at Glendale and Rowena – it’s the last art deco station in Silver Lake and it’s scheduled for demolition. The good news is you don’t have to be in this district to send your objections to the demo.

Please send our pal Tom Labonge an email asking him to stop the demo – the residents have been fighting this for some time but the developers seem to know every loophole. Deadline is TOMORROW so please take a moment and do this asap.

Too lazy to write your own email? No problem – here’s text for you to copy and send to Tom LaBonge. Remeber to include your name, address, and phone in your email.

Send email to: councilmember.labonge@lacity.org
cc: sendannmail@gmail.com, sharkov@silverlakenc.org

And thank you!

Here’s the letter I got, with the stuff to copy in it (plus a little background):
Read the rest of this entry →

It is back to school time.  It is time to be aware of speed in particular areas around the schools and the major intersections leading to them.  Every year a child or crossing guard are lost when a driver not used to the pedestrian traffic doesn’t realize pedestrian traffic is up and forgets to reduce their speed around schools.

Pasadena PIO puts out the notice that Monday 9/8 from 7AM to 3Pm to watch your speed.  You can read her own post “Do You Feel The Need For Speed” for all of the details.

Neighboring Arcadia PD is concerned with safety and the Police Officers Association has some good information to keep in mind now that the schools are all back in session.

 

Tom over at the Arcadia Police Officers Blog has a couple of other bits to help remind you about safety around our schools in his posts “School Bus Red Lights” and “School is Back in Session“.

Be safe, keep our kids safe and avoid an EXPENSIVE ticket by just being aware and not in a hurry.

On the way back from lunch today, my coworkers and I passed by the Guitar Center in Northridge and were literally stopped in our tracks. If you click on that admittedly-not-fabulous picture you’ll see that it’s advertising Slash’s September 3 appearance at the Northridge Guitar Center. What you may not see is the series’ tagline “Eduction – Conversation – Inspiration” or the fine print in the headline: “An evening of dialogue and insight [and big hair].” For all of the glorious details and a close up of the poster, click here. 

It’s all relative I suppose.

Attention bargain hunters– make that EXTREME bargain hunters: Tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM, the Los Angeles area’s newest 99 Cents Only Store in Redondo Beach will throw open the doors for their grand opening and have Apple 4G iPod Nanos for 99¢ for the first nine customers only. This could get ugly.

Oh, and once their gone (like, in a blink,) the next 99 customers can buy a scooter for only 99¢.

99 Cents Only Store, Redondo Beach Store, 2701 Manhattan Beach Blvd at Inglewood Ave. Redondo Beach CA 90278

I’d like you to meet Kira and Chi Pig – two lovely ladies in search of a new home.

As some of you know I am moving to London, in less than two weeks, for graduate school (You can read all about it on art.blogging.la). Although I’m excited beyond words for the next step in my life it doesn’t come without its complications such as, well, leaving my beloved Los Angeles, selling really fabulous furniture, and finding a new home for my sweet kitties. I’m like a cat on a hot tin roof trying to find the right new parents and that’s where I’m hoping a Metblogs reader can help me…

Pictured above are Kira (the calico) and Piggy (the tabby). They are roughly thirteen years old and I’ve had them since they were wee-babies. No health problems except for the occasional fur ball. Kira is the sweetest thing ever and Pig, well, let’s just say the cat has some serious personality. Since my dogs have temporarily relocated to my parents’ house, the cats are much happier so I would say that a home without dogs would be best but they certainly can, and have, managed just fine.

Please contact me (at caryn at sixspace.com) if you’re interested and think you can handle the cuteness of their meows, snuggles, and cat fights. These girls are my children and I wouldn’t ever let them go unless I absolutely had no choice. I’m bummed but want to make sure they have the best life possible. I hope to hear from someone awesome soon!!

Attention stoners: time to fire up those skull bongs and let the skull eyes glow red.  Proto-stoners Cheech and Chong are reuniting for their first comedy tour in 25 years!  Seth who?  Harold and who?  Dave who?  Decades before any of the current crop of stoner stars reeked up the television airwaves and the silver screen, Cheech and Chong were churing out stoner comedy shows, stoner hit records, and stoner movies.

Cheech and Chong also have a special connection to Los Angeles.  Cheech was born and raised here, and he brought Chong back from Vancouver.  The comedy duo was based in L.A. for most of its career.  They honed their comedy act and were discovered at the Troubador.  Their movies were largely filmed in and around L.A., and they recorded albums here too.

Cheech and Chong’s live comedy tour, “Light Up America,” comes to Los Angeles’ Gibson Amphitheater on December 6.  That gives you plenty of time for “conditioning.”  To assist you, here’s a link to a YouTube video of one of my favorites from the duo, their folky song “Mexican Americans” from Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie. 

And if someone knocks on your door and says his name is ”Dave,” you can tell him, ”Dave’s not here.”

The lastest edition of Good magazine is out and features an article on The Sean Bonner Experience with sidebars on his bike and his blogging empire and another sidebar on his bike. Check out him all bad ass walking his bike across Sunset Boulevard. Note the “Invader” installation above him on the laundrowall, and be sure to check out the IAAL•MAF spokecard in his front wheel. Those are not coincidences people:

Available at newsstands and bookstores now!

Big news for West Side burger afficionados: Santa Monica’s beloved construct-your-own burger eatery (is “burgery” a word?) The Counter is opening a new location in the Marina.  The new Counter is tucked away at the end of the Waterside Marina del Rey shops, near the corner of Admiralty Way and Fiji Way (and believe me, my duty to serve our loyal readers with useful information barely eked out a win over my selfish desire to keep this location ”undisclosed,” Cheney style).

According to the guy pictured on the ladder out front, The Counter opens this Monday.  I peered inside, and the place looks to be all set up, with the staff holding a meeting on those trademark metal chairs.

Perhaps The Counter’s expansion to the Marina will shorten the wait at their Santa Monica location.  Or maybe, like L.A.’s roadways, when they build more, more inevitably will come.

If the words “Los Angeles” and “County Fair” seem to you like an oxymoron, you are probably not alone.  Check out the video on the website home page for the 2008 Los Angeles County Fair, which comes to town country in Pomona this September 5th through 28th.  The video pokes fun at Los Angeles bimbo city slicker types who no doubt comprise some portion of the Fair’s attandance.

Step right up for more information

I slipped into 5-hours-old Skylight Books 1814 in Los Feliz yesterday as I was biking back from Griffith Park, so already I’m in a good mood, but the new store ramps it up considerably.

A clean, well lit space, it seduces with its array of art and nonfiction books. (All fiction is still in the original store next door.) I swoon in the music section– I want five books within about fifteen seconds but I winnow it down to a fresh copy of Please Kill Me, Legs McNeil’s incendiary oral rehash of the messy birth of punk in 1970s New York. My first copy didn’t make the cut for the move west so it feels good to correct the mistake.

Kerry Slattery, Skylight’s general manager and co-owner, is all smiles as she tells me about the previous night’s move into the new space. It sounds like performance art, a military exercise and solemn ritual all at once. Read the rest of this entry →

August 5th is National Night Out 2008. Across America (except TX where they’ll wait until Oct. 17th) is an evening dedicated to community building and generating support for local crime-fighting endeavors. Sponsored by National Night Out Town Watch, the annual event includes over 10,000 communities nationwide. Here in Los Angeles, the LAPD will be hosting several events. My local LAPD division, the Hollenbeck Division will be hosting several events in El Sereno, Boyle Heights, and Lincoln Heights.

Like many communities, the Hollywood Community Police Station has made NNO into something of a community fair. The event, which runs from 5pm to 8pm offers:

Booths:

• PALS
• Explorers
• Hollywood Community Relations Office
• Hollywood Neighborhood City Attorney’s Office
• Council Districts 4, 5, and 13
• Target (Official Sponsor of National Night Out)
• Boys & Girls Club of Hollywood

Entertainment:

• Dora the Explorer from Universal Studios will meet and greet children and take photos
• Rock Nation will be performing.
• Sergeant Deborah Gourman (National Anthem)

Kids Entertainment:

• Jumpers
• Face Painting
• Balloonist

Food:

• We will be Barbecuing Hot Dogs. We will also have chips, popcorn, snow cones and cookies.

You can find out about National Night Out events in your neighborhood by contacting your local LAPD Community Relations office or Senior Lead office. To locate your local LAPD division, visit lapdonline.org. Though the matrix has not been updated to reflect the most current events, you can also check National Night Out Events – Los Angeles (PDF) for events in your area.