I’m a big fan of the Mystery and Imagination Bookstore in Glendale. It’s a great place to get quality used copies of just about every type of genre fiction. It’s where I’ve been getting my original Ballantine copies of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter novels*, and, along with the Brand Bookshop across the street, is one of my favorite places in the city to disappear for several hours.

So you can imagine the degree to which I peed my pants when Mystery and Imagination sent me an email a few minutes ago (I’m on their email list) alerting me that they won’t be open on Sunday because they’ll be selling books at the Black Ace Books 31st Annual Vintage Paperback Collectors’ Show and Sale. The cool part: The event will be chock full of science fiction and fantasy authors, who will be signing their books (at no charge).

I’m excited about Larry Niven, author of the Ringworld series (which, for you video game fans out there, gave some inspiration to Halo). Also present will be alternate-history guru Harry Turtledove, a host of Cthulhu Mythos writers**, and many, many more. Here’s a complete list. (Sadly, Ray Bradbury apparently had to cancel, as did Frederik Pohl, who co-wrote The Space Merchants, one of my favorite SF books of all time.)

Here are the details:

31st Annual Vintage Paperback Collectors’ Show and Sale

Sunday, March 21, 9 AM to 5:30 PM

Guest House Inn Convention Center

10621 Sepulveda Blvd

Mission Hills, CA 91345

Admission $5

* Sadly, Burroughs will not be at this weekend’s event, as he has been dead for six decades. However, Richard Lupoff will be there, and he’s a highly-regarded Burroughs scholar, as well as one of the contributors to Philip Jose Farmer’s Dungeon series, which I’m a huge enough geek to love.

** What’s the collective noun for Cthulhu Mythos writers? I’m thinking “fhtagn.” If you get this joke, you are hereby invited to my birthday party. Or, actually, that might be a terrible idea. Forget I said anything.

This Sunday, March 21, is the Los Angeles marathon. 26.2 sunshiney miles through our awesome City of Angels. If you are running the marathon, more power to you, good luck, stick to your training and hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!  (I speak from experience…)

If you are not running, be aware of road closures and plan ahead, they can really mess up your whole Sunday morning. This year’s marathon starts at Dodger Stadium, then to Downtown, then heads through Hollywood, West Hollywood, West LA and Santa Monica, depositing the athletes at the ocean. Click here for a map. Streets closures will be in effect for approximately 5-6 hours.

The marathon starts as follows:
6:55 am: Wheelchairs
7:00 am: Hand Cycles
7:07 am: Elite Woman Only
7:25 am: Elite Men & Full Field (including the racewalking division)

Hat Tip to The Open Daily for the reminder!

(Photo by planetc1 and used under CC license.)

Last week your intrepid LA Metblogs crew met at Crash Space for a strategic planning session to develop a range of content generation initiatives to be implemented over the coming months. This meeting rapidly degenerated into a series of juvenile toilet jokes and graphic descriptions of horror movie torture sequences. Yes, yes: This is your Metblogs team hard at work.

But a few good ideas came out of the mess, like spring crocuses blooming from a heap of dog poo. And we thought our readers would like to hear about them. Thus we present the meeting minutes. Like an idea? Have an idea of your own? Let us know in the comments. We welcome your input. We may not run with all these ideas, but if any of them get a good response, we’ll be more likely to explore it.

8 PM. The group gathers. Cherry pie from Ralph’s bakery and fruit punch from Ralph’s juice aisle are served. Bristlebots are played with.

8:12 PM. First Star Wars reference. My notes are unclear on the joke itself, though it was probably a veiled sex pun. Likely candidates include “This little one’s not worth the effort” and “Aim for the exhaust port, just below the main port.”

8:16 PM: First real idea of the night: A series on movies in which Los Angeles is a character — similar to the our Songs About LA series. Ideally, these would be posts about films in which LA is an indelible part of the story, like Gotham City to a Batman movie. Look for this coming up.

8:32 PM. Idea: Another movie-themed series that explores local “forgotten” movie locations. The examples we came up with were… Read the rest of this entry →

To the men and women of the city and all ships at sea! The American Diabetes Association (ADA) has announced its 2010 Tour de Cure Ship-To-Shore Bike Ride will take place May 2, providing cyclists the opportunity for reportedly only the second time in the history of the world as we know it to pedal across the famed 6,060-foot-long Vincent Thomas and the 5,134-foot-long Gerald Desmond bridges to raise crucial fundage for the ADA in its fight against diabetes.

The Ship-To-Shore rides begin and end at the Queen Mary and offer five distinct routes from 8 to 61 miles in length, including a 10-miler where cyclists will return to post-ride festivities via a harbor cruise. Each route will feature fully supported rest stops with food and refreshments. To participate, individuals must raise a minimum of $150.

As a fan of taking my bike (most of the time legally) where it’s usually not allowed, you know I’ll be raising the money so that I can cross those bridges when I come to them! Hope you will, too.

OK Go performing at USC Conquest 11/21/09 Photo by Jodi

If you’ve been anywhere near the internet this week, you’ve probably seen the new, innovative video from local band OK Go. The group is well-known for its viral one-take creations, most notably “The Treadmill Video,” in which the guys did a fairly complicated routine on four treadmills for their song “Here It Goes Again.”

To promote their third studio album Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky, which is a fantastic, Prince-inspired record, OK Go has pushed the DIY music video to a new level. Teaming up with L.A.-based creative powerhouse, Synn Labs, the band’s ambitious concept involving a massive Rube Goldberg machine was brought to life.

The engineers were tasked with creating the device with the requirements “that it had to be interesting, not “overbuilt” or too technology-heavy, and easy to follow.  The machine also had to be built on a shoestring budget, synchronize with beats and lyrics in the music and end on time over a 3.5 minute song, play a part of the song, and be filmed in one shot.  To make things more challenging still, the space chosen was divided into two floors and the machine would use both.” The geniuses of Synn Labs spent a few months in a warehouse in Echo Park creating a physical manifestation of the band’s vision.

Click through for details on tonight’s video release party in L.A and more

With weather.com telling me that there is a 100% chance of rain for March 6 and several TV-based weather folk concurring with that assessment, I’m officially throwing in the towel and canceling Saturday’s planned walk from USC to Baldwin Hills and back and rescheduling it to Saturday March 27.

It was a couple weeks ago when I announced March 6 as the date for the next in my irregular series of long-ass walks — this one about 15 miles from USC to the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook State Park and back via Jefferson and Adams. Today I’m reading reports calling for a 70% chance of rain this Saturday.

I don’t put a whole lot of stock in immediate STORMWATCHES much less those that any horizon-sniffing MegaDoppler Bosstastic 12000XJ might be insisting are a few days away, so I’m not quite ready to reschedule the trek just yet. But even though I’m personally not against walking in the wet stuff, I like the idea of doing this with other people, so as we draw closer to the coming weekend if it looks like the prognosticationalizers are correct in their meteorologicalizing, then I’m going to bump the boogie to the last Saturday of the month, March 27.

If you’re planning on joining me, stay tuned for a WALKWATCH status dispatch … probably Thursday. Or hit me up on Twitter @wildbell for the latest.

Terry O'Quinn & Michael Emerson at the PaleyFest "Lost" panel on 2/27/10. Photo by Jodi

I’m a little late in getting this post up, considering the 27th Annual William S. Paley Television Festival (PaleyFest) has already started. You’ve only missed three events, Modern Family and Lost, which were both fantastic and NCIS, which I didn’t attend. There are 10 nights left highlighting such acclaimed shows as Breaking Bad and Dexter. The only one aside from Lost that is sold-out so far is Glee.

This is the 9th year I’ve attended PaleyFest, the ever-changing and growing celebration of television programming and its creation. It is hands-down one of my favorite annual L.A. events. For the past two years, it was held in the Cinerama Dome at the ArcLight Hollywood, a much bigger venue than the previous theater at the Directors Guild. As the festival continues to grow, it has once again moved and is being held at The Saban Theatre (formerly The Wilshire Theatre) in Beverly Hills, which can hold 1900 people.

The full programming schedule can be found here. Ticket prices are tiered based on seating section and Paley Center membership status. Seats are not assigned, just the section. Check for more information on ticket availability for the remaining shows on this site.

The Saban Theatre is located at 8440 Wilshire Blvd. Beverly Hills, 90211. The surrounding neighborhoods all have permit street parking, so be prepared to pay $10 to park in one of two designated lots.

Let us know if you plan to attend any of the events. I’ll report back on my experience at the end of the fest.

This is the second time in about as many weeks that I’ve been up-close and personal with a dead brown pelican along Ballona Creek. Maybe you’ve heard the big birds — recently de-listed from their endangered status — have been having a really rough time of it through the storms of these last couple months. Maybe you’ve heard the International Bird Rescue and Research Center (IBRRC) in San Pedro is doing all it can to save them, with some amazing results. They’ve admitted an unheard of 325 pelicans between January 1 and February 19. In turn they’ve been able to rehab and release 137 back into the wild, with more than 100 remaining at the center’s aviary. And it ain’t cheap keeping a recovering pelican in fish.

To that end this Friday the G2 Gallery in Venice (1503 Abbot Kinney Blvd, 90291) is hosting an urgent “Fill The Bill” reception to support IBRRC’s past, present and future pelican rescue efforts.  If you’re in the area think about showing them some love. Or if you’re not, consider making a donation via their website. But if money’s an understandable object, check out their wish list to see if you’ve got some of what they need.

Indie rock slash synthetic pop, with electrically charged guitars and pianos, is all the rage (blame Hot Chip).  So is an inexplicably newfound turn-of-the-decade appreciation for Hall & Oates (blame our current fascination with the 1980s and/or Hugh Grant in Music & Lyrics).  Mash the two together and you get The Bird and the Bee paying tribute to Hall & Oates this Friday at the El Rey.  And guess who has tickets to give away?

For those unacquainted, the singing Bird is Inara George and the instrumentalist Bee is Greg Kurstin, and together they symbolize flowers and de-flowerings.  They’re also homegrown – both hail from our fair city of Los Angeles.  The pair have popped up on the Grey’s Anatomy soundtrack (before you hold this against them, The Postal Service was that show’s poster child for quite some time); they’ve opened for Lily Allen; and, after two albums, they will release a tribute to Daryl Hall and John Oates later this month.  The pre-release concert in support of the record is this Friday at the El Rey, and, as I mentioned, we have tickets to give away.  To win, all you have to do is post your favorite Hall & Oates song.  Include your email address, one that you check often, because that will make it easier to contact you if you win.

Full details of the show are here, but, as they say in the sweepstakes world (or, this is what I would say if I was in the sweepstakes world): enter first, buy later.  Good luck!

Not many things come to us from Texas by way of Europe. Angus beefsteak crepes, maybe. Or ten-gallon berets.

And then there’s Midlake. Hailing from Denton, Texas — home to other rock notables like Roy Orbison and Bowling for Soup — Midlake initially made their mark  on the British and French rock scenes. They’ve been compared to Radiohead, but I think that’s mostly because they’re hard to categorize, and bands that are hard to categorize tend to get compared to Radiohead a lot.

And we’ve got tickets to see them next Wednesday, March 3, at the El Rey, along with minimalist folksters Matthew and the Arrogant Sea.

Win the tickets by coming up with the best possible Texas/Europe mashup. Paris, Texas? Sidewalk barbecues? Walker, Antwerp Ranger? I’m looking for wit here. Leave your answer in the comments, and don’t forget to include your email address in the relevant field. It won’t be printed, but we’ll need it to get back to you when it’s time to claim your prize. I’ll choose a winner by Tuesday evening.

This Saturday, February 27 will be a Hot Hollywood Night! Your votes have been counted and the winner is Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles with a follow up trip to Boardner’s! Roscoe’s won with 48% of the vote, the other two contenders splitting the rest evenly at about 25% each. Clearly you all are jonesing for some fried, maple goodness and I can’t say I blame you as I voted for Roscoe’s as well.

Here’s the plan for Saturday:

5:00pm meet up at Roscoe’s on Gower. Eat some tasty chicken and waffle goodness, try not to spill maple syrup on yourself.

6:30 (or so) head over to Boardner’s for a post chicken COCKtail (get it?!?), some great Hollywood history and look for the ghost of the Black Dahlia in this classic Hollywood bar.

Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles
1514 N. Gower (at Sunset)
323-466-7453

Boardner’s
1652 N. Cherokee (at Hollywood)
323-462-9621

Did you know Roscoe’s has a Facebook Fan Page?  You do now!

Thanks for voting and see you all there!

Hey Westsiders:  tomorrow (Tuesday, February 23) The Open Daily is celebrating its launch by giving you free coffee and pastries!  The Open Daily is a new daily newsletter and blog informing you about all things Westside: Restaurants, politics, family fun, events, history, art, you name it! They want to get to know you so come by Venice Grind tomorrow morning from 8:30 to 9:00 am.

To get your free cuppa joe, go to their Facebook event page and RSVP then come by for your morning rev-up. There will also be gluten-free pastries to nosh provided by Yvonne’s Gluten Free Goodies.

If you can’t make the launch party, sign up for their free newsletter and start getting your daily helping of Westside action. You can also submit your event listing to be included in their newsletter.

See you tomorrow at Venice Grind to celebrate The Open Daily!

Venice Grind
12224 Venice Blvd.
Mar Vista
310-397-2227

Andrew Koenig, perhaps best known for his role as “Boner” on Growing Pains in the ’80s is being reported missing by friends. He was last seen on 2/14 in Vancouver.

From the comic’s comic blog yesterday:

“Andrew Koenig (AK-47, the video guy on “Never Not Funny,” and “Boner” from “Growing Pains”) has been missing for a week, last seen 2/14 in Vancouver. Didn’t make his flight back to the US on 2/16. The Vancouver Police are involved, and lots of people are looking. Could you reblog this and help get the word out? And say some prayers or think some positive thoughts?”

I thought it might be worth posting here in case anyone local has heard from him or has more information. I’ve met Andrew. He’s a friend of my husband and a nice guy. We really hope he’s okay.

Please feel free to repost.

If you’ve seen Andrew since February 14th, contact Detective Raymond Payette of the Vancouver PD at 604-717-2534.

CarbonNYC's Star of Me photo used through Creative Commons

Fellow members of the tribe know there’s never been a better time to be Jewish; it’s among the odd list of things now-sexy, formerly-not (like women over 40, people with glasses, and geeks). Beginning tomorrow and running through Saturday, the Jewlicious Festival at the Alpert JCC in Long Beach promises to be a fantastic celebration of that sexy hipness. Their site explains that the event “unites trend-setters, artists and spirit seekers; Ashkenazim, Sefardim, Persians and Mizrachim; atheists, agnostics, skeptics and believers; designers, activists, jocks, and hipsters.” On the weekend agenda is food (of course), music, presentations (Matisyahu is among the presenters), workshops (including boxing workshops by WBA super welterweight champion Yuri Foreman), comedians, yoga, drum circles, wine, movies, djs… In short, a heck of a lot of fun.

Tickets are reasonably priced and vary according to whether or not you’re a student ($63 for all weekend including meals–what a deal I have for you!) or a young professional ($109 for the weekend) or just want to go to a concert or wine tasting. But be warned weekend tickets are only on sale for a few more hours.