It feels like deja vu all over again.  If Time Warner Cable (Roadrunner) is your ISP, and you have been having spotty Internet service all week, it’s not simply that Mercury is in retrograde.  I have been having “server not found” problems all week, and called TWC tonight.  They said they are having an L.A.-area-wide problem.  They didn’t know if it’s hackers this time.  I demanded credit for my lack of service, and they transferred me to another department (accounts or billing) .  They then issued me a $15 credit for multiple days without full service.  I thought that was a generous offering, since it represents at least 10 days of service.

Of course, that still doesn’t solve the service problem.  In the meantime, don’t forget to save your blog posts and other online writings in progress, early and often.

(Travis, sorry for stepping on your post so soon, but I thought that, if others are being driven nuts by this problem like I am, they would want to know about this asap tonight.  And if I wait, who knows if I would be able to publish it at all?)

Nine Inch Nails' final show? Photo by Burns!

BREAKING: Nine Inch Nails cancels tonight’s show at the Music Box at the Fonda Theater.

Were you one of the lucky ones that saw Nine Inch Nails’ show at the Palladum last night? Are you, like me, one of the incredibly disappointed fans holding tickets for tonight’s (canceled) show at the Fonda?

By most accounts, last night’s show at the Palladium was a spectacular beginning to what were to be the final four shows (ever) for Nine Inch Nails. Among other highlights, the band played “The Downward Spiral” album its entirety and electronic music pioneer Gary Numan joined the band to play his hit, “Cars.”

Front-man Trent Reznor complained during the show of having a cold, though, and immediately following the show the band’s official website, nin.com, released this statement:

“We’re very sorry to announce that Trent is ill, and on his doctor’s orders we will not be able to perform tonight’s show at the Henry Fonda Theater. This is the only information we have at this time, we’re posting this early announcement as a convenience for those of you who had plans to attend. Reimbursement details will be posted as soon as we figure them out; likely within the next 24 hours. We wish this wasn’t necessary and we’re very sorry for the inconvenience. Thank you for your understanding.”

“…sorry for the inconvenience?” More like colossal disappointment.

As the statement says, no further information at this time. The announcement made no mention of the status of Saturday and Sunday’s shows at the Wiltern and EchoPlex. An eternal optimist, I’ll hope for a rescheduled Fonda show on Monday, but that doesn’t sound too likely.

Update: An update as of 5:00pm Thursday. Follow me past the jump for news.

Read the rest of this entry →

A few short hours ago it looked like my gut reaction that the Angeles National Forest fire had been caused by a fiendish rapscallion (I’m no longer using the word “terrorist”) wasn’t far off the mark.

But wait, what’s this? A new report on KNX 1070 says that the U.S. Forest Service has retracted its earlier “human caused” statement about the fire.

What does this mean? It means my two-year-old daughter’s assertion that dragons are behind the blaze may still be a valid theory.

You can run, Puff, but you can’t hide.

Image: A Michael Martchenko illustration from Robert Munsch’s The Paper Bag Princess.

Lightning has been ruled out as a possible cause of the Station Fire, according to officials from the U.S. Forest Service. That leaves humanity as the cause.

Investigators have yet to determine if it was accidental or intentional.

You are now a suspect. Have a nice day.

Sitting in what is now something like my 5th day of smoke and ash the lack of TV news has been a bit frustrating.  Local blogs however do a nice job of reporting things from where they sit in the area of the fires.  From a list of Pasadena centric blogs I offer up the following:

• Crime Scene blog keeps posting updated Fire and Evacuation Maps.
• Pasadena Daily photo’s zen Monday includes day/night view of the fire from her porch.
• West Coast Grrlie Blather offers up some photos around JPL and Pasadena.
• Altadena Blog is keeping a running update of the fire expansion and local notes. He even offers up a nifty satellite image of the smoke plume.
• 20/20 Hindsight adds its updates along with some video.
• East of Allen has some nifty pics of the DC10 Super Tanker as it flew by.
• Pasadena Adjacent has a lot of  video clips and explanations of fire fighting.

Yesterday I posted asking for calls to object to Dianne Feinstein’s latest hamfisted, wrongthink “Won’t Somebody think of the CHILDREN” legislation that set manditory 10-year minimum sentences for people making edibles for medical marijuana patients..

Thanks to all of you that called! We were very successful in getting ourselves heard.

Through our calls we were able to get a postponement on the resolution vote. This is a very good sign that it may either be thrown out entirely or rewritten to exclude patients and their providers from legal ramifications resulting from the production or use of medicinal cannabis edibles.

Another Feinstein Folly: the “Save Kids from Dangerous Drugs Act of 2009.”

Would you take a moment and call your LA City Council member today, Thursday August 6th? You can use this quick helpful script for this fifteen-second phone call, beyond the jump.

Read the rest of this entry →

Another beloved celebrity gone.

The cruel summer of death marches on, this time claiming a beloved star of the small screen. Gidget, the Taco Bell Chihuahua, died from a stroke on Tuesday night in Los Angeles. She was 15 (105 in dog years.)

“She made so many people happy,” said Gidget’s trainer, Sue Chipperton.

According to People Magazine:

The mostly retired actor lived out her days laying in the sun – “I like to joke that it’s like looking after a plant,” says Chipperton – and entertaining at shoots when her trainer brought her along. “Gidget,” says Chipperton, “always knew where the camera was.”

Five people just descended into my office to look outside my windows.  Apparently, LAPD and/or other police squads have shut down portions of Avenue of the Stars, Santa Monica Boulevard, and the alley behind my building (in case you were thinking of using it as an inconvenient shortcut).  Traffic is piling up, so good luck to those of you headed to or from Century City.   I couldn’t find any information about this anywhere; anyone know what’s going on?

UPDATE:  According to my building’s people, a suspicious package was found in the 10100 Santa Monica building.  All tenants were evacuated and traffic in the immediate area is closed off.

From Noah Korda’s blog:

The final update for now. 7/12 11:55pm

Thank you everyone.
Noah Korda

Looks like I couldn’t have chosen a better couple days to take off from work!

Having the good fortune to be one of the 8,750 out of a million-plus who requested tix, I just got back from biking over to Dodger Stadium running the tight gauntlet of police and stadium personnel from Sunset Boulevard up Elysian Park Avenue across Stadium Way and into “Dodgertown” to pick up the necessary ornamentation and documentation to permit me entry to and attendance at the Michael Jackson Public Memorial Service tomorrow at Staples Center.

It is pretty safe to say from the looks I got pedaling up to the ballpark that I will be the only one who claims their keys to the Kingdom of Jackopalooza via such an alien mode of transportation. Certainly my bike as well as the early hour helped me avoid any press gathered outside the Scott Avenue exit gate into Elysian Park.

Better than the other way around!

Gotta admit, I submitted my request to attend the Michael Jackson Memorial at Staples Center tomorrow far more to just bear witness to the public spectacle than to publicly bare any grief at his passing.

And when yesterday came and went without getting confirmation — especially with the news that I was literally among a million-plus vying to be one of the 8,750 bestowed with tickets — I shrugged and moved on.

Then I checked my email this morning — and there were two in my inbox from Staples Center. I opened, the second one first, delivered at 12:10 a.m. this morning, which advised:

Thank you for your registration.

Sorry, we regret to inform you that your registration to attend the Public Memorial Service for Michael Jackson was not selected.

Hundreds of thousands registered, but only a few can be in attendance.

And I shrugged again, thinking it was at least nice of Staples not to leave anyone hanging.

Figuring it was just a repeat I opened the second email, which was datestamped earlier, at 10 p.m. yesterday. Whoa, it was the exact opposite:

Read the rest of this entry →

Wow.  Two icons in one day.  Michael Jackson died today after being rushed to the hospital here in Los Angeles in cardiac arrest.  When he arrived at the hospital, he wasn’t breathing and they couldn’t revive him.

What a shocker… probably more to him than us.  He was just days away from starting his big tour in London and given his penchant for eternal youth, something must have gone terribly wrong.  He forever changed music and really fueled the rise in music videos with his amazing performances.

He was a character. I’m gonna miss him.

My 8th grade Le Conte Junior High class picture is all feathered hair, a smile full of braces, and my favorite shirt, a pale blue tee with an iron-on of Farrah Fawcett’s iconic poster.

Farrah and I wouldn’t meet in person, until four years later in 1981. I was working at Hunter’s Books on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. You folks would’ve loved Hunter’s. They had a smaller branch in Sherman Oaks, but the Beverly Hills store was the flagship. There was a loft-like upper floor for management overlooking a vast amount of always bustling floorspace surrounded by dark wood shelving, beneath which was the equally large stockroom — or “dungeon,” as we stockboys called it.

Being on Rodeo Drive, naturally the store drew a sophisticated and monied clientele, and more than a fair share of celebrities. Not to boast but I was a fave of Barbara Stanwyck who’d every other month or so would come to the backdoor and ask for me with a list — sometimes just for her, sometimes for her and her good friend Henry Fonda.

Read the rest of this entry →