Great puns are hard to make.  Great puns in another language are even harder.  For example, my last name is Nguyen.  I was on my firm’s softball team, and someone asked me what name I wanted to put on my jersey.  I settled on “Nguyenner” but no one appreciated it until I explained that my last name is pronounced “Win.”  Lightbulbs flashed.  “Oh!” they said.  Hmph, I said.  I’ve been working here for how long?

Here’s Foreign Language Pun Exhibit 2, snapped through my dirty windshield somewhere on Olympic:

This makes no sense until you realize that “Ahn” is generally a Korean last name pronounced “On.”  “Ahn Top.”  Ha!  Ahn-nestly, I wouldn’t put this Ahn my car even if my last name were Ahn, but it is entertaining once the lightbulb is turned Ahn.  See, learning foreign languages can be fun!

Worship/Warship

You gotta grant Los Angeles its geographic or climatic diversity.  LA is not unique in this feature–I was surprised and delighted when I first visited Vancouver, for example, to find that one could visit a northern rain forest within a half-hour drive, and the visual contrast of the surrounding mountains and the central sound is appealing.  We have an equally broad range of features here in Los Angeles, though warmer and drier versions of those.  Still, we manage beaches, flatlands, and reasonable mountains, in a moderate radius, and with lots of differences in vegetation (albeit spread over more square miles than most geographically diverse cities)

One hears an insistence, from time to time, that Los Angeles is no desert.  This is true, since that would require less than 10in/year of rainfall, where Los Angeles gets about 15in/year.  Something interesting to me, however, as a relative newcomer is that this precipitation is strongly bimodal with low-rainfall years averaging 7-8in/year.  So we are only a desert in odd years, it appears. Read the rest of this entry →

If you’ll kindly recall, I love Julia Child.  With Julie & Julia coming out next week, Julia is being thrust back into our hearts and minds – as if she ever left – and hopefully, this fond remembrance means someone somewhere will be kind enough to re-air The French Chef or any other of Julia’s shows.  Watching old episodes of The French Chef, even in black and white, serves as an excellent reminder that one learns to cook by understanding the differences between types of whole chicken, why you need this particular pan for that particular saute, and so on and so on — as opposed to learning by staring at Giada’s pelvis-level plate, gazing slack jawed as she baits some pasta with her fork, and plopping it into her waiting lips.  

For those in the general vicinity of Beverly Hills, the Paley Center has answered my hopes, even if it’s not quite the marathon I was hoping.  “Child’s Play in the Kitchen: The Remarkable Career of Julia Child” is a short (45-minute) presentation of selected highlights of Julia’s career, including famous clips from The French Chef and interviews.  Showtime of this retrospective is 12:15 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday until August 17.  For those in need of more immediate satisfaction, Vanity Fair’s August 2009 issue has an excellent summary of Julia’s life, and there always is this clip from The French Chef in which one learns how to make a 2-3 egg omelet (any more eggs, and you’ve got a leathery omelet, and no one wants that).  The best part is when she whisks together the eggs with chopsticks (!!) as part of the process to create “lightly coagulated eggs with a little cloak around, holding them together.”  There is a little bit of Julia in my mom after all.

This is kind of a developing story, but according to a thread on Reddit, AT&T is currently blocking parts of 4chan. As you should know 4chan has been described as the very best and the very worst of the internet all rolled into one (be careful clicking links to the site as some parts of it are NSFW) though it’s pretty much accepted that they created LOLcats as well as many other noteworthy memes. 4chan is not good, or bad, it just is. So far it can confirmed that:

• Calls to http://img.4chan.org are being blocked at the ISP level for AT&T customers.
• Other subdomains on 4chan seem unaffected.
• AT&T has confirmed they are blocking this to customers who have called their help desk.
• So far this seems limited to Southern California though some in other areas are complaining of the block as well.

I’m a Time Warner customer so I can’t check this myself, and while I have AT&T for mobile service I think that is different than their home internet service. I just asked on twitter and a few LA folks with AT&T confirmed the site wouldn’t load for them. The two obvious questions now are why does AT&T think they can censor parts of the web, and how quickly will 4chan retaliate?

Update 11:37PM: Many people who were reporting that they were blocked can now access the site, possibly meaning the block has been removed as stealthfully as it was installed?

Final update: Block has been removed.

"Outdoor Movie" used under Creative Commons.

Even with all the geeks out of town for Comic-Con this weekend, there’s still a lot going on right here in L.A. Haven’t decided what to do with your Saturday night yet? Let me add to the conundrum.

This is the final night of the Old Pasadena Film Festival. It’s going to be a beautiful evening, so go out and enjoy a free movie under the stars.

There are two movies scheduled to close the festival, so you’ll have to make a choice. Tonight it’s “West Side Story” in the One Colorado courtyard or “Twilight” on the roof of the Schoolhouse parking garage. Whichever you choose, you’re sure to have a great time. There’s something magical about seeing a movie outdoors on a warm summer evening.

Both screenings are free, and chairs will be provided.

West Side Story
Free
One Colorado Courtyard, 41 Hugus Alley, Pasadena
8:30pm

Twilight
Free
Rooftop of Schoolhouse Parking Garage, 33 E. Green Street, Pasadena
9:00pm

It’s been a busy week, what with everything going on (Classic Eats, a kerfuffle over some “art,” prepping for the Echo Park Lake Paddle Boat Regatta, and so much more…) So, busy in fact, that I haven’t had a chance to post about the loudest fun of the week. Until now.

Before I get to that, have I mentioned that it’s not too late to sponsor my team in the Paddle Boat Regatta? I’m just sayin’. It’s for the kids, and it’ll give you a warm fuzzy feeling without the usually associated guilt.

MetBlogs' own, Julia "One Shot, One Kill" Frey.

Last Saturday, a few MetBloggers and friends met at the Los Angeles Gun Club for an afternoon of shootin’ stuff and makin’ a lot of noise.

There were varying levels of firearm experience among us, from “I’ve never fired a gun before” to “I’m strapped now. What?” With a little instruction, though, even the rookies in the group shot well. There were several different guns to try, from a cute & petite .25 Beretta to a cannon-like .45 Smith & Wesson, and even a 12ga. shotgun.

Everyone in the group had a great time, and already a few who weren’t there are asking when the next outting to the range is happening. Want to join us? We don’t have a firm date yet, but leave me a note in the comments and I’ll be sure to let you know when it’s going to happen.

Also, follow me past the jump to see a few more photos of firearm fun. Read the rest of this entry →

Let the puns begin.

According to NPR via the AP, a Westchester dispensary lit up this morning.

A fire has damaged a Los Angeles medical marijuana dispensary but no injuries are reported.

Fire Capt. Steve Ruda says the fire was reported at about 5:30 a.m. Monday at the Westchester Collective on the second floor of a two-story commercial building in the Westchester area. The building also houses several other businesses.

It took 69 firefighters an hour to extinguish the blaze.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

How many firefighters? This was obviously written by Beavis and/or Butthead.

Drew’s theory: Joint ember into pizza grease.

What do you think?

Unexpected moments define a city. Over the past month, LA has defined itself down.

I’m talking about the city political furor surrounding the costs of the Michael Jackson funeral.

By now, we all know the story. The reigning, if sequestered, king of pop dies at 50. (Not an atypical age of death for drug abusing geniuses–classical pianist Glen Gould and sci fi genius Phil Dick were both druggies who died early in their sixth decades.) And the world shut off and the hype machine turned on, a machine that is only now sputtering down.

Meanwhile, the city bureaucracy, headless, since the mayor was in Africa on a mission of inconceivable importance, functioned well, if a bit over-conservatively. It put far more police on the street than the occasion, which brought out on the whole about as many people as did the average Lakers game, warranted. This seemed like good planning to me. Far better to over prepare than under prepare. Michael Jackson having not died before, it was hard to know just how many people would stand outside and mourn.

It was an orderly and respectful bunch who attended, in and out. There was a lot less public disorder than you’d have had at the above sports event. The only disorder was at City Hall, where, you would have thought to hear the attention grabbing noise, the runoff elections were going to happen next month instead of the last. Newly sworn City Attorney Carmen Trutanich vowed to investigate the purported $1.4 million policing costs, as though he suspected that most of the cops ordered out for the event had in fact ditched their uniforms and gone to the beach. Controller Wendy Greuel, of whom I frankly expected better things, vowed to investigate the out-of-county provision of sandwiches to the troops, at what seemed to me to be the fair market price of $7 a piece, plus power bars and gum (Do cops get to chew gum on the job these days? What would LAPD Chief Bill Parker think?). She scooted back into her City Hall den, however… Read the rest of this entry →

Tonight’s free concert at California Plaza features local Perla Batalla and Barcelona-based Buika. Both women offer much to the world of Spanish music in general and Latin Jazz in particular.

Perla Batalla is known for her soulful brand of Spanish music. Raised by a father who owned a Spanish music store Batalla was once a back up singer for Leonard Cohen. Her self-named debut album was releasd in 1993.

Concha Buika’s smoky voice and funk infusion with jazz make her a must see. Buika has traveled the world singing, including a stint at the the Luxor as a Tina Turner impersonator. Her debut album, Buika, was released in 2005 and since then Buika has proven that she can bring her own style to many music genres.

For more information about the Grand Performances Summer Series at California plaza, you can call 213.687.2159 visit their website.

My 20something year old neighbor never learned how to ride a bike.  Her sweet English stud muffin of a boyfriend bought her a grown-up version of a tricycle for her birthday – or maybe it was Valentine’s Day – there was some occasion for this three wheeled wonder – and one of the first things she did, of course, was take the little trike out for a ride.

We live in Santa Monica.  She decided to test her new wheels on Arizona and to head west towards the Promenade and, eventually, the ocean.  By all accounts, though, the ride was horrible: drivers honked and cursed when she was in the bike line, pedestrians and random drivers yelled when she moved to the sidewalk; drivers not quite at a full stop at the signs were angry that her three wheels were not as fast as their four; and the bike lane randomly, abruptly came to an end a few blocks before the Promenade, which is really where you would think a biker would most need a separate lane.

If you recall, Sean posted a month or so ago about the League of American Bicyclist’s bronze medal award to Santa Monica for being a “Bicycle Friendly Community.”  Per the Santa Monica Daily Press, Alex Thompson – who runs the fairly awesome Bikerowave bike clinic in Santa Monica that pretty fairly awesomely has a “Bikerobabes” night on Tuesdays that is for women and transgendered individuals only – has upped the anger about the award and is circulating a petition to get the League to either withdraw the medal or to appoint a local biking committee to re-evaluate whether Santa Monica should earn such bragging rights.  I’m fairly certain that it is difficult to strip prizes once they’re already awarded, but I suppose the take-home message about being nice to tricyclists is being well made.  For those interested, I found the petition online here.  Critical Mass, anyone?

A pretty sweet shot courtesy feaverish via the Metblogs’ Flickr pool.

It just so happens that Queen Skittles of Doo Dah Parade fame has put together a show for the Downtown LA Artwalk tonight, Thursday, July 9th! Artists included are: Julie Klima (that’s Queen Skittles), Cassandra Marquez, Kristina King, Conan Dynes, Mary Amor & Arpi Alaverdyan.

I had the chance to get a bit of a sneak preview of Julie’s images.  It will be a mix of already shown portraits of her “royal court” as well as what she calls “Documentary-ish”.   The latter got my attention.  It is a combination of documentary of the scene with placed elements that draw the viewer in to make their own interpretation of the final image.   Nice body of work.

• What: Edgar Varela Fine Arts presents ’3500 sq feet in 48 hours, Curated by Julie Klima
• Where: The Continental Gallery @ 408 South Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90013
• Time: 5pm-10pm

Astronomical Clock by simpologist, used under Creative Commons.

Los Angeles (and, well, everywhere else,) tomorrow you have a chance to witness a moment in time that has never happened before in most of our lifetimes, and will never probably not happen again (in our natural lives.) Intrigued?

At exactly five minutes and six seconds past 4:00am Wednesday morning, the time and date will be 04:05:06 07/08/09.

Not going to be up at four o’clock in the morning to witness this amazing alignment of clock and calendar? Fear not, as the far more interesting (to me,) yet perhaps not quite as symmetrical, convergence will happen later in the day.

At exactly 34 minutes and 56 seconds past noon, not quite 12:35pm, the time and date will be 12:34:56 07/08/09.

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9! The world may be scheduled to end with the Mayan calendar in 2012, but this has got to somehow be significant, too. No?

Maybe it’s just the old softy in me, but this makes me think that this is a single event that we, all of us, all over the world, will experience at the same time.We may not all experience it the same way; hell, most probably won’t even take notice. But if we can all do this together, think of what else we can collaborate on.

Leave me a comment to tell me how you will spend that second. How will you memorialize this unique moment in human history our lifetimes? Will you take note, so as to one day tell your grandchildren (“You know, I remember where I was at 12:34:56 07/08/09…?”) How often does anyone know ahead of time that they are about to experience a moment in their lifetime, in history, that is totally unique and will never be repeated (as long as they live?) Do something special! And tell me about it; I’m curious like that.

You and Chris Botti?

Write haiku win Greek tickets

July 9th Under Stars….

It’s such a beautiful way to embrace a LA summer night.  Listening to Chris Botti play his amazing jazz on his trumpet… The Greek Theater in the Hollywood Hills, a picnic dinner with wine, free tickets for you and your favorite person.  Sooooo, if you want to win 2 tickets to this great concert, just write a haiku about:

a) Why you are a  Chris Botti fan.

b) or why you want to see a concert at the Greek on a beautiful summer night on Thursday, July 9th.

c) or why you deserve these tickets!

I first met Chris through his friend Sting, who is one of Chris’s mentors (sort of).  And once I was turned onto his contemporary jazz style I was hooked.  Not to mention he is a swell guy…. and damn sexy!  He has a soft touch to his playing… yet is a Miles Davis impresario, so you can imagine the music that comes from him.

So have at it.  Turn your creative juices into overdrive and write a haiku! (and win these tickets, baby!).

This is it folks. The last day of the cheap 9.25% sales tax before it jumps to 9.75% on July 1.  Of course it could be worse if you live in the metro cities of Pico Rivera or South Gate where their sales tax rate will jump to 10.75%.

The scan of the notice from the BOE does get bigger with a click.

Don't worry Bubbles will be fine*

All hopes for a Captain EO sequel have been dashed. Harumph.

*Bubbles has had a history of emotional problems