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Men’s Bathroom, Original Pantry, originally uploaded by 5000!.

According to Cinematical, when director Mike Figgis recently arrived at LAX and was asked the ritual question, “What is the purpose of your visit,” he replied, “I’m here to shoot a pilot.”

Upon which he was detained for five hours.

*Sigh*

This UCLA grad story from the L.A. Times is a great kick in the ass, especially for those of us who sometimes woe it rather than go it. Kellie Lim, a 26-year-old who suffered a bout of bacterial meningitis and became a triple amputee at age 8, will graduate from UCLA’s medical school this coming Friday. She’s chosen to specialize in Pediatrics, and will begin a residency program at the UCLA medical center.

“Just having that experience of being someone so sick and how devastating that can be — not just for me but for my family too — gives me a perspective that other people don’t necessarily have,” the 26-year-old Michigan native said recently.

And of all the topics she sampled during medical school, only her work with children left her “smiling at the end of the day.”

Lim carried out her medical training with a determination that awed her professors and fellow students and won her the school’s top prize for excellence in pediatrics.

Opting not to use a prosthetic arm, she showed that she can perform most medical procedures with one hand, including taking blood and administering injections. She lives on her own in a Westwood apartment with no special features for the handicapped and drives a car with only one adaptation: a turning knob on the steering wheel. She is learning to swim, is trying horseback riding and even went tandem skydiving recently.

Photo By: (Mark Boster / LAT)

You know it’s a perfect Southern California day when even the squirrels decide to take a chill and enjoy the 72 degree weather. I looked out my office wiindow and saw this squirrel scampering up the tree. Then he eased over to the limb right beside me and plopped down. When I took the picture he turned and scowled. Must be a quite the star, hating paparazzi.

A few days ago, I was making one of my pilgrimages to Starbucks – this time to the Los Feliz Blvd. shop where I’ve spotted Dr. Marvin Candle a couple of times. Since this weekend was the Subway Series, I was flaunting my Mets colors. In front of the shop, this guy approached me:

GUY (pointing to my Mets shirt): Hey! I bet you’re a Dodgers fan.

ME: Um, no.

GUY: I’ve got a bunch of Dodger tickets for sale. Good games. Cubs are coming to town. (He opens his fist to reveal a stack of at least 25 Dodgers tickets)

ME: Um, no, Got any Mets tickets?

Guy silently walks away.

First of all: What?? I had no idea Starbucks was now a hotspot for scalpers.

Secondly: I made an inquiry as to a product/service I would be interested in buying. In response, he walked away silently. Not the most effective of sales strategies.

Where’s the oddest place you’ve been offered tickets for sale?

By now you’ve probably heard about the Hamburger Hamlet waitress who stole patron’s credit card numbers using a “wedge” or “skimmer” device, and then selling the info to a dude at $10 a number as part of an idenitity theft scam.

According to whats been reported, the woman only stole 40 credit card numbers. On the bright side, she was never paid the full $400 she was allegedly owed. On the dark side, I don’t believe she was only able to steal 40 numbers over her six week’s employment… unless the Hamlet really is that slow all the time. Its more likely that even more customers never noticed or successfully complained about fraudulent charges, or that additional numbers had yet been used by the thieves.

And, of course, worse of all is that this is one woman who was caught… credit card “skimming” is apparently a growing criminal tactic, so its a given that there are scores of similar criminals at work in the Los Angeles area, a city overflowing with underpaid, out of work actors trying to make rent, afford car payments, and pay back student loans who probably hate you anyway for leaving your tip on your credit card instead of paying cash… but I digress.
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Okay.

I live in LA. I love LA. But I grew up in Orange County.

And growing up in the OC means that I’m an Angels fan. So is my whole family. In 2002 when the Angels won the Series, our whole family — Aunts, Grandmas, girl friends, pets — we all wore Championship T-Shirts to Thanksgiving to take pictures for a family calendar.

So today was the final game in the Freeway Series, and it’s pretty clear who’s playing the best baseball in SoCal.

The Angels.

Sweep this series and took the preseason match-up 2-1.

It was a fun game to attend. I went with my Dad and we sat way up high between 3rd and Home. There were a ton of trash talking Dodger fans in our section.

What happens when you choke? You turn Dodger Blue. :P

Anywho, interesting developments since I went to a game last season. The Angels now sell commercials on the Jumbotron, not ust the lame contests that are sponsored, but actual commercials for DVDs, etc that took over the big screen and the PA.

And the were outages of Nacho Cheese and Hot Dogs at the concessions stands. WTF?

I’m going to a Dodger game (traitor I know) in a few months, I haven’t been there since I was a kid. What should I expect? (And yes I’ll root for the Dodgers when I go.)

Here’s more photos I took from the game here.

I spotted this shirt tacked to the wall in a friends office the other day and snapped a quick shot of it with my phone. It’s an image by Estevan Oriol that I’ve seen plenty of times and yet still smile every time I see it. I’ve been talking about LA to a handful of people recently and it’s just confirmed how much I love Los Angeles. Seriously. The grime, the dirt, the smog, the food, the people, the fires… everything. I’ve only lived here for about 6 years but this city is more my home than any other place has ever been. I love everything about it. I definitely need to get a Los Angeles tattoo, sooner rather than later. That’s all, you go back to whatever you were doing, just felt like sharing that.

Tomorrow morning is the official “unveiling” of the building, even though it’s actually been done for several weeks now. I was too lazy to give an update until now, so I’ll also give you some news:

The unveiling of the building wrap! Be first to see exclusive footage and tour the Sector 7 Mobile Command Unit. Pick up advance screening passes to see TRANSFORMERS (while supplies last). Get your very own TRANSFORMERS action figure courtesy of Hasbro (available to the first 50 people who attend). Meet Tattoo from the Big Boy Morning Show on Power 106

Where: Behind TRANSFORMERS Building
1440 N. Vine (Kinko’s parking lot)

When: Thursday, May 10th – 7:00AM – 9:00AM

I’d reported a month ago here on blogging.la that this building was being wrapped and provided a photo. I had reported that when it was done, one side would have an eye which would glow red at night. I was right about this, as I found out the other night… I could see the red eye beaming at night toward the east (Decepticon side). What I didn’t know was that that Autobot side of the building (west side) had a BLUE eye beaming at night. Kick ass!

Little did anyone know that the day after my original post, the winds would pick up and rip off one of the two completed sides of the building at the time (the Autobot/west side), as reported by Defamer here.

I’d been hoping to keep the unveiling tomorrow a secret so I could get there early enough to get tickets and a toy, but since the whole world seems to know about it anyway, I’m going to wish you luck if you decide to go.

If I’m not mistaken, I’ve already been inside the Sector 7 Mobile Command Unit (at ShoWest, back in March), so if there are any publicists for this movie who would like to send me some screening tickets and a toy directly so I can bypass the insanity of people waiting outside at 4am, I would love that.

Photo: Taken by jozjozjoz on 5/9/07 around 10am.

It’s 12:55 as I write this. Twenty minutes ago I went out on the deck of my house here in Beachwood Canyon and saw flames licking up over the hill towards Griffith Park. I grabbed MFMD (my fabulous man Dan) and we drove up the hill and then hiked up the ridge to check it out. Awesome and surreal, the ridge on fire, a tree blowing up suddenly and the helicopters slowly circling the canyon with a synchronicity akin to a symphony. There seems to be a staging area up on the hill by the Hollywood sign where the choppers land, fill up with flame retardant, than circle back over the fire, dropping it down. There’s an amazing military precision to the choppers, circling, landing, lighting the hillside with their massive lights, looking for sparks. A beautiful music. I have to hand it to the fire department. They are on top of it.

Up there above the city in the night air, I wonder how all the deer and coyotes and snakes are doing. Where will they go? Dan says the snakes will die. I know there’s a possiblity I will have to evacuate, the second time in a month I’ve had to think of this. What would I take…. my computer, my cameras, but once again, I realize most of the ‘stuff’ just doesn’t matter. Maybe I won’t have to worry about taking ANYTHING to the blogging.la garage sale!

You can view a few more night photos from the fire on eecue.com

You can see another and read about how I created this image on eecue.com.

The Los Angeles Times reports that a Los Angeles man was killed last night after he and two friends approached a Fresno State student over a Playstation game.

Brooks [the alleged shooter] had been accused by the others of stealing a PlayStation from their apartment before he pulled a handgun and began shooting, according to university officials…

…According to the Associated Press, the Fresno County coroner’s office identified the deceased as Brant Daniels, 19, who had moved from the Los Angeles area to attend Fresno State but was not a current student.

A Facebook group has been set up in his honor, also announcing tthat a memorial service will be held for him late this evening on the Fresno State campus.

A Brant Daniels is listing as having played on the Manual Arts High School basketball team during the ’04-’05 season, but there is no confirmation if they are the same individual.

I grew up in the San Gabriel Valley. I’ve entertained the idea of moving back, but always nixed it quickly once I considered the commute to Westwood where I go to school and work. Who knows. That could change in the future, especially since public transportation from the SGV to downtown LA (I’d still have to take the MTA’s 2 line to Westwood) looks more attractive.

Foothill Transit — which serves the San Gabriel and Pomona Valleys — recently launched Silver Streak, a 60′ bus with three doors. The buses utilize the lines which travel along the 10 freeway from Montclair to Downtown Los Angeles. The buses may be nicer, but they’re also equipped with wi-fi. From Parvus’ press release:

Parvus Corporation today announced that Foothill Transit’s newly launched Silver Streak rapid transit service is now equipped with Parvus’ RiderNet‚Ñ¢ passenger Internet access solution. Running from Montclair to Los Angeles in Southern California, Silver Streak’s state-of-the-art 60′ articulated buses provide high-speed 802.11 Wi-Fi‚Ñ¢ service free of charge to customers while they travel to their destination.

Hmmm. If I could be online while commuting, my posts here would probably be less sporadic and I’d get back to people who emailed me much sooner. Oh yeah, and I’d probably do less recreational internet browsing while at work. Maybe a move back to the SGV might be a good idea.

Variety has the details on Mark Cuban’s nefarious plan to turn the Landmark Westside Pavilion Theatre into a super-awesome high-class alterna-cinema of the future. Which apparently means couches, beanbag chairs, and serving yourself from the brilliantly-named Wall Of Popcorn. It’s about time somebody took a blowtorch to the ridiculously outmoded movie theater business model.

I’d scoop my own popcorn from the Wall of Popcorn any day. Hopefully the tickets won’t be too much higher than Arclight’s. And will include the price of parking *cough*.