Direct from the Pasadena PIO Ann Erdman on facebook:

Do you feel the need for speed? Well, slow down! The Pasadena Police Department will be enforcing speed limit laws proactively Wednesday 2/17/2010 from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m.

You’ve been warned.  That is all.

Its time for that random recap of the blogosphere such as it exists in the SGV…

• M-M-M-My Pomona reports people are beyond miffed about a film crew.
• Pasadena’s Political Underbelly responds to what to do with art snobs.
• West Coast Grrlie Blather returns with a spoiler on Up in the Air.
• Final Post runs for The Foothill Cities blog…it was grand while it lasted.
• Finally, Zen Monday this week at Pasadena Daily Photo cracked me up. My suggested headline “No peaky while I leaky”. Add your own.

Yup, the full story can be found in the Pasadena Star News but the upshot is that a guy named Erica Valentine has been crowned the new “Doo Dah Parade Queen”.

I’m working with Pasadena PIO to see if she can help with setting up an interview with the new reigning queen.  With luck last years queen, Julie Klima aka  ”Queen Skittles” will have already set up a portrait setting with the new Queen so we can get an up close and personal look at the new dood queen.

The Occasional Doo Dah Parade is set for the morning of May 1, 2010.  I’ll get you more details closer to the date along with mass transit recommendations.

One of my east coast tells is the fact that I only really learned to drive in my 30s. I didn’t drive at all before I moved to L.A. (My native friends, I know, regard this disclosure as only slightly more bizarre than a statement like ”I used to breathe through gills before moving here” or “My parasitic twin did not survive the surgery.”) I’m still not crazy about driving (I will always accept a ride from a friend when I can), and I take surface streets pretty much everywhere. (Cut me a break. I blew a tire on the 405 and crashed my car and collapsed my lung–I’m not just paranoid; I have empirical evidence freeways are a bad idea). Even so, I’ve learned a lot about life while behind the wheel in L.A. I was thinking about it this morning when I was lodged in a clump of folks determined to traverse Victory Boulevard just slightly below the speed limit. I started to let the fact that THESE MORONS DON’T KNOW HOW TO F***ING DRIVE ruin my whole morning, but then I caught myself. Why? Really, why give a group of random, clueless strangers so much power over my mood?

So here is my everything I need to know I learned in kindergarden my Scion list:

• Stress is usually a choice. Most of the time, I really can decide to just mellow the f*** out.
• That said, fortune favors the aggressive. Timidity is simply confusing and annoying.
• Most people ignore the few simple communication devices available to them (e.g., turn signals).
• Much of the time, other people’s crappy behavior has absolutely nothing to do with me.
• Bad behavior is contagious.
• Similarly–random bad shit happens no matter how good or careful you are.
• It’s good to have a contingency plan.
• Punk rock makes almost everything more tolerable.

What about you? What have you learned from L.A. traffic?

Wouldn't you want something better than McDonald's after something like this?

Last year, LAX landed on a list of world’s worst airports.  Now, I’m not worldly, monied, or George Clooney enough to have sampled all of the airports this world has to offer, but I will throw this out: out of the airports I have had the displeasure (looking at you, Beauvais-Tille aeroport in France, which takes the “air” out of “port” and suffixes it with “-a-potty” to reflect how it feels) to pass through, LAX has one of the worst food offerings. You can go stretches at a time without seeing any food and, when you do, it’s bound to be one of the four McDonald’s scattered throughout the complex.  Welcome to Los Angeles.

Photo courtesy Lucyrk in LA via the Metblogs Flickr pool.

Unfortunately my iphone couldn’t capture the second tier of this amazing, glowing rainbow in the sky…
And earlier there was hail! Magical Los Angeles Weather!!!

Queen Skittles upon her trusty steed 2009 Doo Dah Parade.

Have you always wanted to be Queen, ride in a parade and “wave to your loyal subjects” as you go by on a float? The Rose Parade too rich for your tastes? You prefer to have fun rather than behave at official functions? Afraid to try out as you aren’t the “right” gender (yes, a dude was queen one year)? If you answered “yes” to just one of these then get your royal-wanna-be-self  over to the American Legion Hall this Saturday. First 20 queens hopefuls to arrive are admitted free-of-charge! $5.00 for all at the door. Food, pitchers of beer and well drinks at nominal (really cheap according to reigning Queen Skittles) prices!

The occasional Doo Dah Parade is set for May 1, 2o10. I can’t think of a better May Day celebration in all of LA and the lucky winner of Saturday’s try outs will be riding her own float for the world to bask in their Royal Glory!

Deets: Saturday Feb 13 2PM doors open, try outs at 3PM. American Legion, 179 N. Vinedo in Pasadena. 626-792-9938

click to embiggen

2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing season kicks off this weekend, February 11-14, with the 50th running of the Kragen O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals.   If you love loud and fast cars this is the weekend made for you.  I’m not kidding, invest in good ear protection for this as after the Pomona Finals in November my ears were ringing for a good hour after the event and I had good plugs with me.

To mark the milestone 50th running of the Winternationals, NHRA has scheduled a series of events to transform the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona into a virtual hot-rodding amusement park for the weekend:

• The Golden 50 Corral Car Show, effectively a museum displaying the cars including Roland Leong’s Hawaiian and Don “The Snake” Prudhomme’s Hot Wheels Funny Car that laid the foundation for today’s 7,000-horsepower, 300-mph dragsters.
• Daily cacklefests, featuring top cars from the last 50 years in one of the oldest traditions in drag racing
• Autograph sessions with NHRA legends, including Shirley Muldowney, “Big Daddy” Don Garlits, Bob Glidden, Kenny Bernstein to drop a few names.
• Exhibition runs by legendary tribute cars on the Auto Club Raceway track.
• The unveiling of the Greatest Moment in Winternationals history (the complete list of moments can be found on NHRA.com).

All the details can be found at the Fairplex web HERE.

Pic by me from the 11/15 NHRA Pomona Finals.

click to embiggen

Artists and Art can bring about cultural revolution. Manifest Equality has a call out to artists to submit work for a juried contest.   Entries must fit one of the theme’s Equality, Justice, Respect, Unity, Civil Rights and Love.  Entries must be submitted no later than 11:59AM February 19, 2010.

The Five first place winners will have their pieces shown at the Manifest Equality Gallery along side nationally known contemporary artists such as Barry McGee, Clare Rojas, Shepard Fairey among others in a show that will open to the public on March 3, 2010.

Additionally there will be 10 second place winners. Their work will be seen at an online gallery set up by Manifest Equality. The 5 first place winners will also have their work displayed in the online gallery.

Information regarding the art contest HERE.  Information on submitting your art HERE.

DETAILS: Manifest Equality will be open to the public, Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 through Sunday, March 7th, 2010 between the hours of 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM with extended hours Friday – Sunday. 1341 Vine, LA CA 90028.

The LA Times is reporting that the LA City council has defeated Measure 56 that would have eliminated funding for the Department of Cultural Affairs.  Why?  Simply because the local art community raised it voice and was heard by the council.

“This is the first time the arts community was able to mobilize in such an effective way,” said Danielle Brazell, executive director of the arts advocacy group Arts for L.A. “The arts locked arms and we were one community, and that’s extraordinary.”

Thank you all who helped out.

Had I figured out how to use my camera faster, this Two Boots slice wouldn't have been cold by the time I ate it.

You know them: you’re sitting down for a perfectly awesome meal when your dinner companion whips out a camera and takes a plate-level, eagle-eye, and close-up picture of her dish, then yours.  In the meantime, no one can touch the food, lest it ruin the shot.  Yeah, that dinner companion is me, and if I knew how to take better pictures, I might get the right shot the first or second time, and we all might get to eat a little faster.  Sorry.

For those of us needing the extra lesson or two on how to take pictures/use our camera in places that do not so kindly set up a light box especially for foodie bloggers (i.e., the very pretty soft box set up by Chef Ludo and his wife Krissy at the recently popped-down LudoBites at Royal/T), Daily Gluttony and other local foodie bloggers will be leading a “Phototasting” workshop on Saturday at the brand spanking new Hilton Checkers Hotel downtown.  Whether you have a fancy schmancy digital camera or a point and shoot, you’ll learn all about how to take food porn photos worthy of Giadia.  Best part: the $45 you’re laying down for the workshop includes not only the enrollment fee, but also the materials fee as well.  In other words, those aren’t plastic apples waiting for their close-up, people.  Checkers Chef (say that three times fast) Todd Allison has prepared dishes for you to practice on, guaranteeing that you’ll have enough pretty dishes to perfect your method.  After this class, you would have earned those high marks in the Food Didn’t Get Cold category.

The Phototasting workshop is from 12pm – 3pm this Saturday at the Hilton Checkers restaurant downtown.  Hop over to EventBrite to reserve your spot.  Between now and then, check out these handy tips from Caroline on Crack on how to take “porn-tastic” photos.  Of food.

Art is hard. I think so, anyway.

Not hard to create, really — although creating art is much harder than most people probably think — but often hard to know how you’re supposed to interact with. Sometimes, of course, that’s the point; a lot of art is meant to challenge your idea of what art is supposed to be. And sometimes, for any number of reasons, art can be so intimidating that we get turned off by it altogether. When I was a kid going to museums — and I’m sure I’m not alone here — I was so frequently warned not to touch the art that I developed the notion that good art was, well, untouchable. Meant to be looked at from afar but never interacted with in a meaningful way.

It’s a problem startup galleries like Control Room are trying to solve. For many young artists, breaking into any city’s art scene is about as easy as giving individual baths to a roomful of cats without getting the floor wet. And any local art scene can seem impenetrable to the common consumer of art. Control Room, a small space on 7th Street just west of Alameda (the Wholesale District, maybe? I dunno, exactly), attempts to welcome both casual art enthusiasts like myself and serious early-career artists looking for a place to get their work seen.

Read more, along with pics both artsy and fartsy, after the jump. Read the rest of this entry →

It started with an idea.  Justin Yuille wanted to help kids get into colleges and new that the average high school counselor is so overwhelmed it isn’t always possible to give each kid personalized help with applications let alone SAT’s.  He’s an educator and knows full well the challenges the kids face in getting help from counselors.  With the help of his family members (all educators, some I know personally) Foundation 44 was born.

That was 6 months ago and so far he has helped 75 kids from Pasadena’s Blair High School and Duarte High School to make it into college.  They are all smart kids from under privileged homes, the many the first in the family to make it to college.  They are in the process of working on obtaining their non-profit status as I write this.

Pepsi has a challenge running right now to give out grant money to programs such as this that help a community. The grant is huge $250K. In the end it comes down to votes and Foundation 44 needs votes if it is to grow and achieve their goal of helping 750 local kids from under-privileged homes make it into college.  If you want to help their cause VOTE HERE.

DK why but the location for tonights gold exchange has been changed…all the deets you could ever want:

CASH  FOR GOLD FUNDRAISER MOVED TO:
Monrovia Community Center/East K Dalton Room:  Tonight 6-8 pm
119 West Palm Avenue
Monrovia, CA 91016-2853
(626) 256-8246

Garcetti and a few of his pals on the LA City Council have put together a motion that will adversely affect the growth of the arts in LA by eliminating dedicated funding for the Department of Cultural Affairs. Specifically Motion 56 will divert the funds currently going to them from the hotel tax back to the general fund.  There is no provision in the motion to reinstate the funding at a later date.

What can you do to help prevent this from happening? Attend a Letter-Writing Party tonight hosted by the Angels Gate Cultural Center and the Grand Vision Foundation in San Pedro. Everything you will need from pre-drafted letters to pens for your signature will be provided. If you care to write your own custom letter, or can’t attend tonight’s letter writing party, visit Marshall Astor’s blog here.

The impact of this move is far reaching. It isn’t entirely about robbing one source to pay another. Should it pass staffing (IE more direct unemployment) will result as well as end grants that support local artists and arts organizations. Rippling out will be the loss of art for the community and jobs that are related to promotion and sale of art.

Time is of the essence as it is to be presented and up for vote on February 3.  If you can’t write, plan on attending and stating your position and with supporting arguments if possible.

Hat tip to Marshall Astor at the Angels Gate Cultural Center for alerting me to all of this.  I’m working with him for additional information on why this is such a bad idea and will post additional information when it is available.

Details: Feb 1, 5:30-8PM, the Grand Annex 434 W. 6th St.San Pedro 90731

UPDATE 6PM.  I asked Marshall Astor 5 questions to better understand why Measure 56 is important and how it will affect the city and him.  I got answers to that and more.  There may be one additional letter writing campaign tomorrow night.  To read the 5 questions you need to make the jump.

Update 2/2 Phone bank information and numbers to call added by Marshall Astor in the comments.  Don’t miss you chance to be heard.

Read the rest of this entry →