By far my most favorite auto show in the Los Angeles area has got to be the Rancho Palos Verdes Concours d’Elegance. This is a tightly curated show, few if any basic rides, it focuses on the premiere rides of days gone by. Two categories, restored and survivors that they call “Preservation” that are all original and just detailed out to show quality.
Make the jump for a few of my favorite cars of the day. Continue reading Rancho Palos Verdes Concours d’Elegance 2015 the overview
Only 25 examples of this car will be hand crafted. Its Los Angeles showing will be at the Palos Verdes Concours d’Elegance on September 20. (Full details on the car after the jump).
The Palos Verdes Concours d’Elegance is one of my most favorite shows in all of Southern California. IT IS without a doubt the best curated show out there and you can’t go wrong with the location –
General Parking for Concours d’Elegance
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2015
We are happy to be able to provide FREE general parking for this year’s Palos Verdes Concours d’Elegance through the generosity of Promenade on the Peninsula and Peninsula Shopping Center. Constantly running buses, courtesy of L.A. County Supervisor Don Knabe, will shuttle you to and from the Concours venue—about a 7 minute drive.
DIRECTIONS
From either Hawthorne or Crenshaw Blvds., turn onto Indian Peak Road.
At Promenade on the Peninsula parking structure:
Pics from last years show in my Flickr Album. Now make the jump and read about that car! Continue reading DiMora Vicci 6.2 to Highlight Palos Verdes Concours d’Elegance 9/20
Monrovia Association of Fine Arts (MAFA) is adding a Chalk Art Festival to its already established Celebrate the Arts. The show will be held September 26 and 27 with the Chalk Art produced and judged on the 26th. Celebrate the Arts is excited about this, its 52nd annual event in Library Park in historic Old Town Monrovia.
Prizes, yes there will be prizes that are funded by your nominal entry fee and by generous sponsors in the area.
If you’d like to join please write me direct [email protected] and I’ll send you an application with the full details. Unlike some other festivals we like to think of ours as the friendlier, more fun Chalk Art Festival in the SGV. Yes, there are some requirements. Entry fee of $25 but that also makes you a member of MAFA. Subject matter is wide open, but because the Celebrate the Arts is a community family oriented venture so you can’t include pornographic or erotic themes and content. You need to apply early as space is limited and spaces are assigned on a first come, first served basis. As Celebrate the Arts is MAFA’s big fund raiser for the year we ask that you create a small piece of art on a 12″X12″ canvas to be included in our silent auction.
Disclosure…I’m a Board Member and Jury Chairman for the Monrovia Association of Fine Arts. I donate way too much time according to my wife as I firmly believe in their mission statement: “Enhance the lives of those within our community through interaction with the arts. Increase the opportunities of our children through art education.”. And do “like” us on Facebook.
Edit 1:57 PM our First Prize sponsor has been signed on and announced.
http://youtu.be/YF_FDfNsjVc
Last Sunday was the Palos Verdes Concours d’Elegance, and I hope I wasn’t the only one here that went to see it. I gave you 2 week warning after all. In my not so humble this car show was the best I’ve ever seen and well worth the cost of admission.
What you got was a tightly curated show, all beautifully and accurately restored autmobiles. The show was spread out over several holes at the Trump National Golf Course in Palos Verdes. Cars were grouped by theme, Woodies, Virgil Exner Design, Innovative Design, Import, Hot Rod etc.,. There was even a special section dedicated to first generation Mustangs that are now celebrating their 50th years in existence. Continue reading 2014 Palos Verdes Concours d’Elegance recapped
I rarely put up a notice of an event that costs money to attend or this far in advance. But this show is big, beyond the normal car show we see here in L.A. Its the Palos Verdes Concours d’Elegance coming on September 14 at the Trump Mational Golf Course in Palos Verdes. This isn’t a cheap event, but has unique, rare and expensive automobiles. Think Cord, Auburn, Dusenberg…not Galaxy, Impala or other plebeian rides.
Among the cars there will be a full size Hot Wheels Darth Vader car that was made to look like the toy car. It was unveiled at Comic con this summer and will be at this show as well.
Also at the show there will be the worlds fastest motorcycle. The Gyronaut X-1that set a world record in 1966 at Bonneville Salt Flats with 245.667 MPH.
For the full press release and info on tickets you need to make the jump Continue reading Palos Verdes Concours d’Elegance coming 9/14
Inspired by Militant Angeleno’s awesome “88 Suburbs In Search Of Their Names” post from last week and equipped with the indispensable “1500 California Place Names” by William Bright, I decided to crack the latter open and see if I couldn’t add to the former’s impressive list of suburbs ‘n stuff. Turns out I could. Some are almost too obvious or well known to mention (Century City? Duh) and some are about as obscure as it gets (Lamanda Park?), but I mention them anyway — and there are a few that are pretty cool (check out the the 220-year-old typo that is Point Dume and the darkness that lurks behind the meaning of “Verdugo”).
So without further to-do, here’s my 65 supplemental places (64 in Los Angeles County and a 471-year-old one just up PCH in Ventura County). Enjoy!
Angeles National Forest: So named in 1908 because the larger part of the forest is within Los Angeles County.
Antelope Valley: Named not for a true antelope, but for the pronghorn (pictured) — the fastest land mammal in the Western Hemisphere — which was once abundant in the state.
Ballona Creek: From the Ballona land grant of 1839; probably a misspelling of Bayona, the name of a town in Spain.
Bel-Air: Named for its developer, Alphonso Bell, in 1923, on the model of French bel air, meaning “fresh air.”
Bouquet Canyon: A misinterpretation of Spanish El Buque, “the ship,” the nickname of a French sailor who settled there.
Brentwood: Named after Brentwood in Essex, England, the ancestral home landowner John Marsh.
Cahuenga Pass: From the Gabrielino village name kawé’nga, probably meaning “at the mountain.”
Canoga Park: Named in the 1890s after Canoga, New York, which was originally a Cayuga (Iroquoian) village.
Castaic: From Ventureño Chumas kashtiq, “the eye, the face”.
Centinela Creek: From the Spanish word for “sentry, sentinel.”
Century City: Named for 20th Century Fox film studios, on the site of which it was built, starting in 1961.
Chatsworth: Named in 1887 after the estate of the Duke of Devonshire in England.
Chilao: Formerly Chileo or Chilleo, a nickname of the herder Jose Gonzales, famous for killing a grizzly bear near here with only a hunting knife. Chil- what? Yeah, me too. It’s primarily a campground area waaay up in the Angeles National Forest.
Continue reading Sixty-Five More Los Angeles Placenames In Search Of Their Origins
LA Taco Blog is one of my must-reads. I’m WAY out of its demographic, practically none of its topics are written with anyone of my middle-class unhip ilk in mind, and it covers people, events, things in areas of the greater LA/SoCal region I rarely if ever visit, but I enjoy the hell out of it anyway. It’s like sitting in the back of a clubhouse fulla koolkidz who don’t care you’re there while they talk shop and share shit.
So it was that on a recent click over to their site last month, I found a post extolling the virtues of an eatery called Corner Burger, which is so named because it sits on a street corner on 147th Street a block west of a street called Hawthorne Boulevard. In a city called Lawndale. Which is all a big “Huh?” to me. You have to understand: up until I googled the place’s address, I had no idea where Lawndale was. A native angeleno and I had not a clue. That’s the way it was and is for me and much that region. I just don’t get out there (unless crawling along the 405 around the South Bay Curve counts — and it doesn’t).
I spotted this on the Smoking Tire’s channel this morning. Pretty awesome downhill boarding just outside the city limits. Interesting to note that these guys had helmets on, much better than the yahoos I was behind recently on Laurel Canyon doing this WITHOUT helmets.
Smoking Tire for those of you who don’t know is owned by Matt Farah who runs Smoking Tire.com and was interviewed by me a couple of years ago. Good guy, great cars and car reviews all taking place in and around Los Angeles.
It was bound to happen here eventually, another money grab that gives privilege to the wealthy at the expense of the rest of us. The Harbor Freeway is converting from traditional carpool HOV lanes to HOT (toll lanes) both directions from Adams to the 91 Freeway on Saturday. The toll paid will depend the time of day and congestion costing from 25 cents a mile to as much as $1.40 mile.
Motorcycles and legit carpoolers can still use the lane for free. You must have a transponder to use the newly christened HOT Lanes even if you are exempt from the tolls. Transponders can be purchased from the MTA and select Albertson and Costco stores. The MTA also charges a $3.00 fee per month for the privilege of having a transponder.
All the info you could want can be found via CHP Nixle and Metro Express Lanes web sites.
Have no fear SGV…you too will have Lexus Lanes coming after the first of the year for the 10 Freeway, both directions, from Downtown LA to the 605.
It’s possible to enjoy dark and edgy L.A., yet still be a geek for corny Americana such as county fairs, July 4 parades, and the 38th Annual Festival of the Kite on Redondo Beach. I’m a testament to this fact, and was there yesterday at the to enjoy the aerial festivities.
It was a beautiful day, it was winter, we were on the beach, surrounded by hundreds of colorful kites. And the L.A. skyline was comfortably close by.
http://youtu.be/bz-nO6WvOYw
File this under found on road alive. A Redondo Beach man bought the car new in 1964 and had it for 20 years before he sold it. His sons went upon the quest to find the car and return it to him. The quest led across the country where they finally found the car on a lot in Canada. They bought it and returned it to him as a gift.
In the land that rust forgot what old car from your past would you like to have back? For me its a mixed bag but the one I regret selling the most that I’d love to have back is my old ’72 Centurion which took us on many a road trip to the beach and shows all over the L.A. area.
A lot of people in LA are looking for jobs, and today Jezebel picked up on an opportunity right here in our own back yard for any anorexics seeking gainful employment. Well, not “intentional” anorexics, according to the ad. But you know, if you just happened to stumble into your eating disorder by chance, then maybe this gig’s for you.
Continue reading Today in Craigslist: Looking Sickly for Fun and Profit
I love businesses that support the art. I even like them better when they give up space to showcase new and emerging artists. That is exactly what South Bay Lexus in Torrance has done. They have donated space on their lot for a bunch of pods to be set up as pop up gallery spaces. There are over 50 pods, over 400 artists, curators, museums, galleries and fun, one-stop shopping for art.
More information on the art and artists can be found on Fine Art Trekkin’ Torrance and Fine Art Trekkin’ South Bay.
Deets: 9/3 & 9/4/11Saturday and Sunday Sept 3, 4 noon-6pm. South Bay Lexus.24777 Crenshaw Blvd. Torrance, California 90505
Have you ever wanted to start your own taxi or livery business? Ever just want to take cop car for a spin and couldn’t fearing the consequences? Well you can if you buy one of these retired beauties from the CHP. The potential uses are there, it just takes a little creative thinking.
They are sold out of Torrance with lists updated daily. They even start as low as $2,500, arrest history not included. For all your retired cruiser shopping needs its as easy as a quick phone call to 310-538-0469 for daily updated listings.
I’d probably skip the old Taurus sedans and go straight for the Crown Vic…been in a few over the years and can tell you they ride and handle much differently than the straight up civilian version. Just remember caveat emptor as these cars though well maintained have had a lot of hard miles put on them.
Pics courtesy CHP Southern via twitter and used with their permission.
No. I’m serious. You need to go outside today. It’s beautiful out right now. Isn’t this why you live in Los Angeles? To enjoy weather like this when the rest of the nation is in less-than-desirable conditions? Look:
This was the view earlier in Long Beach. And I’m sure it’s looks similar elsewhere.
“Not everyone has the luxury of having weekends off, DAVE!”
*slide glasses back up nose on angry face*
Trust me. I know. I work most weekends and holidays. But I also know you can walk outside and enjoy the weather, if only for a few minutes.
So uh……..go!
And if you have the time, come down to Long Beach. It’s beautiful. And we have a great bike path.
