The history of Carroll Shelby is too lengthy to recite here, but suffice it to say he’s the man behind the development and/or perfection of some of the most famous cars in performance and racing car history, including the AC Cobra, the Shelby Mustang GT 350, and the Ford GT40, as well as the Sunbeam Tiger. Moreover, Shelby worked much of his magic within a short tire-screeching drive of the Pier. Plenty of examples of these cars, as well as newer models given the Shelby treatment, will be on hand Saturday, along with their owners. It’s one of the largest collections of Shelbys you’ll see anywhere, and it’s free!
The Shelby show runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., with numerous awards to be given, including Best of Show, starting at 2. I’ll be the one holding a camera and drooling.
Yesterday was my annual pilgrimage to Venice Beach with the kids for their end o’ summer/back to school field trip. (I celebrate the latter).
It is so sad to see the changes going on in Venice right now. Where the sidewalk was once lined with artists and musicians it is now packed with EZ-up tents selling mostly swap meet type crap. To even get to the tent city one has to wade through a gauntlet of a dozen or so “independent musicians” hawking their latest CD in a very aggressive in your face manner.
I can count on my hand the number artists left on the sidewalk of Venice Beach. It was sad to see so few of them left. It was even sadder to see the number musicians has dwindled to less than a handful. I miss them all, they were the heart and soul of the Venice Beach that I have come to love over my years here. Read the rest of this entry →
Although I work mostly from home, a large residential construction project next door this summer has pile-driven me out of the house. Therefore, I’ve been searching for the perfect West Side coffee shop in which to work. While this subject has been picked before, and others have their own considerations, I have a challenging qualification to add to the basic requirements of tasty coffee and free WiFi: the place has to be kind of quiet.
Before you ask, I’ll answer: (1) Yes, I’ve tried local libraries. Have you been to one lately? Loud talking and even cell phone chatting is now standard practice. (2) Yes, I own noise-cancelling headphones, and use them frequently. (3) Yes, I realize that coffee houses have a long history as places of lively conversation. (4) A real office or shared workspace? Yes, I’ve thought about it. But how’s their coffee?
After last weekend’s Carmageddon threat, which drove hordes of Los Angeles drivers off the roads and away from the local beaches, today was a different story. It was back to normal in Santa Monica and Venice, meaning tons of cars jamming up the east-west roads like Washington Blvd. and the 10 Freeway, trying to get to the beach. Then, in the late afternoon, the jam reversed direction. In fact, the 10 was bumper to bumper in both directions at about 4:45 p.m. today, as viewed from the 11th Street overpass in Santa Monica.
Welcome back to summer weekends by the beach in L.A. I kind of miss Carmageddon.
Bathroom etiquette takes many forms. Yesterday I was in a high-falutin office complex in Santa Monica and spotted this sign in the mens room. It made me laugh, then it made me wonder what the hell happened that made them post the warning. They not only ask you to clean up after yourself but then enumerate the steps to do so.
The image is kinda crappy as it was done with a cell phone. To save you the squinting eye strain here are the steps in short. Flush more than once to leave a clean bowl, make sure the ass gasket is flushed completely, make sure the seat is dry and lastly wash your hands.
Granted it made for a really nice clean restroom and there are plenty of others in the city that could use similar instructions. Where is your favorite potty stop in the city? Least favorite?
Before The Event That Never Was, I wrote about the need for a rail line along the 405 corridor. I exchanged a few emails with Bart Reed of the Transit Coalition, who shared some insight as to how to get such an important piece of the transit puzzle off the ground (or rather, under.) He said they have been in talks with Los Angeles Council Districts 6 and 11, and that they would begin promoting through social media sites.
I asked Bart how people could get more involved. He said that we need to start by garnering support from neighborhood councils. So, that’s where I began, with a few emails of my own:
This past weekend, the closure of the 405 and the media attention it received resulted in a ripple effect on the entire freeway system. Drivers got lucky. Businesses did not. This further illustrates the need for viable transportation alternatives. Specifically, a more comprehensive regional rail network.
As a contributing author for Blogging.LA, I wanted to get your input on a newly envisioned Metro rail line from the Valley to the Westside, by way of the 405 corridor.
Trees are a big deal in Santa Monica. Sometimes they get manicured. Sometimes they get cut down and cause a controversy. In this case, on 11th Street near Santa Monica Blvd., a lone protester has made a stand on a tree stump. The handwritten note taped to the traffic cone on top of the stump reads:
R.I.P. *Here remains what was once a beautiful TREE cut down under our very noses. When will [our] city cease this action?
Hopefully, the city had a good reason to cut down the tree, i.e., that it was dead or dying, rather than just some form of aesthetic tree gentrification. I did see some newly planted trees nearby on the same block, so perhaps that is what will happen here too.
As you may already have heard, the 405 freeway will be shut down between the 10 and the 101 on July 16 and 17. The MTA is so excited about this closure that it has given us a fabulous “I-405: Countdown to the Closure” clock that tells us exactly how many days, hours, minutes, and seconds we have until Carmageddon 2011. When you’re not watching the seconds of your life flipping past your very eyes, check out the information on the closure, alternate routes, and general advice from officials to just stay away from the Westside (as if you needed a reason) (oh, snap) during that weekend.
Marina del Rey 4th of July reveler from apparently cash flush 2009
According to the Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors (see top link under “News and Press Releases”), “[t]here will be no fireworks display this year in Marina del Rey in celebration of Independence Day on Monday, July 4, 2011 due to budget curtailments.” That has got to be a big disappointment not just to locals who enjoy the big fireworks show from the Marina Boat Channel, Burton Chace Park, Venice Beach, and Playa del Rey, but also to many other Angelenos who braved the local driving and parking nightmares in previous years to see it too.
It’s good to see that at least one driver in L.A. doesn’t take himself or herself too seriously. Spotted at the Orchard Supply Hardware (OSH) parking lot on S. Bundy in W.L.A., this is anything but a parking d-bag. The exterior of the car is full of hoses, radio controls, a fish tank…. Hopefully the driver was inside getting a kitchen sink for a hood ornament.
I saw this on the LAFD blog and I just had to share it with you all because it’s damn heartwarming. It seems a hawk got tangled in some fishing line or nylon thread of some kind too high up for animal control or anyone else to be able to reach it, so the LAFD came to the rescue. It’s like the badass version of getting a cat out of a tree. Go LAFD. Thanks for being so awesome.
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