I’ve spent a fair amount of time leading up to today’s anniversary putting off thoughts on how to commemorate it. But when I was awakened far too early this Sunday for no good or known reason, I moped around drinking coffee as the clock advanced toward the moment that changed everything when that first jet struck the World Trade Center’s North Tower at 8:46 EDT. When it arrived I was of a mind just to pour another cup and let it march past unacknowledged, but that didn’t seem right. So instead I lit a candle and set it out on the porch in the dark next to the American flag and I said a little prayer to no entity in particular about no one in particular. Amen.

Rafael Tovar's photo used through Creative Commons license

It’s hard to believe it’s been more than 30 years since Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures (1979) and Closer (1980) were released. For those of us whose formative years were the 80s, Joy Division was emblematic of a dark, introspective aesthetic that was, at the time, almost self-parodic. Even now, the quality of the music itself can be eclipsed by the specter of hipster couples with matching skinny jeans and “Love Will Tear Us Apart” tattoos in script on their forearms. Nonetheless, if you can look past the silliest of the fans, and give them a fair listen, it’s hard to argue with the fact that Joy Division’s music is just damn good. Closer and Unknown Pleasures are among the very best post-punk albums ever.

And guess what, kids? You have the chance to hear Peter Hook, who once upon a time was Joy Division’s bassist and backing vocalist, and the Light perform either Closer at the Music Box on Wednesday the 14th or Unknown Pleasures at the El Rey on Friday the 16th. And, to make it even more special, Moby will be singing a couple of Joy Division songs at both shows. I have a free pair of tickets to the show of your choice to one lucky reader. All you have to do is leave a comment below telling me which show you’d prefer to see. A winner will be chosen randomly by the end of the day Monday. Please be sure to leave a current email address when you comment and watch your email Monday night/Tuesday morning. Enjoy (or something).

Photo courtesy Chris Yarzab via the Blogging LA Flickr pool.

This weekend: Baja Night 3.0; paranormal activity; and it’s, already, been ten years.

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Thanks to the Internet Archive by way of Blogdowntown I found this high-resolution digitization of some amazing footage of 1940s downtown, apparently filmed for use in some unidentified motion picture. Look close and you might see John Fante (or perhaps even Arturo Bandini) walking around.

The clip is made up of several segments, and is literally the next best thing to actual time travel. As best as I can plot it the car follows this route from 2nd Street to Grand, to 5th Street to Flower and back up to 2nd. I’ve already spent too much time scrolling through it frame by frame just entirely mindblown at the slice-of-life details to be discovered in the people and places and passenger vehicles the camera captures in passing, and invite you to get lost in this record of a long-gone Bunker Hill (best viewed full screen in 1080p) :

Tear down after the last rearender

According to a recent Allstate study we are.  Our rank…#182 out of 200 rated large cities in the U.S.  According to their actuary data we are 50.8% more likely to be in an accident than the national average, averaging one every 6.8 years.

Inattention from my experience is the #1 cause.  Why…I worked a claims desk for a number of years and everyones excuse always was “I never saw the other car”.  I’ve even heard the driver rearending me saying they didn’t notice I had stopped. Of course there were other factors, newly licensed drivers, new to the area drivers and under the influence, but that wasn’t in every accident. Read the rest of this entry →

When shaved-headed synthesized symphonist Moby released a book of photographs to accompany his album “destroyed“ last May, a number of the photos were sent on a worldwide yet very limited tour of art galleries. Moby’s photo tour hits Culver City’s Kopeikin Gallery this Saturday, September 10, through October 22.

Sayeth Moby’s website:

Destroyed introduces us to a side of touring that is often unexposed; secluded time spent in artificial spaces like hotel rooms and backstage waiting areas. The combined album and photo book provides an intimate look at Moby’s world and his creative process as an artist, both the music and photos were created in the same period and draw inspiration from the strange and sublime world of touring.

So … Linda McCartney meets Lost In Translation? Could be very interesting.

Last week I found the above banner installed just south of the Sunset Boulevard Bridge over Silver Lake Boulevard, and this morning when I discovered it torn to shreds, my suspicions were confirmed: It was printed on a material that if not plastic is at least heavily plasticized.

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

This is a trivia teaser for the LA County Fair tickets that I have to give away.  You don’t expect to get a 4 pack of general admission tickets and parking by just being the first to answer do you?  The first person to get me the correct answer to the trivia question will win the pack of tickets and the parking pass.  When answering your trivia question please make sure you have a real email addy that I can use to contact you to have the tickets sent to you.  Now for the question:

How many animatronic dinosaurs are on display in Jurassic Planet?

If you don’t wanna take a guess at the trivia answer you can always just purchase your tickets HERE.

Courtesy East of West LA via the Blogging LA Flickr pool.

GTD this weekend: a protest maybe?  Or, fine, food festivals for those who can, a quiz about LA’s progressive history for those who have forgotten, and beer and BBQ for those who are traditional.

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It’s been going something like this for summer after summer after summer: I’m in the backyard. A western tiger swallowtail swoops in and busies itself fluttering along the overgrown bougainvillea, never fully stopping at one bloom. I rush into the house, grab the camera, and by the time I rush back out, the elusive creature is either long gone or it lingers haphazardly just long enough for me to get one reeeeally blurry shot before it leaves.

Today it went exactly like that up until the last part where I got one shot that was as if the gorgeous thing decided it had enough fun playing with me and posed, and I offer it for your pre-Labor Day weekend viewing enjoyment  (click to biggify):

Hope y’all have a great holiday.

Photo courtesy of KCRW

If you draw a Venn diagram between donut lovers and pie lovers among blogging.la readers, I suspect that the overlap would be considerable. That’s why I’m excited that KCRW’s 3rd Annual Good Food Pie Contest will be held at LACMA on Sunday, September 18.

The Pie Contest will take place from 2-4 p.m. on the lawns behind the museum, and will be judged by notable Los Angeles area chefs and food writers, including LA Weekly‘s Jonathan Gold and Zoe Nathan, chef/owner of Huckleberry Cafe.  KCRW’s “Good Food” program host Evan Kleiman will emcee, which is appropriate since Kleiman’s blog about baking a pie a day was the inspiration for the contest. Additionally, LACMA’s Family Days in September will be dedicated to the theme of pie.

KCRW is also holding an essay contest in connection with the event: “Tell us the story of the pie that changed your life, in 500 words or less”. The winner gets to be a judge in the pie contest. But hurry, just two more days to submit your essay.

To enter a pie in the contest, click on the second link above. The entry cost is $10. For non-contestants, admission is free, including a taste once the judging is complete. And this year,  to tie in with LACMA’s Tim Burton exhibition, the contest will include a category for “Tim Burton-inspired pie”. Now that’s something a Donut Summiteer could love.

It was spray painted onto the sidewalk a few doors down from where I live a week or so ago, and I’ve given it glances passing by it coming and going on easily a half-dozen dog walks, but it wasn’t until this morning on a stroll to the nearest mailbox around the corner that I finally stopped and gave it a scan (click to biggify):

Deep Fried Kool-Aid

If something deep fried that shouldn’t be isn’t a big enough hint its time for the LA County Fair I don’t know what is. This years outrageous deep fried thingy is Kool-aid, and it isn’t as bad as you think it might be. Maybe it was coming off of this years Donut Summit that made it all the more palatable but those Kool-aid flavored donut holes are something to behold. Imagine if you will a cherry flavored donut hole that is dusted with a blend of powdered sugar and cherry Kool-aid and you get the flavor profile of this deep fried treat invented by Chicken Charlie.

Last night was the LA County fair hosted local media types to come and get a tasting of the fare offerings this year. We got to graze through a sampling grazing of the biggies at the fair starting with Bubba’s and Chicken Charlies and into food trucks such as Piaggio’s and Crepes Bonapartes. You have to make the jump to get the deets on what I grazed upon as well as on the fair itself.  Read the rest of this entry →

Need an 8-minute frivolous diversion?

With my camera rigged up to the eyepiece of my spotting scope (with duct tape and adhesive putty), from my backyard I pointed it at Sunset Boulevard between Descanso (just out of view at the bottom) and the Maltman bend in Silver Lake (at the top) to timelapse capture the afternoon traffic flow.