This weekend: the gays.  Many gays.  We are coming to get you, in other words.

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I’ve really been looking forward to the matt & kim concert for a while, but alas have been sidetracked by an impromptu trip to Japan (they’re running crazy travel deals to re-boost their tourism in case you’re wondering), so if you’re the lucky winner, you better dance your heart out for me as well!

Thanks to our friends at Goldenvoice, they’ve sent over a pair of tickets for one lucky Blogging.LA reader to the upcoming Matt & Kim Concert at the Music Box on Friday June 17th. Being terribly sad about not being able to go, I want you guys to leave a comment below with your favorite Japanese food and/or (since we’re promoting the awesome M&K duo) your favorite memory associated w/ a M&K song.

I’ll pick a reader at random to get a pair of tickets for Friday night’s show! The contest ends Tuesday June 14th at noon PST.

You can also buy tickets HERE at Goldenvoice!

Heads up – I’m also going to announce a Kid Cudi giveaway soon, so be on the look-out!

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This is done by one of the former bloggers here, Dave Bullock.  Dave is one of my fave L.A. Photographers. He does a wide variety of work well.  I particularly like his High Dynamic Range (HDR) work.  In brief HDR images are the combination of several frames shot at different exposures that are then combined into a single image that captures a fuller range of grays and deeper saturation than a single frame can capture.  This time lapse is all HDR so I can appreciate the effort that he put into make the short film.  If you have the bandwidth opt for the High Definition frames.  More of Dave’s work can be found on his web sites Dave Bullock and eecue.

People often complain that Los Angeles is an ugly city with no character, which is not really true, unless you’ve had the grave misfortune at seeing the city from the monstrosity that is the Hollywood and Highland structure.  To see LA, you really have to dig in and look.  And that’s exactly what Kevin McCollister, aka East of West LA, does, one photo at a time.

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View from Mt. Wilson just off Angeles Crest Highway

Last Friday, Caltrans announced that the portion of California State Route 2 known as the Angeles Crest Highway is now open over its full 66-mile length from La Canada Flintridge to Wrightwood (see June 3 press release on this page). This has been a long time coming for Los Angeles area sports car and sport bike enthusiasts, as well as hikers and others who have discovered this nearby escape route over the years. Unfortunately, the Highway has had more destructive disasters than the castle in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”.
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I love going to a movie at a drive-in theatre:  it’s one of my top ten summertime things to do.  This is partly due to a bit of a nostalgia factor – my mom would occasionally bundle my sisters and I up in the car when we were kids and take us to see movie at the drive-in, and we were allowed to wear our pyjamas, which was awesome.  But it’s also because I am both incredibly snarky and unfailingly polite, which is something that can cause a great deal of inner turmoil at a conventional movie theatre:  my inner snark demands that I point out, with glee, all of the ridiculousness and inaccuracies in every summer blockbuster that I see.  However, my inner Miss Manners demands that I hold myself back lest I ruin the movie-going experience of my fellow cinephiles.  The drive-in, therefore, is the perfect place to go see a ridiculous, inaccurate (but still fun, don’t get me wrong!) summer blockbuster:  I can be as snarky as I want, in the comfort of my own car, and only the (equally snarky) friends who are with me need to hear it.  Thank you, drive in movie theatres, for being the solution to very trivial problems!

If you’ve never been to a drive-in theatre (and I’m always surprised at how many people haven’t!) you should go.  There are a few good drive-ins around LA to choose from.  Last week, I caught Pirates 4 at the Mission Tiki Drive-In near Pomona, which has a fabulously decked-out retro tiki snack bar.  There’s also the Vineland Drive-In in City of Industry.  Devil’s Night Drive In takes place once a month in Downtown LA, on the 2^nd floor roof parking lot at 240 W. 4^th Street, and they have carhops to serve you food!

Sadly, most of the other drive-ins in LA county are shuttered (the LA county page on Roadsidepeek.com is almost like a tragic graveyard of abandoned drive in sites) but there are a few left somewhat further afield – Riverside has both the Rubidoux and the Van Buren.  And the Southern California Drive-In Movie Society is doing what they can to keep people interested and drive-ins open.

Photo by Kenneth Adam.

As you might recall, I was pretty excited about the prospect of breaking my ass-bone for four long hours back in May to experience the epic splendor that was Love Exposure. The Silent Movie theater is not a venue for the faint of heart, and even less so when it involves a four-hour long movie. But having seen it, and suffered the possibly permanent ill-effects on my ass and lower back as a result, I’m here to say that those of you who missed your shot during the week-long engagement in May were – ahem – fucking up.

But alas, we live in a very provident universe, and you have another opportunity to pay $10 for the opportunity to wage war on your gluteal muscles. Next Saturday, the 11th of June at 2:30pm Pacific Standard Time, Love Exposure will play once more at the Silent Movie theater courtesy of the fine folks over at Cinefamily. And get this – writer-director-madman Sion Sono will be there in person.

It couldn’t possibly get any better than that, now could it?? Ha – you’re wrong there, too. Not only will Sion Sono be there for the encore screening of Love Exposure, he will be there for screenings of not one, not two, but three other insane films full of homicidal Japanese schoolgirls, psychopaths, and magical demon hair. Read the rest of this entry →

I Have One Pair of Tickets for a Lucky Someone to see John Prine and Loudon Wainwright III

Friday, June 10th
At the
Orpheum Theater
842 S Broadway
Los Angeles, California 90014

Let me know in the comments why this pair of tickets belong to you!

I MUST have all entries in By WEDNESDAY!

Good Luck!

June 8th is World Oceans Day, a day to “celebrate and honor the body of water which links us all, for what it provides humans and what it represents.” As a nod to World Oceans Day, the LA 3-D Club, in conjunction with San Diego-based PassmoreLab, is presenting the Los Angeles premiere of Ocean Voyagers 3D tomorrow night at the Downtown Independent. The 72-minute documentary features rare footage gathered by filmmakers with unprecedented access.

Narrated by Oscar, Golden Globe and Emmy Award winning actress Meryl Streep, and filmed over a 5-year span in the waters of French Polynesia, Hawaii, Alaska and beyond, the film follows a mother humpback whale and her newborn calf in a “coming of age” journey for the neonate giant.

Blogging.la is giving a pair of tickets to the screening to one commenter. Leave us a note and one lucky winner will be selected around Noon tomorrow.  See below for more details about the event:

Ocean Voyagers 3D Screening + Q&A
Sunday, June 5, 2011 at 8pm

Downtown Independent Theater is located at 251 S. Main St., Los Angeles, 90012

$5 for current LA3DClub members; $10 for non-members (admission is waived with USC Student ID)
FREE if your comment is selected at random!

Missing Persons was wrong. The problem isn’t that nobody walks in LA.

No, actually, the opposite is true: On warm days like the ones we’ve been having lately, nearly everyone gets out and does a little perambulating. No, the problem is that when people in Los Angeles choose to use the sidewalk, they do so while forgetting or being wholly ignorant of the rules of sidewalk travel.

Seriously: My resolution for the second half of 2011 is to try to be a little more cognizant of my fellow pedestrians, which means staying alert and making sure to share the concrete with everyone. And, frankly, I think some of my neighbors could use a little refresher on sidewalk etiquette as well; the sidewalks here tend to be narrower than in other metropolitan areas, and it’s a bit more of a challenge to maintain proper respect for the people around you. As such, hereare some answers to a few of the more frequently asked questions about sidewalk etiquette:

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Want some really great Vietnamese food?

It’s cheap, yummy, and for the love of god It Has Parking!

(maybe I should save this as a draft until I eat there a few more times)

Compromise: I just won’t post the address – D’oh!

The author as Thatawayman somewhere between Boyle Heights and Vernon last year (Photo courtesy my friend and fellow route marker Stephen Roullier).

I’m a far more consistent Los Angeles River Ride volunteer than I am a participant. Though I can trace my sporadic involvement as a rider back to 2001, I’ve only done the LA County Bicycle Coalition’s annual trip to Long Beach and back four times.

Part of the reason for such laxness is that I’ve been far more consistent every year since 2006 in getting up the morning before the big event and getting my ride on helping to mark the section of the route from Mariachi Plaza in Boyle Heights to Imperial Highway and back.

This year’s no exception. And the reason I’m telling you this is not only to remind you the ride itself is Sunday, but also to invite you — if you’re both morning-embracing and volunteeristically inclined — to join me and the hearty band of route markers tomorrow morning either at 7:30 a.m. in front of Echo Park’s Brite Spot for the ride to the Los Angeles River Center, or at 8 a.m. there (map). Either way have a bike in good working order as well as a pack-pack to help haul the materials.

If the volunteer ranks marshaled tomorrow by organizer extraordinaire Colin Bogart end up a bit thin you might get pressed into service marking another stage, but if  the no-shows are minimal feel free join me and my friend Stephen Roullier. We’re planning after we finish placing arrows and hanging signs (somewhere around noon) on lunching at the Most Awesome Blue Star in the Scrap Metal District before heading back uptown.

Donuts at Randy's

Happy National Donut Day, everyone!!  This weekend, there’s a beer garden pop-up; sluts marching proudly; and, for those of you not in the Bay Area for the start of the AIDS/Life Cycle event, a biking adventure along the LA River.

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Back by very popular demand, blogging.LA is proud to announce the 2011 Donut Summit, the sequel to last summer’s showdown, from which Glendora’s Donut Man emerged with the much-coveted title of Donut King!  Mark your calendars for Sunday, July 31, and join us for another battle for the Los Angeles Donut Crown!  Check back next week for more details.

And today, not coincidentally, is National Donut Day!  I suggest you pre-game for the Donut Summit with a donut or twelve from your favorite donut establishment.  Or check out some of the extra special Donut Day offerings that some local eateries have on the menu just for today:

BLD, at 7450 Beverly Blvd., is offering a three donut flight that includes a blueberry ricotta donut with maple syrup, a banana cream pie donut, and a pulled pork donut.  (via LA Weekly)

The Buttermilk Truck has donuts on offer this week in conjunction with the Geffen Playhouse’s new show, Superior Donuts.  They’ll be in front of the Geffen in Westwood from 11:30-2:00 today, with donuts served up by members of the cast.  You can follow the Buttermilk Truck on twitter.

This year is actually the 73rd National Donut Day, believe it or not.  It was started by the Salvation Army to honor veterans after World War I, and more specifically to honor “lassies,” who were female volunteers who provided piping hot donuts to American troops during the war.  Many local donut shops are accepting donating part of today’s proceeds to the Salvation Army.  A list of participating LA donut shops is available here.

If you’ve got any favorite spots to hit for National Donut Day, let us know in the comments!  And don’t forget to join us on July 31st for the Ultimate Donut Showdown!!!

I’m just a bit melancholy this morning. My youngest is finishing up middle school where it seems like I’ve spent an eternity already. Both of my boys were in Drama as their elective. Their fall and spring plays were always punctuated with some corny jokes by their teacher Randy Medina during the intermission.  Last night was my final “Spring Performance” by the Clifton Middle School Drama class and am going to miss those corny, punny jokes of his.