Ladies and gentlemen, if there was a competition for Most Overly Decorated Front Yard then it would be with trembling pleasure that I present to you the unanimous winner located on Redondo Boulevard between Washington and the 10 Freeway (click to fill your monitor with scrolltastic enormification):
And yes, there is one gnome.
I first found this window-seated trio in a custom t-shirt shop on the south side of Washington Boulevard coming back to work from a lunchtime visit to the Culver City Costco a couple weeks ago. For all I’m unfamiliar with the area this could be a long-standing installation, but given the potentially fleeting nature of such displays I had been plotting a return trip to pixelize the cute-overloaded klatch. Then the rains came and it wasn’t until last night that my bike and I took the loooong way home in order to grab this snap and share, which rhymes with bear (click to triplify).
Here’s a wider angle view that includes a bit more of the storefront and someone’s bicycle.
While they won’t be able to move the Air Force One into the Kodak Theatre for tomorrow night’s Democratic debate, CNN will be moving the desks.
After the jump, a few select stills from the site of today’s debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, courtesy CNN.
Continue reading How can you beat this backdrop?
Driving through a back alley in the Valley last night, I came across a sprawling tree, its branches swaying in the wind, ghostly in the moonlight, heavy with pale, glowing fruit. I resolved to come back in the morning and take a photo. The tree has more fruit than leaves, and someone’s valiantly attempting to pick them–a ladder has been pulled up underneath the lowermost branches–but the owner can’t possibly hope to harvest them all from the short ladder.
Point of interest: this humble little house with its unabashedly prolific tree faces the alley, with no entrance or frontage on the main streets. Seems like a modest little home of this sort getting such a glorious tree in its yard is a form of nature’s justice. When I stopped to take the pics this morning the only activity in the cold alley was a manic chihuahua running amok, approx. 30 yards south, with a teenager chasing it around, trying to corral it back into a yard.
I know, you’ve all seen lemon trees before, but this one was just so jawdroppingly lovely I had to pull an “ICME“.
More pics behind the jump. Now, I wonder, can anyone estimate the number of lemons? It looks like there’s about 4.3 per square foot, but I can’t quite guesstimate how many square feet are in the tree. Bonus points for then figuring how many lemon meringue pies the whole tree could produce.
Continue reading Summer Holds Out in One Tree in LA
Four mayors leave Oakland on a bus traveling at 65mph to campaign for a Presidential candidate, with stops scheduled for Sacramento and Los Angeles. Two of them are cheaters. Both have been divorced. The candidate herself was once cheated on by a President, who now campaigns for her.
How many cheaters are campaigning for the candidate? If she wins the primary, will it mean that the candidate has won by cheating?
Discuss.
Photo of the Four California Riders from KNBC
LAFD’s Brian Humphrey just posted alerts of a “water main rupture with pavement damage” at 3487 W Cahuenga, adding moments ago:
A full traffic closure of Cahuenga Blvd at location is imminent.
Keep an eye on their alert page for further updates.
I can almost buy that in the mid-90s even a sane, intelligent, tech savvy person would occasionally fall for a Nigerian email scam… but this?
Police are warning Cerritos residents of a scam that has taken two people so far:
Claiming to have found the purse in the street, the scammer says he is willing to split the money legally with the individual if they fork over cash to hire an attorney.
The victim will then give the scammer more than $1,000 in “good faith money,” believing the scammer is going to match that money and hire an attorney.
The scammer then disappears. [Long Beach Press-Telegram]
Is it really this easy to con someone? And who carries around $1,000 in good faith money?
Unless you love politics or traffic, avoid Hollywood tomorrow. The CNN Democratic Debate at the Kodak Theatre could create the largest traffic tie up in the area since last year’s Academy Awards.
Hollywood Blvd. will be closed between Highland and Orange all day, and due to heightened security due to the presence of Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama, the LAPD “may make further road closure determinations” without notice.
While the debate is a ticketed, invite only event, some outside activities to take note of:
*Evidence of inconsistent, but not lazy, use of periods.
I can hardly believe that this isn’t a joke. Taco Bell is offering WGA writers the chance to come up with witty slogans for the packets of Border Sauce. Yes, really. Previous witty slogans include such gems as “If you throw this, would it be a flying saucer?” Believe it or not, someone has actually compiled past slogans here. (OMG, and this one has pictures! I love the interwebs.)
For the chance to win up to $260 in fast food, I’m sure every striking writer in town will be away from the picket lines today, agonizing over the perfect slogan.
Hey, it’s better than what the Companies have offered so far.
Hat tip to Research Buzz and to Travis for finding this story.
LAPD is looking for 15-year-old Wendy Jennifer Lemus, who has been missing since January 24, 2008.
On January 24, 2008, Wendy left home to go to school at Johnny Cochran Middle School, 4066 West 17th Street in South Los Angeles. Wendy was supposed to meet her mother at the pick up location after school at around 3 PM, but she failed to show. Wendy was last seen on school campus at approximately 12:45 PM.
Investigators are receiving information that Wendy was possibly sighted in the area of Crenshaw Boulevard and Washington Boulevard or Martin Luther King Boulevard.
Continue reading 15-Year-Old Girl Missing
Throughout the day tomorrow I’ll be posting from CNN’s Spin Room and other locations around the Kodak Theatre where the final Democratic debate will be held before next Tuesday’s primary election. (“other locations” will likely include Ken Davitian’s The Dip restaurant.)
According to David Bohrman, CNN’s Washington bureau chief, management of the Kodak Theatre had “always wanted to have a Presidential debate” at the venue, and what better timing: unless the Writer’s Guild Strike is resolved or they issues the Academy Awards a waiver, the debates could be the most high profile event to be held there this year.
During yesterday’s press walk thru, a Current TV reporter asked Bohrman if he felt the respective locations for the Republican and Democratic debates were filling stereotypes for both parties – the Dems in Hollywood, while tonite’s Republican’s debate will be held at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley. Bohrman, who is also producing both events, acknowledged that especially for the Republicans it certainly seemed to be an image they were running from. He added that he’d have preferred to have both debates in one location but political party leaders had their own ideas.
I bumped into LA Observed’s Kevin Roderick at the walk thru, who wrote afterward about the seating arrangements marked off for Mayor V, Chief Bratton. San Fran Mayor Newsom, among others. I also spotted and introduced myself to KCAL9 newsman Bryan Frank, aka BeFrank. If any other local bloggers or readers will be attending or covering the event, please drop me a line in the comments or via email (unsomnambulist at gmail dot com).
Congratulations to Ric Sarabia for predicting the death of Mormon Church President Gordon Hinckley in our dead pool contest and winning tickets to see Siouxsie at the Music Box Theatre next month.
If you’d still like a chance to win, you have less than two days to leave a comment at the original post, where you’re also invited to leave your own dead pool. If anyone on your list dies between the time you leave your comment, you automatically win a pair of tickets… which would be really freakin’ creepy, considering it would have to happen almost immediately. Leftover tickets will go to a randomly selected winners.
Check this link to enter and for complete rules.
Siouxsie and Rasputina
February 15th and 16th (sold out)
Music Box at the Fonda, 6126 Hollywood Blvd.
ticket info
…that Axium went out of business?
Sadder than “film at 11” KABC7 visited Monrovia today their story and teary eyed interview with the father of the teen shot over the weekend can be found HERE.
The story accurately defines the problem between incorporated Monrovia and the county areas and how both MPD and LA Sheriff each have different areas of responsibility but are working to fix it.
What bothers me most, what makes it most vile is this bit released from Lee Baca earlier today. It is reported on the Crime Scene Blog and it involves “Day Day” a good kid, a church going kid who’s brutal shooting 2 weeks ago hit home for us as my daughter has known him for years. We all knew he had no gang ties which was alarming, the information from Baca’s office left us recoiling. From the Crime Scene Blog:
“Monrovia update
2:51 p.m. Conversation with Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca from Hector Gonzales.
He’s concerned about this spreading into the innocent population a task force in place.
“This is going way over the line now” Baca said while using words like “savage” to describe the current state of affairs.
Baca also said Day Day was intentionally targeted because he was NOT a gang banger”
The publicity is good as the more that are aware the more that will stand up and demand the county and city resolve also the crimes and help get this area back on track. I hope.
If you know Autolux, you already understand why you should be at the El Rey show this Friday. If you don’t know them, take a minute and check out their songs here or here. Go on–click over and give a listen right now. Great, right? Right. They’ve been compared to My Bloody Valentine and Can, and toured with Nine Inch Nails, Clinic, and the White Stripes, among others. It would be wrong (methinks) to label their music “punk rock,” but hear this: In 2002 Carla Azar, their drummer, shattered her elbow falling from a stage. Doctors said she might never play drums again. Six months and eight titanium screws later (see the x-ray on the right, lifted from the Autolux site), she was in the studio recording their first album. Now she’s slated to play drums on the next PJ Harvey/John Parish album. And that’s punk rock, folks. Find out how you can win tickets after the jump.
Continue reading Ticket Giveaway: Autolux at the El Rey this Friday 2/1