Monthly Archives: July 2008

Art, Driving

Baby, you can drive my car

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An art exhibit to present lust on wheels

Antebellum Gallery, the fetish art emporium in Hollywood owned and curated by filmmaker and photographer Rick Castro, has an exhibit going up this weekend that is perfect for Los Angeles and two of it’s best known, uh, attributes — cars and sex.

Automolove, Car Culture with a kink, opens this Saturday, August 2nd. The reception goes from 6 to 9 PM and has a $10 cover. (It’s worth it.)

Castro’s openings are always a good time, with music, performance art, rituals, general lunacy… and an open bar, of course. (One time, he even had a selection of mezcals.)

This time, he promises an “Eroticar Lot,” with vehicles on display that will make you forget gas prices.

Skin, metal and location after the jump. Continue reading Baby, you can drive my car →

Books, LA, LA bloggers, Media, Online, Rants

“The vast democracy wall that the Internet provides” vs. the LA Times Book Review (R.I.P.)

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antonego.jpgTalk about a trainwreck.

Last night as I was running out the door, I caught a snippet of the MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour on PBS. It was a point-counterpoint discussion between Steve Wasserman, the former editor of the now-axed LAT Book Review, and Kassia Krozser, the founder & editor of booksquare.com, a book review site & publishing industry hub that, FWIW, I’d never heard of.*

The segment was intended to discuss the elimination of the LAT Book Review from the Sunday paper. Tribune loose cannon Sam Zell deep-sixed the little insert, which was one of the few sections of the paper I read anymore (and for which I had the privelege of penning two book reviews). Wasserman called the elimination of the review a “philistine blunder,” while Krozser seemed to have been brought in to defend the Internet, which to my mind is a separate issue from whether the paper Review should have been cut or not.

Throughout the segment, I found myself whipsawed over which interviewee I detested more… Continue reading “The vast democracy wall that the Internet provides” vs. the LA Times Book Review (R.I.P.) →

News, SoCal

Fire in El Sereno

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Helicopter drops water on fireJust went out to grab a tomato for my sandwich and smelled smoke in the air. A hillside along Huntington Dr. South near where it turns in to Soto St. is on fire. There doesn’t seem to be any houses threatened and the ground fire crews were out in full force, along with 4 helicopters doing water drops. The helicopter crew was also dropping water to protect the surrounding structures.

Earthquake? Check.

Fire? Check.

Gangbanging shoot out? Check back after 10pm.

It’s been an interesting day in El Sereno.

4:42pm UPDATE from LAPD Fire Alert:

2580 N Soto St* KNOCKDOWN; 110 Firefighters took 66 minutes; Held to less than 5 acres; No injury or structure damage; Cause under investigation; NFD – Brian Humphrey###

Way to go LAFD!

Events, Music

NIke Presents 88BoaDrum with The Boredoms

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photo_1.jpgCan’t find much in the way of an official site for this, but Nike’s sponsoring an event at the La Brea Tar Pits next week that sounds freakolicious:

Nike Sportswear presents 88BoaDrum featuring Boredoms at the La Brea Tar Pits- an unprecedented aural and visual experience.

Beginning precisely at 8:08 PM PST, the 88-minute experience at the historic La Brea Tar Pits will feature 88 drummers selected by Boredoms and 88BoaDrum artistic director, Hisham Bharoocha.

The experience will be commemorated with a very special complimentary Nike Sportswear 88BoaDrum NSW Tee collection. The NSW Tees will be hand-screened at each location with an original graphic of your choice, including designs created by Eye from Boredoms. This collection will be available exclusively on 8.8.08 and are available on a first-come-first-served basis.

Tickets are available at Amoeba, the LACMA box office or online at BrownPaperTickets.com.

Food & Drink, San Gabriel Valley, Shopping

Potted Organic Basil – $2.99 at Fresh and Easy

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My find of the day over at Fresh and Easy.  Sorry if the pic is jiggly but I literally snapped the pic at the same instant the first big boom from this mornings quake went off.   As soon as the shaking stopped I went back in the store, added one to my basket and finished my shopping. Seriously, takes more than a little jiggle to interrupt our day…we are Angelenos!

 The plant is now in my garden ensuring a steady supply of fresh basil for my kitchen.

Law Enforcement

Do you feel the need? The need… for speed.

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Hello friends! Here at the Mark and Steve Video Game Testing Center, driving games are often ignored in favor of games that are actually fun. Midnight Club: Los Angeles, however, piqued our interest. We posted about it awhile back, but since then, Kotaku has written a nice hands-on impression of the game and a second trailer has been released!

A new release date in October has been solidified, pushed back from September and the L.A. in the game is looking even more accurate than before. We personally are looking forward to reenacting the many accidents at the cursed corner of La Brea and Fountain.

How many L.A. landmarks can you spot whizzing by in the new trailer?

News

Hindsight is Best: Earthquake Safety!

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In light of the fact that we just had what was probably the biggest earthquake most of us have felt in a long time (5.8 centered in Chino Hills) and I, for one, couldn’t remember what I was supposed to do, maybe now is a good time to remind readers of the proper earthquake safety procedures as dictated by the LAFD. It’s also a great reminder to get out to the store and assemble your earthquake preparedness kit.

Earthquakes

That was a big one!

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Maps of Recent Earthquake Activity in California-Nevada

Anyone else just feel that crazy shit rip through town? According to USGS that was a magnitude 5.8 event that occurred 3 km (2 miles) SW of Chino Hills, CA (29 miles ESE from LA center). Wow. Everyone OK?

UPDATE: Lots of reports of phones not working, mine seems to be fine and I’m with AT&T (Scratch that, my phone is down too) People I know with Sprint & Verizon are complaining so might be a CDMA outtage. More shortly…

Uncategorized

LA beaches still among the filthiest in CA

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Seven of the ten dirtiest beaches in California are in Los Angeles County, according to new report by the Natural Resources Defense Council. Santa Monica and Catalina Island are home to all of them except for Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro.

The filthy beaches in SaMo are located at the pier and SaMo State Beach. Test results were based on weekly water samples taken near storm drains and other contamination sources in ankle-deep water and indicated unsafe levels of fecal matter. According to today’s LA Times,

Across California, these contained unhealthful levels of enterococcus, total coliform and fecal coliform bacteria — found in human and animal waste — 7% of the time, down from 12% the previous year.

Bathers in tainted water can contract gastroenteritis, ear infections, skin rashes or other symptoms.

While the decline might lead some to think conditions have improved, officials say since rainfall was down considerably last year, they had expected more dramatic improvements. Continue reading LA beaches still among the filthiest in CA →

Crafts, Events, LA bloggers

Magic Loop sock knitting class – Saturday!

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Remember when I posted that I would be teaching a class at The Little Knittery?

Well it’s this Saturday (August 2nd) and space is still available.

During the 3 hours I will show you every part of knitting a sock using the awesome (and embarrassingly easy) Magic Loop technique.

Class is $40 and Julie takes a big percentage off yarn and needles if they are materials for the class –

Sign up!

at The Little Knittery
3041 Glendale Blvd
(in Atwater, right near the 76 station)
323-663-3838
[email protected]