The Losanjealous Benevolent Society gathers a weekly list of strange happenings and fun events in LA–the more ridiculous, the better. Visit our events calendar for the full list. And if you’re organizing or know of an event you think belongs on the list, send us info at tips@losanjealous.com.

FRIDAY

100 Rooms @ SCI-Arc
100 Rooms, composed entirely of recycled paper. In this installation, Los Angeles-based firm Daly, Genik Architects has drawn inspiration from ancient sites such as Catahoyuk, Ur and El Kahun, where stone and brick were first tooled into modular component materials to give shape to simple rooms that clustered into complex spatial arrays. Through Sun 10/29.

Cocktails in Historic Places @ Cognac Room
Join all your friends in the Art Deco Society of L.A. in the Cognac Room, a chic, sleek Deco lounge located just behind the Gallery Bar. Never heard of it, you say? That’s because it’s tucked out of the way, just behind the hotel’s central bar – and its Art Deco murals set the perfect ambience for this month’s gathering.

Collection of Cher @ Beverly Hilton
Featuring 700 lots including paintings, furniture and decorative works of art from her Italian Renaissance-style residence in Malibu, CA as well as jewelry, stage-worn Bob Mackie costumes and memorabilia spanning her career Through Mon 10/2.

Eager Believer @ The Orphanage
Group exhibition featuring the work of Devandra Banhart (also DJing the event), Diane Barcelowsky, Arthur Bates, Arrington De Dionyso, Rob Doran, Neil Michael Hagarty, Maya Miller, Jean Nagai and Nabob Shineywater. Friday, September 29th, 7-9 PM. Orphanage Art Gallery. 1903 Hyperion Ave, Silverlake.

Edible Estates @ Machine Project
Edible Estates is a practical food producing initiative, a place-responsive landscape design proposal, a scientific horticultural experiment, a conceptual land-art project, a defiant political statement, a community out-reach program and an act of radical gardening. Through Sun 10/29.

Spooky House 17
L.A.’s biggest and scariest haunted house theme park. Through Tue 10/31.

Which Side Are You On? @ Betalevel
Three multimedia diatribes about this angry, beautiful, and slowly warming world. PowerPoint, tangible electronics, performative lecture, next-gen positive vibrational dome music, dancing, and a maddeningly bright ramping halogen lamp will be employed to convince you to give up on darkness and step into the light.

»continue reading Losanjealous Benevolent Society Events: September 29 – October 5

Compression at King King this week features John Tejada who must be ready to drop-the-needle on the L.A. techno scene. A forthcoming album titled “Cleaning Sounds Is A Filthy Business” and an upcoming 10 year anniversary for his own Palette Recordings label should lay the groundwork for a great Friday night.

I get the sense that John Tejada should actually be the guy wearing the ‘I’m Big in Europe’ T-shirt around L.A. It’s ridiculous – the krauts especially (myself included) adore this guy. His tracks appear in most of my (woopy!) yearly top tens, he’s worked with DIVINE STYLER (this blows my mind as he is surely one of my most fabled artists) and hell I’m picking this show at King King over going to see Tiga, whom I used to see weekly in Montreal waaaay back in the day… I’m very intrigued to hear Tejada on his home turf during this landmark period. With initial reviews of “Cleaning Sounds…” pointing to his “most mature and complete work to date”, my curiosity for this techno composers live incarnation is…how can you say… ready for the ‘Filthy F#@$’n Business’!!! I’ll drop-a-review of the album shortly.

the.D.Guarantee.

What happens when you randomly pair the thoughts of a 19th century German philosopher who challenged the foundations of traditional morality and Christianity with the wholesome childhood antics of Billy, Dolly, Jeffy, and P.J.?

The Nietzsche Family Circus!
New from Losanjealous Labs.

Kindly allow us to spotlight a couple of great shows for which we’re glad to be able to give tickets to readers.

Sonic Youth at the Wiltern, this Thursday 9/28 & Mojave 3 at The Roxy the next night, Friday 9/29.

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The Sonics’ Rather Ripped from this year is a Great Album. If a new young band released that same record today, they’d get hit with a ridiculous amount of hype. Since it’s “just” Sonic Youth, the record gets largely ignored outside of their core fanbase. I guess it’s their own fault for having such a consisent output for 20+ years; the career peaks get harder and harder to recognize.

Enter to Win Sonic Youth Tickets

Contest has ended and winners have been notified. Thanks to all that entered.

Check ticket availability.

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Mojave 3, on the otherhand, don’t aim for epic statements, just perfect little sets of mellow tunes written by Neil Halstead. Puzzles Like You, which came out this summer, is their 5th LP and it might be their best yet. It’s a more uptempo sunny pop release than their previous more alt-country-influenced records. It’s exciting to see them nail an accessible sound at this point of their 10 year career (or longer, if you count Neil’s seminal pre-Mojave 3 band Slowdive).

Enter to Win Mojave 3 Tickets

Contest has ended and winners have been notified. Thanks to all that entered.

Check ticket availability.

P.S. We previewed these giveaways on our weekly mailing to our list and those that entered first will get priority in the drawing.

Subscribe to our mailing list and get a heads-up on our shows and giveaways.
email:

Why can’t more L.A. businesses be as direct as Sidney’s Shoe Store? Stop wasting people’s time and start advertising your store with honest taglines like “Clothes Only Overpriviliged Women Can Afford”, and “Cars For Men Who Need To Compensate For Their Shortcomings.”

Which reminds me, I need to pick up a pair of tan chinos at Pants For Fat People.

Sidney’s Shoe Store
321 N Fairfax Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 655-1168
map

It is true that I have a serious, perhaps too serious, fascination with Oki-Dog, the amazing day-glo shack of weirdness on north Fairfax. I consider it the tollbooth of strange guarding the border of Hollywoodland.

This Day in Oki-Dog History: 25 September 2005. The ‘Dog sported a swarthy C rating , but would be upgrading itself to a deadly B (80th percentile) come 29 September. As you might expect, Losanjealous was on the scene. Somewhat magically, said 80% would renew in January ‘06.

Did bribery play a role? To be sure we must ask ourselves the most difficult of questions in times of doubt…even when we know the answers prior to asking.

From one of my all-time favorite websites:

Inspection Date	Score	Letter Grade
01/27/2006	80	B
09/29/2005	80	B
06/09/2005	74	C

The Information:

Beck
w/ Wounded Cougar
Tuesday, September 26
@ Element, 1642 N. Las Palmas, Hollywood
6PM Doors / 7PM Show / ALL AGES

UPDATE: Of course this has since sold out. Hope you manged to get your tickets.

UPDATE 2: Ladies, a gentleman reader sends along his Craigslist ad. We re-post it below as a public service. Of course, we take no responsibility for any untoward events that may result from your response to the ad.
»continue reading Beck Secret Show Ticket Information

Visit our concert calendar for a full show list, links to buy tickets and our top picks.

PICK OF THE WEEK: Rogue Wave @ Safari Sam’s
Indie Rock Economics Time: What happens when five large venues compete for the same target audience on the same night? Here’s what the lineup looks like Thursday night:

SHOW: CAPACITY
Rogue Wave @ Vanguard: 1200
M. Ward @ Fonda: 1200
Sonic Youth @ Wiltern: 2200
Wolfmother @ Palladium: 3500
Scissor Sisters @ Shrine: 4000
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Total Ticket Supply: 12,100

The Rogue Wave show promoters recognized market dynamics and moved the show to Safari Sam’s, a venue with a third the capacity of the Vanguard. By decreasing the denominator in the Losanjealous Number (buzz/capacity), the Rogue Wave show catapults ahead of M. Ward to become this week’s pick.

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ENTER TO WIN THIS WEEK’S TICKET GIVEAWAYS

SONIC YOUTH [band site] @ Wiltern Theater Thursday, September 28 Contest Ended

MOJAVE 3 [band site] @ Roxy Theater Friday, September 29 Contest Ended

GUSTER [band site] @ Wiltern Theater Friday, September 29 Contest Ended

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HEADS UP
Fri 9/29 Dengue Fever @ UCLA Fowler Museum
Wed 10/11 Cold War Kids @ Spaceland
Fri 10/20 Lucinda Williams @ Malibu Performing Arts Center
Wed 10/25 Bonnie Prince Billy @ Malibu Performing Arts Center
Fri 11/24 Mates of State @ El Rey

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MONDAY
DJ Shadow @ Avalon
Junior Boys @ Troubadour
Kaki King @ Knitting Factory
Mute Math @ Fonda
Sea Wolf @ Spaceland (free)
Shields @ Safari Sam’s
»continue reading Losanjealous Concert Picks: September 25 – October 1

A   P H O T O   E S S A Y   B Y  L O S A N J E A L O U S   R Y A N

»continue reading By The Teeth of San Gennaro

The Bene Bene Mini-Truck of Fairfax Village was spotted on Highland at 712pm yesterday presumably en route to the Feast of San Gennaro. We asked the truck for a few brief words and he returned the following:

“Realmente non ho tempo per questo ora, figlio della capra. Sono in ritardo come merda!
All the best, -Benebene”

More Bene Bene: one, two, three, four, five

Bene Bene official site: http://www.benebene.org/

The Losanjealous Benevolent Society gathers a weekly list of strange happenings and fun events in LA–the more ridiculous, the better. Visit our events calendar for the full list. And if you’re organizing or know of an event you think belongs on the list, send us info at tips@losanjealous.com.

FRIDAY

3-D Porn Double Feature @ New Beverly Cinema
The Disco Dolls in Hot Skin and The Lollipop Girls in Hard Candy. Legendary porn stars Bill Margold and Serena may appear in person at the Friday night screening. 3-D glasses will be provided with your ticket. Through Sat 9/23.

Adultcon
Adultcon is where fans go to buy autographs, photos, Polaroid’s, DVD’s & products & meet the porn stars of tomorrow as well as the mega stars of today. Through Sat 9/23.

Feast of San Gennaro
Celebrate Italian culture, entertainment and food Will feature live music, carnival games, street performers and strolling musicians in addition to wine from local wineries and food from Los Angeles’ best Italian restaurants. Through Sun 9/24.

»continue reading Losanjealous Benevolent Society Events: September 22 – 28

That’s right me friends this giveaway is happening right. Now. Right now! We need to overnight you a pair of actual hardcopy tickets. So… you need to enter the contest right now. The concert is Sunday.

UPDATE: We have our winner. Congrats, EMILY! Thank you all for playing. Any entries sent in following this announcement will be forwarded to the Scientology mailing list courtesy Mailbot6000.

Massive Attack. They had to cancel Toronto, Montreal, Detroit and Chicago, but lucky you, they’ve got their visas sorted out and they will be at the Bowl this weekend. I saw them two years ago in the UK and I must say they were mesmerising. They came onstage with Horace Andy in front of freaky backdrop of LCD lights and dove straight into the first few songs off Mezzanine. Basically just what you want, let’s face it. As an added bonus, they had the good sense not to play that shitty Doors cover from Protection. Here’s hoping you have a similar experience at the bowl this Sunday. NYC’s TV on the Radio opens. Good lord. That’s a lineup-and-a-half™.

Goddammit. Mezzanine is so damn good. Back in the age of CDs one of my ex-roommates stole it and I had to re-buy it.

To enter, send your full name and mailing address to MassiveTV@losanjealous.com. Make sure you’ll be in town! The drawing is at noon today. Remember: Mailbot6000 cannot process Massive Attack entries without your mailing address. If you do not remember to include your mailing address, you are fucking disqualified.

The gambler in me says both Horace and Liz Fraser will turn out, but don’t hold me to it. We’ll announce a winner at noon. A few tickets are still available for purchase as of press time.

#3: the Starbucks at the corner of Hawthorne and Palos Verdes Blvd.

I’m getting my bass fixed. Okay, re-fretted. I didn’t want to sound pompous. Sometime in the afternoon. The son hangs in mid lurch. I scoop the last few drizzles of salsa verde out of a corrugated pie pan. This was supposed to be ‘for here.’ A girl busses dishes. She’s 17 maybe. I think she’s trying not to look at me. But she might be just not looking at me. If her pants hung any lower you could see New Jersey. Why do they do that?

Phone rings. It’s Ken from Ken’s Basses. He’s gonna need another two hours. Something about “not quite ultimate tone”.

“Hey Bill,” he says.

“Yeah.”

“The tone is pretty good but not quite ultimate.”

I shake my head but not like an asshole.

“Make it ultimate.”

This time I do sound like an asshole. I clap shut my phone and sigh passive-aggressively. The deal is I don’t like to be away from my bass. Now what. The girl is still bussing dishes. Hunh. All I’m saying is there weren’t that many dishes in the restaurant. Definite vibes.

“Hey waitress,” I interject. “Do you know if there’s a Starbucks around here?”
»continue reading Bill DeMarco Rates the Top 50 Starbucks in LA: This Week: #3

At our last staff meeting, after the long silence following De Marco’s Powerpoint presentation, the idea of a Losanjealous “Commenter of the Month Award” was thrown out on the table. The suggestion was mocked and promptly forgotten as matters turned to ordering food. This was early July. Cut to a couple of weeks ago, when, frisking a rented tuxedo vest (8 weeks late = $366.22), I found a cocktail napkin in the pocketwatch slit with the minutes of that meeting. The relevant scrawling upon it read: “COMNTR O’ MO.” Looking back, I’m not exactly sure who exactly put forth that idea, as we tend to be drunk at our meetings, but we were happy to recover it and finally put it into action here. -Ed.

It gives us much pleasure–too much, really–to present the first ever Losanjealous Commenter of the Month Award (LCMA–not to be confused with the LAMAs or LACMA) to:

(MV)Pete
September 2006
If you might think of Losanjealous as a bar like Cheers, then (MV)Pete may well be our Cliff Claven, ever present at the bar, ready with acute facts and ready opinions both commonplace and outlandish, never failing to observe the going-ons with a discerning perspective and voice all his own. You already know his knowledge of Los Angeles area municipal matters, topography and taco vendors is second to none. But now we hope to reveal to you another side of (MV)Pete. On to the Q&A.
»continue reading Losanjealous Commenter of the Month Award

The estimable DJ Shadow brings his 1s and 2s–and a hell of a lot more gear–to town for a pair of shows at the Avalon this Sunday and Monday, September 24 and 25.

And wouldn’t you know it, Losanjealous has pairs of tickets to giveaway readers to the Monday show.

So here’s your challenge to win these hot tickets…
»continue reading Make us a Mixtape, Win DJ Shadow Tickets

This review takes me to the former underbelly of Canoga Park for a slight change for the receptacle.

I travel to this bastion of thrift stores and former strip bars and The PussyCat theater for a wholesome vegetarian treat. Almost like Times Square used to be, without the New York, the marquee theaters, the Times Square, or the…..well, it’s nothing like Times Square but it did used to have strip bars and a PussyCat Theater.

I must preface this with the reason why I came to eat at a *gasp* vegetarian establishment. The receptacle is going through a sort of trash can renaissance. (Read: From metal can to spiffy blue, green and black bins)… I have been eating extremely healthy after my physical mandated that I lower my cholesterol from it’s dangerous heights of higher than mid 250’s. I have since definitely lowered it, lost quite a bit of weight, and barely eaten meat (I said barely, don’t fret, tacos, burritos and burgers are not out)… Keep reading…

This restaurant came highly recommended by my musician neighbors that are children of the matured 60’s set. It is called Follow Your Heart and is a diner-come-vegetarian friendly, vegan friendly, buddhist friendly, and Native American friendly “establishment.”
»continue reading The Receptacle Follows His Heart

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»continue reading Topless Man In Corn Spotted Near Painted Elephant Art Opening

The week we’ve all been waiting for has arrived! Stylish-yet-affordable European apparel retailer H&M finally opens the doors on it’s first Los Angeles area store in Pasadena this Thursday, September 21 at 12 noon!

LIVE REAL TIME CLOCK NOW OPEN! Hit “REFRESH” and watch the minutes tick away until you can buy your Madonna tracksuit!

Losanjealous is your Official H&M-in-Los Angeles Headquarters. Be sure to come back here to discuss your H&M experience. We’ll have a full review of our H&M experience once it’s open, so we can compare our respective H&M experiences.
»continue reading Live Countdown to H&M Opening in Los Angeles!

Visit our concert calendar for a full show list, links to buy tickets and our top picks.

PICK OF THE WEEK: Ratatat

Ratatat: one half rat, one half AT-AT. Considered by many to be vermin but used by the Imperial ground forces for transport and combat. Behold the Ratatat Wednesday in the 310 and Saturday in the 909.

Also, for the folks who asked for google calendar integration, click on the links below.

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ENTER TO WIN THIS WEEK’S TICKET GIVEAWAYS

Favourite Sons [listen] @ Safari Sam’s Tuesday, September 19 Contest over

Phoenix [listen] @ The Wiltern Thursday, September 21 Contest over

Ben Kweller [listen] @ Avalon Hollywood Friday, September 22 Contest over

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MONDAY
Jo Mango @ Hotel Cafe
Ray Lamontagne @ Troubadour
Sarah Silverman @ Largo
Sea Wolf, Favourite Sons, Watson Twins @ Spaceland (free)
»continue reading Losanjealous Concert Picks: September 18 – 24

My good god. Nothing says Banksy to me like a $5 plate full of tacos. Clockwise from top: Al Pastor, Asada, Birria, Chorizo, Chicharron.

There are many things to love about Cactus #1: The tinseltown locale…the tacos, of course…the tortas…the prices…the paean to ‘unholy gore 06‘ …the close proximity to the willoughby-vine locksmith shack…the inordinate amount of tinseltown crazies that are magnetically drawn to the green-and-orange…

I just started eating there a year ago, but my personal favorite thing about Cactus #1 is the crumbling wall of historic Jeffersons [photo].

»continue reading Jesuchristo! Cactus #1