Now that it’s summer and I’ve made it through an entire season without owning a vehicle in L.A., I decided to add up the miles I’ve traveled (excluding rides with friends and walking) since taking on the experiment with carlessness. I’m not great at math, but here goes …

Total miles biked: 546
Days biked to work: 85
Miles driven: 26
Cost of refueling the rental car ($4.63/gallon): $6.74
Number of hybrid bikes I could buy for what the (previously desired) hybrid Honda costs: 60
People who told me I inspired them to ride a bike: 2
People who looked concerned about my mental health when I answered “no” to the question “So, are you going to buy another car?”: Far more than 2
Weekend days it was hot enough to sear flesh but I got out there anyway: 3
Months before I broke down and bought a basket for grocery purchases: 3.5
Calories burned, according to dubious online calculator: 28,050
Executives at my company that I unexpectedly encountered post-ride (i.e. disheveled, sweaty) on the weekend: 2
Normal people at my company that I encountered: 0
Days I’ve seen that squashed crow on my commute: 9 (somebody pick that thing up)
Yippy dogs charging at me: 1
Car doors smacking me: 1
Group rides: 1
Freeway rides: 0

»continue reading The Bicycle Brief, Chapter 4: Math And Stuff

On Friday night after work I dragged my tired ass to Critical Mass, my first experience riding in non-formation with other bikers for blocks and blocks. When I lived in San Francisco, I would get wistful when Critical Mass rolled around, since my mountain bike was stolen from a second-floor balcony by some soulless spider-man and I didn’t bother to replace it. So I finally went to check it out, arriving at the Wilshire & Western Metro stop slightly after the designated “show up” time and well before the thing got rolling.

We rode north, which was nice because I had plans later and they were to (a) scarf a Skooby’s dog and (b) meet a friend in North Hollywood to catch a ride to Spaceland. So heading up Western, cutting over to Cahuenga, continuing north to Hollywood Boulevard … all good. Very, very good. I split off from the group at Hollywood and also managed to lose track of two friends around dusk, about 8:15. So I got a half-hour communal ride in, and it was a lot of fun. But I have two questions:
»continue reading The Bicycle Brief, Chapter 3: Friday Night Mass

If you’re a biker in L.A. who’s even remotely afraid of ending up in traction, you know of the constant struggle to find the least undesirable option in getting from point A to point B. Sometimes you choose wrong and nearly get pushed into traffic by the very people who are supposed to protect and serve, like I did on Saturday.

Riding on Melrose east of Fairfax is one of my worst nightmares, so I was taking alleys, even though they’re filled with potholes and scary Dumpster detritus. As I got closer to the the hot dog-scented intersection of Melrose and La Brea, though, I started to bike on the sidewalk alongside Melrose, stopping at a red light before La Brea. As the light changed (including a walk light), a cop car on my right stopped just short of the street, taking up the entire width of the crosswalk I was about to cross.
»continue reading The Bicycle Brief, Chapter 2: Invisible Bike (Non Lolcat Version)

May 12-16 is Bike to Work Week, and it looks like the weather here will be accommodating as usual. So take this opportunity to leave behind L.A.’s bumper-to-bumper traffic and get on the side of the greasy, dirty road — permanently if possible. It’s easier than you might think.

Every week for me is bike-to-work week, because I have done the unthinkable and decided to live without a car in Los Angeles. I’ve biked sporadically for a few years, but since my Honda went to compact heaven in January, I’ve adjusted to a new reality: riding to work every day whether I feel like it or not, biking to grab dinner when I’m so hungry I can’t see straight, and tempting fate on the way home from bars/parties. The past few months have been eye-opening, and the biggest lesson I’ve learned is that only about 2% of drivers know what to do when they encounter a bike. I have been car-doored, honked at, sneered at. One morning I almost wiped out a squirrel, which really entertained a woman driving in the opposite direction. I’ve been mentally filing away run-ins with idiotic drivers and other dangers, and I’ll be checking in here with some tales as well as detailing the latest reasons for swearing at motorists.
»continue reading In Celebration of “Bike To Work” Week

Princeton’s Jesse Kivel

Irresistible band(s) alert! Vampire Weekend may have been the much-anticipated main event Monday night at the Echo — even warranting a rare pre-set introduction from KCRW’s Dan Wilcox, who said we were in for a “major treat” — but the two opening acts were so endearing as to be tiny treat pellets that might grow into full-blown treats all their own someday soon.
»continue reading Princeton, Grand Ole Party and Vampire Weekend at the Echo on December 3, 2007

»continue reading Neko Case at the Disney Concert Hall on November 16, 2007

»continue reading Annuals at the Troubadour on November 15, 2007

»continue reading Enon at The Echo on November 3, 2007

»continue reading Tokyo Police Club at the El Rey Theater — October 23, 2007

»continue reading The Flaming Lips @ The Petco Park Parking Lot, San Diego, 8/25/07

»continue reading St. Vincent & Death Vessel @ Echo, 8/4/07

»continue reading The Format, Limbeck @ Avalon, 8/1/07

On their second night ever playing in Los Angeles, Vampire Weekend hit the Silverlake Lounge stage and declared their love for our city, citing its sunshine and quinoa. Singer Ezra Koenig even introduced “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa,” substituting the last two words with “quinoa quinoa.” Either these Brooklyn kids have never encountered extensive vegetarian-friendly menus before or this is a grain-related inside joke that maybe I don’t want to get.
»continue reading Vampire Weekend @ Silverlake Lounge, 7/17/07

I’m not sure how long it would take to bake 300 people in a warehouse, but Monday night at Little Radio, I think we were about to find out. The temperature of the room during Spoon’s “secret” show seemed to climb exponentially with each passing minute, but the communal misery didn’t put too much of a damper on the night — even as the place got more and more humid.

The stifling conditions prompted frontman Britt Daniel to thank the crowd near the end of their set for sticking around, calling it “unpleasant in here.” And even so, Spoon put everything into their performance, attacking frenzied, powerful riffs — with sweat pouring down — stomping the ground, shouting. At one point, Daniel even put more on when he should’ve been peeling things off — a fan who had been wearing a gold mask handed it to him, and he wore it for half a song.
»continue reading Spoon & John Vanderslice @ Little Radio, 7/16/07

»continue reading Battles @ Troubadour, 6/30/07

Not to be outdone in the marketing blitz department, Los Angeles hogs the 7-Eleven-turned- Kwik-E-Mart concept with two stores — one in Burbank (shown here), the other on the Westside. Poor Middle America. Poor Springfields of the world. They won’t be able to breeze past Marge Simpson and Comic Book Guy on their way to buy a 6-pack of “Buzz Cola” for $3.99. They will have to use the powers of their own imagination to see the freezer geezer on their way to buy ice. They’ll never know the true taste of a real, live, three-dimensional Squishee (tastes cartoony) — and they’ll never have an Indian gentleman at the cash register warn them against brain freeze at the purchase of said Squishee. Yes, that really happened.

Now they’ll never see the movie.

To promote “The Simpsons Movie,” 7-Eleven is turning 12 of its stores into Kwik-E-Marts. This is the Burbank installment at 1611 W. Olive Ave. More photos after the jump.

»continue reading A Good Day For A Squishee

A clusterfuck of epic proportions is likely to happen this evening as two people who are no strangers to being mobbed will descend on Sunset Boulevard and make getting mobbed (and stuck in traffic) just as easy for everyone else in the area. It’s the very Hollywood-appropriate perfect storm of celebrity, and no one, not even George Clooney’s beard hairs, could get out unscathed.

Perhaps while Paul McCartney is getting strummy at Amoeba and Paris Hilton is getting chummy with Larry King at CNN next door, some cloud of toxic soda spray from the Jack in the Box across the street will waft down Cahuenga and blind all Hollywood paparazzi and celebrity stalkers in one fell swoop. At the very least, it’ll gum up their cameras.
»continue reading Parisian-British Co-Invasion!

»continue reading Datarock @ Troubadour, 6/13/07

If you think a churro is nothing without its warm, gooey center, turns out you couldn’t be more wrong. Churro purists, look away. Because if you hit the Counter before July 1 you will no doubt succumb to the sweet, chunky, cinnamon-laden brilliance of the churro milkshake. Oh yes.

The only way this Milkshake of the Month from Santa Monica’s gourmet burger joint could be more delicious is if it had some sort of horchata component. (It employs the unambitious though sensible “vanilla” base. You could argue that they didn’t want to overdo it, but this is a restaurant that will pile fried egg, fried pickles and “horseradish cheddar” on your burger if you so desire.) Even so, it is awe-inspiring. It’s also further evidence of Los Angeles’ raging case of multiple personality disorder, bringing to mind a scene in which a smog-darkened churro truck plows through the uber-stylish garage door that takes up one wall of the Counter and explodes with bits of fried dough, giving diners something new to drink with their black forest ham-covered burger.

The only downside, and this should be obvious: Straw stoppage is considerable, so you must be coordinated enough for the spoon/straw combo. You can do it.

The Counter’s Churro Milkshake
2901 Ocean Park Blvd.
Santa Monica
Last chance: June 30