The Great Book of Los Angeles Locksmith Shacks is nearing completion, but our photography is still lacking. You can help! Have a photo of a Los Angeles-based locksmith shack to share? Send it to me, or upload it to the Los Angeles Locksmith Shack group on Flickr today. My five favorite submissions within the next two weeks will all receive one random, all-new cd (nothing cruddy - scout’s honor) from the Losanjealous music library. You will also be notified of compensation options, should your submission eventually be chosen for offline publication. Godspeed.

» What is a Locksmith Shack?
» Where might I find a Locksmith Shack?
» Locksmith Shacks: Are they dangerous?

The editors of Our Dumb World: The Onion’s Atlas of The Planet Earth will be at Skylight Books on Vermont this coming Saturday (1/26) at 5pm. If you haven’t yet had the chance to peruse the book, I can attest that it’s drop dead funny and, unfortunately, spot-on accurate more often than not (ok ok - relatively so). Don’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime chance to (a) have your breastbone signed, (b) monopolize the Q&A session with your inane questions.

» Our Dumb World Editors’ Los Feliz In-Store

Boozers take heed; this one is sort of important. It’s cocktail time. We would like to know the name of your favorite drink in town. This must be a drink you can purchase in a bar, restaurant or club, so we’ll need to know both the name of the drink, the name of the establishment and, if applicable, the name of the bartender.

NB Live Music Lovers: Best Venue will come separately; refer to our previous research for both polls if applicable.

UPDATE, 12/31: Polls closed; results now online.
»continue reading Reader Picks ‘07: Your Favorite Cocktail

Set to take it’s rightful spot on your bookshelf, next to your Strunk & Whites and Funk & Wagnalls’s, comes the indispensable new reference guide to be penned by two authors, Hoffman & Rudoren’s COMEDY BY THE NUMBERS©. Published by McSweeney’s, this book catalogs almost 170 universal archetypes of Comedy. Each numbered entry includes examples, often illustrated, demonstrating appropriate usage so that you may check your own comedic usages. The book is sure to become an essential manual for homemakers, script puncher-uppers, eccentric know-it-alls of all ages and many others. Rather than “review” the book which would require actually “reading” said book, I conducted a hard-hitting Q&A with the authors. The frequently hilarious results are “cut and pasted” below.

If you wish to skip the Q&A portion and go straight to purchase the book, you may do so by clicking here.
»continue reading “Farts and Dwarfs–Does That Answer Your Question?” A Q&A with the Authors of Comedy By The Numbers