New 9-minute feature “Oil of L.A.” worth checking out went up on VBS.tv today. Directed by Joseph Patel and hosted by Nate Harrington, and sharply shot and tightly edited, it’s a great quick look at current and former oil wells that are hidden in plain sight right around town, including spots such as Beverly Hills H.S. (who knew?), the Farmer’s Market and the Beverly Center. The film doesn’t really aim to delve into the implications of its findings beyond just acknowledging the wells’ existences, but packs a lot in its 9-minutes–definitely a compelling pitch for some funding to support a longer piece on the subject.

Hollywood Spider-Man impersonator caught in legal web – LA Times

Spider-Man Entagled By Superheroes In Blue – LA Weekly

Officers Investigate Spidey-Senseless Act – NBC Los Angeles

Our favorite, though, is this oddly poetic entry:

Heroes turn villains on the boulevard of broken noses – Brisbane Times

Brisbane?

PHOTO: Mel Melcon, Los Angeles Times, November 11, 2009

A reduction linocut by artist Dave Lefner. Studio 212, Moulton Ave.

LA is home to the largest art colony in the world. That’s right, the world. It’s one of our city’s best kept secrets. Twice a year, the Brewery Art Association near downtown LA opens its doors to art aficionados, collectors, students, curious onlookers, and those who only wish they could support themselves based solely on creative genius. I fit into those last two categories.

The following photo collection reflects my first experience at the Brewery Artwalk, which took place this past Saturday and Sunday, October 24 & 25. It is in no way a comprehensive representation of the work that was on display (the complex boasts roughly 300 work/live studios). But it’s a taste of an authentic, thriving art scene unique to LA—a must-try for all Angelenos.

»continue reading Brewery Artwalk Autumn ‘09: A Free Pass To LA’s Creative Common

Olympic Gold Medalist and ten-time World Champion Fighter Oscar de la Hoya officially cut the ribbon on the Oscar de la Hoya Ánimo Charter High School in Boyle Heights today, the first public high school built in Boyle Heights in 80 years. The school is situated at the location of de la Hoya’s former boxing gym. Big congrats and thanks to Oscar; full press release and more photos by Nicholas Alan Cope after the jump.

»continue reading De La Hoya Cuts Ribbon on Namesake Boyle Heights Charter High School

A giant drive-thru redwood tree trunk provides a perfect perch for a billboard of one of the most bizarre roadside tourist traps I’ve ever discovered in a slide. Not only does this rural wonder claim to be a park of totem poles (and, who, tell me doesn’t like totem poles,) it’s also an aquarium where you can see “Ocean Wonders ALIVE – Like a Walk on the Floor of the Sea – Just Ahead.” Or in the case of this robin’s egg blue 1949 Plymouth, just behind! Judging by the mossy tree trunk this has to be somewhere in Northern California. Does any remember this memorable place???

Speaking of totem poles, I saw one just the other day. Not the traditional carved-out-of-a-tree-trunk type, oh no. It was a totem pole piñata that reminded me of a third grade art project that inspired me to get creative and make a rather stylish, if I do say so myself, totem pole out of five empty five gallon Baskin Robbins ice cream containers taped one on top of the other. Ultimately it was a paper mache affair complete with cutout cardboard wings and traditional colorful faces rendered in tempera, which I always think of when I occasionally enjoy an order of tempura in an exotic restaurant. But we’re not talking about delicious deep fried Japanese taste treat sensations right now, are we? This is about totem poles and paper mache!

»continue reading Charles Phoenix’s Slide of the Week: Totem Pole Park & Aquarium, Somewhere, USA, 1956

A Call-Out To Los Angeles Blogs On This Day

Please pick up this story on your website. Keep the ball rolling. Let us not rest on this day of days until the LA Times ultimately has no choice but to re-post the redesign story itself, thus completing our commentary circle in some crudely beautiful, minuscule-yet-altogether-infinitesimal fashion. The logged-in user at the time of the above already-published LAist screen shot capture, one “Margot.Roosevelt@”, will no doubt be forever indebted as well. Instructions: (1) Capture this browser screen and prep for your blog of choice. (2) Your headline might read something like “Losanjealous Nods @ LAist Nod @ La Times Online Redesign”. (3) Provide instructions if need be, and get some other blog to pick up your story accordingly (you are on your own here). Look, dammit, this should be easy. I’ve even captured the next screenshot for you already – downloadable right here, 576px wide, 72dpi. Size to fit, post before noon. Don’t forget your end-of-article attribution links for our joint end-of-day paper trail! Thank you in advance; see you over at the Times website around 6pm. First round’s on me.

» The L.A. Times Gets a Nice Redesign (LAist)

Pssst! Huell Howser and documentary film fans alike: Harry Pallenberg, doc filmmaker and segment producer for California’s Gold (13 years working with Huell, over 800 shows in various series) is guest blogging this month over KCET way. Thus far he’s delivered two solid entries and for the rest of the month, he will be discussing Los Angeles and serializing his documentary SHOTGUN FREEWAY: Drives Thru Lost L.A. Snippet:

The living-room of our apartment was covered in tapes and archival films that we’d begged, borrowed, and (depending on the statute of limitations) stolen. In classic DIY fashion, we did whatever we needed to do to get it done. At one point we were editing SHOTGUN FREEWAY from 10PM to morning on the Northern Exposure series Avid system, which was fun until I re-calibrated the monitors one night. For another long stretch we found ourselves hand cleaning 100’s of hours of old films that the LAPD Historical Society had discovered in a back jail cell…

Go check it out and do pose your questions and comments directly to Harry in the comment section, should you get the chance.

FROM A LONG TIME AGO (tangentially related)
» Huell Howser: The Drinking Game

Fun new project over at Beck.com fresh from the inbox this morning (hat tip, Sung). Below, Beck and Tom discuss LA’s netherwaters:

BH: I was born in the McArthur park area.

TW: You remember when they drained McArthur Park, the lake?

BH: I do, yeah…

TW: They found unbelievable things: Cars, human bones, weaponry.

BH: They should have done an exhibit.

TW: I don’t know why they didn’t. I thought that’s why they drained it.

BH: I’d always heard that when they drained the Echo Park Lake they found an amateur submarine.

»continue reading Beck Hansen Interviews Tom Waits Re: Draining the Lakes of Los Angeles

No Age at the Getty; photo by Sung

Attention drivers! Parking at The Getty will soon be free, provided you are not there to casually browse art during daylight hours. Art lovers, pony up:

GETTY ANNOUNCES NEW PARKING FEES

Parking fees increase to $15; parking is free for Saturday nights at the Getty Center and evening events at both sites

LOS ANGELES-The J. Paul Getty Trust today announced parking rates at both the Getty Center and Getty Villa will increase to $15 effective July 1, but parking at both sites will be free for evening programs after 5pm. Admission remains free.

»continue reading Getty to Offer Free Parking For Skinny-Jeaned Concertgoers, $15/Car Everybody Else

Note: This is the second of two galleries (first gallery here) focusing on George Harrison’s Walk of Fame star ceremony outside Capitol Records, April 14, 2009. Full gallery and writeup after the jump.

»continue reading Capitol Records, 14 April 2009: George Harrison’s Walk of Fame Star Ceremony: The Star Is Revealed At Last

As previously mentioned, former Beatle George Harrison (1943-2001) was honored with a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame outside Capitol Records, shortly before noon today. George is now the second Beatle to receive an individual star following John Lennon. He succombed to cancer near the end of 2001 at Paul McCartney’s house, right here in Los Angeles. Surviving wife, Olivia, and son, Dhani, accepted today’s honorary award on behalf of George.

IN THIS GALLERY: Hollywood Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Leron Gubler, Olivia Harrison, Dhani Harrison, Eric Idle, Paul McCartney, Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge, Jeff Lynne, Tom Hanks, Nancy Shevell.

Still to come: Tom Petty, the unveiling of the actual star, the footwear of your other favorite Beatle, full-on Beatlemania returns to Capitol, extensive event write-up and much more. Stick around.

UPDATE, 4/15: Full writeup now online.

Beverly @ Stanley 4/8/09

Times are so tough even Sign Bandit is strapped for cash. Won’t you give a Wolverine’s Daughter comic book-owning, gigantic ass-loving Michael-Jackson-alike some dough today? He likes Marley, yo.

PREVIOUSLY IN CRIES FOR HELP AND ATTENTION
» That Goofball With The Hand-Lettered Melrose Signs Is At It Again
» For Sale on Melrose: Wolverine’s Daughter, 2 Books, Taco Bell, Thundercats, Movies, Money…My Heart

So what did you do last Friday eve, dear benighted homies? Let me guess: it was another joyless attempt at something like merriment, with the ingesting of the lite beer and the watching of low-end entertainments. Well, that’s all well and good for you hoi polloi, but DF is—as all well know—a class act all the way, and he prefers pursuits of a more refined order come the week-end.

And what, you are doubtlessly tearing your hair out wondering, is the high-brow divertissement of choice for DF? Well, I’ll let you Joe Six-packs and Sally Housecoats in on the secret just this once, in the limited hope of bringing some modicum of culture to your beer-besotted, clock-punching, watching-reruns-of-Roseanne-without-a-shred-of-irony lives.

To wit, DF spent last Friday at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum (NB, ignoramuses: “history” is the study of the past, and a “museum” is a place where the past is stored upon being extensively taxidermied) for the NHM’s “First Fridays” series. The LA NHM’s FFs are a feast for the enlightened gourmand, a gut-busting smorgasbord of heady lectures, edifying tours of the collection, and live music-related fun-havery. Here are the facts, in all their intellectually sophistimacated glory.

»continue reading Getcha Freaky Friday On: First Fridays @ Natural History Museum, 4/3/2009

Your camp maintains the phony twitter feeds from washed-up celebrities, movie characters and inanimate objects are the jokes of yesterday. Our camp disagrees, cut from the cloth of the devout followers of John Kreese (as scripted by Paul Scheer). Still, we sit and sup daily, side by side on twitter, unequivocally agreeing that tweets from the Kogi BBQ Truck occupy a special, indescribable, sacred place within the psyche of today’s wired Los Angeles foodie. Things have been more or less balanced within the kogiverse, once we accepted and acknowledged that fact. When Phony Kogi showed up on the playground one day and thousands of people begin following his feed, we had questions, naturally. Are all of the thousands of followers in on the joke, over at fake Kogi feed? If so – or, more importantly, if not – where did they come from? The legitimate Kogi feed has less than 9,000 followers at press time. Where and how might a lawsuit be filed, based solely on text characters? Would that be defamation of text character? (“They used our trademarked capital “L” trick, so we sued for infringement…”) And just what is Phony Kogi’s beef, is he sick of the overhype of the original Kogi? Disgruntled ex-employee? Jealous competitor? Just bored? How long until Phony Kogi gets pulled? Will he get pulled? Are there twitter police? What twitter expert out there can tell me how this stuff plays out, or if it does? Help. Also, who cares. Let us all enjoy a hand-picked basket of tweets from Phony Kogi at this time:

New special for Lent: Anyone willing to wait 40 minutes for their food will get 5% off.
12:19 AM Mar 4th from web

is at Terminal 6 LAX you’ll luv our Venice Alley Kimchi Quesadilla
8:19 PM Feb 24th from web

We’ve just added a third truck. Dubbed ‘Negro’ this 60ft semi-trailer truck is big and black with supplies to satisfy multiple customers.
8:19 PM Feb 23rd from web

»continue reading Are You Following the Right Kogi?

Jeannette and I were prowling around Wednesday eve and we stumbled upon this gigantic, fantastic, (insert adjective here) wall on Melrose about a block east of Fairfax. Anybody following Neckface’s work in LA knows that he tends to favor the Fairfax and Melrose corridors for whatever reason (proximity to New Image? He’s had some shows there). Anyhow, check it out while it lasts; typically that wall is reserved for back catalog reissues, shoe adverts and/or something similarly ignorable. (Photo by Jeannette)

» Bored? Jeannette’s Flickr Stream Never Fails To Entertain In Some Capacity

Attention, rest of the world. Probably you have already heard it from your other friends in Los Angeles, but we wanted to make sure that we drove the point home at this time. It is precisely 89 degrees (F) in Tinseltown (31 deg C) @ 1pm PST (9pm GMT), 13 January 2009. This photo, taken four hours in the future, showcases what our skyline will look like as we gaze east from the ocean atop Runyon Canyon, 5:06pm PST (1:06am GMT) this evening. I hesitate to mention that I am headed to a patio at this time. Now carry on with whatever it is you do out there in the cold.

»continue reading 64th Annual Northeast Los Angeles Holiday Parade, 12/7/08, Highland Park

Full gallery forthcoming