New Sets

Flickr fun.

Merry Christmas!

If you dare, click on this link. Consider it a little Christmas fun from me for you.

LA Transit

Nice article from the Washington Post on mass transit in LA.

In a sense, Los Angeles is returning to its roots. In the 1920s, the region was home to the most elaborate rail system in the country: almost 1,500 miles of track connecting the eastern desert with the Pacific Coast. It was Los Angeles's great transit network, not the automobile, that jump-started the region's sprawl, said Martin Wachs, a transportation expert at the Rand Corp. But by the 1960s, the car had taken over, and all the trains were gone.

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Whew!

I think I drank too much this weekend.

BTW, here is the INLAND EMPIRE trailer (click the button marked trailer). Love it! I remember when I took people from church to see Fire Walk With Me. The first scene was a hammer smashing a tv (aka, this isn't going to be a longer, made-for-the-big-screen twin peaks episode, friends). It went downhill from there.

Magic Mountain

According to Curbed LA, which is a great site, Magic Mountain won't be sold (yet). If they want to rebrand, one easy measure is to get rid of the dancing bald guy in their commercials. He looks straight out of The Devil's Rejects.

Calendar

The LA Times Calendar Weekend section might be better than their sports page. Today's paper had articles on:

Laura Dern on David Lynch's new movie Inland Empire

History Channel's contest on future designs for L.A.

Profiles of Downtown bars and clubs. Too bad none of them are as good as Al's bar, which closed a few years back.

Incidentally, this morning was the first day my hair was long enough to do some Lynch-ian styling.

Nicholas Ray

Oh! There's a Nicholas Ray Retrospective this weekend through next Wednesday.

Here's his wikipedia.

Music

Last night I fell asleep and could hear Neil Tenant in my head again.

Let's take a ride, and run with the dogs tonight
In Suburbia

Also: I'm listening to The Radio Dept. all the time. Lovely stuff. Really.

Toy District

(Via Downtownnews) Cleaning up the trash Downtown is in my mind, more important than the big plans. I'm glad to see that the Toy District is moving in the right direction.

Palms

People seem to hate palm trees these days. My friends complain about them and now disdain has reached public officials. I knew something was up when the Port's Commission President took time to rip into palms. He wouldn't have mentioned it unless this was also on the Mayor's mind. Everyone is piling on. From a column in last weekend's LA Times:

Two weeks ago, the City Council unanimously passed a motion to limit the planting of palms on city streets and medians. The city's Department of Public Works has declared that the palm that Bandini found so alluring is not a tree at all but a lowly species of grass. City Council President Eric Garcetti's office has proclaimed that the spindly yet exotic plants are "really bad for our city." Paula Daniels, who heads Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's initiative to plant a million trees over the next five years, thinks oaks — whose shade is better for water and air quality — should replace aging palms when they die.

I like em fine but it looks like my project will be planting less of them. That isn't so bad. They are a hassle to find. Palms were so in demand that we got into a bidding war with Vegas. Guess who won?

Important Stuff

From Consumer Reports: Some brands, such as Olay [Regenerist], worked better than others. But wrinkle creams on average made little difference in the skins appearance.

I've also posted pictures from last weekend on my flickr.

Christmastime

This time of year is fun. It seems like every weekend has just filled up.

Vagabond

Moving again! This time to Carson with good friends. It will be another short stay. Unfortunately, leaving Long Beach spells the end for the most unlikely of attachments.