Los Angeles Alternative

CD Reviews

Animal Collective and Lithops
By Bernardo Rondeau
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Silver Lake Horror Music and Picture Show

The Silver Lake Film Festival is adding some new elements to its roster of fundraising: Horror Music!  This year’s Halloween night is the debut of the Silver Lake Horror Music and Picture Show, a live concert to raise money for the non-profit Silver Lake Film Festival where you should come dressed as your favorite film character costume and screen some indie horror flicks.  Playing live are old school rap, queercore group Gravy Train!!!, “pony thrash” proto-punkers Mika Miko, and ’70s power-punk meets Brian Jonestown Massacre The Red Hearts plus MC Johnny Angel of Air America.  I think it would just be interesting enough to go see the film buffs wrestle the music snobs. The show starts a 8 p.m.  $15 at door, advance tickets available.  More information at: http://silverlakefilmfestival.org/ (Tiffany Lee)

West Hollywood Halloween

If you want to do Halloween right, you have to go to West Hollywood for OBVIOUS reasons, labeled the largest Halloween street party in the world (meaning in the U.S. cause no one else celebrates Halloween outside of here).  Santa Monica Blvd between La Cienega and Doheny closes down and fills up with the most shocking, elaborate, creative, most outrageous costumes you will ever see, like Cinco De Mayo in Hell.  There will be three stages set up all along the street with live entertainment, bars that already line Santa Monica Blvd, and a super secret and selective costume contest.  There will also be 20 bracelets handed out in secret throughout the night that will gain you access to the costume contest stage where you compete for the grand prize of $1,000 cash and gifts.  But good luck, because the people you’d be up against started their costumes last November.  The gaudy gallivanting will begin at 6p.m. and end at midnight, but no worry, just go to the bars and stay ‘til 2 a.m..! (Tiffany Lee)

Electronic Renaissance

Electro as we knew it from the days of Club 82 and fauxhawks is dead, deal with it jerks.  Techno is making a serious comeback, its forerunners joining forces this Halloween at Safari Sam’s to blow your fucking minds.  Although I hate to use the words “Daft Punk” I can’t help but feel some correlation between electronic groups Justice and MSTRKRFT and the masked duo, Justice being another French duo and MSTRKRFT having very similar whimsical vocals.  But they both hold their own on the dancefloor.  Justice is best known for their remix of the Simian song “We Are Your Friends” and the rest of their catalogue being hard-hitting techno and house beats that are hardly Eurotrash and won’t make you feel like you’re wearing your giant JNCO pants and pony beads.  Emblazoning all of their performances and artwork with Jebus crosses, I don’t really know if they are “Christian/ Club” as they claim to be on their website, but if that’s what it sounds like in church, I’m a convert.  MSTRKRFT has a more varied approach to electronica like their forefathers Daft Punk, playing more with samples and vocals, and giving it a lighter, more danceable sound.  Joining these bands is none other than Totally Radd!!! to work you up with their awesome costumes, thumb-raising lyrics and sweatiness.  For more information go to www.Safari-Sams.com. (Tiffany Lee)

Robin Williams on Fire at Il Corral

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Modelween at Cinespace

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Friday the 13th/Fright Night Double Feature

Somehow I find Suburbia 10 times more frightening than anything any urban environment could possibly conjure up. Here you might get mugged or shot or any other number of unfortunate but ultimately mundane happenings. But something about that bedroom community night-silence brings out something else entirely, where you know that behind every well-manicured shrub could be a leather-faced axe murderer. In Suburbia, nobody can hear you scream. That’s probably why horror films always seem to take place on the outskirts; nothing feeds into Urban America’s fear of those folks on the outside like a good old massacre at Camp Crystal Lake. Monday the New Beverly Cinema presents a double-feature of two classics of eighties suburban horror: Friday the 13th and Fright Night. 7:30 p.m. $7. For more information, visit http://beta.la.flavorpill.net/57161. (Jessica Madison)

Blue Monday Wine Tasting at Silverlake Wine

Ok, with this barrage of Halloween-related events, here’s an opportunity to take a day off, put your chair back and your pinkies up.  Silverlake Wine offers some low key relaxation while serving three distinctly different wines plus cheese from the Cheese Store of Silverlake at Sunset Junction.  There are no reservations, come and go as you please, and no zombies provided. 5-9p.m. $12, more information at http://www.silverlakewine.com. (Tiffany Lee)

Los Angeles Young Adult Authors at Mt. Hollywood Underground

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Carrie Screening and Benefit

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Rolling Blackouts All Fucking Ages Warehouse Party

We shit you not. Keep this one on the D.L. even lower than the Betalevel thing, kids. You read that correctly: it’s ALL AGES. It’s only $5. It’s B.Y.O.B! Ha! Ahahaha!!! And there will be music being spun all night, but the bands are up-and-comers Sonadora at 9pm (members of Dios and the Blackouts!), Peach Fuzz 9:45, Fortune’s Flesh 10:30 (Ex Starvations—L.A. stalwarts!), and then the Rolling Blackouts go on at 11:15. See? Early night. Dad can wait for you at the corner. Bring gum. 1320 Grand Ave, Los Angeles. Mapquest it!! $5. (LMK)

We Totally Knew About This A Year Ago But Never Told Many People Because We Were Afraid They’d Get Shut Down. So There. (MP3 Swap at Betalevel)

Betalevel was recently described in the LA Weekly as “Best Sunken Lair For Techno-Geeks.” Which means that this month, someone might show up (who knows how) to network your Windows laptop. And when that person does show up, you will make fun of them (”windoze! wtf! lol!”). You will do this, because techno-geeks are sometimes cruel. Especially when they’re actually lit-nerdz in disguise. Swap Meet is a place for you to come with a special selection of your very most bestest most favoritest music so you can trade it with other actual human people for the special music that you’ve always wanted but didn’t know existed. It’s like social software, but replacing “software” with “beer.” It’s also their Halloween edition, but please try to bypass the obvious and leave the Cap’n Arrr garb at home. And don’t dress as Tux either, you clever bastard. Punch and Pie. Direx to Betalevel and an awe-inspiring photo can be found here: http://betalevel.com/directions. (LMK)

Muse Costume Ball at LACMA

I don’t know what it is about museums, but when a party is in a museum the party becomes ten times more awesome.  Maybe it has something to do with the uncontrollable urge to misbehave in a museum because you can’t touch ANYTHING or run around or do anything but walk slowly and make frou frou comments about whatever the hell you’re seeing.  Or maybe because partying in a museum is impossible because it would cost more than you can sell your body for.  Well, this Halloween you get to do all those things (except touch the pieces) at LACMA’s 3rd annual Muse Costume Ball.  The theme this yeah is “Looks to Die For” which is perfect since the exhibit that will surround the party is none other than the couture retrospective “Breaking the Mode.”  There will be big ticket costume contest prizes, Djs from Indie 103.1 and dancing dancing dancing.  Only problem is the big ticket prices: $37 or $27.  For more information go to www.lacma.org. (Tiffany Lee)

The Blue Mask

Chupacabra, The Chairs of Perception, Donovan’s Fairies, Backbiter, Motorcycle Black Madonnas, and Upstart combine for a very disturbing, yet brilliantly only-in-L.A. show at one of those only-in-L.A. venues: Mr. T’s Bowl. If you ain’t been before, this is the night to come. Expect sounds in the vein of 60’s Punk, Ramones, Dictators, Dylan, Sonics, Sonic Youth—and even a little heavy metal / art punk / glam thrown in for good measure. There will be cupcakes. Voted Best New Wild Card by our own staff. 5621 ½ Figueroa, Highland Park. (323) 256-7561. Cover $5, doors 8pm. (LMK)

The Tiffany’s of Chocolate

Chocolatebox Cafe in La Canada brings two lifelong friends together for what may be L.A.’s best. Chocolate. Ever.
by Lucinda Michele Knapp Read more…

L.A.’s New Punks at The Scene

Yeah, it’s in Glendale. But when you walk in you know you’ve found your new low-key, kick-back watering hole. Except it’s, uh, probably not walking distance. But that’s ok! Because you’ve brought some poor sap as a DD! And tonight, Swami artists, The Heartaches, then their labelmates, Demolition Doll Rods, and The Stitches headline to make this a Halloween raise-the-dead rock’n’roll bloodbath! The L.A. Gentlemen Callers round out the bill to make this the pogoin’est (you know you want to) joint in all of the Eastside. It’s gonna be a banger! (But not the kind they serve with mash. Although if you get your drunk on enough you may need one of those to take the edge off.) 806 E. Colorado Blvd. Starts at 9 pm, so don’t dick around. (LMK)

Frankenstein: Mortal Toys at the Velaslavasay Theatre

Puppets are super creepy. Frankenstein is also kinda creepy, although significantly less so, mostly due to Mel Brooks, but also to Peter Boyle, not only for his portrayal of the Monster in Brook’s 1974 farce, but also for his participation in that abomination of syndicated television known as Everybody Loves Raymond. They play that shit on airplanes now, you know, because apparently no over the counter sedative is as powerful as the excruciating banter between the clearly unloved Ray Romano and that awful harpie from the Albertson’s commercials. But maybe the inherent eeriness of puppetry will make up for all the modern baggage Mary Shelly’s tale takes along with it. From October 27th to the 29th, Automata presents Frankenstein: Mortal Toys at the Velaslavasay Theatre, a retooling of Erik Ehn’s version of the original novel, acted out in the miniature with puppets based on 18th century American portrait paintings. For more information, visit http://www.calendarlive.com/stage/432883,0,7412541.event. (Jessica Madison)

Brilliant Comics Rock at SH

Winner of oodles of design and comic awards, Jordan Crane first emerged in the comic world in 1996 with the anthology, Non. Crane edited, contributed to, and published Non, which became that era’s showcase for the most explosive young experimental cartoonists. The short-lived series has been compared to Spiegelman and Mouly’s Raw. Now, Crane’s most recent book, The Clouds Above, has been called a cross between Where the Wild Things Are and The Wizard of Oz. Clouds has earned an Ignatz award nomination for “Outstanding Graphic Novel and Outstanding Artist”. Tonight, catch his opening—and the man himself—at Secret Headquarters: a perfectly monstrous, pre-Halloween delight to inspire you for the weekend. 8 – 10 pm. 3817 W. Sunset Blvd., Silver Lake. (LMK)

Brilliant Comics Rock at SH

Winner of oodles of design and comic awards, Jordan Crane first emerged in the comic world in 1996 with the anthology, Non. Crane edited, contributed to, and published Non, which became that era’s showcase for the most explosive young experimental cartoonists. The short-lived series has been compared to Spiegelman and Mouly’s Raw. Now, Crane’s most recent book, The Clouds Above, has been called a cross between Where the Wild Things Are and The Wizard of Oz. Clouds has earned an Ignatz award nomination for “Outstanding Graphic Novel and Outstanding Artist”. Tonight, catch his opening—and the man himself—at Secret Headquarters: a perfectly monstrous, pre-Halloween delight to inspire you for the weekend. 8 – 10 pm. 3817 W. Sunset Blvd., Silver Lake. (LMK)

Hot Young Throbbing Love Poetry

“A wit sharp as Sedaris, a sensibility poignant as Sexton, Derrick Brown manages to blur the lines between slam poet and cult writer with remarkable ease and grace,” says Anthem. We say, fuck all that. Ladies, he’s easy on the eyes. And a brilliantly funny, poignant (there’s that word again) poet. Who doesn’t love that? Your boyfriend. No matter: gentlemen, learn from a master. This dude’s got the science of profundity blended with wit DOWN. And it’s paid off: To date, Brown has performed at over 1100 venues and universities internationally including La Sorbonne in Paris and The
Nuyorican Poets Café in NYC. A snippet: “I watched black ropes and tears ramble down your face. / Lady war paint. / A squad of tiny men rappels down those snaking lines / and you say; / ‘Thank you for releasing all those fuckers from my life’…If this kills me, / slice me julienne / uncurl my veins / and fashion yourself a noose / so I can hold you / once more.” SWOON.  For more info visit http://www.brownpoetry.com; the show tonight is at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater and is called “The Lazers of
Sexcellance: Mostly comedic spoken word stuff.” With Amber Tamblyn and Jason “Roscoe” Whitten (both also hott). 5919 Franklin Ave., Hollywood. Come early: this’ll sell out (five bucks). 9:30pm. (LMK)

Week of October 26

by Rob Brezny Read more…

Get Your Gourd On

In exploring this new medium of the In-ter-net, we at the LA Alternative decided to exploit our new interactive abilities by supplying a DIY project for all you pumpkin-happy people.
We’ve posted five LAA-original stencils (a place setting, a cat, a handgun, Zero and of course, a skull) to help make your lantern a bit less jack-o and a lot more wack-o.

Click, print, stick, trace, carve, repeat.

Happy Halloween!

Enron’s Enablers Go Unpunished

Thanks to presidential sponsors, the biggest corporate swindle in U.S. history was allowed to unfold.
By Robert Scheer
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Get your Gourd On

Five striking stencils to help pimp out your pumpkin. Read more…

Halloween Bash at La Cita

Wilshire-corridor Arbiters of Cool, Subliminal Projects (brainchild of one Shep Fairey), have taken Downtown’s La Cita and transformed it into the hipster haven you know it was just meant to be thirty, um, years ago. And this one should blast the doors off. DJ’s from the Short Stop, Bar 107, Le Disko, Memphis and other places people do blow with hundred dollar bills while wearing twenty-year-old t-shirts will be helping you tear up the dance floor. There’s a costume contest, a photo station (by Prom Nite photographer, Jiro) for all you beautiful narcissists, and gift bags of super-cool schwag (Barracuda, OBEY, and Swindle Mag stuff) go to the first fifty people. So come early, in costume, and sell that shizzle on Ebay: it’s already worth more than those goofy shoes you’re gonna buy just for Halloween. RSVP REQUIRED. Danceright@gmail.com. 10 pm – 2 am. 21+. 336 S. Hill, between 3rd & 4th. Lot and street parking. (LMK)

Art of Bleeding at the Steve Allen Theatre

L.A. Alternative’s final cover darlings and super-sexy sirens of sutures will return to the kickass Steve Allen Theatre for the Art of Bleeding’s Halloween installment: The Magic Ambulance Theatre & Halloween Highway: A Cautionary Tableau of Automotive Carnage. Sounds tasty, if the fake blood we ingested on that zombie walk two weeks ago is any testament (that shit’s just sugar syrup! awesome!). There’ll be a pre-show party in the parking lot recreating the grisly sights, smells, and sensations of a multi-vehicle freeway pile-up (if you ever saw one of Christian Ristow’s robot performances here, you KNOW the kind of vehicular wreckage that can be created in this lot), and an installation featuring classic highway safety films “brought to grisly life.” Yum again! Reverend Al, who runs the show, promises “multi-media tricks and treats for your inner rubbernecking ghoul.” AND there’ll be performances by Margaret Cho, Danny Shorago, Miss Satanica (did we say yum?), Los Ninos de la Tierra and the Tulsa Skull Swingers. Plus their usual cast of slutty nurses, an ape, a robot, and puppets. Holy contusions, Batman! $10. http://www.artofbleeding.com. 4773 Hollywood Blvd., Los Feliz. (LMK)
 

 

 

 

To Do 10.25 – 10.31

Wednesday 10.25

Architectural Tour of the Venice Canals
Yep, it turns out there was an actual reason (beyond a heavy dosage of Nag Champa and weed, of course) that led to calling one of L.A.’s most beautiful coastal regions Venice. Hidden behind the alley streets, souvenir shops and rooftop decks are a series of gorgeous historic canals. The canals were ordered and built in 1904 by Abbot Kinney to help turn the area into “The Coney Island of the West” and has long been a centerpiece for the transformation and maturation of California’s coastal cool. Presently, they’re bordered almost entirely by some of the most unique and beautiful homes in urban Los Angeles. Today, as part of Architectural digest’s L.A. Architecture Days, they’ll host a walking tour of the Venice Canals, which offer an eclectic mix of architectural styles and contemporary design, followed by a tour of a magnificent residence overlooking the waterways led by the project’s designers. There’s a “free” reception included, but you’re gonna pay for it: $50 for the whole deal. But this is a rare occasion to check out what was once the most vital area of Venice life that has now almost been forgotten. 5-7 p.m. For tickets and meeting location, visit www.ArchitectureDays.com.

Twilight Singers at HOB
Drugs are bad, mmmmkay? Just ask the Silver Jews. Or that Cobain guy. Or Crosby, Stills, Nash or Young. Or you could even ask Greg Dulli. Rock’n'roll may be one of the only red-blooded American lifestyles that publicly embraces drug use as an acceptable behavior. But a few individuals took it to great heights – and great lows. Dulli’s all over the press lately, rapturously discussing his getting clean and on the straight and narrow, and frankly it shows: his new work with soulsters Twilight Singers – at the House of [anything but] Blues tonight – is lucid, brilliant, and radiant. The House of Blues may be low on soul, but these boys will bring more than enough of it to wash the place through with the sort of magic feeling you only get from music. No chemicals necessary. 8430 Sunset Blvd., WeHo. Doors at 8. (LMK)

Thursday Oct 26th

Halloween Bash at La Cita
Wilshire-corridor Arbiters of Cool, Subliminal Projects (brainchild of one Shep Fairey), have taken Downtown’s La Cita and transformed it into the hipster haven you know it was just meant to be thirty, um, years ago. And this one should blast the doors off. DJ’s from the Short Stop, Bar 107, Le Disko, Memphis and other places people do blow with hundred dollar bills while wearing twenty-year-old t-shirts will be helping you tear up the dance floor. There’s a costume contest, a photo station (by Prom Nite photographer, Jiro) for all you beautiful narcissists, and gift bags of super-cool schwag (Barracuda, OBEY, and Swindle Mag stuff) go to the first fifty people. So come early, in costume, and sell that shizzle on Ebay: it’s already worth more than those goofy shoes you’re gonna buy just for Halloween. RSVP REQUIRED. Danceright@gmail.com. 10 pm – 2 am. 21+. 336 S. Hill, between 3rd & 4th. Lot and street parking. (LMK)

Art of Bleeding at the Steve Allen Theatre
L.A. Alternative’s final cover darlings and super-sexy sirens of sutures will return to the kickass Steve Allen Theatre for the Art of Bleeding’s Halloween installment: The Magic Ambulance Theatre & Halloween Highway: A Cautionary Tableau of Automotive Carnage. Sounds tasty, if the fake blood we ingested on that zombie walk two weeks ago is any testament (that shit’s just sugar syrup! awesome!). There’ll be a pre-show party in the parking lot recreating the grisly sights, smells, and sensations of a multi-vehicle freeway pile-up (if you ever saw one of Christian Ristow’s robot performances here, you KNOW the kind of vehicular wreckage that can be created in this lot), and an installation featuring classic highway safety films “brought to grisly life.” Yum again! Reverend Al, who runs the show, promises “multi-media tricks and treats for your inner rubbernecking ghoul.” AND there’ll be performances by Margaret Cho, Danny Shorago, Miss Satanica (did we say yum?), Los Ninos de la Tierra and the Tulsa Skull Swingers. Plus their usual cast of slutty nurses, an ape, a robot, and puppets. Holy contusions, Batman! $10. http://www.artofbleeding.com. 4773 Hollywood Blvd., Los Feliz. (LMK)

Friday Oct 27th

Brilliant Comics Rock at SH
Winner of oodles of design and comic awards, Jordan Crane first emerged in the comic world in 1996 with the anthology, Non. Crane edited, contributed to, and published Non, which became that era’s showcase for the most explosive young experimental cartoonists. The short-lived series has been compared to Spiegelman and Mouly’s Raw. Now, Crane’s most recent book, The Clouds Above, has been called a cross between Where the Wild Things Are and The Wizard of Oz. Clouds has earned an Ignatz award nomination for “Outstanding Graphic Novel and Outstanding Artist”. Tonight, catch his opening-and the man himself-at Secret Headquarters: a perfectly monstrous, pre-Halloween delight to inspire you for the weekend. 8 – 10 pm. 3817 W. Sunset Blvd., Silver Lake. (LMK)

Frankenstein: Mortal Toys at the Velaslavasay Theatre
Puppets are super creepy. Frankenstein is also kinda creepy, although significantly less so, mostly due to Mel Brooks, but also to Peter Boyle, not only for his portrayal of the Monster in Brook’s 1974 farce, but also for his participation in that abomination of syndicated television known as Everybody Loves Raymond. They play that shit on airplanes now, you know, because apparently no over the counter sedative is as powerful as the excruciating banter between the clearly unloved Ray Romano and that awful harpie from the Albertson’s commercials. But maybe the inherent eeriness of puppetry will make up for all the modern baggage Mary Shelly’s tale takes along with it. From October 27th to the 29th, Automata presents Frankenstein: Mortal Toys at the Velaslavasay Theatre, a retooling of Erik Ehn’s version of the original novel, acted out in the miniature with puppets based on 18th century American portrait paintings. For more information, visit http://www.calendarlive.com/stage/432883,0,7412541.event. (Jessica Madison)

Hot Young Throbbing Love Poetry
“A wit sharp as Sedaris, a sensibility poignant as Sexton, Derrick Brown manages to blur the lines between slam poet and cult writer with remarkable ease and grace,” says Anthem. We say, fuck all that. Ladies, he’s easy on the eyes. And a brilliantly funny, poignant (there’s that word again) poet. Who doesn’t love that? Your boyfriend. No matter: gentlemen, learn from a master. This dude’s got the science of profundity blended with wit DOWN. And it’s paid off: To date, Brown has performed at over 1100 venues and universities internationally including La Sorbonne in Paris and The
Nuyorican Poets Café in NYC. A snippet: “I watched black ropes and tears ramble down your face. / Lady war paint. / A squad of tiny men rappels down those snaking lines / and you say; / ‘Thank you for releasing all those fuckers from my life’…If this kills me, / slice me julienne / uncurl my veins / and fashion yourself a noose / so I can hold you / once more.” SWOON. For more info visit http://www.brownpoetry.com; the show tonight is at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater and is called “The Lazers of Sexcellance: Mostly comedic spoken word stuff.” With Amber Tamblyn and Jason “Roscoe” Whitten (both also hott). 5919 Franklin Ave., Hollywood. Come early: this’ll sell out (five bucks). 9:30pm. (LMK)

L.A.’s New Punks at The Scene
Yeah, it’s in Glendale. But when you walk in you know you’ve found your new low-key, kick-back watering hole. Except it’s, uh, probably not walking distance. But that’s ok! Because you’ve brought some poor sap as a DD! And tonight, Swami artists, The Heartaches, then their labelmates, Demolition Doll Rods, and The Stitches headline to make this a Halloween raise-the-dead rock’n'roll bloodbath! The L.A. Gentlemen Callers round out the bill to make this the pogoin’est (you know you want to) joint in all of the Eastside. It’s gonna be a banger! (But not the kind they serve with mash. Although if you get your drunk on enough you may need one of those to take the edge off.) 806 E. Colorado Blvd. Starts at 9 pm, so don’t dick around. (LMK)

Saturday Oct 28th

We Totally Knew About This A Year Ago But Never Told Many People Because We Were Afraid They’d Get Shut Down. So There. (MP3 Swap at Betalevel)
Betalevel was recently described in the LA Weekly as “Best Sunken Lair For Techno-Geeks.” Which means that this month, someone might show up (who knows how) to network your Windows laptop. And when that person does show up, you will make fun of them (”windoze! wtf! lol!”). You will do this, because techno-geeks are sometimes cruel. Especially when they’re actually lit-nerdz in disguise. Swap Meet is a place for you to come with a special selection of your very most bestest most favoritest music so you can trade it with other actual human people for the special music that you’ve always wanted but didn’t know existed. It’s like social software, but replacing “software” with “beer.” It’s also their Halloween edition, but please try to bypass the obvious and leave the Cap’n Arrr garb at home. And don’t dress as Tux either, you clever bastard. Punch and Pie. Direx to Betalevel and an awe-inspiring photo can be found here: http://betalevel.com/directions. (LMK)

The Blue Mask
Chupacabra, The Chairs of Perception, Donovan’s Fairies, Backbiter, Motorcycle Black Madonnas, and Upstart combine for a very disturbing, yet brilliantly only-in-L.A. show at one of those only-in-L.A. venues: Mr. T’s Bowl. If you ain’t been before, this is the night to come. Expect sounds in the vein of 60’s Punk, Ramones, Dictators, Dylan, Sonics, Sonic Youth-and even a little heavy metal / art punk / glam thrown in for good measure. There will be cupcakes. Voted Best New Wild Card by our own staff. 5621 1/2 Figueroa, Highland Park. (323) 256-7561. Cover $5, doors 8pm. (LMK)

Muse Costume Ball at LACMA
I don’t know what it is about museums, but when a party is in a museum the party becomes ten times more awesome. Maybe it has something to do with the uncontrollable urge to misbehave in a museum because you can’t touch ANYTHING or run around or do anything but walk slowly and make frou frou comments about whatever the hell you’re seeing. Or maybe because partying in a museum is impossible because it would cost more than you can sell your body for. Well, this Halloween you get to do all those things (except touch the pieces) at LACMA’s 3rd annual Muse Costume Ball. The theme this yeah is “Looks to Die For” which is perfect since the exhibit that will surround the party is none other than the couture retrospective “Breaking the Mode.” There will be big ticket costume contest prizes, Djs from Indie 103.1 and dancing dancing dancing. Only problem is the big ticket prices: $37 or $27. For more information go to www.lacma.org. (Tiffany Lee)

Rolling Blackouts All Fucking Ages Warehouse Party
We shit you not. Keep this one on the D.L. even lower than the Betalevel thing, kids. You read that correctly: it’s ALL AGES. It’s only $5. It’s B.Y.O.B! Ha! Ahahaha!!! And there will be music being spun all night, but the bands are up-and-comers Sonadora at 9pm (members of Dios and the Blackouts!), Peach Fuzz 9:45, Fortune’s Flesh 10:30 (Ex Starvations-L.A. stalwarts!), and then the Rolling Blackouts go on at 11:15. See? Early night. Dad can wait for you at the corner. Bring gum. 1320 Grand Ave, Los Angeles. Mapquest it!! $5. (LMK)

Sunday Oct 29

Los Angeles Young Adult Authors at Mt. Hollywood Underground
Teen Angst. Sure, you remember it…the tryouts for the cheerleading squad, that horrible pimple you had on your nose for the spring fling, the reject table in the lunchroom, the SAT, that black lipstick you scrawled on the women’s room mirror with-wait, you didn’t do that? Fuck. Well, LA YA (Los Angeles Young Adult Authors) remembers it so well that they write whole novels about it. Make no mistake, Young Adult literature has come a long way from Beverly Cleary’s Fifteen. Come mix and mingle with some of Los Angeles’ brightest writers of the genre: Cecil Castellucci (The Queen of Cool), Dana Reinhardt (A Brief Chapter In My Impossible Life), Jordan Roter (Girl in Development), Kerry Madden (Gentle’s Holler), Mark L. Williams (Danger Boy), Melissa de la Cruz (The Au Pairs), Sally Nemeth (The Heights, The Depths and Everything In Between), Amy Goldman Koss (Poison Ivy, Side Effects), and Rachel Cohn (Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Two Steps Forward). So show up at 7 p.m. with 10 bucks in hand at 4607 Prospect Avenue, in Los Feliz, at the Mt. Hollywood Underground. Sounds like a lot? It’s not. Because it’s a SPEAKEASY. Get it? Jeez. Once you’re in, you’re in, and refreshments are cheap with that little bookmark ticket they give you (plus it’s a unique piece of artwork). (LMK)

Carrie Screening and Benefit
Don’t confuse her with the other Mommy Dearest, not that you could once the blood starts streaming down her chest, but Carrie is coming to the Echo. That’s right, Carrie the film turns 30 this year and to celebrate there’s an interactive screening. Proceeds go to Halsa Inc., an HIV and AIDS legal services alliance. Come for the gore, stay for the benefit, stay even longer for the costume contest, cash and prizes. The grand prize is $666. 6:30 p.m. at the Echo. $25 donation.

Monday Oct 30th

Robin Williams on Fire at Il Corral
If you hadn’t already heard, only sell-outs learn how to play music. The best bands are experiences. While we’re not quite ready to sign off on that statement, we’ll pay the 5 bucks to swill forties at Il Corral with these crazy fucks and help them continue touring the country making fucked up sounds that push the proverbial envelope that much closer to falling off the proverbial desk. Tonight the disaster punk crash yodel fuck band called Robin Williams on Fire will ignite themselves at Il Corral along with Macka, Bizzart and Brother Mitya. Help music de-evolve wontcha? 9 p.m. $5.

Modelween at Cinespace
Online model networking site One Model Place is holding an affair at Cinespace where all the wannabe models come out with their amazingly original “slutty (fill in blank)” costumes. In honor of all those networking sites, you can even see exactly who is planning to attend via the One Model Place site, which is pretty hilarious since none of the girls look anything like real models, but more power to them. I think you still got it girls! Yep. This event is the quintessential online hook-up place because who can be sluttier than wannabe models? So I suggest if you want to get with these girls go pose as a photographer. Brilliant! There will be a costume contest where you can dress like your favorite celebrity or movie/TV character and music from the “official Modelween DJ” Vinyl Manipulator. Sweet! And you know it’s gonna be hot because in the pictures section, the first thing you focus on is the old bald man right in the light. I’m so glad this event exists. 9 p.m. “Ladies” get in free, but for male non-members it’s $25. More info at: www.modelween.com. (Tiffany Lee)

Friday the 13th/Fright Night Double Feature
Somehow I find Suburbia 10 times more frightening than anything any urban environment could possibly conjure up. Here you might get mugged or shot or any other number of unfortunate but ultimately mundane happenings. But something about that bedroom community night-silence brings out something else entirely, where you know that behind every well-manicured shrub could be a leather-faced axe murderer. In Suburbia, nobody can hear you scream. That’s probably why horror films always seem to take place on the outskirts; nothing feeds into Urban America’s fear of those folks on the outside like a good old massacre at Camp Crystal Lake. Monday the New Beverly Cinema presents a double-feature of two classics of eighties suburban horror: Friday the 13th and Fright Night. 7:30 p.m. $7. For more information, visit http://beta.la.flavorpill.net/57161. (Jessica Madison)

Blue Monday Wine Tasting at Silverlake Wine
Ok, with this barrage of Halloween-related events, here’s an opportunity to take a day off, put your chair back and your pinkies up. Silverlake Wine offers some low key relaxation while serving three distinctly different wines plus cheese from the Cheese Store of Silverlake at Sunset Junction. There are no reservations, come and go as you please, and no zombies provided. 5-9p.m. $12, more information at http://www.silverlakewine.com. (Tiffany Lee)

Tuesday 10.31

Silver Lake Horror Music and Picture Show
The Silver Lake Film Festival is adding some new elements to its roster of fundraising: Horror Music! This year’s Halloween night is the debut of the Silver Lake Horror Music and Picture Show, a live concert to raise money for the non-profit Silver Lake Film Festival where you should come dressed as your favorite film character costume and screen some indie horror flicks. Playing live are old school rap, queercore group Gravy Train!!!, “pony thrash” proto-punkers Mika Miko, and ’70s power-punk meets Brian Jonestown Massacre The Red Hearts plus MC Johnny Angel of Air America. I think it would just be interesting enough to go see the film buffs wrestle the music snobs. The show starts a 8 p.m. $15 at door, advance tickets available. More information at: http://silverlakefilmfestival.org/ (Tiffany Lee)

West Hollywood Halloween
If you want to do Halloween right, you have to go to West Hollywood for OBVIOUS reasons, labeled the largest Halloween street party in the world (meaning in the U.S. cause no one else celebrates Halloween outside of here). Santa Monica Blvd between La Cienega and Doheny closes down and fills up with the most shocking, elaborate, creative, most outrageous costumes you will ever see, like Cinco De Mayo in Hell. There will be three stages set up all along the street with live entertainment, bars that already line Santa Monica Blvd, and a super secret and selective costume contest. There will also be 20 bracelets handed out in secret throughout the night that will gain you access to the costume contest stage where you compete for the grand prize of $1,000 cash and gifts. But good luck, because the people you’d be up against started their costumes last November. The gaudy gallivanting will begin at 6p.m. and end at midnight, but no worry, just go to the bars and stay ’til 2 a.m..! (Tiffany Lee)

Electronic Renaissance
Electro as we knew it from the days of Club 82 and fauxhawks is dead, deal with it jerks. Techno is making a serious comeback, its forerunners joining forces this Halloween at Safari Sam’s to blow your fucking minds. Although I hate to use the words “Daft Punk” I can’t help but feel some correlation between electronic groups Justice and MSTRKRFT and the masked duo, Justice being another French duo and MSTRKRFT having very similar whimsical vocals. But they both hold their own on the dancefloor. Justice is best known for their remix of the Simian song “We Are Your Friends” and the rest of their catalogue being hard-hitting techno and house beats that are hardly Eurotrash and won’t make you feel like you’re wearing your giant JNCO pants and pony beads. Emblazoning all of their performances and artwork with Jebus crosses, I don’t really know if they are “Christian/ Club” as they claim to be on their website, but if that’s what it sounds like in church, I’m a convert. MSTRKRFT has a more varied approach to electronica like their forefathers Daft Punk, playing more with samples and vocals, and giving it a lighter, more danceable sound. Joining these bands is none other than Totally Radd!!! to work you up with their awesome costumes, thumb-raising lyrics and sweatiness. For more information go to www.Safari-Sams.com. (Tiffany Lee)

Disc Junkie

Add these to your weekly list: Oct 27-Nov 2.
By Paul Gaita
Read more…

Architectural Tour of the Venice Canals

Yep, it turns out there was an actual reason (beyond a heavy dosage of Nag Champa and weed, of course) that led to calling one of L.A.’s most beautiful coastal regions Venice. Hidden behind the alley streets, souvenir shops and rooftop decks are a series of gorgeous historic canals. The canals were ordered and built in 1904 by Abbot Kinney to help turn the area into “The Coney Island of the West” and has long been a centerpiece for the transformation and maturation of California’s coastal cool. Presently, they’re bordered almost entirely by some of the most unique and beautiful homes in urban Los Angeles. Today, as part of Architectural digest’s L.A. Architecture Days, they’ll host a walking tour of the Venice Canals, which offer an eclectic mix of architectural styles and contemporary design, followed by a tour of a magnificent residence overlooking the waterways led by the project’s designers. There’s a “free” reception included, but you’re gonna pay for it: $50 for the whole deal. But this is a rare occasion to check out what was once the most vital area of Venice life that has now almost been forgotten. 5-7 p.m. For tickets and meeting location, visit www.ArchitectureDays.com.

Tijuana Go Back to My Place?

Down and striking out in Mexico’s mecca of class.
By Dan Gillis, III
Read more…

Rock’N’Roll Bingo at the Roxy (Yes, the Roxy)

I don’t know how I feel about Bingo. On the one hand, it’s a pretty simple, not too taxing game that requires little to no skill or power of concentration; on the other, it kind of reminds me of high school German class and old people. I imagine if purgatory was a country, Bingo would be the national sport. But hey, anything can be fixed with a little atmosphere, right? Today at the Roxy, the LA Weekly and Amoeba Records are holding a night of Bingo and Rock’n’Roll, hosted by Kevin Griffin of Better than Ezra and DH Peligro of the Dead Kennedys. The musicians will be calling the numbers, and all proceeds go to benefit Tree People, a non-profit organization that works to help nature heal our cities. For more information, visit http://la.com.socialdomain.com/info.php?id=22616.  (Jessica Madison)

The Twilight Singers at HOB

Drugs are bad, mmmmkay? Just ask the Silver Jews. Or that Cobain guy. Or
Crosby, Stills, Nash or Young. Or you could ask Greg Dulli. Rock’n'roll may be one of the only red-blooded American lifestyles that even remotely publicly embraces drug use as an acceptable behavior, but a few individuals took it to great heights — and great lows. But Dulli’s all over the press lately rapturously discussing his getting clean and straight and narrow, and frankly it shows: his new work with the soulsters Twilight Singers – at the House of [anything but] Blues tonight — is lucid, brilliant, and radiant. The House of Blues may be low on soul, but these boys will bring more than enough to wash the place through with the sort of magic feeling you only get from music. No chemicals necessary. 8430 Sunset Blvd., WeHo. Doors at 8. (LMK)

Show Calendar 10/25-10/31

Read more…

LA ALTERNATIVE’S WEEKLY CHECKLIST

You all know what you should be doing Tuesday night, right?

To stem the unfortunate tide of American disinterest in the richest of social traditions-Halloween-you should either be walking your child around participating in the time-tested art of the Trick or Treat, or else you should be at home glued to your bowl of candy and spooky noises cassette tape. And no, driving your kids around in a mini-van or passing out dental floss does not count.

For the other six night of the week, here are some suggestions, scary and not…

For more ideas on getting the most out of your gloriously free schedule, visit the new Laalternative.com, your source for delicious timewasters in off-beat LA.

TO DO: 10.25 thru 10.31

Wednesday 10.25

Architectural Tour of the Venice Canals
Yep, it turns out there was an actual reason (beyond a heavy dosage of Nag Champa and weed, of course) that led to calling one of L.A.’s most beautiful coastal regions Venice. Hidden behind the alley streets, souvenir shops and rooftop decks are a series of gorgeous historic canals. The canals were ordered and built in 1904 by Abbot Kinney to help turn the area into “The Coney Island of the West” and has long been a centerpiece for the transformation and maturation of California’s coastal cool. Presently, they’re bordered almost entirely by some of the most unique and beautiful homes in urban Los Angeles. Today, as part of Architectural digest’s L.A. Architecture Days, they’ll host a walking tour of the Venice Canals, which offer an eclectic mix of architectural styles and contemporary design, followed by a tour of a magnificent residence overlooking the waterways led by the project’s designers. There’s a “free” reception included, but you’re gonna pay for it: $50 for the whole deal. But this is a rare occasion to check out what was once the most vital area of Venice life that has now almost been forgotten. 5-7 p.m. For tickets and meeting location, visit www.ArchitectureDays.com.

Twilight Singers at HOB
Drugs are bad, mmmmkay? Just ask the Silver Jews. Or that Cobain guy. Or Crosby, Stills, Nash or Young. Or you could even ask Greg Dulli. Rock’n'roll may be one of the only red-blooded American lifestyles that publicly embraces drug use as an acceptable behavior. But a few individuals took it to great heights – and great lows. Dulli’s all over the press lately, rapturously discussing his getting clean and on the straight and narrow, and frankly it shows: his new work with soulsters Twilight Singers – at the House of [anything but] Blues tonight – is lucid, brilliant, and radiant. The House of Blues may be low on soul, but these boys will bring more than enough of it to wash the place through with the sort of magic feeling you only get from music. No chemicals necessary. 8430 Sunset Blvd., WeHo. Doors at 8. (LMK)

Thursday Oct 26th

Halloween Bash at La Cita
Wilshire-corridor Arbiters of Cool, Subliminal Projects (brainchild of one Shep Fairey), have taken Downtown’s La Cita and transformed it into the hipster haven you know it was just meant to be thirty, um, years ago. And this one should blast the doors off. DJ’s from the Short Stop, Bar 107, Le Disko, Memphis and other places people do blow with hundred dollar bills while wearing twenty-year-old t-shirts will be helping you tear up the dance floor. There’s a costume contest, a photo station (by Prom Nite photographer, Jiro) for all you beautiful narcissists, and gift bags of super-cool schwag (Barracuda, OBEY, and Swindle Mag stuff) go to the first fifty people. So come early, in costume, and sell that shizzle on Ebay: it’s already worth more than those goofy shoes you’re gonna buy just for Halloween. RSVP REQUIRED. Danceright@gmail.com. 10 pm – 2 am. 21+. 336 S. Hill, between 3rd & 4th. Lot and street parking. (LMK)

Art of Bleeding at the Steve Allen Theatre
L.A. Alternative’s final cover darlings and super-sexy sirens of sutures will return to the kickass Steve Allen Theatre for the Art of Bleeding’s Halloween installment: The Magic Ambulance Theatre & Halloween Highway: A Cautionary Tableau of Automotive Carnage. Sounds tasty, if the fake blood we ingested on that zombie walk two weeks ago is any testament (that shit’s just sugar syrup! awesome!). There’ll be a pre-show party in the parking lot recreating the grisly sights, smells, and sensations of a multi-vehicle freeway pile-up (if you ever saw one of Christian Ristow’s robot performances here, you KNOW the kind of vehicular wreckage that can be created in this lot), and an installation featuring classic highway safety films “brought to grisly life.” Yum again! Reverend Al, who runs the show, promises “multi-media tricks and treats for your inner rubbernecking ghoul.” AND there’ll be performances by Margaret Cho, Danny Shorago, Miss Satanica (did we say yum?), Los Ninos de la Tierra and the Tulsa Skull Swingers. Plus their usual cast of slutty nurses, an ape, a robot, and puppets. Holy contusions, Batman! $10. http://www.artofbleeding.com. 4773 Hollywood Blvd., Los Feliz. (LMK)

Friday Oct 27th

Brilliant Comics Rock at SH
Winner of oodles of design and comic awards, Jordan Crane first emerged in the comic world in 1996 with the anthology, Non. Crane edited, contributed to, and published Non, which became that era’s showcase for the most explosive young experimental cartoonists. The short-lived series has been compared to Spiegelman and Mouly’s Raw. Now, Crane’s most recent book, The Clouds Above, has been called a cross between Where the Wild Things Are and The Wizard of Oz. Clouds has earned an Ignatz award nomination for “Outstanding Graphic Novel and Outstanding Artist”. Tonight, catch his opening-and the man himself-at Secret Headquarters: a perfectly monstrous, pre-Halloween delight to inspire you for the weekend. 8 – 10 pm. 3817 W. Sunset Blvd., Silver Lake. (LMK)

Frankenstein: Mortal Toys at the Velaslavasay Theatre
Puppets are super creepy. Frankenstein is also kinda creepy, although significantly less so, mostly due to Mel Brooks, but also to Peter Boyle, not only for his portrayal of the Monster in Brook’s 1974 farce, but also for his participation in that abomination of syndicated television known as Everybody Loves Raymond. They play that shit on airplanes now, you know, because apparently no over the counter sedative is as powerful as the excruciating banter between the clearly unloved Ray Romano and that awful harpie from the Albertson’s commercials. But maybe the inherent eeriness of puppetry will make up for all the modern baggage Mary Shelly’s tale takes along with it. From October 27th to the 29th, Automata presents Frankenstein: Mortal Toys at the Velaslavasay Theatre, a retooling of Erik Ehn’s version of the original novel, acted out in the miniature with puppets based on 18th century American portrait paintings. For more information, visit http://www.calendarlive.com/stage/432883,0,7412541.event. (Jessica Madison)

Hot Young Throbbing Love Poetry
“A wit sharp as Sedaris, a sensibility poignant as Sexton, Derrick Brown manages to blur the lines between slam poet and cult writer with remarkable ease and grace,” says Anthem. We say, fuck all that. Ladies, he’s easy on the eyes. And a brilliantly funny, poignant (there’s that word again) poet. Who doesn’t love that? Your boyfriend. No matter: gentlemen, learn from a master. This dude’s got the science of profundity blended with wit DOWN. And it’s paid off: To date, Brown has performed at over 1100 venues and universities internationally including La Sorbonne in Paris and The
Nuyorican Poets Café in NYC. A snippet: “I watched black ropes and tears ramble down your face. / Lady war paint. / A squad of tiny men rappels down those snaking lines / and you say; / ‘Thank you for releasing all those fuckers from my life’…If this kills me, / slice me julienne / uncurl my veins / and fashion yourself a noose / so I can hold you / once more.” SWOON. For more info visit http://www.brownpoetry.com; the show tonight is at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater and is called “The Lazers of Sexcellance: Mostly comedic spoken word stuff.” With Amber Tamblyn and Jason “Roscoe” Whitten (both also hott). 5919 Franklin Ave., Hollywood. Come early: this’ll sell out (five bucks). 9:30pm. (LMK)

L.A.’s New Punks at The Scene
Yeah, it’s in Glendale. But when you walk in you know you’ve found your new low-key, kick-back watering hole. Except it’s, uh, probably not walking distance. But that’s ok! Because you’ve brought some poor sap as a DD! And tonight, Swami artists, The Heartaches, then their labelmates, Demolition Doll Rods, and The Stitches headline to make this a Halloween raise-the-dead rock’n'roll bloodbath! The L.A. Gentlemen Callers round out the bill to make this the pogoin’est (you know you want to) joint in all of the Eastside. It’s gonna be a banger! (But not the kind they serve with mash. Although if you get your drunk on enough you may need one of those to take the edge off.) 806 E. Colorado Blvd. Starts at 9 pm, so don’t dick around. (LMK)

Saturday Oct 28th

We Totally Knew About This A Year Ago But Never Told Many People Because We Were Afraid They’d Get Shut Down. So There. (MP3 Swap at Betalevel)
Betalevel was recently described in the LA Weekly as “Best Sunken Lair For Techno-Geeks.” Which means that this month, someone might show up (who knows how) to network your Windows laptop. And when that person does show up, you will make fun of them (”windoze! wtf! lol!”). You will do this, because techno-geeks are sometimes cruel. Especially when they’re actually lit-nerdz in disguise. Swap Meet is a place for you to come with a special selection of your very most bestest most favoritest music so you can trade it with other actual human people for the special music that you’ve always wanted but didn’t know existed. It’s like social software, but replacing “software” with “beer.” It’s also their Halloween edition, but please try to bypass the obvious and leave the Cap’n Arrr garb at home. And don’t dress as Tux either, you clever bastard. Punch and Pie. Direx to Betalevel and an awe-inspiring photo can be found here: http://betalevel.com/directions. (LMK)

The Blue Mask
Chupacabra, The Chairs of Perception, Donovan’s Fairies, Backbiter, Motorcycle Black Madonnas, and Upstart combine for a very disturbing, yet brilliantly only-in-L.A. show at one of those only-in-L.A. venues: Mr. T’s Bowl. If you ain’t been before, this is the night to come. Expect sounds in the vein of 60’s Punk, Ramones, Dictators, Dylan, Sonics, Sonic Youth-and even a little heavy metal / art punk / glam thrown in for good measure. There will be cupcakes. Voted Best New Wild Card by our own staff. 5621 1/2 Figueroa, Highland Park. (323) 256-7561. Cover $5, doors 8pm. (LMK)

Muse Costume Ball at LACMA
I don’t know what it is about museums, but when a party is in a museum the party becomes ten times more awesome. Maybe it has something to do with the uncontrollable urge to misbehave in a museum because you can’t touch ANYTHING or run around or do anything but walk slowly and make frou frou comments about whatever the hell you’re seeing. Or maybe because partying in a museum is impossible because it would cost more than you can sell your body for. Well, this Halloween you get to do all those things (except touch the pieces) at LACMA’s 3rd annual Muse Costume Ball. The theme this yeah is “Looks to Die For” which is perfect since the exhibit that will surround the party is none other than the couture retrospective “Breaking the Mode.” There will be big ticket costume contest prizes, Djs from Indie 103.1 and dancing dancing dancing. Only problem is the big ticket prices: $37 or $27. For more information go to www.lacma.org. (Tiffany Lee)

Rolling Blackouts All Fucking Ages Warehouse Party
We shit you not. Keep this one on the D.L. even lower than the Betalevel thing, kids. You read that correctly: it’s ALL AGES. It’s only $5. It’s B.Y.O.B! Ha! Ahahaha!!! And there will be music being spun all night, but the bands are up-and-comers Sonadora at 9pm (members of Dios and the Blackouts!), Peach Fuzz 9:45, Fortune’s Flesh 10:30 (Ex Starvations-L.A. stalwarts!), and then the Rolling Blackouts go on at 11:15. See? Early night. Dad can wait for you at the corner. Bring gum. 1320 Grand Ave, Los Angeles. Mapquest it!! $5. (LMK)

Sunday Oct 29

Los Angeles Young Adult Authors at Mt. Hollywood Underground
Teen Angst. Sure, you remember it…the tryouts for the cheerleading squad, that horrible pimple you had on your nose for the spring fling, the reject table in the lunchroom, the SAT, that black lipstick you scrawled on the women’s room mirror with-wait, you didn’t do that? Fuck. Well, LA YA (Los Angeles Young Adult Authors) remembers it so well that they write whole novels about it. Make no mistake, Young Adult literature has come a long way from Beverly Cleary’s Fifteen. Come mix and mingle with some of Los Angeles’ brightest writers of the genre: Cecil Castellucci (The Queen of Cool), Dana Reinhardt (A Brief Chapter In My Impossible Life), Jordan Roter (Girl in Development), Kerry Madden (Gentle’s Holler), Mark L. Williams (Danger Boy), Melissa de la Cruz (The Au Pairs), Sally Nemeth (The Heights, The Depths and Everything In Between), Amy Goldman Koss (Poison Ivy, Side Effects), and Rachel Cohn (Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Two Steps Forward). So show up at 7 p.m. with 10 bucks in hand at 4607 Prospect Avenue, in Los Feliz, at the Mt. Hollywood Underground. Sounds like a lot? It’s not. Because it’s a SPEAKEASY. Get it? Jeez. Once you’re in, you’re in, and refreshments are cheap with that little bookmark ticket they give you (plus it’s a unique piece of artwork). (LMK)

Carrie Screening and Benefit
Don’t confuse her with the other Mommy Dearest, not that you could once the blood starts streaming down her chest, but Carrie is coming to the Echo. That’s right, Carrie the film turns 30 this year and to celebrate there’s an interactive screening. Proceeds go to Halsa Inc., an HIV and AIDS legal services alliance. Come for the gore, stay for the benefit, stay even longer for the costume contest, cash and prizes. The grand prize is $666. 6:30 p.m. at the Echo. $25 donation.

Monday Oct 30th

Robin Williams on Fire at Il Corral
If you hadn’t already heard, only sell-outs learn how to play music. The best bands are experiences. While we’re not quite ready to sign off on that statement, we’ll pay the 5 bucks to swill forties at Il Corral with these crazy fucks and help them continue touring the country making fucked up sounds that push the proverbial envelope that much closer to falling off the proverbial desk. Tonight the disaster punk crash yodel fuck band called Robin Williams on Fire will ignite themselves at Il Corral along with Macka, Bizzart and Brother Mitya. Help music de-evolve wontcha? 9 p.m. $5.

Modelween at Cinespace
Online model networking site One Model Place is holding an affair at Cinespace where all the wannabe models come out with their amazingly original “slutty (fill in blank)” costumes. In honor of all those networking sites, you can even see exactly who is planning to attend via the One Model Place site, which is pretty hilarious since none of the girls look anything like real models, but more power to them. I think you still got it girls! Yep. This event is the quintessential online hook-up place because who can be sluttier than wannabe models? So I suggest if you want to get with these girls go pose as a photographer. Brilliant! There will be a costume contest where you can dress like your favorite celebrity or movie/TV character and music from the “official Modelween DJ” Vinyl Manipulator. Sweet! And you know it’s gonna be hot because in the pictures section, the first thing you focus on is the old bald man right in the light. I’m so glad this event exists. 9 p.m. “Ladies” get in free, but for male non-members it’s $25. More info at: www.modelween.com. (Tiffany Lee)

Friday the 13th/Fright Night Double Feature
Somehow I find Suburbia 10 times more frightening than anything any urban environment could possibly conjure up. Here you might get mugged or shot or any other number of unfortunate but ultimately mundane happenings. But something about that bedroom community night-silence brings out something else entirely, where you know that behind every well-manicured shrub could be a leather-faced axe murderer. In Suburbia, nobody can hear you scream. That’s probably why horror films always seem to take place on the outskirts; nothing feeds into Urban America’s fear of those folks on the outside like a good old massacre at Camp Crystal Lake. Monday the New Beverly Cinema presents a double-feature of two classics of eighties suburban horror: Friday the 13th and Fright Night. 7:30 p.m. $7. For more information, visit http://beta.la.flavorpill.net/57161. (Jessica Madison)

Blue Monday Wine Tasting at Silverlake Wine
Ok, with this barrage of Halloween-related events, here’s an opportunity to take a day off, put your chair back and your pinkies up. Silverlake Wine offers some low key relaxation while serving three distinctly different wines plus cheese from the Cheese Store of Silverlake at Sunset Junction. There are no reservations, come and go as you please, and no zombies provided. 5-9p.m. $12, more information at http://www.silverlakewine.com. (Tiffany Lee)

Tuesday 10.31

Silver Lake Horror Music and Picture Show
The Silver Lake Film Festival is adding some new elements to its roster of fundraising: Horror Music! This year’s Halloween night is the debut of the Silver Lake Horror Music and Picture Show, a live concert to raise money for the non-profit Silver Lake Film Festival where you should come dressed as your favorite film character costume and screen some indie horror flicks. Playing live are old school rap, queercore group Gravy Train!!!, “pony thrash” proto-punkers Mika Miko, and ’70s power-punk meets Brian Jonestown Massacre The Red Hearts plus MC Johnny Angel of Air America. I think it would just be interesting enough to go see the film buffs wrestle the music snobs. The show starts a 8 p.m. $15 at door, advance tickets available. More information at: http://silverlakefilmfestival.org/ (Tiffany Lee)

West Hollywood Halloween
If you want to do Halloween right, you have to go to West Hollywood for OBVIOUS reasons, labeled the largest Halloween street party in the world (meaning in the U.S. cause no one else celebrates Halloween outside of here). Santa Monica Blvd between La Cienega and Doheny closes down and fills up with the most shocking, elaborate, creative, most outrageous costumes you will ever see, like Cinco De Mayo in Hell. There will be three stages set up all along the street with live entertainment, bars that already line Santa Monica Blvd, and a super secret and selective costume contest. There will also be 20 bracelets handed out in secret throughout the night that will gain you access to the costume contest stage where you compete for the grand prize of $1,000 cash and gifts. But good luck, because the people you’d be up against started their costumes last November. The gaudy gallivanting will begin at 6p.m. and end at midnight, but no worry, just go to the bars and stay ’til 2 a.m..! (Tiffany Lee)

Electronic Renaissance
Electro as we knew it from the days of Club 82 and fauxhawks is dead, deal with it jerks. Techno is making a serious comeback, its forerunners joining forces this Halloween at Safari Sam’s to blow your fucking minds. Although I hate to use the words “Daft Punk” I can’t help but feel some correlation between electronic groups Justice and MSTRKRFT and the masked duo, Justice being another French duo and MSTRKRFT having very similar whimsical vocals. But they both hold their own on the dancefloor. Justice is best known for their remix of the Simian song “We Are Your Friends” and the rest of their catalogue being hard-hitting techno and house beats that are hardly Eurotrash and won’t make you feel like you’re wearing your giant JNCO pants and pony beads. Emblazoning all of their performances and artwork with Jebus crosses, I don’t really know if they are “Christian/ Club” as they claim to be on their website, but if that’s what it sounds like in church, I’m a convert. MSTRKRFT has a more varied approach to electronica like their forefathers Daft Punk, playing more with samples and vocals, and giving it a lighter, more danceable sound. Joining these bands is none other than Totally Radd!!! to work you up with their awesome costumes, thumb-raising lyrics and sweatiness. For more information go to www.Safari-Sams.com. (Tiffany Lee)

CD Reviews

sunnO)))/Boris and To Live and Shave in LA
by Bernardo Rondeau
Read more…

All new “Universe” on food

Hungry for facts?

chow time nerds! 

Food Science

Forgive me if you haven’t eaten, it’s time for a meal-time thought experiment.
By Claire L. Evans Read more…

City of Ghosts

Sometimes it’s just an odd chill to the air, or a flash of shadow in the corner of an eye. Other times it’s a light, a footstep, a slammed door or an unexplained gust. Many times, it’s just…a feeling.

Everyone has experienced the uneasy sensation of otherworldliness, especially in a city as rich in violent scandal as this one. So to appease the Angeleno ghouls, we asked Los Angeles residents to share with us their encounters with the supernatural, down to the most chilling detail. What we received are real, first person accounts of frighteningly ghoulish experiences that took place in Silver Lake, Beachwood Canyon, East L.A. and beyond.

Everyone knows L.A. is a scary place…but not everyone knows just how scary.

Click here to find out, and Happy Halloween!

City of Ghosts

Real, first-person tales of the ghoulish and ghastly from L.A.’s most supernatural spaces. Read more…

Geeked

Video game reviews: NHL ‘07
By Adam Diamond
Read more…

Living In Sin

One Flirty Fiancé and a Lazy Lesbian
By Jen Sincero
Read more…

Tofu Stack Diane

Hearty recipes for heady homies.
by Evan George and Alex Brown Read more…

No Me Pegues!

Yo La Tengo beat the shit out of everybody.
By Evan George Read more…

Mao Tse Tongue

The Red Pearl Kitchen’s take on dim sum tastes like capitalism at it’s best.
By Evan George
Read more…

All New From Robert Scheer!

Get your war-stoppin’ on!

Unh.

Iraq’s Killing Fields

Staying the course is a prescription for disaster.
By Robert Scheer
Read more…

To Do 10.18 – 10.24

Wednesday 10.18

Craft Night at Akbar
I can’t think of anything better to do on a Wednesday night, that most doldrumic of days, than to get creative. When you’re stuck in the middle of the work week feeling utterly sapped of creative juices, head on down to Akbar and roll around in glitter glue. Um. Wait. Maybe don’t go quite that far. But tonight they’re making funny little Halloween-inspired figurines from beaded spools: monsters, skeletons and more. Akbar is at 4356 Sunset Blvd., Silver Lake. (323) 665-6810. (LMK)

Rainforest in a Shower at LACE
On a trip to Australia last year, I learned one very important thing: Everything in the rainforest can kill you. No, literally, everything. “See that dirt over there?” our Steve Irwin-esque guide would ask. “It can KILL YOU!” “See that vine? It can shoot a poisonous barb through your skull!” “See that pretty little flower bed? In it is a colony of spiders that can suffocate you in three seconds!” But what about all the cancer curing pea-pods? The hallucinogenic orchids? The cute little baby monkeys? Well, I guess they’re there too, buried just beneath a thin, slimy film of DEATH! Of course, artist Dustin Shuler doesn’t seem to mind. He’s taken a modern, mass produced shower and tub unit and transformed it into a rainforest. His 15 years of work have yielded, as a release describes:

“Elaborate water, light and sound systems housed in clear plexi-glass units flanking each side. The turtles, fish, birds, frogs and foliage that populate this microcosm are the “living” component of the sculpture – as they respond to the cycles of light and weather that Shuler has programmed into the environment, they also respond to and interact with each other in ways that the artist can neither predict nor control.”

Could one of these uncontrollable interactions be sending poisonous spores into the air that imbed themselves into your lungs, forming a webbing that slowly deprives your body of oxygen over several painful weeks? That’s yet to be seen. But it’s sure worth checking out. The exhibit is open and runs through December 15 at the Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, 6522 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. (323) 957-1777. http://www.artleak.org/shuler_rainforest.html (Lesley Bargar)

Thursday 10.19

Lock-Up Project at Il Corral
Think about your best friend, your bestest friend in the whole world. If the two of you were stuck on an island for five straight days, would you go insane? How about if you were locked in a room together for five days and had to constantly compose art, music, and whatever fucked up thing that comes to mind. The only rules are no pre-composition, and no leaving. Sound like a good idea? Not really? Well, evidently someone already beat us to the punch, because Salient Lockup did just that. This year, two artists have been locked up at Il Corral since October 15, and today is their last day of 24-hour creative lock down. Visitors have been able to view the pair at any hour of the day during the five days of the Lock-Up. To us, it seems the best idea would be to come at the worst time for them. Mental breakdowns? Vicious lash outs? Instead of s going the first day, the last day is when you can see the full result of their claustrophobic madness and sleeplessness, perhaps producing a pair of ragged, maddened and embittered sub humans and maybe even some rad art. Perhaps? Find out more at lotusalley.org/salientlockup.com (Tiffany Lee)

Highlights for Arthur Nights: Thursday’s Ice Breaker
This will be the first U.S. performance by Bert Jansch, the prolific folk poet from the U.K., in eight years. His acoustic soul-searching has most recently done wonders for Beth Orton, but he’s a recording artist who stands on his own. Also playing tonight, Belong, brings an ambient, effect-laden performance that has become more and more popular these days thanks to Arthur magazine’s persistent support of drone, for better or for worse. Belong stand out in that the group’s musical vocabulary has more in common with Kevin Shields than Aphex Twin. It’s a theme that continues with Portland artist Grouper, who makes chamber music for atheists. His ghost pieces seem to revel not in the spookiness of the after world, but in the other worldly beauty of it. The festival runs Thursday, Oct. 19-Sunday, Oct. 22 at the Palace. 4 p.m., $24, one-day passes available. (staff)

College Night at the Getty
Another reason to go back for your graduate degree! Tonight the Getty opens its doors for free (reservations required) to college students. It’s not just the usual museum walkabout: painter Ed Moses will chat about Gerhard Richter, whose paintings are featured in From Caspar David Friedrich to Gerhard Richter: German Paintings from Dresden. Tour the exhibition Public Faces/Private Spaces: Recent Acquisitions with photographs curator Virginia Heckert, and there’ll be celebrity/artist interviews, live music from the multitalented Icelandic Bardi Johannsson, a cash bar, light hors d’oeuvres, a surprise celebrity appearance, and more. It’s nice to get free stuff when you’re in school. God knows you dropped five hundred on the stupid books alone. Make your reservations at www.getty.edu. The Getty Center is located at 1200 Getty Center Drive, L.A. (LMK)

“Blackout” Couture Striptease
As loathe as we are to send you anywhere on the Westside, we’ve decided to get past our snobbery for this one. After all, who doesn’t love hot naked chicks taking their [high-fashion] clothes off? COMMIES, that’s who! Are you a COMMIE?! (Don’t answer that one, kids). The answer is NO! You’re a red-blooded American who’ll jump at the chance to see strippers-uh, we mean, burlesque performers-in Beverly freakin’ Hills. “Blackout” works to create a super-sexy, underground-style James Bond-noir vibe, and it’s choreographed by the same pair who choreographed shows for Marilyn Manson, No Doubt (coff coff), and Wolfmother, and costumes are by Grey Ant and other folks who’ve designed for Shirley Manson, Juliette Lewis, and more. It certainly should be an impressive show. So go. Unless you prefer to stay home and read Marx. Tickets are $20 in advance and can be had by visiting www.myspace.com/blackouttheshow. 9pm. The Aqua Lounge, 424 North Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills. (LMK)

Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D
Ok, so this really happens on Friday, but it’s a midnight show, so we’re putting it under Thursday’s events. Nightmare Before Christmas is such a fun, classic film anyway, that showing it in 3-D just leaves me nigh to popping with joy. The cool thing is that some of the impact of the puppetmation gets lost-flattened to a degree-on film. So in 3-D it’ll be like you’re right there as the animators manipulate the characters and they move through space. It should be fascinating for film and animation geeks as much as it is for eight-year-olds. Opens tonight, but runs through the 31st. Visit disney.go.com/disneypictures/el_capitan/ for tickets and more info. A hint: A limited number of half-price tickets can be found at goldstarevents.com for some of the nights. (LMK)

Friday 10.20

Angus Oblong’s The Victorian Hotel at the Powerhouse Theater
Adult Swim’s The Oblongs is a twisted cartoon series about mutant family that goes about, well, as normal a daily life as can be expected from a torso, conjoined twins, and a slew of mysterious growths. Angus Oblong, the show’s creator, has now embarked beyond the world of animation into the realm of live theater, with his show The Victorian Hotel opening this Friday at the Powerhouse Theater. It’s the classic story of a young couple checking into a creepy old hotel, haunted by a collection of ghouls, ghosts and other grotesques. But here it’s been brought to life in the vision of an illustrator, with a mix of live actors, puppets, and digital media with the help of the Rogue Artists Ensemble. The opening gala performance is at 8 p.m. ($50), and the show runs through December 2 with Thursday and Friday performances at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m. ($25 for each). Student and senior discounts available. The Powerhouse Theater is at 3116 2nd St., Santa Monica. http://www.angusoblong.net/VictorianHotel.html (staff)

Highlights for Arthur Nights: Friday’s Slam Dancing
In the vein of Anaheim’s pet darlings, the Willowz, Be Your Own Pet, manage the angst-fueled fire without all the bullshit. This is tantrum rock the way original punk pioneers intended, if a bit too shiny around the edges to seem genuine. Touring mates, Awesome Color, a trio of malicious rockers from Michigan, bring unbridled rock and roll pleasure to the stage as well tonight. The band opened for Sonic Youth this summer at Little Radio and did an excellent job-which is more than most openers should be asked in that situation. These dudes, and dudette, sound like the Stooges with a little more restraint and elegance. Then stick around for Tall Firs whose trip is decidedly more mild but worth some attention. They’ve been called “beard-less contemporary rock at its best,” for guitar duets that clearly take cues from Bedhead, while the drums spitter spatter in between.The festival runs Thursday, Oct. 19-Sunday, Oct. 22 at the Palace. 4 p.m., $24, one-day passes available. (staff) For tickets, call (866) OFF-MAIN or visit www.rogueartists.org.

The Shining at the Nuart
One of the creepiest movies ever made, just in time for Halloween. You may never walk comfortably down the corridor of a hotel again. Plus, with the screening at 11:55 p.m., you can bring a sweetie and hang on them the entire movie, then race back home at the end of the night to soothe one another’s frazzled nerves. Or, if you’re like me, you’ll just stay home and keep checking under the bed because ever since you saw Silence of the Lambs you’ve been a nervous wreck. 11272 Santa Monica Blvd., West L.A. Tickets can be had via moviefone.com. (LMK)

Saturday 10.21

Highlights for Arthur Nights: Saturday’s Chill-out Sesh
Tonight belongs to Angelenos. Before L.A.’s part-time punks became part-time funks, there was Future Pigeon. This 7 or 8 or 9-piece band (who can count when you’re high at a Future Pigeon show?) saw the future of dub/reggae being hip again before anyone else. They have mastered the art of horns mixed with thump bass added to impeccable melodies-appropriate for all ages. Then there’s L.A.’s Residual Echoes, a mess of sound and spatial effects. Tight drumming holds it together while percussively screwed-up everything else veers into weird directions before being pulled back on course. Renegade guitar spurts and vocals more satisfyingly frustrating than Comets On Fire make these echoes residual, in that you’ll wanna keep seeing them after they’re done. Rounding out the night is one of the stranger supergroups I’ve ever seen: Living Sister featuring Mia Doi Todd, Inara George, Becky Stark and Wooden Wand. It’s like Velvet Revolver for the Tangiers crowd! The festival runs Thursday, Oct. 19-Sunday, Oct. 22 at the Palace. 4 p.m., $24, one-day passes available. (staff)

Hollywood Forever Cemetery Tours
Hallow’s Eve is coming this way, and what better way to get psyched up for it than a tour in the most illustrious cemetery in town. The Art Deco Society is holding tours of the Hollywood Forever Cemetery today, their mission statement being to “celebrate and preserve the architecture, art, music, dance, clothing and elegance of Art Deco.” What the hell is Art Deco dance? But if anyone’s going to be dancing on my grave its going to be the Art Deco dance. . . or Voguing. Thing is, the tour starts at 10 a.m., which seems awfully early for prime spook-factor, and continutes every 15 minutes until noon. But what better way to get a real in-depth look into all the rad, dead movie stars’ plots there and their choices in tombstones, ranging from Victorian to Egyptian Revival and of course, Art Deco. Hollywood Forever is located at 6000 Santa Monica Blvd, in Hollywood. Tickets are $13 or free to members, for more information go to www.adsla.org. (Tiffany Lee)

Free Circuit Bending workshop with Jeff Boyton at NELAart’s Second Saturday
Circuit bending is the art of opening up electronic sound devices and intentionally short-circuiting them in search of interesting and never-before-heard sounds. Such devices can range from cheap kids’ toys to sophisticated keyboard instruments. In northeast LA, you may have seen our very own maestros march in several local parades. The Ridiculatron 2000 show at the Acorn Gallery showcases Jeff Boynton, the bandleader of the “The Highland Park Thursday Evening Gentlemen’s Society Circuit Bending Marching Band and Ladies Auxiliary,” and a classically trained musician with a penchant for the experimental. The show features photos of the wacky world of circuit bending, Jeff’s instruments with technical notes and sketches, hands-on activities, and 2 performances. Bring a battery operated toy or other sound making device and learn how to disrupt it’s innards and make cool music. 1pm, 135 N. Avenue 50, Highland Park. (LMK)

Sunday 10.22

Halloween Horrors Crime Bus Tour
LA Alternative’s favorite local historian and crime hound Kim Cooper will helm this bus tour of L.A.’s crime scenes, weirdities and wonders with a special focus on the macabre just for our beloved Halloween holiday. This five-hour jaunt spans downtown, Hollywood, Echo Park and the Eastern San Fernando Valley while offering a grimly hilarious look at more than two dozen peculiar and long-forgotten crimes, including several with a Halloween theme. Vintage crime scene photos are featured, with passengers urged to BYOBB (bring your own barf bag). No kids, sorry. 1-6 p.m. Seats are $47/person, which includes Halloween-flavored Scoops gelato. Visit 1947project.com for instructions on how to reserve tickets; these things sell out fast! (LMK)

Highlights for Arthur Nights: Sunday’s Big Names
The acts on tonight’s bill need less of an introduction. Suffice it to say that Comets On Fire, despite a less thrilling sophomore album, have only gotten sharper and more explosive in the last year or so. Same applies to the one-hot-minute hipster siblings of Fiery Furnaces who have proved they have songwriting staying power. Plus a rare solo set by guitarist/singer of TV On the Radio, Kyp Malone. Oh and did we mention Devendra Bahnhart will be playing one of these nights? Or did you just assume… The festival runs Thursday, Oct. 19-Sunday, Oct. 22 at the Palace. 4 p.m., $24, one-day passes available. (staff)

RussianFantastik at the Egyptian Theatre
I’ve always been a little confused about how I feel about Communism, and Russian Communism in general. Probably it comes from a childhood of hanging out with my Czech grandmother, who would take any opportunity (although usually it happened in line at Safeway, where she had a captive audience) to disparage the country and its people. She didn’t really mean any harm by it, but when you reach a certain point in life you just figure you might as well let the old grievances flow. So basically we would end up in the check-out behind some random family who left St. Petersburg in the ’50s, buying Pop-Tarts and Sarah Lee bagels, and my grandma would launch into her tirade (in Russian, of course) about how now capitalism was good enough for them, but first they had to destroy her beautiful Praha and don’t these people have any sense of shame, while my mom and I read Redbook and pretended we didn’t know her. So I don’t know, maybe I feel a little guilty about emotional trauma caused to strangers by my family members. Not that going to see a movie is going heal the wounds, but I do what I can. RussianFantastik will be playing on Sunday October 22nd at the Egyptian Theatre, featuring Vladimir Gardin’s 1922 silent film A Spectre Haunts Europe, to be preceded by the short Interplanetary Revolution. For more information, visit www.americancinematheque.com/archive1999/2006/RussianFantastik.htm. (Jessica Madison)

Monday 10.23

Surfing LA screening at ALOUD in the Mark Taper Auditorium We don’t have too much information on this documentary, but what we do know sounds pretty amazing. On one day in 2004, three participants toured some of L.A.’s most quirky local spots, including the Hyperion Wastewater Treatment Plant, The Metropolitan Detention Center, The Hollywood Forever Cemetery and Venice. Then, according to the release, “Psychologist James Hillman and essayist Michael Ventura spend the first half of the hour long DVD chatting about the L.A. mindset. Their good friend and Doors drummer John Densmore joins them the second part for further reminiscences and explorations of ’60s L.A. and her weird place in the world’s psyche. Surfing L.A. corresponds with major themes in Hillman’s depth psychology. Hillman’s dictum that ‘conversation is consciousness’ was tested here in the attempt to bottle the spontaneous intellect, wit and insight that flashes within conversation, much like improvisation in jazz.”Heavy? Yes. Sweet? Most likely. Fabulous Angeleno self-indulgence? Fabsolutely! Screening at 7 p.m. at Central Library Mark Taper Auditorium, Fifth and Flower Streets, Downtown. (staff) http://www.lfla.org/aloud/index.php

Tuesday 10.24

Tom Friedman Poo-less Exhibit at Gagosian Gallery
I think we’ve all heard at some point about the artist who would use his own excrement, hair and so-forth in his artwork to create minimalist geometric pieces, winning him both praise and rigorous criticism from the art community art large. Well, poo no more, Tom Friedman is back with an exhibition that doesn’t stink. Opening today is a solo show of found objects, meticulously deconstructed or reconstructed at both a macro and microscopic level to create colorful, playful and sometimes freaky pieces. Highly conceptual, prepping his “primary material” to create mediums such as “a piece of paper stared at for one thousand hours,” Friedman is not one to take himself seriously, exhibiting a playful and humorous show. You can see it today at the Gagosian Gallery, 465 N. Camden Drive in Beverly Hills. Ick, I know, but it’ll be worth it. For more information go to www.gagosian.com.

Disc Junkie

Add these to your weekly list: October 20-26
By Paul Gaita
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Whip it Good.

A history of velvet violence
By Dan Gillis III Read more…

New Universe Up Now!!!

Explore the top-secret Googleplex, the largest most mysterious computer in the world!! Bwaaahahahhhahhh!
Check It!

CD Reviews

VARIOUS and JÓHANN JÓHANNSSON
By Bernardo Rondeau
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The Mysterious Googleplex

OMFG that’s a big computer!
By Claire L. Evans
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L.A. Fashion Week Day 1 Breakdown

Smashbox Studios in Culver City
By Tiffany Lee

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Officer Big Brother Reporting for Duty

A couple of years ago, I was burning through Hollywood on a Saturday at dawn, trying to make it back east from Santa Monica before the traffic got nuts. For some reason I was wearing extremely large Devo sunglasses, the kind you fit over regular eyewear, when I squeezed through an intersection just as the light turned red.

I didn’t know it at the time, but a camera attached to the red light snapped my picture.

Two months later I got a $300 fine and a handsome likeness of myself behind the wheel, those dark glasses making me look like Stevie Wonder. The department must have thought they caught a blind man driving.
With any luck this kind of thing won’t happen to you, but chances that it will just got a lot better. Monday, October 16, the city of Los Angeles announced 22 new red light cameras have been installed in order to catch motorists running red lights. The best defense against a huge ticket might be to keep it mellow yellow and stop running red lights, but hey, this is L.A. All we wanna know is where those pesky cameras are, right?

Here’s a map for your law-breaking convenience

New ‘Living In Sin’ Up Now!!!

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Geeked

Video game reviews: Company of Heroes
By Seth MCM. Donlin
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That Goddamn Dental Dam

Confused by the cunnilingus cover-up.
By Jen Sincero

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Take the Hot Knives Zucchini Shooters Challenge

New “Hot Knives” posted below veggie freaks!

Zook Shooters

Hearty recipes for heady homies
By Evan George and Alex brown

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Wholesale Soul Searching

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Lord Of the Ring

(Not A Hobbit)
by Dan Gillis
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Cinnamon and Bittersweet

Highland Park’s first vegetarian joint may keep the hipsters at bay.
By Evan George
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Robert Scheer Fires Back at Bush on N. Korea

New column posted below.

Bush Brings it On

Our president’s failed diplomacy, blamed on Clinton’s success.
By Robert Scheer
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T-Shirt Power!

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Disc Junkie

Add these to your weekly list: Oct 13-19.
By Paul Gaita
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CD Reviews

Lindstrøm and Tim Hecker.
By Bernardo Rondeau
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All-New ‘Universe’!

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Future Tropes

Sci-fi predicts the past to our still very distant future.
By Claire L. Evans
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Geeked

Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
Vidoegame reviews by Adam Diamond

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Hunting for Brains In Hollywood

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Little Radio Goes Electric…Cars!

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New ‘Living In Sin’ Up Now!

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In the Office Affair and A Man with No Hair

Sex and secrets by Jen Sincero

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Zombies Mob Hollywood, Depressed to Find NO BRAINS

…and our intrepid reporter was there! Read more…

This weekend beer IS for breakfast. New Hot Knives posted below

And for more beer in your food visit www.laalternative.com/hotknives

Levitation Flapjacks

Hearty recipes for heady homies
by Evan George and Alex Brown Read more…

An Apology to Becky Regarding Barf

Who in L.A. hasn’t stepped on beer-face leakage?
by Dan Gillis III Read more…

CD Reviews

Bert Jansch and Benoît Pioulard
By Bernardo Rondeau
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One more nail in Print’s Coffin?

This morning it was announced that Jeff Johnson, publisher of the Los Angeles Times, is being asked to resign. According to Times staffer James Rainey’s inner-office reporting, Tribune has appointed Chicago Tribune Publisher David Hiller to step in.

This is the latest, and largest, blow to the newspaper in a series of slash and burn attempts by its Chicago-based owner. No word yet on whether Editor in Chief Dean Baquet will resign in protest (some staffers are pleading that he not in emails and office memos) or whether the “Suicide Pact” is about to take one for the team.

Full story, online from the Times, follows…

www.latimes.com/business/la-100506johnson,0,3972238.story?coll=la-home-headlines

***UPDATE

According to LAObserved.com, an editors meeting at the Times this morning saw Dean Baquet pledging to stay on as Editor in Chief despite today’s announcement that Jeff Johnson was out as LA Times publisher.

Condoleeza Lies

Why molesting Liberty hurts us more than molesting pages does.
by Robert Scheer Read more…

Call in sick … of George Bush

A rally and march is planned for today, Thursday, Oct. 5, with participants converging on Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles starting around noon. The event, tagged as the Bush Crimes Tour and March, is being organized by the World Can’t Wait coalition. Organizers are asking those of us sick of the Bush administration to call in sick from work or school.
At 3 p.m. demonstrators will depart Pershing Square and end up at the downtown Federal Building. Contingents will include cyclists, immigrant rights groups and a gaggle of activists troupes portraying one of many crimes against humanities they say the Bush administration has perpetrated. There will be a mock marriage of church and state at City Hall, mock totrure victims in orange prison suits, and even a New Orleans jazz band asking for No More Katrinas.

If not fun, it promises to be one more good old fashioned middle finger parade in honor of our president.

Pope Just Figures It Out: Limbo Not Real

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All New “Living In Sin” Up Now!: Penis Lies and Silky Guy Thighs

Jen Sincero tells men to stop BSin’ about their man meat, and reminds us that dudes enjoy soft fabrics on their nether-regions too.

Check it!

Penis Lies and Silky Guy Thighs

By Jen Sincero

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Digestion Invention

The Hot Knives crew reinvents the egg for vegan readers.

http://www.laalternative.com/hotknives

http://www.laalternative.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/hronline.thumbnail.jpg

The New Griffith Observatory, A First Look

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Bush In Westwood for Ten Whole Minutes Today

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FCC in L.A. Tuesday for Public Hearings

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Griffith Observatory Revealed! …Tomorrow

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SLNC Flips A Coin

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Click to learn why we’ve ceased our print publication, and read plans for the new and exciting LAALTERNATIVE.COM! Read more…

Say It Ain’t So, Al

The cat’s outta the bag with Weird Al’s Straight Outta Lynwood.
by Mike Winder
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Side Stage

Spotlighting the best of local music: The Parallelograms
by Evan George
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Purgatory Production

Jesus Camp’s look at Christian boot camp is scary, but surface level.
by Jay Antani Read more…

CD Reviews

The DFA Remixes – Chapter 2 and Clark
by Bernardo Rondeau
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War On Intelligence

Bush silenced the truth of terrorism’s upswing.
by Robert Scheer
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Forbidden Sushi

Hearty recipes for heady homies
by Alex Brown and Evan George Read more…

A Shallow Web

As we become Internet beings, are we losing feeling?
by Claire L. Evans Read more…