Get a true taste of NoHo at the second annual All-Day, All-Arts, All-NoHo “NoHo Scene” on Sunday, October 5 from 11 am until 8 pm.  Admission to all NoHo Scene events and activities is free.

Free theater performances, catered food and wine, kids scene, marketplace, live music and a whole lot more. Get there early - the tickets go fast!

Free theater performances take place between 11 am and 6 pm.  Tickets will be available at the Ticket Booth at Theatre Circle (on Lankershim Blvd., just south of Magnolia) and will be given away starting at 11 am on a first-come, first-served basis.

Relax at the Food and Wine Garden while watching great entertainment on the Outdoor Stage (no tickets required) between 11am and 8 pm.

Visual artists will take over Lankershim Boulevard, creating an Artists Village.  Walk through a beautiful blend of art and experience how art is made - LIVE! - at the demonstration booth.

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This weekend and next, the Invertigo Dance Theatre will be presenting Flip Flops and Platforms, with original work by Artistic Director Laura Karlin and guest choreographer Jones Welsh, to an LA audience. Invertigo Dance Theatre does a great job at not only interesting choreography for the well trained eye, but also puts an enjoyable and innovatice show for the ballet novice. It’s refreshing to see a company perform for the mere excuse that they love to dance. The movements, music, and choreography is original and a must see for all you Angelinos.

In today’s political climate, soundbites and certainty are valued above willingness to debate or cross into the uncertain grey spaces.  The dancers use dynamic movement to explore how we stand firm on platforms or waver in our beliefs.  Invertigo sets out not to condemn or applaud our political stances, but to reveal the subtleties of how we communicate them.  The piece explores how we frame an issue and each other, how we choose to view someone and what things look like from different perspectives.  All this happens utilizing interactive set pieces, dialogue and of course an array of flip flops and platform shoes.

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After listening to a great CD by a new artist, one’s initial reaction is a desire to see them live and hear the songs he/she has come to love.  For music enthusiast, few things are more exciting than seeing a “new favorite band” play live for the first time.  There is the anticipation before the show, “what will they play?” “I wonder what the drummer looks like?” “Who’s opening for them/Who are they opening for?” “Will they sound as good as they do on CD?”  And the questions go on and on, so much so that when the band finally hits the stage all the buildup and expectation is either quickly met with satisfaction or, in the worst of cases, utter disappointment.

LA.CityZine recently reviewed Verona Grove’s debut CD, “The story Thought Over” (read the review) giving it praise for being different from the other power pop bands out there.  Power pop groups like Homegrown, Plain White T’s, Vampire Weekend, Secondhand Serenade, Mayday Parade, and on and on and on and on and on all sound like “that band:” the vocals are ridiculously identical in each group, the tempo doesn’t change much and the subject is California, girls and superficially broken hearts (maybe she broke up with you because you’re as unoriginal as your music?).

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By now, most of Los Angeles and much of the world has gotten wind of the deadly Metrolink derailment that took place yesterday afternoon around 4:30 p.m. in Chatsworth, when a commuter train carrying 225 people collided with a freight train, killing dozens and critically injuring many more. While officials stated today that shortly after 2:30 p.m. the search for victims had come to a close, investigators and medical personnel were still working on the bottom level of the double decker car.

Here is a run down of what we know:

• The death toll has reached 25, with more than 135 injured. The Los Angeles Times reports that 100 people were taken to hospitals (60 by ambulance and 40 by helicopter). All 12 trauma centers in Los Angeles handled patients.
• Among the fatally injured were LAPD Officer Spree Desha, 35, of Simi Valley and Paul Long, an English teacher at Oaks Christian School, who died this afternoon after being taken off life support at County-USC Medical Center.

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wj - free shows - 9.11.2008

Relax! Enjoy the weekend! Here are your free shows:
Friday, September 12

• Gongmyoung | 7:30 pm at McArthur Park | Info Here
• Supreme Beings of Leisure, Carmen Rizzo | 9:00 am at the Echo | Info Here

Saturday, September 13

• Mariachi Divas | 3:00 pm at Norwalk City Hall Lawn | Info Here
• Cutame Camones | 6:00 pm at McArthur Park | Info Here
• Marito Rivera y su Grupo Bravo | 7:30 pm at McArthur Park

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The Downtown Art Walk is a self-guided tour that showcases the many art exhibition venues in Downtown Los Angeles — commercial art galleries, museums, and non-profit arts venues.

Thursday September 11th, Jason Lee Perry and John Davis, and the Regent will showcase artists from Los Angeles and the “Beach Cities District.” The objective of this art walk is to explore the phenomenon of Pop Art/Lowbrow and Fashion Photography and the way these two pull so heavily from each other. The photography was selected on it’s merit of pop color and outsider/street influence and the fine art chosen in the way it applauds or lambastes the influence of mainstream fashion. Sounds like fun, eh?

The event takes place every second Thursday of the month in Downtown Los Angeles. The next will take place Thursday, September 11th, from 6PM- 11PM.

Here is the schedule for tonight:

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Everyone always says it’s cheaper to cook than it is to eat out, but is it really? If you’re not eating mac and cheese, and trying to make something with fresh. tasty ingredients it’s not going to be cheap. From buying the seasoning, to the meat, to the sauce ingredients, to the vegetables, it adds up a lot quicker than one could imagine, and it’s not necessarily faster or easier.

I am by NO means encouraging people to eat fast food, but when you have the time it is important to know that sitting down and enjoying a good meal made for you can not only be enjoyable and tasty, but it also can be inexpensive.

If you want to know how to do this the answer is you need to know where to go and what to order. Luckily the LATimes just put together a great list of different types of restaurants in LA where you can get GREAT deals. Here are some of my fav’s…

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September allows us to say goodbye to the summer . Hello, autumn! Here are your free shows for the week of September 8 - 11:

While the amount of celebrities that live in this fine city in their million dollar mansions are not few and far in between, there are a handful (or two) places of residents that are interest. You might want to keep this list handy in your case star-crazed aunt or uncle have decided to come visit

• Torrance, three blocks from Torrance High School - Buffy’s house (right) on the fictional Revello Drive Residence was actually in Torrance and was used in the widely popular series, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

• Kenneth Road between Brand and Pacific, Glendale - The “Gone With The Wind House’s” terrace can be seen as you take a scenic drive through Kenneth Road in Glendale. Beware, you might be tempted to declare that you will never go hungry again when passing by.

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Coming off an amazing show last weekend, Inara George will be gracing Angelenos with here beautiful voice once again.  Check out her fantastical music at Tangiers.  Also playing at Tangiers, Jana Hunter is also a great talent.  If you are in the mood for the music of a legend, Bob Dylan will be filling the Santa Barbara air with a selection of his iconic songs. However you decide to spend the end to the first weekend in September, enjoy the music tonight:

• Manifest Destiny Featuring Witchcraft | 3:00pm at Echoplex - Map | 18+ | Tickets $15 Buy Tickets
• Inara George | 5:00pm Tangiers - Map | All Ages | Tickets $10 at Door
• Asesino | 6:00pm at Whiskey - Map |All Ages | Tickets $25 Buy Tickets
• Latin Fusion Night | 7:00pm at House of Blues Anaheim- Map | 18+ | Tickets $12.50  Buy Tickets
• Bob Dylan | 7:30pm at Santa Barbara Bowl - Map | All Ages |Tickets $52.50 Buy Tickets

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The night that I discovered “Stringers: LA” on Tru Tv, it became my guilty pleasure. Actually, I shouldn’t say ‘guilty’ because I don’t feel ashamed to be watching it at all. If you’ve never heard of this television series, Stringers: LA follows freelance video journalists who prowl the streets of Los Angeles to find news as it happens. This routinely includes shootings, car crashes, hostage situations, explosions and fires. Their cars come equipped with police, fire and EMS scanners that help them to find and get amazing footage that is then fed to news organizations. Chances are that the car crash you’re watching on KTLA’s 11 o clock news was filmed by a stringer.

Stringers: LA is like COPS without the mental cases. Not only is it an intriguing and fascinating show for the action and adventure it provides on the mean and lean streets of this city, it makes you appreciate the efforts of these journalists who risk their lives on a daily basis to bring you the news. Seeing the work that goes behind stringing, gives people a rare glimpse into the behind the cameras work that goes into bringing footage to your local news station. Make no mistake about it, this is real reality tv.

Meet the stringers:

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Los Angeles, I adore you. You know I do, but your endless sunshine really does a number on my nerves. This time, it’s not me, it’s you.  I don’t think many people feel the way I do about you and your mission to make every day a sunny day, and sometimes unbearably hot day, but I know who does: Loudon Wainwright III, folk singer, writer and father of Rufus. Wainwright has a wonderful song called “Grey in L.A.” While I was dying in traffic this morning, “Grey in L.A.” brightened up my day. Isn’t that ironic? Don’t you think? A little too ironic, yes I really do think.

But I digress. I will leave Alanis for another day. Here are the lovely lyrics and a video of the song to accompany them. You might recognize it from “Knocked Up.” Here’s to more rainy and grey days in L.A., even though I might in the minority on that.

When it’s grey in L.A. I sure like it that way
Cause there’s way too much sunshine round here
I don’t know about you I get so sick of blue skies
Whenever they always appear

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