3 more movies that show a real part of L.A. not commonly shown

NEWS ITEM "A Single Man" will show a niche of life in 60's Los Angeles.

• • • "Mask" --Not the Jim Carrey movie, but the Peter Bogdonovich movie shows San Gabriel Valley and other north county areas; foto via IMCDB







• • • "Repo Man" -- Lots of now seemingly archival locations throughout the Atwater region north of downtown; watch the trailer; foto via aric








• • • "Real Women Have Curves" -- There's a great montage of East LA while the not-yet-a-major-star America Ferrera walks to her garment factory job; watch the trailer; foto via BlueGrassFilmSociety

3 more things about going from prison to the presidency

NEWS ITEM In Uruguay, former imprisoned dissident wins election to high office.

• • • Czech Republic --Vaclav Havel, playwright and former imprisoned dissident, won election to high office.

• • • South Africa -- Nelson Mandela, former lawyer and imprisoned dissident, won election to high office.

• • • Boston --"From Prison To President," an album by Mike Boston, Christian hip-hop artist

3 more things to do through next week

NEWS ITEM Hear NoHo, emerging artists musical festival, is Thursday, featuring among others The Flutterbies.

• • • Unique Los Angeles -- Dec. 5 & 6 at Calif Mart, via LAist.

• • • Divine Design -- Marketplace is Dec. 3-7 at the Beverly Hilton, benefits Project Angel Food, via Los Angeles Magazine.

• • • Dick Dale -- Dec. 5 at Jon Lovitz Comedy Club at Universal CityWalk, via LA Weekly.

3 more things about advertising

NEWS ITEM An aggregate of "Black Friday" ads.

• • • False advertising -- Hall of Shame

• • • Slogans -- Hall of Fame

• • • Playboy -- 10 safe-for-work ads, and a clever anti-porn ad from the United Arab Emirates that verifies the power of the brand.

3 more things about Thanksgiving

NEWS ITEM Marinated turkey? "You're soaking in it."

• • • Stolen food -- The Puritans weren't so pure.

• • • Pardoned turkeys -- A reprieve is really just a slow death sentence.

• • • Canadian Thanksgiving -- Second Monday in October.

3 more things for Thanksgiving that aren't exactly traditional

NEWS ITEM It's a big movie-going weekend.

• • • Bad families -- TV ain't Ozzie and Harriet anymore.

• • • Hedonistic advice -- A Thanksgiving for grown-ups.

• • • Cheers -- Need proof for family stress and misplaced expectations?

3 more things about seasonal yardwork

NEWS ITEM Fall is a good time to prune perennials.

• • • Hydrangea -- Acidic soils turn flowers blue; alkaline turns them pink.

• • • Broadleaf weed control -- Cooler temperatures aid effectiveness of chemical applications in turf.

• • • Planting -- Now is probably the perfect time to plant.

3 more things deemed unfit for TV

NEWS ITEM Adam Lambert kisses a man during the American Music Awards.

• • • Elvis Presley -- His first number on Ed Sullivan was cropped close, though he and his hips got plenty of air time previously on other shows, and later during that same CBS show.

• • • Rolling Stones -- On their second appearance on Ed Sullivan, despite the host swearing they'd never appear again after their first performance, Mick Jagger tweaked the "lewd" lyrics to "Let's Spend Some Time Together."

• • • Bob Dylan -- When told he couldn't perform "Talking John Birch Paranoid Blues" during his scheduled Ed Sullivan performance, Dylan cancelled.

3 more lamentable passings of artists

NEWS ITEM Jeanne-Claude, 74, was the collaborator of conceptual artist Christo on wrapped islands, buildings, forests, NYC's "Gates" and the "Umbrellas" north of L.A. and in Japan.

• • • Daniel Rowen -- Modernist architect, 56.

• • • Irving Kriesberg -- Abstract impressionist painter, 90.

• • • Robert Cameron -- Aerial photographer, 98.

3 more things about clocks

NEWS ITEM Wake up rrrrrrrready to rrrrrrrruuuuuuumble.

• • • Scroll bar clock -- Time for collage.

• • • Procrastinator's clock -- Could be 15 minutes fast, could be on time... you just don't know.

• • • Fuzzy -- In case you need time to be "about noon-ish."

3 more things car dealers use to sell cars

NEWS ITEM Linking the President to Jihadists seems like an odd way to sell cars.

• • • Bigotry -- Mojave, Calif. Ford dealer tells atheists to "buy another car," then apologizes, then retracts the apology.

• • • Fraud -- Pressure, lies, scams can move inventory when salesmen are under pressure.

• • • Incentives -- Then of course, reputable dealers offer rebates and deals on price and options.

3 more things about urban gardening

NEWS ITEM To get a crop, city dwellers have to cope with issues of irrigation, pests, and police.

• • • Home Grown Edible Landscapes -- A (somewhat) regional resource for treating your yard like a produce market.

• • • Food Not Lawns -- One of many local groups urging you to kill your lawn and feed your family.

• • • Lawn Gone -- I can help.

3 more things about avant garde art

NEWS ITEM Man Ray, one of the 20th Century's greatest artistic revolutionaries, died on this date in 1976.

• • • Sculpture -- Exhibit's focus is on artist Julian Voss-Andreae's work inspired by quantum physics.

• • • Drawing -- Video w/ great production values of Chris Piascik working.

• • • Sculpture -- Ex-Chief Bratton, LA Times columnist Steve Lopez, and others, don't quite grasp the public art outside the new LAPD headquarters downtown by Peter Shelton.

3 more things you think you know but don't

NEWS ITEM Day after Thanksgiving isn't biggest retail day; typically it's the Saturday before Christmas.

• • • Kool-Aid -- "Drank the Kool-Aid" is a Jonestown reference to buying in to a doctrine, heart and soul, except it wasn't Kool-Aid they drank there. It was Flav-R-Ade.

• • • Lemmings -- It's part of the language that the rodents commit mass suicide by running off cliffs, but they don't do that. Blame a Disney documentary crew.

• • • Fences -- "Good fences make good neighbors" is a line from a Robert Frost poem that doesn't endorse barriers but mocks needless fences.

3 more things about boxers outside of the box

NEWS ITEM After Manny Pacquiao proved he's among the greatest boxers ever, two hours later he sang at a previously scheduled concert.

• • • Oscar De La Hoya -- His pretty decent CD came out in 2000.

• • • George Foreman -- Yes, he was a champion prizefighter before he was an appliance salesman, yet not a cook like Jack King.

• • • Tex Cobb -- He can not only take a punch but he can take direction, being an awesome nemesis in "Raising Arizona."

3 more things about athletes as role models

NEWS ITEM Not only does the NFL's Josh Cribbs do his late coach's son a solid, he kept it to himself. Story broke 5 weeks later.

• • • Should they be? -- This law prof says yes on his sports law site.
• • • NYTimes in '87 -- Before gunplay and dogfighting and steroid scandals, the issues were the same; consensus: They shouldn't be, but they are.
• • • Pat Tillman -- After 9/11 attacks, he turned his back on NFL fame and fortune to serve, to die in combat under questionable circumstances.

3 more words that are paradoxically ironic oxymorons, sorta

NEWS ITEM HBO's "Bored to Death" is about a slacker private eye with "bored" alluding to palpable disinterest but the word is also a metaphor for intensity, as in drilling, which would be a different show if it were about dentistry.

• • • Strike -- In bowling it's a hit and in baseball it's a miss; for labor, it's a job action of job inaction; for plants, it's about expanding, yet for theater, it's about reducing.

• • • Cleave -- to adhere [Old English cleofian; related to Old High German klebēn to stick], to split apart [Old English clēofan; related to Old Norse kljūfa, Old High German klioban, Latin glūbere to peel].

• • • Cop-- is to steal and a guy whose job it is to prevent stealing and an act of admitting and an act of denying, as in "After copping out, cop copped to the copping."

Follow-up

1 more thing Carrie Prejean knows from inappropriate.

• • • 3 more things about beauty queens

3 more things about fall colors in LA

NEWS ITEM A hike through Arroyo Seco will find a range of fall foliage.

• • • LA.MetBlogs.com -- Frazgo says how he's at last figured out a SoCal fall, and provides a foto of (just guessing) an elm, ash, liquidambar and crape myrtle, foreground to background.

• • • LATimes -- Mary Forgione hiked Icehouse Canyon.

• • • Daily News -- Andy Holzman shot liquidambar.

3 more things about prophecies

NEWS ITEM "2012" movie destroys the world, timing pegged on Mayan calendar.

• • • Ron Weinland -- Ever-evolving date for Second Coming is now set for May 27, 2012.

• • • John Hogue -- Problems surrounding Palestine and India will either erupt or be solved this year.

• • • Tim McHyde -- There's a star that will pass through the solar system that will make the year 360 days long; that happens in 2015.

3 more things with Sparks

NEWS ITEM FDA may ban caffeinated alcohol; Beer-maker decaffeinated Sparks last year.

• • • Basketball -- Newly retired Sparks superstar Lisa Leslie will be feted at a Lakers/Pistons game on Nov 17.

• • • Band -- Almost impossible to describe how influential the Mael brothers have been, despite some of the most astute people in music literally betting against them.

• • • Burg -- They're aiming for sustainability.

3 more things about murals

NEWS ITEM Muralist takes on health care.

• • • Sunrise -- Mural made of recycled tile.

• • • Michael Jackson -- Kent Twitchell got to exhibit some of his aborted mural project last Spring.

• • • U.S. Justice Dept. -- 50 Depression-era murals tell an American story.

3 more things about beauty queens

NEWS ITEM Miss England loses crown after bar fight.

• • • Carrie Prejean, ex-Miss California -- Didn't do her job, got herself fired, sued, got herself countersued for the costs of her breast impants, settled for lawyer fees for fear of her sex tape being released; a round-up of other marginal types: kidnappers, substance abusers, provocative models, brawlers and attempted murderers.

• • • A Rhodes Scholar finalist -- She was also Miss America '05.

• • • Kids -- There's something kinda creepy about these.

3 more things about evolution

NEWS ITEM Examples of humans still amid evolution

• • • H1N1 -- If influenza didn't evolve, it might well be extinct.

• • • Beauty -- Author asserts aesthetics are a side affect of our drive to survive.

• • • Deniers -- The lyrics show that people who don't understand the facts are quick to dismiss the basics; a snippet:

"Your uncle was a monkey, he was swinging through the trees,
he lived on green bannanas, and his arms swung to his knees.
He spoke with such conviction, it really made me think,
Maybe my teacher, He's the missing link!
He said...
I believe in evolution,
ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lies."

3 more things about men in skirts

NEWS ITEM Yet another way to confound school dress codes.

• • • Scots

• • • Priests

• • • Maori

3 more things about mass killings

NEWS ITEM Military psychiatrist loses his mind, kills 12 GIs.

• • • Ft. Hood Texas murderer -- listed as a workplace killing, where he's tied for 3rd.

• • • Luby's Cafeteria -- nearby Killeen saw a similar eruption of violence.

• • • Women -- far more likely to be victims than killers, except...

3 more things about zombies

NEWS ITEM Before "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" things were dreadful.

• • • Zombie Squad-- on the list of survivalist groups, because if a zombie attack isn't a crisis, then nothing is.

• • • Creating zombies -- Haiti made it illegal in 1835

• • • Of course there's a musical -- "A new musical that will eat your face off!" -- no relation to Rod Argent's band.

3 more things about trees

NEWS ITEM Man builds tree houses, that is, houses out of whole trees.

• • • David Sibley -- who redefined the bird identification book, turns to trees.

• • • Calaveras Big Tree State Park -- skyscraper tall, older than Carthage, northeast of Stockton.

• • • Arbor Day Foundation -- join and get 10 free trees.

3 more things threatened by climate change

NEWS ITEM Story should be updated, republished as "Some Soggy Spot on Kilimanjaro"...?

• • • Fish -- trout and salmon need cold water.

• • • Plants -- cool-weather plants creep north; warm-weather crops face crisis.

• • • Skeptics -- Facts keep piling up against them.

3 more examples of posturing

NEWS ITEM Something vaguely familiar about the imagery and how evocative it is

• • • Michael Flatley -- lord of a type







• • • Michael Phelps -- didn't get acclaim for walking on water.




• • • W -- really, what's more to say?

3 more productions with incredibly short titles

NEWS ITEM Remake of '83 mini-series debuts, still not based on Thomas Pynchon novel.

• • • "O" -- rethinking "Othello."

• • • "Z" -- political turmoil in Greece.

• • • "M" -- one of the best movies of all time tells of criminals hunting a child-killer when police fail.

3 more things to know about sleep amid time change

NEWS ITEM The reason it seems like time change screws you up, is because it does

• • • Almost 30% of Americans aren't getting enough Zs.

• • • Sleeplessness makes you stupiditier.

• • • You can sleep when you retire (sleep is medicine).