Up From Below, Ed Sharpe delivers coz to Abbot Kinney

Easily one of the best new acts to come out of Los Angeles is Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, who played a set at the Abbot Kinney Festival yesterday. Their music is just perfectly harmonious, playful, energetic and soulful.



If you're free next weekend, my advice is to jump in your '72 Westphalia and head out to Joshua Tree where they'll be performing at the upcoming Manimal Festival in Pioneertown.

I can't imagine a better venue to see this great band. Something tells me there's big things in their future...

Los Angeles Bicycle Plan Update leaves little time for comment!

Westside Bikeside just posted news that the LA Bike Master Plan was just released today, and leaves little time for public comment, especially the Neighborhood Councils. You'd be well served by writing to your council member demanding an extension to the public comment period. Here's my email to Council member Bill Rosendahl

TO: Councilman.Rosendahl@lacity.org

SUBJECT: LA Bike Master Plan

Good Morning Councilmember Rosendahl,

As a cyclist in Los Angeles, I am outraged that the bike master plan released today (6 months late) includes a Nov 6th deadline for public comments. How can neighborhood councils provide input and comment on this plan with so little time. It seems time and again, the interests of cyclists are ignored, supressed and stymied by the various departments in this city. This is just another example of the city attempting to force through this plan without proper public comment and oversight. I urge you to introduce a motion to reschedule the deadline to January 4th, 2010. This will allow enough time for the public and neighborhood councils to read, comprehend and comment on the 212 pages, with 351 pages of appendices.

Respectfully,


the engaged observer

Go For It!

What did you do last night? Crank Mob

Last night, I joined a couple other cyclists on an amazing group ride through Los Angeles. Crank Mob organizes frequent themed rides that attract a large following in L.A. This was their last ride for a while, with only annual rides planned from now on. The video above was my attempt to survey just how many riders there were. Highlights include a couple dressed up on a tandem, 2 tall bikes and a guy on a franken child bike dressed as a dark overlord? I was getting my ass kicked by a guy towing a griddle, pretty embaressing...

Along with many mechanical malfunctions, a few riders managed to get detained and cited for their "interpretations" of traffic signals. I wonder if it's routine procedure for police to handcuff and search every vehicle operator they stop for a traffic violation....

The first stop was in Chinatown for some music, dancing and antics in a parking lot. Our presence didn't go un-noticed by the ghettobird overhead. Over his loudspeaker could be heard something to the effect of "We don't have the resources to monitor you guys."


These rides go kinda late and I wanted to be asleep by 2am, so I skipped out on the 2 warehouse parties that were next on the route and instead headed to Union Station to catch the last Red Line back to Hollywood. I've done many Critical Mass rides which are always entertaining, but the energy and excitement brought this ride to a whole other level. A true party on wheels.

C.R.A.N.K.MAS II - The Last C.R.A.N.K. MOB 9/19/09

Saturday Morning Frühstück

Slept a full 8 hours last night, a first in a long time. The day was already in full effect, and we were hungry. Pulled out some leftover green beans, mushrooms, onions, cheddar & parmesean and whipped up a quick and light frittata. Throw in some tomatoes from the garden, squeeze some oranges from our tree (said hello to the treekeeper), add a couple slices of prosciutto and in 20 minutes we have a wonderful meal to start our day!

Before the fire

I photographed the descent into LAX a few weeks ago, before the Station Fire torched the Angeles National Forest...

49 square miles surrounded by reality*

San Francisco never ceases to entertain, inspire and surprise me. We spent the long weekend dining, drinking, riding ferrys & tandems thru the fog and hiking Mt. Tam.

The Bay Bridge was closed, but it still looked pretty...

view from the Ferry Building, after a memorable dinner at the Slanted Door

mural in the mission

rooftop @ SFMOMA

Where's Waldo? View from SFMOMA

Andrea Zittel's trailer parked in SFMOMA

A wonderfully intoxicating beverage by Beretta

Riding a tandem bike across the Golden Gate Bridge, wrapped in fog

Our gracious hosts

Cozy tandems!

Andy Goldsworthy's Spire in Golden Gate Park

eating wild berries

Flora Grub

Floating Woolly Pockets!

A perfect day on the bay

passing by the other famous prison

Woke up early for an epic hike from Stinson Beach up Mount Tamalpais

starting out early in the lowlands

golden fields bathed in sunlight

making our way on the trail

just when we thought it couldn't get any more scenic, we entered Muir Woods

7.5 miles later, we're back at Stinson!

If Stinson was a car, it'd be a green Datsun 510

A jump in the ocean followed by the best milkshake ever!

*Paul Kantner of the rock band Jefferson Airplane