Metroblogging Los Angeles Wine Around Town (2) Power outage at 3rd & La Brea (1) Westwood pervert strikes again (5) More on Aron's Records (22) 1-800-DENTIST (11) :: January 2006 :: December 2005 :: November 2005 :: October 2005 :: September 2005 :: August 2005 :: July 2005 :: June 2005 :: May 2005 :: April 2005 :: March 2005 :: February 2005 :: January 2005 :: December 2004 :: November 2004 :: October 2004 :: September 2004 :: August 2004 :: July 2004 :: June 2004 :: May 2004 :: April 2004 :: March 2004 :: February 2004 :: January 2004 :: December 2003 :: November 2003 RSS 2.0 Full Posts RSS 2.0 Full posts with No Comments Bloglines MyFeedster MyYahoo! Kinja NetNewsWire NewsGator Online NewsMonster Radio SharpReader Shrook NewsIsFree Syndic8 Technorati It's not news, it's Fark! January 13, 2006 Power outage at 3rd & La Brea I thought it was just incredible timing that meant an EMPTY TJ's parking lot, but it turned out power was down at the Trader Joe's at 3rd & La Brea and the Ralphs supermarket across the street. Must be reeeally localized, because the whole PetCo/Lamps Plus/Casting Studios warehouse I came from not 25 yards away was fully powered and open for bidness. Oh--and that furniture store/artifacts place was open, too. But it's still having that 1/2 off moving sale... Posted by colleen wainwright at 02:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) Send to a Friend | IM to a friend | Author's Website | Technorati Cosmos Wine Around Town I don't drink but I know that some people are into that wine stuff. So perhaps this listing of upcoming wine tastings around LA might be interesting It's provided by Novus Vinum and seems to be updated pretty regularly so it has a list of events about to happen, as well as set reoccuring weekly ones. And, I know you appreciate it, so no need for you to send me rambling thank you e-mails when you get home all sloshed. I get enough of those already. Posted by Sean Bonner at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) Send to a Friend | IM to a friend | Author's Website | Technorati Cosmos January 13, 2006 Want a gun Try Long Beach! So in most of California if you want to purchase a gun (hand gun, shotgun, etc..) you have to go to a gun shop, pass a safety test, wait a few days and then you can pick it up. You also get added to a huge list of people who own guns so that tomorrow when they officially throw out the bill of rights and make it illegal to own a gun they know exactly whose house to kick the doors in on. Sound like too much trouble Hate all that paperwork Well, turns out you don't need to go any further than Long Beach for an alternative. It looks like the Long Beach Police Department is just giving them away for the asking. Or the taking as the case may be and with no recourse. More than a 4th of the shotguns and an "unknown" number of handguns are just gone, and no one has any idea where they might be. "We have absolutely no idea where the guns are," said one Long Beach officer... Nice. Posted by Sean Bonner at 09:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) Send to a Friend | Author's Website | Technorati Cosmos Dial 911 from your cell and you'll get LAPD (not the CHP) Cell Phone 911 Calls To Be Routed Directly To LAPD Some emergency 911 calls made from mobile cell phones in the downtown Los Angeles area began being routed directly to the LAPD Thursday instead of to the California Highway Patrol, police said. Most 911 calls made on cell phones are answered by CHP dispatchers who transfer the calls to the appropriate agency, which can delay emergency response. Having Los Angeles police dispatchers answer 911 cell phone calls is expected to help cut emergency response times and provide relief for overburdened CHP dispatchers. Over the next five weeks, the changeover in the city's central area will be performed systematically by the cell phone service providers, including Verizon, Cingular, Nextel, Sprint and T-Mobile, police said. The changeover is to be expanded gradually to cover all of the city by the end of the year. Medical emergency calls will continue to be transferred immediately to the Los Angeles Fire Department, and 911 cell phone calls from motorists on freeways will still be handled by the CHP, authorities said. The Los Angeles City Council voted for the change last August. The projected $2 million cost of the change will be covered by a state grant, officials said. In 2004, the CHP transferred more than 124,000 cell phone calls to the Los Angeles police and fire departments, authorities said. The LAPD's 550 911 operators handled more than 3 million emergency calls last year, police said. Eventually, the LAPD plans to implement a more complicated system that will allow dispatchers to receive a phone number and location of the cell tower, and -- through the use of a global positioning system -- the exact location where the call was made. Posted by jozjozjoz at 12:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) Send to a Friend | Author's Website | Technorati Cosmos January 12, 2006 From abLA :: More Ruscha at LACMA (always a good thing) The latest in my never-ending obsession reporting on abLA fave Ed Ruscha... continue reading Posted by Caryn Coleman at 05:18 PM | Permalink Send to a Friend | Author's Website | Technorati Cosmos Westwood pervert strikes again There's plenty of reasons why I don't live in Westwood (rent, tiny apartments, parking, noise, too many damn students), but concern for my safety was never one of the reasons. Right now, I feel pretty glad I made that decision even though Westside traffic sucks. Since December 27th, a man has been assaulting women by grabbing their breasts from behind and then fleeing on foot. The incidents occur in the day time and early in the evening (6-7 pm). The fifth incident of sexual battery was reported Tuesday, but occurred on Sunday morning. A female student was walking on the 400 block of Landfair Avenue at approximately 9:30 a.m. Sunday when the suspect approached her from behind and attempted to grab her breasts. In each of the other four cases, the suspect has approached his female victim from behind and grabbed her breasts before fleeing. ( Daily Bruin ) The UCPD advises students and other residents to: stay alert and attuned to surroundings, especially suspicious activities or people; not walk alone at night; have key ready and in your hand when approaching your car, so that you can get in quickly; keep walking or go into a public place if someone is loitering near your unoccupied car as you approach it; park in a secured garage when available. I took a self-defense class last year through the UCLA Center for Women and Men and Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women (LACAAW) . It was definitely worth giving up a Saturday morning to learn some basic tactics to prevent assaults. Posted by Cindy M at 03:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) Send to a Friend | Author's Website | Technorati Cosmos Hop on a boat with me on Monday! Monday is a holiday for many of us and I'm putting the paid time off to good use by narrating another whalewatching cruise out of Redondo Beach Sportfishing on Monday aft