Those Pedaling Vids

Ah, summer is here — summer, and the news that the earth's surface temperature is the highest it's been in 2,000 years. Tra la. Not relishing the idea of a monster utility bill, our thoughts turn to finding a public place where the AC is always set to Meat Locker — the movie theater. So, we trundle on down to the local MegaMechaMoviePlex to see what's playing. Click. The Lake House. Garfield 2. Feh.

Luckily, summer film festival season seems to be here as well, with the LA Film Festival starting this weekend (yesterday, actually) with plenty of offerings other than those that make us wonder about Bill Murray's paycheck or Keanu Reeves' strange powers over casting and studio executives that have made him a star. For an entire week we can keep cool while watching classic film noir, new art and music documentaries, indie shorts, Snoop Dogg's latest horror anthology Hood of Horror (yes!), and even a free screening of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, about — ahem — global warming. This sounds promising. All screenings are in Westwood. Oh. Westwood. Freeways. Traffic. Parking. That leaking air conditioning unit in the car. Feh.

But wait. What's this? Another film festival in the heart of Hollywood on Saturday? A film festival focused on bikes? Can this be? It can! We hear you saying, "Four films does not a festival make," but really, we're thinking that's just the road rage talking. Besides, the festival put on that nifty party at the Echo last night (so those kids really were talking about brake lines and derailleurs?) and has organized a bike-inspired art show at the Don O'Melveny Gallery (showing through Saturday) featuring works by Michel Gondry and Shepard Fairey. We may have to fire up the ol' velocipede and check it out.

Photo by ehoyer via Flickr