Miscellaneous: July 2009 Archives

Hey Huell Howser fans, ready for a damn good laugh? This is California's Gold and Purple Haze. Oh yeah.

• Torontoist spent an early Sunday morning with two street artists, Eric Cheung and Sean Martindale, who make rogue planters out of carved-up posters.
• DCist went to the official launch of Google Moon and geeked out over astronauts while celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing.
• Londonist wondered if "enough is enough" is a good argument against the right to free speech.

       

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Leave it to a Venice Beach resident to combine Cirque du Soleil with the sunshine. That's what Atlaz Branthoover does for exercise. In this Rue Cyr video he finds a use for Santa Monica's oversized chess board that would surely bestow motion sickness onto this writer.

      

Improving a blighted neighborhood could be as simple as a covering up unsightly walls and rusted fences with a vertical garden. For nearly two months, the Nelson brothers have been selling a new concept in this burgeoning field. Their business, the Woolly Pocket Garden Company, began serendipitously when they were looking for a vertical garden solution to their eco-conscious Chinatown event space, Smog Shoppe. But no product existed to meet their needs cost effectively, so they did it themselves and figured it was a product others might want, too.

     

Save for the first photo here--probably chock full of code violations and, ahem, maybe some missing bodies--most of these apartments entered into a dirtiest apartment contest just seemed cluttered.

• Gothamist found out that "heroin-addicted hobos from around the country" are camping out in trendy Williamsburg. One deli owner complained to a local newspaper, "They could take a nice hot bath. One kid comes in and the whole store will be smelling for hours."
• Torontoist considered the ramifications of Tim Hortons—the coffee and donut chain synonymous with Canadiana—arriving in New York City.
• Bostonist exposed Yelp's geographic confusion while pondering the history of hipster hatred.

       

When you read something you like on LAist, we love it when you hit the "like" button, and we love it even more if you put your two cents' worth in the comments. Getting a dialog going with our readers and making sure we're giving you content you can use are top priorities for us. And if you really like what you see, why not Tweet it or post it to your Facebook? Share the love!

Once upon a time, Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley boasted its own theme park. The theme, ostensibly: Beer. Well, what else would you make the central focus of an amusement park located on the property of a major brewery?

LA has a diverse cast of characters. Whether it's the characters with stirring stories or interesting occupations or the people who are just simply characters, this town has them all. In an effort to get to know some of those characters a little better, we've created "Seven Questions with..." If you have a suggestion for a future Seven Questions subject send us an email.

There are some workout classes that make me want to run screaming from the building. Some make me watch every cruel second tick by on the clock. But precious few - and I mean really, like practically none - make me want to stay on for a second hour.

• Chicagoist visited The Ledge at the Sears Tower, the building's newest attraction that allows visitors to step out into glass boxes that jut out from the Tower's west side, allowing you to look straight down. All 1,353 feet.
• Phillyist nominated the administrators of the suburban pool club that allegedly kicked out a number of urban youth on basis of their race as its assholes of the week.
• Shanghaiist took a in-depth look at the machinations behind the Xinjiang riots, from its beginning to the second day of violence to when everything finally started to calm down.

       

When you read something you like on LAist, we love it when you hit the "like" button, and we love it even more if you put your two cents' worth in the comments. Getting a dialog going with our readers and making sure we're giving you content you can use are top priorities for us. And if you really like what you see, why not Tweet it or post it to your Facebook? Share the love!

MALL MANIA 1990 time-lapse from Joel Fletcher on Vimeo.

Despite the rumors that circulated yesterday, Trevor Ariza did not end up backing out of his oral agreement with Houston to join LeBron James and Shaquille O'Neal in Cleveland. Today the former Laker made it official signing on the dotted line of his multi-year deal, making him a Rocket.

• Gothamist followed the story of a woman who claimed a police officer manhandled her—punching her and grabbing her breasts—because she had taken her pug out of its carrier. There were numerous, some differing witness accounts and the police are investigating the allegations.
• Seattlest owned up to its darkest, most claustrophobic fear--getting trapped in a badly maintained hellevator.
• SFist wondered why some Bay Area residents feared the high speed rail system, which would whisk people from downtown San Francisco to downtown Los Angeles in two hours.

       

When you read something you like on LAist, we love it when you hit the "like" button, and we love it even more if you put your two cents' worth in the comments. Getting a dialog going with our readers and making sure we're giving you content you can use are top priorities for us. And if you really like what you see, why not Tweet it or post it to your Facebook? Share the love!

       

We may have spent the evening watching fireworks go off all along the horizon, in the streets, on the hills, and from major venues in Los Angeles, and we may have fallen asleep to the not-so-dulcet sounds of neighbors snap-crackle-popping their own stash of illegal fireworks into the wee hours, but we also woke up to a few great photos posted online from last night's many fireworks displays.