Over at the blog, LA Snark, there's talk of terrible local internet service: "What’s going on with Time Warner’s internet outtages in the Los Angeles area? Are they clocking out at 10pm or something? For the past two nights I’ve suddenly lost the ability to reach a site in a browser. Oddly enough I’m able to instant message and receive emails.. but no web access. What’s the deal Time Warner?" The snarky blogger polled his Twitter followers and found that he wasn't the only one. Is the same happening to you? Update: KCAL News at 4 p.m. reports that the problem began on Sunday night and should be now fixed.

President-elect Barack Obama's selection of Orange County's infamous evangelical minister Rick Warren to lead his inauguration's invocation has met with much objection, mostly from the gay community, who believe Warren is homophobic. According to Top of the Ticket, "Obama has said he doesn't agree with some things Warren says and vice versa," but the two have agreed to disagreed rather congenially since this summer, when Warren invited Obama to speak at his Saddleback Church. Warren insists he is "not at all homophobic."

This weekend, people across the country are slated to conduct protests against Obama's decision to have Warren take the stage called "Light Up the Night", focusing on Warren's support of the "Yes on 8" campaign in California. The LA Weekly notes that "Obama will continue to get an earful he probably never expected" this Saturday night, when protesters are due to assemble locally in Silver Lake and Hollywood at candlelight vigils organized by Join the Impact, who have "also organized protests in San Francisco, New York, Washington D.C., and other cities, with the Warren controversy becoming a central rallying point."

But Obama's connection to Prop 8 proper is weak. The LA Weekly points out that "Obama, who made few campaign stops in California, saw little of the Prop. 8 battle in person this summer and fall, yet defended himself as a 'fierce advocate' for gay rights at a Chicago news conference last night. He does not appear to be backing away from his choice of Warren."

Obama and Warren at the Saddleback Church, Aug. 16, 2008 | AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File

Proposition 8 proponents filed a lawsuit today seeking to nullify 18,000 gay marriages that took place between June and November this year. The brief filed with the court was co-written by Pepperdine's law school dean Kenneth Star, who also was the former independent counsel that investigated President Bill Clinton. "Proposition 8's brevity is matched by its clarity. There are no conditional clauses, exceptions, exemptions or exclusions," it read.

Attorney General Jerry Brown promptly responded to the filing in a statement this evening. “Proposition 8 must be invalidated because the amendment process cannot be used to extinguish fundamental constitutional rights without compelling justification.”

Photo by Tom Andrews/LAist

Jazz pianist John Osnes, 55, was walking across the street last week on November 23rd when an SUV driven by 34-year-old David Jassy crossed/edged/drifted into crosswalk as it came to a stop. Osnes, known as a "stickler for pedestrian rights," struck the vehicle with his hands, prompting Jassy to exit his vehicle and punch him, knocking Osnes' glasses off. As he went to pick them up, Jassy kicked him in the head.

Witnesses, including an off-duty Anaheim officer tried to detain Jassy, but he got free and drove off, running over Osnes in the process.

Today, the coroner's office announced that Osnes died from “blunt trauma.” Jassy is charged with assault, battery and leaving the scene of an accident, but more could be piled on as the investigation continues.

A web page from friends has been set up in memory of Osnes. Jassy, known as Dave Monopoly, is a songwriter from Sweden.

Photo by CarbonNYC via Flickr

If you were planning on leisurely filling out your one-click holiday shopping list this year, too bad. Amazon.com is running way behind. Or maybe they are blackmailing you into joining their new membership club, Amazon Prime. If you place an order today, December 8th, and pay for 2-day shipping, you can't trust your items will arrive by Christmas, much less in time for Hanukkah. They warn you:

Estimated delivery date for these 7 items: December 23, 2008 - December 29, 2008

Even if you pay for 1-day shipping, you get this notice:

Estimated delivery date for these 7 items: December 22, 2008 - December 23, 2008

Imagine the way you're going to be biting your nails and peeking through the curtains like you're on coke waiting for that UPS truck on the 23rd. Back orders, paperwork, loading trucks - we understand shipping time is not only time en route, but come on, paying 2-day shipping and not receiving a package until 21 days later?

But if you sign up for a free trial of Amazon Prime you automatically get free 2-day shipping on your order and the possibility of overnight delivery on future orders. We wonder if the Amazon Prime 2-day orders have an earlier estimated arrival date. We figured, why succumb to their pushy marketing? Below the jump are a few other options for online shopping. Feel free to add your own favorites in the comments section.
Barnes and Noble had all of the same books and music merchandise with the same discounts. They promise free 3-day delivery and that items are "usually shipped within 24 hours".

Borders has free standard (3-8 day) shipping with books shipping withing 24 hours.

Powells Books, the keeper of hard-to-find and out-of-print books usually ships within 24 hours. Double check, as many of the books are used if you are giving them as gifts. Of course, cool friends won't mind.

This does not even begin to touch on all of the independent bookstores, record stores, toy stores, etc. That could really use your business. Feel free to share.

Photo by loop_oh via Flickr

Marjorie Christoffersen, who was the most popular person at the 77-year-old restaurant, reportedly resigned Saturday after coming under fire for a $100 donation to support banning gay marriage in Califiornia. For her, she was going with what her Mormon leaders were saying even though her restaurant had been a gay friendly hang for years. El Coyote became one of the centerpieces of the boycott debate over where the line should be drawn on employee/management donations political causes. A protest was held outside the restaurant (see photos here) and many vowed never to eat thre again.

Echo Park artist Shepard Fairey was always widely known in Los Angeles for his ubiquitous OBEY images illegally plastered on walls in the streets and commissioned in clubs. But once his poster became the defining image of Barack Obama's bid for president, it also became Fairey's. "[It] might be the defining image of my life," he told TIME in a video interview. The magazine is on newsstands now, so if you're a proud eastsider like Jesus Sanchez over at The Eastsider LA, you'll probably want to pick this one up.

Everyone is agreeing to disagree up in Sacramento. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Democrats and Republicans are all bickering about their solutions as the state's budget forecast gets more turbulent every day.

"The Democrats want to block cuts to state government spending, and the Republicans want to block revenue increases because they have signed pledges to protect special interests," Schwarzenegger spokesman Matt David said in a statement yesterday. "Legislators were sent to Sacramento to fix problems, but now what they're doing is making the situation worse."
And if no agreement is come to, state Controller John Chiang says the state could run out of money in two months forcing billions of dollars in payments to contractors to be deferred or given in the form of IOUs. "The state's dire cash position not only jeopardizes and places at risk our ability to meet our financial obligations in a timely manner, it threatens our ability to respond to natural disasters and protect our communities from crime."

But Schwarzenegger's mantra is blame the legislature. "For weeks and weeks now the legislators have postured and played political games while the deficit grew larger and larger," Schwarzenegger said at a press conference yesterday about funds cut from the 405 Freeway HOV lanes and other projects in Los Angeles. "And that’s why I have a clock out in front of my office that shows that every hour we are wasting $1.3 million, every day we are wasting $40 million, every month we are wasting $1 billion."

But Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, a local democrat, doesn't see it that way. "The single biggest roadblock to having construction on the 405 (freeway) move forward is Arnold Schwarzenegger," she said referring to the unsigned $18 billion package that Democrats sent him last week.

Photo Courtesy of the Office of the Governor

The above clip is from today's taping of NBC's "The Tonight Show". In it Leno gives a kind of a weak explanation of how he renewed his contract with NBC to create a "cleaned up" version of "The Tonight Show" at 10:00pm, thus providing NBC with three hours of comedy/entertainment talk shows every weeknight. Somehow NBC just can't say "no" to the lantern-jawed man from New Rochelle, NY, and this inability to say "no" might very well undermine the efforts of Conan O'Brien on "The Tonight Show" and Jimmy Fallon on "Late Night".

LA Observed's Kevin Roderick couldn't post his daily Morning Buzz column at the time he wanted. "Cable outage; will post soon," he wrote. Almost two hours later, he finally posted the column. In an e-mail, Roderick said his service is Time Warner, saying that it has "been erratic the last few days."

Last week, many LAist readers agreed that Time Warner's internet service has been out of whack. In fact, major portions of the city were out for hours at at time for two or three nights in a row. Customer service, many said, was not helpful in solving, or at least, explaining what was happening.

One reason may be a law--AB 2987--that passed last year, finds Patrick Range McDonald in his story on public-access television. "City Hall’s loss of power over local franchise agreements — power that will now rest with the far-off state Public Utilities Commission — wipes out L.A.’s leverage to demand improved local customer service and programming," he wrote. Now Time Warner (and other providers) can pretty much get away with anything in terms of customer service.

Photo by The Consumerist via Flickr

Fulfilled in Beverly Hills is a contemporary pastry shop serving sweet and savory versions of the traditional Japanese treat known as imagawa-yaki. These waffle-like pastries are normally filled with sweet azuki bean and are Japan’s version of comfort food. Still very popular today, imagawa-yaki originated in Tokyo in the early 1800s and are often enjoyed at various festivals throughout the year in Japan.

Owner Susumu Tsuchihashi, grew up in Los Angeles. He has traveled to Japan more than forty times and has also attended cooking school there. With his new shop Fufilled, Tsuchihashi's is modernizing this nostalgic comfort food by creating new flavor combinations.

Fulfilled Japanese Pastries is located at 9405 S. Santa Monica Blvd in Beverly Hills.

LAist headed to Fulfilled to meet Susumu Tsuchihashu, try this Japanese treat, and learn how imagawa-yaki are made.

by Sheri Zampelli

"It's about time the Jews win," said a roller derby fan while leaving Saturday night's match between the L.A. Ri-Ettes and Santa's Little Helpers. The L.A. Ri-Ettes are "A-team" skaters chosen from the Los Angeles Derby Doll league. They adopted a Jewish theme for the evening wearing blue t-shirts and sporting a star symbol with a skate in the middle. Fans and Derby Doll volunteers put stickers with menorahs and dreidels on their shirts. Jewish rocker Gene Simmons of KISS, accompanied by actress Shannon Tweed and their daughter Sophie Tweed-Simmons, led the crowd in the singing of the National Anthem. Then, the crowd watched a video of Santa's plot to "bitch slap L.A." and Hanukkah Harry's plan to save it by forming his own derby army in "hot pants and tights".

The L.A. Ri-Ettes won the game but the road to victory was marked with rink rash, an oxygen tank and some help from the EMT's. Santa's Little Helpers (SLH) wore red and had and elf-like look. This all-star team included derby girls from across the nation including San Diego Derby Dolls, Arizona Roller Derby, Lonestar Rollergirls and Gotham Girls in New York. For most of the SLH team, skating on a banked track was an unusual experience. L.A. Derby Dolls, on the other hand, skate a banked track all year long and have adapted to the slope and speed of the track. If the banked track had an impact on the visitor's performance, it wasn't obvious. In fact, Santa's Little Helpers came out strong and held the lead for the first 18 jams of the game. In the final quarter they reclaimed the lead and only met defeat as a result of the second-to-last jam. Visiting jammers Miss Fortune and Denise Lightning took to the the banked track like water to a running stream and gave L.A. Ri-Ettes star jammers Mila Minute and Kung Pow Tina a challenge to contend with.

"I was challenged in every way, physically and mentally. I've never had to think so much in a game," said L.A. Ri-Ettes jammer Mila Minute. Between the cold weather and the intense physical push to make it through the pack, Mila needed a few breaths of oxygen to regain composure. "I was just out of breath and its harder for me to breathe in the colder air. It helps to get it to your muscles faster when you really need it."

The slope of a banked track makes blocking an entirely different experience as well. Although Santa's Little Helpers had their share of spills in the corner, they delivered some mean blocks throughout the game. A good number of those blocks were received by Ri-Ette jammer Kung Pow Tina. L.A. Ri-Ettes defensive squad, from the likes of Amber Alert, Broadzilla, Krissy Krash, Myna Threat and P.I.T.A., delivered their share of heavy hits as well.

"It was an amazing game. They had some excellent skaters and they did a great job adjusting to our track. It's always challenging to play girls you don't usually skate against. They had some strong blockers and it took some thinking and experimenting on my part to figure out the most effective way to drop them," said Krissy Krash. Krash "dropped" many players during the bout including Aunt Flo who could be seen on the infield icing her shoulder. Flo left the game with her arm in a sling.

This evenly matched bout had a combination of intense blocking and high-energy jams. Though Mila Minute was the lead jammer of the game and scored the most points for the L.A. Ri-Ettes, she did her damage in stealth mode, slithering through blockers like a snake through the grass. Kung Pow Tina on the other hand had dramatically memorable jams. Seven jams were skated without a representative from Santa's Little Helpers and Tina skated four of them. In perhaps the most dramatic jam of the evening, two skaters from Santa's Little Helpers sat in the penalty box while Kung Pow had the jam all to herself. She scored 10 points in that jam and put her team in the strongest lead of the first half of the game. In other jams it was as if she was the pinball being bounced against the blockers but could never quite make it past them to freedom and scoring opportunities. Finally, in a 5-point jam just after halftime, Kung Pow was able to squeeze through SLH skaters Smarty Pants and Ivanna Spanking with ease once they realized they were blocking her more than 20 feet ahead of the rest of the pack (in derby they call this the "20 foot rule" and those who break it get a penalty).

Santa's Little Helpers took the lead in scoring for a short period during the fourth quarter and tied the Ri-Ettes with just four jams left in the game. Ultimately, the Ri-Ettes reclaimed the lead in the second to the last jam when Mila Minute scored four points and broke the tie. Krash, who skated the last jam, added four more points to the Ri-Ettes score, and with the time on the clock exhausted, there was no chance for Santa's Little Helpers to make a comeback. Final score: L.A. Ri-Ettes 75, SLH 68. The L.A. Ri-Ettes will now enjoy a month off and roller derby in Los Angeles will reconvene on January 24, 2009 when the Fight Crew competes against the Tough Cookies.

The ESPN Zone in LA Live is the newest establishment in the entertainment complex adjacent to Staples Center that continues to evolve. As the adjoining massive Ritz-Carlton high rise is being covered with mirror-like glass, the various clubs and eateries in it's shadow are opening one by one. The Nokia Theater was first, and more recently Club Nokia and the chic Lucky Strike bowling lanes opened their doors.

ESPN Zone sits on a prime location right on the corner of Chick Hearn Place and Figueroa, spanning two floors and not wasting an inch. The state-of-the-art sports bar features several lounges and other rooms including The Screening Room with a wall plastered with flat screens and individual monitors at each booth. Also on the lower level is The Studio Grill for casual dining and a slick looking bar right on the corner. Upstairs is another comfortable lounge with adjoining private rooms (with fat leather couches) that overlook the wall of sports in the previously-mentioned Screening Room below. Also upstairs is the Sports Arena, with high tech interactive games of every description lining the walls.

Other establishments that will be in the LA Live include the Conga Room, Flemings, Trader Vic's, Grammy Museum. Ritz Carlton, Wolfgang Puck, Yard House, Katsuya, Rock'n Fish, Lawry's Carvery, Rosa Mexicano and more.

Late last night in Westwood, among the dense maze of housing east of UCLA's campus, was a line, at least an hour's wait for some, of some 500 people waiting to grab some Korean inspired tacos and burritos and maybe the day's special--Kimchi Fried Rice Cake with Egg-Shiso. Meet Kogi BBQ. It's Korean food with the edge of a street taco on a catering truck mixed with the savvyness of Web 2.0 (follow them on Twitter to know their location).

Inside the truck is Chef Roy Choi, who speaks of food like its poetry. After all, Choi graduated at the top of his class at the Culinary Institute of America and has cooked at Le Bernardin in New York, in Iron Chef Michiba’s kitchen, at the Beverly Hilton and Rock Sugar Pan Asian Kitchen. But when he heard about an idea of Korean food on a taco truck, he said "sign me up!"

This is guerrilla gourmet at its best. "We're Korean, but we're American and we grew up in LA. It's not a stigma food, it's a representation of who we are," explained Choi on the street last night. "Everything you get in that taco is what we live in LA. It's the 720 bus on Wilshire, it's the 3rd street Juanita's Tacos, the Korean supermarket and all those things that we live everyday in one bite. That was our goal. To take everything about LA and put it into one bite... It's Mexican, it's Korean, it's organic, it's California, it's farmer's market, it's drunk people after midnight."
It was just over a month ago that Kogi BBQ founder Mark Manguera came up with the concept. It was one of those post-clubbing in Hollywood inebriated ideas born out of "I'm drunk and I'm hungry, why can't I get some Korean food right this minute?" When you get those drunken thoughts, how often do you act on them? Not often at all, but Manguera did it in less than 30 days, just beginning last week, and is now the buzz of the town, thanks to online social networking and some damn good food.

"With Kogi, we really wanted to focus on grassroots," said Mike Prasad, who is doing the branding and new media marketing for them. "Connecting and interacting with food lovers in real-time. Since the truck is out and about, it gives us a unique setting to engage people via Twitter, qik, and other social media tools. Like Roy says, it's about the culture AND the food."

UCLA student and LAist writer-on-hiatus Henry David came out to see why there were hundreds of people outside his apartment window last night. Of course, he had to sample. "They did a pretty good job of meeting the demand, churning out the food as quickly as possible while socializing with us at the same time," he said. "I knew I had to try two of the KBBQ staples, short ribs and spicy pork. I was expecting Korean BBQ coming from a mobile kitchen to be a little tame, so I was surprised by the boldness of the flavor when I bit into the first taco. It's not just that the spicy pork was well-seasoned (I'm not a fan of Korean BBQ that lacks marinade), but also the lettuce/onion/cilantro fixings were dressed with a flavorful sauce; possibly their own spin of miso? The combination of the meat and vegetables is quite rich and delicious, and the generous usage of cilantro definitely gives the dish a street taco taste. What I got from it was a very good marriage of Korean and Mexican flavors -- and what could be more Angeleno than that?"

The Kogi BBQ team is taking the energy they've received from their online and street following and is going full force. This week, they'll be at the Hollywood Farmer's Market, hoping to be a permanent fixture there, a bar in Venice wants them to feed their customers on weekends and within the next couple weeks, they'll add two more trucks to the fleet for the holiday season. Ultimately, one of their goals is to expand regionally.

Their menu consists of Korean Shortrib, BBQ Chicken, Tofu and Spicy Pork tacos ($2 each or 3 for $5). Add to that burritos ($5) and daily specials like Pork Belly Kimchi Fried Rice Cake w/ Egg-Shiso salad or short rib sliders. If those become popular, there's a good chance they'll become a regular menu item at the will of the people on the street.

There should be a lesson in all of this. If you have an idea that believe in, go for it. The Kogi BBQ team has proved that with smart planning and a solid business plan. Manguera admits that if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. But you don't know until you execute, experiment and have some plain old fun doing what you love.

To find Kogi BBQ on the streets, follow them on Twitter or check the schedule (scroll down)

It took two words to get me to try Downtown's Nickel Diner for breakfast: Bacon Donut.

I've watched my fair share of Food Network programming, and I've thumbed plenty of food-focused mags, so I've heard tell of this mysterious marriage between sweet fried pastry and the pork product worthy of its own food group. But those concoctions were in other cities, other bakeries. Not my town. Or so I thought.

The Nickel Diner occupies a somewhat unassuming piece of land on Main Street in the part of Downtown that's lower on the list of places due for gentrification. But more often than not, good food thrives well beyond the landscape of "commercial mixed use" construction, so grab some coins for the meter, take a deep breath, and head on in.Despite what seems like a tiny storefront, the inside of the Nickel Diner is almost cavernous; it has that unique charm of a Manhattan eatery that uses the narrow length and the high ceiling to its best advantage. There is a "throwback" aura to the place, and not an insincere one, nor does it seem like the place is trying too hard to "reinvent" the diner.

In our corner booth we perused the placemat-style paper menu. The bacon donut was a given, of course, but one cannot live on bacon donuts alone (Can one? No.) so we enlisted the help of our pleasant server. Sometimes it's a gamble to ask an employee what they recommend--you know, when they reply to your query of "what kind of meat do you suggest for the kabobs?" with "what kind of meat do you like?"--but we struck gold at the Nickel, because our (reed-thin) server said she ate the food there happily every day and would steer us down the right path.

We wanted one savory egg dish and one sweet carb dish, so she pointed us to one of their most popular items, the 5th and Main, which is a pulled pork hash with poached eggs. Oddly enough, that was one dish that hadn't cropped up in the "Oooh, how 'bout this one?" conversation that evidenced our indecision, so after a quick "Should we? Why not?!" we said "Bring it on!" Other tempting options had been centered mostly in the "Scrambles" section, like the one with ham, leeks, and fontina cheese, or the one with salmon, roasted tomatoes, leeks, sour cream, and chives. For our sweet carb-y dish, our server said she swore up and down by the French Toast, which was a housemade cinnamon swirl brioche. Sounded lovely, so we went with it, passing up the baked pancake and apples dish called the Dutch Baby and some other traditional pancake dishes.

We hit the hash first, and, man, did we hit it hard. Two perfectly poached eggs sat like sleepy eyes on top of a rounded base of pulled pork and potatoes. Our forks tore into the yolks and dug up bites of egg meshed with the hash. Now, people say this all the time, so it's a bit cliched, but, bear with me: The pork melts in your mouth. I'm serious. It has this incredible juiciness, compounded with the sauce's complex spicy-sweet tang, which goes surprisingly well with the subtle starch of the potato and the traditional breakfast egg element. While there was an imbalance of hash-expertise between me and my dining companion--she a more regular hash-eater, me not so much--there was absolutely no imbalance in how we split, then cleaned the plate. Literally, it was all gone, not even a crispy shred of the pork remained. It was divine.

Onto the french toast we went, drizzling syrup onto the generously powdered sugar-coated slices of cinnamon brioche. This was a good dish, but, come on, that hash is a tough act to follow. On my end, the dish was uneven; some bites were moist and cinnamon-y, whereas others were drier, and lacking the sense of rich, buttery indulgence that a brioche tends to have. Of course, while we were digging our forks into the french toast we were alternating with bites of the thick buttered sourdough toast that came with the hash, topped with a hearty spreading of the Nickel's homemade jam, this one being a very seasonal cranberry-apple (and another berry, forgive me for I've lost track of the other fruits in the jam, but trust me, it was tasty). It's not often toast trumps its French battered and fried cousin, but in this case it might have.

You don't think I've forgotten something, do you? Besides the really awesome employees, all of whom were friendly, helpful, and relaxed, and the solid cups of joe we slurped down, and the pleasant environment, what am I forgetting?

Oh. Right. BACON DONUT.

So there it sat on its own little plate. I'll admit, it wasn't what I'd imagined. How does one imagine a bacon donut, you ask? Well, first you have to consider how and where the bacon is added. Is it in the batter, is it draped seductively across the top in slices, is it crumbled into a frosted coating? The Nickel Diner's Bacon Donut is a plain donut with the hint of a maple syrup glaze with crumbles of bacon on top.

The first bite, to be honest, was meh. But why was it meh? That took a few minutes of pondering, and a follow-up bite. It wasn't the mix of pork fat and sugar, because, come on people, that is GOOD. The bacon itself was obviously thick and smoky and sweet, but it was for me the donut's texture that wasn't making this my new best friend (my doctor and my jeans thank you for this, Nickel Diner). It was more of a bready donut, not as cakey as I'd have preferred. And while there was that hint of maple (I saw it pooling somewhat on the plate under the donut) it wasn't enough, and it was too syrupy. But the second bite was better, and the third, and well, you get the idea. After all we'd just consumed, we were able to team up to make it through most of the donut.

Would I go back just for the donut? Perhaps--the novelty is hard to beat. But would I go back for breakfast proper? Oh, absolutely. And I can haz bacon donut, tooooooo!

Nickel Diner
524 S. Main Street, Downtown
Open 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Weds-Sun (late night hours may happen eventually)

by Sheri Zampelli

Fans lined up outside Fingerprints in Long Beach an hour in advance for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to jam with a rock star. Meanwhile, Rivers Cuomo and his Batman-suit clad sound engineer, Ken, poured over fine details of the event such as drum-set placement and the ultimate height at which to hang the dry-erase board for the set list. Cuomo scrawled a headline across the top of the board: "Rivers Cuomo - Home Alone II". He wrote with crooked letters on a slant attempting to make it as "down home" as possible.

Once the scene was set and the timing right, doors opened for 125 fans. Nearly 50 had musical instruments. They brought everything from guitars to keytars. Instruments ranged from flute and saxophone to kazoo. Producer Caroline Yeh brought her clarinet. There were keyboards like the Omnichord and stringed instruments like a banjo alongside guitars with names like Epiphone, Yamaha and Fender.

The hootenanny began with a good old-fashioned democratic discussion of what should be on the set list. Cuomo lead the audience through the decision-making process by having them do things like pick a number and cheer loudest for the song they wanted most. A song was only allowed on the list if at least one musician in the room knew it. Once the playlist was constructed, it was adhered to until each of the 12 songs were played in full and recorded at least twice.
The set list started with Blast Off and ended energetically with The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived. What took place between the first song and the last was the equivalent of an over-sized "jam session." Before starting a song, Cuomo would brainstorm with fellow musicians on the best way to approach the piece. Spur-of-the-moment decisions like playing Butterfly with nothing but a banjo back-up and doing a ska version of Buddy Holly were decided upon and changed, on the whim of those who spoke first or loudest. At times, Cuomo would ask the audience matter-of-factly, "What do you guys think, any other ideas?". Songs on the set list included Across the Sea, Can't Stop Partying, Lover in the Snow and Getting Up and Leaving.

Cuomo conducted this impromptu orchestra with style. He wore a crisp new pair of striped overalls, a red bandanna around his neck and an engineer's cap. When he wasn't holding a lyric sheet, he held a musical conductor's baton.

Once the final song was played, fans asked Cuomo to come to In-and-Out Burger with them. He smiled, blew his train whistle and walked off stage. Guest musicians broke into playing Undone (the Sweater song). Once it was clear that Cuomo wouldn't be back for an encore, fans began to walk toward the exit. On the way out they picked up limited-edition Fingerpints/Cuomo posters and a signed copy of the Alone II - The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo CD. They also took home the exhilaration of experiencing a night, up-close and personal with one of their favorite musicians, the highlight of any fan's life. At this time, there is no official word on how the recordings from the evening will be used. One possibility is an exclusive music video like the one shot for Troublemaker in August.

Bound to happen, right? Nevertheless, it's pretty funny.

Changed my life. | Photo courtesy of Fox Searchlight

Maybe the best thing about writing for LAist is that we are constantly encouraged by our extraordinarily generous editors to reach out into the scary ether and be personal with our stories. Sure, it doesn't always work out as we intended--we always eventually, clumsily embarrass ourselves a bit by being too personal--but it's great that we have such a liberal outlet for our thoughts. Earlier this week, we are all encouraged to share with our readers the things that we were thankful to have in our lives this year. This is my piece.

I'm thankful for all the normal things that people have in their lives: friends, family, moments, events. I'm thankful that Keith, Steve and Tommy traveled all the way here from North Carolina and thoroughly emasculated the L.A. bar scene. I'm thankful that I was able to visit my dad in Kentucky and bring some rare light into his difficult life. I'm thankful that my sisters and I have spoken more this year than we ever have. I'm thankful for the week I spent at Sundance in January. I'm thankful for bringing Once to her.
Oh! Heartache! Perfection! | Photo courtesy of Eoin Larkin via Flickr

HER. That's where it's all began and ended for me this year. It was--as I'm sure all of you can understand--one of those years. She's long gone now, but I think it's appropriate (since I know she's secretly reading this) that I let her know what a difference she's made in my life. I'm thankful that I met her; I'm thankful that we took all of those meandering walks that were pointless except for the fact that we got to know each other in a deep and meaningful way; I'm thankful for those first, perfect laughs that totally captured me.

I'm thankful for that drive home from the Santa Monica Pier; I'm thankful for those moments in the booth at the Gaslight; I'm thankful for that hour of wildness on Wilshire Boulevard; I'm thankful for that night I spent writing at the awful Hollywood Ramada; I'm thankful for the furtive texts she sent me; I'm thankful for that night at Jones Cafe; I'm thankful for mail rooms and Daily Pints of beer; I'm thankful for that last night and--so deeply--I'm thankful that she didn't give up on me after that last night when I was sure she would.

I'm thankful for your unexpected kiss on the patio; I'm thankful for you passively-aggressively making me take you to that concert at the Largo; I'm thankful for every moment after we left the Largo that night; I'm thankful for the message you sent to me late on Halloween; I'm thankful that I was there for you a few days later; I'm thankful that you trusted me enough to stay with me when you were scared; I'm thankful that you called me when you were even more scared--Jesus, I wish you weren't so damn scared all of the time.

And I'm thankful--most of all--I'm thankful that you don't give up on me when it would be so much easier for you if you would just give up on me. I'm thankful that we are friends and will always be friends. I'm thankful that we have been through hell and back and yet our first inclination is just to smile at each other. Isn't that an amazing thing? Every impulse in the world can say, "No, no, no!" and yet we just giggle and talk about what we've been up to. I'm thankful that I met the friend of my life this year. It was totally worth it, Ginger.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Los Angeles drifts and crumbles under the feet of progress. Gone are the streetcars, the original Schawb's, such hangouts at the Coconut Grove and Chasen's. The Brown Derby was once one of the crown jewels in the LA restaurant scene. There were a number of locations, but there are three that stand out. One was located across the street from the Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard (this was the shape of an actual hat), the Los Feliz location and the one located at Hollywood and Vine, known as The Hollywood Brown Derby.

The latter was not the first Brown Derby Restaurant, though it was arguably the most well known. Like Sardi's in New York, it was decorated with caricatures of actors, done by an artist, who will still do one for you, if you pay him. This was the one so well attended by celebrities, where Clarke Gable proposed to Carole Lombard and she accepted, where Louella Parsons and Hedda Harper had their unofficial headquarters, the first place Lucy ate out when they moved the show to Los Angeles. In 1945, the Derby was featured in the film Mildred Pierce. Joan Crawford tended its bar, famously claiming, "People have to drink somewhere. Why not here?"The original Brown Derby is the one with the famous hat shape. (It was in fact known as "The Little Hat.") Started in 1926, by Herbert Somborn and Bob Cobb. There are a million stories about how it garnered its name, from admiration of a politician, to a similarly named restaurant in Long Island, to someone saying that if you know enough about food, you can sell it out of a hat! Just across the street from the Ambassador Hotel, it was the site of many of the Coconut Grove after-parties. It was here that Bob Cobb invented the Cobb salad, digging through the refrigerator for a snack for himself and some famous friends. (Jack Warner and Sid Grauman, among others were allegedly in attendance.)

It's the Los Feliz Derby that's mostly extant. It was built in 1928 as Willard's Chicken Inn restaurant. It was financed by Cecil B. DeMille and designed by Wayne McAllister. Though an influential architect, (he created many of the drive-ins and car hops so popular in the mid-century, including Bob's Big Boy in Toluca Lake) few remain. Its curious dome shape made it possible to pump water up through the building and out the the roof so that it ran down the sides. This effectively cooled the interior, making it one of the first "air conditioned" restaurants.

In 1940, its name changed to the Brown Derby and remained distinctive because of its design and its car-hop service. In 1960, it became Michael's and more recently, the car hop area has been a Louise's Trattoria and the dome has been called the Derby, a vintage club for swing dancing. In June 2004, the site was bought by Richard Hadler of Los Feliz/Hillhurst LLC who wanted to demolish this gem of Hollywood history, in some ways the last of its kind, to erect a huge condo/retail complex (certainly no boon to small, village-y Los Feliz).

A group of people started a movement to save the Derby in 2004, and in May of 2006, the Los Angeles City Council voted to have it made an official Historic Cultural Monument of the City of Los Angeles.

Other Derbies did not fare as well. The Hollywood Derby, located at Hollywood and Vine (1628 Vine Street), where celebrities gathered to eat Cobb Salad and Chiffon Pie (also an original dish) survived until 2001. There were plans for an apartment building, but right now, it's just a vacant lot. The original Brown Derby (3377 Wilshire Boulevard) closed and was quickly dismantled in 1985. The round part of its hat persists in the same location as part of a Korean mini-mall. Though you can see a band at the Derby, or drive past what's left of the hat, they are shadows of what they were. It shouldn't be surprising. Los Angeles is a place that burns its past and then cries about it. Our vaunted places places only last so long before, like last month's starlet, they are forgotten.

Photos from Wikipedia, except for Postcard of the Los Feliz Derby.

Photo by Julie Wolfson/LAist

Can't be hassled with slaving over an oven to make treats for all those holiday parties you're gonna hit up? L.A. has many wonderful dessert shops to save the day. Take your pick. Will it be cute peppermint cupcakes, a personalized gingerbread house or how's about a Yule log cake?

Crumbs has gone over the top with holiday joy by creating several impressive holiday cupcakes ($3.75 each or 12 mini cupcakes $18). White Hot Chocolate is made with vanilla cake and white chocolate mousse and frosted with vanilla cream cheese frosting, topped with mini marshallows, and, if that's not enough it's drizzled with white chocolate and decorated with mini white chocolate chips. The Candy Cane one is vanilla cake with green-colored vanilla cream cheese filling and topped with vanilla cream cheese frosting and crushed peppermints. For something that seems a lot simpler in comparison and perfect to go with Christmas Day coffee, Gingerbread is apple spiced cake with cinnamon cream cheese filling and frosting edged with crumbled ginger cookies. For eggnog in a cupcake, try Crumbs' Eggnog -- vanilla cake filled with vanilla cream cheese frosting and frosted with eggnog cream cheese frosting, drizzled with white chocolate and edged with white sprinkles.Joan’s on Third in Mid-City West doesn’t really have any holiday-specific flavors but yummy cupcakes ($3 each) adorned with sugared Christmas decorations. Available in the following flavors: chocolate, vanilla, coconut, chocolate coconut, vanilla with chocolate frosting, spice with maple frosting, pumpkin, carrot. You really can’t go wrong with Joan’s.

Leyna’s Kitchen has the perfect goodies that not only up a party’s specialness but make great gifts as well. The pink peppermint cupcakes are made of vanilla cake infused with peppermint candy and white chocolate, filled with vanilla peppermint cream and frosted with fluffy peppermint cream. The mint dream ones are a chocolate mint cake filled with chocolate mint fudge and frosted with chocolate mint cream. The pink peppermint stick cupcake is the same as the pink peppermint one except topped with a chocolate-dipped soft peppermint stick. Mmm, refreshing! Each cupcake is $5 and they’re only sold by the dozen (one flavor per dozen) but they’re soo worth it. Plus if you want to really make them special for your party, you can order cupcake toppers with a special holiday message. Turnaround time is about three to four days.

Sprinkles in Beverly Hills is offering its seasonal sinful trio ($3.25 each/$36 a dozen) through Christmas Eve. Chocolate Peppermint is Belgian dark chocolate cake with bittersweet chocolate-peppermint frosting and topped with crushed peppermint candies. Eggnog Spice is made of spice cake with eggnog cream cheese frosting. Vanilla-Peppermint is made of delicious Madagascar bourbon vanilla cake with vanilla-peppermint frosting and topped with crushed peppermint candies.

Susie Cakes in Brentwood is doing up its spiced gingerbread cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and chocolate peppermint ones with candy cane topping ($3 each). If you want something to go all out holiday festive, there are also gingerbread men, a traditional rolled Yule log cake and egg nog cheesecake with sour cream topping as well as a gingerbread house that you can get personalized with a family name.

Susina Bakery in West Hollywood has a couple of buche de noels (serves 6-8 $45, serves 10-12 $65) to choose from. Mmm, the vanilla rum log is made of vanilla sponge cake brushed with rum, filled with chocolate mouse and topped with meringue mushrooms and almond paste decorations. The chocolate coffee one sounds perfect for after dinner with its chocolate sponge cake brushed with coffee liqueur, filled with whipped cream and covered with chocolate mousse, meringue mushrooms and almond paste decorations. Or you can order some tarts: quince, cranberry, apple, cranberry orange or chocolate hazelnut (8-inch $28, 10-inch $42, 12-inch $58).

Santa Monica's Vanilla Bake Shop has Gingerbread Spice and Chocolate Peppermint cupcakes and cupcake babies. For the party, grab a box of 2 dozen babies for $44 or 1 dozen cupcakes for $44 (24-hour notice required). You can have them dressed up in festive decor, just request it.

Julie Wolfson contributed to this story.