a Guest Blogger

A recent article in the Los Angeles Times claims that the rate of homelessness in L.A. County has dropped 38% since 2007. Despite the somewhat promising numbers, Los Angeles continues to sustain the largest homeless population in the United States, along with the unfortunate status as “homelessness capital” of the country. In the face of this dire situation stands a robust little warrior, the two-year-old non-profit organization Imagine LA, whose central idea is to match each of the 8,000 homeless families in Los Angeles with one of its 8,000 faith communities.

If “Mad Men” has taught us anything, it’s that advertising is all about the client and the product. But a “Mad Man” for the technology age urges ad firms to put the Don Draper era behind them and consider the consumer in a new manner: through the lens and the interactive venue of today’s social media tools.

If he does say so himself, LA’s own iconic chronicler of 20th century American crime James Ellroy has just published his “ultimate masterpiece." Following American Tabloid (1995) and The Cold Six Thousand (2001), Blood’s a Rover completes Ellroy’s “Underworld USA” trilogy of novels exploring the dark side of the dark side of our country’s political madness circa 1958-1972.

In his new series of paintings, Endless Night, on display at the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills through November 7th, British artist Dexter Dalwood continues to draw from celebrity and pop culture in his depiction of famous suicides and deaths, both from reality and fiction. With less detail and looser bush work than found in works like Kurt Cobain’s Greenhouse or the Ophelia-referencing Sunny Von Bulow, the paintings included in Endless Night tend towards larger fields of color, flat perspectives and some cartoonish detailing in the vein of Philip Guston.

Looking for Mason jars at Target a few weeks ago in preparation for batches of preserved lemons, homemade yogurt, jam and pickled beets, a number of employees responded with blank looks when I asked where to find canning jars. This temporarily led me to believe that canning was a foreign concept in farmers’ market and Whole Foods-laden Los Angeles, work best done by Midwestern grandmothers still influenced by Depression-era frugality. But Angelino Kevin West’s blog Saving the Season makes it very clear that canning is still a relevant and if not strictly necessary than undoubtedly delicious means of preparing food.

As many Americans are preparing to bid adieu to the season with Labor Day weekend, those of us lucky enough to live in this part of the country have several more weeks of warm weather to frolic in. Even so, there are some of you who have thought, “I should go to the beach this summer” and it’s still not too late. With the holiday weekend around the corner, we at LAist figured that you same-sex loving guys out there would appreciate info on where gaze upon gym-toned bods without fear (Lady-loving ladies, we’re open to a similar post just for you).

If you are already familiar with the music of Os Mutantes, the Brazilian Tropicalia band, you will be very pleased to know that Sérgio Dias Baptista has again unleashed his eclectic sensibilities in sound, instrumentation, music and themes to produce an album, Mutantes' first new music in 35 years, that fits like a velvet glove around the throat of today's cultural, political and economic necrophilia. And if you aren't, imagine an alternate universe in which Devendra Banhart, Frank Zappa and Tom Waits join Sérgio Mendes for a drink, then invite Sinead O'Connor and Lani Hall over to join them, and they decide to write music that will make everyone want to dance while they paint murals representing peace, love and justice on the government buildings. Something like that, anyway.

One of the most eclectic and lively musical venues in Los Angeles is probably one of the least known. In the north-west corner of MacArthur Park is Levitt Pavilion, a band shell built at the bottom of what was 100 years ago a reservoir and now whose banks now form a natural amphitheater. Over the last three summers the Levitt Family Foundation has funded perhaps the most exciting and diverse musical programs at here. Every Wednesday through Sunday concerts of every imaginable type of music .

The second annual Brew Haw Haw last Saturday attracted a medium-sized but lively (not rowdy) crowd 'Drinking for a Good Cause' to benefit of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. It was nice to not have to wait in big lines for the food or beverages as the weather wasn't as blisteringly hot as last last year or days just prior.

After being no-shows at last week’s Transportation Committee meeting, LAPD appeared before councilmembers and cyclists yesterday, only to be met by harsh criticism for their “distinct bias towards bicyclists” and their response to a hit-and-run accident in late April in which a Hummer sideswiped a rider in downtown L.A. At the meeting, cyclists were “deeply disappointed” and scoffed at the conflicting details police gave regarding the incident.