New Year's Eve

Still trying to figure out what we're doing for New Year's Eve. I have an idea, but nothing will be set until tomorrow. There are just too many options and none are within walking distance.

Automatico Outakes

Saturday night, we headed out in the freezing cold (well, near-freezing, it was 39 degrees) to Automatico. You can read all about it in the good ol' LA Weekly.

But, because there isn't enough room to post all of the pictures online, here's the rest of the usable footage.


Raggedy Threads had a booth at the club. I thought her selection was super cool and am now game to check out the Downtown store, once I'm in the mood to shop for clothes again.


You can read more about Da Perv in the story, but I wanted to add that I really, really dug his set. I would have posted photos of the performance, but I tried the whole no flash thing and they kept coming out too dark.


Ran into Scarlett Casanova of Hang the DJs and Frank from The Nightbirds on the patio.


We were pleasantly surprised to run into our friend Kristen (the shorter one) at Automatico. Kristen used to write for The Rockit and now contributes to Razorcake. She's a fantastic writer and is one of very few people who can look so cute in a sweatshirt and jeans.


I met this girl, Erica, in line for the bathroom and thought her dress was beautiful. I wish I took the photo from the other side, though, as she was wearing a great black flower hair clip.


I have no idea who these kids are, but when I asked if I could take a picture, they started making out with each other.


I loved their outfits.


I don't think these two knew each other, I just made them pose together.


This is how cold it was on Saturday night. Veronica and Evelyn from Club Neon shivering.


Here's another one of the Club Neon crew. My jacket caught his attention, so I decided to grab his picture.


Here's the jacket in question, it's a Christmas gift from my parents and quite awesome. Makes me feel like Agent 99. The cloche (which also has a flower that you can't see) was a Christmas gift from my sister. I've been wearing both constantly.

Eartha Kitt RIP

Sadly, Eartha Kitt passed away today. She was 81.

Below is a small tribute consisting of videos I found on YouTube.

Merry Christmas

Found this clip featuring The Ronettes singing "Frosty the Snoman." Having never seen a snowman up close (although, I think we did try to make one that year we went to Shaver Lake, but failed miserably), I find the song strange and un-Christmasy. But, any excuse to play The Ronettes is a good one.

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas. If you find yourself bored today, I suggest checking out the Christmas specials on Adult Swim. I recommend "A Very Venture Christmas," which is only ten minutes and has a hysterical, and totally unexpected, ending. If you crave depressing Christmas specials, both Moral Orel episodes should satisfy that urge.

Christmas Eve Notes

Yesterday, I realized why it doesn't feel like Christmas. Despite being an avid (though disgruntled) radio listener, I have not once heard "Last Christmas." It's not the holidays unless I have Wham! blaring in the car. 

Fortunately, super cool local band Pop Noir put up their cover of the song for a free download. I had downloaded it last year, but got a new computer, so I'm glad that they offered the treat again.

Now I'm going to use my holiday to catch up on the work that I missed whilst ailing last week.

Don't Stop the Jrock

I've been sick all week, my head growing cloudier with each day until it hit its zenith yesterday. Trying to write has been discombobulating at best. Trying to sleep is even worse. Last night, I attempted to clean my room at 2 a.m. just because every time I tried to fall asleep, I would sneeze or cough. Despite feeling as though my sinuses might explode, I headed down to Little Tokyo last Thursday night with Carlos and my friend Ms. Penny Pop so that we could check out Tune in Tokyo. You can read more about the event over at the LA Weekly.



There was para para action at Tune in Tokyo, which made me scream, "Just like The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya," which you really must see if you haven't already. I explained to Penny Pop about how I relate to the show's heroine, when I am bored, there is bound to be trouble.

But, back to the event. This was new terrain for me as my knowledge of contemporary Japanese music is based mostly on the Shibuya-kei sound of the 1990s (Pizzicato Five, Fantastic Plastic Machine, Cornelius) and a few other assorted indie-ish things like Guitar Wolf and Melt-Banana. Despite watching tons of anime, I never really paid attention to the bands who do the opening and closing credits, mostly because in my mind, the themes rarely match the show. It was quite interesting to hear what is going on now in the Jpop and Jrock world. I kind of like Perfume, capsule and Aural Vampire. I'm terribly interested in the sound of the visual kei bands, but I appreciate their attention to appearance.

After so many years of dissheveled hipsters, it was refreshing to see a club where everyone seemed to put forth some sort of effort into getting dressed. Even the more casual looks appeared weren't quite sloppy. I do, however, lament the lack of guro Lolitas in Los Angeles. Below are a few more of the looks spotted at the club.

Space Cowboys

Forgot to post this earlier (well, if you're on my MySpace, Facebook or Twitter lists, then, I did already post it), but here's my top five Space Cowboys for the LA Weekly.

I came up with the idea after this on-again, off-again debate in my head concerning Firefly and Cowboy Bebop, which I think both series were airing their first US television runs at around the same time. Regardless, that's why Mal and Spike are one and two on the list. Han Solo was a pretty obvious choice and Vash the Stampede had to be on the list as well because Trigun is a great series. Outland I found on a Netflix search and rented it because it's High Noon in space and stars Sean Connery. It's quite an underrated film and the score, particularly for the strip club scenes, is fantastic. I want a copy.

The day the story came out was also the day that Keanu Reeves announced his intentions to play Spike in the Cowboy Bebop film. Anime chatboards are ablaze! I shall say now, though, that I have no opinion on Mr. Reeves as Mr. Spiegel. I'll wait until there is a finished product.

More Mark Lane

My profile of Mark Lane is now online, it will also be running in tomorrow's print edition of the LA Weekly.

In addition, you videos from Saturday night's show are now available on MySpace.

Funky Birthday

Someone got bounced at Carbon right before I pulled into the parking lot. I don't know what happened exactly, just that the girl who got bounced asked Edgar if he was gay, because he was dressed nicely, and tried to tip Carlos and though he were the guy sweeping up her mess in the parking lot, for reasons I don't know.. Also, there may or may not have been a dude on the roof.

We were there for Funkmosphere, the club where Joaquin Phoenix launched his hip-hop career (totally not kidding), on the occasion of my birthday.



Funkmosphere is arguably the best club in Los Angeles. However, as you might notice from this photo, it borders on sausage fest. That said, when a small, redhead girl walks into a bar, she is likely to get attention. Case in point: Melissa.

When I first saw Melissa walk up to our side of the bar, I thought she had brought a date. Turns out he was some dude she met on the walk from one side of the venue to the other and he wanted to buy her a drink. Due to the crappiness of the economy, and the fact that she just moved back to LA from Arizona and is still on the job hunt, she took him up on his offer. The dude, who was cut off by the bartender shortly after buying Melissa her drink, kept walk up to her and then walking away without saying much more than "How are you?" It inspired a new dance, called Melissa's Hiding.



For the record, Melissa titled this picture "I Should Have Spent the $10."

Funkmosphere's name implies everything that you would hear at the club. Lots and lots of funk played on vinyl. It's a head sort of crowd with a handful of pop-and-lockers. For some reason, I can never get a good photograph of those guys. I did, however, get some photos of my friends hanging around the bar.


Melissa and Edgar. This was the first time they met in person (I think), but once upon a time, they were familiar with each other through the AOL Britpop room, which, I should disclose, is where I met both of them somewhere in the neighborhood of a decade ago.


Yours truly and Carlos.


Javier and Serena looking cute in their winter gear.


Carlos, John and Nick mugging for the camera.


Kyle, my old KXLU buddy, with whom I saw Modest Mouse years before they were famous.


Juan and David looking cool at the bar.

M/R/X Back in Action

I think I nearly went crazy since Roberto's stopped hosting clubs and M/R/X-Wolfpak went on hiatus. Thankfully, the club came back to host Mark Lane's first LA gig in twenty-five years. Lane is one of L.A.'s first synthpop performers and he actually didn't earn his due recognition until he moved to Europe in the mid-1980s. I would tell you more, but I have a profile of him coming out on Thursday and don't want to spoil the story.







Everybody, it seemed, came out for the event. We ran into many old friends and a few new ones, like Carmen of the blog La Carmina. I had met Carmen and her friends on Thursday at Perversion and recommended that they hit up the club, which they did and seemed to enjoy immensely.

The crowd was keen on dressing for the occasion. Lace and heart-shaped mouths were a big hit. I'm not sure if it was part of a theme, but it looked amazing.







I would post more, but it's time to hit the town again.

Elfdoll Christmas Party, 12/06/08

With every story I'm assigned, I meet new people, experience new places and usually pick up new interests in the process. That's the best part of the job.

I didn't know anything about ball-jointed dolls before I started researching for the assignment. Through the course of the story, I met so many wonderful and interesting BJD collectors, who were quite helpful in teaching me the ways of the culture. I became fascinated with the dolls, probably because I used to collect dolls as a little girl, and have continued my research in the weeks since the story went live. I want a BJD. Actually, I want two. But, being the Party Pauper, I can't get one just yet.

Last Saturday, I went to Artmaze in Glendale for Elfdoll's Christmas party. Inside the showroom was a lot of new merchandise, including three one-of-kind dolls commissioned for this event.

If I had a spare $690, I would have picked up this steampunk Emma doll with a face-up by a girl named Cristy.





Also on hand was Mir with a face-up by Lilyko. The dragon tattoo on this is stunning.





And here's K with face-up and body blushing by SDink. The body blushing here is incredible. He looks like a Calvin Klein model.





I have been talking about getting a doll that I could David Bowie-ify and my friend Darci suggested the Lupin doll from Soom, which you can see below.



Here are some more beauties.